Demonstrators gathered in cities across Europe, the US and South America to demand an end to Russia’s invasion
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities including Santiago, Vancouver Paris and New York in support of Ukraine, demanding an end to Russia’s invasion.
The protesters rallied on Saturday against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attack, which began on 24 February and appeared to be entering a new phase with escalating bombardment.
Continue reading...Juan Carlos Muñiz, who covered crime for Testigo Minero, killed in Fresnillo as website says ‘this social breakdown …is out of control’
A journalist has been killed in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas, becoming the seventh killed in the country so far this year.
Juan Carlos Muñiz, who covered crime for the online news site Testigo Minero in Fresnillo, was killed on Friday, according to the state governor David Monreal.
Continue reading...Gustavo Zanchetta convicted by court in a major blow to Pope Francis, who had initially defended the bishop
A court in Argentina has sentenced a Roman Catholic bishop to four and a half years in prison for sexual abuse of two former seminarians in a major blow to Pope Francis, who had initially defended the bishop.
Gustavo Zanchetta, 57, was convicted on Friday of “simple, continued and aggravated sexual abuse”, with his offense aggravated by his role as a religious minster.
Continue reading...Donald Lee claimed he killed a Fannin bighorn sheep in Alaska but an online sleuth and Yukon conservation officers proved he didn’t
When an Alaskan hunter ventured out into the rugged mountains and dropped his target with a single rifle shot, it seemed like the perfect crime.
The only witness lay dead on the rocky landscape.
Continue reading...The barrier Trump touted as ‘impenetrable’ can be breached with common power tools, the Washington Post reports
Smugglers have breached the Trump administration’s border wall along the US-Mexico frontier more than 3,000 times, government maintenance records obtained by the Washington Post reveal.
Nearly 500 miles of barrier was constructed by the Trump administration beginning in 2019, mostly in rural New Mexico and Arizona. Former president Trump touted the “big, beautiful wall” as the “Rolls-Royce” of barriers, but smugglers have breached the wall at least 3,272 times, mostly with common power tools found at hardware stores.
Continue reading...Mateo Sobode Chiqueno’s lifelong project compiling cassettes of the Ayoreo people’s stories, songs and struggles to survive is now the subject of an award-winning film, Nothing but the Sun
In a tattered cardboard box in Mateo Sobode Chiqueno’s home, hundreds of plastic cassette cases contain four decades of memories. “Here in my house, I have more than 1,000 cassettes of Ayoreo histories and songs,” says Chiqueno, who keeps them alongside his tape recorder at his wooden shack in Campo Loro, Paraguay. Many of the voices belong to people who are dead.
Chiqueno began compiling his interviews with the Ayoreo, hunter-gatherers of the Chaco Forest, in 1979, after seeing missionaries using tape recorders to document their experiences. His tapes partially preserve a fast-disappearing culture.
Continue reading...Capitalism and Slavery, by the future first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Eric Williams, argues that the abolition of slavery was motivated by economic, not moral, concerns
A book of unpalatable truths about Britain’s slave trade has become a UK bestseller, almost 80 years after author Eric Williams was told by a British publisher: “I would never publish such a book, for it would be contrary to the British tradition.”
Capitalism and Slavery was first published in the US in 1944. It was published in the UK by the independent publisher André Deutsch in 1964, with a number of reprints over the next 20 years.
Continue reading...Most of 358 victims worked on land, environmental and indigenous rights, with more killed in Mexico, India and among Afghan women
A Colombian conservationist who saved a rare species of parrot from extinction, a young feminist activist in Afghanistan, and two poets in Myanmar who used words to protest against the military coup were among 358 human rights defenders murdered in 35 countries last year, analysis has found.
The environmentalist Gonzalo Cardona Molina, 55; Frozan Safi, a 29-year-old Afghan economics lecturer; and K Za Win and Khet Thi, two of several poets to be killed, were among those targeted because of their “peaceful and powerful” work, according to a global analysis of threats and attacks faced by human rights activists compiled by Front Line Defenders (FLD) and the Human Rights Defenders Memorial.
Continue reading...Smoke blown from fires in drought-striken Argentina shrouds Asunción and surrounding regions in dangerous haze
A massive, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide has swept over southern Paraguay, as storms blew debris from wildfires raging in neighbouring Argentina following two years of severe drought.
The colossal bank of smog enveloped Asunción, Paraguay’s capital, late on Monday, shrouding the city and its suburbs in a thick, grey haze with the aroma of burnt vegetation.
Continue reading...Analysis: Economic penalties have been meted out since Napoleon’s day but there’s little proof they achieve the desired outcome
Waging war by economic means is nothing new. Napoleon imposed an ineffective embargo on British exports in the early 19th century and during the first world war there were attempts by both sides to starve each other into submission.
But since 1945 sanctions have been used with increasing frequency as a means of trying to change either the policy stance or the regimes in targeted countries.
Continue reading...A vast, fast-moving cloud of ash hundreds of metres tall and several kilometres wide has swept over southern Paraguay, blown in from wildfires raging in neighbouring Argentina after two years of severe drought.
A weather front of cold air from the south acted 'like a broom', explained Eduardo Dose, a Paraguayan hydrologist, scooping up soot from burnt pastures and forests as well as dust from drought-stricken wetlands. Strong winds then channelled the choking cloud
Wildfires send giant cloud of ash across southern Paraguay
Continue reading...Prosecutors say they cannot determine how many were killed because attackers cleaned up the scene and removed any bodies
Mexicans have been left wondering what happened to about a dozen men who disappeared after they were seen lined up against a wall by drug cartel gunmen.
In a video apparently filmed by a resident of the town San José de Gracia in the western state of Michoacán and posted on social media, bursts of gunfire broke out and smoke covered the scene.
Continue reading...Researchers say its unlikely that the variant found in deer could bypass vaccines, but urge better monitoring of Covid in animals
Canadian researchers believe they have found the first-ever instance of a deer passing the coronavirus to a human, warning that broader surveillance of wildlife is needed to prevent further mutations from developing and spreading undetected.
In a paper published last week, but not yet peer reviewed, scientists say at least one case of Covid-19 in humans can be traced to a strain of the virus found in hunted deer.
Continue reading...Fishermen in Mexico are using the ike jime method, which aims to reduce fish trauma, to improve the quality of catches and help sustainability
Every morning, hundreds of small white fishing boats dot the dark blue waters of Veracruz’s coastline on the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the crews, many of whose families have been fishing for generations, employ traditional methods – using nets to catch large numbers of fish, which then slowly asphyxiate once out of the water.
But a few of the fishermen are doing something different, using a technique that emerged in Japan several centuries ago. It is a method for slaughtering fish that emulates a process called ike jime, which is based on a simple scientific principle: the less trauma the fish experiences, the longer the flesh remains fresh.
Continue reading...Alfredo Cristiani and former military officers to face trial in long process to bring killings’ masterminds to justice
Prosecutors in El Salvador have charged the former president Alfredo Cristiani over the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests that sparked international outrage.
Prosecutors also announced charges against a dozen other people, including former military officers, over the massacre. The list of charges will apparently include murder, terrorism and conspiracy.
Continue reading...Dinosaur probably belongs to carnivorous group called abelisaurs and may have used its head to ram its prey
Scientists in Argentina have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown species of meat-eating dinosaur that lived about 70m years ago that had puny arms and may have used its powerful head to ram its prey.
The fossil skull of the Cretaceous period dinosaur, named Guemesia ochoai, was discovered in Argentina’s north-western Salta province. The researchers said it likely belongs to a carnivorous group of dinosaurs called abelisaurs, which walked on two legs and possessed only stub-like arms, even shorter than those of North America’s Tyrannosaurus rex.
Continue reading...Officials claim the controversial barrier will stop migrant crossings, as well as drugs and contraband, from crisis-hit Haiti
The Dominican Republic has begun work on a border wall with Haiti, sparking controversy between the neighbouring Caribbean countries.
Construction began this week on a concrete barrier that will span nearly half of the 244-mile (392km) border between the two countries, with Dominican officials claiming it will reduce flows of migrants, drugs, weapons and contraband.
Continue reading...New Brunswick officials say baffling disorder that causes memory loss and cognitive decline is from known neurological condition
After warning medical professionals to be on the lookout for a baffling neurological condition that produced memory loss, muscle wasting and severe cognitive decline, authorities in the Canadian province of New Brunswick have concluded that no such illness exists, a finding that has prompted skepticism and disbelief as families search for answers.
New Brunswick officials last year flagged a possible “cluster” of residents suffering from an unknown neurological syndrome, similar to those of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Symptoms were varied and dramatic: some patients started drooling, and others felt as though bugs were crawling on their skin.
Continue reading...Prime minister Justin Trudeau says situation ‘still fragile’ after biggest police operation in nation’s history
Canadian lawmakers have voted to extend the federal government’s emergency powers, granting the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, powerful tools to prevent new blockades by those opposed to Covid-19 restrictions.
Despite opposition from rival Conservatives and legal challenges to the decision from civil rights groups, experts expect the decision will have little lasting damage for Trudeau.
Continue reading...Pro-choice supporters danced outside Colombia's constitutional court in downtown Bogotá, the capital, after it decriminalised abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Judges ruled five against four to decriminalise the procedure in the South American country after rulings in Mexico and Argentina also lowered barriers to abortion.
Anti-abortion protesters demonstrated against the ruling
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