Category Archives: Americas

‘No one comes here any more’: the human cost as Covid wipes out tourism

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From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we find out how the crisis has affected people in four travel hotspots – and whether or not they want the tourists to return

In March last year, it was predicted that the global travel shutdown would cause international arrivals to plummet by 20 to 30% by the end of 2020.

Six weeks later, the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) revised their warning: international arrivals could fall by up to 80% – equating to a billion fewer tourists and the worst crisis in the history of the industry.

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Brazil’s first transgender pastor: ‘All humans have flaws, being trans isn’t one of them’

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In a country with shocking brutality against LGBTQ+ people, Alexya Salvador is using her faith to help others like her

Desperate calls from LGBTQ+ youths contemplating suicide or from their parents after they have made an attempt on their lives often punctuate Alexya Salvador’s day. When they do, she drops everything to talk.

As a transgender woman, she recognises the anguish in their voices. “I feel their pain in my body because I went through this,” she says. “My family went through this.”

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Canadian soldier guilty of drugging comrades with cannabis cupcakes

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Sandra Cogswell convicted on eight counts of administering noxious substance and one of behaving in a disgraceful manner

A Canadian soldier accused of drugging comrades with cannabis-laced cupcakes during a live-fire training exercise has been found guilty by a military judge.

Sandra Cogswell was convicted on eight counts of administering a noxious substance and one count of behaving in a disgraceful manner. Her case marks the first time in Canada that a soldier has been found guilty of administering cannabis to colleagues without their consent.

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Tropical Storm Grace’s heavy rains pour misery on Haiti earthquake survivors

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  • Flash flood and landslides complicate relief efforts
  • Power remains out with 50mm of rain an hour falling

Tropical Storm Grace has lashed southern Haiti with drenching rains, piling on misery for survivors of a powerful earthquake as flash floods and landslides further complicate relief efforts.

Related: Naomi Osaka to donate prize earnings to Haiti earthquake relief efforts

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‘We have no place to go’: Haiti earthquake shelters exposed to tropical storm – video report

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People already displaced by Saturday's earthquake in Haiti evacuated temporary shelters on Monday night due to a tropical storm. 

Tropical Storm Grace was projected to hit some of the areas worst affected by the earthquake with up to 38cm (15in) of rain, bringing the risk of flash floods and landslides.

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Underground review – mine explosion disaster film digs deeper than most

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French-Canadian director Sophie Dupuis puts human drama ahead of the action in this naturalistic, character-driven film

Here is an arthouse disaster movie from Quebec: a naturalistic, character-driven drama about what it might truly look like if a mineral mine exploded, trapping five workers underground. It’s the second feature from French-Canadian director Sophie Dupuis, who herself grew up in a mining family.

She opens her film in the heat of the rescue: red lights flashing, a response team descending into darkness. One of the rescuers, Max (Joakim Robillard), would be the hero of the Hollywood version, running around hot-headedly, disobeying orders: “Fuck you! I’m going to get the others!” Actually, much of the film is about how damaging it is for Max living with this tough-guy masculinity.

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Exxon’s oil drilling gamble off Guyana coast ‘poses major environmental risk’

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Experts warn of potential for disaster as Exxon pursues 9bn barrels in sensitive marine ecosystem

ExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, the Guardian and Floodlight have found.

Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6m acres off the coast of Guyana that includes 17 additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases.

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Haiti hit by storm as officials fear quake death toll could rise

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Tropical depression makes landfall over areas already hit by Saturday’s quake that killed at least 1,419

Medical teams and aid workers were racing to save lives and provide food and shelter on Monday amid fears that the official death toll from Saturday’s earthquake could rise further and a tropical depression bore down on the crisis-stricken Caribbean country.

The official death toll rose on Monday to 1,419, and at least 6,000 were injured by the 7.2-magnitude quake – a tremor even more powerful than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 200,000 Haitians in 2010 and levelled much of Port-au-Prince.

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‘Hidden pandemic’: Peruvian children in crisis as carers die

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With 93,000 children in Peru losing a parent to Covid, many face depression, anxiety and poverty

When Covid-19 began shutting down Nilda López’s vital organs, doctors decided that the best chance of saving her and her unborn baby was to put her into a coma.

Six months pregnant, López feared she would not wake up, or that if she did, her baby would not be there.

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Haitians heartbroken as deadly quake heaps misery on crisis-hit nation

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Aftershocks sow fear, hospitals swamped and aid workers race to provide food as tropical storm looms

Winnie Hugot Gabriel was presenting her Saturday morning radio show when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake ripped through southern Haiti, sending terrified listeners racing into the streets.

“Even here in Port-au-Prince you could feel it. It was strong,” said the 32-year-old journalist from the Magik 9 station, who abandoned her microphone and sprinted outside after the tremor.

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Florida issues tropical storm warning for Panhandle region as Fred approaches

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  • Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Grace to hit parts of the Caribbean
  • Fred’s maximum sustained winds at 40mph Sunday morning

Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency for the state’s Panhandle region as Tropical Storm Fred moved through the Gulf of Mexico early on Sunday and parts of the Caribbean were preparing for the impact from Tropical Storm Grace.

Fred was forecast to move across the Gulf before reaching the coast Monday night or Tuesday morning, forecasters said. They said people from Alabama to the central Florida Panhandle should monitor the system’s progress.

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Haiti: drone footage shows devastation after deadly earthquake

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Aerial footage shows the extent of destruction in Haiti following a 7.2-magnitude earthquake. The quake struck the south-western part of the country on Saturday, almost razing some towns and triggering landslides that hampered rescue efforts in two of the hardest-hit communities. The death toll has climbed sharply, with at least 724 dead and 2,800 injured, according to the latest figures from Haiti’s office of civil protection. People in the Caribbean nation rushed into the streets to seek safety and to help rescue those trapped in the rubble of collapsed homes, hotels and other buildings

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Trudeau calls for snap election in hopes of winning back voters

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Polling suggests Canadian PM’s Liberals are in the position to capture close to the 170 seats needed for majority government

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has called a snap election, gambling that voters will reward his administration’s handing of the coronavirus pandemic with a parliamentary majority as he pulls the plug on a two-year minority government.

On Sunday morning, Trudeau met with Governor General Mary Simon to request she dissolve parliament — a request she approved.

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‘A focus on quality’: Mexico’s wine industry bears fruit in revival of tradition

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Vineyards are blooming in the desert of Coahuila state, but vintners must make do with increasingly scarce water

From the patio of his winery high in the north Mexican desert, David Mendel surveys vineyards spread across a bowl-shaped valley under a scorching afternoon sun.

Related: Salud! Spain’s female winemakers use their intuition to rise to the top

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At least 304 dead as Haiti struck by 7.2-magnitude earthquake

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Prime minister declares month-long state of emergency after earthquake felt across the Caribbean

At least 304 people have died, with 1,800 injured and hundreds missing after Haiti was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that reduced churches, hotels and homes to rubble, in the latest tragedy to hit a Caribbean nation already mired in profound humanitarian and political crises and still reeling from the recent assassination of its president.

The earthquake on Saturday, which struck the country’s south-west at 8.29am local time, was felt across the Caribbean and rekindled painful memories of the devastating 2010 quake that killed more than 200,000 people. The prime minister, Ariel Henry, has declared a month-long state of emergency.

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Numerous deaths as earthquake causes widespread damage in Haiti – video

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Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has said numerous lives have been lost after the Caribbean country was struck by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that caused significant damage to buildings and infrastructure.


The US Geological Survey said the quake struck about 150km (93 miles) west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, at about 8.30am local time and had a depth of 10km.

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Brazilian singer turned congresswoman held over husband’s murder

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Flordelis dos Santos de Souza arrested in Rio after losing protection of parliamentary privilege

The Brazilian gospel star turned congresswoman accused of masterminding the murder of her preacher husband has been arrested after she was expelled from congress earlier this week.

Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, an evangelical celebrity famed for raising more than 50 children she claimed to have rescued from lives of poverty and crime, was detained on Friday night at her home near Rio de Janeiro.

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Belarus repression and the Taliban advance: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A round-up of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Thailand to Mexico

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‘I knew supply was coming’: how Canada’s push for Covid vaccines paid off

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Anita Anand’s determination to get doses for Canadians means the country now has world’s highest global vaccination rate

For many Canadians, spring was a dark period marked by surging coronavirus infections, lockdowns – and the envy of watching their American neighbours get vaccinated en masse.

But for Anita Anand, the country’s public services and procurement minister, the mounting frustration that Canada was being left behind in the global vaccine race didn’t make her lose focus.

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‘We are in this nightmare’: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown

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Ex-foreign minister among those arrested as Ortega detains political rivals as well as a columnist and ‘election geek’

It has been a fortnight since Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa last heard from her elderly father: a terse WhatsApp message in which Nicaragua’s former foreign minister said border guards had stopped him leaving the country and seized his passport, and that he was on his way home.

“What????” she replied from her home in Denver, Colorado. “Why????” No answer came.

By then Aguirre-Sacasa believes Nicaraguan police officials on motorcycles had intercepted her father’s vehicle on the highway as he headed back to the capital, Managua. After searching it, they placed the 76-year-old retired diplomat in a pickup truck and spirited him away to an unknown destination.

“We are in this nightmare,” his daughter said this week as she desperately sought news of her father. “Right now, I just need proof of life.”

Francisco Aguirre-Sacasa is the oldest target of a brazen political crackdown being waged by the government of Daniel Ortega ahead of the Central American country’s next presidential election on 7 November. Police have arrested at least 32 people since late May, including important opposition figures who were challenging the revolutionary hero-turned-autocrat as he seeks a a fourth consecutive term.

Related: Nicaragua rounds up president’s critics in sweeping pre-election crackdown

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