Category Archives: Americas

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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‘I’m scared of being killed’: sex worker activists speak out

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Rights defenders describe threats and abuse while working to protect their communities

A report has found that sex worker activists are among the most at risk human rights defenders in the world. Published on Thursday by Front Line Defenders following a four-year investigation, it found activists face multiple threats and violent attacks. Their visibility within their communities makes them more vulnerable to abuse, the report said.

Here, sex worker activists from Tanzania, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and El Salvador share their experiences.

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Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’

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Exclusive: Front Line Defenders report says rights defenders working in sex industry face ‘targeted attacks’ around the world

Sex worker activists are among the most at risk defenders of human rights in the world, facing multiple threats and violent attacks, an extensive investigation has found.

The research, published today by human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, found that their visibility as sex workers who are advocates for their communities’ rights makes them more vulnerable to the violations routinely suffered by sex workers. In addition, they face unique, targeted abuse for their human rights work.

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Brazil: evangelical superstar expelled from congress over alleged role in husband’s murder

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Lower house votes to strip the disgraced celebrity of her mandate in latest dramatic chapter of a saga that has gripped country

Brazilian lawmakers have voted to expel the gospel star turned congresswoman Flordelis over her alleged involvement in the murder of the husband with whom she had raised more than 50 children.

In the latest dramatic chapter of a saga that has gripped Brazil, 437 members of Brazil’s 513-member lower house voted to strip the disgraced evangelical celebrity of her mandate as a result of “conduct incompatible with parliamentary decorum”.

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Prison term raises pressure on Canada and US in high-stakes China standoff

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Jail term for Michael Spavor viewed by Canada as retaliation over Huawei finance chief’s detention – is a bargain likely to be reached?

Hours after a court in China sentenced Canadian Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison for espionage, Meng Wanzhou appeared in a Vancouver courtroom, as final arguments began in her fight against extradition to the United States.

The two cases, while not officially linked, are at the heart a geopolitical feud between the United States and China, which has left Canada suffering collateral damage.

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Oregon declares state of emergency as another ‘extreme heatwave’ looms

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Pacific north-west prepares for triple-digit temperatures just weeks after heat resulted in hundreds of deaths in region

The Oregon governor declared a state of emergency on Tuesday as the region prepared for triple-digit temperatures mere weeks after a deadly heatwave clobbered the Pacific north-west.

Kate Brown said: “Oregon is facing yet another extreme heatwave, and it is critical that every level of government has the resources they need to help keep Oregonians safe and healthy.”

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Efforts to pardon Chileans imprisoned during mass protests gathers pace

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Pardons bill gains significant support among Chileans who credit for 2019 protest for galvanising important reforms

Maribel Gaete could not shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to her son, 19-year-old Bastian Campos, when he went to a protest in Antofagasta, Chile, in November 2019.

“Police were firing teargas; you couldn’t breathe. As soon as he shut the door, I began to worry,” recalled Gaete.

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Bolsonaro’s ‘banana republic’ military parade condemned by critics

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Armoured vehicles roll through streets of Brasília as congress prepares to vote on plans to change Brazil’s voting system

Critics have denounced Jair Bolsonaro’s “banana republic-style” decision to send combat vehicles on to the streets of Brazil’s capital for a rare military parade in what was widely seen as a beleaguered president’s ham-fisted attempt to project strength.

Bolsonaro, whose ratings have plunged as a result of his chaotic response to the Covid pandemic, looked on from the marble ramp outside the presidential palace as a motorcade of armoured vehicles trundled past on Tuesday morning.

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Canada: pressure on Catholic church to compensate victims of residential schools abuses

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  • Scale of church’s assets revealed in string of investigations
  • Discovery of unmarked graves prompts fresh reparations calls

The Catholic church in Canada has come under growing pressure to compensate victims of the country’s residential school system after the scale of its assets were revealed in a string of media investigations.

As part of a 2007 agreement, the church agreed to pay C$29m in compensation to survivors, but distributed only a fraction of that figure, citing poor fundraising efforts.

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China court upholds death sentence against Canadian Robert Schellenberg

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Ruling comes as verdict expected in trial of fellow Canadian Michael Spavor

A Chinese court has upheld a death sentence against Canadian citizen Robert Schellenberg.

Schellenberg has been detained in China since 2014, when he was accused of attempting to smuggle 225kg of methamphetamine to Australia. He has maintained his innocence. In December 2018 he was sentenced to 15 years but after he appealed a retrial was ordered and the Dalian intermediate people’s court instead ordered his execution.

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Bleed With Me review – three’s a crowd in taut bloodsucking horror

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Amelia Moses’ feature debut keeps us guessing as to who is the hunter and who is the prey as a holiday in the woods turns sour

Writer-director Amelia Moses makes her feature debut with this tautly constructed work of psychological horror which, although far from perfect, certainly suggests she’s a talent to watch out for. Like British film-maker Rose Glass’ outstanding horror-adjacent breakthrough Saint Maud, Moses’ story circumnavigates a relationship between two women, one that is charged with an intensity that’s more than platonic but less than erotic, and inflected by an unequal power distribution.

The story takes place in Canada. We largely we see it unfold through the eyes of Rowan (Lee Marshall, excellent), a young office drone who meets the more confident and glamorous Emily (Lauren Beatty) at work when Emily saves her from a sexually predatory co-worker. With the pair having become friends, Emily invites Rowan to come with her for a holiday stay in a secluded, snow-capped cabin in the woods along with Emily’s boyfriend Brendan (Aris Tyros).

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True Stories: Spaces review – impressive short docs from folk horror to a Lebanese marvel

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This short film collection from the True Story platform ranges across continents to look at how we interact with our environments

Deeply psychogeographical, this collection of documentary shorts from the streaming platform True Story roams among spaces old and new, and across continents. Personal and public memories are intertwined, creating portraits of how human beings interact with their environments, and vice versa.

Paul Heintz’s nocturnal Shānzhài Screens is a meditative study of liminal urban spaces, shot in a Chinese district that specialises in fine-art reproductions. Rectangular frames populate the screen, from flickering apartment windows, hurried video calls, to endless replicas of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. Authenticity is elusive, and loneliness reigns.

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‘If I go back, I’ll die’: Colombian town scrambles to accommodate 10,000 migrants

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Necoclí, population 20,000, faces bottleneck as Covid rules lift and unrest, poverty and violence grow across region


When the loudspeaker announced that the day’s last boat across Colombia’s Gulf of Urabá would begin boarding, a desperate scrum of Haitians rushed forward, jostling for spaces on the rickety craft.

Most had been stuck in this remote Caribbean coastal town for days, trapped in a migration bottleneck caused by the loosening of Covid travel restrictions and growing unrest, poverty and violence across the region.

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