Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell faces 18 charges at a court martial for serving edibles to unsuspecting members of artillery battery
A Canadian soldier is facing court martial after alleging serving cannabis-laced cupcakes to unwitting members of her artillery unit during a live fire exercise.
Bombardier Chelsea Cogswell faces 18 charges for her baking, including administering a noxious substance and behaving in a disgraceful manner.
Continue reading...Brazil’s former leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left no doubt he was planning a finale to a dramatic political career
Brazil can be rescued after being turned into a Covid-stricken global outcast by its “psychopath” president Jair Bolsonaro, the politician best placed to defeat him in next year’s presidential election has insisted.
In an interview with the Guardian, Brazil’s former leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – who is widely tipped to challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency after regaining his political rights – stopped short of explicitly confirming he would run. But Lula, who rose from rural poverty to become Brazil’s first working-class president, left no doubt he was plotting an extraordinary finale to one of the world’s most enduring and dramatic political careers.
Continue reading...A wave of anti-government protests entered their fourth week on Wednesday as unions, student groups and others demand social change amid intermittent talks between the government and strike organisers
Continue reading...Novel, which weaves together the stories of Mexican migrants with those of a US family on a road trip south, was picked for the prize by a Barcelona library
Earlier this year, a library in Barcelona submitted a nomination for its favourite book of the year: Mexican author Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive. On Thursday, thanks to Biblioteca Vila De Gràcia, Luiselli was named winner of the world’s richest prize for a novel published in English, the €100,000 (£86,000) Dublin literary award.
“It’s a beautiful, relatively small library in Barcelona who nominated me,” said Luiselli. “I’m going to kiss its rocks one day, because I probably won’t be able to kiss its librarians because of Covid.”
Continue reading...Cases have risen from a daily total of about 5,000 in early March to a record 35,000 this week amid relaxed restrictions and a low vaccination rate
It is 1am, and intensive care doctor Vanina Edul is trying vainly to remember the names of all the Covid patients who have died on her watch.
The 47-year-old physician still remembers the first patient she saw die of Covid last year. “He was 60, and we were surprised because that was young for that long-ago time. We thought only old people died. How wrong we were,” she says.
Continue reading...Was the explorer from Italy, Spain, Portugal or elsewhere? Researchers hope to find out once and for all
Spanish researchers have launched a new attempt to finally settle the dispute over the true origins of Christopher Columbus after various theories have claimed the explorer hailed from Portugal or Spain, rather than Italy as most scholars agree.
“There is no doubt on our part [about his Italian origin], but we can provide objective data that can … close a series of existing theories,” said José Antonio Lorente, the lead scientist of the DNA study at the University of Granada.
Continue reading...Thuzar Wint Lwin, in dress of besieged Chin minority, highlights brutal repression since coup in Myanmar
In the months leading up to the Miss Universe pageant, most contestants were busy making promotional films and rehearsing for their moment in the limelight. Thuzar Wint Lwin of Myanmar was on the streets of Yangon, protesting against the country’s brutal army.
As the military used increasingly deadly force to crush rallies opposing its February coup, she visited the relatives of those who had been killed, donating her savings. Online, she raised awareness of military violence, despite the risk of retaliation.
Continue reading...Mystical realism conveys real-life stories of brutal cartel violence in Fernanda Valadez’s chilling directorial debut
Two teenage boys wave goodbye to their mothers across a field in rural Mexico, leaving home in search of the American dream. The opening moments of the Mexican film-maker Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features, available to stream from this week, reflects scenes played out every day across Mexico and Central America, as men, women and children journey north in search of safety and job opportunities.
Valadez, 39, starts her directorial debut film in her home state of Guanajuato – a picturesque, once tranquil state in the centre of the country. In recent years Guanajuato has fallen victim to the evolving geography and relentless nature of Mexico’s humanitarian crisis; it is now one of the most dangerous places in the country for those who live there and for people travelling through on the migrant trail.
Continue reading...Poor and indigenous protesters have been met with deadly force by armed civilians and police representing interests of the wealthy
A convoy of brightly painted buses descended from Colombia’s westernmost mountain range, heading for the city of Cali, where tens of thousands had taken to the streets demanding a shake-up of the country’s deeply unequal status quo.
Along the way, well-wishers cheered on the caravan and drivers honked in approval. But as the procession approached Cali’s prosperous southern reaches, it reached a roadblock set up by men in civilian clothing, believed to be from wealthy neighbourhoods nearby. Then the shooting started.
Continue reading...Boat tourists reportedly saw the rocky structure collapse into the Pacific Ocean
Darwin’s Arch, a rock formation south-east of Darwin Island in the Galápagos archipelago, has collapsed due to natural erosion, Ecuador’s environment ministry said.
Images on the ministry Facebook page on Tuesday show two rocky pillars left at the northernmost island of the Pacific Ocean archipelago, which lies 600 miles (1,000km) off South America.
The post said: “This event is a consequence of natural erosion. Darwin’s Arch is made of natural stone that at one time would have been part of Darwin Island, which is not open to visits by land.
“This site is considered one of the best places on the planet to dive and observe schools of sharks and other species.”
Victories for leftist and independent candidates over rightwingers paves the way for a long-awaited progressive settlement
Chile’s established political elite has been roundly rejected at the polls six months ahead of a pivotal presidential election, as the country turned to a progressive new generation to write the next chapter in its history.
Resounding victories for leftist and independent candidates saw rightwing politicians crash to a dismal electoral defeats alongside those with links to Chile’s transition to democracy.
Continue reading...The owner of a mansion allegedly used for illegal gambling during pandemic will not face charges after police accused of theft and planting evidence
A police investigation into an alleged underground casino operating out of a mansion north of Toronto has fallen apart after officers were accused of stealing two luxury watches and planting evidence.
Police in Ontario said in September they had seized more than $10m in assets, firearms, cash and liquor as part of a months-long investigation into illegal gambling.
Continue reading...Indigenous people in the grip of a humanitarian crisis as Bolsonaro gives encouragement to wildcat miners with designs on their rainforest territory
A photograph of an emaciated Yanomami girl, huddled listlessly in a hammock beside an empty cooking pot over an unlit fire. Shaky footage of indigenous people screaming as they flee in panic to a soundtrack of gunfire.
Shocking images shared on Brazilian social media this week have cast a spotlight on a spiral of violence, malnutrition and disease that threatens fresh devastation for the Yanomami people and their ancestral territory in the Amazon state of Roraima.
Continue reading...President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will mark the killings of 303 Chinese people during the revolution that the city of Torreón has tried to forget
The first to die were Chinese agricultural workers, who were killed in the orchards and gardens surrounding the Mexican city of Torreón by advancing revolutionary forces in the early hours of 13 May 1911.
After skirmishes at the outskirts of the city, the outnumbered federal garrison abandoned their positions and slipped away under the cover of darkness.
Continue reading...Beavers cause internet outages, steal posts and even put 30 sq km of a town underwater – but experts say the animals have a profound effect on ecosystems
At first, the theft of wooden fence posts seemed like a crime of opportunity – amid soaring lumber costs, stacks of wood have gone missing from construction sites across North America.
But officers in the Canadian prairie community of Porcupine Plain, Saskatchewan, soon identified the culprit: local beavers had stolen the posts to build their dam.
Continue reading...Chileans to elect 155-strong assembly made up of equivalent men and women to set out new framework and enshrine equal rights
Women’s rights activists in Chile say that the country’s new constitution will catalyze progress for women in the country – and could set a new global standard for gender equality in politics.
In a two-day vote this weekend, Chileans will elect a 155-strong citizens’ assembly to write a new constitution for the country – the first anywhere in the world to be written by an equal number of men and women.
Continue reading...US diplomats, spies and defence officials have reported serious symptoms, some within the past few weeks
There have been more than 130 incidents of unexplained brain injury known as Havana syndrome among US diplomats, spies and defence officials, some of them within the past few weeks, it has been reported.
The New York Times said three CIA officers had reported serious symptoms since December, following overseas assignments, requiring outpatient treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital in Washington. One episode was within the past two weeks.
Continue reading...A decade after Istanbul convention was drawn up to end gender-based violence, activists report decline in women’s rights and safety
A decade after the launch of the Istanbul convention, the landmark human rights treaty to stop gender-based violence, women are facing a global assault on their rights and safety, according to campaigners.
This week marked 10 years since the first 13 countries signed up to the convention, seen as a turning point in efforts to address violence against women.
Continue reading...Officials on Vancouver Island say at least 100 trees have been illegally chopped down, leaving one stump with a face carved into it
Two tree stumps signaled to Larry Pynn that something was wrong.
Jutting from a mossy forest floor in western Canada, the fresh stumps were the final remnants of two western red cedars that had been chopped down by chainsaw. Nearby, a set of deep tire tracks ran for nearly a kilometer in the mud before terminating at the main road.
Continue reading...Investigations into leaders closed after judges find no grounds for the cases and describe the situation as an ‘illegal embarrassment’
Human rights activists in Brazil have warned that the country’s authorities are targeting indigenous leaders after police launched investigations into two prominent critics of the government of Jair Bolsonaro.
Sônia Guajajara, the head of Brazil’s largest indigenous organization, the Association of Indigenous Peoples (Apib), and Almir Suruí had been put under investigation last month over social media campaigns raising awareness of the threat that Covid-19 poses to Brazil’s indigenous population.
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