Category Archives: Americas

‘Wacko PM’: Canadian opposition leader ejected for Trudeau insult

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Conservative Pierre Poilievre refuses to withdraw ‘wacko’ remark, prompting censure from speaker and removal from Commons

The leader of Canada’s main opposition party was ejected from the House of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “a wacko”, in the latest clash between two men set to fight an election next year.

The incident started when Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservatives, criticised Trudeau for supporting moves in British Columbia to decriminalize some hard drugs in an attempt to reduce the number of overdose-related deaths.

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Ontario: grandparents and infant killed in wrong-way police pursuit crash

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Vehicle driving wrong way on highway was being pursued by police after alleged liquor store robbery, causing six-vehicle collision

Two grandparents and their infant grandchild have been killed on a highway east of Toronto after a van being chased by police crashed while going the wrong way, causing a six-vehicle collision.

The chase late on Monday was triggered by an alleged liquor store robbery, and the crash also left the suspect in the chased van dead, police in Canada said on Tuesday.

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New Haiti PM named but powerful gangs demand seat at the table

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Little-known former sports minister Fritz Bélizaire appointed as 90,000 flee capital in a month

Haiti’s newly installed transitional council has chosen a little-known former sports minister as the country’s prime minister, as it presses forward in its monumental task of trying to establish a stable new government amid raging violence.

Fritz Bélizaire replaces Michel Patrick Boisvert, the former minister of economy and finance who was the interim prime minister. His appointment appeared to come as a surprise to some members of the council, with some confessing that they did not know him.

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British Columbia abruptly drops drug decriminalization after backlash

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Premier asks government to reintroduce ban, ending Canada’s first large attempt to gauge effects of decriminalization

British Columbia has abruptly reversed course on its landmark experiment decriminalizing the possession of certain illicit drugs, citing mounting public frustration and “disorder” in the Canadian province.

Premier David Eby said on Friday that he had asked the federal government to reintroduce a ban on public drug use, formally ending the country’s first large attempt to gauge the effects of decriminalization.

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British tourist injured in shark attack is ‘aware and can communicate’

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Peter Smith is in intensive care after suffering damage to an arm, leg and hand and puncture wounds to abdomen

A British tourist who was seriously injured in a shark attack off a Caribbean island is “aware of what is happening and can communicate” in intensive care, his wife has said.

Peter Smith, 64, from Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, was savaged 10 metres (33ft) off the shore near the Starfish hotel in Courland Bay on the north coast of Tobago on Friday morning.

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Briton in critical care after ‘unusual’ shark attack on Tobago

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Man, 64, being treated for injuries to arm, leg and stomach after attack in shallow waters

A British man is in intensive care after an “unusual” shark attack on the Caribbean island of Tobago.

The 64-year-old man was receiving critical care after the bull shark attack left him with injuries to his left arm, left leg and stomach, Tobago’s Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation said.

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Orca calf successfully returned to open water after bold rescue in Canada

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Two-year-old calf one step closer to reuniting with family group after tragic accident that left her stranded in remote lagoon

An orca calf, trapped for weeks in a remote lagoon in western Canada, has freed herself and is travelling towards open waters, hailed as “incredible news” by a growing body of human supporters.

The move puts her one step closer to reuniting with her family one month after a tragic accident left her stranded.

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Air Canada apologizes after headdress of First Nations chief removed to hold

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Politicians decry ‘shameful’ incident on domestic flight in which Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak’s headdress was taken by airline staff

Canada’s largest airline has apologized to a prominent First Nations chief after her ceremonial headdress was removed from the plane’s cabin, wrapped in a plastic bag and moved to the baggage hold.

Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, national chief of the assembly of First Nations, was flying domestically on Wednesday when she said her headdress was taken by airline staff.

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New Haiti government sworn in during secret ceremony

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‘Transitional council’ takes oath of office after prime minister formally resigns as gang violence continues to rock capital

Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, has formally resigned and a new provisional government has been sworn in during a secret ceremony at the presidential palace, nearly two months after a criminal insurrection plunged the capital into chaos.

The nine-person “transitional council” was officially established on Thursday during an event at the national palace in Port-au-Prince. As its members took their oaths, Henry, who is in the US having been locked out of Haiti by the gang uprising, announced in a letter that he was stepping down.

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Barbados leader halts £3m payout to UK MP for Drax Hall plantation

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Government U-turn as PM Mia Mottley acknowledges anger from reparations movement over plan to buy Barbados land from Dorset MP Richard Drax

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has halted plans for a multi-million-pound payout to the British Conservative MP Richard Drax for the purchase of 53 acres of the Drax Hall plantation, which he owns.

As revealed in the Observer last Sunday, the payout plan had angered those involved in the Caribbean reparations movement, who said Drax, the MP for South Dorset, should hand over all or part of the 617-acre plantation to the people of Barbados.

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Portugal needs to ‘pay the costs’ of slavery and colonialism, says president

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Critics of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa say behind remarks is lack of national recognition that slavery should be discussed in schools

Portugal needs to “pay the costs” of slavery and other colonial-era crimes, the country’s president has said, in a rare instance of a European leader seemingly backing the need for reparations.

Portugal has long grappled with calls by campaigners to address its legacy as the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade. During the span of four centuries, nearly 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels.

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Honduras referred to UN human rights committee over total abortion ban

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Petition filed on behalf of woman known as as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped

Honduras is being taken to a global human rights body for the first time over its total abortion ban, which campaigners say violates women’s fundamental rights and the country’s international commitments.

The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Honduras-based Centro de Derechos de la Mujer (Center for Women’s Rights, CDM) filed a petition with the UN human rights committee this month on behalf of a woman known as Fausia, who underwent a forced pregnancy after being raped and denied an abortion under Honduras’ draconian laws.

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Designer Nancy Gonzalez sentenced to prison for smuggling crocodile and python handbags

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Celebrity fashion designer, who recruited couriers to transport bags from her native Colombia to US on commercial flights, receives 18-month sentence

A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the US for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events – all in violation of US wildlife laws.

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‘Children won’t be able to survive’: inter-American court to hear from climate victims

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Historic hearing will receive submissions from people whose human rights have been affected by climate change

Julian Medina comes from a long line of fishers in the north of Colombia’s Gulf of Morrosquillo who use small-scale and often traditional methods to catch species such as mackerel, tuna and cojinúa.

Medina went into business as a young man but was drawn back to his roots, and ended up leading a fishing organisation. For years he has campaigned against the encroachment of fossil fuel companies, pollution and overfishing, which are destroying the gulf’s delicate ecosystem and people’s livelihoods.

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Weather tracker: Mexico swelters under season’s first heatwave

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Anticyclonic conditions have allowed temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country

Mexico has been undergoing its first heatwave of the season. The heatwave started on Sunday 14 April, when Mexico City recorded a new date record with a high of 32.9C, surpassing the previous record of 32C from 1998.

Anticyclonic conditions over the region have been responsible for this heatwave by inhibiting cloud formation, allowing temperatures to rise significantly. These conditions persisted through much of last week, allowing temperatures to reach 35-45C across much of the country.

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Global defence budget jumps to record high of $2440bn

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For the first time, government military spending increased in all five geographical regions, Sipri thinktank finds

Global military expenditure has reached a record high of $2440bn (£1970bn) after the largest annual rise in government spending on arms in over a decade, according to a report.

The 6.8% increase between 2022 and 2023 was the steepest since 2009, pushing spending to the highest recorded by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) in its 60-year history.

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Bolsonaro supporters hit streets of Rio and hail new hero Elon Musk

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Owner of X has used social media platform to bash judge in charge of investigations into former president

Thousands of diehard supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro have hit the streets of Rio to champion their embattled leader and celebrate the new hero of their far-right movement: Elon Musk.

The tech billionaire has spent recent weeks using his social network X to bash Bolsonaro’s arch-enemy, the supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes is responsible for several investigations into Bolsonaro that could land the ex-president in jail, including one examining the alleged coup plot that preceded the rightwing insurrection in Brasília on 8 January 2023.

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Ecuadoreans to vote in referendum on unprecedented security measures

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Sweeping security measures designed to empower police and armed forces against organised crime

Ecuadoreans will vote on Sunday in a referendum on a raft of unprecedented security measures designed to empower the police and armed forces in the fight against spiralling violence and organised crime.

Voters must accept or reject 11 questions, mostly about security, in the plebiscite, which is being seen as a test of support for Ecuador’s popular young president. Daniel Noboa who took office in November on the pledge to combat the surge in violent crime, put forward the poll to push through proposals to retake control of prisons and tame soaring homicide rates.

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Tory MP from slave-owning family set to gain £3m from sale of former plantation

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Caribbean historians want Richard Drax to pay reparations – but now Barbados plans to buy his land for homes

The Conservative MP under fire for his ancestors’ role in Caribbean slavery is in line for a multimillion-pound payout from the Barbados government.

Despite threats to make Richard Drax pay reparations and seize his family’s plantation – described by one historian as a “killing field” of enslaved Africans – the government is now planning to pay market value for 21 hectares (about 15 football pitches) of his land for housing.

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Harry Styles stalker jailed for sending him 8,000 cards in a month

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Myra Carvalho sentenced to 14 weeks’ imprisonment and banned from seeing singer perform

A woman who stalked Harry Styles has been jailed and banned from seeing him perform.

Myra Carvalho, who appeared at Harrow crown court sitting at Hendon magistrates court in London, was said to have stalked the singer by sending him 8,000 cards in less than a month.

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