Canadian soldier faces mutiny charges for trying to block vaccine distribution

  • Ladislas Kenderesi urged soldiers not to distribute vaccine
  • Officer cadet took part in anti-lockdown rally in December

A Canadian soldier is facing rare mutiny charges after allegedly urging fellow members of the armed forces not to help with the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

The Department of National Defence has announced charges against officer cadet Ladislas Kenderesi, a reservist in Ontario. Kenderesi has been charged with “endeavoring to persuade another person to join in a mutiny” and “behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming of an officer”, according to officials.

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No Man’s Land review – well-meaning drama about US-Mexico relations

This contemporary western about a young Texan fugitive who flees south of the border is handsomely shot but didactic

Just north of the border between the United States and Mexico, the Greer family – patriarch Bill (Frank Grillo), mom Monica (Andie MacDowell), and grown sons Lucas (Alex MacNicoll) and Jackson (Jake Allyn) – work the land as ranchers. They raise cattle, ride horses and, being red-blooded Texan types, play sports – in Jackson’s case well enough that he’s got a chance to go pro as a baseball player. They also spend the odd evening riding the range with a vigilante militia group, rounding up immigrants who may have crossed the border illegally, to “help” the border patrols. On one such night, Jackson joins his dad and big brother, even though they try to keep him out of this sort of thing so he can get out of Dodge and become a sports hero – and what do you know, the dumb lug ends up shooting and killing a boy (Alessio Valentini) just a little younger than himself. In the back no less.

Ashamed, distraught and worried that his father will try to take the rap for him, Jackson confesses to local Texas Ranger Ramirez (venerable character actor George Lopez), but then bolts across the border to Mexico on his trusty horse Sundance. Soon, the fugitive is learning some life lessons and about what Mexico is really like, and he becomes a hired hand for a nice middle-class family. A flirtatious friendship blooms between him and the family’s pretty daughter, Victoria (Esmeralda Pimentel), while he tries not to get caught by the dead kid’s dad Gustavo (Jorge A Jimenez) and a skeevy people-trafficking “coyote” (Andres Delgado), who are out to get him.

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El Salvador’s house of horror becomes grisly emblem of war on women

Authorities have sought to portray the ex-policeman at whose home up to 40 bodies, mostly female, may be buried, as a freakish psychopath, despite the arrest of nine other suspects

Day after day they flock to the emerald green house on Estévez Street, seeking news of loved ones who have vanished without a trace.

“They say there are lots in there, maybe 40,” said Jessenia Elizabeth Francia, a 38-year-old housewife who had travelled 20 miles to reach the heavily guarded building under a punishing midday sun.

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Oxygen shortages threaten ‘total collapse’ of dozens of health systems

Data reveals Nepal, Iran and South Africa among 19 countries most at risk of running out as surging Covid cases push supplies to limit

Dozens of countries are facing severe oxygen shortages because of surging Covid-19 cases, threatening the “total collapse” of health systems.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism analysed data provided by the Every Breath Counts Coalition, the NGO Path and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to find the countries most at risk of running out of oxygen. It also studied data on global vaccination rates.

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‘A huge surprise’ as giant river otter feared extinct in Argentina pops up

Conservationists thrilled at the sighting of the wild predator, last seen in the country in the 1980s

“It was a huge surprise,” said Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding Argentina. “I was incredulous. An incredible feeling of so much happiness. I didn’t know if I should try to follow it or rush back to our station to tell the others.”

The cause of the excitement was the sighting, last week, of a wild giant river otter – an animal feared extinct in the country due to habitat loss and hunting – on the Bermejo River in Impenetrable national park, in north-east Argentina’s Chaco province. The last sighting of a giant otter in the wild in Argentina was in the 1980s. On the Bermejo, none have been seen for more than a century.

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Peru: Shining Path splinter group kills 14 in pre-election jungle massacre

  • Two children among dead in remote hamlet
  • Leaflets threaten voters for rightwing candidate Keiko Fujimori

At least 14 people, including two children, have been killed by a splinter group of the Shining Path rebel group, in a brutal attack on a remote jungle hamlet, according to Peru’s military.

Leaflets reportedly scattered at the site of Sunday’s massacre warned locals to boycott upcoming presidential elections next month and said anyone who voted for the rightwing candidate Keiko Fujimori would be considered a “traitor”.

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No-go area: pandemic highlights Canada’s lack of public toilets

Toronto’s unreliable patchwork of restrooms – thrown into relief as Covid closed restaurants, cafes and hotels – hits vulnerable hardest

Biking through Toronto on a recent afternoon, Dawn Russell realized she urgently needed to pee. Six months into her pregnancy, she knew that each trip from her house would mean searching for a toilet, but the promise of city streets clear of cars proved too much of a temptation.

“The pandemic has made the world so small, and it’s taken so many things away. To also lose the ability to go for a real walk was just a freedom I was not willing to give up,” said Russell, whose name was changed for privacy reasons. “I would rather risk peeing my pants than be confined at home.”

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Thousands rally at ‘obscene’ motorcade for Jair Bolsonaro

After 450,000 Covid deaths, president parades through Rio in effort to reenergnise far right

The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has led a raucous column of motorcycle enthusiasts through the streets of Rio in an attempt to reenergise his flagging far-right movement as public anger grows over his handling of the country’s Covid outbreak.

Thousands of flag-waving Bolsonaristas gathered outside the Olympic Park in west Rio on Sunday morning for the two-wheeled show of support before roaring east towards the southern beach districts and city centre, with Bolsonaro near the front.

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Attacks make Vancouver ‘anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America’

Vancouver has experienced a 717% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes, reflecting a legacy of discrimination in a country seen as welcoming of newcomers

Steven Ngo had stopped at a traffic light in a residential neighbourhood in the eastern part of Vancouver when passengers in another car tossed garbage at him, shouting racial slurs as they sped off.

The lawyer, a lifelong resident of the city, was stunned – but not surprised.

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Gaza damage and Glasgow raids: human rights this fortnight in pictures

A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Peru

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Canadian soldier allegedly fed cannabis cakes to gunners in live fire exercise

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.

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‘Brazil is a global pariah’: Lula on his plot to end reign of ‘psychopath’ Bolsonaro

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.

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Valeria Luiselli wins €100,000 Dublin literary award for Lost Children Archive

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.”

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‘People die in less than a week’: Covid wave catches Argentina off-guard

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.

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DNA study sets out to establish true origins of Christopher Columbus

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.

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‘Pray for Myanmar’: Miss Universe pageant gets political

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.

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‘We went to the dark side’: horror film shows reality of Mexico’s migrant trail

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.

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Colombia’s class war turns hot on the streets of Cali

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.

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Galápagos rock formation Darwin’s Arch collapses from erosion

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.”

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