Category Archives: Americas

Trump threatens to cut US aid to Argentina if Milei loses election

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US president says ‘we will not be generous’ if leader fails to win key midterms after promising $20bn to prop up struggling economy

Donald Trump has warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei loses crucial legislative elections later this month.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” the US president said as Milei visited the White House to seek the Republican’s political and economic support. “I’m with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win – I think he’s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we are gone.”

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Trump says six were killed in US strike on another boat allegedly carrying drugs near Venezuela

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UN has condemned US strikes on small boats it believes to be trafficking drugs as extrajudicial executions

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard.

“The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said in a statement on his Truth Social social media platform. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

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US revokes visas of at least 50 Mexican officials in Trump’s drug cartel crackdown

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The administration’s sweeping visa cancellations extend to Mexico’s political elite, alarming allies and rivals alike

The US government has revoked the visas of at least 50 politicians and government officials in Mexico amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels and their suspected political allies, according to two Mexican officials.

The move has sent quiet shock waves through Mexico’s political elite, who regularly travel to the US. It also marks a significant broadening of US anti-narcotics action, with the Trump administration targeting active politicians usually seen as too diplomatically sensitive.

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In Venezuela’s ‘darkest hours’, will peace prize boost opposition or backfire?

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María Corina Machado’s Nobel award puts focus on country but analysts doubt it will produce democratic change

In March 2019 as a nationwide blackout plunged Venezuela into darkness, hundreds of citizens huddled on a basketball court in the city of Maracaibo to hear their leader promise to guide them out of the gloom.

“We are, quite literally, living through our darkest hour. But these are also the brightest of times,” María Corina Machado told supporters as they used mobile phones to illuminate the night.

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Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel peace prize

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Opponent of Maduro regime receives award and praise for keeping ‘flame of democracy burning’

The Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado has won the Nobel peace prize for her dogged struggle to rescue the South American country from its fate as “a brutal, authoritarian state”.

Machado, 58, a conservative often described as Venezuela’s Iron Lady, has spent the last year living in hiding after her political movement was widely believed to have beaten the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in the July 2024 presidential election.

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Peru lawmakers vote to oust president Dina Boluarte over crime crisis

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Congress leader José Jerí sworn in as interim president as majority of lawmakers initiate impeachment against Boluarte

Lawmakers in Peru have voted to remove the president, Dina Boluarte, whose term has been marked by protests and accusations of failing to stem crime.

Boluarte refused to appear before Congress on Friday for an overnight hearing after a majority of lawmakers, including some once loyal to her, voted to initiate impeachment proceedings.

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Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: Argentinian court sentences man to 10 years for attempted assassination

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Court in Buenos Aires sentences Fernando Sabag Montiel and accomplice over 2022 incident in which gun was pointed at former president but did not go off

A court in Argentina has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of attempting to kill former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

The court in Buenos Aires also sentenced the man’s accomplice to eight years in prison, capping a dramatic case that has captivated the country since 2022, when the main defendant, Fernando Sabag Montiel, squeezed through a crowd outside the ex-president’s home, thrust a loaded gun at her face and pulled the trigger.

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Senate Republicans vote against check on Trump using deadly force against cartels

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First vote in Congress on military campaign that White House says has hit four vessels and killed at least 21 people

Senate Republicans voted down legislation Wednesday that would have put a check on Donald Trump’s ability to use deadly military force against drug cartels after Democrats tried to counter the administration’s extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers to destroy vessels in the Caribbean.

The vote fell mostly along party lines, 48-51, with two Republicans, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, voting in favor and the Democrat John Fetterman voting against.

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Illegal gold mining clears 140,000 hectares of Peruvian Amazon

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Armed criminal groups tear down precious rainforest to capitalise on record gold prices, report finds

An illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon and is accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region to profit from record gold prices, according to a report.

About 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since 1984, and the environmental destruction is spreading rapidly across the country, Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) and its Peruvian partner organisation, Conservación Amazónica, found.

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Brazil’s president asks US to scrap tariffs in ‘friendly’ call with Trump

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Presidents spoke on a video call as expert speculates that Haiti could be an area where the two leaders can cooperate

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has urged Donald Trump to scrap tariffs on his country’s imports and sanctions against its officials, as the two men held what the Brazilian presidency called a “friendly” video call, swapping phone numbers after months of friction.

Ties between the US and Brazil have nosedived as a result of Trump’s campaign to pressure Brazilian authorities into abandoning the coup trial of his far-right ally, Jair Bolsonaro.

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Rush reform for first time since drummer Neil Peart’s death

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Canadian prog-rockers will play seven concerts in summer 2026 in the US, Canada and Mexico, after hiring new drummer Anika Nilles

Rush, the Canadian prog rockers whose epic and detailed songcraft continues to attract a large and heartfelt fandom, are to reform for the first time since the death of drummer Neil Peart.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, both 72, will tour the US, Canada and Mexico, playing seven concerts in summer 2026 beginning in Los Angeles on 7 June.

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US struck another boat illegally carrying drugs off Venezuela coast, Trump says

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President said US would turn attention to drug trafficking happening on land during speech at navy ceremony

US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. He added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.

Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

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Hegseth says four killed in US strike on alleged drug boat off Venezuelan coast

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Pentagon chief says strike – fourth by US military in recent weeks – targeted boat with ‘substantial amounts’ of drugs

The United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new “non-international armed conflict” with cartels.

The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump’s orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs.

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Journalist Mario Guevara deported to El Salvador after 100 days in Ice custody

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Removal comes after Emmy-winning Salvadorian reporter was arrested while covering ‘No Kings Day’ protest

Journalist Mario Guevara’s imprisonment by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) ended with deportation to El Salvador on Friday, his family announced on social media.

Guevara has been a media mainstay in the Atlanta area for about 20 years, after fleeing El Salvador to escape leftwing militias in 2004. Though he has a work permit and two of his children are American citizens, he has operated under the “administrative closure” of deportation orders for much of that time.

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Fears Quebec Starbucks gang shooting could signal shift to brazen tactics

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Local media named victim as Charalambos Theologou, shot as groups vie for power after arrests of alleged mafia bosses

The brazen daylight killing of a prominent Quebec gang leader inside a suburban Starbucks in the outskirts of Montreal this week could signal a new, more chaotic and brash environment when it comes to organised crime, observers say.

The arrests of alleged senior, older members of Montreal’s mafia in June has potentially left a chasm – meaning newer, younger gangs are attempting to gain a foothold.

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Treasure hunters discover $1m in silver and gold coins off Florida coast

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Valuables were being transported in 1715 from American colonies when a hurricane wrecked a Spanish fleet

Hidden beneath the turquoise waters off a stretch of Florida known as the “treasure coast”, a team of divers from a shipwreck salvage company have uncovered exactly that – a load of long-lost Spanish treasure they estimate is worth $1m.

More than 1,000 silver and gold coins thought to be minted in the Spanish colonies where Bolivia, Mexico and Peru now sit were uncovered this summer off Florida’s Atlantic coast, 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels LLC announced this week.

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Judge denies Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum in the US

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Ábrego, who was deported to El Salvador in March before being returned to the US, has 30 days to appeal ruling

An immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum on Thursday, but he has 30 days to appeal.

Ábrego’s case has drawn national attention since the 30-year-old was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. The Salvadorian national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the US without proper documentation as a teenager.

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Canadian government asked to clarify whether Kneecap barred from country

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Opposition party says minister ‘either lied or has no clue how it works’ when he said band were ‘ineligible’ to enter

Canada’s opposition party has asked the government to clarify whether the Belfast rap trio Kneecap have been barred from the country, after doubts emerged over their status.

The Liberal MP Vince Gasparro, the parliamentary secretary for combating crime, posted a video on social media on 19 September in which he said Kneecap were “ineligible” to enter Canada.

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‘A life of captivity’: Canada refuses marine park’s request to export its whales to China

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Fisheries minister says rehoming Marineland’s cetaceans in China would only ‘perpetuate the treatment’ the whales have endured

Canada’s government has refused a request by the beleaguered Marineland theme park to export its remaining 30 beluga whales to China due to concerns that the whales will face further mistreatment.

Marineland, an amusement park, zoo and aquarium in Niagara Falls, has one of the largest captive whale populations in the world, and has long been mired in controversy amid reports of poor conditions for the animals on display.

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UN security council approves new military force to fight Haiti gangs

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Unit will have up to 5,500 soldiers and police officers who will tackle the violence that has overwhelmed the country

The United Nations has adopted a resolution to transform a security mission in gang-dominated Haiti into a larger, fully fledged force with military troops.

The new unit can now have a maximum of 5,500 uniformed personnel, including police officers and soldiers, unlike the current mission, which is just law enforcement. The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, said the vote by 12 security council members to “transform the multinational security support (MSS) mission to the new gang suppression force, a mission five times the size of its predecessor” showed the “international community was sharing the burden”.

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