Paul beat seven other contenders to win the leadership of the country’s Green party
Annamie Paul, the first Black person to head a mainstream Canadian federal party, said on Monday that her victory was a sign that politics could become more inclusive.
Paul, a 47-year-old Toronto lawyer, beat seven other contenders to win the leadership of the country’s Green party late on Saturday.
Continue reading...Appeal court sets aside ruling that gold could not be released to Nicolás Maduro-backing bank
A battle for the control of more than $1.8bn worth of Venezuelan gold stored at the Bank of England has swung in favour of the government of Nicolás Maduro after an appeals court in London overturned an earlier high court ruling concerning whom the UK recognised as Venezuela’s president.
The court of appeal granted an appeal by the Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) and set aside July’s high court judgment, which had found that Britain’s recognition of the opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the “constitutional interim president of Venezuela” meant the gold could not be released for the Maduro-backing bank.
Continue reading...Quarter of fakes were stolen with some eggs tracked from thief to trafficker to consumer
Decoy eggs made by a 3D-printer and fitted with satellite tags have been placed in sea turtle nests on beaches in Costa Rica to track the illegal trade of their eggs.
A quarter of the fake eggs put among 101 turtle nests on four beaches in Costa Rica were stolen, with some eggs successfully tracked as they moved from thief to trafficker to consumer.
Continue reading...Climate crisis and logging is leading to shift from canopy rainforest to open grassland
Much of the Amazon could be on the verge of losing its distinct nature and switching from a closed canopy rainforest to an open savannah with far fewer trees as a result of the climate crisis, researchers have warned.
Rainforests are highly sensitive to changes in rainfall and moisture levels, and fires and prolonged droughts can result in areas losing trees and shifting to a savannah-like mix of woodland and grassland. In the Amazon, such changes were known to be possible but thought to be many decades away.
Continue reading...Apparent serious assault is latest in series of alleged human rights abuses by Carabineros
Less than a month before Chile votes on whether to replace its Pinochet-era constitution, police have brutally repressed demonstrators in the capital, Santiago.
On Friday evening officers of the Carabineros police force used plumes of teargas and high-pressure water jets to disperse protesters congregating in Plaza Italia, where pockets of violence flared amid a heavy police presence.
Continue reading...Shehroze Chaudhry charged with inventing identity as a ruthless killer as saga prompts debate over repatriation and de-radicalization
For months, unbeknown to his classmates and neighbours, a self-professed executioner was living freely in Canada’s largest city.
But in 2018, his exploits were made public on a blockbuster podcast produced by the New York Times, in which the man who called himself Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi confessed to a string of grisly crimes as a member of the Islamic State’s religious police.
Continue reading...Country faces more than 5,000 fires, with yellow smoke reaching the capital as neighbouring Brazil and Argentina face blazes
Devastating wildfires have broken out across across Paraguay, as drought and record high temperatures continue to exacerbate blazes across South America.
A total of 5,231 individual wildfires broke out across the country on 1 October – up 3,000 on the previous day. Most of were concentrated in the arid Chaco region in the west of the country, but thick yellow smoke had reached as far as the capital, Asunción.
Continue reading...The caravan from Honduras is the biggest since the pandemic hit Central America in March, triggering a rise in unemployment and poverty
Thousands of Honduran migrants hoping to reach the United States have entered Guatemala, testing the newly reopened frontier that had been shut by the coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities had planned to register the migrants as they crossed and offer assistance to those willing to turn back, but early on Thursday, the group pushed past armed guards without registering. By midday more than 3,000 migrants had crossed illegally, said Guatemalan officials.
Continue reading...Fires in Brazil’s Amazon increased 13% in the first nine months of the year compared with a year ago, as the rainforest region experiences its worst rash of blazes in a decade, data from space research agency Inpe has shown.
Satellites in September recorded 32,017 hotspots in the world’s largest rainforest, a 61% rise from the same month in 2019.
Continue reading...Announcement follows years of tax evasion scandals involving BVI shell companies
The government of the British Virgin Islands has finally committed to introducing public registers of beneficial ownership for companies incorporated in the tax haven.
The announcement, made in the islands parliament, comes in the wake of years of tax evasion and money laundering scandals, in which shell companies incorporated in the territory regularly played a central role.
Continue reading...Joyce Echaquan is seen grimacing as nurses call her ‘stupid as hell’, renewing calls for country to confront systemic racism
A shocking video showing hospital staff in Canada taunting a dying Indigenous woman has left a community in mourning and renewed calls for the country to confront the realities of systemic racism.
Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, arrived at a hospital in the Quebec city of Joliette on Monday, complaining of stomach pain.
Continue reading...LSE finds country’s sex-segregated distancing rules may have reproduced inequalities and injustices for trans people
Each day when Pau González wakes and looks at his phone, he feels as if he is running a call centre. As the founder of the activist group Hombres Trans Panama, he has been inundated by members of the transgender community seeking advice on how to navigate Panama’s sex-segregated social distancing laws. Some callers have been cautioned or abused by police. Others report feeling suicidal and scared to go out.
In April, Panama announced one of the most aggressive Covid-19 policies in Latin America – dictated which days its citizens could go out according to their sex as stated on their national identification cards.
Continue reading...Milestone is known toll of months of Covid pandemic that has changed everything, from power balances to everyday life
Though an inevitable milestone for months, its arrival is still breathtaking.
Deaths from Covid-19 exceeded 1 million people on Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University database, the known toll of nine relentless months of a pandemic that has changed everything, from global balances of power to the mundane aspects of daily life.
Continue reading...Over 1,000 public figures call for Alberto Fernández to stay true to his election pledge despite distraction of coronavirus pandemic
Pro-choice campaigners are renewing pressure on president Alberto Fernández to make good on his electoral pledge to legalise abortion in Argentina.
More than 1,000 public figures, writers, journalists and artists added their names to an advert published in three Argentinian newspapers on Sunday, calling for the government to keep its commitment.
Continue reading...Colombia tops 800,000 cases, Argentina passes 700,000; France reports 14,000 new cases; Australian state of Victoria lifts curfew
Coronavirus cases in Colombia, which is nearly a month into a national reopening after a long quarantine, have passed 800,000, while in Argentina infections passed 700,000, as the pandemic continues to grip the Americas.
Colombia has 806,038 confirmed cases of the virus, the health ministry said on Saturday, with 25,296 reported deaths. Active cases numbered 78,956.
Continue reading...Shehroze Chaudhry, 25, gained notoriety from the podcast, Caliphate, but his account of grisly murders for Isis have been questioned
Police in Canada have arrested a man for lying about his participation with the Islamic State, while charging another for joining the terror group in Syria.
Police announced on Friday charges against Shehroze Chaudhry, 25, who operated under the name Abu Huzayfah al-Kanadi. He was charged under the country’s terrorism hoax laws, which carry a maximum sentence of five years.
In 2016 Chaudhry had claimed to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State, alleging he was a member of the terror group’s religious police. On social media, he claimed to have conducted at least two executions on the group’s behalf.
Continue reading...Country has one month to deliver outstanding 289m cubic metres and ensure water for 14 major cities and growers
Mexican farmers in the drought-stricken state of Chihuahua are pitted against riot squads from the national guard in an increasingly violent standoff over their government’s decision to ship scarce water supplies to the United States.
The confrontation has already led to bloodshed: earlier this month, a woman was shot dead and her husband was wounded after guardsmen opened fire on farmers wielding sticks and stones.
Continue reading...Landmark event scrapped as Brazil suffers; EU warns pandemic worse now than in March peak for some; Israel further toughens restrictions
As the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide looked set to pass a million within days, Rio de Janeiro delayed its annual Carnival parade for the first time in a century because of Brazil’s continued vulnerability in the pandemic.
The global death toll passed 980,000 on Friday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. With the number of deaths confirmed daily averaging more than 5,000, it looks likely the toll will pass 1 million within days. There are 32m cases worldwide.
Continue reading...Brazilian investigation found company was one of several that secretly worked with 1964-85 military government
The German carmaker Volkswagen has agreed to pay millions in compensation to former employees in Brazil who were persecuted during the country’s military dictatorship.
A Brazilian government-appointed investigation found that Volkswagen was one of several corporations that secretly collaborated with the 1964-85 military government to identify suspected “subversives” and trade unionists.
Continue reading...Cindy Erazo was accused of aggravated homicide after an obstetric emergency
A woman sentenced to 30 years in jail after a stillbirth that was judged to be her fault has been released from jail in El Salvador.
Cindy Erazo, 29, from San Salvador, was granted conditional freedom on Wednesday after six years in jail.
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