Mexico: up to nine members of US Mormon family killed in ambush

LeBaron family relatives say nine victims, mainly children, dead in attack on dirt road between Chihuahua and Sonora states

Cartel gunmen in northern Mexico have killed at least six children and three women in an ambush that left six other children wounded, one baby unharmed and reports that another child was still missing.

Victims and survivors of the attack near the border between the states of Sonora and Chihuahua all belong to a well-known Mormon family that is based in Mexico but has dual US/Mexican citizenship and deep roots on both sides of the frontier.

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‘We’ve reached a crisis’, tens of thousands protest in Chile – video report

Tens of thousands of people have been protesting in Chile after a student protest against a 3% hike in subway fares, later scrapped, sparked nationwide uprising demanding economical and political changes.

At least 18 people have died in the violence and thousands have been arrested amid widespread outbreaks of violence and arson. Chilean president Sebastián Piñera has replaced eight ministers and announced emergency measures to quash the protests, including a small increase in the minimum wage and higher taxes on wealthy Chileans.

But such moves have not been enough to defuse the demonstrations driven by disillusionment over inequality 

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Cowed and outgunned: why Mexico’s police ‘don’t stand a chance’ against drug cartels

The 14 October massacre that left 13 state police dead was just one extreme episode of violence in a recent litany of horrors

At first glance, the human skull lying beside the road looked like a piece of rubbish. Once spotted, it was impossible to ignore: charred, broken and punched through with a bullet hole.

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Moving stories: inside the book buses changing children’s lives

Around the world, mobile library programmes are taking books, educational support and even counselling to communities in serious and urgent need

Every week, two converted blue buses stocked with children’s books carefully navigate the streets of Kabul, avoiding areas where deadly explosions are common. These travelling libraries stop off at schools in different parts of the city, delivering a wealth of reading material directly to youngsters who have limited access to books.

“A lot of schools in our city don’t have access to something as basic as a library,” says Freshta Karim, a 27-year-old Oxford University graduate who was inspired to start Charmaghz, a non-profit, in her home city having grown up without many books herself. “We were trying to understand what we could do to promote critical thinking in our country.”

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Canada’s Green party leader Elizabeth May to step down after 13 years

May, a longtime environmental activist and lawyer, resigns two weeks after party made gains in general election

Elizabeth May, the leader of Canada’s Green party, has announced she is stepping down from the post she held 13 years, two weeks after her party made electoral gains in the country’s general election but failed to make any significant breakthrough.

“It’s important for me to depart as leader when we’ve had such good results,” May old reporters in Ottawa. “I think the majority of politicians keep their positions for too long.”

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Canadians exposed to high levels of lead in drinking water, investigation finds

  • Levels exceed federal guidelines for hundreds of thousands
  • 18% of test results exceed far laxer US standard

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been unwittingly exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water, according to an investigation that tested drinking water in hundreds of homes and reviewed thousands more previously undisclosed results.

Residents in some homes in Montreal and Regina, in the western prairies, are among those drinking and cooking with tap water with lead levels that exceed Canada’s federal guidelines. The investigation found some schools and daycare centers had lead levels so high that researchers noted it could harm children’s health.

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Can ‘nests’ and eco bikes reduce the environmental impact of parcel delivery in cities?

Cities are testing new systems to reduce the pollution and congestion caused by of the final leg of a package’s journey from warehouse to doorstep

The cube truck sidled up to a row of parked cars on a busy Montreal street and threw on its hazard lights, blocking a lane of traffic. The driver hopped out with a package in hand and disappeared into a building, leaving a bottleneck of frustrated drivers in his wake.

“This is exactly what we’re trying to change,” said Agathe Besse-Bergier, a project coordinator with the city, as she watched the scene unfold.

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Bloody Tijuana: a week in the life of Mexico’s murderous border city

In a country with nearly 100 murders a day President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has vowed to tackle the social roots of crime but change is slow to come

Brianna Rojas seemed her usual breezy self as she set off for work.

“I’ll see you later!” friends remember the 20-year-old calling out as she headed to her insurance company’s bright yellow offices on Tijuana’s Calle del Carmen.

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Greta Thunberg asks for lift back across Atlantic as climate meeting shifts to Madrid

Swedish teenager needs help getting back to Europe following the COP25 meeting’s move from Chile to Spain

As delegates to the COP25 climate summit scramble to adjust to a last-minute change of venue from Santiago to Madrid, one of the highest-profile attendees has stuck out a metaphorical thumb on social media to ask for a lift across the Atlantic.

Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was speaking in California during a stop on her low-emissions journey from Sweden to Chile, tweeted that she was now in need of a ride to Spain.

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Brazilian ‘forest guardian’ killed by illegal loggers in ambush

Paulo Paulino Guajajara was killed by armed loggers in the Araribóia region in Maranhão

A Brazilian indigenous land defender has been killed in an ambush by illegal loggers in an Amazon frontier region.

According to a statement by the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples Association, Paulo Paulino Guajajara was shot and killed inside the Araribóia indigenous territory in Maranhão state. Another tribesman, Laércio Guajajara, was also shot and hospitalised and a logger has been reported missing. No body has yet been recovered.

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US effort to curb fentanyl behind brief arrest of El Chapo’s son, says minister

  • Ovidio Guzmán was wanted on allegations of smuggling drug
  • Sinaloa cartel appears to have moved into production of opioid

US efforts to curb the opioid fentanyl were behind the brief arrest of a son of imprisoned kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán last month, Mexico’s security minister has said.

After the US requested his extradition, Ovidio Guzmán was briefly arrested, then freed by outnumbered officials who feared a bloody confrontation with cartel henchmen.

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Brazil blames devastating oil spill on Greek-flagged tanker

  • Ship carrying Venezuelan crude was only vessel in area at time
  • Attorney general’s office calls damage to coasts ‘immeasurable’

A Greek-flagged ship carrying Venezuelan crude was the source of an oil spill which has tarred thousands of kilometers of coastline over the past two months, Brazilian investigators have announced.

Police said the tanker appears to have spilled the crude about 700km (420 miles) off Brazil’s coast between 28 and 29 July, bound for Singapore with oil loaded at Venezuela’s San José terminal.

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Brazilian president’s son suggests using dictatorship-era tactics on leftist foes

Eduardo Bolsonaro’s incendiary remarks prompted many across the political spectrum to condemn him

Voices from across Brazil’s political spectrum have condemned the son of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, after he suggested hardline dictatorship-era tactics might be needed to crush his father’s leftist foes.

Related: An explosion of protest, a howl of rage – but not a Latin American spring

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‘Living a daily tragedy’: Venezuelans struggle to survive in Colombia

Driven from their homeland by economic chaos, tens of thousands of people are living a precarious existence on the dangerous streets of Maicao in northern Colombia

Axleny Machado has slept on a piece of foam outside Maicao’s main bus terminal since she arrived from Venezuela a year ago. She’s one of thousands who live this way in the arid border city in La Guajira, northern Colombia, which is now struggling with the huge influx of migrants and refugees.

Machado, 24, has a small trolley she rents for 90p a day to sell cigarettes, coffee and sweets to commuters. If lucky, she makes about £4 a day – enough to look after herself. She wants to leave Maicao for another Colombian city and look for opportunities, but money doesn’t permit.

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‘Unprecedented’ murder charges for loggers in deaths of indigenous activists

Two timber executives and three loggers charged in shooting deaths of activists who battled illegal logging in Peruvian Amazon

Prosecutors in Peru have charged five men in the timber industry with the 2014 murders of four indigenous activists who had battled illegal logging in the Amazon jungle.

Two timber executives and three loggers have been charged with the shooting deaths of the activists, the prosecutor Otoniel Jara, who works in Peru’s remote Ucayali region, told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

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Google sister company agrees to scale back controversial Toronto project

Sidewalk Labs agreed to 12 acres for a hi-tech waterfront neighbourhood rather than the 190 announced in June

The Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has agreed to scale back and refine its approach to a controversial hi-tech neighbourhood it has proposed for a swath of Toronto’s prime waterfront land.

Instead of developing 190 acres of property, as it pitched in June, Sidewalk agreed on Thursday to scale back its plan to the 12 acres it first envisioned in its response to a request for proposals two years ago.

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Crew for troubled polar tour firm say they haven’t been paid in months

Canada-based One Ocean Expeditions cancelled recent trip to Antarctica after it was unable to purchase sufficient fuel

An adventure travel company that charges upwards of US$20,000 for a single trip to polar regions has failed to pay many of its contractors in nearly a year, leaving some unable to cover living expenses, according to current and former crew.

Related: Polar cruise boom harming the Arctic, explorer warns

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‘Call it off, please’: video shows how operation against El Chapo’s son fell apart

Government report on failed operation shows soldiers pushing Ovidio Guzmán López to tell brothers to call off rescue attempt

Mexican soldiers who detained a son of the jailed drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán forced him to telephone his brothers in a desperate effort to call off a rescue attempt by cartel gunmen.

Instead, the call triggered a fresh onslaught in the northern city of Culiacán as the Sinaloa cartel mounted a terrifying show of strength that eventually prompted the outnumbered soldiers to free the capo’s son in exchange for their lives.

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Colombia launches military offensive after killing of five indigenous leaders

Operation aims to route out armed groups in conflict-ridden Cauca province and hunt down gunmen responsible for massacre

Colombia’s government has launched a military offensive to hunt down the gunmen responsible for the massacre of five indigenous leaders in the south-western province of Cauca.

The president, Iván Duque, travelled to the region on Wednesday along with his defence and interior ministers to condemn the massacre and oversee operations to root out armed groups that plague the conflict-ridden Cauca province.

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Chilean president cancels Apec and climate summits amid wave of unrest

Sebastián Piñera confirms he will not hold summits in November and December, as government struggles with massive protests

Chile’s embattled president has been forced to cancel two major international summits after government concessions failed to defuse weeks of violent protests that have seen thousands of arrests, left at least 20 dead and sent shock waves across Latin America.

Related: Chile protesters: 'We are subjugated by the rich. It's time for that to end'

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