Category Archives: Americas

Mexico tightens southern border security as another day passes with no tariff deal

Posted on by

Under pressure from Trump, Mexico has launched a crackdown on the Guatemala border, arresting activists and holding migrants

As Donald Trump’s deadline for new tariffs on Mexican imports draws near, Mexico has stepped up security along its porous border with Guatemala – deploying police and soldiers to its southern frontier and arresting prominent migration activists.

Trump last week pledged to impose 5% tariffs on Mexican products on 10 June unless Mexico stops Central American migrants from travelling through its territory.

Continue reading...

US envoy says Russia still stands with Maduro, contradicting Trump

Posted on by

Elliott Abrams says Russians ‘have not abandoned’ Nicolas Maduro despite US president’s tweet

The US special envoy for Venezuela has said that Moscow has “not abandoned” the regime of Nicolás Maduro and that the Russian presence in the South American country has not significantly changed since the failed uprising in April led by opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

Donald Trump tweeted earlier this week that “Russia has informed us that they have removed most of their people from Venezuela”, but the claim was quickly disputed by the Kremlin.

Continue reading...

Two Canadian volunteers missing in rare kidnapping in Ghana

Posted on by

The women were abducted in Kumasi, and security sources have suggested it was a kidnapping for ransom

Two Canadian women who were volunteering with an international development organisation have been abducted in Ghana, a rare attack in a country seen as one of the most secure in the West African region.

The Canadians, who are ages 19 and 20, were taken on Tuesday evening in Kumasi, Ghana’s second city, some 200km (125 miles) north-west of the capital Accra.

Continue reading...

Museum visitor cracks code to unlock secrets of mystery safe

Posted on by

Tourist hails ‘lucky guess’ after random numbers open 900kg container sealed for decades

When Stephen Mills spotted a dusty old safe in a museum in Canada, he thought he’d try to crack the code, “just like in the movies”. But when he began turning the dial, he wasn’t expecting a Hollywood ending.

For years, anyone who visited the Vermillion Heritage Museum in Alberta would have passed by a large, black metal box. Staff knew it had come from the long-gone Brunswick hotel and was donated to the museum in the 1990s. But its code and contents remained a mystery for decades – until Mills unexpectedly cracked the combination.

Continue reading...

‘Surveillance capitalism’: critic urges Toronto to abandon smart city project

Posted on by

Project with Google’s Sidewalk Labs comes under increasing scrutiny amid concerns over privacy and data harvesting

A “smart city” project in Canada has hit yet another snag, as mounting delays and privacy concerns threaten the controversial development along the Toronto’s eastern waterfront.

The 12-acre Quayside project, a partnership between Google’s Sidewalk Labs and the city of Toronto, has come under increasing scrutiny amid concerns over privacy and data harvesting.

Continue reading...

Trump cancels key services for unaccompanied child migrants – live

Posted on by

Officials say language classes and recreation programs for immigrant children staying in federal shelters ‘not directly necessary’

Vice President Mike Pence will meet Wednesday with top Mexican officials who are seeking to head off the administration’s threatened tariffs, the Hill reports.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is representing his country at the talks and expected to argue Mexico is already taking steps to prevent migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Paul Manafort should not be held in solitary confinement, and nor should anyone else. Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, is reportedly heading for Rikers Island where he’s likely to be held in solitary while awaiting trial on New York state charges.

Yes - released from solitary.

NYT used the term solitary confinement, & that’s what I am commenting on.

“Protective custody” IS a separate practice, but does not necessarily exclude solitary. If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too.

Continue reading...

Trump warns ‘foolish’ Republican senators in rare clash over Mexico tariffs

Posted on by

Lawmakers in president’s own party voice firm opposition to threat over Mexico

In a rare confrontation, Republican senators declared deep opposition Tuesday to Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on all goods coming into the US from Mexico. But it’s unclear they have the votes to stop him, and Trump said they’d be “foolish” to try.

All sides, including officials from Mexico meeting Trump negotiators in Washington this week, remain hopeful that high-level talks will ease the president away from his threat. But with the tariffs set to start next Monday, and Trump declaring them “more likely” than not to take effect, fellow Republicans in Congress warned the White House they were ready to stand up to the president.

Continue reading...

Trump’s trade wars sent global investment tumbling – World Bank

Posted on by

Brexit and trade disputes push bank’s policy uncertainty index to record high, says report

Donald Trump’s trade wars with China, Mexico and Europe have sent global investment tumbling, according to a World Bank report that forecasts worldwide growth this year will slip back to levels not seen since 2016.

The Washington-based lender to developing world countries said in its half-yearly global health check that spiralling political uncertainty was to blame for a slowdown in trade and a collapse in investment spending that will push down GDP growth to 2.6% this year “before inching up to 2.7% in 2020”.

Continue reading...

Easter Islanders call for return of statue from British Museum

Posted on by

Museum delegation to discuss preservation of island’s statues but indigenous tribes say they want Hoa Hakananai’a back

A delegation from the British Museum will arrive on Easter Island on Tuesday aiming to discuss how to help preserve more than 1,000 of the island’s renowned statues.

Rapa Nui leaders will introduce their visitors to their culture – but they also want to talk about the possible return of the world-famous statue that has stood in pride of place in the museum’s Wellcome gallery for the last 150 years.

Continue reading...

Canada must not ignore Indigenous ‘genocide’, landmark report warns

Posted on by
  • Up to 4,000 Indigenous women and girls killed or missing
  • Justin Trudeau: ‘We have failed you. We will fail you no longer’

Canadians can no longer turn a blind eye to the “genocide” of Indigenous peoples in the country, a landmark report on missing and murdered women has concluded.

Indigenous communities across the country have for decades attempted to convey the depth and scope of a tragedy that has haunted thousands of families.

Continue reading...

Three Venezuelan families – a photo essay

Posted on by

Silvana Trevale left Venezuela in 2011 but has returned to document the ever worsening crisis that has deeply affected families of every economic status. She was selected as the 2018 recipient of the Joan Wakelin Bursary, administrated in partnership with the Royal Photographic Society

Venezuela, a country that once hoped for wealth and a bright future with its oil reserves and natural resources, is falling to pieces. It faces a humanitarian crisis where families struggle daily to find food, medicine and clean water as they live with collapsing public services. Many attend the ongoing protests, which are frequently violently repressed. Though I left my home in 2011 I have returned to Venezuela to document the ever-worsening crisis that has deeply affected families of every economic status.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump is lashing out at Mexico but his real fight is at home | Phillip Inman

Posted on by

Democrats are turning a president enraged at the blocking of his border wall into an unhinged beast

Donald Trump’s threats of higher import tariffs against Mexican goods can be better understood not as an escalation of his trade war with the rest of the world, but as the act of a desperate man, prepared to upset most US business leaders to achieve his aim of building a border wall with the country’s southern neighbour.

His anger, which he will bring with him on a state visit to London on Monday, is not so much with Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration in Mexico City as with Congress, which has blocked the border wall, or at least restricted funding to such an extent that its completion is unlikely before the next presidential race gets under way.

Continue reading...

Mexico could tighten migration controls to defuse Trump tariffs threat

Posted on by
  • Andrés Manuel López Obrador hints at concession to US
  • Talks over US president threat in Washington next week

Mexico’s president hinted on Saturday that his country could tighten migration controls in order to defuse Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods. Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he expected “good results” from talks in Washington next week.

Related: 'No idea too lunatic': how Trump's shock troops attack US democracy

Continue reading...

Decades of missing Indigenous women a ‘Canadian genocide’ – leaked report

Posted on by

Government’s inquiry into disappeared women and girls to be published Monday

Three decades of missing and murdered Indigenous women amounts to a “Canadian genocide”, a leaked landmark government report has concluded.

The document, titled Reclaiming Power and Place, was compiled over more than two and a half years. Canada’s CBC News was given a copy of the report, which is due to be released on Monday, on Friday. Its contents were confirmed to the Guardian by an individual working within the inquiry.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump defends tariffs on Mexico as stock markets reel

Posted on by

After 5% tariff announced, president tweets ‘Mexico has taken advantage of the US for decades’

Donald Trump has defended his decision to impose new tariffs on Mexico as stock markets worldwide were rattled by fears of an escalation in trade tensions.

“Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades,” Trump tweeted. “Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!”

Continue reading...

Protesters take to Brazil’s streets – in pictures

Posted on by

Tens of thousands of students, academics and teachers have marched throughout the vast South American country in protest against ultraconservative president Jair Bolsonaro’s cuts to education, including moves to dramatically reduce funding for federal universities

Continue reading...

Philippines puts 69 containers of rubbish on boat back to Canada

Posted on by

Container ship M/V Bavaria, with tonnes of garbage on board, has left Subic Bay on a 20-day journey to Vancouver

The Philippines has made good on a threat by President Rodrigo Duterte and put 69 containers of what its officials called illegally transported garbage on a ship that is heading to Canada.

The nation is one of two in south-east Asia that have protested being treated like dumpsites by wealthier countries.

Continue reading...

Trump announces tariffs on Mexican goods until ‘migration crisis alleviated’

Posted on by

US will place a 5% tariff on all goods from Mexico to pressure the country to stop the flow of Central American migrants, Trump says

In a surprise announcement that could compromise a major trade deal, Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is slapping a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports to pressure the country to do more to crack down on the surge of Central American migrants trying to cross the border.

He said the percentage would gradually increase “until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied”.

Continue reading...

Students protest across Brazil over Jair Bolsonaro’s sweeping cuts to education

Posted on by

From Amazon cities to small towns in the deep south, demonstrators turned out to condemn funding cuts

Tens of thousands of students, academics and teachers have taken to the streets of Brazil for their latest mass protest against what they call far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s assault on education.

Up and down the country – from Amazon cities to small towns in Brazil’s deep south – demonstrators turned out to condemn Bolsonaro’s highly controversial moves to slash funding for public education and science.

Continue reading...

‘The people applaud him’: Amlo receives in-flight serenade from passenger

Posted on by

Mexican president was thanked with an ode while aboard a low-cost flight to Tepic

When Andrés Manuel López Obrador put his presidential Boeing up for sale last year and pledged to travel economy class around Mexico, it was part of a budget-slashing populist push to get closer to the people.

Related: Mexican minister resigns after causing 38-minute flight delay

Continue reading...