Category Archives: Americas

Rubio says Trump’s ‘51st state’ plan not on G7 summit agenda in Canada

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Secretary of state’s visit has backdrop of trade war between US and allies and Trump’s threats to take over Canada

Marco Rubio has said he is not planning to discuss Donald Trump’s threat to “take over Canada” during a visit to Quebec, as Washington’s top diplomat arrives to the backdrop of a raging diplomatic crisis and trade war.

The US secretary of state is flying on Wednesday for a two-day summit with other foreign ministers from allied G7 countries at the river resort of La Malbaie, the first such gathering since Trump retook power with his “America first” agenda.

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Ecuador’s president enlists ex-Blackwater chief in controversial crime crackdown

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Daniel Noboa, who is seeking re-election, announced the partnership with Erik Prince, a supporter of Donald Trump

Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, has announced a “strategic alliance” with the Donald Trump-supporting founder of the private military firm Blackwater to supposedly reinforce his controversial “war” on crime.

Noboa, the rightwing heir to a South American banana empire, announced the partnership with Erik Prince on social media on Tuesday night.

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‘I feel utter anger’: From Canada to Europe, a movement to boycott US goods is spreading

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Tesla sales are falling and apps and online groups are springing up to help consumers choose non-US items

The renowned German classical violinist Christian Tetzlaff was blunt in explaining why he and his quartet have cancelled a summer tour of the US.

“There seems to be a quietness or denial about what’s going on,” Tetzlaff said, describing his horror at the authoritarian polices of Donald Trump and the response of US elites to the country’s growing democratic crisis.

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German tourists’ ordeal reportedly ending as they are returned from US detention

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Jessica Brösche to join Lucas Sielaff, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March

A German tourist detained by US immigration authorities is due to be deported back to Germany on Tuesday after spending more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement.

Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Bibra in Saxony-Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks.

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Eastern monarch butterfly population doubles in a year

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Migratory insects covered 4.2 acres in Mexican forests this winter but number remains far below long-term average

The population of eastern monarch butterflies – which migrate from Canada and the US to Mexico during the winter – has nearly doubled over the last year, according to a recent report commissioned in Mexico, generating optimism among nature preservationists.

The modest growth in numbers for the orange-and-black butterflies follows years of ongoing conservation efforts – and perhaps provides a sliver of optimism after otherwise discouraging long-term trends for the species.

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Canada’s designated PM Mark Carney meets Trudeau as Trump threat looms

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Former central banker won landslide victory in Liberal party race as trade war with US hastens transfer of power

Canada’s incoming prime minister, Mark Carney, has met with Justin Trudeau as the pair discuss a transfer of power after the former central banker’s landslide victory at the Liberal party’s leadership race.

The meeting on Monday sets the stage for an imminent federal election and gives Canada a fresh leader to square off against the United States president, with the two countries locked in a bitter trade war provoked by Donald Trump.

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Canadian police identify remains of murdered Indigenous woman at landfill

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Police said they had identified Morgan Harris, 39, and had also found more remains of another person

Canadian police have identified the remains of a murdered Indigenous woman at a landfill and found more remains from another person, after a months-long search demanded by the families of victims targeted by a serial killer.

Police said in a statement they had confirmed that human remains found in the Prairie Green Landfill, north of Winnipeg, had been identified as those of Morgan Harris, who was 39.

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Argentina flooding: 16 killed as two girls swept away by rising waters

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Authorities warn more fatalities expected as a year’s worth of rain falls on Bahía Blanca in eight hours

Rescue teams in Argentina are searching for two girls, aged one and five, who were swept away by severe floods that ripped through Buenos Aires province, killing at least 16 people.

A year’s worth of rain fell on the city of Bahía Blanca and the town of Cerri on Friday, rapidly inundating neighbourhoods and destroying homes, bridges and roads. The rainfall – 400mm (15.7in) recorded in just eight hours – was more than twice the city’s previous record of 175mm (6.8in) set in 1930.

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Ontario sets 25% surcharge on energy exports to US to counter Trump tariffs

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Premier Doug Ford says province ‘won’t back down’ until US president retracts duties on Canada

The Canadian province of Ontario is imposing a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the states of New York, Michigan and Minnesota in protest against Donald Trump’s tariffs, the premier, Doug Ford, said on Monday.

“President Trump’s tariffs are a disaster for the US economy. They’re making life more expensive for American families and businesses,” Ford said in a statement.

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There’s only one thing in Mark Carney’s in-tray: Trump

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Canada’s incoming prime minister warns the US president’s tariffs threaten the ‘greatest crisis of our generation’

When Mark Carney becomes Canada’s prime minister later this week, a list of simmering crises across the country will demand his attention: housing is unaffordable, healthcare is breaking, living costs keep rising and the climate crisis is ransacking livelihoods.

But most – if not all – of those concerns will be pushed aside, supplanted by a far greater threat to the country: the US president, Donald Trump.

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Mark Carney to be next Canada PM after winning Liberal leadership race

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Former central banker will be only second prime minister in Canadian history without a seat in parliament

Mark Carney, the former central banker who oversaw the response to financial crises in North America and the UK, will become the next prime minister of Canada after winning the race to lead the country’s federal Liberal party.

Carney, 59, takes on the role as Canada is locked in a potentially catastrophic trade war with the US, long its closest ally and largest trading partner. Last week Donald Trump announced a 25% tax on all Canadian goods, with a carveout for the automotive and energy sectors. The tariffs have the power to push Canada’s fragile economy in a recession.

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Three suspects at large after shooting at Toronto pub leaves a dozen injured

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Police say suspects are male, with one in a black balaclava seen fleeing the scene at the Piper Arms in a silver car

Three suspects are at large after a mass shooting at the opening night of a pub in Toronto that left a dozen people injured, Canadian police say.

The shooting at the Piper Arms pub near Scarborough town centre in eastern Toronto happened at 22:39pm on Friday local time (03:39 GMT).

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Woman kidnapped as a toddler in the US 25 years ago found alive in Mexico

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Andrea Michelle Reyes was two when her mother took her from her father in Connecticut and fled the country

A woman who was abducted in Connecticut as a toddler has been found alive 25 years later in Mexico.

Andrea Michelle Reyes was two years old when she was taken by her mother, Rosa Tenorio, in October 1999, according to a news release from the New Haven police department. Tenorio did not have legal custody of Reyes, who was in the care of her father at the time of the kidnapping, police said.

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Mexico: 200 pairs of shoes found at clandestine crematorium

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Discovery in Jalisco is demonstration of country’s crisis of forced disappearance related to organised crime

Two hundred pairs of shoes have been found at a clandestine crematorium on a ranch in the Mexican state of Jalisco, in a disturbing demonstration of the country’s crisis of forced disappearance related to organised crime.

Warrior Searchers of Jalisco, a collective of relatives of the disappeared, found the crematorium following an anonymous tip-off, and the authorities have since confirmed the presence of burnt remains and empty bullet casings.

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FBI offers $10m reward for ex-Olympic snowboarder turned drug kingpin

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Ryan Wedding, 43, wanted for role in billion-dollar cross-border drug trafficking operation and several homicides

Authorities in the United States have offered a $10m reward for information that leads to the arrest of a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder-turned-international drug kingpin.

Police in Los Angeles said on Thursday that Ryan Wedding – also known as “El Jefe”, “Giant” and “Public Enemy” – is wanted for his role in a billion-dollar cross-border drug trafficking operation and for several homicides linked to his drug sprawling network.

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Trump delays tariffs on many products from Mexico and Canada

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US president paused tariffs on Mexican products covered by USMCA and later stayed tariffs on many Canadian imports

Donald Trump pulled back from his trade war with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, temporarily delaying tariffs on many goods from the two countries once again.

Two days after imposing sweeping tariffs on all imports from his country’s closest trading partners, the US president announced that duties on a wide range of products would be shelved until April.

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Canadians protest imports of US toxic waste amid Trump tariff war

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Move to expand landfill for US hazardous waste stirs disputes between leaders in Quebec and Montreal suburb

The proposed expansion of a Quebec landfill that accepts hazardous waste from the United States has ignited a turf war between the Quebec provincial government and local leaders, who say they oppose putting US trash into a local peat bog.

Local leaders are protesting the move – saying the state is capitulating to a US company in the midst of a tariff war between Canada and the United States.

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‘We are not the 51st anything’: viral Canada ad gets Trump-inspired update

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Remake of 2000 Molson beer ad has the same message as Trump threatens tariffs: Canada will not cower to the US

For the second time in 25 years, a lone figure takes to the stage, an oversized maple leaf flag rippling on a screen behind him as he approaches the microphone.

His hair is perhaps a little greyer but the message remains the same: Canada will not cower to the United States.

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Jack Daniel’s maker says Canada pulling US alcohol off shelves ‘worse than tariff’

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CEO Lawson Whiting calls Canada’s move ‘disproportionate response’ to levies imposed by Trump administration

The Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting said on Wednesday Canadian provinces taking US liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.

Several Canadian provinces have taken US liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against Donald Trump’s tariffs.

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Trump temporarily spares carmakers from US tariffs on Canada and Mexico

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After a call with top executives at GM, Ford and Stellantis, president approves one-month exemption from tariffs

Donald Trump has temporarily spared carmakers from sweeping US tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, one day after an economic strike on the US’s two biggest trading partners sparked warnings of widespread price increases and disruption.

The US president extended his aggressive trade strategy at midnight on Tuesday by targeting the country’s two closest neighbors with duties of 25%.

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