Category Archives: Americas

New Rio de Janeiro law requires public hospitals to display anti-abortion signs

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Opponents view the controversial act as part of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict abortion access

A new law has just come into force in Rio de Janeiro requiring all public hospitals and clinics run by the municipal government to display anti-abortion signs bearing messages such as: “Did you know that the unborn child is discarded as hospital waste?”

Reproductive rights activists view the act as the latest example of a growing trend across Brazil to further restrict access to abortion in a country that already has some of the world’s most restrictive laws.

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Canadian intelligence accuses India over Sikh’s killing as Carney meets Modi

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Killing of Canadian national was ‘significant escalation in India’s repression efforts’ but leaders shake hands at G7

Canada’s spy agency has warned that the assassination in British Columbia of a prominent Sikh activist signaled a “significant escalation in India’s repression efforts” and reflects a broader, transnational campaign by the government in New Delhi to threaten dissidents.

The report was made public a day after Mark Carney shook hands with Narendra Modi at the G7 and pledged to restore diplomatic relations in a very public attempt to turn the page on the bitter diplomatic row unleashed by the murder of the Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

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Former Argentinian president Cristina Fernández allowed to serve corruption sentence at home

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Judge rules Cristina Fernández de Kirchner can serve six-year sentence in apartment, citing age and security reasons

A federal court in Argentina has granted former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s request to serve a six-year prison sentence for corruption at her home in Buenos Aires.

Judges ruled that Fernández, 72, can serve time in the apartment, where she lives with her daughter and her granddaughter, citing her age and security reasons. Fernández was the victim of an attempted assassination three years ago.

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New charges accuse Bolsonaro of running spy ring from Brazil’s presidential palace

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Former president has denied wrongdoing as federal police accuse him of overseeing a spy network targeting rivals

Federal police have formally accused Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, of presiding over an illegal spying network which allegedly snooped on political rivals, journalists and environmentalists during his administration.

Bolsonaro is already facing the prospect of jail time over his alleged role in masterminding a military coup plot designed to help him keep power after losing the 2022 election to the leftwing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There is broad consensus among analysts that Bolsonaro’s conviction is a foregone conclusion and the 70-year-old populist is expected to face arrest in the coming months once a supreme court trial concludes.

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Deadly clashes over Morales candidacy deepen Bolivia crisis in election run-up

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Six killed and hundreds injured in weeks of unrest, as supporters demand former president be allowed to run

Fatal clashes between police and supporters of former president Evo Morales have deepened Bolivia’s political and economic crisis, heightening tensions in the Andean country just two months before the presidential election.

Six people have been killed and more than 300 injured in weeks of unrest. The dead include four police officers, one of whom was reportedly killed by dynamite which had been strapped to his body.

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Colombia presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe in ‘critical’ condition after emergency surgery

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The 39-year-old senator was shot at a campaign rally in Bogota on 7 June and has now undergone three surgeries

Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who has been hospitalised since he was shot in the head during a campaign event, is out of an emergency surgery performed but is in “extremely critical” condition, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said.

Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition, was shot in Bogotá on 7 June during a rally.

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Canada’s security operation for G7 summit faces unorthodox threat … bears

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Apex predators are one of several large and unpredictable animals concerning officials in foothills of Rockies

Security preparations for G7 summits normally involve the elite close protection afforded to world leaders, and then a series of of concentric defences against street demonstrations and protests.

Not in the Rockies.

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Send in armed UN troops to protect aid convoys or risk ‘dystopia’, says expert

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UN rapporteur calls for move as food deliveries are attacked and starvation becomes a weapon of war in Gaza and Sudan

UN peacekeepers should be routinely deployed to protect aid convoys from attack in places such as Gaza and Sudan, a senior United Nations expert has proposed.

With starvation increasingly used as a weapon of war, Michael Fakhri said armed UN troops were now required to ensure that food reached vulnerable populations.

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Canada and India to share terrorism intelligence despite 2023 murder plot, says report

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Accord comes as Mark Carney seeks shift in Ottawa’s relationship with New Delhi after long diplomatic spat

Canada and India plan to share intelligence in an effort to combat the rising threat of international crime and extremism, according to a new report from Bloomberg, days before a meeting between the two countries’ leaders.

Canadian officials declined to comment on the report, which, if confirmed, would represent a dramatic shift in relations between the two countries which for nearly two years have been locked in a bitter diplomatic spat after Canada’s federal police agency concluded that India planned and ordered the murder a prominent Sikh activist on Canadian soil.

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Family of woman who died from Covid after giving birth sues Brazilian state

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Exclusive: Lidiane Vieira Frazão, a black woman from Rio, was repeatedly denied appropriate treatment as President Bolsonaro downplayed the pandemic, lawsuit says

In the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lidiane Vieira Frazão, 35, was expecting her second child but, even at 40 weeks pregnant, she was unable to obtain a doctor’s note to start her maternity leave.

Her job as a funeral agent – at times handling the bodies of people who had died from the virus – was on the long list of “essential services” that could not be suspended during lockdown, according to a decree issued by Brazil’s then-president, Jair Bolsonaro.

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Brazil to auction oil exploration rights months before hosting Cop30

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Sale covering 56,000 square miles set to go ahead despite opposition from Indigenous and environmental groups

The Brazilian government is preparing to stage an oil exploration auction months before it hosts the Cop30 UN climate summit, despite opposition from environmental campaigners and Indigenous communities worried about the environmental and climate impacts of the plans.

Brazil’s oil sector regulator, ANP, will auction the exploration rights to 172 oil and gas blocks spanning 56,000 square miles (146,000 sq km), an area more than twice the size of Scotland, most of it offshore.

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Cuba’s students call for resignations and strikes after brutal internet price hike

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Students say rise in prices was trigger but underlying anger was communist government’s increasing reliance on USD

Having endured electricity blackouts, water shortages, transport failures and the spiralling cost of food, Cuba’s students appear to have finally lost patience with their government over a ferocious price hike for the country’s faltering internet.

Local chapters of Cuba’s Federation of University Students (FEU) have been calling for a slew of measures, including attendance strikes, explanations from ministers and even the resignation of their own organisation’s president.

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‘Win-win’: new maps reveal best opportunities for global reforestation

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New study shows regions with best potential to regrow trees and suck climate-heating CO2 from the air

New maps have revealed the best “win-win” opportunities across the world to regrow forests and tackle the climate crisis, without harming people or wildlife.

The places range from the eastern US and western Canada, to Brazil and Columbia, and across Europe, adding up to 195 million hectares (482 million acres). If reforested, this would remove 2.2bn tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, about the same as all the nations in the European Union.

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‘The odds are astronomical’: Canadian man wins lottery jackpots four times

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Cancer survivor David Serkin won draws in August, November and May, and another more than a decade ago

How do you say “lottery winner” in western Canada? The answer is: David Serkin, the name of the cancer survivor from Alberta who won three separate lottery jackpots between August and May to accumulate about $2.5m in prize money.

According to officials, those lucky tickets marked the second, third and fourth times Serkin had won a lottery in his life, a feat that he had vanishingly small chances of pulling off and gained notice on corners of the internet dedicated to charming news stories.

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Bolsonaro denies coup plot but admits discussing ‘alternative ways’ to remain president

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Ex-Brazilian president admits in court that after Lula’s win, ‘we studied other alternatives within the constitution’

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has denied masterminding a far-right coup plot at his trial in the supreme court, but he admitted to taking part in meetings to discuss “alternative ways” of staying in power after his defeat in the 2022 election.

In just over two hours of questioning, the 70-year-old said that after the electoral court confirmed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s election victory, “we studied other alternatives within the constitution.”

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At least seven dead and 50 wounded as Colombia hit with bombings and gun attacks

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Police say 19 attacks launched on targets in Cali and nearby areas, hitting police posts, municipal buildings and civilians

Colombia has been rocked by a string of coordinated bomb and gun attacks that killed at least seven people and wounded at least 50 across the country’s south-west, deepening a security crisis roiling the Andean country.

Police said attackers launched 19 attacks on targets in Cali – the country’s third largest city – and several nearby towns, hitting police posts, municipal buildings and civilian targets.

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Peru drops plan to shrink protected area around Nazca Lines archaeological site

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Critics had claimed that plan announced in May exposed complex of desert etchings to impact of informal mining

Peru’s government has abandoned a plan that reduced the size of a protected area around the country’s ancient Nazca Lines, after criticism the change made them vulnerable to the impact of informal mining operations.

Peru’s culture ministry said on Sunday that it was reinstating with immediate effect the protected area covering 5,600 square kilometers (2,200 square miles), that in late May had been cut back to 3,200 sq km. The government said at the time the decision was based on studies that had more precisely demarcated areas with “real patrimonial value”.

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Canadian PM vows to boost defence spending and reduce dependency on US

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Carney says Canada will hit Nato target of 2% of GDP five years ahead of schedule amid ‘dangerous and divided world’

Mark Carney has promised to boost defence spending to its highest level in decades, warning that in a “dangerous and divided world”, Canada must reduce its dependence on the US for defence.

Speaking at the University of Toronto on Monday, Carney said Canada would reach Nato’s 2% military expenditure target this fiscal year – five years ahead of his previously announced schedule. For years, Canada has been viewed as a defence loafer and successive prime ministers have failed to bring the country’s commitments in line with allies. A recent Nato report found that Canada spent an estimated 1.45% of its GDP on defence last year.

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Six babies with unvaccinated mothers born with measles in Canada

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Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says infections could have been prevented through routine vaccination

Six babies with unvaccinated mothers have been born with congenital measles in the Canadian province of Ontario since the start of the largest outbreak of the disease in the western hemisphere late last year.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Kieran Moore, said the infants, who were infected with measles in the womb, had all recovered. He said the infections could have been prevented through routine vaccination.

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Questions grow over unprecedented illegal firearms seizure in Jamaica

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Ministers tight-lipped over discovery of 233 guns and 40,000 rounds of ammunition that could ‘arm a small army’

Jamaicans are seeking answers after officials revealed a massive illegal firearms seizure described by experts as the largest in the country’s history, with enough guns and ammunition to “arm a small army”.

More than a week after the police and customs said they had intercepted 233 illegal rifles and handguns and more than 40,000 rounds of ammunition, the government has remained tight-lipped about the details of the find, arguing that revealing more information would hamper a sensitive cross-border investigation into their origin and the identity of those involved.

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