Category Archives: Americas

Stop ‘draconian’ mass deportations of Haitians fleeing gangs, activists say

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Tens of thousands deported from Caribbean states, as Dominican Republic pledges to return 10,000 people a week

Activists have called on Caribbean governments to halt the mass deportation of Haitians fleeing escalating gang violence that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

In the past month, tens of thousands of people have been deported to Haiti, including 61,000 from the neighbouring Dominican Republic, whose president recently pledged to deport 10,000 migrants a week.

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Evaristos united: namesakes Bernardine and Conceição meet at book festival

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Celebrated authors discuss the somewhat connected stories of their shared surname at literary event in Rio

Born more than 5,500 miles apart, the Booker prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, 65, and Brazil’s most celebrated living Black author, Conceição Evaristo, 77, share the same surname, though they are – as far as is known – unrelated.

But their surnames’ stories are somewhat connected, and shed light on aspects of the history of Brazil, the country that received the largest number of enslaved Africans during the transatlantic slave trade.

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Colombia outlaws child marriage after 17-year campaign

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Country closes 137-year legal loophole, becoming one of 12 in Latin America and the Caribbean to entirely ban marriage for minors

Colombian lawmakers have approved a bill to eradicate child marriage in the South American country after 17 years of campaigning by advocacy groups and eight failed attempts to push legislation through the house and senate.

After five hours of heated, drawn-out debate on Wednesday evening, lawmakers approved the proposed legislation, dubbed They are Girls, Not Wives, which prohibits the marriage of anyone under the age of 18.

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Judge investigating 2023 coup was court bomb target, say Brazilian police

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Police name 59-year-old with explosive devices said to have killed himself after trying to enter court in Brasília

The main target of a bomber who killed himself while attempting to attack Brazil’s supreme court was the justice leading the key investigations into the attempted coup of 8 January last year, when supporters of the former president Jair Bolsonaro ransacked the buildings to protest against his election defeat, police have said.

The explosions outside the court on Wednesday took place just five days before the G20 heads of state are due to meet in Rio de Janeiro, which will be followed by a state visit to Brasília, the capital, by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

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Doctors Without Borders ambulance in Haiti ambushed and two patients killed

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Medical charity says its staff members were violently attacked by police and vigilantes 100 meters from hospital

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has said that at least two of its patients were killed after one of its ambulances was stopped and attacked in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

MSF said its staff members were violently attacked on Monday after “members of a vigilante group and law enforcement officers” stopped the ambulance, which was transporting three young people with gunshot wounds.

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Argentina withdraws negotiators from Cop29 summit

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Move adds to concerns about the stability of the Paris agreement after the election in the US of Donald Trump

Argentinian negotiators representing the government of the climate science denier Javier Milei have been ordered to withdraw from the Cop29 summit after only three days, adding to concerns about the stability of the Paris agreement.

More than 80 representatives from the South American country are in Baku, Azerbaijan, for two weeks of negotiations about climate finance for the energy transition. Argentina’s far-right leader has previously called the climate crisis a “socialist lie”, and during his election campaign last year he threatened to withdraw from the Paris agreement, though he has since backed down.

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Meat, oil and pesticide industry lobbyists turned out in record numbers at Cop16

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Questions raised over influence after 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for biodiversity summit in Colombia

Record numbers of business representatives and lobbyists had access to the UN’s latest biodiversity talks, analysis shows.

In total 1,261 business and industry delegates registered for Cop16 in Cali, Colombia, which ended in disarray and without significant progress on a number of key issues including nature funding, monitoring biodiversity loss and work on reducing environmentally harmful business subsidies.

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Brazil police eye top crime faction after brazen murder at São Paulo airport

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Killing of Antônio Vinicius Lopes Gritzbach, 38, former First Capital Command member, spawns number of theories

Police investigating a brazen murder at the arrivals area of Brazil’s main airport are pursuing at least three lines of inquiry in their attempt to track down the killers – and the possible masterminds of the shocking crime.

Antônio Vinicius Lopes Gritzbach, 38, was leaving São Paulo international airport on Friday afternoon when two hooded men jumped out of a car and fired a hail of bullets. The brazen attack, captured on security cameras, marked a dramatic escalation of criminal violence in the country.

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Teenager in critical condition with Canada’s first human case of bird flu

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British Columbia teen had no underlying health conditions and had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, officials say

A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children’s hospital, in what is believed to be Canada’s first human case of bird flu.

“This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions,” said the provincial health officer Bonnie Henry in a news conference on Tuesday.

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US bans Haiti flights for 30 days after Spirit jet hit by hail of gunfire

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Move by US authorities comes after plane was shot at on Monday, injuring attendant and forcing airport shutdown

The US Federal Aviation Administration has banned civilian flights into Haiti for 30 days after a jetliner was shot at on approach to Port-au-Prince.

Bullets hit the Spirit Airlines plane when it was about to land on Monday, injuring a flight attendant and forcing the airport to shut down.

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Canadian minister says ‘not everyone is welcome’ amid Trump migrant threat

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Immigration minister Marc Miller’s comments come as country braces for migrant rise when Trump takes office

Canada’s immigration minister has said “not everyone is welcome” in the country as officials brace for an increase of migrants when Donald Trump returns to the White House with a pledge to carry out mass deportations.

The minister’s warning, seven years after Justin Trudeau promised that “Canadians will welcome” asylum seekers, reflects a stark shift in tone amid waning support for immigration and refugee resettlement in the country, according to migration experts.

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Airlines halt flights to Haiti after plane hit by gunfire

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Spirit Airlines flight heading from Florida to Port-au-Prince diverted to Dominican Republic after flight attendant was grazed by bullet, amid broader violence in Haiti’s capital

Haiti’s international airport shut down on Monday after gangs opened fire at a commercial flight landing in Port-Au-Prince, prompting some airlines to suspend operations as the country swore in a new interim prime minister who promised to restore peace.

The Spirit Airlines flight headed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Port-Au-Prince was just hundreds of feet from landing in Haiti’s capital when gangs shot at the plane, striking a flight attendant who suffered minor injuries, according to the airline, the US embassy and flight tracking data.

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Rays’ Wander Franco arrested in DR over incident in which ‘guns were drawn’

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  • Shortstop held by police over incident on Sunday
  • Player facing separate charges over sexual abuse claims

Police in the Dominican Republic have arrested Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco after an altercation involving firearms.

ESPN reported that authorities held Franco and an unnamed woman for questioning on Monday after an incident in the parking lot of an apartment complex on Sunday “in which guns were drawn.”

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Haiti appoints new prime minister as security crisis mounts

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Entrepreneur Alix Didier Fils-Aimé replaces Garry Conille as country rocked by worsening gang violence

Haiti’s transitional presidential council has appointed the entrepreneur and former senate candidate Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the new prime minister, according to the official gazette in the country.

The businessman replaces Garry Conille, who was named prime minister in May. The shake-up is the latest blow to political stability amid soaring levels of gang violence.

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Police in Antigua charge suspect over fatal stabbing of politician

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Alexta Francis, 26, was arrested two days ago after MP Asot Michael found dead at his home on Caribbean island

Antigua police have charged a man over the fatal stabbing of a member of parliament in his seaside home.

Police on the Caribbean island charged Alexta Francis, 26, two days after the landscaper was arrested and questioned about the killing of Asot Michael. Francis was due to make his first appearance in court on Monday.

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Crypto businessman killed in apparent assassination at São Paulo airport

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Three injured as victim named as Antônio Vinícius Lopes Gritzbach, who had been threatened by top crime syndicate

A Brazilian businessman has been killed and three people injured in an apparent gangland assassination at São Paulo’s international airport in Guarulhos.

The victims were caught in a hail of bullets when a gunman with a rifle opened fire from inside a black car parked outside the airport’s terminal 2, which is mainly used for domestic flights.

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Canada braced for migrants as Trump reiterates mass deportation vow

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Police say plans in place to deal with rise in border crossings as US president-elect pledges to remove 11m people

Canada is bracing for a surge of migrants to its southern border after Donald Trump doubled down on his pledge to conduct the largest mass deportation in American history.

On Thursday, Trump told NBC News there was “no choice” but to proceed in removing some of the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the United States.

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Outrage against Canada’s Marineland theme park after fifth beluga dies

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Most recent fatality marks 17th beluga to die at Niagara Falls, Ontario, aquarium since 2019

A fifth beluga has died at Canada’s Marineland, as questions mount over the future of both the controversial theme park and one of the world’s largest populations of captive whales.

The most recent fatality marks the 17th beluga to die at the Niagara Falls aquarium since 2019.

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Weather Tracker: Hurricane Rafael triggers nationwide blackout in Cuba

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Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua also reeling after fifth major hurricane of season causes landslides and flooding

Hurricane Rafael became the 17th named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season this week, reaching the minimum expectation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Back in May, Noaa warned of an above-average level of activity, predicting 17-25 named storms, in comparison with the average of 14.

Of these 17-25 storms, Noaa predicted that eight to 13 would become hurricanes, four to seven of which would be classified as “major”, meaning category 3 or higher. Both of these predictions are also above average, and these thresholds have already been reached, with Rafael being the 11th hurricane and fifth major hurricane of the season.

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Three people charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death in Argentina

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Prosecutors say they charged someone who was close to the singer, a hotel employee and a suspected drug dealer

Three people have been charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death in Argentina for supplying narcotics and the abandonment of a person followed by death.

Toxicology tests found that when he died, Payne had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his body, prosecutors said in a statement on Thursday.

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