Category Archives: Americas

Judge dismisses trespassing charges against people crossing US-Mexico border

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New Mexico judge rules immigrants did not know they were entering US military zone, marking setback for Trump

A federal judge in New Mexico on Thursday dismissed trespassing charges against dozens of immigrants caught in a new military zone on the US-Mexico border, marking a setback for Trump administration efforts to raise penalties for unlawful crossings into the US.

Chief US magistrate judge Gregory Wormuth began filing the dismissals late on Wednesday, ruling that immigrants did not know they were entering the military zone in New Mexico and therefore could not be charged, according to court documents and a defense attorney.

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Canadian PM criticises UK invitation to Trump for second state visit

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Mark Carney says Canadians ‘not very impressed’ after Keir Starmer delivered invitation to US president in February

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has criticised Britain’s invitation to Donald Trump for a second state visit, saying it undermined his government’s effort to project a united front against the US president’s talk of annexing Canada.

Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly said he wants Canada to become the 51st US state, a suggestion that has angered Canadians and left Britain trying to tread a fine line between the two North American countries.

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Mexican beauty influencer shot dead during TikTok live stream

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Death of Valeria Márquez, 23, being investigated as femicide, says Jalisco state prosecutor

A young Mexican social media influencer, known for her videos about beauty and makeup, was brazenly shot to death during a TikTok live stream, in an incident that sent shock waves through a country that faces high levels of gender-based violence.

The death of Valeria Márquez, 23, is being investigated as a femicide – the killing of a woman or girl for reasons of gender – the Jalisco state prosecutor said in a statement released on Tuesday evening.

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Trump cabinet member’s links to El Salvador crypto firm under scrutiny

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Commerce chief Howard Lutnick’s firm backed controversial crypto giant Tether as Bukele ties deepened

Trump administration’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his family have had extensive business interests linked to El Salvador, whose authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has grown close to the White House and who has courted controversy by imprisoning people deported from the US in an immigration crackdown.

El Salvador also plays host to a booming cryptocurrency and new media industry, which has numerous ties to Donald Trump allies who are seeking to make money from various ventures which have sometimes drawn the attention of authorities or ethics watchdogs.

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José ‘Pepe’ Mujica, former guerrilla and ex-president of Uruguay, dies aged 89

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In a final interview, Mujica said: ‘We are too focused on wealth and not on happiness … Before you know it, life has passed you by’

Uruguay’s former president José Mujica, a onetime Marxist guerrilla and flower farmer whose radical brand of democracy, plain-spoken philosophy and simple lifestyle fascinated people around the world, has died. He was 89.

His death was announced by the current Uruguayan president. Yamandú Orsi. In a post on social media platform X, Orsi called Mujica a “president, activist, guide and leader”. Mujica had been under treatment for cancer of the esophagus since spring 2024, when the disease was diagnosed.

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Carney names new foreign minister in Canada cabinet shake-up

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PM, who led Liberals to re-election, replaces Mélanie Joly – who becomes industry minister – with Anita Anand

Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, has announced a major cabinet shake-up, including a new foreign minister, as he shapes a newly re-elected Liberal government.

Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau earlier this year and won the election last month, named Anita Anand as foreign minister, replacing Mélanie Joly, who becomes the minister of industry. Anand previously served in roles including defense minister.

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Canada’s Liberals inch toward majority, but one vote could decide key contest

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Quebec recount awarded seat to Liberal challenger by one vote, but a missing ballot could throw contest into disarray

Canada’s Liberal party has inched closer to a majority government after a judicial recount found the party had won an electoral district by just a single vote. But a voter has also claimed her ballot wasn’t counted, throwing the result once more into disarray.

Officials at Elections Canada at the weekend finished a recount for the Quebec district of Terrebonne, where the incumbent Bloc Québécois candidate Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné appeared to have beaten her Liberal challenger Tatiana Auguste.

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Brazil’s president seeks ‘indestructible’ links with China amid Trump trade war

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Remark comes as Brazil, Colombia and Chile’s leaders fly to Beijing amid international uncertainty generated by Trump

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has heralded his desire to build “indestructible” relations with China, as the leaders of three of Latin America’s biggest economies flew to Beijing against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s trade war and the profound international uncertainty his presidency has generated.

Lula touched down in China’s capital on Sunday for a four-day state visit, accompanied by 11 ministers, top politicians and a delegation of more than 150 business leaders.

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Murders in Jamaica drop but activists alarmed at rise in fatal police shootings

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Officials hail fewer homicides as rights advocates call for body-worn cameras to improve police accountability

Jamaican officials have hailed a sharp reduction in murders but rights campaigners warn that tackling crime should not come at the expense of accountability amid an “alarming” rise in fatal police shootings.

Already burdened with the highest homicide rates in the region, Jamaica has recently struggled with a surge in gang-related violence. But the number of murders per capita has been falling this year, with a marked decline between January and April.

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Climate crisis threatens the banana, the world’s most popular fruit, research shows

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Fourth most important food crop in peril as Latin America and Caribbean suffer from slow-onset climate disaster

The climate crisis is threatening the future of the world’s most popular fruit, as almost two-thirds of banana-growing areas in Latin America and the Caribbean may no longer be suitable for growing the fruit by 2080, new research has found.

Rising temperatures, extreme weather and climate-related pests are pummeling banana-growing countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Colombia, reducing yields and devastating rural communities across the region, according to Christian Aid’s new report, Going Bananas: How Climate Change Threatens the World’s Favourite Fruit.

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This American pope: Leo XIV’s bloodline reflects the US melting pot

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A fraught history of race and immigration connect the new pope with his homeland

Pope Leo XIV, who on Thursday was elected as the first-ever US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church, has a familial bloodline that reflects his homeland’s fraught relationship with race – and why the nation’s stature as a melting pot of origins has long endured, records unearthed by genealogists show.

The maternal grandfather of 69-year-old Robert Prevost, the newly minted pope, was evidently born abroad in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, according to birth records that professional genealogist Chris Smothers cited to ABC News in a recent report. When Leo’s grandfather, Joseph Martinez, obtained an 1887 marriage license to wed the future pope’s grandmother, Louise Baquié, he listed his birthplace as Haiti, which at the time was the same territory as Santo Domingo, Smothers noted.

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Five fishermen lost at sea for 55 days rescued by Ecuadorian tuna boat

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Three Peruvians and two Colombians missing since setting sail from Peru in March arrive in Galápagos Islands

Five fishers who spent 55 days adrift at sea arrived on Saturday at a port in the Galápagos after being rescued by a tuna boat, the Ecuadorian navy said on X.

The three Peruvians and two Colombians had been missing since mid-March and were found on 7 May by an Ecuadorian boat called Aldo.

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Clergy molestation survivors concerned and insulted by election of Pope Leo XIV

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Pope faced questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career after a survivors group filed a complaint

Groups supporting clergy-molestation survivors say they are gravely concerned and insulted by the election of Pope Leo XIV after he overcame questions about his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases earlier in his career to become the Roman Catholic church’s first-ever US-born leader.

Before Robert Prevost’s ascent to the papacy at age 69, he was leading a chapter of the Augustinian religious order in his home town of Chicago when allegations surfaced that a priest and Catholic high school principal under his jurisdiction had molested at least one student as well as kept child-abuse imagery.

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Mexico sues Google over changing Gulf of Mexico’s name for US users

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President Claudia Sheinbaum says lawsuit has been filed after US lawmakers voted on name change

Mexico has sued Google for changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to “Gulf of America” for Google Maps users in the United States, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said on Friday.

“The lawsuit has already been filed,” Sheinbaum said at her morning news conference, without saying where and when it was submitted.

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‘The pope is Peruvian’: elation in country where pontiff served as bishop

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Leo XIV celebrated as second Latin American pope having spent many years in Peru’s church

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been celebrated across Latin America, where many hailed him as the second pontiff from the region, after his Argentinian predecessor, Francis.

The news prompted particular elation in Peru, where he lived and worked for more than 20 years and was granted citizenship in 2015. In the capital, Lima, the bells of the cathedral rang in celebration.

In his first appearance from the Vatican balcony, Leo XIV briefly switched from Italian to Spanish to address the faithful “from my beloved diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru”, where he served as bishop for more than a decade.

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Trump administration invokes state secrets privilege in Kilmar Ábrego García case

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Lawyers say they’re ‘still in dark’ about government’s efforts to free the man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador

The Trump administration is invoking the “state secrets privilege ” in an apparent attempt to avoid answering a judge’s questions about its erroneous deportation of Kilmar Ábrego García to El Salvador.

US district judge Paula Xinis disclosed the government’s position in a two-page order on Wednesday. She set a Monday deadline for attorneys to file briefs on the issue and how it could affect Ábrego García’s case. Xinis also scheduled a 16 May hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, to address the matter.

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Canada medical mystery takes twist as study finds no evidence of brain illness

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Researchers link suspected cases in New Brunswick to known diseases, suggesting ‘misdiagnosis and misinformation’

A new peer-reviewed scientific study has found no evidence of a mystery brain disease in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, suggesting instead a troubling combination of “misdiagnosis and misinformation”.

The research comes as the Maritime province prepares its own assessment of more than 220 suspected cases in the hope of giving families some answers to a medical mystery that has gripped the region for years.

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Scorpions ‘taking over’ Brazilian cities with reported stings rising 250%

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Fast and unplanned growth of cities providing ideal conditions for the creatures to thrive, say researchers

Scorpions are “taking over” Brazilian cities, researchers have warned in a paper that said rapid urbanisation and climate breakdown were driving an increase in the number of people being stung.

More than 1.1m stings were reported between 2014 and 2023, according to data from the Brazilian notifiable diseases information system. There was a 250% increase in reports of stings from 2014 to 2023, according to research published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

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Brazil rejects US request to designate two gangs as terrorist organizations

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Security minister says US delegation wanted classification for PCC and Comando Vermelho to aid immigration policy

The Brazilian government has rejected a request by the US state department to designate two major criminal gangs as terrorist organizations, according to Mario Sarrubo, Brazil’s national secretary of public security.

Sarrubo said the request was made on Tuesday during a meeting between US and Brazilian officials in Brasília.

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Canadian police scale back search for two children missing in woods for six days

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Officials say the likelihood Lily and Jack Sullivan are still alive after disappearing in Nova Scotia on 2 May is ‘very low’

Nearly a week after two young children went missing in rural Nova Scotia, Canadian police say they are beginning to scale back search efforts given the “low” odds the children are still alive – and that they are not ruling out the possibility of foul play.

Since Friday, more than 160 searchers with drones and canine units have scoured the thickly forested region of Pictou county in search of Lily Sullivan, six, and Jack Sullivan, four.

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