Category Archives: Americas

Mexican president claims ‘no potential tariff war’ with US after call with Trump

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Sheinbaum says she had cooperative talks with president-elect who threatened 25% tariff against Mexico on Tuesday

Claudia Sheinbaum has said her “very kind” phone conversation with Donald Trump, in which they discussed immigration and fentanyl, means “there will not be a potential tariff war” between the US and Mexico.

The president of Mexico spoke to reporters on Thursday following Trump’s threat earlier in the week to apply a 25% tariff against Mexico and Canada, and an additional 10% tariff against China, when he takes office in January if the countries did not stop all illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the US.

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Canada leaders agree to unite against Trump tariff threat amid reports of retaliatory measures

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Deputy PM says ‘we need to be smart, strong and united’ after meeting on threat by US president-elect of a blanket 25% tax on imports from Canada

Canada’s federal government and the premiers of the 10 provinces have agreed to work together against a threat by US president-elect Donald Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian imports, with one official saying the country was already examining possible retaliatory measures.

“We agreed that we need to be smart, strong and united in meeting this challenge,” deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Wednesday after a virtual meeting with the premiers called by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

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Colombia-led operation seizes world record 225 tonnes of cocaine, and uncovers new Australia trafficking route

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Operation Orion, a cooperative operation between 62 countries, finds some of the record haul on a new drug route being used by a ‘narco submarine’

Colombian authorities working with dozens of other countries have seized 225 tonnes of cocaine in the space of six weeks, a global record for any single anti-narcotics operation, finding some of that haul on a “narco submarine” travelling on a new drug trafficking route to Australia.

In the six-week Operation Orion, law enforcement agencies and other organisations from 62 countries halted six semi-submersible vessels stuffed with cocaine and confiscated 1,400 tonnes of drugs in total, including more than 1,000 tonnes of marijuana.

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Bombshell police report details alleged Bolsonaro plot to stage rightwing coup

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Former president accused of leading role in apparent scheme to overturn 2022 election defeat by rival Lula

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has moved a step closer to jail after a federal police investigation laid bare what it called a murderous authoritarian plot to explode the country’s democratic system with a military coup that the far-right populist allegedly helped mastermind.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly denied involvement in an attempt to overturn the result of the 2022 presidential election, which he narrowly lost to his leftwing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Elusive deer spotted wearing high-vis jacket in Canada: ‘Who is responsible?’

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‘Double takes’ as British Columbia mountain community tries to figure out how local animal came to don neon jacket

In a town of fewer than 1,000 people, it can be hard to keep a secret. And yet no one in McBride, a mountain community in British Columbia, can figure out how a local deer came to be wearing a zipped-up high-visibility jacket – or why the day-glo-clad cervid has been so hard to track down.

The mystery began on Sunday, when Andrea Arnold was driving along the snowy outskirts of McBride on Sunday and witnessed a sight so baffling she slowed her vehicle to a crawl.

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Bolsonaro allies nearly launched military coup in 2022, police report says

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Senior Brazil military figures backed plot to seize power after Bolsonaro’s election defeat, federal documents allege

Brazil came within a whisker of a far-right military coup and the assassination of a supreme court judge just days before President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took power in January 2023, a federal police report has claimed.

The report about the alleged plot to help the rightwing populist Jair Bolsonaro cling to power was made public on Tuesday, and paints a chilling portrait of how close one of the world’s largest democracies came to being plunged back into authoritarian rule.

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Mexico president vows to retaliate with own tariffs against Trump’s tax threat

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Claudia Sheinbaum rebukes Trump and says his plan would do nothing to stem flow of migrants or drugs bound for US

Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has rebuked Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Mexico, arguing the plan would do nothing to halt the flow of migrants or drugs bound for the US border, and vowing that Mexico would hit back with tariffs of its own.

“One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses,” Sheinbaum said, warning that tariffs would cause inflation and job losses in both countries. “What sense is there?”

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Trudeau calls emergency meeting over Trump’s Canada tariff threat

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US president-elect posted on social media about plan to impose 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada over immigration

Justin Trudeau has called an emergency meeting with provincial premiers across Canada after the US president-elect, Donald Trump, threatened a 25% tariff on the United States’ northern neighbour.

Trump posted on social media that he would “sign all necessary documents” to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% tariff on all goods products coming into the United States, adding the levy would remain in place until “such time as drugs, in particular fentanyl, and all illegal aliens stop this invasion of our country!”

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Trump’s tariff threat sets stage for bitter global trade war

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Trade experts hail ‘new era of protectionism’ with targeted countries retaliating with their own tariffs

Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has set the stage for a bitter global trade war, according to trade experts and economists, with consumers and companies warned to brace for steep costs.

The president-elect announced on Monday night that he intends to hit Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs on all their exports to the US – until they reduce migration and the flow of drugs into the country.

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Trump vows 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and deeper tariffs on China

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President-elect attacks neighbors over immigration and accuses China over fentanyl entering US

Donald Trump has said that he will sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all products coming in to the United States from Mexico and Canada, and additional tariffs on China, once he becomes US president again.

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

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‘Royalties for everyone’: Suriname president plans to share oil wealth

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All Surinamese adults to receive payment from recently discovered oil and gas reserves – ‘no one will be left behind’

Suriname’s president has announced a program of “royalties for everyone” as the South American nation plans for a boon from recently discovered oil and gas reserves.

Suriname and its neighbor Guyana, both former Dutch colonies, expect to make billions in the years to come from rich offshore crude deposits. Earlier this month, Guyana announced all adult citizens living at home and abroad would received a payout of around £370 as part of an effort to redistribute its oil wealth.

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Weather tracker: Swaths of Canada braced for heavy snow

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Temperatures unlikely to exceed -20C in parts of Canada, while a red weather warning has been issued for Sri Lanka

An area of low pressure moving along the US-Canada border brought heavy snowfall to parts of western Canada at the weekend. A weather warning has been issued for the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan for 150-250mm (6-10in) of snow.

As the weather system moves, it is expected to bring further snow to eastern parts of the country early this week. Pressure building after the snowfall is expected trap cold air from the north, triggering severe frost.

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Uruguay election: opposition centre-left figure Yamandu Orsi wins presidential runoff

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Former history teacher says the ‘horizon is brightening’ as all political rivals pledged to work together to move the country forward

Centre-left opposition candidate Yamandu Orsi secured victory in Uruguay’s presidential election, official results showed on Sunday, with 97% of votes tallied, ousting the conservative governing coalition and making the South American nation the latest to rebuke the incumbent party in a year of landmark elections.

Yamandu Orsi, the pre-election favourite by a few points, secured 49.77% of the vote to conservative Alvaro Delgado’s 45.94%, official results showed.

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Nicaragua: Ortega and wife to assume absolute power after changes approved

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Loyalist lawmakers give green light to constitutional amendment as authoritarian president, 79, tightens grip

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife are set to assume absolute power after loyalist lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment elevating her to the position of “co-president” and boosting the pair’s joint control over the state.

Under sanctions for human rights abuses, Ortega himself had proposed the change, which also increases the president’s control over the media and extends the presidential term from five to six years.

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4,000-year-old canals used for fishing by Maya predecessors discovered in Belize

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New research revealed canals used for about 1,000 years to channel and catch freshwater fish on the Yucatán peninsula

Long before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America’s Yucatán peninsula.

Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what’s now Belize. The findings were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances.

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Jury convicts two for smuggling Indian family who froze to death crossing US-Canada border

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Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Shand were part of operation bringing increasing numbers of Indians into US

A jury has convicted two men of human smuggling charges after an Indian family froze to death attempting to cross the Canada-US border.

After a brief deliberation on Friday, a jury in Fergus Falls, Minnesota delivered the verdict in the case against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, an Indian national who used the alias “Dirty Harry”, and Steve Shand, 50, an American from Florida. Prosecutors say the pair were part of a broader criminal enterprise that helped migrants cross from Canada into the United States.

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Removing Toronto bike lanes will make traffic worse, official document shows

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In preparation for plan, Ontario has indemnified itself from liability if cyclists are killed on streets that once had bike lanes

Removing bike lanes from busy city streets will increase traffic congestion, according to a Canadian government document leaked amid a furious row over urban infrastructure.

The findings, which come as the province of Ontario goes to war over cycling infrastructure in Toronto, undercut claims that the dedicated routes contribute to urban gridlock.

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Haiti summons French ambassador after Macron called its leaders ‘morons’

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Government protests ‘unfriendly and inappropriate’ comments by French president caught on camera

Haiti’s government has summoned the French ambassador to the country to protest about “unfriendly and inappropriate” comments from Emmanuel Macron, who was caught on camera calling the country’s leaders “morons”.

The French president had on Wednesday described the decision of the Caribbean country’s transitional presidential council to oust the prime minister earlier this month amid an escalation in gang warfare as “completely dumb”.

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Canada denies it has evidence linking Modi to killing of Sikh separatists

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Trudeau adviser shuts down foreign ministry’s allegations that Indian government was behind intimidation plot

Canada, which expelled six Indian diplomats over allegations they were involved in a plot against Sikh separatists, has denied it has evidence Narendra Modi was linked to violence on Canadian soil.

The Canadian foreign ministry last month alleged Amit Shah, considered the number two in Modi’s government, was behind a campaign of intimidation in Canada. Ottawa says it has evidence linking Indian government agents to the 2023 murder of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.

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Hungary invites Netanyahu to visit as world leaders split over ICC arrest warrant

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Viktor Orbán says he will not enforce ICC decision that requires court members to detain Israeli PM if he enters their country

Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has said he will invite his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, to visit in defiance of an international criminal court arrest warrant, as world leaders split over the ICC’s momentous decision.

The world’s highest criminal court issued warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and the Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri, commonly known as Mohammed Deif, who is believed to be dead, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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