Category Archives: Americas

Milei government plans to remove femicide from Argentina penal code

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Government plans to remove legal recognition of gender-based killings in latest attack on women’s rights

Femicide will be struck from Argentina’s penal code, according to a vow from the administration of Javier Milei, the president. It is his administration’s latest attack on women’s rights.

Mariano Cúneo Libarona, the justice minister, said the government will “eliminate the figure of femicide from the Argentine penal code” adding that feminism was a “distortion of the concept of equality”.

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Canada report on foreign interference: no evidence of ‘traitors’ in parliament

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Commission finds democratic institutions ‘robust in the face of foreign interference’ but some MPs behaved ‘naively’

Canada’s democratic institutions are “robust in the face of foreign interference” attempts and there is “no evidence of ‘traitors’” in the country’s parliament, a landmark report into election meddling has found.

But the commission’s lead said on Tuesday that the federal government should take steps to better safeguard democratic institutions and better inform the public of foreign interference threats.

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Mexicans make Emilia Pérez parody poking fun at French stereotypes

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Spoof fires back at supposed inauthenticity of Oscar-tipped screen musical with a song-and-dance tale of boulangeries at war

The war of words between Mexico and France over trans gangster musical Emilia Pérez has heated up even more after the release of a spoof film called Johanne Sacreblu poking fun at French stereotypes.

Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard and which is up for the best picture Oscar along with a best actress nomination for its star Karla Sofia Gascón, is the story of a cartel boss who hires a lawyer (played by Zoe Saldana) to enable a gender transition, and has attracted much criticism in Mexico, where it is supposedly set.

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Woman at heart of birthright citizenship lawsuit reacts to Trump’s order: ‘This is a right’

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A pregnant mother from Venezuela responds to Trump’s executive order that would render her baby stateless

On his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an order ending constitutionally recognized right of birthright citizenship. Thousands of expecting parents across the US suddenly had to consider that their babies would be born into a legal limbo.

Among them is Monica, a woman expecting her first child after escaping political persecution in Venezuela. If Trump’s order stands, Monica’s baby will be born stateless.

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Google Maps will rename Gulf of Mexico as Gulf of America in US

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Tech firm to make change in line with Trump’s executive order, using both names in world outside US and Mexico

Google has confirmed it will rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US, after an executive order from Donald Trump.

It will remain the Gulf of Mexico in Mexico, while users outside of the US and Mexico will see both names on Google Maps. The Alaskan peak Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, will also be changed to Mount McKinley in the US in line with Trump’s executive order on 20 January.

Reuters contributed to this report

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What would happen if the US military went after cartels on Mexican soil?

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Experts say any incursion could come with serious repercussions, include violence against US tourists

Evan Hafer, a popular veteran and founder of Black Rifle Coffee, was on Joe Rogan’s podcast after the November election. As with any Maga acolyte, the US-Mexico border figured prominently in his mind.

“If we declare war on the cartel, these dudes are not going to understand what the fuck is going on. They are in for a world of ultra-violence,” said Hafer, who served in the Green Berets and the CIA.

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Rebels passed through Venezuela en route to Colombia before deadly attack, report reveals

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Leaked report raises likelihood that Venezuelan government green-lit attack that killed more than 80

Tensions are growing between Bogotá and Caracas after it emerged that rebels responsible for one of Colombia’s worst episodes of violence in recent years travelled through Venezuelan territory before launching the bloody wave of attacks.

At least 80 combatants armed with assault rifles and explosives passed through the Venezuelan border states of Táchira and Zulia before attacking a rival armed group and its suspected civilian supporters, according to a leaked military intelligence report.

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Scientists of potato blight pathogen?

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Researchers say study may help global efforts in controlling disease that still destroys crops today

It was a disaster that killed about 1 million people, devastating 19th century Ireland, but while the potato disease linked to the Irish famine is well known, a battle has raged over where it originated.

Scientists have long been divided over whether the fungus-like pathogen Phtytophthora infestans cropped up in the Andes or originated in Mexico.

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Ontario premier Doug Ford to call snap election to fight Trump tariff threat

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Progressive Conservative leader of Canada’s most populous province seeks ‘strong mandate’ to counter 25% tariff plan

The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, has said an early election is needed in the Canadian province in order to fend off an income “attack” from Donald Trump as a trade war looms between the close allies.

But opposition parties criticized the move, calling it a “distraction” from an ongoing criminal investigation into the government’s handling of a controversial multibillion-dollar land swap.

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Canada’s top court to hear challenge to controversial Quebec secularism law

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Federal government appeals against law critics say disproportionately affects hijab-wearing Muslim women

Canada’s top court has agreed to hear a challenge to Quebec’s controversial secularism law, paving the way for a fierce debate over provincial powers and the fundamental rights of ethnic and religious minorities.

The supreme court signaled on Thursday that it would grant leave to appeal against the 2019 law which prohibits certain public workers in positions of authority – including judges, police officers, prison guards and teachers – from wearing religious symbols while at work. Other public workers such as bus drivers, doctors and social workers must only keep their faces uncovered.

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Colombia scrambles to cope as refugees flee deadly battles between rebel groups

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Officials describe ‘tsunami of people’ in city of Cúcuta escaping one of worst outbreaks of violence in recent years

Authorities in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta are scrambling to cope with an influx of internal refugees, as thousands of civilians flee an outbreak of fighting between rival rebel factions.

Buses, trailers and dump trucks packed with disoriented mothers and children have been streaming into the border city since Friday when the bloody conflict began engulfing north-eastern Colombia.

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Families fear for Cuban prisoners after Trump reneges on release deal

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US president reinstates Cuba on terror list despite Biden deal to release prisoners jailed over demonstrations

The families of Cuban protesters jailed in anti-government demonstrations are waiting anxiously to see if the government will continue with a planned prisoner release after Donald Trump reneged on a deal made last week by Joe Biden.

Activists from the human rights group Justicia 11J believe around 150 prisoners have been released so far of the 553 agreed with the Catholic church.

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Brazil fires consumed wilderness area larger than Italy in 2024 – report

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New report says more than 30m hectares burned, 79% more than in 2023, after country saw worst drought on record

After enduring its worst drought on record in 2024, Brazil closed the year with another alarming milestone: between January and December, 30.86m hectares of wilderness burned – an area larger than Italy.

The figure published in a new report is 79% higher than in 2023 and the largest recorded by Fire Monitor since its launch in 2019 by MapBiomas, an initiative by NGOs, universities and technology companies that monitors Brazil’s biomes.

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‘Now it’s our turn to shine!’ How world leaders greeted Trump’s inauguration

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Most leaders were diplomatic about their differences, while others more ideologically aligned with the new US president voiced their joy

International leaders have responded with a mixture of wariness, anger and enthusiasm to Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, with Panama pushing back on his pledge to retake the Panama Canal and Mexico vowing to defend its people ahead of a crackdown on migrants.

After Trump declared that the Panama Canal was a “foolish gift” to Panama that “should never have been made” during his inauguration speech, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino said the waterway “is and will continue to be Panamanian”.

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Trump claims to be ‘peacemaker’ as he vows to ‘take back’ Panama canal

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Desire to be ‘unifier’ rubs up against 47th US president’s ambitions for territorial expansion

Donald Trump offered a bombastic and contradictory vision for US foreign policy at his inauguration on Monday, declaring that he would be a “peacemaker and unifier” even as he repeated his vow to “take back” the Panama canal.

In his speech, Trump said that the Panama canal, which was built by the US in the early 1900s but ultimately given to Panama in 1977 under a treaty that guaranteed its neutrality, was a “foolish gift that should never have been made”.

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Pope dissolves Peru-based Catholic movement after ‘sadistic abuses’

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Sodalitium of Christian Life ended after investigation found sexual and spiritual abuses and financial mismanagement

Pope Francis has taken the remarkable step of dissolving a Peruvian-based Catholic movement, the Sodalitium of Christian Life (SCV), after years of attempts at reform and a Vatican investigation. The investigation uncovered sexual abuses by its founder, financial mismanagement by its leaders and spiritual abuses by its top members.

The Sodalitium on Monday confirmed the dissolution, which was conveyed to an assembly of its members in Aparecida, Brazil at the weekend by the pope’s top legal adviser, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda. In revealing the dissolution in a statement, the group lamented that news of Francis’s decision had been leaked by two members attending the assembly, who were “definitively expelled”.

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Chrystia Freeland warns of Trump’s ‘existential risk’ to Canada in campaign launch

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Freeland casts herself as ‘battle tested leader’ and most capable of negotiating with an unpredictable White House

Chrystia Freeland has warned of the “existential risk” to Canada posed by Donald Trump, casting herself as a “battle tested leader with the scars to prove it” during the formal launch of her bid to be the country’s next prime minister.

Freeland, who has presented herself as the figure most capable of negotiating with a protectionist and unpredictable White House, held her formal campaign launch the day before the incoming president’s inauguration and pledged “dollar to dollar” retaliation for any tariffs that would amount to the “largest trade blow the US has ever endured”.

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Statue of Peru’s Spanish conqueror Pizarro restored to central Lima amid controversy

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Statue returns near former spot 22 years after removal in apparent attempt to rehabilitate Francisco Pizzaro’s legacy

An imposing bronze statue of Francisco Pizarro, Peru’s Spanish conqueror, has been returned to a spot near its former location in Lima’s main square, 22 years after it was removed, in an apparent attempt to rehabilitate the conquistador’s controversial legacy.

Weighing 7 tonnes and standing 5 metres tall, the Italian Renaissance-inspired sculpture of Pizarro astride a horse with his sword drawn was re-inaugurated on Saturday as part of celebrations marking the 490th anniversary of the Peruvian capital city’s foundation.

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‘Has the world gone mad? It has’: foreign reporters share a view of Trump from abroad

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Journalists from countries that have seen challenges to democracy give their view on the second Trump presidency

What is the view of US democracy from abroad, and what can Americans learn from other nations with a history of political tumult?

During his first term Donald Trump tested democratic norms by undermining trust in fair elections, encouraging political violence and demonizing the media and public servants. He has promised to be a dictator “on day one” of his second term.

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‘All hands on deck’: Bird flu in US poultry puts state cooperation to the test

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Unusually late migration season means poultry operations may continue to see H5N1 outbreaks, officials say

Maryland has detected bird flu among three different commercial poultry flocks in the past week, marking the state’s first outbreak in more than a year. The discoveries come shortly after the establishment of a joint command with Delaware following the latter state’s detection of H5N1 in two other poultry operations.

Although the deadly bird flu has circulated in North America since 2022, the past few months have been especially brutal for the poultry industry. More than 20 million egg-laying hens died in the fall, the worst rates since the outbreak began, and egg prices have risen as a result.

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