Category Archives: Americas

Caribbean nations still facing humanitarian crisis weeks after Hurricane Beryl destruction

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Category 4 hurricane that devastated the islands of St Vincent and the Grenadines when it hit the Caribbean last month has left many traumatised

From the outside, it looks like a typical primary school in the multi-island Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), with children’s voices echoing behind the distinctive green walls. But inside, washing lines sag with the weight of towels and clothes, and there are people of all ages: a baby frets on her mother’s hip, children squeal as they chase each other, teens play basketball, and elderly people sit on classroom chairs chatting.

This school in the district of Calliaqua is one of 20 on the country’s mainland, St Vincent, which were converted into shelters for those displaced by Hurricane Beryl, the category 4 storm which tore through the region in early July with winds of up to 120mph (193km/h).

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Union dispute shuts down Canadian freight rail amid fears for US trade

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Nearly 10,000 workers locked out at Canada’s two major rail freight firms in dispute over working conditions

Both of Canada’s major rail freight companies have shut down their rail networks in the country and locked out nearly 10,000 workers after unsuccessful negotiations with a major union.

The decision, confirmed by the Teamsters union, sets the stage for an unprecedented rail stoppage that could badly damage the Canadian economy and have a significant effect on cross-border trade with the US.

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US military announces $20m grant to build cobalt refinery in Canada

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Pentagon investment would make North America’s first cobalt sulfate refinery as US looks to diversify supply chain

The US military has made its largest investment in Canada’s mining sector in decades, spending millions amid a looming battle among nations to control the supply of cobalt.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced a $20m grant to help build a cobalt refinery in the province of Ontario, saying the investment will “create a more robust industrial base capable of meeting growing demand across both the defense and commercial sectors”.

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Prehistoric humans may have stuck pikes in ground to kill mammoths, say experts

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People of ancient Clovis culture could have impaled huge animals on pikes rather than throwing spears, finds study

When it came to taking down giant animals, prehistoric hunters would quite literally have faced a mammoth task. Now researchers have shed fresh light on how they might have done it.

Experts studying sharp stone points made by the Clovis people, who lived in the Americas from about 13,000 years ago, say that rather than hurling spears at enormous animals such as giant bison, mammoths or ground sloths, the tribes could have planted their weapons point-up in the ground to impale charging creatures.

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Mpox: Argentina quarantines cargo ship over suspected case of virus

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The ship was near the port of Rosario and authorities were alerted that a crew member was showing ‘cyst-like lesions’

Argentine authorities have quarantined a cargo ship in the Parana River over a suspected case of mpox onboard, the government said on Tuesday, as global public health authorities remain on alert for a new faster-spreading variant of the virus.

The ship near Argentina’s inland grains port of Rosario alerted authorities that “one of its crew members of Indian nationality showed cyst-like skin lesions predominantly on the chest and face,” the ministry said in a statement.

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Backlash as Canada conservatives’ ‘our home’ video features other countries

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Party deletes video after viewers list gaffes, including scenes of US, Serbia and Slovenia – plus Russian jets

Canada’s Conservative party has deleted a social media campaign video with a heavily nationalist message after much of the video featured scenes from other countries, including Ukrainian farmers, Slovenian homes, London’s Richmond Park and a pair of Russian fighter jets.

The video, titled “Canada. Our Home” was initially posted to X on Saturday, with various scenes overlaid by a speech from the party leader, Pierre Poilievre. The Conservatives, who lead the governing Liberals in the polls, are preparing for what is widely expected to be a bitterly contested federal election.

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Canadian export agency ‘hit by big losses after lending to Thames Water’

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State-backed body EDC has reportedly sold at deep discount two loans made to debt-ridden UK utility

Canada’s state-backed export credit agency is reportedly nursing steep losses after lending debt-ridden Thames Water hundreds of millions of pounds.

The British utility, which has said it could run out of cash by next June, received two loans from Export Development Canada (EDC) in 2018 and 2019 at the behest of the Canadian pension fund Omers.

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Fierce seas in US north-east as Ernesto regains hurricane strength over Atlantic

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Forecasters warn of life-threatening surf and rip tides: ‘It’s going to be really dangerous out in the water today’

Tropical Storm Ernesto became a hurricane again on Sunday as it churned away from Bermuda and headed further out in the Atlantic, sending powerful swells toward the US east coast, generating rip currents associated with at least one death and prompting many rescues.

The US National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ernesto’s maximum sustained winds were 75mph (120km/h), just barely category 1 strength.

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Elon Musk says X will pull operations from Brazil after ‘censorship orders’

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Judge Alexandre de Moraes had ordered X to block certain accounts as he investigated fake news and hate messages

Elon Musk announced on Saturday that the social media platform X would close its operations in Brazil “effective immediately” due to what it called “censorship orders” from the Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes.

X claims Moraes secretly threatened one of its legal representatives in the South American country with arrest if it did not comply with legal orders to take down some content from its platform. Brazil’s supreme court, where Moraes has a seat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Hurricane Ernesto pummels Bermuda with 35ft waves and high winds

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Category 1 hurricane described as ‘rare event’ in area as officials warn of severe flooding and storm surges

Hurricane Ernesto walloped Bermuda with winds reaching 85mph (137km/h) and waves exceeding 35ft (10.5 metres) offshore from the small British territory in the Atlantic Ocean, as it made landfall early on Saturday – with officials warning of potentially fatal flooding and storm surges.

The storm arrived as a category 1 hurricane after traveling over the archipelago overnight, a trajectory described as a “rare event” by the Weather Channel. It is uncommon for the eye of tropical cyclones to pass directly over these islands, per the network.

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Hurricane Ernesto bears down on Bermuda amid deadly flood warnings

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Atlantic island territory, which has seen fewer than a dozen hurricanes since 1850, braces for dangerous storm surge

Hurricane Ernesto bore down on Bermuda on Friday as a category 2 storm, threatening the British island territory with strong winds, a dangerous storm surge and potentially deadly flooding.

Ernesto, centered about 95 miles (150km) south-southwest of the archipelago at 8pm Atlantic Standard Time (0000 GMT on Saturday), was producing sustained winds of up to 100mph (155km/h) and had the potential to drop up to 9in (230mm) of rain, the US National Hurricane Center said.

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Lula criticizes Maduro’s ‘authoritarian’ regime amid Venezuela election dispute

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Brazilian president calls Nicolás Maduro’s administration ‘a very unpleasant regime’ as diplomats explore solutions

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said Venezuela is living under “a very unpleasant regime” with an “authoritarian slant”, as the political crisis engulfing the oil-rich South American country intensifies before fresh street protests on Saturday.

In an interview early on Friday, Lula – whose diplomats have been exploring possible solutions to Venezuela’s post-election drama – offered some of his sharpest criticism yet of Nicolás Maduro’s nominally socialist administration.

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Global health charities warn of ‘huge and terrible’ threat to abortion rights if Trump returns

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‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say

Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.

Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.

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Inquiry into Mexico’s ‘dirty war’ obstructed by military and other agencies, board says

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Report details years of abuse in 90s during authoritarian one-party system, but says its inquiries were often stymied

An independent commission charged by Mexico’s president with documenting human rights atrocities committed by the state has accused the country’s military and other government agencies of obstructing their investigation and threatening the country’s transition towards justice and democracy.

A blistering report released on Friday details years of abuses committed by Mexico’s government and its armed forces between 1965 and 1990, a period known as the country’s “dirty war” when it was ruled by an authoritarian one-party system which violently repressed any form of dissent.

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Prince Harry hits out at spread of disinformation via AI and social media

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Duke speaks at summit on digital responsibility while on visit with Duchess of Sussex to Colombia

The Duke of Sussex has hit out at online disinformation during a four-day visit to Colombia, warning: “What happens online within a matter of minutes transfers to the streets.”

Speaking in Bogotá at a summit on digital responsibility, Harry said of the spread of false information via artificial intelligence and social media: “People are acting on information that isn’t true.”

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Lula says he doesn’t yet recognize Maduro as winner of Venezuela election

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Brazilian president suggests fresh elections or coalition government as potential solutions to political crisis

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has made clear he does not yet accept Nicolás Maduro’s claim to have been re-elected as Venezuela’s president, and has suggested fresh elections or a coalition government as potential solutions to the country’s intensifying political crisis.

Maduro’s claim to have won Venezuela’s 28 July vote – despite compelling evidence that he was heavily beaten – has plunged the South American country into uncertainty and spooked regional governments who fear possible conflict and the consolidation of a dictatorship on their doorstep.

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Hurricane Ernesto aims at Bermuda as it’s forecast to reach category 3

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Storm left hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans without power and water in sweltering heat

Hurricane Ernesto barreled toward Bermuda on Thursday after leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without power or water as sweltering heat enveloped the US territory, raising concerns about people’s health.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Bermuda, with Ernesto expected to pass near or over the island on Saturday.

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Jamaica declares state of emergency after eight killed in weekend shootings

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Two attacks in Clarendon killed eight and injured nine as government looks to focus on gang violence

Jamaica’s prime minister has issued a 14-day state of emergency in the country’s southern Clarendon parish amid fears of further violence after two shootings on Sunday left eight dead and nine wounded.

Seven people were killed when gunmen fired indiscriminately at a birthday party in Cherry Tree Lane, Clarendon; the eighth victim was killed in a second shooting.

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Bahia’s police killings pile pressure on Lula’s Workers’ party in Brazil

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Nearly 300 people aged 19 and under were killed by Bahian security forces in 2023, making it Brazil’s highest rate

Activists have raised the alarm over police violence in the Brazilian state of Bahia, as new figures revealed that more children and adolescents are killed by the region’s security forces than anywhere else in the country.

Two hundred and eighty-nine people aged 19 and under were killed by police in Bahia last year, up from 242 in 2022, according to a new report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.

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Ernesto strengthens into hurricane after leaving half of Puerto Rico without power

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Storm moving over open waters towards Bermuda, bringing torrential rain and winds of 75mph

Storm Ernesto has strengthened into a hurricane as it dropped torrential rain on Puerto Rico and left nearly half of all clients in the US territory without power.

The storm was located about 175 miles (280km) north-west of San Juan, Puerto Rico and was moving over open waters towards Bermuda. It had maximum sustained winds of 75mph (120km/h) and was moving north-west at 16mph.

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