Category Archives: Americas

Weather tracker: North-west US hit by snow ahead of eastern heatwave

Posted on by

Western states experience unseasonally low temperatures but New York and Washington DC could reach 40C by end of week

Unseasonal snow has fallen in some parts of the US, while other parts of the country brace for a heatwave this week.

A strong cold front spread into the western US from the northern Pacific over the weekend, bringing an abrupt change in conditions to a region that had been experiencing high summer temperatures amid drought. Temperatures from the Canadian border to California have widely been 5-10C below the norm since Friday, and more than 10C below in some parts farther north. The pattern is expected to remain for much of the coming week.

Continue reading...

Venezuela earthquake: father and son found alive in rubble after four days as death toll nears 1,500

Posted on by

President says ‘we always hold onto hope’ as discovery of earthquake survivors spurs fresh search efforts despite dwindling chances of survival

A man and his teenage son were found alive under the rubble in Venezuela on Sunday, in a town about 40km north of the capital Caracas, AFP journalists reported, as the death toll from last week’s twin earthquakes passed 1,450.

The discovery of survivors in Caraballeda was made by French and American rescue teams nearly four days after back-to-back quakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck, completely destroying nearly 200 buildings in the area.

Continue reading...

Venezuelan earthquakes test Trump’s new western hemisphere policy after gutting of USAID

Posted on by

Marco Rubio is scrambling to provide effective disaster response to country whose president US deposed in January

This week’s dual earthquakes in Venezuela are a test for the new era of American power in the western hemisphere, as the Trump administration scrambles to provide an effective disaster response mission to a country that it now calls an ally in Latin America, after a US special forces raid in January deposed the country’s strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The US is marshalling what secretary of state Marco Rubio called a “big, fast, effective” and “whole-of-government” response as the state department sent three specialised urban search and rescue teams and pledged a $150m assistance fund that one former disaster relief expert called the largest he had seen within 24 hours of an incident.

Continue reading...

Venezuela earthquakes: death toll rises again to more than 1,400

Posted on by

Search for survivors continues with nearly 70,000 people reported unaccounted for by their family members

The ⁠death toll ⁠in ⁠the twin ​earthquakes that struck ⁠Venezuela earlier ⁠this ​week ‌has ‌risen to ‌1,430, according to one of the country’s top politicians, Jorge Rodríguez.

Another 3,200 ​people were injured ⁠and 3,100 ​left homeless ​by the ​disaster, ​the National Assembly president added, speaking ​on ​state television.

Continue reading...

Carney announces contest to revamp uninhabitable Canadian PM residence

Posted on by

Various issues – including a rodent infestation and mould – have left the historic, sprawling Ottawa estate empty

10 Downing Street has two things: mice and a chief mouser. For more than a decade, an officially recognized feline has kept rodent infestation in the British prime minister’s residence to a minimum.

Over a similar period, the official residence of Canada’s prime minister has seen an unchecked explosion of rodents.

Continue reading...

‘Chock full of incredible animals’: marine expedition uncovers 31 new species in two weeks

Posted on by

Experts worked in ocean midwater off Brazil at near-record speeds thanks to cutting-edge tech

A marine biology expedition in international waters off the coast of Brazil has discovered 31 new species in just two weeks.

The researchers believe the speed at which the species were found and identified may be a record, in part because of the cutting-edge technology designed and built by the science and engineering team. For the first time on board a ship, the researchers were able to observe the living 3D cellular structure of microbial life thanks to a technological breakthrough nicknamed the Squid.

Continue reading...

Vehicle hits crowd in Cabo San Lucas after Mexico’s World Cup victory over Czechia

Posted on by

  • City hall confirms a car drove through crowd

  • ‘Several people injured’ following incident

A ⁠vehicle struck multiple people at a gathering ⁠in ⁠the popular ​tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas ⁠following Mexico’s victory in a World ⁠Cup match on Wednesday night, ​Los ‌Cabos’ city ‌hall said in ‌a statement.

“According to preliminary information, the vehicle was surrounded by a group of people and, ‌for reasons to be determined by the ​competent authority, drove through the crowd, injuring several people,” city ⁠hall added.

Continue reading...

Duck off: World Cup hero Merlín barred from Mexico game due to Fifa’s animal ban

Posted on by

  • World’s sixth-most famous duck falls short of dream

  • Two-year-old must watch Czechia game from distance

Merlín the duck’s bid to see his beloved Mexico live has hit a snag after he was barred from El Tri’s match with Czechia on Wednesday.

Merlín has become a folk hero in Mexico after becoming a symbol of El Tri’s World Cup campaign on home soil. His fans had launched a campaign for Merlín to attend Wednesday’s match alongside his human family. But his journey was cut short by Fifa regulations.

Continue reading...

Brazilian federal police arrest Spanish citizen at São Paulo airport for racism

Posted on by

Woman detained at airport after allegedly making racist remarks directed at workers unloading baggage, police say

Brazil’s federal police have detained a Spanish citizen in São Paulo’s international Guarulhos airport for racism, in the latest of a series of high-profile arrests of foreign tourists on similar grounds.

Brazil has some of the strictest anti-racism laws in Latin America. Insulting a person on the basis of race carries a penalty of imprisonment from two to five years and a fine.

Continue reading...

Colombia’s leftwing candidate concedes election to Trump-endorsed millionaire

Posted on by

Leftist Iván Cepeda conceded to far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella who won by razor-thin margin

The defeated leftwing candidate in Colombia’s presidential runoff has conceded to the far-right, Trump-admiring millionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella.

Since Sunday night, the preliminary count had already pointed to a De la Espriella victory by a razor-thin margin of less than 1% of the vote.

Continue reading...

Canadian police warn of possible copycat attacks after deadly shootout in Montreal

Posted on by

Assailant behind shooting that left three people dead wrote ‘incel’-like manifesto that was posted by a far-right outlet

Police in Canada are warning of possible copycat attacks after three people died in a shootout in Montreal and the assailant’s lengthy manifesto, which called for “a new bloodletting”, was posted online by a far-right outlet.

The document contains many of the hallmark grievances of the “involuntary celibacy” – or “incel” – movement in addition racist and misogynistic conspiracy theories.

Continue reading...

Former Pinochet agents convicted over 1976 Washington DC carbomb murder

Posted on by

Attack targeted former Chile ambassador Orlando Letelier and his US colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt

Fifty years after Gen Augusto Pinochet’s secret police detonated a car bomb in the heart of Washington DC, killing Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean minister and ambassador to the US, and his American colleague Ronni Karpen Moffitt, a Santiago court has convicted three former agents of Moffitt’s murder.

Judge Paola Plaza, a special minister for human rights in Chile, sentenced Pedro Espinoza, José Zara, and Raúl Iturriaga to 15 years in prison for their roles in the killing of Moffitt, 25.

Continue reading...

Montreal mayor calls for end to random police checks amid racial profiling investigation

Posted on by

City’s police force faces investigation of 16 officers accused of disproportionately targeting Black and Arab residents

Montreal’s mayor has called for a halt to random police checks as the city’s police force grapples with an internal investigation into racism and racial profiling by 16 officers.

Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada told reporters last week that her husband, who is Black, had been repeatedly stopped by police while driving.

Continue reading...

Canadian healthcare staff decry ‘cruel hoax’ after scam email promises paid day off

Posted on by

Unions condemn ‘insensitive’ internal cybersecurity test sent to healthcare workers in Newfoundland and Labrador

For years, healthcare staff in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador have felt overworked and underappreciated. Turnover, burnout and thinning resources were pushing workers in the sector to a breaking point.

So when the email titled “June Holiday” arrived in thousands of inboxes, they felt a moment of overdue joy.

Continue reading...

Canada’s policies force asylum seekers into US to face deportation, critics say

Posted on by

Advocates say the Safe Third Country Agreement forces immigrants to head to an unsafe country: the United States

It was the threat of gang violence in Honduras that pushed Carlos and Antonia to flee their home. In 2021, with their toddler, Alejandro, and a handful of belongings, the married couple ventured north hoping to reach safety in the US.

The journey, through Guatemala and Mexico, was filled with danger and uncertainty.

Continue reading...

Bolivian president declares state of emergency and deploys military to quell anti-government protests

Posted on by

Bulldozers sent in to clear roadblocks that have stifled the country as farmers and Indigenous groups protest against conservative president

Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to raze anti-government roadblocks that have paralysed the country.

For more than six weeks, unions, Indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government.

Continue reading...

Barbados prime minister announces manifesto for slavery reparations

Posted on by

Updated document, which emphasises harm done to African women, is being considered by other Caribbean countries

Barbados’s prime minister, Mia Mottley, has announced a new manifesto from Caribbean leaders asserting the “moral, ethical and legal case” for reparations over damage caused by hundreds of years of enslavement.

Mottley was speaking at a “historic” conference in Ghana to advance the push for reparatory justice after the United Nations adopted a landmark resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

Continue reading...

Cannabis commercialisation not decriminalisation drives up usage, study finds

Posted on by

Review reveals rise in users and rates of psychosis in countries where cannabis is sold commercially

Decriminalising the possession of cannabis or strictly regulating access to the drug do not appear to drive up usage, but when the drug is sold commercially the number of users increases and more mental health problems are seen, a review has found.

An international team analysed the dramatic shift in policies on cannabis between 2000 and 2025, including how the numbers of people taking the drug, its potency, and rates of psychosis changed after new rules came in.

Continue reading...

Titan sub: design flaws and company groupthink central to catastrophe, report finds

Posted on by

Canadian officials find structural defects in material used for hull and say firm failed to fully test ‘novel’ design

Canadian safety officials have issued a damning report on the catastrophic final voyage of the Titan submersible, finding that the US company behind the expedition was overcome by “groupthink” and “confirmation bias” and failed to understand the profound risks confronting their largely untested craft.

The 6.7-metre (22ft) carbon fibre submersible dipped below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean in June 2023 en route to the wreckage of the Titanic ocean liner. But nearly two hours after it departed with five passengers, communications went dark. The disappearance prompted a frantic international search, with Canada and the US marshalling all available resources.

Continue reading...

Ghana to advance reparatory justice at first major gathering since landmark UN resolution

Posted on by

Heads of state and participants from more than 80 countries at three-day event in Accra to pursue actionable commitments to reconciliation and restitution

Ghana is hosting a conference to advance the continent’s push for reparatory justice after the adoption of the landmark United Nations (UN) resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

Heads of state and government, ministers, civil society representatives, historians, researchers and legal experts representing more than 80 countries are converging in the capital, Accra, for the three-day event, billed Next Steps, which starts on Wednesday. It is the first major gathering on the issue since the resolution was adopted.

Continue reading...