Category Archives: Americas

US starts to helicopter citizens out of Haiti as fighting erupts in wealthy areas

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State department organizes evacuation after nearly 1,600 US citizens ask for help amid reports of continuing violence in capital

The United States has said it was starting to evacuate its citizens out of Haiti by helicopter, amid reports of fresh fighting in the Caribbean country’s gang-dominated capital, with particularly fierce gunfire in some of the city’s wealthiest enclaves.

A state department spokesperson, Vedant Patel, told reporters on Wednesday that government-chartered aircraft were in the process of beginning to ferry evacuees from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

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Scientists find skull of enormous ancient dolphin in Amazon

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Fossil of giant river dolphin found in Peru, whose closest living relation is in South Asia, gives clues to future extinction threats

Scientists have discovered the fossilised skull of a giant river dolphin, from a species thought to have fled the ocean and sought refuge in Peru’s Amazonian rivers 16m years ago. The extinct species would have measured up to 3.5 metres long, making it the largest river dolphin ever found.

The discovery of this new species, Pebanista yacuruna, highlights the looming risks to the world’s remaining river dolphins, all of which face similar extinction threats in the next 20 to 40 years, according to the lead author of new research published in Science Advances today. Aldo Benites-Palomino said it belonged to the Platanistoidea family of dolphins commonly found in oceans between 24m and 16m years ago.

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Mexico: report challenges official story of migrant facility fire in which 40 died

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Investigation asserts that detention centre staff had key to cell in which men were being held but did not open door to let them out

A new report has challenged the official version of events during a fire in a Mexican migrant detention facility that killed dozens, alleging that staff could have let the men out of their cell, but instead decided – or were told – not to.

The fire in Ciudad Juárez broke out on 27 March 2023, when detainees started a fire to protest conditions at the facility. But as the flames spread, the men were left in a locked cell as smoke filled the building, until firemen arrived. Forty men were killed, and another 27 survived, with life-altering injuries.

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How did Canada end up with worse air quality than the US?

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Year of devastating wildfires meant Canadians were breathing worse air than southern neighbours for first time ever

Canada’s pristine air quality has been long praised by its citizens and prized by its government. But the thick plumes of smoke and miles of haze released by a record-breaking season of wildfires deteriorated the country’s air so much that it has fallen behind the United States for the first time on record, highlighting the wide-ranging and damaging effects of the blazes.

In its sixth annual World Air Quality report released on Tuesday, the Switzerland-based IQAir found overall air quality in Canada was worse than its southern neighbour. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada. Overall, Canada and the United States were ranked 93 and 102 for their air quality (Bangladesh, at No 1 was the most polluted).

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Brazil police indict Bolsonaro over alleged falsification of vaccination data

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Former president allegedly inserted false information into public health database to make it appear he received Covid vaccine

Brazil’s federal police have accused Jair Bolsonaro of criminal association and falsifying his own Covid-19 vaccination data, marking the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader with others potentially in store.

The supreme court on Tuesday released the police’s indictment which alleges Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false information into the public health database to make it appear as though the former president, his 12-year-old daughter and several others in his circle had received the Covid-19 vaccine.

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Cuba blames US for stoking protests amid power cuts and food shortages

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US embassy says ‘absurd’ to suggest Washington behind protests in Santiago de Cuba led by parents struggling to feed their children

The Cuban government has summoned the US ambassador, Benjamin Ziff, to its foreign ministry, accusing Washington of stoking a protest which saw hundreds of people take to the streets in the island’s second city of Santiago de Cuba.

The demonstration late on Sunday was a rare public show of disenchantment against Cuba’s communist government, and was apparently led by parents struggling to feed their children in the face of a worsening food crisis. The protesters reportedly chanted: “Without electricity and food, the people get hot.”

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Medical studies find no trace of physical harm in Havana syndrome patients

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Two new studies find no significant differences between US government officials suffering from condition and control group

Two new medical studies have found that US government officials suffering from Havana syndrome symptoms did not show any discernible physical damage or alteration.

One of the studies published on Monday by the federally funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) examined brain imaging, while the other looked at blood biomarkers and clinical assessments of hearing, vision, hand-eye coordination, cognitive ability and balance.

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At least a dozen dead as gang violence spills into wealthy areas of Haiti capital

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Gunmen looted homes in Laboule and Thomassin, forcing residents to flee previously peaceful neighborhoods

• Haiti: what caused the gang violence and will it end now the PM has quit?

Gunmen have assaulted two upscale neighborhoods in Haiti’s capital in an attack that left at least a dozen people dead in surrounding areas and suggested that a gang insurrection that prompted the prime minister to resign is far from over.

Assailants looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise on Monday, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police. Both neighborhoods had previously remained largely peaceful despite a surge in gang attacks across Port-au-Prince that began on 29 February.

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US citizens flee Haiti on government-chartered flight

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More than 30 Americans arrive in Miami from Cap-Haïten as US urges citizens to leave ‘as soon as possible’ amid gang violence

A charter flight carrying dozens of US citizens fleeing spiraling gang violence in Haiti landed on Sunday in Miami, state department officials said.

More than 30 US citizens were on the government-chartered flight, officials said in a statement. It arrived in Miami’s international airport after the US embassy in Port-au-Prince earlier this month urged US citizens to leave “as soon as possible” as chaos grips Haiti.

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Haiti healthcare system on verge of collapse as gang warfare rages on

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Only a single hospital in Port-au-Prince remains open, with others devoid of staff as patients look for care and the dead pile up

Haiti’s healthcare system has all but collapsed amid the ferocious gang insurrection which forced the resignation of the country’s prime minister, leaving victims of the violence with little hope of medical attention, according to aid workers in the stricken Caribbean country.

In the past two weeks hospitals have been set ablaze, doctors murdered and the most basic medical supplies have now dried up. Only a single public hospital in Haiti’s capital now remains operational – and that too is expected to shut its doors soon.

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Boxing great Roberto Durán receiving medical care for heart problem

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  • Four-weight champion suffering from ‘health complication’
  • Durán, 72, being treated in a hospital in native Panama

Boxing great Roberto Durán was receiving medical care for a heart problem, the family of the 72-year-old Panamanian said Saturday.

Durán, who was a champion in four different weight classes, “has suffered a health complication due to an atrioventricular blockade”, his family said in a statement on Durán’s Instagram account.

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Bolsonaro laid out plan for Brazil coup after defeat by Lula, ex-commanders say

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Testimony contained in documents released by supreme court details alleged plot to overturn result of 2022 Brazilian election

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro presented top military officials with a plan to carry out a coup d’état after his defeat in the October 2022 election, two former commanders have told the police, according to newly released judicial documents.

In testimonies made public on Friday, former army commander Marco Antônio Freire Gomes and former air force commander Carlos Baptista Júnior said Bolsonaro held several meetings in December 2022 in which he presented a document that would have served as the basis to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Canada conducts national security review of Chinese-owned TikTok

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Industry minister says review of popular video app that is planning to expand in country has been ongoing since September 2023

Canada is conducting a national security review of Chinese-owned TikTok’s proposed expansion of the popular video app in the country, the industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said on Friday.

In a teleconference from Italy after meeting with his G7 counterparts, Champagne said the review under the Investment Canada Act had been quietly initiated in September last year.

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Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’

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Discovery was made after First Nations tipped off ecologists about groups of fish gathering in a fjord off British Columbia

Deep in the hostile waters off Canada’s west coast, in a narrow channel surrounded by fjords, lies a coral reef that scientists believe “shouldn’t exist”. The reef is the northernmost ever discovered in the Pacific Ocean and offers researchers a new glimpse into the resilience – and unpredictability – of the deep-sea ecosystems.

For generations, members of the Kitasoo Xai’xais and Heiltsuk First Nations, two communities off the Central Coast region of British Columbia, had noticed large groups of rockfish congregating in a fjord system.

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Jamaican musician Vybz Kartel has murder conviction quashed

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Dancehall star was sentenced to life in prison in 2014 for the murder of an associate

The Jamaican musician Vybz Kartel’s conviction for the murder of an associate more than a decade ago has been quashed, with a London court ruling that attempts to bribe the trial jury meant the conviction was unsafe.

The dancehall star, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, is one of Jamaica’s most popular artists and has collaborated with performers such as Jay-Z and Rihanna.

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India blocks access to documentary about death of Sikh activist in Canada

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CBC aired an investigation into the death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, whose killing the Canadian government suspects India was behind

India has ordered prominent video-sharing platforms to block access to a new Canadian documentary probing the assassination of a prominent Sikh activist in Vancouver, in a move that highlights India’s mounting frustration with the allegations its government was behind the high-profile killing.

The request marks the second time in just over a year that India has sought to block a documentary critical of the Indian government or its leader, Narendra Modi. In 2023, India used emergency laws to block the distribution of the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question.

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Guns and weapons trafficked from US fueling Haiti gang violence

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Experts say most guns smuggled from states with lax firearms laws such as Florida, Arizona and Georgia

As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump-action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous.

But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities.

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Can Haiti avoid history repeating as burning streets meet vying elites?

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Plan for transitional council to rule after prime minister’s resignation brings strong sense of deja vu

Scenes of unrest in Haiti, as Ariel Henry announced his resignation as prime minister amid a violent gang uprising, have brought a strong sense of deja vu.

An international proposal for a transitional council to rule the country appeared to be crumbling on Wednesday. But those jostling for influence are familiar figures associated with political parties, coalitions, and the tiny oligarchic business elite that have been key players in the country’s long-running crisis of political legitimacy.

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Canadian man says daughter, 27, lacks ability to fully consent to assisted death

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Father calls on judge to block medically assisted death in case that highlights limits on family members’ ability to intervene

A Canadian man has called on a judge to block his 27-year-old daughter’s medically assisted death, arguing she lacks the ability to fully consent to the procedure in a case that highlights the limits on family members’ ability to intervene when a person has decided to die.

The Alberta woman – known as MV due to a publication ban – was set to die on 1 February after receiving approval from two doctors. But her father, WV, successfully applied for an injunction, arguing that she has an undiagnosed mental illness that prevents her from fully consenting to the procedure.

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Neil Young to return music to Spotify as he attacks ‘disinformation’ across streaming services

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Rock star left Spotify in 2022 in protest over podcaster Joe Rogan, but says he can’t keep up fight as Rogan broadens distribution to Apple, YouTube and Amazon

Neil Young is to return his music to Spotify after keeping it off the streaming platform for more than two years.

Young removed his entire catalogue from the world’s biggest streaming company in January 2022, in protest against Joe Rogan whose chart-topping podcast was exclusive to Spotify.

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