Category Archives: Americas

Drought turns Amazonian capital into climate dystopia

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Forest fires leave Manaus with second worst air quality in the world, while low river levels cut off communities

A withering drought has turned the Amazonian capital of Manaus into a climate dystopia with the second worst air quality in the world and rivers at the lowest levels in 121 years.

The city of 1 million people, which is surrounded by a forest of trees, normally basks under blue skies. Tourists take pleasure boats to the nearby meeting of the Negro and Amazon (known locally as the Solimões) rivers, where dolphins can often be seen enjoying what are usually the most abundant freshwater resources in the world.

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Bolsonaro was engineer of ‘wilful coup attempt’, Brazil congress inquiry alleges

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Congressional investigation into failed rightwing insurrection on 8 January calls for former president to be charged with four crimes

Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro was the mentor of “a wilful and premeditated coup attempt” that sought to plunge Latin America’s largest democracy into political mayhem and perhaps even civil war, a congressional inquiry investigating the 8 January insurrection has alleged.

The dramatic assertion was made on Tuesday as the senator Eliziane Gama read the inquiry’s final report into January’s failed rightwing uprising in which thousands of radical Bolsonaro supporters rampaged through the capital, Brasília, after their leader failed to win re-election.

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Canada accuses China fighter jets of ‘reckless’ interception of military plane

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Defence minister says Chinese jet came within five meters of Canadian surveillance plane on UN operation over international waters

Canada’s defence minister has accused China fighter jets of carrying out a “dangerous and reckless” interception of a Canadian military plane over international waters.

Bill Blair spoke after Canada’s Global News said a Chinese jet had come within five meters (16ft) of a Canadian surveillance plane taking part in a UN operation to enforce sanctions against North Korea.

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Israel and Colombia in ferocious diplomatic spat over Hamas war

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Colombia’s president likens Israel’s actions to Nazis as Israel accuses Gustavo Petro of putting Jewish lives in danger

The Israel-Hamas war has sparked a ferocious diplomatic spat between Israel and Colombia, with Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, likening Israel’s actions to those of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis and Israel accusing Petro of putting Jewish lives in danger and encouraging “the horrific acts of Hamas terrorists” with his “hostile and antisemitic statements”.

The row began one day after Hamas’s unprecedented 7 October attacks when Petro used his official X account to denounce what he called “neo-Nazi” efforts to destroy the Palestinian people, freedom and culture.

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Water level at Amazon port in Brazil hits lowest point in 121 years amid drought

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Port in Manaus records lowest water level since 1902, leaving boats stranded and unable to deliver food and water to remote villages

The water level at a major river port in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has hit its lowest point in at least 121 years, as a historic drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.

Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon river have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to remote jungle villages, while high water temperatures are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins.

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US and Venezuela set to agree deal on sanctions relief and open elections

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Reports say announcement likely on Tuesday that would allow banned Maduro opponents to run and oil sanctions to be lifted

The governments of the US and Venezuela are reportedly poised to announce a deal that could pave the way for sanctions relief on the economically wrecked South American country and for banned opponents of President Nicolás Maduro to compete in next year’s election.

Anonymous sources quoted by two US media outlets said a scaling back of sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry would be announced on Tuesday after Maduro officials restarted talks with opposition negotiators in Barbados.

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Canada province uses constitutional override to advance pronoun legislation

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Saskatchewan invokes clause to push through controversial bill requiring parental consent for children to change pronouns

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan has invoked a rare constitutional mechanism to shield controversial gender pronoun legislation from legal challenges – a decision critics say violates the rights of minors.

On Monday, Saskatchewan’s legislative assembly started debate on Bill 137, which outlines the rights parents have as the “primary decision-maker” in their child’s education. Among the most controversial is the provision requiring parental consent before school staff use a desired gender identity or gender-related preferred name if the student is under the age of 16. The bill also says that if obtaining parental permission could cause harm to the child, the principal will connect the student with support to develop a plan to come out to their parents.

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Banana fortune heir Daniel Noboa wins Ecuador presidential election

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Luisa González, handpicked by Rafael Correa as successor, loses to 35-year-old who promises tough line on violent crime and cocaine trafficking

Daniel Noboa, the heir to a banana fortune who pledges a hard line on rocketing violent crime, employment for the young and foreign investment, will become Ecuador’s youngest ever president at 35 after winning by a margin of around five points over his rival, the leftist lawyer Luisa González.

With 90% of votes counted on Sunday night in Ecuador, Noboa had 52.29% of the vote against 47.71% for González, according to Ecuador’s electoral council.

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Dominica’s mountain chicken frog disappears in ‘fastest extinction ever recorded’

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Ecological calamity on the Caribbean island demonstrates how quickly wildlife can be destroyed, scientists say

They were once so numerous they were cooked as the national dish of Dominica. Every year, thousands of mountain chicken frogs, roasted with garlic and pepper, were eaten by islanders and tourists.

Two decades later, the animal – one of the world’s largest species of frog – has in effect disappeared from the Caribbean island. A series of ecological disasters has reduced its former healthy, stable population of hundreds of thousands of animals to a total of 21 frogs, according to scientists’ most recent survey.

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‘People are dying in the street’: Ecuador election overshadowed by violent crime

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The country goes to the polls this weekend after a campaign marked by bloodshed and the assassination of a candidate

Ecuadoreans will this weekend choose between a centre-right presidential candidate who is the scion of one of country’s wealthiest families, and a leftist disciple of the former president Rafael Correa, in an election overshadowed by violent crime and the assassination of a third candidate.

Polls ahead of Sunday’s vote put the banana industry heir Daniel Noboa, 35, slightly ahead of Luisa González, who has promised free medicine and increased worker protections.

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Suspected bomb on Panama City flight actually a diaper, police say

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Officials removed passengers on Copa Airlines aircraft bound for Florida and identified diaper as cause after emergency inspection

A Copa Airlines aircraft bound for Tampa, Florida, from Panama City turned back following a suspected bomb threat and the 144 passengers on board were disembarked, but the scare turned out to be a false alarm, authorities said on Friday.

Officials carried out an emergency inspection of the aircraft, and identified a disposable diaper for adults as the object that prompted the scare, the Central American country’s police said on X, formerly Twitter.

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Dominica may have sold thousands more ‘golden passports’ than it disclosed, analysis suggests

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Investigation raises questions about transparency and governance of $1bn citizenship by investment scheme

The Caribbean island of Dominica may have sold thousands more “golden passports” than its government has publicly disclosed, according to analysis that raises questions about the transparency and governance of its $1bn (£822m) citizenship by investment scheme.

An investigation by the Guardian and 14 other international news organisations, in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, has conducted the first detailed examination of the identities and numbers of individuals who paid for Dominican citizenship.

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Canada rejects request to protect northern spotted owl habitat

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One wild-born owl remains in British Columbia, where logging concerns have destroyed the species’s old-growth forest home

Canadian cabinet ministers have rejected a plea by the country’s environment minister to save an endangered owl, casting doubt on the species’ survival in the coming years.

The Wilderness Committee environmental advocacy group announced on Wednesday that federal ministers had rejected a request for an emergency order to protect the northern spotted owl – a request submitted by environment minister Steven Guilbeault.

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Lula urges end to ‘insanity of war’ as Latin Americans killed in Hamas attack

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Brazil president calls for humanitarian aid to protect Israeli and Palestinian citizens, while Latin Americans also taken hostage

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called for an end to “the insanity of war” as it emerged that more than a dozen Latin Americans were killed during Hamas’s assault, with citizens of Brazil and Argentina taken captive in the Gaza Strip.

By Wednesday morning, Latin American government and media reports had confirmed the deaths of seven Argentinians, two Brazilians, two Peruvians, one Colombian and one Paraguayan. At least 15 Argentinians, three Peruvians, two Mexicans and one Brazilian remain missing.

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Top Mexican court to give new life to controversial Trump-era border policy

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‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, which forces people seeking asylum to wait in Mexico while US claims are processed, set to be revived

The Mexican supreme court is poised to give new life to a controversial US-Mexico border policy at a time when both countries are looking for ways to slow the flow of migrants heading north.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols, is a Trump-era policy that forced people seeking asylum in the US to wait out their legal proceedings in Mexico for months or even years. The government of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador accepted the arrangement and allowed thousands of asylum seekers to be sent back to the country from the US.

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Politicians, not public, drive U-turns on green agenda, says UN biodiversity chief

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People are ahead of governments, says David Cooper, who blames backtracking on parties seeking ‘wedge issues’ for electoral gain

Government backtracking on environmental promises is being driven by politicians and vested interests, not the public, the acting UN biodiversity chief has said, as he called for greater support for those experiencing short-term costs from green policies.

David Cooper, acting executive secretary for the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD), told the Guardian he believed the public mood was not moving against greater environmental protections, and that vested interests opposed to action on the climate crisis and nature loss were trying to frustrate progress.

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Revealed: thousands who bought ‘golden passports’ through Dominica’s $1bn scheme

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Former Afghan spymaster, convicted millionaire and former Libyan colonel among those who became Dominican citizens

The Caribbean state of Dominica has sold citizenship to thousands of individuals including a former Afghan spymaster, a Turkish millionaire convicted of fraud and a former Libyan colonel under Muammar Gaddafi, the first detailed examination of the country’s controversial “golden passports” scheme has found.

The findings are from Dominica: Passports of the Caribbean, an investigation by the Guardian and 14 other international news organisations, in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

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Luxury rooms and a swim-up bar: hotel with funding from Dominica’s golden passport scheme

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Former Afghan spy chief among those to gain citizenship though investment in Caribbean island

Nestled in a valley formed by an extinct volcano on the Caribbean island of Dominica, the InterContinental Cabrits resort has 101 luxurious rooms overlooking an emerald bay. Its website invites guests to “explore and unwind in paradise while discovering the pristine island”.

But waterfront views and a swim-up rum bar are not the hotel’s only attraction: for the wealthy investors who helped fund the project, it was also a route to another nationality.

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Canada: police open criminal inquiry into billion-dollar green belt scandal

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Ontario premier Doug Ford’s office to ‘fully cooperate’ with investigation into scandal that has forced number of resignations

Canada’s federal police have opened a criminal investigation into a controversial plan to allow construction on greenbelt lands in Ontario, escalating a political scandal that has gripped the province and already forced a number of high-profile government resignations.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced on Tuesday that its sensitive and international investigations unit would investigate the C$8.3bn ($6.10bn) deal.

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Human emissions made deadly South American heat 100 times more likely

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Research shows climate crisis by far main cause of recent unseasonable temperatures in southern winter and early spring

The deadly heat in central South America over the past two months was made 100 times more likely by human emissions that disrupted the climate, scientists have shown.

Temperatures have exceeded 40C in late winter and early spring in the southern hemisphere, affecting millions and leading to heat-related deaths.

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