Canada: legal challenges threaten to derail truck blockade leaders’ trial

Trial initially scheduled to last 16 days facing mounting delays amid challenges over the admission of certain evidence

The trial of two protest leaders who encouraged a truck blockade of Canada’s capital is facing mounting delays as legal arguments threaten to derail the closely watched case.

Early last year, the month-long “Freedom Convoy’” protest paralyzed Ottawa after hundreds of large vehicles blocked key thoroughfares. Initially meant as a challenge to coronavirus public health measures, the protests soon morphed into a broader collection of political grievances against the governing Liberal party.

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How should UK, US and Australia respond to Canada-India row?

Justin Trudeau’s accusation that India may be behind Sikh separatist killing puts western leaders in awkward position

Canada’s accusation on Monday that India may have been behind the car park murder of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Najjar in June – which New Delhi rejects outright – comes at an uncomfortable and unwelcome time for Britain, the US and Australia.

London, Washington and Canberra have all been prioritising closer ties with New Delhi, seeing it not just as a strategic bulwark against the fast-rising China, but also as a partner in the economic isolation of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.

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US and Brazil warn of attempt to stop Guatemala president-elect taking power

Fears Guatemalan democracy is in peril amid warning of potential coup to block inauguration of anti-corruption crusader

International concern over the future of Guatemala’s democracy is growing, as Brazil’s president warned of a possible coup to stop the president-elect taking power and the US denounced unprecedented attempts to undermine the Central American country’s election result.

The centre-left anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo was elected Guatemala’s new president last month. This week thousands of supporters took to the streets to protest against alleged attempts to block his inauguration in January.

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‘His spirit is still among us’: Sikhs defiant in Canada city where activist was murdered

Colleagues say they knew Hardeep Singh Nijjar could be targeted by India for his role in Canada as a community leader

Justin Trudeau may have shocked the world this week when he linked “agents of India” to the murder of a Canadian citizen in British Columbia, but colleagues who worked alongside Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar before he was shot dead this summer said the link was already clear.

“We’re not surprised,” said Gurkeerat Singh, a volunteer at the Surrey temple that Nijjar led from 2019 until his death on 18 June. “The whole community knew who was behind it. We knew that Hardeep Singh Nijjar could be targeted by the Indian state for his role as a community leader advocating for human rights and for a separate Sikh state.”

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India urges its citizens to exercise ‘extreme caution’ in Canada

India’s foreign ministry issues warning after rejecting Trudeau’s allegations government played role in murder of Sikh activist

The diplomatic row between India and Canada over the murder of a Sikh activist has continued to escalate as New Delhi warned its nationals of “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate crimes” in Canada.

Justin Trudeau alleged on Monday that there were “credible allegations” that the Indian government played a role in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was connected to a Sikh separatist movement, in British Columbia in June.

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Galápagos Islands tightens biosecurity as avian flu threatens unique species

Scientists confirm three birds have died from virus as park authorities redouble efforts to protect islands’ endemic birds

National park authorities on the Galápagos Islands have heightened biosecurity measures to protect the archipelago’s unique fauna from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza after scientists confirmed that three birds had died from the virus.

“From preliminary tests of the five specimens, three of them have tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza,” Danny Rueda, director of the Galápagos national park told the Guardian. Two frigate birds and one red-footed booby were confirmed to have died from the virus on Tuesday, after samples were sent to Guayaquil on the Ecuadorian mainland for examination.

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London church unveils artwork to commemorate African-born abolitionist

Che Lovelace paintings in St James’s church are first permanent art commission to honour Quobna Ottobah Cugoano

A permanent artwork to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the baptism of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, one of Britain’s most important abolitionists, has been unveiled at a church in central London.

The paintings by the Trinidad-based artist Che Lovelace, displayed at St James’s church, Piccadilly, are the first permanent art commission to commemorate Cugoano, a significant but largely forgotten figure in the history of Black Britain.

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Canada and India make tit-for-tat envoy expulsions over killing of Sikh leader

Top intelligence officials expelled after Trudeau accused India of involvement in assassination of exiled Hardeep Singh Niijar

Canada and India have announced tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions after Justin Trudeau’s explosive allegation that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination on Canadian soil – accusations that India derided as “absurd”.

Speaking on Tuesday, the Canadian prime minister stood firm on the allegations that India was implicated in the death of the Sikh independence advocate Hardeep Singh Niijar, who was shot dead in Surrey, British Columbia, in June.

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Brazilians applaud Lula’s return to diplomacy as he addresses UN general assembly

Relief in Brazil as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks at the UN after four chaotic years of rule by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro

“Our world is becoming unhinged,” the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned as he kicked off the body’s assembly general on Tuesday.

But many Brazilians felt that in their country’s case at least, sanity had returned as its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took to the rostrum in New York to proclaim a new dawn after the chaotic term of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

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Israeli ambassador protests as Iranian president speaks – as it happened

The United Nations general assembly liveblog is now closed, but please see the following stories to stay on top of the day’s news:

Guterres says countries such as Russia are creating a “world of insecurity” for everyone following its invasion of Ukraine, which he says has “unleashed the next phase of our lives: historic human rights abuse, families torn apart, children traumatised, hopes and dreams shattered.”

The war in Ukraine has “serious implications” for the world beyond Kyiv, he says, pointing to the collapse of the Black Sea grain initiative.

The world badly needs Ukrainian food and Russian food and fertilisers to stabilise markets and guarantee food security.

Sudan is descending into full scale civil war. Millions have fled and the country risks splitting apart.

In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, millions are displaced and gender based violence is a horrific daily reality in a country that suffered centuries of colonial exploitation, is today overwhelmed by gang violence and still awaits international support.

Authoritarianism is on the march, inequalities are growing, and hate speech is on the rise.

What we need is determination and determination which is in the DNA of our United Nations, summoning gods with the first words of the charter.

We the peoples of the United Nations, determined, determined to end the scourge of war, determined to reaffirm faith in human rights, determined to uphold justice and respect international law and determined to promote social progress and better lives for all people.

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‘Credible evidence’ India behind alleged assassination of Sikh leader, says Trudeau

India rejects as ‘absurd’ allegation by PM that it was responsible for fatal shooting of Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil

Justin Trudeau has said there is “credible evidence” India is responsible for the alleged assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Canadian Sikh leader, a claim Delhi dismissed as “absurd”.

The Canadian prime minister told the House of Commons of Canada on Monday that, in recent weeks, national security authorities had been probing allegations that New Delhi was behind a state-sponsored assassination.

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Literary satire American Fiction takes Toronto film festival’s top award

Cord Jefferson’s story of a novelist (Jeffrey Wright) grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers is now practically guaranteed serious Oscar consideration

American Fiction, the literary satire starring Jeffrey Wright as a novelist grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers, has won the Toronto international film festival’s influential People’s Choice award, a result that practically guarantees it serious Oscar consideration and contention for major awards.

Described by the Guardian as “hilarious and withering”, American Fiction triumphed over pre-festival favourites such as Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Boy and the Heron, which were named the runners-up. It is written and directed by Cord Jefferson, a credited writer on TV shows including The Good Place, Watchmen and Station Eleven, and now making his feature directing debut.

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Power outages and one death as Storm Lee swings away from Canadian coast

Tens of thousands without power in New England and Nova Scotia as other potentially dangerous tempests hover over the Atlantic

Tens of thousands in New England and Canada remained without power on Sunday morning after the deadly storm Lee struck Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon as a post-tropical cyclone.

In Nova Scotia, nearly 100,000 customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.com. The US state of Maine was dealing with about 40,000 outages as of Sunday morning, and New Brunswick had about 12,000, the website also said.

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Fourteen people killed in plane crash in Brazil’s Amazonas state

Regional governor says 12 passengers and two crew were onboard the Embraer aircraft when it crashed in Barcelos province

Fourteen people on a small plane died when it crashed in Brazil’s northern Amazonas state on Saturday, the regional governor said.

The crash took place in Barcelos province, about 250 miles (400km) from the state capital, Manaus.

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Keir Starmer arrives in Canada to set out stall on immigration policy

Diplomatic and media blitz for Labour leader will include appearances on Sunday morning political shows

Keir Starmer has arrived in Canada to set out his doctrine for tackling international threats at a gathering of world leaders, the latest step in the Labour leader’s move to flesh out policy in politically turbulent areas such as immigration.

Amid continued efforts by Starmer and his team to push back against the “nonsense” that closer cooperation with the EU would involve the UK having to accept 100,000 asylum-seekers a year, the Labour leader was in Montreal for the Global Progress Action Summit of centre-left politicians.

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Biden approves state of emergency for Maine as Hurricane Lee approaches

Canada issues hurricane watch for parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with storm expected to bring high winds and flooding

Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Maine as Hurricane Lee rapidly approaches the north-easternmost US state amid the likelihood of a landfall there or more likely in Canada over the weekend.

About 7 million people are now under tropical storm warnings across Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Canadian Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane watch for parts of the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

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Bolsonaro aide tells police he sold luxury watches for ex-president – report

Lt Col Mauro Cid said to admit selling watches from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in Pennsylvania mall and handing cash to Bolsonaro

Jair Bolsonaro’s former personal secretary has reportedly told police he handed tens of thousands of dollars to his old boss after selling two luxury watches that Brazil’s ex-president had received as official gifts.

Lt Col Mauro Cid, who was Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp during his 2019-23 presidency, was released from four months’ detention on Saturday after striking a plea deal with police.

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When nature calls: Canadian wilderness area offers poop bags to fix fecal furore

Special bag dispensers will be installed after visitors to wild areas around Squamish, British Columbia, left more than footprints

The sheer rock faces, winding trails and granite crags around Squamish in south-western British Columbia have seen a surge of climbers, campers and hikers lured to answer the call of the wild – but who are increasingly causing friction with local people when nature calls.

Earlier this week, the Squamish Access Society announced it had partnered with the province’s parks service and local businesses to erect five poop bag dispensers, placed at busy climbing locations, with four more planned in the coming weeks.

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Far-right fanatic given 17 years for role in Brazil coup attempt

Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, is first rioter to be tried for January assault on Latin America’s largest democracy

Brazil’s supreme court has sentenced a far-right fanatic to 17 years in prison for his role in the failed attempt to topple the country’s leftwing government on 8 January this year.

Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, a sanitation worker from São Paulo, was the first rioter to face trial for January’s dramatic assault on Latin America’s largest democracy.

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Maine and Atlantic Canada face flood warnings as Hurricane Lee heads north

Storm, which has already brought strong winds and heavy rain to Bermuda, is weakening in strength but expanding in size

Parts of coastal New England and Atlantic Canada are under a tropical storm watch this week as Hurricane Lee continues on its path upward.

With maximum sustained winds of up to 100mph, Lee was 265 miles south-west of Bermuda as of Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

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