Category Archives: Americas

Mexican senate hears testimony on extraterrestrial life: ‘We are not alone’

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Alleged remains of ‘non-human’ mummies presented at hearing, in country’s first official event on UFOs

Mexican senators have heard testimony that “we are not alone” in the universe and been presented with the alleged remains of “non-human” mummies, in the country’s first official event on extraterrestrial life.

At a senate hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers were shown two shriveled bodies with shrunken heads – alongside video footage of “unexplained anomalous phenomena” – by Jaime Maussan, a sports journalist turned UFO enthusiast.

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Trial of Brazil’s alleged 8 January insurrectionists opens in supreme court

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Judge condemns ‘dastardly putschist attack’ on Latin America’s largest democracy as first four Bolsonaro supporters go on trial

The hate-filled vandals behind the “dastardly putschist attack” on Latin America’s largest democracy must be brought to justice, a supreme court judge has declared as Brazil held the first trial connected to Brasília’s 8 January insurrection.

Thousands of followers of the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro marauded through Brazil’s capital on 8 January this year in what his leftwing successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called an attempted coup d’état. Nearly 2,000 militant Bolsonaro supporters were arrested in the days after the presidential palace, supreme court and congress were ransacked by Bolsonarista radicals outraged at his defeat in last October’s election.

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Mexican drug lord El Chapo’s wife to be released from prison, say US authorities

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Emma Coronel was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to three counts of helping the Sinaloa drug cartel

Emma Coronel, the wife of the imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, will be freed in Los Angeles on Wednesday following her arrest in 2021 on drug trafficking charges, according to the US Bureau of Prisons.

The US-born 34-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to three counts of helping the Sinaloa drug cartel, including conspiracy to launder money and distribute illegal drugs and engaging in financial dealings.

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Hurricane Lee heads north with landfall expected in Nova Scotia or Maine

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Storm threatens to affect parts of Bermuda, New England and Atlantic Canada with winds up to 115mph

Hurricane Lee continues to grow larger in size as it moves northward and threatens to affects parts of Bermuda, New England and Atlantic Canada.

Moving at 7mph (11.3km/h) and packing winds of up to 115mph (185km/h), Lee was positioned 380 miles (612km) north of the northern Leeward Islands as well as 600 miles (965km) south of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday evening. That track triggered a tropical storm watch for Bermuda.

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Canadian police open case into ‘suicide kits’ sent to Montreal residents

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Suspected mailer is facing 14 charges in connection to deaths in Ontario, and is linked to another 88 deaths in Britain

Police in Canada have opened an investigation into “suicide kits” allegedly mailed to people in the Montreal, Quebec, by a man already facing more than a dozen criminal charges.

Montreal police said they believe Kenneth Law, 57, mailed packages containing a lethal substance to people at risk of suicide in the city. The police asked residents to exercise “vigilance” as the investigation advances.

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Canadian man accused of killing Muslim family motivated by white nationalism, court hears

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Closely watched trial of Nathaniel Veltman, charged with murder, could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism

The man accused of murdering four members of a Muslim family was motivated by white nationalist beliefs and was out to commit an act of “terrorism”, prosecutors have argued, during opening statements of a closely watched murder trial that could reshape how Canada prosecutes far-right extremism.

Nathaniel Veltman, 22, is facing four charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder after driving his truck into five members of the Afzaal family while they were out for a walk in London, Ontario, on the evening of 6 June 2021.

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Chile president gives staunch defence of democracy, 50 years after Pinochet coup

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Gabriel Boric makes speech outside palace where Salvador Allende was overthrown in 1973, ushering in brutal military dictatorship

Chile’s president has given an outspoken defence of democracy as the country marked the 50th anniversary of General Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état, which ushered in 17 years of brutal military dictatorship.

“Problems with democracy can always be solved … and a coup d’état is never justifiable – nor is endangering the human rights of those who think differently,” said Gabriel Boric in a speech outside La Moneda, the presidential palace bombed by British-built Hawker Hunter jets during the 1973 coup.

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Lula backpedals on suggestion Putin could attend G20 without fear of arrest

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Comments were at odds with Brazil foreign minister’s statement that Putin could face ‘issues’ if he traveled to any ICC member state

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has rowed back on comments suggesting Vladimir Putin would be able to attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest.

The international criminal court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the Russian leader’s arrest for alleged war crimes in Ukraine and, as a signatory of the Rome statute, Brazil is duty-bound to cooperate with the court. But on Saturday Lula raised eyebrows by telling an Indian interviewer there was “no reason” Putin would be detained if he travelled to the November 2024 summit in Brazil.

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Canada PM Justin Trudeau stuck in India after plane breaks down

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Canadian PM was due to return home on Sunday after G20 summit in Delhi but a mechanical fault kept him in India overnight

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and his entire delegation have been forced to extend their stay in New Delhi for the G20 summit by an extra day after his aircraft broke down, Canadian officials confirmed.

Trudeau arrived in India for the meeting of the leaders of 20 leading economies on Friday.

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Lula says Putin can attend next year’s G20 in Rio without fear of arrest

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Brazil’s president, now the group’s leader, says his Russian counterpart is welcome at 2024 event

Vladimir Putin can attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said as he took leadership of the forum.

Speaking at this year’s meeting in Delhi, Lula – who has controversially tried to position himself as a peacemaker between Moscow and Kyiv – said the Russian president would be welcome to attend the November 2024 event.

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Manchester United’s Antony appears on Brazilian TV to deny assault allegations

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  • Footballer denies allegations on Brazil’s SBT network
  • Three women have accused Brazil forward of assaulting them

The Manchester United winger Antony has spoken on Brazilian television denying allegations made against him of violence towards women. The 23-year-old was dropped this week from the Brazil squad after accusations were made of physical aggression on a number of occasions since January towards his former girlfriend Gabriela Cavallin, which are being investigated by police and which he denies.

Since then, the Brazilian newspaper Extra has reported that the influencer and law student Rayssa de Freitas filed a police report in May 2022 against Antony alleging she sustained injuries in an incident involving the player and another woman after a night out in São Paulo. Meanwhile, the banker Ingrid Lana told Brazil’s RecordTV that in an incident at Antony’s home in Manchester in October 2022 he “pushed me against the wall, and I hit my head”.

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Hurricane Lee prompts weekend beach warnings on US east coast

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Dangerous surf and rip currents expected along most of Atlantic coast from Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Lee is making its way through the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through early next week, prompting warnings of dangerous beach conditions on the US east coast over the weekend.

Between Wednesday and Thursday night, Lee evolved from a category 1 tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane. It then dropped down to a category 4 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center announced on Friday morning.

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Cuba arrests 17 over alleged recruitment of Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine

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Havana is ally of Moscow but foreign ministry states: ‘Cuba is not part of the war in Ukraine’

Cuban authorities have arrested 17 people in connection with what they described as a network to recruit Cuban nationals to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

The head of criminal investigations for Cuba’s interior ministry, César Rodríguez, told state media that at least three of the 17 people arrested were part of recruitment efforts inside the island country.

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Sound of Freedom film producer plots long-shot bid for Mexican presidency

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Eduardo Verástegui, who also acts in movie embraced by QAnon followers, files paperwork for 2024 election

The producer of a surprise US box office hit widely embraced by followers of the extremist Q-Anon conspiracy theory is attempting a long-shot run for president in Mexico.

Shortly before a deadline late on Thursday, Eduardo Verástegui, producer of Sound of Freedom, filed paperwork to run as an independent candidate in the June 2024 election.

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Mexican activists hail abortion ruling but warn of lack of access to care

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Campaigners say many facilities and medical workers are likely to deny access since procedure is banned in many local jurisdictions

Human rights activists in Mexico have welcomed a historic ruling by the country’s supreme court that decriminalized abortion, but warned that the historic decision will not automatically make terminations accessible for all Mexican women.

Wednesday’s unanimous decision stripped away federal criminal penalties related to abortions – but not the many local laws banning the procedure, which remain on the books in 20 of Mexico’s 32 states.

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‘Sleeping giant’ drought threatens more disasters after record Canada wildfires

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Unprecedented drought in British Columbia could usher in a fresh set of natural disasters, including devastating floods

A season of record-breaking wildfires in British Columbia is nearly over, but officials in the Canadian province have warned that a persistent drought in the Canadian province is a “sleeping giant” which could usher in a fresh set of natural disasters, including devastating floods in the coming months.

Bowinn Ma, British Columbia’s emergency management minister said this week the unprecedented drought has the full attention of senior government officials as the region enters the “home stretch” of the province’s unprecedented wildfire season. Hundreds of blazes tore across the province this summer, leaving crews exhausted and broken, and scorching an estimated 2.2m hectares of land.

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Canada: leading judge to steer public inquiry into foreign interference

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Marie-Josée Hogue to investigate claims of election meddling by China and other countries, in process marred by months of feuding

Canada has appointed a judge to lead a public inquiry into allegations of political meddling by China and other nations, in an attempt to restore confidence in a process marred by months of political feuding and allegations of cronyism.

The governing Liberal party announced on Thursday that Marie-Josée Hogue, a Quebec appeals court judge, will lead a public inquiry into allegations of foreign interference in Canadian elections. She has been tasked with providing a series of recommendations ahead of the next federal vote in 2025.

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Unicef sounds alarm as record numbers of children cross dangerous Darién Gap

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Children risking lives to migrate across Latin America and Caribbean, with aid groups warning they cannot cope

Record numbers of children are migrating across Latin America and the Caribbean with more than 60,000 children risking life and limb to cross the treacherous Darién Gap jungle pass this year, according to a new Unicef report.

Sounding the alarm over the rising number of youngsters on the move, the UN’s children’s agency said at least 92 migrant children had died or gone missing last year – more than any other year since 2014.

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Mexico set for first female president in 2024 election

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Former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum and senator Xóchitl Gálvez were selected as the candidates for the two major electoral groups

Mexico will almost certainly have its first female president in 2024, after the governing Morena party and the opposition coalition both chose women as their candidates.

Former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was named Morena’s candidate on Wednesday, despite runner-up Marcelo Ebrard’s last-minute denouncement of the process and demand for it to be redone.

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Mexico supreme court decriminalizes abortion across country

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Decision to remove abortion from federal penal code comes amid trend in Latin America of loosening restrictions on procedure

Mexico’s supreme court has unanimously ruled that state laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights, in the latest in a series of victories for reproductive rights activists across Latin America.

Wednesday’s ruling came two years after the court ordered the northern state of Coahuila to remove sanctions for abortion from its criminal code, a decision which prompted a tortuous state-by-state process of legal battles. So far 12 of Mexico’s 31 states have decriminalized the procedure.

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