Category Archives: Americas

Bolsonaro under investigation for ‘harassing’ humpback whale

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Man resembling Brazilian ex-president seemingly spotted on a jetski about 15 metres from distressed mammal

Federal police are investigating Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, for yet another suspected misdeed: “harassing” a humpback whale while taking a public holiday spin on his jetski.

Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental policies earned him the nickname “Captain Chainsaw” during a four-year administration characterised by soaring destruction of the Amazon. But the far-right ex-president’s latest suspected environmental offence reportedly occurred in the waters off Brazil’s south-eastern coastline near the town of São Sebastião.

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Mystery of ‘decades-old’ plane wreck in Canadian backcountry solved

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Police were stumped when ‘crashed’ plane was found in British Columbia, but it was placed there last summer for rescue training

When a hunter in British Columbia stumbled upon the crumpled remains of an airplane fuselage on 3 November, he reported the grim findings to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

Officers were dispatched to the remote crash site to survey the wreckage and concluded that the shell of the bush plane, with no motor, wings, doors or seats, was likely more than two decades old.

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‘Hell de Janeiro’: scorching heat highlights Brazil’s glaring inequality

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It felt like 58.5C in Rio on Tuesday – and the soaring, indeed dangerous, temperatures are hitting the poorest hardest

The start of summer in the southern hemisphere is still a month away, but Brazil has already experienced its eighth heatwave of the year so far, as temperatures soar to dangerously high levels.

Large swathes of the country were put under red alert this week by Inmet, the national meteorological institute, which warned of risks to health “and even life” as temperatures stayed at least five degrees Celsius above average for more than five days.

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Argentina holds breath as far-right Milei seizes narrow runoff advantage

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Populist provocateur appears slight favorite over Peronist Sergio Massa as 35m Argentinians vote to choose new president

Argentina is teetering on the brink of an unpredictable new political era this weekend with an erratic far-right populist known as “El Loco” (the Madman) the slight favourite to become president of South America’s second-largest economy in Sunday’s election.

As polls opened on Sunday morning against a backdrop of soaring inflation and widespread poverty, analysts believed Javier Milei, a TV celebrity turned congressman, held a slender advantage over his rival, the finance minister, Sergio Massa, but said the result was too close to call.

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Taylor Swift postpones Rio concert after fan dies amid heatwave

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Singer says safety comes first after death of Ana Clara Benevides Machado, 23, in sweltering stadium

Taylor Swift’s concert in Brazil on Saturday night has been postponed after a fan died shortly before the start of her gig in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

The show’s organisers, Time4Fun (T4F), said in a statement that paramedics had attended to Ana Clara Benevides Machado, 23, at the concert venue and taken her to a hospital, where she died an hour later.

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Photographer shot dead in fifth journalist killing in Mexico in 2023

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Body of Ismael Villagómez found in a car as the Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the killing to be investigated

A photographer for a newspaper in the notoriously violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez was found shot dead in the driver’s seat of a car, prosecutors said, in the fifth killing of a journalist in the country so far in 2023.

The body of Ismael Villagómez was found just after midnight Thursday. The newspaper he worked for, the Heraldo de Juarez, said the news photographer was found dead in a car that he had registered to use for work for a ride-hailing app. In Mexico, many journalists take work outside the profession to pay the bills.

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Canadian man convicted of murdering Muslim family in 2021 truck attack

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Nathaniel Veltman found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder over London, Ontario, attack

The Canadian man who killed four members of a Muslim family, has been found guilty on four charges of first degree and one count of attempted murder, in a case that tested how the country’s terror laws might prosecute far-right extremism.

The jury took around six hours to convict Nathaniel Veltman, who faces a life imprisonment sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. Justice Renee Pomerance will determine whether Veltman’s actions meet the threshold for terrorism when she issues her sentencing.

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Argentinian ex-officer who was charged over 23 murders dies in Berlin

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Luis Kyburg was alleged commander of Argentinian navy unit believed responsible for deaths of at least 150 people

An Argentinian former military officer has died of natural causes in Berlin just weeks before he was charged over the murder of 23 members of leftwing groups during the country’s military dictatorship.

The 75-year-old ex-navy officer was suspected in the abduction, disappearance, torture and murder of 23 young people in 1976 and 1977, Berlin prosecutors said.

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Mexican president’s popularity soars even as country faces persistent turmoil

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Amlo’s pension program helped boost his approval rating, but critics point to his various shortcomings as his term nears its end

Life isn’t easy for Teodila Faustino, who shares a cinder-block home with her husband, five children and several grandchildren on the outskirts of Mexico City. At 69, she has retired from the restaurant where she made about $50 (£46) a week, and her employer left her no pension.

Other than selling tacos occasionally on the street, Faustino’s only lifeline is a state pension through which she receives about $280 (£224) every two months. This, in part, explains her undying gratitude to the man who launched the program: Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

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‘A painful loss for our community’: Mexico’s queer population demands answers in magistrate death

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Queer activists protest after first non-binary magistrate in nation Jesús Ociel Baena and partner found dead in home

Against the bland, beige backdrop of Mexico’s electoral courtrooms, Jesús Ociel Baena was radiant. The non-binary magistrate paired a shirt and tie with colorful skirts, high heels and bright red lipstick. In the heat of Aguascalientes state, Baena, who used they/their pronouns, would theatrically brandish a rainbow fan to cool down.

Proudly out in the courtroom, the classroom and on social media, Baena was a beacon for Mexico’s queer population, and their death this week has sent shock waves through an embattled community.

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Canadian peace activist confirmed killed in Hamas attack

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Officials confirm ‘lifelong advocate for peace’ Vivian Silver, 74, killed after initial reports suggested she had been taken hostage

Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born activist who spent decades working to foster peace between Israelis and Palestinians, has been confirmed killed after initial reports suggested she had been kidnapped during the 7 October Hamas attacks.

In a statement on Tuesday, Idit Shamir, Toronto’s Israeli consul general, confirmed the 74-year-old had been killed by Hamas during the assault on Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel.

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Mexico’s first openly non-binary magistrate found dead at home

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Authorities look into Jesús Ociel Baena’s cause of death as activists urge full investigation into gender identity-related threats

Mexico’s first openly non-binary magistrate and a prominent LGBTQ+ activist has been found dead at home in the central state of Aguascalientes.

Jesús Ociel Baena, who used they/them pronouns, was celebrated across Latin America for their work to advance the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.

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Joan Jara, British dancer and Victor Jara’s widow, dies aged 96

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The human rights activist died two weeks before her husband’s killer is due for extradition from US to Chile

The British dancer, choreographer and human rights activist Joan Jara, widow of the late Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara, has died in Santiago at the age of 96, two weeks before her husband’s killer is due to be extradited from the US to Chile.

She became a symbol of opposition to the Chilean dictatorship for her unrelenting pursuit of truth and justice for her husband, who was brutally tortured and killed after Gen Augusto Pinochet’s coup d’état.

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Argentina’s far-right Milei angers Falklands veterans with Thatcher praise

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Presidential candidate calls former UK prime minister one of ‘the great leaders in the history of humanity’ during debate

Argentina’s libertarian presidential candidate, Javier Milei, has been pilloried by veterans of the Falklands war after he praised Margaret Thatcher as one of “the great leaders in the history of humanity” during the final electoral debate before next Sunday’s election.

Milei – a self-described anarcho-capitalist – has frequently expressed admiration for Thatcher’s free-market policies. But she is still reviled in Argentina for ordering the sinking of the General Belgrano cruiser, killing 323 people on board, during the 1982 war with the UK over the Falkland islands, which Argentina claims as Islas Malvinas.

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Dominica creates world’s first marine protected area for sperm whales

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Nearly 300 sq miles of water on west of Caribbean island to be designated as a reserve for endangered animals

The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica is creating the world’s first marine protected area for one of Earth’s largest animals: the endangered sperm whale.

Nearly 300 sq miles (800 sq km) of royal blue waters on the western side of the island nation that serve as key nursing and feeding grounds will be designated as a reserve, the government announced on Monday.

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Canada investigates alleged ‘threats’ against Air India after boycott call

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Officials launch investigation after separatist leader posts video warning Sikhs against flying with airline on 19 November

Canadian officials and the Royal Canadian Mounted police are investigating alleged “threats” against Air India after a separatist leader warned Sikhs against flying with the airline on 19 November.

The US-based activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun posted a video last week in which he called for a boycott of India’s flagship carrier.

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Netflix’s movie Hurricane Season stirs debate over violent depiction of Mexico

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Based on the prize-winning book by Fernanda Melchor, film depicts brutality stemming from ‘war on drugs’ that began in 2006

A group of children find a body in the river: the village witch, her throat slit, writhing with snakes.

The opening scene of Hurricane Season, a new Netflix movie based on Mexican novelist Fernanda Melchor’s book, plunges the viewer straight into a tropical, lawless, superstitious version of rural Veracruz, Melchor’s home state.

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Shots fired at another Jewish school in Montreal amid tensions over Israel-Hamas war

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Third such case in less than a week in Canadian city but unclear if incidents are related

A Jewish school in Montreal was hit by gunfire, according to local media, marking the Canadian city’s third such attack in less than a week amid heightened tensions over the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

No one was injured when the facade of Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal was struck early on Sunday. Bullet marks and shells were found after residents heard gunfire, CBC News in Canada reported.

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Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard found guilty of sexual assault

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Prosecutors had said the 82-year-old lured women to a private bedroom suite after inviting them on a tour of his headquarters

The former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been found guilty on four counts of sexual assault after five women testified he used a private bedroom suite in his company headquarters to assault them.

The verdict by a Toronto jury came midday on Sunday after five days of deliberation.

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‘Very difficult’: father of Luis Díaz speaks for first time after release by Colombia guerillas

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Luis Manuel Díaz has described how he spent 12 days trekking through mountains with almost no sleep

The father of Liverpool footballer Luis Díaz has spoken publicly of how he endured almost two weeks of arduous treks and sleepless nights while held captive by armed guerrillas on the Colombian-Venezuelan border.

Luis Manuel Díaz, 58, said: “It was a lot of horseback riding, really hard, a lot of mountains, a lot of rain, too many insects.” A weak Díaz, who was helped to and from a chair by his family, told journalists in his home town of Barrancas in Colombia: “I couldn’t sleep peacefully, it was very difficult, almost 12 days without sleep.”

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