Category Archives: Americas

Argentina ‘puts a limit on madness’ as resurgent Peronists stall Milei’s rise

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Soft-spoken Sergio Massa’s campaigning strategy pays off while voters seem to pull back from libertarian rival – but who will win the runoff?

After a disastrous showing in Argentina’s open primaries in August, Argentina’s Peronist party made a resounding comeback this week. In the latest chapter in a rollercoaster presidential election, the soft-spoken economy minister, Sergio Massa, snatched what seemed like a sure victory from the jaws of the libertarian Javier Milei, winning 36.6% of the vote against only 29.9% for Milei.

The broad margin was still not enough to avoid a runoff on 19 November between the two most dissimilar contenders imaginable. Although beset by soaring price inflation and a 40% poverty rate, Massa trounced Milei, whose promise to dollarize the economy and legalize the organ trade had catapulted him to surprise victory in August.

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Argentina: leftists celebrate after far-right Milei fails to win election victory

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Lula and other Latin American leftwingers hail Sergio Massa’s first-placed finish, with election now headed to November runoff

Leading Latin American leftists have celebrated the thwarting of Javier Milei’s attempt to claim a first-round victory in Argentina’s presidential election after the far-right populist was beaten by his centrist rival Sergio Massa.

Milei, an oddball economist who has called climate change a “socialist lie” and the pope “a lefty son of a bitch”, had hoped an explosion of anti-establishment rage would catapult him into the presidency on Sunday as 27 million Argentinians turned out to vote amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

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Chevron to buy oil and gas producer Hess in $53bn all-stock deal

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Takeover puts Chevron head-to-head with ExxonMobil in oil-rich Guyana and US shale industry

Chevron has announced plans to buy the oil producer Hess Corporation in a $53bn (£44bn) deal, becoming the second American energy giant to place a vast bet on fossil fuel production this month.

The all-stock takeover, which will increase Chevron’s presence in oil-rich Guyana, was unveiled less than two weeks after another of the world’s largest oil companies, Exxon Mobil, said it would acquire the shale group Pioneer Natural Resources for $59.5bn.

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Venezuela: Machado takes big early lead in presidential primary vote

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Challenger to crisis-ridden presidency of Nicolás Maduro claims victory after Venezuelans queue for hours in rainstorm to vote

Early returns in the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential primary have given a big lead to former legislator María Corina Machado, who quickly claimed victory as the candidate to end the decade-long, crisis-ridden presidency of Nicolás Maduro.

The independent National Primary Commission, which organised the vote, said about 93% of the first 601,110 ballots counted went to Machado, who entered the contest as a strong frontrunner. The rest of the votes were scattered among the other nine candidates. There was no indication of how many people had voted, and organisers were expected to release additional results throughout Monday.

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Far-right populist Javier Milei fails to win first round of Argentina’s presidential election

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Potty-mouthed political outsider will head to November runoff with centrist finance minister Sergio Massa

The eccentric far-right populist Javier Milei has failed to win the first round of Argentina’s presidential election, with the centrist finance minister Sergio Massa unexpectedly beating his radical challenger.

Supporters of Milei, a potty-mouthed political outsider described as an Argentinian mashup of Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro and Boris Johnson, had hoped he was heading for a sensational outright victory similar to Bolsonaro’s shock triumph in Brazil in 2018.

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Threats against rape victim, 10, lay bare Bolivia’s culture of sexual violence

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Supporters of alleged rapist, girl’s 39-year-old headmaster, stormed police station in effort to prevent arrest

The ombudsman’s office in Bolivia has condemned threats against a 10-year-old rape victim and her family after teachers and school staff tried to prevent the arrest of the alleged rapist, a 39-year-old headmaster, by trying to invade a local police station and scuffling with police officers.

Videos posted on social media show the group gathered outside the police station, trying to pressure the prosecutor and judge to release the alleged perpetrator.

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Canada withdraws 41 diplomats from India embassy amid murder dispute

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Country forced to reduce diplomatic presence amid tensions over Sikh separatist killing and says it will not take retaliatory steps

Canada has withdrawn 41 diplomats from India amid a dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist, announced foreign minister Melanie Joly, adding that Ottawa would not take retaliatory steps.

New Delhi last month asked Ottawa to reduce its diplomatic presence after prime minister Justin Trudeau said there was credible evidence of a potential link between Indian agents and the murder in June of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, who was shot outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia.

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Giant tortoise named Frank the Tank seeks new home for next 100 years

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Tortoise is ‘bigger than the platter you’d use to serve 24 people a Thanksgiving turkey’ and was found abandoned in a spinach patch

Frank the Tank will chew through drywall and grow to the size of a wheelbarrow. He moves at his own meandering pace and will live for nearly a century – outlasting any prospective caregiver.

Caring for a 35lb sulcata tortoise is no small task, which is perhaps why Frank was recently abandoned in a patch of spinach in British Columbia. The plight of the lumbering reptile, has prompted widespread sympathy as his new carers try to find him a permanent home.

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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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