Chile’s perfect skies for stargazing under threat from giant chemical plant

Astronomers deeply concerned that darkest, clearest skies in world will be compromised by proposed facility nearby

In the Atacama desert, the driest non-polar region on Earth, the sky shines when the sun sets.

Up in the arid hills 130km south of the Chilean city of Antofagasta, comets burn brightly and flawless trails of stars and nebulae streak the night sky.

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Power back on in Chile after blackout leaves millions in dark

Electricity restored to almost all affected regions as investigation under way into how outage occurred

Power has been restored to most of Chile’s 19 million people after the country’s most disruptive blackout in 15 years, the government said, as authorities lifted a strict curfew imposed when the outage left 98% of the population without electricity.

Chilean interior minister Carolina Tohá said on Wednesday that electricity had largely returned to Chile’s 14 afflicted regions, although 220,000 residents remained without power.

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Chile hit by major blackout, leaving millions without electricity

State of emergency and overnight curfew declared after blackout strands commuters and knocks out traffic lights

Authorities in Chile have declared a state of emergency and overnight curfew after a sweeping blackout stranded commuters, knocked out traffic lights, paralyzed countless businesses and left millions of people in the South American country without electricity.

The National Electrical Coordinator, Chile’s grid operator, said a disruption had occurred in a high-voltage transmission line that carries power from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to the capital of Santiago in the country’s central valley.

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‘I closed my eyes to brace for impact’: the man who escaped a whale’s mouth

Adrián Simancas encountered a humpback off Chile’s coast – but scientists say he was never at risk of being swallowed

Adrián Simancas had been paddling for two hours in the calm but icy seas of the Strait of Magellan, off the coast of Chilean Patagonia, when something massive emerged from the water and dragged him under.

“I saw dark blue and white colours before feeling a slimy texture brush against my face,” the 24-year-old told the Guardian. “I closed my eyes to brace for impact, but it was soft, like being hit by a wave.”

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Fungi could be given same status as flora and fauna under conservation plan

Exclusive: proposal to Cop16 could see ‘funga’ get global legal consideration distinct from flora and fauna

A new era of mycelial conservation could begin this month when the UK and Chile propose that fungi should be placed alongside animals and plants as a separate realm for environmental protection.

Mushrooms, mould, mildew, yeast and lichen would all receive elevated status under the plan, which will be submitted to the UN convention on biological diversity (CBD) during the Cop16 meeting in Cali, Colombia, which opens on 21 October.

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Alleged Pinochet agent turned Bondi nanny Adriana Rivas launches last-ditch appeal to block extradition to Chile

Rivas, who is accused by Chile of being a torturer and kidnapper, launches challenge in the federal court

A former Bondi nanny and cleaner accused by Chile of being a torturer and kidnapper for Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the 1970s has launched a last-ditch legal appeal to avoid extradition.

Adriana Rivas, 70, has been in prison in Australia since 2019, when she was arrested on an extradition request from Chile – seeking her for trial on seven counts of aggravated kidnapping relating to the disappearance, and presumed murder, of seven members of Chile’s communist party who disappeared in 1976.

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Adoptee stolen at birth sues Chile over thousands of dictatorship-era thefts

Jimmy Lippert Thyden González alleges country engaged in plan to steal babies from perceived enemies in 70s and 80s

A Chilean-American man raised in the United States has filed a criminal complaint against the Chilean state, alleging that it engaged in a systematic plan to steal thousands of babies from perceived enemies of the state in the 1970s and 1980s.

The case filed by Jimmy Lippert Thyden González, 43, aims to advance the task of Chilean prosecutors and human rights groups working on accountability for crimes committed under Gen Augusto Pinochet.

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‘Felt like an earthquake’: passengers recall moment of terror on Latam flight as investigation launched

Latam Airlines flight LA800 was headed to Auckland from Sydney when plane’s ‘gauges just blanked out’ due to technical problem, pilot reportedly told passengers

Cockpit voice and flight data recorders are being gathered as an investigation begins into a sudden mid-air drop on an Auckland-bound flight that left passengers bloodied, hospitalised dozens and “felt like an earthquake had just hit”.

Latam Airlines flight LA800 departed Sydney at 11.35am on Monday with 263 passengers and nine flight and cabin crew headed for Auckland. About two-thirds of the way into the three-hour flight, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – which was eight years old, according to flight tracking data – “experienced a strong shake”, the airline said.

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British Museum’s Instagram flooded with calls to return Easter Island statue

Chilean social media users target institution, forcing it at one point to close comments on posts

The British Museum is tackling an influx of social media trolls from Chile, who have flooded the museum’s Instagram posts calling for the return of a moai statue, one of the stone monuments from Easter Island.

The museum has two moai, which were taken from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) by British surveyors in 1868, and there have been longstanding demands for the British to return them to Rapa Nui, which is Chilean territory.

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Former Chilean president Sebastián Piñera dies in helicopter crash

Minister says Piñera’s body recovered from scene of crash in lake near southern town of Lago Ranco

Chile’s two-time former president Sebastián Piñera has died in a helicopter crash at the age of 74.

According to preliminary reports, Piñera was piloting a helicopter with three passengers onboard over Lago Ranco, a lake in southern Chile where he had a home, but no further information regarding the incident was immediately given.

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Chile wildfires death toll rises to 131

Fires in Valparaíso said to be country’s deadliest disaster since 2010 earthquake

The death toll from wildfires that ravaged central Chile for several days has risen to 131, and more than 300 people remain missing as the blazes appear to be burning themselves out.

The fires in the Valparaíso region are said to be Chile’s deadliest disaster since an earthquake in 2010. Officials have suggested that some of the fires could have been lit intentionally.

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‘Like a war zone’: Chile wildfire death toll reaches 123 amid race to clear rubble

Death count for Chile’s worst natural disaster in years expected to climb as official two-day mourning period begins

Helicopters dumped tonnes of water on wildfires raging across central Chile, as emergency crews said they were still finding bodies three days after the blazes took hold.

The official death count from Chile’s worst natural disaster in years increased to 123 on Monday according to Marisol Prado, the director of Chile’s forensic medical service. That number was expected to climb as residents, firefighters and military raced to clear rubble.

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At least 112 dead as authorities struggle to contain forest fires in Chile

People told to evacuate homes as quickly as possible and curfews declared in cities most heavily affected

Firefighters are wrestling with huge forest fires that broke out in central Chile on Friday. Officials have extended curfews in cities most heavily affected by the blazes and said the death toll has increased to 112 killed.

The fires have been burning with the highest intensity around the city of Viña del Mar, where a botanical garden founded in 1931 was destroyed by the flames. At least 1,600 people have been left without homes.

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Forest fires in Chile cause multiple deaths and widespread destruction

At least 46 people reported dead as dozens of fires sweep across central and southern regions, with Valparaíso worst affected

At least 46 people have died from forest fires raging in central Chile, President Gabriel Boric has said, warning that the death toll is likely to rise.

Earlier on Saturday, Chile’s interior minister, Carolina Tohá, said there were currently 92 forest fires in the centre and south of the country, where temperatures were unusually high. More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed.

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‘Dangerous for women’: warning as Chileans vote on new draft constitution

Children and women to lose out if voters approve new document that critics say reads ‘more like a Republican party manifesto’

Activists and analysts in Chile have warned that swathes of the country’s population stand to lose out should a new draft constitution drawn up by conservative lawmakers be approved in a nationwide referendum on Sunday.

Chileans head to the polls caught between exhaustion and resentment in a compulsory vote to decide whether the 1980 constitution written during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, and since reformed, should be replaced.

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Latin America remembers Kissinger’s ‘profound moral wretchedness’

US statesman’s encouragement of Pinochet’s coup in Chile and his backing for Argentina’s military dictatorship left lasting stain

Henry Kissinger’s death has brought out some bitter epitaphs from Latin America where the legacy of US intervention helped saddle the region with some of the most brutal military regimes of the 20th century.

Nowhere has been the reaction been more damning than in Chile, where Kissinger was instrumental in the 1973 coup that led to the death of a democratically elected socialist president, Salvador Allende and the installation of a dictator, Gen Augusto Pinochet, and his military junta.

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‘Sometimes you feel you’re in Palestine’: culture and cause burn brightly in Chile

Chile has the largest Palestinian diaspora outside the Middle East – and it is lending its considerable weight to the call for justice

Above canvas awnings along the narrow streets in Patronato, a busy commercial district in Chile’s capital, Palestinian flags hang from lampposts and frame warehouse doors.

Bakeries sell baklava, pita and falafel; and shelves are stacked with products imported from the Middle East, their ingredients hastily covered over with Spanish approximations.

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

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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Chile’s right wing presents draft conservative constitution

Draft, which some observers consider a step backwards, could threaten rights to abortion and collective strike action

Chile’s radical right wing have presented their conservative vision for the future in a draft constitution that some observers consider a step backwards for the country.

The new draft, which could replace the current Pinochet-era charter, was drawn up by a council led by the far-right Republican party and could threaten access to abortion, curb the right to collective strike action, and would reduce the number of deputies elected to Chile’s congress.

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South American countries recall ambassadors and cut ties with Israel over war with Hamas

Bolivia’s leftwing government cuts diplomatic ties with Israel, alleging crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza, as Chile and Colombia recall ambassadors

A number of South American countries have registered diplomatic protests against Israel, in response to its latest conflict with Hamas, with Bolivia’s leftwing government cutting ties entirely and attributing its decision to alleged war crimes and human rights abuses being committed in the Gaza Strip.

The decision by Bolivia was announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon by María Nela Prada, a minister in President Luis Arce’s administration. “We demand an end to the attacks on the Gaza Strip which have so far claimed thousands of civilian lives and caused the forced displacement of Palestinians,” the minister told reporters in her country’s de facto capital, La Paz.

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