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Country had previously turned the tide on deforestation but armed rebels have revoked banDeforestation in the Colombian Amazon is surging and could be at a historic peak as armed groups use the rainforest as a bargaining chip in peace negotiations with the government.Preliminary data shows that deforestation in the region was 40% higher in the first three months of this year than in 2023...

Worst-ever fire season in 2023 saw 15m hectare burned, eight firefighters killed and 230,000 people evacuatedCanada risks another “catastrophic” wildfire season, the federal government has warned, forecasting higher-than-normal spring and summer temperatures across much of the country, boosted by El Niño weather conditions.Last year, Canada endured its worst-ever fire season, with more than 6,600 blazes burning 15m hectares (37m acres), an area roughly seven...

Teams play in colors of Corinthians’ bitter rivalsNFL to play its first regular-season game in BrazilThe Green Bay Packers will play the Philadelphia Eagles when the NFL holds its first regular-season game in Brazil.The 6 September matchup in Sao Paulo will mark the first time since 1970 that the NFL has played a Friday night game on the season’s opening weekend.NFL commissioner Roger Goodell...

Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon speaking loudly and often after party win over Coalition Avenir QuébecQuebec separation is back among the living.Years after many considered it dead, the prospect of removing Canada’s second-most populous province from the federation has re-entered the political debate. And though Quebecers aren’t exactly marching in the streets in its support as they once did, they are certainly taking...

Tareck El Aissami latest in purge of politicians, human rights advocates and critics by government of Nicolás MaduroVenezuela’s former oil minister Tareck El Aissami – once one of President Nicolás Maduro’s closest allies – has been arrested for allegedly participating in an international scheme that syphoned off hundreds of millions of dollars from the country’s state oil company.The charges against El Aissami are part...

Álvaro Uribe, one of country’s most powerful figures, denies working with paramilitary death squads against leftist rebelsColombia’s ex-president Álvaro Uribe will face trial for witness tampering and fraud, prosecutors have announced, once again casting the spotlight on allegations that the former leader partnered with paramilitary death squads in his war against leftist rebels.Uribe has long been accused of committing a litany of crimes at...

Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemns assault by Ecuadorian officers, who dragged out ex-vice-president sheltering in missionThe Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has condemned what he described as a “despicable authoritarian” assault on his country’s embassy in Quito and released dramatic images showing Ecuadorian security forces dragging the country’s former vice-president from the building.Jorge Glas, Ecuador’s vice-president from 2013 until 2018, sought shelter at...

Law firm’s founders among those to face money laundering charges after leak of 11.5m files in 2016A criminal trial of 27 employees working for the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers on money laundering charges has commenced in a Panamanian court.Eight years ago, leaked financial records from the law firm Mossack Fonseca sparked international outrage at the use of offshore companies...

Advocates fear situation could escalate in Javari valley, a region plagued by violence and poor healthcareMore than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.The valley, where Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were killed in 2022, is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in...

Jorge Glas brought to naval hospital from maximum security prison three days after his controversial capture in Mexican embassyEcuador’s former vice-president Jorge Glas has reportedly been taken to hospital from the maximum security jail where he was being held – three days after the politician was captured inside Mexico’s embassy in Quito during a police raid that drew outrage across Latin America.Glas, 54, was...

Almost 32 million people in the path of totality as moon’s shadow crossed the Mexico-Texas border and then traversed 15 statesIf you missed the total solar eclipse just wait … until 2044Total solar eclipse over Mexico, US and Canada – in picturesThe ethereal spectacle of a total solar eclipse swept across North America on Monday afternoon, giving tens millions of people in Mexico, the...

‘If the United States threatened to suspend aid, maybe my son would be alive today,’ John Flickinger told the US secretary of stateWhen the US’s top diplomat called with condolences over the killing of John Flickinger’s son in the Israeli airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy in Gaza, Flickinger knew what he wanted to say.The grieving father told Antony Blinken, the US...

Rare celestial event on Monday will see the moon block out the sun for a few minutes and day turn to night, with fans hoping the clouds don’t spoil the viewAcross the US, Mexico and Canada, people have rushed to stake out spots to witness a rare total solar eclipse, while forecasts for cloudy skies worry some hopeful spectators.The phenomenon happens when the moon...

António Guterres voices ‘alarm’ as Latin American governments sharply criticise Quito’s move to arrest former vice-presidentThe UN secretary general, António Guterres, has added his voice to a torrent of criticism of Ecuador’s decision to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito in order to arrest the former vice-president Jorge Glas.“The secretary general is alarmed at the forced entry of Ecuadorian security forces into the premises...

Ecuadorian police forcibly enter the embassy in Quito to detain former vice-president Jorge GlasMexico has suspended diplomatic ties with Ecuador after police forcibly broke into the country’s embassy in Quito to detain former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, deepening a diplomatic rift between the two countries.Glas, convicted twice for corruption, had been holed up in the embassy in Quito since seeking political asylum in December,...

Dina Boluarte has denied wrongdoing after being accused of illicit enrichment in relation to her use of at least three Rolex watches and designer jewelleryPeru’s president, Dina Boluarte, has dismissed an investigation into her use of luxury watches as a “smoke-screen”, denying wrongdoing and saying that the items had been loaned to her, though she admitted to journalists that it was a “mistake” to...

CSIS intelligence report suggests growing number of countries targeting country’s large diaspora populationsCanada’s spy agency has declared that the governments of India and Pakistan probably attempted to meddle in its elections.As a closely watched public inquiry investigates the scope of foreign interference, on Thursday night the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) released a report suggesting a growing number of countries see Canada – and...

Human rights expert voices alarm, saying country is fast moving towards becoming ‘like Somalia in the worst of its times’Haiti: what caused the gang violence?The UN’s top expert on human rights in Haiti has warned the Caribbean country is rapidly moving towards becoming “like Somalia in the worst of its times” after a criminal uprising which has displaced tens of thousands of people and...

Justin Trudeau says allegations ‘extremely troubling’ after officers arrested First Nations men and confiscated their boots and phonesTwo First Nations fishermen have said they were forced to walk shoeless for hours in the dark and cold after Canadian federal officers seized their boots and phones.The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the allegations were “extremely troubling” amid mounting anger over the treatment of the Mi’kmaw...

Footage showing former president spent two nights apparently hiding from potential arrest at mission was leaked to mediaThe Hungarian embassy in Brasília has reportedly fired two Brazilian employees after the leaking of security footage that revealed how Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro had spent two nights “hiding” inside the mission.According to the network CNN Brasil, the sackings were punishment for the embarrassing leak to...

President of amnesty commission investigating crimes of 1964-85 regime makes first-ever apology to Indigenous leaderBrazil has issued its first-ever apology for the torture and persecution of Indigenous people during the military dictatorship, including the incarceration of victims in an infamous detention centre known as an “Indigenous concentration camp”.The apology was made on Tuesday by an amnesty commission attached to the human rights ministry that...

Bertha Gisela Gaytán is one of at least 22 mayoral candidates murdered in Mexico since September 2023A candidate running to be mayor in one of Mexico’s most violent cities has been killed on the first day of her campaign, adding to the death toll in what experts say could be the country’s bloodiest elections in history.Bertha Gisela Gaytán was shot in a town just...

President under investigation over allegedly owning jewellery worth $500,000 despite earning a monthly salary of $3,320Peru’s first female president, Dina Boluarte, is embroiled in a scandal over her alleged possession of a collection of Rolex watches and luxury jewellery that has put her at the centre of a corruption investigation.The unpopular leader shook up her cabinet on Monday, swearing in six new ministers, after...

Hotel owner in Mazatlán had suggested limiting the time or places where the bands could play after complaints from foreign tourists Bands who play the thumping tuba-and-drums songs of northern Mexico on beaches in the resort city of Mazatlán appear to have emerged victorious this week after noise complaints had threatened to silence them.But anybody who planned to witness the 8 April eclipse in...