Socialism's next test: Swing states

Francesca Hong is part of an array of lefty candidates running in competitive states emboldened by a turn toward economic populism amid widespread cost-of-living concerns.

Brisport walks off the $$$ plank

Louisiana Republicans pass gerrymandered map that eliminates majority-Black district

The new map has five of the state’s six House districts as GOP-leaning.

Bound by blood: new film highlights Jamaica’s outlawed obeah belief system

Stew Peas focuses on obeah, an enduring African magic practice in Jamaica banned by colonisers in the 1700sA new movie from award-winning Jamaican film-maker Sosiessia Nixon shines a spotlight on Jamaica’s enduring west African-based magic and spiritual healing tradition known as obeah.Nixon’s tense, feature-length suspense, Stew Peas, tells of the story of Jamaican detective Tessa, who is obsessed with an old murder case. Continue reading...

Colombia goes to polls in election pitting outgoing leader’s ally against pro-Trump candidates

Ballots are being cast in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential electionsColombians are casting ballots in the first round of the South American nation’s presidential election, choosing between candidates with radically diverging visions for the future of peace in a country haunted by decades of armed conflict.The vote on Sunday, seen as a referendum on outgoing President Gustavo Petro’s policies, comes 10 years after Colombia signed a historic peace pact with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Continue reading...

Colombia prepares to go to polls in election shadowed by resurgence of political violence

Sunday’s presidential vote is contest between left and right – and between contradictory proposals for dealing with the decades-long armed conflictMateo Pérez Rueda was one internship away from completing a degree in political science. The 24-year-old also worked as a bicycle delivery rider and sold fruit salads and juice to finance his passion: the Colombian independent digital magazine El Confidente.On 4 May he travelled to Briceño, in the western province of Antioquia, to report on the long-running conflict between the army, paramilitaries and dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Continue reading...

Alarm at Mexico bill allowing elections to be annulled for ‘foreign interference’

Opposition says constitutional amendment would give bill ruling party carte blanche to overturn will of votersSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailAmid fierce criticism from opposition groups, Mexico’s senate has passed ‌a constitutional amendment to include “foreign interference” as grounds to annul election results in the country.The bill, which was presented by the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, defines foreign interference as “illicit financing, propaganda, the systematic ⁠dissemination of misinformation, digital manipulation, and ⁠the intervention of foreign governments ⁠or agencies”. Continue reading...

Lula says Brazil will not be treated like ‘tinpot country’ after US designates gangs as terrorists

Marco Rubio made announcement after meeting president’s far-right challenger Flávio BolsonaroBrazil will not be treated as a “tinpot country,” the country’s president, Luiz Inácio da Silva, said on Friday after the United States designated Brazil’s two largest criminal gangs, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command, as foreign terrorist organisations.The announcement, made by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, on Thursday, is being widely seen in Brazil as a setback for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president who had strongly opposed the designation – and a boost for Lula’s main challenger in October’s presidential election, the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Continue reading...

Canadian man admits sending ‘suicide packets’ to hundreds of people around world

Kenneth Law, who sold lethal chemicals online with instructions on how to use them, admits counselling or aiding suicide ‘It was too easy’: families ask how Kenneth Law enabled so many suicidesA Canadian man who mailed “suicide packets” of poison to more than 100 people in dozens of countries – including Canada, the UK, the US, Italy, Australia and New Zealand – has pleaded guilty to 14 counts of assisting suicide.Kenneth Law appeared in a packed courtroom in Newmarket, Ontario, on Friday to enter the plea after prosecutors agreed to withdraw 14 murder charges. Sentencing is expected to take place in September. Continue reading...

Japan defence minister rebuffs claims of ‘new militarism’ levelled by China

Shinjiro Koizumi says Japan valued as a ‘peace-loving’ nation while China expands military capabilities ‘without sufficient transparency’Japan’s defence minister took a veiled swipe at China on Sunday, pledging to keep strengthening the military despite Beijing’s criticism of Tokyo’s increasingly muscular security stance.Under the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, Japan has quickened its pivot to a more proactive defence policy, further shaking off – with US encouragement – its pacifist outlook in place since the end of the second world war. Continue reading...