South America News Feeds

Just days before Sunday’s election, President President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva banned online gambling. But record-high debt is upending millions of lives.

Christa Pike, who has been on death row for more than 30 years for torturing and murdering a classmate, was on Wednesday set to be executed, but the lethal injections meant to kill her failed. Pike was then transported to a medical facility, but except for the fact that she is still alive, her lawyers said they had not been informed about her condition.

El Salvador will hold presidential elections on February 28, 2027, the electoral tribunal said Wednesday, opening the way for President Nayib Bukele to seek a third term after constitutional changes removed presidential term limits. Bukele has drawn praise for sharply reducing gang violence but faced criticism over rights abuses during his crackdown.

The Federal Reserve’s watchdog on Wednesday found no grounds for a criminal referral over a roughly $1 billion cost overrun on renovations to the central bank’s Washington buildings, while faulting project oversight. The findings prompted President Donald Trump to renew his call for former Fed chief Jerome Powell to resign.

A federal judge on Wednesday approved a settlement clearing Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery after 12 US states challenged the deal on antitrust grounds. The agreement includes safeguards for CNN’s editorial independence and requires the merged studio to release at least 30 films a year for its first two years.

The accident occurred as hundreds of people were gathering nearby for a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation march near Delta, a city south of Vancouver, the authorities said.

The 13-month-old small canine is equipped with protective gear and a camera, and is being trained for search-and-rescue missions.

As Brazil prepares to hold elections next month, Latin America’s biggest nation is taking steps to shield its democracy from potential American meddling.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that his department had cut 20 percent of US admirals, generals and officers who did not fit his vision. “Simple translation of that: no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors – just tough, ready, committed troops,” he said.

Donald Trump has launched “America”, an AI chatbot designed as a digital portal for US government information. But its responses appear to be changing. The chatbot initially challenged several of Trump’s claims, including on the 2020 election and inflation, providing evidence and links. More recently, it has refused to answer some of the same questions. Other responses still contradict Trump, while some echo his views. Vedika Bahl tests the chatbot, and its varying answers in Truth or Fake.

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for Tennessee to execute Christa Pike, 50, the state’s first woman put to death in 200 years. The ruling came hours after a federal appeals court temporarily halted the lethal injection to consider claims that Pike’s childhood sexual abuse was not adequately weighed at sentencing.

An enormous pulse of wave energy will soon reach Southern California and continue north, raising sea levels by half a foot and increasing threats from swells and tides.

PRESS REVIEW – Wednesday, September 30: The Cornell University gang rape investigation reopens. But first: students and prisoners protest in Iran “in a rare show of dissent”. Journalist Evan Gershkovich speaks about his 16 months in a Russian prison. Bonus: what can we do to be less lonely? Finally, Fat Bear Week has chosen its winner.

François Picard is pleased to welcome Ian Bremmer, the American political scientist, author, and founder and president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. According to Bremmer, we may now be entering the autumn of the “Donroe Doctrine” and the MAGA era: an “America First” isolationist approach in which President Donald Trump envisions a return to “greatness” in Gilded Age fashion. But is this the America voters had envisioned?

Trade ministers of the Group of 20 are meeting in Milwaukee for two days of talks on Wednesday, but US President Donald Trump’s tariffs are expected to hang heavy over the talks. “Don’t expect any breakthroughs,” an analyst watching the event said.

Wilber Rafael Garces-Perez is accused of striking an agent with his car’s side-view mirror while driving away.

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the Trump administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own while it considers the legality of the practice. The court’s conservative majority temporarily blocked safeguards requiring deportees to receive notice of where they would be sent and time to raise persecution concerns.

The White House calls them public service announcements, like those used in past administrations. But almost everyone else doesn’t agree, with three taxpayer-funded advertisements that glorify US President Donald Trump drawing criticism from across the partisan divide. Legal experts say the ads violate federal laws on government propaganda, as FRANCE 24’s Emerald Maxwell explains in this edition of Truth or Fake. 

Mr. Milei wants to go all in on artificial intelligence even as other leaders struggle to get a handle on a technology many fear poses existential threats.

The storm moved ashore on the Baja California peninsula, which is a popular tourist destination.

Andrés Manuel López Beltrán has joined the list of figures who, critics say, may end up harming the left-wing movement his father founded, as well as the president who succeeded him.

President Javier Milei set a two-week deadline for the Sea Lion oilfield project to be scrapped.

OpenAI will not release its latest artificial intelligence model, Astra 6.1, after internal tests found it fell short of safety standards, the maker of ChatGPT confirmed on Monday. The decision came ahead of a meeting of AI leaders at the White House Tuesday convened by US President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson amid mounting controversy over the risks posed by rogue AI.