Category: Americas
-
A former senior executive of the Southern Poverty Law Center has been charged over payments to informants inside extremist groups — the first individual charged in a case the organisation says is politically motivated. Nothing has yet been tested in court.
-
Trump announced on 12 August that Karoline Leavitt, the youngest White House press secretary in history, will leave at the end of the month. No successor has been named, with under three months to the midterms.
-
Primaries were held in several US states this week. What a primary actually decides, why some go to runoffs, and why reading national trends into one state’s result is usually a mistake.
-
The Bald Range fire has emptied the village of Summerland and forced 20,000 people from their homes in British Columbia. Why valley towns are so hard to evacuate.
-
Rescuers are still finding survivors in Colombia three days on, while official and civilian counts of the missing differ by thousands. What is known, and why the numbers disagree.
-
Why do buildings fall down in earthquakes? What seismic design costs, why economists say the market underprices it, and the argument over codes and enforcement.
-
Magnitude 7.4 at 103km deep. What magnitude actually measures, why depth changes everything, and the number that predicts damage far better than either.
-
The earthquake’s epicentre was in Chocó — Colombia’s poorest region, reachable mostly by boat or plane. Why the toll from the worst-hit places always arrives last.
-
A magnitude 7.4 earthquake in western Colombia has killed at least 224 people and injured more than 1,200. Why it was felt across three countries, and why the toll keeps changing.
-
A sightseeing flight has crashed near Peru’s Nazca Lines, killing 13. Why those flights exist, and why early explanations after an air crash are usually wrong.