Inside the Americas

This week, tensions between the US and China spiked further after an alleged spy balloon was shot down by Washington. Beijing later said it would firmly defend its interests after President Joe Biden vowed to protect the sovereignty of the United States. China continues to insist the balloon was for civilian purposes and had veered off course. FRANCE 24's Science Editor Shirli Sitbon explains why this spying technology is in fact nothing new.

This week, America was rocked by the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols. The 29-year-old Black man was killed during a traffic stop by an elite police unit made up of five police officers who are also Black. His beating in Memphis, Tennessee was viewed across the country through a series of video recordings. Nichols was laid to rest on Wednesday at a funeral attended by US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who condemned the deadly "act of violence".

This week, the US state of California was rocked by two mass shootings just two days apart. The massacres are just the latest in a long line of shootings that have made the US the world's number one country in gun ownership and gun deaths. The carnage pushed President Joe Biden to renew calls for Congress to act quickly on a ban on assault weapons. To get some analysis, we speak to Jaclyn Schildkraut, interim executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Peru has been rocked by violent protests since early December. Back then, Pedro Castillo, the leftist president who had vowed to tackle the country's poverty and inequality, attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. The move was widely condemned as unconstitutional and Castillo was arrested and replaced by his vice-president, Dina Boluarte. But her future as president is now in jeopardy too, with thousands of protesters in Lima calling on her to resign. In this special edition, we take a closer look at Peru's political unrest and speak to Peruvian political analyst Gonzalo Banda.

On Sunday January 8 in Brazil, over 1,500 supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro were arrested after they stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia. Authorities have issued arrest warrants for two former senior officials, including one who used to be Bolsonaro's justice minister and who recently served as security chief in Brasilia. We look back at how Sunday's events unfolded. We also speak to political scientist Guilherme Casarões to understand how the riots were able to happen, as well as the similarities with the US Capitol attack almost exactly two years ago.

There was gridlock in Washington this week as US Republican Kevin McCarthy failed to become House speaker on the first ballot, something that hasn’t happened for a century. It was supposed to be an easy win for the Republican favourite, but he was blocked three times in one day by a small group of rebels from within his own party. The stalled vote is just another sign of the increasing divisions in the Republican Party.

In this special edition of Inside the Americas, we head to Brazil, where Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is set to return to office as president for the third time. But while Lula may be back, the country he's set to govern is far from united behind him.

Cuba is seeing its biggest exodus since Fidel Castro took power in 1959. According to US government data, over the past year nearly 250,000 Cubans have emigrated to the United States. The figure represents more than 2 percent of the island's population and more than 4 percent of its working population. The exodus can be explained by deteriorating living conditions in Cuba, where people face constant blackouts and lack of access to food and medicine. For more, we speak to Ted Hanken, an associate professor of Latin American studies at Baruch College, part of the City University of New York.

Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a run-off vote in Georgia. It was the final Senate seat left undecided from the 2022 midterms. While the Democrats already held the majority, Warnock's victory now gives the party an outright, 51-seat hold on the Senate. It's also a symbolic win for the party, since Warnock beat a candidate who was handpicked by Donald Trump.

It's the biggest legal consequence so far in the wake of the January 6 insurrection. Stewart Rhodes, who heads the Oath Keepers militia, has been found guilty of seeking to keep Donald Trump in power by carrying out a mob attack on the US Capitol. A conviction on sedition is very rare and carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail. We take a closer look.