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SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro will skip a regional summit on fires that have devastated swaths of the Amazon because doctors want him to get ready for surgery scheduled for next week, a spokesman said Monday. The far-right president has been widely criticized over his support for Amazon deforestation and a delayed reaction to wildfires that have hit the rain forest. Bolsonaro has to go on a liquid diet starting Friday, […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of fires in Brazil’s Amazon basin is still on the rise, even though the government has banned burning, officials said Saturday. In the first 48 hours since the ban was issued, satellite data from the National Space Research Institute (INPE) showed 3,859 new outbreaks of fire, of which some 2,000 were concentrated in the Amazon region. From January to the end of August, 51.9 percent of Brazil’s recorded […]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AFP) — Fires have destroyed 1.2 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of forest and grasslands in Bolivia this year, the government said on Wednesday, though environmentalists claim the true figure is much greater. The news comes after leftist President Evo Morales suspended his re-election campaign on Monday to direct the government’s response to a growing environmental disaster in the Bolivian portion of the Amazon rainforest, where wildfires have been raging since May. […]
by Jordi Miro, with Allison Jackson in Rio de Janeiro PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday repeated a demand for French leader Emmanuel Macron to withdraw recent remarks, as he accused France and Germany of “buying” the Latin American country’s sovereignty with Amazon fire aid. Bolsonaro’s latest comments come amid an escalating diplomatic spat between Brazil and Europe that threatens to torpedo a major trade deal. They also throw into […]
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Monday rejected aid from G7 countries to fight wildfires in the Amazon, with a top official telling French President Emmanuel Macron to take care of “his home and his colonies.” “We appreciate (the offer), but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website. Lorenzoni was referring to a $20 million pledge made at the G7 […]
by Jordi Miro with Allison Jackson in Rio de Janeiro PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AFP) — Hundreds of new fires have flared up in the Amazon in Brazil, data showed Monday, even as military aircraft dumped water over hard-hit areas and G7 nations pledged to help combat the blazes. Smoke choked Port Velho city and forced the closure of the airport for nearly two hours as fires raged in the northwestern state of Rondonia where fire-fighting […]
BIARRITZ, France (AFP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday pledged £10 million ($12.3 million) to help restore the Amazon rainforest which has been ravaged by fires, sparking a wave of global concern. The money would be made available immediately to help restore the habitat, including areas that have been hit by the fires, the British government said in a statement released at the G7 summit in the French resort of Biarritz. The pledge […]
by Carlos Fabal, with Allison Jackson in Rio de Janeiro Agence France Presse PORTO VELHO, Brazil (AFP) — President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday authorized the deployment of Brazil’s armed forces to help combat fires raging in the Amazon rainforest, as a growing global outcry over the blazes sparks protests and threatens a huge trade deal. Plumes of thick smoke rose into the sky above dense forest in the northwestern state of Rondonia, where bright […]
by Giovanna FLEITAS / with Jorge SVARTZMAN in Rio de Janeiro SALVADOR, Brazil (AFP) — Paris and the United Nations called Thursday for the protection of the fire-plagued Amazon rainforest as Brazil’s right-wing president accused his French counterpart of having a “colonialist mentality” over the issue. Official figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year — the highest number for any year since 2013. Most […]
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — The number of forest fires in Brazil surged in the first eight months of 2019, official data show, as President Jair Bolsonaro faces growing criticism over rampant destruction of the Amazon. Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded between January and August, compared with 39,759 in the first eight months of 2018, the embattled National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said late Monday. That is the highest number of forest fires for […]
by Johannes MYBURGH Agence France-Presse SALVADOR, Brazil(AFP) – Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes. Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world’s largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. #PrayforAmazonas is the top trending hashtag in the world on Wednesday, with more than 249,000 tweets. “No matter how successful we are, if […]
CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Thousands of supporters of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro marched through the capital Caracas on Wednesday in protest against attempts by US President Donald Trump to asphyxiate the ruling regime. Dressed in red and carrying the tricolor Venezuelan flag, the protesters gathered at a stage in the center of the capital to listen to some of the ruling regime’s top officials. The demonstration followed 48 hours during which Washington threatened to “use […]
