Tag: Brazil

A year after Brazil dam collapse: What’s changed?

BRUMADINHO, Brazil (AFP) – Florence GOISNARD Brazil marks the first anniversary of the Brumadinho dam collapse Saturday, one of the country’s worst industrial accidents, which left 270 people dead. Millions of tons of toxic mining waste engulfed houses, farms and waterways, devastating the mineral-rich region in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. State prosecutors on Tuesday charged Brazilian mining giant Vale’s ex-president Fabio Schvartsman and 15 others with intentional homicide and environmental offenses over the […]

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Flooding, landslides kill six in Brazil

  RIO DE JAINEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rains have claimed six lives in southeast Brazil, firefighters said Saturday. Footage on social media showed streets in Espirito Santo state turned into rivers and cars being swept away by raging, muddy water. In one clip, the water almost reaches the roof of a gas station. The fatalities happened in the towns of Iconha and Alfredo Chaves, with three deaths in each […]

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Amazon indigenous leaders accuse Brazil of ‘genocide’ policy

PIARACU, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s pledge to open up the Amazon to mining companies was tantamount to “genocide”, indigenous leaders said Friday at a meeting to oppose the government’s environmental policies. Hundreds of elders gathered this week at Pairacu, deep in the rain forest, to form a united front against Bolsonaro’s environmental policies, which have seen deforestation in the jungle nearly double since the Brazilian leader came to power a year ago. […]

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patch of amazon forest on a mountain side severely burned

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon up 85 percent in 2019

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) – Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil soared 85 percent in 2019, compared with the previous year, official data showed Tuesday. The 9,166 square kilometers (3,539 square miles) cleared was the highest number in at least five years, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. In 2018, the deforested area was 4,946 square kilometers. The sharp increase overlapped the first year in office of President Jair Bolsonaro, a climate […]

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Facebook fined $1.65 mn by Brazil

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Monday fined  Facebook $1.65 million for improperly sharing users’ data in a case linked to the global Cambridge Analytica scandal. Facebook engaged in an “abusive practice” by allowing data from 443,000 users in Brazil to be unduly available to developers of the application “This is Your Digital Life,” according to the Ministry of Justice. That application — a psychological survey — collected personal data from millions of Facebook users worldwide, […]

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Revised data shows deforestation in Brazil Amazon at decade high

BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Thursday released revised statistics showing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest surpassed 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) in the year to July 2019, the highest in more than a decade. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said last week that satellite data showed 9,762 square kilometers were cleared of trees in the 12-month period, an increase of 29.5 percent. This week’s revised statistics released by the INPE show […]

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Bolsonaro: China part of Brazil’s future

BEIJING, China (AFP) — China is increasingly part of Brazil’s future, President Jair Bolsonaro said Wednesday, signaling a more pragmatic approach to the Latin American country’s biggest trade partner. Standing alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia, Bolsonaro said he hoped the two countries could not only increase but also “diversify our trade relations.” “China is becoming more and more part of Brazil’s future,” Bolsonaro said after the two men signed […]

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‘I’m back’: Brazil’s Lula fills leftist leadership void

by Louis Genot, with Jordi Miro in Brasilia RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Out of jail and full of rage, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has put his far-right nemesis President Jair Bolsonaro in the cross-hairs, as he takes up the mantle of leading the left. Declaring “I’m back” in a fiery speech to hundreds of supporters near Sao Paulo on Saturday, Lula, 74, appeared energized by his year-and-a-half-long incarceration for corruption as […]

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Brazil in ‘civil war,’ says head of Congress’ pro-gun faction

by Jordi Miro with Pascale Trouillaud  BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil is caught in a “civil war” of crime and violence, the head of Congress’ pro-gun faction says, warning that ordinary Brazilians need to be armed and ready to fight back. Wearing an electric blue suit with matching glasses, and a heavy gold ring with the seal of Congress on his finger, Jose Augusto Rosa is both a high-profile lawmaker and a reserve captain in […]

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Massive wildfires hit southern Brazil’s Pantanal

  SAO PAULO, United States (AFP) — Wildfires are raging across the Pantanal tropical wetlands in southern Brazil, one of the most biodiverse areas in the world and a major tourist destination, regional authorities said Thursday. The governor’s office in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul said the fires were “bigger than anything seen before” in the region. So far, more than 50,000 hectares (nearly 125,000 acres) have been affected. The blazes follow other […]

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The pirarucu: the giant prized fish of the Amazon

by Maira RENOU RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Its white flesh is tender and tasty, it can measure up to three meters long and weigh more than 200 kilograms: meet the pirarucu, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, and native to the Amazon. The enormous animal once threatened with extinction, is now on dinner plates in Rio de Janeiro’s fanciest restaurants, thanks to a number of chefs who have championed the delicacy, and […]

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World’s loudest bird sings heart out in pursuit of love

by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — In the mountainous northern Amazon, a tiny white-plumed suitor turns to face his would-be paramour and belts out a deafening, klaxon-like call, reaching decibel levels equal to a pile driver. Meet the white bellbird, which has just beaten out its rainforest neighbor, the screaming piha, for the title of the world’s loudest bird. Biologist Jeff Podos at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mario Cohn-Haft of Brazil’s […]

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