Thursday briefing: Inside South America’s summit to save the Amazon

In today’s newsletter: After years of rampant exploitation under a far-right government, Brazil has brought together leaders to help secure the future of the world’s biggest rainforest – and create ‘a just ecological transition’

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Good morning. “I think the world needs to see this meeting in Belém as the most important landmark ever … when it comes to discussing the climate question.” For once you can forgive the hyperbole of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, when he spoke about this week’s Amazon summit.

Leaders from the eight South American countries that share the river basin have been meeting this week in the Brazilian city to discuss an issue that, by any measure, is a global emergency: how to protect the vast rainforest and safeguard its critical role in regulating the planetary climate.

Education | Rising costs and family needs could force one in three students starting university this year to opt to live at home, according to new research. While some of the “Covid generation” of school-leavers said they planned to live at home because their preferred university was nearby, most said they could not afford to live away from home.

Northern Ireland | The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has launched an investigation into an unprecedented data breach that disclosed details of more than 10,000 police officers and staff in Northern Ireland. The agency, which regulates data privacy laws, is working with the Police Service of Northern Ireland to establish the level of risk amid warnings that the leak may compel officers to leave the force or move their home address.

Hawaii | Six people were killed after unprecedented wildfires tore through the Hawaiian island of Maui. The fires, fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed businesses in the historic town of Lahaina, and left at least two dozen people injured.

Ecuador | Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was shot dead at a campaign rally on Wednesday. The country’s president, Guillermo Lasso, said he was “outraged and shocked by the assassination” and would convene a meeting of his security cabinet.

Media | Employees at ITV’s This Morning were allegedly subjected to “bullying, discrimination and harassment”, according to staff members who have spoken out after Phillip Schofield’s departure from the programme. Some workers claim they attempted to raise concerns about the programme only to face “further bullying and discrimination” by bosses for speaking out.

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Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio assassinated

Anti-corruption figure killed days before election amid sharp rise in violent and organised crime

The Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio has been shot dead as he left a campaign event in Quito, days before an election where the central issue is rising violence and crime.

Videos on social media show Villavicencio, a former journalist who had collaborated with the Guardian and was outspoken about alleged links between organised crime and politics, surrounded by supporters and being escorted by security guards to a waiting vehicle when gunshots ring out as people start to scream and take cover.

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Argentina election campaigns suspended after 11-year old killed in robbery

Candidates for the national primary elections cancelled rallies as protests roiled city of Lanús, where attack took place

The death of an 11-year-old girl in a drive-by robbery caught on grainy security footage in Buenos Aires has shocked Argentina and prompted all major candidates to cancel their closing campaign rallies ahead of national primary elections on Sunday.

Morena Domínguez was attacked by two robbers who were riding a motorcycle when she was about to arrive at school early on Wednesday morning in the Buenos Aires district of Lanús. The attackers snatched her mobile phone, and she fell to the pavement where she was left unconscious.

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Mexico: outrage as Amlo suggests critics guilty of ‘gender-based violence’ against him

Offhand remarks by Mexican president prompt condemnation in country with soaring levels of violence against women

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexican president, has sparked ridicule and outrage after suggesting during a news conference that criticism leveled against him could be considered a form of gender-based violence.

The comments on Wednesday touched a nerve in Mexico, where the government of López Obrador has been unable to tackle soaring levels of violence against women, and where a resurgent feminist movement has become a thorn in the president’s side.

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Fury as Alberta cuts renewables during Canada’s worst fire season ever

Critics of the policy expressed concern that decision will weaken investor confidence in solar and wind energy in the region

A decision by Canada’s largest oil and gas-producing province to halt new wind and solar projects has prompted disbelief among environmental groups and economists. The move comes as the country struggles with its worst wildfire season on record, a situation that experts agree is worsened by the climate crisis and a reliance on fossil fuels.

Alberta last week announced a six-month moratorium on large solar and wind projects so it can review policies surrounding the projects’ construction and impact on the power grid, as well as rules for their eventual decommissioning.

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‘Nature needs money’: Lula tells rich countries to pay up and protect world’s rainforests

Brazilian president says developed nations that over centuries have pumped emissions into the atmosphere must ‘pay their bit’

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has told developed countries to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests, as major rainforest nations demanded hundreds of billions of dollars of climate financing and a greater role in how those resources are spent.

“It’s not Brazil that needs money. It’s not Colombia that needs money. It’s not Venezuela. It’s nature,” Lula told journalists on the second day of a major environmental summit in the Amazon city of Belém.

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US woman and daughter freed nearly two weeks after kidnapping in Haiti

Armed men had seized Alix Dorsainvil and daughter from clinic in a gang-controlled area of Port-au-Prince, where she works

An American woman and her daughter who were kidnapped in Haiti have been freed, nearly two weeks after their abduction in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Armed men seized the New Hampshire native Alix Dorsainvil and her daughter in late July from a clinic in a gang-controlled area of Port-au-Prince where Dorsainvil works.

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Amazon leaders fail to commit to end deforestation by 2030

Eight South American presidents including Brazil’s Lula say rich countries need to pledge more resources to help protect rainforest

Amazon leaders have called on rich countries to help them develop a Marshall-style plan to protect the world’s largest rainforest – but stopped short of committing to zero deforestation across the biome by 2030 amid divisions over oil extraction.

In a joint declaration at the end of a two-day summit in the Brazilian city of Belém on Wednesday, the eight South American countries that are home to the Amazon rainforest said ensuring its survival could not be solely up to them, as resources from the forest were consumed globally.

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Brazilian president Lula pledges ‘new Amazon dream’ at rainforest summit

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sets out ambitious programme to repair damage done by Bolsonaro and tackle environmental crime

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed to haul the Amazon out of centuries of violence, economic “plundering” and environmental devastation and into “a new Amazon dream”, at the start of a major regional summit on the world’s largest rainforest.

Addressing South American leaders gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém, Lula offered a bold blueprint for the future of the Amazon, a 6.7m sq km region that is home to nearly 50 million people spread across eight countries and one territory.

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Leaders of Amazon nations gather in Brazil for summit on rainforest’s future

Conclave represents handbrake turn in Brazilian government policy since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took power

The leaders of Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia and Peru have gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém for a rare conclave about the future of the world’s largest rainforest amid growing concern over the global climate emergency.

The environmental summit – convened by Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – represents a handbrake turn in Brazilian government policy after four years of Amazon destruction and international isolation under the country’s previous leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

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Hundreds trapped overnight on Canada mountain after lightning disables gondola

About 300 people were stranded after power failure disabled the 40-car ride that scales Sulphur mountain in Banff national park

Hundreds of people have been trapped overnight atop a mountain in Canada’s Banff national park after a a lightning strike shut down a popular gondola ride.

As many as 300 people were stranded after the power failure on Monday evening disabled the 40-car ride that scales Sulphur mountain.

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Files reveal Nixon role in plot to block Allende from Chilean presidency

President hosted rightwing mogul Agustín Edwards in September 1970 and discussed plans to foil socialist election-winner

Days before Salvador Allende’s confirmation as Chile’s president in 1970, US President Richard Nixon met with a rightwing Chilean media mogul to discuss blocking the socialist leader’s path to the presidency, newly declassified documents have revealed.

The documents, published in a new Spanish edition of the Pinochet files by archivist and writer Peter Kornbluh, include Nixon’s agenda for 15 September 1970, which shows a meeting in the Oval Office with Agustín Edwards, the owner of the conservative El Mercurio media group.

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Canada publishers urge Ottawa to stop Meta from blocking users’ news access

Dust-up began after law passed requiring social media companies to compensate news publishers for posting their content

A group of Canadian news publishers and broadcasters has called on the country’s competition regulator to stop Meta from blocking access to news as the federal government and technology companies clash over revenue and content sharing.

News Media Canada, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and CBC/Radio‐Canada warned on Tuesday that Meta’s decision to bar Canadians from viewing news on Facebook and Instagram amounted to “anticompetitive conduct” and violates a provision of a federal law.

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Eritrean festival canceled by Toronto following outbreaks of violence

Clashes were latest in string of global skirmishes that have drawn scrutiny to human rights abuses in Eritrea

A weekend of Eritrean cultural festivities in Toronto was canceled by city officials following outbreaks of violence and demonstrations by oponents of the Eritrean government.

Clashes between attendees and protestors left nine people in hospital and were the latest in a string of global skirmishes that have drawn fresh attention to human rights abuses in Eritrea and tensions between diaspora populations.

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‘The trauma is ongoing’: Canadian First Nation flees wildfire for second time in two years

Lytton First Nation in British Columbia ordered to evacuate on Friday as out-of-control wildfire just 328 yards from reserve land

Members of a First Nation in British Columbia have once again been advised to flee their homes to escape record-setting wildfires, just two years after the community in western Canada was devastated in an earlier blaze.

Residents of the Lytton First Nation were ordered to evacuate late on Friday. By Sunday, the out-of-control Stein Mountain fire was just 300 meters (328 yards) from reserve land, burning its way down a steep slope that has stymied firefighting efforts, the community’s chief, Niakia Hanna, told Reuters.

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‘I shout from the rooftops I exist’: Brazilians identifying as Indigenous up by 90% in 12 years

A growing number of Brazilians are reclaiming their Indigenous identity, after years of fighting for rights

When a census taker came knocking on Vahnessa de Oliveira Ferreira’s door in Rio de Janeiro in 2010 and asked her how she identified racially, she replied “mixed”. Twelve years later, when asked the same question for Brazil’s 2022 census, she had changed her answer to “Indigenous”.

“Indigenous people learned to justify themselves [as mixed-race] because for a long time, being Indigenous was synonymous with being lazy, a good-for-nothing, a savage,” said Ferreira, a tour guide and social educator who now proudly identifies as a trans Indigenous woman.

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Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn

Human-caused climate disruption and El Niño push temperature in mountains to 37C

Exceptional winter heat in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37C, prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region.

The heatwave in the central Chilean Andes is melting the snow below 3,000 metres (9,840ft), which will have knock-on effects for people living in downstream valleys who depend on meltwater during the spring and summer.

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Kenya’s offer to send police to Haiti sparks human rights concerns

Groups say move could worsen country’s security crisis given police force’s poor human rights record

An offer from Kenya to dispatch police officers to Haiti has been welcomed by officials in the embattled Caribbean nation – but prompted concern among human rights groups who say the move could worsen the country’s security crisis.

Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, requested international support from the UN last year when gangs began taking control of much of the country, engulfing the nation in chaos as they fought pitched street battles.

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‘Disaster’: warning for democracy as experts condemn Meta over Canada news ban

Retaliatory move against Online News Act is ‘epic miscalculation’ that will promote spread of misinformation, analysts say

Social media giant Meta’s ban on news access on its platforms in Canada is an “epic miscalculation” that could damage journalism and promote the spread of misinformation and fake news, experts are warning.

The company announced the move on Tuesday, saying they had begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada.

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Weather tracker: Typhoons Talim and Doksuri batter China

Thousands of people evacuated from homes in Beijing, while South America swelters during heatwave

China has been battered by two typhoons in recent weeks that have caused severe flooding across the east coast. Typhoon Talim hit the south on 17 July, with gusts of 85mph (137km/h), according to the Guangdong weather bureau.

Days later, on 28 July, Typhoon Doksuri struck Fujian province on China’s south-eastern coast with gusts above 100mph.

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