Hurricane Dorian grew into a “catastrophic” category 5 storm on Sunday as winds of more than 180mph pounded the northernmost islands of the Bahamas, the biggest storm to hit the island chain in modern times.
Related: Floridians not fazed as Hurricane Dorian’s path keeps state guessing
Continue reading...Dorian is one of the six strongest hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic, but meteorologists are finding its path difficult to predict
Hurricane Dorian is proving a slippery customer. Not only is it one of the six strongest hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic in the past 70 years, but meteorologists are finding its path very difficult to predict because of its wide “cone of uncertainty”. It is impossible to say just where the storm will hit – and with how much deadly force.
Within that fuzzy picture, Dorian has the potential to affect millions in the Caribbean and along the US coast. So what is the current thinking about its path?
Continue reading...An upcoming exhibition at London’s House of Illustration collects 185 posters and magazines from Cuba’s golden age of design, from the 1960s to the early 90s.
“The posters tell us that Cuba sees supporting the struggles of liberation movements internationally as an integral part of its own revolution,” says curator Olivia Ahmad.
Designed in Cuba: Cold War Graphics is at House of Illustration, London N1 from 27 Sept to 19 Jan
Millions along the US east coast from Florida to North Carolina remained under threat of a deadly strike from Hurricane Dorian on Saturday, even as official predictions for the path of the 150mph monster storm pulled back from from a direct hit on land.
Related: The historic hurricanes that made landfall on Florida’s east coast
Continue reading...More than 3,000 secret graves containing victims of Mexico’s raging drug wars have been found across the country, according to the first ever official tally of the phenomenon.
A total of 4,874 bodies were found at 3,025 sites, and many of the victims have yet to be identified, said Karla Quintana, the head of the National Search Committee, which was set up last year to help desperate families find relatives who have gone missing.
Continue reading...Asset managers, pension funds and companies halt deals and stop buying bonds
Financial pressure is growing on Brazil over fires in the Amazon and the far-right president’s belligerent response to them.
Asset managers, pension funds and companies have issued warnings, halted deals and stopped purchases of government bonds.
Continue reading...Victory for community concerned about the industry’s environmental costs strengthens calls for shakeup of rules along Chilean coast
A growing wave of resistance to the expansion of salmon farms along the Chilean coast has led to an important victory in the fight to protect a pristine fjord in southern Patagonia, home to indigenous groups and an array of stunning wildlife.
Dolphins, whales and colonies of penguins thrive in the 240km-long Beagle Channel, an area of outstanding natural beauty between Chile and Argentina which attracts tourists from all over the world.
Continue reading...Fires have been reported in protected indigenous reserves of the Brazilian Amazon, raising fears that loggers and land grabbers have targeted these remote areas during the dramatic surge in blazes across the world’s biggest rainforest.
Blazes have been seen on the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão state – a heavily deforested reserve on the Amazon’s eastern fringes, which is home to about 80 people from an isolated group of Awá indigenous people, described by the NGO Survival International as the world’s most endangered tribe.
Continue reading...Helicopters, heavy machinery and nearly 200 workers are frantically working to free millions of salmon trapped by a landslide in western Canada.
Government crews in the area have worked relentlessly along the banks of the Fraser River to clear debris after a rockslide, discovered in a late June, created an impassable 5m-high waterfall.
Continue reading...Experts believe the children were sacrificed by the Chimú culture to appease the El Niño phenomenon
Archaeologists excavating what is thought to be the world’s largest child sacrifice site have unearthed the skeletons of 227 young victims in the coastal desert of northern Peru.
Teams have been digging since last year at the sacrificial site in Huanchaco, a beachside tourist town close to Trujillo, Peru’s third largest city.
Continue reading...Power outages and flooding were reported in the Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands, but no damages
Hurricane Dorian caused limited damage in the northern Caribbean as it left the region and gathered strength late Wednesday, setting its sights on the US mainland as it threatened to grow into a Category 3 storm.
Puerto Rico, which had braced for the worst, seemed to be spared any heavy wind and rain, a huge relief to many on an island where blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes nearly two years after Hurricane Maria. The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria.
Continue reading...Indigenous community under threat from fire, deforestation and Bolsonaro
Threatened by fire, deforestation and invasion, the Xikrin people of the northern Amazon are fighting back.
While the authorities stand idle and the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, tries to undermine their territorial rights, the indigenous community have taken matters into their own hands by expelling the loggers and ranchers who illegally occupied their land and set fire to the forest.
Continue reading...Forestry expert warns annual burning season had yet to fully play out and calls for urgent steps to reduce potential damage
The fires raging in the Brazilian Amazon are likely to intensify over the coming weeks, a leading environmental expert has warned, despite government claims the situation had been controlled.
Related: Amazon fires: what is happening and is there anything we can do?
Continue reading...Gang dispute believed to be behind blaze at venue in Gulf coast city of Coatzacoalcos
An attack on a bar in the Mexican city of Coatzacoalcos has left 23 people dead and 13 injured.
The assailants started a fire that ripped through the bar, killing eight women and 15 men. There was no immediate information on the condition of the injured.
Continue reading...Brazilian and French presidents continue feud over G7 aid package for wildfires raging in Amazon rainforest
Brazil’s far-right president and his backers have escalated their row over the Amazon with Emmanuel Macron, attacking the French president’s “lamentable colonialist stance” as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest rainforest.
As Brazil said it would reject a $20m (£16m) G7 contribution to fight the fires, Jair Bolsonaro spurned Macron’s criticism of his environmental record and flaunted Donald Trump’s support for his far-right administration.
Continue reading...The fund browbeats poor countries into accepting neoliberal measures that exacerbate inequality and economic distress
When people think of the damage that wealthy countries – typically led by the US and its allies – cause to people in the rest of the world, they probably think of warfare. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died from the 2003 invasion, and then many more as the region became inflamed.
Related: Brexit: EU ‘would block trade deal if Britain reneged on bill’
Continue reading...Senior official says funds should be spent on reforesting Europe and not on ‘colonialist practices’
A senior Brazilian official has told Emmanuel Macron to take care of “his home and his colonies” as Brazil rejected an offer from G7 countries of $20m (£16m) to help fight fires in the Amazon.
“We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
Continue reading...Fires are raging across the world’s largest tropical rainforest as farmers, land-grabbers and loggers torch trees and clear land for crops or grazing. According to Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research, the number of fires detected by satellite in the Amazon region this month is the highest since 2010. Bowing to international pressure and a global outcry over the destruction of a vital resource in the fight against climate change, president Jair Bolsonaro authorised the deployment of Brazil’s armed forces to help combat blazes, with warplane dumping water on burning tracts of Amazon. Critics say the large number of fires this year has been stoked by Bolsonaro’s encouragement of farmers, loggers and ranchers to speed up efforts to strip away forest
Continue reading...World leaders offer $20m now plus reforestation plan, but critics want major policy shifts
The G7’s pledge of $20m (£16m) to douse the fires in the Amazon has been dismissed as “chump change” by environmental campaigners, as concerns grow about political cooperation on deforestation and other climate issues.
The summit host, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, told reporters he would try to deal with the long-term causes by creating an international alliance to save the rainforest, with details of a reforestation programme to be unveiled at next month’s UN climate meeting in New York.
Continue reading...Reforms will oblige Cuba to work more closely with its US neighbours – in spite of US President Trump’s frosty attitude
Cuba has introduced sweeping reforms of its fishing laws in a move seen as smoothing the way for possible collaboration with the US on protecting their shared ocean, despite Donald Trump’s policy of reversing a thaw in relations.
The move is the first time the text of an environmental law in Cuba specifies the need for scientific research, which experts say will mean greater reliance on state-of-the-art US technology.
Continue reading...