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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Girl, 15, charged with 19 counts of murder after fire at school in Guyana

Police have accused the teenager of starting the blaze in a dormitory that killed 18 schoolmates and a five-year-old boy

A teenage student whom police in Guyana accuse of deliberately setting a fire in a girls’ dormitory that killed 18 schoolmates and a five-year-old boy has been charged as an adult with 19 counts of murder.

The 15-year-old girl appeared virtually at the hearing on Monday in a court south of the capital, Georgetown, and was ordered to be held in custody pending further court proceedings.

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School dormitory fire in Guyana kills at least 20 pupils

Fire began shortly after midnight at school serving mostly Indigenous young people aged 12-18, say officials

At least 20 pupils have been killed in a fire in a school dormitory in Guyana, authorities have said.

The Guyanese government said in a press statement that the fire broke out in the dormitory building of a secondary school in the south-western border town of Mahdia, 200 miles (320km) south of the capital, Georgetown.

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Could Guyana’s Exxon ruling scare big oil off risky exploration?

Ruling requiring ‘unlimited guarantee’ from oil firms to cover costs of spills could change offshore drilling throughout region

A ruling from Guyana’s high court could change the face of offshore oil drilling throughout the Caribbean, according to financial and legal analysts.

The ruling ordered the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require an independent liability insurance policy from Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL) and an “unlimited guarantee” from its parent company, ExxonMobil, in the case of any damage caused by the company’s oil and gas development in the country.

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‘Finch-smuggling kingpin’ sentenced to prison for bird trafficking into US

Insaf Ali smuggled songbirds in hair curlers from Guyana to New York when JFK airport authorities discovered the ruse

A man who repeatedly admitted scheming to smuggle finches from Guyana into New York for birdsong competitions was sentenced on Thursday to a year and a day in prison.

It was Insaf Ali’s second time being sentenced in a Brooklyn federal court for a crime related to bird trafficking, and he vowed it would be his last.

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Exxon’s oil drilling gamble off Guyana coast ‘poses major environmental risk’

Experts warn of potential for disaster as Exxon pursues 9bn barrels in sensitive marine ecosystem

ExxonMobil’s huge new Guyana project faces charges of a disregard for safety from experts who claim the company has failed to adequately prepare for possible disaster, the Guardian and Floodlight have found.

Exxon has been extracting oil from Liza 1, an ultra-deepwater drilling operation, since 2019 – part of an expansive project spanning more than 6m acres off the coast of Guyana that includes 17 additional prospects in the exploration and preparatory phases.

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All that glitters: why lab-made gems might not be an ethical alternative

Switching to synthetic gems may have environmental upsides but it could harm the very communities consumers worry about

Diamonds have long been in the debt of marketing genius. Until the 1940s they were not a popular choice for engagement rings. Then, in 1947, a stroke of brilliance: De Beers’ “A Diamond is Forever” campaign. The slogan was a hit. The market transformed. Today diamond engagement rings are ubiquitous, winking from the windows of upmarket jewellers.

Earlier this year came another glittering moment in diamond PR. Pandora, the world’s largest jewellery retailer, announced it would be switching entirely to lab-made diamonds. It generated positive headlines around the world, dubbed an “ethical stand against mined diamonds”.

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Claude James obituary

My friend and colleague Claude James, who has died aged 90, was the first black person to be elected to a railway trade union executive committee and the first black manager of Euston station. He fought for fairness and and against racism in the UK.

The eldest of six, Claude was born in Guyana to Gladys and Cyril, and lived in Kitty village. His grandmother was influential in his early life, taking him to meetings to discuss current affairs. He enjoyed his time at Britain high school in Queenstown before starting work for the City Engineer Council. He sailed for Britain alone in 1954.

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Guyana calls off plan for Taiwan ties after Beijing criticizes ‘mistake’

Foreign ministry said it terminated agreement with Taiwan to open office after Beijing urged country to ‘correct their mistake’

Guyana has abruptly terminated an agreement with Taiwan to open an office in the South American country, hours after China urged Georgetown to “correct their mistake”.

Earlier on Thursday, Taiwan’s foreign ministry announced it had signed an agreement with Guyana to open a Taiwan office – effectively a de facto embassy for the island that China claims as its sovereign territory with no right to diplomatic ties.

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Goldmining having big impact on indigenous Amazon communities

Study calls for more rights for indigenous reserves as rising gold price attracts more miners

A new report has exposed the scale and impact of mining on indigenous reserves in Amazon countries as gold prices soared during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 20% of indigenous lands are overlapped by mining concessions and illegal mining, it found, covering 450,000 sq km (174,000 sq miles) – and 31% of Amazon indigenous reserves are affected.

The report, released on Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, said indigenous people should be given more legal rights to manage and use their lands, and called for better environmental safeguards. As pressure mounts over the issue, a leading Brazilian thinktank has called for regulations tracing gold sold by financial institutions.

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Huge oil discovery off Guyana raises the stakes in election fraud case

If discredited president refuses to accept imminent ruling over March vote, investors likely to be scared off

Allegations of mass vote fiddling in the former British colony of Guyana may lead to the country’s discredited government being ostracised unless a court hearing next week can resolve a bitter dispute over election results.

The political stakes in Guyana have risen massively since May 2015 when Exxon Mobil discovered oil reserves potentially worth more than $100bn (£80bn) 200km (124 miles) off the coast – a find big enough to transform a Latin American country of fewer than 1 million people with a GDP of $3bn largely based on sugar, timber, molasses and bauxite. Its current income of $5,250 per head is projected to rise to above $10,000 next year alone.

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World Bank accused over ExxonMobil plans to tap Guyana oil rush

Washington DC-based bank grants funds to redraft south American state’s oil laws by lawyers linked to oil giant

The World Bank is to pay for Guyana’s oil laws to be rewritten by a legal firm that has regularly worked for ExxonMobil, just as the US producer prepares to extract as much as 8bn barrels of oil off the country’s coast.

The World Bank has pledged not to fund fossil fuel extraction directly, but it is giving Guyana millions of dollars to develop governance in its burgeoning oil sector, as the south American country prepares for an oil rush led by ExxonMobil and its partners.

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How Scotland erased Guyana from its past

The portrayal of Scots as abolitionists and liberal champions has hidden a long history of profiting from slavery in the Caribbean.

The mangrove-fringed coast of Guyana, at the north-eastern tip of South America, does not immediately bring to mind the Highlands of Scotland, in the northernmost part of Great Britain. Guyana’s mudflats and silty brown coastal water have little in common with the lush green mountains and glens of the Highlands. If these landscapes share anything, it is their remoteness – one on the edge of a former empire burnished by the relentless equatorial sun and one on the edge of Europe whipped mercilessly by the Atlantic winds.

But look closer and the links are there: Alness, Ankerville, Belladrum, Borlum, Cromarty, Culcairn, Dingwall, Dunrobin, Fyrish, Glastullich, Inverness, Kintail, Kintyre, Rosehall, Tain, Tarlogie, a join-the-dots list of placenames (30 in all) south of Guyana’s capital Georgetown that hint of a hidden association with the Scottish Highlands some 5,000 miles away.

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