Discoveries that could help diabetics titled in honour of activist and journalist murdered in Amazon
Scientists in Brazil have found two new species of fermenting yeasts and named them after journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Pereira, the two men murdered last year in the Amazon rainforest.
The discovery came from four isolates of the Spathaspora species, according to a paper published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Continue reading...The influx of heavily armed gangs, now being tackled by President Lula, has had a catastrophic effect on infant health
The severely malnourished Yanomami baby girl is about eight months old but weighs just 2.75kg (6lbs) – less than half the average for her age. A catheter runs into her tiny right foot, delivering a blood transfusion doctors hope will save her life.
“This is a really difficult moment for us,” says Francinete Rodrigues, the director of the Santo Antônio children’s hospital in Boa Vista, an institution on the frontline of an Indigenous health catastrophe Brazil’s president calls an attempted genocide.
Continue reading...Exclusive: rare purple organism preys on trapdoor spider in behaviour reminiscent of its ‘zombie’ relatives that feature in apocalyptic TV show The Last of Us
Scientists believe they have discovered a new parasitic fungus which preys on trapdoor spiders in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest.
The rare organism, which is purple, belongs to a group of fungi that infect invertebrates and take over the host. A closeup image shows the fungus wrapped around the body of a trapdoor spider, poking out of the burrow from which the arachnid grabs insects.
Continue reading...New UN report says there has been a 35% spike in 2020-21 in the production of coca, the drug’s base ingredient
South American drug cartels have capitalised on the retreat of the Covid-19 pandemic to produce and smuggle record amounts of cocaine around the world.
Production of coca, the drug’s base ingredient, spiked 35% in 2020-21, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Continue reading...Satellites show record destruction for the month of February as new government tries to undo damage wreaked under Bolsonaro
Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest rose in February to the highest level on record for the month, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as it tries to undo the environmental destruction wreaked under the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Government satellites show that a record 322 sq km of Amazon rainforest were destroyed in February, a 62% increase on last year and the highest number for the month since records began.
Continue reading...Study adds to fears Amazon is approaching tipping point after which it will not be able to generate its own rainfall
For the first time researchers have proven a clear correlation between deforestation and regional precipitation. Scientists hope it may encourage agricultural companies and governments in the Amazon and Congo basin regions and south-east Asia to invest more in protecting trees and other vegetation.
The study found that the more rainforests are cleared in tropical countries, the less local farmers will be able to depend on rain for their crops and pastures.
Continue reading...An elite unit is on a mission to expel the illegal miners who devastated Yanomami territory during Bolsonaro’s presidency
For the last four years Brazil’s rainforests bled. “They bled like never before,” said Felipe Finger as he prepared to venture into the jungle with his assault rifle to staunch the environmental carnage inflicted on the Amazon under the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Moments later Finger, a mettlesome special forces commander for Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Ibama, was airborne in a single-engine helicopter, hurtling over the forest canopy towards the frontline of a ferocious war on nature and the Indigenous peoples who lived here long before Portuguese explorers arrived more than 500 years ago.
Continue reading...Alessandra Sampaio preparing to visit remote area where husband and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were murdered last year
The widow of British journalist Dom Phillips has spoken of her desire to raise awareness of the urgent and complex crisis facing the Amazon as she prepared to visit the remote jungle region where he was murdered last year with the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.
Alessandra Sampaio will travel to the Javari valley region on Monday with a delegation of Brazilian ministers, officials and activists as well as the British ambassador Stephanie Al-Qaq.
Continue reading...Australia swelters while in Brazil there have been record downpours
Southern Australia has recorded significant heat over the past week with maximum temperatures widely reaching in excess of 35C (95F), as well as more than 10C above the climatological average. Many stations in the south, across Western Australia and South Australia, recorded temperatures in excess of 40C with Eucla and Red Rock Points recording their highest February temperature of 46.8C on 22 February. Two large blocking high pressure systems south and west of Australia have allowed heat to stall across western and southern parts. This will be pushed further eastwards through this week, although lessening in severity.
In addition to this, many parts of the west coast have had high sea surface temperature anomalies throughout February, about 1-2C above normal. Because of this there is a chance that further cyclogenesis off the north-west coast may take place in the coming weeks – bringing further tropical storms.
Continue reading...Dozens missing in south-eastern São Paulo state as rescue crews search for bodies in the rubble of homes
Search and rescue teams raced to find dozens of people that remained missing after heavy rains devastated coastal areas of Brazil’s south-eastern São Paulo state, as the official death toll rose to 48.
“We are currently working with a tally of at least 38 missing people,” the São Paulo governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, told reporters on Wednesday, as weather forecasters cautioned more rain was on its way.
Continue reading...Cities cancel carnival festivities as rescue workers search for victims and clear roads
At least 36 people have died and dozens are missing after torrential rain brought flooding and landslides to coastal areas of south-east Brazil over the weekend as the country geared up for its annual carnival celebrations.
Rescue efforts continued in São Paulo state on Monday as more than 500 workers searched for victims, cleared roads and tried to reconnect isolated communities.
Continue reading...Visit is part of push by Lula’s government to beat back illegal miners, loggers and poachers who wrought environmental havoc
Indigenous activists are planning to take some of Brazil’s top ministers to the spot where Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira were murdered in the Amazon rainforest amid reports security forces are poised to launch a major environmental clampdown in the remote border region.
Leaders of Univaja, the Indigenous association for which Pereira worked in Brazil’s Javari Valley, said senior politicians, including justice minister Flávio Dino and the minister for Indigenous peoples Sônia Guajajara, would travel there on 27 February.
Continue reading...Special forces destroy aircraft and seize weapons in effort to protect largest Indigenous reserve from mining mafias
The Brazilian government has launched its campaign to drive tens of thousands of illegal miners from the country’s largest Indigenous reserve, with special-forces environmental operatives destroying aircraft and seizing weapons and boats during an operation deep in the Amazon’s Yanomami territory.
Members of Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama – with support from the Indigenous agency Funai and the newly created ministry for Indigenous peoples – launched the long-awaited operation on Monday, with troops establishing a base along the Uraricoera river. Wildcat tin ore and gold miners use the waterway – as well as dozens of illegal airstrips – to reach and supply their illegal outposts in Yanomami lands.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Environment minister calls for ex-president to be held to account as she prepares to tackle illegal gold miners
Former president Jair Bolsonaro should be investigated for genocide, Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, has said, as she prepares an operation to drive illegal goldminers from the site of a humanitarian disaster on Indigenous land.
In the coming days, armed police and environmental protection agents will launch the first of a series of operations by plane and helicopter to expel thousands of miners, who proliferated in Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous territory during Bolsonaro’s administration, contaminating Amazonian rivers, wrecking the rainforest and spawning Brazil’s worst health crisis in living memory.
Continue reading...Environmental activists had sought to halt the planned scuttling of the warship, warning that it could pollute the marine food chain
Brazil has sunk a decommissioned aircraft carrier despite environmental groups claiming the former French ship was packed with toxic materials.
The “planned and controlled sinking occurred late in the afternoon” on Friday, 350km off the Brazilian coast in the Atlantic Ocean, in an area with an approximate depth of 5,000 meters (16,000 feet), the navy said in a statement.
Continue reading...Senator says he was asked to get justice to make compromising comments on tape as Bolsonaro ‘sat in silence’
A close ally of Jair Bolsonaro has turned against Brazil’s former president, claiming that an aide to the far-right leader tried to “coerce” him into joining a conspiracy to annul the October elections and keep Bolsonaro in power.
Senator Marcos do Val claimed at a news conference on Thursday that he was invited to a meeting on 9 December with the then president by a fellow member of congress, Daniel Silveira, to discuss a plan to “save Brazil” .
Continue reading...Ex-Brazil president who has been in Florida since 30 December is being investigated for attempt to topple country’s government
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing investigation as part of an inquiry into an alleged attempt to topple the country’s government, has filed a request for a six-month visitor visa to stay in the US.
The former leader is understood to have entered the US on an A-1 visa reserved for sitting heads of state, which would expire on Tuesday, 30 days from the end of his presidential term.
Continue reading...Health secretary of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, says 59 children in hospital, 45 of them from the Yanomami people
Dozens of Indigenous children suffering from malnutrition and acute diseases have been hospitalised in northern Brazil, with relatives in hammocks holding their emaciated frames in scenes that underscore the gravity of a public health crisis.
The health secretary of Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state, said on Friday that 59 Indigenous children were currently at the only pediatric hospital in the state, 45 of them from the Yanomami people. Eight were under intensive care.
Continue reading...São Paulo registry office snubs music star Seu Jorge’s choice for newborn son, despite far more unusual names being accepted
As the country that produced footballers called Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira and Élvis Vieira Araújo, Brazil is no stranger to unconventional – albeit familiar-sounding – names.
A scan of the names of the far-right vandals who were arrested for storming government buildings in Brasília earlier this month confirms the Brazilian penchant for eye-catching monikers. The list throws up a Bach and a Mozart, as well as a Ditter Marx and creative twists on more conventional first names, such as Marileide (Mary Lady), Rosemeire (Rosemary), and Dawydy (David).
Continue reading...Committee to Protect Journalist reports region accounted for almost half of the 67 deaths worldwide
More journalists were killed in Latin America and the Caribbean than in any other part of the world last year, including the Ukraine war zone, the press watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said.
In a report released on Tuesday, the group said that, globally, at least 67 journalists and media workers had been killed in 2022, nearly double the 2021 figure of 45.
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