Localised rises in temperature caused by land clearance cause 28,330 heat-related deaths a year, researchers find
Deforestation has killed more than half a million people in the tropics over the past two decades as a result of heat-related illness, a study has found.
Land clearance is raising the temperature in the rainforests of the Amazon, Congo and south-east Asia because it reduces shade, diminishes rainfall and increases the risk of fire, the authors of the paper found.
Continue reading...Pre-trial monitoring ordered after police reported former president had drafted request for asylum in Argentina
Jair Bolsonaro must be under constant police surveillance, a supreme court justice has ruled, to prevent Brazil’s former president from fleeing days before the start of the trial that could see him jailed for more than 40 years.
The far-right leader has been wearing an electronic ankle tag since mid-July and has been under house arrest since early August. But last Monday, the prosecutor general asked the supreme court to tighten surveillance of the 70-year-old, after federal police reported he had even drafted a request for political asylum in Argentina.
Continue reading...Brazilian supreme court judge sets ultimatum after police claim far-right populist sought to flee to avoid punishment over failed coup
A supreme court judge has given Brazil’s ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, 48 hours to explain police claims he was planning to flee to Argentina to avoid punishment for allegedly masterminding a failed coup after losing the 2022 election.
Bolsonaro’s trial for the alleged attempt to seize power is scheduled to conclude early next month. The far-right populist faces more than four decades in prison if found guilty.
Continue reading...Brazil’s former president is accused of allegedly plotting a military coup, but he denies the charges
Brazilian police have claimed in court documents that they have found a document on the mobile phone of former president Jair Bolsonaro suggesting he had planned to flee to Argentina ahead of his judgment for allegedly plotting a military coup.
The far-right populist is facing a jail term of over 40 years when Brazil’s supreme court convenes next month to decide whether he is guilty of conspiring to overturn the result of the 2022 presidential election, which Bolsonaro lost to his leftwing opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Continue reading...Brazilian president’s comments come amid US attempts to pressure judges in coup trial against Trump ally Bolsonaro
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has hit back at Donald Trump’s campaign against the South American country’s judiciary, claiming the US president would be put on trial in Brazil had the January 6 US Capitol attacks taken place there.
Trump has triggered what some experts call the greatest ever diplomatic rupture between the US and Brazil by slapping 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctioning a supreme court judge in an attempt to help his far-right ally, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, avoid prison for allegedly trying to stage a coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula.
Continue reading...Far-right ex-president’s devotees pin hopes on pressure campaign but tariffs and sanctions appear likely to fail
Each morning, Edite Costa steps out of her bungalow on Brasília’s sun-baked savannah, stands beneath a mango tree and lifts her hands to the sky in prayer. “I ask God to work so that not just Trump but all Americans come to help us rip out the evil that has taken hold of the country I love,” said the 66-year-old Baptist, who is a fervent supporter of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro could face decades in jail for allegedly leading a murderous conspiracy to seize power after his leftwing rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat him in the 2022 presidential election. But Costa believes her populist leader can still be saved – if her prayers are answered and Donald Trump intervenes.
Continue reading...US embassy accused supreme court judge of persecuting ex-president, currently on trial for alleged coup attempt
Brazil’s foreign ministry has summoned the US chargé d’affaires after the embassy posted comments about the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, as relations between the two countries continue to deteriorate.
On Thursday, the embassy published a social media post in Portuguese criticising the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the cases against Bolsonaro, who is on trial over an alleged coup attempt.
Continue reading...Campaigners had urged Lula to veto the bill entirely, but many have welcomed his alterations
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has signed into law a controversial bill that scientists and environmentalists had dubbed the “devastation bill”, but vetoed key articles that would have in effect dismantled the country’s environmental licensing system.
On Friday, the final day to either sanction or veto the law, Lula struck down or amended 63 of the 398 provisions in a bill that, as approved by congress last month, had been regarded as the most significant setback to Brazil’s environmental protections in four decades.
Continue reading...Ex-president can see children and grandchildren without prior court approval, but phone and video ban remains
A Brazilian supreme court judge has eased the terms of Jair Bolsonaro’s house arrest, allowing the far-right former president to receive visits from family members without prior judicial approval.
The former paratrooper turned populist has been under house arrest since Monday, when Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the measure on the grounds that Bolsonaro had allegedly violated court orders.
Continue reading...State department condemns judge’s decision to place former Brazil president under house arrest as trial proceeds
The US has intensified its campaign to help Jair Bolsonaro avoid punishment for allegedly masterminding a failed coup, with the state department denouncing the decision to place Brazil’s former president under house arrest.
“Let Bolsonaro speak!” the department’s bureau of western hemisphere affairs tweeted on Monday night after the far-right populist was confined to his mansion in the capital, Brasília, and police seized his mobile phone.
Continue reading...Company to carry out more tests on its Santos basin find as it continues shift from renewables back to fossil fuels
BP has made its largest oil and gas discovery of the past 25 years off the coast of Brazil as it continues to shift its focus away from renewables and back to fossil fuels.
The Santos basin oil and gas discovery, which is located in deep waters, is the company’s 10th oil discovery of the year and could be its largest since its discovery at the Shah Deniz gasfield in Azerbaijan in 1999.
Continue reading...US put sanctions on Judge Alexandre de Moraes as an apparent move by Trump to help his ally Jair Bolsonaro
The supreme court judge presiding over the trial of Brazil’s ex-president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said a “cowardly and treacherous” plot is afoot to pave the way for another attack on the South American country’s democracy.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes was put under sanctions by the US on Wednesday, as part of an apparent push by Donald Trump to help his ally Bolsonaro escape punishment for allegedly masterminding an attempted coup after losing the 2022 election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Trump also slapped a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports in response to what he called the “witch-hunt” against the far-right former president.
Continue reading...US president seems to be weaponizing tariffs to punish Brazil for its coup trial against his ally Bolsonaro
Over the past six months, Donald Trump has been accused of rapidly dragging the largest democracy in the Americas towards authoritarianism. Now, the US president seems bent on undermining the region’s second largest democracy too.
Since early July, Trump has launched an extraordinary attack on Brazil’s institutions, slapping 50% tariffs on imports from the South American country and sanctions on a supreme court judge – partly in retribution for what he called the political persecution of his ally, Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly masterminding a failed coup.
Continue reading...Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says he won’t be cowed by Trump ahead of 50% tariffs set to hit Brazil
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he does not fear getting on the wrong side of Donald Trump, as South America’s largest economy braces for the introduction of 50% tariffs.
Trump announced plans to slap Brazil with tariffs on 1 August earlier this month, partly in retaliation for a supposed political “witch-hunt” against his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro. The former Brazilian president faces decades in jail for allegedly plotting a military coup to stop Lula from taking office after the former lost the 2022 presidential election.
Continue reading...Concerns poorer countries could be priced out of negotiations in Belém as room rates soar amid shortage
The UN climate bureau has held an urgent meeting about concerns that sky-high rates for accommodation at this year’s Cop30 summit in Brazil could price poorer countries out of the negotiations.
Brazil is preparing to host Cop30 this November in the rainforest city of Belém, where representatives of nearly every government in the world will gather to negotiate their joint efforts to curb the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Eduardo Bolsonaro is suspected of using money to lobby US president on behalf of his father, Jair, who faces arrest for apparent flouting of social media ban
A Brazilian supreme court judge has ordered that the bank accounts and assets of Jair Bolsonaro’s congressman son be frozen, as a political crisis – pitting Brazil’s far-right former president and Donald Trump against the current administration – intensified.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes – who has spearheaded a series of supreme court investigations into Bolsonaro – targeted the finances of Eduardo Bolsonaro, the ex-president’s third son, as a result of police suspicions that money being sent to him by his father was bankrolling his efforts to lobby the Trump administration to help Bolsonaro avoid punishment for an alleged coup attempt after the 2022 election.
Continue reading...Move by Marco Rubio is latest attempt by Trump administration to help former president avoid justice over alleged coup
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup.
Bolsonaro, a far-right populist with ties to Donald Trump’s Maga movement, is on trial for allegedly masterminding a murderous plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 election to his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is expected to be convicted by the supreme court in the coming weeks and faces a jail sentence of up to 43 years.
Continue reading...Guilty verdict widely expected for Brazil’s ex-president accused of plot to seize power after losing 2022 election
Federal police have raided Jair Bolsonaro’s Brasília mansion, banned him from communicating with foreign diplomats and ordered him to wear an electronic ankle tag amid fears Brazil’s ex-president may abscond to avoid punishment over an alleged coup attempt.
A supreme court trial examining claims that Bolsonaro masterminded a murderous plot to seize power after losing the 2022 election is expected to reach its conclusion in the coming weeks.
Continue reading...President has 15 days to approve or veto legislation that critics say will lead to vast deforestation and destruction of Indigenous communities
Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country’s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country’s environmental legislation in the past 40 years.
The new law – widely referred to as the “devastation bill” and already approved by the senate in May – passed in congress in the early hours of Thursday by 267 votes to 116, despite opposition from more than 350 organisations and social movements.
Continue reading...US president’s attempt to help his rightwing ally avoid jail has sparked wave of anger and given boost to rival Lula
Silvana Marques was one of thousands of Brazilians who flocked to São Paulo’s most famous art museum one afternoon last week. But the 51-year-old teacher wasn’t there to marvel over fog-filled London landscapes at Masp’s new Monet retrospective. She had come to join a protest heaping scorn on Donald Trump.
Beneath the museum’s brutalist hulk, Marques spotted a cardboard effigy of the US president and took a picture with her phone before the Trump dummy was set on fire. “Laranjão safado,” which translates as big orange dirtbag, she wrote under her photo on Instagram. Nearby, demonstrators hoisted a red banner into the air which read: “Nice try Trump. But we’re not afraid.”
Continue reading...