International
Chile’s distant paradise where scientists study climate change
AFP | Alberto Peña
Hidden inside pristine forests in Chile’s deep south, known as the end of the world, lie potential early warning signs of climate change. Puerto Williams on Navarino island, which is separated from the South American mainland by the Beagle Channel, is the world’s southern-most town.
Far from the pollution that blights major urban and industrial centers, it is a paradise that provides unique conditions to study global warming.
“There is nowhere else like it,” Ricardo Rozzi, director of the Cape Horn International Center for global change studies and bio-cultural conservation in Puerto Williams, told AFP.
It is “a place that is especially sensitive to climate change” as average temperatures do not rise above five degrees Celsius. This cold and windy area is the last inhabited southern frontier before reaching the Antarctic.
The ethnobotanical Omora park is home to an immense variety of lichens, mosses and fungi that scientists study by crouching down onto their knees with magnifying glasses.
In the crystal clear Robalo river, minuscule organisms act as sentinels of the changes produced by global warming. In both the park and river, the alarm bells are ringing.
Moss and lichen on the move
At this latitude — 55 degrees south — climate change has an exponential effect on flora that react by seeking out low temperatures, said Rozzi, 61. “The most obvious aspect of climate change is the rising temperatures,” he said. “These lichens cannot survive” if a certain threshold is passed. To escape the higher temperatures, they move.
“In the case of (mosses) we’ve noticed that they have moved. Before they were between 50 and 350 (meters above sea level) and now they are between 100 and 400,” said Rozzi. He says Omora has more diversity per square meter of lichens and mosses than anywhere else in the world. They also help to absorb carbon dioxide.
Another aspect is the elevational diversity gradient, an ecological pattern in which biodiversity changes with elevation.
The 700-meter high Bandera hill’s biodiversity changes every 200 meters and there is a mammoth 1.5 degrees Celsius difference in temperature between top and bottom.
“We can see what changes happen in the high mountains and in the area close to the sea in a very short distance, and we can see how the temperature affects the biodiversity that lives in this river,” Tamara Contador, 38, a biologist at the Cape Horn International Center, told AFP.
She studies the gradients themselves. If the height difference between gradients rises or falls on the mountain, scientists can determine whether there has been a global change in temperature. They say there has been.
Avoiding ‘extermination’
“On a global level, the polar and subpolar ecosystems are the most affected by climate change, so we are in a place where climate change has a much bigger effect on biodiversity than other places,” said Contador.
River organisms also form part of the alert system.
“The organisms that live here are also indicators of water quality and global environmental change,” added Contador.
River organisms move about and have already increased their reproductive cycle, says Rozzi. This confirms there has been a small change to the climate in the area that could have been much greater elsewhere on the planet.
“Some insects that have an annual eggs to larvae to adulthood cycle are now having two cycles because the temperature has risen,” said Rozzi.
By studying these organisms and learning from them “we can avoid crossing the threshold that brings us to the extermination of humanity and other life forms,” he added.
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A glacier over Darwin's mountain range is seen during a journey through the Beagle Channel in the Magallanes region, the southernmost of Chile, on September 23, 2022. - There is a place at the end of the world, in the southernmost point of Chile, where pristine forests hide tiny systems in their depths that already give early warning of the global climate change that the planet is suffering. Beyond the place where the American continent ends, on Navarino Island, crossing the Beagle Channel, Puerto Williams stands as the southernmost city in the world, a place far from pollution and human mistreatment, with unique conditions for the study of climate change. (Photo by Alberto PEÑA / AFP)
International
Mexico leads global cases of enforced disappearances, UN report finds
Mexico accounts for the highest number of urgent actions related to enforced disappearances worldwide, according to the latest report by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
The report, released by I(dh)eas, indicates that Mexico has accumulated 819 cases between 2012 and February 2026, representing 38% of the global total.
In the past five months alone, 40 new urgent requests have been recorded — more than one-third of all such actions worldwide during that period.
The report warns that this trend reflects a structural problem, as the urgent action mechanism — originally intended as an exceptional measure — has become routine in Mexico.
Although the Mexican state formally complies with response deadlines, the Committee identified significant shortcomings in the implementation of these measures. These include the lack of comprehensive search plans, delays in key investigative procedures such as video surveillance and phone data analysis, and insufficient inquiries into possible links involving state agents.
The report also highlights inadequate protection for relatives and individuals involved in search efforts, including cases of reprisals.
Among the most serious incidents documented is the disappearance of a father who had denounced alleged involvement of authorities in his son’s case in the state of Guanajuato.
The accumulation of cases could lead to the application of Article 34 of the Convention, which would allow for the launch of an international investigation into systematic enforced disappearances.
Geographically, the state of Chiapas accounts for 30% of the new urgent actions, many of them linked to collective disappearances of migrants.
International
Le pape Léon XIV appelle à relancer le dialogue pour une paix au Moyen-Orient
Le pape Léon XIV s’est entretenu par téléphone ce vendredi avec le président d’Israël, Isaac Herzog, soulignant la « nécessité de rouvrir » les canaux de dialogue afin de parvenir à une « paix juste » au Moyen-Orient.
Selon un communiqué du Vatican, les deux dirigeants ont insisté sur l’importance de relancer tous les mécanismes diplomatiques pour mettre fin au conflit en cours et œuvrer en faveur d’une paix durable dans la région.
Le communiqué précise également que les discussions ont porté sur la protection des populations civiles et sur le respect du droit international et humanitaire.
Cet échange intervient dans le contexte de la Semaine sainte, cinq jours après un incident à Jérusalem, où la police israélienne avait empêché le cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa de célébrer la messe du Dimanche des Rameaux au Saint-Sépulcre.
Le lendemain, le secrétaire d’État du Vatican, Pietro Parolin, avait convoqué l’ambassadeur israélien auprès du Saint-Siège, Yaron Sideman, pour exprimer le mécontentement du Vatican face à cet incident qualifié de « regrettable ».
Cette situation avait suscité une vive réaction internationale, poussant le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu à intervenir pour assurer que le cardinal pourrait accéder au lieu saint.
De son côté, Herzog a confirmé l’échange sur son compte X, indiquant que les discussions ont également porté sur des sujets régionaux, notamment la guerre en Iran et la situation au Liban.
Le pape, d’origine américaine, participe actuellement à sa première Semaine sainte depuis son élection et doit présider ce soir le chemin de croix au Vatican.
International
Devotees in Philippines mark Holy Week with extreme rituals despite rising costs
Despite rising fuel prices driven by the conflict in the Middle East, thousands of devotees in Philippines took part this year in one of the country’s most intense Holy Week traditions.
In the city of San Fernando, located in Pampanga province, dozens of bare-chested penitents with covered faces walked barefoot along dusty streets, whipping their backs with bamboo lashes as part of a ritual that can draw up to 12,000 local and foreign visitors.
Journalists from Agence France-Presse reported seeing participants piercing their skin with glass shards attached to small wooden paddles to ensure bleeding during the ceremony — an act believed to atone for sins and seek divine intervention.
“I do this to pray for the healing of my seven-month-old baby, who is suffering from pneumonia,” said a devotee identified as John David at the start of the procession.
The 49-year-old participant explained that the practice runs in his family. “My grandfather started this, then my father, and now it’s my turn. I have witnessed healing miracles over the years through this act of faith,” he said.
Many attendees traveled for hours to witness the climax of the ritual, in which some penitents allow nails, measuring about seven centimeters, to be driven into their hands before being raised on crosses in a reenactment of crucifixion.
Mexico leads global cases of enforced disappearances, UN report finds
Le pape Léon XIV appelle à relancer le dialogue pour une paix au Moyen-Orient
Devotees in Philippines mark Holy Week with extreme rituals despite rising costs
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