International

Brazilian Amazon deforestation falls, but up 60 % under Bolsonaro

Photo: Michael Dantas / AFP

| By AFP |

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon destroyed an area bigger than Qatar in the 12 months through July, according to official figures released Wednesday, which showed a decline from the year before — but a sharp increase overall under outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro.

In the latest grim news on the world’s biggest rainforest, satellite monitoring showed 11 568 square kilometers (4 466 square miles) of forest cover was destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from August 2021 to July 2022, according to national space agency INPE’s annual deforestation tracking program, PRODES.

The figure was a decrease of 11.3 percent from the year before, when INPE detected 13,038 square kilometers of deforestation — a 15-year high.

But it closed out four years of what environmentalists call disastrous management of the Amazon under the far-right Bolsonaro, whose successor, veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has vowed to work toward zero deforestation when he takes office on January 1.

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Under agribusiness ally Bolsonaro, average annual deforestation rose by 59.5 percent from the previous four years, and by 75.5 percent from the previous decade, according to INPE figures.

“The Bolsonaro government was a forest-destroying machine… The only good news is that it’s about to end,” said Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups.

“The devastation remains out of control. Jair Bolsonaro will hand his successor a filthy legacy of surging deforestation and an Amazon in flames,” he said in a statement, urging ex-president Lula (2003-2010) — who has faced criticism over his own environmental record — to show “zero tolerance” for environmental crimes.

Experts say the vast majority of the clear-cutting and fires erasing the Amazon is aimed at turning rainforest into farmland — especially for cattle ranches in Brazil, the world’s top beef exporter.

Activists accuse Bolsonaro of gutting Brazil’s environmental protection programs and encouraging the destruction with his pro-agribusiness and pro-mining policies.

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“The Amazon is getting closer and closer to a tipping point,” Mariana Napolitano, science director at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil office, said in a statement.

“Significantly reducing deforestation… is imperative for humankind in the face of the twin climate and nature crises the world is facing.”

International

Hiroshima survivor who embraced Obama dies at 88

The emotional embrace between Barack Obama and Hiroshima survivor Mori—who was eight years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb in 1945—resonated around the world.

According to Asahi Shimbun and other local media, Mori died on Saturday at a hospital in Hiroshima.

Mori, known for his research on the fate of American prisoners of war in Hiroshima, was thrown into a river by the force of the explosion on August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of the city.

In a past interview with AFP, ahead of his meeting with Obama at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2016, Mori recalled the chaos and desperation that followed the blast.

He described how, after emerging from the water, he encountered injured civilians seeking help amid the devastation, an experience that stayed with him throughout his life.

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In 2016, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to the victims of the first atomic bomb used in warfare. During the visit, Mori was visibly moved as he met the president, sharing a brief but powerful moment that symbolized remembrance and reconciliation.

The bombing of Hiroshima resulted in the deaths of approximately 140,000 people, including those who succumbed to radiation exposure in the aftermath.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people and contributing to the end of World War II.

International

Colombia seeks ‘total suffocation’ of armed groups with regional support

Colombia is advancing a strategy aimed at the “total suffocation” of illegal armed groups, seeking to corner them in border regions with the support of Ecuador and Venezuela, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview with AFP.

According to the minister, coordinated pressure from neighboring countries—backed by United States—aims to dismantle criminal networks that use cross-border routes to traffic Colombian cocaine toward North America and Europe.

For decades, armed groups involved in Colombia’s internal conflict have relied on border territories as strategic rear bases to evade military operations and maintain logistical support.

However, Sánchez said that dynamic is beginning to change.

“We expect a total suffocation between both nations so they have no spaces where they can live or feel safe […] to close off any room they might have,” he stated during the interview in Bogotá, less than five months before the end of President Gustavo Petro’s term.

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Regional developments have reinforced this strategy. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation, Washington has increased its influence in Caracas, where interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has implemented a renewed anti-narcotics policy.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa—a key U.S. ally in the region—has launched a two-week security plan under strict curfews to combat criminal gangs, with U.S. support.

Sánchez argued that these combined efforts leave illegal organizations with fewer escape routes and operational spaces, effectively placing them in a “dead end.”

International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.