International

Indigenous farewell for expert killed in Amazon

AFP

Bruno Pereira, the Brazilian Indigenous expert murdered in the Amazon with British journalist Dom Phillips, was given a moving sendoff Friday by members of one of the tribes he had spent his life and work defending.

Dressed in straw and feather loincloths and headgear, members of the Xukuru Indigenous group chanted funeral hymns and mourned at a solemn ceremony near Recife, where Pereira was born, in the northeastern Pernambuco state.

A photograph of 41-year-old Pereira was perched on his coffin, also draped with the flag of his favorite football team, Sport Recife.

“It is a great loss not only for us but for all of Brazil, for those who fight to defend Mother Nature, which is to defend life,” chief Marcos Xukuru told AFP.

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Pereira and veteran correspondent Phillips, 57, went missing on June 5 in a remote part of the rainforest rife with illegal mining, fishing and logging, as well as drug trafficking.

– ‘Destroyers of the forest’ –

Philips was the author of dozens of articles on the Amazon and a long-time contributor to The Guardian newspaper and other major news organizations.

He was traveling to the Javari Valley as part of research for a book with Pereira as his guide, when they were ambushed.

Police say the men were shot, Indigenous groups claim in retaliation for exposing illegal fishers in the region.

Pereira, an expert at Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had received multiple threats from criminals with their eye on isolated Indigenous resources.

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The men’s bodies were handed over to their families on Thursday.

“Today, the land where he was born welcomes him. His body finds the clay, the roots of plants, the water and the heat of the soil,” the Observatory for Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples, with whom Pereira had worked, said in a statement.

Pereira was killed, it added “by the destroyers of the forest.”

“This crime is the tip of the iceberg of the critical situation in Brazil today, caused by the way the state treats indigenous issues,” Vania Fialho, a 56-year-old anthropologist who attended the wake, told AFP.

Pereira was married and had three children.

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His body was to be cremated after Friday’s ceremony, while Phillips’ family will hold a wake and cremation on Sunday in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro.

Four people have been arrested for the crime to date.

International

Brazil offers to mediate Colombia-Ecuador tensions, calls for restraint

The government of Brazil has offered to mediate in the ongoing tensions between Colombia and Ecuador, while calling on both nations to exercise restraint.

In a statement released Wednesday, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the parties involved to act with moderation and seek a peaceful resolution to the dispute.

“Brazil encourages all sides to act with moderation in order to find a peaceful solution to the controversy. It stands ready to support dialogue efforts aimed at preserving peace and security in the region,” the statement said.

Brazil also expressed “serious concern” over reports of deaths in the border area between Colombia and Ecuador, noting that the circumstances surrounding the incidents have not yet been clarified.

The diplomatic move comes amid rising tensions between the neighboring countries, increasing regional concern over stability and security along their shared border.

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International

U.S. lowers travel advisory for much of Venezuela but keeps high-risk zones under warning

The U.S. Department of State announced on Thursday that it has lowered its travel advisory for much of Venezuela to Level 3 (“Reconsider Travel”), reflecting what it described as improved security conditions in parts of the country.

However, the agency will maintain the highest Level 4 warning (“Do Not Travel”) for several regions, including the states of Táchira, Amazonas, Apure, Aragua and Guárico, as well as rural areas of Bolívar, citing ongoing risks such as crime, kidnapping and terrorism.

The updated advisory marks a shift from December, when the United States raised the alert for Venezuela to Level 4 nationwide, warning of severe security threats.

Despite the partial downgrade, U.S. authorities continue to urge caution, emphasizing that conditions remain volatile in certain areas and that travelers should carefully assess risks before planning any trips to the country.

International

EU lawmakers move to ban AI tools that generate non-consensual nude images

Members of the European Parliament are pushing to ban across the bloc artificial intelligence services that allow users to digitally “undress” people without their consent.

The proposal, adopted on Wednesday at committee level, aims to prohibit applications that generate non-consensual explicit images. Irish lawmaker Michael McNamara, one of the sponsors, said the measure seeks to stop tools that “have caused significant harm for the benefit of a few.”

Dutch MEP Kim van Sparrentak welcomed the move, calling it “a major victory, especially for women and children in Europe.”

The amendment, part of broader EU legislation on artificial intelligence, was approved by the Parliament’s civil liberties and internal market committees. It specifically targets systems that use AI to create or manipulate sexually explicit or intimate images resembling identifiable individuals without their consent.

The proposal will be put to a full vote in the European Parliament on March 26. If adopted, lawmakers and European Union member states will need to agree on a final version before it can take effect.

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Separately, representatives of the 27 EU countries recently backed a Franco-Spanish amendment seeking to ban AI services used to generate non-consensual sexual images or child sexual abuse material.

The initiative follows controversy surrounding a feature introduced in Grok, developed by xAI, which allowed users to create simulated nude images from real photos. The tool sparked widespread criticism and prompted an EU investigation.

In response, xAI restricted image generation features in mid-January to paying subscribers and stated it blocks the creation of sexualized images in jurisdictions where such content is illegal.