International
August Amazon fires remain near highs under Bolsonaro
AFP
The number of fires in the Brazilian Amazon as the burning season opened in August fell slightly from 2020, but remained close to the near-decade highs seen under President Jair Bolsonaro, new data showed Wednesday.
Brazil’s space agency, INPE, recorded 28,060 fires in the Brazilian Amazon last month — down 4.3 percent from August 2020, but well above the average of 18,000 for the decade before Bolsonaro took office in 2019.
The far-right president, who has pushed to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining, has presided over a surge of deforestation in the Amazon.
Under his administration, Brazil’s share of the Amazon has lost around 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) of forest cover a year — an area nearly the size of Lebanon.
That is up from around 6,500 square kilometers per year during the previous decade.
The number of fires has surged, too.
“The amount of fires registered each August has reached absurd levels since 2019,” said Cristiane Mazzetti, of environmental group Greenpeace, condemning a new “Bolsonaro standard” of destruction.
Fires often increase in the Amazon when dryer weather arrives from around August to November, as farmers, ranchers and land speculators fell trees, then burn them to clear the land.
Scientists say natural wildfires are virtually non-existent in the famously wet Amazon.
In 2019, Bolsonaro’s first year in office, a sharp rise in Amazon fires caused worldwide outcry and fueled fears for the future of the world’s biggest rainforest, a key resource in the race to curb climate change.
INPE recorded 30,900 fires in August 2019, up from 10,421 the year before.
The agency’s figures go back to 1998. The worst August on record was 2005, with 63,764 fires.
Ane Alencar, director of science at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), said this year’s fire season would depend on climate factors such as rainfall.
But “we are still at about the same level as in 2019,” she told AFP.
“It’s like we’re getting used to these very high numbers.”
Environmentalists are also concerned over a sharp increase in fires in the huge Pantanal wetlands south of the Amazon, around a quarter of which was devastated by fires last year.
The region is again facing a record drought this year.
International
Chile enters runoff campaign with Kast leading and Jara seeking a last-minute comeback
Chile’s presidential runoff campaign for the December 14 election kicked off this Sunday, with far-right candidate José Antonio Kast entering the race as the clear favorite in the polls, while left-wing contender Jeannette Jara faces an uphill scenario, hoping for a comeback that some experts describe as “a miracle.”
The final polls released in Chile—published before the mandatory blackout on survey dissemination—give Kast, an ultraconservative former lawmaker running for president for the third time, a lead of between 12 and 16 points. His opponent, the communist former minister in Gabriel Boric’s current administration, is weighed down not only by the government’s low approval ratings but also by a fragmented electorate.
Although Jeannette Jara received the most votes in the first round with 26.9%, her lack of alliances beyond the left makes it difficult for her to expand her support. Kast, who secured 23.9%, has already brought key figures on board: ultralibertarian Johannes Kaiser (13.9%) and traditional right-wing leader Evelyn Matthei (12.4%), both now backing his candidacy.
Analysts note that although Kast’s support base consolidates more than 50% of the electorate, it does not guarantee an automatic transfer of votes. Populist economist Franco Parisi, who placed third with 19.7%, emerges as the major wildcard. His party, the People’s Party (PDG), is set to decide this Sunday through an internal consultation whether to endorse one of the two finalists.
International
Trump says asylum decision freeze will remain in place “for a long time”
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Sunday that the suspension of decisions on asylum applications—implemented as part of his order to “halt” immigration from third-world countries following Wednesday’s shooting in Washington—will remain in effect “for a long time.”
The president declined to specify how long the freeze, imposed last Friday by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), would last. The suspension affects individuals waiting for an asylum ruling from that agency, though it does not apply to cases handled by U.S. immigration courts.
The delay is part of a series of measures enacted by the Trump Administration after a shooting on Wednesday in which an Afghan national allegedly opened fire on the National Guard in Washington, D.C., killing one officer and leaving another in critical condition.
Trump has ordered a permanent halt to immigration from 19 countries classified as “third-world.” He also indicated on Sunday that “possibly” more nations could be added to the list.
“These are countries with high crime rates. They are countries that do not function well… that are not known for success, and frankly, we don’t need people from those places coming into our country and telling us what to do,” Trump said, adding: “We don’t want those people.”
USCIS had already announced on Thursday a “rigorous review” of green cards held by migrants from 19 “countries of concern,” including Afghanistan, Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti.
International
Sri Lanka and Indonesia deploy military as deadly asian floods kill over 1,000
Sri Lanka and Indonesia deployed military personnel on Monday to assist victims of the devastating floods that have killed more than a thousand people across Asia in recent days.
A series of weather events last week triggered prolonged torrential rains across Sri Lanka, parts of Indonesia’s Sumatra island, southern Thailand, and northern Malaysia. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said Monday in North Sumatra that “the priority now is to deliver the necessary aid as quickly as possible.”
“There are several isolated villages that, with God’s help, we will be able to reach,” he added. Subianto also stated that the government had deployed helicopters and aircraft to support relief operations.
Floods and landslides have claimed 502 lives in Indonesia, with a similar number still missing.
This marks the highest death toll from a natural disaster in Indonesia since 2018, when an earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed more than 2,000 people.
The government has sent three military ships carrying aid and two hospital vessels to the hardest-hit regions, where many roads remain impassable.
In the village of Sungai Nyalo, located about 100 kilometers from Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, floodwaters had receded by Sunday, leaving homes, vehicles, and crops coated in thick mud.
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