Brazil fires drive acceleration in Amazon deforestation: report
RIO DE JANEIRO - A record fire season in Brazil last year caused the rate of deforestation to accelerate, in a blow to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's pledge to protect the Amazon rainforest, official figures showed Friday.
The figures released by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which tracks forest cover by satellite, indicated that deforestation rate between August 2024 and May 2025 rose by 9.1 percent compared to the same period in 2023-2024.
And they showed a staggering 92-percent increase in Amazon deforestation in May, compared to the year-ago period.
That development risks erasing the gains made by Brazil in 2024, when deforestation slowed in all of its ecological biomes for the first time in six years.
The report showed that beyond the Amazon, the picture was less alarming in other biomes across Brazil, host of this year's UN climate change conference.
In the Pantanal wetlands, for instance, deforestation between August 2024 and May 2025 fell by 77 percent compared to the same period in 2023-2024.
Presenting the findings, the environment ministry's executive secretary Joao Paulo Capobianco chiefly blamed the record number of fires that swept Brazil and other South American countries last year, whipped up by a severe drought.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
TimesLIVE
21 minutes ago
- TimesLIVE
North Korea condemns US strikes on Iran as violation of sovereign rights
North Korea said on Monday it strongly condemns the US strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities as a grave violation of a sovereign state's security interests and territorial rights, the country's state media reported. The US and Israel are the culprits of the tensions in the Middle East born out of Jerusalem's 'ceaseless war moves and territorial expansion accepted and encouraged by the West', North Korea's foreign ministry said. "(North Korea) strongly denounces the attack on Iran by the US which violently trampled down the territorial integrity and security interests of a sovereign state,' an unnamed spokesperson said in a statement carried by KCNA news agency. 'The just international community should raise the voice of unanimous censure and rejection against the US and Israel's confrontational acts,' the statement said. Iran and nuclear-armed North Korea have maintained friendly ties and have been suspected for decades of military cooperation, including in developing ballistic missiles. A now-defunct panel of experts monitoring UN sanctions said in 2021 the two countries had resumed cooperation on long-range missile development projects, including the transfer of critical parts. 'Pyongyang could provide important assistance in helping Iran reconstitute destroyed missile production facilities, including at new sites to avoid scrutiny, perhaps,' said Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Whether either country would be interested in substantively cooperating on efforts to rebuild or accelerate Iran's nuclear weapons programme is less certain, given the political and military sensitivities over such technology, he said. 'There are matters pertaining to weapons design that the North Koreans would not want to proliferate because once in Iran, they could be discovered by the US and potentially assist the US in undermining its deterrent,' Panda said. However, Pyongyang has substantive experience in weaponisation and could be able to assist in the non-fissile components of a nuclear bomb, such as the conventional explosives, he added. North Korea has taken unprecedented steps in the past year to deepen military assistance to Russia, another partner of Iran, by sending thousands of troops and ballistic missiles and other weapons for use in fighting Ukraine, according to US, Ukrainian and other intelligence sources.
TimesLIVE
2 hours ago
- TimesLIVE
Iran weighs retaliation against US for strikes on nuclear sites
Iran and Israel traded air and missile strikes as the world braced on Monday for Tehran's response to the US attack on its nuclear sites and US President Donald Trump raised the idea of regime change in the Islamic republic. Iran vowed to defend itself on Sunday, a day after the US joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the country since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, despite calls for restraint and a return to diplomacy from around the world. Commercial satellite imagery indicated the US attack on Saturday on Iran's subterranean Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged or destroyed the deeply buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but the status of the site remained unconfirmed, experts said. In his latest social media comments on the US strikes, Trump said 'monumental damage was done to all nuclear sites in Iran'. 'The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye,' he wrote on his Truth Social platform. Trump earlier called on Iran to forgo any retaliation and said the government 'must make peace' or 'future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier'. The US launched 75 precision-guided munitions including bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles against three Iranian nuclear sites, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Dan Caine, told reporters. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the US strikes. Rafael Grossi, the agency's director-general, told CNN it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground. A senior Iranian source told Reuters most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim. Tehran, which denies its nuclear programme is for anything other than peaceful purposes, sent a volley of missiles at Israel in the aftermath of the US attack, wounding scores of people and destroying buildings in Tel Aviv. However, it had not acted on its main threats of retaliation, to target US bases or choke off oil shipments that pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Attempting to strangle Gulf oil supply by closing the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite conflict with the US navy's massive fifth fleet based in the Gulf. Oil prices jumped on Monday to their highest since January. Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose $1.88 (R33.84) or 2.44% at $78.89 (R1.420) a barrel as of 11.22 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 advanced $1.87 (R33.66) or 2.53% at $75.71 (R1,363). Iran's parliament has approved a move to close the strait, which Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's press TV said closing the strait would require approval from the supreme national security council, a body led by an appointee of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Caine said the US military had increased protection of troops in the region, including in Iraq and Syria. The US state department issued a security alert for all US citizens abroad, calling on them to 'exercise increased caution'. The US has a sizeable force in the Middle East, with nearly 40,000 troops and warships that can shoot down enemy missiles. The Israeli military reported a missile launch from Iran in the early hours on Monday, saying it was intercepted by Israeli defences. Air raid sirens blared in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel. Iran has repeatedly targeted Greater Tel Aviv, a metropolitan area of around 4-million people and the business and economic hub of Israel where there are also critical military assets. Iranian news agencies reported air defences were activated in central Tehran districts to counter 'enemy targets', and that Israeli air strikes hit Parchin, the location of a military complex southeast of the capital. In a post to the Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump raised the idea of regime change in Iran. 'It's not politically correct to use the term 'regime change', but if the Iranian Regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn't there be a regime change? MIGA,' he wrote. Trump's post came after officials in his administration, including vice president JD Vance and defence secretary Pete Hegseth, stressed they were not working to overthrow Iran's government. Israeli officials, who began the hostilities with a surprise attack on Iran on June 13, have increasingly spoken of their ambition to topple the hardline Shi'ite Muslim clerical establishment. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi is expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. The Kremlin has a strategic partnership with Iran, but also close links with Israel. Speaking in Istanbul on Sunday, Araqchi said his country would consider all possible responses and there would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated. Russia's foreign ministry condemned the US attacks, which it said had undermined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. 'The risk of the conflict spreading in the Middle East, which is gripped by many crises, has increased significantly,' it said. The UN Security Council met on Sunday to discuss the US strikes as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres told the council the US bombings in Iran marked a perilous turn in the region and urged a return to negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme.
The Citizen
4 hours ago
- The Citizen
Ramaphosa calls for dialogue to end Israel-Iran conflict
Ramaphosa says he had hoped Trump, would use his influence to promote dialogue between the warring nations. With US President Donald Trump hinting at possible regime change in Tehran, a day after striking Iran's nuclear sites, South Africa said it has 'noted with a great deal of anxiety' the entry of the US into Israel-Iran war. The Presidency issued a statement on Sunday, just hours after Trump said the country had struck three nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday night. Trump said the facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were 'completely and totally obliterated' and warned of further attacks if Tehran refused to 'make peace'. 'Dialogue' President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said Ramaphosa has called for dialogue between Israel and Iran, warning that continued conflict will only lead to further devastation and economic fallout across the globe. 'It was South Africa's sincerest hope that President Donald Trump would use his influence and that of the US government to prevail on the parties to pursue a dialogue path in resolving their issues of dispute. 'South Africa calls on the United States, Israel and Iran to give the United Nations the opportunity and space to lead on the peaceful resolution of the matters of dispute, including the inspection and verification of Iran's status of uranium enrichment, as well as its broader nuclear capacity,' Magwenya said. ALSO READ: US joins Israel-Iran conflict with overnight bombing campaign Iran response Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the US attack 'unforgivable' and said Iran has 'to respond based on our legitimate right to self-defence'. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised that the 'punishment will continue' against Israel, in his first statement on social media after the US joined the Israeli attacks on Iran. US confusion The White House has repeatedly denied that the conflict was seeking to topple the Iranian government. On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance maintained the US was 'not at war with Iran, we're at war with Iran's nuclear programme'. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told reporters that the 'mission was not, and has not, been about regime change'. However, hours later, Trump appeared to contradict his top officials. 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change???' Trump wrote on his Truth social media platform. Radiation Meanwhile, the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency said it had not detected any increase in radiation levels at key nuclear sites in Iran following the US strikes. The UN body's head, Rafael Grossi, said the IAEA would hold an 'emergency meeting' at the organisation's headquarters in Vienna on Monday in response to the US strikes. ALSO READ: 'They never stopped' – Naledi Pandor continues to receive threats
