Author: Emmanuel

9 hours agoShareSaveMark Poynting and Esme StallardBBC Climate & ScienceShareSaveGetty ImagesThe world’s tropical forests, which provide a crucial buffer against climate change, disappeared faster than ever recorded last year, new satellite analysis suggests.Researchers estimate that 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq mi) of these pristine, old-growth forests were lost in 2024 – an area nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland, or 18 football pitches a minute.Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from agriculture for the first time on record, with the Amazon faring particularly badly amid record drought.There was more positive news in South East Asia, however, with government policies helping to reduce forest loss.Tropical rainforests store hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon in soils and woody trunks. But this new global record raises further questions about their resilience on a warming planet.Many researchers are concerned some forests, such as parts of the Amazon, may be approaching a “tipping point”, beyond which they could fall into irreversible decline.”The tipping point idea is, I think, increasingly the right one,” said Prof Matthew Hansen, co-director of GLAD laboratory at the University of Maryland, which produces the data.Prof Hansen described the new results as “frightening”, and warned of the possible “savannisation” of the rainforest, where old-growth tropical forests die back and permanently switch to savanna.”It’s still a theory, but I think that that’s more and more plausible looking at the data.”A separate study, published last week, made a similar warning of possible significant dieback of the Amazon if global warming exceeds the international target of 1.5C.This would not only threaten the vibrant array of wildlife living in these most biodiverse habitats, but would also have serious ramifications for the global climate.Until recently, the Amazon had been doing humanity a favour, absorbing more planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) than it released.But the burning of these forests emits huge amounts of CO2 – adding to warming rather than limiting it.In 2023-24, the Amazon experienced its worst drought on record, fuelled by climate change and the natural warming El Niño weather pattern.Many fires are started deliberately to clear land for agriculture, making it difficult to disentangle the two.But the drought provided ideal conditions for fires to spread out of control, with Brazil and Bolivia most badly affected.While only a single year, it fits the expected pattern of more intense tropical fires in a warming world.”I think we are in a new phase, where it’s not just the clearing for agriculture that’s the main driver,” said Rod Taylor of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which is also behind the latest report.”Now we have this new amplifying effect, which is a real climate change feedback loop, where fires are just much more intense and much more ferocious than they’ve ever been.”In total, the record loss of the world’s old-growth (primary) tropical forests released 3.1 billion tonnes of planet-warming gases, the researchers estimate.That’s roughly the same as the emissions of the European Union.Signs of progressCountries in South East Asia, however, bucked the global trend.The area of primary forest loss in Indonesia fell by 11% compared to 2023, for example, despite drought conditions.This was the result of a concerted effort by governments and communities working together to enforce “no burning” laws, according to Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of the Global Forest Watch project at WRI.”Indonesia serves as a bright spot in the 2024 data,” she said.”Political will is a key factor of success – it’s impossible otherwise,” agreed Gabriel Labbate, head of climate change mitigation at the United Nations forests programme UNREDD, which was not involved in today’s report.Other countries, including Brazil, have seen success in the past with similar approaches, but started to see losses increase again in 2014 following a change in government policies.Prof Hansen said that although the progress in South East Asia was positive, the fluctuations in forest loss in Brazil show that protection policies have to be consistent.”The key we haven’t seen yet is sustained success in reducing and maintaining low levels of conversion of these ecosystems and if you were interested in conserving the environment you have to win always and forever,” he told BBC News.The researchers agree that this year’s UN climate summit COP30 – which is being hosted in the Amazon – will be critical for sharing and promoting forest protection schemes.One proposal is to reward countries which maintain tropical forests through payments. The detail is still to be worked out but has promise, according to Rod Taylor.”I think it’s an example of an innovation that addresses one of the fundamental issues that at the moment there’s more money to be made by chopping forests down than keeping them standing,” he said.Graphics by Erwan Rivault

The destruction of the world’s forests reached the highest level ever recorded in 2024, driven by a surge in fires caused by global heating, according to “frightening” new data.From the Brazilian Amazon to the Siberian taiga, Earth’s forests disappeared at a record rate last year, losing an area the size of Italy to agriculture, fires, logging and mining, according to analysis from the University of Maryland hosted on Global Forest Watch.In tropical regions, home to the most biodiverse and carbon-dense forests on the planet, fire became the leading driver of loss for the first time since global records began. However, fire is not a natural part of tropical ecosystems. Boreal forests in Canada and Siberia continued to burn last year.Prof Matt Hansen, co-director at the University of Maryland’s Glad Lab, who led the analysis, described the new figures as “frightening”, while Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, said the update was “unlike anything we’ve seen in over 20 years of data”.In 2024, forest loss in Brazil reached rates far above any level recorded under the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, fuelled by fire and the worst drought on record in the Amazon. The country accounted for 42% of all primary rainforest loss in the tropics, losing more than 25,000 sq km (10,000 sq miles). The data differs from Brazil’s official statistics, which uses a different definition of deforestation that does not include fire.In Bolivia, the loss of previously untouched forest continued to rise, ranking second behind Brazil in overall loss for the first time, driven by drought, fire and government policies promoting agricultural expansion for soya, cattle and sugar cane. The loss of Bolivia’s primary forest has increased nearly fivefold since 2020, reaching more than 14,000 sq km (1.4m hectares).In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Congo-Brazzaville, loss of pristine rainforests reached the highest levels recorded. The countries are home to the Congo basin rainforest, the world’s second largest after the Amazon.At the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, more than 140 world leaders pledged to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, but less than four years later countries are way off track: forest loss must fall by 20% a year from 2024 levels to meet the target by 2030.“The signal in these data is particularly frightening,” said Hansen “Rising global temperatures are making forests hotter and drier, and as a result, more likely to burn. Given human ignition, even remote rainforests can burn uncontrolled.“We have a lot of work to do to confront such a widespread, destructive and increasing fire dynamic.”Goldman called the record-breaking losses “a global red alert”.She said: “[It is] a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a livable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health – none of it can survive without forests.”Of the 20 countries with the largest areas of pristine forest, 17 are now losing trees at a faster rate than when the 2021 Glasgow deal was signed.But despite the record loss, there were areas of hope. The loss of primary forest in Indonesia and Malaysia remained relatively low, with the latter dropping out of the top 10 for the first time.Prof Peter Potapov, co-director of Maryland’s Glad Lab, said the world risked entering a dangerous new cycle.“2024 was the worst year on record for fire-driven forest loss, breaking the record set just last year. If this trend continues, it could permanently transform critical natural areas and unleash large amounts of carbon – intensifying climate change and fuelling even more extreme fires.“This is a dangerous feedback loop we cannot afford to trigger further,” he said.Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield in the Guardian app for more nature coverage

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Japan’s agriculture minister has resigned after saying he never buys rice because he gets it free, a remark that drew public fury in a country facing soaring food prices.Taku Etō’s resignation has added to pressure on the prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, whose failure to rein in soaring rice prices and address a wider cost of living crisis has angered voters ahead of upper house elections in July.“Just now I submitted my resignation to prime minister Ishiba,” Etō told reporters at the prime minister’s office.Etō had faced calls for his resignation after claiming that he never had to buy rice, relying instead on gifts from supporters.Etō had initially sympathised with the “hardship” felt by consumers after the government released about 300,000 tons of rice from emergency stockpiles earlier this year in the hope of bringing down prices. But speaking at a fundraiser last weekend, Etō said he had “never bought rice myself because my supporters donate so much to me that I can practically sell it”.Etō was replaced on Wednesday by Shinjirō Koizumi, a former environment minister who ran unsuccessfully against Ishiba for the Liberal Democratic party (LDP) leadership last autumn.Etō’s comment incensed consumers, who are having to pay nearly double for a bag of rice compared with a year ago, according to figures published in April.“I asked myself whether it is appropriate for me to stay at the helm [of the agriculture ministry] at a critical time for rice prices, and I concluded that it is not,” Etō added, according to the Kyodo news agency.“Once again, I apologise to people for making extremely inappropriate comments as minister when they are struggling with surging rice prices.”Japan’s rice shortfall has been blamed on several factors, including poor harvests due to hot weather in 2023 and panic-buying prompted by a “megaquake” warning in 2024. Wholesalers and distributors are also thought to be hoarding rice stocks in anticipation of further shortages.Ishiba had earlier apologised for Etō’s remarks.The ongoing rice crisis and rising household food and energy bills have dented the popularity of Ishiba’s government, weeks before it faces voters in upper house elections that could determine his future as prime minister.In a recent Kyodo survey, 87% of respondents were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the rice prices, while approval ratings for Ishiba’s cabinet have sunk to their lowest since he took office last October.The average price of rice sold at supermarkets in the week to 11 May reached a record ¥4,268 yen ($29) for 5kg, up from ¥4,214 the previous week and around double the price of a year ago.In April, Japan imported rice from South Korea for the first time in a quarter of a century in an attempt to address growing consumer anger.Junya Ogawa, secretary general of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic party, described Etō’s comments as “extremely inappropriate, out of touch and intolerable”.Etō conceded that his remarks had angered his wife. “She told me that she does buy rice when the donated rice runs out,” he said. “It’s not like our family is living entirely off of rice given to us as gifts.”

BOGOTA, Colombia — The United Nations human rights office in Colombia warned Tuesday that five Indigenous groups in a storied mountain range face “physical and cultural” extinction, a critical threat that stems from armed groups fighting over their territory and insufficient state protection.Scott Campbell, Colombia’s representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement that the risk of physical and cultural extinction of Indigenous People of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is “an ongoing tragedy that we can and must prevent.”Campbell urged the Colombian government to protect the Kogui, Wiwa, Kankuamo, Arhuaco, and Ette Naka Indigenous groups, whose combined population is approximately 54,700 people.Campbell’s statement followed a visit to the Sierra Nevada region, where U.N. officials spoke with representatives of these Indigenous tribes.“These groups are under various forms of cruel attack from non-state armed groups,” Campbell said, highlighting the “devastating repercussions on their lives, their land, their territory, their self government…and their spirituality.”In 2022, UNESCO added the ancestral knowledge of these Indigenous groups to its Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. The recognition highlights the “fundamental role” their traditions play in preserving the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — a mountain range that emerges directly from the Caribbean Sea and boasts snowy peaks reaching nearly 6,000 meters.But for many years, the Indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada have been under attack from settlers, and now from rebel groups.Campbell said that rebel groups in the area are imposing curfews on Indigenous communities and interfering with their local assemblies. He added that hundreds of Indigenous people from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta have been forcibly displaced, while last year an Arhuaco community leader was murdered and a member of the Kogui tribe disappeared.Colombia’s government has struggled to pacify rural areas where rebel groups and drug trafficking gangs fight for territory abandoned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the large guerilla group that made peace with the government in 2016.President Gustavo Petro has launched peace talks with most of the nation’s remaining rebel groups, but the negotiations have yielded few results so far.Campbell urged the government to protect Indigenous people in the Sierra Nevada not only through military force, but by providing better access to healthcare, education and employment opportunities.“The violent situation has its roots in disputes over control of territory, drug trafficking routes and various forms of illicit economic activity by non-state armed groups.” Campell said.____Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

A federal judge has warned that US President Donald Trump’s administration could be held in contempt of court for deporting a group of migrants to South Sudan. Judge Brian Murphy said the removals could violate his order last month barring the US government from sending migrants to third countries without being given “meaningful opportunity” to challenge their deportation.In an emergency submission to the judge, immigration attorneys said a flight carrying a dozen people had landed in South Sudan on Tuesday. It is the latest showdown between Trump and the federal courts as the Republican president seeks to deliver on a campaign pledge for mass deportations.Attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance asked Judge Murphy on Tuesday for an emergency order to prevent the removals, which they said had included citizens of Myanmar and Vietnam. The judge, a Biden appointee who is based in Boston, told a lawyer for the Department of Justice: “I have a strong indication that my preliminary injunction order has been violated.””Based on what I have been told this seems like it may be contempt”, he added, according to US media.But the justice department lawyer, Elianis Perez, said that one of the migrants, who is Burmese, had been returned to Myanmar, not South Sudan. She declined to disclose where the second migrant, a Vietnamese man, was deported, saying it was “classified”. She said he had been convicted of murder.At least one rapist was also on the deportation flight, said an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security.Judge Murphy did not order the plane to head back to the US, but said the migrants must remain in the government’s custody and be “treated humanely” pending a hearing on Wednesday.He said this could entail the deportation flight being kept on the tarmac once it lands.Judge Murphy issued a ruling on 18 April requiring that illegal migrants have a chance to challenge their removal to countries other than their homelands.After reports surfaced that some migrants were going to be sent to Libya, Judge Murphy said any such move would violate his ruling.The BBC has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment. Lawyers for the Burmese man, identified only as N.M. in the court filing, said their client speaks limited English and had refused to sign a notice of removal served on him by officials at an immigration detention centre in Texas.On Tuesday morning an attorney emailed the centre after noticing her client was no longer showing up on a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator, says the court filing. She was informed he had been removed from the US.When she asked to which country her client had been removed, the email reply said: “South Sudan.”The lawyers said another client, the Vietnamese man, identified only as T.T.P. in court papers, “appears to have suffered the same fate”.The Vietnamese man’s spouse emailed his lawyer and said that the group of around 10 other individuals who were believed to have been deported included nationals of Laos, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico, Reuters news agency reports.”Please help!” the spouse said in an email. “They cannot be allowed to do this.”The world’s youngest nation, South Sudan endured a bloody civil war soon after its independence in 2011.The US government’s travel advisory states: “Do not travel to South Sudan due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”Several countries have been asked by the Trump administration to accept migrant deportations.Earlier this month, Rwanda confirmed it was in such talks with the US, while Benin, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Moldova have all been named in media reports.The South Sudan deportation case is the latest constitutional clash between two equally powerful branches of government.Another jurist, US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington DC, last month found “probable cause” to hold Trump officials in criminal contempt.He ruled they had violated his order to halt deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members who had no chance to challenge their removals.

On Monday Britain and the EU announced a series of new agreements ranging from sausages to arms sales.While the details of the deal are yet to be signed, it seemed to many like the start of a new, post-Brexit era.It reflects, as the Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot reports, a change in the public mood: tired of the endless rancour over Britain leaving the EU, but tired of the many inconveniences it caused too.Still, with Reform UK surging in the polls, it is an area fraught with risk for the Labour government. So how far, Helen Pidd asks, could it be willing to go with Britain’s rapprochement with the EU?

TOKYO — Japan’s agriculture minister resigned Wednesday over his inappropriate remark about buying rice as the public struggles with record high prices of the country’s traditional staple food.At a party seminar Sunday in Saga prefecture, Taku Eto said he “never had to buy rice” because his supporters always give him the grain as gifts.The gaffe was seen as insensitive to the rice situation and could be further trouble for Ishiba’s already struggling minority government before a national election in July.“I made an extremely inappropriate remark at a time when consumers are struggling with soaring rice prices,” Eto told reporters after handing in his resignation at the prime minister’s office. Eto said Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba accepted his resignation.“I thought it is not appropriate for me to stay as head” just as the government needs to tackle the rice price challenges, Eto said. Eto apologized to the people and also retracted his comment, saying he buys rice himself and was not living on rice gifts.Ishiba said he humbly accepts criticism as he bears responsibility for Eto’s appointment. Media reports say Eto’s successor will be popular former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.Opposition parties had threatened to submit a no-confidence motion against him if Eto doesn’t resign voluntarily by Wednesday afternoon.Japanese rice demand has decreased over decades as people’s diet has diversified, but rice remains a staple food and integral part of Japanese culture and history.The shortfall started last August on panic buying following a government caution over preparedness for a major earthquake. The supply pressure eased after the autumn harvest, but a shortage and price increases hit again early this year.Officials have blamed the supply shortage on poor harvests due to hot weather in 2023 and higher fertilizer and other production costs, but some experts blame the government’s long-term rice production policy.The government released tons of rice from its emergency stockpile in recent weeks, but the latest agricultural ministry statistics show the release has hardly helped to ease the shortage or lower prices.The unprecedented release from emergency rice stockpile was seen in part as an attempt to figure out distribution problems. The government has denied there is now a rice shortage, but officials say it’s a mystery why rice is not reaching consumers. Some experts say it’s because the shortage was so serious.

Dissent grows in Gaza over Hamas leadership – CBS News

CULIACAN, Mexico — A pack of veterinarians clambered over hefty metal crates on Tuesday morning, loading them one by one onto a fleet of semi-trucks. Among the cargo: tigers, monkeys, jaguars, elephants and lions – all fleeing the latest wave of cartel violence eclipsing the northern Mexican city of Culiacan.For years, exotic pets of cartel members and circus animals have been living in a small animal refuge on the outskirts of Sinaloa’s capital. However, a bloody power struggle erupted last year between rival Sinaloa cartel factions, plunging the region into unprecedented violence and leaving the leaders of the Ostok Sanctuary reeling from armed attacks, constant death threats and a cutoff from essential supplies needed to keep their 700 animals alive.The aid organization is now leaving Culiacan and transporting the animals hours across the state in hopes that they’ll escape the brunt of the violence. But fighting has grown so widespread in the region that many fear it will inevitably catch up.“We’ve never seen violence this extreme,” said Ernesto Zazueta, president of the Ostok Sanctuary. “We’re worried for the animals that come here to have a better future.”Violence in the city exploded eight months ago when two rival Sinaloa Cartel factions began warring for territory after the dramatic kidnapping of the leader of one of the groups by a son of notorious capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán who then delivered him to U.S. authorities via a private plane.Since then, intense fighting between the heavily armed factions has become the new normal for civilians in Culiacan, a city which for years avoided the worst of Mexico’s violence in large part because the Sinaloa Cartel maintained such complete control.“With the escalating war between the two factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, they have begun to extort, kidnap and rob cars because they need funds to finance their war,” said security analyst David Saucedo. “And the civilians in Culiacan are the ones that suffer.”Zazueta, the sanctuary director, said their flight from the city is another sign of just how far the warfare has seeped into daily life.This week, refuge staff loaded up roaring animals onto a convoy as some trainers attempted to sooth the animals. One murmured in a soft voice as he fed a bag of carrots to an elephant in a shipping container, “I’m going to be right here, no one will do anything to you.”Veterinarians and animals, accompanied by the Mexican National Guard, began traveling along the freeway to seaside Mazatlan, where they planned to release the animals into another wildlife reserve.The relocation came after months of planning and training the animals, a move made by the organization in an act of desperation. They said the sanctuary was caught in the crossfire of the warfare because of its proximity to the town of Jesús María, a stronghold of Los Chapitos, one of the warring factions.During intense periods of violence, staff at the sanctuary can hear gunshots echoing nearby, the roar of cars and helicopters overhead, something they say scares the animals. Cartel fighting regularly blocks staff off from reaching the sanctuary, and some animals have gone days without eating. Many have started to lose fur and at least two animals have died due to the situation, Zazueta said.Complicating matters is the fact that an increasing number of the animals they rescue are former narco pets left abandoned in rural swathes of the state. In one case, a Bengal tiger was discovered chained in a plaza, caught in the center of shootouts. Urban legends circulate in Sinaloa that capos feed their enemies to pet lions.Diego García, a refuge staff member, is among those who travel out to rescue those animals. He said he regularly receives anonymous threats, with callers claiming to know his address and how to find him. He worries he’ll be targeted for taking away the former pets of capos. Zazueta said the refuge also receives calls threatening to burn the sanctuary to the ground and kill the animals if payment isn’t made.“There’s no safe place left in this city these days,” said García.That’s the feeling for many in the city of 1 million. When the sun rises, parents check for news of shootouts as if it were the weather, to determine if it’s safe to send their kids to school. Burned houses sit riddled with bullets and occasionally bodies appear hanging from bridges outside the city. By night, Culiacan turns into a ghost town, leaving bars and clubs shuttered and many without work.“My son, my son, I’m here. I’m not going to leave you alone,” screamed one mother, sobbing on the side of the road and cursing officials as they inspected her son’s dead body, splayed out and surrounded by bullet casings late Monday night. “Why do the police do nothing?” she cried out.In February, while driving a refuge vehicle used for animal transport, García said he was forced from the car by an armed, masked man in an SUV. At gunpoint, they stole the truck, animal medicine and tools used by the group for rescues and left him trembling on the side of the road.The breaking point for the Ostok Sanctuary came in March, when one of the two elephants in their care, Bireki, injured her foot. Veterinarians scrambled to find a specialist to treat her in Mexico, the United States and beyond. No one would brave the trip to Culiacan.“We asked ourselves, ‘what are we doing here?’” Zazueta said. “We can’t risk this happening again. If we don’t leave, who will treat them?”The concern by many is that Mexico’s crackdown on the cartels will be met with even more violent power moves by criminal organizations, as has happened in the past, said Saucedo, the security analyst. Zazueta blames local government and security forces for not doing more, and said their pleas for help in the past eight months have gone unanswered. Sinaloa’s governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request comment.The sanctuary made the move without any public announcement, worried that they might face repercussions from local officials or the same cartels forcing them to flee, but they hope the animals will find some relief in Mazatlan after years of conflict.García, the sanctuary staff member, is not so sure. While he hopes for the best, he said he’s also watched cartel violence spread like a cancer across the Latin American country. Mazatlan, too, is also facing bursts of violence, though nothing compared to the Sinaloan capital.“It’s at least more stable,” he said. “Because here, today, it’s just suffocating.”——Associated Press videojournalist Fernanda Pesce contributed to this report from Culiacan, Mexico.____Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america