Dozens of Suriname villages await aid 

following unprecedented floods

Ranu ABHELAK

Thu, 23 June 2022

A boat meanders between the sheet metal roofs of houses in Baling Sula, one of numerous villages in central Suriname hit by devastating flooding.

Heavy rainfall since January led rivers to burst their banks in the small South American nation, forcing the state energy firm, Staatsolie Power Company Suriname, to open scuppers at a hydroelectric power station in early March to avoid an even greater catastrophe.

That, in turn, resulted in the flooding of several villages in Brokopondo district, around 100 kilometers south of the capital Paramaribo.

The waters have yet to recede.

More than 3,000 households in seven districts have been affected, but also businesses, farms and schools.

On a recent day, Elsy Poeketie, 48, who fled to the capital to stay with her daughter, showed her granddaughter pictures and videos of her hotel, the Bonanza River holiday resort that until three months ago had a nice sandy beach, cabins and an outdoor recreation hall.

"Now, all flooded, at some places two to three meters high. No beach, just water everywhere you look," she sighed.

"It really hurts and stresses me. Where will I find the money to renovate?"

In the flooded village of Asigron, Patricia Menig has put up her brother, while their sister is living with an aunt after both their houses were submerged.

"The water started to rise on April 12 and within a week their house was filled with water, four to five meters high," she told AFP by telephone.

And Menig lost all the crops at her 1.5 hectare agricultural plot, leaving her without income.

"Many of us depend on government aid now," she said.

- Waiting for the dry season -

Last month, Suriname President Chan Santokhi declared seven of the country's 10 districts to be disaster areas and asked international partners for help.

China donated $50,000 on Tuesday and the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial power, pledged 200,000 euros through UNICEF.

Nearby Venezuela, which has been ravaged by years of economic crisis, nonetheless delivered 40,000 tons of goods, including food and medicines, and distribution will begin this week.

Dry season isn't expected until August and authorities proposed evacuating the area. But many residents chose to remain, with the government providing short-term shelter for them.

Remote villages in the interior have been cut off from road transport and are only reachable by boat or helicopter, making distribution of relief goods extra challenging, according to Colonel Jerry Slijngard from the National Disaster Management Coordination Center (NCCR).

A flight from Paramaribo to Kwamalasamutu, an Indigenous village near the Brazilian border, costs roughly $3,900.

"Per flight, I can only bring 40 food parcels and there are 400 households," said Slijngard.

- 'I need money, not food' -

Some former villagers now living in the capital set up an educational project to help children that cannot make it to school, with funding from a Canadian mining firm digging for gold in the area.

The project produces online videos in Dutch and the Aucan and Saramaccan Indigenous languages.

They also provide USB sticks for those without internet access.

The flooding has created other problems, not least a mosquito infestation.

And along the border with French Guiana, Indigenous Wayana villages that have not been flooded still have lost 60 percent of crops, after heavy rainfall has soaked the ground, causing vegetables to rot, said Jupta Itoewaki from the Wayana Mulokot Kawemhakan foundation, an advocacy group.

Some residents of Brokopondo complain that they are not receiving the help they need.

"I don't need food parcels, my machines can't eat. I need money," said furniture maker Amania Nelthan.

Now he sees no other solution than to move.

"Climate change is a fact. Rains and floods will come. Renovating after the floods is not an option. I need to move to higher ground."

str-pgf/jb/bc/md

Brazil's Lula Holds Wide Lead Over Incumbent Bolsonaro: Poll

By AFP News
06/23/22 

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva maintains a comfortable lead over incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro, and could possibly win in the first round of voting this October, according to a poll published Thursday.

Forty-seven percent of those polled by the Datafolha consulting firm said they intended to support Lula in the presidential election, compared to only 28 percent for Bolsonaro.

The 19-point lead for Lula is only slightly smaller than the 21-point gap in last month's survey, which put Lula's support at 48 percent and Bolsonaro at 27.

The results of the new poll, published by the Folha de Sao Paulo daily newspaper, show voters split between the former and current president, with other parties far behind.

Center-left candidate Ciro Gomes came in third at eight percent among those polled, with a group of other candidates receiving only one or two percent.

Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, seen in a file photo taken on April 07, 2018, is expected to be freed from prison following a ruling by the country's Supreme Court 

Photo: AFP / NELSON ALMEIDA

If you remove those intending to cast a blank or spoiled ballot, Lula would get 53 percent -- enough to win outright in the first round -- and Bolsanaro would have 32 percent, according to Datafolha.

In the event the election goes to a runoff on October 30, Lula would win 57 percent of the vote against 34 percent for Bolsonaro, close to the 58-33 result in May's opinion poll.

"The new poll shows, once again, that the Brazilian people want to get rid of this tragic government," Lula tweeted after the poll's release.

Bolsonaro dismisses the polls showing him behind, but with soaring inflation, he faces strong headwinds in his reelection bid.

Some 55 percent of those polled by Datafolha said they would never vote for Bolsonaro, compared to 35 percent who would never choose Lula.

The poll consisted of in person interviews with 2,556 people between June 22 and 23 in 181 Brazilian cities and has a margin of error of two percentage points.

Lula platform has green focus, nods to middle in Brazil race

Mauricio Savarese
June 21, 2022 - 4:18 PM

SAO PAULO (AP) — Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva laid out his campaign platform Tuesday, including a pledge for zero deforestation initiatives and appeals to moderates as seeks to unseat Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil's election in October.

The 76-year-old leftist, who governed in 2003-2010, leads the far-right incumbent in all opinion polls on the presidential race.

Da Silva unveiled his plan at a hotel in Sao Paulo standing next to former Sao Paulo Gov. Geraldo Alckmin, a right-leaning politician turned ally who will be his running mate. Da Silva said the 34-page document will be later updated after national gatherings with allies.

“Everyone here, even those who are not engineers, knows that a house starts with good foundations,” he told supporters in a televised address. “These are our foundations. We will build our house overtime.”

Da Silva’s plan includes a promise to “fight environmental crime promoted by vigilantes, land grabbers, logging traffickers and any economic organization acting in defiance to the law.”

“Our commitment is with the relentless combat against illegal deforestation and the promotion of zero net deforestation, which means the restructuring of degraded areas and reforestation of the biomes,” the document says.

The plan also says “the standard for mineral regulation should be modernized, and illegal mining, particularly in the Amazon, will be fought against severely.”

Bolsonaro is a staunch supporter of miners and says they should have the right to operate on Indigenous lands, which are often are among the best protected against deforestation in Brazil.

The plan also talks about green jobs at state-run oil giant Petrobras. The company should operate “in segments linked to environmental and energy transition, such as gas, fertilizers, biofuels and renewable energies,” the document says, without mentioning how much would be spent on that initiative.

Drafted by members of seven parties supporting Da Silva, the plan doesn't include an expected call for scrapping a labor law overhaul passed by congress in 2017. It says only that da Silva would seek to annul “the regressive parts of the current labor laws.”

The document also is silent on several other matters that had been expected to be addressed, including regulation of the media, policies for land reform and a clear defense of abortion rights.

Allies of da Silva said those drafting the document sought to appeal to business leaders who have expressed concerns about da Silva’s bid to return to the presidency.

They said the anti-deforestation tone is aimed at politicians like environmentalist Marina Silva, a moderate who unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in the last three elections and has yet to endorse anyone in this race.

“Speaking about zero net deforestation is what Marina does,” said Sen. Randolfe Rodrigues, a da Silva ally who from the Rede Sustentabilidade party. “The rest of the language is indeed for moderates to take heed, look at what we are doing."

Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo, said the plan is “adequately wide and superficial” so moderates can be attracted to the bid by da Silva, who is called Lula by Brazilians.

“Lula’s challenge is not to cause an impact with this document. He is speaking little about what he will do so no divisive talking points become the focus,” Melo said in a phone interview.

A Bolsonaro supporter briefly interrupted the presentation by shouting at da Silva from a few meters (yards) away, a security breach that unsettled the staff of the former president.

The heckler, far-right politician Caique Mafra, is a friend of lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, a son of the president, and will run for Sao Paulo state’s legislative this year.

“He came in, teased us, but there was no attack,” said Aloizio Mercadante, one of the coordinators of the campaign document. “This incident only stresses how much care we need to have with security in this tough campaign.”

In the last presidential contest, Bolsonaro was stabbed in his abdomen during a campaign rally. Doctors said the wounds nearly took his life, but he recovered in time to emerge victorious over leftist Fernando Haddad, an ally of da Silva’s. Bolsonaro has undergone six surgeries because of damage from the stabbing, most of them in his intestines.

The attacker, Adelio Bispo, has been in a mental institution since the incident.

Short hair, don't care: Saudi working women embrace cropped locks

Haitham El-Tabei
Wed, June 22, 2022,


When Saudi doctor Safi took a new job at a hospital in the capital, she decided to offset her standard white lab coat with a look she once would have considered dramatic.

Walking into a Riyadh salon, she ordered the hairdresser to chop her long, wavy locks all the way up to her neck, a style increasingly in vogue among working women in the conservative kingdom.

The haircut –- known locally by the English word "boy" –- has become strikingly visible on the streets of the capital, and not just because women are no longer required to wear hijab headscarves under social reforms pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler.

As more women join the workforce, a central plank of government efforts to remake the Saudi economy, many describe the "boy" cut as a practical, professional alternative to the longer styles they might have preferred in their pre-working days.

For Safi, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym to preserve her anonymity, the look also serves as a form of protection from unwanted male attention, allowing her to focus on her patients.

"People like to see femininity in a woman's appearance," she said. "This style is like a shield that protects me from people and gives me strength."

- A practical time-saver -

At one salon in central Riyadh, demand for the "boy" cut has spiked –- with seven or eight customers out of 30 requesting it on any given day, said Lamis, a hairdresser.

"This look has become very popular now," she said. "The demand for it has increased, especially after women entered the labour market.

"The fact that many women do not wear the hijab has highlighted its spread" while spurring even more customers to try it out, especially women in their late teens and twenties, she said.

The lifting of the headscarf requirement is just one of many changes that have reordered daily life for Saudi women under Prince Mohammed, who was named as the heir to his 86-year-old father, King Salman, five years ago.

Saudi women are no longer banned from concerts and sports events, and in 2018 they gained the right to drive.

The kingdom has also eased so-called guardianship rules, meaning women can now obtain passports and travel abroad without a male relative's permission.

Such reforms, however, have been accompanied by a crackdown on women's rights activists, part of a broader campaign against dissent.

Getting more women to work is a major component of Prince Mohammed's Vision 2030 reform plan to make Saudi Arabia less dependent on oil.

The plan initially called for women to account for 30 percent of the workforce by the end of the decade, but already that figure has reached 36 percent, assistant tourism minister Princess Haifa Al-Saud told the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

"We see women today in every single job type," Princess Haifa said, noting that 42 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises are women-owned.

Many working women interviewed by AFP praised the "boy" cut as a tool for navigating their new professional lives.

"I am a practical woman and I don't have time to take care of my hair," said Abeer Mohammed, a 41-year-old mother of two who runs a men's clothing store.

"My hair is curly, and if my hair grows long, I will have to spend time that is not available to me taking care of it in the morning."

- 'Show of strength' -

Saudi Arabia has traditionally outlawed men who "imitate women" or wear women's clothing, and vice versa.


But Rose, a 29-year-old shoe saleswoman at a Riyadh mall, sees her close-cropped hair as a means of asserting her independence from men, not imitating them.

It "gives me strength and self-confidence... I feel different, and able to do what I want without anyone's guardianship", said Rose, who did not want to give her full name.

"At first my family rejected the look, but over time they got used to it," she added.

Such acceptance partly reflects the influence of Arab stars like actress Yasmin Raeis or singer Shirene who have adopted the style, said Egyptian stylist Mai Galal.

"A woman who cuts her hair in this way is a woman whose character is strong because it is not easy for women to dispense with their hair," Galal told AFP.

Nouf, who works in a cosmetics store and preferred not to give her family name, described the message of the "boy" cut this way: "We want to say that we exist, and our role in society does not differ much from that of men."

Short hair, she added, is "a show of women's strength".

ht-rcb/th/kir/je

S. Africa’s Ramaphosa could have done more to curb Zuma-era corruption, report finds

NEWS WIRES
Wed, 22 June 2022

© Mujahid Safodien, AFP

The last damning findings of a four-year probe into state corruption in South Africa under ex-leader Jacob Zuma, published Wednesday, suggested that President Ramaphosa could have acted against some of the allegations against his predecessor.

Receiving the report Ramaphosa, who was then deputy to Zuma, described the graft as an “assault on our democracy”.

The report was handed to Ramaphosa at his Pretoria offices by the head of the investigating panel and chief justice, Raymond Zondo.


The pillaging and mismanagement of South Africa’s state-owned enterprises during Zuma’s nine years in office, when Ramaphosa was his deputy, has been dubbed “state capture”.

In all, it took more than 400 days for an investigating panel to collect testimonies from around 300 witnesses, including Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa’s answers to some questions about what he knew of the corrupt activities were “opaque” and “unfortunately leave some important gaps”, the report said.

And whether he could have acted to curb the graft, “the wealth of evidence before this commission suggests that the answer is yes”, it said.

“There was surely enough credible information in the public domain... to at least prompt him to inquire and perhaps act on a number of serious allegations.

“As the Deputy President, he surely had the responsibility to do so.”

Ramaphosa did not immediately respond to the contents of the report, but said it “provides us with an opportunity to make a decisive break with the era of state capture”.

“State capture really was an assault on our democracy, it violated the rights of every man, woman and child in this country.”

The investigation was triggered by a 2016 report by the then corruption ombudswoman.

More than 1,430 individuals and institutions, including Zuma, were implicated. Zuma has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Ramaphosa now has four months to act on the panel’s recommendations.

The first volume of the report was published in January, and now the complete document runs to more than 5,600 pages.

The report described Zuma as a “critical player” in the high-level plunder of state-owned enterprises that dogged his nine-year tenure, which ended unceremoniously in 2018 when he was forced to resign.

Zuma was last year slapped with a 15-month jail term for refusing to testify before the investigators.

He was granted parole just two months into his incarceration, but not before his jailing sparked riots last July that left more than 350 people dead.
‘Looting scheme’

The panel said “Zuma fled the commission because he knew there were questions” he would fail to answer, as it singled out his ally and ex-chairwoman of the struggling national carrier South African Airlines (SAA) of running down the airline.

The investigations revealed how Zuma’s friends, the wealthy Indian-born Gupta brothers, became enmeshed at the highest levels of government and the ruling African National Congress, including influencing ministerial appointments under Zuma.

Two of the three Gupta tycoons were arrested in Dubai earlier this month and face extradition to South Africa to face trial.

“The natural conclusion is that, during this period... the ANC under president Zuma, permitted, supported and enabled corruption and state capture,” said the report.

Taking over after Zuma was forced to resign over corruption, Ramaphosa came into office declaring anti-graft fight a priority of his administration.

Ramaphosa in 2019 estimated that corruption could have cost South Africa around 500 billion rand ($31.4 million), then an amount equivalent to about a tenth of the GDP of Africa’s most industrialised economy.

The publication of the final report comes as Ramaphosa is himself embroiled in a scandal following a robbery at his luxury game and cattle farm two years ago.

A former spy chief Arthur Fraser accused him of corruption alleging he hid millions of dollars in cash inside couches, and that he bribed the robbers to avoid scrutiny for keeping large sums of cash at home.

The scandal risks derailing Ramaphosa’s bid for a second term as ANC president ahead of the 2024 general election. He says he is a victim of “dirty tricks” and “intimidation” from those against his anti-graft fight.

(AFP)

Forever young: Many cold-blooded creatures don't age, studies show

by Issam AHMED

A picture taken on June 3, 2022 shows a unique albinos Galapagos giant tortoise baby, 

born on May 1, next to its mother at the Tropicarium of Servion, western Switzerland.

Scientists have discovered the secret to eternal youth: be born a turtle.

Two studies published in the journal Science on Thursday revealed scant evidence of aging among certain cold-blooded species, challenging a theory of evolution which holds that senescence, or gradual physical deterioration over time, is an inescapable fate.

Although there have been eye-catching individual reports—such as that of Jonathan the Seychelles tortoise who turns 190 this year—these were considered anecdotal and the issue had not been studied systematically, Penn State wildlife ecologist David Miller, a senior author of one of the papers, told AFP.

Researchers have "done a lot more comparative, really comprehensive work with birds and animals in the wild," he said, "but a lot of what we knew about amphibians and reptiles were from a species here, a species there."

For their paper, Miller and colleagues collected data from long-term field studies comprising 107 populations of 77 species in the wild, including turtles, amphibians, snakes, crocodilians and tortoises.

These all used a technique called "mark-recapture" in which a certain number of individuals are caught and tagged, then researchers follow them over the years to see if they find them again, deriving mortality estimates based on probabilities.

They also collected data on how many years the animals lived after achieving sexual maturity, and used statistical methods to produce aging rates, as well as longevity—the age at which 95 percent of the population is dead.

"We found examples of negligible aging," explained biologist and lead investigator Beth Reinke of Northeastern Illinois University.

Though they had expected this to be true of turtles, it was also found in one species of each of the cold-blooded groups, including in frogs and toads and crocodilians.

"Negligible aging or senescence does not mean that they're immortal," she added. What it means is that there is a chance of dying, but it does not increase with age.

By contrast, among adult females in the US, the risk of dying in a year is about one in 2,500 at age 10, versus one in 24 at age 80.

The study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health which is interested in learning more about aging in ectotherms, or cold-blooded species, and applying them to humans, who are warm blooded.

It's not metabolism

Scientists have long held ectotherms—because they require external temperatures to regulate their body temperatures and therefore have lower metabolisms —- age more slowly than endotherms, which internally generate their own heat and have higher metabolisms.

This relationship holds true within mammals. For example mice have a far higher metabolic rate than humans and much shorter life expectancy.

Surprisingly, however, the new study found metabolic rate was not the major driver it was previously thought.

"Though there were ectotherms that age slower and live longer than endotherms, there were also ectotherms that age faster and live shorter lives," after controlling for factors such as body size.

The study also threw up intriguing clues that could provide avenues for future research. For example, when the team looked directly at average temperatures of a species, as opposed to metabolic rate, they found that warmer reptiles age faster, while the opposite was true of amphibians.

One theory that did prove true: those animals with protective physical traits, such as turtle shells, or chemical traits like the toxins certain frogs and salamanders can emit, lived longer and aged slower compared to those without.

"A shell is important for aging and what it does is it makes a turtle really hard to eat," said Miller.

"What that does is it allows animals to live longer and for evolution to work to reduce aging so that if they do avoid getting eaten, they still function well."

A second study by a team at the University of Southern Denmark and other institutions applied similar methods to 52 turtle and tortoise species in zoo populations, finding 75 percent showed negligible aging.

"If some species truly escape aging, and mechanistic studies may reveal how they do it, human health and longevity could benefit," wrote scientists Steven Austad and Caleb Finch in a commentary about the studies.

They did note, however, that even if some species don't have increasing mortality over the years, they do exhibit infirmities linked to age.

Jonathan the tortoise "is now blind, has lost his olfactory sense, and must be fed by hand," they said, proving the ravages of time come for all.Secrets of aging revealed in largest study on longevity, aging in reptiles and amphibians

More information: Beth A. Reinke et al, Diverse aging rates in ectothermic tetrapods provide insights for the evolution of aging and longevity, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abm0151

Rita da Silva et al, Slow and negligible senescence among testudines challenges evolutionary theories of senescence, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.abl7811

Journal information: Science 

© 2022 AFP

After writer's murder in the Amazon, can his vision survive?

Brazil Amazon  - Dom Phillips
In this photo provided by Tom Hennigan, British Journalist Dom Phillips poses for a photo during a hike in Paraty, Brazil, April 2, 2010. British journalist Dom Phillips’ quest to unlock the secrets of how to preserve Brazil’s Amazon was cut short this June 2022, when he was killed along with a colleague in the heart of the forest he so cherished.

 (Tom Hennigan via AP)


In this photo provided by Tom Hennigan, British Journalist Dom Phillips poses for a photo during a hike in Serra dos Orgaos National Park, in Petropolis, Brazil, Aug. 2013. British journalist Dom Phillips’ quest to unlock the secrets of how to preserve Brazil’s Amazon was cut short this June 2022, when he was killed along with a colleague in the heart of the forest he so cherished. (Tom Hennigan via AP)

DAVID BILLER
Sun, June 19, 2022

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — British journalist Dom Phillips’ quest to unlock the secrets of how to preserve Brazil’s Amazon was cut short this month when he was killed along with a colleague in the heart of the forest he so cherished. Some of his discoveries may yet see the light of day.

Phillips in 2021 secured a yearlong fellowship with the Alicia Patterson Foundation to write a book, building on prior research. By June, he had written several chapters.

“Dom’s book project was on the cutting edge of environmental reporting in Brazil. It was extremely ambitious, but he had the experience to pull it off,” said Andrew Fishman, a close friend and journalist at The Intercept. “We cannot let his assassins also kill his vision.”

Phillips' disappearance and then confirmed death has brought calls for justice from Brazil and abroad from actors, musicians and athletes, along with appeals for help to support his wife. Phillips would be gobsmacked to learn that his fate has troubled current and former U.K. prime ministers.

He wrote about Brazil for 15 years, in early days covering the oil industry for Platts, later freelancing for the Washington Post and New York Times then regularly contributing to The Guardian. He was versatile, but gravitated toward features about the environment as it became his passion.

Phillips often hiked in Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca Forest National Park and, atop his paddle board at Copacabana beach, was in his element: floating above the natural world and observing. He might message friends out of the blue, sharing news of spotting a ray with a 3-foot wingspan, reflecting a wonder more common among children than 57-year-old men, and he brought that spirit to his reporting.

He was curious and thorough, whether parsing studies of projected rainfall decline in the agricultural heartland caused by Amazon deforestation or tracking down the driving test administrator who discovered a man disguised as his own mother to take her exam. He recalled an editor telling him: “You spend too much time researching news stories.”

Among local correspondents, he earned respect for his humility as well, often sharing others’ reportage rather than tooting his own horn.

Phillips claimed the spotlight, inadvertently, during a televised press conference in July 2019. Noting rising deforestation and that the environment minister had met with loggers, Phillips asked President Jair Bolsonaro how he intended to demonstrate Brazil's commitment to protect the Amazon region.

“First, you have to understand that the Amazon is Brazil’s, not yours, OK? That’s the first answer there,” Bolsonaro retorted. “We preserved more than the entire world. No country in the world has the moral standing to talk to Brazil about the Amazon.”

Within weeks, man-made fires ravaged the Amazon, drawing global criticism, and the clip of Bolsonaro’s testy response spread among his supporters as evidence the far-right leader wouldn’t be admonished by foreign interlopers. Phillips then received abuse, but no threats.

That didn’t stop him from attending rallies to seek the views of die-hard Bolsonaro backers. He was alarmed by Bolsonaro’s laissez-faire environmental policy, but mindful that prior leftist governments also had spotty records, often catering to agribusiness and building a massive hydroelectric dam that wrought calamitous local damage while vastly underdelivering. His allegiance was to the environment and those depending on it for survival.

Amazon deforestation has hit a 15-year high, and some climate experts warn the destruction is pushing the biome near a tipping point, after which it will begin irreversible degradation into tropical savannah.

Phillips spoke to farmers who deny climate change even as extreme weather threatens their crops. But he returned from a recent trip with spirits buoyed after meeting some reintroducing biodiversity to their land, said Rebecca Carter, his agent. After his disappearance, a video on social media showed him speaking with an Indigenous group, explaining he had come to learn how they organize and deal with threats.

“I’m grateful to have coexisted with a man who loved human beings,” his wife, Alessandra Sampaio, told the newspaper O Globo. “He didn’t speak of villains. He didn’t want to demonize anyone. His mission was to clarify the complexities of the Amazon.”

Phillips was also a crisp writer with an ear for readability. A 2018 story for The Guardian had one of journalism's most dramatic introductions:

“Wearing just shorts and flip-flop as he squats in the mud by a fire, Bruno Pereira, an official at Brazil’s government Indigenous agency, cracks open the boiled skull of a monkey with a spoon and eats its brains for breakfast as he discusses policy.”

Phillips described his 17-day voyage with Pereira through the remote Javari Valley Indigenous territory at that time as “physically the most grueling thing I have ever done.” This June, he was with Pereira in the same region — it was to be one of his final reporting trips for his book — when they were killed together.

Three suspects are in custody, and police say one confessed. Pereira had previously busted people fishing illegally within the Indigenous territory and received threats.

Phillips, meanwhile, also had been preoccupied with risks to his professional future, betting on a book with wallet-wilting travel costs and praying it would resonate. He had set aside newspaper work to focus on it.

“I’m a freelancer with nothing but a book in my life and not even enough to live on next year while I write it,” he told the AP in a private exchange in September. “Not so much all the eggs in the same basket as the entire hen house.”

He and Sampaio had moved to the northeastern city of Salvador. He was charged up by the change of scene and teaching English to children from poor communities. They had begun the process to adopt a child.

Sampaio told the AP that she doesn’t know what will become of her husband’s book, but she and his siblings want it published — whether only the four chapters already written or including others completed with outside help. Phillips’ optimistic message — that the Amazon can be preserved, with the right actions — could still reach the world.

“We would very much like to find a way to honor the important and essential work Dom was doing,” Margaret Stead, his publisher at Manilla Press, wrote in an email.

The book's title was “How to Save the Amazon.” Bolsonaro has bristled at the idea it needs rescue, saying some 80% of Brazil’s portion remains intact and offering to fly foreign dignitaries over its vast abundance. But Phillips knew the view is different from the forest floor; big hardwood trees have been logged to scarcity in many seemingly pristine areas. His companions traveling through the Javari Valley celebrated when coming upon one.

“The Amazon is much less pristine and protected than most people think it is and much more threatened than people realize,” he wrote to the AP in September.

He noted, with a hint of intrigue, that he recently visited a preserved area of virgin forest full of massive trees. Places like that, he said, were usually inaccessible.

And where is that hallowed ground?

“You can read it in the book," he wrote, "when it comes out.”

___

Biller is the AP's Brazil news director.

In this photo provided by Tom Hennigan, British Journalist Dom Phillips, center, takes a photo during a hike at Itatiaia Peak, in the Mantiqueira national park, Itatiaia city, Brazil, June 14, 2017. British journalist Dom Phillips’ quest to unlock the secrets of how to preserve Brazil’s Amazon was cut short this June 2022, when he was killed along with a colleague in the heart of the forest he so cherished. (Tom Hennigan via AP)



In this photo provided by Tom Hennigan, British Journalist Dom Phillips pauses during Stand Up practice in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 26, 2020. British journalist Dom Phillips’ quest to unlock the secrets of how to preserve Brazil’s Amazon was cut short this June 2022, when he was killed along with a colleague in the heart of the forest he so cherished. (Tom Hennigan via AP)

Workers from the National Indian Foundation, FUNAI, hold a banner that show images of freelance British journalist Dom Phillips, left, and missing Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, during a protest asking authorities to expand the search efforts for the two men, in front of the Ministry of Justice in Brasilia, Brazil, Tuesday, June 14, 2022. The search for Pereira and Phillips, who disappeared in a remote area of Brazil’s Amazon continued following the discovery of a backpack, laptop and other personal belongings submerged in a river. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

In Amazon Region Hit By Double Murder, Poverty Fuels Violence

By Joshua Howat Berger
06/23/22 

A short walk from the spot where British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira set out for their final journey, people sit in the blistering sun breaking rocks into pieces with hammers.

It looks like a scene from a movie set in Biblical times, but this is 21st-century Brazil, in the town of Atalaia do Norte -- the jumping-off point for adventurers, missionaries, poachers, smugglers and others drawn to the Javari Valley, a far-flung sprawl of jungle in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, were boating back to Atalaia after a research trip to the region when they were murdered on June 5. Indigenous leaders say the crime was payback by illegal fishermen for Pereira's fight against poaching on native lands.

An aerial view of the Brazilian port of Atalaia do Norte -- the launch point for adventurers, missionaries, poachers, smugglers and others drawn to the Javari Valley, a far-flung sprawl of jungle in the heart of the Amazon rainforest

 Photo: AFP / Joao Laet

The murky case has cast an international spotlight on the Javari Valley, home to an Indigenous reservation bigger than Austria that has the largest concentration of uncontacted tribes on Earth.

The region has been hit by a surge of illegal fishing, logging, mining and drug trafficking -- crimes that security experts say are being fueled by poverty.

In Atalaia, the county seat, Carmen Magalhaes da Roxa explains why she is sitting on a block of wood in the dirt, smashing up stones with a hammer to sell for construction projects at four reais (less than $1) a bucket.

Experts say poverty is fueling crime in Brazil's Javari Valley -- here, an Indigenous family is termporarily living on this boat

Photo: AFP / Joao Laet

"There's no other work here. If I don't break these rocks, I won't have money to buy gas, pay the electricity bill, buy my medication," says Roxa, 54, pounding away in a floral print dress and flip-flops with half a dozen other "quebra-pedras," or rock-breakers.

"We suffer here -- a lot. I smash my fingers, I get hit by flying shards. But what can you do?" asks the grandmother of three, turning up her bruised hands in a shrug.

Nearly everything in Atalaia do Norte is produced locally or brought in by boat from Manaus -- an eight-day trip 

Photo: AFP / Joao Laet

Seventy-five percent of the population lives in poverty in Atalaia do Norte, a colorful but run-down river town of 20,000 people near the spot where Brazil meets Peru and Colombia.

Nearly everything in town is produced locally, or brought in by boat from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state -- an eight-day trip.

Gasoline is sold in plastic bottles in the streets of Atalaia do Norte

 Photo: AFP / Joao Laet

There are few ways to escape poverty.

Locals often say they have three job options: farming, fishing or city hall, the biggest employer in the county.

Analysts say growing lawlessness has created a fourth: environmental crime, backed by money from drug gangs that thrive on the anarchy of a triple border deep in the jungle.

"Drug traffickers insert impoverished local populations into their networks, presenting it as an opportunity," security specialist Aiala Colares of Para State University wrote in a recent paper, adding that cartels operating in the Amazon feed off "abandonment by the state."

Women wash clothes on the banks of the Javari river in Atalaia do Norte, a town beset with crime 

Photo: AFP / Joao Laet

"We can't address the issue of environmental crimes without addressing poverty," Brazilian journalist Yan Boechat said on Twitter.

"Economic development in the Amazon region is a failure. What happened to Bruno and Dom is related to that," he wrote, alongside a video of the Atalaia rock-breakers.

Poverty and lawlessness have proved to be a violent mix.

Critics say the weak presence of the state -- a longtime problem across the Amazon -- has only become more acute since 2019 under President Jair Bolsonaro, whose administration has shrunk environmental enforcement and the Indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI.

In the Javari Valley, a surge in violence followed.

The FUNAI base at the edge of the Indigenous reservation was the target of multiple gun attacks in 2019.

The same year, FUNAI's anti-poaching chief in the region was murdered in the nearby city of Tabatinga. The crime remains unsolved.

Just across the border, gunmen in speedboats attacked a Peruvian police station in January, wounding four officers and brazenly stealing a weapons cache. The post has yet to reopen.

Marivonea Moreira de Mello, a 45-year-old mother of four who works at city hall in Atalaia, recalls that a decade ago, she used to sleep with her front door open. Now she wouldn't dare, she says.

"Our young people are getting addicted to drugs. My own son is one of them. He's 20," she says.

She was happy when the army, navy, federal police and world media descended on Atalaia after Phillips and Pereira went missing.

Now that they have mostly left, she worries what will happen. The local police force has just two officers.

"Atalaia do Norte is in a very dangerous situation," she says.

"There's a lack of police, lack of security, lack of everything."

Martinique: Rising seas and disappearing villages

 

The village of Prêcheur, on Martinique's northwest coast, is slowly disappearing. Every year, a little more of the shoreline, along with homes, shops and bars, is lost to the sea. The village is a symbol of the urgent threat of rising sea levels to Martinique, where the water swelling by an average of 3.5mm a year, compared to 2.5 mm a decade ago.

Ecuador protesters met with tear gas after marching on congress

NEWS WIRES
Thu, 23 June 2022,

© Santiago Arcos, Reuters

Police in Ecuador’s capital fired tear gas Thursday to disperse Indigenous protesters who tried to storm congress on the 11th day of crippling demonstrations over fuel prices and living costs.

Protesters had earlier won a concession from the Ecuadoran government when President Guillermo Lasso, isolating because of a Covid-19 infection, granted them access to a cultural center emblematic of the Indigenous struggle but commandeered by police over the weekend.

However, later in the day, a group of Indigenous protesters, led by women, headed towards congress only to be pushed back by police as violent clashes broke out.

Police fired tear gas while protesters threw rocks and fireworks.

“This is a very bad sign, given we asked our base to march peacefully,” said protest leader Leonidas Iza.

The protests, which started on June 13, have claimed the lives of three people and have seen the government impose a state of emergency on six of the country’s 24 provinces.

An estimated 14,000 protesters are taking part in the mass show of discontent, and some 10,000 of them are in Quito, which is under a night-time curfew.

The protesters’ demands include a cut in already subsidized fuel prices which have risen sharply in recent months, as well as jobs, food price controls, and more public spending on healthcare and education.

‘For the sake of dialogue’

Francisco Jimenez, Ecuador’s minister of government, announced the concession earlier Thursday, saying it was made “for the sake of dialogue and peace.”

The aim, he said, was to “to stop roadblocks, violent demonstrations, and attacks.”

The protesters hailed the move.

“It is a triumph of the struggle,” Iza proclaimed over a megaphone, advancing on the center with hundreds of others in jubilatory mood.

The Alliance of Human Rights Organizations said a 38-year-old man died on Wednesday in the southern town of Tarqui in clashes between protesters and police, which it accused of violent tactics.

Dozens of people have also been injured in the countrywide demonstrations that Indigenous groups have vowed to continue until their demands are met.

The police, for its part, said the man had died of a medical condition that occurred “in the context of the demonstrations.”

Two other people died on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Alliance, which also reported 92 wounded and 94 civilians arrested in 11 days of protests.

Officials say 117 in the ranks of police and soldiers have been injured.

On Wednesday night, some 300 protesters occupied a power plant in southern Ecuador and briefly took its operators hostage, authorities said.

Ecuador, a small South American country riddled with drug trafficking and related violence, has been hard hit by rising inflation, unemployment and poverty—all exacerbated by the pandemic.
$50 million per day

The protests, which have involved the burning of tires and tree branches by vocal marchers brandishing sticks, spears and makeshift shields, have paralyzed the capital and severely harmed the economy with barricades of key roads.

The government has rejected demands to lift the state of emergency imposed in response to the sometimes violent demonstrations called by the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie).

“I cry to see so many people mistreated by this... government,” protester Cecilia, an 80-year-old who did not give her full name, told AFP as she marched with an Ecuadoran flag and a banner reading: “Lasso, liar.”

Conaie led two weeks of protests in 2019 in which 11 people died and more than 1,000 were injured, causing economic losses of some $800 million before the then-president abandoned plans to reduce fuel price subsidies.

Lasso’s government has ruled out cutting fuel prices this time, as it would cost the State an unaffordable $1 billion per year.

Conaie – credited with ending three presidencies between 1997 and 2005 – insists the state of emergency be lifted before it will negotiate, but the government has said this “would leave the capital defenseless.”

It was unclear whether the group was ready to negotiate after Thursday’s concession.

Official data showed the economy was losing about $50 million per day due to the protests, not counting oil production – the country’s main export product – which has also been affected.

Producers of flowers, another of Ecuador’s main exports, have complained their wares are rotting as trucks cannot reach their destinations.

(AFP)

Life on Pause in Ecuadoran Capital Gripped by Protests

June 23, 2022 
Agence France-Presse

Indigenous women protest against the government in Quito, Ecuador, on June 23, 2022.

QUITO, ECUADOR —

Quito is a city beleaguered — its shops shuttered and streets empty of all but thousands of Indigenous protesters clamoring for a better life, and the police and soldiers keeping them in check.

Some 10,000 demonstrators have gathered in the Ecuadoran capital from all over the country to protest high fuel prices and rising living costs.

And they have vowed to stay until the government meets their demands, or falls.

"It could be a month, it could be two. ... The war will come but here we will fight," said Maria Vega, 47, who ekes out a living doing odd jobs — one of about a third of Ecuadorans living in poverty.

Nearly a third do not have full-time work.

Demanding jobs, fuel price cuts, better health care and education, they arrived in Quito on foot or on the backs of trucks, many from hundreds of kilometers away.

At night, after long hours on the streets, they recharge, housed austerely at two university campuses and relying in large part on food handouts from church and other groups.

Shields, sticks and flags

In the mornings, they set out in groups bearing sticks, makeshift shields fashioned from traffic signs or rubbish bins and the wiphala — the multicolored flag of the native peoples of the Andes.

Indigenous Ecuadorans have poured into the capital Quito from across the country in recent days to join protests against high fuel prices and the cost of living. June 23, 2022.

Traditional red ponchos stand out among the aggrieved crowds, who set up road barricades with burning tires and tree branches, building bonfires in broad daylight.

Access to the presidency is blocked by metal fences, razor wire and lines of stern security personnel.

"They have weapons. How can one compare a weapon to a stick or a stone? We are not on an equal footing," protester Luzmila Zamora, 51, complained of the show of force.

Ecuadorean police shoot tear gas during clashes with demonstrators in the surroundings of the Comptroller General's Office headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, on June 23, 2022.

President Guillermo Lasso, a former banker who took office a year ago, sees in the revolt an attempt to overthrow him.

Ecuador has a reputation for ungovernability following the departure of three presidents between 1997 and 2005 under pressure from Indigenous people — who make up more than a million of Ecuador's 17.7 million people.

In 2019, protests led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) — which also called the latest demonstrations — forced the government to abandon plans to eliminate fuel subsidies.

They seem as determined this time around: standing firm in spite of a state of emergency in six of Ecuador's 24 states, a night-time curfew in Quito, a massive military deployment and insults hurled at them from residents whose lives and livelihoods have been thrown into turmoil.

"We want a government that works for the people, for all of Ecuador, not only for the upper class," insisted protester Zamora.

Another, 40-year-old pastor Marco Vinicio Morales, said he could not understand how in a country with vast oil, gold and silver resources, people were falling ever further behind.

"If there is no answer [to the protesters' demands], Lasso will have dug his own grave," he said.

Diners flee teargas

Business owners, shopkeepers and workers in the capital, just starting to recover from closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, are not pleased.

Bonfires block roads in Quito, Ecuador, on June 23, 2022, during Indigenous-led protests against the government.

Efren Carrion, a 42-year-old chef, said his restaurant normally sells about 120 meals on a weekday. "These days, it has been 10 or 25 maximum," he said.

And due to the ubiquitous teargas in the air, "clients often leave running, without paying."

For Carrion, workers like him should not have to pay the price for the protest.

"The best revolution is to work and reach an agreement, to negotiate," he said.

So far, no talks have been scheduled as both sides dig in their heels.

'We are suffering': Indigenous Ecuadorans explain protest

Wed, June 22, 2022


Indigenous Ecuadorans have poured into the capital Quito from across the country in recent days to join protests against high fuel prices and the cost of living.

Four out of the thousands of demonstrators told AFP why they answered the call for countrywide anti-government demonstrations by the Conaie Indigenous peoples' association.

- At 'war' -

Margarita Malaver, 35, travelled some 270 kilometers (167 miles) on the back of a truck from Puyo, the capital of southeastern Pastaza province, to Quito to declare herself at "war" with the state.

In Puyo -- where she moved 15 years ago from her childhood home in the Amazon jungle region of Sarayaku in search of a decent living -- she works as a laundrywoman to feed herself and her three children.

Malaver, her face painted in black motifs that she explained represent "war," said she relies heavily on a monthly $50 poverty grant from the state.

She pays $80 to rent two rooms and a small kitchen for her family, and has little left for school supplies for her children, or anything else.

She desperately wants for "prices to come down."

Life is "hard," she told AFP. "There is no work."

The cost of a basic basket of consumer goods in Ecuador, for a family of four, is $735 today -- up from $710 a year ago.

Many like Malaver are protesting for more government spending on job creation, education and healthcare.

- Just two notebooks -

Carlos Nazareno, 31, makes bamboo furniture in Pastaza, the same province Malaver is from.

This work earns him about $300 in a good month, less than the minimum salary of $425, he told AFP, spear in hand among hundreds of other protesters.

The money, he said, is "hardly enough to eat, and not enough for the school needs" of his four children, who go to class "with just two notebooks" between them.

Nazareno said there are periods that he sells "nothing for a week" on end.

"My children ask me for things and I have no way of giving it... my motorbike is parked because I have no money for fuel nor to go look for food," he said.

In just over a year, fuel prices have risen sharply -- almost doubling for diesel from $1 to $1.90 per gallon and rising from $1.75 to $2.55 for gasoline.

- Wasted vote -

Nele Cuchipe, 52, took over the care of her two grandchildren when her son, their father, died.

Her goal she says, is to give the young ones a proper education and a better future than their current impoverished life in the southern Cotopaxi province.

None of her surviving children have work.

Cuchipe makes a subsistence living from growing potatoes, barley and a grain called chocho, but suffers under recent price increases for products such as oil, butter and fertilizer for her crops.

She said she wished she could undo the vote she cast for President Guillermo Lasso just over a year ago in the mistaken belief that as "a banker, a businessman" he would rescue the economy.

"Instead, hunger will kill us," said Cuchipe.

"We are suffering because of this government that does not want to understand, that does not react to anything," she said.

- No savings -

Ruben Chaluisa, 30, said he makes $10 a day working as a mason in the town of Zumbahua, elsewhere in Cotopaxi province.

He also grows potatoes and a root vegetable known as melloco to feed his wife and two children.

"We do not manage to have savings like other people," said Chaluisa, huddling against the cold in a red poncho.

Chaluisa said he had to start working at the age of 12, and fears the cycle of poverty will be repeated with his own offspring.

I want them "not to suffer like we do, to be a little more advanced than we are."

pld/lv/mlr/bfm

World's biggest bacterium found in Caribbean mangrove swamp

This photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows mangroves in the Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean where the Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria were discovered. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria.

 (Pierre Yves Pascal/Université des Antilles via AP)

CHRISTINA LARSON
Thu, June 23, 2022, 1

WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have discovered the world's largest bacterium in a Caribbean mangrove swamp.

Most bacteria are microscopic, but this one is so big it can be seen with the naked eye.

The thin white filament, approximately the size of a human eyelash, is “by far the largest bacterium known to date,” said Jean-Marie Volland, a marine biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and co-author of a paper announcing the discovery Thursday in the journal Science.

Olivier Gros, a co-author and biologist at the University of the French West Indies and Guiana, found the first example of this bacterium — named Thiomargarita magnifica, or “magnificent sulfur pearl” — clinging to sunken mangrove leaves in the archipelago of Guadeloupe in 2009.

But he didn’t immediately know it was a bacterium because of its surprisingly large size — these bacteria, on average, reach a length of a third of an inch (0.9 centimeters). Only later genetic analysis revealed the organism to be a single bacterial cell.


“It's an amazing discovery,” said Petra Levin, a microbiologist at Washington University in St Louis, who was not involved in the study. “It opens up the question of how many of these giant bacteria are out there — and reminds us we should never, ever underestimate bacteria.”

Gros also found the bacterium attached to oyster shells, rocks and glass bottles in the swamp.

Scientists have not yet been able to grow it in lab culture, but the researchers' say the cell has a structure that's unusual for bacteria. One key difference: It has a large central compartment, or vacuole, that allows some cell functions to happen in that controlled environment instead of throughout the cell.

“The acquisition of this large central vacuole definitely helps a cell to bypass physical limitations ... on how big a cell can be,” said Manuel Campos, a biologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research, who was not involved in the study.

The researchers said they aren't certain why the bacterium is so large, but co-author Volland hypothesized it may be an adaptation to help it avoid being eaten by smaller organisms.

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

World's biggest bacterium found in Caribbean mangrove swamp
This microscope photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows thin strands of Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria cells next to a U.S. dime coin. The species was discovered among the mangroves of Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria.

 (Tomas Tyml/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory via AP)

This microscope photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows part of a Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria cell. The species was discovered among the mangroves of Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria. 

(Olivier Gros/Université des Antilles via AP)


This microscope photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows part of a Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria cell. The species was discovered among the mangroves of Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria. 

(Olivier Gros/Université des Antilles via AP)


This microscope photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows filaments of a Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria cell. The species was discovered among the mangroves of Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria.

(Jean-Marie Volland/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory via AP)



This microscope photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows a filament of a Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria cell. The species was discovered among the mangroves of Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria.

 (Jean-Marie Volland/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory via AP)


This photo provided by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in June 2022 shows mangroves in the Guadeloupe archipelago in the French Caribbean where the Thiomargarita magnifica bacteria was discovered. A team of researchers at the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC), and the Université des Antilles, characterized the bacterium composed of a single cell that is 5,000 times larger than other bacteria

 (Hugo Bret/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory via AP)