The Latest: France halts Brazil trade deal over Amazon fires

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press


Updated 7:38 am CDT, Friday, August 23, 20199



Photo: AP
This satellite image provided by NASA shows the fires in Brazil on Aug. 20, 2019. As fires raged in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government on Thursday denounced international critics who say President Jair Bolsonaro is not doing. (NASA via AP)


PARIS (AP) — The Latest on the reaction to the fires in the Amazon (all times local):

2:30 p.m.

In a sharp escalation of tensions with Brazil, France is accusing President Jair Bolsonaro of having lied to French leader Emmanuel Macron and says it now opposes a trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur because of his environmental back-peddling.

A statement from the Elysee Palace accused Bolsonaro of failing to respect his "commitments on the climate" and of failing to protect biodiversity and said that Macron "can only note that President Bolsonaro lied to him."

The angry language follows a spat on Twitter between the two leaders, after Macron angered Bolsonaro by calling on G-7 nations to act for the Amazon being ravaged by wildfires.

___

9:35 a.m.

Rarely have French President Emmanuel Macron and superstar soccer players including Cristiano Ronaldo been on the same page, but when it comes to the fires that are devastating the Amazon, they're uniting in sounding the alarm.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/medical/article/The-Latest-France-halts-Brazil-trade-deal-over-14372907.php

[Duppers]

1. Vive La France! 🇫🇷

This might send a message to Pres. Bolsonaro who says he cannot fight these fires.
Way to go France!



(Reposted reply)

[DBoon]

9. Yes

[Judi Lynn]

2. France says Brazil leader lied, escalating Amazon dispute

John Leicester, Associated Press Updated 10:48 am CDT, Friday, August 23, 2019

PARIS (AP) — In a sharp escalation of tensions over fires ravaging the Amazon, France on Friday accused Brazil's president of having lied to French leader Emmanuel Macron and threatened to block a European Union trade deal with South American states including Brazil.

The specter of possible economic repercussions for Brazil and its South American neighbors starkly illustrated how the Amazon is becoming a battleground between Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and increasingly critical Western governments alarmed that vast swathes of the rainforest are going up in smoke under his watch.

Having won support from other governments, but infuriated Bolsonaro, by putting the Amazon wildfires on the radar of world leaders gathering for a Group of Seven summit in France, Macron then further upped the stakes and the pressure with a bluntly-worded statement from his office Friday that took direct aim at Bolsonaro's trustworthiness.

"In light of Brazil's attitude these recent weeks," the statement said, Macron "can only conclude that President Bolsonaro lied to him during the Osaka Summit" in June where governments agreed on the "urgent need" to tackle climate change, pollution and environmental destruction.

"The decisions and statements from Brazil these recent weeks show clearly that President Bolsonaro has decided to not respect his commitments on the climate, nor to involve himself on the issue of biodiversity."

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/France-s-Macron-soccer-stars-unite-against-14372558.php

[Judi Lynn]

3. Bolsonaro: Countries use Amazon blaze to try to harm Brazil

The president admitted, however, fires have been criminal
Published in 23/08/2019 - 11:55 By Pedro Rafael Vilela Brasília

The wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon region might be used to harm the country’s agribusiness sector, said President Jair Bolsonaro today (Aug 22) during his weekly Facebook broadcast. He noted the government has worked to mitigate the problem and asked people to help report criminal activity in the area.

“Some countries seize opportunity to potentialize the criticism on Brazil and harm agribusiness, our economy, and place Brazil back in a subordinate position,” he stated.

The president criticized a foreign demonstrator who referred to the rain forest using the word “our.” “Now, a country—I won’t name it—was bold enough to refer to it as ‘our Amazon.’ It’s interested in owning a part of our Amazon one day,” he said.

Minutes after the transmission, Bolsonaro wrote a tweet mentioning a post by French President Emmanuel Macron about the wildfires in the Amazon, claiming the photo was not up-to-date. “I’m sorry to see that President Macro has sought to instrumentalize a domestic issue of Brazil and other countries sharing the Amazon forest for personal and political gains. The sensationalist tone with which he refers to the Amazon (also resorting to false photos) is not help at all in finding a solution to the problem. The Brazilian government is still open to dialog based on objective data and mutual respect. The French president’s suggestion—that Amazon-related matters should be discussed by the G7—without the participation of the countries in the region—brings back a colonialist mindset inappropriate in the 21st century,” the Brazilian president said.

More:
http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/en/politica/noticia/2019-08/bolsonaro-countries-use-amazon-blaze-try-harm-brazil

[yaesu]

4. thank you France! nt

[not fooled]

5. Not "wildfires"

instead, deliberately set. Should be referred to as such in news stories about this catastrophe.

[dalton99a]

7. +1

[dalton99a]

6. Bolsonaro is a serial arsonist like his American idol

[pbmus]

8. Anarchists with nihilistic tendencies...

[Judi Lynn]

10. Brazil's President Aims To Destroy Amazon Rainforest, According To Leaked Documents

SIMON CATLING in NEWS
Published 20:20, Friday 23 August 2019 BST

As the Amazon rainforest continues to dominate the news, with large sections of it currently ablaze, leaked documents have revealed that Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has plans for the region that could further wreck its rich biodiversity and displace the indigenous people that live within it.

Opendemocracy reports that the leaked documents show that the Bolsonaro government plans to strategically occupy the Amazon region so as to prevent several conservation projects for the rainforest.

Among these is the Triple A project which, as The Independent reports, is a conservation effort led by the organisation Gaia Amazonas that aims to conserve 265 million square kilometers of jungle.

However, these plans look seriously under threat if this newly leaked information is successfully acted upon. Among the plans revealed is a desire to build within the area, which come from a meeting in February, where ministers met with local leaders to discuss building a bridge over the Amazon River in the city of Óbidos, a hydroelectric plant in Oriximiná, and the expansion of the BR-163 highway to the Suriname border.



More:
http://www.ladbible.com/news/news-brazils-president-to-destroy-amazon-rainforest-according-to-leak-20190823

[Judi Lynn]

11. Jair Bolsonaro claims 'profound love' for Amazon rainforest as criticism intensifies

President uses TV speech to criticise ‘disinformation’ about fire crisis, saying it cannot be used as pretext for sanctions

Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent
Fri 23 Aug 2019 21.03 EDT

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has professed to feeling “profound love and respect” for the Amazon as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest tropical rainforest and criticism of his environmental policies intensified.

In a televised address to the nation – met with pot-banging protests in several Brazilian cities – Bolsonaro said he was “not content” with the situation in the Amazon and was taking “firm action” to resolve it by deploying troops to the region.

But the rightwing populist played down both the significance of the forest fires that have mushroomed into a major political and environmental crisis – as well as his administration’s responsibility for it.

“Forest fires exist in the whole world and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions,” Bolsonaro said in his brief, scripted address.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/24/jair-bolsonaro-claims-profound-love-for-amazon-rainforest-as-criticism-fires-intensifies

[Judi Lynn]

12. Protesters besiege Brazilian embassies worldwide over Amazon fires

Activists condemn president Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to defend the forest as his supporters condemn ‘global left’

Tom Phillips in Mexico City and Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Fri 23 Aug 2019 12.58 EDT

Protesters have laid siege to Brazilian embassies around the world as international outrage over Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to protect the Amazon intensified and supporters maligned critics of the Brazilian president as leftist conspirators.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Brazil’s embassy in central London on Friday with placards reading: “The planet deserves better” and “Our house is on fire”.

“Bolsonaro wants to destroy the forest … and we do not want this,” one indigenous leader from Brazil told the crowd.

There were also rallies outside Brazil’s embassies in Mexico City and Paris, where demonstrators reportedly carried banners reading: “Fora Bolsonaro!” or “Bolsonaro, out!”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/23/brazil-protests-amazon-bolsonaro-failure-protect

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. No problem. China will happily increase trade with Brazil.

They seem to share environmental goals.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Amazon rainforest fire: Brazil's indigenous tribe commits to fight until last drop of blood

There are more than 18,000 Mura that live in Amazonas state, the largest and best-preserved state in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.

Reuters
Brazil
August 24, 2019UPDATED: August 24, 2019 08:22 IST



Indigenous people from the Mura tribe. (Image | Reuters)

Members of Brazil's Mura indigenous tribe painted their bodies with orange-red paint and took up long bows and clubs as they headed into the jungle this week, prepared for battle. Their enemy? The deforestation and destruction of their home, the Amazon rainforest.

There are more than 18,000 Mura that live in Amazonas state, the largest and best-preserved state in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, according to data compiled by the non-government organization Instituto Socioambiental.

Members of the tribe showed Reuters an area the size of several football fields near their village, where the forest had been cleared away, leaving a broad dirt hole in the ground pockmarked by the treads of heavy machinery.

"With each passing day, we see the destruction advance: deforestation, invasion, logging," said Handerch Wakana Mura, one of several leaders of a tribal clan of more than 60 people.

"We are sad because the forest is dying at every moment. We feel the climate changing and the world needs the forest."

Indeed, Amazon deforestation has surged 67 per cent in the first seven months of the year from the same period a year ago, according to Brazil space research agency INPE.

More:
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/amazon-rainforest-fire-brazil-s-indigenous-tribe-commits-to-fight-until-last-drop-of-blood-1591011-2019-08-24

[Judi Lynn]

15. Amazon fires: Fines for environmental crimes drop under Bolsonaro

1 hour ago

The record number of fires in Brazil's Amazon rainforest has coincided with a sharp drop in fines for environmental violations, BBC analysis has found.

Official data from Brazil's environment agency shows fines from January to 23 August dropped almost a third compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, the number of fires burning in Brazil has increased by 84%.

It is not known how many of these fires have been set deliberately, but critics have accused President Jair Bolsonaro's administration of "green lighting" the destruction of the rainforest through a culture of impunity.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49460022

[Buckeyeblue]

16. Is there a shortage of beef?

I didn't know the demand was so great. Or are they trying to flood the market so the price of beef will tank.