The rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest is at its highest level in more than a decade, according to a government report published on Monday. Deforestation between August 2018 and July 2019 reached 9,762 sq. km (3,769 sq. miles), a 30 percent increase over ...
Bill Gates again world's richest person; Amazon's Bezos is No. 2
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates overtook Amazon's Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person on Friday, reclaiming the top ranking for the first time in more than two years. Gates may have been helped in part by the Pentagon's surprise decision announced Oct. 25 to award ...
Brazilian indigenous group seeks European support for Amazon rainforest protection
A delegation of Brazilian indigenous leaders is seeking to recruit European political support against incursions by loggers and cattle ranchers in the Amazon and the destruction of rainforest. Sonia Guajajara, a former Brazilian vice presidential candidate, is a prominent voice in efforts to protect the ...
Peru charges illegal loggers in Amazon deaths for first time
Authorities in Peru have charged five men in the timber industry with the 2014 murders of four indigenous activists who had battled illegal logging in the Amazon jungle. Two timber executives and three loggers have been charged with the shooting deaths of the activists, said ...
Pope Francis said Sunday it was time for "predators" to stop plundering the Earth for financial gain, holding up the "scarred face of the Amazon" as a warning. The poor are "threatened by predatory models of development," the pope said at a Mass at the ...
Pope's Amazon synod proposes married priests and female leaders
Catholic bishops from across the Amazon called Saturday for the ordination of married men as priests to address the clergy shortage in the region, a historic proposal that would upend centuries of Roman Catholic tradition. The majority of 180 bishops from nine Amazonian countries also ...
Amazon river dolphins being poisoned by mercury from illegal gold operations, conservationists say
Amazon river dolphins are showing alarming levels of contamination mainly because of illegal panning for gold, conservationists say. Researchers measured contamination levels in 46 of these large freshwater creatures known for long, bottle-like snouts in major basins of Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. All of them ...
Dove-sized but pile-driver decibel level, world's loudest bird sings heart out in pursuit of love
Deep in the Amazon, a white-plumed suitor weighing no more than half a pound turns to face his paramour before belting out a deafening, klaxon-like call, reaching decibel levels equal to a pile-driver.. Meet the white bellbird, which has just beaten out its rainforest neighbor, ...
Vatican condemns 'defiance' after indigenous Amazon statues are thrown into river
The Vatican on Monday spoke of an "act of defiance" after some indigenous Amazonian statues were taken from a Rome church and dumped into the Tiber River following criticism from ultra-conservative Catholics. Anonymous individuals filmed themselves taking the five statues of a naked, pregnant woman ...
Walmart seen subsidizing vendors in online holiday price war with Amazon
Hold on to your smartphone — the holiday price wars between Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are heating up. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, has introduced a program to temporarily lower the price consumers pay for some items on its marketplace site, where third-party vendors ...
Facebook reportedly focus of U.S. Justice Department and state attorneys general meeting
A bipartisan group of state attorneys general, including Letitia James of New York, met Monday with U.S. Attorney General William Barr to discuss a state-level probe of Facebook Inc., two sources briefed on the matter confirmed. The meeting came after Reuters and other outlets reported ...
Vatican synod to shine light on Amazon's indigenous communities
Pope Francis will gather Catholic bishops at the Vatican on Sunday to champion the isolated and poverty-struck indigenous communities of the Amazon, whose way of life is under threat. The eyes of the world have recently been on the world's largest rainforest, which is vital ...
