IN Brazil, the government has banned most legal fires for land-clearing for 60 days in an attempt to stop the burning that has devastated parts of the Amazon region.
The official decree prohibiting the fires was published yesterday following international criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the environmental crisis.
The period of the new ban coincides with the dry season, when most fires are usually set.
Brazil’s forest code allows farmers and others to set some fires as long as they have licences from environmental authorities.
This year, there was a sharp increase in nationwide fires, raising concerns that people were emboldened to burn more after Bolsonaro said rainforest protections were blocking economic development.
Bolsonaro suggested environmental groups were setting illegal fires to try to destabilise his government.
SWEDISH teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has arrived in New York City, United States, to chants and cheers after a trans-Atlantic trip on a yacht to attend a global warming conference.
Greta, 16, and her crew were escorted into a lower Manhattan marina at about 4pm, concluding a two-week crossing from Plymouth.
Hundreds of activists gathered on a Hudson River promenade to cheer her arrival.
Greta waved, was lifted onto a dock, then took her first wobbly steps on dry land.
“All of this is very overwhelming,” she said of the reception.
She refused to fly because of the carbon cost of plane travel.
IRAN’S supreme leader will not meet US President Donald Trump unless Washington halts its “economic terrorism” targeting the country, its foreign minister has said.
Mohammad Javad Zarif added the removal of US sanctions could help salvage the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, which Washington withdrew from last year.
He said Tehran has the right to reduce its compliance under the pact after the US left, but it can return to full implementation if the US fulfils its commitment and returns to the table.
“We are prepared to leave (the pact) because we have nothing to lose,” he said.
CHINA has deployed fresh troops to Hong Kong in what it called a routine rotation.
The move came amid speculation that it might intervene in the city’s pro-democracy protests.
Before departing, a major told troops: “This time the task has a glorious mission. The responsibility is great. The job is difficult. The time for a true test has arrived.”
Chinese state news said it was the 22nd rotation of the military in Hong Kong.
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