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Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Down 22% in a Year

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File
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Deforestation in Brazilian Amazon Down 22% in a Year

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 22.3% in the twelve months to July, the best result in four years, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reported on November 9, 2023. MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP/File

Brazilian Amazon deforestation fell 22.3 percent in the year through July, hitting a five-year low, officials said Thursday, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government fights to curb destruction of the world's biggest rainforest.

Satellite monitoring found 9,001 square kilometers (3,475 square miles) of forest cover was destroyed in the Brazilian Amazon from August 2022 to July 2023, according to national space agency INPE's annual deforestation tracking program, PRODES.

It was the first time the figure came in at less than 10,000 square kilometers since 2018, before the presidency of far-right ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who presided over a sharp increase in clear-cutting in the Amazon, AFP said.

Under Bolsonaro, there was "an explosion of crime, following a complete dismantling of the government's environmental structures," Environment Minister Marina Silva told a news conference.

Since taking office on January 1, the Lula administration has dramatically increased anti-deforestation operations and fines for environmental crimes.

However, Silva admitted the government faces a tough battle to fulfill Lula's committment to achieve zero deforestation by 2030, citing "a mix of drug- and arms-trafficking, land grabs, and illegal mining and fishing" that are fueling the destruction of the rainforest.

The Amazon is a key resource in the fight against climate change, with hundreds of billions of carbon-absorbing trees that help curb global warming.

But experts say it is increasingly fragile, and risks hitting a "tipping point" where large portions die off and turn to savanna.

"This is a forceful result that seals Brazil's return as a partner in the fight against climate change," Marcio Astrini, the head of the Climate Observatory, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement.

But conservationists urged the government to step up its crackdown on environmental crime.

"This is still a high rate" of deforestation, said Mariana Napolitano, of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil office.

"The Amazon is suffering from a very high level of degradation, which makes the forest more susceptible to fires."

The figures came days after INPE reported more than 22,000 fires in the Brazilian Amazon in October, the worst in 15 years for the month, amid a severe drought in the region.

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Giant Wind Turbine Rises in Germany amid Far-right Headwinds

Conventional wind turbines are seen behind houses in Schipkau, eastern Germany on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
Conventional wind turbines are seen behind houses in Schipkau, eastern Germany on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
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Giant Wind Turbine Rises in Germany amid Far-right Headwinds

Conventional wind turbines are seen behind houses in Schipkau, eastern Germany on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)
Conventional wind turbines are seen behind houses in Schipkau, eastern Germany on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

A wind turbine billed as the world's tallest is rising in eastern Germany, winning praise as a beacon for a clean, green energy future and headwinds from the far-right AfD party.

The giant structure -- set to dwarf the Eiffel Tower at 365 meters (1,200 feet) once completed -- is going up in the former coal-mining region of Lusatia in Brandenburg state, said AFP.

Once its huge rotor blades start spinning in the steady high-altitude winds before the end of the year, it is expected to generate enough electricity to power 7,500 households.

"We're achieving the same performance levels as an offshore wind farm, which means double the output compared to standard wind turbines," Jochen Grossmann, founder of the Dresden-based developer Gicon, told AFP during a visit to the site in a forest near the town of Schipkau.

As workers braved a cold rain, the structure doubled in height within a matter of hours, as 350 tons of steel were hoisted into place by huge yellow construction cranes.

The project is financed to the tune of 20-30 million euros through a government agency that sponsors cutting-edge tech, and seen by promoters as a new milestone in Germany's decades-old energy transition.

Europe's top economy has shuttered its nuclear plants and is phasing out coal while subsidizing renewables, which last year generated almost 59 percent of electricity, about half of it through wind.

Grossmann sees such projects as the way forward if resource-poor Germany wants to meet its emissions targets and wean itself off fossil fuels from conflict-torn regions.

"For the time being, our only options are solar and wind power," he argued.

"Coal reserves are running out, and nuclear power has been phased out. We have only limited supplies of natural gas and oil.

"And at the moment, with the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and everything else, it's clear that we're also not independent when it comes to natural gas and oil."

- 'Windmills of shame' -

Not everyone shares Grossmann's enthusiasm.

The project is located in a stronghold region of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose climate-sceptic leaders have decried the smaller "windmills of shame" that already dot the Schipkau area and much of Germany.

The loss of coal mining jobs has only fue led local support for the AfD, which won nearly half the vote there in last year's parliamentary elections.

Birgit Bessin, an AfD member of the regional parliament, told AFP that turbines had effects on the local wildlife and suggested that nuclear energy would be a better alternative for emission-free power.

"When there are such fundamental impacts on residents, they should be consulted," she said, citing opposition from hunters and a local airfield.

The AfD also points to microplastics given off by wind turbines, although scientific studies have found no impact on human health.

- 'Get the public on board' -

While the AfD is adamantly opposed to wind power, Germany's year-old government under conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also been less enthusiastic about renewables than the previous ruling coalition that included the Greens party.

Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has promised a wave of new gas power plants to compensate for renewables' intermittency, arguing this will help bring down German energy costs, among the highest in the world.

The German economy has been flatlining for years, in part because of soaring energy prices in the wake of Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the US-Israeli conflict with Iran that started in late February.

Outside the fences guarding the Schipkau site, local citizens sometimes come to have a look, some voicing anger about the project, Gicon staff said.

Klaus Prietzel, Schipkau's independent mayor, has floated the idea of the town taking over the turbine in the future to lower residents' energy bills.

Local authorities already share some of the gains from the existing windfarm, paying each resident 80 euros ($92) a year, usually just before Christmas.

"Our idea was that every citizen living in the municipality of Schipkau who can see the wind turbines should also benefit from them," said the mayor.

The AfD's Bessin dismissed such payments as "bribery", but Prietzel argued they are a useful.

"Around four million euros have already been paid out as part of a so-called acceptance-promoting measure," he said. "You have to get the public on board."

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Vietnam Auctions Convicted Tycoon's Luxury Handbags for Over $500k

Vietnamese real estate developer Truong My Lan in court (AP file photo)
Vietnamese real estate developer Truong My Lan in court (AP file photo)
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Vietnam Auctions Convicted Tycoon's Luxury Handbags for Over $500k

Vietnamese real estate developer Truong My Lan in court (AP file photo)
Vietnamese real estate developer Truong My Lan in court (AP file photo)

A pair of luxury Hermes handbags that once belonged to a jailed Vietnamese property tycoon sold at auction for more than $500,000, state media reported, as the government seeks to recover funds linked to a $27 billion fraud.

Property developer Truong My Lan was convicted in 2024 of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which prosecutors said she controlled, AFP reported.

She was initially sentenced to death in one of Vietnam's biggest corruption cases, but now faces life in prison after Hanoi abolished capital punishment for some crimes.

A confiscated Hermes bag with white gemstones sold Thursday at the Ho Chi Minh City Asset Auction Service Center for 11.6 billion Vietnamese dong ($440,000), state media reported. A second Hermes bag sold for 2.5 billion dong ($95,000).

The disgraced tycoon had asked a court to return the rare albino Birkin bags, saying she had purchased one in Italy and received the other as a gift.

They were "mementos" she wanted returned to her family, state media reported.

Tens of thousands of people who invested their savings in Saigon Commercial Bank lost money, shocking the communist nation and prompting rare protests from the victims.

Lan was ordered to compensate victims and has paid more than 12 trillion dong ($455 million) to bondholders so far, according to a statement on the government's website.

Three cars once belonging to Lan -- a Maybach, a BMW and a Lexus -- are set to be auctioned Friday.

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British Climber Summits Everest for Record 20th Time, 2 Die on Mountain

Climbers walk in a long queue as they head to summit Mount Everest in the Solukhumbu district, also known as the Everest region, Nepal, May 18, 2026. REUTERS/Purnima Shrestha
Climbers walk in a long queue as they head to summit Mount Everest in the Solukhumbu district, also known as the Everest region, Nepal, May 18, 2026. REUTERS/Purnima Shrestha
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British Climber Summits Everest for Record 20th Time, 2 Die on Mountain

Climbers walk in a long queue as they head to summit Mount Everest in the Solukhumbu district, also known as the Everest region, Nepal, May 18, 2026. REUTERS/Purnima Shrestha
Climbers walk in a long queue as they head to summit Mount Everest in the Solukhumbu district, also known as the Everest region, Nepal, May 18, 2026. REUTERS/Purnima Shrestha

A Briton improved his own Everest record on Friday and notched his 20th ascent to the world’s highest peak, as two Indian climbers died on the mountain, taking the season's toll to five, hiking officials said.

Kenton Cool, 52, climbed the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak before dawn and was descending to lower camps. He was expected to reach the base camp over the weekend, his expedition organizers said, according to Reuters.

An Indian climber died at Camp II and another at the Hillary Step, Nivesh Karki of their expedition organizing company Pioneer Adventure said. Both had climbed the summit on Thursday but ⁠died during descent, ⁠he said on Friday.

Hillary Step is located below the summit in the "death zone", so called because of the dangerously low level of natural oxygen.

Details of their deaths were not available.

"One body is at very high altitude and we are trying to bring the second body from camp II," Karki told Reuters.

Cool, the ⁠British climber, is “quietly rewriting the record books,” said four-time Everest climber and expedition organizer Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures company.

“More Everest summits than any non-Sherpa ever... and still making it look like just another walk in the hills. Absolute legend," Furtenbach told Reuters from the base camp. Cool climbed with one of Furtenbach's teams.

Cool, who first climbed Everest in 2004 and has since repeated the feat every year except some years when authorities closed the mountain due to various reasons, said scaling the height of Everest was ⁠not routine.

“It ⁠never gets any easier or any less frightening. It’s the tallest mountain in the world and with it comes an incredible sense of majesty,” Cool said in a statement.

“I rely on every bit of experience I have to move safely in this environment. Standing on the summit for the twentieth time is incredibly special.”

The record for the highest number of summits at Everest is held by a Nepali Sherpa, Kami Rita, at 32.

Everest has been climbed by more than 8,000 people, many of them multiple times, since it was first scaled by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.