- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Thousands march for Palestinians ahead of Oct 7 anniversary
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Toddler crushed to death in migrant Channel crossing
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
Brazil's Amazon sees worst 6 months of wildfires in 20 years
The Brazilian Amazon recorded 13,489 wildfires in the first half of the year, the worst figure in 20 years, satellite data revealed Monday.
The total was up more than 61 percent compared to the same period last year -- an increase that experts say is the result of a historic drought that struck the world's largest tropical rainforest last year.
Since Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) began compiling records in 1998, only two other years experienced more wildfires from January through June: 2003 (17,143) and 2004 (17,340).
The data makes for difficult news for the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with the number of fires increasing even as deforestation in the Amazon -- which helps reduce global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide -- is on the wane.
According to INPE data, the surface area subject to deforestation decreased 42 percent from January 1 to June 21, as compared with the same period in 2023.
Lula has pledged to put a stop to illegal deforestation of the Amazon by 2030. The practice had dramatically worsened under his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
For Romulo Batista, the spokesman of the Brazilian branch of Greenpeace, "climate change is contributing" to the increase in the number of wildfires.
Batista explained to AFP that most of Brazil's biomes, or distinct natural regions, are under stress due to a lack of precipitation.
"The environment is drier, and thus vegetation is more dried out and more vulnerable to fires," he said.
But he said most of the wildfires were likely not spontaneous, such as being sparked by lightning, but instead caused by human activity -- especially the use of agricultural burning.
- Record set in Pantanal wetlands-
Wildfires also set January-June records in two other biodiverse ecosystems south of the Amazon: the Pantanal, one of the world's largest tropical wetlands, and the Cerrado savanna, which lies mainly in Brazil.
In the Pantanal, home to millions of caimans, parrots, giant otters and the world's highest density of jaguars, 3,538 wildfires were recorded in the first six months of 2024 -- an increase of more than 2,000 percent as compared with last year.
The total is also up 40 percent as compared with 2020, the record-setting year in that region.
In June alone, 2,639 fires were detected -- six times the highest number ever recorded. In recent days, residents of the Pantanal have seen a red-tinged sky and clouds of smoke due to the blazes.
The situation is worrisome as the height of the wildfires season is normally in the second half of the year, especially in September, when weather is at its most dry.
Mato Grosso state, where much of the Pantanal is located, declared a state of emergency last week, and authorities announced that firefighters would be dispatched from other regions to help battle the flames.
The Cerrado -- one of Earth's three great savannas, along with Africa's and Australia's -- experienced 13,229 fires from January through June, almost as many as the Amazon.
The Cerrado covers a region the size of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain combined.
S.F.Warren--AMWN