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ScienceHealthVolunteer in Brazil Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Dies of Covid-19, Reportedly Received Placebo
A 28-year-old Brazilian resident participating in a covid-19 vaccine trial run by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has died of complications related to the coronavirus, a local media outlet reported Wednesday. Health officials and those leading the study have not confirmed whether the volunteer had received the experimental vaccine or a placebo prior to … Continued
By Ed Cara -
EartherConservationLet’s Check in on the Amazon, and Damn, That’s Not Good
Major fires in the Brazilian Amazon are being set at an unprecedented rate. Between May 28 and Aug. 25, 2020, more than 500 major forest fires blazed across roughly 912,000 acres, new satellite data from the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) shows. That’s on par with the inferno that’s consumed California this month. … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherDeforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is Soaring
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is up. Way up. In the last 12 months, 3,554 square miles (9,205 square kilometers) of Brazilian Amazon vegetation were burned down, official data published Friday by the country’s National Institute for Space Research (known by its Portuguese acronym, INPE) shows. The researchers obtained the numbers using Brazil’s Real-time Deforestation … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Tech NewsNewsBrazilian President Announces He Is Over Coronavirus, Poses With Hydroxychloroquine
Infamous coronavirus skeptic Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, triumphantly declared on Saturday that he had recovered from covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. To celebrate, Bolsonaro posted a photo of himself doing a thumbs-up with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug he has promoted nonstop as a treatment for the disease, despite the growing … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
ScienceHealthBrazil’s President Accuses the WHO of ‘Ideological Bias’ and Threatens Withdrawal
U.S. President Donald Trump apparently isn’t the only world leader unhappy with the World Health Organization (WHO) and who’s willing to take drastic steps in response. On Friday, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro accused the WHO of having an “ideological bias” and threatened to withdraw from the organization. Bolsonaro made the comments after the WHO … Continued
By Jody Serrano -
ScienceHealthLatest Coronavirus Science: How Covid-19 Spreads in a Family
Here’s our roundup of the latest developments and research into covid-19, including more evidence of racial disparities during the pandemic, the possible higher risks from for-profit nursing homes, and Brazil’s worsening disaster. How coronavirus spreads in a household A new study in BMJ Global Health is one of the first to provide current evidence of … Continued
By Ed Cara -
Earther‘A New Pandemic’: Coronavirus Threatens Indigenous People in the Amazon as Fire Season Nears
When the Amazon Rainforest burns, illegal loggers and miners are typically to blame. In the past, indigenous communities would patrol their lands every week or fortnight to find criminals looking to loot the forest. These patrols—usually made up of two to six men—deterred illegal land-grabbers from deforesting indigenous territories, which may cover as much as … Continued
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EartherDeforestation Spikes in the Amazon Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Activity in most of the world has come to a halt due to the spread of the coronavirus, but illegal logging and land grabbing in the Amazon rainforest shows no sign of slowing down. New data reveals that deforestation is the worst it’s been in the region in over a decade. Conservation news site Mongabay … Continued
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ScienceHealthBrazil’s Bolsonaro Blames Press for Covid-19 ‘Hysteria,’ Boasts He’s Too Fit to Get Sick in Speech
Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro sparked protests with a Tuesday evening address in which he claimed the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is a media “fantasy,” demanded governors end quarantine and isolation measures, and bragged that he is so healthy he wouldn’t even know if he was infected, the Guardian reported. In his address, Bolsonaro claimed that … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsNewsTwitter Is Testing Self-Destructing Tweets
Twitter is testing a new feature in Brazil that auto-deletes tweets after just one day in a move it says is intended to make users feel less pressure and give them more control over tweets. Twitter is calling the feature—for now, at least—Fleets. Fleets, Twitter says in a blog post about the new feature rolling … Continued
By Catie Keck -
EartherEnvironmental JusticeBrazil Is Cracking Down on Climate Migrants While Worsening the Climate Crisis
The dark, rocky face of the Dois Irmãos Mountain rises over the rainforest and through the clouds, overlooking the largest slum in Latin America. A young man emerges from around the corner of an alleyway to meet me with a handgun tucked under his arm; the local gang’s “manager.” Weaving our way down the hill … Continued
Niko Vorobyov -
Tech NewsNewsGlenn Greenwald Charged With Cybercrimes After Embarrassing Officials in Brazil
Journalist firebrand Glenn Greenwald has been charged with cybercrimes by federal prosecutors in Brazil, according to a new report from the New York Times. Greenwald recently helped expose corruption in the Brazilian government through a series of stories at the Intercept that included leaked messages highly embarrassing for senior government officials. Brazilian prosecutors allege that … Continued
By Matt Novak -
EartherClimate ChangeThe Number of Fires in the Amazon Rainforest Spiked in 2019
Last year was certainly the year of fire, and the Amazon was at the epicenter of it as humans used fires to clear land. Now, data from INPE, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, confirms what we all suspected: The Amazon Rainforest suffered its highest rate of deforestation in a decade last year and the … Continued
