SALVADOR, Brazil: Wildfires in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil have ignited a firestorm on social media, with President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday suggesting green groups started the blazes.
Images of fires purportedly devouring sections of the world’s largest rainforest have gone viral on Twitter. #PrayforAmazonas is the top trending hashtag in the world on Wednesday, with more than 249,000 tweets.
“No matter how successful we are, if our Earth dies, we all die,” posted one Twitter user.
Another wrote: “Send your prayers to the Amazon and to the planet, we will need it.”
Some of the images, however, showed fires in the Amazon dating as far back as 1989 or even in other countries such as the United States or India, AFP’s fact-check service found.
Official figures show nearly 73,000 forest fires were recorded in Brazil in the first eight months of the year — the highest number for any year since 2013. Most were in the Amazon.
That compares with 39,759 in the first eight months of 2018, according to the embattled National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which has been in Bolsonaro’s cross-hairs since it released data showing a surge in deforestation in recent months.
The head of INPE, the agency tasked with monitoring forest clearing, was sacked over the figures.
While it was not possible Wednesday to measure the size of the area affected by fires, thick smoke in recent days has blanketed several cities, including Sao Paulo, and caused a commercial flight to be diverted.
Forest fires tend to intensify during the dry season, which usually ends in late October or early November, as land is cleared to make way for crops or grazing.
But the WWF has blamed this year’s sharp increase on accelerating deforestation in the Amazon, which is seen as crucial to keeping climate change in check.
“Historically, in this region, the use of fire is directly linked to deforestation as it is one of the techniques for tree clearing,” WWF said in a statement.
Bolsonaro hit back Wednesday, saying “criminal action by those NGOs, to call attention against me, against the Brazilian government” following funding cuts may be the reason for the forest fires.
“This is the war that we are facing,” Bolsonaro told reporters.
“The fires were lit in strategic places. All the indications suggest they went there to film and start fires. That’s what I feel.”
Bolsonaro’s comments come as Brazil hosts a UN regional meeting on climate change in the northeastern city of Salvador ahead of December’s summit in Chile.
The 25th UN Conference on Climate Change (COP25) was originally planned for Brazil, but the country pulled out, citing impossible objectives.
Activists held a protest in the city where they denounced Bolsonaro’s latest accusation as “absurd.”
“The fires are the consequence of a policy of environmental devastation, of support for agribusiness, of increasing pastures,” Camila Veiga of the Brazilian Association of NGOs told AFP.
Speaking on the sidelines of the week-long workshop, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles defended the government’s efforts to prevent illegal deforestation.
“All the rules on illegal deforestation have been upheld, all strategies have continued to be enforced,” Salles said.
“Unfortunately both the states and the federal government suffer because of the economic crisis, budget cuts, which hinders... enforcement operations.”
The forest fires have fueled criticism of Bolsonaro’s anti-environmentrhetoric, which activists blame for emboldening loggers, miners and farmers in the Amazon.
Salvador mayor Antonio Carlos Magalhaes told AFP that, if necessary, “political forces” in Brazil would work “to block any attempt at radical or extreme decisions” on the environment by Bolsonaro’s government.
“Our country is concerned about the environment, our country is concerned with the preservation of its natural heritage, our country does not want to regress on this agenda, it wants to move forward,” Magalhaes said.
Norway joined Germany on Thursday in halting Amazon protection subsidies, accusing Brazil of turning its back on the fight against deforestation.
Worsening relations between Brazil and Europe has worried the powerful agriculture sector, which fears a backlash from its key markets.
Brazil’s Bolsonaro blames Amazon fires on NGOs as Twitter erupts
Brazil’s Bolsonaro blames Amazon fires on NGOs as Twitter erupts
- #PrayforAmazonas is the top trending hashtag in the world on Wednesday, with more than 249,000 tweets
- Norway has joined Germany in halting Amazon protection subsidies, accusing Brazil of turning its back on the fight against deforestation
US and Mideast countries seek Kyiv's drone expertise as Russia-Ukraine talks put on ice
KYIV, Ukraine: The United States and its allies in the Middle East are seeking Ukraine's expertise in countering Iran's Shahed drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Various countries, including the United States, have approached Ukraine for help in defending against the Iranian drones, Zelenskyy said late Wednesday. He said he has spoken in recent days with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait about possible cooperation.
Russia has fired tens of thousands of Shaheds at Ukraine since it invaded its neighbor just over four years ago, launching a swarm of more than 800 drones and decoys in its biggest nighttime barrage. Iran has responded to joint U.S.-Israeli strikes by launching the same type of drones at countries in the Middle East.
Ukrainian assistance in countering Iranian drones will be provided only if it does not weaken Ukraine's own defenses, and if it adds leverage to Kyiv's diplomatic efforts to stop the Russian invasion, according to the Ukrainian leader.
"We help to defend from war those who help us, Ukraine, bring a just end to the war" with Russia, Zelenskyy said. Later Thursday, Zelenskyy said he had received a U.S. request for support to defend against the drones in the Middle East and had given the order for equipment to be provided along with Ukrainian experts without providing further details.
"Ukraine helps partners who help our security and the protection of our people's lives," he added in a social media post.
Trump, in an interview Thursday with Reuters, said, "Certainly I'll take, you know, any assistance from any country."
Ukraine has battle-tested drone defenses
Ukraine has pioneered the development of cut-price drone killers that cost as little as $1,000, rewriting the air defense rule book and making other countries take notice.
European countries got a wake-up call last September on the changed nature of air defense when Poland scrambled multimillion-dollar military assets, including F-35 and F-16 fighter jets and Black Hawk helicopters, in response to airspace violations by cheap drones.
Ukrainian manufacturers have developed low-cost interceptor drones specifically designed to hunt and destroy Shaheds, and its rapidly expanding drone industry is producing excess capacity.
Zelenskyy announced earlier this year that Ukraine would begin exporting the battle-tested systems.
The European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said before chairing a meeting of EU and Gulf foreign ministers via video link Thursday that the talks would look at how Ukraine's experience can help countries counter Iranian drones.
Middle East war delays Russia-Ukraine talks
The Iran war, now in its sixth day, has drawn international attention away from Europe's biggest conflict since World War II, and forced the postponement of a new round of U. S-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine planned for this week, Zelenskyy said.
Western governments and analysts say the Russia-Ukraine war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, while there is no sign that yearlong U.S.-led peace efforts will stop the fighting any time soon.
"Right now, because of the situation around Iran, there are not yet the necessary signals for a trilateral meeting," Zelenskyy said. "But as soon as the security situation and the overall political context allow us to resume that trilateral diplomatic work, it will be done."
Zelenskyy thanked the United States for the return from Russia on Thursday of 200 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Russia's Defense Ministry also said it received the same number of prisoners from Ukraine and thanked the U.S. and United Arab Emirates for mediating.
Prisoner swaps have been one of the few tangible results of the talks. Vladimir Medinsky, a Russian negotiator, said on social media that a total of 500 prisoners from each side would be exchanged between Thursday and Friday.
Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to drag out the negotiations so that he can press on with Russia's invasion while escaping further U.S. sanctions.
He urged the U.S. administration to look at the Russia-Ukraine war and the war in the Middle East as linked.
"In reality, Russia and Iran are close allies that act in concert — Iran supplies weapons and Russia helps Iran develop its defense industry. These are interconnected conflicts," Merezhko told The Associated Press.
Ukraine's army has recently pushed back Russian forces at some points along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (750-mile) front line, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Localized Ukrainian counterattacks liberated more territory than Ukrainian forces lost in the last two weeks of February, the Washington-based think tank said this week, estimating the recovered land at about 257 square kilometers (100 square miles) since Jan. 1.
