Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet w210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, with almost 80% of its forest destroyed.
The decision by Judge Inês Moreira da Costa in Rondônia—the most severely deforested state in the Brazilian Amazon—came in response to a flurry of lawsuits filed by green groups seeking millions of dollars in damages from defendants including Distriboi and Frigon, two meat processing firms accused of trading cattle in the Jaci-Parana protected zone.
“The invaders and their main business partners—loggers and meatpacking companies—make the profits their own while passing on to society the costs of environmental damage,” notes one of numerous lawsuits.
We hope the court decision will deter rampant expansion of illegal Amazon destruction for cattle to supply insatiable US demand
In the Amazon rainforest near Novo Progresso, Pará state, Brazil (Photo: Joao Laet/AFP)
“When a slaughterhouse, whether by negligence or intent, buys and resells products from invaded and illegally deforested reserves, it is clear that it is directly benefiting from these illegal activities,” the plaintiffs’ complaint states.
The death of the Amazon – not even worth reporting on main stream media #BBC#CNN#ITV SKY A staggering 7.4 million acres of Brazil’s Amazon burned in the first half of 2024, a 122% increase from the previous year And in 2023, an astonishing 26.4 million acres burned#Climatehttps://t.co/FI5reNyq9Apic.twitter.com/zegakPhF2q
“In such cases, there is an undeniable connection between the company’s actions and the environmental damage caused by the illegal exploitation.”
The slaughterhouses and ranchers are but two of numerous parties being sued, including other ranchers and JBS, the Brazilian meat giant that bills itself as the world’s largest protein producer.
According toThe Associated Press—whose reporting on the cattle trading documents prompted the lawsuits:
Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet some 210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, according to the state animal division. With almost 80% of its forest destroyed, it ranks as the most ravaged conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. A court filing pegs damages in the reserve at some $1 billion.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits are seeking to put a price on the destruction of old-growth rainforest, asserting that “the invaders and their main business partners—loggers and meatpacking companies—make the profits their own while passing on to society the costs of environmental damage.”
The Amazon rainforest is one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems and is a crucial carbon sink, meaning it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Dr. Christopher Busby is part a mixed crew of investigative reporters and commentators from Lebanon and some film-makers investigating “Israel’s” use of enriched uranium in strikes on Gaza on Lebanon, and aim to follow up on the strange illnesses that are appearing on the battlefield. By Robert Daly and Christopher Busby | Al Mayadeen | […]
Al-Qassam Spokesman Abu Obeida: The Jordanian hero’s pistol was more effective than massive armies and a stacked military arsenal in supporting our Al-Aqsa and our people.
Two explosions reported in Askalan, occupied Palestine.
Al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson Abu Obeida: The handgun used by the Jordanian hero was more successful and effective than entire armies and military arsenals.
Israeli media: Several drones exploded in the Al-Zaoura area in the Golan Heights.
Incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune won presidential elections in Algeria.
Israeli media reports alarm sirens activated in 8 northern settlements.
Ministry of Health in Gaza: The Israeli occupation committed 3 massacres in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, killing 33 and inuring 145
Ministry of Health in Gaza: The number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 has risen to 40,972, in addition to 94,761 injuries
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon: The operation comes in support of Gaza and in response to the massacre in the town of Froun
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon announces targeting the maritime Ras al-Naqoura site and the positions of officers and soldiers with a swarm of one-way drones, dealing precise hits to the targets
Is ‘Israel’ using small nuclear weapons in Gaza and South Lebanon?
Dr. Christopher Busby is part a mixed crew of investigative reporters and commentators from Lebanon and some film-makers investigating “Israel’s” use of enriched uranium in strikes on Gaza on Lebanon, and aim to follow up on the strange illnesses that are appearing on the battlefield.
The American Peace Information Council (APIC) and Green Audit (UK) are conducting an investigation of “Israel’s” possible use of small nuclear weapons in Gaza and South Lebanon. Dr. Christopher Busby—Scientific Secretary, European Committee on Radiation Risk; once Member, UK Committee Examining Radiation Risk from Internal Emitters; once Member, UK Ministry of Defence Depleted Uranium Oversight Board—presents the scientific and social background of the case below.
APIC and Green Audit ask people who drive ambulances down in the South, or live there, to come forward with engine air filters from ambulances driven in bombed areas, samples of long hair (at least 10 cm in length) if they live in bombed areas, and Geiger counter readings and soil samples from bomb craters. Please send these samples and evidence to Al Mayadeen who will forward them to us. One would think that the easiest way to obtain ambulance air filters would be from the Lebanese Red Cross, but its General Secretary, Mr. Georges Kitanneh, refuses to assist this investigation.
Dr. Robert Daly
‘Israel’ in Gaza: Red Mercury.
Dr. Christopher Busby
In 2021, a scientific report in the prestigious journal Nature confirmed what I had been saying since 2006. “Israel” has, since its attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and those on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, used a new nuclear weapon, one which kills with a high temperature radiation flash and with neutrons. This weapon, which leaves an identification footprint, but no fission products like Caesium-137, we now know was also employed by the USA in Fallujah, Iraq in 2003, and previously in Kosovo also.
The residues, inhalable Uranium aerosol dust, together with the neutron damage to tissues, cause a range of serious and often fatal health effects that puzzle doctors and defy treatment. Without knowing what caused such effects, which often mimic other illnesses or result in fungal infections that kill, doctors are powerless to help and just watch the exposed individuals die.
In the cases of direct exposures to the flash, parts of the body, arms, legs, places that were not behind significant shielding are burned to blackened sticks. The aerosol Uranium dust is inhaled, destroys the lungs through fibrosis, is translocated to the lymphatic system, and later causes cancers, not only lymphomas and leukemias, but pretty much any cancer as a result of localisation of the Uranium particle in the organ, for example the breast, which has extensive lymphatic vessels. If the particle is coughed up and swallowed, it can end up immobilised in the colon and cause cancer there.
This is not science fiction or arm-waving. I have acted as an expert witness in two successful legal cases, one in England and one in Australia, where the judge and coroner court concluded that the particles caused colon cancer. I am helping a US DU veteran at the moment in his case against the military. He has a pituitary tumour (the small gland is located behind the nose where the particles lodge).
I began this investigation in 2006 when an article appeared in a Lebanese newspaper reporting that an Israeli bomb crater in Khiam was radioactive. A Dr. Ali Khobeisi had taken a Geiger counter to the crater and found a 20-times background radiation level in the crater relative to nearby. By 2006, I had become something of an alternative authority on Depleted Uranium weapons (DU). I had given evidence to the US Congressional Committee on Veterans Affairs on the effects of DU and Gulf War syndrome, I had visited Iraq and also Kosovo, and I was a member of the UK government Depleted Uranium Oversight Board (DUOB); I had written articles, including for the United Nations, I had given evidence to the Royal Society.
I asked a colleague to go to Lebanon and get samples from the crater, and also an ambulance air filter. When they were analysed, using two separate methods, they showed the presence not of Depleted Uranium, but of Enriched Uranium (EU). Now this is impossible, unless the weapon was made from EU or created EU from neutron irradiation of U-234 and U-238.
To follow the explanation of the problem, you need some science. Natural Uranium, as mined, has three isotopes, U-238 U-234 and U-235. Most of this Uranium by mass is U-238 (99.7%). The 0.3% of U-235 is important for nuclear bombs and nuclear energy and is extracted in various ways to make EU. What is left behind is less radioactive U-238, and this is what is termed Depleted Uranium (DU).
When U-238 decays, it changes into Thorium-234, which rapidly changes into Protoactinium-234 and this turns into Uranium-234. Then you get a long list of progeny, but these do not concern us. All this happens quite quickly, and the process releases some gamma rays which make DU a gamma radiation hazard, contrary to the statements of the military that DU is not a handling hazard. It is. But this is not important in this story.
The main issue here is this. Was the enriched Uranium in the Lebanon bomb a real finding? Could it have been a laboratory error? The answer is No. We used two different laboratories and two different Uranium analysis methods, ICPMS and alpha spectrometry.
Until we found EU, I had focused on the health effects of DU. Everyone did. But in 2006 I was contacted by an eminent Italian nuclear physicist, Emilio Del Guidice. I met him in London, where he told me that the source of the EU was a new weapon which used Hydrogen or heavy hydrogen, Deuterium dissolved in Uranium and when this warhead, as small as a baseball, was fired at a solid object, the hydrogen suffered Cold Fusion to form Helium with the emission of a powerful gamma ray which cause the U238 to convert to an unstable U-239 which decayed to U-235 and a neutron.
I am not a nuclear physicist, though I have my own ideas about this explanation but at that time I accepted that he knew what he was talking about. At least it explained the source of the enrichment.
Further support for the existence of an EU-containing or EU-producing weapon came from a study of a Kosovo war Veteran whose mysterious illnesses were investigated thoroughly by some doctors in Liverpool and Manchester. The man’s kidneys contained Enriched Uranium.
Emilio del Guidice had not stood still in this Sherlock Holmes investigation. Together with reporters from Italian TV (Rai News) he had visited the father of Cold Fusion, Prof Martin Fleischmann, whom I had also previously worked with when I was at the University of Kent in 1980. Fleishmann added to the intriguing scientific puzzle, but was unwilling to get involved. It seemed that scientists looking at cold fusion were dying under suspicious circumstances. Fleischmann himself had seemingly been poisoned with something that caused multi-site cancer and passed away on August 3, 2012. A cold fusion colleague developed the same multi-site cancer and didn’t survive.
Del Guidice and the Rai News producer following up the story wrote a book: The Secret of the Three Bullets, published in 2014. It is still in print and contains their side of the story. I am in the book under various names. But a few months before its publication, del Guidice unexpectedly died when alone in his house. I am told that the Rai News co-author editor of the book, Maurizio Torrealta has gone into hiding after having been posted three real bullets in an envelope.
Fast forward to 2021. The Nature paper gave the results of analyses of 65 samples of soil, sand, cement, and building materials from Gaza. Using gamma spectrometry (where you use the whole sample and look at the identifiable peaks from U-235 and Th-234 = U238) the authors identified some significantly high levels of Enriched Uranium in all the samples, but mostly in the soil samples. The levels of enrichment had become greater than those that we found in our earlier studies. The natural isotope mass ratio in nature (U238/U235) is 138. In Lebanon we found 116. In Gaza 108. The 2021 paper found about 85. Since this was before the recent bombing, this contamination must date to the 2014 Israeli bombing. What should we expect to find now?
In March of this year, I wrote to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the official UN watchdogs for the use of nuclear weapons. My colleague from Fallujah, Dr. Mohamad Al-Darraji also sent my letter under his name. Nothing happened. No reply. He was to organise a Press Conference in Vienna to draw attention to the use of this weapon in Fallujah, and the cover up of the residual high levels of radiation by the Iraqi Ministry of Science. I made a video to be presented at this conference (it is online). But he couldn’t get a venue.
I followed the letter up with a second version in July, demanding that the IAEA respond. I wrote a paper about the issue and submitted it to two journals, putting the pre-print online. It was rejected on the basis that the reviewers didn’t believe the Nature analysis results. Eventually, Al-Darraji got a reply from the IAEA (naturally, I didn’t). The IAEA didn’t believe the Nature results. Nothing to investigate. No problem.
The UK Green Party House of Lords member, Baroness Jenny Jones (who I know) asked a question in UK Parliament. The government said they didn’t have anything to say about it. About the high level of Enriched Uranium in Gaza.
So that’s it. What can we do? “Israel” and the USA (at least) have developed what is almost certainly a mini-neutron bomb. “Israel” is using it in Gaza. And may be using it in Lebanon (again). In fact, there is evidence for the development of such a bomb having been tested as long ago as October 1962, in the final US atmospheric test in the Dominic series in the Pacific. This was the test named “Housatonic” which achieved 9.96Mt yield but reportedly had zero fallout. That means it had no fission primer in the first stage, a necessary requirement for all the hydrogen bombs before it.
The significance of this appears to have been overlooked, but, astonishingly, you can find details on Wikipedia. The UK government put all that stuff under the Official Secrets Act and when I was representing the Test Veterans in the Royal Courts of Justice from 2010 to 2016, I was refused access to these details. The new bomb was successfully detonated just before the Kennedy Kruschev test ban, and just before Kennedy was assassinated. Could there be a link?
I have joined a mixed crew of investigative reporters and commentators from Lebanon and some film-makers to seek out the solution to this conundrum. We aim to follow up on the strange illnesses that are appearing on the battlefield. We aim to look for Enriched Uranium and also neutron activation products like Cobalt-60, Tritium and Carbon-14. In a new development, the laboratories that I used to examine the earlier samples have all suddenly closed their doors. One of them was shut down altogether after the first Gaza analysis. One of them was threatened. But we can do a lot with what we have.
What we want is for people to obtain Geiger Counters to check out the impact sites soon after the explosion, and if it is radioactive to get us samples of dust and dirt. We want women’s hair samples, especially long hair, cut from the nape of the neck, from women who were near or lived in areas that were bombed. You can buy a simple Geiger Counter now for about 60 euros. You can even get a low-resolution portable gamma spectrometer for about 350 euros.
We would like anyone with comments or information to contact us. This is a big deal.
The weapon will certainly be used in future exchanges, and will make local nuclear war possible, since the scary scenarios involving fallout may not materialise. I have named the device Red Mercury because that is what it probably is (remember the red mercury story: written off officially by science (haha) as a fraud, as a phony). Red Mercury was Stalin’s code for Enriched Uranium. Clearly, from the Dominic Housatonic test, the USA also developed the weapon. Since it kills without leaving fission products, it is invisible to the global nuclear explosion detection systems and the IAEA watchdogs.
But there is no doubt the IAEA know about it. Their latest report on Uranium in the Environment completely ignores Enriched Uranium. When I asked one of the report authors why, I was told they were short of money. They only had enough to look at Depleted Uranium. Can you believe this stuff?
The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.mm
Alongside our partners in the coalition that organise the national demonstrations for Palestine we have released the following statement in relation to Saturday’s march. Please share it on social media.
Under Keir Starmer’s burgeoning police state and organisers have been told at short notice not just that they must start at 2.30pm instead – posing problems for many who have to travel into London and get home again afterwards – but also that anyone who marches earlier than 2.30pm will be arrested. Organisers call to igmore police order.
We are deeply concerned by the Metropolitan Police’s decision to impose severe and unjustified restrictions on Saturday’s demonstration against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
These new conditions, including a delayed start time of two and a half hours after the advertised assembly, effectively hinder our fundamental right to peaceful assembly and protest.
For 18 consecutive marches since October, we have gathered at 12 PM and commenced shortly thereafter—an arrangement that accommodates those travelling long distances, including thousands who have pre-booked coach travel.
The last-minute disruption of these plans, without any clear rationale, raises serious questions about the police’s respect for our democratic rights.
For more on the behaviour of the police in this matter read this.
Since notifying the police of our intentions on 8 August, we have faced a series of delays, obstacles, and uncooperative behaviour. Meetings have been cancelled without notice, and our reasonable proposal for an alternative route to the Israeli Embassy was dismissed outright.
Now, with just four days’ notice, the police have imposed these new conditions without explanation, creating unnecessary obstacles for a demonstration expected to draw over one hundred thousand people.
The treatment of the Palestine movement by the police is unprecedented and deeply troubling.
The consistent refusal to consider our proposed routes and the imposition of unreasonable conditions appear to be based on unfounded assumptions that our protests will lead to disruption or disorder, despite our long history of peaceful demonstrations.
Such actions risk undermining the right to protest, a cornerstone of democracy.
It is crucial that the police reconsider these actions in light of their responsibility to uphold democratic freedoms.
We will assemble at the advertised point, and, in exercising our right to peaceful protest, we will march to the Israeli Embassy. It is essential that the police recognise the importance of respecting the rights of citizens to gather and express their views peacefully.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
2 20 -22 September #NoWar2024 Conference: Resisting the USA’s Military Empire A global hybrid conference from September 20-22 will bring together activists from dozens of countries worldwide to examine the impacts of the USA’s network of foreign military bases, which provoke war, pollute communities, and steal land from Indigenous peoples. WHEN: Friday, September 20 – Sunday, September […]
La colisión entre los límites biofísicos del planeta y la imperiosa necesidad del capitalismo de mantener un crecimiento indefinido, está provocando una crisis multifactorial diferente a las que hayamos conocido.
Experiencias de apoyo mutuo para garantizar las necesidades básicas
Algunos de los nuevos elementos a los que nos enfrentamos son: el cambio climático, la imposibilidad de mantener los niveles de consumo energético y de materiales actuales, las interrupciones en las cadenas de suministro, las dificultades para mantener el actual modelo intensivo de producción de alimentos y su consiguiente encarecimiento, la escasez de agua, la pérdida de biodiversidad, la desindustrialización acelerada de UE, la quiebra planificada del acceso a los «servicios públicos» (de los que solo habíamos disfrutado en el Norte Global), así como la exclusión de cada vez más sectores sociales, aquellos considerados innecesarios o sobrantes por parte del Estado, entre otros.
A pesar de la gravedad de los síntomas, nuestras sociedades, aún opulentas respecto al resto del planeta, siguen aferradas al modelo de crecimiento e hiperconsumo que el capitalismo impuso hace unas pocas décadas, a costa de la explotación del Sur Global.
Este modelo tiene los días contados, y las soluciones no pueden venir de quienes nos gobiernan y nos explotan, auténticos responsables de la situación.
Tampoco vendrá de la «izquierda del capital», mero peón del capitalismo, siempre dispuesta a gestionar el desastre energético y medioambiental, con toda seguridad en clave de exclusión y ecofascismo.
A pesar de la parálisis social, la historia de la clase trabajadora no ha sido borrada.
Hace un siglo el sindicalismo revolucionario, en circunstancias diferentes, pero muy adversas, supo organizar sistemas alternativos al Estado para garantizar parte de las necesidades básicas: desde la producción de alimentos, a la vivienda, pasando por la atención sanitaria, la cultura o el transporte.
En épocas más recientes hemos podido comprobar que, con ocasión de graves crisis, la solidaridad y el apoyo mutuo han surgido como herramientas entre los sectores más desfavorecidos.
Emplazamos al sindicalismo combativo, al ecologismo de base y a los movimientos sociales, para debatir entre todos que mecanismos podemos poner en marcha, al margen del Estado y las instituciones, para enfrentar este escenario de crisis global, en el que podamos ir poniendo las bases, para la gestión futura de las necesidades básicas, en un marco de sociedades menos complejas, pero más democráticas y solidarias.
Rotterdam: Catullusweg stays!- In the morning of august 23rd we went to court, and we won!!!
We are really grateful to everyone that has helped out and stood by us, it truly means a lot!! On the 22nd of august we got a letter for a speed court case for the eviction of Catullusweg 11.
In the morning of august 23rd we went to court, and we’re happy to announce that we won!!! Even though we don’t have anything nice to say about the judicial system, we feel a weight taken off our shoulders knowing that in the coming time there won’t be any attempts of eviction by the state and its servants.
Now that this squat has more stability, we will put even more time into setting up a social space including a library, free shop, cinema/theater, community kitchen etc.
This is a callout to gather and organise together. Come by share your ideas and don’t don’t hesitate to join in on the fun! We’re looking forward to your ideas and initiatives.
The squatters want to use the building for various purposes. For example, the squatters wanted to start a free childcare facility, set up a kitchen where free meals would be prepared for people who were short of money and a living space for themselves on the top floor. .
After the many threats and an attempt at eviction by the police, they decided to leave because we were ready to resist the eviction with a lot of people.
Aside from being a living space, it will also be a space to gather, meet each other, share and sharpen skills, and host events. It will be a place to learn outside of institutionalised education.
We want to create a space where everybody can feel safe, no matter the colour of your skin, sexual orientation, gender, class, or any such characteristic. Our house and common spaces are vegan, because we are also against the oppression of other species.
Rotterdam – On Tuesday evening, the police were deployed on a large scale after a group of squatters occupied an empty school building on the Catullusweg in Rotterdam.
The group of squatters consisted of more than 40 people. They were discovered by a security guard after a report was received by the security company.
Upon arrival, the security guard found people in the building and the lights were on.
A sign at the entrance read: ‘Welcome to our square’ The police were present in large numbers. Several officers, including two dog handlers and the Team Parate Eenheid were on site. They had surrounded the building. Officers saw several people walking in the school building.
It was suspected that the squatters were hiding in the classrooms. – When they saw the police, most of the squatters left the building via the emergency exit and fire escape at the back of the building.
The squatters shouted that they would only leave the building once a lawsuit was started.
The squatters wanted to use the building for various purposes. For example, the squatters wanted to start a free childcare facility, set up a kitchen where free meals would be prepared for people who were short of money and a living space for themselves on the top floor.
After a deployment of more than four hours, it was decided that the police officers were not allowed to enter the building and that legal action would be taken by the owner of the building. .
13 Min Read
The Free 