The sun sets in Brasilia, Brazil, amid smoke from forest fires in the northern and central western states, on September 9, 2024. (Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Wildfires in the Amazon are choking swaths of Brazil, Bolivia and Ecuador with smoke, leading to evacuations, school closures, canceled flights and a dire threat to plant and animal life in the region in what officials say is thought to be the worst fires in 20 years.
An estimated 20% of the Brasilia National Forest burned just last week and officials have launched a probe into suspected arson as residents of the nearby Brazilian capital city of Brasilia reported coughs, stinging eyes and scratchy throats, according to park officials.
In Bolivia’s capital city of La Paz, many schools held virtual classes and flights to and from the region were delayed and canceled. Elsewhere, in the provinces of Beni, Santa Cruz and Pando, many farmers and indigenous Bolivians have evacuated their land as fires continued. More than 3 million hectares of land have already burned in Bolivia this year.
In Ecuador, the government deployed an anti-fire helicopter and specialized brigades to contain a wildfire that has lasted almost two weeks.
The wildfire season in the Amazon region used to last three months from August to October. Now, it stretches on for six months, said Efrain Tinta Guachalla, a socio-territorial investigator at Fundación Tierra, a Bolivian NGO dedicated to sustainable rural development.
Guachalla attributes the fires to a growing amount of farmland, often for soy and cattle, and the deforestation that occurs because of this expansion. Deforestation causes the land to dry out due to a rise in temperatures and decreasing rainfall, causing a greater risk of fires in the surrounding forests.
“The fires are out of control,” he said. “The land is full of scars from the burning.”
While occasional wildfires in Europe and the American West are normal considering the climate, he continued, the humid Amazon is never meant to burn. He says that rainforest flora and fauna are being wiped out at unprecedented rates.
“The fires in California or the fires in Europe, those aren’t the same as the fires in South America. There’s an enormous difference — the loss of biodiversity,” said Guillermo Villalobos, a political scientist focusing on climate science at Bolivian nonprofit Fundación Solon. “Forests like the Amazon are historically tropical forests, meaning they’ve never burned, they’ve never coexisted with the fire. This is terribly tragic for the ecosystem and the world. The Amazon is in its worst state of the last 50 years.”
Over ten thousand species are at high risk of extinction, researchers say, in large part due to deforestation, according to a report by the Science Panel of the Amazon.
As climate change and global demand for agricultural products increase, Villalobos thinks the fires are only going to get worse as more land is cleared for farming, raising the risk of wildfires.
“We’re in an interminable loop,” he said. “A point of no return.”
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued intense air and ground campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The uptick in offensive operations came after Israel marked the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault, and as Israeli leaders planned their response to Iran’s latest ballistic missile attack.
Israel to probe deadly drone attack on troops, Gallant says
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited the scene of a deadly Hezbollah drone strike in northern Israel on Monday, telling soldiers there the incident “was a difficult event with painful results.”
Four troops were killed and 55 wounded in Sunday’s attack on the Golani Training Base close to the town of Binyamina, some 20 miles south of Haifa.
“We must investigate it, study the details and implement lessons in a swift and professional manner,” Gallant said, according to a Defense Ministry readout.
“We are concentrating significant efforts in developing solutions to address the threat of UAV attacks,” he added
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
IDF claims 200 strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said Monday its warplanes targeted around 200 “Hezbollah terror targets” in its continuing operation against the Iranian-backed group in southern Lebanon.
The targets included “launchers, anti-tank missile launch posts, terrorist infrastructure and weapons storage facilities containing launchers, anti-tank missiles, RPG launchers and munitions,” the IDF wrote on X.
Ground forces, meanwhile, “eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters encounters and aerial strikes” in their ongoing cross-border incursion, the force reported.
The IDF is still describing its ground operation as consisting of “limited, localized, targeted raids” in southern areas close to the border.
Airstrikes, though, continue across southern Lebanon. Around a quarter of all Lebanese territory is under IDF evacuation orders and some 1.2 million civilians are displaced, according to the government in Beirut.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah drone attack on IDF base ‘painful,’ commander says
The Israel Defense Forces identified the four soldiers killed in a Hezbollah drone attack on a training base in the north of the country on Sunday.
Sgt. Omri Tamari, Sgt. Yosef Hieb, Sgt. Yoav Agmon and Sgt. Amitay Alon were killed, an IDF press release said. The strike occurred at the Golani Training Base close to the town of Binyamina, some 20 miles south of Haifa.
Around 55 more are reported to have been injured.
IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi addressed Golani Brigade troops on Sunday night following the attack.
“We are at war, and an attack on a training base in the rear is difficult and the results are painful,” the commander said according to a post on the IDF’s official Telegram channel.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Israel strike on Gaza hospital kills 4, wounds dozens
At least four people were killed and 40 others wounded Monday in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced Palestinians inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza’s city of Deir al-Balah, health officials said.
The Israeli military said it targeted militants operating from a command center inside the compound. Israel accuses Hamas of routine use of civilian facilities such as hospitals for military purposes — a charge Hamas denies.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Defense Secretary Austin discusses safety of UNIFIL forces with Israel’s Gallant
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant by phone on Sunday to express his condolences for the IDF soldiers killed in a Hezbollah drone attack and discuss the IDF’s military operations in Lebanon.
According to a readout of the call from the Pentagon, Austin, “reinforced the importance of Israel taking all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of UNIFIL forces and Lebanese Armed Forces, and the need to pivot from military operations in Lebanon to a diplomatic pathway to provide security for civilians on both sides of the border as soon as feasible.”
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) is a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon established by the U.N. Security Council.
The conversation comes after the IDF has repeatedly fired on the UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon.
Additionally, Secretary Austin “reaffirmed the deep U.S. commitment to Israel’s security,” which he says is demonstrated by the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).
According to the Department of Defense, THAAD employs interceptor missiles, using “hit-to-kill” technology, to destroy threat missiles.
During the call, Austin “again raised concern for the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza and stressed that steps must be taken soon to address it,” the Pentagon said.
At least 3 killed in IDF strike on Gaza hospital
At least three people were killed and dozens more were injured after Israel Defense Forces struck Al Aqsa Hospital in Gaza on Sunday.
(LONDON) — Georgia’s Saturday parliamentary elections have been cast by all parties as an era-defining moment for the country’s 3.8 million people.
For one of the country’s best known men, the results of the election could mean the difference between incarceration and freedom.
Former President Mikheil Saakashvili, 56, has been jailed since 2021 on charges of abuse of power and organizing an assault on an opposition lawmaker — charges he contends are politically motivated.
“My imprisonment is purely political and everyone knows that,” Saakashvili told ABC News in an interview conducted from his prison cell via intermediaries. “Once the politics changes, it will be finished.”
Saturday’s election will pit the Moscow-leaning Georgian Dream government against several pro-Western opposition parties, among them the United National Movement party founded by Saakashvili in 2001.
Among the UNM’s priorities, if it wins power as part of a pro-Western coalition, will be to free Saakashvili.
The campaign has been fraught with allegations of meddling and political violence on behalf of GD. The opposition is hoping to mobilize a historic turnout to defeat what they say are GD efforts to undermine the contest.
“The only recipe for tackling election meddling is erecting the wall of mass turnout at the ballot box,” Saakashvili said.
People power has proved a serious problem for GD in recent years. Mass protests defeated the government’s first effort to introduce a foreign agents registration law — which critics say was modeled on Russian legislation used to criminalize Western-leaning politicians, activists and academics — in 2023.
The government pushed the legislation through again in 2024 despite renewed and intense demonstrations.
Opponents credit GD founder, former prime minister and Georgia’s richest man — Bidzina Ivanishvili — as the mastermind behind what they say is the government’s authoritarian and pro-Moscow pivot, though the billionaire does not hold an official position.
Saakashvili said Ivanishvili — who made his fortune in Russia after the Soviet collapse — and the GD party “will go as far as it takes” to retain power this weekend, “but the question will be once they lose the elections if the government structures follow the orders from the oligarch,” he added, referring to Ivanishvili.
Ivanishvili and his party are framing the vote as a choice between war and peace. A new Western-led government, they say, will put Tbilisi back on the path to conflict with Russia, reviving the bloodshed of the 2008 war that saw Moscow cement its occupation of 20% of Georgian territory.
“It is straight from the Russian playbook,” Saakashvili said of the GD warnings. “Blaming victims for aggression against them. As far as we are concerned, real security and peace is associated with being part of Euro-Atlantic structures, and European Union membership is within reach.” Georgia received EU candidate status in 2023.
The latest polls suggest that GD will emerge as the largest party, but will fall significantly short of a parliamentary majority. A grand alliance of pro-EU and pro-NATO opposition parties, though, could get past the 50% threshold to form a new governing coalition.
“Polls are a very treacherous thing in authoritarian systems,” Saakashvili said. “Moldova’s recent example shows that polls get compromised by mass vote buying, and surely that will be the case in Georgia.”
“On the other hand, those that say to pollsters that they are voting for the government very often don’t say the truth,” he added.
Saakashvili’s 2021 imprisonment marked the nadir of a 20-year political rollercoaster. Saakashvili went from the much-loved leader of Georgia’s pro-Western Rose Revolution in 2003 to being vanquished by President Vladimir Putin’s Russian military machine by 2008.
By 2011, Saakashvili’s government was itself accused of violently suppressing protests, with the president soon also embroiled in human rights and corruption scandals.
Constitutionally barred from serving three consecutive terms, Saakashvili left Georgia after the 2013 presidential election and in 2018 was convicted in absentia on abuse of power and other charges.
A Ukrainian citizen — his citizenship was revoked by President Petro Poroshenko in 2017 before being restored by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 — Saakashvili went on to serve as governor of the Odessa region from 2015 to 2016. Zelenskyy appointed Saakashvili as the head of the executive committee of the National Council of Reforms in 2020.
Saakashvili returned to Georgia in October 2021 as the country prepared for local elections. He was arrested and detained by police.
His domestic and international allies have repeatedly condemned his imprisonment, raising concerns of his ill treatment and subsequent ill health. U.S. and European Union officials have also urged Tbilisi to do more to ensure Saakashvili’s fair treatment.
He has been hospitalized while in prison — once due to a hunger strike — and his gaunt appearance during a 2023 video conference court hearing prompted Zelenskyy to summon the Georgian ambassador in Kyiv to complain.
Saakashvili broadly blames Putin for his current situation. But he believes Moscow is not necessarily in a position to prevent a pro-Western pivot in Tbilisi.
“In 2008, the war happened after the West had sent a clear sign of weakness by refusing the NATO accession for Georgia and Ukraine,” Saakashvili said.
“If there is no hesitation this time, Russia is so stuck in Ukraine that it has no motivation to create a new hot war elsewhere.”
“We have no other choice,” he responded, when asked about the risks of perturbing the Kremlin. “The only other alternative is going back,” he said, “living in the Russian sphere of influence.”
As to his own plans if indeed he is freed, Saakashvili described himself as “a regional rather than purely Georgian leader.”
“I will help any next non-oligarch government with transition by advice,” he added, but said he will not seek any official position of power.
“And of course, I am a Ukrainian national and it is my duty to stand by Ukraine.”
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the southern village of Habbouch on September 23, 2024. (Photo by RABIH DAHER/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The Israeli military expanded its Lebanon campaign with hundreds of airstrikes on Monday, as the long-simmering border conflict with Hezbollah threatened to explode into a larger war.
Dozens of Israeli warplanes struck more than 1,300 targets in southern Lebanon on Monday morning, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
At least 492 people were killed and more than 1,600 wounded in the ongoing strikes, among them women, children and medical personnel, the Lebanon Ministry of Public Health said. Of those killed, 35 were children and 58 were women, the ministry said.
Israel also said it launched a targeted strike in Beirut. At least six people were injured in that airstrike on a residential building in Bir al-Abd, a southern suburb of Beirut, according to Lebanese state media.
Hezbollah officials said senior commander Ali Karaki — who Israeli sources confirmed was the target of the Beirut strike — survived the attack.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel was changing “the security balance, the balance of power in the North.”
“For those who have not yet understood, I want to clarify Israel’s policy — we do not wait for a threat, we anticipate it,” Netanyahu said. “Everywhere, in every arena, at any time. We eliminate senior officials, eliminate terrorists, eliminate missiles — and our hands are bent.”
“Whoever tries to hurt us, we hurt him even more,” he added.
The attacks coincided with a warning by from IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari of more planned Israeli strikes against Hezbollah “terrorist infrastructure” in the border region and elsewhere.
Hagari said civilians in Lebanese villages used by Hezbollah for military purposes should “immediately move out of harm’s way for their own safety.”
Video and photos showed bumper-to-bumper traffic as people tried to flee southern cities.
Following the intense strikes in the south of the country on Monday morning, Hagari said the IDF would soon start hitting targets in the eastern Bekaa Valley — another Hezbollah stronghold. Hagari claimed that every house by Israeli munitions contained “rockets, missiles, UAVs that are intended to kill Israeli civilians.”
Hezbollah returned fire across the border with dozens of projectiles, the IDF said, with alarms sounding across the region. Some munitions were intercepted and some fell in open areas, the force wrote on social media.
There were about 250 launches from Lebanon into Israel on Monday, according to Israeli Emergency Officials. Hagari said there had been about 700 launches in the last week.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service reported at least one man injured by shrapnel in the Lower Galilee area and another lightly hurt while making his way to a shelter.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said in a social media post that Israel “will act with full force” to change the current situation in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Katz said, “has taken the people of Lebanon hostage, placing missiles and weapons in their homes and villages to threaten Israel’s civilians.”
“This is a clear war crime,” Katz said. “We will not accept this reality.”
“The people of Lebanon must evacuate any home turned into a Hezbollah outpost to avoid harm,” Katz continued. “We will not stop until the threat is removed from Israel’s citizens and the residents of the north return safely to their homes.”
Thousands of Lebanese cell phone users received a text message from the IDF on Monday, warning: “If you are in a building where Hezbollah weapons are located, stay away from the village until further notice.” Similar messages were issued over Lebanese radio.
The fresh Israeli warnings come after a weekend of intense cross-border fire, with rockets, missiles and drones launched into Israel by Hezbollah met by Israeli airstrikes across southern Lebanon.
Fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah has been constant since Oct. 8, when the Iranian-backed militant group began attacks into Israel in protest of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip targeting Hamas. Hezbollah has said it will continue its attacks until Israeli forces withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
Tens of thousands of Israelis fled border regions under Hezbollah fire since the fighting began. Their return is a priority for Netanyahu and his government.
“We will take whatever action is necessary to restore security and to bring our people safe back to their homes,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.
Israeli leaders are also demanding that Hezbollah withdraw beyond the Litani River — some 18 miles north of the Israeli border — as stipulated in a 2006 United Nations Security Council resolution that sought to end the last major cross-border war.
“If the world does not withdraw Hezbollah north of Litani in accordance with Resolution 1701 — Israel will do so,” Katz said on Sunday.
The conflict intensified last week with Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in Lebanon and Syria, which Nasrallah described as an “unprecedented blow” for the group.
Two consecutive days of explosions — which killed at least 37 people and wounded 2,931, according to Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad — were followed by the killing of Hezbollah operations chief Ibrahim Aqil and 14 other members in a Beirut airstrike.
The bombing in the Hezbollah-aligned Dahiya suburb killed at least 45 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The dead included at least three children — aged 4, 6 and 10 — and seven women, the ministry said. Dozens more people were wounded.
Hezbollah leaders said they would continue their operations despite last week’s setbacks.
Deputy Secretary General Naim Qasem spoke at Aqil’s funeral in Beirut on Sunday, telling hundreds of mourners that the conflict has now entered “a new phase” which he called an “open-ended battle of reckoning”.
“Threats won’t stop us, and we don’t fear the most dangerous possibilities,” he continued. “We are ready to face all military scenarios.”
Israeli communities in the north of the country are braced for further escalation. The IDF issued new security guidance on Sunday closing schools and beaches in the region, while the Rambam Hospital in Haifa transferred patients to an underground facility.
This weekend, the State Department reissued its level 4 “do not travel” warning for Lebanon, noting “recent explosions throughout Lebanon, including Beirut.”
The Department’s July warning for American citizens to “depart Lebanon while commercial options still remain available” is unchanged. “At this time, commercial flights are available, but at reduced capacity,” the advisory said.
“If the security situation worsens, commercial options to depart may become unavailable.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself and stressed the importance of achieving a diplomatic solution to return citizens to their homes in the north” in a Sunday phone call with Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant, per a Pentagon readout.
Austin also “emphasized his concern for the safety and security of U.S. citizens in the region,” the Pentagon said.
ABC News’ Dana Savir, Ghazi Balkiz, Joe Simonetti and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
