Global Pulse

标签： South America

南美洲

  • The US and others turn to Brazil for rare earths, raising environmental concerns

    The US and others turn to Brazil for rare earths, raising environmental concerns

    The global race to secure rare earth elements — the critical raw materials underpinning everything from consumer smartphones to electric vehicle motors and wind turbines, all core to the global transition away from fossil fuels — has positioned Brazil as a major alternative to China’s decades-long dominance in the sector, according to a joint investigation by The Associated Press and Reporter Brasil. With the second-largest proven rare earth reserves globally, only trailing China, Brazil’s emergence as a new supply hub is reshaping global resource markets, drawing a flood of foreign investment, and sparking urgent debates over environmental protection, Indigenous rights, and diplomatic positioning between Washington, Brasília, and Beijing.

    Rare earth elements are 17 chemically similar metals that are irreplaceable for permanent magnets, batteries, defense technologies, and consumer electronics. The International Energy Agency projected in 2022 that global demand for these critical minerals will grow at least threefold by 2040, driven by the rapid expansion of renewable energy and clean transportation. That growing demand, paired with China’s 2025 decision to restrict rare earth exports in retaliation for U.S. tariffs, has sent Western governments and corporations scrambling to diversify their supply chains, opening a massive new opportunity for Brazil.

    Data from Brazil’s National Mining Agency, analyzed through June 2026, shows a staggering surge in rare earth exploration permit applications: more than 86% of all 2,727 active requests have been filed in just the past three years, including 268 applications in the first half of 2026 alone. Foreign capital accounts for a huge share of this boom: 42% of all applications come from foreign-owned mining subsidiaries or firms with significant foreign investment stakes, and 11 of the 20 companies with the highest number of applications are backed by investors from Australia, the United States, and Canada.

    Australian firms lead the pack with 695 applications, with U.S. companies close behind at 347, followed by Canadian investors. One of the most high-profile moves came earlier this year, when USA Rare Earth — a firm with a partial U.S. government stake and up to $1.6 billion in federal support — closed a $2.8 billion acquisition of Serra Verde Mining, Brazil’s only currently operating commercial rare earth producer. Based in Goias state, Serra Verde is the only rare earth producer outside of Asia with the capacity to supply all four critical magnetic rare earth elements (neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium) that power everything from automotive manufacturing to aerospace and defense technology. “The Western rare earth sector stands at a critical inflection point, as governments and strategic industries urgently seek reliable sources of critical rare earths — particularly scarce heavy rare earths,” Serra Verde Group CEO Thras Moraitis said of the acquisition.

    For Brazil, the rare earth boom carries significant economic potential: it could attract billions in foreign direct investment, create thousands of new jobs, and cement the country’s status as a key player in the global clean energy economy. But it also brings major risks and unresolved tensions.

    According to the Energy Transition Observatory, a geospatial analysis platform run by Reporter Brasil, at least 25% of all exploration applications target areas that overlap with or lie within 6 miles of 283 protected areas and Indigenous territories, many located on the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Rare earth mining carries well-documented environmental hazards: depending on the deposit, operations can release toxic chemicals, generate radioactive waste, cause deforestation, and contaminate local water supplies, poisoning aquatic ecosystems and drinking water for nearby communities.

    Indigenous groups and traditional local communities have already raised alarms about the incoming projects. In Goias state, a small Afro-Brazilian community of 30 families sees its territory overlapping with exploration claims held by Canadian firm Aclara Resources, which has received $5 million in development financing from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. While the company has stated it will not conduct mining directly within the community’s territory, residents still fear planned operations that could launch as early as 2028 will damage local springs and wildlife. “Mining always leaves a footprint,” said Gilvan Magalhães, president of the community’s residents association.

    Political leaders across Brazil’s ideological spectrum have pushed to speed up the permitting process for strategic rare earth projects to capitalize on global demand: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Ministry of Mines and Energy has discussed streamlining environmental licensing for critical mining projects, while Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a leading challenger to Lula in October’s presidential election, has also proposed faster approval timelines. Even as leaders back faster development, policymakers are moving to safeguard Brazil’s national interests: a pending bill in the Brazilian Senate would establish a federal critical minerals policy, require foreign firms to transfer processing technology to Brazil, and monitor foreign influence in the sector. “We will not allow anyone from outside to come here and exploit our mineral resources, because we want their processing and transformation to happen here,” Lula said recently, confirming the Senate will advance the legislation.

    Diplomatically, Brazil has sought to maintain neutrality in the geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China. While Chinese firms have not yet filed any exploration applications as of June 2026, Chinese state-owned and private companies have already signaled interest: last year, state-owned China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group acquired Brazil’s largest tin producer, Mineracao Taboca, which holds Amazonian mining claims and plans to conduct rare earth exploration, while Shenghe Resources Holding signed a memorandum of understanding with two Brazilian firms to pursue joint rare earth projects. China still holds an estimated 44 million metric tons of rare earth reserves, double Brazil’s 21 million metric tons, and retains near-total control of global rare earth processing and refining capacity.

    Robert Muggah, co-founder of Brazilian think tank the Igarape Institute, noted that Brazil’s rare earth sector carries unique geopolitical weight far beyond its reserve size. “Brazil’s rare earths are significant not just because of the sheer size of the deposits, but because they sit at the intersection of resource nationalism, energy transition demand, Western supply-chain diversification and competition with China’s rare earth dominance,” Muggah explained.

    Industry experts caution that the path from exploration permit to commercial production takes 5 to 10 years in Brazil, requiring extensive technical studies, regulatory approval, and in the case of projects near Indigenous territories, formal community consultation. The sector also carries high inherent financial risk: Julio Nery, mining affairs director at the Brazilian Mining Institute, noted that for every 1,000 potential rare earth prospects, only 100 justify full exploration, and just two will become viable commercial operations. Still, the flood of investment into Brazil’s rare earth sector signals a lasting shift in the global rare earth supply chain that will reshape geopolitics, clean energy development, and environmental policy in Latin America for decades to come.

  • One lesbian couple’s winding path to marriage leads to a historic first in Bolivia

    One lesbian couple’s winding path to marriage leads to a historic first in Bolivia

    In a sunlit Santa Cruz home shared with three dogs and four cats, newlyweds Fabiana Justiniano and Scarlett Rocha still get emotional talking about their August 7 wedding. Like many couples celebrating their big day, they rushed from the civil registry to finalize hair and makeup, then danced side-by-side in their white gowns long into the night, surrounded by more than 100 loved ones. “We never dreamed our day would be this beautiful,” 29-year-old Justiniano said, looking back on the milestone that is both deeply personal and unprecedented for the South American nation. Their union marks Bolivia’s first legally recognized same-sex civil marriage, the end of a grueling four-year legal fight in a deeply religious and socially conservative country where the national constitution still formally defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. While the court ruling that cleared the way for their marriage applies specifically to Justiniano and Rocha, LGBTQ+ advocates and legal experts say the victory could set a transformative precedent for same-sex couples across the country. When Rocha, also 29, first laid eyes on their official marriage certificate, she said a lifetime of uncertainty and exclusion melted away. “All this weight just lifted off my chest,” she explained. “I finally felt this peace, like I could let my guard down and really embrace what it means to be married.” Across majority Roman Catholic South America, Bolivia is far from the only nation that has long restricted marriage to heterosexual couples. But the continent’s most populous countries – including Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia – have recognized same-sex marriage for years. By contrast, most nations in Central America and the Caribbean remain far more conservative on LGBTQ+ rights, offering few to no formal legal protections for same-sex partnerships. For decades, targeted legal challenges brought by same-sex couples, like the one Justiniano and Rocha pursued, have driven forward marriage equality around the world, from the United States to Nepal. “What these women achieved gives hope to every other same-sex couple in Bolivia fighting to have their love recognized,” said Mateo Rodrigo, a lawyer with Igual Bolivia, the LGBTQ+ legal advocacy organization that represented the couple. “We know change is coming, it is inevitable.” The couple’s path to the altar began nearly four years ago, when civil registry authorities rejected their initial application for a marriage license, forcing them to turn to the courts to claim their right. Justiniano, a psychologist, and Rocha, a Bolivian-American neuroscientist born in Hollywood, Florida and raised between the U.S. and Bolivia, met through mutual friends in Santa Cruz in early 2020, fell in love quickly, and began discussing marriage within months. Though no same-sex couple had ever legally married in Bolivia, building a life together through formal marriage had always been a core part of their shared life plan. Before their case, some same-sex couples in Bolivia had formalized their relationships through “uniones libres,” or free unions, a legal designation for cohabiting partners that theoretically carries the same financial and legal rights as marriage. But in practice, lawyers report that same-sex couples attempting to exercise these rights almost universally face systemic discrimination and endless bureaucratic barriers. Unlike free unions, marriage offers the formal social recognition and long-term legal security that heterosexual couples take for granted, a benefit the couple wanted deeply. For Rocha specifically, formal marriage also provided certainty that their relationship would be recognized by U.S. authorities should the couple choose to relocate there. When their initial marriage license application was predictably rejected, their legal team found a critical opening in Bolivia’s own constitution: the document explicitly states that international human rights treaties take precedence over conflicting national law. The legal team cited a landmark advisory opinion from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which requires member states to extend all legal protections granted to heterosexual couples to same-sex partnerships, including full marriage rights. “We always knew this would be a hard fight, but we never imagined it would take this long,” Justiniano said, recalling years of traveling back and forth between government offices and courthouses, sorting through confusing conflicting requirements, chasing down obscure paperwork, and waiting months at a time for the process to move forward. “There were so many obstacles, so much open discrimination every step of the way,” she added. It took more than three years, two separate lawsuits, before a constitutional tribunal in La Paz, Bolivia’s administrative capital, issued a ruling siding with the couple in March 2023. The court found that the civil registry had unlawfully discriminated against Justiniano and Rocha based on their sexual orientation. Rocha left the six-hour hearing stunned, and called Justiniano immediately with the news. “Her voice was shaking when she said, ‘If I got that right, I think we won,’” Justiniano recalled. “My first question was, ‘So can we get married tomorrow?’” The tribunal ordered civil authorities to issue the couple their marriage licenses within 10 business days, but bureaucratic delays pushed the actual wedding back another five months. Now that their marriage is legally recognized across Bolivia, rights officials say the outcome is already encouraging other same-sex couples to pursue their own marriage licenses. Paola Tapia, a senior official at Bolivia’s independent Ombudsman’s Office, which is tasked with protecting human rights across the country, called the ruling a critical turning point. “This is an incredibly important precedent,” Tapia explained. “Just as these two women from Santa Cruz won the right to formalize their marriage, there will surely be many other couples that come forward seeking the same recognition.” Already, Igual Bolivia reports that multiple other same-sex couples have reached out to the organization to inquire about pursuing their own marriage licenses. Because the lawsuit centered on a proven violation of constitutional rights, the case will now move to Bolivia’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, for final review. Justiniano and Rocha’s marriage will remain legally valid regardless of the high court’s final ruling, but if the Constitutional Court votes to uphold the lower tribunal’s decision, it will create a formal nationwide legal precedent that will clear the way for other couples to marry, bringing Bolivia’s marriage equality laws in line with its more progressive South American neighbors, Tapia explained. One week after their wedding, standing in the kitchen of their Santa Cruz home while pasta simmers on the stove, the couple reflected on what their historic win means for the country of 12 million people they call home. “This fight started with us, but at the end of the day it is about equal rights,” Rocha said. “It is about all people being able to protect the love they share.” (Reporting from Buenos Aires, Argentina by DeBre)

  • US to send hospital ship to Peru as El Nino threat looms

    US to send hospital ship to Peru as El Nino threat looms

    In a bilateral announcement made Wednesday following high-level talks in Miami, United States Ambassador to Peru Bernie Navarro confirmed that the U.S. will deploy the hospital ship USNS Comfort to Peru’s northern Pacific coast in February 2027 to assist the South American nation in managing the widespread public health and infrastructure impacts of the ongoing El Niño climate phenomenon. The deployment forms part of a broader new cooperation roadmap between the two countries, finalized during meetings between Navarro and Peruvian Foreign Minister Carlos Espá. The agreement comes as the U.S. ramps up both humanitarian assistance and joint security engagement across Latin America, in the wake of recent devastating earthquakes in Colombia and Venezuela that have tested regional response capacity.

    During the Miami discussions, the two sides outlined a multi-pronged support package beyond the hospital ship deployment, including specialized technical expertise, new equipment donations, and joint surveillance overflights designed to help Peruvian authorities prevent, prepare for, and respond to extreme weather events tied to El Niño. The exact monetary value of the U.S. aid commitment was not released to the public following the talks. Espá also used the visit to meet with U.S. business leaders who have expressed interest in new investment opportunities in Peru’s mining and infrastructure sectors, opening a new economic channel of bilateral engagement alongside climate and security cooperation.

    Speaking in Spanish, Ambassador Navarro explained that the core goal of the bilateral meeting was to map out Peru’s specific needs ahead of the projected 2027 El Niño peak, and build a framework for faster, more coordinated emergency response. He noted that recent humanitarian response efforts following the Colombia earthquake highlighted gaps in cross-border coordination that this new partnership aims to address. The USNS Comfort is no stranger to Peru, having previously deployed to the country for humanitarian medical missions in both 2018 and 2019.

    Meteorologists have warned that the 2027 El Niño event could match or exceed the intensity of the record-breaking 1997 El Niño, one of the most destructive climate events in modern history. The 1997 event triggered widespread catastrophic damage across the Pacific basin, including deadly heatwaves, extreme rainfall, catastrophic flooding, and large-scale wildfires that displaced hundreds of thousands and caused billions of dollars in damage. For Peru, which sits on the eastern Pacific where El Niño forms, the phenomenon brings particularly severe public health and infrastructure risks, from contaminated floodwaters to disrupted access to care for vulnerable coastal communities.

    Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, who took office on July 28, has identified preparation for the potentially catastrophic El Niño event as one of her administration’s top policy priorities, framing proactive investment in disaster response as critical to protecting lives and livelihoods across the country.

  • A triple crisis: Earthquake takes a heavy toll on Colombia’s impoverished and neglected region

    A triple crisis: Earthquake takes a heavy toll on Colombia’s impoverished and neglected region

    One week after a catastrophic 7.4-magnitude earthquake centered in Colombia’s western, historically marginalized department of Choco left a trail of death and displacement, survivors and aid organizations are grappling with the immense challenge of recovering from a disaster that amplified the region’s long-standing inequities.

    For 66-year-old Quibdo-based math teacher Ismael Arias, a routine early trip to the local market last August 10 was the only thing that spared him from the same fate as the two-story home he spent years building and decades paying off. The structure, constructed with his modest teacher’s wages, crumbled entirely when the tremors struck.

    “Even if I am helped, I don’t think I will get enough,” Arias shared from temporary shelter at a relative’s home, where he and his partner have stayed since the quake. “It’s not the same. You don’t have the freedom there that you get in your own house.”

    Updated official death toll released by Colombia’s central government this week confirms the disaster has killed at least 312 people and destroyed 29,000 residential structures. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates 69,000 Choco residents — roughly 10 percent of the region’s total population of 600,000 — have been displaced or otherwise affected by the quake. Most of the region’s population identifies as Afro-Colombian or Indigenous, and Choco has remained one of Colombia’s most underfunded and overlooked regions for generations.

    Luis Mora, representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Colombia, summarized the overlapping emergency facing the region: “We are facing a triple crisis. You have the humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake, now joining the under development crisis and the crisis caused by armed conflict in this territory.”

    Long before the earthquake struck, Choco struggled with systemic challenges that have made recovery far harder than it would be in better-resourced parts of the country. Covered mostly by steep mountains and dense Amazon-adjacent rainforest, Choco is connected to the rest of Colombia by just two unstable, poorly maintained roads. More than 650 kilometers of Pacific coastline lacks any overland road connections to the region’s interior, leaving most remote communities accessible only by air or river travel — routes that become treacherous during bad weather. For decades, armed rebel groups have also battled for control of illegal mining operations and drug trafficking corridors across large parts of Choco, forcing civilian displacement and imposing arbitrary lockdowns that cut off local families from their farmland and livelihoods for days at a time.

    Critical public services were already on the brink of collapse before the disaster. More than 200 schools across the region sustained damage in the quake, and widespread lack of reliable high-speed internet rules out the option of shifting to remote learning for displaced students. The region’s only public hospital, located in the capital Quibdo, was ill-equipped to handle the surge of earthquake-related injuries.

    Cristian Maturana, a physician at the Quibdo public hospital, explained that in the immediate aftermath of the tremors, the emergency room was overwhelmed with patients suffering broken bones and crush injuries. Thirty-six patients with severe multiple fractures had to be airlifted to a larger, better-resourced hospital in Medellin, the capital of neighboring Antioquia, because Quibdo’s hospital lacked sufficient staff and specialized equipment to treat them. A power surge after the quake also damaged the facility’s only refrigerator for storing blood donations, halting all blood transfusion procedures for days until a replacement was donated over the weekend by a group of Bogota-based oncologists.

    “These have been tough days,” Maturana said, noting that outside support from across Colombia and the international community “has been crucial.” Currently, the emergency room operates at twice its intended capacity, with patients receiving care on stretchers and chairs lined up in hospital hallways. While donations of antibiotics, bandages, and blood pressure monitors have filled some gaps, the facility still faces critical shortages of wheelchairs and additional beds. “These seem like basic things,” Maturana said. “But they are items we have long had shortages of.”

    Local humanitarian groups have worked to deliver aid to hard-to-reach communities, relying on donated flight time from private aircraft owners to bypass the impassable road network. Camilo Prieto, a doctor with the Colombian Environmental Movement humanitarian organization, said his group has delivered more than two tons of medical supplies, including portable electrocardiogram and ultrasound machines, to affected areas, flying aid to remote towns via helicopter and small plane. “By land it would be very difficult,” Prieto explained.

    UNFPA, for its part, has prioritized supporting women and girls in emergency shelters, distributing personal hygiene kits and establishing dedicated safe spaces for female survivors in temporary accommodation sites. High-profile support has also emerged: global pop star Shakira, who is Colombian, recently made a surprise visit to earthquake-impacted areas and pledged to fund the rebuilding of damaged Choco schools. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has also visited the region twice since the disaster, announcing a sweeping recovery plan that includes billions of dollars in new infrastructure investment, targeted job creation programs, rental subsidies for homeless families, and a dedicated government oversight position to lead recovery efforts.

    Colombia’s national statistics agency DANE confirms Choco already held the country’s highest unemployment rate in 2024, with a per capita GDP of just $3,500 — one quarter of the per capita income of the capital Bogota. Wiston Mosquera, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Quibdo diocese and a lifelong Choco resident, said he hopes the global attention brought by the earthquake will finally force action on the region’s decades of structural neglect. “We are decades behind the rest of Colombia’s regions,” Mosquera said, pointing to persistent gaps in healthcare, transportation, and power access that predate the disaster.

    But many local survivors remain skeptical of government promises, echoing the region’s long history of broken pledges for investment. For Arias, who took out bank loans totaling roughly $32,000 to build his now-destroyed home, rebuilding is all but out of reach on a teacher’s salary, even with proposed government subsidies. He is far from alone: thousands of homeless survivors across Choco face an uncertain future, as aid groups race to address an emergency that has deepened the Choco region’s decades-long struggle for equity and basic services.

  • Julián Álvarez left out of Atletico Madrid’s La Liga opener

    Julián Álvarez left out of Atletico Madrid’s La Liga opener

    MADRID — A significant storyline has emerged ahead of Atletico Madrid’s 2025-26 La Liga campaign, as star Argentine forward Julián Álvarez has been omitted from the squad for the club’s opening fixture against Malaga, scheduled for Wednesday at the Metropolitano Stadium.

    The situation is layered by a pre-season revelation: Álvarez made his desire to secure a transfer away from the Madrid-based club clear to Atletico’s front office during the offseason. In response, club leadership has repeatedly stated it has no intention to enter negotiations for the forward’s departure, insisting he remains part of their long-term plans.

    Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Atletico head coach Diego Simeone offered an explanation for Álvarez’s exclusion from the opening match squad, citing fitness as the core reason. The 26-year-old attacker has not yet hit the required physical match readiness after his offseason break, Simeone explained.

    Despite the ongoing transfer uncertainty, Simeone made clear he still views Álvarez as a critical piece for the entire upcoming season. He went as far as naming the Argentine the squad’s top talent, and confirmed he expects the forward to be fit and available for selection for Atletico’s second league match of the season, an away trip to face Villarreal this coming Sunday.

    Álvarez was not the only high-profile absence from the opening match squad. Newly signed Argentine defender Cristian “Cuti” Romero was also left out, alongside starting striker Alexander Sorloth, who is currently sidelined with an injury that rules him out of contention.

    The omission comes amid ongoing speculation around Álvarez’s future, with multiple top European clubs linked with a potential move for the in-demand forward. Simeone’s comments have served to clarify the club’s current stance, quashing rumors of an intentional disciplinary exclusion and reaffirming Álvarez’s place in the team’s plans for the season, at least for the immediate future.

  • Head-on collision between bus and lorry in Brazil kills more than 20

    Head-on collision between bus and lorry in Brazil kills more than 20

    A devastating early-morning collision between a minibus and a heavy goods lorry has left at least 21 people dead and four others hospitalized with injuries in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, local government officials confirmed this week.

    The fatal crash unfolded at approximately 4:30 a.m. local time (7:30 a.m. GMT) along the BR-373 highway at the 209-kilometer marker, according to Brazil’s Federal Highway Police, which released a handout image of the emergency response at the scene.

    Investigations into the exact cause of the collision are already underway, authorities confirmed. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the entire highway stretch was closed to through traffic to allow forensic investigation teams and law enforcement officers to fully process and document the crash site.

    Preliminary reporting from local media outlets outlines that the minibus involved was owned and operated by public health authorities from the nearby city of Imbituva. At the time of the crash, the vehicle was en route to the larger city of Ponta Grossa, roughly 60 kilometers away, carrying patients and their family members who were scheduled to attend routine medical appointments.

    Fatal road accidents are a persistent and pressing public safety crisis across Brazil. Data from a 2024 World Bank analysis shows that more than 34,000 people lost their lives in road traffic collisions across the country in 2023 alone, with motorcyclists accounting for the largest share of fatalities. Public safety researchers have repeatedly linked the high national fatality rate to three common reckless driving practices: excessive speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, and distracted driving caused by mobile phone use behind the wheel.

    This latest crash marks another major deadly road incident in Brazil this year. Back in February, 15 pilgrims died when their bus crashed en route to a religious festival in the northeastern state of Ceará, underscoring the ongoing scale of the country’s road safety challenge.

  • Archaeologists unveil skeletal remains believed to be ritual offering in Lima

    Archaeologists unveil skeletal remains believed to be ritual offering in Lima

    LIMA, Peru – Archaeological teams in Peru announced a significant new discovery this Tuesday, unveiling the well-preserved skeletal remains of an adult individual unearthed at the foot of Huaca Pucllana, a massive centuries-old adobe pyramid located in the heart of Peru’s capital city Lima. Leading researchers believe the set of bones belongs to an adult male who was likely sacrificed as a ritual offering during a ceremony that marked the permanent closure of a water canal connected to a sacred ceremonial pool.

    Gladys Paz, the lead archaeologist heading the excavation project at the site, explained that the unusual positioning of the remains offers critical new clues about the ceremonial practices of the ancient Lima culture. The body was interred directly within the canal, laid on its left side with its skull oriented both toward the Huaca Pucllana pyramid and the distant Pacific Ocean – a deliberate placement that experts say carries deep ritual meaning.

    Paz emphasized that this new find will fill major gaps in scholarly understanding of Lima culture ceremonial traditions, allowing researchers to reconstruct details of religious rituals practiced more than a millennium and a half ago on Peru’s central coast.

    The Lima culture, which rose to prominence along Peru’s dry central coastline between the 1st and 7th centuries CE, flourished roughly 700 years before the Inca Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Andean region. Huaca Pucllana stood as one of the Lima culture’s most vital centers for both religious ceremony and administrative governance, and the culture itself had vanished from the region centuries before Spanish conquistadors established the modern city of Lima in 1535.

    In a striking contrast between ancient history and modern urban life, the pre-Columbian pyramid today sits nestled between tree-lined public parks, busy residential streets, and luxury apartment complexes in Lima’s upscale Miraflores and San Isidro neighborhoods. The archaeological site is open as a popular tourist attraction, and even hosts an on-site restaurant that serves iconic Peruvian dishes ranging from ceviche to lomo saltado and roasted alpaca.

    According to statistics from Peru’s national government, the greater Lima metropolitan area is home to more than 400 distinct registered archaeological sites, scattered throughout the expanding urban landscape. Pieter Van Dalen, a professor of archaeology at Peru’s National University of San Marcos who was not part of the current excavation team, noted that discoveries of ancient tombs, mummified remains, and burial artifacts are relatively common along Peru’s Pacific coast. Many such finds are even made accidentally during modern construction projects, including excavations for new utility infrastructure like natural gas pipelines.

    This discovery marks the latest in a series of archaeological insights into pre-Inca Andean cultures, continuing to reshape academic understandings of the complex civilizations that thrived in the region long before the arrival of European colonizers.

  • Brazil’s President Lula hails oil discovery near Amazon river

    Brazil’s President Lula hails oil discovery near Amazon river

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has publicly celebrated a major crude oil discovery in offshore waters near the mouth of the Amazon River, marking a pivotal milestone for the country’s state-led energy exploration efforts, while drawing sharp criticism from conservation groups concerned about ecological harm.

    In a public appearance shared via social media, Lula held up a glass vial containing a sample of the newly discovered crude to mark the announcement from state oil giant Petrobras. The president framed the find as a transformative asset for Brazil, calling it “a passport to the country’s future.”

    The exploratory drilling that uncovered the oil was carried out 175 kilometers off Brazil’s Amazon coast, at a depth of more than 2,800 meters below sea level. As of the announcement, neither the total size of the oil reserve nor the commercial viability of large-scale extraction has been confirmed. Even so, the discovery has already validated Petrobras’ long-held bet on the untapped Brazilian Equatorial Margin region, according to company CEO Magda Chambriard. She emphasized that the find supports the firm’s core mission of strengthening Brazil’s national energy security.

    The project has been mired in controversy since Lula approved exploratory drilling permits last year, just weeks before Brazil hosted the COP30 UN climate summit in November. Environmental campaigners have repeatedly warned that the region is one of the most biodiverse marine ecosystems on the planet, holding sensitive coral reef systems and adjacent coastal wetlands that support thousands of wildlife species. Any oil spill from extraction operations, they argue, could be carried by ocean currents across vast stretches of the Amazon coast, causing irreversible ecological devastation.

    Lula has pushed back firmly against both domestic and international criticism, framing the project as a matter of Brazilian national sovereignty. Rejecting what he calls foreign interference in the country’s energy decisions, the president noted that opposition to the drilling has been particularly strong in Europe. “Any country which has oil of this quality won’t allow anyone to butt in,” he said, adding that he chose to announce the project ahead of COP30 because Brazil’s national interests demanded transparency.

    The president, who is seeking a new four-year term in Brazil’s October presidential election, has sought to balance competing priorities around the discovery. He has repeatedly reaffirmed his long-term commitment to phasing out fossil fuels to combat global climate change, noting that Brazil remains a global leader in biofuel innovation and renewable energy development. Lula argues that revenue from current oil production is critical to funding Brazil’s just transition to a low-carbon economy, allowing the country to scale up renewable energy infrastructure while supporting vulnerable communities.

    Local communities in the nearby Amazon border town of Oiapoque, Amapá state, have already reacted to the discovery with cautious optimism. Local housing authorities report a significant influx of new residents to the area, drawn by hopes of new jobs and economic opportunities in the remote northern region.

    With less than two months remaining before Brazilians head to the polls, the oil discovery presents a delicate political balancing act for Lula: he aims to court voters hungry for regional economic development, while avoiding alienating the large base of environmentally conscious supporters who helped elect him in 2022.

  • Shakira makes surprise visit to earthquake-damaged Colombian schools and says she will help rebuild

    Shakira makes surprise visit to earthquake-damaged Colombian schools and says she will help rebuild

    In the wake of a catastrophic 7.4-magnitude earthquake that ripped through western Colombia on August 10, leaving hundreds dead and thousands of educational facilities damaged, global Colombian music icon Shakira has launched a major initiative to restore learning access for children in the hardest-hit, remote region of Chocó. The Grammy-winning superstar made the commitment public during an unannounced visit to Quibdó, Chocó’s capital, on Monday, where she walked through crumpled school grounds, embraced displaced students and posed for photos with communities grappling with the disaster’s aftermath.
    The earthquake, whose epicenter fell within Chocó’s borders, has officially claimed at least 287 lives, destroyed more than 26,000 residential structures and left 194 people unaccounted for, per Colombian government data. Independent civilian-led registries, however, place the missing count at over 4,100. Regional government updates from Monday confirm that at least 3,100 homes in Chocó were leveled, and more than 265 educational sites across the province suffered severe damage. One of Colombia’s poorest regions with a population of roughly 600,000 — most of whom are members of Indigenous tribes and Afro-Colombian communities — Chocó presents unique logistical challenges for relief efforts: roughly the size of Switzerland, it has very few paved connections to the rest of the country, with most remote communities accessible only via river or unpaved roads, slowing damage assessments and aid delivery.
    For Shakira, the disaster hits close to home. Her Barefoot Foundation (Fundación Pies Descalzos), which has worked to expand educational access for vulnerable Colombian youth for nearly three decades, has operated two successful schools in Chocó for 22 years, graduating hundreds of local students. “It’s a place I love, a place where I’ve seen our students grow in our classrooms,” Shakira shared in a video posted to X by Colombian news outlet La FM. “What worries me the most is that schools are not rebuilt once this emergency is over. Every day that children don’t go to school is a day they miss out on their future,” she told reporters during her visit.
    The superstar emphasized that her pledge is a long-term commitment, not a short-term emergency response, pushing back against a history of neglect that has long marginalized Chocó. “There is not a way to alleviate the pain of so many, there are no magic solutions,” she said during a stop at a large Quibdó high school. “But what there is, is commitment to be here alongside those from Chocó, to not abandon El Chocó like it historically has been abandoned, until every Colombian and every person from Chocó can return to their normal lives like they deserve and all the children can return to their schools and dream of the futures they deserve.” In addition to rebuilding 10 primary and secondary schools, Shakira added that she will devote all her personal efforts to restoring Chocó’s local technological university.
    Collaborating on the project is Howard G. Buffett, son of billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffett and a long-time development donor to Colombia who has previously partnered with Shakira on school construction projects in the country. “When she calls, I come,” Buffett said of his involvement. His namesake foundation will partner with the Barefoot Foundation to execute the reconstruction. Two additional major organizations have also committed funding: Global Citizen and Live Nation each pledged $500,000 to the cause.
    Shakira’s commitment is the latest in a wave of support from prominent Latin American and Colombian public figures for earthquake recovery efforts in both Colombia and neighboring Venezuela, which was hit by twin quakes in June. Just last week, the Colombian Football Federation and South American Football Confederation jointly pledged $1 million to Colombian First Lady Ana Lucía Pineda’s “Colombia, one heart” recovery fund. On Sunday, star artists Marc Anthony and Chayanne headlined a star-studded benefit concert and live fundraiser in Miami for both countries’ relief efforts. Colombian reguetonera Karol G has pledged to match all fan donations to her Con Cora Foundation during her recent three-night run at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, and will join fellow Colombian star Maluma, Sebastián Yatra and other artists for a Bogotá benefit concert this coming Sunday. Shakira herself already demonstrated rapid response to the Venezuela quakes, announcing the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund would commit $500,000 to education recovery there just months ago.
    A globally recognized performer who most recently headlined the 2026 FIFA World Cup final halftime show and drew a crowd of 2 million fans to a May concert on Brazil’s Copacabana Beach, Shakira has leveraged her fame for decades to advance education equity across her home country. Monday’s pledge reaffirms her long-standing focus on ensuring no child loses access to learning in the wake of crisis.

  • Lula calls oil near the Amazon River a passport to Brazil’s future after Petrobras strikes new find

    Lula calls oil near the Amazon River a passport to Brazil’s future after Petrobras strikes new find

    RIO DE JANEIRO — Standing on the soil of Amapa state, northern Brazil, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made a bold case for expanded offshore oil exploration along the country’s fragile Equatorial Margin on Monday, framing a recently confirmed hydrocarbon find near the mouth of the Amazon River as a transformative opportunity for the nation’s development, just weeks before he stands for re-election in a tightly contested presidential race.

    The discovery, announced by majority state-owned energy giant Petrobras last Friday, came after months of exploratory drilling that wrapped up earlier this year. The find is located roughly 180 kilometers off Amapa’s coastline, within the Equatorial Margin — a vast, under-explored offshore basin that geologists estimate could hold as much as 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil and natural gas, with a projected market value of roughly $720 billion.

    Lula’s remarks came shortly after he toured Petrobras’ offshore drilling rig that carried out the exploration work. In his address to local officials and supporters in Oiapoque, Amapa’s northernmost municipality, Lula pushed back against critics who frame the project as a contradiction to Brazil’s global commitments to fossil fuel phase-out. The president emphasized that his support for new drilling does not weaken Brazil’s position as a global leader in renewable energy innovation.

    “When I call this a passport to the country’s future, I am not backing away from my commitment to a day when we no longer depend on fossil fuels,” Lula said. “Brazil will remain the global leader in biofuel innovation and a major player in the renewable energy sector for decades to come.”

    Under Lula’s current administration, Brazil has positioned itself as a key negotiator for global climate action, most prominently during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) that the country hosted in 2024. The government has repeatedly backed international agreements to phase out coal, oil and gas production to limit global temperature rise. At the same time, Lula’s administration has moved aggressively to open new offshore areas for drilling, approving hundreds of millions in new exploration investments to boost government revenue and domestic energy production.

    Petrobras CEO Magda Chambriard accompanied Lula during Monday’s event, confirming that the recent hydrocarbon discovery validates years of geological research into the Equatorial Margin’s potential. “All of our preliminary studies pointed to substantial reserve potential in this basin, and this discovery confirms those findings,” Chambriard said. “We will continue exploration work to fully map the extent of the resources here.” She added that the company still needs years of additional testing to confirm the total volume of commercially viable oil in the area.

    Energy analysts note that full commercial production remains far off. Shigueo Watanabe Jr., an energy expert with Brazilian climate nonprofit ClimaInfo, explained that extensive feasibility and environmental testing would be required before extraction can begin, a process that could take as long as 10 years to complete.

    The exploration project has faced fierce pushback from environmental advocacy groups and Indigenous communities, who argue that drilling in the sensitive Amazon mouth region poses unacceptable ecological and climate risks. Groups have already filed lawsuits against the Brazilian federal government and Petrobras, arguing the licensing process failed to meet legal requirements to consult with traditional Indigenous communities that depend on the region’s marine ecosystems. They also warn that the government’s environmental impact assessment underestimated the risk of catastrophic oil spills, and failed to properly account for the climate harm of developing new fossil fuel reserves. Petrobras has repeatedly defended its safety record, noting the company has never experienced a major spill in its decades of offshore drilling operations in Brazil.

    Political analysts say Lula’s high-profile announcement of the discovery is closely tied to his 2026 re-election campaign, which officially kicked off on Sunday in Sao Paulo — the city where Lula first rose to political prominence as a metalworkers’ union leader during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship. The leftist incumbent is locked in a tight race against Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, with national opinion polls showing the race is essentially tied heading into the October election.

    During Monday’s event, Lula — wearing a standard orange oil worker uniform — held up a small glass vial of crude oil from the new find, calling the sample “blessed” and saying he would keep it as a memento. He noted that developing the Equatorial Margin reserves would also bring long-overdue economic development to Amapa, a poor northern state that currently relies heavily on exports of agricultural commodities like acai berries and freshwater tucunare fish. Behind him, a large photo showed Lula holding up his oil-stained hands after his tour of the drilling rig — a deliberate echo of a iconic photo from 2008, when Lula announced the discovery of massive pre-salt oil reserves off Brazil’s southeastern coast, during his second term in office when he enjoyed record-high approval ratings.

    Today, Lula is a deeply polarizing figure in Brazilian politics, with polls showing roughly half of Brazilians approve of his presidency, while an equal share disapprove. He has faced particularly low approval in northern Brazil, including Amazonian states like Amapa, where his environmental policies have drawn criticism from both development advocates and conservation groups.
    Breno Rodrigues de Messias Leite, a political science professor at the Federal University of Amazonas, said Lula’s high-profile trip to Amapa is a calculated move to win over northern voters ahead of the election. “For the Amazon region, the possibility of accessing some of the world’s largest untapped oil reserves completely changes the political equation,” Leite explained. “Lula wants to win re-election, and he needs voters in northern states, especially Amapa, to support him.”