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After a previous failed vote, the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union charged Amazon with illegal misconduct and called for a do-over. A hearing officer from the National Labor Relations Board confirmed the decision.

In protest at the lack of government assistance following an oil spill in the region, indigenous people in Peru's Amazon region detained a group of tourists from both Peru and abroad. Four decades ago, Petroperu, a state-owned company, constructed the 800 km Norperuano pipeline to move  oil from the Amazon region to Piura on the coast. Petroperu claims that the spill was caused by a purposeful 21 cm pipeline cut.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has been under constant attack from the Amazon rainforest's soaring deforestation, is set to be given the cold shoulder at the G20 summit in Rome and won't attend the COP26 climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland.

An indigenous tribe was gathering eggs in Sao Paulo, Brazil when gold miners attacked them and killed ten tribe members. The attack was then reported to Funai, the Brazilian agency on indigenous affairs, after the gold miners had bragged about their kills and presented a hand carved paddle as a trophy.

It is really sad that, like in the US, the indigenous population is not protected. It seems like the state cared more about the lives of the miners than the people whose land was trampled by greedy miners.

Before the pandemic, Amazon's biggest buyers were from the US, Japan, Germany, and Britain. However, now countries, like Italy and Brazil, who had been previously reluctant to shop online rather than continue the tradition of buying from local stores, have become used to shopping online.

"The victory completes a stunning political revival for Mr. da Silva - from the presidency to prison and back - that had once seemed unthinkable. It also ends Mr. Bolsonaro's turbulent time as the region's most powerful leader. For years, he attracted global attention for policies that accelerated the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and exacerbated the pandemic, which left nearly 700,000 dead in Brazil, while also becoming a major international figure of the far right for his brash attacks on the left, the media and Brazil's democratic institutions."

This is video evidence on the toxic pollution caused by Texaco, bought by Chevron, which now refuses to take responsibility to clean it up. A family friend used to be a geologist and work examining soil quality. The company she worked at got most of their business from (I think) Chevron. Chevron (or some other company) would finish with well sites and then neglect to clean them up/ make them safe. When environmental agencies requested that Chevron examine and clean up their left over sites, Chevron made our friend's company file a report saying that they were "monitoring" the site to see what happens. Basically, instead of working to help the environment, they were helping a big petroleum company squirm out of taking responsibility. She eventually quit her job because 1) it wasn't what she had hoped it would be, and 2) there was nothing to do all day, since one of their only jobs was to report that sites were being "monitored" and meanwhile do nothing. NOTE: take this story with a grain of salt, because I don't remember the conversation perfectly, nor do I know the details of her job, the company, the situation, etc... this is just my general recollection.

Yeah I sort of feel ignorant right now because i honestly had no idea that that was going on. I am shocked at how blatant that is. When i first saw the oil on the ground i was like wow that horrible but then i was even further horrified with i realized that it was so blatant they even put a pipe connecting it to the rest of the forest for drainage purposes. It is unbelievable what huge corporations do to the world and make a huge profit by polluting someone else's backyard. :( awesome video though Heather. Thank you for educating me

Last year Latino Club went to see "Crude" (Heather, I think you went too) and it only built off of what you see in this video here. The rivers that he was saying would get contaminated are used by different villages and many people developed cancer and other health problems from the oil in their water. It's appalling what Chevron did and, as you all said, how few people know about it.

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of mass homicide, in a report by Brazilian senator recommending charges for homicide for purposely letting the pandemic kills hundreds of thousands of Brazilians in a failed bid to achieve herd immunity. Shared by both Ershai and Audrey.

An interesting example on the attempted checks and balances against executive power. It is always poignant to compare Bolsonaro to Trump and his Covid-19 response.