Federal prosecutors in Brazil said on Friday that they have filed suit against the state-run Banco do Brasil for approving loans to companies that illegally deforested the Amazon jungle and used slave-like labor practices.
Prosecutors in the Amazon jungle state of Para filed the suit against both the bank and the Banco da Amazonia for providing public funds to large farms that broke environmental and labor law, the Public Ministry said in a statement.
Prosecutors said they uncovered 55 loans totaling nearly US$5 million that the Banco do Brasil, the country’s main bank, approved for law-breaking farms.
They also uncovered some 37 loans worth US$11 million to farms with similar problems from the Banco da Amazonia.
The information backs up studies showing a direct relationship between public loans and the growth in Amazon deforestation, the statement read.
The judiciary must now decide if it will accept the cases.
In Brazil, the Public Ministry is an autonomous agency of prosecutors who work independently from the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government.
A 2008 law prohibits extending public credit to companies that violate environmental law.
Since the law was passed, Brazil has significantly reduced the pace of Amazon jungle deforestation, which had reached alarming levels with the growth of agro-industry, mining, cattle ranching and illegal logging.
The Banco do Brasil denied the accusations in a statement, insisting that it complies with Brazilian law. However, it said it would look at the charges on a “case by case basis.”
The Banco da Amazonia said it could not comment because it had not yet seen the legal case.
Prosecutors also accused the government-run Institute of Agrarian Reform of “inefficiency” for failing to maintain accurate figures on rural Amazonian property.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the