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Conversation, Charlie Tyson wrote in 2023, is by nature fleeting. He quotes Virginia Woolf: “It flies up the chimney,” she once said, “and is gone.” This perspective may be comforting for people who spend hours after a social interaction perseverating over that one joke that didn’t quite land. But Woolf’s remark doesn’t necessarily imply that conversation is meaningless. Understanding that conversations are temporary, that they fly up the chimney to make room for new ones, can help us talk to one another more honestly. “In the twists of talk, we open ourselves to others and allow our interior to be subtly reshaped,” Tyson wrote in his review of a book on the subject.
The benefits of conversation are constantly threatened by modern life—by the pull of a phone notification during lunch with a friend, by the impulse to text instead of call, and perhaps most dramatically, by AI’s promise to obviate the human need for talking. Woolf’s description of language might make it seem replaceable, but this transient quality is precisely what makes talking an essential part of life. Language is something we are creating, demolishing, and creating again, every second of every day—a distinctly human act.
On Conversation
The Secret to a Good Conversation
By Charlie Tyson
A new cultural history embraces talk as an open-ended source of temporary delight. (From 2023)
“Although we usually appreciate the beauty of trees in full leaf, I was stunned by the bare-branched symmetry of this tree on a quiet winter day in our small town,” Dorothy B. from La Conner, Washington, writes.
I’ll continue to feature your responses in the coming weeks.
A woman in her 70s who was driving the car involved in the fatal Wolverhampton Lidl crash has been released from hospital, as West Midlands Police appeal for dashcam footage
The Oct. 7 attacks marred Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s image as Mr. Security. Ahead of elections, he’s trying to sell Israelis on the new, hawkish version of himself.
Elegir un vigilabebés no es tan simple como parece, porque no todos priorizan lo mismo: algunos destacan por su batería, otros por el tamaño de la pantalla y otros por sus funciones inteligentes. Si quieres tener control sin estar pendiente del móvil todo el día, esta guía te ayuda a ver rápido cuál encaja mejor contigo.
Thick smog covers the forest canopy in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, dimming the sun. On the front lines, forest and land fires are not just destroying habitats; they are pushing local primates close to extinction. In the middle of this crisis, Veterinarian Komara and the Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) team stay alert. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 21, 2026, 53 Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) were rescued from fires through joint emergency operations by the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and YIARI. Veterinarian Komara, right, from Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), along with other veterinarians, treats a female orangutan and her baby after being rescued from a burned forest and peatland area in Pelang village, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sept. 18, 2026. Bornean orangutans are one of three orangutan species in the world, and the only one found on the island of Borneo. All three species of orangutan are critically endangered. Image by Garry Lotulung for Mongabay. A fire burns at a palm oil plantation in Sungai Putri village, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan province, Indonesia, Aug. 19, 2026. Image by Garry Lotulung for Mongabay. Fires are an increasingly deadly threat to orangutans. The flames not only kill the animals but also destroy their homes, reduce their food and cut off the paths they use to move between groups. The scale of forest and land fires in West Kalimantan makes the impact clear: 48,536 hectares (119,935 acres) have burned in the province in 2026, an area around…This article was originally published on Mongabay
E’ in arrivo un colpo di acceleratore sul grande rimpasto nel Comitato esecutivo della Bce, che cambiando tre o quattro membri del Board su sei in una manciata di mesi...
An earnings briefing on Wednesday revealed ad revenue has slowed since the European Union introduced the Less-Personalized Ads model at the beginning of this year.
Na sucursal em Portugal os resultados antes de impostos subiram 13% para 178 milhões. O grupo espanhol obteve um resultados antes de impostos de 1,27 mil milhões de euros
This video report was collaboratively produced and is being co-published by Workday Magazine and The Real News Network
On the morning of June 16, 2026, 15 people were indicted by the federal government for their involvement in community organizing efforts to oppose Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota this past winter. This group of defendants have become known as the “Minnesota 15,” and over half of them are rank-and-file union members or former union members.
In this special report, collaboratively produced by Workday Magazine and The Real News Network, we speak with three of the “Minnesota 15” defendants about the charges against them and the Trump administration’s attacks on dissent and the labor movement today. Interviewees include: Treasure Thoreson (Minneapolis Federation of Educators, Local 59), Alec Stewart (Minnesota Association of Professional Employees), and Emmett Doyle (Northern Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters).
Credits (Workday Magazine):
Reporting and editorial support: Isabela Escalona, Sarah Lazare, Amy Livingston, and Amie Stager
Videography: Isabela Escalona and Amie Stager
Additional photos and videos: Amie Stager and Riley Bruce
Video editing: Isabela Escalona
Credits (TRNN):
Post-production: Maximillian Alvarez, Jocelyn Dombroski, David Hebden, Kayla Rivara
Special thanks to East Side Freedom Library, Minneapolis Central Library, Hosmer Library, and Minneapolis Federation of Educators.
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Treasure Thoreson:
Tuesday morning, June 16th, I had just woken up. I was in my pajamas. I hear a knock on the door at seven in the morning, and it’s a woman standing there in business clothes with a tactical vest on top that said Homeland Security.
Alec Stewart:
I was in my car backing out of my garage to go to work, coffee in hand. As soon as I backed out of my parking pad, several squads rolled up. A bunch of agents jumped out of the vehicles. I went to just text my aunt, because I have a dog. I assumed I’d be going to jail or something, and that’s when they smashed my window.
Treasure Thoreson:
I see six more agents standing in front of my house. The woman at the door, she just said, “We’re here with a warrant for your arrest for a conspiracy to harm or impede a federal officer.”.
Alec Stewart:
Exposes that while the government was targeting immigrant communities, tearing families apart, abducting children and murdering spokes in the street.
Emmett Doyle:
I had just typed in on my phone the location of the house that we were working on that day. I was boxed in by a vehicle, and so I rolled my window down to ask the guy like, “Hey, what’s the deal? You’re a pretty bad driver. What’s going on?” And then I looked around and I realized that my car had been surrounded. There was a swarm of armed federal officers with HSI on their uniforms.
Alec Stewart:
I do not think it’s a coincidence that over half of us are rank and file union folk. I think that speaks to, again, the working class nature of both the attack by the federal government and the working class predominant response to that attack.
Treasure Thoreson:
We had at least one person from every single site who was plugged into our committee and was able to get information out to their members and arm their building with the knowledge that they needed to face this kind of violence. And people stepped up in really major ways. Everybody did something, whether it was patrols or walking students to and from school, riding in a cab with a kid to and from school, making sure that their parents had rent money. There were some schools in the district that were delivering hundreds of boxes of food every week.
Emmett Doyle:
The unions that did get involved, I think understand what the labor movement is about in a way that some of our other unions have forgotten. An injury to one is an injury to all isn’t just a moral statement. It’s a hard reality of life. And the unions that stood up during Metro search understood that and demonstrated what solidarity means.
Treasure Thoreson:
We got a lot of great information from the Chicago Teachers Union who had been fighting back ice for months at the point when they came here. But we learned a lot from their struggle and were able to adapt that to fit what we were doing here in Minneapolis.
Alec Stewart:
And that was all without coercion, without money exchanging hands. That was just horizontal organizing. And I think how effective that is, how the power of mutual aid and horizontal organizing is evident because of this indictment. This wouldn’t have happened if what thousands of Minnesotans were doing hadn’t worked. I think the success of the January 23rd general strike speaks to that connection of the labor movement and just seeing the numbers and the outpouring of support for such a strike is historic.
Emmett Doyle:
I think that the general strike that happened in Minneapolis terrified the federal government. There were downtown, just hundreds of thousands of workers in the streets marching. And people have to remember this was severe sub-zero. It was a fantastic feeling of power and of joy and of resistance. And unfortunately, the next day that joy and resistance was answered tragically with the brutality of the beating and murder of Valence Preddy. But I think that the general strike was a major turning point in the regime’s logic of violence that they realized they couldn’t defeat the city.
Background music:
Stores are getting thin. There’s passing down that’s going on. Scabs anymore. We’ll put ourselves in union down this year of 34. Can’t you hear the mark? Either sign or behind. See the times get better when we hold that picket line.
Alec Stewart:
The revelation of Operation Puppet Master exposes that while the government was targeting immigrant communities, tearing families apart, abducting children and murdering our neighbors in the street, they were also attempting to disrupt and dismantle one of the facets of Minnesota that makes us so unique. And that is our strong and unified labor movement.
Isaac Sant:
This is not just an attack on me and my friends and our little group. This is an attack on our entire community. They were spying on us from day one. In fact, five days before Operation Metro Surge was declared on November 28th, they began spying on our organizations. These prosecutions were inevitable. Somebody was going to be on trial in there. If it wasn’t us, it was going to be somebody else. It was going to be one of you. We were being prosecuted for doing something that every single person that everybody and their mom in Twin Cities did to resist their federal occupation.
Emmett Doyle:
This case is meant to intimidate the entire community. It’s meant to tie up the time and efforts of many activists. But beyond that, as a conspiracy case, what they’re trying to do is set up a situation where they can expand and expand and expand the conspiracy. They’re trying to use our own solidarity and close-knit community against us through guilt by association.
Treasure Thoreson:
They want us to be separated. They want to separate out the good protestors from the bad protestor. I don’t want folks to feel afraid to stand up for their neighbor and do the right thing.
Alec Stewart:
It was such an obvious threat on what the Twin Cities is all about, which is community connections and helping each other’s neighbors. And the face of fascism, complacency, I think has no place. I think there was just a very justified feeling of standing up.
Emmett Doyle:
The support and solidarity towards us by our community has been overwhelming in just the most amazing way. I
Treasure Thoreson:
Think that they see our ability to bring people together as threatening. However, going after the 15 of us isn’t going to stop anything in Minneapolis or the Twin Cities because this is a place full of great organizers. We can’t let them bully us out of doing the right thing. We need to stand strong in our values and our morals and know that we are protecting our neighbors and that is the right thing to do. They’re afraid of us and that’s why we’re getting this response.
We speak with three union workers who are among the “Minnesota 15” defendants the Trump administration is targeting for organizing to defend their Minneapolis communities from ICE earlier this year.
Sete em cada dez americanos dizem acreditar que o presidente dos Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, não reconhecerá uma eventual derrota do Partido Republicano nas eleições legislativas de novembro. É o que mostra uma pesquisa divulgada nesta terça-feira (20) pelo jornal americano The Washington Post, em parceria com a emissora ABC News e o instituto Ipsos.
Leia mais (10/20/2026 - 23h00)
The search for the enigmatic creature often called the Asian unicorn is stumbling forward on a month-to-month basis, according to the Saola Foundation, which organizes the search. The group says it’s now frantically raising funds to keep the search for the saola in Laos going. “The team comes out of the forest each July for the wet season. This year a sharp contraction in our funding meant we could not confirm they would go back in October,” said Lorraine Scotson, CEO of the Saola Foundation for the Conservation of the Annamite Mountains. Funding for October has only just come through, largely thanks to donations from a number of zoos, but fundraising continues for future months. The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) may well be the world’s most endangered large animal. The only member of its genus, the species is a tropical bovid that superficially resembles an antelope with its long, curved horns, thin face, and elegant facial markings. It’s believed to have remained this way largely unchanged for 15 million years. Found in the biodiverse Annamite Mountains, which straddle the border region of Laos, Vietnam, and a small portion of Cambodia, the saola was only discovered by scientists in 1992. Captive saola in Laos, 1996. Image by W. Robichaud/WCS. “Fewer than 50 are thought to remain, none are held in captivity, and the last confirmed record anywhere was a camera-trap photograph in 2013. Very few people have ever seen one alive,” Scotson said. Given this, the Saola Foundation launched a search in…This article was originally published on Mongabay
TikTok and other sites were told to curb protest footage and AI-altered images, while online retailers like Vinted and eBay reportedly signed an agreement stop looted goods from flooding resale sites.
Na noite de quarta-feira (14), empresários conservadores, influenciadores digitais e autoridades do governo dos Estados Unidos se reuniram no Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, na capital Washington, D.C., para a festa de gala da Hispanic Heritage, organizado pela plataforma financeira Latino Wall Street.
O homenageado do evento foi Javier Milei, presidente da Argentina. Seu principal aliado no Brasil, Eduardo Bolsonaro, foi um dos convidados de honra.
Na entrada, convidados trajados com roupas brilhantes e smokings cercaram Eduardo para tirar selfies e apertos de mão. Muitos perguntavam sobre o pai, Jair Bolsonaro, que cumpre em casa a pena de 27 anos de prisão por tentativa de golpe de Estado. Outros demonstravam entusiasmo com a liderança do irmão Flávio Bolsonaro no primeiro turno da disputa presidencial contra o presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Eduardo conversou com veículos de comunicação identificados com o movimento MAGA (“Make America Great Again”, um dos slogans de Donald Trump), como a ex-boxeadora Cara Castronuova, uma das correspondentes da Casa Branca alinhadas ao governo. Ele também posou ao lado de Javier Negre, comunicador espanhol apelidado de “Rei Midas da viralidade”. Negre é sócio de Fernando Cerimedo, marqueteiro argentino de extrema direita, detido em agosto na Bolívia, acusado de envolvimento em ataque a tiros contra a ex-companheira.
Em determinado momento, na entrada do evento, uma mulher que parecia ser uma das convidadas segurou o braço de Eduardo e ambos olharam para baixo, compenetrados. Eles rezavam pelo Brasil. Quem também tietava Eduardo Bolsonaro era a autointitulada diplomata espiritual, consultora de direitos humanos e empresária gaúcha Luciana Pananos, que mora nos EUA.
Do lado de dentro, iniciada a cerimônia, os oradores no palco falavam sobre acabar com a criminalidade e derrotar o socialismo na América Latina. Na plateia, os convidados, que pagaram entre US$ 3 mil e US$ 10 mil para participar do evento, saboreavam almôndegas de wagyu (carne bovina de origem japonesa), pato defumado com amoras, abacate recheado grelhado e filé-mignon bovino defumado.
“Vamos expulsar o ditador comunista do Brasil”, bradou o homenageado da noite, Javier Milei, após abraçar calorosamente Eduardo, que deu chutes no ar como se estivesse expulsando Lula do posto. O presidente da Argentina disse ainda que os conservadores “não podem ceder um centímetro em nossa reconquista do hemisfério”.
“Um discurso inspirador”
Após a fala de Milei, Eduardo discursou. Ele ponderou que o resultado da eleição ainda não estava definido. Mas o tom era abertamente comemorativo. “Quando confirmarmos a vitória do meu irmão, o senador Flávio Bolsonaro, como presidente do Brasil, vamos entrar em uma nova era, que eu chamo de Era de Ouro da América Latina!”
O deputado cassado adotava um dos slogans de Donald Trump, que costuma dizer que o país vive uma nova “era de ouro” sob sua batuta. “Temos tudo para ser iguais aos Estados Unidos”, completou Eduardo.
Durante o discurso, ele também louvou outros presidentes de extrema direita na América Latina, como Nayib Bukele, de El Salvador, e o colombiano Abelardo de la Espriella.
“Amamos todos aqueles que dificultam a vida dos criminosos”, declarou, acrescentando que “pela primeira vez veremos todos os países [da América Latina] combatendo o narcoterrorismo”. O público aprovou e aplaudiu entusiasmado. Um empresário do setor imobiliário que atua em Honduras disse à reportagem que considerou o discurso “inspirador” e que o Brasil deveria adotar o “modelo Bukele”.
Flávio e Eduardo já visitaram o CECOT, o megacomplexo penitenciário para onde o governo Trump enviou imigrantes que, segundo relatos, foram torturados. Se a vitória de Flávio Bolsonaro se concretizar, o Brasil pode integrar a coalizão Escudo das Américas, formada por 19 países da região e liderada pelos EUA.
“O melhor ainda está por vir”, declarou Eduardo Bolsonaro, prometendo libertar o Brasil, começando por seu pai.
Mais que entusiasta da candidatura do irmão à Presidência, Eduardo é um dos nomes mais cotados para se tornar o próximo ministro das Relações Exteriores do Brasil em um eventual governo de Flávio. Desde que se mudou para os EUA, no início de 2025, o filho 03 de Bolsonaro perdeu o mandato de deputado federal por faltar a mais de 80% das sessões e também foi despojado do emprego como investigador da Polícia Federal por abandono de posto.
No início de outubro, o ministro do Supremo Tribunal Federal Alexandre de Moraes expediu um mandado de prisão contra ele, após sua condenação a mais de quatro anos de prisão por fazer lobby junto ao governo Trump contra o Judiciário brasileiro. Mas, no universo MAGA, Eduardo é uma estrela e a eleição de seu irmão é tratada como um fato consumado.
Obra de arte autografada por Eduardo Bolsonaro mostra a América Latina sob a bandeira dos EUA
Em conversa com jornalistas antes do evento, Eduardo descartou as preocupações com a ingerência dos EUA nas eleições brasileiras e voltou a repetir alegações sem fundamentoque já foram contestadas: segundo ele, durante o governo de Joe Biden, a agência oficial de ajuda humanitária USAID, fechada por Trump em 2025, financiou ONGs e veículos de comunicação sob o pretexto de combater a desinformação, com o objetivo de impedir a reeleição de Jair Bolsonaro em 2022.
“O Brasil já sofreu uma interferência internacional. O que eu vejo agora é justamente o oposto”, afirmou. A primeira medida de um eventual governo de seu irmão seria “expurgar esse câncer chamado Alexandre de Moraes” do STF, disse ele, referindo-se ao ministro como um “tirano”. Caso contrário, seu irmão não conseguiria governar, na opinião do deputado cassado. Perguntado se voltaria para o Brasil mesmo com o pedido de prisão, Eduardo negou. “Eu não vou puxar uma cadeia sendo inocente, não”, afirmou.
Eduardo circulava pelo salão de baile acompanhado de perto pelo blogueiro de extrema direita Allan dos Santos. Foragido nos EUA desde 2021, quando teve prisão decretada pelo Supremo, o blogueiro é investigado em dois inquéritos sobre a criação de milícias digitais e propagação de fake news.
Eduardo Bolsonaro cercado pelo blogueiro foragido por Allan do Santos e por membros da Revista Timeline
Presença frequente em eventos conservadores nos EUA, Eduardo também conversou informalmente com Matt Schlapp, presidente da Conferência de Ação Política Conservadora (CPAC), e sua mulher, Mercedes, que mencionou os Bolsonaro em seu discurso e previu que Flávio será eleito presidente do Brasil. “Colocamos a América Latina de volta nos trilhos”, afirmou ela.
Já no fim da noite, enquanto os convidados dançavam ao som de La Bamba, Conga e Macarena, a reportagem conversou com Lena Ruseva, que vestia um longo vestido vermelho estampado com o rosto de Trump e a frase “Drill, baby, drill” (“Perfure, baby, perfure”, slogan de Trump em alusão à exploração de petróleo).
Autodenominada artista America First, Ruseva contou que Milei havia gostado tanto do retrato que ela fez dele especialmente para a ocasião que quis ficar com a obra. Ela também demonstrou orgulho do quadro que teria dado de presente a Trump em um de seus aniversários.
A artista trumpista Lena Ruseva em entrevista na chegada à festa
Algumas de suas obras estavam expostas no salão e seriam leiloadas, com lances iniciais de US$ 10 mil. Entre elas, havia uma representação da bandeira americana com o contorno da América Latina. Eduardo Bolsonaro assinou a obra com letras douradas.
“Disse a ele que ficaria com o quadro até que se tornasse o próximo presidente do Brasil”, contou ela.
CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Global wildlife trade authorities say Cambodia has made little progress in cleaning up its monkey export industry, a year after the country was flagged as needing major reforms in how it manages the capture, breeding, and export of monkeys used in biomedical research. In November 2025, following years of controversies, the secretariat of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, issued a series of recommendations to Cambodia. In a document released Oct. 5, CITES stated that limited improvements to Cambodia’s monkey farm governance mean it “cannot confirm or rule out the occurrence of fraud or corruption” in the country’s trade of long-tailed macaques, a species listed as endangered. The statement comes ahead of the Nov. 2-6 CITES Standing Committee meeting in Geneva, where parties to the convention will assess progress made by countries placed under review. Countries unable to meet CITES standards can face trade bans. Monkey poaching has reportedly declined in Cambodia as the populations and habitats of long-tailed macaques are believed to have declined in recent years. Images supplied by source. Cambodia has faced widespread condemnation since a five-year United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) investigation found substantial evidence of Cambodian monkey farms laundering wild-caught monkeys as captive-bred. This, experts have warned, heightens the risk of zoonotic disease spillover — the transmission of pathogens from wildlife to humans — while also posing a threat to Cambodia’s wild population of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis), which dropped between 50% and 70% in the last three decades.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
“The wet markets in Laos are like wildlife parks; however, while you can only look at the animals in our zoos back in China, the wild animals in Lao markets can be eaten.” So proclaimed a Chinese vlogger as he toured a wildlife market. As he explored, he filmed himself showing off bear paws, various birds, dried rats, monitor lizards, and a live pangolin in his hands. The Chinese Embassy in Laos has issued repeated warnings to citizens that “Lao law prohibits the sale of ivory, rhinoceros horns, pangolins, and other wildlife products. Violators will be punished by law.” But vloggers continue to imply, incorrectly, that such sales are legal. “Brothers, look at what this is. This is not a zoo, but a wet market in Laos. The owner just weighed it and said it’s 3.3 kilograms for 1,200 Chinese yuan [about $54 per kilo or $24.60 per pound]. Back in China, let alone 3.3 kilograms, even for a single scale, you would have to go to jail,” he added, referring to the pangolin. Videos like this are easily found on Chinese social media platforms — WeChat Channels (known as Weixin Channels in mainland China), Douyin, and Xiaohongshu — using Chinese search terms like 老挝穿山甲 (Laowo chuanshanjia or Lao pangolin); 老挝野味 (laowo yewei or Lao wild game); and 老挝熊掌 (Laowo xiongzhang or Lao bear paw). With the opening of the China-Laos Railway in 2021 and the lifting of China’s pandemic lockdowns in early 2023, Laos has become a top choice…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos are pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, a rare success for a species reduced to a few dozen animals in the wild. The pregnancies also highlight the genetic constraints facing the country’s captive-breeding program. Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and the NGO Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI), which manages the sanctuary, announced the pregnancies on Oct. 3. A female named Ratu is carrying her fourth calf, fathered by Andalas, while her daughter Delilah is carrying her second calf, fathered by Harapan. Both are due around May 2027. Ratu was captured from the wild in Sumatra in 2005, while Andalas and Harapan, who are full brothers, were born at Cincinnati Zoo in the U.S. in 2001 and 2007, respectively. Delilah was born to Ratu and Andalas at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in 2016 — meaning the father of Delilah’s calf is her paternal uncle. Experts at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary seek to pair the least-related males and females possible, Nina Fascione, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, told Mongabay in an email. They also must consider factors such as differences in body size, she said, but their choices are limited by the small number of rhinos under human care. The 11 animals in Indonesia’s breeding program are the only captive Sumatran rhinos in the world, and all of the males in the program are related. “The current critical situation outweighs the genetic diversity considerations,” Fascione said. Ratu, a captive female Sumatran rhino, is expecting her fourth calf. Image…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Willan Gualinga first stepped onto a stage in his home community of Sarayaku, in the Ecuadorian Amazon, in the province of Pastaza. He recalls his hands sweating, his body trembling, and his mouth freezing up as words crowded his mind. Three years after that debut, he performed the same song at the Rizoma 2026 Festival in the Amazonian city of Puyo. This time, he was no longer in front of dozens of people. He was seeing thousands chanting his lyrics in his Indigenous Kichwa language. On this occasion, his body moved with the rhythm and with the strength his message demanded: “Allpamanda kawsay manda jatarishun,” or “Let us rise up for the land and for life.” That was the title of his first track and the phrase he shouted at the top of his lungs throughout his performance. The song draws on elders’ stories about the origins of Sarayaku (his traditional territory) and, like his other compositions, spotlights the threats facing his people. “Through music we can transmit the knowledge of our ancestors and, above all, defend the territory,” said Gualinga, a 23-year-old artist known on stage as “Taki Supay.” Like him, a new generation of Amazonian artists is using rap to bring attention to the threats facing Indigenous peoples and nationalities across the Ecuadorian Amazon — and to show why the rainforest must be protected. “Rap is talking about what you feel, what is happening, and our struggle,” Misael Elías Criollo Grefa, better known as Misa17, said. He is…This article was originally published on Mongabay
KHON KAEN, Thailand – A wildlife officer holds a leopard cat cub in one hand, its entire body small enough for her fingers to wrap around its torso. With the other hand, she feeds it formula milk from a syringe. This is the latest rescue at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife’s rescue center in Khon Kaen, northeastern Thailand, which rehabilitates and ultimately releases dozens of lost and injured leopard cat cubs every year. Behind the officer, 15 larger leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), rescued as young cubs months earlier, pace around inside their cages. They look a lot like domestic cats, only slightly more slender and with sharply defined markings on their fur; unlike domestic cats, they bare their teeth and growl whenever a human walks past. Nine of the cats, between 8 and 9 months old, will be released in the forest that afternoon. The other six, a younger cohort, will take their place in the center’s specialized behavioral rehabilitation pens, where they will spend two months practicing their climbing and hunting skills in preparation for life in the wild. Leopard cats are small wild felines common across much of Asia. The IUCN classes them as least concern, though experts believe populations are increasingly vulnerable to hunting and habitat loss. Highly adaptable to changing landscapes, leopard cats often live close to farms and villages. In northeastern Thailand, females are frequently found raising their litters in sugarcane fields. The tall leaves offer shelter from the sun, but proximity to…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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