Summarize this article:

A large cloud of black smoke has risen around the U.S. embassy in Tunis where stone-throwing protesters and police are waging a pitched battle.

 Thousands of demonstrators have massed outside the embassy and several were seen climbing the outer wall of the embassy grounds and raising a flag on which was written the Muslim profession of faith, an Associated Press reporter on the scene says.

 Police responded by firing tear gas, and police gunfire could be heard. ||||| If you can't keep track of all the Muslim protests erupting across the globe, you're not alone. The uproar over a 14-minute anti-Islam YouTube video has sparked furious protests from Somalia to Egypt to Sudan to Tunisia to Libya to Bangladesh to Indonesia to Pakistan. With new reports of protests surfacing every minute, we've compiled the latest reported incidents into this handy interactive Google Map. Click the locations and embedded links for more details about each incident.

 View Muslim Protests in a larger map

 Did we miss any? We'll be updating the map throughout the day, and if you post a note in the comment section we'll include it.

 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at jhudson at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

 John Hudson ||||| Angry demonstrations against an anti-Islam film spread to their widest extent yet around the Middle East and other Muslim countries Friday. Protesters smashed into the German Embassy in the Sudanese capital and set part of it on fire and climbed the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, waving an Islamist banner.

 Israeli police detain a Palestinian demonstrator during a protest in Jerusalem, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad.... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators rally during a protest in Jerusalem, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) (Associated Press)

 Lebanese protesters attack American fast food restaurants after Friday prayers, pouring petrol on the restaurants and setting them on fire in the northeastern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Friday Sept. 14,... (Associated Press)

 Iraqis chant slogans during a protest in Basra, 340 miles (547 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. In Basra, about 1,000 Iraqis marched the streets and burned the American... (Associated Press)

 Iraqis chant slogans during a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad's northern Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah to protest the anti-Muslim film, demanding... (Associated Press)

 Protesters run from tear gas released by riot police during clashes near the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing... (Associated Press)

 Lebanese riot police stand guard before a group of protesters, angry over the prophet film, attacked American fast food restaurants after Friday prayers, in the northeastern city of Tripoli, Lebanon,... (Associated Press)

 Bahraini worshipers stand on a makeshift flag combining U.S. and Israeli symbols during a protest after midday prayers in Diraz, Bahrain, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, as part of widespread anger across the... (Associated Press)

 An injured Egyptian youth protester takes cover behind a metal barrier during clashes with riot police, unseen, behind cement blocks that are used to close the street leading to the U.S. embassy in Cairo,... (Associated Press)

 Palestinians burn a U.S. flag during a protest as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, Sept.14, 2012.... (Associated Press)

 Iraqis chant slogans during a protest in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. Hundreds of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad's northern Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah to protest the anti-Muslim film, demanding... (Associated Press)

 Bahrainis burn replicas of American and Israeli flags during a protest after midday prayers in Diraz, Bahrain, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012, as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film... (Associated Press)

 A boy holds a toy gun during a protest about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh near Sidon, Lebanon, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Mohammed... (Associated Press)

 An Indian protester kicks at a graffiti of the American flag on a wall of the U.S. Consulate during a protest against the anti-Islam film which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and... (Associated Press)

 Israeli police detain a Palestinian demonstrator during a protest in Jerusalem, Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 as part of widespread anger across the Muslim world about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad.... (Associated Press)

 Palestinian Islamists burn an effigy portraying U.S. President Barack Obama during a protest about a film ridiculing Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh near Sidon,... (Associated Press)

 One protester was killed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in clashes with security forces, after a crowd of protesters set fire to a KFC and an Arby's restaurant. Protesters hurled stones and glass at police in a furious melee that left 25 people wounded, 18 of them police.

 Protests were held in cities from Tunisia to Pakistan after weekly Friday Muslim prayers, where many clerics in their mosque sermons called on congregations to defend their faith, denouncing obscure movie produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad.

 The numbers were not huge _ in most places, only a few hundred took to the streets, mostly ultraconservative Islamists _ but the mood was often furious. The spread of protests comes after attacks earlier this week on the U.S. Embassies in Cairo and the Yemeni capital Sanaa and on a U.S. consulate in Libya, where the ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

 After standing aside earlier this week in the face of protesters, security forces in Yemen and Egypt fired tear gas and clashed with protesters Friday to keep them away from U.S. embassies.

 Egypt's Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, went on state TV and urged Muslims to protect foreign diplomatic missions _ his first direct public move to contain protests.

 "It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work," he said. He also condemned the killing of the American ambassador in Libya, saying it was unacceptable in Islam. "To God, attacking a person is bigger than an attack on the Kaaba," he said, referring to Islam's holiest site in Mecca.

 His speech was an apparent attempt to repair strained relations with the United States, which was angered by his slow response to Tuesday night's assault on the embassy in Cairo. Police did nothing to stop protesters from climbing over the embassy walls, and Morsi was largely silent about the breaching for days afterward.

 Ahead of the expected wave of protests on Friday _ a tradition day for rallies in the Islamic world _ U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered an explicit denunciation of the anti-Muhammad video, aiming to pre-empt further turmoil at its embassies and consulates. The movie, called "Innocence of Muslims," ridicules the Prophet Muhammad, portraying him as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester.

 "The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video," she said before a meeting with the foreign minister of Morocco at the State Department. "We absolutely reject its content and message."

 "To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible," Clinton said. "It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage."

 Nonetheless, protests in several places attempted to move on American diplomatic missions _ and other Western countries were pulled into the dispute.

 Several thousand demonstrators protested outside the US embassy in Tunis and battled with security forces, throwing stones as police fired volleys of tear gas and shot in the air. Some protesters scaled the embassy wall and stood on top of it, planting a black flag with the Islamic profession of faith, "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet."

 Police chased them off the wall and took the flag down.

 In Sudan, a prominent sheik on state radio urged protesters to march on the German Embassy to protest alleged anti-Muslim graffiti on mosques in Berlin and then to the U.S. Embassy to protest the film.

 "America has long been an enemy to Islam and to Sudan," Sheik Mohammed Jizouly said.

 Soon after, several hundred Sudanese stormed into the German Embassy, burning a car parked behind its gates and setting fire to trash cans. Protesters danced and celebrated around the burning barrels as palls of black smoke billowed into the sky.

 Part of the embassy building was also in flames, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told reporters in Berlin. "Fortunately... the employees are safe," he said.

 Police firing tear gas drove the protesters out of the compound. Some then began to demonstrate outside the neighboring British Embassy, shouting slogans, while others left, apparently heading to the American Embassy, which is outside of the capital.

 In east Jerusalem, Israeli police stopped a crowd of around 400 Palestinians from marching on the U.S. consulate to protest the film. Demonstrators threw bottles and stones at police, who responded by firing stun grenades. Four protesters were arrested.

 Security forces in Yemen shot live rounds in the air and fired tear gas at a crowd of around 2,000 protesters trying to march to the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Sanaa. Though outnumbered by protesters, security forces were able to keep the crowd about a block away from the mission.

 A day earlier, hundreds of protesters chanting "death to America" stormed the embassy compound in Sanaa and burned the American flag. The embassy said nobody was harmed. Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologized to the United States and vowed to track down the culprits.

 In Egypt, several hundred people, mainly ultraconversatives, protested in Cairo's Tahrir Square after weekly Muslim Friday prayers and tore up an American flag, waving a black, Islamist flag.

 A firebrand ultraconservative Salafi cleric blasted the film and in his sermon in Cairo's Tahrir Square said it was upon Muslims to defend Islam and its prophet.

 Many in the crowd then moved to join protesters who have been clashing for several days with police between Tahrir and the U.S. Embassy. "With our soul, our blood, we will avenge you, our Prophet," they chanted as police fired volleys of tear gas.

 Ahead of the clashes, the president spoke for more than seven minutes on state TV, saying, "It is required by our religion to protect our guests and their homes and places of work."

 "So I call on all to consider this, consider the law, and not attack embassies, consulates, diplomatic missions or Egyptian property that is private or public, " he said.

 He denounced the killing of the American ambassador in Libya. "This is something we reject and Islam rejects.

 His own Muslim Brotherhood group called for peaceful protests in Tahrir to denounce the film.

 A small, peaceful demonstration was held Friday outside the U.S. Embassy in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

 Hundreds of hardline Muslims held peaceful protests against the film throughout Pakistan, shouting slogans and carrying banners criticizing the U.S. and those involved in the film.

 Police in Islamabad set up barricades and razor wire to prevent protesters from getting to the diplomatic enclave, where the U.S. Embassy and many other foreign missions are located. Protests were also held in Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore, where protesters shouted "Down with America" and some burned the U.S. flag. About 200 policemen and barbed wire ringed the U.S. Consulate in Lahore.

 About 1,500 protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad, shouting "Death to America" and urge President Hamid Karzai to cut relations with the U.S.

 A prominent cleric in Indonesia urged Muslims there to remain calm despite their anger about the film. But Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a branch of the international network that advocates a worldwide Islamic state, on its website blamed the U.S. government for allowing the film to be produced and released, calling it "an act of barbarism that cannot go unpunished."

 Meanwhile, the airport in Benghazi, the city where Tuesday's attack on the consulate took place, was closed for several hours on Friday. An airport official said the closure was due to security concerns, and the airport re-opened in the afternoon.

 _____

 Additional reporting by Osama Alfitory in Benghazi, Libya; Ahmed Al-Haj in Sanaa, Yemen; Bouazza Ben Bouazza in Tunis; Mohamed Osman in Khartoum, Sudan; Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Beirut; Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia. |||||

– US Marines are in Yemen as protesters continue to throng around the US embassy there, the AP reports. An elite Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team arrived today, as security forces continued to fire live rounds and tear gas into a crowd numbering around 2,000. The same type of team was also sent to Libya in the wake of violence there that ended with US Ambassador Chris Stevens' death. Protests over an anti-Islam film are heating up throughout the Muslim world today: Thousands of protesters are outside the US embassy in Tunis, and some are climbing the walls to raise a Muslim flag. Police have been firing into the crowd, and a large, black smoke cloud was recently seen rising around the US embassy. Protesters also surrounded the German and British embassies in the capital of Sudan, angry over anti-Muslim graffiti that allegedly appeared on Berlin mosques. Some stormed the German embassy, burning cars and setting fires; part of the building was in flames, but the employees are safe. The Atlantic Wire is keeping track of the protests on a useful interactive map.


A full, translated version of the document presented to Ecuador by British diplomats in Quito has been released. Remember, this is the letter which Quito says represents a clear threat, and which London insists is a mere reminder of the law. Judge for yourself...

 We are aware, and surprised by media reports in the last 24 hours, that Ecuador is about to take a decision and proposes to grant asylum to Mr. Assange. The reports quote official sources. We note that the (Ecuadorean) President (Rafael Correa) has stated that no decision has yet been made.

 We are concerned, if true, that this might undermine our efforts to agree a joint text setting out the positions of both countries, allowing Mr. Assange to leave the Embassy.

 As we have previously set out, we must meet our legal obligations under the European Arrest Warrant Framework Decision and the Extradition Act 2003, to arrest Mr. Assange and extradite him to Sweden. We remain committed to working with you amicably to resolve this matter. But we must be absolutely clear this means that should we receive a request for safe passage for Mr. Assange, after granting asylum, this would be refused, in line with our legal obligations.

 In that light, and given the statements of the last 24 hours, we hope that you are prepared to continue to engage with the ongoing diplomatic discussions. We continue to believe that a solution is possible on the basis of a jointly agreed text, which would accompany Mr. Assange exiting the Embassy, and leading to his extradition.

 We have a further meeting scheduled for Thursday 16th August. Given the statements made in Quito overnight, about an imminent decision, should we take it this meeting will be the final one to agree a joint text?

 We have to reiterate that we consider continued use of diplomatic premises in this way, to be incompatible with the VCDR (Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations) and not sustainable, and that we have already made clear to you the serious implications for our diplomatic relations.

 You should be aware that there is a legal basis in the U.K. the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act which would allow us to take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current premises of the Embassy.

 We very much hope not to get this point, but if you cannot resolve the issue of Mr. Assange's presence on your premises, this route is open to us.

 We understand the importance to you of the issues raised by Mr. Assange, and the strong public pressure in country. But we still have to resolve the situation on the ground, here in the U.K., in line with our legal obligations. We have endeavored to develop a joint text, which helps both meet your concerns, and presentational needs.

 We believe a joint text and a voluntary surrender by Mr. Assange is the best way forward. ||||| Police officers stand on the steps of Ecuador's embassy as an Ecuadorean diplomatic car is seen parked outside in London August 15, 2012. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has no way to leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London without getting arrested regardless of whether...

 LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Thursday that any decision by Ecuador to give Julian Assange political asylum wouldn't change a thing and that it might still revoke the diplomatic status of Quito's embassy in London to allow the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder.

 The high-profile Australian former hacker has been holed up inside the red-brick embassy in central London for eight weeks since he lost a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over rape allegations.

 Britain's tough talk on the issue takes what has become an international soap opera to new heights since Assange angered the United States by publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his WikiLeaks website. It may also raise difficult questions for London about the sanctity of embassies' diplomatic status.

 The Ecuadorean government, which said it would announce whether it had granted Assange's asylum request on Thursday at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT), has said any attempt by Britain to remove the diplomatic status of its embassy would be a "hostile and intolerable act".

 "It is too early to say when or if Britain will revoke the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic status," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "Giving asylum doesn't fundamentally change anything."

 "We have a legal duty to extradite Mr Assange. There is a law that says we have to extradite him to Sweden. We are going to have to fulfill that law."

 Outside the embassy, British police tussled with protesters chanting slogans in support of Assange and at least three supporters were detained.

 Quito bristled at Britain's warning.

 "We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa.

 Britain's threat to withdraw diplomatic status from the Ecuadorean embassy drew criticism from some former diplomats who said it could lead to similar moves against British embassies.

 "I think the Foreign Office have slightly overreached themselves here," Britain's former ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, told the BBC.

 "If we live in a world where governments can arbitrarily revoke immunity and go into embassies then the life of our diplomats and their ability to conduct normal business in places like Moscow where I was and North Korea becomes close to impossible."

 LONDON EMBASSY

 Ecuador's embassy, near London's famed Harrods department store, has been under tight surveillance, with police officers manning the entrance and patrolling its perimeter.

 A group of pro-Assange protesters gathered outside the building overnight in response to a rallying call by his supporters on social media websites.

 Wearing trademark Guy Fawkes masks - to evoke the spirit of the 17th century English plotter - they held banners and blasted out songs by punk group The Jam from a portable speaker.

 A Reuters reporter saw at least three protesters being dragged away by police. About 20 officers were outside the embassy trying to push away the crowd of about 15 supporters.

 "I am upset that the British government is willing to go in there and take him by force," said Liliana Calle, 24, an Ecuadorean student waving her country's flag outside the embassy. "It makes me think they don't believe in human rights."

 In what appeared to be prank, taxis lined up outside the embassy asking for Julian Assange.

 "I've lived, worked and traveled in places with proper dictatorships and nowhere have I seen violations of the Vienna convention to this extent," said Farhan Rasheed, 42, a historian wearing an "I love Occupy" badge, outside the embassy.

 "Here we have a government which claims to be a government of law and justice, stretching and possibly about to break a serious binding international agreement."

 Swedish prosecutors have not yet charged Assange, but they believe they have a case to take to trial.

 Assange fears Sweden could send him on to the United States, where he believes authorities want to punish him for publishing thousands of diplomatic cables in a major embarrassment for Washington.

 Even if he were granted asylum, Assange has little chance of leaving the Ecuadorean embassy in London without being arrested.

 There has been speculation he could travel to an airport in a diplomatic car, be smuggled out in a diplomatic bag, or even be appointed an Ecuadorean diplomat to give him immunity.

 But lawyers and diplomats see those scenarios as practically unworkable.

 Ecuador's leader Correa is a self-declared enemy of "corrupt" media and U.S. "imperialism", and apparently hit it off with Assange during a TV interview the Australian did with him in May. Correa joked then with Assange that he had joined "the club of the persecuted".

 The Ecuadorean government has said it wants to avoid Assange's extradition to Sweden, but if it did decide to grant him asylum it would offer no legal protection in Britain where police will arrest him as soon as they get a chance.

 (Reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Alessandra Prentice; Writing by Maria Golovnina and Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Andrew Osborn) ||||| LONDON -- Ecuador said Thursday it would grant political asylum to Julian Assange, the controversial founder of the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website who has been holed up for nearly two months inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault.

 Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said that Assange's legal and procedural rights had been violated, and that Ecuador accepted his argument that he faced possible political persecution by the United States, which is angry over his release of secret government files.

 "We believe his fears are legitimate," Patino told reporters in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, Thursday morning.

 PHOTOS: Assange granted asylum in Ecuador

 The much-anticipated decision immediately turned Assange's legal fight into a diplomatic standoff between Ecuador and Britain, which says that it is obliged to turn Assange, 41, over to authorities in Sweden, a fellow member of the European Union.

 For Assange himself, the announcement from Quito remains only a symbolic victory for the moment. Britain has refused to grant him safe passage out of the country; rather, police say that Assange is subject to immediate arrest if he sets foot outside the embassy because he breached his bail conditions.

 Assange's supporters gathered outside the embassy before the decision was announced. A few protesters were arrested after scuffles with police, Sky News reported.

 Ecuador's decision comes amid increasing acrimony between London and Quito over the Assange case. On Wednesday, Patino sharply rebuked the British government for what he described as a threat to raid its embassy to arrest Assange. By convention, embassies are considered sovereign territory of the countries they represent.

 Ecuador is not "a British colony," Patino warned.

 Assange, who is an Australian citizen, denies allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in Stockholm in August 2010. He has acknowledged having sex with them on separate occasions but disputes their accusations that coercion or force was involved.

 He and his supporters insist that the allegations are part of a plot to remove him from Britain and ultimately to ship him to the U.S., which Assange says wants to try –- and possibly execute -– him for orchestrating the leak of thousands of classified State Department and Pentagon documents.

 Assange took refuge inside Ecuador's embassy, located in one of London's toniest districts, on June 19, after his legal appeals against being sent to Sweden were virtually exhausted. Earlier that month, Britain's Supreme Court ruled that his extradition could proceed.

 The request for political asylum in a third country was a bizarre twist in a saga that has dragged on since Assange was first arrested in December 2010. Although Assange remained "beyond the reach" of police while inside the embassy, Scotland Yard warned that he faced arrest the moment he stepped outside it for violating his bail conditions, which obligated him to abide by a nightly curfew at a

 designated address.

 The WikiLeaks founder had previously developed some kind of rapport with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa. Assange interviewed Correa on a Kremlin-backed television show called "Russia Today," a sympathetic exchange in which the two men traded gibes about American arrogance.

 Critics have noted the irony of Assange, a free-speech campaigner, appealing for help from a leader who has been accused of mounting a crackdown on journalists in Ecuador.

 ALSO:

 WikiLeaks chief Assange arrested in sex-crime case |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Ecuador officially granted asylum to Julian Assange today, reasoning that his human rights might be violated if he were turned over to UK authorities. "We can state that there is a risk that he will be persecuted politically," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said, according to the Guardian. He argued that if Assange were ever to fall into US hands he would not receive a fair trial and could face the death penalty, reports the AP. Patino also harshly rebuked the UK for threatening to raid Ecuador's embassy, which is traditionally considered sovereign territory. Ecuador "is not a British colony," he said, though he did express hope that Ecuador's "friendship with the United Kingdom will remain intact." The UK has insisted that Ecuador's decision is irrelevant; it will still attempt to arrest Assange. "It is too early to say when or if Britain will revoke the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic status," a Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters.


Write a summary based on this article:

"They were doing this to sell and, you know, we don't know whether it is relevant or not, but at this point, everything is relevant," said DeWine. ||||| Four relatives were arrested in connection with the deaths of eight relatives (Photo: Provided)

 "There was an obsession with control of the children," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said at a Tuesday news conference announcing the long-awaited arrests in the massacre of an entire Pike County family.

 Arrested and charged with murder and a slew of other charges were Angela Wagner, 48, her husband George "Billy" Wagner, 47, and their two sons, George Wagner IV, 27, and Edward "Jake" Wagner, 26.

 Pike County Sheriff Charlie Reader talks about how the four members of the Wagner family were apprehended at a press conference in Waverly, Ohio, on Tuesday, November 13, 2018. (Photo: Robert McGraw/Gazette)

 At the center of the case is Sophia Wagner, 4, the daughter of Jake Wagner and Hanna Rhoden.

 Christopher Rhoden Sr., 40; his older brother, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; Christopher's former wife, Dana Manley Rhoden, 38; their three children, Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 20; Hanna Rhoden, 19, and Chris Rhoden, Jr., 16; and a cousin Gary Rhoden, 38, and Hannah Gilley, 20, were all killed in their homes April 22, 2016. Most were asleep while the Wagners allegedly executed a meticulously planned attack to wipe out the family, DeWine said Tuesday.

 Two others have been arrested in connection with a cover-up of the crimes: Rita Newcomb and Fredericka Wagner, mothers of Angela Wagner and George "Billy" Wagner are accused of forging custody documents.

 Pike County Sheriff Charlie Reader talks about how the four members of the Wagner family were apprehended at a press conference in Waverly, Ohio, on Tuesday, November 13, 2018. (Photo: Robert McGraw/Gazette)

 Authorities said Billy Wagner was arrested in Fayette County, Kentucky. Angela Wagner was arrested at her home in Scioto County. Jake and George Wagner were arrested in Ross County. Fredricka was arrested at the family's Flying W farm in Lucasville, which had been previously raided. Rita Newcomb was arrested at her home in South Webster, Ohio.

 "They did this quickly, coldly, calmly and very carefully – but not carefully enough," said. Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader.

 Prosecutors allege Angela Wagner purchased several items in the months leading up to the deaths of the Rhoden family and Hannah Gilley.

 "...specific shoes from Walmart, 'brass catcher(s),' items with which to build 'brass catchers,' ammunition, a magazine clip, a 'bug' detector, and or items with which to build a 'silencer(s),' and/or various other items in preparation for these crimes," the indictment states.

 Brass catchers are used to collect discharged bullet casings.

 Prosecutors also say members of the family forged custody documents in their efforts to keep Sophia Wagner.

 The attorney for the Wagners, John Kearson Clark, in a statement said his clients were innocent and looked forward to their trials. Clark said the family hopes the true culprits were brought to justice.

 "They are hopeful for a thorough vetting of the facts," Clark said.

 Authorities have repeatedly said the killers worked to cover their tracks, adding complexity to what is the largest homicide investigation in Ohio history. DeWine reiterated that point Tuesday saying authorities estimate that they conducted tens of thousands of hours of investigative work, followed more than 1,100 tips from the public and conducted 550 interviews.

 More: Pike County residents remain uneasy even after Tuesday's arrests and charges

 More: Pike County: What we know about the arrests made in the Rhoden family massacre

 More: Pike County: Custody battle plays role in Rhoden family massacre

 Dismissed by DeWine and Reader was the theory that the slain Rhoden family members had a soured marijuana business relationship.

 They also said they don't believe anyone else is involved.

 The Wagners moved to Kenai, Alaska, from Adams County, Ohio, in June 2017, telling The Enquirer the speculation of their involvement in the Rhoden deaths drove them to move 4,107 miles.

 “Really the point to moving up here was to basically get into a better environment so they wouldn’t talk about us. Sophia is getting older, so she wouldn’t hear it,” Jake Wagner told The Enquirer in July 2017, standing on the family’s front porch in Kenai. “And then it followed us here.”

 DeWine said the family moved back to the area in the spring of 2018.

 What's next?

 While the trial is planned to be held in Pike County Common Pleas Court, Pike County Prosecutor Rob Junk did acknowledge the possibility of a defense attorney asking a judge to move the trial out of the county due to the publicity of the case.

 Further complicating and delaying the case is the complexity of it being a capital punishment case, meaning the defense attorneys would need a special qualification to represent the Wagners.

 There wasn't a schedule for arraignment for the family Tuesday evening, however each person charged was in custody at various jails in Ohio and Kentucky.

 The Wagners are also facing a series of additional charges including: conspiracy, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, tampering with evidence, unlawful possession of a dangerous ordinance, forgery, unauthorized use of property, interception of wire, oral, or electronic communications, obstructing justice, and aggravated burglary.

 Reached for comment Tuesday afternoon, Leonard Manley, father of Dana Rhoden Manley, declined to comment on the Wagners' arrest.

 Two other people were also arrested today in connection with the alleged cover-up of the #PikeCounty homicides. Anglea Wagner's mother, Rita Newcomb, and Billy Wagner's mother, Fredericka Wager. pic.twitter.com/WRuagVXMAB — Ohio AG Mike DeWine (@OhioAG) November 13, 2018

 More: Pike County: Death in the foothills

 More: Pike County: What we know about the arrests made in the Rhoden family massacre

 More: Rhoden family massacre: Autopsy reports indicate one victim was awake when fatally shot

 More: On the second anniversary of the Rhoden family massacre: 'I still got a lot of hate'

 More: Pike County: Death in the foothills

 Comprehensive coverage

 ►: Pike County: Wagner family arrested in the Rhoden family massacre

 ►: Rhoden family massacre: Autopsy reports indicate one victim was awake when fatally shot

 ►: On the second anniversary of the Rhoden family massacre: 'I still got a lot of hate'

 ►: 2 years since Pike County slayings, surviving child lives with fear. 'He's trapped by it'

 ►: Warrant: Investigators put GPS tracker on truck of Rhoden victim's brother

 ►: Rhoden family massacre: Wagner family tries to create new home in Alaska amid rumors

 ►: Police spokesman wrongly says SWAT present at Pike County raid for 'suspects'

 ►: Lawyer: Mike DeWine is harassing family in Rhoden case that moved to Alaska

 ►: Pike County: Death in the foothills

 Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/crime-and-courts/2018/11/13/pike-county-massacre-wagner-family-arrested-rhoden-family-homicides/1373456002/ ||||| This undated images released by the Ohio Attorney General's office, shows Angela Wagner, one of four family members that has been arrested in the slayings of eight members of one family in rural Ohio... (Associated Press)

 This undated images released by the Ohio Attorney General's office, shows Angela Wagner, one of four family members that has been arrested in the slayings of eight members of one family in rural Ohio two years ago, authorities announced Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2018. (Ohio Attorney General's office via AP) (Associated Press)

 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A family of four arrested Tuesday in the gruesome slayings of eight people from another family in rural Ohio two years ago carefully planned the killings for months in a crime prosecutors vaguely explained as a custody dispute, authorities said.

 Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said a grand jury indicted the four on aggravated murder charges and that could be sentenced to death if convicted.

 DeWine gave scant detail about why they were killed, but did say the custody of young child played a role.

 Arrested were four members of the Wagner family, who lived near the scenes of the killing about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of Columbus.

 One of those arrested was Edward "Jake" Wagner, 26, who was a long-time former boyfriend of 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden, one of the eight victims, and shared custody of their daughter at the time of the massacre.

 The others arrested were Wagner's father, George "Billy" Wagner III, 47; his wife, 48-year-old Angela Wagner; and George Wagner, 27.

 The Wagners had moved to Alaska, but authorities said three were arrested in Ohio.

 Police in Kentucky say the FBI tracked "Billy" Wagner to Lexington, where he was arrested without incident at around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. Lexington police weren't sure if he had been living in the area.

 Authorities said Wagner was arrested in a horse trailer that was pulled over.

 It's the culmination of a massive investigative effort since seven adults and a teenage boy were found shot in the head at four homes in April 2016.

 Investigators scrambling to determine who targeted the Rhoden family and why had conducted over 130 interviews and processed over 100 pieces of evidence and 550 tips, while getting assistance from more than 20 law enforcement agencies.

 Dewine said the case involved an "obsession with the custody and control of children" and called it one of the most bizarre situations he has seen.

 He also said the Wagner family knew the victims well and spent months studying their routines and the layouts of their homes. "They had thought about it, a lot" he said.

 Authorities in June of 2017 announced they were seeking information about the Wagners, including details on personal or business interactions and conversations that people may have had with the four.

 None was named a suspect at the time. Investigators also said they had searched property in southern Ohio sold by the Wagners.

 Both Jake Wagner and Angela Wagner told the Cincinnati Enquirer they were not involved in the April 2016 killings.

 Angela Wagner said in an email to the newspaper that what happened was devastating and Hanna Rhoden was like a daughter to her.

 Wagner also told The Enquirer that her husband, Billy, and Christopher Rhoden Sr. were more like brothers than friends.

 John Clark, a lawyer who has been representing the Wagners, said a year ago that four of the Wagner family members had provided laptops, phones and DNA samples to investigators, and agreed to be interviewed about the slayings.

 Clark said Tuesday the family will be vindicated.

 "We look forward to the day when the true culprits will be discovered and brought to justice for this terrible tragedy," Clark said in a statement. He added: "The Wagners are also very hopeful that in the ensuing months there will be a thorough vetting of all the facts."

 The Wagner family has lived in Peebles, Ohio, at the time of the killings but later moved to Alaska.

 Clark told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the family was being "harassed while the real killer or killers are out there."

 A coroner said all but one of the victims was shot more than once, including two people shot five times and one shot nine times. Some also had bruising, consistent with the first 911 caller's description of two victims appearing to have been beaten. The coroner's report didn't specify which victims had which wounds.

 Authorities said marijuana growing operations were found at three of the four crime scenes. That's not uncommon in this corner of Appalachia but stoked rumors that the slayings were related to drugs, one of many theories on possible motives that percolated in public locally.

 The victims were identified as 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden; his ex-wife, 37-year-old Dana Rhoden; their three children, 20-year-old Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 16-year-old Christopher Jr., and 19-year-old Hanna; Frankie Rhoden's fiancée, 20-year-old Hannah Gilley; Christopher Rhoden Sr.'s brother, 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden; and a cousin, 38-year-old Gary Rhoden. Hanna Rhoden's days-old baby girl, another baby and a young child were unharmed.

 It appeared some of them were killed as they slept, including Hanna Rhoden, who was in bed with her newborn nearby, authorities said. The child, Hannah Gilley's 6-month-old baby and another small child weren't hurt.

 Three funerals were held for the victims.

 ___

 Associated Press Writers John Seewer in Toledo and Dylan T. Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report. ||||| The father of a surviving Rhoden child started a Gofundme account to help with legal bills he acquired to gain custody of his toddler-aged daughter.

 Jake Wagner, the father of Sophia Wagner, created a GoFundMe account to help defray attorney costs related to his custody battle. Sophia is the daughter of Hanna Rhoden, who was killed with seven other members of her family April 22. (Photo: Provided)

 Jake Wagner still can't quite bring himself to tell his 2 1/2-year-old daughter that her mommy is dead.

 It's the finality of that word that stops him. He worries about the tow-headed toddler's unpredictable reaction. There will be, he knows, so many questions. He is concerned, too, she may become frightened.

 He knows there will come a day when he will tell Sophia that her mom, Hanna Rhoden, was shot and killed with seven of her extended family members on April 22. He knows another day will arrive when he and she will make the trip to the cemetery where her mom is buried alongside two of her uncles and her maternal grandparents.

 "I've told her that mommy is with Jesus and we will see her again later,'' Wagner said. "I don't know if she knows Hanna isn't coming back.

 "I don't know if she understands."

 How could she?

 In addition to her mom, also killed were: her grandparents, Christopher Rhoden, 40, and Dana Rhoden, 37; her uncles, Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden, 20, and Christopher Rhoden Jr., 16; a great uncle, Kenneth Rhoden, 44; and a cousin, Gary Rhoden, 38. Also killed was Frankie Rhoden's fiancee Hannah Gilley, 20.

 Two of her cousins, Ruger Rhoden, then 6 months, and Brentley Rhoden, 3, along with her newborn sister, Kylie, were found alive and physically unhurt in the trailers they shared with their parents.

 The investigation is now in its fourth month with no stated motive nor suspects and no arrests. And as the criminal case is moving along, so is the business of custody and estates. Neither is easy.

 A memorial at Ohio 32 and Union Hill Road in Pike County, where some of the eight victims were killed. Top left: Chris Rhoden, Frankie Rhoden and his fianceé, Hannah Gilley, Bottom left: Hanna Rhoden and her mom, Dana Rhoden. (Photo: Liz Dufour)

 'Hate seeing my daughter cry'

 This is Wagner's new reality: Full-time, single dad with mounting legal bills with a new job that pays half what he was making to ensure he is close to Sophia. But close still means the 23-year-old makes a daily commute from Peebles to Cincinnati, a 2 1/2-hour daily drive.

 Wagner won custody of his little girl last month in Pike County, he said. And while the ruling was not unexpected, the legal bills were. This week Wagner set up a GoFundMe account in an effort to defray the legal bills and other unexpected but associated costs. He didn't know about the website until his mother mentioned it to him. He said he didn't want to draw attention to himself or to his daughter, but also didn't see a way out of the debt he has incurred since the homicide.

 "These were not expenses I was supposed to have. I was just supposed to be able to spend time with her and give her a happy childhood, she is only 2 1/2 years old,'' Wagner wrote on the page of the crowd-fundraising site. "Sophia and I are just asking for enough to settle the fees that we acquired due to the horrific tragedy to her mommy.

 "We want to get our lives back,'' he wrote. "I hate seeing my daughter cry."

 Wagner set a fundraising goal of $20,000, but said his legal bills were not quite that high. But, he added, his legal bills were four times more than what he expected. The former over-the-road truck driver and trained mechanic has maxed out his credit cards. He said he is paying his lawyer in what is left over after he pays his other bills every month. It hardly makes a dent.

 Hanna Rhoden and Wagner shared custody of Sophia, who was supposed to be with her mom that fateful Friday evening, he said. But Wagner picked her up a day earlier than normal: "I reckon we missed it by just hours."

 Hanna Rhoden after giving birth to her daughter Kylie on April 17. (Photo: Provided)

 Sophia's 5-day-old baby sister, Kylie, was nuzzled next their mom when she was killed. The baby remains in the protective custody of the county as officials have been working to establish her paternity. Wagner declined to publicly discuss the paternity case on Thursday, but has said that he and at least one other young man could be her father.

 Neither court nor county officials will discuss the custody issues surrounding Kylie and Ruger. The Pike County Children Services Board filed a motion asking the county's juvenile court to seal those records and related court proceedings in the case. The Enquirer believes the proceedings are public under Ohio law. A court hearing on the issue is set for Aug. 4.

 It's unclear if any family members have been able to see either Ruger or Kylie. Wagner knows that Sophia hasn't seen them since April 21.

 But he has taken her to play with her cousin Brentley at a playground. She was at a family wedding this past weekend. She recently visited her great-grandmother Geneva Rhoden, which put a rare smile on the 73-year-old's matriarch's face.

 Dad and daughter are working to find a sense of normalcy and routine. There are the four-wheeler rides he takes her on, to a nearby creek. She helps him in the barn with the animals. There are tea parties, nail polishing sessions and Disney videos.

 On the nights he makes it home before she drifts off to sleep, they read books together -- "Finding Nemo" is her current favorite.

 When they are all done, she interlocks her little fingers and she prays.

 "And I have her talk to her mom."

 Chris Graves is the Enquirer's local columnist. She has been writing about the Rhoden family massacre since April. You can email her at cgraves@enquirer.com or follow her on Twitter @chrisgraves.

 Reward offered

 Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call Southern Ohio Crime Stoppers at 740-773-TIPS. Anonymous tips are still being taken at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 855-BCI-OHIO (224-6446) or the Pike County Sheriff's Office at 740-947-2111.

 A $10,000 Crime Stoppers reward would be paid for any information that leads to apprehension of suspects and a conviction in the case.

 Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/2ahbLfZ |||||

– Two and a half years after the execution-style slayings of eight members of the Rhoden family in Ohio, another family has been arrested. Four members of the Wagner family were arrested Tuesday, and authorities say a custody dispute played a role in the murders, the AP reports. Edward "Jake" Wagner, now 26, was the ex-boyfriend of Hanna Rhoden, 19, who was killed while lying in bed with her 4-day-old baby girl. Wagner was not the newborn's father, but shared custody of another daughter, Sophia, now 5, with Rhoden. Sophia was not with her mother when she was murdered; the newborn as well as two of her young cousins who were present were not hurt. (This chart shows how all the victims were related.) Also arrested, per Cincinnati.com: Wagner's parents George "Billy" Wagner III, 47, and Angela Wagner, 48, and his brother George Wagner IV, 27. All four have been charged with eight counts of aggravated murder and also face a slew of other charges. The mothers of both elder Wagners were also arrested and accused of forging custody documents in an alleged cover-up of the crimes. Citing a "fixation" and "obsession" the Wagner family allegedly had with the custody situation, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Tuesday the situation is "the most bizarre story I've ever seen. It's just amazing." Authorities say the Wagners knew the Rhodens well and spent months studying their routines and the layouts of their homes. But the Wagners have long denied involvement and insisted they were close friends with the Rhodens; they moved to Alaska after the killings due, they said, to intense speculation over their possible involvement in the case. "Sophia is getting older," Jake Wagner (who also set up a GoFundMe for custody-related legal bills in the wake of the massacre) said at the time, so they moved "so she wouldn’t hear it." They were arrested, however, in Ohio and Kentucky. (See all our previous coverage of the massacre.)


Article:
The Darker Side of the Story ‘Snow White and the Huntsman,’ With Kristen Stewart

 I’m not sure this counts as a spoiler of anything other than Universal’s sleek and seductive marketing campaign — which has properly emphasized crows, swords and Charlize Theron ’s hair — but there are actually some dwarfs in the new movie “Snow White and the Huntsman.” The small fellows who befriend the exiled princess here are nothing like the grumpy, sneezy, dopey guys you remember from the Disney version. The actors who play them (including Ian McShane, Eddie Marsan, Ray Winstone and the great Bob Hoskins, all digitally shrunken) might otherwise have been assembled for a nasty little Cockney gangster film . These dwarfs are industrious, but they don’t whistle while they work. Their most memorable song is a haunting dirge performed at the funeral pyre of a fallen comrade. So take note: There is nothing cute about this movie.

 And that feels right. There is something exciting about how seriously “Snow White and the Huntsman” takes its themes. Most of the fairy tales that have become fixtures of modern popular culture — including those, like “Snow White,” published by the Brothers Grimm in the early 19th century — emerged from the dark, violent folk landscape of early modern Europe. They are fables of innocence, but also of terror, dense with superstition and sexual anxiety. Walt Disney’s justly beloved 1937 animated feature, though it has some spooky, gothic visual touches, expelled most of the demons and turned the heroine into an emblem of chaste and cheerful domestic normalcy. Since then, Hollywood fairy tales have mainly tacked between wide-eyed romanticism and winking self-consciousness.

 “Snow White and the Huntsman,” directed by the first-timer Rupert Sanders from a script by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini, tries something new. Or maybe something old, even atavistic. Though it is an ambitious — at times mesmerizing — application of the latest cinematic technology, the movie tries to recapture some of the menace of the stories that used to be told to scare children rather than console them. Its mythic-medieval landscapes are heavily shadowed and austere, and its flights of magic are summoned from a zone of barely suppressed rage and dangerous power.

 Most of the power and nearly all of the rage belong to Ravenna, Ms. Theron’s golden-haired, furious queen. Having murdered the king on their wedding night and imprisoned his daughter in a tower, Ravenna preens in front of her liquid-metal mirror, plucks the hearts out of birds (with metal fingernail extensions apparently designed for that purpose) and terrorizes her subjects. She is loyally attended by her creepy brother, Finn (Sam Spruell) — a kind of Dorian Gray portrait of his flawless sister, the ugliness of whose soul seems inscribed on his leering, pitted face — but otherwise alone in the castle of her cruelty.

 The evil stepmothers of the past have been monsters of self-generating female narcissism, but Ravenna seems to be a woman with a legitimate grudge against a male-dominated world of sexual violence and patriarchal entitlement. With a slight shift of emphasis, “Snow White and the Huntsman” might have been her story, the tale of a victim turned righteous avenger. And it may be that being denied this status fuels Ravenna’s resentment. Her wrath is directed principally at other women: at the girls whose youth and beauty she steals to feed the spell that keeps her from aging, and at the blameless princess who threatens her simply by being young and alive.

 That would be Snow White, of course, played by Kristen Stewart at the precise point of intersection between action heroine and damsel in distress. Since Ms. Stewart has become, thanks to “Twilight,” the very embodiment of romantic indecision, there are two possible suitors chivalrously circling her. Or two unshaven dudes, at any rate, vying to protect her and dividing the audience into Team Handsome Prince and Team Huntsman.

 The “prince” is William (Sam Claflin), a childhood friend of Snow’s and the son of a nobleman who has remained loyal to the memory of her father. He is a gifted archer and a dashing enough young man, but there really is no contest. The movie is not called “Snow White and William.” The Huntsman, a hard-drinking, belligerent widower with no other name, has the advantage of being played by Chris Hemsworth — Thor! — with sly, gruff magnetism.

 After an overwrought beginning — during which drops of blood fall to the snow with a crash, and James Newton Howard’s score roars and howls like Wagner with a stubbed toe — the movie comes down to earth and springs to life when Mr. Hemsworth shows up. His huntsman, like the dwarfs, is a gruff human presence in a world that might otherwise have been too airily and abstractly fantastical.

 In turn, the roughness of those characters, along with the scratchy earth tones of Greig Fraser’s cinematography, make possible episodes of enchantment that feel fresh even to eyes that have seen everything under the digital sun. A terrifying slog through the dark forest, a serene sojourn in the garden of the fairies, a visit to an encampment of women and children — each of these scenes casts its own specific and effective spell.

 In this carefully imagined reality — the production designer, Dominic Watkins, has done exceptional work — Ms. Theron is, if not the fairest, then surely the most striking one of all. She has a remarkable ability to mix coldness and sorrow, and as the special effects etch lines on her face and then smooth them away, she at once invites and refuses sympathy. Ravenna, taught as a girl that beauty was the source of power, has made herself into a perfect aesthetic object and destroyed herself in the process. Snow White, rather than try to beat her in the contest of appearances, must create a new game, based on a different meaning of “fairness” and on her own modest, real-girl appeal.

 Ms. Stewart, stumbling through the forest and racing through an awkward, Shakespeare-lite speech to her hastily mustered good-guy army, understands the job perfectly and undertakes it in good faith. Her Snow White is part of an interesting new breed of warrior princesses — Katniss Everdeen is their current leader — whose ascendance reflects the convergence of commercial calculations and cultural longings. Long may they reign.

 “Snow White and the Huntsman” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Blood, monsters and whispers of sexual implication.

 Snow White and the Huntsman

 Opens on Friday nationwide.

 Directed by Rupert Sanders; written by Evan Daugherty, John Lee Hancock and Hossein Amini, based on a story by Mr. Daugherty; director of photography, Greig Fraser; edited by Conrad Buff and Neil Smith; music by James Newton Howard; production design by Dominic Watkins; costumes by Colleen Atwood; produced by Joe Roth and Sam Mercer; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes.

 WITH: Kristen Stewart (Snow White), Charlize Theron (Ravenna), Chris Hemsworth (the Huntsman), Sam Claflin (William), Sam Spruell (Finn), Ian McShane (Beith), Bob Hoskins (Muir), Eddie Marsan (Duir), Ray Winstone (Gort), Nick Frost (Nion) and Toby Jones (Coll). ||||| Family Fued Host Richard Dawson Dead at 79

 British-born entertainer Richard Dawson died of esophegeal cancer on Sunday. Daw...

 British-born entertainer Richard Dawson died of esophegeal cancer on Sunday. Dawson gained fame as an actor and comedian, and won a daytime Emmy Award as best game show host in 1978. (June 4) |||||Summary:

– Snow White and the Huntsman, the latest take on the fairy tale starring Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron, is an impressive spectacle, featuring all kinds of brooding visual effects. But critics are sharply divided as to whether the film is an overall success: "There is nothing cute about this movie. And that feels right. There is something exciting about how seriously Snow White and the Huntsman takes its themes," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. The movie is "an absolute wonder to watch and creates a warrior princess for the ages," writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. "But what this revisionist fairy tale does not give us is a passionate love—its kisses are as chaste as the snow is white." But at Slate, Dana Stevens calls the film "increasingly incoherent" and feels like it "squanders the dramatic potential inherent in the ancient fairy tale" by keeping Snow White and the queen separate for all but two scenes. "As Snow, Stewart gets to swing a sword, but don't be fooled," notes Rafer Guzman in Newsday. "She spends so much time waffling sullenly between two warrior-suitors that Snow White feels like little more than Twilight in chain mail."


News article:

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 Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/uIMG

 — One paratrooper was killed and seven others were injured Friday morning in a training accident at Fort Bragg, officials said.

 "While conducting artillery live-fire training, the 18th Fires Brigade experienced an incident with a M777 light, towed howitzer," officials said in a statement late Friday.

 No other details about the incident, including where it occurred on post, were released. It is under investigation by the 82nd Airborne Division, the Army Criminal Investigative Division and the Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center..

 Two paratroopers were seriously injured, while the other five were treated at Womack Army Medical Center and released, officials said. One of the seriously injured soldiers was moved to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, while the second remains at Womack.

 Fort Bragg officials said families have been notified, and the names of the victims will be released Saturday.

 “We are diligently working to provide soldiers and their families the support and care during this difficult time. We have suffered a great loss in the 18th Fires Brigade and express our deepest condolences. Those that have been affected by this tragic incident remain in our thoughts and prayers,” brigade commander Col. Stephen Smith said in a statement. ||||| US troops, civilians killed in suicide attack in Syria

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– A paratrooper training exercise went terribly wrong at Fort Bragg in North Carolina today, leaving one paratrooper dead and seven others injured, Army Times and WRAL report. Five of those injured were treated for minor injuries at Womack Army Medical Center and then released, but the other two were seriously injured. So far no details about the accident have been released. "We offer our heartfelt prayers and condolences to the families of the paratroopers killed and wounded in this tragic incident," the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division said in a statement.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Tragedy in Baltimore, where a 2-year-old girl died yesterday after being left in a hot car. Police say her father, Wilbert Carter, left her in the car sometime Sunday, and WBAL-TV reports that she was inside it for at least 16 hours. Carter, 31, is also reportedly the one who found her the next day around 5pm and ran to call police, who found little Leasia Carter in the locked car. A witness says she saw Wilbert Carter walking down the street, crying. "A lady comes out of the house or walks out the street and they just start screaming." Another witness says Carter was "sitting there like, 'Somebody's dead, somebody's dead,' and we couldn't make out what he was saying, but we know he was saying somebody was dead." He was later arrested on second-degree murder and child abuse charges. Carter told police he had five drinks on Sunday, was drinking into the wee hours of Monday, and couldn't remember what happened, but the Washington Post reports that he said a friend drove his car to the location where the girl was later found. "The father went home at some point in time last night," a police official said yesterday. "This afternoon when he woke up, he discovered that his child wasn't there." Adds a police spokesperson today, "When he woke up around 4pm yesterday afternoon, that's when he began searching for his daughter." He reportedly asked his mother and aunt where she was and they said they saw him come home at 7am and assumed the girl was with his sister, but he found her after a cousin called to alert him to where his car was parked. The child was not breathing when she was found, and she suffered second-degree burns in the 90-degree heat.

The father of a 2-year-old girl who died after she was left in a hot car for more than 16 hours in Baltimore's Belair-Edison neighborhood has been arrested, police said.

 Child found unresponsive in locked car dies Photos A 2-year-old girl is dead after being left in a hot car for at least a full day. Police said she was discovered by her father. Child found unrseponsive in locked car Photos WBAL-TV\SkyTeam 11

 Mobile users tap here to watch Kai Reed's video

 Officials were called around 5:30 p.m. to the 3400 block of Juneway, where the child was found locked in a car.

 The girl was taken in very serious condition to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, where she later died, WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Kai Reed reported.

 Investigators said her father discovered her in the car and that he's also the one who left her in the car at some point Sunday.

 "He's walking down the street. He's crying. He's got a little kid in his hand, a lady comes out of the house or walks out the street and they just start screaming," witness Raven Jenkins said.

 Police said a man went to his silver car parked on Brendan Avenue shortly after 5 p.m. Monday and found his daughter, Leasia Carter, inside and not breathing.

 "He's sitting there like, 'Somebody's dead, somebody's dead,' and we couldn't make out what he was saying, but we know he was saying, 'Somebody was dead,'" witness Bella Osbourne said.

 Photos Leasia Carter

 "It never crossed my mind that something like that would happen," said Teresa Moon, Leasia's great-aunt. "He loved his girls, he loved his girls. He really loved his girls. He's grieving hard. It's just a tragic thing that happened."

 According to investigators, the man ran back to his house about a block away on Juneway and called for help.

 "The father went home at some point in time last night. This afternoon when he woke up, he discovered that his child wasn't there," Baltimore police Maj. Stanley Brandford said. "Right now, we know that the child was inside of that vehicle sometime (Sunday), but for certain we know that the child was left there all day (Monday). Of course with the temps and everything I'm pretty sure that the child cannot survive in that type of condition."

 Investigators said that by the time Leasia was taken from the car, she had suffered second-degree burns. She'd been left in the car with the windows closed for 16 hours, most of it during sunlight hours Monday when the temperature neared 90 degrees.

 Homicide investigators obtained a warrant for the victim's father, Wilbert Carter, 31, and arrested him Monday. He told investigators he had been drinking Sunday night into early Monday morning and had little memory of what happened.

 Mobile users tap here to watch Jayne Miller's video

 "He left his child unattended in the vehicle. We know that he went home, went to bed and when he woke up around 4 p.m. yesterday afternoon, that's when he began searching for his daughter," Baltimore police spokesman Jeremy Silbert said.

 Carter is charged with second-degree murder and child abuse. He is currently being held at Central Booking.

 Carter had sole legal custody of his daughter. Neighbors said he had another child with him when he went looking for Leasia.

 Safety experts said the temperature inside a car in hot weather can climb to life-threatening levels in 10 minutes.

 Photos Wilbert Carter Baltimore City Police Department

 WBAL-TV I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller contributed to this report ||||| Wilbert Carter is charged with homicide after he allegedly left his 2-year-old daughter unattended in a vehicle in Baltimore. The girl died. (Baltimore City Police)

 A Baltimore man who left his 2-year-old daughter in a hot car for 16 hours after he had five drinks has been charged with her murder, police said.

 Baltimore police said they were called at 5:15 p.m. on Monday for a report of an unconscious child inside a vehicle. Paramedics arrived and took the girl — Leasia Carter — to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

 A preliminary investigation found that the girl had been inside the vehicle unattended for 16 hours, according to police. Police said that the temperature outside reached 89 degrees while she was in the vehicle. She suffered second-degree burns in the car.

 Her father, Wilbert Carter, 31, is charged with murder and child abuse. He is being held at the city jail.

 Police said in a charging document that Carter told them he had consumed five alcoholic drinks during the day on Sunday. Around midnight, he said, a friend drove his car to Brendan Avenue.

 He said he has no memory of what happened after that. His mother and aunt told him they saw him come home at about 7 a.m. When he woke up at about 4 p.m. on Monday, he asked them where his daughter was, he told police.

 They told him that they had assumed the girl was with Carter’s sister.

 A cousin then called to tell him that his car was still on Brendan Avenue. He went there, and found his daughter still buckled into her car seat.

 Police said that Carter has a history of consuming so much alcohol that he passes out.

 Authorities throughout the area sent out messages on social media saying it is never okay, especially in the summer heat, to leave elderly people, pets or children unattended or in vehicles.

 [Forgetting a child in the back seat of a car is a horrifying mistake. Is it a crime?]

 Heatstroke is among the leading causes of vehicle-related deaths that are not considered crashes among kids under 14, according to experts.

 In 2014, 31 children died from heatstroke after being left unattended in cars, according to data from the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University.

 Research at San Jose found that more than half of about 630 children who died from heatstroke in a car over a 17-year period had been forgotten by a caregiver.

 Seventeen percent died because a caregiver had intentionally left the child in the vehicle. And about 30 percent of the deaths were the result of a child playing in an unattended vehicle. |||||


In the late 20th and early 21st century, Brazil set policies that made it a world leader in reducing deforestation, helping safeguard the Amazon.

 However, the gains made over those years are now at risk due to the proposed environmental policies of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who analysts say is highly likely to become Brazil’s president in a runoff election on 28 October.

 Bolsonaro has pledged to shut down Brazil’s environmental ministry, relax environmental law enforcement and licensing, open indigenous reserves to mining, ban international environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF from the country, and back out of the Paris climate accord.

 A study by this commentary’s authors estimates that Brazilian deforestation and carbon emissions under Bolsonaro’s policies would cause unprecedented Amazon forest loss, and contribute to destabilizing the global climate. This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

 It was almost too good to be true. In the late 20th and early 21st century, Brazil’s Amazon forest was disappearing at a rapid rate (27,772 square kilometers or 10,723 square miles per year in 2004), making the country the worldwide leader in deforestation and a major emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). Then, starting in 2005, annual deforestation rates began to decrease at a breathtaking speed, dropping to 4,575 square kilometers (1,766 square miles) in 2012, a historical low, and a fall of more than 83 percent in just eight years.

 This caused the country’s carbon emissions due to land use change to fall sharply, by 63 percent from 2005 to 2012. Building on these successes, the Brazilian government pledged an ambitious reduction of its GHG emissions – 37 percent by 2025, and 43 percent by 2030, below 2005 levels – a promise made at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris in December, 2015.

 There are several plausible causes behind the sudden decrease in deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon, including the expansion of protected areas and indigenous lands, better enforcement of existing environmental legislation, interventions in supply chains and credit restrictions, and fines and embargoes of illegal deforesters.

 While praised by many inside and outside the government, the durability of this achievement is uncertain, given increasing demand for Brazil’s agricultural commodities worldwide, large-scale transportation and energy infrastructure projects (including Amazon dams, roads and railways), and political upheaval.

 Today, in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis and political unrest, environmental protections are in danger of being rolled back. The annual deforestation rate in the world’s largest rainforest has been steadily growing since 2012.

 But the worst is likely yet to come. Jair Bolsonaro, the far-right candidate who is poised to become Brazil’s next president after taking a near-majority in a first round vote, has promised that, if elected, he would shut down Brazil’s environmental ministry, relax environmental law enforcement and licensing, open indigenous reserves to mining, and back out of the Paris climate accord. Moreover, international NGOs, such as Greenpeace and WWF, would be banned from the country.

 The damage these policies could do is extreme. Based on an economic modeling approach that simulates the competition for land in order to meet a growing global demand for major commodities such as beef and soybeans, we estimate that, if environmental protections are removed by Brazil’s next president, the average annual loss of primary forest in the Amazon will quickly rise to 25,600 square kilometers (9,884 square miles) per year, a figure similar to the deforestation rates measured at the beginning of the 2000s and an increase of 268 percent from 2017.

 Within a decade, the scale of deforestation would be equivalent to the area of the UK or the US state of Oregon. Moreover, 18 percent of this deforestation (46,300 square kilometers or 17,877 square miles) would occur inside protected areas, including national parks and indigenous reserves.

 Carbon emissions would rise as deforestation increases. Under Bolsonaro’s proposed policies, from 2021 to 2030, accumulated emissions from clear cutting Amazon forest would attain 13.12 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e), or an average of 1.31 GtCO2e per year, making it all but impossible for Brazil to fulfill its international commitments made in Paris. This annual carbon release corresponds to 3 percent of the current global emissions. Moreover, according to the latest literature 13.12 GtCO2e could represent up to 20 percent of the “free” carbon budget remaining to achieve the 1.5 Celsius IPCC goal. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is a measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based upon their global warming potential.

 In this election, and in the coming years, political will is needed to ensure that the Amazon forest and the ecosystem services it provides are conserved. The loss of biodiversity and climate regulation that could result from a dramatic change in policies would be a tipping point for both biodiversity and climate change, with global consequences.

 Authors: Aline C. Soterroni, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil, and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria (soterr@iiasa.ac.at); Fernando M. Ramos, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, Brazil (fernando.ramos@inpe.br); Michael Obersteiner, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria (oberstei@iiasa.ac.at); and Stephen Polasky, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, USA. (polasky@umn.edu).

 Correction: The accumulated deforestation chart that appeared in the original version of this story has been updated to more effectively show the true progression of deforestation, and future projections, in the 21st century.

 Citations:

 Soterroni et al., Environmental Research Letters 13 (7) 1–12 (2018). http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaccbb/pdf

 Jason A. Lowe, Daniel Bernie, The impact of Earth system feedbacks on carbon budgets and climate response. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 376 20170263 (2018). http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/376/2119/20170263

 FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page. ||||| Nearly 8,000sq kms lost in the year to July amid alarm new president Jair Bolsonaro will make situation worse

 Brazil has released its worst annual deforestation figures in a decade amid fears that the situation might worsen when the avowedly anti-environmentalist president-elect Jair Bolsonaro takes power.

 Between August 2017 and July 2018, 7,900sq kms were deforested, according to preliminary figures from the environment ministry based on satellite monitoring – a 13.7% rise on the previous year and the biggest area of forest cleared since 2008. The area is equivalent to 987,000 football pitches.

 The Guardian view on Brazil’s new president: a global danger | Editorial Read more

 The news was met by dismay from environmentalists who warned deforestation was likely to become more acute when Bolsonaro becomes president on 1 January.

 “It is a lot of destroyed forest,” said Marcio Astrini, Greenpeace Brasil’s public policy coordinator. “The situation is very worrying… what is bad will get worse.”

 The environment ministry said the increase came despite an increase in its budget and in operations carried out by its environment agency Ibama.

 “We need to increase the mobilisation at all levels of government, of society, and of the productive sector to combat illicit environmental activities,” environment minister Edson Duarte said in a statement.

 But the government appears to be heading in the other direction.

 After falling for several years, deforestation began rising again in 2013, the year after leftist president Dilma Rousseff approved a new forest code which gave an amnesty to those deforesting on small properties. Deforestation has risen in four of the six years since then, including in 2016, the year Rousseff was impeached and replaced by her former vice-president Michel Temer.

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 Temer has made further concessions to powerful agribusiness interests in return for support from its congressional representatives – including approving a measure that legalised land that had been squatted in the Amazon, a common deforestation driver. Last year Temer backed down on measures to reduce protection to a national forest called Jamanxim and a protected area called Renca after protests from environmentalists, supermodel Gisele Bündchen and even singer Alicia Keys at the Rock in Rio music festival.

 Moves like these signalled the Brazilian congress was no longer concerned about deforestation, said Astrini, encouraging deforestation.

 “We feel in our field work that these deforestation gangs are very confident they will get amnesty or that they are covered,” he said.

 As more and more of the Amazon is cut down, the world’s greatest forest is now getting close to the “tipping point” – after which experts fear it could disappear.

 “A moment will arrive in which the accumulation of this deforestation will cause an effect in which the forest will stop being a forest,” Astrini said. “The scientists calculate this is between 20-30%. We are very close to the 20%.”

 The Climate Observatory (Observatório do Clima) – a non-profit, climate change network – calculated that in 2017, 46% of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions were due to deforestation.

 It also expects deforestation to worsen once Jair Bolsonaro’s new government begins. He has frequently attacked what he calls the “fines industry” of agencies such as Ibama, and wants to allow mining in protected indigenous reserves – some of the Amazon’s least-destroyed forests – and even considered making the environment ministry part of the agriculture ministry.

 Bolsonaro has enjoyed support from agribusiness and his minister of agriculture will be headed up by Tereza Cristina, head of its Congress lobby.

 His foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, has argued that global warming is a Marxist plot. On Friday, his vice-president elect, General Hamilton Mourão, while admitting global warming did exist, told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper: “Environmentalism is used as an instrument of domination by big economies.”

 Bolsonaro only backed down on plans to withdraw Brazil from the Paris climate deal because agricultural producers argued the move risked boycotts from European consumers, local media reported.

 “If the problem is in politics and politicians and their power of decision, they need to be pressured,” Astrini said. ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption The government blamed illegal logging for the rise

 Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has hit its highest rate in a decade, according to official data.

 About 7,900 sq km (3,050 sq miles) of the world's largest rainforest was destroyed between August 2017 and July 2018 - an area roughly five times the size of London.

 Environment Minister Edson Duarte said illegal logging was to blame.

 The figures come amid concerns about the policies of Brazil's newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro.

 During the 2018 election campaign, Mr Bolsonaro pledged to limit fines for damaging forestry and to weaken the influence of the environmental agency.

 An aide for the president-elect has also announced the administration will merge the agriculture and environment ministries, which critics say could endanger the rainforest.

 The latest government data says most of the deforestation occurred in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará, and marked a 13.7% rise over last year's figures.

 Mato Grosso is the top producer of grains in Brazil, and critics say expanding agriculture is also encroaching on the rainforest.

 Mr Duarte blamed "an upsurge in organised crime" for the illegal deforestation, and said the country must broaden the fight against "environmental violations and in defence of sustainable development of the biome".

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Amazon is sometimes called the lungs of the planet

 Satellite data from the deforestation monitoring project known as Prodes informed the annual survey.

 While the rate does mark a significant rise from last year, when the rate of deforestation dropped 16% in a 12-month period, it still marks a 72% drop from 2004, when the Brazilian federal government launched measures to combat deforestation.

 In that year, an area the size of Haiti - more than 27,000 sq km - was cleared from the rainforest.

 The Amazon region holds the largest tropical rainforest in the world and is home to plant and animal species that are still being discovered by scientists.

 Most of its millions of square kilometres are inside Brazil, where under laws dating back to 1965, landowners must keep a percentage of their property forested. |||||

 De acordo com o ministro do Meio Ambiente, Edson Duarte, "o recrudescimento do crime organizado que atua no desmatamento ilegal da Amazônia, destruindo as riquezas naturais do país e causando danos para toda sociedade, está associado a outras práticas criminosas, como tráfico de armas e animais, trabalho escravo, evasão de divisas e lavagem de dinheiro. Além de intensificar as ações de fiscalização conforme o governo federal vem fazendo nos últimos anos, precisamos ampliar a mobilização de todos os níveis de governo, da sociedade e do setor produtivo no combate aos ilícitos ambientais e na defesa do desenvolvimento sustentável do bioma".

 Os ministérios do Meio Ambiente (MMA) e da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (MCTIC) divulgam nesta sexta-feira (23) nota conjunta com a taxa preliminar do Projeto de Monitoramento do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal por Satélite (PRODES). Entre agosto de 2017 e julho de 2018, o sistema registrou aumento de 13,7% no desmatamento do bioma. ||||| The president-elect of Brazil has big plans for the Amazon rainforest.

 He wants to carve more mines and pave new roads. He wants fewer penalties for cutting down trees, and he has promised to halt growth of a network of indigenous forest reserves. By merging the nation's agriculture and environment ministries, he hopes to make it easier for Brazil's powerful soy and cattle industries to transform more native jungle into pasture and farms.

 When Jair Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old retired Brazilian military officer, takes the helm in January of a country that manages 1.5 million square miles of the Amazon, the risks to wildlife and indigenous tribal communities will be clear. If Bolsonaro follows through on his campaign promises, deforestation rates in Brazil could almost immediately triple, according to an assessment by scientists.

 View Images Bolsonaro, leader of the right-wing Social Liberal Party, stands before the Brazilian flag on election day. Photograph by Mauro Pimentel, AFP/Getty Images

 But the consequences of Bolsonaro's policies also would be felt far beyond areas hit by chainsaws. Even modest increases in deforestation could affect water supplies in Brazilian cities and in neighboring countries while harming the very farms he is trying to expand. More massive deforestation might alter water supplies as far away as Africa or California.

 Most troubling of all: Some scientists suggest the Amazon may already be nearing a tipping point. The region has been so degraded that even a small uptick in deforestation could send the forest hurtling toward a transition to something resembling a woodland savanna, according to an analysis earlier this year by two top scientists. In addition to forever destroying huge sections of the world's largest rainforest, that shift would release tremendous quantities of planet-warming greenhouse gases, which could hasten the decline of whatever forest remained.

 "We are already in a very critical situation in terms of climate change," says Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, a native Brazilian who studies tropical forests at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. She's the lead author on a study published this month showing that the mix of tree species across the forest is already shifting in response to rising temperatures.

 "If we mess up with the Amazon, carbon dioxide emissions will increase so massively that everyone will suffer," she adds.

 By some accounts, it could happen quite fast.

 The rainforest creates rain

 Bolsonaro, a right-wing congressman from Rio de Janeiro, soundly defeated a former mayor of Sao Paulo in Brazil's presidential election late last month. The populist president-elect is so openly hostile to his country's established order that some call him "Tropical Trump."

 His rise comes at a perilous moment for the Amazon.

 From poison dart frogs and giant anteaters to golden lion tamarins and stinging bullet ants, the South American rainforest is the most species-rich biome on Earth, with more diverse plant life in a single acre than may be found in many American states. It is home to 10 percent of the world's species, including 2.5 million species of insect.

 The forest also influences the water cycle on a regional and perhaps even global scale. As moisture comes off the Atlantic Ocean it falls on the forest as rain. This water gets sucked up by deep roots, then moves through plants and across the surface of leaves before returning to the atmosphere. Winds blowing over the uneven forest canopy create turbulence, which allows the atmosphere to absorb more moisture.

 All this water then moves like a giant flowing river in the sky, falling as rain and then evaporating again and again until it reaches the Andes. Ultimately, the forest produces at least half of its own rain.

 "One water vapor molecule may be recycled five to seven times before it leaves the system, either through the atmosphere or the Amazon River," says Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist with the University of Sao Paulo's Institute for Advanced Studies.

 But experts increasingly fear this delicate exchange could collapse. The loss of just a fraction more of this moisture-creating forest could lead far more of it to dry out, which would reduce rainfall even more, in a self-reinforcing spiral. Already, climate change, decades of logging, and land-clearing by intentionally set wildfires have sparked record-setting droughts in 2005, 2010, and 2015-2016.

 "That suggests the system is flickering," says Thomas Lovejoy, a George Mason University professor and senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation, who is widely considered the godfather of biodiversity studies.

 Lovejoy and Nobre recently tried to estimate how close to the edge the Amazon really is. Their projection, published earlier this year as an editorial in Science Advances, suggests that in the most susceptible parts of the rainforest—the southern, eastern and central Amazon—loss of as little as 20 to 25 percent of original forestland could tip the system into an unstoppable transition to a drier, savanna-like ecosystem.

 Already, by the Brazilian government's own estimates, 17 percent of the Amazon forest system has been lost—not including the parts that are still largely intact, but degraded.

 How likely is the scenario Lovejoy describes?

 "It's not something we know with any confidence, but it's a possibility—and not just a crazy, harebrained possibility. It's a very real one," says Abigail L. S. Swann, a University of Washington eco-climatologist who is contributing to a chapter on abrupt landscape changes for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's next assessment.

 While no one knows precisely where the Amazon’s tipping point may lie, "it makes no sense at all to discover the tipping point by actually tipping over it," Lovejoy says.

 The forest is changing already

 Even as Bolsonaro prepares to take office, the Amazon is already changing.

 The dry season is lengthening and rainfall has dropped by a quarter in some regions. Meanwhile, precipitation, when it comes, sometimes arrives in more intense bursts, leading to massive floods in 2009, 2012, and 2014. The region's climate system is oscillating more wildly.

 In the study she led, published in the journal Global Change Biology with more than a hundred other scientists as co-authors, Esquivel-Muelbert found that during the past 30 years, more drought-tolerant plant species have appeared in the Amazon, while species that predominantly emerge in wet areas are declining. Fast-growing trees and taller trees that are better at accessing the sun are outcompeting shorter, damp-loving species.

 Another study shows the rate of tree deaths is increasing.

 It's not clear whether all this is the beginning of the shift Lovejoy and Nobre predicted—or something else. "But it's still important because the species are beginning to change, and that can change how the forest behaves," Esquivel-Muelbert says.

 How will that change the interactions among tens of thousands of species within the jungle? No one yet knows.

 "It's sending ripples through the system, and we have no idea where they are going to lead," Lovejoy says. "It could become a much simpler ecosystem, and what that means in terms of its overall stability is a real question."

 If Lovejoy is right, and heat and deforestation lead to less rain and a transition to a different type of landscape, consequences will be felt far and wide.

 Expanding ripples

 For starters, it's impossible to quantify the true value of lost diversity. In one recent review, a team found evidence that 381 new types of plants or animals had been discovered in the Amazon during a single two-year period from 2014 to 2015—the equivalent of one new species every other day.

 "It's kind of a cliché that the cure for cancer might be in the Amazon, but it's also kind of true," Esquivel-Muelbert says.

 Moisture from the Amazon also nourishes the winter rains that supply Uruguay, northern Argentina and Paraguay with water. The recent drought that led to water shortages in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, were likely exacerbated by rainforest shifts.

 In some places, rainfall in the Amazon also helps supply water to the very soy farmers and beef ranchers who are clearing the forest. Brazilian agriculture, it seems, actually needs the Amazon.

 "We need to have forest in order to have the rain necessary to plant crops," Esquivel-Muelbert says.

 Massive deforestation of the Amazon could change weather outside South America as well. Because water vapor heats the air as it condenses high in the sky to form liquid raindrops, a significant reduction in rain caused by deforestation would actually cool the atmosphere above the region. That cooling perturbation would leave the southern hemisphere in atmospheric waves—generating untold ripple effects around the planet.

 According to one modeling study , for example, if the Amazon were ever completely deforested, the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains—a crucial water reservoir for California—would be diminished by half.

 That’s without even considering the effect on CO2 and climate.

 Burning time

 "The Amazon stores a tremendous amount of carbon," Nobre says.

 Instead of sucking CO2 from the sky, a deforested Amazon could instead begin releasing stored greenhouse gases. If 60 percent of the forest were to degrade to a savanna, Nobre says, that could unleash the equivalent of five or six years’ worth of global fossil-fuel emissions.

 Michael Mann, a climate scientist and director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, called it "another aggravating climate feedback" loop, where drying rainforest leads to less absorption of CO2, which in turn promotes more climate change, drying more forest.

 "We depend quite a bit on the continued functioning of key carbon sinks," he says. "That’s just one of the many things that makes climate change a global problem."

 In fact, deforestation, fire, and climate change already work synergistically in the Amazon. In recent years, climate change has sparked droughts that let wildfires burn bigger and longer. Between 2003 and 2013, forest clearing dropped by 76 percent, but the increase in wildfire, especially during the drought of 2015, erased half the increased absorption of CO2.

 That's why Lovejoy and Nobre conclude that—contrary to Bolsonaro's campaign promise—what the Amazon needs is not deforestation, but a massive campaign of tree planting.

 "It really makes sense to do some active reforestation to build that margin of safety," Lovejoy says. "It doesn't have to be the forest primeval, but you need something with trees and relatively complex communities." |||||

Write a summary.

– Think deforestation is declining in the Amazon, with all the warnings about climate change? Nope, it just got worse—its highest rate in the past 10 years, the BBC reports. Brazil has released data showing that roughly 3,050 square miles (or nearly 1.5 million football fields) of Earth's biggest rainforest was chopped down between August 2017 and July 2018, a 13.7% increase over the year before. Opinions differ on the cause, with Environment Minister Edson Duarte blaming illegal loggers: "An upsurge in organized crime" is behind it, says Duarte, who calls for a broader battle against "environmental violations and in defense of sustainable development of the biome." Then there's a 2012 forest code that still gives amnesty to anyone who deforests on small properties, notes the Guardian. After declining for years, deforestation began rising in 2013 and increased in four of the following years. Now Brazil is welcoming a new, openly anti-environmentalist president, Jair Bolsonaro, whose foreign minister calls global warming a Marxist plot. Environmentalists say the Amazon rainforest could suffer a 300% deforestation surge under the new regime: "We are already in a very critical situation in terms of climate change," an environmental researcher tells National Geographic. "If we mess up with the Amazon, carbon dioxide emissions will increase so massively that everyone will suffer." Bolsonaro, a 63-year-old former military officer, wants more roads and mines in the rainforest and fewer penalties for chopping down trees. (A scientist calls the decline in forest insects "hyperalarming.")