A Brazilian court has blocked an attempt by the president, Michel Temer, to open up swaths of the Amazon forest to mining companies after an outcry by environmental campaigners and climate activists. The federal judge Rolando Valcir Spanholo said the president went beyond his authority in issuing a decree to abolish Renca, an area of 46,000 sq km (17,760 sq miles) that has been protected since 1984. Approving an injunction requested by public prosecutors, the judge said the dissolution of Renca (more formally known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates) could only be done by Congress. But this may be only a temporary reprieve for the area, which is thought to contain deposits of gold, copper, tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese.

The attorney general has appealed. In several previous cases related to development of environmentally sensitive areas or indigenous territory, higher court judges have overturned rulings made by local courts. But the injunction buys a little time for opponents and adds to the pressure on Temer, who has repeatedly come under fire for putting economic interests ahead of the environment.(theguardian)…[+]

One of Yemen’s most prominent political analysts and activists is being held incommunicado, without access to a lawyer or his family, after he was detained in Sana’a by the Houthi rebels that control the city. Hisham al-Omeisy has been a rare on-the-ground commentator during Yemen’s civil war, and has been critical of both sides in his outspoken Twitter posts.

He is understood to have been detained on 14 August in Sana’a’s Jawlat al-Misbah neighbourhood. The Iran-backed Houthis are allied with Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and have been in conflict with forces loyal to another president, the ousted Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, since 2015. A military intervention led by Saudi Arabia aimed at reinstating Hadi has exacerbated a dire humanitarian situation. Omeisy’s last post on Twitter indicated that “armed” forces had showed up at his doorstep. He is now being held in an undisclosed location.(theguardian)…[+]

Hundreds of people were feared cut off by flood waters on Wednesday as tropical storm Harvey spared Houston overnight but moved east, inundating the industrial Texas cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur and making landfall again, coming to shore in south-west Louisiana.On Wednesday morning, the Harris County sheriff’s office confirmed two drowning deaths north of Houston, bringing the official death toll to 20 though there were reports by local officials of as many as 30 deaths. One victim was in a truck that was washed away and another was seen swimming in deep water. The toll was expected to rise. Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County flood control district, told the AP that in the Houston area, “the water levels are going down. And that’s for the first time in several days”. But in Port Arthur, near the coast, rescue teams struggled to reach desperate residents.(theguardian)…[+]