The Amazing Digital Circus finale will hit more than 4,000 theaters around the world Thursday. Two weeks later it’ll be on YouTube, bucking Hollywood trends and testing the power of online fandom.
Zak Brown spent a decade racing before joining the business side of Formula One. He talks to WIRED about rebuilding a legendary brand, obsessive fans, and the pull of the driver’s seat.
Landowner Carlos Roberto Simonetti gets three harvests per year from the corn, soy and cotton plantations on his 17,000-hectare (about 42,000 acres) farm called Fazenda Natureza Feliz, or Happy Nature, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. Over the course of four years, he would also get what he calls a fourth harvest, this time from the forested areas of his property, located where the Cerrado savanna meets the Amazon Rainforest. That’s because Simonetti would receive regular payments for protecting native vegetation beyond what the law requires, as part of a pilot project for payment for ecosystem services (PES) run by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), an NGO, in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará. The program, called CONSERV, gives landowners financial incentives to keep the forest standing even in areas which they are legally allowed to clear. The pilot project, which initially ran between 2020 and 2024 on 23 different properties, protected 20,707 hectares (about 51,170 acres) of land in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes with funding from the governments of Norway and The Netherlands. Ongoing contracts funded by Soft Commodities Forum members – agribusiness companies committed to preserving the Cerrado – are protecting a further 7,000 hectares (about 17,300 acres) in the states of Mato Grosso and Maranhão. IPAM is now seeking to scale up the program without relying on donations. The risk of legal deforestation The idea for CONSERV goes back to 2016, when an internal IPAM report calculated that around 1.5 million hectares (3.7…This article was originally published on Mongabay
Loryn Brantz created The Good Advice Cupcake for BuzzFeed years ago. The company licensed the character for a new Amazon series—made with AI—without her consent.
CONCEPCIÓN DE SOLUTECA, Honduras — In the 1970s, the Honduran government granted a piece of land in the mountains of Concepción de Soluteca to Roberto González’s parents. They duly grabbed a chainsaw and a machete to clear the forest. On the 12 hectares (30 acres) they received as part of a land reform, they planted corn, beans and bananas, the basic staple foods. It was a hard life up in the mountains, allowing the farmers and their families to just survive. There wasn’t much public infrastructure, and most children had to help with farmwork early on. This included González, who only attended elementary school for three years. When González inherited the land 20 years later, coffee cultivation was just taking off. Middlemen promised the farmers good money for the export crop, and the banks provided loans for cultivation. At first, this worked well, González, now 39, remembers. Coffee helped the farmers to generate income and improve living conditions. But it didn’t last long. They grew coffee much the same way they did other crops, without adequate soil or shade management. When harvests dwindled, they expanded their area, cutting the last standing forests and damaging water sources. Around 2012, they faced an outbreak of coffee rust, a fungal disease. It was a complete disaster: many farmers were thrown into poverty and forced to migrate. “We destroyed the foundations of our livelihoods, but it was out of ignorance; we just didn’t know better,” González tells Mongabay. Under the EUDR, coffee farmers step…This article was originally published on Mongabay
They're said to have cut off their breasts to better draw their bows and even to have killed their male offspring. What is the history behind the myths surrounding the Amazons?
Mozart's music evokes lightness and beauty. In times of war and destruction, people often invoke the ideals of the classical era. But is this just an escape from reality? The Mozartfest Würzburg offers different answers.
The Nazis denounced jazz music as "degenerate art," despite its widespread popularity in Germany. As the Nazis clamped down on expression, groups of jazz-loving teenagers formed the Swing Youth to rebel.
Long seen primarily as a sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe is now viewed as an early advocate for women in Hollywood. On the 100th anniversary of her birth, DW looks at the star who balanced fame and feminist agency.
As Donald Trump proposes costly redesigns for Washington, DC, the question arises: When do grand projects serve the public — and when do they serve the leader?
Le nouveau président de l’Union des journalistes ivoiriens en France (UJIF), Axel Illary, a présidé, mercredi 27 mai, sa première réunion du conseil d’administration depuis son élection. Cette rencontre a été l’occasion pour le nouveau dirigeant de présenter les grandes orientations de son mandat ainsi que les mécanismes de mise en œuvre de son programme. […]
James Bond is back, and he's as charismatic and daring as ever. The video game "007 First Light" tells the origin story of the British secret agent — and the stakes are high.
Find out about interesting recent developments in international cultural life in this column. No Statute of Limitations By decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, April 19 is the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People by the German‑Fascist Invaders during the Great Patriotic War. Cultural and memorial events were […]
Berlin's central station was inaugurated in May 2006. Beyond its functionality, the modern glass-and-steel structure was built to play a key role in reunified Germany.
People new to Germany are often surprised by the number of public holidays in the spring. Pentecost is one of them, but its significance is not well-known.
Gone are the days when museums were just places to see art and artifacts. On International Museum Day, DW looks at how museums are becoming unique spaces of community engagement and participation.