Destruction of the Amazon rainforest remains "relentless"

The Amazon rainforest was losing an area the size of six soccer pitches every minute, according to estimates by the World Wildlife Fund and the MapBiomas mapping project, mainly due to illegal felling and mining, and farming. Environmentalists believe the rainforest spanning several countries lost 88 million hectares (or 880 square kilometers) between 1985 and 2023, with consequences expected on the climate and especially rainfall far beyond the region, the website Infobae reported on 29 October. The destruction rythm, it stated citing data from the Global Forest Watch, had made Latin America the global leader in rainforest destruction.

Mexico's tobacco taxes fuel black market in cigarettes

A fifth of all cigarettes smoked in Mexico were "illegal or semi-legal," likely as a result of increasing taxes and restrictions on smoking, media reported on 28 October, citing research by the Colegio de México, a public university. Its ongoing study on the causes of social misconduct found that the proportion of black-market cigarettes rose from eight per cent in 2017 to 20% in 2023, the Mexico City paper La Jornada reported. The study's coordinator, Manuel Pérez, linked this to rising taxes on smoking, naming 2011 as a turning point when the state raised tobacco taxes 30%. On 28 October, Mexico's Senate approved another round of taxes on cigarettes, soft drinks and 'violent videogames,' with amendments to the IEPS or Law for a Special Tax on Production and Services. Beside taxes, Mexico banned smoking and vaping in all public spaces including parks and beaches as well as relevant advertising in January 2023.  The BBC described this then as one of the strictest regimes anywhere governing smoking, effectively confining it to homes, even if enforcement might prove problematic. It could, it observed, prompt police harassment or acts of petty corruption.