CNN
By René Marsh

Pituffik, Greenland (CNN)The water off the coast of northwest Greenland is a glass-like calm, but the puddles accumulating on the region's icebergs are a sign that a transformation is underway higher on the ice sheet.

Several days of unusually warm weather in northern Greenland have triggered rapid melting, made visible by the rivers of meltwater rushing into the ocean. Temperatures have been running around 60 degrees Fahrenheit -- 10 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year, scientists told CNN.

The amount of ice that melted in Greenland between July 15 and 17 alone -- 6 billion tons of water per day -- would be enough to fill 7.2 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to data from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Put another way, it was enough to cover the entire state of West Virginia with a foot of water.

"The northern melt this past week is not normal, looking at 30 to 40 years of climate averages," said Ted Scambos, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. "But melting has been on the increase, and this event was a spike in melt."

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The New York Times
By Constant Méheut

PARIS — Long a favorite spot for picnics and sunbathing, the lawns surrounding the Eiffel Tower have recently become the scene of furious protests. First came a social media campaign. Then a rally by dozens of local residents. Before long, a protester had hunkered down in a nearby plane tree for a hunger strike.

The source of their anger? A plan to cut down more than 20 trees, some over 100 years old, around the tower as part of an effort to build a huge garden and ease tourist congestion.

The controversy is just the latest in a series that has engulfed Paris City Hall as it tries to green the city, a task that appears all the more urgent as scorching temperatures bear down on the French capital, and on the rest of Europe.

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Brazilian police say a suspect has confessed to shooting missing British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.

Detective Eduardo Fontes said the man, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, took investigators to a site where human remains were dug up.

He said police would work with Interpol to confirm the bodies’ identities.

Mr Phillips, 57, and Mr Pereira, 41, disappeared in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest on 5 June.

Two suspects, brothers Amarildo and Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, have been arrested in connection with the case.

Detective Fontes told journalists the “first suspect” – Amarildo – had “recounted in detail the crime that was committed and indicated the place where he buried the bodies”. His brother denies any involvement.

Police said they expect to carry out further arrests, and the motive for the killings is under investigation.

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The New York Times
By Jack Nicas

ITAQUAÍ RIVER, Brazil — It was 4 a.m., the sun had yet to rise over the Itaquaí River deep in the Amazon, but a team of Indigenous men was already busy preparing a breakfast of coffee, fried meat and fish. They worked on the small stove in their patrol boat, where they had lived for the past month, on the hunt for poachers.

They were up early this Sunday because a few planned to escort their two guests 50 miles back to town.

The guests, Bruno Pereira, an activist training the Indigenous patrols, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist documenting them, had to get back to meet with the federal police. Mr. Pereira was to turn over the patrol’s evidence of illegal fishing and hunting in this remote corner of the vast forest.

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The Guardian

It is now several days since the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira vanished in an extremely remote part of the Amazon. There is every reason to be seriously concerned for their welfare. They have not been seen since they embarked, early on Sunday morning, upon a short river trip. They had been threatened days before by armed men, and Mr Pereira had earlier received a written threat. Brazil is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders and others associated with Indigenous communities; the killings of the labour leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes and the American nun Dorothy Stang are particularly notorious, but there have been many more since. Journalists are also vulnerable.

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