What's the Beef With Amazon Fires? | Trump Searches for a Home

American beef firms have long resisted pressure to reduce their carbon footprints, but the global outcry over Amazon fires is leaving them with little choice.

When Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro turned down aid from France in late August to tackle the wildfires that are scorching the Amazon rainforest, he was signaling his refusal to buckle under global pressure over his anti-environment policies. After all, Bolsonaro, who touts himself as pro-business, has encouraged farmers and ranchers to torch parts of the Amazon to clear land for pasture. But his actions are pressuring a sector well beyond Brazil’s borders to change: the American meat industry.

For years now, the industry has tried to resist calls from environmental activists to cut down on beef production and imports, despite the carbon emissions and deforestation that are known byproducts of rearing animals on a large scale for meat. But America’s meat giants are now facing unparalleled pressure, in the wake of the Amazon fires, to adopt more environmentally friendly policies. And early signs suggest that the global outcry over the fires in Brazil is forcing them to change.

President Trump has taken fresh interest in California’s homeless problem. How big will he go?

You’d be hard-pressed to visit Los Angeles or San Francisco in recent years and not notice a swelling tide of street homelessness. As of January, Los Angeles counted 36,000 homeless people (up 16 percent from the year before) and San Francisco had 9,700 (up 30 percent from 2017). For these cities and others, it’s a human crisis — not to mention a sanitary and economic problem — with complex causes rooted in the soaring cost of living, a breakdown of the social safety net, addiction and more.

President Donald Trump looks at people sleeping on the streets and sees liberal failure.

As America has realigned politically into blue cities and inner suburbs vs. swaths of exurban and rural red, Trump — despite a career rooted in America’s largest city — relishes taking aim at the problems of Democrat-ruled urban America. Typically this has focused on crime in places like Chicago and Baltimore. But lately, he’s turned to homelessness.

Stamp Fairtex has conquered two fight disciplines, and she wants to be the first to rule three.

The entire ring was engulfed in a blizzard of gold confetti. Somewhere in the middle of the glitter stood 21-year-old Nong Stamp. She had just become the first fighter in ONE Championship history to win titles in two different disciplines — Muay Thai and kickboxing — and with a belt slung over each shoulder, she was being celebrated accordingly.

It looked a bit like the last scene in a movie. The fighter had scaled her Everest; it had been done. Yet in Stamp’s case, it could be a mere preface. After winning those two titles, she is now chasing gold in a third sport: mixed martial arts (MMA). It would be a stunning first. No one has ever held major titles in three different combat sports at the same time.