Crime-weary residents of Rio de Janeiro strongly support the bloody police operation that resulted in a record 121 deaths this week, according to a new poll, which found they want drastic action against the gun-toting cartels controlling the city’s favelas.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a new law that increases penalties and expands enforcement tools intended to combat organized crime in Brazil.

A narrow skiff slides among massive rocky outcroppings on the Tocantins River, where the catfish and peacock bass throng in the eddies during the waxing moon. For most of his life, Welton de Franca has fished like his father before him among these rocks on one of the largest tributaries in the Amazon Basin.

Brazil’s government says deforestation in the Amazon fell 11% in the year through July 2025 to its lowest level in nearly a decade, helped by stronger enforcement and monitoring.