Newsweek 4/29/2016

Rio de Janeiro—A boat bearing a banner that translates to “Dilma Out” passes by Brazil’s Copacabana beach on April 17. On public screens across the country, thousands of Brazilians watched the National Congress’s Chamber of Deputies vote to begin impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff; 367 of the 513 deputies voted in favor of ousting Brazil’s first female president over corruption charges, sending the proceedings to the Federal Senate. Rousseff has continued to maintain her innocence, but once the Senate agrees to consider impeachment, her presidency will be suspended for 180 days. Although her political survival now looks doubtful, several likely successors are also being investigated for corruption.…

Cairo—Protesters call for Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s resignation on April 15, following his decision to hand over to Saudi Arabia a pair of Red Sea islands Egypt had held since 1950. Thousands here and in Alexandria expressed frustration about the country’s political state, chanting slogans from the 2011 Arab Spring and likening el-Sissi to ousted President Hosni Mubarak. The protests were some of the largest public demonstrations in Egypt since el-Sissi criminalized unapproved protests in 2013.…

Mashiki, Japan—Homes lie in ruin on April 17, one day after a powerful magnitude-7.3 earthquake and three days after a magnitude-6.2 quake struck the same region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Dozens of the area’s mostly wooden homes crumbled; at least 42 people were killed, and nearly 250,000 were advised to leave their homes for fear of more earthquakes. It was an extremely active few days in the quake-prone Pacific Ring of Fire: Ecuador was hit by a magnitude-7.8 temblor that killed at least 350 people and injured 2,000.…

Lesbos, Greece—Pope Francis discusses a child’s drawing during his tour of the Moria refugee camp on April 16. The pontiff and local religious leaders met with refugees in various campsites on this island, putting a spotlight on Europe’s controversial deal with Turkey to end the refugee crisis. Francis offered prayers for refugees who have died trying to cross the Mediterranean from Syria, Afghanistan and war-torn regions of Africa in hopes of reaching Europe. The pope invited 12 Syrian refugees to accompany him on his return flight to Rome, where they will be cared for by the Sant’Egidio religious community.…

IT WAS A MIRACLE, the Nepalis say, that the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 7.8 and shook their Kathmandu Valley onto the world stage, happened on a Saturday morning. Throughout rural Nepal, children were in their home villages instead of away in the schoolhouses, and most everyone was out in the fields planting, picking, cooking and playing. When the ground rumbled on April 25, the people swayed, fell to their knees in the dirt and felt their hearts race as they looked out across the valleys and saw homes topple. When the shaking stopped, they ran through the switchbacks carved into the terraced hills to their stone-and-mud homes, most constructed at great cost and with their own hands over many years, to assess the damage. Over 600,000 houses…

For the past century, the number of tigers roaming the Earth has declined precipitously. In 1900, for example, an estimated 100,000 tigers prowled the wilds of Asia, a number that had declined 97 percent by 2010. The big cats are killed primarily by poachers, who seek the animals for their skins, as well as body parts they can sell for use in traditional Chinese medicine, despite zero evidence of medicinal value. Habitat loss also takes a toll, as does conflict with encroaching humans. There’s finally some good news for these endangered animals: Their population has risen slightly. In 2010, there were an estimated 3,200 tigers in the wild. New estimates suggest that there are now just under 3,900. The increase has primarily been seen in India, Russia, Nepal and Bhutan, says…