Pro

• The Brazilian environmental agency, IBAMA, approved a license to blast a natural rock barrier on the Tocantins River in Pará state to enable boats to pass during the dry season, as part of wider efforts to build a massive waterway for commodities.
• Federal prosecutors requested the suspension of the license due to missing studies and other issues.
• A federal court stated that the proposed blasting will have a limited and controlled impact, asserting there are no Indigenous, Quilombola (Afro-Brazilian) or riverine communities living in that section of the Tocantins River — a claim that advocates say is inaccurate.
• Rock removal will impact endangered fish, Amazon turtles and the Araguaia river dolphin, which is found only in this region and feeds on fish that spawn in Pedral do Lourenço.

A British lawmaker who visited the Swiss research center of one of the world’s largest tobacco companies is proposing a delay to the U.K.’s planned ban on the sale of heated tobacco products – potentially excluding them from landmark legislation slated to go into effect in two years.