could be the difference between winning and losing if Thiago Moises wants to get the best of his opponent he may want to take the newcomer’s cell phone.  “My dad is the person who calms me down,” said Costa of the man he calls his hero “I call him after weigh-ins and we joke around and he comes up with different crazy moves Those calls with his father may not sound like anything out of the ordinary but a reminder that even though his dad wasn’t exactly thrilled about his son entering the MMA world How To Watch UFC 283: Teixeira vs Hill In Your Country he didn’t support me because he thought fighters had to be strong “But then we created a very strong bond and he knows how to give me strength and how to motivate me.” Twenty-four fights and 19 wins later, Costa has proven that the skinny kid from Porto de Moz isn’t too bad at this prizefighting stuff And though he’s making his UFC debut as a relative unknown against one of the lightweight division’s best something over 12 years in the game will give you Melquizael Costa poses for a portrait during a UFC photo session on January 18 “I started training in 2010 when some friends invited me to a gym,” said Costa “I put on all the gear to train some striking and got knocked out Then another friend told me to come train jiu-jitsu The friend was injured and said he just needed one hand to submit me I decided that I needed to train to beat that guy.” as being able to fight and defend himself gave him a confidence he needed after dealing with plenty of abuse from the outside world due to the autoimmune disorder vitiligo that he dealt with since he was a child Fight By Fight Preview | UFC 283: Teixeira vs Hill “I started training but was very shy because I had been through a lot of discrimination since I was a kid and that had messed up my mind,” he said “I didn’t want to take my clothes off around people or take pictures with others. At one point I was working in the countryside and didn’t even want to go back to the city; I was like an animal and avoided human interaction Fighting helped me overcome all of those things so I started training seriously and began enjoying it.” It was more than learning left hooks and heel hooks for Costa who fell in love with combat sports because on the mats CO-MAIN: Deiveson Figueiredo UFC 283 Interview | Brandon Moreno UFC 283 Interview people would confuse vitiligo with leprosy,” said Costa “But it wasn’t the kids discriminating; it was the parents who wouldn’t let the their kids interact with me Fighting was what made me start ignoring it There was a time that it really affected me so I wanted to train harder because I wanted to beat up whoever would call me names But then came a point when I noticed that people didn’t really care anymore people cared less about me having spots on my skin.” his family wasn’t convinced this was a good thing especially when he expressed the desire to make a living out of it one day a prospect that didn’t seem too promising when trips to the gym usually saw Costa as the nail and not the hammer “I would get beat up a lot because I was training with pro MMA fighters,” he said “My family didn’t want me to keep fighting; nobody liked it My brother was the only one to support me and said he would help me but I didn’t even know if that’s what I really wanted to do. I kept training but my brother had an accident and passed away in 2013 but it also gave me a lot of strength to keep going.” The pattern became clear from there - school In Brazil? Here's The UFC 283 Public Event Schedule “I was always very focused on studying,” he said I was told that needed to choose between studying or fighting I would grab my cart to sell popsicles on the streets I would go train at the gym and I kept that routine for two years the 17-year-old Costa made his pro debut with a three-round split decision win over Benjamin Junior Coelho Pantoja and raced out to an 8-0 record. A 4-4 stretch followed but a run in which he won seven of his next eight was the one that earned him the short-notice call to the UFC Included was a 2020 win over Anderson Ferreira that he won’t forget anytime soon “I was offered that fight 15 days before the fight,” Costa recalled “He’s a knockout artist who had 13 knockouts in 14 wins I fell and blew out my shoulder and couldn’t move it My coach stretched it so I could move it on fight night ‘Now I can knock him out.’ I knocked him out and shocked everyone So my biggest accomplishment is shocking people.” but maybe the biggest one is inspiring people who may be going through the same struggles he did growing up Order UFC 283: Teixeira vs Hill “I like being in this position,” Costa said “Maybe if I had someone to look up to when I was younger I wouldn’t have gone through the things that I did For all those people who suffer with depression or any other kind of disease and are held back I want to tell them that the world is beautiful The people who make fun of me or have mean comments are really just unhappy with themselves; happy people don’t waste their time making fun of people and calling them names I receive a lot of messages from people who have looked up to me and I meet people at events who are just there to see me It’s very satisfying to know that I can be an inspiration to those people.” I’m guessing father and son will have plenty to talk about on Friday the call will be after my first UFC weigh-in and I believe he couldn’t be more proud,” Costa said “And we’re all very happy to be able to represent my town of Porto de Moz To hear Bruce Buffer announce my town will be amazing.” Go Through All The Heavyweight Title Winners In UFC History An Overview Of Every UFC Weight Class And How UFC Weigh-Ins Operate Returning Home To Brazil For The First Time In Years Thiago Moises Hopes To Launch Himself Up The Lightweight Rankin 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects news and interviews about your industry in English Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatly extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil the true scale of extraction remains unknown logging and mining hard to establish despite efforts to ban commodities linked to its destruction From the world’s largest iron ore mine to a ranching industry that slaughters more than 6 million animals a year, the Guardian analysis – carried out as part of a joint project with Forbidden Stories to mark the anniversary of the killings of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips – shows how the world’s most biodiverse land is now also a home to industrial powerhouses The firms are sources of economic growth and employment for the communities and for the country But they are operating in an environment – the world’s largest rainforest and a critical carbon sink – that presents unusual challenges after which the forest will start to dry up and lose its globally important function as a climate regulator ShowHow we calculated the value of Amazon extraction There is no comprehensive data on the economic value of extraction in the Amazon The Guardian has sought the best-quality data to make estimates for all major sectors All figures have been adjusted for inflation and presented in 2022 US dollars The reported value of extraction was not necessarily realised by the company that extracted it we used company reports and market data provided by Refinitiv to estimate the value of production from major projects in the Amazon we combined data on slaughterhouse capacity from Imazon research with information on the average idleness rate and its market value to estimate the value of production in Brazil.  we combined historical market data with research by Trase on soya exports to estimate its value we estimated the value of production using port export disclosures and average annual price data Palm oil figures were based on the material published by the relevant companies Thank you for your feedback.Using company records the Guardian has tried to establish the value of goods that are commonly extracted from the Brazilian Amazon one company stands head and shoulders above the others: since 2010 the Brazilian mining company Vale has extracted more than 4bn tonnes of iron ore from Carajás mine Satellite images showing the increasing size of the Carajás iron ore mine in Pará Source: Planet Labs PBC.Pará is also home to Alunorte the biggest aluminium refinery outside China generating about $15.3bn in revenue since 2014 for the Norwegian mining firm Norsk Hydro which is part-owned by the Norwegian government The Norsk Hydro Alunorte refinery in Barcarena Photograph: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesAlcoa and MRN lag behind these vast numbers a Pittsburgh company that has only recently moved into the Amazon does not release figures that are easily interpretable has produced bauxite ore worth $8.3bn since 2013 from its operation in Pará by far the most financially lucrative Amazon activity with more than $4.2bn of gold extracted between 2018 and 2022 by artisan producers according to analysis of figures provided by Refinitiv But the lion’s share goes to the big companies at the top Maurício Angelo, the founder of the Mining Observatory notes that the area occupied by legal industrial mining in Brazil has grown sevenfold since 1985 He says this expansion brings huge environmental liabilities railroads.) as well as the removal of traditional peoples the industry has never lived up to its claims of sustainability “Mining did not deliver the development it promised and confined cities and entire regions to underdevelopment with huge environmental liabilities and almost no practical return for society.” Vale says it is aware that as a company it has a responsibility to “contribute to socioeconomic development and establish relationships of respect and trust in the territories where it is present” It says it has invested more than 1bn Brazilian reais (about $200m) over the last decade in protection territorial development and cultural incentive actions in the Amazon Cattle in a holding pen on a farm in São Félix do Xingu Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty ImagesThe beef industry is far smaller than the mining sector in terms of economic value cattle slaughtered in the Amazon by JBS were worth about $5bn in 2016 while they were still in Brazil processed about $600m and $1bn’s worth respectively largely because of exchange rate fluctuations But this is just the value of the beef coming out of the slaughterhouse; far more value will be added further along the complex supply chain and by an overwhelming margin the economic value of this industry is being realised outside Brazil on dinner plates at restaurants in Beijing and New York Paulo Barreto, senior researcher with the Brazilian research institute Imazon told the Guardian: “Although major beef supply companies have pledged to decouple from deforestation the sector has not done all that it should.” He argued that the combination of irresponsible behaviour by some private companies with “the dismantling of public conservation and indigenous policies in the past four years led to a twofold increase in deforestation rates in the region compared to the previous ten years average.” Ranching is the biggest driver of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions after land grabbing, with which it is often closely associated. By 2018, the Brazilian Amazon had lost 741,759 sq km (about 286,000 sq miles) of its original forest cover This accelerated during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro a Brazilian Indigenous expert and Dom Phillips a British journalist and longtime Guardian contributor, were killed on the Amazon’s Itaquaí River last June while returning from a reporting trip to the remote Javari Valley region and cast a spotlight on the growing threat to the Amazon posed by extractive industries the Guardian has joined 15 other international news organisations in a collaborative investigation into organised crime and resource extraction in the Brazilian Amazon The initiative has been coordinated by Forbidden Stories the Paris-based non-profit whose mission is to continue the work of reporters who are threatened The goal of the project is to honour and pursue the work of Bruno and Dom to foreground the importance of the Amazon and its people and  to suggest possible ways to save the Amazon was a former employee of the Indigenous agency Funai where he led efforts to protect the isolated and uncontacted tribes who live in the Brazilian Amazon After being sidelined from his post soon after the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro came to power Pereira went to work with the Javari Valley Indigenous association Univaja helping create Indigenous patrol teams to stop illegal poachers miners and loggers invading their protected lands was a longtime contributor to the Guardian who hadlived in Brazil for 15 years A former editor of the dance magazine Mixmag he developed a deep interest in environmental issues the beef industry and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest His reporting brought him into contact with Pereira and in 2018 the pair took part in a 17-day expedition deep into the Javari Valley In 2021 he took a year off to start writing a book His return to the Javari was to have been the last reporting trip for the project Sitting on Brazil’s border with Peru and Colombia the Javari ValleyIndigenous Reservation is a Portugal-sized swathe of rainforest andrivers which is home to about 6,000 Indigenous people from the Kanamari as well as 16 isolated groups.It is also a hotspot for poachers fishers and illegal loggers,prompting violent conflicts between the Indigenous inhabitants and theriverside communities which fiercely opposed the reservation’screation in 2001 Its strategic location makes it a key route for smuggling cocaine between Peru Pereira and Phillips travelled up the Itaquaí River from the town of Atalaia do Norte to report on efforts to stop illegal fishing members of the Indigenous patrol team with whom Pereira and Phillips were travelling were threatened by an illegal fisher the pair set out on the return leg before dawn hoping to safely pass a river community that was home to several known poachers.  and after a search by teams of local Indigenous activists Three fishers are being held in high-security prisons awaiting trial for the killings: brothers Amarildo and Oseney da Costa de Oliveira and a third man Federal police have alleged that a fourth man Thank you for your feedback.JBS, the world’s biggest meat company, has been urged to use its commercial strength to improve environmental and social governance in the Amazon. The last story by Phillips published in the Guardian was a report about a 65% increase in JBS profits in the last quarter of 2020 observing that the results meant the firm had “plenty of money to spend in removing illegal deforestation from its Amazon supply chain” but it has made no commitment to restitution for the damage its operations have already caused JBS disagreed with the Guardian’s analysis but declined to comment The soya sector is another powerhouse in the region Amaggi and Louis Dreyfus – extracted soya worth $18bn on global markets The major players have all signed a moratorium to halt deforestation Palm oil and pulp production are also growing industries in the Brazilian Amazon The Brazilian paper maker Suzano produced about $5bn of eucalyptus pulp between 2018 and 2022 Brasil Biofuels is established entirely in the Amazon operates mainly in the Amazonian state of Pará and had revenues of about $284m in 2021 and $468m in 2022 with plans to increase production by 50% by 2025 A eucalyptus plantation and rainforest about 50 miles north of Porto de Moz Photograph: Daniel Beltrá/GreenpeaceThe companies involved in these activities all claim they are part of the Amazon solution because they only plant on land that was degraded more than 10 years ago “We have a regenerative business model,” says Suzano adding that it plants more than 1.2m trees a day and only harvests what it plants There is plenty that it is not possible to quantify or measure The analysis does not include the corporations providing services – the giant seed tech companies or the construction companies building roads and houses the hydropower companies and heavy machinery producers it is impossible to estimate the value being produced for those companies within the legal Amazon territory The timber and fishing industries have remained far more diversified transferred it at the much higher price of land covered by pasture” Free weekly newsletterThe planet's most important stories Get all the week's environment news - the good These operations may have yielded $400m a year in profit for that period alone arguing that cattle is the perfect way to transform forest into private property is that an extractivist development model has prevailed in the Brazilian Amazon ever since it was opened up by the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s The World Bank has belatedly recognised the folly of this approach with a recent report finding that the losses caused by clearing the Amazon were seven times higher than the gains from commodity extraction A satellite view of wildfires in the Amazon in August 2019 Photograph: NasaBut the trend has been towards ever greater depletion of the forest to satisfy global markets and shareholders encouraged by the Brazilian government which has helped things along with easily available finance it is still often impossible to establish the provenance of beef gold or other commodities from the rainforest and global market regulators and trade institutions have been criticised for continuing to permit opaque supply chains which has prevailed since the first European colonisers invaded South America more than 500 years ago is now under intense scrutiny because the Amazon is so degraded that scientists warn this pillar of the global climate is close to collapse companies operating in this region need to be more accountable more efficient and more willing to pass on environmental costs to their customers and shareholders rather than nature Members of the Kayapo Indigenous group walk along a highway on the outskirts of Novo Progresso in August 2020 during a protest against a lack of government support during the Covid pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories Photograph: Lucas Landau/Reuters‘Giving something back’In response to the Guardian’s analysis several of the companies said they contributed to the local economy followed national laws and tried to minimise their environmental impact Their responses give an idea of the varying levels of commitment to “giving something back” Brazil Biofuels argued it should not be considered an extractive company because it only planted palm oil plantations on land degraded before 2007 “The business model recovers the Amazon biome [and] works to recompose the soil cover and the biogeochemical and hydrological cycles by generating employment and income for needy communities it encourages forest preservation and reduces the impact of deforestation,” it said the eucalyptus firm Suzano said it was a “vocal critic of the lack of action to combat deforestation in Brazil” and had a regenerative business model “Over 40% of our land is set aside for permanent conservation (nearly 1m hectares) Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes,” the company said in an email It claimed its social programmes had helped 30,000 people out of poverty and generated R$79m of income for local people Vale said it “reaffirms its commitment to transparency and sustainable mining promoting socioeconomic development and conservation in the areas where it operates” Norsk Hydro said it had been established since 1905 with social responsibility as part of its culture the move from joint venture ownerships to becoming an operator of large plants in remote areas of Brazil had been a steep learning curve “We work closely with the communities where we operate we realised our relationship and trust from our neighbours wasn’t as good as it should have been so we have made efforts to improve our dialogue with local communities We focus in particular on enabling young people to get an education and on improving and implementing new technologies in our operations to reduce our impact,” it said the largest private producer of soya beans in the world said it did not recognise the Guardian’s estimates of financial data because they were not based on a precise tool The Brazil-based firm said it did not sell from areas deforested after 2008 in the Amazon biome and that it ran social investment projects through foundations including efforts to improve food security it donated more than 150,000 staple food kits the biggest privately owned company in the US said it had accelerated its commitment to eliminate deforestation in its soya supply chain in the Amazon and two other biomes by 2025 The multinational said it was investing significantly in ending deforestation in South America by running programmes and training to help farmers increasing technology to improve traceability and investing in teams in Brazil and throughout South America to accelerate deforestation efforts A soya-bean field south of the city of Santarém Photograph: Daniel Beltrá/GreenpeaceMinerva Foods which operates numerous slaughterhouses in the Amazon said it monitored the land use of its direct cattle suppliers and worked to get them into a programme to measure and reduce carbon emissions The company said it used the best available technology to ensures compliance with environmental and land tenure regulations Marfrig told the Guardian that under a programme launched in 2020 it now monitored 100% of its direct suppliers while for indirect suppliers the traceability rates reached 80% in the Amazon biome and 74% in the Cerrado biome “Marfrig has been recognised as the leading animal protein company in various rankings lists and reports that serve as benchmarks for evaluating ESG [environmental social and governance] policies and practices in recent years,” it said JBS disputed the Guardian’s analysis but declined to comment further Pristine Amazon rainforest and conservation areas are being rapidly opened up to dams gold mining and soya plantations in Brazil’s least developed state Read more: Amazon’s final frontier under threat from oil and soya Read more: Amazon’s final frontier under threat from oil and soya Post Courier At least 10 people have died and dozens are missing after a passenger boat sank in stormy weather on a major river in northern Brazil The boat was carrying about 70 passengers when it sank in the Xingu River in the state of Para late on Tuesday Public security officials in Para say about 15 people managed to get to shore after the boat took on water It’s understood at least two young children are among the dead Paulo newspaper said the boat departed Santarem on Monday night and was heading to Vitoria do Xingu It was supposed to stop in Monte Alegre and Prainha before reaching its final destination but it sank in a remote area between the cities of Porto de Moz and Senador Jose Porfirio described a chaotic scene as the boat cracked apart and quickly sank He told the G1 news portal that a tarpaulin sheltering passengers from a heavy downpour made it difficult to escape “The tarp prevented many people from leaving but neither I nor the child had a life jacket on,” Costa said Costa said a man trying to get off the boat suddenly jumped on his back and grabbed the child away from him He last saw the man sinking in the river and did not know what happened to the child He told G1 he found a life jacket and used it to stay afloat but he saw many others in the water who “failed to make it.” Travel by river is common in Brazil’s northern states which include the Amazon rainforest and have relatively fewer major roads In early August a cargo vessel collided with a tugboat on the Amazon River Only two people were rescued out of 11 aboard the tugboat Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox Christian Rodriguez takes on Melquizael Costa in a featherweight bout at Arena CDMX in Mexico City. The fight is part of UFC on ESPN 64, with Brandon Moreno vs. Steve Erceg as the main event Rodriguez, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, started his pro career in the United States with Roufusport. He recently won against Austin Bashi by unanimous decision His consistent fighting history suggests he brings strong fundamentals into this match Costa hails from Porto de Moz, Brazil, and trained with Chute Boxe Joao Emilio. He comes off a win over Andre Fili by submission through a guillotine choke Costa's diverse skills and past wins show he has tools to secure victories even against more agile fighters like Rodriguez Live coverage for the Christian Rodriguez vs Melquizael Costa main card will start at 04:00 PM EST on ESPN+ Refer to the table below to find your local time The UFC on ESPN 64 event takes place today The main event features Brandon Moreno facing Steve Erceg watch Rodriguez take on Costa in a featherweight bout scheduled for three rounds Keep in mind that the timing of the fights may vary based on how long earlier bouts last Refer to the table with start times for your specific country to ensure you don't miss any action You can watch Christian Rodriguez vs Melquizael Costa via ESPN+ If your country is blocked by the streaming services or there simply isn’t any viable options for your country, we only can recommend one solution: using a VPN software to bypass the restrictions It allows you to change your IP address and appear as if you’re watching the event from another country So if you live in either the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, UAE, Mexico, Spain or any other country and can’t find a working provider to watch the Christian Rodriguez vs Melquizael Costa fight, use our recommended (and tested) VPN and switch to a location of your choice Christian Rodriguez steps into this bout as the favorite with odds of 1.6 (-156) and expect to stake $156 for a potential $100 profit A successful $100 bet on Costa promises a return of $240 Rodriguez's chance of winning by decision stands at 2.5 (+145) Both fighters have long-shot odds for a KO/TKO/DQ win Kansas City will host the UFC On ESPN 66 ..