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Indonesia: Wildfires Threaten Orangutans, Cause Respiratory Illness

HeadlineOct 27, 2015

The visit by Indonesia President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, comes amid raging forest fires in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Fires are often set on purpose to clear land for palm oil, but amid dry conditions and the strongest El Niño on record, thousands of fires have burned into national parks and other sensitive areas. Environmentalists warn the fires are threatening a third of the world’s remaining wild orangutans. The fires have created a dense haze across Malaysia and Singapore and are believed to be responsible for up to 500,000 respiratory infections. We’ll have more on the fires and President Obama’s meeting with Jokowi later in the broadcast.

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