Brazilian researchers say fires raging in the Amazon have reached their highest pace on record, as illegal loggers burn vast areas of rainforest to clear land for mining and cattle grazing. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research says satellites have detected some 74,000 fires in Brazil so far this year — a more than 80% increase over the same period in 2018. There are fires raging in neighboring Bolivia, as well, where some 2,000 square miles have burned. The fires have sent massive plumes of smoke across much of South America, turning day into night in São Paulo, 1,700 miles away from the Amazon Basin.