Welcome to Thursday, August 29th, ketchups and catsups...

The Amazon is burning.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told The Hill that he’d “absolutely” consider imposing sanctions on Brazil over wildfires that continue to devastate the rainforest.

“What is going on in Brazil is extremely dangerous,” Sanders said, adding that his administration “would use all of the tools at our disposal … to try to make sure that we stop the burning of the Amazon, and in fact, that we work with the entire world to move forward to protect the planet.”

More than 80,626 wildfires have been recorded in the Brazilian section of the Amazon this year—a 79% rise over last year.

The wildfires were a topic of concern at the recent G-7 conference, with French President Emmanuel Macron offering Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro $20 million in G-7 aid.

Bolsonaro initially said his country would reject the money, as creating an international alliance to save the Amazon would be treating Brazil like "a colony or no man's land.”

The country has since walked back its rejection, saying it would accept the pledged G-7 funds—provided the Brazilian government could administer the aid.

Should the U.S. sanction Brazil over the Amazon rainforest fires?

On the Radar

Promised Pardons for Border Wall

To complete his long-promised “big, beautiful wall” by the 2020 election, President Trump reportedly ordered aides to seize private land, disregard environmental rules, and fast-track billions of dollars of construction contracts.

According to the Washington Post, Trump assured the aides that he would issue pardons if they had to break any laws to complete the project.

“He said people expected him to build a wall, and it had to be done by the election,” one former official told the Post.

During Trump's presidency, only about 60 miles of barrier have been built, all as a "replacement" barrier for aging structures.

Trump denied the report in a tweet Wednesday, calling the report “another totally Fake story in the Amazon Washington Post.”

How do you feel about the Washington Post report?

Under the Radar

Semi-Finals of Countable’s Summer Bill Acronym Bracket

In honor of Congress’s August recess and politicians’ penchant for the pithy bill acronyms, we’ve put together another tournament in which you — Countable users — choose the best bill acronym of the 116th Congress.

The contenders:

Vote here, then join the conversation:

How do you feel about the congressional use of bill acronyms?