Indigenous leaders from the Wampis Nation in Peru are urging lawmakers at the House of Commons in London to ban international banks’ support for Amazon oil activities they say harm their ancestral rainforests. HSBC bank, JPMorgan Chase and Santander helped finance the Peruvian state-owned oil company Petroperu as it sought to upgrade a coastal refinery. In the last decade there have been dozens of leaks along a pipeline that serves the refinery. The banks say they adhere to environmental guidelines and take great care over which project to back. The Indigenous members were among several delegations also pressing for a proposed law that would make it a crime for British businesses to harm the environment.

Laotian police have detained the manager and owner of a hostel where two teenage Australian tourists stayed who were poisoned by tainted alcohol, one fatally, in a case that appears to have claimed the lives of at least five people. An officer at Vang Vieng’s Tourism Police office said on Friday that a “number of people” had been detained in the case but that no charges have yet been filed. Staff at the Nana Backpacker Hostel confirmed that the manager and owner were among those taken in for questioning. The U.S. State Department on Friday issued a health alert for citizens in Laos, warning of “suspected methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng, possibly through the consumption of methanol-laced alcoholic drinks.”

A top South Korean official says Russia has supplied anti-air missiles to North Korea in exchange for it sending troops. The U.S., South Korea and others say North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine. What Russia would give North Korea in return has been the focus of keen attention. National Security Director Shin Wonsik told a SBS TV program Friday that South Korea has found Russia has provided anti-air missiles and other equipment to reinforce its air defense network for Pyongyang. Shin says Russia has also give diverse economic assistance to North Korea.

The Bahamas says it will refinance $300 million of its external debt to free up more than $120 million for marine conservation projects and climate change mitigation. It is the fifth such debt-for-nature swap in the world. The Bahamian government signed the deal announced Friday with The Nature Conservancy, the Inter-American Development Bank and other financial partners. The deal involves buying back the existing debt via a new loan with reduced interest rates, a move expected to free up some $124 million in funding. That money will be used for marine conservation projects for the next 15 years.