Category Archives: Brazil

Mining firm BHP offers $25.7bn settlement for Brazil dam disaster

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Australian company and its partner Vale unleashed largest spill of mining waste in history

The mining company BHP has said it hopes to secure a $25.7bn (£20bn) settlement over the 2015 Samarco disaster, when the collapse of a dam left at least 19 people dead, 700 homeless and spread unprecedented levels of pollutants across the rivers and landscape of Brazil.

BHP said it had offered the settlement to the Brazilian authorities in partnership with fellow miner Vale, its 50:50 joint venture partner in a local subsidiary, Samarco.

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Portugal needs to ‘pay the costs’ of slavery and colonialism, says president

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Critics of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa say behind remarks is lack of national recognition that slavery should be discussed in schools

Portugal needs to “pay the costs” of slavery and other colonial-era crimes, the country’s president has said, in a rare instance of a European leader seemingly backing the need for reparations.

Portugal has long grappled with calls by campaigners to address its legacy as the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade. During the span of four centuries, nearly 6 million Africans were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels.

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Bolsonaro supporters hit streets of Rio and hail new hero Elon Musk

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Owner of X has used social media platform to bash judge in charge of investigations into former president

Thousands of diehard supporters of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro have hit the streets of Rio to champion their embattled leader and celebrate the new hero of their far-right movement: Elon Musk.

The tech billionaire has spent recent weeks using his social network X to bash Bolsonaro’s arch-enemy, the supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes is responsible for several investigations into Bolsonaro that could land the ex-president in jail, including one examining the alleged coup plot that preceded the rightwing insurrection in Brasília on 8 January 2023.

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Harry Styles stalker jailed for sending him 8,000 cards in a month

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Myra Carvalho sentenced to 14 weeks’ imprisonment and banned from seeing singer perform

A woman who stalked Harry Styles has been jailed and banned from seeing him perform.

Myra Carvalho, who appeared at Harrow crown court sitting at Hendon magistrates court in London, was said to have stalked the singer by sending him 8,000 cards in less than a month.

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Brazilian woman arrested after taking corpse to sign bank loan: ‘She knew he was dead’

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Shock in Brazil after woman is arrested and charged with violating a corpse and attempted theft through fraud

When Érika de Souza Vieira wheeled her lethargic-looking uncle into a Brazilian bank, clerks quickly sensed something was amiss.

“I don’t think he’s well. He doesn’t look well at all,” remarked one distrustful employee as Vieira tried to get her elderly relative to sign off on a 17,000 reais ($3,250) loan.

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Packers and Eagles to play NFL season opener at Brazil club with ‘ban’ on green

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  • Teams play in colors of Corinthians’ bitter rivals
  • NFL to play its first regular-season game in Brazil

The Green Bay Packers will play the Philadelphia Eagles when the NFL holds its first regular-season game in Brazil.

The 6 September matchup in Sao Paulo will mark the first time since 1970 that the NFL has played a Friday night game on the season’s opening weekend.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had said in February that the Eagles would be the home team for the game. The NFL announced on Wednesday that the Packers will face the Eagles.

The game will take place at Corinthians Arena, the home of Brazilian soccer team Corinthians. The venue was used at the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Corinthians have an informal ban on the color green, worn by their bitter rivals Palmeiras, around the club. The Packers and Eagles both wear green, with the Eagles set to wear the color as the home team. In 2021, Corinthians fined their striker Jo for wearing green boots. Jo later said the boots were actually “turquoise blue”.

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Epidemic fears as 80% of Indigenous Amazon tribe fall ill

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Advocates fear situation could escalate in Javari valley, a region plagued by violence and poor healthcare

More than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.

The valley, where Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were killed in 2022, is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in voluntary isolation and of recent contact worldwide. The Korubo people were first contacted by government officials in 1996, and they continue to live with little interaction with other Indigenous groups and local authorities.

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Elon Musk faces Brazil inquiry after defying X court order

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Multibillionaire called for resignation of judge who ordered platform to block far-right users

Elon Musk faces a legal investigation in Brazil after becoming embroiled in a public row with a supreme court judge over an order requiring the social network X to take down some far-right accounts.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes had issued a court order forcing the site formerly known as Twitter to block several users as part of his investigation into the former president Jair Bolsonaro’s attempts to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.

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Global rainforest loss continues at rate of 10 football pitches a minute

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Despite major progress in Brazil and Colombia, deforestation led by farming still cleared an area nearly equal to Switzerland

The destruction of the world’s most pristine rainforests continued at a relentless rate in 2023, despite dramatic falls in forest loss in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon, new figures show.

An area nearly the size of Switzerland was cleared from previously undisturbed rainforests last year, totalling 37,000 sq km (14,200 sq miles), according to figures compiled by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland. This is a rate of 10 football pitches a minute, often driven by more land being brought under agricultural cultivation around the world.

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Two local staff at Hungary embassy fired after Bolsonaro video leak – report

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Footage showing former president spent two nights apparently hiding from potential arrest at mission was leaked to media

The Hungarian embassy in Brasília has reportedly fired two Brazilian employees after the leaking of security footage that revealed how Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro had spent two nights “hiding” inside the mission.

According to the network CNN Brasil, the sackings were punishment for the embarrassing leak to the New York Times which prompted a political outcry in Brazil and calls for Bolsonaro’s arrest.

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Brazil apologizes to Indigenous people for persecution during dictatorship

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President of amnesty commission investigating crimes of 1964-85 regime makes first-ever apology to Indigenous leader

Brazil has issued its first-ever apology for the torture and persecution of Indigenous people during the military dictatorship, including the incarceration of victims in an infamous detention centre known as an “Indigenous concentration camp”.

The apology was made on Tuesday by an amnesty commission attached to the human rights ministry that is tasked with investigating the crimes of the 1964-85 regime.

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Lula dismays relatives of dictatorship’s victims by ignoring coup anniversary

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Brazil’s president has nixed commemorations of the 1964 coup, possibly to avoid irking the military as senior officers facing jail for allegedly conspiring to stop Lula taking power after 2022 election

Relatives of the victims of Brazil’s brutal two-decade dictatorship have voiced anger and dismay over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s reported decision to block official remembrance events marking the 60th anniversary of the 1964 military coup d’état.

Activists had hoped the leftist’s government would mark the 31 March 2024 anniversary of that power-grab with a series of memorials honouring the thousands who were killed, disappeared or tortured by the 1964-85 regime.

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Macron rekindles France-Brazil relationship in widely memed Lula visit

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Photos of French president’s three-day trip to Brazil to reaffirm countries’ partnership delight internet observers

If the official photos are anything to go by, Emmanuel Macron’s three-day trip to Brazil has been more romantic getaway than international diplomacy.

The French president, who ended his tour of the South American country on Thursday with a state visit to the capital, Brasília, prompted online hilarity after the publication of photos showing him being particularly chummy with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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Macron calls proposed EU-Mercosur trade pact ‘very bad deal’ lacking strong climate commitments

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French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climate

Emmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.

“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo on Wednesday while on a three-day trip to Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy.

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Brazil and Colombia voice concern as Venezuela bans opposition candidate

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South American neighbours respond to blocking of Corina Yoris, who was favoured to beat strongman Nicolás Maduro in elections

A chorus of Latin American nations, including Brazil and Colombia, have voiced concern over the deteriorating political situation in Venezuela after the opposition politician best-positioned to challenge its strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro, in July’s presidential election was prevented from registering for the vote.

Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old philosopher, was little-known outside academic circles until last Friday, when she was catapulted on to the frontline of Venezuela’s long-running political crisis by being named as the substitute for María Corina Machado, a prominent opposition figure who had been banned from running in the election.

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Brazil summons Hungarian envoy to explain why Bolsonaro hid in embassy

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Former Brazil president spent two nights at legation after two close aides were detained in February over alleged coup plot

Brazil’s foreign ministry has summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why the South American country’s embattled former president Jair Bolsonaro spent two nights “hiding” at Hungary’s embassy in Brasília last month as federal police investigators closed in on some of his closest allies.

Security footage obtained by the New York Times showed that in early February – four days after two Bolsonaro aides were arrested on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the Brazilian government – the rightwing populist took shelter in the embassy, a short drive from the presidential palace Bolsonaro once occupied.

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Dani Alves leaves Spanish jail after paying €1m bail

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Ex-Barcelona footballer on provisional release from prison term while he appeals against rape conviction

The former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves has been allowed out on bail having served 14 months of a four-and-a-half-year sentence for rape.

One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was found guilty last month of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of 31 December 2022.

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Weather tracker: Flood fallout claims at least 20 lives in Brazil

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Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in Iberia

Brazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in places. Cumulative totals from Friday through Sunday were close to 250mm, particularly along the coast: this is far higher than the monthly average.

Landslides and mudslides occurred across the region, and a number of houses collapsed. Rescue operations are under way to look for people who may have been stranded by the floods. Although there may still be a few showers over the following days, the worst of the rain has now passed.

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Marielle Franco: two politicians and ex-police chief arrested over Brazil murder

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The Rio de Janeiro councillor and her driver were assassinated in 2018, sparking an international outcry

Two powerful politicians and Rio de Janeiro’s former chief of police have been arrested as part of a federal police operation targeting the suspected masterminds of the 2018 assassination of Rio councillor Marielle Franco.

The operation – named Murder, Inc – was launched at the crack of dawn on Sunday and came just over six years after the shooting of Franco and her driver, Anderson Gomes, caused an international outcry.

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Brazilian footballer Robinho arrested after rape conviction

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Former Manchester City striker taken into custody after court in Brazil ruled he should serve a nine-year sentence for offence committed in Italy

The former Brazil and Manchester City striker Robinho has been arrested by federal police at his home in the city of Santos after a Brazilian court ruled he should serve a nine-year prison sentence for a rape he was convicted of committing in Italy.

The 40-year-old footballer, whose full name is Robson de Souza, was taken into custody on Thursday night after his lawyers failed in their attempt to delay his detention over the 2013 crime, which took place when he was a player for AC Milan.

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