Category Archives: Brazil

France and Spain swelter as Cyclone Yakecan wreaks havoc in South America

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Analysis: Another week of extremes with peaks pushing 40C in Spain and a rare subtropical cyclone in Uruguay and Brazil

Unseasonably high temperatures have been affecting both Iberia and France over recent days. Temperatures have been about 10-15C above average thanks to a southerly flow of very warm and dry air from north Africa.

On 17 May, temperatures across much of Spain, as well as southern and central France, widely exceeded 30C. A top temperature of 35.5C was recorded in the southern Spanish province of Huelva, with a provisional high of 32.9C recorded in the French commune of Montélimar. La Hague near the Channel hit 26.6C, beating the May record for this location set 100 years ago.

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Author Mario Vargas Llosa backs Bolsonaro over Lula in Brazil election

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Peruvian writer criticises incumbent’s ‘clowning around’ but says he is still preferable to former president

The Nobel prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, Latin America’s most eminent living chronicler of power and corruption, has declared a preference for Jair Bolsonaro over Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as Brazil prepares to head to the polls later this year.

The 86-year-old Peruvian writer, who also holds Spanish citizenship, revealed his thoughts on October’s election during a talk in Uruguay on Wednesday.

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Lula launches campaign to reclaim Brazilian presidency from Bolsonaro

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Leftwinger tells rally that public must unite against far-right incumbent’s ‘incompetence and authoritarianism’

Brazil’s former leader Luiz Inació Lula da Silva has kickstarted what he hopes will be a sensational finale to one of Latin America’s most extraordinary political careers, publicly declaring his intention to challenge Jair Bolsonaro for the presidency and urging citizens to unite against the far-right populist’s “incompetence and authoritarianism”.

Speaking at a rally in São Paulo, where the one-time lathe operator began his spectacular rise to power as a union leader more than four decades ago, Lula publicly spelled out his ambition to reclaim the presidency for the first time.

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‘Record after record’: Brazil’s Amazon deforestation hits April high, nearly double previous peak

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Climate analysts are astounded by such a high reading during the rainy season, and is the third monthly record this year

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon surged to record levels for the month of April, nearly doubling the area of forest removed in that month last year – the previous April record – preliminary government data has shown, alarming environmental campaigners.

In the first 29 days of April, deforestation in the region totalled 1,012.5 square km (390 square miles), according to data from national space research agency Inpe on Friday. The agency, which has compiled the monthly data series since 2015/2016, will report data for the final day of April next week.

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CIA director urged Bolsonaro to stop doubting Brazil’s voting system – report

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Fears Brazilian president might refuse to accept defeat in this year’s election as leftist rival Lula is set to announce candidacy

The CIA director William Burns urged Jair Bolsonaro to stop questioning his country’s voting system, it has been claimed, amid growing fears the Brazilian president might refuse to accept defeat in this year’s election.

Polls suggest Bolsonaro, a far-right populist famed for his adulation of Donald Trump, will struggle to secure a second term when about 150 million Brazilians head to the polls in October to choose their next leader.

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Erosion of abortion rights gathers pace around the world as US signals new era

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A leaked supreme court draft ruling shows the US is set to end 50 years of a woman’s right to choose. Elsewhere, the battle still rages

In 2022, abortion remains one of the most controversial and bitterly contested ethical and political battlegrounds. It is illegal for women to terminate their pregnancies in any circumstance in 24 countries, with a further 37 restricting access in any case except when the mother’s life is in danger.

As a leaked document signals that the US supreme court is poised to strike down the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v Wade, millions of American women face losing their access to legal abortions, joining millions more living in those countries rejecting a woman’s right to choose.

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Is Brazil ready for the next incarnation of President Lula?

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The 76-year-old former leader, jailed on corruption charges in 2018, is ready to run again and is ahead of incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the polls

For weeks Hilton Acioli wrestled with the melodies and lyrics that would become the theme tune to one of the most remarkable political careers in recent history.

Finally, one morning in the winter of 1989, something clicked. “Lula lá – a star is sparkling. Lula lá – the flourishing of hope,” the Cat Stevens-loving Brazilian songsmith sang as he sat before his computer with a guitar.

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‘Relentless’ destruction of rainforest continuing despite Cop26 pledge

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Tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover in 2021, including forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss, finds World Resources Institute

Pristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.

From the Brazilian Amazon to the Congo basin, the tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover last year, including 3.75m ha of primary forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss.

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‘Like a football idol’: Bolsonaro claws back support after poor Covid response

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President is touring Brazil in bid to win back voters before October election – and appears to be making headway

He came on horseback and ​wore a scowl as he spoke, telling thousands of yellow-clad believers they faced a momentous battle of good versus evil.

“Good has always triumphed – and this time it will be no different. Good will prevail!” the outsider bellowed as his followers encircled the stage that had been erected to welcome him to this sweltering satellite town in north-east Brazil.

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Rio carnival groups fight for right to party ahead of official celebrations

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Samba schools will return to action but ‘blocos’ – street groups – are furious they have not yet received authorization to gather

Some of Rio’s most cherished street carnival groups say they are fighting for the right to party ahead of the city’s first official celebrations since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Rio’s world-famous samba schools will return to action next week for their first parades at the Sambódromo stadium in more than two years. But the carnival enthusiasts behind hundreds of “blocos” – riotous musical troupes that roam the streets clutching brass instruments and booze – are furious they have not received authorization to gather.

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Bolsonaro faces hard scrutiny over military’s purchase of penile implants

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Army says it purchased three silicone implants, rather than the 60 reported by media, after revelations the military bought Viagra

Further questions have been raised about military spending on impotence treatments under Jair Bolsonaro after allegations Brazil’s defense ministry had approved the purchase of penile implants costing more than half a million pounds.

Those claims followed revelations on Monday that the armed forces had forked out for more than 35,000 Viagra pills in what one leading opposition politician called an erectile “outrage”.

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Bolsonaro faces stiff questioning over Brazilian army’s Viagra purchase

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Navy and air force – which reportedly bought over 30,000 pills – claim drug is being used to treat pulmonary hypertension

Opponents of the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, are demanding answers after the revelation that the country’s armed forces had splashed out on tens of thousands of impotence pills.

“We must understand why the Bolsonaro administration is spending public money on buying such large quantities of Viagra,” the lawmaker Elias Vaz declared after Brazilian media reported the seemingly unorthodox acquisitions on Monday.

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Brazil military ‘posed as NGOs on social media’ to play down deforestation

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Facebook owner Meta removes network from social media in move which could damage President Jair Bolsonaro

Facebook owner Meta Platforms has removed a network of social media accounts with ties to the Brazilian military that posed as fake non-profits to play down the dangers of deforestation.

The comments by Meta, published in a quarterly report, pose a reputational risk to Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro. The far-right former army captain is a longtime sceptic of environmentalism.

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Fuel protests prompt Lima curfew as Ukraine crisis touches South America

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Peru’s embattled president takes drastic step as fertiliser and fuel prices soar and Brazil seeks to open Indigenous territory to mining

Peru’s embattled president Pedro Castillo has banned residents of the capital, Lima, from leaving their homes in an attempt to quell nationwide protests over soaring fuel and fertiliser prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a televised address just before midnight on Monday, Castillo announced a curfew from 2am until 11.59pm on Tuesday, claiming the measure would “protect the fundamental rights of all people”.

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Victims of Brazil’s Mariana dam disaster seek compensation through UK courts

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In one of the largest claims in English legal history, 200,000 people affected by the 2015 incident will have their case heard this week

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster are seeking compensation in a UK court this week, in one of the largest group claims in English legal history.

The claimants, including representatives of Krenak indigenous communities, are fighting to get compensation for the devastation caused by the Mariana dam disaster in November 2015. The £5bn lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP.

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Protect Indigenous people’s rights or Paris climate goals will fail, says report

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Rainforests looked after by communities absorb twice as much carbon as other lands, analysis shows

Paris climate agreement goals will fail unless the rights of Indigenous people who protect rainforests are honoured, according to a new report.

Forest lands stewarded by Indigenous people and communities in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru sequester about twice as much carbon as other lands, according to the analysis.

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Stars in Brazil voice fury as judge orders festival to ban ‘political demonstrations’

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Electoral judge outlaws leftist ‘propaganda’ at Lollapalooza, months before October election

Artists and celebrities in Brazil have voiced outrage after an electoral judge ordered one of the country’s biggest music festivals to outlaw “political demonstrations” by performers after a legal challenge from President Jair Bolsonaro’s political party.

Lawyers representing Bolsonaro’s Liberal party made their petition to the supreme electoral court on Saturday after Brazil’s far-right leader was pilloried at this weekend’s Lollapalooza event by pop stars and rappers, including the British singer Marina.

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‘Contemptuous’: anger in Brazil as Bolsonaro given Indigenous merit medal

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Government honours president who activists accuse of undermining Indigenous protections

Brazilian activists are outraged after Jair Bolsonaro – who has been accused of spearheading a cataclysmic attack on Indigenous rights – was honoured by his own government for his supposedly “altruistic” efforts to protect Indigenous lives.

Bolsonaro was granted the Medal of Indigenous Merit on Wednesday in recognition of what the justice ministry called his attempts to defend Indigenous communities in the South American country.

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Brazil was alleged intended recipient of US couple’s nuclear submarine secrets

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Jonathan and Diana Toebbe are accused of trying to sell secrets to Brazil, which cooperated in an FBI operation against them

The country that an American spy couple tried to sell nuclear submarine secrets to last year has been revealed to be Brazil.

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, a suburban couple who lived in Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested last October and charged with attempting to sell the design of US nuclear-powered submarines to someone they thought was a representative of a foreign power – but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

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Thousands protest against Brazil’s ‘death combo’ of anti-environment bills

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Demonstration against what activists call a historic assault floods capital after musician Caetano Veloso’s call for action

Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Brazil’s capital after one of the country’s leading musicians, Caetano Veloso, called a major protest to denounce what environmentalists call a historic assault on the Brazilian environment under President Jair Bolsonaro.

The “Ato pela Terra” (Stand for the Earth) demonstration was held in Brasília to oppose what activists call a “death combo” of five environment-related bills being considered by Brazil’s congress.

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