People protest against the Brazilian president after the resignation of popular minister Sérgio Moro. There were calls for Bolsonaro’s impeachment and an investigation into claims he had improperly interfered in the country’s federal police.
Bolsonaro denied claims from his outgoing justice minister that he had sought to appoint a new federal police chief in order to gain access to secret intelligence reports
The coronavirus was probably brought to Brazil by rich returning holidaymakers but it is threatening to explode in marginal communities
In many ways, Washington Castro was a typical resident of Rocinha, the immense redbrick favela that towers over Rio de Janeiro’s Atlantic coast.
Industrious, God-fearing and the offspring of migrants from Brazil’s parched and impoverished north-east, he supported two young children by working two separate jobs and wore a suit and tie when attending his local church.
Continue reading...Leader of US group peddling bleach as ‘miracle’ cure wrote to Trump before remarks; Australia and New Zealand mark Anzac Day from driveways
I’ll hand over to my colleagues in London shortly. In the meantime catch up with the most recent developments with our ‘Coronavirus: at a glance’ here.
Related: Coronavirus latest: at a glance
Thailand reported 53 new coronavirus cases and the death of a 48-year-old Thai man who was infected with the virus along with four other family members.
Of the new cases, three were linked to previous cases, one had no known links, and 42 are migrant workers who have been under quarantine at an immigration detention centre in the southern province of Songkhla.
Continue reading...President Jair Bolsonaro denies he sought to influence federal police inquiries
Brazil’s government has been plunged into turmoil after the resignation of one of Jair Bolsonaro’s most powerful ministers sparked protests, calls for the president’s impeachment and an investigation into claims he had improperly interfered in the country’s federal police.
In a rambling televised address late on Friday, Brazil’s embattled president denied claims from his outgoing justice minister Sérgio Moro that he had sought to appoint a new federal police chief in order to gain access to secret intelligence reports – for reasons that remain murky.
Continue reading...Brazil’s President Bolsonaro has described coronavirus as a “little flu” and resisted lockdown measures even as the death toll rises. But in Rio’s poorest favelas, where people live in overcrowded conditions and lack proper sanitation, they are bracing for the worst. Buba Aguiar is an activist in Acari who is taking matters into her own hands, soliciting online donations to buy food parcels and basic coronavirus kit - soap, masks - for her neighbours who cannot afford to stop working and stay at home. As Acari records its first coronavirus death, we follow Buba through a typical day fighting to help her community in the face of government inaction.
Continue reading...Families struggle to maintain coronavirus restrictions as they seek to stay afloat: ‘My fear is my children going hungry’
Leaders across Latin America have ordered their citizens indoors as they struggle to tame the coronavirus.
But for Liliana Pérez, an Argentinian single mother of six, staying at home is a pipe dream.
Continue reading...Far-right president deemed ‘deplorable’ for flouting social distancing rules again – while coughing repeatedly – to bolster protests amid coronavirus
Former presidents, politicians and newspaper editorial boards have lined up to denounce the “moronic” and “anti-democratic” behaviour of Brazil’s far-right leader after he hit the streets to egg on protesters demanding a return to military dictatorship.
As the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 rose to nearly 2,500 on Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro left his presidential palace in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, to fraternize with flag-waving radicals.
Continue reading...The far-right Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro ,joined an anti-lockdown coronavirus protest in Brasilia on Sunday. Standing on the back of a truck Bolsonaro said to protestors 'I'm here because I believe in you. You are here because you believe in Brazil'. Brazil, as it stands, is close to nearly 40,000 confirmed coronavirus cases
Continue reading...Gilberto ‘Fuminho’ Aparecido dos Santos arrested in international sting operation
Mozambique has expelled one of Brazil’s most wanted criminals, an alleged drug lord who has been on the run for two decades.
Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos was sent home on a Brazilian air force plane that left Maputo at 1.30am on Monday with dozens of police officers onboard, the authorities said.
Continue reading...Politicians, faith leaders and other authority figures have been touting dubious remedies
In India, politicians from the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party have been touting cow urine as a cure for Covid-19. In Tanzania the president has promised that taking communion in church would “burn” the virus away. In Brazil a congressman claimed a day of fasting would halt its spread.
And the leader of the most powerful country in the world, Donald Trump, has been touting as a miracle cure an unproven anti-malarial drug that has contributed to at least one death.
Continue reading...Brazil’s congress has given President Jair Bolsonaro an ultimatum to release the results of his coronavirus tests within 30 days, amid widespread speculation that he has been infected with Covid-19.
“Brazil needs the truth! Was the president infected?” said the motion proposed by the leftist congressman Rogério Correa and agreed by leaders of the chamber of deputies.
Continue reading...Gilberto ‘Fuminho’ Aparecido dos Santos caught after more than 20 years on the run
One of Brazil’s most wanted people, an alleged drug baron accused of running international cocaine operations for the country’s biggest gang, has been arrested in Mozambique.
Gilberto “Fuminho” Aparecido dos Santos, believed to be the leader of the First Capital Command (PCC), was arrested in an international sting that included agents from Brazil, Mozambique and the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Mozambican police confirmed the arrest on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Residents fearful how their families will cope as food runs out and Jair Bolsonaro undermines lockdown message
Renato Rosas knows what poverty feels like. The musician and biomedical salesman grew up in one of Brazil’s biggest favelas, in the Amazon city of Belém. Relatives still live in the wooden stilt houses that line the black, polluted rivers running into Guajará Bay.
“It is the most extreme poverty,” he said of the Baixadas da Estrada Nova Jurunas neighbourhood where floods, deadly sucuri snakes lurking in floating rubbish and armed drug gangs are among the challenges.
Continue reading...Luiz Henrique Mandetta suggests Brazilians are confused by mixed messages from government and urges ‘single, united line’
Brazil’s health minister has publicly defied President Jair Bolsonaro over coronavirus, accusing him of sowing doubt in Brazilian minds over the need for physical distancing.
In a Sunday night interview with Brazil’s most-watched television network, Luiz Henrique Mandetta signalled that Bolsonaro’s insistence on snubbing health ministry distancing recommendations was confusing the country’s 210 million citizens.
Continue reading...The Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro was lit up for Easter on Sunday night, paying tribute to health workers in Brazil and across the world tackling the coronavirus crisis. Images of health workers asking people to remain at home and flags from different countries with the word 'Hope' were also projected during the event
Continue reading...Concerns grow that by downplaying threat, Brazil’s president risks public health crisis
Medical experts have said they fear that Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, could be hastening the country’s march towards a devastating public health crisis like those to have hit northern Italy and New York by undermining social distancing measures.
Bolsonaro is one of just four world leaders still downplaying the threat of coronavirus to public health, alongside the authoritarian presidents of Nicaragua, Belarus and Turkmenistan.
Continue reading...Acutely vulnerable population at risk as wildcat miners in Amazon reserve suspected as source of infection that killed 15-year-old
A Yanomami teenager has reportedly died after contracting Covid-19, further fuelling fears over the disease’s potential to decimate indigenous communities in the Amazon.
The victim – who health authorities named as 15-year-old Alvanei Xirixana – died on Thursday night after spending almost a week in intensive care in Boa Vista, a Brazilian city near the Yanomami’s Portugal-sized reserve.
Continue reading...Authorities have announced measures ranging from the draconian to the quixotic
Authorities around the world are preparing to use curfews, roadblocks, travel bans, surveillance technology and threats of fines and arrests to deter people from travelling and congregating over Easter.
Many governments have already announced tighter restrictions and increased police enforcement in an effort to sustain lockdowns during a holiday period traditionally associated with trips and socialising.
Continue reading...Lack of testing and failure to report on cases means scale of outbreak could be far greater than thought, doctors warn
Brazil is bracing for a surge in coronavirus cases as doctors and researchers warn that underreporting and a lack of testing mean nobody knows the real scale of Covid-19’s spread.
“What’s happening is enormous underreporting,” said Isabella Rêllo, a doctor working in emergency and intensive care in Rio de Janeiro hospitals, in a widely shared Facebook post challenging official numbers. “There are MANY more,” she wrote.
Continue reading...President again undermines efforts to tackle coronavirus by criticising state’s governor
The Brazilian president has further undermined efforts to control the spread of coronavirus by criticising what he called “dictatorial” moves to stop citizens going to the beach.
In an interview on Thursday, Jair Bolsonaro hit out at Rio de Janeiro’s governor, Wilson Witzel, who this week ordered the state’s 17 million citizens to stay at home – and off the sands.
Continue reading...