Thirty-person expedition, including Funai officials and a doctor, contacted and vaccinated 34 people from the Korubo tribe
Brazil’s biggest and most ambitious expedition in decades to contact a voluntarily isolated indigenous tribe has been declared a success after venturing deep into remote and inaccessible Amazon jungle.
The rare, high-risk expedition aimed to prevent potential conflict between tribal groups in a vast and remote reserve near Brazil’s Peruvian border.
Continue reading...Police in São Paulo state have shot and killed 11 assailants who were preparing to simultaneously blow up ATMs at two branches early on Thursday, authorities said.
São Paulo state’s public security secretariat said in a statement that about 25 suspects were involved in the attempts to blow up the machines to get at the cash inside, a common type of crime in Brazil. Along with the 11 killed, another two men were arrested. No money was stolen.
Continue reading...Ricardo Vélez accused of ‘historical revisionism’ after saying school history books will be rewritten to give ‘a fuller version’
Brazil’s education minister has been accused of “historical revisionism” after saying school history books will be rewritten to give a positive spin to the country’s 1964 coup and 21-year military dictatorship.
Related: Brazil: tortured dissidents appalled by Bolsonaro's praise for dictatorship
Continue reading...Twins will each pay 30% of Brazil’s monthly minimum salary after DNA test failed to identify which man was her father
A Brazilian judge has ruled that two identical twins must both pay maintenance for a nine-year-old girl after a DNA test failed to identify which was her father.
Each man will have to pay 30% of Brazil’s monthly minimum salary – around £59 – and share the mother’s medical, dental, clothing and school costs.
Continue reading...Study suggests Brazil likely to rush to fill China’s sudden soy shortfall by boosting farming
The Amazon rainforest could be the greatest casualty of the trade war between the United States and China, warns a new study showing how deforestation pressures have surged as a result of the geopolitical jolt in global soy markets.
Up to 13m hectares of forest and savannah – an area the size of Greece – would have to be cleared if Brazil and other exporters were to fill the huge shortfall in soy supply to China that has suddenly appeared since Donald Trump imposed hefty tariffs, according to the paper published in Nature.
US exports of the commodity, primarily used to feed livestock, to China plummeted by 50% last year, which the authors say is an unusually sharp level of decline between two trading partners outside wartime.
Mining giant Vale raised level of risk at a dam in Barão de Cocais to highest alert meaning rupture is imminent
The Brazilian mining giant Vale said on Saturday that communities in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais had been ordered to evacuate after independent auditors found that one of its dams could collapse at any moment.
On Friday, the company raised the level of risk at a mining waste dam in the city of Barão de Cocais to three, the highest grade. According to Brazil’s mining and energy secretary, level three means that “a rupture is imminent or already happening”.
Continue reading...Leftist politicians refuse to attend lunch in honor of Brazil’s far-right leader after instruction for women to wear ‘short dress’
At the end of his first state visit to Washington DC this week, Jair Bolsonaro hailed his meeting with Donald Trump as a “historic moment”, claiming he was returning home with a sensation of “mission accomplished”. Today, Brazil’s far-right leader begins his second official trip – to Chile, where he is poised to receive a much less warm welcome.
Related: Fox News, nepotism and bigotry: Bolsonaro brings his Trump act to DC
Continue reading...Temer arrested as part of Operation Car Wash, which led to the convictions of numerous members of Brazil’s political elite
Brazil’s former president Michel Temer – who played a key role in the 2016 impeachment of his rival Dilma Rousseff – has been arrested by federal policewhile driving in São Paulo.
Judge Marcelo Breitas issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Temer and 11 others in “Operation Radioactivity” – part of Operation Car Wash, the country’s largest ever corruption investigation, which has led to the convictions of numerous members of Brazil’s political elite.
Continue reading...First visit to the US had all the drama of a soap opera – intrigue, betrayal, family, controversy – and left Brazilians divided
Jair Bolsonaro’s first official visit to the US had all the drama of a Brazilian soap opera – intrigue, betrayal, family, controversy.
But viewers back home in Brazil were left divided: a disastrous interview with Fox News prompted starkly contrasting verdicts, captured in the two trending hashtags: #BolsonaroShamesBrazil (#BolsonaroEnvergonhaOBrasil) and #Bolsonaro Pride of Brazil” (#BolsonaroOrgulhoDoBrasil).
Continue reading...Latest incident raises concerns about Brazil’s nuclear security in a state struggling with violent crime
A convoy of trucks carrying nuclear fuel came under armed attack on a highway in Rio de Janeiro state on Tuesday as it drove past a community controlled by a drug gang. Gang members armed with rifles opened fire on the convoy, Rio’s O Globo newspaper said.
Armed police escorting the convoy exchanged fire with armed gang members as the trucks carrying uranium continued to a nearby nuclear plant. The attack is the latest of several violent incidents in the area where Brazil has two nuclear reactors and has raised concerns about its nuclear security in a state struggling with high levels of violent crime.
Continue reading...Brazil president endorses hardline US immigration policy, saying ‘Vast majority of … immigrants do not have good intentions’
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has endorsed Donald Trump’s immigration agenda on the eve of their first meeting at the White House, saying he supports a wall on the US-Mexico border and that most immigrants to the United States wish to do harm.
Bolsonaro, a far-right congressman who rode to the presidency with a brash, anti-establishment campaign modeled on Trump’s 2016 run, has pledged a new era of pro-American policy in the southern hemisphere’s second-largest country.
Continue reading...Franco, an outspoken critic of police violence against favela residents, was killed in 2018, prompting international outrage
Two former police officers have been arrested over the murder of the Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, two days before the first anniversary of her death, which prompted international outrage.
Franco, a groundbreaking politician who was born in one of Rio’s largest favelas and became a voice for disadvantaged people in the city, was killed in a drive-by shooting along with her driver, Anderson Gomes.
Continue reading...‘Bolsonaro is Fake News’ became a top hashtag in Brazil after president shared ‘false information’ to attack a journalist
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has provoked a storm of protest after sharing fake news to attack a journalist who has covered a scandal involving a former aide of his son Flávio, a senator who is also under investigation for money laundering.
Leading newspapers, the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association and the Brazilian Bar Association, criticised the far-right president for sharing a “misrepresentation” and “false information”.
Continue reading...Revellers used annual carnival to ‘protest’ and pay tribute to the councilwoman nearly a year after the still-unsolved murder
Nearly a year after the still-unsolved murder of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman and LGBT activist Marielle Franco, Brazilian revellers have used their country’s annual carnival to demand answers.
Related: Lights, sequins, samba: Rio carnival at the Sambadrome – in pictures
Continue reading...From giant turtles to Roman centurions, Rio de Janeiro’s two nights of carnival parades at the Sambadrome Marquês de Sapucaí began in a burst of fireworks and continued with the cheers of thousands of tourists and locals who also enjoyed street celebrations all around the city
Continue reading...The Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in northern Brazil is home to 25,000 indigenous people, whose land has been targeted by the country’s rightwing president, Jair Bolsonaro
Continue reading...Residents of Raposa Serra do Sol are determined to face down the threat posed by mining
“A united people will never be defeated!” shouted Maria Betânia Mota, as the indigenous assembly in a partially burned-out agricultural college began. Hundreds of voices roared back in approval.
Betânia Mota is the women’s secretary of its organisers, the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), which represents the majority of those living in the 1.7m hectares of savannah and scrub that make up the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in Brazil’s northernmost state.
Continue reading...Fabio Schvartsman and other executives resign after claims firm knew dam was unstable
The boss of the Brazilian iron ore mining firm Vale has resigned, following growing public and political anger over the collapse of a dam in which at least 186 people died.
Fabio Schvartsman and several other senior executives resigned on a “temporary” basis on Saturday after prosecutors recommended their dismissal. The move came after a leak of official documents suggested that Vale knew the dam was at a heightened risk of collapse.
Continue reading...Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left prison on Saturday to attend the funeral of his seven-year-old grandson, reiterating his innocence before political leaders and relatives who had gathered to mourn.
Lula, who is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, was released at 7am local time from a prison in the Paraná state capital, Curitiba. He flew to São Paulo before taking a helicopter to São Bernardo do Campo, where the funeral took place. He was scheduled to return to his cell later in the afternoon.
Continue reading...New education minister admits ‘mistake’ after asking schools to film students singing the national anthem and as slogan is read
Brazil’s new education minister has been forced into a humiliating retreat after he asked schools in the country to film students singing the national anthem in front of a Brazilian flag and being read the campaign slogan of new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.
“I recognised the mistake,” Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez said on Tuesday, a day after the education ministry emailed his instructions to schools across the country – and provoked a storm of outrage.
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