Category Archives: Brazil

Lula and Petro have the chance of a lifetime to save the Amazon. Can they unite idealism and realpolitik to pull it off?

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The South American leaders are in the spotlight as they prepare to host this week’s Cop16 biodiversity summit, November’s G20 meeting and next year’s Cop30 climate summit

The rainforest nations of Brazil and Colombia have the best opportunity in a generation to drag the Amazon back from the abyss as they host three of the world’s most important environmental negotiations in the space of little more than a year.

In the process, their leaders – pacesetting Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and the more cautious and contradictory Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – will offer up overlapping visions for the future of the Amazon, and the world’s path to net zero.

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BHP to face 620,000 claimants in Mariana dam collapse trial in London

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Claimants seeking damages from Anglo-Australian mining company over 2015 environmental disaster in Brazil

The mother of a seven-year-old boy who was torn from the arms of his grandmother and drowned in one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters is among more than 620,000 claimants who will have their case heard this month in the largest group claim in English legal history.

Gelvana Aparecida Rodrigues da Silva, 37, lost her son Thiago on 5 November 2015 when the Fundão dam, near Mariana in eastern Brazil, collapsed, releasing about 50m cubic metres of toxic waste.

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Brazil lifts ban on X after Elon Musk complies with court demands

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Social platform was blocked after tech billionaire failed to name local representatives and pay fines

Brazilians are set to regain access to X after a supreme court judge lifted a ban introduced nearly six weeks ago as a result of Elon Musk’s failure to comply with the South American country’s laws.

X was blocked in Brazil, where it had more than 22 million users, at the end of August in what was the culmination of a months-long arm wrestle between the network’s billionaire owner and the Brazilian supreme court.

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Weather tracker: tail end of Hurricane Kirk to bring gusts and rain to Europe

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Hurricane activity is strong in Atlantic while months of below-average rainfall in South America leads to drought

Hurricane Kirk is heading towards Europe. At its peak strength in the mid-Atlantic, Kirk reached category 4 status with maximum wind speeds of 145mph. As Kirk tracks north-east towards Europe, leaving the warm seas behind, it is expected to be downgraded to a category 1 hurricane by Monday.

Over the next few days, Kirk will undergo extratropical transition, becoming an ex-hurricane by the time it reaches Europe’s shores on Tuesday or Wednesday. Although there remains some model differences in the exact path of extratropical cyclone Kirk, it is projected to track across northern Europe with France, Belgium, the Netherlands and then northern Germany having the strongest winds and heaviest rain. Southernmost parts of the UK may experience some heavy rainfall if the system tracks ever so slightly further north.

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São Paulo election ‘a horror show’ as candidates trade blows and insults

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Two televised debates ahead of 6 October mayoral election turn physically violent, with participants treated in hospital

Brazilians call overcast São Paulo their country’s “land of drizzle”.

But in recent months it has been raining punches not precipitation as Latin America’s largest city endures what observers call the most violent and unruly election in its history.

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Elon Musk backs down in his fight with Brazilian judges to restore X

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The platform agrees to appoint a legal representative in Brazil, pays fines and takes down user accounts that the court had ordered removed

Elon Musk fought the law. The law appears to have won.

X, Musk’s social media platform, has backed down in its fight with the Brazilian judiciary, after complying with court orders that had blocked users in the country from accessing X.

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‘It’s guerrilla warfare’: Brazil fire teams fight Amazon blazes – and the arsonists who start them

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Firefighters and police in Rondônia battle fires intensified by both the climate crisis and a criminal assault on the rainforest

The occupants of the vinyl-coated military tents at this remote jungle camp in Brazil’s wild west compare the hellscape surrounding them to catastrophes old and new: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the bombardment of Gaza, the obliteration of Hiroshima during the second world war.

“It’s as if a nuclear bomb has gone off. There’s no forest. There’s nothing. Everything’s burned. It’s chaos,” said Lt Col Victor Paulo Rodrigues de Souza as he gave a tour of the base on the frontline of Brazil’s fight against one of its worst burning seasons in years and a relentless assault on the greatest tropical rainforest on Earth.

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Brazil top judge accuses X of ‘willful’ circumvention of court-ordered block

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Justice Alexandre de Moraes imposes $900,000 daily fine on banned social media platform in dispute with Elon Musk

In the latest round of the dispute between Elon Musk and Brazil’s top court, a senior judge has accused X of a “willful, illegal and persistent” effort to circumvent a court-ordered block – and imposed a fine of R$5m ($921,676) for each day the social network remains online.

The social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which has been banned by court order since 30 August, on Wednesday became accessible to many users in Brazil after an update that used cloud services offered by third parties, such as Cloudflare, Fastly and Edgeuno.

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Elon Musk’s X circumvents court-ordered block in Brazil

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Social media platform routes internet traffic outside of Brazil using a communications network update

Social media platform Twitter/X became accessible to many users in Brazil on Wednesday as an update to its communications network circumvented a block order by the country’s supreme court.

The X update used cloud services offered by third parties, allowing some Brazilian users to take a route outside of the country to reach X, even without a virtual private network, according to Abrint, the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers.

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Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira: murder charge dropped against one of three suspects

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Activists greet decision over killings of British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert with ‘indignation’

Appeal judges in Brazil yesterday upheld charges against only two of the three men accused of murdering Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, in a decision “received with indignation” by Indigenous activists.

The three judges ruled that there was “insufficient evidence of authorship or participation” by Oseney da Costa de Oliveira, a fisher, in the 2022 deaths of the Brazilian Indigenous expert and the British Guardian journalist.

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Religious groups ‘spending billions to counter gender-equality education’

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Report reveals how US Christians, Catholic schools and Islamists fight sex education, LGBTQ+ and equal rights

Extreme religious groups and political parties are targeting schools around the world as part of a coordinated and well-funded attack on gender equality, according to a new report.

Well-known conservative organisations aim to restrict girls’ access to education, change what is on the curriculum, and influence educational laws and policies, according to Whose Hands on our Education, a report by the Overseas Development Institute.

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Brazilian president flies into Amazon amid alarm over droughts and wildfires

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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says Amazonia suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has flown into the Amazon amid growing alarm over the droughts and wildfires sweeping the rainforest region and others parts of Brazil.

Speaking during a visit to a riverside community near the city of Tefé, the Brazilian president said Amazonia was suffering its worst drought in more than 40 years. He said he had come to discover “what is going on with these mighty rivers” that in some places now resemble deserts.

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Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report finds

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Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead

At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.

From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

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Weather tracker: Francine looking likely to be next Atlantic hurricane

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An area of low pressure in the Gulf of Mexico is moving landward, and is expected to bring intense rainfall

Francine could soon be the next to be ticked off the list of Atlantic hurricane storm names this week. On Friday, a broad area of low pressure emerged in the Gulf of Mexico, designated as Invest 91L. An “invest” – a shorthand for “investigative area” – refers to a region of atmospheric disturbance, characterised by low pressure and thunderstorms, and is closely monitored for its potential to evolve into a tropical cyclone.

Invest 91L is anticipated to encounter more favourable environmental conditions as it progresses northward over the coming days, meandering along the eastern coasts of Mexico and Texas. The National Hurricane Center has now labelled this as a potential tropical cyclone, and it is expected to reach hurricane status before reaching the Gulf coast of the US. It advises that hurricane and storm surge watches will probably be issued on Monday for coastal parts of Texas and Louisiana, with the impacts expected to be felt from Tuesday night.

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Venezuela revokes Brazil’s custody of Argentine embassy housing Maduro opponents

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Opponents holed up for months in the Argentine ambassador’s residence say the building has been surrounded by security forces

Venezuela’s government has said that Brazil can no longer represent Argentina’s diplomatic interests in the country, putting several anti-government opponents holed up for months in the Argentine ambassador’s residence seeking asylum at risk, as reports emerge that the embassy has been surrounded by security forces.

Venezuela’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it had notified Brazil of its decision, which will take effect immediately. It said it was forced to take action based on what it called evidence – which it hasn’t shared – that those who sought refuge in Argentina’s diplomatic mission were conspiring to carry out “terrorist” acts.

Brazil said that it had received the communication “with surprise” and Argentina said shortly afterwards that it rejected the “unilateral” decision by Venezuela. Both countries urged the government of Nicolas Maduro to respect the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations.

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Signs of ice buildup on plane before Brazil crash, says early report

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Copilot recorded saying ‘a lot of icing’, indicating aircraft’s de-icing system may have failed before August crash, according to investigators

A preliminary report into the August crash of an airliner in Brazil has found signs of ice buildup on the plane but no definite cause for the accident.

The report – made public on Friday – pointed out that icing detectors had been activated on airline Voepass’s aircraft. And an official with the country’s Centre for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents (Cenipa) told a press conference that cockpit recordings showed the co-pilot said there was “a lot of icing” during the flight.

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Brazil’s human rights minister sacked over sexual harassment allegations

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Removal of popular cabinet member Silvio Almeida comes as a blow to Lula’s administration

Brazil’s president has sacked one of his most popular cabinet members after claims Silvio Almeida sexually harassed at least two women – one of whom is another prominent figure, the racial equality minister Anielle Franco.

Almeida, the human rights minister, has denied the allegations, while Franco thanked the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for his “decisive action”. But the scandal has dealt a major blow to Lula’s administration and has been greeted with deep dismay by the Black rights movement.

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Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes dies aged 83

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Mendes, who popularised bossa nova among global audiences in the 1960s, had been suffering from the effects of long-term Covid, his family said

The Brazilian musician Sérgio Mendes, who brought bossa nova to an international audience in the 1960s with his band Brasil ’66, has died aged 83 as a result of health challenges related to long-term Covid.

In a statement, Mendes’s family said he “passed away peacefully” in his home town of Los Angeles. “His wife and musical partner for the past 54 years, Gracinha Leporace Mendes, was by his side, as were his loving children. Mendes last performed in November 2023 to sold out and wildly enthusiastic houses in Paris, London and Barcelona,” they said. “For the last several months, his health had been challenged by the effects of long-term Covid.”

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Elon Musk’s Starlink backtracks to comply with Brazil’s ban on X

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After judge freezes assets of billionaire’s internet service provider, company flip-flops to block social media platform

Elon Musk’s satellite-based internet service provider Starlink backtracked late on Tuesday and said it would accept and enforce a Brazilian supreme court justice’s order to block the billionaire’s social media platform, X, formerly Twitter.

Previously, Starlink informally told the telecommunications regulator Anatel that it would not comply until Justice Alexandre de Moraes reversed course. Now, Starlink has said in a statement posted on X that it will heed de Moraes’s order despite him having frozen the company’s assets.

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Lula says Elon Musk’s wealth does not mean world must accept his ‘far-right free-for-all’

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Brazilian president makes comments after supreme court votes to uphold X ban over refusal to obey court orders

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he hopes the crisis surrounding the social network X in Brazil might teach the world that “it isn’t obliged to put up with [Elon] Musk’s far-right free-for-all just because he is rich”.

Lula’s comments to the network CNN Brasil came after the supreme court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold the ban on X, which is now largely inaccessible in one of its biggest global markets.

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