Tag Archives: Brazil

Bolsonaro Commissions Study To End Use Of Masks

Reuters reports: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro told a radio broadcaster on Monday he had commissioned a study from the health ministry regarding ending the use of facial masks, which is recommended by specialists to prevent against the coronavirus. The South American country has registered 20,528,099 cases Friday since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 573,511, …

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Fears Rise That Bolsonaro Plans Military Takeover

The Washington Post reports: In a television interview two decades ago, the fringe congressman didn’t hesitate to say it: If he were president, he would shut down the Brazilian congress and stage a military takeover. “There’s not even the littlest doubt,” Jair Bolsonaro said. “I’d stage a coup the same day [I became president,] the same day. Congress doesn’t work. …

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YouTube Deletes Bolsonaro’s Clips For COVID Disinfo

Reuters reports: YouTube said on Wednesday it had removed videos from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s channel for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, becoming the latest tech giant to pull his pandemic pronouncements. YouTube said in a press release the decision was taken “after careful review” and without consideration for Bolsonaro’s job or political ideology. The far-right former army captain, …

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Full Trump: Bolsonaro Sows Distrust In Coming Election

Axios reports: In speeches, Bolsonaro, a former military captain, has been questioning the integrity of an electronic ballot system that’s been in place since 1996 and suggesting he might not even allow elections to happen. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is currently the runaway favorite heading into the October 2022 contest. Driving the news: The Supreme Court opened …

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Brazil’s Bolsonaro Hospitalized For “Chronic Hiccuping”

Reuters reports: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been hospitalised to identify the cause of chronic hiccups, the President’s office said, in the latest health scare for the far-right leader who was stabbed in the gut on the campaign trail in 2018. Bolsonaro, 66, went to the military hospital in Brasilia and is expected to be under observation for 24 to …

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Brazilian Presidential Candidate Comes Out As Gay

The Guardian reports: One of Brazil’s leading politicians, the presidential hopeful Eduardo Leite, has announced he is gay – a rare move celebrated by many as a triumph over prejudice in a country whose president has declared himself a proud homophobe. Leite, the 36-year-old governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, made the announcement on Thursday night …

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Protests Sweep Brazil As COVID Death Toll Tops 500K

The Associated Press reports: Anti-government protesters have taken to the streets in cities across Brazil as the nation’s confirmed death toll from COVID-19 soared past half a million. It’s a tragedy many critics blame on President Jair Bolsonaro’s attempt to minimize the disease. Thousands gathered Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, waving flags reading “Get out Bolsonaro.” Other marchers hoisted posters …

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Inquiry: Bolsonaro Knew Malaria Drug Doesn’t Work

Reuters reports: Brazil’s former health minister told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing government knew full well that the treatment they were advocating for COVID-19 patients had no scientific basis. Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired last April by Bolsonaro for not agreeing to push the malaria drug chloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, testified before a …

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Bolsonaro To Biden: Pay Me Not To Raze The Rainforest

The Wall Street Journal reports: Brazil’s government, widely criticized by environmental groups as a negligent steward of the Amazon rainforest, has made an audacious offer to the Biden administration: Provide $1 billion and President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration will reduce deforestation by 40%. The proposal was made as the Brazilian president prepares for a virtual environmental summit with roughly 40 heads …

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Bolsonaro Refuses Action As Brazil’s Crisis Deepens

The Washington Post reports: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro resisted calls for a nationwide lockdown to halt the out-of-control spread of coronavirus cases, even as the nation reached several grim milestones, including a record number of deaths. “We’re not going to accept these policies of ‘stay home, close everything, lock down,’ ” he said on a visit to the southern city …

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“Biological Fukushima” – Brazil Tops 4000 Daily Deaths

Reuters reports: Brazil’s brutal surge in COVID-19 deaths will soon surpass the worst of a record January wave in the United States, scientists forecast, with fatalities climbing for the first time above 4,000 in a day on Tuesday as the outbreak overwhelms hospitals. “It’s a nuclear reactor that has set off a chain reaction and is out of control. It’s …

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Bolsonaro Regime Teeters As All Military Chiefs Resign

The Guardian reports: The commanders of the Brazilian army, navy and air force – Gen Edson Leal Pujol, Adm Ilques Barbosa and Lt-Brig Antônio Carlos Bermudez – met with the president’s new minister on Tuesday morning and reportedly tendered their resignations during a dramatic and heated encounter. On Tuesday afternoon the defence ministry confirmed all three would be replaced, a …

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WSJ: Brazil Now Poses “Global Public Health Hazard”

The Wall Street Journal reports: Home to less than 3% of the world’s population, Brazil currently accounts for almost a third of the daily global deaths from Covid-19, driven by the new variant. More than 300,000 have died, and daily deaths now top 3,000, a toll suffered only by the far more populous U.S. The spread of the virus in …

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Allies Turn On Bolsonaro As Brazil Passes 300K Deaths

The Associated Press reports: Mere miles from Brazil’s presidential palace, the bodies of COVID-19 victims were laid on floors of hospitals whose morgues were overflowing. Lawmakers fielded calls from panicked constituents across the country, where thousands awaited intensive care beds, and they had no effective health minister to turn to Sunday. Brazil was in political disarray as it surpassed 300,000 …

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Bolsonaro Plays Victim As COVID Rages Unchecked

CNN reports: More than 45,000 people have been killed in Brazil by the pandemic in the past month, but Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says there’s a “war” against him personally. In the coastal city of Rio de Janeiro, intensive care units are 95% full. Fifteen other state capitals are similarly verging on collapse, with ICU occupancy over 90% — a …

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Anti-Mask, Anti-Vax Brazilian Politician Dies Of COVID

Euro Weekly News reports: A Brazilian politician who proposed a law against vaccination has died of Covid-19. Silvio Antonio Favero, 54, who proposed a bill before the legislature of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul to prevent mandatory vaccination of the population against Covid, died on Saturday, March 13, a victim of the disease. He shared with Bolsonaro …

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Brazilian President Bolsonaro Moves To Arm His Base

The Associated Press reports: Katia Sastre was walking her 7-year-old to class in Suzano, a violent city near Sao Paulo, when she saw a young man draw a pistol on other parents standing by the school’s front door. Within seconds, she pulled the .38 special she carried in her purse. The off-duty police officer’s three shots killed the mugger on …

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Brazil Sees Record COVID Deaths, Hospitals Swamped

The Guardian reports: At the end of last year Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro – a Donald Trump-worshiping populist who has gleefully sabotaged Covid containment efforts – declared his country had reached “the tail end” of what was already one of the world’s worst outbreaks. Bolsonaro was wrong. Three months later Latin America’s largest nation has lost almost 100,000 more lives …

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STUDY: Pfizer Vaccine Effective On Brazilian Variant

The Independent reports: The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was able to combat a new variant that was rapidly circulating in Brazil, a new study has found. The research published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the engineered version of the virus, containing the same mutation carried on the spike protein as the highly contagious …

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Amid Record Deaths, Bolsonaro Says “Stop Whining”

Reuters reports: After two straight days of record COVID-19 deaths in Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday told Brazilians to stop “whining” and move on, in his latest remarks attacking distancing measures and downplaying the gravity of the pandemic. Brazil has the world’s second-highest death toll over the past year, after the United States. While the U.S. outbreak is ebbing, …

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