Brazil news

• The ‘forgotten’ people picking your Brazil nuts – for a fraction of the price

  09-04-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Rich profits from the prized nut have failed to benefit those finding them. Now cooperatives hope to shake up the systemOn a steamy March morning, Edivan Kaxarari walks with a few other villagers in single file down a trail in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil’s Rondônia state, near the border with Bolivia.His sister-in-law Cleiciana carries her 11-month-old son in one arm and a rifle in the other, and his brother Edson clears the path ahead with a machete. It is hunting season for the
  
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• Latin America’s lack of a united front on Covid has had disastrous consequences | Andre Pagliarini

  23-04-2021 15:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The regional coordination of the pink tide era has given way to various governments, left and right, going it alone A terse report filed from São Paulo, Brazil, appeared in the 17 March 1919 edition of the New York Times. It read: “Influenza again has appeared here in epidemic form. The Government is taking steps to prevent the spread of the disease.” Just over one hundred years later, faced with another pandemic, the Brazilian government has taken a different approach. Presid
  
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• Brazil’s ‘rapid and violent’ Covid variant devastates Latin America

  23-04-2021 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Expert says global leaders must not ignore Brazil, which is ‘brewing variants left, right and centre’As a coronavirus variant traced to the Brazilian Amazon marauded through Peru’s coastal capital last month, Rommel Heredia raced to his local hospital to seek help for his brother, mother and father.“I said goodbye and promised I’d come back to take them home,” said the 47-year-old PE teacher, his voice muffled by two black masks pulled tightly over his face. R
  
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• Joe Biden’s billions won’t stop Brazil destroying the Amazon rainforest | Marina Silva and Rubens Ricupero

  22-04-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Funds offered to persuade Jair Bolsonaro’s ruinous government to stop deforestation are meant well, but badly misjudgedMarina Silva and Rubens Ricupero are former Brazilian environment ministers
  As a candidate, Joe Biden built up the world’s hopes when he committed the US to rejoining the Paris agreement, confronting the climate denialism of his opponent and signalling that he was ready to treat the climate crisis as a strategic priority. So far, that hope has become certainty &ndash
  
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• Joe Biden’s billions won’t stop Bolsonaro destroying the Amazon rainforest | Marina Silva and Rubens Ricupero

  22-04-2021 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Funds offered to persuade Brazil’s ruinous government to stop deforestation are meant well, but badly misjudgedMarina Silva and Rubens Ricupero are former Brazilian environment ministers
  As a candidate, Joe Biden built up the world’s hopes when he committed the US to rejoining the Paris agreement, confronting the climate denialism of his opponent and signalling that he was ready to treat the climate crisis as a strategic priority. So far, that hope has become certainty – and re
  
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• So what has the rest of the world promised to do about climate change?

  19-04-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Countries around the globe have made plans called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce carbon emissions. We take a look at some of the most significantJoe Biden to reveal US emissions pledge in key climate crisis momentSaudi Arabia, home of the world’s biggest industrial polluter, the state-owned oil company Aramco, has long been regarded as a climate villain, accused of collaborating with other energy-producing states at international negotiations to water down ambitions a
  
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• Police killing hundreds in Rio de Janeiro despite court ban on favela raids

  18-04-2021 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The Brazilian state has seen nearly 800 police-caused deaths in nine months, with poor city communities raided almost dailyNearly 800 people were killed by police in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro in the past nine months, as raids remain a terrifying routine for favela families – despite a supreme court ruling to halt incursions during the coronavirus pandemic.New figures show that between June 2020 and March 2021, 797 people were killed in Rio state, 85% in the city of Rio and surr
  
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• Brazil warns women to delay pregnancy amid Covid-19 surge

  16-04-2021 22:55 via theguardian.com
  
  Advice comes as country’s clinicians claim P1 Covid variant more aggressive during pregnancy Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBrazil has warned women to delay getting pregnant until the worst of the pandemic passes, saying the virus variant that is devastating the South American country appears to affect expectant mothers more than earlier versions of the coronavirus.The recommendation comes as Brazil continues to be one of the global epicenters of the pand
  
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• Spreading faster, hitting harder – why young Brazilians are dying of Covid

  16-04-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Highly transmissible variant and behavioural factors blamed as intensive care units fill with younger patients
  Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage One month after Michel Castro’s premature brush with death, the coronavirus infection has receded but the nightmares persist.In them the 31-year-old father relives the spine-chilling scenes he witnessed as his Covid-hit body battled for survival in a Rio ICU. The six-month-old baby who appeared to be suffocating ri
  
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• Brazil’s Covid-19 response is worst in the world, says Médecins Sans Frontières

  15-04-2021 18:18 via theguardian.com
  
  The medical NGO says government negligence is costing lives as death toll exceeds 362,000, second only to USThe Brazilian government’s negligent response to Covid-19 has plunged the South American country into a snowballing “humanitarian catastrophe” that is likely to intensify in the coming weeks, the medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières has warned.“I have to be very clear in this: the Brazilian authorities’ negligence is costing lives,” the gro
  
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• ‘Humanitarian catastrophe’: Brazil’s Covid-19 response lambasted by MSF

  15-04-2021 16:57 via theguardian.com
  
  The medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières says government negligence is costing lives as death toll exceeds 362,000The Brazilian government’s negligent response to Covid-19 has plunged the South American country into a snowballing “humanitarian catastrophe” that is likely to intensify in the coming weeks, the medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières has warned.“I have to be very clear in this: the Brazilian authorities’ negligence is costing l
  
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• Henry Glassie: Field Work review – hypnotic glimpses of folk art in the making

  13-04-2021 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  This documentary about the celebrated folklorist also takes a leisurely look at the working methods of the artists he reveresThere’s an unmistakable slow-cinema vibe to this scrupulously observational documentary, which seems somehow to go on for weeks despite its 100-minute running time. The ostensible subject matter is American anthropologist Henry Glassie, who is college professor emeritus in folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University; but it isn’t really “about&rdqu
  
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• Brazil’s meat plant workers at risk from ‘inconceivable’ plan to cut break times

  12-04-2021 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  As exports boom, the industry is backing plans to restrict rest periods for those doing hazardous work in low temperaturesThe health of hundreds of thousands of meat plant workers in Brazil is at risk from an industry-backed plan to reduce breaks given to employees, say workers’ rights groups in the country.In the midst of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 350,000 Brazilians, President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, parliament and the meat industry have been pushing fo
  
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• Top Beijing official admits efficacy of China’s Covid vaccines is low

  11-04-2021 19:56 via theguardian.com
  
  Head of country’s disease control centre says vaccines ‘don’t have very high protection rates’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageChina’s top disease control official has admitted that the efficacy of the country’s domestically produced vaccines is low as it emerged the authorities are considering mixing them to try to offer greater protection against coronavirus.The rare admission of weakness on the part of Beijing’s pandem
  
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• Senior Chinese official admits efficacy of China’s Covid vaccines is low

  11-04-2021 11:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Head of country’s disease control centre says vaccines ‘don’t have very high protection rates’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageChina’s top disease control official has admitted that the efficacy of the country’s domestically produced vaccines is low as it emerged the authorities are considering mixing them to try to offer greater protection against coronavirus.The rare admission of weakness on the part of Beijing’s pandem
  
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• China considers mixing Covid vaccines to give greater protection

  11-04-2021 11:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Head of disease control admits Chinese vaccines ‘don’t have very high protection rates’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageChina’s top disease control official has admitted that the efficacy of the country’s domestically produced vaccines is low as it emerged the authorities are considering mixing them to try to offer greater protection against coronavirus.The rare admission of weakness on the part of Beijing’s pandemic approach c
  
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• ‘Negotiating with your worst enemy’: Biden in risky talks to pay Brazil to save Amazon

  11-04-2021 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Activists fear billion-dollar climate deal will bolster Bolsonaro and reward illegal forest clearance – but US says action can’t waitThe US is negotiating a multi-billion dollar climate deal with Brazil that observers fear could help the reelection of president Jair Bolsonaro and reward illegal forest clearance in the Amazon.That is the concern of indigenous groups, environmental campaigners and civil society activists, who say they are being shut out of the most important talks on t
  
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• Bolsonaro’s ‘genocidal’ Covid response has led to Brazilian catastrophe, Dilma Rousseff says

  10-04-2021 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Former president tells Guardian Brazil faces perhaps gravest moment in its history and is ‘adrift on an ocean of hunger and disease’Jair Bolsonaro’s perverse and “genocidal” response to one of the world’s deadliest Covid outbreaks has left Brazil “adrift on an ocean of hunger and disease”, the country’s former president Dilma Rousseff has claimed.Speaking to the Guardian this week – as Brazil’s coronavirus death toll hit devastati
  
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• UCL team’s claim that herd immunity set to be achieved draws criticism

  09-04-2021 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Many scientists critical of University College London Covid-19 forecast as ‘overconfident and overoptimistic’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBritain will on Friday achieve herd immunity from Covid-19, according to a forecast from scientists at University College London – which was no sooner made than disputed.Scientists from other institutions argued that the modelling was wrong, with a history of making “over-confident and overoptimistic
  
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• Brazil’s coronavirus death toll passes 4,000 a day for first time

  07-04-2021 08:48 via theguardian.com
  
  Covid crisis ‘out of control’, says expert as president Jair Bolsonaro continues to resist lockdownCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageBrazil’s coronavirus catastrophe has deepened further after more than 4,000 daily deaths were reported for the first time since the outbreak began in February last year.At least 4,195 people were reported to have lost their lives on Tuesday, taking Brazil’s total death toll – the world’s second hig
  
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• The Guardian view on Jair Bolsonaro: a danger to Brazil, and the world | Editorial

  05-04-2021 19:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The far-right president has given Covid-19 and the razing of the Amazon free rein. Now it looks like he plans to cling on whatever voters sayThe prospect of the rightwing extremist Jair Bolsonaro becoming Brazil’s president was always frightening. This was a man with a history of denigrating women, gay people and minorities, who praised authoritarianism and torture. The nightmare has proved even worse in reality. Not only has he used a dictatorship-era national security law to pursue criti
  
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• Amid Brazil's tragedy, our hope is the prospect of Bolsonaro's defeat next year | Celso Amorim

  02-04-2021 18:30 via theguardian.com
  
  As Covid deaths climb the president seems to be throwing the country into an abyss that will be difficult to escape fromIt is no exaggeration to say that Brazil is going through the most serious crisis in its history. With nearly 4,000 deaths a day and moving quickly towards a figure of 500,000 people killed by Covid-19, Brazil is not just the epicentre of the pandemic. It has also become the breeding ground for new variants of the virus: a real threat to its own people and the whole of humankin
  
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• Brazil's gravediggers exhume bodies to make space for Covid victims

  02-04-2021 03:19 via theguardian.com
  
  As cemeteries run out of space, World Health Organization experts warn multiple states in ‘critical condition’
  See all our coronavirus coverageThe Brazilian city of São Paulo has sped up efforts to empty old graves to make room for a soaring number of Covid deaths as the sprawling metropolis registered record daily burials this week.As the World Health Organization warned that the pandemic has put a number of Brazilian states in “critical condition”, gravediggers w
  
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• Brazil: calls grow for removal of 'coup-mongering' Bolsonaro as crisis builds

  31-03-2021 19:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Opposition leaders demand impeachment for what they say is president’s illegal attempt to co-opt the country’s armed forcesProminent leaders of Brazil’s opposition have called for president Jair Bolsonaro to be immediately removed from office to prevent his “coup-mongering, authoritarian delusions” becoming a reality.“We cannot be bystanders to this barbarism,” congressman Marcelo Freixo said on Wednesday as parliamentarians demanded Bolsonaro’s im
  
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• What's next for Brazil as Jair Bolsonaro's troubles deepen?

  31-03-2021 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The president has stacked his government with military men. Now that blurring of institutional lines may backfireIt is not surprising that the government of Jair Bolsonaro is in crisis. Setting aside his ruinous response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the radically reactionary leader of the largest country in Latin America has never displayed the ability or desire to use political means to benefit anyone but those closest to him. Still, the scale and rapidity of the upheaval this week has raised conc
  
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• Brazil on edge as three military chiefs resign after Bolsonaro fires defense minister

  30-03-2021 18:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Political earthquake rattles country already grappling with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaksJair Bolsonaro’s crisis-stricken administration has been rocked by the sudden sacking of Brazil’s defence minister and the subsequent resignation of the heads of all three branches of the armed forces.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 presid
  
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• 'The heart of darkness': neighbors shun Brazil over Covid response

  30-03-2021 15:08 via theguardian.com
  
  Latin American countries scramble to protect themselves from a country where nearly 60,000 people are expected to die in March aloneIt has long been regarded as a soft power superpower, the sun-kissed, culturally blessed land of Bossa Nova, Capoeira and Pelé.But Brazil’s shambolic response to coronavirus under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has cast Latin America’s largest country in an unfamiliar and unpleasant role: that of a Covid-riddled, science-shunning, politically-
  
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• Brazil's foreign minister, who bashed China and praised Trump, resigns

  29-03-2021 20:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Ernesto Araújo’s resignation ends the most calamitous chapter in the history of the country’s diplomacy, critics sayJair Bolsonaro’s ultraconservative foreign minister has resigned after a rebellion from diplomats and lawmakers who accused him of demolishing Brazil’s international reputation and putting Brazilian lives at risk by vandalizing relations with China and the US during the coronavirus pandemic.Ernesto Araújo, a 53-year-old career diplomat famed fo
  
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• 'Reclaim These Streets' and rubber duck rallies: human rights roundup – in pictures

  27-03-2021 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand Continue reading...
  
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• Brazil meat giant JBS vows net zero by 2040 amid record profits

  25-03-2021 19:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Much of net-zero target could be met if JBS ended deforestation by Amazon suppliers, say campaignersThe Brazilian company JBS, the world’s biggest meat processor, has announced record profits a day after it pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 – the first global meat and poultry company to do so.Surging exports to China and Hong Kong fed its record profit of 4bn Brazilian reais (£516m) for the last quarter of 2020 – up a staggering 65% on the previou
  
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