Categories
Uncategorized

Brazil: Protect Voting, Speech Rights (Human Rights Watch)

Brazil’s democratic institutions should protect voting and speech rights leading to the October 2022 presidential elections from any attempt by President Jair Bolsonaro to subvert the electoral system or undermine the rule of law and fundamental freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2022. Brazil: Protect Voting, Speech Rights | Human Rights Watch (hrw.org)

Categories
Uncategorized

Evangelicals in Brazil are stronger today than ever before (Raphael Tsavkko Garcia, Al Jazeera)

In July 2015, Protestant pastor and theologian Ricardo Gondim raised the alarm about the growing power of evangelicals in Brazil. In a blog post titled God save us from an evangelical Brazil, the president of the progressive Bethesda Church warned that if they succeed in securing the support of a large enough segment of the […]

Categories
Uncategorized

For Brazil co-op, price of first carbon-neutral coffee is sweet (Roberto Samora, Reuters)

A Brazilian coffee co-op received a price premium in its first sale of a batch of carbon-neutral arabica coffee that was near double that a product certified as sustainable but not carbon-neutral would achieve, officials at the company said. For Brazil co-op, price of first carbon-neutral coffee is sweet | Reuters

Categories
Uncategorized

Amazon deforestation in Brazil surges to 15-year high (Al Jazeera)

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest soared 22 percent in one year to the highest level since 2006, according to the government’s annual report, undercutting President Jair Bolsonaro’s assurances that the country is curbing illegal logging. Brazil’s space research agency (INPE) said on Thursday that the country had recorded 13,235sq km (5,110 square miles) of deforestation in the […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Violence targeting Indigenous people surges 61 percent in Brazil (Al Jazeera)

Violence against Indigenous people in Brazil surged by more than 60 percent last year, a rights group has said, as land invasions of Indigenous territories increased and the government failed to provide protection. In its annual report, released on Thursday, on violence against the descendants of Brazil’s original inhabitants, the Catholic Church’s Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) said […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Petrobras’s stock rises on Bolsonaro’s privatisation comments (Al Jazeera)

State-run oil company Petrobras has seen its stock price trade up on comments from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that he is considering privatising the firm. In addition to Bolsonaro’s comments on Monday, the second time this month, a Senate leader said studies were already under way regarding the dilution of the government’s share in the […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Will Brazil’s president be prosecuted for COVID-19 deaths? (Al Jazeera)

More than 600,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19, the world’s second-highest death toll. President Jair Bolsonaro famously dismissed the coronavirus as “a little flu”. He touted misinformation and unproven treatments, even after contracting the virus himself. Now a Senate inquiry says Bolsonaro should face charges including crimes against humanity. The panel accused him of negligence, […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Brazil’s Bolsonaro should face COVID charges: Senate inquiry (Al Jazeera)

The senator leading a congressional investigation into Brazil’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has recommended that President Jair Bolsonaro face criminal charges – including homicide – over a catalogue of alleged government errors that led to the deaths of thousands of people. A nearly 1,200-page draft document prepared by opposition Senator Renan Calheiros for a […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Brazil’s assets sink on fears aid programme will hurt fiscal rule (Martha Beck, Rachel Gamarski, Vinícius Andrade, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera)

Brazilian assets tumbled on Tuesday, leading losses across the globe, on reports the government will breach the country’s spending cap rule to finance a new social program, hurting the fiscal position of Latin America’s largest economy. The new aid program to the poorest, dubbed Auxilio Brasil, will give handouts of as much as 400 reais […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Egypt seeks Brazil’s support in Nile dam dispute (George Mikhail, Al-Monitor)

Egypt is trying to win Brazil’s support in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) crisis by capitalizing on Brazil’s accession in June to the nonpermanent membership of the United Nations Security Council. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed with Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourao, during his visit to Cairo Sept. 28 the latest developments regarding the GERD crisis, including […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Brazil. The Brazil nut gatherers of the Amazon (Flávia Milhorance, China Dialogue)

Cooperacre’s Brazil nut plant in Rio Branco, Acre. Families in the Brazilian Amazon sell about 40,000 tonnes of Brazil nuts each year. (Image: Flávia Milhorance) I wrote to Edivan Kaxarari at the beginning of April. Days passed without the message reaching the intended recipient and I was a little worried. Edivan lives in the Kaxarari […]

Categories
Uncategorized

Brazil. Reject Anti-Indigenous Rights Bill (HRW)

Brazil’s Congress should reject a bill that would prevent or hinder many Indigenous peoples from claiming their right to traditional lands, violating their rights under international law, Human Rights Watch said today. Bill 490/2007, currently pending before the Chamber of Deputies, would prevent Indigenous peoples from obtaining legal recognition of their traditional lands if they […]