Brazil

BRASILIA, Aug 27 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian health authorities announced the third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will begin to be distributed during the second half of September 2021, for people over 70 years of age who have completed their full treatment more than six months ago.

The “booster doses” will be later made available to all people 28 days after their complete immunization cycle.

BRASÍLIA, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Monday that he will ask his health minister to set a date to end the use of face masks as a means of reducing transmission of COVID-19 in Brazil.

Maks have become a political issue in Brazil, with Bolsonaro long ranting against their use and frequently refusing to wear one in public despite a legal requirement to do so.

In the radio interview, the president argued that with much of the population already vaccinated or having caught the virus, masks are not needed.

BRASILIA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro raised the stakes in his battle with the country's Supreme Court on Friday, sending the Senate a request for the impeachment of one of its justices, according to the request seen by Reuters.

Bolsonaro is seeking to impeach Justice Alexandre de Moraes after he opened an investigation into the president for allegedly leaking to the media a secret federal police report of a hacking that backed up his views that Brazil's electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud.

BRASILIA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday called for the Senate to bring charges against two Supreme Court justices, warning of an "institutional rupture" in his latest clash with the judiciary as investigations threaten him and his allies.

"It has been a while since Supreme Court Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Luis Roberto Barroso have exceeded constitutional limits with their acts," Bolsonaro wrote on Twitter. "Everyone knows the consequences, internal and external, of an institutional rupture, which we neither provoke nor desire."

BRASILIA, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell 10% in July from a year earlier, after four straight monthly increases, preliminary data showed on Friday, but destruction remains far higher than before President Jair Bolsonaro took office.

Cleared forest in the month of July totaled 1,498 square km (578 square miles), nearly twice the size of New York City, according to government space research agency INPE.

From January to July, deforestation in the Amazon was up 7.8% from a year ago to 5,108 square kilometers, INPE data showed.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro suffered a major defeat in Congress when Brazilian lawmakers didn’t adopt his proposal to require printed receipts from some electronic ballot boxes.

Bolsonaro has insisted printed receipts are needed to avoid fraud, without providing any evidence that Brazil’s electronic voting system is prone to cheating. His allies needed 308 votes to pass the proposed constitutional change, but got only 229 Tuesday night.

BRASILIA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - When U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan visited Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday, he brought a message from Washington: Don't mess around with elections.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that the Biden administration raised concerns over Bolsonaro's unfounded claims of fraud in Brazil's all-electronic voting system and his threat not to accept the results of next year's election if the system is not changed.

BRASILIA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Brazil refuted on Saturday the wrong remarks made by spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Brazil Tobias Bradford on Chinese tech firm Huawei.

Bradford issued on Friday a statement on U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's visit to Brazil, claiming that the United States expressed strong concerns about Huawei's potential role in the field of communications facilities in Brazil and other countries.

BRASILIA, Aug 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro ignored calls to drop his feud with the Supreme Court on Friday (Aug 6) and called one of its justices a “son of a whore”, amid rising tensions over his unfounded claims the nation’s voting system is vulnerable to fraud.

Speaking to supporters in southern Brazil, he insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, the top court justice who also heads the Supreme Electoral Court. The insult was part of a live broadcast shared on Bolsonaro’s Facebook account but later deleted. Copies continue to be shared on social media.

SAO PAULO, Aug 5 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil reported 40,716 new cases of COVID-19, raising its total caseload to 20,026,533, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the national death toll rose to 559,6071, after 175 more deaths were detected.

Brazil currently has the world’s second-highest pandemic death toll after the United States, and the third-largest caseload after the United States and India.

The South American country is experiencing a new wave of infections, which has overwhelmed hospitals, said the ministry.