Brazil

SAO PAULO, Dec 21 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil’s health ministry, yesterday, reported 408 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll in the country to 186,764.

During the same period, another 25,445 cases were registered, bringing the national tally to 7,238,600. Brazil ranks third in the world in the number of confirmed cases, behind the United States and India.

One of those who died yesterday was 87-year-old actress, Nicette Bruno. Bruno was one of the pioneers in television soap operas in Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro said in a video published on Saturday that his finance minister Paulo Guedes assured him he will stay on in the government until the end of his administration.

Bolsonaro acknowledged in the video that Guedes is unhappy because of the difficulties experienced in implementing his economic agenda, which involve significant cuts in public spending and a tax reform long-awaited in financial circles.

BRASILIA, Dec 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil was at the “tail end” of the coronavirus pandemic, despite a surge in
infections and deaths that many experts are calling a second wave.

“We’re at the tail end of the pandemic. Compared to other countries in the
world, our government was the best, or one of the best, in handling it,” he
president said on a visit to the southern city of Porto Alegre.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Commercial flights with Boeing 737 Max jetliners resumed Wednesday for the first time since they were grounded worldwide nearly two years ago following two deadly accidents.

Brazil’s Gol Airlines became the first in the world to return the planes to its active fleet, using a 737 Max 8 on a flight from Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre, according to flightradar24.com.

The company own announcement didn’t specify the route of the flight.

RIO-DE-JANEIRO, December 8. /TASS/: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro thanked Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the participation of Russian observers in Sunday’s parliamentary elections in the Bolivarian Republic.

"Mr. Ambassador, I ask you to convey our gratitude to President Vladimir Putin for his interest in the democratic process in Venezuela," the president told a meeting with a Russian delegation of observers broadcast on his YouTube account.

BRASILIA, Dec 8 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Until Brazil makes a political commitment to curb deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, the trade deal between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur trade bloc will not advance toward ratification in Europe, the EU’s envoy in Brasilia said.

Ambassador Ignacio Ybañez said in an interview that talks were underway to add a commitment to the treaty concluded last year, and that Brazil’s government is aware it is needed to save two decades of negotiations.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s leader Jair Bolsonaro is moving to assert control of the nation’s independent health regulator, Anvisa, a move some health experts fear will politicize the agency and give the president, one of the world’s most prominent coronavirus skeptics, free rein over vaccine approvals.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 6 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll yesterday surpassed 176,000 after registering 664 deaths in the last 24 hours, with the nationwide tally now at 176,628, the Health Ministry said.

Meanwhile, a total of 43,209 new cases were reported, bringing the national count to 6,577,177.

Since Nov, the South American country experienced an increase in cases and deaths, causing hospitals in the two largest cities in the country, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, to reach 100 percent occupancy.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A large gang of heavily armed bank robbers invaded the Brazilian city of Cameta just one day after a similar force struck another mid-sized city on the opposite side of the country, taking residents hostage as they looted a bank.

Para state’s public security secretariat said in a statement Wednesday that more than 20 criminals with assault rifles attacked a branch of the state-run Bank of Brazil in the city in the Amazon region overnight.

Officials did not immediately say how much money might have been stolen.

SAO PAULO, Dec 1 (NNN-CMA) – Brazil’s state, hardest hit by COVID-19, Sao Paulo, re-imposed some pandemic lockdown measures yesterday to halt the resurging infection and hospitalisation rates.

The move is aimed at improving “control of the pandemic,” Sao Paulo State Governor, Joao Doria, said.

Doria ordered shops, including bars and restaurants, to operate with a 40-percent maximum capacity and 10-hour daily time limits, essentially reverting to the restrictions that were lifted on Oct 6.