More than 11,000 people have been displaced in the Brazilian state of Bahia due to flooding, with authorities scrambling Saturday to provide relief to residents without alternate housing. The heavy rains have killed 17 people since November, including the latest death on Thursday, the state’s civil protection agency said. A total of 4,185 people were seeking shelter, according to data released by the agency on Friday, after the rains struck 19 cities particularly hard, including […]
Tag: Brazil
Brazil requires Covid-19 vaccination for arriving travelers
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Monday began requiring a Covid-19 vaccination certificate for foreign travelers arriving in the country, a move initially blocked by President Jair Bolsonaro’s government. A Supreme Court justice ruled Saturday that proof of vaccination would be mandatory to enter Brazil, in an effort to slow the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant. The national health regulator Anvisa said it had “notified this Monday the border posts, especially at airports, about […]
Brazil rules out vaccine requirement for travelers
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil on Tuesday ruled out requiring a Covid-19 vaccination certificate for foreign travelers arriving in the country, despite a recommendation from the national health regulator. The move came after far-right President Jair Bolsonaro compared such a mandate to a “leash” for animals. Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga told reporters after a meeting at the presidency that “people cannot be discriminated between vaccinated and unvaccinated to impose restrictions.” However, Queiroga said that with […]
Brazil reports two ‘preliminary’ Omicron cases
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s health regulator on Tuesday reported the discovery of two “preliminary” cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in a traveler from South Africa, where it was first detected, and his wife. Positive samples from the two Brazilians will now be sent for further laboratory analysis for confirmation, the Anvisa regulator said in a statement. If confirmed, they would be the first Omicron cases in Latin America. The passenger arrived at the […]
Damaged Amazon rainforest teetering on the brink
by Joshua Howat Berger Agence France-Presse SAO FELIX DO XINGU, Brazil (AFP) – Something is wrong. Holed up in her lab, Brazilian atmospheric chemist Luciana Gatti crunches her numbers again and again, thinking there is a mistake. But the same bleak conclusion keeps popping up on her screen: the Amazon, the world’s biggest rainforest — the “lungs of the Earth,” the “green ocean,” the thing humanity is counting on to inhale our pollution and save us […]
Rio de Janeiro lifts outdoor mask requirement
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) — Attention beach-lovers seeking a break from the pandemic: Rio de Janeiro is lifting its Covid-19 mask requirement for outdoor areas effective from Thursday, the state’s governor said, as once-pandemic-battered Brazil advances quickly with vaccinations. “We are going to relax the requirement on wearing masks outdoors, which is cause for celebration,” Governor Claudio Castro wrote on Twitter. “More than a year and a half after the state of public emergency […]
Brazil, Colombia ‘united’ in defense of Amazon ahead of UN summit
Brasília, Brazil (AFP) – Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and his Colombia counterpart Ivan Duque said on Tuesday they would head to the next UN climate summit “united” in defense of the Amazon. The Cop26 climate conference begins in Glasgow on October 31 and will last two weeks. “We will arrive in Glasgow untied to tackle a very important and dear affair for all of us: our dear, rich and desirable Amazon,” said Bolsonaro following his meeting […]
Brazil’s Bolsonaro decides not to get vaccinated
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has confirmed he will not get vaccinated against Covid-19, having previously said he would be the “last Brazilian” to do so. The far-right leader has generated controversy over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and for initially downplaying the seriousness of the virus, despite catching it himself. “I’ve decided not to get vaccinated. I’m looking at new studies, I already have the highest immunization, why would I […]
Extreme drought in Brazil triggers fatal sand storms
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) — Unusually powerful sandstorms have left at least six people dead in Sao Paulo in recent weeks, local media said, as southeastern Brazil grapples with severe drought. Scenes of huge orange dust clouds rumbling across the countryside — with winds of up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) an hour — have been seen at least three times since the end of September, terrifying residents in urban and rural areas of Sao […]
Head in the sky: 8-year-old Brazilian girl dubbed world’s youngest astronomer
by Jarbas OLIVEIRA, avec Louis GENOT, à Rio de Janeiro FORTALEZA, Brazil (AFP) — When Nicole Oliveira was just learning to walk, she would throw up her arms to reach for the stars in the sky. Today, at just eight years of age, the Brazilian girl is known as the world’s youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program, attending international seminars and meeting with her country’s top space and science figures. […]
Major corporations urge Brazil to boost climate pledges
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AFP) – A group of the 107 biggest companies in Brazil on Monday called for the Bolsonaro government to strengthen its environmental commitments, just one month ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. “Brazil should be a participant in climate negotiations,” the companies said in an open letter published by the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), which is made up of companies representing 47 percent of the country’s […]
Brazil’s health official tests positive for Covid-19 at UN gathering
BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday after attending the UN General Assembly in New York that was inaugurated by his president, Jair Bolsonaro, according to an official statement. “The other members of the delegation have been tested and are negative,” said the official Brazilian government press release. Queiroga, who had received a Covid-19 vaccine, was the second member of Bolsonaro’s entourage to test positive for the virus […]





