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Shock in Brazil after woman is arrested and charged with violating a corpse and attempted theft through fraudWhen Érika de Souza Vieira wheeled her lethargic-looking uncle into a Brazilian bank, clerks quickly sensed something was amiss.“I don’t think he’s well. He doesn’t look well at all,” remarked one distrustful employee as Vieira tried to get her elderly relative to sign off on a 17,000...

Teams play in colors of Corinthians’ bitter rivalsNFL to play its first regular-season game in BrazilThe Green Bay Packers will play the Philadelphia Eagles when the NFL holds its first regular-season game in Brazil.The 6 September matchup in Sao Paulo will mark the first time since 1970 that the NFL has played a Friday night game on the season’s opening weekend.NFL commissioner Roger Goodell...

Advocates fear situation could escalate in Javari valley, a region plagued by violence and poor healthcareMore than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.The valley, where Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were killed in 2022, is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in...

Multibillionaire called for resignation of judge who ordered platform to block far-right usersElon Musk faces a legal investigation in Brazil after becoming embroiled in a public row with a supreme court judge over an order requiring the social network X to take down some far-right accounts.Justice Alexandre de Moraes had issued a court order forcing the site formerly known as Twitter to block several...

Despite major progress in Brazil and Colombia, deforestation led by farming still cleared an area nearly equal to Switzerland The destruction of the world’s most pristine rainforests continued at a relentless rate in 2023, despite dramatic falls in forest loss in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon, new figures show.An area nearly the size of Switzerland was cleared from previously undisturbed rainforests last year, totalling...

Footage showing former president spent two nights apparently hiding from potential arrest at mission was leaked to mediaThe Hungarian embassy in Brasília has reportedly fired two Brazilian employees after the leaking of security footage that revealed how Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro had spent two nights “hiding” inside the mission.According to the network CNN Brasil, the sackings were punishment for the embarrassing leak to...

President of amnesty commission investigating crimes of 1964-85 regime makes first-ever apology to Indigenous leaderBrazil has issued its first-ever apology for the torture and persecution of Indigenous people during the military dictatorship, including the incarceration of victims in an infamous detention centre known as an “Indigenous concentration camp”.The apology was made on Tuesday by an amnesty commission attached to the human rights ministry that...

Brazil’s president has nixed commemorations of the 1964 coup, possibly to avoid irking the military as senior officers facing jail for allegedly conspiring to stop Lula taking power after 2022 electionRelatives of the victims of Brazil’s brutal two-decade dictatorship have voiced anger and dismay over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s reported decision to block official remembrance events marking the 60th anniversary of the...

Photos of French president’s three-day trip to Brazil to reaffirm countries’ partnership delight internet observersIf the official photos are anything to go by, Emmanuel Macron’s three-day trip to Brazil has been more romantic getaway than international diplomacy.The French president, who ended his tour of the South American country on Thursday with a state visit to the capital, Brasília, prompted online hilarity after the publication...

French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climateEmmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo...

South American neighbours respond to blocking of Corina Yoris, who was favoured to beat strongman Nicolás Maduro in electionsA chorus of Latin American nations, including Brazil and Colombia, have voiced concern over the deteriorating political situation in Venezuela after the opposition politician best-positioned to challenge its strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro, in July’s presidential election was prevented from registering for the vote.Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old...

Former Brazil president spent two nights at legation after two close aides were detained in February over alleged coup plotBrazil’s foreign ministry has summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why the South American country’s embattled former president Jair Bolsonaro spent two nights “hiding” at Hungary’s embassy in Brasília last month as federal police investigators closed in on some of his closest allies.Security footage obtained...

Ex-Barcelona footballer on provisional release from prison term while he appeals against rape convictionThe former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves has been allowed out on bail having served 14 months of a four-and-a-half-year sentence for rape.One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was found guilty last month of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the...

Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in IberiaBrazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in...

The Rio de Janeiro councillor and her driver were assassinated in 2018, sparking an international outcryTwo powerful politicians and Rio de Janeiro’s former chief of police have been arrested as part of a federal police operation targeting the suspected masterminds of the 2018 assassination of Rio councillor Marielle Franco.The operation – named Murder, Inc – was launched at the crack of dawn on Sunday...

Former Manchester City striker taken into custody after court in Brazil ruled he should serve a nine-year sentence for offence committed in ItalyThe former Brazil and Manchester City striker Robinho has been arrested by federal police at his home in the city of Santos after a Brazilian court ruled he should serve a nine-year prison sentence for a rape he was convicted of committing...

Neil and Lora Fachie targeted along with pilot Corinne HallCyclists ‘shaken up’ by incident on opening day of worldsThree members of the British para-cycling track team were robbed of their silver medals and other possessions in a mugging after the opening day of the world championships in Rio de Janeiro.Lora and Neil Fachie, who are both double Paralympic champions, and pilot Corinne Hall were...

Former president allegedly inserted false information into public health database to make it appear he received Covid vaccineBrazil’s federal police have accused Jair Bolsonaro of criminal association and falsifying his own Covid-19 vaccination data, marking the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader with others potentially in store.The supreme court on Tuesday released the police’s indictment which alleges Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false...

Testimony contained in documents released by supreme court details alleged plot to overturn result of 2022 Brazilian electionBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro presented top military officials with a plan to carry out a coup d’état after his defeat in the October 2022 election, two former commanders have told the police, according to newly released judicial documents.In testimonies made public on Friday, former army commander...

The former president called for amnesty for rioters who took part in an alleged coup, during his speech in São Paulo Tens of thousands of supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have rallied in the country’s biggest city, in a show of strength against legal challenges that could put him in jail.The far-right former president, who called the rally in São Paulo after...

Xinjiang in north-west recorded minus 52.3C, while Badu in south recorded 38C – the largest temperature contrast recorded in a single countryChina’s Xinjiang region, in the far west of the country, experienced record-breaking low temperatures of -52.3C on 18 February, surpassing a 64-year-old record for the region. The figure was just shy of the lowest national temperature of -53C, which was recorded in the...

In the 1800s, Luiz Gama defied fate to become Brazil’s first Black lawyer. Nearly a century and a half later, Portela’s parade puts his struggle center stageBorn in 1830 to a trafficked African woman who escaped enslavement and led uprisings, Luiz Gama defied fate and the Brazilian empire to become the country’s first Black lawyer and a leading abolitionist.When he was 10 his father,...

Feira de Acari is closed down by the mayor after claims that gangsters used it to sell stolen goodsManoel Ribeiro has never known a world without Rio de Janeiro’s best-known flea market, the Feira de Acari.The swarming suburban bazaar was founded outside his home in 1970, the year of his birth. It existed in 1993 when the market trader was shot nearby during an...

Police seize passport as agents carry out 33 searches and four arrests across Brazil, targeting allies of far-right former presidentBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has surrendered his passport as part of a police investigation into the attempted coup on 8 January 2023, which sought to keep him in power, his lawyers have said.In operations that also targeted key allies of the former far-right leader,...