Brazil's Amazon rainforest has seen a record number of fires this year, according to new data from the country's space research agency. The National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) said its satellite data showed an 83% increase on the same period in 2018.
The Brazilian government on Tuesday issued a decree moving the Financial Activities Control Board (Coaf), which monitors nefarious financial activity such as money laundering, into a new Financial Intelligence Unit under central bank control.
Presidential frontrunner Alberto Fernandez and running-mate Cristina Kirchner led calls by dozens of Argentine personalities on Tuesday to free Brazil's jailed leftist icon Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Human rights activists, lawmakers, trade unionists, artists and scientists signed a petition published in the left-leaning Pagina 12 daily.
Brazilian states containing the country’s Amazon rainforest said they want to negotiate directly with European nations who fund projects to curb deforestation after changes proposed by the federal government led Norway and Germany to suspend donations.
A new trade facilitation program will support Brazilian businesses to export, which will help boost trade with countries including the UK. The £20 million program will work with existing export promotion and trade facilitation programs across Brazil to help bring businesses of all sizes to international markets.
A gunman holding a busload of passengers hostage in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday was shot dead by police, officials said, ending the hours-long hijacking. Dozens of people were trapped on the bus after it was commandeered by the gunman on a heavily transited bridge connecting Rio with the neighboring city of Niteroi.
More than half a billion bees dropped dead in Brazil within just three months, according to Bloomberg. Researchers say the main cause of death is pesticides, which could end up affecting more than the bees.
Brazil’s main science-funding agency will have to suspend more than 80,000 scholarships to postdoctoral researchers and graduate and undergraduate students starting in September unless it receives additional cash from the government.
Argentine primary winner, Alberto Fernandez is like the Russian mamushka doll, “you open it and out pops Cristina Fernandez, again you open it and out pops Lula, and again, Hugo Chavez”, said Brazilian foreign minister Ernesto Araújo.
Brazil is considering designating Lebanese group Hezbollah a terrorist organization, as President Jair Bolsonaro increasingly aligns his government with the U.S. on foreign policy.