Brazil

• Tuesday, October 8th 2019 - 09:22 UTC

  Dry spell blamed for the slowest 2019/2020 soybean planting season in Brazil

  

  Brazilian farmers have planted 3.1% of the estimated soybean area for the 2019/2020 crop, agribusiness consultancy AgRural said on Monday, blaming a lack of rain for the slowest start to the season in six years.

• Tuesday, October 8th 2019 - 09:18 UTC

  Brazil willing to open uranium deposits to private sector companies

  

  Brazil’s mines and energy minister, Bento Albuquerque, said the country expects to resume production at the country’s only uranium mine before the end of the year and would open the sector to private companies.

• Tuesday, October 8th 2019 - 09:09 UTC

  Weaker demand and Argentine situation hit hard Brazilian auto industry

  

  Brazil’s auto industry trade group Anfavea has slashed its forecast for 2019 vehicle production growth to a modest 2.1% from 9% previously, it said on Monday. Anfavea had big plans this year for Brazil’s auto industry, which has been slowly recovering from a significant slump.

• Tuesday, October 8th 2019 - 09:03 UTC

  Oil spill in Brazil has affected 42 cities, environment minister reports

  

  Brazil’s environment minister says more than 100 tons of oil has been spilt along the northeastern coast since the beginning of September. Ricardo Salles said Monday on Twitter that 42 cities have been affected by the spills. He did not say how he reached those figures.

• Monday, October 7th 2019 - 09:37 UTC

  Pope Francis opens Amazon synod calling to listen the “cry of Mother Land” and condemning “destructive interests”

  

  Pope Francis opened a synod Sunday to champion the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous communities by condemning the destructive “interests” he blamed for the fires that devastated the region.

• Saturday, October 5th 2019 - 09:55 UTC

  Falklands/Sao Paulo air-link will be serviced with a Boeing 767, Argentine sources

  

  The Argentine media has revealed some additional details about the coming weekly airlink between the Falkland Islands and the South American continent, scheduled to begin “sometime in the second half of November”.

• Friday, October 4th 2019 - 09:49 UTC

  Pope looking into options to recruiting more priests in the Amazon region

  

  A shortage of Catholic priests in the Amazon is eroding the church's influence in the remote region, bishops in Brazil and Peru warn, ahead of a Vatican synod dedicated to the rainforest. Wilmar Santin, one of the scores of Brazilian bishops set to attend the Oct 6-27 gathering, says the church is ceding ground to more nimble Evangelical rivals and needs to lift its game.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2019 - 09:51 UTC

  Brazil's landmark pension reform bill closer to its final approval

  

  Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday approved a landmark pension reform bill in the first round of voting, in relief for far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, although senators voted down an amendment in a move that dilutes the reform’s projected savings. The bill will now pass to a second and final voting round.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2019 - 09:49 UTC

  Operation Weak Flesh: Brazilian meat packer admits to bribing food inspectors

  

  Brazilian meatpacker BRF SA has admitted to bribing food inspectors with bank deposits and health benefits, police said on Tuesday, although the company itself avoided raids as it was cooperating with the latest phase of the corruption probe.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2019 - 09:43 UTC

  Brazil's ex richest man receives additional sentence for inside trading

  

  Eike Batista, formerly Brazil’s richest man, was sentenced to an additional eight years and seven months of prison time this week for insider trading. Batista, 62, had already been convicted for paying US$ 16.6m to get government contracts as part of a sprawling corruption probe known as Carwash and sentenced to 30 years, which he is serving under house arrest.