Brazil

• Friday, February 1st 2019 - 10:43 UTC

  New Brazilian Congress opens with great challenges, but Bolsonaro has been made vulnerable by Flavio's finances

  

  The real business of governing Brazil starts this Friday for president Jair Messias Bolsonaro with the opening of the new congress through which his ambitious reform program must pass. The former army captain is currently absent from Brasilia will have to follow events from his hospital bed in São Paulo, where he is recovering from a third major operation following his stabbing at a campaign rally last year that almost cost him his life.

• Friday, February 1st 2019 - 10:38 UTC

  Dam burst in Brazil confirms 110 deaths and 238 missing: “deadliest-ever mine disaster”

  

  Residents devastated by a mining dam burst in Brazil that may have killed more than 300 people reacted on Thursday with indifference and in many cases anger to miner Vale SA’s pledges to pay victims’ families and improve safety.

• Friday, February 1st 2019 - 09:59 UTC

  Brazil and China prepare for first high-level political and economic talks since 2015

  

  Brazil and China are expected to hold their first high-level political and economic talks since 2015 later this year, Brazil’s agriculture trade secretary said on Thursday, in a move likely to boost farm trade between the two countries.

• Wednesday, January 30th 2019 - 10:05 UTC

  Dam burst in Brazil: Police arrests five engineers responsible for environment impact licenses

  

  Police in Brazil have arrested five people as part of an investigation into Friday's dam collapse in Brumadinho. At least 65 people died and 300 remain unaccounted for, when toxic sludge engulfed a company canteen and neighboring residential buildings.

• Wednesday, January 30th 2019 - 09:59 UTC

  Brazil's federal debt increased 8.9% last year and is estimated to rise 11% in 2019

  

  Brazil’s federal debt rose to 3.88 trillion Reais ($1.03 trillion) in December, up 8.9% from 3.56 trillion Reais a year earlier, and is expected to rise further this year, the Brazilian Treasury said. The Treasury predicts public debt this year will swell to somewhere between 4.1 trillion and 4.3 trillion Reais, the upper end of which would represent an increase of almost 11%, it outlined in its annual financing plan.

• Wednesday, January 30th 2019 - 09:14 UTC

  Vale vows to cut 10% iron ore output and decommission ten dangerous sludge dams

  

  Vale SA, the world’s largest iron ore miner, on Tuesday vowed to take as much as 10% of its ore output offline in order to decommission ten more dams like the one that burst last week, killing scores of workers and nearby residents.

• Wednesday, January 30th 2019 - 08:54 UTC

  Latin American markets outperform world stocks struggling over US/China trade talks

  

  Latin American stocks rose on Tuesday, outperforming world stocks that struggled to hold gains ahead of keenly awaited U.S.-Sino trade talks, earnings of top technology companies and an impending U.S. Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

• Tuesday, January 29th 2019 - 09:01 UTC

  Bolsonaro recovering after a nine-hour operation; General Hamilton Mourao acting president

  

  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has undergone surgery to remove a colostomy bag he had fitted after he was stabbed in the stomach on the campaign trail in September. He is expected to be on strict bed rest for two days after the operation, a presidential spokesman said.

• Tuesday, January 29th 2019 - 08:43 UTC

  Brazilian government considering management overhaul at miner Vale SA

  

  Brazil’s government weighed pushing for a management overhaul at miner Vale SA on Monday as grief over hundreds feared killed by a dam burst turned into anger, with prosecutors, politicians and victims’ families calling for punishment. By Monday, firefighters in the state of Minas Gerais had confirmed 65 people killed by Friday’s disaster, in which a burst tailings dam sent a torrent of sludge into the miner’s offices and the town of Brumadinho.

• Tuesday, January 29th 2019 - 08:36 UTC

  Vale's market value plunges US$ 16,4bn on Monday, following on the dam burst

  

  Brazilian miner Vale SA’s shares plunged on Monday, wiping out nearly 62 billion reais (US$ 16.4 billion) in market value, after a tailing dam collapse on Friday killed at least 65 people and left 292 missing with slim hopes for recovery. Vale shares were down 21.5% in Sao Paulo morning trading, at 44.70 reais. The company suspended dividend payments late on Sunday.