Brazil

• Wednesday, September 26th 2018 - 08:58 UTC

  Evangelical “block” in Brazilian congress expected to increase

  

  Evangelical voters are expected to play a decisive role in Brazil’s Oct. 7 presidential election as new rules ban corporations from making direct contributions in the wake of a graft scandal. With their numbers and clout growing, and the “evangelical bloc” in Congress accounting for 15% of federal lawmakers, evangelical supporters have become the focus of leading candidates.

• Wednesday, September 26th 2018 - 08:46 UTC

  Ex wife of Bolsonaro denies death threats in legal fight over son's custody

  

  An ex-wife of a leading Brazilian presidential candidate disputed a news report on Tuesday that she accused him of sending her a death threat amid a legal fight over their son's custody in 2011. The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Ana Cristina Valle had told Brazil's foreign office she left the country because of the threat by far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro.

• Tuesday, September 25th 2018 - 07:31 UTC

  Brazil:Haddad closer to Bolsonaro and would beat him in the runoff, according to latest polls

  

  Fernando Haddad, the presidential candidate for Brazil’s Workers Party (PT), is closing the gap with poll-leading far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro for the October 7 first-round vote and would beat him in a runoff, a survey released on Monday showed.

• Monday, September 24th 2018 - 09:26 UTC

  Bolsonaro's homophobic rhetoric backfiring among women voters

  

  Brazil’s far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro built much of his reputation on shocking, sexist rhetoric. But that’s backfiring with the majority of the electorate: women. The former Army captain’s rejection rate has risen to 50% among female voters, even as he lies on a hospital bed after being stabbed by a fanatic.

• Monday, September 24th 2018 - 09:17 UTC

  Brazil's colored community sponsors Black & Black network to promote its political candidates

  

  In Brazil's general elections approach, a new social network is gaining traction aimed at giving greater visibility to black candidates while highlighting anti-racism initiatives in the country tainted by racial prejudice. Black & Black, which has 100,000 users -- in a population of more than 200 million -- aims to “connect the demands and narratives of the world's black population” and to ensure that “black people get the prominence they deserve.”

• Monday, September 24th 2018 - 09:15 UTC

  Petrobras plans to increase output 10% next year to some 2.3 million bpd

  

  Brazil’s state-run oil giant Petrobras aims to raise output as much as 10% to around 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019 and cut net debt by US$10 billion, according to Chief Financial Officer Rafael Grisolia. The world’s most indebted oil company is on course to reduce debt to US$ 69 billion by the end of this year despite falling short of its US$ 21 billion asset sales target, Grisolia pointed out.

• Saturday, September 22nd 2018 - 08:24 UTC

  Bolsonaro reprimands his chief economic advisor over new taxes controversy

  

  The key economic adviser to Brazil's leading presidential candidate cancelled two campaign events on Friday amid a disagreement with his boss. Market-friendly Paulo Guedes, the main adviser of far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro, canceled events at the American Chamber of Commerce and broker XP Investimentos in Sao Paulo.

• Saturday, September 22nd 2018 - 06:49 UTC

  Police arrests alleged leading Hezbollah financier in the triple border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay

  

  Brazilian police on Friday arrested a Lebanese citizen on suspicions of raising funds for Lebanon-based Shiite military group Hezbollah, which the United States considers a terrorist group.

• Saturday, September 22nd 2018 - 06:37 UTC

  Bolsonaro expects to be discharged from hospital, “God willing” at the end of the month

  

  Brazil's right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said in a video released Friday that he expects to leave hospital before the end of the month after he was stabbed in the abdomen two weeks ago.

• Friday, September 21st 2018 - 09:23 UTC

  Bolsonaro undergoes further surgery to drain liquid from abdomen

  

  Brazilian extreme right presidential candidate Jain Bolsonaro, who was stabbed during a political rally over a week ago and has since been under intensive care in the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, had to undergo another emergency invasive intervention following high fever and accumulation of liquid in his abdomen.