Brazil's National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) said on Wednesday that more rain was to be expected in parts of the State of Rio Grande do Sul throughout the September 7 holiday as the death toll from the recent extratropical cyclone rose to 37 (including one victim in the neighboring State of Santa Catarina), Agência Brasil reported. Rio Grande do Sul's government was to declare a state of public calamity.
Brazil's Chief Minister of the Presidential Secretariat of Social Communication Paulo Pimenta insisted this week that a website launched last week by the authorities to fight fake news does not replace the importance of private sites. The platform does not intend to replace professional agencies for checking the news, Pimenta said in an interview.
Brazil's interim government said on Friday it has the political support for tough measures needed to return the economy to growth and can secure a permanent mandate once populist President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment trial is over. Presidential Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha said the incoming government understood it was only provisional for now and had ordered portraits of Rousseff to be left hanging in federal buildings.