Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro again disregarded public health advice amid the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday to snap photos with lockdown protesters, as the country’s largest city of Sao Paulo struggles to keep its healthcare system afloat with public hospitals at 90 percent capacity.
Sergio Moro, Brazil's justice and security minister resigned on Friday after clashing with President Jair Bolsonaro over the sacking of the federal police chief. Moro, a former anti-corruption judge, hit out at “political interference” in the federal police, saying he could not do his job without “autonomy” for the force.
Services activity in Brazil shrank 1% in February, official figures showed on Wednesday, the biggest monthly fall in over 18 months and another sign Latin America's largest economy was already in go-slow mode before the coronavirus crisis erupted.
Hundreds of prisoners broke out of four Brazilian jails on Monday, the day before their day-release privileges were due to be suspended over the coronavirus outbreak, Sao Paulo state prison authorities and local media reported.
Brazil’s government will submit a bill that would reduce public sector costs and benefits and make it easier to fire workers to Congress “in a week or two,” Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Thursday.
Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras said it has asked to withdraw its participation in a program certifying good governance and limited political interference in state companies set up by the Sao Paulo stock exchange.
A consortium of state-owned Chinese companies was awarded the contract to build and operate what will be the second-longest bridge in Brazil. Under the project, a bridge will be built spanning the famed Bay of All Saints, which connects Salvador, the capital of the northeastern Bahia state, with Itaparica Island. The project also involves the construction of related roads.
At least nine people were trampled to death and two others were injured early on Sunday in the chaotic aftermath of a police raid in a poor Sao Paulo neighbourhood, authorities said. Residents blamed the police for causing the panicky stampede, local media reported.
Brazilian federal police said they have arrested Saifullah Al-Mamun, born in Bangladesh and considered by authorities one of the world's most prolific human traffickers. In an operation conducted on Thursday after collaboration with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Brazilian police arrested members of a group allegedly implicated in a large scheme of smuggling people into the United States.
The Brazilian navy has begun auctioning off its only aircraft carrier. The attempted sale of Sao Paulo leaves the Brazilian fleet with just one aviation vessel, the helicopter carrier Atlantico. And it effectively strands the navy’s small fleet of carrier-compatible Skyhawk fighters.