Brazil
Glaswegian journalist living in São Paulo, Brazil. Editor for The Brazilian Report, freelance for Telegraph, Al Jazeera, BBC and others. Focus on politics, environment and sports.
President of Brazil caught between political implosion and a virus out of control On a warm evening in São Paulo Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro held his head high and started into the camera lens to address an expectant nation.
Photo: Nelson Antoine/Shutterstock The economic team of President Jair Bolsonaro took office preaching the reduction of the state's role in financial matters and cutting back spending in myriad areas. It came as some surprise, therefore, when ultra-liberal Economy Minister Paulo Guedes announced last week the creation of a broad cash transfer program entitled Renda Brasil (Income Brazil), billed as an extended version of the globally lauded Bolsa Família program.
With over 38,000 confirmed cases and 2,832 deaths, the city of São Paulo alone makes up 17.5 per cent of Brazil's entire death toll, and the surrounding state of São Paulo has already recorded more Covid-19 deaths than China.
Amazon area being deforested in Mato Grosso. Photo: Mayke Toscano/Secom-MT During April, with all of Brazilian states imposing varying degrees of social isolation measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic, deforestation in the Amazon reached its highest level in ten years.
Photo: Daniel Wiedemann/Shutterstock During the 2018 election campaign, rumors spread on social media claiming that if he were made president, Jair Bolsonaro intended to scrap Bolsa Família-Brazil's world-renowned welfare cash-transfer program. This is a standard tactic from the left, but the chance of the initiative being canceled is always remote: Bolsa Família is popular, it works, and it is cheap.
Photo: Lidiane Ribeiro/Ibama One month since the first confirmed Covid-19 case in Brazil, the virus has spread all across the country. There are now reports of positive coronavirus tests in all 27 states, from the bustling Southeast all the way to the sparsely populated North.
Ethnos360 claims it is "opening the doors" to reach ten previously uncontacted tribes in the Vale do Javari, the area with the highest concentration of isolated indigenous peoples in the world. The group, which believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible, says its mission is to bring Christianity to all people whose "cultures and languages have isolated them from the gospel".
Photo: Marcelo Camargo/ABr On a clear enough day, you could probably see the indigenous territory of Araribóia from space. Not because of its size-at 4,130 square kilometers it's comparable to Los Angeles-but because of its color.
Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes. Photo: Marcelo Camargo/ABr On Sunday afternoon, various cities around Brazil saw demonstrations of pro-Jair Bolsonaro groups calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes, the current bête noire of the Brazilian far-right.
It would be hard to imagine stranger bedfellows than Ronaldinho and Jair Bolsonaro. Ronaldinho became a global icon in the 2000s, his carefree manner on the pitch belying an enormous talent that made him the best footballer in the world before the emergence of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.