Brazil

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Under Pressure, Brazil Sends Troops to Fight Amazon Fires

Bolsonaro has faced protests at home and around the world

(Newser) - Facing increasing pressure to act from leaders around the world and protesters in the streets, President Jair Bolsonaro sent Brazil's military to fight forest fires raging in the Amazon. Beginning Saturday, troops will join the battle in nature reserves, indigenous lands and border areas, the BBC reports. The initial...

Brazilian President to World on Amazon Fires: Butt Out

'Our house is burning,' French leader says

(Newser) - French President Emmanuel Macron says the fires raging in the Amazon rainforest are an international crisis—but his Brazilian counterpart thinks Macron, and the rest of the world, should butt out. President Jair Bolsonaro said Thursday that foreign powers should not interfere, even though he admitted that Brazil did not...

Inmate Found Dead Days After His Jailbreak Flops

Clauvino da Silva believed to have died by hanging

(Newser) - A Brazilian gang leader is believed to have committed suicide three days after attempting to escape prison dressed as his 19-year-old daughter . Clauvino da Silva was found dead Tuesday in his cell at the high-security Bangu 1 prison in Rio de Janeiro state. He'd been transferred there following his...

Inmate's Plan: Dress Up as Daughter, Leave Her in Prison

Brazil gang leader Clauvino da Silva's nervousness apparently gave him away

(Newser) - A Brazilian gang leader tried to escape from prison by dressing up as his daughter when she visited him behind bars and walking out the penitentiary's main door in her place, authorities said Sunday. But prison officials said the nervousness displayed by Clauvino da Silva, also known as "...

16 Decapitated in Grisly Brazil Prison Riot

52 inmates were killed over 5 hours in the Altamira prison

(Newser) - A five-hour-long prison riot in Brazil was both deadly and gruesome, officials say. Some 52 inmates were killed by other prisoners Monday in the Altamira prison in the northern part of the country; 16 of them were decapitated while others were asphyxiated. The BBC reports that beginning around 7am local...

Cost to Host Olympics? Start With $2M in Bribes

Former Rio governor tells court that up to nine IOC officials were paid off in 2016

(Newser) - Chicago was one of the cities that lost out to Rio de Janeiro back in 2009 for the right to host the 2016 Olympics. Bribery apparently would have helped. Sergio Cabral, a former Rio governor, told a court this week that he bought up to nine International Olympic Committee votes...

Whistleblower: Brazil Is Aiding in Amazon's Destruction

About 2.5 acres of rainforest are destroyed every minute

(Newser) - "It feels like we are the enemies of the Amazon." That's according to a senior environmental official in Brazil, where satellite images show a chunk of Amazon rainforest the size of a soccer field is being destroyed every minute. Speaking anonymously to the BBC , the official describes...

He Was to Fly With Brazil's Prez —Then Came Luggage Search

Airman accused of smuggling cocaine into Spain ahead of G20

(Newser) - A promise to curtail drugs and crime helped Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro get elected last year—hence why NPR reports the arrest of a member of his G20 party is so embarrassing. Brazilian Air Force Sgt. Manoel Silva Rodrigues—serving as flight steward on a military plane en route to...

Husband to Face Charges in Model's Drowning Death

Police say he ignored warnings not to set sail in rough weather

(Newser) - A Brazilian model who drowned after falling into the ocean during rough weather last month died because of her husband's negligence, authorities say. Police say Jorge Sestini, husband of 37-year-old Caroline Bittencourt, will be charged with manslaughter because he failed to heed repeated warnings about dangerously high winds before...

Freddy Krueger the Parrot Apparently Won't Die, Either

Brazilian bird going strong despite being shot, bitten, stolen

(Newser) - Freddy Krueger, the bird, has a face to match Freddy Krueger, the fictional serial killer—which might've been its salvation. The Amazonian parrot sent to a Brazilian zoo four years ago after it was left blinded and burned by a bullet to the upper-beak in a police raid on...

Model Dies After Collapsing on Catwalk

Tales Soares was 26

(Newser) - A model participating in Sao Paulo's Fashion Week has died after getting sick and falling on the catwalk. A statement from organizers said Tales Soares took ill Saturday while in a parade of fashion brand Ocksa. A medical team attended to him on the catwalk and Soares was later...

Unexpected Find in Drug Bust: a Lookout Parrot

Parrot yelled, 'Mum, the police!' as Brazilian authorities closed in

(Newser) - Stool pigeons tell the police about criminals; parrots tell criminals about the police—or at least there's one that supposedly does in South America. Reaction online to a report out of Brazil's Piaui state is ranging from admiration to incredulity . There, police in the community of Vila Irma...

Brazil Prez Backs Off Holocaust 'Forgiveness'

Israel had criticized Bolsonaro's statement

(Newser) - After drawing criticism for remarks suggesting the Jewish genocide during World War II could be forgiven, Brazil's president now says that isn't quite what he meant. Jair Bolsonaro had said Thursday of the Holocaust: "We can forgive, but we can't forget. That's my phrase. Those...

Here's What Caused Fire That Destroyed Brazil's National Museum

An air conditioning unit

(Newser) - An air conditioning unit was the "primary cause" of a fire that destroyed Brazil's National Museum and most of its 20 million artifacts, police experts said Thursday. The larger investigation into the Sept. 2 tragedy is still ongoing, but experts released their findings on the origin and location...

Brazil May Revise Textbooks to Eliminate Mention of 'Coup'

Government says military's ouster of president was merely an 'institutional shift'

(Newser) - In 1964, the military in Brazil ousted President Joao Goulart, setting up a dictatorship infamous for its brutality that would rule for the next two decades. The ouster may sound like the very definition of a coup, but the current government of Brazil thinks otherwise. The education minister plans to...

Twins Try to Avoid Paying Child Support, Plan Backfires

Both men are ultimately ordered to pay up

(Newser) - Identical twin brothers had a plan to outsmart Brazil's family court system, but it ended up backfiring on them. Authorities say one of the Brazilian twins fathered a girl, now 9, during a brief relationship with the girl's mother. The woman began court proceedings in 2017, and the...

Deadly School Shooting Was 'Inspired by Columbine'

Former students killed 5 pupils, 3 adults in Brazil

(Newser) - Police in Brazil say Wednesday's school shooting near Sao Paulo was apparently inspired by another massacre that involved two shooters: the infamous 1999 Columbine school shooting in Colorado. The shooters at the Raul Brasil school in Suzano, who killed at least five students and two adults after storming the...

Children in Nigeria, Brazil Are Killed While at School

Building collapse, mass shooting leave communities in mourning in two parts of the world

(Newser) - More than a dozen children were killed Wednesday when tragedy struck two schools in different parts of the world.
  • Two gunmen opened fire at a school in southeastern Brazil, near São Paulo, the BBC reports. Officials say at least six students and two employees were killed. About 1,000
...

Venezuela Opposition Leader Hails 'Great Achievement'

Juan Guaido says humanitarian aid is getting through

(Newser) - Opposition leader Juan Guaido says the first shipment of humanitarian aid has crossed into Venezuela from Brazil. Guaido announced the crossing on his Twitter account Saturday. He called it a "great achievement." The AP could not independently confirm the aid had passed through. Guaido one month ago declared...

Venezuela's Border With Brazil 'Completely' Closed

President Nicolas Maduro warns border with Colombia may be next

(Newser) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been pushing back against efforts to send humanitarian aid into his country, an initiative led by opposition leader Juan Guaido. The latest development in that conflict came Thursday night, with Maduro announcing on state TV that he was closing the border with Brazil "completely...

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