Brazil

Sao Paulo, Oct 9 (AP-PTI) Bars in Sao Paulo are full again for evening happy hours, lawmakers in the capital of Brasilia have nearly done away with video sessions via Zoom, and Rio de Janeiro's beaches are packed. Calls for strict social distancing seem but a memory.

BRASILIA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Gearing up for Brazil's election campaign next year, former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday visited garbage dump scavengers who are now working at a recycling plant.

Lula, a former union leader who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, is expected to challenge far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, though neither has officially declared their candidacy.

BRASILIA, Oct 4 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian voters are to go out Sunday to choose 19 new Mayors in six states after the Electoral Court has banned those chosen in 2020 to take office, citing legal grounds.

 Sunday’s outcome is believed to yield some concrete evidence on the country’s current political atmosphere, particularly in São Paulo, where President Jair Bolsonaro has recently staged demonstrations supporting him.

BRASILIA, Sept 25 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil’s government has scheduled an auction of fifth generation (5G) mobile spectrum for Nov 4, with expectations that it will raise around 10 billion reais (US$1.87 billion) based on the minimum bids allowed, government officials said.

The winning bidders will be required to invest about 40 billion reais in 5G infrastructure, the government predicts, with the level of capital expenditures also considered as part of the bid value.

BRASILIA, Sept 13 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Brazilian carrier Azul will resume flights to Uruguay as of Nov 10 with the reopening of the Porto Alegre-Montevideo route four times a week.

The company will also serve Punta del Este starting Dec 20 from Porto Alegre and Dec 23 from Campinas (Sao Paulo).

Also starting Dec 20, services between Montevideo and Porto Alegre will be daily, the airline has announced.

Azul’s operations in Uruguay were suspended in March 2020, as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

SAO PAULO (AP) — A World Cup qualifier between Brazil and Argentina was suspended amid chaotic scenes after local health officials walked onto the pitch on Sunday in a bid to remove three players who didn’t comply with coronavirus restrictions.

The match featuring Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Neymar was stopped in the 7th minute because of the extraordinary interruption. The referee eventually suspended the game with the score at 0-0 after players, coaches, football officials and local authorities argued for several minutes on the field at NeoQuimica Arena.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Some cities in Brazil are providing booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, even though most people have yet to receive their second jabs, in a sign of the concern in the country over the highly contagious delta variant.

Rio de Janeiro, currently Brazil’s epicenter for the variant and home to one of its largest elderly populations, began administering the boosters Wednesday. Northeastern cities Salvador and Sao Luis started on Monday, and the most populous city of Sao Paulo will begin Sept. 6. The rest of the nation will follow the next week.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Armed robbers hit several banks in a small Brazilian city on Monday, using locals as human shields, leaving a trail of explosive devices and shooting at police in an assault that killed at least three people, a senior state security official said.

BRASILIA, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday said he sees three alternatives for his future: winning the 2022 presidential elections, death or prison.

"I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory," he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders. Bolsonaro later added that the first option is out of question. "No man on Earth will threaten me."

RIO DE JANEIRO, August 28. /TASS/: A Russian aircraft with humanitarian cargo landed in the quake-hit Haiti on Friday, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, the Russian ambassador to Venezuela and Haiti, told TASS.

"This humanitarian aid is provided within the frames of the WHO [the World Health Organization] project of the emergencies relief operations," he said.

Melik-Bagdasarov also said that another Russian aircraft carrying humanitarian cargo is expected in Haiti in a couple of days.