Brazil

BRASILIA, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro criticized his former justice minister, Sergio Moro, on Thursday, saying the potential opposition presidential candidate had "learned nothing" from his time in government.

Moro, a former federal judge who rose to fame for leading a sweeping corruption probe which jailed a series of powerful businessmen and politicians including former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, re-entered the political fray on Wednesday. He has joined the Podemos party, presenting himself as a unifying centrist.

BRASILIA, Nov 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — In a move aimed at curbing inflation, Brazil Friday announced a 10% reduction of import tariffs on 87% of goods and services until December 31, 2022. Economy Minister Paulo Guedes now expects the other Mercosur countries to do the same.

In a joint note from the Ministries of Economy and Foreign Affairs, the Government explained that “rates will be reduced temporarily and exceptionally until December 31, 2022”, under the Montevideo Treaty, which allows countries to take measures aimed at “protecting the life and health of their people.”

BRASILIA, Nov 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil opened an international tender Thursday to build one of the world’s biggest 5G data networks, seeking $9 billion in investment for Latin America’s largest economy.

Calling it a “historic” moment, President Jair Bolsonaro opened the tender in Brasilia with a symbolic bang of the auctioneer’s hammer, kicking off bidding by 15 companies that officials said could last through Friday.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 1 (NNN-CMA) – At least 25 bank robbery suspects were killed yesterday, in two clashes with Brazilian authorities in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais, police said.

The events occurred in the municipality of Varginha during a joint operation by the Military Police, the Federal Highway Police, and the Minas Gerais Special Police Operations Battalion, against a gang dedicated to robbing banks.

According to police, there were two gun battles: in the first, a group of individuals attacked a group of agents, who responded and left 18 suspects dead.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The morning after a Brazilian Senate committee recommended criminal indictments for President Jair Bolsonaro over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bruna Chaves, who lost her mother to the disease, was venting her pain in an emotional grief support group session.

“It wasn’t my mom’s time to go,” she told the others Wednesday inside an ecumenical chapel in Rio de Janeiro. “Somebody needs to be blamed.”

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Facebook (FB.O) late on Sunday removed a video by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro from its platforms, in which the far-right leader made a false claim that COVID-19 vaccines were linked with developing AIDS.

"Our policies don't allow claims that COVID-19 vaccines kill or seriously harm people," a Facebook spokesperson said on Monday.

BRASILIA, Oct 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro and his Colombia counterpart Ivan Duque said they would head to the next UN climate summit “united” in defence of the Amazon.

The COP26 climate conference begins in Glasgow on Oct 31 and will last two weeks.

“We will arrive in Glasgow untied to tackle a very important and dear affair for all of us: our dear, rich and desirable Amazon,” said Bolsonaro following his meeting with Duque in Brasilia.

BRASILIA, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday confirmed plans for a new welfare program that boosts spending, but insisted it would not violate the government's constitutional spending limits, contradicting reports a day earlier that roiled financial markets.

Bolsonaro told an audience in the state of Ceara that the new welfare program, called 'Auxilio Brasil', would pay 400 reais ($72) per month to poor families, but the government has the "responsibility" to make it fit the spending cap. He provided no details about how that would happen.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazilians will turn their focus on Wednesday to the Senate, where a report six months in the making will recommend President Jair Bolsonaro be indicted on criminal charges for allegedly bungling the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and pushing the country’s death toll to second-highest in the world.

BRASILIA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Brazil and other Latin American countries are coming under undue pressure to take steps to preserve the Amazon rainforest, Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Friday.

Addressing the virtual Third Presidential Summit of the Leticia Pact for the Amazon, Mourao said pact members need to unite against "scientifically groundless" pressure that seeks to "unduly transfer to our countries responsibility for necessary actions to reverse climate change and the loss of biodiversity."