Brazil is committed to quickly repairing key ports damaged in massive floods in order to recoup millions of dollars in daily losses to the economy, a government official said on Tuesday.
The floods, which have claimed at least 116 lives in the southern Santa Catarina region, severely damaged the major Itajai port, which has lost more than US$400 million in revenue since the flooding began last month, Brazilian Ports Minister Pedro Brito said. He said those losses grow by US$35 million a day. Ships have been forced to dock in ports hundreds of kilometers away in neighboring states.
The flooding also severely damaged the area’s other ports and washed goods on the docks out to sea.
Brito said the government thus far has freed up US$152 million to begin immediate repairs on the Itajai port — the biggest in the area and key to Brazil’s massive beef-exporting industry.
The storms also exacted a high human toll: Rescue workers were searching for 31 people still missing following massive landslides, and officials estimate the death toll could rise to as much as 150.
About 80,000 people were forced from their homes by the storms, which dumped more water on the region during the weekend of Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 than it normally gets in months. Another 8,000 people were displaced in Rio de Janeiro state.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
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