Protests against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro spread across Brazil on Saturday, a day after a Brazilian Supreme Court justice authorized a criminal investigation into his response to allegations of potential corruption involving a vaccine deal.
Demonstrators gathered by the thousands in more than 40 cities to demand Bolsonaro’s impeachment or greater access to COVID-19 vaccines.
“If we have a minute of silence for each COVID death, we would be quiet until June 2022,” read a poster held aloft by a man in Belem, the capital of Para State.
Photo: Reuters
More than half a million Brazilians have died, by official count.
Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said the investigation is supported by testimony in a Brazilian Senate committee investigating the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors are to investigate whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of “prevarication,” which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest.
Weber did not rule out the possibility other potential wrongdoing could be investigated.
The inquiry comes after Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s import division, said he faced undue pressure to sign off on the import of 20 million vaccines from Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech.
He said there were irregularities in the invoices — particularly a US$45 million upfront payment to a Singapore-based company.
Miranda testified before the Senate committee on June 25 along with his brother, Luis Miranda, a lawmaker who until recently was allied with Bolsonaro.
The Mirandas said they brought their concerns directly to Bolsonaro, who assured them he would report the irregularities to the Federal Police.
However, the Federal Police never received any request to investigate, a Federal Police source with knowledge of investigations told reporters.
The secretary-general of the presidency, Onyx Lorenzoni, confirmed that Bolsonaro met with the Mirandas, but said they presented fraudulent documents.
Bolsonaro ordered the brothers investigated, he said.
The Supreme Court decision came in response to a request filed by three senators.
A majority of senators on the investigating committee previously told reporters that, once their inquest concludes, they would vote to recommend Bolsonaro be indicted for prevarication. The crime carries a prison term of three months to a year, plus a fine.
In Rio de Janeiro’s protest, 63-year-old retiree Terezinha Zanata said the government had mismanaged violence, the environment and indigenous rights.
“This in addition to the disregard for the pandemic issue,” she said, complaining of a sluggish vaccine campaign and a president who long minimized the seriousness of the disease.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS