Brazil on Tuesday reported the highest daily COVID-19 death toll in the world with 1,039 people killed, the fifth straight day the nation has topped the list.
Latin America’s largest nation, which has emerged as a new epicenter in the coronavirus pandemic, has seen its daily death toll surge past that of the US, the hardest-hit nation so far.
Brazil’s daily death toll has passed 1,000 four times since the pandemic accelerated in the nation a week ago.
It has now confirmed 24,512 deaths, Brazilian Ministry of Health data showed.
With a population of 210 million people, Brazil has recorded 391,222 COVID-19 infections, second only to the US, but it remains torn over how to respond to the pandemic.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has downplayed the pandemic and railed against lockdowns, arguing the economic fallout risks causing more damage than the coronavirus itself, while most state governments have stuck to the WHO’s guidance and closed nonessential businesses.
Meanwhile, Brazilian police raided the Rio de Janeiro state governor’s official residence as part of an investigation into the alleged embezzlement of funds to build field hospitals for COVID-19 patients.
Rio de Janeiro Governor Wilson Witzel condemned the raid as “political persecution” by Bolsonaro’s government.
Federal police also raided Witzel’s former home and several other targets in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, on suspicion that a “corrupt network ... embezzled public funds allocated to respond to the public health emergency caused by the coronavirus,” a statement said.
Of the nine field hospitals that were supposed be built to avoid the collapse of the Rio de Janeiro state health system, just three have been completed so far.
Witzel, who has clashed with Bolsonaro repeatedly, denied any wrongdoing and said that he was being targeted for political reasons.
“What happened to me is going to happen to other governors who are considered enemies,” Witzel told a news conference. “I’m not going to hang my head ... and I won’t stop fighting against this fascism, this new dictatorship of persecution in our country.”
Speaking outside the presidential palace, Bolsonaro sent his “congratulations to the federal police” for the raid.
Witzel, who was himself diagnosed with COVID-19 last month, was a Bolsonaro ally during the latter’s 2018 presidential campaign, but the pair had a falling out and Witzel has emerged as a potential rival when Bolsonaro faces re-election in 2022.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the