Everything is about Charlie Kirk, wherever you look. I don’t know what I did, but Charlie’s appearances on college campuses came regularly on my phone, and he was the nicest guy. He didn’t try to embarrass those who came to debate him, he just gave them every out in the world. The guy who killed him still lived at home at 22 years old, and was escorted by his dad to turn himself in. Whatever dynamic was going on in that household, who knows? His Dad and a minister convinced him to turn himself in. But he was a monster, living with his parents. He might get the death penalty.

They’ve turned Charlie Kirk into a martyr. He’ll get far more recognition in death than he did in life. But he left a wife and kids behind, and I’m sure he must have known there were risks. He didn’t have the Secret Service, and I guess the people he did have were not up to the job. Now everybody will want to know what he was saying.

Now there’s another shooter in Colorado, shooting up a school. These lunatics have lost all the arguments, and there’s nothing left to do but start shooting. They certainly can’t convince us all to be crazy like them. I don’t know if that was the motivation for the stupid Colorado shooter, but it wouldn’t surprise me. He was just a kid. But we’re through catering to idiots. 

The President is intent on cleaning up our cities, and they need it! Thankfully most of us live where we don’t have to worry about it. But who wants to go to a big city? Scenes we’re seeing on the news are enough to say we don’t even want to go.

Israel hit Qatar with bombing raids and as usual Arabs are crying foul. Netanyahu accused Qatar of granting terrorists safe haven, and said if the Arabs are not going to bring them to justice, Israel will. An article on the internet is saying that intelligence agency Mossad “balked” at the idea, but Netanyahu went ahead. Apparently the missiles in question were fired from a long way off, the officials are saying that innocent civilians were killed, and Israel did not get who they wanted.  They’re going after the goons who planned October 7.

We have to wait for a resolution to the wars that are going on. Putin has bombed Kyiv and launched unarmed drones into Polish airspace. NATO made quick work of the drones, but tensions have heightened dramatically in the region.

Trump has sent warships off the coast of Venezuela. It looks like the drug war is about to heat up. Meanwhile, in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges similar to those they attempted to foist on Trump after January 6. There’s hope that he’ll be able to appeal and the US is already threatening to increase tariffs on Brazil.

If we hoped we’d get a rest from the wars, we were wrong. 

Mark

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – September 12, 2025 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The conviction ruling by a panel of five justices on Brazil’s Supreme Court, who also agreed on the sentence, made the 70-year-old Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attacking democracy, and drew disapproval from the Trump administration.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/brazil-supreme-court-justice-carmen-173424089.html

The post Brazil’s Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years after landmark coup plot conviction first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The area, part of the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, is rich in gold, diamonds and minerals – and illegal miners want a piece of it. In all, there are an estimated 20,000 illegal miners on the land.

“It’s got worse in the past few years,” Maurício says, explaining that during the pandemic, the number of planes, helicopters and boats linked to illegal mining increased.

He’s only 35, but it’s the younger generation that concerns him – boys increasingly being lured into illegal work.

“The young people are the best boat drivers,” he says. They can earn as much as 10,000 Brazilian reais ($2,140; £1,645) for a single trip.

Maurício has come to Brasilia to take part in the Free Land Camp, an annual event that brings together indigenous communities looking to defend their land rights.

On Brasilia’s main esplanade, a grand avenue that leads to Congress and the presidential palace, communities from across the country have erected hundreds of tents.

Milling around the camp are indigenous Brazilians, many of them wearing feathered headdresses, intricate beaded jewellery and painted with geometric tattoos identifying their tribe.

This year, the event has taken on an even bigger meaning.

President Jair Bolsonaro has made it his mission to push economic development in the Amazon. In his latest attempt to make inroads into indigenous territories, he has cited the war in Ukraine. Brazil relies heavily on imported fertilisers for its agribusiness industry – more than 90% of its fertilisers come from abroad, and Russia is its most important partner.

“A good opportunity arose for us,” Mr Bolsonaro said of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He has argued that by mining in indigenous territories, Brazil can build more of its own potassium reserves.

It’s an argument questioned by some experts.

“Only 11% of the reserves are inside indigenous lands and other states like São Paulo and Minas have reserves,” says politician Joenia Wapichana, the first indigenous woman voted into Congress in 2018. “It’s a false narrative that tries to confuse the minds of the Brazilians, making them believe it’s important, that people won’t have food on their table.”

Also, it’s not a short-term fix.

“From a technological and environmental perspective, the licences needed and the infrastructure – it all takes time. Being able to offer these products to the Brazilian market would probably take seven to 10 years,” says Suzi Huff, Prof of Geology at the University of Brasilia. “We’re talking about an extremely sensitive area in which care needs to be taken. It’s false to say that it will solve Brazil’s problems.”

In pictures: A glimpse of Yanomami life in the jungle
Illegal gold miners stalk Amazon as authorities look away
The bill has been in the works since 2020. But last month, the lower house voted to consider it under emergency provisions, removing the need for committee debates.

“It’s very clearly blackmail,” says Prof Huff. “Bolsonaro saw an opportunity to continue with this project of allowing mineral exploration including in indigenous lands and used the scarcity of fertilisers in Brazil to move forward with this project.”

It was expected to be voted on in the lower house this week, but that hasn’t happened – and few believe, in this election year, that it will. Not even the big players in the industry agree with it, with the Brazilian Institute of Mining last month saying it was a bill “not suitable for its intended purposes”, and calling for broader debate.

While a delay in voting is seen as a relief by indigenous leaders, it’s still a challenge on the ground.

“A fiery political discourse encourages invasions in indigenous lands,” says Joenia Wapichana. “The fact that Bolsonaro says he supports mining, that he will regulate mining in indigenous lands already exposes the indigenous people and makes them more vulnerable.”

The discourse is, of course, deeply political, especially with elections around the corner. On Tuesday, former president Lula da Silva – and the man leading in the polls to win October’s vote – made a visit to the camp.

“Today the headlines are about a government that doesn’t have scruples when it comes to offending and attacking the indigenous communities who are already on this land,” he said.

The response was huge cheers of “out with Bolsonaro” – but there are still six months until the elections. And this is Brazil – much can change in politics here, and the future of Brazil’s indigenous tribes is more uncertain than ever.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-61093258

The post Brazil’s indigenous communities fear mining threat over war in Ukraine first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Remember when Joe Biden told Americans that they didn’t need a modern sporting rifle for self-defense, and they should just get a double-barreled shotgun instead? Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has issued his own advice for Brazilians concerned about violent crime, and he’s taking a position diametrically opposed to Biden’s own stance.

Everyone in Brazil should buy a rifle, the country’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro has said.

He also said on Friday that those who oppose guns should stop nagging gun buyers.

The president has already relaxed gun laws to allow more Brazilians to own firearms for self-defense, citing an increase in homicides.

During Mr. Bolsonaro’s first year in office, the government issued more than 200,000 licenses to gun owners. The federal police, which issues licenses for self-defense, approved 54,300 permits in 2019, a 98 percent increase from the previous year. The army, which grants permits to hunters and collectors, issued more than 147,800 new licenses in 2019, a 68 percent increase.

“In the long run, this could be disastrous,” said Natália Pollachi, the projects coordinator for Sou da Paz Institute, a public policy group that supports stringent gun laws.

… The flood of new guns in Brazilian homes stands to make domestic violence more lethal, turn ordinary confrontations fatal and turbocharge a black market that is already thriving, Ms. Pollachi warned.

… Lilia Melo, a high school teacher in the northern state of Pará, said the new rules would inevitably lead to more weapons flowing into the black market, which can only lead to more violence.

“Weapons don’t bring us safety,” she said. “These conflicts end up depriving us of our right to be on the streets.”

The post Brazil’s President Says Everyone Should Buy A Rifle first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Scientists are projecting another bad fire season in the Amazon, one that could further complicate Brazil’s struggle with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.

Widespread Covid devastated the Indigenous people living along the Amazon River in 2020, as fires — usually set by farmers or ranchers seeking more land — devastated the Amazon region.

“The smoke suffocated our villages last year,” said Takumã Kuikuro, a filmmaker who lives in the Alto Xingu region, one of Brazil’s most deforested. “People were falling ill. They couldn’t breathe. And it came as we were already dealing with a pandemic.”

Brazil is now suffering its worst drought in at least 91 years, adding to the likelihood that any fires will spread uncontrolled. Burning in the Amazon has surged under Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, who claims environmental protections get in the way of economic growth.

Across the country on Saturday, Reuters reported, thousands of people protested the pandemic response by Mr. Bolsonaro, who has dismissed the danger posed by the virus despite contracting it himself last year. The protests came as Brazil surpassed 500,000 known deaths from the virus, a toll second only to that of the United States.

Health experts warn that the smoke and ash that typically blanket the Amazon from June to September could further sicken those fighting Covid or recovering from it. According to Dr. Aljerry Rêgo, a professor and director of a Covid facility in the Amazon state of Amapá, results from “very initial studies” suggest that the smoke can aggravate Covid and increase the risk of death.

He pointed to one clear danger: “The particles from burning biomass enter the lung cavities,” causing “an intense inflammatory response, which comes on top of Covid.”

The smoke could also sicken those who have already recovered from Covid, he said. “I’ve seen a lot of patients with what we call post-Covid syndrome,” Dr. Rêgo said. “Fatigue, this constant shortness of breath, even months after recovering.”

Years of breathing in smoke and ash could be making Brazilians in the Amazon more vulnerable. “Their lungs are often compromised already,” Dr. Rêgo said. “And if they get Covid, they will likely have more lingering effects in the future. It could be a chronic respiratory issue or a higher risk of lung damage.

The post Brazil’s upcoming fire season and drought are likely to complicate Covid cases. first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

June 20 (UPI) — As coronavirus subsides through much of the world, the pandemic is surging in Russia with a record daily cases increase last week and the most deaths in three months.

Globally, fatalities dropped 10% and infections were down 5% compared with an 8% rise in deaths and 37% cases in Russia.On Sunday, the death toll was 3,881,920 and cases were at 179,245,918, according to Worldometers.info.

The United States has the most deaths at 601,826 and cases with 33,541,889. Brazil passed 500,000 on Saturday and stood at 501,918 for second place on with India third with 386,713. India is second in cases with 29,881,965 but its 58,419 increase Sunday was lowest in 81 days. Brazil is third with 17,927,928 cases, including a record 98,135 Friday.

Brazil added the most deaths (14,510) and cases (469,573) in the past week.

Russia, meanwhile in the past week, passed Britain and Italy to sixth place in deaths at 129,361. And Russia is sixth in cases with 5,316,826.

Russia now heads Europe for the most fatalities but is behind France for cases.

Russia set a daily cases record with 17,906 Saturday, followed by 17,611 Sunday. In deaths, the 466 Saturday was the most since 475 March 13 and behind the record 635 Dec. 24. Sunday’s increase was 450.

Russia is lagging behind other nations in vaccinating its resident though it has developed its own vaccine, Sputnik 5.

The nation has vaccinated only 12.3% of its population with one dose and 10.2% are fully vaccinated.

“Our common goal is to focus all our efforts and all our resources on protecting citizens against the coronavirus and its effects,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday in his address on the occasion of the Medical Worker Day. “First, it is imperative to step up the vaccination rates. We have all we need to do this.”

Along with the one-dose Johnson & Johnson, the other top vaccine makers are Moderna and Pfizer, which require two shots.

Worldwide, a total of 2.59 billion shots have been given in a population of 7.9 billion with a two-dose regimen required for most brands, according to tracking by Bloomberg.

The United States has administered at least one dose to 53.2% of its population with Brazil at 29.6%. Britain, which inoculated the first person in the world in December, is among the best in the world with 63.9%. India is a dominant manufacturer of vaccines worldwide, but the nation has inoculated only 16.5% of its population with at least one dose.

North America leads with 69 doses administered per 100 people, followed by Europe at 60, South America at 36, Asia at 33, Oceania at 18, and Africa at 3.1, according to tracking by The New York Times.

The Leningrad region that surrounds St. Petersburg has ordered mandatory vaccinations for 80% of service workers. The Tula region in central Russia has ordered mandatory vaccination for at-risk groups. In Moscow, service sector workers must now be vaccinated.

Moscow has extended its coronavirus restrictions until June 29, Mayor Sobyanin announced Friday. Remaining closed are outdoor theaters, playgrounds, food courts, children’s playrooms in malls, and zoos. Restaurants and bars must close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Moscow hospitals won’t provide routine treatment to unvaccinated patients, officials announced Friday.

Almost 90% of the city’s new infections are the more contagious Delta variant that was first detected in India several months ago, the mayor said.

Despite the surge, Russia will resume regular air travel to Turkey on Tuesday and on June 28 with several other countries including United States, China, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Jordan, and Ireland, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova announced Friday.

Overall, deaths have declined 13% and cases 3% in Europe.

Britain was among the only eight European nations in the top 20 for most deaths that increased over the past week. But it was only 74 deaths for a 23% increase compared with 2,637 fatalities in Russia.

Britain also was the only nation in the top 20 for cases to increase: 33% with a gain of 73,764, including 10,321 Saturday. On Thursday, the 11,007 rise was the most in four months. Russia rose by 76,690.

Britain is seventh with 127,976 deaths, Italy eighth with 127,270, France ninth with 110,738, Germany 11th with 90,966, Spain 14th with 80,652, Poland 15th at 74,828, and Ukraine 18th at 52,016.

Of those countries, besides Britain, the only counties to vaccinate at least 50% of its population are Italy at 51.5% and Germany at 50.6% followed by France at 49.3%, Spain 48.8%, Poland 42.3%, and Ukraine 4.8%.

On Sunday, Britain gained six deaths, Italy 17, France 14, Germany 13, Poland 5, Ukraine 24. Spain doesn’t release data on the weekend.

Europe has posted the most deaths of the continents, 1,092,506, and cases are second, 47,461,534.

In Britain, deaths have dropped to only 60 in one week with a daily record 2,396 earlier this year. But cases rose 31% at 66,418, including 8,125 Friday, the highest in three months. Sunday’s increase was 9,284.

Amid the Delta variant surging in Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson scrapped plans to lift all restrictions this Monday.

“Now is the time to ease off the accelerator because by being cautious now, we have the chance in the next four weeks to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people,” Johnson said at a news conference in Downing Street.

Vaccines have shown to be effective against the variants.

The British government has placed most nations on a COVID-safe travel list. On an “amber list” are several countries, including the United States, Canada, and most European nations, in which travelers must complete a 10-day quarantine at home.

Starting Monday, Italy will require a mandatory five-day quarantine for visitors from Britain. Also, France, Austria, and Germany already introduced curbs on people arriving from Britain.

Other European nations are opening travel, including launching by July 1 a Digital Covid Certificate, which allows for free movement of travelers between its countries. The app provides digital proof they are vaccinated, recently tested negative for coronavirus or recovered from the illness.

On Friday, the 27-nation European Union added the United States among countries for which travel restrictions should gradually be lifted.

But it’s up to each nation to decide on opening its borders.

Canada extended its non-essential travel ban with the United States one month through July 21. It began one year ago in March. The ban between Mexico and the United States is scheduled to end Monday.

Mexico is fourth in the world with 231,151 deaths, including 192 Sunday and 15th in cases at 2,475,705 with 3,649 most recently. Deaths are way down in Mexico from a one-day record of 1,803.

Canada has reported under triple digits for deaths since 142 on Feb. 3 and a record 257 on Dec. 29 for a total of 26,076 in 23rd, including 22 Sunday. Cases reported were 713, down from the record of 11,383 on Jan. 3.

In one week, U.S. deaths dropped 23% to 2,035 and cases were down 23% to 78,107.

North America’s totals are 911,800 deaths, down 10% for seven days, and 40,339,840 cases, dropping 5%.

Mexico’s vaccination rate is 21.6%, though it was the first Latin American nation to begin vaccinating people. And Canada has risen to 65% and leading the United States by nearly 12% after lagging by several points for months.

In Mexico, those 40 and older can register to get vaccinated.

“The journey to store the vaccines and to transport them has become a huge logistical issue,” Dr. Fernando Hernandez Maldonado, San Luis Potosi’s director of public health told NBC News. “But we are here, ready and have our personnel ready…we are trying to make it easy for the public to get their vaccine.”

In South America, deaths decreased 0.2% and cases rose 1%.

South America has four nations in the top 20 for most deaths. Besides Brazil, Peru is fifth with 190,425, Colombia 10th with 99,934, and Argentina 12th with 89043.

Overall, South America has 971,120 deaths and 31,643,387 cases.

Brazil’s fatalities increased 6%, including 2,247 Saturday and 1,050 Sunday, and infections rose by 81,574 Saturday and 44,178 Sunday.

Chile has the best vaccination rate on the continent at 61.9% and is 21st in deaths with 31,513, with Argentina at 31.5%, Colombia at 19.3%, and Peru at 11.4%.

Chile’s deaths rose 7% in the past week and 121 Sunday.

On Saturday, Colombia reported the third-most deaths behind India and Brazil with 589 and Argentina was fourth with 495. And Peru rose by 269.

Despite the high numbers in Brazil, governors and mayors have reduced restrictions. Many don’t wear face masks or adhere to social distancing.

“People in Brazil are tired and they normalize death now so I think we still have a long way to go,” Dr. Natalia Pasternak Taschner, a microbiologist at the Question of Science Institute, told the BBC. “If we’re not successful in changing the behavior of people and if we don’t have campaigns for mask-wearing, social distancing and vaccinations coming directly from the central government we’re not going to be able to control it.”

President Jair Bolsonaro, who contracted the virus last July, won’t back social distancing procedures and hasn’t made vaccinations a priority.

On Saturday, protests against Bolsonaro took place in cities across the country, including Brasilia with 70,000 and Sao Paulo with 100,000.

In Asia, deaths are down 22% and cases declined 14%. The totals are 767,357 fatalities and 54,479,503 infections.

The bulk of the decline has been in India. The Asian nation’s deaths declined 33% to 9,912 and cases dropped 30% to 442,314.

The infections total is not far from the world daily record of 414,188 in May. Deaths increased 1,576 compared with a single-day world record 4,529, also in May. The world daily record was 6,148 one week ago but Bihar revised its total related death toll to 9,429 from 5,424, accounting for people who died at home or in private hospitals.

With India only vaccinating one-sixth of its population, Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to have vaccines available for everyone starting Monday.

“In the second wave of coronavirus, we saw what kind of challenges the ever-changing form of this virus can bring before us,” Modi said Friday.

And he launched a crash-course program to train 100,000 front-line workers as “COVID warriors.”

The pandemic outbreak began in late 2019 in Mainland China, but the nation with the world’s largest population of 1.5 billion has reported only a few deaths in the past 12 months and stands in 62nd at 4,636 behind Ireland with 4,941. China added 23 cases Sunday and had administered 1 billion doses, the most in the world and dwarfing second-place United States with around 317 million and India with 277 million, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins.

The United States government has pledged 2.5 million Moderna doses will be sent to Taiwan for arrival Sunday night, tripling its original pledge.

“A big THANK YOU from the people of Taiwan to the USA for life-saving vaccines,” Bi-khim Hsiao, Taiwan’s ambassador to the United States, tweeted. “A friend in need is a friend indeed. Together we are stronger in the global fight against #COVID19.”

Taiwan has vaccines for 3% of its population of 23.9 million. Its deaths are 549 and cases are 14,005.

Iran has the second-most deaths in Asia in 13th at 82,965 with 111 reported Sunday.

Turkey ranks fifth in the world for cases at 5,370,299 with 5,091 Sunday and 19th in deaths at 49,185, including 63 most recently.

In the Far East, Indonesia has the most deaths, 54,662 in 18th place with 371 reported Sunday compared with the record 476 in late January. And cases numbered 13,737 with the record 14,518, also late January. Vaccinations were 8.6% of the population with at least one dose.

“The spread of this virus variant is very fast,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said during an online seminar on Sunday. “Because many seaports in Indonesia carry goods and many also come from India, they enter from there”

And Udayana University professor Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, Bali’s most senior virologist, told Al Jazeera: “People traveling during Ramadan played a role, no question about that. But we are a disorganized country, most of the focus is on the economy and the people are experiencing COVID exhaustion and fatigue. In the capital [of Bali] Denpasar where I live, the cafe and restaurants are full every evening.”

Israel, which is considered part of Asia, has fully vaccinated 60.7% of its population, among the best in the world. Its death toll is 6,428, with no change in a week.

Japan is 36th with 14,439 deaths, including 20 Sunday with a record 216 five weeks ago. Cases are 1,308 with a record of 7,882.

Only 16.5% of the population has received at least one dose.

With the Summer Olympics in Japan to start on July 23, the Japanese government lifted its state of emergency everywhere Sunday except Okinawa Prefecture until July. 11. But there are restrictions, including Tokyo and Osaka, where restaurants and pubs which meet certain conditions will be allowed to serve alcohol until 7 p.m.

In a report released last week, Japanese medical experts said spectators at the Tokyo Olympics is the “least risky” option. Another option is that Olympic venues could each hold up to 10,000. Foreign spectators are already banned.

Officials and volunteers for the Games started receiving vaccinations.

South Korea has vaccinated 28.6% of its population, up from 22.0% in one week. The nation has 2,002 deaths, including five more Sunday, and 151,149 cases, with a rise of 429 Sunday.

On July 1, South Korea will relax social distancing rules in the greater Seoul area from the current four starting on Jul 1, the government said Sunday.

Coronavirus remains minimal in Oceania, with only 42.3 million people. There are 1,266 deaths and 71,515 cases.

New Zealand’s deaths remain at 26 with the last one reported on Feb. 16 and Australia’s toll stayed at 910 with one reported April 13.

New Zealand reported four cases Sunday, tallying 10 in one week, for a total of 2,718, and Australia was up nine, which is 83 in a week, for 30,331 total.

Australia has vaccinated 21% of its population. New Zealand has administered first doses to 11.5% of its population.

In Sydney, residents are now required to wear masks indoors in most portions of the city amid a few cases reported in the eastern suburbs.

However, over the past week there have been 1,224 cases of which 926 belong to Fiji.

The archipelago nation added 166 cases on Sunday, by far the most of the region, for a total of 1,964. It also added one death, the only Oceanic death on Sunday, for a total of 7.

Africa reported the biggest increase in cases in the past week at 29% for a cumulative 5,249,418 and deaths at 15% for a total 137,856.

South Africa led the seven-day spike with 937 additional deaths at 18% and cases at 76,237, up 51%. A more contagious variant originated there.

South Africa is No. 1 on the continent with 58,702 deaths, including 112 Sunday and 13,155 cases. Egypt is second with 15,859 fatalities and Tunisia third with 14,038.

South Africa has vaccinated 3.6% of its population with at least one shot.

Around 36 million doses have been administered to the African population of 1.2 billion.

“Africa needs millions more doses here and now,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said in a report by The Guardian. “Africa is in the midst of a full-blown third wave … We’ve seen in India and elsewhere how quickly Covid-19 can rebound and overwhelm health systems.”

The G7 nations have pleased a billion vaccine doses to the developing world.

Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/06/20/world-cornavirus-russia-surges-deaths-drop-10-cases-5/2381624198086/?ur3=1

The post COVID-19 surging in Russia; weekly world deaths drop 10%, cases 5% first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(Bloomberg) — Now infected with the virus he has shrugged off as a “little flu,” President Jair Bolsonaro is insisting that his approach to the coronavirus, a pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of fellow Brazilians, was correct all along. After months of clashing with doctors, governors, and mayors who clamored for strict quarantine measures, Bolsonaro announced Tuesday on live television he had tested positive for Covid-19. He told reporters through a mask that he felt “perfectly well,” after taking two doses of hydroxychloroquine, an unproven anti-malarial he has touted as a successful remedy.“We know there are other remedies that can help fight the coronavirus,” he said hours later in a video he posted to Facebook after swallowing a third dose of the drug. “None are scientifically proven, but there’s one that’s working.”

Medical experts say otherwise, but Bolsonaro’s supporters are coalescing around the stricken president as proof that Brazilians should get back to work and not hide from the illness tearing through Latin American’s largest economy.“The president took the right approach,” lawmaker Jose Medeiros, the government’s deputy leader in the lower house, said in an interview. “He will be proven right that there was no way we would stay hiding in our homes.”

Critics blame Bolsonaro for creating a public health disaster as the country’s politics have grown increasingly polarized and toxic. Brazil’s largest daily, Folha de S. Paulo, published an op-ed late Tuesday titled “Why I am Cheering for Bolsonaro to Die.”

Second Worst

Brazil trails only the U.S. with more than 65,000 confirmed deaths and over 1.62 million total cases. Its response has been erratic partly because of Bolsonaro’s insistence that shutting down the economy would be more dangerous than the virus. Governors have rejected his advice and imposed various lockdowns in recent months but his refusal to back those steps has made enforcement harder.

His argument has been that the virus can’t be escaped or beaten and the country has to learn to accept it. As he said on Tuesday, “This virus is like the rain. It’s going to get you.”

Bolsonaro has had recent health troubles that could complicate his condition. In September 2018 while campaigning for president, he was stabbed in the abdomen, leading to multiple surgeries. For months, he relied on a feeding tube and colostomy bag.

Thomaz Favaro, a Sao Paulo-based analyst for the consultancy Control Risks, says Bolsonaro’s illness could help shift the conversation to the state of his health rather what he’s doing to control the pandemic.“It’s a lot easier for him to answer questions about how he is feeling and whether he was able to exercise, rather than what your government is doing to address the latest 1000 deaths,” he said.

Keeping Up Normality

Bolsonaro, 65, is already making a point of keeping up a sense of normality. So far, the only adjustments to his agenda has been canceling two trips to Brazil’s interior and turning face-to-face meetings into virtual ones, according to two officials speaking on condition of anonymity. They said his symptoms remained mild. Marcio Coimbra, a political scientist with Interlegis, a Brasilia-based think tank, says that barring severe illness Bolsonaro will now feel vindicated in prioritizing opening the economy at all costs. But the health of his cabinet remains in question after his frequent meetings with ministers without a mask.“Many of them are potential high-risk patients and could develop strong symptoms — something that may end up harming Bolsonaro’s narrative if he recovers fast and easy,” Coimbra said. Bolsonaro generally refused to use a mask in public and even battled a court over an order forcing him to, insisted on maintaining close-quarter meetings with his advisers and inner circle. According to data collected by Bloomberg of Bolsonaro’s recent agenda, the president has met with more than two dozen senior government officials in the past week.

U.S. Ambassador

On Saturday, he attended a lunch in honor of July 4, the U.S. Independence Day, at the residence of U.S. Ambassador Todd Chapman. Chapman and his wife tested negative but would remain in quarantine, the embassy said on Tuesday.

Key advisers, such as the chief of staff and general secretary, have also tested negative for Covid-19. His minister of defense was tested Tuesday morning and was awaiting the result.

Investors are carefully following the next steps and health of Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who has promised a rash of reforms as Brazil faces a looming recession. The minister, who is 70 years old, tested negative last week and will be tested again in the coming days, his office said.

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/sick-with-covid-brazil-s-bolsonaro-defends-his-virus-approach-1.1462027

The post Sick With Covid, Brazil’s Bolsonaro Defends His Virus Approach first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Many people blame the Brazilian government and its pro-agriculture policies for the current crisis. But as an environmental researcher who has worked in the Amazon for the past 25 years, I can say the seeds were planted before the election of President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. And the prospects of slowing deforestation remain dim, an issue that matters to people around the world.

That’s in part because the current administration has only aggravated the situation with its anti-environmental agenda. Unless the Brazilian people succeed in making Bolsonaro retreat from his stated goal of developing the Amazon, deforestation will surge again. Adding fuel to the fire is the quickening pace of the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA,) a multi-nation plan to build road, dams and rail lines across the Amazon.

Conflicting objectives

Brazil managed to significantly reduce deforestation rates at the turn of the millennium with effective environmental policy and voluntary efforts by the private sector. Deforestation, which started in the 1970s, began climbing again in 2015 due to political turmoil and an economic recession that paved the way to policy reversals.

The Amazonian deforestation rate dropped from about 10,700 square miles in 2004 to 1,765 square miles in 2012 and remained low until its resurgence a few years ago. This was because of effective environmental policy, which in Brazil is mostly based on protected areas, such as national parks, and a forestry code limiting the amount of land that can be cleared on individual properties.

Over the years, the Brazilian government has developed a system of protected areas for ecological protection and indigenous reserves. In 2002 it expanded their coverage to about 43 percent of the entire Amazon. It also created protected areas in zones of land conflict as a means to tamp down rampant fire and deforestation.

Adding to this, enforcement of the forestry code was enhanced by the development of a satellite monitoring system that enabled Brazil’s environmental protection agency to identify law-breaking property owners from space. In addition to the government, the private sector helped lower the rate of deforestation. Soybean farmers stopped planting new fields in the forest, and retailers demanded that the goods they sold come from lands already cleared so they could certify them as “green,” especially beef.

Unfortunately, these efforts began to unravel almost as soon as they proved themselves effective. The background reason is that many people have long viewed the Amazon as a vast store of valuable resources to be used for the economic development of a poor region. The agenda of IIRSA—an extensive infrastructure building-project launched in 2000 to link the region’s economies and remote areas—expresses this view, common to all nations that share the Amazon Basin. These include, in addition to Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. It should come as no surprise that their individual orientations to the region all reflect a contradiction between economic development on the one hand and conservation on the other.

In Brazil, the government not only creates protected areas, it downsizes them in order to prepare for infrastructure projects. Former President Dilma Rousseff even downsized Amazon National Park in 2012, the first in the Amazon, to make way for the Tapajós Hydroelectric Complex, a key component of the IIRSA plan. The government does not act in a vacuum, and in Brazil, a powerful congressional bloc, the rural/mining caucus known as the Ruralistas, works tirelessly at undermining environmental policy.

This has led to revisions in the forestry code, in 2012, that favor agriculture, not the environment, by exempting those who illegally deforested before 2008 from having to reforest in accordance with the law. Continuing Ruralista political action made it easier in 2017 for land grabbers to obtain title to illegally seized lands.

Fears of a tipping point

President Bolsonaro has inherited a set of weakened environmental policies and all indications are that he will continue to weaken them. At the same time, he has acted on his promise to open the Amazon to development by announcing plans to build a bridge across the Amazon River and to extend a paved road all the way to the border with Suriname. The IIRSA agenda appears to be accelerating, and as people flock to the region to take advantage of the jobs it creates, the fires can only get worse.

Since the opening of the Amazon to development in the 1970s, fires have been deliberately set on a yearly basis to make way for fields and pastures and to fertilize soils. The Amazon maintains a moist climate, which limits their extent. Thus, super fires have never raged over hundreds of square miles as happens with wildfires in the U.S. But this could change due to the cumulative effect of the repeated use of fire.

Research shows that every year when the forest burns, the destructive effect spreads beyond the flames to kill trees and desiccate the landscape. This can make the forest ever more vulnerable to fire through the buildup of flammable materials and the coalescence of fire-scarred ecosystems across broad swaths of the entire basin.

If Brazil does not retreat from the course it is on, scientists warn there will come a time in the near future when Amazonian fires burn without control and push the forest to a point of no return, what some have called a “tipping point” that will permanently change the underlying ecosystem. Without a restoration of environmental policy in Brazil, the worst fires are yet to come.

Robert T. Walker is a Professor of Latin American Studies and Geography at the University of Florida

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-rainforest-fires-scientists-says-1458340

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This year, the number of fires in Brazil is the highest on record since 2013 and is up by 85 percent from last year, according to several reports. The country’s space research center has already detected more than 80,000 fires this year.

As for what caused the fires, which have led to any number of shocking images, that’s been a subject of intense debate.

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A fire burns a field on a farm in the Nova Santa Helena municipality, in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, on Friday. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

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Although the uniquely biodiverse rainforest is usually wet and humid, the area’s dry season typically kicks off in July and August before tapering off by November. There are annual burns, with the land often cleared for farming or ranching.

Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has claimed without evidence that the fires have been started by nongovernmental organizations in retaliation for his administration’s funding cuts.

However, many scientists and critics of Bolsonaro have said that his government’s policy of encouraging deforestation has boosted the land clearance that helps fires rage, and has given people a license to burn the land.

On Friday, Bolsonaro said he would send 43,000 Brazilian troops to battle the blazes.

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Although the blazes may not be the explicit result of climate change, environmental activists have said there is still a connection between a warming planet and more frequent extreme weather events.

“In addition to increasing emissions, deforestation contributes directly to a change in rainfall patterns in the affected region, extending the length of the dry season, further affecting forests, biodiversity, agriculture, and human health,” Greenpeace said in a release.

Smoke from the blazes was covering half of Brazil last week, according to a climate scientist.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/science/amazon-fires-why-is-the-rainforest-burning

The post Amazon fires: Why is the rainforest burning? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) is in Brazil for talks with far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who is to be sworn-in in a ceremony in Brasilia on January 1, 2019  Fernando FRAZAO (AGENCIA
BRASIL/AFP/File)

Sources: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/192165-181231-iran-denounces-brazil-embassy-move-to-jerusalem

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