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Sunday, October 18, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
TRADE-LATAM: Proposed Common Farm Policy Gains Strength in Mercosur
The Southern Common Market (Mercosur) remains on the offensive in the international agricultural market, and a proposal for a common farm policy is gaining strength among the four member countries, meeting Thursday and Friday in Brazil at their bi-annual summit.RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Police Violence on the Rise
Brazil's human rights record has suffered a setback this year due to an upsurge in police brutality and the government's failure to act against it, the non- governmental Global Justice Centre (CJG) warned Wednesday.ECONOMY-BRAZIL: State Maintains Firm Grip Despite Privatisations
While public opposition to privatisations in Brazil remains loud, government officials argue that the sales of public assets on the drawing board are essential, given that Latin America's giant remains one of the countries in which the state has the greatest hold over the economy.TRADE/POLITICS-LATAM: Brazil Feels Betrayed by Chile
Brazil's attempts to draw Chile into South America's leading trade bloc, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), have ended in frustration, like a courtship based on deceit./ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/BOOKS-BRAZIL: The Samurai Who Denied Defeat
The current Brazilian stereotype of the stubborn Japanese immigrant has its roots in a bloody incident, which investigative journalist Fernando Morais is attempting to rescue from the mists of time.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Global Report Confirms Activists’ Fears
The recent report by the World Commission on Dams (WCD) has its limitations, but is a welcome development given its acknowledgement of the damages caused by large dams, according to environmentalists in Brazil.RIGHTS: Trafficking in Humans – A 7.0 Billion-Dollar Business
The international trafficking of human beings, especially of women who are then forced into prostitution, represents the world's third largest area of organised crime, and a business that produces seven billion dollars annually.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: UNESCO Listing of Pantanal Fuels Resistance to Waterway
The listing of the Mato Grosso Pantanal in western Brazil, one of the world's biggest wetlands, as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve has strengthened the position of environmentalists opposed to the expansion of the Paraguay-Parana Waterway.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: Cattle Contribute to Global Warming
Brazil could reduce a large portion of its contribution to global warming just by making improvements in its cattle industry, say experts. Grazing animals, such as cows, produce a great deal of methane, one of the leading causes of the greenhouse effect.POLITICS/SPORT-BRAZIL: Congress and Gov’t Open Football’s Black Box
Brazilian football's flaws are many: falsification of passports and birth certificates, evasion of taxes and social security payments, and trafficking in adolescents - just some of the charges now under congressional and government inquiry.ECONOMY-BRAZIL: Santander Pays ‘Exorbitant’ Price for Banespa
Spain's Santander bank took the market by surprise by paying an "excessive" price -- according to some analysts -- for the Sao Paulo State Bank (Banespa), one of Brazil's biggest financial institutions.AGRICULTURE-BRAZIL: Rural Poverty Has a Female Face
Some 4.3 million women work without pay in the Brazilian countryside, and most of them do not even define themselves as workers, which means they effectively renounce rights to which they are entitled by law.TRADE-BRAZIL: Gov’t Lays Out Plans to Fuel Exports
The Brazilian government has announced new credits, as well as measures to fight the protectionism of industrialised countries, in order to stimulate the nation's exports - but the business community is focussing its demands on tax cuts.COMMUNICATIONS-BRAZIL: Judge Censors Soap Opera
Brazil's leading TV network publicly protested restrictions slapped by a judge on a soap opera that has stirred heated debate over the controversial issues it deals with, the numerous scenes of violence, and the fact that it is aired at prime-time.ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: ‘Sustainable Extraction’ Spreads in Amazon
Local communities of rubber-tappers and others who make a living selling wild fruits and other natural products gathered in Brazil's Amazon jungle have been forming associations and cooperatives authorised to collectively work in special reserves.HEALTH-LATAM: AIDS Threatens Industrial Property in Form of Patents
Not only does AIDS endanger millions of human lives, it is also threatening a core institution of capitalism, the private ownership of knowledge in the form of patents, at least in the pharmaceutical sector.HEALTH-LATAM: One in 20 HIV-Carriers Has Access to New Drugs
While anti-retroviral drugs represent a big stride in the fight against AIDS, only one of every 20 people infected with HIV has access to the new medications due to their high cost, experts gathered in this Brazilian city reported Wednesday.HEALTH: Central America, Caribbean Post Highest Rates of HIV/AIDS
Although a full one-third of the 1.6 million people living with the AIDS virus in Latin America and the Caribbean are concentrated in Brazil, the countries of the Caribbean and Central America have the highest proportion of HIV- positive individuals in the region.POLITICS-BRAZIL: Sao Paulo, a Testing-Ground for the Left
Marta Suplicy, mayor-elect of Sao Paulo representing Brazil's leftist Workers Party (PT), is preparing for the start of her term, seen as crucial for the political future of women and of her party, not to mention her own career.ENERGY-BRAZIL: Crisis Spurs Development of Alternative Sources
There's nothing like a crisis to drive the development of renewable energy sources. Electrical shortages on top of high petroleum prices threaten to obstruct Brazil's economic growth, leading policy-makers to look for alternative energy supplies.ECONOMY-BRAZIL: Trade Deficit – the Only Bad News
Brazil reported Wednesday a trade deficit for the month of October -- the largest posted since February 1999, in the wake of the crash of the local currency, the real.« Previous Page — Next Page »
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