After making huge gains in beating child hunger, officials in Brazil face a greater challenge tackling an obesity epidemic Since it was established in 1982, the Brazilian NGO Pastoral da Criança used weight to ascertain whether a child was unhealthy. Recently, that had to change when they started to see more and more obesity in poor communities. "As we started noticing some children were...
Recent police abuse and killings in the favelas have highlighted how the government's so-called security programme is more about PR This week, a study by Amnesty International revealed that 80% of Brazilians are afraid of being tortured by their own police force on arrest. In a survey across 21 countries, Brazil was found to be the country where people feel most unsafe in the hands of authorities,...
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series Continue reading... ...
Protesters angry at the Brazilian government's World Cup spending take to the streets of host cities Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Protesters on Thursday burned tyres, looted shops and vandalised local banks. They say money would be better spent on the country's education system, public transportation and healthcare Continue reading... ...
Latest showing of sour national mood towards tournament in country racked by strikes, crime and anger at wealth disparities Anti-World Cup protests in 12 cities have marked the worst day in another awful week for Brazil as the government struggles with strikes, crime and public unease less than a month before the tournament kicks off. Co-ordinated demonstrations in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo,...
In addition to carbonated beverages and Big Macs, McDonalds spreads low wages, abusive conditions and union-busting. Now workers across the world are learning how to fight back, together In 1996, Thomas Friedman put forward a grand theory of capitalism, economic development and foreign relations: "No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other." (He...
With doubts over the stadiums, former striker Romário a leading critic and Fifa's reputation at stake, it could still be the fans who suffer most if the chaos and controversy have an impact For all the chaos, controversy and corporate greed that surrounds Sepp Blatter's Fifa circus, it is impossible to extinguish the romantic allure of a Brazilian World Cup. But with less than a month to go until the...
Footage may disrupt efforts to reassure visitors to Brazil that the upcoming World Cup will be safe It is probably the last image of Brazilian football that World Cup organisers would like to see, but a clip of armed gangsters firing hundreds of shots into the air to celebrate a goal has gone viral on the Internet. The gunmen, all wearing the distinctive yellow and green shirts of the Seleção,...
Greenpeace investigation uncovers evidence that illegally logged timber is being sold on to buyers in the UK, US, Europe and China Illegally logged timber in Brazil is being laundered on a massive and growing scale and then sold on to unwitting buyers in the UK, US, Europe and China, Greenpeace claimed on Thursday. After a two-year investigation, the environmental campaign group says it has uncovered...
The Tufi Community occupying derelict factory is one of many forced out in trend accelerated by World Cup and Olympics The narrow, gated entrance to the derelict tile factory on Avenida Itaoca provides few clues to the astonishing hub of activity within. But take just a few steps across the threshold and you find yourself in the midst of Rio de Janeiro's newest sanctuary for the poor. Filling every...
Radio 2 sang the praises of Eurovision too loudly, while Misha Glenny cracked Brazil in style Radio 2 Eurovision (Radio 2) iPlayer The Invention of Brazil (Radio 4) iPlayer Continue reading... ...
Arab freedom fighter Malba Tahan wrote one of Brazil's most popular books, even though all was not what it seemed I have two specialisms: Brazil and mathematics. My first book Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life was about Brazilian football, and my most recent one, Alex Through The Looking-Glass , is about numbers. Continue reading... ...
Mohammad Ali electrocuted at Arena Pantanal amid last-minute rush to finish stadiums before tournament in just over a month Brazil's last-minute rush to complete stadiums for the World Cup claimed another life on Thursday when a worker was electrocuted at the Arena Pantanal. Mohammed Ali was the eighth worker to die during construction of the 12 venues, several of which are still unfinished with barely...
A Brazilian chef carves likenesses of some of the world's top footballers on to watermelons in a São Paulo restaurant ahead of this summer's World Cup. Rogerio Holanda's creations have even been recognised by Brazil legend Zico, who sent Holanda a signed shirt. Now the chef is hoping to receive more memorabilia from the stars of the game by carving the faces of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar...
Service disruption and related vandalism renews concerns about public order in run up to World Cup tournament Thousands of passengers across Rio de Janeiro endured long lines and tense commutes on Thursday as a bus strike and related vandalism disrupted the workday in Brazil's second-biggest city. The strike renewed concerns about services and public order one month before Rio and 11 other Brazilian...
With the World Cup around the corner, Reuters photographer Paulo Whitaker has been to Panini's factory in Tambore, an industrial suburb north of São Paulo, where the World Cup 2014 stickers and albums are being produced. Despite the current prevalence of technology, millions of football fans are going old school by taking part in the decades-old pastime of trading stickers Continue reading... ...
The football World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games may help to tackle youth unemployment, but what will be left once the athletes and tourists return home? Among the 34 million young people aged between 15 and 24 in Brazil, more than a third (35.2%) are neither in work nor study. Yet, with Brazil emerging as the sixth largest economy in the world , and with large-scale investments planned in infrastructure...
Ambitious politician Kátia Abreu leads agricultural lobby in loosening controls on Amazon deforestation Outside the political hothouse of Brasilia, there are probably few who can name the head of Brazil's powerful agricultural lobby, yet the woman in question, Kátia Abreu, is rapidly becoming the country's most interesting, important and dangerous politician. The senator and rancher from Goiás...
Hundreds of thousands of revellers march through the streets of São Paulo for the world's largest gay pride parade. Organisers claim the event attracted 2.5 million people dressed in colourful costumes, singing and dancing. The parade's principal theme this year was to advocate for the criminalisation of crimes motivated by homophobia in Brazil Continue reading... ...
Gay rights advocates gather by the hundreds of thousands in São Paulo for one of the world's largest gay pride parades, as they call for a Brazilian law against discrimination Continue reading... ...