Brazil nears 600,000 COVID-19 deaths
CBC
Brazil was set on Friday to become the second country in the world to pass 600,000 COVID-19 deaths, a dark milestone for a government that has been sharply criticized by health experts for mismanaging the pandemic.
The country has ramped up vaccinations after a slow start, however, and there are signs infections are finally ebbing.
More than 70 per cent of Brazilians have received a first dose, compared to 65 per cent in the United States, which passed 600,000 deaths in June.
"The rejection rate of vaccines is really low, it makes other countries jealous," said Alexandre Naime Barbosa, head of epidemiology at Sao Paulo State University. "That's really important for Brazil to contain the pandemic."
Brazil also appears to have been spared the worst of the delta variant so far, with registered deaths and cases falling despite the arrival of the more contagious strain.
Deaths are down 80 per cent from their peak of more than 3,000 per day in April, and Brazil no longer has one of the world's highest daily death tolls.
The Health Ministry registered 451 new COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, taking the total to 599,810 since the pandemic began.
Erfan Soltani, a 26-year-old Iranian man, has been sentenced to death in Iran, according to human rights groups. It comes amid widespread protests in the country and a deadly government crackdown.
The United States is telling its citizens to leave Iran, as Washington maintains its pressure on Tehran to cease its crackdown on protesters and U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to strike the Iranian government over the issue.
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A crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed at least 538 people and even more are feared dead, activists said Sunday, while Tehran warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be "legitimate targets" if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
For years, many of Venezuela’s exiles in Spain — leading opposition figures and citizens — have hoped for a day when ousted president Nicolás Maduro would no longer be in power.
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Russia didn’t just use a hypersonic missile to target a site in western Ukraine near the border with Poland, in the European Union, but high ranking officials then went on to boast about the power of the nuclear-capable weapon, in what some saw as a clear warning to the West.
The official White House narrative of how a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in her vehicle in Minneapolis is bumping hard up against what can be seen in videos of the incident.
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist on Wednesday during the Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown on a major American city — a shooting that federal officials claimed was an act of self-defence but that the city's mayor described as "reckless" and unnecessary.
When Marco Rubio took the lectern at Mar-a-Lago shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the country had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, it was the culmination of a decade of effort from the secretary of state and a clear sign that he had emerged as a leading voice within the Trump administration.
The catchphrase going into Tuesday's coalition of the willing meeting on Ukraine in Paris appears to be: expect the unexpected.
Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty on terrorism and drug-trafficking charges during his first appearance in a New York court on Monday.