Brazil passes grim milestone of 600,000 Covid-19 deaths, second only to US
CNN
Brazil on Friday surpassed the grim milestone of 600,000 Covid-19 deaths, the second-highest number of fatalities in the world after the United States, according to John Hopkins University data.
The South American nation, which holds half the continent's population, has now suffered 600,425 coronavirus deaths. It is only the second country to pass the 600,000 mark, after the US which has registered 712,695 deaths.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticized for his handling of the pandemic. The conservative populist leader has repeatedly downplayed the gravity of the outbreak, declared he would not get vaccinated because he had already had Covid-19, and championed the unproven malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine as a treatment.
President Joe Biden is expected to announce an executive order as early as Tuesday that would effectively shut down the US-Mexico border to asylum-seekers crossing illegally when a daily threshold of crossings is exceeded – a sweeping and controversial proposal that is likely to receive fierce pushback from progressives and immigration advocates.
In the days and weeks leading up Hunter Biden’s trial on felony gun charges, President Joe Biden made little attempt to distance himself from his son. Instead, Hunter Biden was seen at the White House and in Delaware at his father’s side amid what the president’s allies acknowledge is a difficult moment for both men.