Court OKs probe of Brazil’s Bolsonaro, who faces protests
RIO DE JANEIRO — Protests against President Jair Bolsonaro spread across Brazil on Saturday, a day after a Supreme Court justice authorized a criminal investigation into his response to allegations of potential corruption involving a vaccine deal.
Demonstrators gathered by the hundreds or thousands in more than 40 cities to demand Bolsonaro’s impeachment or greater access to vaccines against COVID-19.
“If we have a minute of silence for each COVID death, we would be quiet until June 2022,” read a poster held aloft by a man in Belem, the capital of Para state. More than half a million Brazilians have died, by official count.
In Friday’s decision, Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said the investigation is supported by recent testimony in a Senate committee investigating the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors will investigate whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of “prevarication,” which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest. Weber didn’t rule out the possibility other potential wrongdoing could be investigated.
The inquiry comes after Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Health Ministry’s import division, said he faced undue pressure to sign off on the import of 20 million vaccines from Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech. He said there were irregularities in the invoices — particularly a $45 million upfront payment to a Singapore-based company.
The Supreme Court decision greenlighting an investigation came in response to a request filed by three senators. A majority of senators on the investigating committee previously told the AP that, once their inquest concludes, they would vote to recommend Bolsonaro be indicted for prevarication.
The crime carries with it a prison term of between three months and a year, plus payment of a fine.
Tennessee pipeline canceled: Environmentalists and activists claimed victory Saturday after a company canceled plans to build an oil pipeline through southwest Tennessee and north Mississippi, and over an aquifer that provides drinking water to 1 million people.
Byhalia Connection said it will no longer pursue plans to build a 49-mile underground artery that would have linked two major U.S. oil pipelines while running through wetlands and under poor, predominantly Black neighborhoods in south Memphis.
A joint venture between Valero and Plains All American Pipeline, Byhalia Connection had said the pipeline would bring jobs and tax revenue to the region — and it had given to Memphis-area charities and tried to build goodwill in the community. But, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday, Byhalia Connection said it was canceling the project “due to lower U.S. oil production resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Byhalia Connection also would have run through well fields above the Memphis Sand Aquifer, which provides slightly sweet drinking water to the Memphis area. Environmentalists, activist groups, lawyers, property owners, national and local elected officials, and even former Vice President Al Gore opposed the project. They feared an oil spill would have endangered waterways and possibly contaminated the water being pumped out of the ground through wells located along the planned route.
Landslide outside Tokyo: A powerful mudslide carrying a deluge of black water and debris crashed into rows of houses in a town west of Tokyo following heavy rains on Saturday, leaving at least 19 people missing, officials said.
As many as 80 homes in Atami were completely buried, according to an official with the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
The official said more people, possibly 100, could still be missing under the mudslides but warned that details were not immediately clear. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as is often policy at Japanese bureaucracies, stressed that aggressive rescue operations were underway to find survivors.
West Bank: The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man Saturday evening during clashes in the occupied West Bank.
Also Saturday evening, Israeli aircraft struck several militant sites in the Gaza Strip in response to incendiary balloons Palestinians launched from the territory to Israeli farmland across the frontier, the military said. Local media reports said a Palestinian man was seriously wounded in the airstrikes.
The ministry identified the slain man as Mohammad Fareed Hassan, 20, from Qusra village near Nablus city.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that Hassan was shot in the chest as residents confronted settlers who stormed the village from a nearby settlement. It said Israeli troops accompanied the settlers.
Palestinians have been holding weekly protests against the expansion of Israeli settlements at several locations of the West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
Migrants drown off Tunisia: At least 43 migrants drowned off the coast of Tunisia on Saturday and 84 others were rescued after their boat capsized overnight, the Tunisian Red Crescent said.
Mongi Slim, head of the organization, said the boat, which was carrying 127 migrants, left Libya’s coastal city of Zuwara on Friday to cross the Mediterranean Sea toward Italy. He said 46 Sudanese, 16 Eritreans and 12 Bengalis were among the migrants.
The defense ministry’s spokesperson, Mohamed Zekri, said the 84 migrants were rescued by fishermen. He declined to confirm the drowning of the other migrants.
Libya is a frequent departure point for migrants making the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing.
Road renaming for Trump: A rural Nevada county where voters sided solidly with Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election is moving to rename a road after the former president.
Lyon County commissioners voted 4-1 on Thursday for renaming the half-mile Old Dayton Valley Road in Dayton, an unincorporated community 23 miles south of Reno.
Commissioner Ken Gray, a Republican, told KRNV-TV that he chose Old Dayton Valley Road because only a few government facilities and no residents have addresses on the road, making the change easier.