Joao Doria
Brazilian potential presidential candidate announces he is gay
Brazilian governor and potential major party presidential candidate Eduardo Leite, a prominent critic of President Jair Bolsonaro, came out as gay in a TV interview. Leite, governor of the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, would be the first openly gay presidential candidate in Brazil. Anti-gay rhetoric has been a staple of speeches by Bolsonaro, who once declared that if he had a gay son, he would rather the child died in an accident. “I have never spoken about a subject related to my private life,” Leite told Brazilian journalist Pedro Bial in a TV interview on Thursday evening. “But during this moment of low integrity in Brazil, I have nothing to hide, I am gay. I am a governor who is gay, not a gay governor, as former President Obama in the US was a president who was Black, not a Bl...
Brazil hospitals pushed to limit as coronavirus death toll soars
Hospitals in Brazil’s main cities are reaching capacity, health officials have warned, as the country recorded the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll over the past week, triggering tighter restrictions on Thursday in its most populous state. Intensive care wards for treating COVID-19 patients have reached critical occupancy levels over 90% in 15 of 27 state capitals, according to biomedical center Fiocruz. In Porto Alegre, the largest city in southern Brazil, there are no free intensive care units (ICUs), and occupancy has also hit 100% in two other state capitals, Fiocruz reported. The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported a record 2,286 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, as new infections rose by 79,876. With more than 270,000 deaths, Brazil’s pandemic death toll over the past y...
