Connect with us

International

Rio to hold New Year’s party, after all

AFP

Rio de Janeiro will hold its famed New Year’s Eve party after all, Mayor Eduardo Paes announced Thursday, five days after canceling the celebration over concerns about Covid-19.

The iconic Brazilian beach city will go ahead with its annual fireworks display, though the huge concert that usually follows remains canceled, Paes told a news conference.

“The city is open. The city is going to celebrate,” he said.

“Rio de Janeiro has low (Covid-19) infection rates, low numbers of hospitalizations, and thanks to God and the vaccine, a very low number of deaths. That enables us to hold this event in complete safety.”

Advertisement
20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

The mayor had tweeted Saturday that Rio had to cancel the festivities “with sadness,” amid concerns over the new Omicron variant.

But he said Thursday that Governor Claudio Castro told him he may have spoken too soon.

After further meetings with Rio state and city health officials, authorities decided to go ahead with a reconfigured event, Paes said.

In addition to the world-famous fireworks show on Copacabana beach, the city will hold fireworks displays in nine other spots, and encourage revelers to go to the nearest one to avoid excessive crowds.

Copacabana will be closed to car traffic and public transportation, and tour buses will not be allowed into the city after the evening of December 30.

Advertisement
20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Paes said officials would set up spots where people could be vaccinated against Covid-19.

Brazil has registered more than 615,000 deaths in the pandemic, second only to the United States.

But with 65 percent of the country’s 213 million people now fully vaccinated, the number of infections and deaths has plunged.

Rio’s announcement came amid cautious optimism from world health authorities over Omicron.

The variant is spreading fast, but early evidence suggests it causes less severe disease, according to the World Health Organization.

Advertisement
20250301_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Paes did not address another famed Rio party threatened by Covid-19, the annual carnival celebration scheduled to kick off on February 25.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
20250301_vacunacion_vph-300x250
20241211_mh_noexigencia_dui_300x250
20231124_etesal_300x250_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_300X250
MARN1

International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

Continue Reading

International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

Continue Reading

International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

Continue Reading

Trending

Central News