Brazil

Heavy rains have dumped more than two years worth of precipitation on Dubai and surrounding nations. It’s in an extreme weather event analysts are linking to climate change. More than five inches of rain fell in 24 hours. And a controversial bishop in Australia is the latest victim of a knife attack. It’s the second-highest […]

Last Friday was National Missing Children’s Day, and there has been a lot of chatter over the weekend about the approximately 1,500 children who have come to the U.S. as unaccompanied minors and are presently unaccounted for. That comes amid recent stories of immigrant children from as young as one year old being forcibly separated from their parents at the border. These two developments are distinct and unrelated, but outrage over both has led public calls for accountability to crescendo. The Takeaway looks at how the Trump administration’s immigration policy is contributing to these controversies. Plus, we report on the truck drivers’ show of force in Brazil whose protests have ground the economy to a halt; and we invite you, the listener, to participate in our conversation about implicit bias and share your results.

You can connect with The Takeaway on Twitter, Facebook, or on our show page at TheTakeaway.org.

Brazil’s economy was blazing along in the first decade of this century, turbo-charged by China’s appetite for commodities. And there was the added boost of being named, by a Goldman Sachs exec, one of the rising economies to watch — the BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Then China’s economic growth slowed, demand for commodities dropped and Brazil fell into its worst recession in a century, intensified by its worst corruption scandal ever. Brazil is beginning to emerge now, after two years of economic contraction and political turbulence. What are its prospects for again being seen as one of the great rising economic powers of this century? Host Mary Kay Magistad visited Rio de Janeiro to find out.

January 03, 2017:

1. The Top Risks Facing the World in 2017 (11 min)

2. House GOP Starts 2017 with Ethics Stumble (7 min)

3. Chicago’s Gun Violence Has an Outsized Impact on Kids (11 min)

4. Brazilian Prison Riot One of the Deadliest in History (4 min)

5. 2017: The Dawn of The Next Space Race (8 min)

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

The World Health Organization has asked for $56 million over the next four months to combat the Zika virus. 

The virus has already spread to 39 countries, and has been linked to birth defects in Brazil, where a public health campaign to combat the mosquito-born illness is already underway. 

Carolyn Beeler, an environmental reporter and producer for PRI’s The World and PRI’s Across Women’s Lives (AWL) series, reports from Brazil on the front lines of Zika virus prevention for AWL’s “Her Planet” project.

She tells The Takeaway that teams of public health workers, accompanied by military officials, are going door-to-door in cities like São Paulo, telling residents about best practices regarding mosquito control.

The AWL “Her Planet” project on women and the environment launches Monday at PRI.org.

Daniel Alarcón talks to journalist Juliana Barbassa about the tension and unrest leading up to the World Cup in Brazil.