International
Brazil green-lights Covid-19 vaccines for children age 5-11
AFP
Brazilian health authorities authorized Covid-19 vaccines for children age five to 11 on Wednesday, as South America’s most populous country faces a rapid increase in cases due to holiday gatherings and the arrival of the Omicron variant.
The final green light by Brazil’s Ministry of Health comes three weeks after the nation’s independent medicines regulator, Anvisa, declared Pfizer-BioNTech’s child-size dose to be safe and effective.
“To all those parents who want to vaccinate their children, the Ministry of Health will guarantee doses of the (Covid) vaccine,” said Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga in Brasilia.
Controversy abounded in Brazil until Wednesday’s announcement, with many alleging an improper delay by the government.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who did not get vaccinated and said he will not immunize his 11-year-old daughter Laura, asked weeks ago to publish the names of those responsible for Anvisa’s decision, unleashing a wave of threats.
The final authorization comes amid a rising rate of infections in the country and a struggle to repair the health ministry’s hacked Covid website.
Brazil’s Health Ministry recorded 18,759 new cases in 24 hours in its latest data released Tuesday, the highest level since October 5.
The seven-day average also rose to 9,876 new cases, up from 5,033 the previous Tuesday, and 3,386 the week before that.
The rapidly increasing rate of new infections follows a trend seen in other nations where Omicron has taken hold.
“We will have growth of the Omicron variant here as in all the other countries,” said Ethel Maciel, an epidemiologist with the Federal University of Espirito Santo.
“The Christmas and New Year holidays, and the Omicron variant contributed a lot,” she explained.
But she also noted that Brazil “has a backlog of data due to a problem with the tracking system,” meaning the site is currently being updated which inflates the number of cases.
The issue stems from a cyberattack last month that disabled the government’s website for tracking infections and deaths, while allowing hackers to steal personal data and delete citizens’ health passes.
Authorities in Rio de Janeiro, wary of Omicron’s increasing impact, on Tuesday announced the cancelation of next month’s carnival street celebrations.
After the United States, Brazil has the second highest number of deaths due to Covid with around 620,000 since the global pandemic began.
International
Trump and Putin end Alaska summit without Ukraine peace agreement
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up their summit in Alaska on Friday with a brief joint press conference, during which they announced no agreement on peace in Ukraine.
Trump described the more than three-hour meeting with Putin and his delegation at Elmendorf-Richardson base as “extremely productive,” but admitted, “we have not reached the goal.”
“Many points were agreed upon. Only a few remain unresolved. Some are not significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a good chance of resolving them. We haven’t gotten there yet, but we have a good chance of achieving it,” Trump stated cryptically at the no-questions press conference.
According to White House officials, the summit began around 11:30 a.m. local time (7:30 p.m. GMT).
Trump was joined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy for the Middle East and Kremlin mediator Steve Witkoff. On Putin’s side, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov were in attendance.
Central America
International tourism brings over $2.2 billion to El Salvador in 2025
International tourism has generated more than $2.2 billion in foreign exchange for the Salvadoran economy during the first seven months of 2025, according to the Ministry of Tourism (Mitur).
Tourism Minister Morena Valdez stated on Thursday that this figure reflects a favorable development of the tourism sector so far this year.
“Over $2.2 billion by July, and we estimate more than $3 billion in foreign exchange by December 2025. I believe we will perform quite well,” Valdez said in an interview with Frente a Frente.
These figures do not include the 91,000 international tourists received during the August holidays, who contributed $60 million to the local economy, according to the government.
The accumulated results by July represent 73.3% of Mitur’s estimates for foreign exchange generated by international tourism in 2025.
During the same period, tourism authorities recorded 2.3 million international visitors, which is 57.5% of the more than 4 million visitors projected by the government by the end of 2025.
Authorities have recently adjusted the tourism target: at the beginning of the year, Mitur anticipated 4.2 million visitorsafter receiving 3.9 million in the previous year.
International
Tabasco ex-officials linked to drug trafficking spark Mexico-U.S. tensions
The scandal involving two former state officials from Tabasco, southeast Mexico, linked to drug trafficking and now fugitives, has added tension to Mexico-U.S. relations, which had already been strained by President Donald Trump’s threats to send troops across the border to target cartels.
At the center of the controversy is the current coordinator of the Mexican Senate, former governor of Tabasco, and former Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López Hernández, a close ally of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024), along with his then-security secretary, Hernán Bermúdez Requena.
According to the Mexican weekly Proceso, published two weeks ago, the criminal ties of the former officials were reported in 2022 by Mexican intelligence services during López Obrador’s administration when López Hernández was Secretary of the Interior.
Bermúdez Requena, known as ‘El Comandante H’, was appointed Secretary of Security in Tabasco in 2019 by then-governor Adán Augusto López Hernández, from the ruling Morena party, and is accused of being a leader of the criminal group ‘La Barredora’, a cell linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
On July 22, Mexico’s Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, Omar García Harfuch, confirmed that a warrant and Interpol red notice had been issued against Bermúdez Requena, who had been under investigation since 2024 for his links to organized crime.
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