In Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaro was transferred from the intensive care unit to a regular hospital room after being hospitalized since March 13 with bronchopneumonia. CartaCapital reported that Bolsonaro had been taken from the Papudinha prison complex to the hospital. Separately, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice set up an emergency operation to coordinate consumer protection agencies across states in response to rising fuel prices — a sign of growing economic pressures in the country.
Meanwhile, in a hopeful story from southern Brazil, the metropolitan region of Curitiba inaugurated the Bondi Urbano Digital (BUD), a railless electric transit system that uses magnetic induction embedded in asphalt. The initial 10-kilometer route, which opened in December, eliminates the need for traditional rail infrastructure and could serve as a model for affordable urban transit across Latin America, according to Costa Rica’s La Nación.
