Here are the news stories that were highlighted this week on our portal:
The rains continued to batter the Rio Grande do Sul capital Porto Alegre last Thursday. Streets and avenues were flooded and in some neighborhoods, especially in the center-south and south of the capital, which had already dried out after the floods at the beginning of the month, were flooded again. People once again had to be evacuated from their homes.
In the Cavalhada district, army armored vehicles, including an amphibious vehicle, drove along roads already covered in water, offering to help residents get out. According to the capital’s Municipal Water and Sewage Department, in areas where there is no drainage station, the rain flows by gravity into the streams. “As the level of these streams is high, the rainwater has nowhere to flow. That’s why they end up backing up through the manholes,” the agency said in posts on social media.
Debris accumulated in the streets and manholes and the partial operation of pumping stations, as in the Menino Deus neighborhood, also contributed to the flooding. The water level rose quickly and affected even neighborhoods that had not been affected before. In the city’s historic center, the Public Market, which was being cleaned, dismissed its employees as a precaution.
Residents had to leave their homes after the stream overflowed and the water invaded the neighborhood. At a press conference, the mayor of Rio Grande do Sul, Sebastião Melo, said that the municipal administration knew there was a possibility of more heavy rain and was not taken by surprise.
“This rain was very concentrated in the morning. The news from the National Meteorological Institute is that it rained 100 millimeters in the southern region of Porto Alegre alone. So what used to be a problem of flooded areas has spread to practically the whole city. With this downpour, we have serious problems, in addition to the flooded areas,” said the mayor.
Melo also announced the suspension of classes in Porto Alegre and the closing of the Guaíba floodgates, because the water has stopped flowing and is once again entering the city. Some schools may act as temporary shelters while they are closed to students.
The floods in Rio Grande do Sul caused by the rains have already caused more than 160 deaths and as of last Friday, May 24, 65 people were still missing. The state has 469 municipalities affected, more than 580,000 displaced and around 2.3 million people affected.
The week in sports was marked by a scandal involving the São Paulo team Corinthians and its new sponsor, Vai de Bet. The deal between the team and the company was signed in January this year. But, according to information published by journalist Juca Kfouri, there is orange in the intermediation between the São Paulo team and the company.
According to Kfouri, Corinthians made a payment of 700,000 reais to Rede Social Media Design Ltda on March 18 of this year. Three days later, the club made another deposit, again of 700,000 reais, to the company.
Rede Social, in turn, paid 580,000 reais to Neoway Soluções Integradas em Serviços and, a day later, transferred another 462,000 reais to the company. The journalist clarifies that Rede Social was responsible for brokering the sponsorship between Corinthians and “Vai de Bet”.
Some inconsistencies related to Neoway were also pointed out. The journalist reveals that Edna Oliveira dos Santos, named as a partner in the company, lives in a simple brick house, without electricity, located in Peruíbe, on the south coast of São Paulo, and that she lives on the income from Auxílio Brasil. Edna denies being a partner in Neoway, which shows that her name was being used as an orange, without her knowledge.
In addition, according to the information provided by Neoway when opening the company at the São Paulo Board of Trade, Edna’s address is an apartment in Vila Olímpia, in the capital of São Paulo, but the janitor of the apartment denies that such a person lives in the building.
The journalist also reveals that Rede Social Media Design is owned by Alex Fernando André, also known as Alex Cassundé, who was on the communications team of the current Corinthians president, Augusto Melo, during the period when the leader was still a candidate for the presidency of Timão.
Cassundé, in turn, had close ties to Sergio Moura, Corinthians’ marketing director. The payments made by Corinthians to Rede Social were determined by the club’s administrative director, Marcelo Mariano, and the transfers took place against the wishes of Rozallah Santoro, Timão’s financial director, who was traveling at the time the deposits were made.
On Friday, the Israeli army confirmed the death of Brazilian Michel Nisembaum, 59, who was being held hostage by the extremists who control the Gaza Strip. Having lived in Israel for over 45 years, Nisembaum left behind a family legacy, with two daughters and four grandchildren, the fifth of whom is due to be born next year. His work was linked to the field of computing.
Nisembaum had recently started working as a tour guide and disappeared on the morning of October 7. He had gone to pick up his four-year-old granddaughter from a military base in the southern city of Re’im, where she was staying with her father, an Israeli army soldier.
Previously, Nisenbaum had worked in other jobs, including driver, delivery man, salesman and computer service provider. He was also a volunteer at the Rescue Union, where he worked as an ambulance driver.
Mary Shohat, Michel’s sister, shared details about her brother’s disappearance. The last time her niece, Michel’s daughter, spoke to her father was around 7 a.m. on October 7, when fighters from the extremist group began their ground and air incursion against Israel, triggering an escalation of violence. The next call was answered by someone else:
“They were shouting things in Arabic. In the end, they shouted the name of the group. Then they hung up the phone and we haven’t heard anything since. We began to think that he had been taken hostage or killed,” Mary said at the time.
A little over two weeks later, on October 23, Interpol informed Itamaraty of the Brazilian’s disappearance. The following day, in a press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the Brazilian Embassy in Tel Aviv was in contact with the local authorities about the missing Brazilian.
Itamaraty had already confirmed in October that Nisenbaum was among those missing from the terrorist attack on Israel. It is believed that he was the only Brazilian held hostage.
