After the success of Australia and New Zealand last year, FIFA members picked Brazil over a European bid in a push to expand women’s football to new continents.

Delegates meeting in Bangkok voted 119 votes to 78 to send the 10th Women’s World Cup to the land of samba football, beating a joint bid from Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The decision sparked celebrations from the Brazilian bid team.

Brazilian Football Confederation President, Ednaldo Rodrigues, hailed it as a “victory for Latin American football and for women’s football in Latin America”.

Brazil, home of women’s football great Marta, scored higher than its European rival in FIFA’s evaluation report.

FIFA inspectors had noted the “tremendous impact on women’s football in the region” that South America hosting the Women’s World Cup would have.

Brazil’s bid includes 10 stadiums used for the men’s World Cup in 2014, with Rio de Janeiro’s famous Maracana lined up for the opening match and final.

But work needs to be done, in particular to the Amazonia stadium in Manaus which has stood almost unused for a decade.

Unlike their male counterparts, who have won five World Cups, Brazil’s women have never lifted the trophy and made a group-stage exit in 2023.

Last year’s tournament set records, including earning $570 million in commercial revenue.

“The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Franca, spoke by phone today with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba,” the foreign ministry said on Twitter shortly before Bolsonaro took off for Russia.

Franca “listened to his counterpart’s assessment of the current situation on the border between Ukraine and Russia” and reiterated Brazil’s support of a “peaceful resolution” of the crisis, said the ministry, noting that Brazil and Ukraine recently celebrated 30 years of diplomatic ties.

Brushing off pressure from traditional ally the United States and within his own cabinet, Bolsonaro decided to go ahead with meeting Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, a visit he says is about building bilateral trade relations.

Brazil, a major global agricultural producer and exporter, “depends largely on fertilizers from Russia,” Bolsonaro said to justify the trip. On Thursday he visits Hungary, led by his ally, the far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Analysts have noted the terrible timing of the trip, coming in the midst of the worst crisis since the Cold War. Western countries fear Russia will invade Ukraine after deploying more than 100,000 troops and huge amounts of military hardware near or on the borders of the former Soviet republic.

Washington has warned that Russia could launch an invasion at any time, something Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The 66-year-old was admitted to the Armed Forces Hospital in Brasilia early Wednesday morning, July 14.

An initial statement said doctors were examining his persistent hiccups.

However, hours later, the president’s office said Dr Antonio Luiz Macedo, the surgeon who operated on him after he was stabbed in the abdomen during the 2018 presidential campaign, decided to transfer him to Sao Paulo, where he will undergo additional tests to see whether he might need emergency surgery.

The stabbing caused intestinal damage and serious internal bleeding and the president has gone through several surgeries since, some unrelated to the attack.

Shortly after news of his transfer to Sao Paulo, Bolsonaro posted on his Facebook page a photo of himself smiling with his eyes closed and lying in a hospital bed covered in sensors and cables.

Bolsonaro said in the post “I thank everyone for their support and prayers”

It also listed South Africa, Turkey and Brazil in the travel advisory.

The Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, formerly Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, also has warned Nigerians against shunning safety protocols against the virus, saying the pandemic was not over.

The National Incident Manager, PSC, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, spoke at the media briefing by the committee on Monday.

Muhammad said, “While we continue to reopen the economy, we must also be aware of the happenings around the globe. Mr Chairman (Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha) and the Honourable Minister of Health (Prof. Osagie Ehanire) have referred to specific incidents in India, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa. We sympathise with the people of these countries because it is really a very trying time, particularly for India, recording over 300,000 cases a day and recording over 2,000 deaths. India is a prime destination for medical tourism for Nigeria. We know that many Nigerians like to travel – to go to India but now… we urge Nigerians to limit all travels to only essential travels, particularly to these affected countries.”

Brazil’s football association CBF said its decision was first communicated to the women’s team and their Swedish coach Pia Sundhage in March.

Federation president Rogerio Caboclo said “The CBF has equalled the prize money and allowances between men’s and women’s football, which means the women players will earn the same as the men. It will be proportionally the same as what Fifa proposes for women, that is to say, there will be no more gender difference in remuneration between men and women. It will be applied to the teams participating in the Olympics next year as well as the next World Cup tournaments”

The health ministry on Friday night reported 54,771 new cases, the highest daily increase in any country since the pandemic began, taking the total to 1,032,913. The officials said about half of increase was due to delayed reporting in three states, including São Paulo. In addition, there were more than 1,200 deaths for the fourth consecutive day, taking the total to nearly 49,000.

President Jair Bolsonaro has been heavily criticised for his response to the crisis. The far-right leader has repeatedly clashed with state governors and mayors over their strict restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. His approach has also led to the resignation of two health ministers.

The United States has the highest cases and deaths in the World. More than 2.2 million cases and over 120,000 deaths have been confirmed in America.

As of Thursday morning, 5,100,895 cases have been confirmed, 329,895 people have died, while 2,033,488 people worldwide have recorded.

The United States remains the country most impacted by the pandemic, with more than 1.5 million cases and at least 93,400 deaths.

Russia has almost 309,000 confirmed infections and 2,972 people have died with COVID-19, while Brazil has nearly 292,000 recorded cases and a much higher death toll, at 18,859.

Ronaldo, won two Fifa World Cups, in 1994 and 2002, and was crowned the Fifa World Player of the Year thrice, while winning the Ballon d’Or in 1997 and 2002.

He said “The best of all was Ronaldo, ‘O Fenomeno, I have such great respect and admiration for him. Then there are a lot of us who come up behind him, and I’d include myself among them.”

The tunnel and as many as 200 bags of earth stashed in cells were discovered at the city jail in Pedro Juan Caballero near the border with Brazil, police and government officials said.

The operation was “like we see in the movies, complete with internal lighting,” police spokeswoman Elena Andrada said, according to AFP.

Government officials said they suspect prison officials were aware of the operation, firing the prison’s director and six other officials following the escape, Reuters reported.

“It’s not possible that nobody saw anything in all this time,” Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez told the Telefuturo station. “This isn’t the work of one day or one night.”

Interior Minister Euclides Acevedo said in a statement that the tunnel itself may have been a ruse to cover complicity by prison officials and that many of the inmates may have been allowed to walk out of the prison’s main gate.

The majority of the escapees belong to the First Capital Command based in Brazil, Acevedo said. The gang was founded in the 1990s inside a Sao Paulo prison and it has extended its influence throughout the country.

Devastating fires that have scorched parts of the Amazon region and fueled global outrage have spurred Brazil’s government to ban most legal fires for land-clearing for at least 60 days.