- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
'Historic setback' for Brazil as hunger surges
The number of people living in hunger in Brazil has surged 73 percent in the past two years, a "historic setback" for a country that had made huge gains against poverty, a report said Wednesday.
Around 33.1 million people in Latin America's largest economy are living in hunger, up from 19.1 million in 2020, said the report from the Brazilian Network for Research on Food Security.
That represents 15.5 percent of households in the country of 213 million people, according to the study, which was based on data collected between November 2021 and April 2022.
More than half the country -- 125.2 million people -- suffers food insecurity of some kind, meaning they are in hunger or do not know if they will have enough to eat in the near future, it added.
That figure was an increase of 7.2 percent from 2020.
The "historic setback" is the result of "the ongoing dismantling of social policies, the worsening of the economic crisis, the increase in social inequalities and the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic," the report said.
It even found increased food insecurity among those benefiting from a new social program called "Auxilio Brasil," which President Jair Bolsonaro launched this year.
The average payment under the program, 500 reais (around $100), has been eroded by annual inflation of 12.13 percent.
Images of hungry Brazilians digging in the trash for food have become commonplace as the country has struggled to bounce back from the pandemic.
The researchers found food insecurity affected more than half of rural households and a "terrifying" 27.4 million people in urban areas.
Hunger nearly doubled among families with children younger than 10, affecting 18.1 percent of them.
Black and mixed-race Brazilians are hardest hit, at 18.1 percent of households, versus 10.6 percent for whites, the report said.
X.M.Francisco--PC