Brazil’s Fernando Collor de Mello. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Elderly former Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was jailed last week for corruption, will be allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest for “humanitarian” reasons, a judge said Thursday.

Brazil’s first democratically-elected president after a decades-long dictatorship last week began serving a nine-year sentence for taking bribes while a senator between 2010 and 2014.

The 75-year-old, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, was convicted of taking 20 million reais ($3.5 million) in bribes to arrange contracts between a construction company and a former subsidiary of Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras.

Mr Collor was jailed in a prison in the northeastern city of Maceio, where he has a residence.

His lawyers had asked that he be allowed serve his sentence at home.

Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered him to prison, agreed to the request, citing Collor’s “serious health situation…his age and the necessity of special treatment.”

Mr. Collor will have to hand in his passport and wear an electronic ankle bracelet, Moraes added.

Mr. Collor resigned as president in 1992, after less than three years in power, to avoid being impeached by parliament for corruption.

He is not the first former Brazilian leader to fall foul of the law.

Far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro has been ordered to stand trial over an alleged coup plot after losing elections in 2022.

And left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who served two terms between 2003 and 2010, spent a year-and-a-half behind bars for bribe-taking and money laundering before having his conviction annulled and winning a third term in October 2022.

Director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday said that she has created a special team group, the Directors’ Initiative Group, which is investigating Dr Fauci for perjury and his role in funding Wuhan gain-of-function research tied to COVID-19.
In a podcast, “Megyn Kelly Show” Gabbard said, ” I created kind of a special teams group, the Directors Initiative Group, that is focused on investigating a number of the President’s top priorities and the things that the American people really deserve and want to know the truth about The Origins of COVID 19 is one of them. So they’re actively working on that. A lot of the work that’s been done is on Covid.gov.”
During the pandemic, Dr Fauci became the face of the US Covid-19 response. He was questioned about National Institute of Health (NIH) funding for virology research at the Wuhan lab.
An US-based organisation – EcoHealth Alliance – was awarded a grant in 2014 from the NIH to look into possible coronaviruses from bats. Some funds were given to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in an agreement that was terminated in April 2020.
Over the revamping of Covid.gov. website, host Megyn Kelly said that the older website was annoying to watch with YouTube and all social media used to refer people with Fauci talking points.
The DNI also said that Jay Bhattacharya, the new NIH director with secretary Kennedy is looking at the gain of function research that in the case of the Wuhan Lab, as well as many others around many of these other bio labs around the world was actually US funded and leads to this dangerous kind of research that in many examples has resulted in either a pandemic or some other major health crisis.
Responding to a query whether it is true that it was Peter Daszak’s research with the Wuhan that caused this pandemic, then US did fund it. Then Anthony Fauci helped fund the pandemic, Gabbard said, “We are working on that with Jay Bhattacharya and look forward to being able to share that hopefully very soon. Okay, that, that specific link, correct. Between the gain of function research and what we saw with COVID 19. ..Things that he denied over and over and over to Senator Rand Paul’s questioning. Under oath. So is it any wonder that he sought a preemptive pardon for anything during a certain period of time by President.”
It is pertinent to mention that Dr Fauci, during a senate hearing on May 11, 2021, had told under oath that the NIH never carried out gain-of-function research in Wuhan.
“And the reason why this is so important is not just what happened in the past. It’s because this gain of function research is happening in biolabs around the world. I got attacked and I think you saw this we’ve probably talked about in your show before when I warned against US funded bio labs in Ukraine when the Russia Ukraine war kicked off for this very reason. Who knows what kinds of pathogens are in these labs and if released could create another Covid like pandemic. And for that I was called a Russian asset. You’re trumpeting Putin’s talking points. All of this nonsense simply for speaking the truth and stating facts that by the way are still on US Embassy Ukraine’s website today about how the US has funded these biolabs in Ukraine. But in order to. My point is, in order to prevent another Covid like pandemic or another major health incident that could affect us in the world, we have to end this gain of function research and provide the evidence that shows exactly why and how it’s in our best interest, the American people’s best interest, to bring about an end to it,” she added.

As all cabinet members on Wednesday were heaping praises on President Donald Trump as his administration crossed the first landmark of the first 100 days, Attorney General Pam Bondi went overboard as she said Trump has saved 258 million lives, which is equivalent to 75 per cent of the US population. The claim stunned many social media users but they pointed out that vice president JD Vance, who was sitting beside her, was equally bewildered by her claim.
“President, you first 100 days has far exceeded that of ANY other presidency in this country. Ever. Ever. Never seen anything like it. Thank you,” Pam Bondi said.
“34,000 kilos of fentanyl, since you’ve been – your last 100 days. Which saved, are you ready for this media? 258 million lives,” Bondi said. Kids are dying every day because they’re taking this junk, laced with something else they don’t know what they’re taking. They think they’re buying a Tylenol or an Adderall and a Xanax and it’s laced with fentanyl and they’re dropping dead and no longer because of you, what you’ve done,” Pam Bondi said. On Tuesday, she wrote on X that the fetanyl seizures had seven over 119 million lives.
Pam Bondi provided a formula to The Daily Beast for how she arrived at the figure. “3,400,000 grams of fentanyl multiplied by the “current purity level” of .1518, divided by .002, the lethal amount per gram. The result: 258,060,000,” the report said.
But JD Vance’s facial expression said it all, social media users noted, as JD Vance was seen doing mental math when Pam Bondi announced the figure.
“The US population is 340.1 million people, ~33 million are under 10. So he save the lives of ~84% of those of us over 10 years old,” one wrote.
One X user pointed out that Pam Bondi did not say American lives and by the volume of the fentanyl, she was correct.
“Vance realizing some MAGA math happened somewhere,” one person commented. “You can see whats left of JD’s logical brain fighting for its life,” a second person wrote.