The administration of President Jair Bolsonaro is considering a dramatic change in the council that oversees Brazil's environmental policy, replacing a broad-based panel of independent voices with a small group of political appointees, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Activists say they fear the move, which reflects Bolsonaro's oft-stated skepticism about environmental organizations, could lead to more deforestation and less oversight in the nation that holds about 60% of the vast Amazon rainforest, which scientists see as crucial for efforts to slow global warming and for the world climate systems.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrived in Israel on Sunday just ahead of the country's polls in which his ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a tough re-election fight.

Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday ordered the armed forces to hold "appropriate commemorations" of the March 1964 military coup -- while denying it was a coup.

Brazil is going through a rudderless period as President Jair Bolsonaro lies in a hospital bed following stomach surgery, with high-priority political issues such as pension reform on the backburner until he recovers, analysts and observers say.

The limbo, which has lasted more than two weeks, might finally be coming to an end this week, according to reports. 

Fire swept through a training facility for Brazil's most popular football club Flamengo Friday, killing at least 10 people, news outlets said.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will visit the United States in March, the country's foreign minister announced Thursday -- hailing the prospect of "very different, much deeper" ties between the two countries.

"We're almost settled on a date at the beginning of the second half of March. It should be announced officially very soon," Ernesto Araujo told a press conference in Washington.

The toll from a dam collapse at a mine in southeast Brazil's Minas Gerais state has risen to 157 deaths after nearly two weeks of searches, with 182 missing, authorities said Thurday.

An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture was activated early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 34 and leaving some 300 missing, firefighters and the mining company said.

Rescuers worked overnight into Saturday searching for around 300 people missing after a dam collapse at a mine in southeast Brazil killed at least nine, but the local governor said "odds are minimal" that they would be found alive.

Brazilian authorities have detected a series of suspicious cash transfers amounting to around $30,000 into the bank account of President Jair Bolsonaro's eldest son, according to a report.