RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil saw its highest unemployment and economic inequality in at least nine years in the first quarter of this year. That has left governments, companies and nonprofits scrambling to help the poor endure the year, with welfare, gas subsidies, food donations, cellphone chips, solar panels. Anything to get through 2021 as the pandemic continues raging. It’s a display of Brazil’s knack for improvising solutions in the face of adversity – but also shows how many people are barely hanging on, with catastrophe just a few unpaid bills away.
