Important Takeaways:

• The death toll from heavy rains in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state rose to 143, up from 136 on the day before, the local civil defense government body said on Sunday, as rains continue to pour on the state.
• Another 125 people remain unaccounted for in the state, where rivers are reporting rising levels. Weather service Metsul called the situation “extremely worrying.”
• On Saturday evening the government announced around 12.1 billion reais ($2.34 billion) in emergency spending to deal with the crisis that has displaced more than 538,000 people in the state, out of a population of around 10.9 million.
• With this new money, more than 60 billion reais in federal funds has already been made available to the state, said the federal government in a statement on Saturday.
• Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the state will rebuild what was destroyed.

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