Explaining Brazil

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Latest episodes

• Brazil's economy is growing. So why isn't Lula polling better?

  October 1, 2026 · 40 min

  Brazilians vote on Sunday, October 4, and President Lula is asking for a fourth term on the strength of his economic record. Growth averaged 3% a year, unemployment is at a record low, and real wages are rising. His approval still sits…

• Flávio Bolsonaro upsets the gods

  September 30, 2026 · 28 min

  Brazil votes on Sunday, and the final week of the campaign has turned on religion. A rumor that a Flávio Bolsonaro government would strip Our Lady of Aparecida of her title as Brazil's patron saint has spread through Catholic circles. The…

• How to read Brazil's election polls

  September 23, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min

  Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro are statistically tied less than two weeks before Brazil's first round, and a flood of contradictory polls is feeding claims that pollsters are rigging the race. Rafael Nishimura, director of sampling operations…

• Can Brazil's Supreme Court survive an election?

  September 17, 2026 · 41 min

  For years, Brazil's Supreme Court picked fights with Congress and the presidency. This month it turned on itself. On September 15, the full court sat for more than seven hours to answer a question it has dodged for 130 years, and walked…

• Civil war at the Brazilian Supreme Court

  September 9, 2026 · 36 min

  Brazil's Supreme Court is facing what may be the worst crisis in its history. Justice André Mendonça unsealed the Banco Master investigation, exposing messages between the bank's former CEO and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Now two factions…

• The first surprise of the 2026 election

  September 1, 2026 · 38 min

  Two polls released Monday shook the political establishment. Augusto Cury, of the small Avante party, took third place in both: 11% in Nexus's survey, 7.8% in Atlas Intel's. The numbers force rivals and analysts to take Cury seriously for…

• What's wrong with the Brazilian Congress

  August 20, 2026 · 44 min

  Brazil's 2026 campaign is officially underway, and almost all the attention will be on the presidential race. That's a problem, because power in Brazil is increasingly won and lost in Congress — where the budget is controlled and where any…

• A visa, a snub, and a reopened wound

  August 10, 2026 · 35 min

  The US State Department revoked the visa of Brazil's ambassador to Washington ( https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/us-brazil-ambassador-viotti-argentina-russia-putin ) and said the quiet part out loud: it is retaliation for Brasília…