Jair Bolsonaro rallies supporters on Brazil’s Independence Day
On September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, right-wing activists and self-proclaimed Bolsonaristas rallied in support of President Jair Bolsonaro, his beleaguered administration, and his escalating attacks on the country’s supreme court and other institutions.
No time to back down
The political crisis that has dragged on in Brazil since 2013 reached its most critical point three weeks ago. Harassed by the legal siege against his far-right allies, President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro doubled down and asked the Federal Senate to impeach justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF, Brazil’s highest court). This is the first such request to be made in the 132 years of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
Apostle of the City: Remembering Jaime Lerner
In May, Jaime Lerner—Brazilian architect, politician, and pioneer of urban planning—passed away from a chronic kidney condition at the age of 83. His vision for the world, however, lives on.
Historic drought adds to Brazil’s COVID-19 woes
In Brazil—still in the throes of the pandemic, as evidenced by the country’s ignominious passage through the threshold of 500,000 dead from COVID-19—public dissatisfaction with the government of President Jair Bolsonaro collided this week with a looming socio-environmental catastrophe: a historic drought that has parched large swathes of Brazil’s Centro-Oeste (i.e., the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul) and populous southeast (in particular, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Paraná, three of the most populous states in the country) in advance of the annual Amazon wildfire season.