International Observatory
on Brazil’s 2026 Elections
The Brazil Unfiltered videocast, hosted for years by James N. Green, enters a new season in 2026. Now, every 15 days, Green and the editor-in-chief of The Brazilian Report, Gustavo Ribeiro, discuss the main topics related to the Brazilian presidential elections.
Can Brazil's Supreme Court survive an election?
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 away without an answer. Gustavo Ribeiro is joined by James Green to unpack what happened inside that session, why it looked more like a schoolyard brawl than the country's highest court, and how a scandal involving a jailed banker and a BRL 130 million contract has swallowed the entire campaign three weeks before Brazilians go to the polls.
Troubled ahead for
Brazil-US relations?
What role will the United States play in Brazil's high-stakes 2026 elections? Join editor-in-chief Gustavo Ribeiro and historian James N. Green of the Brazil Office Alliance as they unpack the escalating tensions and potential for US interference in Brazil's upcoming presidential race.
Lula meets Trump
in Washington DC
Editor-in-chief Gustavo Ribeiro sat down with historian James N. Green to unpack Lula's recent meeting with Donald Trump. While the visit yielded no concrete trade breakthroughs, it has been cast as a diplomatic victory, bolstering Lula's domestic standing against far-right rivals. The discussion also addresses political issues at home: the rejection of a Supreme Court nominee and the steady drift of legislative power toward a more conservative Congress.
Crime syndicates as terrorist organizations
Editor-in-chief Gustavo Ribeiro sat down with historian James N. Green to unpack Lula's recent meeting with Donald Trump. While the visit yielded no concrete trade breakthroughs, it has been cast as a diplomatic victory, bolstering Lula's domestic standing against far-right rivals. The discussion also addresses political issues at home: the rejection of a Supreme Court nominee and the steady drift of legislative power toward a more conservative Congress.
Flávio Bolsonaro has a few problems to deal with
Gustavo Ribeiro, editor-in-chief of The Brazilian Report, talks with James Green about the fracturing landscape of Brazil's 2026 presidential race. Much of the conversation turns on Flávio Bolsonaro, whose campaign has been undone largely by its own missteps. Once the front-runner, the senator is now locked in a public feud with his stepmother, Michelle Bolsonaro, that has cost him support among conservative and evangelical women.
Flávio Bolsonaro's imported playbook
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro used his turn at Debating Brazil — an event series in which Brazilian presidential candidates present their vision of the country to foreign ambassadors — to revive discredited claims about electronic voting fraud and to promise close alignment with Washington. Gustavo Ribeiro and James Green examine what the Brazilian press overlooked: a foreign policy doctrine that never rises beyond an outline, an unprompted misstep on Taiwan and an open appeal for American support.
A visa, a snub, and a reopened wound
The US State Department revoked the visa of Brazil's ambassador to DC and said the quiet part out loud: it is retaliation for Brasília withholding agrément from Trump's pick to serve as the ambassador to Brazil. Two months before the first round, that is not a protocol dispute. It is leverage. Gustavo Ribeiro is joined by James Green to unpack the escalation and what it may be building toward — including the case that isolating Brazil lays the groundwork for questioning the October results.
Brazil 2026 Election Live Observer
Brazil's 2026 first round, analyzed live as the votes came in. Over three and a half hours on election night, The Brazilian Report and the Washington Brazil Office followed the presidential count between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, the Senate races that could reshape the balance of power with the Supreme Court, and the governor's races in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and beyond. Our guests discussed how far the polls strayed from the count, why turnout fell, how the Banco Master scandal and the Supreme Court dominated the campaign, what U.S. interference could look like before and after the October 25 runoff, and how social media shaped voters' choices. Join us again on October 25 for live coverage of the runoff.