Land-use change is a primary driver of the climate crisis: converting native vegetation to agriculture, livestock, and infrastructure not only releases greenhouse gases but also reduces ecosystems' carbon-absorption capacity, compromises biodiversity, and intensifies pressure on the territories and livelihoods of traditional peoples and communities. In Brazil, where this dynamic accounts for a significant share of national emissions, addressing it has become central to the international climate agenda that seeks to curb deforestation, mobilize conservation resources, and drive changes in supply chains. However, this agenda focused primarily on forests, often sidelining other ecosystems like the Cerrado and Caatinga. Savanna, grassland, and semi-arid formations do not necessarily fit the definitions of "forest" used in international instruments.

With the U.S. midterm elections just over a month away, the most important question may not be whether Donald Trump will lose control of Congress, but what will happen to his presidency if he does. For Brazil, the issue matters even more. During his term, Trump has not only expanded the boundaries of U.S. executive power but has also transformed trade, sanctions, and foreign policy into increasingly personalized instruments of pressure. Brazil has become one of the clearest examples of this transformation.

The first round of Brazil’s 2026 presidential election points to a trend of rare and dangerous power concentration in the hands of a single political sector: the far right and its allies.

With two days left until the first round, the most important question is simple: who is in the best position heading into this Sunday's vote—which could even decide the election?

The history of democracies is inseparable from constant tensions and questioning. However, we are currently experiencing a profound crisis of confidence in democratic institutions across the West. What is new is not the questioning itself, but who organizes it and why—transforming distrust in democracy and the electoral process into a deliberate political instrument to annihilate dissent.

Brazil’s presidential election had been increasingly consumed by a crisis that did not originate in the campaign itself. A succession of episodes involving the Supreme Court, the Federal Police, Banco Master, investigations into Supreme Court justices, information leaks, conflicting rulings, and mutual accusations produced an electoralization of the justice system and, at the same time, an even greater judicialization of the election. For weeks, the question of which candidate, platform, and vision for the country will be at stake in October seemed to be losing ground to a crisis that is eroding the Court’s authority.

Who will control the artificial intelligence infrastructure built upon Brazil’s water, energy, minerals, and territories? The answer should not depend on Washington’s strategies or those of technology companies, but rather on the conditions Brazil sets for hosting them. The country possesses key attributes for this expansion, such as a predominantly renewable energy matrix and abundant natural resources, including critical minerals used in technology supply chains. However, this availability exists alongside ecological limits, inequalities in access, and competing needs.

The op-ed argues that Brazil should strategically explore oil discoveries in the Mouth of the Amazon to secure long-term energy sovereignty and fund a just transition to a low-carbon economy. It emphasizes balancing resource exploration with rigorous environmental licensing, enhanced state coordination, and the redirection of oil revenues toward regional development and decarbonization initiatives.

U.S.-Brazil relations have reached a sensitive juncture just 47 days before Brazil's October 2026 presidential election, as trade pressures and political interventions increasingly intersect with domestic campaign politics. The growing diplomatic friction is accelerating Brazil's economic and diplomatic realignment toward Beijing while drawing criticism from both domestic and international observers.

Brazil holds the world's second-largest reserve of rare earths, with 21 million tons essential for the energy and technological transition, but remains a net importer of these inputs. To reverse the low utilization of these deposits and overcome its history of importing, Bill No. 2780/2024 seeks to establish a new legal framework for the sector. Read the full article by Lucas Silva Amorim.

The 2026 IMF report confirms Brazil’s economic resilience, projecting 2.4% growth and a 2.5% medium-term potential. While acknowledging social achievements, dropping inflation, and successful debt stabilization, the Fund advises faster fiscal adjustment, addressing budgetary rigidity, and monitoring household debt.

On Tuesday, August 4, the Trump administration revoked the visa of Maria Luiza Viotti, Brazil’s ambassador to Washington. Two weeks earlier, U.S. tariffs totaling 37.5% had gone into effect on a portion of Brazilian exports. That same week, Brazil denied visas to two U.S. State Department officials who were planning to visit the country to question the integrity of its electronic voting machines. All signs point to the bilateral relationship entering an unprecedented phase, in which Washington is intervening directly and simultaneously in both Brazilian trade and elections.

Unanimity is not to be expected in democratic regimes. However, in the face of the United States' new tariff-based attack on Brazil—and the admitted political motivations behind it, dating back to President Donald Trump’s original letter of July 2025 (which contained clear threats to Brazilian sovereignty and democracy and announced the launch of the Section 301 investigation that has now concluded)—there is no room for ambiguity or false equivalencies.

The lobbying by the Brazilian far-right in the United States in recent months, aimed at imposing tariffs and other sanctions against Brazil and its authorities to obtain internal political and electoral benefits, is illegal. Equally illegal is conspiring internationally against the regular functioning of one's own democratic institutions.

Where standing babassu palms remain, there is food, water, work, memory, and resistance. For thousands of women who harvest babassu nuts, defending the palm tree means defending their territory, traditional ways of life, and the continued presence of their communities within the forests, fields, and waterways.

 One often hears it said that Brazil is a country without memory. This narrative circulates among progressive groups and voices of various stripes. It serves to explain everything from the difficulty of punishing crimes committed during the dictatorship to the 2016 coup against Dilma Rousseff and the political rise of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. We argue that this premise is false. Brazil is not a country without memory; rather, it is a country where memory regarding the dictatorship is contested, internally contradictory, and politically consequential.

In March 2026, an 18-year-old man was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in relation to a brutal case of group sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl earlier that year. The culprit was photographed wearing a t-shirt with the provocative slogan “regret nothing” at his police hearing, sparking public outrage around the diffusion of Red Pill ideology among young males in Brazil. The motto refers to the British American online influencer, Andrew Tate, who for years has been fostering extreme misogynistic opinions from his social media channels, where he counts millions of followers, many of whom are youngsters.

Quilombos emerged in the mid-sixteenth century as a form of resistance by enslaved Africans seeking freedom from colonial oppression. Throughout their historical trajectory, these communities consolidated ways of life based on a collective relationship with the land, the preservation of traditional knowledge, and the sustainable use of natural resources – essential elements for their social, economic, and cultural reproduction.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who personally experienced the challenges of drought in the northeastern hinterland, has before him the opportunity to correct a historical omission and transform the recovery of the Caatinga, a semi-arid biome in northeastern Brazil,” into a permanent commitment of the State. The enactment of Bill 1990/2024, approved by the Brazilian Congress, will institute the National Policy for the Recovery of Caatinga Vegetation, creating the first Brazilian legal framework specifically aimed at the recovery of a biome.

A delegation of party leaders from the government coalition is arriving in Washington to meet with members of the U,S. Congress, diplomats, international organizations, the Inter-American Human Rights System, journalists, academics, and local civil society organizations. In addition to informing and explaining the strengths of our democracy, the delegation will also deliver a clear message against any interference that may exist in the United States in relation to Brazil: there is no room for intrusions in the October election, whether rhetorical, economic, informational, or even military.