Brazil has lost nearly 9,000 bank branches since 2014, when the country peaked at 22,955 branches. By December 2025, that number had fallen to 14,066. #Brazil #Banking #Fintech #Pix #Economy

With no scanner at its port and few narcotics officers, Brazil’s northernmost state is becoming a route for Europe-bound cocaine. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/drug-routes-amazon-amapa-port

Grocery sales in Brazil have risen sharply since online betting went dark, per a supermarket lobby. Even if the ban freed up cash, betting's financial damage remains. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/brazil-betting-ban-fills-shopping-carts-household-debt-remains

Yasushi Noguchi, Japan's ambassador to Brazil since December 2025, is the latest guest on our Diplomatic Brief, a series featuring foreign diplomats who discuss the forces that bind their countries to Brazil.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/japan-ambassador-yasushi-noguchi-rare-earths-beef

Brasília's trial balloon season opened days after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva secured re-election. He wants to overhaul his inner circle, bringing in people from outside the PT. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/cabinet-lula-term-debt-gambling-economy-japan-ambassador

Establishment conservatives in Brazil want to change how Brazilians elect their congressmen. The plan swaps the open-list proportional system for a mixed-member district model, phased in between 2030 and 2034. We explain. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/big-center-wants-new-electoral-rules

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro landed in Miami on Wednesday morning with his wife and two daughters. How he left is still a mystery, and every plausible answer embarrasses someone.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/flavio-bolsonaro-escape-brasilia-questions

The strongest El Niño on record is drowning Brazil’s south and baking its north, right as the soy goes into the ground. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/el-nino-south-america-droughts-rain

Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost the presidential runoff, called himself Brazil's "true president-elect" in a letter. A version published 22 min. later demoted him to "the leader of Brazil." https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/flavio-bolsonaro-miami-letter-federal-police-congressional-reform

The Shell-Cosan joint venture wants to fire its board, cut capital, and split in two. A hedge fund manager raised its stake days before the vote. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/breaking-raizen-apart

Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ordered the Federal Police to investigate whether foreign money, routed through a US conservative donor network, secretly financed Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential campaign. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/supreme-court-us-money-flavio-bolsonaro-campaign

Flávio Bolsonaro ended his Election Night speech with a vow. "I will not give up on my Brazil, and I hope that you who are watching me will not give up either." Less than 48 hours later, he was gone. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/flavio-bolsonaro-flight-us-interference-election-lula

Brazilians living abroad backed Lula in the runoff, giving him 53.9% of the 371,651 valid votes cast outside the country. The result depended heavily on where they live.

A WhatsApp channel went from fewer than 60,000 followers to 10.8 million in three weeks and helped Lula overturn a first-round deficit. Leftist parties abroad now want the recipe. It may travel badly.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/andre-janones-left-social-media-blueprint

Lula's electoral comeback was built at the bottom of the income ladder. In the first round, Lula took 77.9% of valid votes in the poorest tenth of polling places and 36.5% in the richest. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/how-brazil-poorest-neighborhoods-lula-fourth-term

Three weeks ago, Brazilian investors had already picked their president. Flávio Bolsonaro's first-round lead sent stock indexes to record highs. On Monday, the same money ran the other way. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/stocks-dollar-circuit-breaker-flavio-bolsonaro-fled-lula-comeback

Brazil’s Federal Police have asked Argentina to confirm whether Senator Flávio Bolsonaro has left the country. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/flavio-bolsonaro-lost-more-than-an-election-on-sunday

Brazil is set to import more wheat than at any point in three decades. Imports could exceed 9 million tonnes in the 2026/27 season, as two months of rain wreck the harvest in all three of the country’s main producing states. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/wheat-harvest-prices-brazil-rains

Lula won an unprecedented fourth term. Turnout did much of the work. Abstention fell from 33.4M in the first round to 30.5M. Blank/spoiled ballots dropped from 5.9M to 4.2M, the lowest levels since 2002.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/brazil-2026-election-lula-reelected-flavio-bolsonaro

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won an unprecedented fourth term. If he completes it, he will have governed Brazil for 16 years, a tenure surpassed only by Emperor Pedro II and the dictator Getúlio Vargas. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/brazil-2026-election-lula-reelected-flavio-bolsonaro

Flávio Bolsonaro finished the first round 2.2 million votes ahead of Lula. Can Lula close the gap today? Follow the count with us tonight.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/brazil-2026-presidential-runoff-results-live-lula-flavio-bolsonaro

Brazilians choose their next president today in a race the final polls cannot separate. Surveys on the eve of the vote put neither candidate clearly outside the margin of error. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/brazil-2026-election-runoff-lula-flavio-bolsonaro-follow-results

A thinner squad and a fraction of the budget took Estudiantes past Flamengo and into a Copa Libertadores final with Palmeiras. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/libertadores-final-palmeiras-estudiantes

Estudiantes de La Plata eliminated defending champion Flamengo from the Copa Libertadores on Thursday night. The upset spares Palmeiras a third final against the Rio club in six years.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/libertadores-final-palmeiras-estudiantes

The Army called off the Oct. 27 signing without explanation, a day after Avibras’s role in the deal was reported. Its new owners, the Batista brothers, had taken control 12 days earlier. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/israeli-gun-howitzer-elbit-avibras

Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro meet tonight on Globo for the last debate before Sunday's runoff. It airs in prime time, straight after Brazil's most-watched newscast. Globo cleared its evening telenovela to make room.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/globo-debate-puts-flavio-script-under-pressure

TSE head Kassio Nunes Marques could take down “Lula’s Army,” the top pro-Lula WhatsApp channel. He gave Meta, Google, and X 24 hours to report on paid boosting or coordinated amplification.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/chief-electoral-kassio-nunes-targeting-lula-army-online-campaign

Lula has wiped out Flávio Bolsonaro's polling lead with the runoff two days away. Datafolha shows them tied at 50% of valid votes. The big question is whether Lula has enough time to complete a comeback. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/fear-factor-lula-flavio-bolsonaro-debate-globo-tse-bias

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell to 3,335 km² in the 12 months to July 2026, the lowest on record. The number marks a 41.8% drop from a year ago and a 71% decline from 2022, Jair Bolsonaro's final year.  https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/amazon-deforestation-cerrado-savanna-record-low

A judge in a remote Amazonian town rejected a request to transport indigenous voters to the polls for the presidential runoff, exposing one of the least-discussed issues in Brazilian democracy. https://newsletters.brazilian.report/p/in-the-amazon-the-road-to-the-ballot-box-is-a-river