Brazil's National Council of Justice (CNJ), the body that oversees the judiciary, ordered an operation on Thursday (Sept. 24) at the office of federal appeals judge Newton Pereira Ramos Neto of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1). The order came from the council's top disciplinary official, corregidor-national Benedito Gonçalves, with support from the Federal Police. The report was first published by columnist Mônica Bergamo of Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by O Globo and the news site Metrópoles.Ramos once served as auxiliary judge to Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Kassio Nunes Marques. According to O Globo, the two worked together when the justice was vice president of the TRF-1, and President Lula appointed Ramos to the appeals court in 2023. Messages obtained by the Federal Police from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, identify the judge as a member of the "Turma do KN", a nickname that refers to the justice's initials. Born in São Luís, in the state of Maranhão, Ramos joined the federal judiciary in 2005.The contract with Banco MasterThe operation comes three days after Metrópoles revealed a 427 million reais contract between Banco Master and the law firm of Camila Ramos, the judge's wife. The deal set a 5 percent net success fee on the value recovered in 12 precatório cases, long-standing court-ordered government debts, estimated at 8.5 billion reais. According to the newspaper Estadão, Ramos cast at least two votes in favor of Master's interests about six months before the contract was signed, in cases involving precatórios from the sugar and ethanol sector.In messages from Vorcaro's phone published by Metrópoles and quoted by O Globo, an assistant asks the banker whether he will cover a hotel reservation requested by the justice:"Justice Kassio asked me to see if you can get him a promotional rate at the Fasano. Just one night. Arriving Friday and leaving Saturday. I received this message from Newton. OK with you?"Vorcaro replied: "Put it on my account." Other messages previously disclosed show that the Master owner paid for a mansion for the justice to stay in during the 2025 Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Nunes Marques confirmed that in November 2025 he flew on a plane paid for by Camila to attend her birthday party in Maceió. The justice said the relationship has a "personal nature" and involves nothing in exchange for his work at the Supreme Court.The TRF-1 press office was contacted and had not responded, according to O Globo. The investigation continues at the National Council of Justice, the CNJ branch that polices judges and courts. The messages naming the judge are part of the material seized by the Federal Police from Vorcaro's phone in the Master case, one of Brazil's largest financial scandals.

The agreement between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) has unblocked the constitutional amendment (PEC, in the Portuguese acronym) that ends Brazil's 6x1 work schedule, in which employees work six days for every one day off. But the deal limits progress to the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ). The full Senate floor vote has no date and, in practice, is expected only after the October 2026 elections.The rapporteur, Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), delivered a favorable report to the CCJ on Thursday (27), keeping the text already approved by the Chamber of Deputies in May, according to G1. Aziz rejected all 12 amendments filed, including three by Senator Izalci Lucas (PL-DF) that sought to keep the current 44-hour workweek. The CCJ is set to vote the proposal next Wednesday (2), a date confirmed by Folha de S.Paulo.The breakthrough followed a meeting between Lula, Alcolumbre and Chamber Speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) on Wednesday night (26) at the Alvorada Palace. Alcolumbre, however, did not commit to bringing the PEC to the floor next week, G1 reported. According to Folha, Congress has only one more working week, from August 31 to September 4, before the October vote.How the amendment moves through the SenateA PEC must clear the CCJ and then pass two rounds of voting on the Senate floor, with five business days between them. Lula's allies are pressing for the floor vote on the same day as the committee decision and argue, according to G1, that procedural deadlines have been waived before, with both rounds held back to back.The text kept by Aziz sets a 40-hour workweek, down from 44, with two weekly rest days and no pay cut, preferably including Sunday. The transition foresees 42 hours within two months and 40 hours within one year. In his report, Aziz cited data from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), a federal think tank, to defend the change:"The long workday is not neutrally distributed across the productive structure: it falls disproportionately on lower-income and less-educated workers. Reducing it is, in exactly that measure, a matter of distributive justice, and not only of labor policy," Aziz said.The PL party opposes ending the 6x1 schedule. Senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) co-signed an alternative PEC with party colleagues that would introduce hourly pay with a flexible schedule. That text is stalled in the Senate, according to G1.The next step is the CCJ vote on Wednesday (2). If Aziz's report stands, the text does not return to the Chamber and can be promulgated by Congress once the Senate floor approves it in two rounds. With no commitment from Alcolumbre to schedule the vote in this final working week, the final decision falls after the elections.

An institute founded by Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) signed 28 contracts with public bodies worth a combined 10.7 million reais in a little over two years of operation. The survey was published by BBC News Brasil on Thursday (Sept. 3). According to the report, every contract identified was signed through dispensa or inexigibilidade de licitação, two legal mechanisms that let public agencies hire without competitive bidding.The survey drew on records from the National Public Procurement Portal, known as PNCP. The BBC notes that direct hiring is allowed under Brazilian law and does not by itself indicate wrongdoing. Clients included the state governments of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Piauí, municipal governments and professional councils such as the Federal Accounting Council. The deals covered training courses ranging from administrative management to public security.Created after the court, left this weekThe Instituto Iter was created in November 2023, nearly two years after Mendonça joined the court on the nomination of former president Jair Bolsonaro. He had earlier served as the federal government's chief attorney and as Bolsonaro's justice and public security minister. Documents seen by the BBC show the Mendonça family held a stake through another company, Integre Cursos e Pesquisa em Estado de Direito Governança Global, a shareholder in the institute. In 2024, when the Iter was registered in São Paulo, the justice's wife, Janey Nagliatti de Mendonça, was named its administrator. The report also cites Brazil's judiciary statute, which restricts the activities judges and court justices may perform.On Thursday, Mendonça said in a statement that he had decided the day before to leave the partnership. He and his wife gave up their stakes with no financial compensation. In a statement to the BBC, the Instituto Iter confirmed the exit and denied that the justice ever received profits from the entity."We record that, throughout the two years of the Instituto Iter's activity, there was no distribution of profits or dividends."The Vorcaro meetingThe institute also said the intellectual nature of its courses justified the exemptions from bidding. Attention to its contracts grew after Mendonça told the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo that he had met banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, in early 2025 at the institute's headquarters in São Paulo. The meeting was first reported on Wednesday (Sept. 2) by journalist Paulo Motoryn in his Noites Húngaras newsletter. Mendonça now serves as the reporting justice in the case investigating alleged financial crimes by Vorcaro, though he did not hold the case at the time of the meeting. His office said the meeting, which included one of the banker's lawyers, covered a lawsuit at the STF over precatorios, court-ordered government debt payments, of interest to the bank. The newspaper O Globo reported that Vorcaro attempted to close a contract with the institute.The BBC said it found no record so far that the institute benefited from contracts linked to Vorcaro's companies. The survey lands in the middle of a crisis between Mendonça and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a report on alleged messages between Vorcaro and Moraes, including a 129 million reais contract sent by the banker's team to the justice's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes. Moraes has not commented on the report so far. What comes next rests with the court: Mendonça has asked STF President Edson Fachin to refer a request to investigate Moraes to the full bench, a decision that remains pending.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Friday, September 18, that he rejects the US government's designation of the PCC and the Comando Vermelho (CV), Brazil's two largest criminal factions, as terrorist organizations. In his view, "terrorism was January 8", the 2023 riots in which supporters of Jair Bolsonaro stormed the seats of Brazil's three branches of government in Brasília. He spoke at a public security event in Rio de Janeiro, in the middle of his reelection campaign."We need to beat organized crime. And I do not accept the idea that criminal factions are terrorists, as Trump says. When Trump talks about terrorism, he is talking about state terrorism, not about a fight for power. Who was doing that? Bolsonaro trying to stage a coup on January 8. That is terrorism, planning to kill Lula, Alckmin and even Alexandre de Moraes. That is state terrorism," Lula said, according to news site G1.The dispute with WashingtonThe listing of the two factions changes the White House approach by treating the fight against South American drug trafficking as a national security priority, according to G1. A Trump administration report released this week accuses Brazil of failing to contain the PCC and the CV and demands urgent measures. Brazil's Justice Ministry and the federal government rejected the charges, saying they run frequent operations to strip the gangs of their assets and maintain intelligence and cooperation agreements with US agencies. Under Brazilian law, the groups remain classified as criminal organizations."Criminals are terrorists for the people who live in the periferia, the poor urban outskirts. But I do not accept Trump's idea that criminal factions are terrorists," the president said, in remarks reported by InfoMoney. Bolsonaro, whom Lula named in his speech, is under house arrest for attempting a coup d'état.Resources and bordersLula tied the security debate to sovereignty over natural resources. "Trump is after critical minerals, oil and rare earths. No, this here is ours," he said, according to G1. He called for investment in the security forces and mentioned the Equatorial Margin, off the coast of Amapá state, where Petrobras has announced an oil discovery at the Morpho field. "How are we going to control 18,000 kilometers of border without investment?" he asked.At the same event, Lula said he will create a Ministry of Public Security if reelected and promised to retake territory controlled by factions and militias. He also committed to converting 138 prisons into maximum-security facilities, according to InfoMoney. The standoff with Washington remains open: the US report demands urgent steps that the Brazilian government has publicly rejected, and a constitutional amendment expanding the federal role in public security is still awaiting a vote in Congress.

Brazil's vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, called on Saturday (19) for fixed terms and a code of ethics for the justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court. Speaking to reporters during a visit to the city hall of Ribeirao Preto, in Sao Paulo state, he was direct: "Nothing should be for life."Alckmin pointed to the European model of ten to fifteen year terms. "I have always defended a term. Nothing should be for life, healthy rotation. It is a term like in Europe, 10 years, 12 years, at most 15. That is healthy, you are always renewing," he said. On conduct rules for the justices, he added: "There has to be a code of ethics, a code of conduct, to establish what is allowed and what is not."The Master Bank caseThe remarks came as the court is split over the Master case, tied to the failed bank of businessman Daniel Vorcaro. Alckmin said the court's president, Edson Fachin, took a "correct step" when he spoke about lifting secrecy in the investigation, without specifying which decision he meant. "Nothing should be hidden. Transparency is essential in public life. The greater the responsibility and the authority, the greater the accountability must be, not the privilege," he said.According to Alckmin, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants the facts examined whoever is involved. "What has President Lula asked for? The truth, the truth. Investigate, no matter who it is," he said. He noted that the judiciary is an independent branch of government and said Lula carried out "the first judicial reform," which created the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and the National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office (CNMP), the two oversight bodies for judges and prosecutors. The government, he said, will push for a new reform.Not a new positionAlckmin first made the argument publicly on May 5, in an interview with GloboNews, days after the Senate rejected Lula's nominee Jorge Messias, the first such rejection since 1894, according to news site Metropoles. Under the current rules, STF justices serve until mandatory retirement at 75. Creating fixed terms requires a change to the Constitution. Justice Flavio Dino himself backed the idea as a congressman and later as Lula's justice minister.The Ribeirao Preto event mixed government business with campaigning: Alckmin appeared with Mayor Ricardo Silva and state legislature candidate Duda Hidalgo, alongside Simone Tebet, Marcio Franca and Jose Luiz Datena. The court has become a campaign issue in the 2026 election after several justices were named in the Master investigation. The next moves are institutional. Without a constitutional amendment approved by Congress, the seats stay tenured for life. Inside the court, according to the Andreia Sadi blog at g1, the pending decision on who leads the Master investigation rests with Fachin.

Messages extracted from Daniel Vorcaro's phone suggest a close relationship between the former banker and Benedito Gonçalves, a justice on the STJ, Brazil's second-highest court, who currently serves as inspector general of the CNJ, the National Council of Justice that polices the judiciary. According to Folha de S.Paulo, which obtained the material, the two men treated each other as friends, exchanged cordial messages and arranged meetings in Brasília.On May 17, 2024, after a meeting between the two, Gonçalves wrote to Vorcaro: "Good evening, happy to have seen my friend again. Beautiful party! Congratulations! Regards, Benedito". Vorcaro replied "Dear friend" and "Thank you for the kindness", then suggested another get-together: "Let's set up the cigar in Brasília".On July 2 of that year, Vorcaro again called the justice a "great friend" and proposed a meeting in the federal capital. "Great friend, all well? Let's arrange a meeting in Brasília when you're back from Rio!", he wrote. Gonçalves answered that he would arrive on the 29th and call right after. "And here, always at your disposal", he added. That same day, he sent a sticker of a handshake with the words "Always together".London events and no response from the justiceAccording to Folha, Gonçalves attended an event paid for by Vorcaro in London in April 2024. He was also present at a Macallan whisky tasting for officials hosted by the former banker around the same time. The justice was contacted through the press offices of the STJ and the CNJ at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday (15) via WhatsApp and had not responded by the time the report was published. In the first half of this year, he recused himself from cases related to Banco Master at the STJ.The case at the Supreme CourtThe messages surfaced as the Supreme Court, the STF, debates the fallout of the Banco Master case. In Tuesday's session (15), which addressed whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes over his own message exchanges with Vorcaro, Justice Flávio Dino suggested notifying every magistrate of the higher courts named in any document related to the case. The outlet Diário 360 noted that the conversations alone do not prove any wrongdoing or judicial favoritism.The next step lies with the Supreme Court. Dino's notification proposal still awaits a decision by the court. Gonçalves had made no public statement on the messages as of the publication of Folha's report on Friday (18).

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, is awaiting explanations from justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça over the crisis that has gripped the court since messages tied to the Banco Master case came to light. According to CNN Brasil, Fachin opened a proceeding at the court's presidency to centralize the review of the claims now involving the two justices. The goal is to gather the versions of those involved before deciding on further steps or a review by the full bench.The deadlines set by FachinOn Thursday (Sept 3), Fachin gave Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues five days to provide information on the events that set off the crisis. The court president wants to know, among other points, whether the Federal Police respected the rules of the Organic Law of the Judiciary when it came across information on officials who can only be tried by the Supreme Court. He also asked about possible access to private documents, about the disclosure of material under judicial seal, about a search step ordered by Mendonça, and about the prosecutor general's office's oversight of the police.Hours later, the dispute opened a new front. Moraes sent Fachin a ruling stating there are "strong indications" of administrative improbity, abuse of authority and a crime of responsibility in Mendonça's conduct in two police operations, Compliance Zero, linked to Master, and Sem Desconto, an inquiry into fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security agency. Moraes based the filing on Federal Police intelligence reports and accused his colleague of interfering with investigations, taking part irregularly in plea-bargain negotiations and steering inquiries for personal and political reasons, including against Moraes himself.A proceeding at the presidencyOn Friday (Sept 4), Fachin ordered that Moraes's ruling and its annexes be removed from the fake news inquiry and folded into the new proceeding under the court's presidency. Unlike the fake news and Banco Master inquiries, the new case is not under seal. In the same order, Fachin opened a successive round of filings: the prosecutor general's office has five business days to weigh in on the admissibility and the regularity of the step taken by Moraes and, if it deems fit, on the substance of the claims against Mendonça. Mendonça then has another five business days to respond. Fachin wrote that the measures only complete the available information and carry no prior judgment on the merits.The crisis escalated on Tuesday (Sept 1), when Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report containing messages and contact records between Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro and Moraes. The material indicated that Vorcaro was seeking access to the justice as the investigation advanced. The prosecutor general's office questioned how the inquiry was run and asked that the proceeding be closed. Two days later, Moraes answered with the intelligence reports against Mendonça.The decisions formally placed the two sides before Fachin. Allies of Mendonça described the referral to the presidency as "protocolar" (routine) in comments to G1. Justices heard by the news outlet's politics blog point to a central legal limit: as a rule, an investigation at the court opens at the request of the prosecutor general or with the office's endorsement, since prosecutors hold the power to bring criminal charges. In the corridors of the court, one source summed up the coming weeks as a "setembro sangrento" (bloody September) of new reports and rulings. Once the filings are in, Fachin must decide the next steps, including what reaches the full bench of the STF.

Online gambling companies, known in Brazil as bets, are preparing to expand into physical betting outlets in states such as Rio de Janeiro and Paraná. The finding comes from a report by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), the Finance Ministry office that supervises and regulates the market. The g1 news portal reported the document on Friday (Sept. 25), the same day President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced in São Paulo a provisional measure banning online bets.The SPA had scheduled the discussion of fixed-odds betting through physical digital terminals for the second quarter of this year in its regulatory agenda. The topic went through a public consultation, and the contributions were published on the agency's website. g1 said it asked the SPA whether anything had been decided and is still awaiting an answer.Lula renewed his pledge to shut down the market this week, in remarks reported by g1."My concern is that part of our youth today is tied to algorithms. If we do not fight this fight, the algorithms will win. I have no problem saying it. I will have the immense pleasure of ending the bets," the president said.Physical terminals and the consumer agency's warningOne contribution to the public consultation argues that sports betting operates in physical and online formats in several countries and that Brazilian states can also run it in that format. The document says that while federal authorization covers only fixed-odds sports betting, "several states, in the exercise of their power to run lottery services, have been building their own models for physical terminals, including for other modalities, such as digital instant lotteries, with different levels of technical and operational requirements."The consumer protection foundation Procon-SP warned about terminals installed at open events and at freely accessible businesses, such as supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies, bars and snack shops. In the agency's assessment, this could "allow and facilitate improper access by minors, and undermine the effectiveness of identity checks on users." Procon-SP recommended that the operation be restricted to "closed or controlled environments," with physical barriers, entry controls and an express ban on access by minors.Broadcasters fear layoffs in sportsTelevision broadcasters that carry sports coverage are also worried. According to the Outro Canal column of Folha's F5 website, the networks fear a considerable drop in advertising revenue if Lula tightens the rules or bans the betting companies, as he has announced, and they fear layoffs in sports. This week the companies told clubs in the Brasileirão, Brazil's top football league, that sponsorship deals would end immediately.A provisional measure, Brazil's emergency presidential decree, takes effect on publication but must be approved by Congress within 120 days or it lapses. The announcement came nine days before the first round of the national elections, according to the newspaper O Globo. The SPA has yet to answer whether rules for the physical terminals will be issued.

Brazil's federal government set aside R$ 44.8 billion for individual and state-delegation congressional amendments in its 2027 budget bill, delivered to Congress on Monday (Aug. 31). The amount is R$ 4 billion above the R$ 40.8 billion in the initial proposal for 2026.Congressional amendments work like earmarks: they let Brazil's 594 deputies and senators decide where part of the federal budget goes, usually toward public works in their home states. Individual and state-delegation amendments must be executed by the executive branch, and the money is a central bargaining chip between the presidential palace and Congress, according to G1. The government controls the pace of the payments. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a critic of the mechanism, sped up releases ahead of the electoral period, Folha de S.Paulo reported.Congress tends to raise the totalThe bill leaves out commission amendments, the third category in the system. The government passed the decision to Congress, which will have to identify cuts elsewhere, such as running costs or public works, to add the money. A supplementary law caps these amendments at R$ 12.9 billion in 2027, a limit that came out of an agreement between Congress, the government and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) as the court pushed for more transparency.Recent years show the pattern. According to G1, the government's initial proposals rose from R$ 37.6 billion in 2024 to R$ 38.9 billion in 2025 and R$ 40.8 billion in 2026, while Congress inflated the approved totals to R$ 53 billion in 2025 and R$ 61 billion in 2026. For the 2026 budget law, lawmakers cut pension spending, the Pé-de-Meia student aid program and the cooking gas subsidy to enlarge the amendment pool. Lula vetoed R$ 400 million in amendments and shifted another R$ 7 billion, bringing the current total to R$ 49.9 billion, Folha reported.The growth in amendments eats into the government's discretionary spending, which is capped. Less money is left for areas such as research scholarships from CNPq and Capes, infrastructure investment, the subsidized medicine program Farmácia Popular, and environmental and labor inspections, G1 reported. The so-called PIX amendments, a subset of individual amendments, follow the rules of the STF-brokered deal. The court ruled they can stay, but must "respect criteria of transparency, traceability and correction," with prior identification of where the money goes, priority for unfinished public works and accounting to the federal audit court (TCU).What happens nextThe 2027 bill now moves through Congress. Folha reports that deputies and senators are expected to repeat the moves of past years and boost the amounts along the way. Lawmakers must approve the annual budget law by the end of the year for it to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Federal Deputy Ricardo Salles (Novo), a former environment minister under Jair Bolsonaro, dropped his Senate bid for São Paulo on Monday (28). He announced the withdrawal in the final stretch of the campaign, standing next to Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), who is running for reelection, and alongside Guilherme Derrite (PP) and André do Prado (PL), the two candidates he now endorses. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Tarcísio said Salles stepped aside to strengthen the two right-wing bids for the two Senate seats up for grabs in Brazil's most populous state.For Tarcísio, "it is time to think of a greater goal, which is to have two representatives in the Senate". The governor highlighted the role of Novo, a small right-wing party, in his campaign and said São Paulo is leading what he called a "great movement to unite the right". "It would be very good if we could unite the right in this final stretch. We are doing our part," he said."When a person decides to give up a position, we have to praise it. And today we have Ricardo Salles, who had every legitimacy to continue on his path, with a track record, with baggage, with history, taking a step aside to help us, to join forces," Tarcísio said, according to Folha.Salles said "the moment is so serious that differences must be set aside" and called the reelection of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) "a catastrophe". The deputy said he still supports Romeu Zema (Novo), the governor of Minas Gerais, for president as long as he remains in the race.The late reversalThe withdrawal comes with Salles trailing in the polls. A Datafolha survey released on Thursday (24) showed the deputy with 4% of vote intentions. The front-runners were in a statistical tie: Marina Silva (Rede) with 15%, Simone Tebet (PSB) with 14%, and Derrite and Prado with 12% each. The margin of error is two percentage points. Salles had entered the Senate race after Novo decided to back Tarcísio for governor.The endorsement ends weeks of open conflict with Prado. In a debate hosted by Band, Salles accused the rival of having supported the Workers' Party in the past. At the Folha/Uol debate on September 21, he tried to tie Prado to the centrão, the bloc of large center-right parties that trades congressional support for influence, and called him "Valdemar's cub", a reference to Valdemar da Costa Neto, national president of the PL. Prado told journalists that Salles' candidacy was "hurting" the right and that a vote for him would help Tebet and Marina. In July, Salles had already told Folha he was advised to quit, with three right-wing names fighting for two seats.Tebet reacted to the announcement by saying Salles "joined the centrão". According to Folha's Painel column, the former minister presents herself as the only center candidate in the race. The first round of Brazil's elections is next Sunday (4). São Paulo elects two senators.

President Lula has 39% of first-round voting intentions against 34% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, according to the Quaest poll released on Monday (28). Brazilians vote for president next Sunday (October 4). The survey was commissioned by the newspaper O Globo and broadcaster Globo.Lula rose two points from the previous round, released on September 21, when he had 37% against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro. The candidate of the PL party gained one point. Both moves fall within the poll's two-point margin of error, but the five-point gap ends the technical tie of last week, g1 reports.Writer Augusto Cury fell from 6% to 4%. Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado held 4%, Renan Santos stayed at 3% and former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema at 1%. The other candidates did not register. Undecided voters dropped from 8% to 5%, and the share saying they will vote blank or null or stay home rose from 7% to 10%.How the poll was conductedQuaest interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over between September 24 and 27. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top election authority, under number BR-06520/2026. In the spontaneous question, where no list of names is read to respondents, Lula has 31% and Flávio Bolsonaro 27%.Runoff scenario and rejectionIn a possible runoff between the two, Quaest shows a numerical tie: 42% each. Last week Flávio Bolsonaro had 42% and Lula 41%, also tied. Rejection, measured as the share of voters who know a candidate and would not vote for them, stands at 56% for Flávio Bolsonaro and 54% for Lula. The president's government is approved by 46% of respondents and disapproved by 49%. Fear is split as well: 43% fear another Lula term and another 43% fear the return of the Bolsonaro family to power.In the final stretch, both campaigns have stepped up appeals for a useful vote, Folha de S.Paulo reports. Flávio Bolsonaro is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been convicted and jailed for an attempted coup d'état. According to InfoMoney, this is the first poll to partly capture public reaction to the provisional measure that banned betting shops, known as bets, in Brazil. The first round is scheduled for Sunday (October 4). Among respondents who have already picked a candidate, 76% call their choice final and 23% say they could still change.

Brazil's presidential race has entered its final week before the first round with a courtroom battle running on two fronts. The Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, has received at least 450 lawsuits involving presidential contenders, according to a survey by G1, Globo's news portal, published on Monday. The campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, who is seeking reelection, filed at least 256 suits against rivals, most of them against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, and was itself the target of 198 challenges. The PL campaign filed 93 suits against the PT candidate, equal to 73% of its requests.Most of the disputes challenge rivals' statements or attacks in videos made with artificial intelligence, campaign ads, jingles and remarks given in interviews. The campaigns describe such material as early or irregular campaigning and negative propaganda, conduct barred by Brazil's electoral courts. The caseload sits with a few justices: court vice president André Mendonça reports on 92 of the suits, Justice Estela Aranha on 80.The issues at stakeA central front against Flávio Bolsonaro concerns his alleged ties to banker Daniel Vorcaro, arrested in the Compliance investigation and former owner of Banco Master. Suits filed by Lula questioned money the senator received from Vorcaro, which Flávio says was an investment in "Dark Horse", a film about Jair Bolsonaro's trajectory, as well as links to jailed politicians and militia members. In the other direction, the president faces at least 14 challenges over the use of the government machine, including public funds for self-promotion, favorable treatment in the Acadêmicos de Niterói samba school parade and images of official events used for electoral purposes.TSE rulings and requests at the Supreme CourtThe TSE ordered the removal of videos and images linking Flávio Bolsonaro to the Federal Police operation "Unha e Carne" and rejected a fine against him for playing an AI-generated video of Jair Bolsonaro at the PL convention. The court also upheld a Lula ad that used Jair Bolsonaro's statements and ordered the deletion of a Flávio video tying the president to criminal gangs. In that case, the full bench voted 5 to 2 in August and reversed the position of the rapporteur, Justice Nunes Marques. According to Congresso em Foco, the senator and the platform X had 24 hours to remove the post, in which Flávio said Lula had traveled to the United States as "defensor do PCC e do Comando Vermelho" (defender of the PCC and the Comando Vermelho gangs). The majority barred republication of equivalent content attributing a personal link between the president and the gangs without "minimal factual grounds", under penalty of a fine.At the Supreme Federal Court, the STF, the main case requests an investigation into alleged foreign interference in the election. The Workers' Party filed the request, now before Justice Flávio Dino. The party cites suspicions involving the Rockbridge Network, a United States organization that funds conservative campaigns, and paid advertising abroad on X profiles. The Missão party of presidential candidate Renan Santos took the issue to the TSE and separately challenges at the STF a rule requiring online platforms to restrict algorithms tied to electoral advertising. Flávio Bolsonaro asked the court to investigate Lula over a whisky he allegedly received from Vorcaro.The first round takes place next Sunday, October 4, with a runoff scheduled for October 25 if needed. The suits over abuse of political and economic power and over fake-profile networks move slowly through the TSE and, according to G1, are expected to reach a decision only after the vote.

A comprehensive round of state polls by the Quaest institute shows a deeply divided electorate three days before Brazil's presidential election. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads in 10 states, while Senator Flávio Bolsonaro is ahead in 8 states. Another 9 states remain in a statistical tie within the margin of error, including major battlegrounds such as São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul.Political scientist Felipe Nunes, director of Quaest, detailed the findings in an analysis published by G1. According to Nunes, the electoral map closely mirrors the 2022 presidential race. The statistical correlation between Lula's current support and his 2022 first-round vote share is 0.98. For Flávio Bolsonaro, the correlation with the votes obtained by his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, stands at 0.95. "The name changed, but the electorate remained," Nunes stated.Lula holds solid leads across all nine northeastern states and in Amapá. His largest gains compared to 2022 appeared in Maranhão (+7 percentage points) and Bahia (+6). Flávio Bolsonaro leads in Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Santa Catarina, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Acre, Rondônia, and Roraima. While the senator made gains in the North and Center-West, he lost ground in Goiás (-6) and the Federal District of Brasília (-8). Independent voters represent between 24% and 36% of the electorate across states, peaking in Rio de Janeiro (36%) and Amazonas (35%).Voter expectations also favor the incumbent president. Even in states where the race is tied or where Flávio Bolsonaro is ahead, a majority of voters expect Lula to win. In São Paulo, 50% expect Lula to win compared to 35% for Flávio, while in Rio de Janeiro the gap is 49% to 37%. Flávio leads victory expectations in only 7 states. However, between 11% and 23% of decided voters say they could still switch their choice, with volatility highest in Paraná (23%), Amapá (21%), São Paulo (20%), and Santa Catarina (20%).Voters head to the ballot boxes on Sunday for the first round of the presidential election. Polling institutes will release their final tracking polls on the eve of the vote before polling stations open nationwide.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, said on Sunday (27) that Brazil should abolish its public campaign fund, the Fundo Eleitoral. He made the remark in an interview with Canal Livre, the Sunday interview program of TV Band, recorded at the presidential residence in Brasília. According to InfoMoney, the network released an excerpt in advance and aired the full interview at 8 p.m. on BandNews TV and at 10 p.m. on Band.The fund distributes public money from the federal budget to political parties to finance election campaigns. Lula said he had supported its creation, but argued that the current model, combined with the secret congressional budget, has completely rotted Brazilian politics. CNN Brasil reported the comments.In his view, the way out is a broad political reform that would create parties with clear programs and platforms. InfoMoney reported that he linked the end of polarization in Brazil to changes in party rules and campaign financing. In the interview, he said:"We have to put an end to what is happening in politics, which is a widespread promiscuity in politics. The moment we end that, with a dignified political reform, we will have politics healthy again for the Brazilian people."Criticism of Congress and partiesLula acknowledged that changing those rules runs into lawmakers themselves. "When it comes to political reform, you are touching the personal interest of each deputy, of each political party. We cannot continue with political promiscuity the way it is," he said. He added: "We cannot continue with the National Congress holding 50% of the federal budget."The president cited his Workers' Party, the PT, as the only party of national character with a defined program and manifesto, according to CNN Brasil. He said other parties have become "a club" for financing campaigns, one that receives public party and campaign funds with no guarantee of control over how the money is spent. "If I don't do it, nobody will," he said.The same interview produced his remarks on the Supreme Federal Court and the public debt. According to G1, Lula proposed creating a council to vet nominations to the court, Brazil's highest judicial body. The comments come in the final week of the campaign, with the first round of the election set for Sunday, October 4. Abolishing the fund, however, requires legislation: any change in campaign financing must pass Congress, where, by the president's own account, reform collides with each deputy's personal interest.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the PL party's presidential candidate, on Sunday accused members of the CNBB, the conference that gathers Brazil's Catholic bishops, of helping the Workers Party (PT) spread a fake news story about Our Lady of Aparecida. The false posts claim he wants to strip the saint of her title as Brazil's patroness. He spoke in Goiania, in central Brazil, after a campaign motorcade.The candidate said the rival party had been pushing the rumor for days. "The PT, I know today, had already been trying for some days to push this fake news and managed it with help from people inside the CNBB, unfortunately that is the reality," he told Folha de S.Paulo. Speaking to Estadao, he called it "the biggest fake news of the campaign" and said no bill to change the patroness has ever existed.The CNBB denied the accusation in a statement. "The CNBB did not produce, authorize or take part in the preparation or release of false information related to the current electoral process," the text reads. The conference said it is not part of any party political structure, and that blaming it for producing or spreading disinformation without proof harms the institution unfairly. The note does not name Bolsonaro and closes with the sentence: "A lie is not fought with another lie."How the rumor startedThe rumor began spreading on Thursday night after Em Pauta, a GloboNews program, reported that the Catholic Church was preparing to counter an alleged evangelical push to end the patroness title. Hours later the channel corrected itself: the bill had been introduced in the lower house of Congress in 2007 and shelved in 2008. GloboNews apologized for the error. Even so, nearly 1 million posts on the subject appeared in under three days, according to a survey cited by Estadao. Bolsonaro's campaign says the narrative started with a post by the influencer behind the "Dilma Bolada" profile, Jeferson de Oliveira Monteiro.Back and forth in the courtsOn Friday, Electoral Court (TSE) justice Andre Mendonca ordered the removal of 1,125 posts linking the candidate to the issue. On Sunday, Supreme Court justice Flavio Dino struck down that ruling and restored the posts. "What happened today, with yet another stroke of the pen by Flavio Dino, is a defense he is making of the PT's league of lies," Bolsonaro told Estadao. To Folha, he blamed desperation on the other side: "Desperation has hit them, and that is why they know we will win in the first round." He added that rivals are acting "thinking that anything goes, but it does not".The PT did not respond to a request for comment from Estadao. The first round of the presidential election is on October 4. Flavio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the PT are running at the top of the polls.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Sunday (Sept. 27) that he no longer wants to choose justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court, on his own. In an interview with the Band network, he proposed creating a council to vet nominations to the court and backed setting terms for the justices. The remarks came one week before the first round of the presidential election, in which Lula, running for reelection, faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro among other candidates.According to G1, the interview was recorded at the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence, and aired on TV Bandeirantes. "I want to change the selection criteria, because the selection criteria are very vulnerable," Lula said. "The only thing I can say is that it cannot stay the way it is," he added. Later on Sunday, speaking to BandNews FM radio, he detailed the idea. "It cannot be only the president who appoints. We have to create criteria so that the person passes through the scrutiny of a collective body, so that the person is no longer the guy appointed by the president. I want someone with responsibility toward Brazilian society," he said, according to Folha de S.Paulo.The newspaper reports that the council would include legal scholars and members of civil society, and that Lula argued justices should have terms to complete their work on the court. On TV, the president said nominations should examine "with much more care the biography of the people who will join the Supreme Court." He said a citizen should not sit on the court for 35, 40 or 45 years. STF justices are currently appointed by the president with Senate confirmation and serve until mandatory retirement, with no fixed term. Any change would require a constitutional amendment passed by Congress.A jab at the justicesLula mocked how justices behave after taking office. "One thing is when you appoint someone, another thing is when they put on the robe. And when the guy puts on the robe, he becomes God," he complained. He said court members need to be serious and should not take the job planning to get rich. "A justice cannot want to get rich. It is incompatible for someone who earns 43,000 reais to get rich, it is not compatible. The same goes for a congressman. No salary of a congressman, a governor or a president can make anyone rich," he said.The court's crisisThe proposal comes amid what Folha describes as the biggest crisis in the court's history. The investigation into Banco Master revealed close ties between the bank's former owner, Daniel Vorcaro, and sitting justices. According to the newspaper, messages recovered from the former banker's phone show that Vorcaro asked Justice Alexandre de Moraes, two days before his arrest, whether he should leave the country. Moraes edited a 131 million reais contract between Master and his wife's law firm and met Vorcaro at least six times since 2024. Asked about the case, Lula said: "Everyone involved must be investigated. The moment it is proven that a person made a mistake, that person must be punished. That goes for everyone."Lula told TV Bandeirantes that the council's format still has to be worked out. The first round of the presidential election takes place next Sunday, Oct. 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Sunday (27) that Brazil's National Congress, which combines the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, "contributed a lot" to the country's governability during his third term. He spoke on Canal Livre, the long-running Sunday interview program of TV Bandeirantes, in a conversation recorded at the Alvorada palace and broadcast on Sunday night, in the closing stretch of his reelection campaign."From the point of view of governance, the Congress contributed a lot to the things we did," the president said, according to the news agency Agência Estado. In a passage quoted by G1 and by Correio Braziliense, he made the same point in other words: "The Congress contributed a lot to the changes we wanted to make." Among the central proposals approved by the legislature over the past four years, he highlighted the tax reform.Praise with reservationsThe praise came with criticism. Lula questioned the control that deputies and senators hold over the federal budget and linked the current political model to what he called "political promiscuity", according to Correio Braziliense. In his assessment, the current balance of power around the budget is unsustainable, and any change would depend on the legislature itself."It is not possible to continue with a National Congress that holds 50% of the federal budget. So all of this will have to change. Will I manage to do it easily? No. But if I don't do it, nobody will. That is the concrete fact," the president said.Lula also shifted his position on public money in politics. A historic defender of the party fund and the election fund, both paid for with federal money, he now says he opposes the two mechanisms. "I was a defender of the party fund, I was a defender of the election fund. Today I am against them, because this has rotted politics," he said. He then criticized the number of parties in Brazil: "How many national parties do you have with a program, with a manifesto, with a cause?".In the same interview, Lula called for political and judicial reform and said he is the only candidate able to lead those changes, according to Agência Estado. He gave no details on how the proposals would work. According to G1, the president also said the criteria for appointing justices to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's top court, should change, through a committee that involves civil society. Campaigning continues until the first round, and any political reform approved in a new government would have to pass through the same Congress the president praised on Sunday.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, confirmed on Sunday (Sept. 27) that he will take part in the TV Globo debate on Thursday (Oct. 1), the last one before the first round of Brazil's presidential election. Speaking to reporters after a campaign caravan in Goiânia, he challenged President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) to show up."I'm going to the Globo debate. It's confirmed. Let him fight. I want to go there and debate him. I'm calling Lula to the debate: 'Lula, I want you at the Globo debate, come debate me, because I'm going to rub the truth in your face and show that my project for Brazil is better than yours'," the senator said, according to BBC News Brasil and InfoMoney.If the decision stands, it will be Flávio's first debate appearance of the campaign. Neither he nor Lula, the two candidates leading the polls, has attended any of the debates held so far.A campaign of canceled debatesThe 2026 race has seen its debate calendar shrink. Record canceled the debate scheduled for Sunday (Sept. 27) after both Lula and Flávio said they would skip it. The network said that without the candidates who hold most voter preferences, the program would not deliver the clash of ideas voters expect.Another debate, set for Sept. 14 by a consortium of outlets including CNN Brasil, SBT and RedeTV!, was also canceled after the two front-runners failed to confirm attendance. The season opened on the Band network on Aug. 23 with Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Augusto Cury (Avante) and Renan Santos (Missão), none of them a poll leader. In all, 13 presidential candidacies were registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority.Lula's attendance still openBBC News Brasil tried to confirm Lula's presence and got no reply from his campaign. According to CNN Brasil, cited by the BBC, the president's team is weighing whether to attend. Until now, Flávio had said he would only join debates in which Lula took part.The Globo debate, on Brazil's largest television network, will air right after the Jornal Nacional evening news, in the slot usually reserved for the 9 p.m. telenovela, with simultaneous broadcast on GloboNews and the g1 news site. The rules have not been released. The first round of the election is on Sunday (Oct. 4). If there is a runoff, Record has scheduled a debate between the top two vote-getters for Oct. 11.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Sunday (27) overturned a ruling by André Mendonça, a justice of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), that had ordered the removal of a social media post by comedian Antônio Tabet about Nossa Senhora Aparecida, the dark-skinned Virgin Mary venerated as Brazil's patron saint. Dino also ordered digital platforms to restore posts taken down on the same grounds. The decision answered an appeal Tabet himself filed with the STF.Tabet posted the text on Thursday (24), as false claims spread that the campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a presidential candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was plotting to strip the saint of her patronage title. "A família miliciana odeia tanto mulher preta, que resolveu atacar Nossa Senhora Aparecida" ("the militia family hates Black women so much that it decided to attack Our Lady of Aparecida"), he wrote. The text did not name the candidate. Flávio went to the TSE and won an injunction ordering the post's removal, banning similar content and setting a R$ 30,000 fine per violation. Mendonça called the contents "notoriously untrue" and extended the order to the platforms, according to news site Jovem Pan.What the ruling saysIn Dino's words, posts like Tabet's lack the "degree of certainty of illicitness" needed to justify "very harsh consequences against freedom of expression and, ultimately, against religious freedom itself". Taking the content down, he wrote, would require presuming that the phrase "família miliciana" (militia family) refers to one specific presidential candidate. Tabet had told the STF the order amounted to prior censorship.Dino also noted that the feast of Our Lady of Aparecida, a national holiday on October 12, is approaching, which makes the removal orders "even more incompatible" with the free exercise of that faith. He recalled that Flávio Bolsonaro had even asked for the arrest of a presidential palace staffer for reposting content about the saint, as reported by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo."It is legally admissible for a candidate or his followers to oppose certain religious convictions, since there can be no imposition in this area. However, such a candidate or his supporters cannot prevent their positions from being reported and freely debated," Dino wrote."The faithful of Nossa Senhora Aparecida would, in practice, be afraid or prevented from speaking out," he added. The case is one more front in the judicial battle between the campaigns of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Flávio Bolsonaro in the week before the first round of the election.What comes nextDino issued the ruling in a complaint in which he had already struck down, in June, an order by the electoral court of Paraná state that banned posts about the ineligibility of Deltan Dallagnol. The justice ordered the TSE and the platforms to be notified so that the removed content is restored. He wrote that any abuses remain subject to judicial measures, provided due process is respected, and that there are not enough elements, without a deeper review of the case, to conclude that Tabet's post was unlawful.

Most of the largest individual donations made directly to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's re-election campaign came from people who hold jobs in his administration or at state-owned companies. According to an investigation by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published on Sunday (27), 57 of the 76 people who gave at least R$ 2,500 directly, without going through a crowdfunding drive, hold government or state company posts.Their contributions add up to R$ 425,000. Of that, R$ 355,000 arrived as bank transfers and R$ 70,000 was estimated as donated services. The figures were pulled on Wednesday (23) from Divulgacand, the platform run by Brazil's electoral courts to disclose campaign finances. The amount is small next to the R$ 66.9 million the campaign has received so far. R$ 65.2 million of that came from the electoral and party funds, pools of public money distributed to parties and transferred by the PT. Crowdfunding brought in R$ 283,000.Who the donors areFolha identified the donors' positions by cross-checking each donor's CPF, Brazil's tax ID, on the government transparency portal and their names on state companies' institutional pages. The donors sit at several levels. They include ministers, secretaries, directors, aides and executives at state companies. Eight of the 57 also hold seats on boards of federal state companies other than the ones where they work, a role that pays extra compensation known in Brazil as a jeton.A survey by G1, Globo's news portal, using data through September 22, shows the same pattern. Donors to Lula include Labor and Employment Minister Luiz Marinho and Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, one of the campaign's coordinators. By that date, the campaign had declared R$ 1.4 million in donations from individuals. The largest single gift came from businessman Erasmo Carlos Battistella, CEO of Be8, Brazil's largest biodiesel producer according to ANP data cited by G1: R$ 500,000. The same businessman gave an identical amount to Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). The list also includes services counted as donations, such as the R$ 30,000 declared by gospel singer and pastor Kleber Lucas for recording a jingle and a video clip.The rulesUnder Brazilian electoral rules described by G1, any individual can donate to candidates and parties, as long as the contribution is identified and traceable. Márcio Nogueira, an electoral law specialist who heads the Rondônia branch of the national bar association, the OAB, and was interviewed by the portal, said cash donations are capped at 10% of a donor's gross income in the year before the election. Goods and services can be given up to an estimated value of R$ 40,000 per person.According to Nogueira, campaigns can raise funds until election day. After that, fundraising is only allowed to settle expenses already incurred. The disclosure numbers are partial and change as campaigns register new revenue on Divulgacand. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled for October 4, one week after the Folha report was published.

Fourteen candidates in Brazil's 2026 elections hold more than R$ 100 million in environmental fines issued over the past ten years by Ibama, the federal environmental enforcement agency, and ICMBio, which runs the country's conservation units. The numbers come from a survey by Ascema Nacional, the association of federal environmental civil servants, published by the news outlet g1. The list covers candidates for state and federal deputy, the Senate, state governor and alternate Senate seats, and counts only those with at least R$ 1 million in fines in their own names.The violations range from destruction of native vegetation and deforestation to exploitation of protected areas and operation of potentially polluting activities without a license. Seven of the 14 candidates were fined in the state of Pará, mostly in Altamira and São Félix do Xingu, inside or on the edges of the Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area, one of the parts of the Amazon hardest hit by illegal deforestation in recent years. Most of the fined candidates are men, businessmen and agribusiness professionals from towns along the Amazon deforestation arc, the crescent of cleared land pushing into the rainforest.The largest fines sit in the AmazonDaniel Messac de Morais tops the list. A candidate for state deputy in Goiás for the Mobiliza party and a federal civil servant, he has four fines totaling R$ 60.7 million. The largest, of R$ 50 million, was issued in October 2020 in São Félix do Xingu for damage to flora. According to the citation, more than 5,000 hectares were destroyed by fire in the Amazon biome inside the Triunfo do Xingu protection area. A court suspended enforcement of the fine, with no deposit and no conduct adjustment agreement. Two more fines, from July 2019 in Altamira, add R$ 2.1 million and R$ 500,000, and a fourth, from November 2021, is worth R$ 8 million for burning more than 530 hectares of forest in the same protection area. According to g1, Messac was also held in preventive detention in a branch of Operation Poltergeist, which investigated the hiring of ghost employees.Across Messac, Ulisses Vieira and Tobias Laurindo, the fines with enforcement suspended add up to more than R$ 54 million. Wallace Lopes, a representative of Ascema Nacional, explained what that means in practice. "There is a court dispute under way and the administrative collection was suspended by order of the judiciary," he said."While that dispute runs, the fined party is relieved of some administrative restrictions. In many cases they can keep obtaining credit, contracting with the government and carrying out their activities normally until the process is finally decided."Next on the list come Romero Jatobá Cavalcanti Neto of the PSB, with seven fines worth R$ 17.5 million, and José Lopes Junior of the Republicanos party, with 12 fines worth R$ 8.2 million, both candidates for state deputy. The g1 roster also includes Senate candidate Antonio Galvan of Avante, at R$ 1.6 million, and Daniel Barbosa Santos of Podemos, a candidate for governor, at R$ 1.4 million. G1 says it contacted everyone named and included the responses it received in the report.A fine does not bar a candidacyAn environmental fine, even a large one, does not make a candidate ineligible. Ineligibility on environmental grounds under Brazil's Ficha Limpa law, the clean-record statute of Complementary Law 64/1990, requires a final criminal conviction, upheld after all appeals, or one issued by a collegiate body, for an environmental crime defined in law. An administrative infraction or fine alone does not meet that bar.Cristiane Mazzetti, coordinator of the Zero Deforestation front at Greenpeace Brazil, said voters can weigh a candidate's environmental record when judging a candidacy."Especially when it comes to those candidates seeking reelection, members of caucuses or parties with recent records of dismantling environmental legislation, including the safeguards that monitor and enforce it, and who may benefit from weakened control of these environmental crimes."The full Ascema Nacional survey, reported by CartaCapital on September 1, identified 240 candidates linked to 524 environmental citations, with a nominal value above R$ 213 million, or 1.16% of all candidacies. The PL party has the most fined candidates, 35 names linked to 64 citations and R$ 16.3 million. The Christian Democracy party (DC) holds the largest accumulated total, R$ 54 million, with only nine candidates. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

One week before Brazil's general election, 37% of voters rate the work of the National Congress as bad or terrible. Only 18% consider the performance of federal deputies and senators excellent or good, according to a Datafolha poll released on Saturday (Sept. 26).Datafolha, one of Brazil's leading polling institutes, interviewed 2,002 voters in 125 municipalities on Sept. 22 and 23. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The survey, commissioned by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and TV Globo, is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) as BR-00304/2026. Respondents graded Congress on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 means excellent and 5 terrible. Another 40% called the work average, and 6% did not answer.Stable since MayThe assessment has barely moved since the previous survey, in May, when 37% also rated Congress as bad or terrible, 15% as excellent or good and 43% as average, according to news site G1.Approval shifts with the voter. Among supporters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, 22% view Congress positively. Among voters of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, the share falls to 15%. Men grade Congress worse than women: 43% of men call the work bad or terrible, against 32% of women. Negative ratings reach 51% among respondents earning more than five minimum wages per month and drop to 30% among those earning up to two.By region, the Southeast is the most critical: 41% rate Congress as bad or terrible. The Central-West and North follow with 38%, the South with 36% and the Northeast with 32%, the mildest score. Brazilians vote on Oct. 4, choosing the president, state governors, federal deputies and senators.

Former finance minister Fernando Haddad, the Workers' Party candidate for governor of São Paulo, attacked Senator Flávio Bolsonaro on Saturday (Sept. 26) during a campaign walk with President Lula in São Miguel Paulista, a district on the east side of São Paulo. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is Lula's main rival in the presidential race. According to G1, Haddad demanded that the senator explain the origin and destination of money provided by banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master to finance the film Dark Horse."He gives no account of the film 'Dark Horse' because he simply has none to give. This guy is tangled up in every corruption scandal. In every scandal, he has some friend," Haddad said."In the INSS case, he has this Willer [Tomaz] who turned up. At Master, he has Vorcaro. With the militias, he has Adriano [da Nóbrega]. And in the rachadinhas, he has Queiroz. He is always tangled up in something dangerous. And now he wants to take the presidency. From this Pernambuco man here, we won't allow it."The phrase "this Pernambuco man" referred to Lula, who was born in the state of Pernambuco. Haddad tied Flávio Bolsonaro to four separate investigations: the case of the INSS, Brazil's federal pension agency; the Banco Master case; inquiries into militias; and the "rachadinha" scheme of splitting staffers' salaries with a politician.Dark Horse, a film about the life of former president Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio's father, is under investigation by Brazil's Supreme Court and by São Paulo state prosecutors over suspected use of public funds. According to G1, the inquiry covers producer Karina da Gama, of Go UP Entertainment, and the Instituto Conhecer Brasil, of which she is the sole owner.Tarcísio and the end of the betsHaddad also targeted Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, his opponent in the race for the São Paulo governorship in the Oct. 4 election. "On October 4, we will re-elect Lula and fulfill Tarcísio's dream of going home, back to Brasília. The 4th means 13, Haddad and Márcio França, to send Tarcísio to Brasília or to Rio de Janeiro, wherever he prefers," he said. Thirteen is the Workers' Party's ballot number. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Senate candidates Simone Tebet and Marina Silva joined the walk.Haddad defended the ban on online betting apps and the popular "Jogo do Tigrinho" slot-style game, decreed by Lula on Friday (Sept. 25), and said Flávio and Tarcísio "are defending the bets that President Lula ended." "We created taxes for 141,000 wealthy people who started paying, so that 15 million Brazilians earning up to R$ 5,000 a month stopped paying income tax. We are not ashamed of tax justice," he said.The gap in CearáA Real Time Big Data poll released the same day shows Lula with 63% against Flávio Bolsonaro's 28% in a simulated runoff in Ceará state, in Brazil's Northeast, according to CartaCapital. In the first-round scenario in the state, Lula leads 60% to 26%. The institute surveyed 1,600 voters from Sept. 21 to 24, by phone and online recruitment, with a margin of error of two percentage points. The poll is registered with the electoral court as BR-05316/2026. Nationally, the race is far closer: a Datafolha runoff simulation released on Thursday (Sept. 24) put Lula at 47% and Flávio at 45%.The first round of Brazil's election is scheduled for Oct. 4, eight days away. The investigations into Dark Horse remain open at the Supreme Court and at the São Paulo prosecutors' office.

Brazil's Ministry of Finance has extended the country's diesel subsidy for another 30 days. The benefit of R$ 2.12 per liter, which keeps pump prices lower, takes effect on Sunday (27), one day after the provisional decree issued in May that backed part of the value expires. The decision is in a ministerial order signed by Finance Minister Dario Durigan.The document justifies the renewal on the volatility of international oil and fuel prices. On Friday (25), state news agency Agência Brasil had already reported that the ministry was preparing a 30-day extension.How the subsidy worksThe subsidy has two parts, according to news site G1. One, worth R$ 1.12, was created by a provisional decree in May. A provisional decree, or "medida provisória", is an emergency measure with the force of law that expires unless Congress approves it. The other part, R$ 1, was added in September as the external outlook worsened.Because the May decree lapses on Saturday (26), the ministry changed the rule so the full R$ 2.12 rests only on the September decree from Sunday on. The government says the change does not increase the subsidy: the goal is to prevent the benefit from falling to R$ 1 per liter.Oil prices and the election calendarBrent crude, the global benchmark, has again topped US$ 100 a barrel after the conflicts in the Middle East worsened. More than 25% of the diesel consumed in Brazil is imported. According to G1, the government's measures to contain fuel prices, including a gasoline subsidy announced early this month, came less than a month before the presidential election and amid rising oil prices.The 30-day window runs to late October, so the subsidy will remain in place on election day. The September decree, which now carries the full R$ 2.12, is still before Congress; if lawmakers do not approve it, it can expire, as the May decree is doing now. Once the new deadline passes, the ministry must decide whether to extend the subsidy again.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, sitting on the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), ruled on Friday (25) that X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube must take down posts claiming that presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, or his family, intend to strip Nossa Senhora Aparecida, Brazil's patron saint, of her title. The order answered a request filed by the senator himself, nine days before the first round of the presidential election on October 4.In the decision, Mendonça called the core of the claim "notoriously untrue". The order covers videos, memes, images and audio carrying the same message and requires the immediate removal of 1,170 links identified in the case files, according to CNN Brasil. The justice wrote that "the measure is especially necessary given the proximity of the election, the sensitivity of the issue for a significant portion of the electorate and the high potential for dissemination of the challenged information", a passage of the ruling quoted by Diário do Centro do Mundo."For the purposes of this decision, content covered by this order, and therefore barred as notoriously untrue, is that which presents as fact the claim that Flavio Nantes Bolsonaro or his family proposed, orchestrated, supported, is committed to or intends to promote the removal of Nossa Senhora Aparecida from the condition or title of Patroness of Brazil."Flávio's lawyers told the court that a technical survey found 2,086 posts from 1,674 accounts between early Wednesday (23) and Friday morning, drawing more than 21 million views, about 1.49 million likes and 312,000 shares. The legal team also filed a criminal complaint against profiles that spread the content. "On the eve of a presidential election, what is at stake goes beyond a candidate's honor. This is not a request to protect the complainant. It is a request to protect the voter, whose right is to vote free of informational frauds," the petition says, in a passage cited by CNN Brasil. Case documents reviewed by Diário do Centro do Mundo show that the bill to remove the title at the center of the rumor came from former congressman Victório Galli Filho, years before Flávio entered Congress.The Tabet postThe case began as a suit by Flávio against comedian Antonio Tabet. On Thursday (24), Tabet wrote on X: "The militia family hates Black women so much that it decided to attack Nossa Senhora Aparecida!" The post did not name the senator and drew more than 195,000 views. Mendonça ordered it deleted and barred republications of the same content, under a 30,000-real fine per violation. Tabet publicly rejected the decision, according to UOL. Federal Deputy William De Lucca called the move censorship on X. Correio Braziliense reported that some of the posts listed in the request do not directly address the patroness.Limits of the order and next stepsThe order spares journalistic coverage, posts that debunk the claim, criticism, satire and political opinion, as long as they do not present the false claim as fact. It applies to X, Meta, ByteDance and Google, the companies behind the platforms named. They have 48 hours to tell the TSE what measures they took and how many posts were removed. CNN Brasil and Congresso em Foco reported a daily fine of 50,000 reais per provider for noncompliance, while Correio Braziliense reported up to 30,000 reais a day.Mendonça asked for the decision to be reviewed by the TSE's virtual plenary. Flávio, who denies any plan to change the title, has blamed the story on the "PT militia," according to Congresso em Foco. The first round of the election is on October 4.

Goiás state lawmaker Amilton Filho, of the MDB party, died early on Saturday (26) at age 41 in a crash on the BR-050 federal highway near Cristalina, in the region that surrounds Brasília. According to the Legislative Assembly of Goiás, the car he was riding in hit a parked semi-trailer at around 1:30 a.m. He died at the scene.Amilton Filho was returning from a campaign event, the Assembly said. He was running for reelection in October, when Brazil holds nationwide elections, and was seeking a third term as a state deputy, the title given to members of state legislatures. The MDB confirmed his candidacy in August, according to the newspaper Estadão. Three people were in the car. The driver and a videographer from the deputy's team were rescued and taken to the Chaud Salles municipal hospital in Cristalina. G1 reported that their condition had not been disclosed.Official mourningAssembly Speaker Bruno Peixoto, of União Brasil, declared five days of official mourning in the state legislature and canceled Saturday's campaign events. Peixoto called the late lawmaker a friend and brother. "What remains is the longing, the good memories and the gratitude for all the moments we shared," he said.Governor Daniel Vilela of Goiás, also of the MDB and a friend of the lawmaker in public life, released a statement of mourning."In recent years we built a relationship of respect, trust and friendship that I will keep with me. Amilton leaves behind a life of dedication to public service and to Goiás, especially Anápolis, his hometown, with which he always kept an affectionate and committed bond," Vilela wrote.CareerBorn in Anápolis, Amilton Filho entered politics as a law student at UniEvangélica university. He worked for ten years as a state civil servant and served two terms on the Anápolis city council, the first starting in 2012, and presided over the council from 2017 to 2018, according to Estadão. He was elected to the state assembly in 2018 and reelected in 2022 with 46,556 votes. In his second term he chaired the Constitution and Justice Committee and served as vice chair of the Consumer Rights Committee.He leaves a wife and two young children, his team said. The wake will be held in Anápolis, where he lived, about 55 kilometers from Goiânia, the state capital. As of Saturday morning, the times for the wake and the burial had not been announced. The official mourning in the Assembly runs for five days.

Constitutional scholars and political scientists advocate reducing the criminal jurisdiction of Brazil's Federal Supreme Court (STF) and placing strict limits on single-judge preliminary injunctions. The recommendations come from a survey conducted by Folha de S.Paulo with eight legal scholars examining institutional responses to the court's current crisis.Most experts interviewed identified the rollback of special jurisdictional privileges for politicians (foro privilegiado) and the curbing of individual rulings that freeze legislation as urgent priorities. The researchers also proposed fixed term limits for Supreme Court justices and stricter qualification requirements for presidential nominees.Scholars disagree on the timing of these changes. Eloísa Machado, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV Direito-SP), warned against voting on structural overhauls during an active institutional clash:"It is a fragile situation vis-a-vis the other branches, which could trigger solutions that further unbalance the balance of power."Maria Tereza Sadek, a political scientist at the University of São Paulo (USP), took the opposite view and demanded swift action."If action is not taken with some urgency, this crisis will only deepen and reach a point where, instead of a proposal to improve the Judiciary, we may end up with proposals that weaken it."USP constitutional law professor Conrado Hübner Mendes noted that structural adjustments have inherent limitations. He said that institutional change throughout history happens slowly and requires persistence.The National Congress currently holds several proposed constitutional amendments addressing court powers on its legislative docket. House and Senate leaders must now decide whether to schedule floor votes on bills limiting monocratic decisions and establishing judicial term limits.

A wave of Quaest polls released on Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept 22 and 23) maps the first round of Brazil's presidential race across 24 states and the Federal District. President Lula of the Workers' Party leads vote intentions in 9 states. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, leads in 8. The two are in a statistical tie in 8 more, according to the results published by g1, Globo's news portal.The regional mapEvery state where Lula leads lies in the North and Northeast: Alagoas, Amapá, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. Flávio Bolsonaro leads in Acre, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rondônia, Roraima and Santa Catarina. The race is a statistical tie in Amazonas, the Federal District, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Tocantins.The widest gaps sit at opposite ends of the map. In Bahia, Lula takes 58% of vote intentions against 23% for his rival, up from 50% to 17% in late August. In Ceará, the president polls 55% to 23%. Acre is the only state where a candidate reaches half of vote intentions: Flávio Bolsonaro has 50% to Lula's 24%, up from 42% in the previous poll. Writer Augusto Cury (Avante) runs third in most states, polling between 4% and 7%.The big electoratesIn the country's two largest electorates, the race sits inside the margin of error. In Minas Gerais, Lula has 35% and Flávio Bolsonaro 30%; CartaCapital reports the institute interviewed 1,506 voters in the state between Sept 19 and 22. In São Paulo, Flávio Bolsonaro has 34% and Lula 31%, according to O Globo; the margin of error there is 2 points. In the Federal District, the score is 33% to 32%.The margin of error is 3 percentage points in either direction in every state except São Paulo, and the confidence level is 95%. The Minas Gerais survey was commissioned by Globo and registered with the electoral court as BR-07664/2026, according to CartaCapital. Undecided voters range from 5% in Amapá to 14% in Amazonas among the states with published numbers. The Pará poll comes out on Saturday (Sept 26). There will be no Quaest survey in Piauí. In the national Quaest poll released on Monday (Sept 21), Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro are in a statistical tie.The first round is scheduled for October 4. To win outright, a candidate needs more than half of the valid votes; otherwise the top two meet in a runoff on October 25.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) voted 7 to 3 on Friday (25) to convict Eduardo Bolsonaro, a former federal deputy whose seat was revoked and the son of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, of defaming Deputy Tabata Amaral. The majority set the penalty at one year of detention and a fine above 80,000 reais, according to news outlet g1.The case began with a private criminal complaint Tabata filed in 2021. That year, Eduardo wrote on social media that her bill on the distribution of menstrual pads seemed designed to serve the lobby of a hygiene products manufacturer, and that the company's owner was the lawmaker's mentor and sponsor. The complaint went to the STF, which tries federal lawmakers.The rapporteur's voteRapporteur Alexandre de Moraes found that the crime under article 139 of Brazil's Penal Code was made out. The provision punishes anyone who "defames someone, by imputing to them a fact offensive to their reputation". He cited two aggravating factors: the target was a public official acting in her duties, and the statements were spread on social media. Because Eduardo is, in the court's words, "in an uncertain and unknown location" and lives in the United States, Moraes refused to replace detention with alternative penalties, a substitution normally allowed in defamation cases."The disclosure made by the defendant [Eduardo] reveals the stratagem he employed, whose only purpose was to harm the honor of the complainant [Tabata Amaral], both in the public sphere, as a political agent, and in her private life, since the reach of the internet, as is well known, is enormous and has great power of proliferation", the justice said.A 7-to-3 splitJustices Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin, Dias Toffoli and Gilmar Mendes joined Moraes in full. Court president Édson Fachin agreed on the conviction but diverged on how the sentence is served. In his view, detention can be replaced by alternative penalties. "Any unjustified noncompliance with a penalty restricting rights may lead, in the enforcement phase, to its conversion into deprivation of liberty", Fachin said, according to VEJA.André Mendonça, who suspended the virtual plenary trial in April by asking for more time to review the case, voted to acquit. Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques sided with him. Mendonça argued that Eduardo's statements were part of political debate and were covered by parliamentary immunity."The record confirmed, in turn, that the statement concerned the political debate around the legislative proposal. There is no element that allows the conclusion that this controversy served as a mere pretext for a personal attack detached from the mandate", Mendonça said.With the 7-to-3 tally, the rapporteur's position also prevailed on enforcement: detention will not be replaced with alternative penalties as long as Eduardo remains in an uncertain and unknown location. The trial, resumed after Mendonça's 90-day review period, ended on Friday. The case now moves to the enforcement phase, where the court will define how the sentence is served.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) leads President Lula (PT) by 38% to 33% in São Paulo state in a first-round scenario for Brazil's presidential election, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday, September 25. The survey, commissioned by Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, comes nine days before the October 4 vote. São Paulo is the country's largest electoral college.In the stimulated survey, in which pollsters read out the candidates' names, writer Augusto Cury (Avante) stands at 7% and Senator Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) at 5%. Renan Santos (Missão) has 4% and Romeu Zema (Novo) 2%. Blank and null answers add up to 6%, and 2% are undecided.Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, rose from 35% in the previous poll, released on September 11. Lula was unchanged at 33%. The five-point gap exceeds the survey's two-percentage-point margin of error.In a simulated runoff between the two, Flávio Bolsonaro gets 49% against 41% for Lula. The previous survey, from September 12, had the score at 47% to 42%. Blank and null votes total 10%, with 1% undecided.Lula's government is rated excellent or good by 27% of voters in the state and bad or terrible by 46%. In the previous round those figures were 25% and 48%. Another 26% called the government average.The national mapAccording to Folha, the three largest electoral colleges, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, together hold about 40% of Brazil's eligible voters. In the same Datafolha round, Flávio Bolsonaro also leads in Rio de Janeiro, 44% to 38% in the first round, Lula is numerically ahead in Minas Gerais, 39% to 37%, a statistical tie, and holds a wide lead in Pernambuco, 60% to 24%. In 2022, Lula lost São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro state to Jair Bolsonaro and won Minas.Datafolha interviewed 1,610 people in São Paulo state on September 22 and 23. The confidence level is 95%, and the poll is registered as BR-09355/2026. The first round of the presidential election takes place on October 4.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing PL party, a presidential candidate and the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, said on Friday (Sept. 25) that he supports banning online casinos, but left open the future of sports betting sites, known in Brazil as bets. He called President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's decision to prohibit electronic gambling days before the election "populist, hypocritical and electioneering".He spoke to journalists after a military police graduation ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, according to Folha de S.Paulo. "President Lula is desperate. He did nothing for four years and, on the eve of the election, he wants to pretend he was not the one who approved and regulated the online casino on the hands of Brazilians," the senator said. He added: "Lula is the father of the tigrinho. Lula has two children who did great harm to Brazil: Lulinha and the tigrinho." Folha also reported that he praised a friend who is a target of a Federal Police investigation.By the candidate's account, regulation under the current government "more than quadrupled" the number of bettors. "Nobody guarantees that, after the election, he will not free it all up again," he said. In his view, Lula "is betting everything on the elections" and, seeing that gambling "became an epidemic in Brazil, is trying to cozy up to voters".The package against the betsLula's government regulated online betting at the end of 2023. The president sanctioned Law 14.790 in December of that year, covering fixed-odds betting already authorized by a 2018 law passed under President Michel Temer. The rules set licensing and tax requirements and created rules against money laundering, match-fixing and problem gambling, BBC News Brasil reported.On Friday, Lula was set to announce in São Paulo a package of economic measures expected to include a provisional decree to ban bets and online casinos such as the tigrinho, a casino-style game, according to the BBC. At a campaign event in Recife, the president pressed his criticism of the industry: "It is not right to spend what you do not have to try to win what does not exist." According to G1, the government is split between a total ban on betting and narrower steps, such as blocking advertising and outlawing virtual casinos.Flávio's distinctionFlávio argues for separating bets on real events from electronic games. "I have always been against gambling. A very clear distinction has to be made. One thing is to allow, as has been allowed for decades, Brazilians to bet on games that are real. A football match... Even then there are questions. I am against it, but that is what has always been in force. What the Lula government allowed was the legalization of the tigrinho game," the senator said.In an online broadcast this week with Tarcísio de Freitas and Ricardo Nunes, he summed up his position: "The online casino has to end." According to the BBC, the candidate considers that bets on real football, volleyball or tennis matches can be controlled.A provisional decree takes effect immediately once published, and Congress must approve it within 120 days or it loses force. The first round of the presidential election is on Oct. 4. Polls cited by the BBC show Flávio and Lula in a technical tie.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and the PL party's presidential candidate, confirmed on Thursday (24), in a social media post, that he and his family flew in January 2025 on an executive jet managed by a company of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now-defunct Banco Master. The trip was revealed by the magazine piauí and confirmed by g1, Globo's news portal. Bolsonaro said that at the time he believed the aircraft belonged to his friend Willer Tomaz, a lawyer who was also on board.The flight left Fort Lauderdale, in the Miami area, at 12:15 p.m. on January 19, 2025, and landed in Brasília at 8:01 p.m. On board were Bolsonaro's wife, Fernanda, the couple's two daughters and Tomaz, a lawyer who has been cited in federal police investigations into improper discounts on INSS payments, Brazil's social security benefits. U.S. customs records show the senator had entered the country on December 27, 2024, to spend the year-end holidays there. The story gained traction when social media users resurfaced a video recorded in July in which the candidate denied ever using the banker's aircraft. "You will not see me traveling to London, the United States, Paris, every place you can think of. I have never set foot in a Vorcaro plane," he said, standing next to former district deputy Júlia Lucy.The explanation and the dispute over the jetIn the same post, Bolsonaro joked about the later use of the aircraft by Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in August 2025. "Good thing the plane was Willer's back then. Imagine if it were now, I would have flown on Alexandre de Moraes's plane," he wrote. He gave the same account to the newspaper O Globo:"Back then the plane was Willer's, I had zero contact with Vorcaro. It was a family trip, nothing more. The plane was his. I did not know about the company's stake (Prime You). To me, the plane was Willer's. Anything beyond that is a distortion of reality."At the time of the trip, the jet, an Embraer Legacy 650 registered PP-NLR and built in 2012, was operated by Prime Aviation, a company linked to Vorcaro, under a ten-year lease with Fraction 024, owned by Marcus Vinícius da Mata, also described as close to the banker. The structure's quota holders included Prime You, a company in which Vorcaro was a partner, and Tomaz himself. In a statement, the lawyer denied any relationship with the banker. "Willer Tomaz does not know Daniel Vorcaro, has never met him and has never entered into any business with him of any nature," the note reads. It says the sale of a third party's quota to Prime You happened without Tomaz's consent and that when he learned of it, in April 2026, he reported the contract and took the dispute to court.The Master Case and the electionAccording to g1, the federal police say the same aircraft was negotiated in May 2025 with the law firm of Viviane Barci, Moraes's wife, in a 50 million reais contract for legal services, and that the date of Bolsonaro's flight coincides with the period when Vorcaro was arranging transfers to finance Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro. A transfer of 2 million dollars was scheduled for January 20, 2025. The newspaper Valor Econômico assesses that the episode puts the candidate back at the center of the Master Case ten days before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4, and reports that President Lula's campaign intends to stress the ties between Bolsonaro and the former banker.A report by the newspaper Estadão, which Correio Braziliense confirmed with federal police sources, shows that Bolsonaro tried to reach Vorcaro on WhatsApp in the four days before the banker's first arrest, on November 17, 2025, at Guarulhos airport, in São Paulo. The messages were recovered from Vorcaro's seized phone. "Brother, I am and will always be with you, there is no half conversation between us," Bolsonaro wrote on the eve of the arrest. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4. Tomaz's lawsuit against Prime You remains pending, and the Master Case investigations continue at the federal police and the Supreme Court.

Lobbyist Chiquinho Feitosa, a former brother-in-law of the senior justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal, Gilmar Mendes, told Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro that he discussed matters of interest to the banker at a dinner with justices Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin on May 28, 2024. Zanin denies any contact with either man about the case. The message is part of a trove of texts that federal police extracted from Vorcaro's phone and was reported by Poder360 on Friday (Sept 25).At 8:55 p.m. that day, Feitosa wrote to Vorcaro: "Querido amigo, estou aqui jantando com Gilmar, Zanin e as esposas. Conversei alguns assuntos de nosso interesse e passei as informações que o Fernando me deu" (Dear friend, I am here at dinner with Gilmar, Zanin and the wives. I discussed some matters of our interest and passed on the information Fernando gave me). Vorcaro replied: "Ótimo, vou estar. Nos vemos amanhã" (Great, I will be there. See you tomorrow).In a statement, Zanin said he "never had any relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, nor with Chiquinho Feitosa". The justice added that he "never dined with them, never received them in a hearing and never spoke with them about any matter".Contacted by Poder360, Feitosa said he does not recall the dinner "with precision" and denied discussing Vorcaro's interests with Supreme Court justices. "If I was in the presence of the ministers, it was on a social occasion, with other guests", he said. Feitosa ran as an alternate Senate candidate in 2014 on the ticket of Tasso Jereissati, of the PSDB party, and is the brother of Guiomar Feitosa, Gilmar Mendes' former wife.Gilmar Mendes' office said the justice did not take part in the dinner described by Feitosa. "The minister had no knowledge of any understanding between him and third parties, was not approached by him [Chiquinho Feitosa] on the matters mentioned and is not responsible for the private or professional relationships of a former relative", the office said. Asked specifically about the May 28, 2024 gathering, the office neither confirmed nor denied that the dinner took place. Gilmar says that in cases involving Master claims he voted against the bank's interests.The lobbying at the Supreme CourtAccording to Poder360, the messages show that Vorcaro sought, through Feitosa, closer access to the justices who were ruling on the validity of unpaid precatórios, court-ordered government debts held under Master's name. The bank booked those unpaid debts to inflate the cash position it showed to regulators, the outlet reported. On April 19, 2024, Feitosa advised Vorcaro to "start a direct relationship" with Gilmar. A hearing did take place: Gilmar confirms that he received Vorcaro and Master lawyers, in an institutional setting, to discuss a case from the sugar and ethanol sector. In another exchange, on June 1, 2024, Feitosa wrote from Fortaleza that he was at the birthday party of then education minister Camilo Santana with Gilmar, and invited Vorcaro to call. Santana's office said he never had personal or professional contact with Vorcaro.The messages alone do not show that the justices granted the banker's requests or committed any wrongdoing. Vorcaro has been jailed in Brasília since March 4 and, according to the federal police, is suspected of running the largest financial fraud in the country's history; the phone that yielded the exchanges was seized in Operation Compliance Zero in November 2025. On Sept 14, the police delivered a full copy of the device's data to the offices of Zanin, Gilmar and Alexandre de Moraes, Metrópoles reported. The material remains under review by the justices, and no decision on this episode has been made by the court.

Federal Police investigators say budget earmarks from Congressman Mario Frias (PL-SP) may have fed a scheme to divert public money that involved his lawyers, former congressional aides and the producer of "Dark Horse", a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. According to Folha de S.Paulo, a Federal Police document lists embezzlement, fraud and money laundering among the crimes under investigation.Earmarks, called emendas parlamentares in Brazil, let members of Congress direct federal funds to projects of their choosing. The document suggests that R$ 2 million routed to two projects, the sports program "Lutando pela Vida" and the digital literacy program "Jovem Empreendedor", may have been diverted through payments by the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), which received the money, to companies tied to the lawmaker's former aides or lawyers. The scheme, police say, would also have drawn on the deputy's office allowance, campaign donations and diversions that reached Go Up, the company behind "Dark Horse".The link to the filmGo Up and the ICB are both linked to businesswoman Karina Gama, the film's producer, whose companies also received money from other lawmakers and public bodies such as the São Paulo city government, Folha reports. The film was financed by Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of the defunct Banco Master, who is jailed in Brasília. Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of the former president, has admitted brokering the payments, which totaled about R$ 61 million before Vorcaro's arrest, according to news outlet G1.Reports from Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, cited in the investigation, show that Go Up moved R$ 19 million between November 10 and December 30, 2025, the period when the film was shot in São Paulo. The producer received R$ 750,000 from NTT Brasil, a company in the group of Heric Dias, whose firms received R$ 700,000 from the ICB, and R$ 645,400 from Frias himself, whose monthly income is listed at R$ 44,008. "The temporal coincidence between the film shoot and the period of those transactions stands out, as does the nature of the expenses, which include a high-end hotel and meals", the police report says.Video lessons and martial arts gearSupreme Court Justice Flávio Dino authorized the operation on September 10 and lifted the secrecy of the case. In the "Jovem Empreendedor 4.0" project, which received R$ 1 million in partnership with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, auditors found that R$ 300,000 paid for 24 video lessons published months after the agreement had ended; in a July inspection, ten of them had a combined seven views. The ministry rejected the project's accounts. In the sports project, G1 reports, the institute bought martial arts uniforms and mats that were never delivered.Gama denies any wrongdoing. "An investigation is not an accusation, much less a conviction", her defense says. Frias, who is running for reelection, denies irregularities and calls the operation a "smoke screen" in the middle of the 2026 campaign. The inquiry remains with Dino at the Supreme Court and has not led to charges so far. The deputy faces voters in October.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will announce on Friday (25), at an event in São Paulo, a provisional measure banning online betting in Brazil. The move comes nine days before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4. The plan was reported by O Globo and detailed by CNN Brasil and CartaCapital.According to CNN Brasil, Lula will be in the city to unveil government economic measures, and the ban on betting platforms will be made official at the same event. Advisers expect the provisional measure to end both sports betting and online casinos, such as the jogo do tigrinho, a viral slot-machine game. The text will go to Congress, where lawmakers will decide whether to scale the ban back. Lula met with palace and economic ministers this week to close the package. A provisional measure is a presidential act with the force of law that takes effect immediately.From limits to a full banLula had weighed a narrower path. CartaCapital reports he considered restricting the measure to online casinos and limiting platform advertising, while keeping sports betting legal. He moved instead to end all bets. On Wednesday (23), at an event with artists at the Fundição Progresso venue in Rio de Janeiro, he said:"I will have the great pleasure of ending the bets, and the great pleasure of regulating platforms as we did with the Digital ECA."He also said the decision is not a war, and that Brazil cannot allow gambling addiction, known as ludopathy, to take over the population.The numbers and the clubsA study by Comsefaz, the national committee of state finance secretaries, found that Brazilian households lost 62.5 billion reais to betting platforms in 2025, the gap between amounts wagered and prizes paid out. The platforms moved 350.97 billion reais in Pix transfers in the same period. An AtlasIntel/Bloomberg poll released this week shows that 75% of respondents support a ban, while 36% blame Lula himself for spreading the bets.Brazil's leading football clubs signed a note last week acknowledging the "social impacts, especially on the most vulnerable people" caused by betting companies, while stressing that bets are now one of the sport's main sources of revenue. The government is considering cheaper credit lines and a debt-renegotiation program for the clubs, according to CNN Brasil.A provisional measure takes effect upon publication but expires after 120 days unless Congress turns it into law. The palace is weighing the strength of the so-called bets caucus in the legislature. The package may also include bills to make companies reimburse the public health system SUS for addiction treatment and to hold platforms liable for the debts of over-indebted gamblers. Lula's campaign expects, according to the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo, that the decision will catch rival campaigns off guard, especially that of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

The British magazine The Economist published an editorial on Thursday, September 24, on Brazil's presidential election. Forced to choose between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the country "turns its back on its future", the weekly wrote. The candidate whose ideas are "best suited to the present moment", it said, is Renan Santos of the Missao party."The choice presented to Brazilians is cruel", the editorial says. In the magazine's view, neither front-runner is convincing on "entrenched corruption and the relentless expansion of public spending", which it calls the country's two biggest problems. Over the past half century, it argues, the Brazilian economy has stagnated both against its peers and against average global growth, and the October 4 election "offers little hope of a turnaround"."Brazil's potential has long been obvious. When the capital, Brasilia, was built in the 1950s, its streets were laid out in the shape of an airplane, symbolizing a country about to take off. But it still sits on the runway."Criticism of Lula and FlavioOn Lula, the magazine says the president has taken a correct stance on the environment but "has done far too little to boost economic growth or contain public spending". The editorial notes his age, about to turn 81, and compares him to Joe Biden, who was the same age when he abandoned his bid in the 2024 United States election.Flavio Bolsonaro, it writes, "denies that humans are causing climate change, questions the integrity of Brazil's electronic voting machines and hints that he will not respect the result if Lula wins". The senator's main proposal, the magazine says, is to pardon his father, Jair Bolsonaro, who in September 2025 was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup, including a plan to assassinate Lula.The editorial concedes that vital institutions still work. It cites the Federal Police, which has investigated the fraud of Daniel Vorcaro, of Master bank, and the Bolsonaro family's coup conspiracy. It also praises Brazil's "fierce and independent" press, its "respected" diplomacy and "even the Supreme Court", which "managed to send to prison someone who conspired in a coup".Renan Santos and the predicted crisis"Renan Santos, a determined libertarian, is the candidate whose ideas best fit the present moment", the editorial says. "He wants to push through deep structural reforms and spending cuts to turn Brazil into a great power." According to Folha de S.Paulo, his proposals include a complete overhaul of the Bolsa Familia welfare program, an end to quotas in higher education and the public service, changes to how funds are distributed to states, and the development of an atomic bomb, a step that specialists say could trigger an arms race in South America.The magazine itself sees the limit of its endorsement. "Neither he nor any other outsider has managed to advance against the rival political machines of Lula and Bolsonaro. The country is heading for a predictable crisis", the text says, projecting a sharp acceleration of government debt and borrowing costs, with inflation and recession. "Brazil's bright future will hang in suspense for at least another four years. It is not entirely dead."Renan responded to the editorial in a video published on Thursday, according to Folha. The polls tell a different story: in a Datafolha survey released the same day and reported by news site G1, Lula has 40% of first-round voting intentions, Flavio Bolsonaro 36% and Renan Santos 3%. BBC News Brasil notes the magazine has used the takeoff metaphor before: in 2009 it ran a cover of Rio's Christ the Redeemer blasting off like a rocket under the headline "Brazil takes off"; four years later, it showed the statue falling from the sky. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

Messages recovered by Brazil's Federal Police from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, record a close friendship between the banker and Davi Alcolumbre, who presides over the Senate and Congress (União Brasil party, Amapá). Veja magazine published the exchanges on Thursday (24), and Folha de S.Paulo independently confirmed them. Police found the material on Vorcaro's phone during the investigation into the Master case, which examines suspected money laundering at the bank.The main exchange is dated February 1, 2025, the day Alcolumbre was elected to a second term as Senate president. Vorcaro congratulated the senator and called him a friend. As published by Veja, the exchange read:"Congratulations my friend! May your best years come! May God bless you in this endeavor! I wish you much success", Vorcaro wrote. "Hey my love! Thank you for everything, especially for your affection and fraternal friendship! Gratitude! I am your brother. For life", Alcolumbre replied. "And I am yours. Anytime, for anything. I will never forget", Vorcaro wrote back, adding five heart emojis.According to Veja, the closeness went beyond greetings. The senator turned to the banker for prosaic matters, such as trying to identify a journalist's source, and Vorcaro sought the senator when he needed to "open certain doors". The magazine notes Alcolumbre had at one point denied even knowing the banker.Blocked inquiries in the SenateIn the Senate, Alcolumbre dismissed calls to create an investigative committee into the Master case. In May, according to Veja, he used procedural maneuvers to stop the commission and said: "This matter cannot be the priority right now". He also ignored an official request about Vorcaro's visits to the Senate and refused to hand the Federal Police the visitor list for the office of Senator Jaques Wagner (Workers' Party, Bahia), who is suspected of receiving bribes, as Veja and GZH report.Veja adds that investigators linked Amprev, the pension fund for civil servants of Amapá, the state Alcolumbre represents, to one of the banker's schemes. The senator's brother sat on the fund's board, and its president was his former campaign treasurer. Folha also found mentions of Alcolumbre in October 2023 chats in a group named "Macallan", after the whisky, which included Vorcaro, former Communications minister Fábio Faria and others. In conversations about parties, in what Folha describes as a possible reference to the women invited to the gatherings, Faria wrote: "Davi said he has a new dance". Vorcaro replied: "Kkkkkk. Bonde do tigrão", slang for a group of friends.Folha contacted Alcolumbre's press office on Thursday and received no reply before publication. GZH reports the Senate president has yet to comment on the messages. Requests for an inquiry remain stalled in the chamber, and the material extracted by the Federal Police remains under analysis in the Master case investigation.

Brazil's Federal Police recovered roughly three months of message exchanges between banker Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-wing candidate for president in Brazil's October election. The records mention six meetings between the two men. Older message history had been deleted. The newspaper Estadão obtained the extraction details and published them on Thursday (24).The contact began on December 16, 2024, when Vorcaro added the senator's phone number to his contact list, and the app logged a missed WhatsApp call that same day. Because Flávio used the setting that automatically deletes messages after 90 days, police recovered only the exchanges from August 20 to November 16, 2025. The next day, Vorcaro was arrested at Guarulhos international airport in São Paulo as he tried to board a flight abroad, under an order from the 10th Federal Court of Brasília. In the recovered period, the banker was trying to sell Banco Master and was already under Federal Police investigation for suspected financial crimes.What the messages showThe first meeting cited, on August 20, 2025, appears to have taken place, according to the log. "21 pode ser" ("Can it be at 9?"), Vorcaro wrote at 5:22 p.m. "Blz" ("OK"), Flávio replied. At 9:47 p.m., the senator wrote: "A caminho" ("On my way"). Fifteen days later, the Central Bank rejected the sale of Master to BRB (Banco Regional de Brasília) after a review that lasted just over five months. On September 17, Vorcaro proposed another meeting: "Opa. 14h30?" "Hop. Blz," Flávio confirmed. On October 1, one day after the Federal Police opened an inquiry into Master's management and the attempted purchase by BRB, Vorcaro sent a message to arrange a meeting. No reply was recorded.On October 22, Flávio invited the banker to dinner in São Paulo with actor Jim Caviezel and director Cyrus Nowrasteh, from the film "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio's father. "Topa jantar com o Jim Caviezel e o Cyrus em São Paulo no dia 2/Nov (segunda)? Totalmente reservado" ("How about dinner with Jim Caviezel and Cyrus in São Paulo on Nov 2? Fully private"), he wrote. The records show the dinner never happened. In the same exchanges, Flávio pressed Vorcaro over payments to the film that had been agreed with the banker earlier; the total transferred was about 60 million reais. The website Intercept Brasil published the payment demands in May. Estadão cautions that, apart from the August 20 meeting, there is no way to confirm the other cited meetings took place.Contact before the arrest, and the reactionThe records show Flávio tried to reach Vorcaro in the four days before the arrest. "Fala mermao! Bom dia! Pode atender?" ("Hey brother! Good morning! Can you take a call?"), he wrote on November 13. On the eve of the arrest, after another unanswered call, he sent:"Irmão, estou e estarei contigo sempre, não tem meia conversa entre a gente. Só preciso que me dê uma luz! Abs" ("Brother, I am and will always be with you, there is no half-conversation between us. I just need you to give me a light!")The senator's office was contacted by Estadão and did not respond. Flávio played down the information in a livestream on Wednesday (23), called the case "maluquice" (madness) and said: "Se é isso aqui que vocês têm, meu amigo... Esquece, vai ser no 1º turno que a gente vai ganhar essa eleição" ("If this is what you have, my friend... forget it, we will win this election in the first round"). He denied that businessman Luciano Hang financed the film and said the production cost did not reach 400 million reais, according to the news site Poder360.The disclosures come ten days before the first round of the presidential election. A Datafolha poll released on Thursday shows President Lula at 47% and Flávio at 45% in a runoff scenario, a technical tie. The Federal Police inquiries into Banco Master remain open. According to Poder360, expectations circulate in Brasília that more data from Vorcaro's phone will surface, possibly including references to Supreme Court ministers, though nothing has been confirmed.

The crisis at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has opened a debate over who will succeed Justice Edson Fachin as the court's president. According to Folha de S.Paulo, justices are already weighing whether to break a 57-year tradition under which the presidency rotates by seniority.The election is scheduled for August 2027. By tradition, the next in line would be Alexandre de Moraes for the presidency and Kassio Nunes Marques for the vice presidency. Folha reports that both are under scrutiny in the Master bank case over alleged ties to former banker Daniel Vorcaro.Secret ballotThe court's internal election is usually a formality, but the ballot is secret, and justices from rival factions do not rule out surprises. A justice close to Nunes Marques told the newspaper he would not feel comfortable voting for Moraes as the next president if the election were held today. An ally of Moraes said he would not vote for Nunes Marques for vice. Both said the vote is still far off and that the investigations must run their course.The Master case is already moving through the court. On Thursday, Justice Flávio Dino ordered the Federal Police to investigate alleged failures by securities regulator CVM in the case, with a first report due within 60 days, according to G1. Nunes Marques also handles former president Jair Bolsonaro's bid to overturn his conviction for the coup plot after the 2022 election; Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and three months, InfoMoney reports.February in the SenateJustices expect a turning point in February, when the Congress elected in October picks the Senate's leadership. The Senate president decides whether impeachment requests against justices move forward. Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) told Folha he trusts his party can elect a Senate president aligned with the push to impeach court members. The current Senate leader, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), is expected to keep the job from 2027 with support from President Lula's government and the centrão, the large centrist bloc. He opposes moving ahead with the removal of justices.Even if the impeachment filings stall in the Senate, justices read the race as hinging on the state of the Master inquiries and on the full bench's decision on whether to open an investigation. The court's vote is set for August 2027. Before that, in February, the Senate picks the official who decides the justices' fate.

Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB, from the state of Sergipe) filed a request on Thursday (24) to impeach Kassio Nunes Marques, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Court, the STF. According to news site G1, Vieira argues the justice committed a crime of responsibility, an impeachable offense, by ruling on cases tied to Banco Master while people close to him had personal and business relations with the bank.The complaint centers on a case brought by Destilaria Alcídia against the federal government over the calculation of compensation owed to the sugar and ethanol industry. The case involves billions of reais in precatórios, court-ordered government debt payments, and the filing links it to Master's interests in that market.In February 2024 the Supreme Court's case system registered Nunes Marques as recused from the case, G1 reports. The entry was reversed the following month, on the grounds that it had been a "mistake by the justice's staff". On October 1, 2024, he took part in the ruling by the court's Second Panel and cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the creditors, with the tally at 2 to 2."Ganhamos Alcídia"The complaint ties the ruling to messages Federal Police investigators extracted from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, who is currently in prison. According to the filing, after the ruling the bank's legal director wrote "Ganhamos Alcídia" ("We won Alcídia") and shared the phone contact of Kevin de Carvalho Marques, the justice's son, with the words "Dominado aqui" ("Controlled here"). Vieira writes in the filing:"The message 'We won Alcídia', sent by the bank's legal director to its controller, is the most direct evidence that Banco Master had an interest in the outcome of the ruling, even though it was not formally a party to the case. It disproves the defendant's statement, in a plenary session, that he 'never judged any case related to Master'"Besides removal from office, the senator asks for the justice to be barred from any public post for eight years, the penalty set for those convicted of a crime of responsibility.The filing, also reported by Brasil 247, now goes to the Senate. Complaints against Supreme Court justices are first reviewed by the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee, which decides whether they are admissible before any vote in the full chamber. A conviction requires two thirds of the Senate's votes. Similar requests rarely move forward: according to a Brasil 247 count published in December 2025, the Senate had accumulated 81 impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices amid tensions with Justice Gilmar Mendes.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, runs ahead of President Lula (PT) in runoff simulations released on Thursday (Sept 24) by two polling firms. Palver puts the senator at 48% against 45% for Lula. Real Time Big Data shows a tighter race, 45% to 44%. According to CNN Brasil and CartaCapital, both results sit within the margin of error and amount to a statistical tie. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is ten days away, scheduled for October 4.In first-round voting intentions, both pollsters point to a close race. Palver has Lula and Flávio tied at 43% each, with Renan Santos (Missão), leader of the MBL activist group, in third at 8%. Real Time Big Data scores the president at 41% against 37% for the senator.MethodologyPalver heard 5,000 voters between September 20 and 23 through online recruitment, and the poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under protocol BR-09587/2026. CNN Brasil reports a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction; CartaCapital recorded 2.5 points. The news site jota.info notes that Flávio's runoff edge narrowed from four points to three compared with the previous Palver round, released on September 9.Real Time Big Data interviewed 2,000 voters between September 19 and 23 by phone and through digital recruitment, with a 2-point margin of error and a 95% confidence level. The firm paid for the survey itself and registered it under protocol BR-04202/2026. It also measured vote potential: Lula reaches 49%, adding the 30% who say they would certainly vote for him and the 19% who might; Flávio reaches 47% (24% certain plus 23% possible).Other scenariosIn the other runoff scenarios tested by Palver, Lula leads Augusto Cury (Avante) 44% to 36% and Renan Santos 44% to 34%, and ties with Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) at 44% to 42% and with Romeu Zema (Novo) at 45% to 43%. In Real Time Big Data, the Lula-Caiado matchup stands at 44% to 44%, and the president runs ahead of Zema (45% to 39%), Renan Santos (44% to 38%) and Cury (44% to 43%).More polling is expected in the final stretch of the campaign. G1 reports that Datafolha will release a new presidential survey on Thursday (24). If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes on October 4, the runoff takes place on October 25.

Brazil's federal government cut the amount of frozen funds in its 2026 budget on Thursday (Sept. 24). The freeze fell from R$ 17.9 billion to R$ 16.1 billion, according to the fourth bimonthly revenue and spending report released by the Planning Ministry. Taken together, the report's moves leave about R$ 1.9 billion available for ministries, according to news site G1.The reduction combines two moves. The government unblocked R$ 15.5 billion from the "bloqueio," the mechanism Brazil uses when mandatory spending exceeds the cap set by its fiscal rules, because it now projects lower costs with pensions, the federal payroll and the BPC, a monthly benefit for poor elderly and disabled Brazilians. The remaining bloqueio stands at R$ 2.4 billion. In exchange, the economic team activated the "contingenciamento," a separate spending freeze used when the annual fiscal target is at risk, for the first time this year, locking up R$ 13.6 billion.Pressure on the fiscal targetAccording to Folha de S.Paulo, the economic team had projected a primary surplus of R$ 10.8 billion for this year and now expects a deficit of R$ 13.6 billion, which required freezing the same amount. The Planning Ministry raised its estimate for the year's deficit from R$ 52 billion to R$ 67.3 billion, or 0.49% of GDP, G1 reported.The 2026 target sets a primary surplus of 0.25% of GDP, about R$ 34.3 billion, with a 0.25-point tolerance band, so a zero result still counts as compliance. One of the revenue shortfalls involves the tax on dividends. Folha reports that the executive branch had insisted it would collect nearly R$ 29 billion from that source, a figure the TCU, Brazil's federal audit court, challenged in a warning to the government. The government also projects R$ 3.9 billion less in dividends from state-owned companies.A retained margin and a R$ 40 billion fuel subsidyPlanning Minister Bruno Moretti said the R$ 1.9 billion will not go to the ministries right away."For now, I will not release it. I will examine the agencies' requests. It is prudent to keep a margin. This reserve serves the requests that come between one report and the next (...). The funds will be released if there is a need to do so," Moretti said.Moretti also said, according to Folha, that the fuel subsidy planned for 2026 totals R$ 40 billion and is fully included in the report. The budget adjustment comes ten days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election. The decision on the retained margin now depends on the agencies' requests until the next bimonthly report.

Two national polls released on Thursday (Sept 24) show a technical tie between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party in a hypothetical runoff in Brazil's presidential election. In the PoderData/AYA survey, the senator has 46% of total voting intentions against 45% for Lula, who is running for reelection. The Real Time Big Data institute puts Flávio at 45% and Lula at 44%. A technical tie means the gap between the two falls inside the poll's margin of error.The PoderData/AYA numbersThe survey interviewed 3,000 voters in 723 municipalities by phone between Sept 20 and 23. The margin of error is 1.8 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level, and the poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number BR-01739/2026. According to Poder360, the news outlet whose group runs the survey, Lula gained 1 point in a week and closed in on his rival: the gap fell to 1 point, the same level as in late August. In match-ups with the writer Augusto Cury (Avante party), the pattern repeats: Cury has 45% against 42% for Lula, and Flávio has 41% against 39% for Cury.In the first round, PoderData/AYA shows Lula at 41% and Flávio at 39%, another technical tie. Augusto Cury polls 6%, Renan Santos (Missão) has 3% and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) 2%. In the runoff breakdown, Lula leads among women with 49% against 40% for the senator. Flávio runs stronger in the North (53%), the South (58%), the Center-West (46%) and among voters with a university degree (51%).The Real Time Big Data pictureReal Time Big Data works with a 2-point margin of error. In the first round, Lula stands at 41% and Flávio at 37%, a result that Congresso em Foco, which published the numbers, classifies as a technical tie. In the runoff, the senator has 45% against 44% for the president. In the institute's previous round, in early September, the two were tied at 44%.The poll also tested other runoff scenarios with Lula. The president ties Ronaldo Caiado at 44% to 44% and is technically tied with Augusto Cury at 44% to 43%. Lula wins the scenarios against Romeu Zema (45% to 39%) and Renan Santos (44% to 38%). Rejection of the two frontrunners is nearly identical: 50% of respondents say they would not vote for Lula, and 49% say the same about Flávio.The electorate remains split by gender, income and region. Among women, Lula has 46% against 30% for the senator; among men, Flávio reaches 45% against 36% for the president. In the Northeast, Lula gets 59% against 26%. In the South, Flávio has 49% against 27%. Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is the main challenger to Lula in the race. The first round is scheduled for Oct 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff.

Lawyers for former president Jair Bolsonaro asked Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques on Thursday (24) for an injunction to suspend his prison sentence of 27 years and three months in the coup plot case. Bolsonaro has served the sentence under house arrest since March, for health reasons, and remains bound by court-imposed restrictions, according to news site g1.Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, convicted Bolsonaro in September last year for leading an attempt to stage a coup. He began serving the sentence in November. The new request was filed inside a criminal review, a challenge to a final conviction that has been before Nunes Marques since May and has not yet been judged.Defense says only the full bench could judge the caseThe core argument is about quorum. According to the lawyers, the STF's internal rules assign the full bench, now with ten justices, the task of judging common crimes tied to the exercise of the presidency. Because the charges against Bolsonaro concern acts from his time in office, the defense argues the conviction by the First Panel, a smaller chamber now down to four members, is void."It is a maximum restriction on liberty, founded on a conviction whose validity is challenged for an absolute jurisdictional defect. Continuing to enforce the sentence while the criminal review is pending can cause irreparable harm. Wrongly suppressed liberty cannot be restored. Even if the criminal review is granted, the time already served under a flawed ruling cannot be returned in full," the lawyers wrote.The defense also calls the 2023 rule change that gave the panels criminal jurisdiction an "expansive interpretation" of the court's internal rules. The lawyers argue the sentence should be suspended at least while the full bench has not judged the review, and cite the need to "repair the time of liberty unduly taken" from Bolsonaro, according to Folha de S.Paulo.The jurisdiction question has already been through the court. At the September trial, Justices Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Cármen Lúcia rejected the defense request to move the case to the full bench. They ruled that the 2023 rule change gave the panels jurisdiction over criminal cases. Luiz Fux, then a member of the First Panel, was the lone dissenter. Isolated in the chamber after the vote, he asked to move to the Second Panel, where he now sits with Gilmar Mendes, André Mendonça, Dias Toffoli and Nunes Marques himself, Folha reports.The injunction now sits with Nunes Marques. The criminal review has no date on the court's calendar. Until he rules, Bolsonaro remains under house arrest with the restrictions set by the court.

Brazil's Federal Police twice asked the courts to remove Carlos Brandão, the governor of Maranhão, from office during an inquiry into a suspected scheme to divert public funds in the state. Neither request was granted. Folha de S.Paulo reported the attempts on Wednesday night (23). The police also sought search and seizure warrants against the governor, two of his brothers and his daughter.The inquiry opened in 2024. According to Folha, it grew out of a report by Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council, on unusual transactions, mostly in the town of Colinas, a stronghold of the Brandão family. The investigation was requested by the PGR, the federal prosecutors' office, and authorized by the STJ, Brazil's second-highest court, which handles cases involving state governors. Those under investigation include the governor and his nephew Daniel Brandão, who was then president of the Maranhão state audit court, the TCE-MA. Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino later removed Daniel from that post.What the police allegeAccording to the Federal Police, which worked alongside the CGU, the federal audit office, companies in Brandão's group received public money diverted from the Colinas city hall and the state government. The suspected crimes listed in the inquiry include tax offenses, money laundering, rigged procurement, passive corruption and criminal organization.Brandão's lawyers said they would not comment on the case because they "had no access to the supposed reports and pieces of information mentioned, which remain under judicial secrecy." They also said they reject any attempt to attribute crimes to him. The lawyers told g1 that the Federal Police sent a letter directly to the governor setting a five-day deadline to hand over copies of state police files and other documents. The defense challenges the request, which it says was made without a court order and without input from prosecutors.A dispute over jurisdictionBrandão appealed to the Supreme Federal Court on Monday (31) against a ruling by Justice Dias Toffoli, who in August rejected the defense's bid to suspend the steps taken in the inquiry by Justice Flávio Dino. According to g1, the lawyers argue the case belongs at the STJ, the court with jurisdiction over governors, and say filings by the PGR point the same way. The defense also says the prosecutors' office disagreed with some measures sought by the police, such as searches and seizures, secrecy breaches and removals from public office.Folha places the inquiry within a political war in Maranhão, pitting Brandão's group against former allies of Flávio Dino, a former state governor now on the Supreme Court. The feud drew national attention through the fallout from a daylight killing at the entrance of a shopping area in an upscale district of São Luís and the breach of a journalist's source confidentiality. The next step belongs to Toffoli. He may reconsider his ruling or put the matter before the full court. The inquiry remains under judicial secrecy.

Ten days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, set for Oct. 4, surveys released on Tuesday and Wednesday by the polling institute Quaest show a divided electoral map. The polls covered seven states and the Federal District: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Ceará, Paraíba and Tocantins. According to G1, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who is running for reelection, leads in three of them (Ceará, Paraíba and Pernambuco). Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is numerically ahead in one (Rio de Janeiro). The two are technically tied in four places: the Federal District, which holds the capital Brasília, Minas Gerais, São Paulo and Tocantins.Globo, Brazil's largest media group, commissioned the eight surveys. Interviewers were in the field from Sept. 19 to 22, and every survey is registered with the electoral court. The margin of error is 3 percentage points in either direction, except in São Paulo, where it is 2 points, with a 95% confidence level. The largest samples were in São Paulo, with 1,800 respondents, and Minas Gerais, with 1,506; the smallest was in Tocantins, with 804.First-round numbersSão Paulo: Flávio Bolsonaro 34% (31%); Lula 31% (30%)Rio de Janeiro: Flávio Bolsonaro 37% (34%); Lula 30% (32%)Minas Gerais: Lula 35% (31%); Flávio Bolsonaro 30% (27%)Tocantins: Lula 37% (37%); Flávio Bolsonaro 35% (32%)Federal District: Flávio Bolsonaro 33% (31%); Lula 32% (28%)Ceará: Lula 55% (54%); Flávio Bolsonaro 23% (16%)Paraíba: Lula 54% (50%); Flávio Bolsonaro 23% (21%)Pernambuco: Lula 54% (51%); Flávio Bolsonaro 21% (21%)Figures in parentheses are from the previous round of polls: Sept. 8 in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Pernambuco, Sept. 4 in Ceará, and Aug. 25 in Paraíba and Tocantins.Runoff scenariosIn simulated runoff scenarios, the picture shifts. In São Paulo, Flávio Bolsonaro has 42% against 36% for Lula, according to Poder360; the six-point gap exceeds the two-point margin of error. In the Federal District, the senator reaches 49% to the president's 38%; the previous survey had the race at 45% to 38%, Brasil de Fato reported. Tocantins is a dead heat, with 44% each. In the Northeast, Lula is far ahead: 59% to 27% in Ceará and 58% to 25% in Pernambuco.In the Federal District, Quaest also asked voters whether their presidential choice is settled. 80% said yes; 19% said they could still change their minds. Poder360 noted that in 2022 Jair Bolsonaro won São Paulo in the runoff with 55.24% of the vote, against 44.76% for Lula.A national Quaest survey released on Monday (21) had already shown the two candidates technically tied. The institute will publish 18 more state-level surveys by Saturday (26). Voting in the first round takes place on Oct. 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called on Wednesday night for a constitutional amendment to turn cultural policy into a state policy, meaning rules that would survive changes of government. Running for reelection, he made the pledge at a campaign event with artists at Fundição Progresso in the Lapa district of downtown Rio de Janeiro, 11 days before the first round of the presidential election on October 4.According to the president, the goal is to prevent cultural policies from being altered or dropped every time a new president takes office. "To make Culture fully lasting, we need to put in the Constitution what we want from culture," Lula said, according to news site g1. He then summarized the proposal:"We have to work out how to pass a constitutional amendment that takes the centrality of Culture and turns it into a state policy. In other words, it cannot be touched, it cannot be changed with each government."Lula said he had tried to consolidate cultural policies at the end of his second term through a kind of "CLT of Culture", a reference to Brazil's consolidated labor code. The plan was to gather and preserve the initiatives of his eight years in office. He asked the members of Congress at the event to discuss introducing a bill. The Constitution already requires the state to guarantee cultural rights and provides for a National Culture Plan and a National Culture System. In Lula's assessment, those structures are not enough.In the same speech, Lula attacked the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). "Bolsonaro destroyed not only the Culture ministry; he destroyed the Labor Ministry, he destroyed the Industry and Commerce Ministry," he said. He defended keeping ministries that represent social sectors. "The ministries we set up as a representation of social segments are the cheapest thing, they spend the least and they yield the most political return, because they allow society to take part in drafting government decisions."Lula renews criticism of TrumpThe rally came one day after Lula addressed the UN General Assembly in New York. According to CNN Brasil, he was the first head of state to speak at the session and said Brazilian voters will choose in October between "democracy and denialism". In Lapa, he renewed his criticism of US President Donald Trump. "He speaks at every meeting, 'I am the greatest in the world, I have the greatest in the world, I like the greatest in the world', you know? As if he were threatening everybody," Lula said. "I, as someone my size, do not want to wage war on him. I want to beat him in the narrative, and we are winning the narrative."The campaign's next steps include a business sector meeting on Friday (25) in São Paulo. According to g1, more than 200 guests are expected, among them bankers, industry and agribusiness executives and owners of large Brazilian companies. The culture amendment, in turn, depends on Congress: Lula left the drafting of the proposal to the lawmakers who attended the event. The first round is scheduled for October 4.

The Banco Master scandal has reached another justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF). Messages taken from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the bank's owner, record his contact with people tied to Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, according to a Federal Police investigation reported on Thursday (24) by O Assunto, a daily podcast from news site g1. Investigators identified conversations between Vorcaro and appeals judge Newton Ramos, of the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, and his wife, lawyer Camilla Ramos.Investigators concluded the couple formed what Vorcaro's aides called the "KN group", a reference to the justice's name, according to the Federal Police. The group asked Vorcaro for benefits such as event tickets and hotel stays. Camilla is a partner at Queiroga, Vieira, Queiroz & Ramos Advocacia, a law firm Vorcaro hired to handle lawsuits over precatórios, the court-ordered debt payments Brazilian governments owe to creditors. The cases totaled 8.5 billion reais and success fees could reach 427 million reais, g1 reported. Metrópoles, a news site that obtained the contract, detailed the terms: net fees of 5% of whatever the bank recovered in 12 cases that discuss compensation tied to price controls by the former Sugar and Alcohol Institute (IAA).Fasano hotel, Formula 1 and a Supreme Court voteIn the conversations, Newton passed on to Vorcaro requests attributed to the justice. "Ministro Kassio me pediu para ver se vocês conseguem para ele uma tarifa promocional no Fasano. Só uma diária. Entrando sexta e saindo sábado. Recebi essa mensagem do Newton. OK para você?", reads one message quoted by Metrópoles, asking whether Vorcaro can get the justice a promotional rate for one night at the Fasano hotel. Vorcaro authorized the expense: "Pode botar na minha conta", or "put it on my account". Beyond hotel nights, the exchanges record Formula 1 tickets, access to events at the Rosewood hotel and a box at the Sambadrome, Metrópoles reported.Camilla celebrated Nunes Marques's vote in the precatórios judgment by the Second Panel, one of the STF's two five-justice panels, in a message to Vorcaro. "É um excelente voto do Min. Nunes Marques", she wrote, calling it an excellent opinion that distinguished the cases in which the court order set the compensation criteria. Metrópoles reported that Nunes Marques, Edson Fachin and Dias Toffoli voted to recognize the debt, while Gilmar Mendes and André Mendonça were outvoted. The site also noted that Nunes Marques had declared himself recused in the case and later reversed course.The justice's son and his denialAnother thread of the investigation reaches the justice's family. The Federal Police found messages between Vorcaro and Luiz Rennó, Banco Master's former legal director, in which they discuss supposed payments whose recipient would be Kevin Marques, Kassio's son. Rennó refers to "500 mil mês", or 500,000 reais a month, and says he is "dominado", or dominated, with regard to Kevin, g1 reported. In a statement, Nunes Marques denied any ties. He said he never exchanged messages with Vorcaro, never asked him for anything and never authorized anyone to speak on his behalf.The messages are part of the file the Federal Police sent in July to the office of Justice André Mendonça, the Master case's rapporteur at the STF. Justices Cristiano Zanin, Flávio Dino and Gilmar Mendes demanded access to the full material, amid suspicion that Mendonça had focused his review on Alexandre de Moraes, another justice; Mendonça denies any steering. Their demand remains pending before the court.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday (23) that he will end Brazil's licensed online betting industry, known locally as "bets", and that football clubs will have to find other sources of funding. "This is not a war, it is a decision," he said at a campaign event with artists in Rio de Janeiro, less than two weeks before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.According to G1, the statement answered pressure from club executives who oppose restrictions on the sector. "In the name of good politics, in the name of Brazilian society, we will end this, and let the teams learn to live without money laundering. That is it. It will be this way. And it will be good for the youth," Lula said. Folha de S.Paulo records another line from the same event: "We will end the bets, and let the teams learn to become businessmen's teams." The paper says the president was referring to the SAF law, which allows clubs to leave the member-owned model and adopt a corporate structure."My concern is that part of today's youth is tied to algorithms. And if we do not fight this fight, the algorithms will win. I have no problem saying it. I will have the immense pleasure of ending the bets."Decision expected by provisional decreeEarlier on Wednesday, Lula met ministers at the Palácio da Alvorada to discuss restrictions on betting. The meeting included Finance Minister Dario Durigan, Civil House chief Miriam Belchior, Budget and Planning Minister Bruno Moretti, Justice and Public Security Minister Wellington César, Communications Secretary Sidônio Palmeira and Central Bank President Gabriel Galípolo. Government members told G1 the meeting ended without a conclusion. Lula has already decided he wants to announce the end of the bets, but his team is split between a total ban and lighter measures, such as blocking advertising and banning online casino games like "Jogo do Tigrinho". The announcement is expected through a Medida Provisória, a presidential decree with the force of law that Congress must later approve, and executive agencies are already organizing internally on the assumption that it can be published at any moment.Club pressure and legal riskLast week, some of the country's leading clubs released a joint manifesto defending the regulated betting market and warning of "the end of Brazilian football" if restrictions move ahead. The note says investment by licensed betting companies "has become one of the main sources of revenue for the sport" and that the money also reaches smaller teams and lower divisions.Folha reports the obstacles cited by presidential aides. The regulated market began operating in 2025 with 85 licensed companies, each paying a R$ 30 million licensing fee, and a ban now would open a legal battle, with the risk that the federal government would have to compensate the platforms. Allies of the president cite betting as one cause of household debt: a study by Comsefaz, the national committee of state finance secretaries, found that Brazilian families lost R$ 62.5 billion to the bets in 2025.The next step is the publication of the provisional decree. Aides heard by Folha see a measure as imminent, barring an unexpected change in the president's stance, but are unsure of its scope. The issue has moved to the center of Lula's reelection campaign: on Friday (18) in Guarulhos and Saturday (19) in Florianópolis, he had already said he wants to end the bets in the country.

Incumbent governor Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicans party holds 55.2% of voter support in his reelection bid in São Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, against 41% for Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT), a former finance minister and former mayor of the city of São Paulo. The figures come from an AtlasIntel poll released on Wednesday, Sept. 23, in partnership with the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. At that level, Tarcísio would win outright in the first round.The poll interviewed 1,800 voters online, through random digital recruitment, between Sept. 15 and 20. It has a two-percentage-point margin of error, a 95% confidence level and is registered with the electoral court under protocols SP-02676 and BR-08437/2026. Counting only valid ballots, Tarcísio reaches 57.1% against 42.4% for Haddad, as reported by CartaCapital.The governor's lead has widened since the previous round of the survey, released on Sept. 3, when he had 51.1% to Haddad's 39.9%. Both candidates grew, by 4.1 points and 1.1 point respectively, and the gap moved from 11.2 to 14.2 points. In a runoff, Tarcísio would take 55.6% against 41.7%.No other candidate reaches 1%. Vivian Mendes (UP) and Carlos Machado (PCB) polled below that mark, and Vera Lúcia (PSTU) registered zero, according to Estadão. Blank and spoiled ballots add up to 2.6%, with 0.7% undecided.The presidential race in São PauloThe same poll measured the presidential contest in the state. In the first round, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) leads with 45.1% to 39.8% for President Lula (PT). In runoff scenarios reported by Estadão, Lula loses to Flávio, 42.8% to 48.8%, and to Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), 42.1% to 47.2%. He trails Romeu Zema (Novo) and Augusto Cury (Avante) numerically, though tied with both within the margin of error, and beats only Renan Santos (Missão), 43.5% to 38.9%.The first round of Brazil's general election is on Oct. 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two face a runoff on Oct. 25.

The campaign of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) has asked the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court, to bar President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin from using in campaign advertising any images or excerpts of the speech he gave on Tuesday (Sept 22) at the opening of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York. The filing, also submitted on behalf of Flávio's running mate Alfredo Gaspar (PL), seeks an injunction, the replacement of materials already produced and a fine of 50,000 reais per campaign piece or post in case of violation.Flávio's lawyers accuse Lula, who is running for reelection, of "conduta vedada", banned conduct, the electoral infraction that covers the use of government acts for campaign purposes. According to the petition, signed by lawyer Maria Claudia Bucchianeri and her team, the speech was "completely distorted and stripped of its purpose, turned into a political stage for personal promotion and electoral ends"."Lula's speech was that of a candidate. Not of a head of state. The UN, however, is not a campaign stage", the filing states.The action lists campaign themes that, according to Flávio's legal team, made their way into the president's speech: the end of the 6x1 work shift, limits on sports betting apps, the defense of the Pix payment system, national sovereignty, rare earths and the risk of foreign interference in the elections. Lula mentioned the October 4 vote directly and said Brazilians will "decide between democracy and denialism" and choose between moving forward or returning to a "past of exclusion". The petition also says the president used the structure and visibility of an official event to promote his candidacy, including when he presented himself as a worker elected three times who fought the dictatorship and took Brazil off the Hunger Map. The lawyers argue there is a risk the excerpts will be cut into campaign clips.The 2022 precedentThe request cites a precedent that affected Flávio's own father, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL). In the 2022 election, the TSE barred the then president, who was running for reelection, from using images of his UN General Assembly speech in campaign ads. The injunction was granted within an electoral judicial investigation case (AIJE) numbered 0601180-27.2022.6.00.0000, as reported by Correio Braziliense. That year, Bolsonaro used the UN podium to say his government had uprooted "systemic corruption" in the country and to attack Lula and left-wing leaders, Poder360 recalls.According to Poder360, Flávio's campaign had already gone to the TSE at least 15 other times against Lula's ticket over suspected use of the government machine for electoral purposes in 2026. The outlet contacted Lula's campaign for comment and received no reply by publication time. The court must now rule on the injunction request, 11 days before the first round on October 4.

Record, one of Brazil's largest television networks, cancelled on Wednesday, September 23, the presidential debate it had scheduled for Sunday (27), at 9 p.m., one week before the first round of the election on October 4. The network said it made the decision after the campaigns of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL candidate and eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, informed that the two men would not attend, according to the news site Poder360.In a statement, Record said the two candidates each poll above 35% of voting intentions in recent surveys, together about 70%. The network explained the cancellation this way:"The network understands that a debate days before the first round has the function of putting face to face the main proposals in dispute. Without the participation of the candidates who concentrate most voting intentions, the program would not fulfill that objective and would not offer voters the clash of ideas they expect."The column Outro Canal, of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, reported that Record will keep its normal programming in the slot. The network said it will continue its election coverage on free-to-air TV, on the news site R7.com, on Record News, on RecordPlus and on its digital platforms.Lula has not taken part in any debate so far in this campaign. Flávio Bolsonaro said on August 11 that he would only attend the events if the president did, according to Poder360.Voters go to the polls on October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes and the race goes to a runoff, Record has already set the date for its debate: October 11, a Sunday, at 9 p.m.

The campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party wants to finish ahead of President Lula of the PT in the first round of Brazil's presidential election. According to Valdo Cruz's blog at G1, the strategy is to build a sense of momentum strong enough to draw most voters away from the other right-wing candidates, including Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Romeu Zema (Novo), Augusto Cury (Avante) and Renan Santos (Missão). The PL team also hopes to win the formal backing of the Centrão, the bloc of pragmatic center and center-right parties in Congress that stayed out of the first round. The most optimistic voices in the campaign even talk about winning outright, riding what they call a "useful vote" wave.What the polls showThe race is at the edge of a tie. The latest Quaest survey has Bolsonaro at 42% and Lula at 41% in a potential runoff, G1 reports. A Datafolha poll found that in a second round the PL candidate could draw 43% of voters who currently back Zema, Renan Santos, Caiado and Cury, while Lula would take 30% of that group. Bolsonaro does best among Zema and Renan Santos voters. Among Caiado and Cury voters, the race is a technical tie. An AtlasIntel/Bloomberg poll cited by InfoMoney also shows a technical tie in the runoff, with a slight numerical edge for Lula.Lula's counter-strategyOn the president's side, every effort will go into finishing the first round in the lead, G1 reports. Allies point to two moves in Lula's favor: an already announced increase in the Bolsa Família cash transfer program, and a provisional measure, a decree with the force of law, to crack down on bets, the online gambling companies. The Painel S.A. column of Folha de S.Paulo reported on Wednesday that the measure is expected to be issued before the first round, and that platforms such as TikTok are already preparing for restrictions on gambling ads.Lula's team is betting on women voters, seen as decisive this year. Allies say the measure on bets will land hardest with women, who are the most critical of online gambling and a group in which the president already leads."The polls show a strong feeling against betting today. Lula will work with that feeling in his favor. It will weigh heavily, very heavily, in this final stretch," a presidential interlocutor said.According to that aide, entering the runoff in the lead would hold the Centrão in place and even influence allies of Flávio Bolsonaro. In the assessment of Lula's camp, São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of Republicanos should win reelection in the first round and will not campaign hard for the PL candidate in the final stretch. The reason, in that reading: Tarcísio is expected to run for president in 2030 and would rather not have Flávio Bolsonaro in the presidential palace next year.The first round is on October 4. If no candidate tops 50% of valid votes, the top two meet in a runoff on October 25.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the right wing PL party's candidate in Brazil's presidential race, earmarked a congressional budget amendment of R$ 199,999.79, funds lawmakers direct to local projects, for a sports scheme in Rio de Janeiro in November 2023. Federal Police findings show the money was negotiated over WhatsApp between a militia member, part of the armed groups often run by current and former police officers that control Rio neighborhoods, and an aide in his Senate office. The request came from Robson Calixto, known as Peixe, whom the Supreme Federal Tribunal sentenced in February to 9 years in prison for his role in the 2018 assassination of councilwoman Marielle Franco, killed alongside her driver, Anderson Gomes.The go-between was Maria de Fátima Bezerra Castro, a parliamentary secretary in Bolsonaro's Senate office. Police describe her as Peixe's "direct contact" there. The messages were seized in 2024 from the militia leader's phone, once he came under investigation for the killing, and are part of a sealed inquiry authorized by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes into suspected diversion of amendment money sent to organizations tied to the Brazão brothers, also convicted in the case. Prosecutors say Peixe was the link between the gunmen and the men who ordered the killing: brothers Domingos, a former Rio state audit court counselor, and Chiquinho Brazão, a former federal congressman. The conversations were reported first by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and the magazine piauí, and confirmed by Poder360, Globo's g1 portal and CNN.The messagesThe exchange began on October 24, 2023. "Friend, check with our senator if he can help us," Peixe wrote. Maria de Fátima replied: "Send the request, my friend. An email or an official letter." The militia member then sent a document titled "Official Letter No. 002_2023" and asked whether the senator could "help us with something" during a Brasilia visit planned for November.Two days later, the aide asked whether Peixe was still with congressman Chiquinho Brazão. "We have an event. You're coming too, and you reinforce the request with the senator," she wrote, then sent an invitation for Brazão to a ceremony delivering 396 ballistic vests to Rio's military police. In the police assessment, the invitation, "extendable to Robson", would be an occasion where "the request for funds could be personally pressed" with Bolsonaro. On November 6, Peixe insisted: "Good morning, friend, don't forget the IFOP, see if the senator can favor us, so our project doesn't end." The reply: "Leave it to me." Days later, the amendment was granted. On the militia member's phone, the aide's contact was saved as "Fafá Flavio Bolsonaro". In January 2024, she asked him for a "favor": four tickets to the Champions Parade samba event in the Arpoador box.Audit findings and the defenseThe money went to the Ministry of Sport, which signed an agreement with the Jose Carlos Procópio Professional Training Institute (IFOP) for a project called "Jogadores do Futuro" (Players of the Future) serving children in Taquara, a neighborhood in western Rio. A 2025 technical report by the TCU, the federal audit court, found signs that public money was diverted. According to the court, the company hired to run the sports activities "consists of 'legal services' and has no connection whatsoever with the coordination of sports activities", and the person responsible for it "is the president of the IFOP itself", the contracting entity. Police are also investigating about R$ 400,000 sent to the municipality of Barra do Piraí, in Rio state. The total transferred by amendment to an organization under investigation would be R$ 599,128, CNN reported.In a statement, Bolsonaro's defense said the amendment "was allocated under current legislation and the technical criteria of the Ministry of Sport". The statement said "the executing entity presented invoices for the materials purchased and returned the unused amounts", and that "responsibility for executing the funds lies with the beneficiary entity, not the lawmaker". Lawyer Tracy Reinaldet, who represents the candidate, told Poder360 the transfer did not use the automatic spending track known as "Pix amendments" and was subject to oversight by the Ministry of Sport and the TCU. The inquiry remains under seal at the Supreme Court. The first round of the presidential election is 11 days away, on October 4, and this week's polls, by AtlasIntel and Quaest, show Bolsonaro tied with President Lula in a runoff.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party leads Brazil's presidential race with 45.8% of first-round voting intentions, against 43.4% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, according to an AtlasIntel poll released on Wednesday (23). In a runoff, the two are statistically tied at 47.7% to 47.4%. The 0.3-point gap falls inside the survey's margin of error of one percentage point.Both candidates grew from the previous round of the same poll, released on September 17. According to figures reported by CartaCapital, Lula rose from 44.1% to 45.8% and Flávio Bolsonaro from 41.7% to 43.4%. Every other name lost ground. Congressman Renan Santos of the Missão party fell from 5.1% to 4.5%, and Augusto Cury of Avante dropped from 3.5% to 2.1%. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) has 1.3% and Romeu Zema (Novo) has 0.9%. The remaining candidates add up to 0.8%. Blank and spoiled ballots reach 0.7%, and 0.5% did not answer.Runoff scenariosThe pollster tested five head-to-head races. Lula wins four and ties the fifth, the one against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. In that matchup, blank and spoiled ballots plus undecided voters add up to 4.9%. The figures were reported by Poder360:Lula 47.7% to Flávio Bolsonaro 47.4%;Lula 47.6% to Romeu Zema 42.2%;Lula 46.6% to Ronaldo Caiado 44%;Lula 46.2% to Augusto Cury 39.4%;Lula 46.5% to Renan Santos 31.2%.Bloomberg Línea, which commissioned the survey with Bloomberg News, says the result shows little change from last week's poll, which already pointed to a technical tie.Method and contextAtlasIntel interviewed 5,015 people between September 17 and 22 through online questionnaires. The margin of error is one percentage point, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the electoral court under number BR-04739/2026. According to Poder360, it cost R$ 75,000 and was paid by the pollster with its own funds.Bloomberg Línea reports that the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court weighs on both candidates. Flávio Bolsonaro gained ground after reports linked court justices to Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master who is jailed at the center of a bank fraud investigation. The senator, who is running for president, tries to tie the scandal to Lula. He denies any wrongdoing and is a target of a Federal Police investigation into money laundering, corruption and tax evasion related to his ties to Vorcaro. Lula, who is seeking another term, raised payments of Bolsa Família, the government's main cash-transfer program, last week.The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate passes 50% of valid votes, the runoff takes place three weeks later, on October 25. Polls measure voting intentions at the time they are taken and are not predictions of the outcome.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Tuesday (22) drew Justice Cristiano Zanin to report a case filed by Senator Alessandro Vieira that seeks to force Senate President Davi Alcolumbre to install a congressional inquiry into Banco Master. The inquiry, known by the Portuguese acronym CPI, would examine alleged ties between two court justices, Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli, and the bank's owner, Daniel Vorcaro, according to the news site Metrópoles.Vieira's petition says the request to create the inquiry was filed with the Senate on March 9. Nearly six months later, Alcolumbre has not ordered the request to be read, numbered or published. That delay is what took the senator to the court.Requirements and precedentVieira argues that the Senate president has no authority to decide when to create the committee. All constitutional requirements were met, according to the filing: support from one third of the chamber, a determined fact and a defined time frame. The Constitution requires 27 of 81 signatures. The request gathered 35 on the day it was filed and later reached 41, according to documents cited by Metrópoles.The senator points to a precedent. In 2021, the STF ordered Rodrigo Pacheco, the Senate president at the time, to install the COVID-19 inquiry known as the CPI da Pandemia. Vieira now asks the court to give Alcolumbre 48 hours, or until the first plenary session after notice, to read the request and take the steps to set up the committee. He also asks that party leaders have 48 hours to nominate full members and alternates. Without nominations, Alcolumbre himself would choose the members.The proposed committee would have 11 full members and six alternates, a 120-day mandate and a spending cap of 50,000 reais. Its stated goal is to investigate possible personal, financial or other ties between Moraes, Toffoli, Vorcaro and people connected to Banco Master.What comes nextThe next move belongs to Zanin, who will review the request and decide whether the court will order Alcolumbre to act. The case is one of several Banco Master disputes before the court. On the same day, Justice Luiz Fux was drawn to report a separate Master-related request seeking the release of records of entries and exits by Vorcaro and Moraes' wife into Senate buildings, according to Jornal do Commercio.

Brazil's main presidential candidates have together raised more than R$ 10 million from individual donors. The figures were declared to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) through Tuesday and compiled by g1, Globo's news portal. How the money is spread varies widely from campaign to campaign.Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) leads individual fundraising among the contenders. The declared totals are:Flávio Bolsonaro (PL): R$ 2.9 millionRonaldo Caiado (PSD): R$ 2.5 millionRenan Santos (Missão): R$ 2.2 millionLula (PT): R$ 1.4 millionAugusto Cury (Avante): R$ 562,000Romeu Zema (Novo): R$ 300,000According to g1, the data reflect revenue entries already filed and can be updated as new donations are registered with electoral authorities. Direct corporate donations to campaigns have been banned in Brazil since 2015, so individual donors, candidates themselves and party funds are the legal sources of campaign money.The same donor on rival campaignsThe largest donation received by both Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula was R$ 500,000, and it came from the same businessman: Erasmo Carlos Battistella, CEO of Be8. According to data from the National Petroleum Agency (ANP) cited by g1, the company, based in Passo Fundo, in Rio Grande do Sul state, is Brazil's largest biodiesel producer.Flávio Bolsonaro's support came mainly from businesspeople and farmers. The Verdi family, owner of the Rodobens group, sent R$ 300,000. The CEO and the new business director of jeans maker Vicunha Têxtil, Marco Antônio Branquinho Junior and Marcel Yoshimi Imaizumi, together added R$ 225,000.Lula's filings include people close to his government and donations in the form of services. Gospel singer and pastor Kleber Lucas declared R$ 30,000 for recording the campaign jingle and video. Campaign coordinator Marco Aurélio de Carvalho and Labor and Employment Minister Luiz Marinho also appear, alongside academics such as FGV professor Rabih Nasser and University of São Paulo doctoral student Mayra Cristina da Luz Pádua Guimarães. These contributions range from R$ 15,000 to R$ 50,000.The largest single donation in the raceRonaldo Caiado logged the biggest donation from an individual to any presidential candidate: R$ 2.3 million from jurist and businessman Carlos Eduardo Ferraz de Mattos Barroso, who owns a real estate registry office in the Federal District. The former governor of Goiás also received money from campaign coordinator Aldo Rebelo and from former congressman and former minister Roberto Brant, who worked on his government plan.Renan Santos leans on online crowdfunding, which has brought in R$ 2 million. Outside the crowdfunding drives, he received R$ 50,000 from the children of former Banco Safra president José Olympio Pereira and from Danilo Julio Gatto, head of an agricultural cooperative in Unaí, Minas Gerais. Augusto Cury is his own biggest donor, with more than R$ 100,000, followed by businessman Jangiê Diniz and Wilson de Matos Silva, founder and rector of a university where Cury was once a partner. Zema received R$ 100,000 from brothers Hélio Seibel and Salo Davi Seibel, owners of the former Grupo Ligna, and R$ 200,000 from Renato Ribeiro Machado, a board member and shareholder of mining company U&M Mineração e Construção.Rules and the deadlineMárcio Nogueira, president of the Rondônia chapter of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) and a specialist in electoral law, says candidates and parties may raise funds until election day. After that, fundraising is allowed only to settle expenses already incurred. Cash donations are capped at 10% of the donor's gross income in the previous year. Goods and services may be donated up to R$ 40,000 per person; above that, the 10% ceiling applies.The law also requires that donated goods belong to the donor, that services be performed by the donor personally and that declared values match market prices. Campaigns have until October 4, the date of the first round, to raise new money. From then on, they may collect funds only to pay bills already run up, and the TSE figures will keep changing as new entries are filed.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the presidential candidate of Brazil's right-wing PL party and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, lifted a framed portrait of his father at a rally on Tuesday, September 22, in São Luís, capital of the northeastern state of Maranhão, and dared the electoral court of Rio de Janeiro to take it. The move came one day after agents of the TRE-RJ, the regional electoral tribunal of Rio, seized a similar piece during street campaigning in Teresópolis, in Rio's mountain region.According to UOL and Folha PE, the senator repeated the challenge before a crowd gathered at a store parking lot on Avenida Daniel de La Touche, in the Cohajap neighborhood, after a motorcycle caravan through the city:"Come take my painting here, electoral court. Come take my painting. You will have to take me with it, because I will honor this man," Flávio said, referring to his father.The seizure that prompted the scene took place on Monday, September 21. TRE-RJ agents confiscated the portrait carried by Rafael Satiê, a Rio city councilman running for the Chamber of Deputies with the PL, on the grounds that it amounted to irregular campaign material. "This is not campaign material. Is Bolsonaro a candidate?" Satiê asked in a video posted on social media. He called the operation ridiculous and said a campaign worker was threatened with arrest during the approach. According to one agent heard in the video, the man had threatened a police officer. Contacted by Revista Oeste, the TRE-RJ press office had not answered questions on the legal basis of the seizure by the time of publication.What the electoral courts sayThe dispute over Jair Bolsonaro's image escalated last week, when TSE Justice Estela Aranha granted an injunction ordering the withdrawal of campaign materials that use the former president's photo in a way that conveys support for a candidacy. The ruling answered a complaint by São Paulo state deputy Duda Hidalgo of the PT against fellow state deputy Lucas Bove of the PL, whose campaign had produced 50,000 santinhos, the small leaflets handed out to voters, showing Bolsonaro's image next to his own photo, name and ballot number. The restriction does not cover every photograph of the former president, only pieces in which the context presents him as a supporter of a candidate. In the justice's reading, the measures imposed on the former president by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) bar political-electoral statements "including by third parties, regardless of the means used." Those measures stem from a decision by Justice Alexandre de Moraes that bans Jair Bolsonaro from publicizing political-electoral statements until the end of the 2026 elections.The episode comes 12 days before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4, in which Flávio Bolsonaro, according to Folha PE, is the main challenger to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT. In São Luís, the candidate said he would appoint five new justices to the Supreme Court if elected, according to G1, and again claimed, without presenting evidence, that the court is trying to interfere in the election. The TSE, Brazil's top electoral court, is also investigating him on suspicion of irregular boosting of his social media posts.

A Quaest poll released on Monday (Sept 21) shows a statistical tie between Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and the candidate of the right-wing PL party, and President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) in a simulated runoff of Brazil's presidential election. The senator has 42% of vote intentions, against 41% for the incumbent. The one-point gap sits inside the poll's margin of error of two percentage points. The survey was commissioned by Globo, Brazil's largest media group, and interviewed 2,004 voters between Sept 17 and 20, with a 95% confidence level. Its registration number with the electoral court is BR-06004/2026.This is the pollster's first survey since the government announced an increase in Bolsa Família, Brazil's main cash-transfer program. The minimum payment rises from 600 to 691 reais and the average benefit from 675 to 777 reais. The raise takes effect between the first round and a possible runoff. Flávio criticized the move and accused Lula of trying to "buy the vote of the poorest". He called the increase "an act of desperation".Voter segmentsAmong Bolsa Família recipients, Lula leads 56% to 30% in the runoff scenario, according to breakdowns published by g1, Globo's news portal. His lead in the Northeast fell from 32 to 26 points, now standing at 57% to 31%. In the Southeast, Flávio's advantage narrowed from 16 to 7 points. Among women, Lula rose from 41% to 44%, while Flávio slipped from 38% to 37%. Among evangelical voters, the senator leads 58% to 28%. He is ahead 48% to 36% in the Center-West and North, and 52% to 30% in the South.In the first-round simulation, Lula has 37% and Flávio 33%. It is the first time in the campaign that the two are statistically tied in that scenario. A week earlier, the president had 36% and the senator 31%. Augusto Cury has 6%, Ronaldo Caiado 4% and Renan Santos 3%. Rejection of both frontrunners remains above 50%: 56% of voters say they would not vote for Flávio, and 55% say the same about Lula. According to O Globo, this was also the first Quaest round after the Supreme Court session that opened discussion on a possible investigation of Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the Master Bank case.Pernambuco: a 27.8-point lead for LulaIn Pernambuco, the picture is the opposite of the national one, and the numbers come from a different pollster. A separate AtlasIntel survey released on Tuesday (Sept 22) gives 60.5% of vote intentions to Lula and 32.7% to Flávio in a simulated runoff in the state, according to Poder360. Blank, null and undecided answers add up to 6.9%. Counting only valid votes, the president reaches 64.9%. In the state's first-round scenario, Lula has 58.3% and Flávio 29.9%. No other candidate tops Cury's 3.2%. AtlasIntel interviewed 1,836 voters between Sept 15 and 20, with a two-point margin of error. The registrations are PE-02023/2026 and BR-09256/2026.The first round is scheduled for Oct 4, less than two weeks away. Felipe Nunes, Quaest's director, summed up the moment in an analysis published by O Globo's Pulso blog: "The moment of decision has arrived. The definition of the winner, not yet". Among respondents who have already picked a candidate, 79% call their choice final and 21% say they may still change.

Forty-seven percent of Brazilian women who head their households say they will vote for President Lula of the Workers' Party. Twenty-seven percent name Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party. The figures come from a breakdown of a Datafolha poll published on Tuesday by Folha de S.Paulo, the newspaper that runs the institute, 12 days before the first round of the presidential election.The cut covers women who say they are the main breadwinners at home, a group the newspaper calls decisive in the country's poor outskirts. Their 20-point preference for Lula contrasts with the overall race: on Monday, news site UOL reported a tie between the two candidates in first- and second-round scenarios, and the BBC News Brasil poll tracker has Bolsonaro ahead in runoff matchups.Folha's report, by Paulo Saldaña, opens with the story of Cenir Aparecida da Silva, 58, a construction forewoman in a poor district of Belo Horizonte. A single mother of four, she has spent 28 years on building sites. "I started when my youngest daughter was three months old", she told the paper. She also describes harassment on the job: "I hit him in the face on the spot. It was settled."Final stretchIn the free TV campaign slots on Tuesday, both campaigns centered their pitches on food prices, according to news site g1. The October 4 ballot also features Caiado (PSD), Zema (Novo), Cury (Avante) and Renan (Missão), according to Poder360.If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, the top two meet in a runoff. Until then, the race stays on the streets and on free TV airtime, with voting set for October 4.

Raquel Lyra, the governor of Pernambuco and a reelection candidate, appears in a video suggesting that a pregnant mother of seven undergo a tubal ligation "without her knowing." The recording was made in May 2025 in Garanhuns, in the interior of the northeastern state, and surfaced on Sunday, in the middle of her campaign. According to g1, sterilization without consent is a crime in Brazil, punishable by up to 8 years in prison.The exchange took place at an inauguration ceremony at the Hospital Regional Dom Moura on May 21, 2025. Beside the governor are Carla Patrícia Gomes de Oliveira Albuquerque, the social assistance secretary of Jupi, a small municipality in the Agreste region; Rivanda Freire Lima, the mayor and a member of Lyra's PSD party; and Deputy Mayor Lêdson Liberato of União Brasil. G1 reported that Carla Patrícia is the mayor's daughter-in-law. The group was allied with Lyra but has endorsed her main rival, João Campos of the PSB, in this year's election. In the recording, the secretary describes a pregnant patient and the governor replies:"Oh my God! Then she has to get a tubal ligation, you know? We can put her in line for it. That I can do. (...) But do it without her knowing."The final line follows an inaudible remark by Carla Patrícia, according to g1's transcript. Brazilian law, statute 9.263/1996, allows sterilization only on a voluntary basis, for people over 21 or with at least two living children, and requires a minimum 60-day wait between the request and the surgery, as Folha de S.Paulo noted. It is not known whether the woman mentioned in the video underwent the procedure: g1 said it contacted Carla Patrícia and received no reply. The Jupi city government said the informal conversation "did not represent an official statement nor result in any action" and that it has no information about who the woman is.The apologyLyra apologized publicly on Sunday, when the video spread on social media. "As a mother, as a woman, I know how hard it is to decide about family planning. My words in no way reflect the respect I have for women. That is why I apologize. It was a mistaken remark. I have no commitment to error," she wrote.Her campaign also issued a statement, according to g1. It concedes that the remark in Garanhuns "was unfortunate," argues that the election "should be decided by the presentation of proposals, not by the manufacturing of attacks" and calls the video "one more attempt to divert focus from what really matters, which is Pernambuco." Lyra faces João Campos in the first round of voting, scheduled for October 4.

Justice Luiz Fux was drawn by lot on Tuesday (22) as the new reporting justice at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) for a case that seeks to force the Senate to release visitor entry and exit logs. The records requested include those of lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, the wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and banker Daniel Vorcaro. The assignment came one day after Moraes recused himself from the case.Moraes had been drawn as reporting justice on Friday (18) through the court's electronic case-distribution system. On Monday (21), according to G1, he wrote in an order that he could not proceed, citing the Code of Civil Procedure, which bars a judge from hearing a case in which a spouse is a party. The case went to the court's presidency for redistribution, and a new draw selected Fux.The information requestThe lawsuit was filed by Guilherme Kilter, a Curitiba city councilman running for the lower house of Congress, from the free-market party Novo. Using Brazil's freedom-of-information law, he asked the Senate for access logs covering Viviane, Vorcaro, José Ferreira da Silva (known as Frei Chico, brother of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva), Fábio Luís Lula da Silva (the president's son) and Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as Careca do INSS. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre denied the request, arguing the logs are personal data.In the filing, Kilter calls the refusal illegal and says it has no basis in the access-to-information law or in Brazil's data-protection law, the LGPD."violating the citizen's clear and certain right of access to information"The case reached the STF after a federal court in the state of Paraná declared itself without jurisdiction. Federal judge Thais Sampaio da Silva Machado held that only the Supreme Court can hear a mandado de segurança, a fast-track constitutional remedy, against an act by the Senate president, InfoMoney reported.Fux's own name has appeared in the Federal Police inquiry into Vorcaro's Banco Master. Seized messages, reported in September, indicate the banker paid for a trip and a tribute to the justice in New York. As reporting justice, Fux will now review the request and decide whether the Senate can be compelled to hand over the entry and exit logs.

The campaigns of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro put food prices at the center of Brazil's free electoral broadcasts on Tuesday (22), two weeks before the first round of the presidential election. According to the news outlet g1, the programs aired direct attacks between the two candidates and opposite versions of the cost of living.Attacks on the airFlávio Bolsonaro opened the electoral airtime, which rotates between the candidates on TV and radio. In his program, the senator said Lula tries to "confuse" voters with information he called false and said he will present proposals instead of answering attacks. The program also laid out public safety pledges: five maximum-security federal prisons, cell phone blocking inside prisons, a fourfold sentence for cell phone robbery and a lower age of criminal responsibility."From my side, you have never seen dirty play and you never will. Now, do you know why Lula, instead of saying what he did, keeps talking badly about me? The word is shame. Lula talks badly about me because he does not want to face the shame of Brazil having today the record number of indebted Brazilians in its entire history... unable to fill the shopping cart at the supermarket. Because his government is a shame", Flávio Bolsonaro said.Lula's program focused on economic and social measures: ending the 6-by-1 shift system, expanding the Pé-de-Meia student stipend program, creating a national cancer care network and exempting staple foods from taxes. The president tied his opponent to the government of his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and the program closed with the slogan "Flávio talks. Lula delivers"."During the Bolsonaro government, food prices exploded and I will show you how this affected and still affects your life. Rice and beans rose more than 45% and hunger came back. Unemployment grew... Lula began the work of bringing back people's purchasing power. But you still feel it in your pocket because rebuilding takes time", Lula said in the broadcast.Polls and an electoral court fightThe clash comes as the race tightens. A Quaest poll released on Monday (21) gives Lula 37% of voter intentions against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round. In a possible runoff, the two are in a technical tie, with 42% for the senator and 41% for the president. According to g1, Lula's team is trying to shift attention away from a crisis involving the Supreme Federal Tribunal that dominated the news last week, while the senator's campaign aims to cut the gap in the Northeast region and grow in the Southeast.The fight over food prices has also reached the courts. According to Brasil de Fato, Lula's coalition, Brasil Pronto pra Mais, filed a complaint on Monday (21) with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral court, against a video posted on the senator's social media asking "How much is picanha in your city?". The coalition says the video takes a Lula quote out of context, points to 105,000 reais in paid boosting between September 13 and 18, in four versions with an estimated reach of more than one million accounts, and asks for the video's removal and a 240,000-real fine. The case's rapporteur is Justice André Mendonça.The broadcasts continue in rotation until the eve of the first round, scheduled for October 4. As of publication, Mendonça had not ruled on the removal request.

Brazilian senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), a presidential candidate, allocated an earmark of R$ 199,999.79 in November 2023 to a sports project in Rio de Janeiro after a request from Robson Calixto, known as Peixe, a militiaman convicted by Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) for his role in the assassination of Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco. The negotiation appears in WhatsApp messages seized by the Federal Police and obtained by news site g1. The case was first reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and the magazine piauí.The go-between was Maria de Fátima Bezerra Castro, a parliamentary secretary in Bolsonaro's Senate office whom the Federal Police describes as Peixe's "direct interlocutor". In messages translated from Portuguese, the militiaman wrote on October 24, 2023: "Amiga, check with our Senator if he can help us". She replied: "Send me the request, my friend. An email or an official letter". Peixe then sent document "Ofício nº 002_2023".Two days later, the aide asked whether Peixe still had access to Chiquinho Brazão, then a federal deputy, brother of Domingos Brazão, then a counselor at the Rio state audit court. Both brothers were later convicted by the STF as the masterminds of the murder. "We have an event. You come too, and you can press the request with the senator", she wrote, sending an invitation to a ceremony delivering 396 ballistic vests to the Rio military police. According to the Federal Police, the invitation, which extended to Peixe, offered a chance to press the funding request with Bolsonaro in person.On November 6, Peixe insisted: "Good morning, friend, don't forget the IFOP, see if the Senator can come through for us, so our project does not end". "Leave it to me", she answered. Days later, the earmark was granted. Bolsonaro transferred the funds to the Ministry of Sport, which signed an agreement with the Instituto de Formação Profissional José Carlos Procópio (IFOP), a vocational institute in Taquara, in western Rio, to run "Jogadores do Futuro", a project for children. In January 2024, according to the police, the aide asked Peixe for favors, including four tickets to Rio's carnival champions' parade: "I'm bugging you again hehe, could you get 4 tickets for the champions' parade in the Arpoador box?".Signs of diversion and the defenseA 2025 technical report by the federal audit court (TCU) found signs that the money was diverted. The company hired by IFOP to coordinate the sports training was Romulo Alves, a one-lawyer firm. The court wrote that the contract had "no relation to the coordination of a sports activities project" and that "the person responsible for the company [...] is the president of IFOP itself, the contracting entity". The Federal Police also found signs that the funds were diverted.Bolsonaro's office denied any wrongdoing. It said the earmark "was allocated within current legislation" and that the transfers followed technical criteria from the Ministry of Sport, according to Folha de S.Paulo."The executing entity presented invoices for the materials acquired and returned the unused funds. Responsibility for executing the funds lies with the beneficiary entity, not with the lawmaker. Any irregularities must be investigated by the oversight bodies, as the law determines."Peixe was sentenced by the STF in February to 9 years in prison and the loss of his retired military police post. The court found he was the link between the gunmen and the Brazão brothers, each sentenced to 76 years and 3 months. Marielle Franco, a left-wing councilwoman, and her driver, Anderson Gomes, were shot dead in Rio in March 2018. Militias, armed groups with roots in police forces, control territory in western Rio.The disclosure comes less than two weeks before the first round of the presidential election on October 4, in which Bolsonaro challenges President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. His office says any irregularities are a matter for oversight bodies. The messages came from the Federal Police investigation into the Marielle case, whose records were accessed by g1 and Folha.

São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas, who is running for reelection, did not appear on Monday (21) for a debate with Fernando Haddad, his main rival in the state race, broadcast by TV Record. The network kept the podium reserved for the governor empty throughout the program and turned the event into a 30-minute solo interview with Haddad, the only candidate present. According to the newspaper O Globo, Tarcísio had no campaign events scheduled during the debate.Haddad, a former finance minister, stood beside the empty podium and called the absence disrespectful to voters."His absence reveals not only disrespect for the voter, but also that his proposals are not convincing for a second term. It shows that, perhaps, with a clash of ideas, voters might have given São Paulo a new direction," Haddad saidThe Workers Party candidate used the airtime to criticize the privatization of water utility Sabesp, problems on commuter rail lines, the fight against organized crime and the state's results in the Ideb, Brazil's school quality index. According to R7, Record's news portal, he thanked the network for keeping the event despite the absence of his opponent and said he regretted not being able to compare government plans face to face.Debates are "more of the same," Tarcísio saysTarcísio, of the Republicanos party, said the debate format is worn out. "The debates need a revision in terms of model, because they have become much more of the same. Is it adding anything for the voter?" the governor said, adding that a debate "cannot be just a place to provide clips for social media." On the day of the program he attended a morning meeting with young people at CIEE, a school-to-work integration center in São Paulo, according to O Globo.The polls explain the mood of the race. According to Datafolha, Tarcísio leads by 20 percentage points. A Real Time Big Data survey published by R7 gives him 53% of first-round voting intentions, against 38% for Haddad. The only debate held so far with both candidates took place on August 9, on the Band network. Record opened a series of debates for state government races on the same night, when Record Brasília also gathered the candidates for governor of the Federal District.The first round of Brazil's general elections, which include governorships, is scheduled for October 4. O Globo reports that more events with the two candidates are planned until election day, including on broadcast television.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) recused himself on Monday, September 21, from acting as rapporteur in a case that asks the Senate to release visitor entry and exit records, including those of his wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. G1 reported the decision.Moraes had been assigned the case by the court's random distribution system. In his order, he cited Brazil's Code of Civil Procedure, which bars a judge from hearing a case in which a spouse is a party. The case files now go to the STF presidency for reassignment to another justice.The request and the case's pathThe lawsuit was filed by Guilherme Kilter, a Curitiba city councilman running for a federal deputy seat with the Novo party. According to CartaCapital, he wants the entry and exit times of eight people who visited the Senate between 2019 and 2026. Besides the justice's wife and Vorcaro, the request covers Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, a son of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, nicknamed Careca do INSS. G1 reports the request also includes José Ferreira da Silva, known as Frei Chico, Lula's brother.The road to the STF was long. Kilter first sought the data under Brazil's freedom of information law, and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre denied the request, citing personal data protection. Kilter then sued in federal court in Paraná state. Judge Thais Sampaio da Silva Machado ruled the court had no jurisdiction, because the respondent, Alcolumbre, can be tried only by the STF. In the filing, Kilter calls the refusal unlawful and unsupported by the freedom of information law and the data protection law known as LGPD, and says the Senate violates the citizen's clear and certain right of access to information. He argues the records are needed to monitor meetings in the Senate.The Master caseThe lawsuit reaches the STF amid the crisis around the Banco Master affair. According to CartaCapital, messages taken from Vorcaro's phone mention Moraes and his wife, a partner at the Barci de Moraes law firm, and suggest the couple may have benefited from favors from the then banker while the firm provided compliance services to Banco Master. The STF plenary has yet to review the Federal Police report on the exchanges between Vorcaro and Moraes.Next step: the STF presidency will reassign the case by lottery to another justice, who will decide whether to order the Senate to hand over the visitor records.

A Quaest poll released on Monday (21) shows Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) at 42% and President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) at 41% in a simulated runoff in Brazil's presidential race. The one-point gap falls inside the survey's two-percentage-point margin of error, a technical tie. Globo and the newspaper O Globo commissioned the poll.In the first round, Lula leads with 37% against 33% for Bolsonaro, a senator from Rio de Janeiro, according to figures published by G1, Globo's news portal. Flavio is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, whom Folha de S.Paulo describes as convicted and jailed for an attempted coup d'etat. A week earlier, the president had 36% and the senator 31%.The rest of the first-round fieldBehind the two front-runners, writer Augusto Cury (Avante) holds 6%. Former Goias governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) has 4%, Renan Santos (Missao) has 3% and former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) has 1%, level with Samara Martins (UP). Blank and spoiled ballots plus voters who say they will stay home add up to 7%, and 8% are undecided.Other runoff scenarios, rejection and the calendarLast week's Quaest round already showed a runoff tie, at 42% for Flavio Bolsonaro and 40% for Lula. The president gained one point and the senator stayed put. The institute also tested four other pairings: Lula 41% to 39% against Caiado; 41% to 38% against Renan Santos; 39% to 35% against Cury; and 46% to 32% against Zema.Rejection of the two rivals is nearly identical: 56% of respondents say they know Flavio Bolsonaro and would not vote for him, and 55% say the same of Lula. Among those who have picked a candidate, 79% call the choice final and 21% say they could still change.Quaest interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over across the country between September 17 and 20. The margin of error is two percentage points and the confidence level is 95%. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazilian elections, under number BR-06004/2026. Voting in the first round takes place on October 4; if no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the runoff is set for October 25. According to Folha, both campaigns are stepping up their push for a "useful vote" in the final stretch, urging backers of trailing candidates to rally behind one of the two front-runners.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) was assigned by lottery to report a case that asks the Senate for the entry and exit records of visitors to senators' offices between 2019 and 2026. Among the names covered by the request are his own wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, and Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro.The court's system distributed the case by lot. Folha de S.Paulo reports the draw took place on Friday (18); CartaCapital dates it to Monday (21). The justice can declare himself barred from hearing the case. Folha says it contacted the STF press office on Monday by email and WhatsApp to ask whether he will step aside and received no reply.The request was filed by Curitiba city councilman and congressional candidate Guilherme Kilter of the Novo party. He wants the times of eight people who entered the Senate in the period, according to CartaCapital. Besides Viviane and Vorcaro, the list includes Fabio Luis Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, son of President Lula; Antonio Carlos Camilo Antunes, known as Careca do INSS; and union leader Frei Chico, the president's brother. Kilter argues the records are needed to oversee Senate meetings and to track investigations into irregularities, CartaCapital reports.How the case reached the courtKilter first asked for the data under the LAI, Brazil's freedom of information law. The Senate refused. He then sued in federal court in Parana and named Senate President Davi Alcolumbre as the responsible authority. Judge Thais Sampaio da Silva Machado of the 1st Federal Court of Curitiba ruled the case belonged to the STF, because Alcolumbre benefits from "foro privilegiado", the privileged jurisdiction that sends cases involving top officials to the Supreme Court."Since the President of the Federal Senate is the highest representative and a member of that chamber's governing board, original jurisdiction to hear this writ against an act attributed to him exceeds the jurisdiction of this first-instance federal court, falling exclusively to the Supreme Court," the judge wrote.According to Folha, Viviane's law firm signed a 131 million reais contract with Banco Master, and federal police say the document was edited by the justice before it was signed. The firm denies any irregularity and says he intervened as the husband of a partner. The other names on the list linked to Lula were central to the joint Senate inquiry, or CPI, into improper deductions from INSS pension payments; its final report, which sought charges against Lulinha, was rejected, and the matter is also under investigation at the STF.The next step depends on Moraes. According to CNN Brasil, he can declare himself conflicted or barred and ask court President Edson Fachin for a new draw. No deadline is set. If he keeps the case, it would be the first involving his wife and Banco Master to pass through his desk: the case on the bank runs in the court's Second Panel, a panel Moraes does not sit on, CNN reports.

Messages exchanged by Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker behind Banco Master, indicate that in December 2024 he asked the bank's then legal director to hand "a case or legal opinion" to Enrique Lewandowski, son of retired Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Ricardo Lewandowski. The goal, according to Folha de S.Paulo, was to justify the bank's contract with the young lawyer's firm. The conversations come from a Federal Police extraction of Vorcaro's phone and were obtained by the newspaper, which published them on Monday (21).The dialogueThe first exchange on the subject came at 9 p.m. on December 9, 2024. Vorcaro wrote to Luiz Rennó, then Master's legal director: "preciso. ajuda sua (sic)" (I need it. Your help). He then forwarded Enrique's contact. Rennó replied: "Claro! Aqui o que está pegando? Chamar? Posso?" (Sure! What's going on here? Call him? May I?). Vorcaro then detailed the instruction, in free translation:"Calm down. We have a contract. He has to be called urgently. At the bank. You introduce yourself. Say the director changed. Apologize for the lost contact. And give him some case or legal opinion to do."Rennó confirmed the orders: "Já havíamos no passado informado! Mas irei chamar e alinhar" (We had informed him in the past! But I will call him and align things). Vorcaro insisted: "Tem que chamar ele no banco. Fazer presencial. E já pedir algo" (He has to be called at the bank. In person. And ask him for something right away). Minutes later, the legal director answered: "Amigo, relaxa! Resolvido amanhã. Vc precisa de algo específico?" (Friend, relax! Solved tomorrow. Do you need something specific?).At the time of the messages, Ricardo Lewandowski was running the Justice Ministry in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government, a post he left in January this year. Between his retirement from the Supreme Court in April 2023 and joining the government in February 2024, he worked for Master as a lawyer, Folha reports.The contractThe contract between Master and Lewandowski Advocacia began in August 2023 as an "institutional consultancy" by Ricardo Lewandowski himself. According to columnist Malu Gaspar of O Globo, citing a report by the outlet Metrópoles, it paid 250,000 reais a month and brought the Lewandowskis 6.5 million reais between August 2023 and August 2025. When the elder Lewandowski took office as justice minister, the consultancy passed to his son, a specialist in tax matters. In the following 21 months, the firm billed another 5 million reais from the bank.In a statement to the report, Enrique's firm said it signed with Banco Master "a legal consulting contract in August 2023, valid until August 2025, when the services were terminated." The firm said that from 2024 the consultancy focused on tax matters and that the lawyer's contacts took place "with the bank's legal department." In January, according to O Globo, the firm had said no legal opinions were drafted and no specific cases were defended for the bank.Payments stopped in September 2025, when Brazil's Central Bank vetoed the purchase of Master by the state-owned BRB, O Globo reported. The newly revealed messages are part of the material taken from Vorcaro's phone in the Federal Police inquiry into the Master case, which remains open.

The feud among justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has cast doubt on the progress of the investigations into Banco Master and the pension fraud at the INSS, the federal agency that pays retirement benefits. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the open questions range from new police operations to response times for requests by the Federal Police and by suspects, and even which justice will rule on urgent matters. Investigators, defense lawyers and judges privately report fear that the dispute could drag on for months and contaminate the cases.The turning point came less than two weeks ago. Court President Edson Fachin ordered the case files sent to the President's chambers. The rapporteur remains, officially, Justice André Mendonça, but the records now sit with the presidency of the court. Folha notes the move is unusual and has drawn criticism. The suspension, last week, of the judgment on the report about messages from banker Daniel Vorcaro to Justice Alexandre de Moraes made the scenario even more uncertain.Federal Police holds back, prosecutors work "as far as possible"Officials at the top of the Federal Police and the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) told Folha that procedural questions remain. Since Fachin's decision, the Federal Police has filed no request with the court and has no plans to do so soon. Inside the prosecution service, the assessment is that only talks on plea bargain agreements can move ahead, because they do not depend on a judge during the negotiation phase. Officials say the work continues "as far as possible", with analysis of material already gathered and depositions, which need no prior judicial authorization. Mendonça recently approved the plea deal of Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior.Origins of the crisis and what comes nextThe dispute escalated on September 3, when Moraes told Fachin of facts that, in his reading, pointed to acts by his colleague that could amount to administrative misconduct, a crime of responsibility and abuse of authority, as reported by Poder360. The request was made within the fake news inquiry, opened in 2019 and still inconclusive. It came two days after Mendonça made public, on September 1, part of the Banco Master investigation. According to the Federal Police, there were 52 messages sent by Vorcaro to Moraes, found in the notes app of the banker's phone, with no record of any replies. Moraes argues Mendonça has been steering the inquiries against members of the court. The police intelligence report Moraes presented, though, describes itself as a scenario analysis without probative value.The next step has a deadline. Monday (21) ends the five working days Fachin gave Mendonça to respond to Moraes's allegations, after Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet weighed in. With or without a response, the files return to the STF presidency for review. Separately, the full bench still has to decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes over his exchanges with Vorcaro. That judgment was frozen by a request for more time from Justice Flávio Dino, which can delay a merits vote by up to 90 days.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is statistically tied with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and with former governors Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema in simulated runoffs for Brazil's October presidential election. The numbers come from a survey by the polling institute Palver released on Monday (21) and reported by CNN Brasil.In all three scenarios, the opponents are numerically ahead. Flávio Bolsonaro polls 47% of vote intentions to the president's 43%. Caiado, a former governor of Goiás, and Zema, a former governor of Minas Gerais, each stand at 44%, again against Lula's 43%. With a margin of error of three percentage points, the institute rates all three races as technical ties, the term Brazilian pollsters use when the gap falls inside the margin. Blank votes, null votes and abstentions add up to 9% in the scenario against Flávio Bolsonaro, 12% against Caiado and 11% against Zema, with 1% undecided in all three matchups.The picture changes when the opponents are the writer Augusto Cury and Renan Santos, coordinator of the activist group MBL. Lula keeps 43% in both scenarios, against 35% for Cury and 34% for Santos. Blank votes, null votes and abstentions reach 20% and 21% respectively, with 2% undecided.Methodology and the broader picturePalver interviewed 5,000 voters between September 15 and 20 through digital recruitment. The margin of error is three percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The institute paid for the survey with its own funds and registered it with the Superior Electoral Court, known as TSE, under protocol BR-00860/2026.The round repeats the pattern of the institute's previous release, from September 9, when Flávio Bolsonaro stood at 46% to Lula's 44% and Caiado and Zema were also tied with the president. Other pollsters show a similar race. In a Datafolha survey from September 17, reported by g1, Lula has 46% and Flávio Bolsonaro 44% in a runoff, a gap inside that poll's two-point margin. Its breakdown shows Lula ahead in the Northeast, 62% to 31%, and the senator leading among evangelical voters, 60% to 32%, and in the South, 57% to 32%.The first round takes place in October. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff at the end of the month, and the matchups Palver is now testing become the real contest for the presidency.

Former justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) are pressing the court to investigate the relationship between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The demand, reported by the Valdo Cruz blog at G1 on Monday, grew louder after images showed Moraes and his wife, a lawyer hired by Vorcaro, aboard one of the jets of the former owner of Banco Master.The former justices who spoke to the blog say the court cannot leave the matter unexamined. They also argue that any irregularities attributed to Justice André Mendonça should be reviewed by the full bench. In their view, sweeping the suspicions under the rug would badly damage the court's image and keep it in a permanent crisis. One of them said everything must be investigated, including to prove who committed no criminal act in favor of Vorcaro.An electoral calendar weighs on the courtInside the court, the trend runs the other way. According to G1, the justices are not expected to take up either case before Brazil's October general elections. Justices who back Moraes hold that position. So do those who defend Mendonça, who prefer to wait and avoid new "shameful" scenes during the campaign.The cases are already stalled. The session set for this week to rule on Moraes's petition against Mendonça was suspended. In the filing, the former rapporteur of the criminal case over the coup plot accuses the rapporteur of the Banco Master inquiry of acting politically and committing irregularities to target him. Mendonça's own request, asking the full bench to examine the messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes, has been parked since Justice Flávio Dino asked for time to review the case, a step known in Brazilian procedure as a "vista". He is expected to return it only after the election ends.The standoff carries a political cost. According to the blog's reading, the court's crisis hurts President Lula more and benefits Flávio Bolsonaro, the two frontrunners in the polls. BBC News Brasil described the court's situation as an unprecedented crisis. Diego Werneck, a law professor at Insper, told the broadcaster that not even impeaching justices, an idea pushed by right-wing candidates, would fix the picture.What comes next depends on the calendar. The session on Moraes's petition against Mendonça remains suspended. The examination of the Vorcaro-Moraes messages, sought by Mendonça, should return to the full bench only after Dino hands the case back, which is expected after the election.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party leads the presidential race among voters in São Paulo, the state with the largest electorate in Brazil. A Real Time Big Data poll released on Monday (Sept. 21) gives him 51% of voter intentions in a hypothetical runoff in the state, against 45% for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT. In the first round, Flávio polls 41% to Lula's 35%.The institute interviewed 2,000 voters in the state between Sept. 16 and 19. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, and the survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number BR-09702/2026, according to InfoMoney. Trailing the two leaders in the first round are Renan Santos (Missão) with 6%, and Augusto Cury (Avante) and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) with 4% each. Lula is the most rejected candidate in the state, at 53%; Flávio follows at 48%. The president is disapproved by 56% of São Paulo voters and approved by 41%.Senate raceThe same round tested the race for the two Senate seats up for grabs in São Paulo. In the consolidated scenario, which adds first and second votes, federal lawmaker Guilherme Derrite (PP) leads numerically with 20%, followed by state lawmaker André do Prado (PL) with 18% and former minister Simone Tebet (PSB) with 17%. Former environment minister Marina Silva (Rede) polls 14%, and former minister Ricardo Salles (Novo) has 9%.With a two-point margin of error, CNN Brasil describes the race as a three-way statistical tie among Derrite, André do Prado and Tebet. Poder360 counts four names with a shot at the two seats. The Senate survey was paid for by the institute itself and is registered with the TSE under number SP-07495/2026.The week of pollsThe national picture is tighter. A Palver poll reported on Monday by the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo shows a statistical tie between Flávio and Lula in the first round, with the senator numerically ahead, 42% to 41%. A Datafolha survey on Sept. 17 had the runoff tied, with 46% for Lula and 44% for Flávio. In Quaest's Sept. 14 poll, the senator was numerically ahead for the first time in the institute's series, 42% to 40%.Four polling firms, Quaest, AtlasIntel, Datafolha and Real Time Big Data, have registered new national surveys with the TSE for release between Monday and Thursday (Sept. 24), according to InfoMoney. These will be the first polls after the government announced a 15.04% increase in the Bolsa Família cash transfer program. The first round of the election takes place in less than two weeks.

Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, has accepted a judicial investigation, known by its Portuguese initials AIJE, against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, the ticket seeking reelection in October. The case examines suspected abuse of political and economic power in a February carnival parade by the samba school Academicos de Niteroi in Rio de Janeiro. The parade told the story of Lula's life.The decision came from the court's top electoral investigator, minister Antonio Carlos Ferreira, on Friday (September 18). The action was filed by presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro of the PL party and his running mate, Alfredo Gaspar. Also named as targets are first lady Janja Lula da Silva; the head of Embratur, Brazil's tourism promotion agency, and congressional candidate Marcelo Freixo of the PT; and Niteroi mayor Rodrigo Neves. Under the ruling, all have five days after notification to present a defense.Accepting the case is a technical step, Globo's g1 news site reports. At this stage the merits are not judged and no punishment is set. The minister found only that the petition meets admissibility requirements, such as the indication of evidence and the possibility that the facts could amount to abuse of power.What the complaint saysFlavio Bolsonaro and Alfredo Gaspar argue that economic power was abused because Rio's city hall, Niteroi's city hall, the state of Rio and Embratur channeled R$ 9.6 million to the school. CNN Brasil puts the total at R$ 9.65 million and says the petition points to unexplained private revenue, possibly from companies holding government contracts. According to the complaint, the transfers came after the parade theme was announced in mid-2025. The school finished last in the top division and was relegated. The theme, "Do alto do Mulungu surge a esperança: Lula, o operário do Brasil", traced Lula's path from his childhood in Garanhuns, in the state of Pernambuco, to his return to the presidency. Lula watched from a box on the Sapucai, alongside Rio's mayor at the time, Eduardo Paes. Janja, named in the complaint, did not parade: singer Fafa de Belem took her place on the last float.The PL candidates also claim misuse of media. The parade aired on national broadcast television for about 79 minutes, and the recording stayed available on digital platforms. They say the exposure escaped Brazil's electoral advertising rules. They ask that Lula's and Alckmin's candidacies or diplomas be revoked and that both be declared ineligible for eight years, starting with the 2026 elections.Lula's defense and what comes nextLula has already answered a similar case. The Novo party also challenged the parade, and that action was accepted in August. In his defense, the president argued that carnival parades routinely portray political figures, that he merely agreed to the use of his name, that public money was spread equally among Rio's 12 schools, and that there was no gravity given the distance between Carnival and the election. Globo's g1 says the PT campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the new case.Election law specialist Marcio Nogueira, president of the Rondonia chapter of the national bar association, told g1 that this type of case is one of the "most severe accountability instruments in electoral justice"."The AIJE is aimed at investigating abuse of power, requiring proof of the gravity of the conduct and possibly resulting in the revocation of candidacies and ineligibility."According to him, the action, set out in article 22 of Complementary Law 64 of 1990, covers economic and political abuse and misuse of media. The two rulings that barred Jair Bolsonaro from office until 2030 were handed down in cases of this kind.What comes next: Lula and Alckmin will be notified and have five days to respond. In the Novo case, minister Antonio Carlos Ferreira awaits the party's filing. Flavio Bolsonaro himself faces a similar action brought by the PT over his appearance at the Barretos rodeo festival, accepted on September 7. According to g1, nine other similar cases have already been filed with the court in this year's race.

Supersalaries have entered Brazil's presidential race. A survey by g1 published on September 21 maps what each candidate for the Planalto proposes to contain pay and perks in the public service, with less than a month to go before the election. The monthly cap for civil servants is R$ 46,400, the equivalent of a Supreme Court justice's salary, but indemnity payments, bonuses and other benefits push many paychecks well above that ceiling.Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), from the opposition, lists "combatting perks and supersalaries" as a central plank of what he calls fiscal efficiency in the state apparatus. He proposes an administrative reform to modernize civil service careers and cut administrative spending. The plan of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the incumbent, makes no direct mention of the issue. His platform focuses on valuing rank-and-file employees, holding civil service exams and negotiating with unions through a permanent national bargaining table.Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) proposes enforcing the constitutional cap across all branches and government agencies, with transparency on each pay component and accountability for payments that conflict with the Constitution. Renan Santos (Missão) bundles the "end of supersalaries" into his PEC do Equilíbrio Fiscal, a constitutional amendment proposal aimed at containing mandatory spending. Edmilson Costa (PCB) wants "an end to all payments and perks that exceed the constitutional cap" in the judiciary and the public prosecution service.Former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) offers the broadest package: regulate indemnity payments charged above the cap, limit vacation to 30 days in every career, eliminate allowances with no equivalent in the private sector and end compulsory retirement as a punishment. The changes would come through a sweeping administrative reform with fixed evaluation criteria, career consolidation, fewer posts and fixed-term hiring. The platforms of Augusto Cury (Avante), Clariana Barão (DC) and Hertz Dias (PSTU) do not mention the issue directly, according to g1.The size of the problemThe add-ons cost public coffers more than R$ 10 billion in 2025 alone, the survey found. In an open letter released in August, experts at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) say supersalaries have become "the effective floor of elite legal careers"."Constitutional Amendment 41/2003 established that no civil servant should earn above the salary of a Supreme Court justice. Two decades later, that limit has inverted itself. Breaching it is the rule, not the exception: it reaches 85.1% among judges, 89.1% in the public prosecution service, 72.2% among public defenders and 52.8% in government legal careers," said Luiz Guilherme Schymura, a researcher at FGV with a doctorate in economics.A decision split between the court and CongressAt the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justices Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin are the rapporteurs on cases about the issue. In August, Moraes ordered seven state courts to return payments he called "exorbitant". The newspaper O Globo reported that the order covers judges in six states and the Federal District.The next president will not decide this alone. Under the framework set by the court, Congress must pass a law establishing definitive rules for civil service pay. The STF cases remain open as Brazilians head to the polls for the first round in October.

Presidential candidate Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD promised on Sunday (20) to cut 100% of Brazil's mandatory congressional earmarks and cap the growth of public spending, as part of a plan he says would open the way for lower interest rates. He made the pledge during a campaign walk on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo. His running mate, Gilberto Kassab, joined the event, according to news site G1.The core of the plan is a constitutional amendment, known in Brazil as a PEC, that would run for 24 months and limit growth in government spending to at most half the growth rate of GDP. Caiado said the measures could take the country's benchmark interest rate to "probably 7%" and inflation to a range between 3.5% and 4%, which he argued would make Brazilian producers more competitive. "The cause [of the high interest rate] is an irresponsible government that spends more than it can," he said.Where Caiado says he would cutAsked where he would make the cuts, the candidate listed four fronts."With that authorization, I have already prioritized the cuts I will make: 100% of mandatory parliamentary earmarks. A review of all tax incentives granted in Brazil. An audit, through artificial intelligence platforms, of all the money being distributed by government programs, to see whether they are serving their purpose. A 25% cut across all branches of government and independent agencies."Caiado said he considers the Central Bank's independence correct. In his reading, the monetary authority sets rates in reaction to government spending. "The Central Bank simply regulates interest rates according to government spending. It is the consequence, not the cause. If the government spends irresponsibly, the Central Bank raises [rates] so that inflation does not run wild," he said, according to news outlet A Redação.Up to CongressMandatory earmarks, called emendas impositivas in Portuguese, are funds that lawmakers direct into the federal budget and that the executive branch is required to release. Ending them, like passing the spending cap, depends on Congress, where the earmarks are a legislative prerogative. A constitutional amendment needs 308 of 513 votes in the Chamber of Deputies and 49 of 81 in the Senate, in two rounds in each house. According to A Redação, Caiado said the adjustment would spare workers, retirees and beneficiaries of social programs.On the same walk, the candidate said criminal factions should be classified as terrorist organizations and that he would send that change to Congress if elected. He criticized the PT government and said the party was "complicit with criminal factions," according to G1. The fiscal pledge lands in the final stretch of the campaign, with the first round of the presidential election scheduled for October, and its first test in a potential Caiado administration would be congressional approval of the package.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, the longest-serving member of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), said on Saturday night (Sept 19) that the main threat to the country's electoral courts "comes from within". In a post on X, without naming anyone, he suggested that members of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral tribunal, who act in a partisan way should consider whether they can stay in their posts. He also warned that the STF will step in and review the electoral court's decisions whenever it deems necessary."More serious, however, is the risk that comes from within: the politicization of the Electoral Judiciary. Whoever tries to engage the Court in partisan proselytism must assess whether he or she is fit to remain in it. And political parties and the Electoral Prosecutor's Office must closely monitor whether those conditions are present, claiming bias whenever it is established"Mendes wrote that the TSE must show "an assertive, impartial and nonpartisan performance", committed only to the Constitution and the laws. On the role of the Supreme Court, he said it will act as a "supervisory instance", "intervening whenever necessary to preserve its own precedents and the Constitution". According to Poder360, the message means in short that the STF will override the TSE whenever it sees fit.The Master case crisis reaches the electoral courtThe TSE is currently led by two STF justices: Kassio Nunes Marques as president and André Mendonça as vice president. Days earlier, in a court session and on X, Mendes called Mendonça a "campaign dummy" and an "electoral pixuleco", a reference to an inflatable doll carried at a Sept 7 protest on Paulista avenue in Sao Paulo. The attack followed Mendonça's decision to unseal a report containing messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and former banker Daniel Vorcaro on the eve of the Sept 7 holiday. Mendonça denied using the court as a campaign platform and said his decision was grounded and specific.According to Valor Econômico, the bloc formed by Mendes, Moraes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin accuses Mendonça of running the Master case, as rapporteur, with a supposed electoral interest to favor Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, a presidential candidate. On the other side, Mendonça, Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux voted to immediately open an investigation into Moraes over messages the Federal Police considered suspicious in his exchanges with Vorcaro, founder and shareholder of Master. Court president Edson Fachin and Justice Cármen Lúcia also voted against Moraes, and the outcome was postponed when Dino asked for more time to review the case.Warnings on AI and foreign interferenceIn the same post, Mendes acknowledged the credibility of the TSE and of Brazil's electronic voting machines, but said new challenges force the electoral courts to reaffirm their impartiality in this election. He cited a report by Folha de S.Paulo saying that researchers produced 15 fake campaign ads using artificial intelligence and 13 of them were not blocked by Meta's filters. He also mentioned a reserved report by Abin, Brazil's intelligence agency, which according to the newspaper warned the TSE and the government of a "critical risk of external interference" in the election.What comes next: the STF must resume the postponed vote on whether to open an investigation into Moraes, while the presidential race enters its final stretch with the standoff between the two courts at the center of the campaign debate. Political parties and electoral prosecutors may file bias claims against TSE justices, the path Mendes himself pointed to in his post.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government is split over a provisional decree to restrict online gambling, known in Brazil as bets. Lula and the presidential communications office (Secom) want the text to ban online betting. The Finance Ministry resists, arguing the move would cost roughly 12 billion reais in tax revenue. The dispute was reported on Sunday (Sept. 20) by Painel, the political column of Folha de S.Paulo.The measure was drafted by the Finance Ministry and is under review at the presidential palace, the newspaper Estadão reported on Thursday (Sept. 17). The plan is to publish it and send it to Congress before the first round of the presidential election, set for early October. Sources heard by the outlet Brasil de Fato said Lula intends to sign the text on Wednesday (Sept. 23). The ministry estimates betting moves about 60 billion reais a year in Brazil.What the measure would doThe text targets online casino games such as "jogo do Tigrinho" (Fortune Tiger). Officials quoted by Estadão call banning that game "emblematic", because the platform accounts for 40% of the bets placed in the country. Sports betting, club sponsorships and tournaments would stay out of the ban, but face tighter advertising rules, according to Brasil de Fato.The government is also weighing a 180-day grace clause, Estadão reported. Under it, the ban would only take effect after that period. In practice, Congress would have to approve the measure before the ban becomes binding. If lawmakers reject it, the ban dies. If they pass it, it becomes law.Football's backlashOn Thursday (Sept. 17), the São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Bahia state football federations and clubs from Brazil's top two divisions released a manifesto titled "The end of Brazilian football". The clubs warn of a risk of insolvency and losses of up to 1 billion reais in sponsorship deals. Brasil de Fato reported the government had at one point studied a total ban on bets and backed off after football's reaction. Lula has sharpened his own language, calling bets a "disease" and a "disgrace of lies". In April he said football "lived a century and a half without bets".The next step is the signing, set for Wednesday (Sept. 23), and the dispatch to Congress. A provisional decree in Brazil takes effect immediately, but must be approved by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to become permanent law. The final scope of the text, a ban or only restrictions on online betting, still depends on the outcome of the negotiation between the presidential palace and the Finance Ministry.

The newspaper O Globo published video on Sunday showing Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) and his wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, stepping off a private jet at Santos Dumont airport in Rio de Janeiro. The footage was recorded on August 22, 2025. The aircraft, a Legacy 650 registered as PP-NLR, was listed in the name of a company of banker Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, according to Metrópoles.The recording clashes with the justice's own account. In April, in an official statement from his office, Moraes said he had "never traveled on any plane of Daniel Vorcaro, or in his company or that of Fabiano Zettel, whom he does not even know". Brasil 247 reports that the video contradicts the version presented to the STF. Metrópoles wrote that the footage and the Federal Police (PF) investigations contradict the minister's official account. Moraes has already dismissed as "fanciful dialogues" the messages the PF attributes to him in the exchanges with Vorcaro.The aircraft contractAccording to PF findings cited by Metrópoles, the flight took place three months after Viviane Barci's law firm signed a supplementary R$50 million contract with a Vorcaro company. A draft located by investigators provided R$40 million to be paid in usage quotas of a jet and a helicopter, plus R$10 million in flight expense reimbursements. The deal would have supplemented an initial contract of about R$130 million that the firm signed with Banco Master.The firm denies the second deal exists. "Nothing was signed, and the original contract ended with the liquidation of the bank, which closed any link with the institution," the firm said in a statement quoted by Brasil 247. The defense maintains that Vorcaro's proposal was never accepted and that no irregularity occurred. Moraes and the firm say publicly that the R$50 million contract never existed or was signed, Metrópoles reports.Messages extracted from Vorcaro's phone, now held by the STF under restricted access, support the use of the aircraft, according to the PF. In a chat dated July 16, 2025, the banker asked manager Marcos Matta whether the couple was using the planes; the reply confirmed that flights on jets and helicopters had been cleared and were underway, Metrópoles reports. In May 2025, Vorcaro had asked a former partner at Prime Aviation about the Legacy 650 and an EC 155 B1 helicopter, Brasil 247 reports. Discussing when the "assets" in the deal would be transferred, he wrote: "the assets are already theirs". In testimony, Vorcaro said he does not recall the recipient of the message the PF attributes to Moraes, according to Brasil 247.Viviane Barci also confirmed using the service. In a July 2025 exchange reproduced by the PF, she said the couple was "enjoying it very much" the flight quotas and praised the flight team, Brasil 247 reports. One month before the Rio trip, Brazil's Central Bank had sent a formal alert to the Federal Prosecutor's Office flagging signs of fraudulent management in operations between BRB and Banco Master, Metrópoles reports.What comes nextAt the STF, the deliberations on the case left open the definition of the procedure and the decision on whether to open a formal inquiry targeting Moraes. The Novo party has already asked the court to remove the justice from the examination of his messages with Vorcaro, according to Metrópoles. The video lands in the middle of Brazil's presidential campaign, with the court's crisis turned into a campaign issue and candidates backing changes to the bench such as fixed terms for justices, O Globo reports.

Reforming the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, has become a central theme of the presidential race. A survey by the newspaper O Globo published on Sunday (Sept 20) compiles the candidates' proposals for the court and finds consensus on fixed terms for its ministers, as the justices are called in Brazil. The changes backed by the candidates include limits on tenure and restrictions on relatives of justices who practice law, according to the paper.Under current rules, ministers stay on the bench until compulsory retirement at age 75. Pressure for change grew after the court's session on Sept 15, when justices clashed openly over the Banco Master case. Justice Flávio Dino called the session "disastrous" and asked for more time, suspending a review of whether to combine proceedings involving justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça. The vote stood at 4 to 3 for keeping the cases separate, according to the news site Vermelho.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, promised a "profound reform" of the judiciary in a potential fourth term. In a Sept 15 interview with the nightly news program Jornal da Record, he defended keeping the current ministers in place. "You cannot use the machinery of the state for campaigning or selective persecution," he said, accusing Mendonça of "selective leaks" in the Banco Master inquiry.Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, Lula's running mate, backs fixed terms of 10 to 15 years. "It works like in Europe, ten years, twelve years, at most fifteen, but having a term is healthy, you keep renewing," he said in Ribeirão Preto, in São Paulo state, on Saturday (Sept 19). "Nothing should be for life," Alckmin added. He also called for a code of ethics for the court. Court President Edson Fachin himself endorsed a code of ethics and the end of the fake news inquiry on Sept 4, according to the magazine Veja.Congress revives bills to curb the courtBills stalled in Congress gained new momentum with the crisis, according to the news site Metrópoles. PEC 8/2021, a constitutional amendment proposal passed by the Senate and now before the Chamber of Deputies, would restrict monocratic rulings, decisions taken by a single justice, that suspend laws or acts of the presidents of the Republic, the Chamber, the Senate and Congress. It cleared the Constitution and Justice Committee and awaits a special committee. Bill PL 3.640/2023, approved by the Chamber, is in the Senate and sets criteria for injunctions in constitutional review cases. Fixed-term proposals vary: PEC 16/2019, by Senator Plínio Valério, provides eight years with no renewal; PEC 51/2023 sets 15 years and a minimum age of 50; PEC 77/2019 sets eight years and a minimum age of 55.PEC 17/2026, introduced in the Senate on Sept 2, changes the criteria for choosing ministers and bars former justices from running for elected office for five years. In the Chamber, Deputies Reginaldo Lopes and Danilo Forte are collecting signatures for their own proposals. Forte's bill sets an eight-year term and would end the president's exclusive power to appoint ministers, sharing nominations among the three branches of government. "The system of exclusive appointment by the president concentrates the formation of the Supreme Court in a single branch, which can distort the composition of the tribunal over successive presidencies," Forte wrote. The bill also bars justices from taking part in events sponsored by companies with pending cases.A vote expected after the electionLeaders of the Centrão, an influential bloc of centrist parties in Congress, and members of the judiciary privately concede that a judiciary mini-reform will come to a vote soon after the election, still in 2026, regardless of who wins the presidency, according to the columnist Igor Gadelha of Metrópoles. Judges of the superior courts, speaking on condition of anonymity, say the Supreme Court will lack the strength to resist. Their reading is that a win by Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) would bring deeper and faster changes, while Lula, who publicly supports reform, is expected to be less aggressive. A Datafolha poll reported by O Globo found record distrust of the court, with half of voters saying the crisis affects their vote for president.Two decisions now shape the calendar. At the court, the suspended review of the Moraes and Mendonça cases awaits Dino's return to the docket. In Congress, PEC 8/2021 awaits a special committee in the Chamber, and the other bills remain in play in both houses, with a vote expected after voters go to the polls.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL party's presidential candidate, told a rally in Joinville, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, on Saturday (19) that he would revoke more than 1,000 normative acts on the first day of an eventual government. He called the move a "tesouraço", a sweeping scissor cut of rules, and framed it as relief for those who want to do business in Brazil."I will cut the tax burden on payrolls, because the salary has to stay with the worker and less with the government. On the 1st day of government, I will deliver a 'tesouraço': more than 1,000 normative acts revoked in a single stroke of the pen, to help those who want to start a business in this country," Flávio said, in a speech reported by Poder360.According to Poder360, he spoke alongside Santa Catarina Governor Jorginho Mello (PL), who is running for reelection, lieutenant governor candidate Adriano Silva (Novo) and Senate candidates Carol De Toni and Carlos Bolsonaro (PL). Flávio also promised to move environmental licensing policy into the presidency. "We will respect the law, we will preserve the environment, but we will turn the riches God gave our nation into wealth for our people," he said.Campaign cites the "Milei model"The pledge builds on work already done by the campaign's economic team. Its coordinator, Daniella Marques, praised the model of Argentine President Javier Milei at an event held by the business group Esfera on Monday (14). "Milei is a great example in terms of regaining investment capacity and reducing bureaucracy and taxes," she said, according to Broadcast, the real-time news service of Grupo Estado, publisher of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.Broadcast reported that Flávio instructed the team to map taxes created or raised under President Lula's administration, and more than a thousand rules have reportedly been identified. Marques also said it "may not be necessary" to change the rule that guarantees real increases in the minimum wage right away, a costly but popular policy.Analysts see legal limitsEconomists heard by Broadcast say Milei's chainsaw-style austerity does not transfer to Brazil. "It seems to me to be a case of double standards. The Argentine economy is not comparable to the Brazilian economy," said César Bergo, a professor at the University of Brasília. Marcus Pestana, head of the Independent Fiscal Institution (IFI), a budget watchdog attached to the Senate, said radical cuts would collide with the courts and Congress: "a large part of the provisions that have an impact on Brazil's public budget are in our Constitution... a large part of the cuts Milei made there would be blocked here by the judiciary."Cristina Helena Pinto de Mello, an economist at PUC-SP, a São Paulo university, said broad spending cuts would hit those who depend on public services. "In a country as unequal as this one, the state cannot be treated as just an expense to be eliminated," she said. Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández, an ally of Lula, told Broadcast that his country's experience "should not be a model for anywhere in the world."The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled for October 4. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, faces President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT), who is seeking reelection, and four other candidates.

Brazil's October general election has 107 candidates who declared themselves transgender to the TSE, the country's top electoral court, according to a survey by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published on Saturday. Twenty of them are running for parties the paper classifies as center or right wing. Declaring gender identity on the candidate registry is optional, so the real total may be higher.This is the first general election in which the TSE publishes statistics on the sexual orientation and gender identity of candidates. The fields were added to the registration forms in the 2024 municipal elections. Citing TSE data from August 18, the Senate's news agency reported that transgender candidates made up 0.51% of the 20,575 registered candidacies, and 53 people declared a social name to the court. On gender identity, 57.75% of candidates answered the question and 42.25% left it blank.Where the candidacies sitMost transgender candidacies remain in left-wing parties, Folha reports. Among those who informed the TSE of their identity, the PSDB has six trans candidates, the MDB has four, and Avante, Solidariedade and the PP have two each. Cidadania, União Brasil, PRD and Democrata have one each. The ideological ranking comes from GPS Partidário, a Folha index that places Brazilian parties from left to right based on how their lawmakers vote in Congress.The case Folha highlights is Sophia Barclay, a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, for the PL of São Paulo, the right-wing party of former president Jair Bolsonaro's allies. She did not declare her gender identity to the court and presents herself on social media as a "trans de direita antiwoke", a right-wing, anti-woke transgender woman. She told the paper why she left the field blank:"It was not my choice [not to declare my gender identity]. I never even questioned it, and having that information there is not relevant. It is not something hidden: those who follow me know it, and those who do not will know once they start following me."According to Extra, a Globo-owned outlet, Barclay joined the Novo party in December 2025 and left it in February, after voicing support for Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential bid, the former president's son, while Novo had launched Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema as its own candidate. She then joined the PL, where she was received by the party's national president, Valdemar Costa Neto.What comes nextThe first round is scheduled for the first Sunday of October. The vote will show how many of the 107 transgender candidates win seats in the Chamber of Deputies and in state legislatures, offices filled under Brazil's proportional system. The official count has a built-in limit, set by TSE rules: candidates who skip the gender identity question are not counted.

Centrist parties that stayed out of Brazil's presidential race are already discussing a possible endorsement of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party in a runoff against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party. The report came from the Painel column of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Saturday (19). Party leaders heard by the column said there is now a trend toward backing the senator, especially after his rise in recent polls.União Brasil and the PP, which run together in a formal federation, are expected to lead the line of endorsements, according to a party official heard by Folha. That reading is not new. In December 2025, political scientist Mário Sérgio Lepre of the PUC-PR university told Folha de Londrina that "União and PP should go in that direction" of supporting Flávio, while with Republicans, the PSD, the MDB and the PSDB the path "will be a bit more laborious".Party bosses now see Flávio as the favoriteThe scenario took shape over the month. Igor Gadelha's column at Metrópoles reported on September 10 that leaders of the PP, União Brasil and Republicans, core parties of the congressional bloc known as the centrão, had come to see Flávio as the favorite in the election. Until August, they regarded Lula as the clear frontrunner for reelection. Speaking on condition of anonymity, those leaders pointed to the crisis at the Supreme Federal Tribunal as the turning point. It began when leaked messages exposed the relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro.Bloc members believe Moraes's image is tied to Lula's and that the scandal splashes onto the president, Metrópoles reported. In their view, only a "new fact" against Flávio could change the race. In the Quaest poll released on September 7, the senator was numerically tied with Lula in a runoff scenario, at 41% each.Neutral until October 4The official position remains neutrality. The PP, União Brasil and Republicans defend staying out of the first-round race. The argument, according to Metrópoles, is that neutrality helps elect large benches in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and will force any elected president to negotiate with those parties.The first round is set for October 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes, the runoff takes place on October 25, and that is the scenario for which the centrão is now mapping its possible endorsement of the senator.

The campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has asked Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, to suspend "TV Celular", a video platform run by his rival Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in the presidential race. The coalition argues that the platform does not identify its content as campaign material, as electoral law requires.According to the campaign, TV Celular streams live programming around the clock with politicians and Bolsonaro supporters. Videos can be downloaded and shared on social media, which the coalition describes as a "campaign propaganda library" with no identification of who made it. A survey by Lula's coalition found that only 15 of 883 items on the platform identify the candidate, his running mate and the party."The voter has no immediate element that allows him to identify that he is looking at electoral propaganda for a specific candidate and party," the filing submitted to the TSE reads. Lula's lawyers argue the page risks appearing to be a platform of spontaneous support when the material is in fact produced by the rival campaign. Court rules require campaign ads of any kind to name the party, and for presidential tickets the running mate's name must appear at no less than 30% of the size of the candidate's own name.According to G1, the platform is registered to F.A.R.O Propaganda e Publicidade, an advertising firm. Official TSE data show the company received R$ 13.1 million from Bolsonaro's campaign, its largest expense so far.Angelo Ferraro, the legal coordinator of Lula's campaign, said he does not question the rival's right to publish videos."The point is that electoral propaganda needs to be identified as electoral propaganda. When material is made to be downloaded and replicated by third parties, that transparency becomes even more important, so that voters know who produced the content and who is behind it," Ferraro said.What the campaign is askingThe coalition wants TV Celular suspended until its content complies with the rules. If the court refuses, it asks that video downloads be blocked until the archive is regularized, plus a fine. The TSE has not ruled on the request yet. It arrives in the final stretch of the campaign, on the same day Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro held simultaneous rallies in the state of Santa Catarina, according to G1.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said at a campaign rally in Florianópolis on Saturday (Sept. 19) that he wants to win the presidential election to keep former president Jair Bolsonaro behind bars. "Flávio wants to win the election to get his father out of jail, and I want to win to keep him in jail," Lula said, in remarks reported by Valor Econômico and InfoMoney.He was referring to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his rival in the race. According to G1, the former president is under house arrest after the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, convicted him of attempting a coup d'état. Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro held simultaneous rallies in Santa Catarina, a Bolsonaro stronghold according to G1, two weeks before the first round.Lula tied the attack to the scheme that took irregular deductions from pensions paid by the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. "They created the INSS gang that stole from retirees, and we uncovered it," he said. According to the president, the Federal Police and the Comptroller General's Office investigated the case for two years; losses reached 6 billion reais and the government has repaid about 3.5 billion reais to 5 million retirees. He also said that Flávio Bolsonaro's office operates in the same suite as one of the suspects, known as "Careca do INSS".Pressure on the top courtThe president also demanded that the STF investigate everyone linked to banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master. "Bolsonaro turned Vorcaro into a banker, and we turned him into a prisoner. I want the Supreme Court to investigate everyone," Lula said. "If we do not do this, we will not fix this country.""We will leave everyone naked before Brazilian society, because we deserve to know the truth."According to Valor, Vorcaro's ties to STF justices triggered an institutional crisis at the court. On Tuesday (Sept. 15), a session set to decide whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes' possible connection to the banker was suspended after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time, leaving the merits untouched.A Datafolha poll released Thursday (Sept. 17) shows Lula with 48% and Flávio Bolsonaro with 44% of vote intentions in a runoff, within a two-point margin of error, the same figures as the institute's two previous surveys. According to Folha's Painel column, both candidates will alternate campaign stops between the Northeast and the Southeast regions in the final two weeks before the vote.

Candidates in Brazil's 2026 elections can no longer be arrested except in flagrante delito, being caught in the act of a crime, under a rule that took effect on Saturday (Sept 19). The restriction comes from article 236 of the Electoral Code and runs until 48 hours after the first round, set for October 4. According to G1, no candidate may be detained between September 19 and October 6 unless arrested while committing a crime.The shield begins 15 days before the vote and applies again in the runoff, scheduled for October 25. Candidates who stay in the race are covered from October 10 to 27, with the same exception. According to G1, the rule aims to keep the contest equal and prevent arrests from being used to sway the result."This provision has a historical origin. The law seeks to prevent political interference in the electoral process through arbitrary arrests," Bruno Rangel Avelino, an electoral law attorney, told EXAME. In his reading, investigations and prosecutions continue; only arrests and detentions are barred during the period fixed by law.When an arrest is still allowedBrazil's Code of Criminal Procedure defines flagrante as a suspect caught committing an offense, chased right after it, or found soon after with objects that point to authorship. Electoral crimes that can lead to an immediate arrest include vote buying and boca de urna, campaigning at the polls on election day, according to G1. A candidate arrested in flagrante must be taken promptly before a judge, who reviews the legality of the detention. The arrest alone does not end the candidacy: ineligibility requires a conviction by a collegiate court or a final ruling.Arrest warrants issued before Saturday remain valid, though their execution can in practice be delayed, Avelino said. "The rule may hinder the execution of arrest warrants. Even so, the law in force still considers the protection of the electoral process, for a set period, more relevant," he said.A shorter shield for votersVoters have a similar protection for a shorter window: the five days before the vote and the 48 hours after it, from September 29 to October 6 in the first round and from October 20 to 27 in the runoff. The law allows three exceptions: flagrante delito, a final criminal conviction for a non-bailable offense, and defiance of a safe conduct issued by the electoral courts. Poll workers and party monitors are covered only while serving at polling stations. The candidate shield ends on October 6; those advancing to the runoff regain it from October 10 to 27.

A classified report by Abin, Brazil's federal intelligence agency, has rated the escalation of US pressure on the country ahead of the 2026 election as "critical". The disclosure came in the column of Mônica Bergamo in the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Saturday.The document covers "threats to the 2026 electoral process". According to Folha, it raised the possibility of external influence and interference by the United States in the Brazilian election to a "criticality level". The report was sent to the presidency, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazilian elections, and the Justice Ministry in late August.Abin answers to the president and produces classified reports for state security planning. The full text is not public. As of Saturday morning, Bergamo's column was the only source on the document among Brazil's major news organizations.The backdrop: friction with WashingtonThe warning arrives amid strained ties between Brasília and Washington. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to use his speech at the UN General Assembly to defend national sovereignty, according to Jovem Pan and radio network CBN.Election security planning already involved the agency. In August, InfoMoney reported that TSE Justice Nunes Marques was assembling the election security operation with the Federal Police, Abin and the Armed Forces.The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for early October. None of the institutions that received the report has released it, and the document remains classified.

A bill in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies would bar digital influencers from being paid based on the money bettors lose on online gambling platforms. The proposal, Bill 3,613/2026 and informally known as the PL Rafael, was introduced on July 9 by Representative Dandara Tonantzin of the Workers' Party (PT-MG). According to the Chamber's official record, it awaits a procedural ruling from the speaker of the House.The bill is named after Rafael Borges Amaral, who died at 26 in March 2024 in Uberlandia, in the state of Minas Gerais. His mother, teacher Vania de Souza Borges, links his death to addiction to online betting and games of chance. On September 13, at a meeting in Brasilia, she asked President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to ban betting platforms in Brazil altogether."He asked and I was direct. I said the solution is to cut the evil at the root, to end the bets. I said regulating is not enough, they would have to end them for good," Vania told the news site g1.What would changeSome influencers are paid today under a system known as revshare, g1 explains. The influencer promotes a platform and shares a link or promo code. Followers who sign up through it start betting, and the platform tracks where each user came from. Depending on the contract, the influencer receives a share of what the operator earns from that bettor. The bill bans precisely that: payments that rise with the amount users lose, including through indirect mechanisms, and calculations based on GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue), the operator's takings after prizes are paid out. Advertising for betting platforms would remain legal. Operators could hire influencers for a fixed fee, with no link to how much their followers bet or lose. The text covers fixed-odds betting, lotteries and games of chance, according to the bill's official summary.Liability for the whole chainThe bill also proposes joint liability across the promotion chain, according to the investigative outlet Agencia Publica: influencers, affiliates, advertisers, operators and platforms would answer for damages caused to consumers. Contracts would have to be in writing and state the parties involved, the amount paid, the form and duration of payment, the channels used and how referred users are identified. "The more the consumer loses, the more the influencer earns. (...) Those who profit from the referral must also answer for it," Dandara said."Rafael's death is not an isolated case, it is the most painful portrait of a problem affecting an entire generation of young Brazilians. The state can no longer treat this as an individual problem. It is a public health issue," the lawmaker said.Dandara also introduced Bill 3,563/2026, which would require platforms to detect risky betting patterns and report them to the Prizes and Betting Secretariat (SPA), the betting regulator inside the Finance Ministry. That text provides for a temporary preventive block of at least 60 days and mandatory recommendations that the user seek psychological support. She also asked the Justice Ministry to open an investigation into influencers, advertising agencies and affiliates over possible misleading advertising. The ministry told Agencia Publica the request is "under analysis by the competent technical areas".The next step for the PL Rafael is the House speaker's ruling, which will assign the bill to committees. Only then can it go to a vote. "Let us hope the bill is approved and becomes law," Vania said.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Friday (Sept. 18) that five justices of Brazil's Supreme Court, the STF, are linked "directly or indirectly" to the Banco Master case. He made the remarks in an interview with Rio de Janeiro radio station Super Rádio Tupi, in the middle of the presidential campaign. He did not name the justices.Lula called for a reform of the judiciary and said the crisis must be settled first. According to news site Poder360, he said no one defends the contract between the law firm of the wife of Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Master, nor the dealings attributed to Justice Dias Toffoli, and that Justice André Mendonça "withheld" information about the case."But before we carry out this reform, we have to solve this problem. They are all there. There you have five justices who are linked directly or indirectly."He added: "Whoever wants a seat on the Supreme Court cannot want to be rich." According to Poder360, Lula said "not everything has come out" about the case, and that justices and part of the press already have the material.The five justices named in reportsLula did not say whom he meant. What is public, according to Poder360, is that at least five members of the court, Moraes, Toffoli, Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques, appear in episodes, documents or messages connected to the case. The situations differ and, by themselves, do not mean the justices committed any wrongdoing. In September, the Federal Police identified 52 messages from Daniel Vorcaro to a contact attributed to Moraes, and the report cites two contracts with the firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, worth up to 158 million reais net. Moraes disputes the report and says the contract is legal.In the same interview, Lula placed part of the responsibility for the case on the government of Jair Bolsonaro. According to UOL, he said the previous administration "turned a nobody into a banker", referring to Vorcaro, the former controller of Master, who is now in jail. Lula also confirmed he met Vorcaro on Dec. 4, 2024, at the businessman's request. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes, included Central Bank President Gabriel Galípolo and was not on the official presidential agenda, according to Revista Oeste. Lula said Vorcaro described the bank's troubles and claimed he was being persecuted, and that he replied the government would look into it.Lula put the cost to public coffers at 60 billion reais. He said the scheme involved other banks and pension funds of state governments, in trades with bonds that, in his words, did not exist. He criticized what he called the "selective disclosure" of information from the investigation, said "a lot of people are scared" and called for the full lifting of secrecy in the case. The Federal Police arrested Vorcaro, and the Central Bank put Master into liquidation on suspicion of financial fraud.What comes next at the STFThe full court began to decide on Sept. 15 whether to open an investigation into Moraes over his ties to Vorcaro. The vote stalled when Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time, a move that can delay the decision by up to 90 days. Dino also asked Justice Edson Fachin to examine André Mendonça's ties to the Iter institute and to Vorcaro; Fachin postponed that request. Mendonça has lifted the secrecy on 15 case files plus the main proceeding, and Fachin ordered the material released, except for information needed for ongoing police operations.

Nearly half of Brazilian voters say the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court, known as STF, will weigh on their vote for president. A Datafolha poll released on Friday (18) found that 47% of voters believe the crisis involving the court and the Banco Master scandal will carry some influence over their choice. For 36%, the weight will be heavy. For 11%, it will be small.Another 49% say the crisis will have no impact on their decision, and 4% did not answer. Datafolha, one of Brazil's main polling institutes, interviewed 2,001 voters from Tuesday (15) to Thursday (17). The margin of error is 2 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, under code BR-04029/2026.The poll was commissioned by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and by Globo, and the fieldwork ran entirely under the impact of the crisis. According to Folha, the dispute has spilled into the presidential campaign and now drives much of the political debate in the country. G1, Globo's news portal, published the same figures.Weight is heavier among Flávio Bolsonaro votersAmong voters of President Lula, of the Workers Party, 26% say the crisis will heavily influence their vote and 12% say it will have a small influence. Most of the group, 58%, say it carries no weight. The margin of error for this cut is 3 points. Among supporters of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, of the right-wing PL party, 45% assign heavy influence to the crisis, 9% assign a small influence and 43% rule out any effect. That cut carries a 4-point margin.Among voters aligned with neither Lula nor the Bolsonaro camp, 43% say the crisis will weigh heavily, 13% cite a small influence and 40% see no effect. The margin for this group is 5 points.Voters name Lula as the most harmed candidateIn another cut of the survey, 38% of voters name Lula as the presidential candidate harmed by the crisis. Flávio Bolsonaro comes next, at 31%. The question was spontaneous and allowed multiple answers, after a filter asking whether the crisis hurts the presidential campaigns.Other candidates trail far behind: 2% name Renan Santos of the Missão party and another 2% name Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD. Augusto Cury and Romeu Zema get 1% each. For 5%, all candidates will be harmed. Another 25% see no harm to any candidacy, and 14% did not answer.Among Lula's own voters, 38% name the president as harmed and 33% name Flávio Bolsonaro. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

The leader of the opposition in Brazil's Senate, Rogério Marinho (PL party, Rio Grande do Norte), filed Resolution Bill 54/2026 on Friday (18). The text gives the Senate president, Davi Alcolumbre (União party, Amapá), 30 working days to decide whether to accept or reject impeachment requests against justices of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, and other authorities.How the new procedure would workThe Senate's internal rules set no deadline for that preliminary decision today, and allow no automatic transfer of authority if the president stays silent, according to news site Poder360. Under the bill, if the president does not rule, the case goes to the Senate Board, the Mesa Diretora, which would have another 30 working days to decide by simple majority. Rejection would be limited to four situations: the accuser lacks standing, the accused has definitively left office, formal legal requirements were not met, or the facts, even if true, do not amount to a crime of responsibility.The bill also creates an appeal to the full chamber. Nine senators could file it within 30 working days of the decision's publication, and it would enter the agenda within five ordinary deliberative sessions. Approval would take 49 votes, three fifths of the 81 senators. According to Folha de S.Paulo, if a complaint is not examined by the president and then by the Board within the deadlines, it will be considered accepted once 49 of the 81 senators sign a request to that effect.Pressure on AlcolumbreThe proposal lands at a moment of tension with the Senate president. Folha reports that Alcolumbre is holding back votes on impeachment requests against STF justices amid the deepest crisis in the court's history. For the Gazeta do Povo newspaper, the bill works as a mechanism against shelving the requests, in the face of Alcolumbre's resistance to moving them forward.In the bill's justification, Marinho writes that the lack of deadlines allows a request to sit unexamined indefinitely, with effects similar to an archive order issued without any formal decision. "In a state under the rule of law, no authority stands above the constitutional order," the senator writes. He says the goal is to make the procedure more predictable and to prevent both indefinite paralysis and the trivialization of impeachment requests.To take effect, the resolution must pass in committees, including the CCJ, the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee, and on the floor. Because it regulates internal legislative matters, it does not go to the president of the Republic for sanction, according to Poder360. The immediate obstacle is the agenda itself: as Folha notes, the Senate president decides what comes to a vote. Once a request is accepted, a special committee would have 120 days to conclude its deliberations under the Senate rules and Law 1.079/1950, Brazil's impeachment law.

Distrust in Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) reached 48% of Brazilians, the highest level since the series began in 2012, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday. The number rose five percentage points from March, when it stood at 43%.It is the first time the court, the country's highest, tops the institute's distrust ranking. Some 48% of respondents say they do not trust the STF, against 45% for Congress, 45% for political parties and 42% for the presidency. In earlier rounds, the top spot had belonged to the parties, Congress or the presidency.Only the court lost groundThe newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, which commissioned the survey with TV Globo, describes the result as an outlier. Distrust in the seven other institutions measured, among them the presidency, Congress, the press and the Armed Forces, held steady or fell since March. Distrust in parties dropped from 52% to 45%. At the court, the movement ran the other way: those who say they trust it a lot fell from 16% to 14%, and those who trust it a little, from 38% to 35%.The poll ran as the court faces an open crisis. According to G1, the news site of TV Globo, the turmoil deepened after Justice André Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and a phone number attributed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes and Justice Gilmar Mendes criticized how Mendonça handled the case. Moraes says Mendonça committed irregularities and bypassed procedures that apply to investigations of officials with privileged standing. Gilmar says his colleague acted for political-electoral reasons. Mendonça denies the accusations.Folha reports that Datafolha heard 2,001 people in 125 municipalities between Tuesday and Thursday; G1 put the sample at 2,002 interviews on September 15 and 16. Both outlets cite a margin of error of two percentage points. The poll is registered with the electoral court as BR-04029/2026.The extraordinary session called on Tuesday by Chief Justice Edson Fachin ended without a decision on the Federal Police report. Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case and has up to 90 days to return it to the full bench. The deadline runs out in December, after the elections. If he does not return it, the case is automatically freed to go back on the docket.

A panel of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's highest court, on Friday (18) unanimously rejected the appeal filed by the defense of former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro against his conviction for coercion in the course of proceedings. He was convicted for trying to interfere with the trial of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, in the coup plot case. The rapporteur, Justice Alexandre de Moraes, was joined by Justices Flávio Dino, Cármen Lúcia and Cristiano Zanin in the panel's virtual session, according to G1 and CNN Brasil. Moraes had filed his vote a week earlier, arguing for the rejection of the appeal.The conviction was handed down in June. Eduardo Bolsonaro was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison, to be served initially in a semi-open regime, and ordered to pay a fine of R$ 162,000, equal to 50 day-fines set at two minimum wages each. He was also barred from running for office for 12 years and cannot be elected until 2038.The caseAccording to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), Eduardo Bolsonaro lobbied the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to push for retaliation against Supreme Court justices and against Brazil. The goal, prosecutors said, was to stop his father from being convicted in the coup plot case. Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison and is serving the sentence under house arrest. Eduardo Bolsonaro lost his congressional seat and remains in the United States.Moraes rejected the defense's argument that the conduct was protected by free speech and congressional immunity. "It is not the function of a Brazilian federal congressman to lobby abroad against his own country. Even if he were in the exercise of his mandate and not on leave, even if he were in the exercise of it, he would not be covered by parliamentary immunity", Moraes said. According to CNN Brasil, the justice also said the disinformation taken to U.S. officials had concrete consequences for Brazil, among them the imposition of tariffs on Brazilian products.Defense and next stepsBecause Eduardo Bolsonaro did not hire a lawyer, his defense fell to federal public defender Esdras dos Santos Carvalho, of the DPU, Brazil's federal public defender's office. The office asked for an acquittal for lack of evidence and argued that the former congressman's statements were political speech protected by free expression. In its filings, the DPU also described the defense until then as "merely formal, produced without any contact with the defendant". Under Brazilian law, coercion in the course of proceedings occurs when someone uses violence or serious threat to favor a personal or third-party interest against anyone taking part in a judicial, police or administrative process."No relation to parliamentary activity, but threats aimed at keeping his father from being convicted", Moraes said in his vote. He added that Eduardo Bolsonaro has never said he changed his domicile to the United States: "He only said he will not return to Brazil for fear of answering for the crimes he committed." With Friday's decision, the conviction stands. The sentence is to begin in a semi-open regime, and the ban on running for office runs until 2038.

Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled on Friday that the decree raising the Bolsa Família welfare payment by 15.04% breaks no electoral rules. In his view, the increase only updates the benefit for inflation. The payment floor rises from 600 to 691 reais.The ruling answered a request filed the same day by the Advocacia-Geral da União, the federal government's legal office, asking the court to declare the decree constitutional. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the raise, the first in four years, on Thursday, less than three weeks before the first round of the presidential election. The average payment rises from 675 to 777 reais, according to BBC Brasil. Payments start on October 19, between the first round and a possible runoff on October 25.Mendes grounded the decision in the formula the government chose: the accumulated variation of the INPC, Brazil's benchmark consumer price index, from March 2023 to August 2026, measured at 15.04%. In the minister's words, the index "represents a mere mechanism to recover accumulated inflation, not a real increase"."The measure does not create a new benefit, does not change eligibility criteria and does not expand the pool of beneficiaries. It is only an update of the values of payments under an already existing social program, through an objective monetary correction criterion," the justice wrote.The case behind the rulingThe government's petition was filed in a case in which the STF ordered, starting in 2022, payment of the basic citizenship income to Brazilians in extreme poverty and poverty. As the case's rapporteur, Mendes ruled in June 2024 that the Bolsa Família, the country's main cash transfer program, is a stage in the gradual implementation of that right, with periodic value updates. One day before the decree, the public defender's office asked the court to press the executive branch on the pending update. Law 14,601 of 2023 allows corrections at intervals of no more than 24 months.The AGU defended the decree in the same terms. "The decree does not create a new benefit, does not add a new category of beneficiaries, does not change the legal eligibility criteria and does not launch a social program," the office told the court.Electoral pressureThe announcement date drew criticism. Presidential candidate Renan Santos of the Missão party asked the Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, to suspend the raise, arguing it serves campaign purposes. At the electoral court, Justice Mendonça rejected one request to block the raise and dismissed another suit without ruling on its legality.Rafael Cortez, a political scientist at Tendências Consultoria, told BBC Brasil the raise is another economic measure aimed at electoral impact, though this one is allowed by the law governing the program. He recalled that in 2022 then president Jair Bolsonaro pushed a constitutional amendment to expand benefits in an election year, the so-called PEC Kamikaze, which the STF struck down in 2024.According to the Planning Ministry, the raise will cost 5.8 billion reais in 2026 and nearly 23 billion in 2027. The new values begin to be paid on October 19, six days before a possible runoff. At the Federal Audit Court, the TCU, a request by prosecutors to suspend the raise is still awaiting a ruling.

Brazil's government under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is studying the use of public money to buy old consumer debts that now sit in banks' portfolios and have little chance of recovery. The plan calls for a discount of up to 95% on the book value and opens the possibility that the government would waive collection after the purchase and treat the debts as settled. Details were reported by Folha de S.Paulo on Friday, based on an interview by Finance Minister Dario Durigan with the newspaper Extra.According to Folha, the goal is to reduce household indebtedness and clean up bank balance sheets, since lenders have grown more restrictive on credit as defaults rise. The Treasury would provide the funds for the operation, the newspaper reported. The model under discussion is an auction in which creditors would sell the portfolios at a steep discount."We are moving toward a model in which we hold an auction and make it viable to buy this debt at a high discount, so that we don't have a big impact on the country's public accounts," Durigan said.The minister said the program should be "a policy to clean people's names, especially the oldest debts, which the banks themselves, the companies themselves, have already lost hope of collecting". He said the proposal brings the president "a new program in which we can, with a large discount, buy back people's debt without them having to renegotiate again".Impact on public accountsThe main obstacle is fiscal. Folha reports that settling the debts would hit the primary result the government must deliver to meet its fiscal target. The Central Bank, which keeps Brazil's official fiscal statistics, measures fiscal effort by changes in stocks of assets and liabilities. Because extinguishing the debts reduces the federal government's assets, the result worsens.The idea has been in the works for months. In May, the Finance Ministry's economic reforms secretary, Regis Dudena, told Folha the government was studying measures for families with older debts: "There is still a public further along, with older debts. Many of these were tackled in Desenrola 1.0. President Lula's command is to look at whether it makes sense to reach these other groups." Desenrola Brasil, the federal debt renegotiation program that ran in two now-finished editions, brought some form of relief to 19 million people, according to Durigan. He cited motorcyclists and drivers who seek loans under the federal Move Brasil vehicle financing program and run into old defaults.Campaign and next stepsThe plan carries electoral weight. Brazil holds general elections in October, and a source heard by Folha said the measure was being designed to become a Lula campaign pledge, with a chance of quick implementation, possibly from November. Durigan confirmed the intent: "we are presenting (the proposal) for the president to take to the campaign".The model is still being drafted. The minister said the proposal should reach Lula in the coming days. Who would buy the debts, what discount will apply and which types of debt will enter the program remain open questions. Bank and non-bank debts may be included, according to Durigan. "That is up to the president," he said.

Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) said on Thursday (17 Sept) that he will keep the Bolsa Família increase announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) if he wins the election. He made the statement in a livestream on social media, on the same day the raise was announced. According to CNN Brasil, the adjustment is 15.04%.Before promising to keep the measure, Flávio attacked it. He linked Lula's announcement to the election polls, which, according to CNN Brasil, have shown the president trailing the PL candidate in the first round and in a possible runoff. "You think you're going to buy the poor person's vote? By giving 90 more reais to the poor?" he said.Then came the pledge. "With me, Bolsa Família is guaranteed. I'll keep this raise, and I'll do much more than that. You all remember, who gave the 600 reais? It was president Bolsonaro," he said. He was referring to the 50% increase granted in 2022 by the government of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, which lifted the floor of what was then called Auxílio Brasil from 400 to 600 reais, weeks before that year's election.The raise, 17 days before the voteLula announced the adjustment on Thursday (17), 17 days before the first round, set for 4 October. It is the program's first increase in four years. The floor rises from 600 to 691 reais, and the average payment from 675 to 777 reais, according to BBC News Brasil. Bolsa Família is Brazil's main cash transfer program for low-income families.The announcement revives the fight over social benefits in election years. In 2022, the Jair Bolsonaro government amended the Constitution, through the so-called Kamikaze amendment, to raise Auxílio Brasil by 50%. The Supreme Federal Court ruled the change unconstitutional in 2024. Lula, elected that year, kept the 600-real floor and restored the program's original name. Political scientist Rafael Cortez, of Tendências Consultoria, draws a distinction this year: the raise is allowed under the program's own law, which permits inflation adjustments. "The Lula government is more modest in this electoral voluntarism, but it still is a voluntarist move," he said.The closing calendarOther presidential candidates also criticized the measure. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) called it an attempt to "buy votes for 90 reais", in an interview with Gazeta do Povo on Friday (18), reported by G1. Among Bolsa Família recipients, a BTG Nexus poll released on 14 September shows 73% of vote intentions for Lula against 23% for Flávio in a possible runoff. The first round is on 4 October, the new payments begin on 19 October and a possible runoff is scheduled for 25 October.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Workers' Party candidate for reelection, said on Friday (18) that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, his main rival in Brazil's presidential race, has ties to militias in Rio de Janeiro. He spoke in an interview with Rádio Tupi, a Rio de Janeiro radio station, during a campaign day in a state that is an electoral stronghold of the Bolsonaro family. Militias there are armed groups, often run by current and former police officers, that dominate poor neighborhoods of the city."There is a presidential candidate who is tied to the militias in Rio de Janeiro. When you start analyzing the situation in Rio de Janeiro, you realize that many people in the Bolsonaro family are mixed up with the militias of Rio," Lula said, according to the news website Metrópoles. "Politics and the police need to be cleaned up. I find it unthinkable that Rio lives the reality it lives," he added, according to G1.The Master caseIn the same interview, Lula said that Master, the financial group of businessman Daniel Vorcaro, "became a bank" under former president Jair Bolsonaro, and that Vorcaro became a prisoner under his own government. "The Master was not a bank. The Bolsonaro family turned it into a bank. And Vorcaro became a prisoner under my government," Lula said. According to Metrópoles, the president called it "the biggest financial corruption scandal in the history of Brazil" and said he has "pride in saying they created the banker and I turned him into a prisoner." Vorcaro, former owner of the now defunct Banco Master, is being held at a military police battalion in Brasília, the outlet reported. The scandal, which G1 describes as billions of reais in financial fraud, has thrown the Supreme Court into crisis.Lula also described a meeting with Vorcaro at the Planalto presidential palace. "This Vorcaro came to me one day and said: 'Look, they are harming me.' And I said: 'If your bank is sound, it will not close...' And it closed because it was not sound," he recounted. The president also accused former Rio de Janeiro governor Cláudio Castro of the PL, who resigned in March, of being "buried up to his neck" in the relationship with Master, citing the contents of Vorcaro's phone.Supreme Court crisisAsked about the crisis at the Supreme Federal Tribunal, or STF, Brazil's top court, Lula said he sees the moment with "sadness." He repeated that the Bolsonaro government turned Vorcaro, a man he described as a nobody, into a banker, and said the businessman "corrupted everybody," involving "congressmen, senators, the Supreme Court, everybody." The president defended Justice Alexandre de Moraes and said Flávio Bolsonaro's quarrel with the justice stems from the imprisonment of his father, Jair Bolsonaro. "Moraes played an important role in the preservation of democracy. A general in prison, and a president imprisoned for a coup, they plotted my death and Alckmin's," Lula said.Lula said that if reelected he will have to discuss "how to fix the Supreme Court" and defended a reform of the judiciary. The court, in his words, needs seriousness and ethics, and everything seems to be "rotting" inside it. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4. Lula spent Friday campaigning in Rio de Janeiro state, the electoral base of his rival.

The campaign teams of President Lula (Workers' Party) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) will step up their appeal to the so-called voto útil, or strategic vote, in which voters abandon trailing candidates to back a probable winner, in the final stretch of Brazil's presidential race. According to Folha de S.Paulo, both camps hope to settle the contest on October 4, without a runoff.The strategy rests on a new Datafolha poll released on Thursday (17). In the first round, Lula has 39% of voter intentions against 36% for Flávio, a statistical tie. In a simulated runoff, the president has 46% to the senator's 44%, a gap within the two-percentage-point margin of error. Datafolha interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 or older on September 15 and 16. The survey was commissioned by Globo and Folha and registered with Brazil's electoral court, the TSE, under number BR-04029/2026. According to g1, the runoff figures match those of the polls released on September 3 and 11, a sign of stability.How the strategic vote worksThe plan depends on persuading voters whose candidates poll far behind to switch their vote because they see their favorite as a lost cause, Folha reports. Flávio is targeting supporters of Augusto Cury (Avante), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão) and Romeu Zema (Novo), who together account for 15% of voter intentions.Cury, third with 6%, is also a target for Lula. Folha reports that part of the writer's voters say they would back the president in a runoff. Allies of both campaigns say the effort must convince voters that victory is near for the two leaders without offending rivals whose support would be needed in a second round. Lula, the newspaper says, has less room to grow because the other contenders sit to his right; to win, he needs undecided voters, now 3% of the electorate.The game of the "feeling of victory"Strategists on both tickets say they must also invest in rejection of the opponent, on top of proving their candidate will win. Members of the two campaigns say Lula leads Flávio when voters are asked who will win the election, the so-called "feeling of victory". For that reason, Flávio wants to spread the sense that Lula is desperate at the prospect of losing in the first round, according to Folha. A new campaign jingle for the PL repeats that "virou" (it has turned).The first round is set for October 4. To win outright, a candidate needs more than half of the valid votes, which exclude blanks and nulls. If no one clears that bar, the top two advance to a runoff.

Brazil's Federal Police arrested two people on Wednesday after they withdrew R$ 2.5 million in cash from a bank branch in Belém, capital of Pará. According to the force, the money came from the diversion of public funds and was bound for the illegal financing of election campaigns in the state.Besides the stacks of banknotes, officers seized a firearm, documents and other materials of interest to the investigation, which will undergo forensic analysis. The police have not confirmed the identities of the two detainees, G1 reported.Operation with the CGUThe operation involved the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), the federal government's audit agency. In its official statement, the Federal Police said:"According to the investigations, the funds would come from the diversion of public resources and were destined for the irregular financing of electoral campaigns."CGU analysts helped examine the financial records and trace the origin of the money, which allowed investigators to pinpoint the exact moment of the withdrawal, G1 reported. The suspicion, according to the outlet, is that the scheme used caixa dois, off-the-books cash, to fund local candidacies, which constitutes an electoral crime in Brazil.What comes nextThe two detainees were taken to the Federal Police headquarters and placed at the disposal of the Regional Electoral Court of Pará (TRE-PA), the state-level election court. The force said they may face charges of money laundering, peculato (embezzlement by a public official), electoral corruption, criminal association, illegal firearm possession and resisting arrest, depending on the role of each one.The Federal Police said the investigation continues in order to identify others involved. A column by Fabio Serapião in UOL reported that the inquiry is expected to reach candidates in this year's race. The first round of Brazil's general elections is scheduled for October 4, less than three weeks away.

The PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has transferred R$ 91.6 million to its Senate candidates since the campaign began. The total is nearly double the R$ 48.2 million handed out by the PT, the party of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The figures come from a survey by Folha de S.Paulo published on Wednesday, based on the parties' campaign finance filings with Brazil's electoral court.The PL money reached 30 candidates across 24 of Brazil's 27 states and territories. Folha reports it is the party with the most Senate candidates funded by its national leadership and the widest reach. The PT divided its money among 18 candidates in 15 states plus the Federal District. Nine of the 15 Senate candidates who received the most money from national party offices belong to the PL. The spending is concentrated in the Southeast: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais account for nine of those 15 names.The largest single transfer went to Simone Tebet of the PSB, who is running for one of São Paulo's two seats, with R$ 6.5 million. Close behind is André do Prado of the PL, a candidate in the same state, with R$ 6 million. The PL also holds the biggest slice of the Fundo Eleitoral, the public fund that finances Brazilian campaigns: R$ 881.7 million, about 17.8% of the total. The PT has the second largest share, R$ 615.4 million.Why the Senate mattersBrazilians vote on October 4. This year 54 of the Senate's 81 seats are up for renewal, the largest number since 2018. Each state and the Federal District elect two senators, who serve eight-year terms. There are 315 candidates, 32 of them sitting senators seeking reelection. The PL fielded 33 names; the PT, 19, according to the news site Poder360.Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL's presidential nominee, each want at least 34 allies in the chamber, Poder360 reports. That means the PT must elect 27 senators and the PL 17. Folha links the party's spending push to Bolsonaro's attacks on the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's top court. Advisers to Lula believe a right-wing Senate majority would raise the odds of an impeachment case against a justice and make it harder to pass the government's agenda, according to Poder360. The Senate's rejection of Jorge Messias, Lula's nominee to the court, exposed the weakness of the government's base in Congress.Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has said the chamber "is not an organ of correction for the STF" and that opening impeachment proceedings against a justice would create "one more" problem for Brazil. No Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached in the country.The accounting does not end on election day. Final campaign finance reports are due up to 30 days after the vote. Elected candidates who fail to file cannot receive their diplomas while they are in default, under rules cited by the g1 news portal.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday, September 16, that Brazil's federal government will not give money to rescue BRB, the bank controlled by the government of the Federal District, the jurisdiction that includes Brasília. He spoke at a campaign rally in Ceilândia, on the outskirts of the capital, his first public campaign event there this year. In the same speech, Lula called the district governor, Celina Leão of the PP party, who is running for reelection, "cynical and lying".According to the president, the bank bought worthless bonds and there is pressure on the federal government to step in, on the argument that without a transfer there would be no money to pay Bolsa Família, Brazil's flagship cash-transfer program. Both G1 and Poder360 reported the remarks."The BRB bought bonds that did not exist, 12 billion reais. And now they are saying: 'President, if you do not give money, we will not be able to pay Bolsa Família.' We will not leave the people without money, but we will not give money to the BRB."Lula then blamed the crisis on the relationship between former governor Ibaneis Rocha of the MDB and Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master. "What broke the BRB was the connection between Ibaneis and Vorcaro of Banco Master," he said, adding about Ibaneis: "Where is he hiding, spending the money that was stolen?" His remarks came after the release of messages in which Vorcaro said Celina, then the deputy governor, took part in negotiations between BRB and Master, according to Poder360. Celina denies it and says she always opposed the deal.Celina strikes backLater, in a social media post, the governor answered the president. "I lament the statement of a president of the Republic who wants to break the BRB. I thought he was the president of Brazil," she wrote. In her view, Lula behaves like a "party president" who "thinks small and in a partisan way". She also said he offers help to Correios, the state postal service, yet refuses to allow a loan to the district bank: "I also thought the people of Brasília were Brazilians.""The bank belongs to the population of the Federal District and cannot be used for a partisan dispute, above all from the stage of a rally that did not even gather three thousand people," Celina said.The BRB crisisBRB has faced the worst crisis in its history since November 2025, when the Federal Police operation Compliance Zero revealed suspected billion-real frauds involving Banco Master. The district bank injected 16.7 billion reais into Master in an attempted acquisition; the central bank blocked the purchase, and BRB later found that part of the portfolios it had bought was fraudulent and without backing. In April, a new phase of the investigation led to the arrest of former BRB president Paulo Henrique Costa. The district government, the controlling shareholder, uses BRB to run more than 30 social programs, housing loans and the payroll of public employees.According to the bank's own data cited by G1, deals with Master between 2024 and 2025 totaled 30 billion reais, and at least 8.8 billion reais of the credits bought are nonexistent, fraudulent or hard to recover. Poder360 reports that the Federal Police identified about 12.2 billion reais in fake bonds. The district government says it can recover 2.2 billion reais through other measures and is asking for a 6.6 billion-real loan backed by the federal government to cover the rest. The law authorizing the agreement signed at the Supreme Court, the STF, was enacted on June 24.The standoff remains open. The federal government has already said it cannot guarantee the loan, but the district government keeps pressing. The dispute now heads to the ballot box: both Lula and Celina are running for reelection in the first round, in October.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, is weighing a request from Justice Flávio Dino to add to the review of Justice André Mendonça's conduct a meeting between Mendonça and the banker Daniel Vorcaro, who controls Banco Master, along with a São Paulo cemetery case. The session on Mendonça is scheduled for September 23. According to the newspaper O Globo, Dino sent the material to Fachin on Tuesday (15), shortly before the full bench opened its session on the case of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the heart of a court crisis set off by a Federal Police report on messages between Vorcaro and a contact attributed to Moraes.The review of Mendonça follows accusations of abuse of authority by Moraes, who sent the court's presidency a Federal Police intelligence report questioning how Mendonça ran the Master and INSS inquiries as rapporteur. In the ruling now sent to Fachin, Dino pointed to a "sufficiently relevant set of indicia" and argued that whether the connections between Mendonça and Vorcaro exist must be clarified "by the competent authorities". The order was signed in ADPF 1.196, a case filed by the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) over funeral, cemetery and cremation services in the city of São Paulo, which Dino reports on.A meeting on the eve of the suspensionThe ruling lays out a timeline. In late 2024, Dino granted an injunction restoring caps on the prices charged by the concessionaires. The case reached the court's virtual plenary on March 14, 2025. That same day, Mendonça received Vorcaro at the São Paulo headquarters of the Instituto Iter, an organization Mendonça founded. The next day, he asked for the case to be pulled for review, a pedido de vista. When the vote resumed in April, he broke with the rapporteur and voted against the price caps. In Dino's words, the vote came "in line with the plea of the private cemeteries". Dino also wrote that at the time there were "major interests of funds managed by Banco Master precisely on matters related to the privatization of cemeteries".O Globo reports that São Paulo state prosecutors are examining possible illegalities in the cemetery concession, and that an investigation points to Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, as a member of the board of Cortel, the company that runs the city's funeral services, who used a bank email address in corporate documents. Mendonça confirmed the meeting in an interview published on September 2, cited in the ruling, and said he received Vorcaro at the request of members of the Lagoinha Baptist Church, with Congressman Cezinha Madureira as intermediary. Contacted about Dino's request, he did not respond, but said in a note that "his conduct, public and private, is guided by legality and impartiality".Dino also cited the minister's brother, Alexandre de Almeida Mendonça, who worked in the leadership of SP Regula, the city agency that regulates funeral services, from July 2024 to May 2026 and was reportedly promoted to executive secretary. In a note, the agency denied any promotion, described a move between positions "at the same hierarchical level" and said he "always performed administrative management duties, with no direct responsibility for the management of the concession contracts". The order also mentions no-bid contracts signed by the Iter institute: 380,000 reais with the São Paulo city government in September 2025, and about 1.6 million reais with the state-linked Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Educação. The institute says the contracts have no connection to the cemetery concession and that the contract with the foundation was never executed. Mendonça left his stake in Iter in early September, with "no financial consideration", according to his office. Dino added explicit caveats: he wrote that the facts do not mean there was outside interference in his colleague's rulings. "I emphasize that it is not for me, at this moment and in this forum, to anticipate a judgment of criminal liability or administrative improbity", he wrote.The September 23 session at riskAs Fachin weighs the request, the odds of a postponement grow. Folha de S.Paulo reports that the STF president tends to delay the review, with a decision due in the coming days, and that his inner circle believes Dino's pedido de vista, which suspended Tuesday's session on Moraes, made it technically unfeasible to bring the Mendonça case to the plenary next week. When the session broke, the tally stood at 4 to 3 for keeping the two cases separate; Dino, who had voted to join them, was the one who asked for the review. He has up to 90 days, a deadline that falls on December 15, and with the court in recess from December 20 to February 1, BBC News Brasil reports the judgment may only resume in 2027. According to g1, ministers aligned with Mendonça favor a postponement, and court insiders do not rule out using Tuesday's impasse to reschedule. For now, the session stays on the calendar. If it goes ahead and the debate advances, O Globo notes, Mendonça could formally become a target of suspicion while the Moraes case remains suspended. The next step is Fachin's: keep or postpone the September 23 session.

Brazil's electoral courts have barred more than 1,200 candidacies in this year's general elections through Tuesday night, according to Superior Electoral Court (TSE) data compiled by g1, Globo's news portal. Of the total, 888 registrations are under appeal and 326 have been definitively rejected.The rejections concentrate in races decided by proportional representation, in which parties win legislative seats based on vote totals. The g1 count lists 561 barred candidacies for state deputy and 494 for federal deputy, followed by Senate substitutes (73), senators (31), governors (24), lieutenant governors (19), district deputies (9) and one presidential candidate.Clean Record law drives the high-profile casesThe best-known case is that of presidential candidate Pablo Marçal (PRTB), whose registration the TSE denied on Friday under the Clean Record law (Lei da Ficha Limpa), the statute that blocks candidacies of people convicted of certain crimes. The court found he had not proven he joined his party within the legal deadline and recorded that he is ineligible until 2032 because of a conviction tied to prize offers in video-trimming contests during the 2024 election, according to Congresso em Foco. Marçal quit the race on Monday, and the PRTB picked his former running mate, Leonardo Avalanche, to head the ticket.Regional electoral courts (TREs) also rejected the candidacies of Anthony Garotinho (Republicanos), who is running for governor of Rio de Janeiro, José Roberto Arruda (PSD), a candidate for governor of the Federal District, and Eduardo Cunha (Republicanos), a candidate for federal deputy in Minas Gerais. On Tuesday, the electoral court of Minas Gerais unanimously threw out the latest appeal by Cunha, a former House speaker, and held that he remains ineligible until February 2027 because Congress stripped his mandate in 2016 for violating parliamentary decorum. His lawyers argue the Clean Record law passed in 2025 now counts the eight-year ban from the date of the removal, which would make him eligible."Tomorrow I will file the appeal with the TSE, where the matter will be examined for real, and this absurdity of a regional court declaring a law unconstitutional will surely be reversed," Cunha said in a statement quoted by radio station Itatiaia.Why candidacies fallPaperwork failures top the list of reasons: 412 rejections for missing formal requirements, 365 for lacking eligibility conditions and 314 for denial of the party slate registration that formalizes candidacies at the TSE. One candidacy can carry more than one reason, so the sum exceeds the total. Among parties, DC (185), Democrata (154), Agir (144) and Mobiliza (134) account for 617 rejections, just over half the cases; PSOL (45) and PSDB (42) also appear on the list, according to g1. Piauí has the highest share of barred candidacies, 20.9%, followed by São Paulo with 12.9%.Candidates whose registrations are still under appeal can campaign, appear in the free electoral broadcast and keep their names on the ballot, but the votes only count if the case ends in their favor, according to Congresso em Foco. Its own check of the TSE panel on Wednesday counted 1,138 rejections, 829 of them under appeal, with 205 registrations still awaiting judgment. The numbers shift with the moment of the query.The first round is set for October 4. Before then, the TSE must rule on the pending appeals, including those of Garotinho, Arruda and Cunha. Their cases turn on Clean Record rules changed in 2025, whose validity the Supreme Federal Court is still reviewing.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) published a note on Thursday (Sept. 17) answering attacks by Gilmar Mendes, the court's longest-serving justice, over his handling of the Master case, in which Mendonça is the reporting justice. He denied leaking information, said he had ordered an inquiry into every improper disclosure, and said the push to lift the secrecy of every proceeding in the investigation did not come from him. According to G1, the note came hours after Gilmar said on social media that his colleague had "political-electoral" aims in the release of information that mentions Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, whom Gilmar defended.Without naming Gilmar, Mendonça wrote that he "never turned the plenary into a political stage or a circus ring, bellowing, in an attempt to mask with truculence empty insinuations that lack any minimally acceptable legal grounding". In that post, the senior justice called his colleague a "pixuleco eleitoral", a derogatory Brazilian slang term, and compared his conduct to that of Deltan Dallagnol and Sergio Moro during the Car Wash investigation. In Gilmar's words, "the lifting of secrecy appeared on the eve of September 7 to inflate the streets, reap political dividends, smear reputations and intimidate those who oppose this method".What the note saysAt the center of the document, Mendonça said the request for full disclosure of the case files came from the side that now complains about it."The push to lift the secrecy of each and every proceeding, without exception, did not come from the reporting justice. It came from those who now claim to be outraged by the publication of the case files."The note states that "what the reporting justice did was to lift the secrecy of a specific proceeding, in a reasoned decision and within the strict limits of what was his to decide". Mendonça added: "It is at least curious that the criticism comes from someone who always called for unrestricted publicity, for the entirety of the investigation." On leaks, he denied any tolerance and said he had opened "a specific phase on leaks tied to a Federal Police employee".He also accused his peers of selective concern: "It is striking that the concern with other people's exposure should manifest itself selectively, right after the request for access to the cell phone of a person under investigation and the publication, in the press, of conversations of every kind that embarrass, coincidentally, only justices who hold a different view." For Mendonça, if there is "misuse of publicity" at the court, it lies in the "attempt to coerce peers, with insinuations that certain content may or may not become public depending on the course of certain rulings".A crisis on the benchThe note is the latest chapter in a feud between the two justices in the middle of a presidential election year. On Tuesday (Sept. 15), during a session on a Federal Police report that pointed to messages exchanged between Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Gilmar defended Gonet and accused Mendonça of "levity" and "shamelessness". The shouting match ended with Mendonça yelling "Respect me" and Gilmar replying "Go ahead and cry". According to Poder360, Gilmar also called "embarrassing" Mendonça's decision to remove Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, and said the rapporteur runs the inquiry with an "unequivocal political-electoral bias".Facing the standoff, Justice Flávio Dino asked to review the case, a request that suspends the vote, and demanded action from court president Edson Fachin. That demand is still pending. In his note, Mendonça called for "urgency in approving a code of ethics" for the court, a proposal backed by Fachin, and cited article 36 of Brazil's judiciary organic law, which bars judges from publicly voicing opinions on pending cases.

The Instituto Iter, an organization linked to Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), received R$ 5.2 million from Cedro Participações, a mining holding controlled by businessman Lucas Kallas, a former business partner of banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now defunct Banco Master. The report came from columnist Cézar Feitoza at UOL, one of Brazil's largest news outlets, on Thursday (17).The money was transferred under a convertible loan agreement signed in April 2024, which provided for R$ 5.9 million in funding. In such deals the creditor can turn the amount into an equity stake or demand its money back. Iter halted the operation and began returning the funds in January this year. One month later, Mendonça was assigned by lottery as the justice responsible for reporting the Banco Master investigations to the full court.The negotiation was led by Iter's president, former education minister Victor Godoy Veiga, alongside Cedro representatives Carlos Adel de Freitas and Eduardo Soares de Couto. According to the institute, Mendonça and Kallas never discussed the terms of the contract. The organization also denied that Vorcaro took part in the talks. The justice left Iter in early September. The institute says he worked only as a lecturer, in academic activities, and received no dividends or share of results.In a statement, the institute said it ended the loan because it was already "in a situation of financial sustainability". Asked about the use of the money, Iter said it had "never distributed to its shareholders any amount as profit, dividend or share of results" and that all funds were applied "exclusively to the structuring and activities of the entity". On the repayment, detailed in a note carried by Metro1, the institute said:"An amendment to the loan agreement was signed establishing the early maturity of the debt, with immediate payment of the amounts owed by Iter. The interest rate set was the Selic rate. About 5.3% of the total debt has been paid so far."The ties between Kallas and VorcaroAccording to the column, Kallas was a partner in companies that also received investments from groups linked to Vorcaro. Cedro held 8% of biotechnology firm Biomm at the end of 2023; in February 2024 the asset manager WNT, linked to the banker and to Nelson Tanure, bought shares in the company. Kallas also invested in Latache Capital and took a 33% stake in the manager in 2025. Messages found on Vorcaro's phone indicate the two traveled together to Caracas, Venezuela, in late November 2023 to discuss oil business.Cedro denied any corporate or business link between Vorcaro and its holdings, and said investments by funds in listed companies do not amount to a commercial partnership. The holding said it left Biomm and Latache in April 2026 to focus on mining. Kallas is not under investigation in Operação Compliance Zero, the Federal Police inquiry into banking fraud involving Vorcaro and Banco Master, and Cedro does not appear in the case files. The Federal Police did, however, formally accuse Kallas in June over suspected irregularities in the Granja Corumi mine, in the Serra do Curral hills of Belo Horizonte. His defense says the matter was already investigated and dismissed by the courts and that he left the business in 2017.Mendonça, appointed to the court by then president Jair Bolsonaro, has also confirmed a meeting with Vorcaro at Iter in March 2025; he said they discussed precatórios, court-ordered government debt payments. When the court judged the issue, it ruled unanimously against the position defended by the banker. A Supreme Court session that would have examined Mendonça's conduct in the Banco Master case had been scheduled for September 23. Court president Edson Fachin removed it from the agenda on Thursday (17) and set no new date, according to G1. Iter, meanwhile, continues to return the R$ 5.2 million to Cedro.

Brazil's minister of social security, Wolney Queiroz, said on Thursday (17) that turning out to vote in this year's elections will count as proof of life for beneficiaries of the INSS, the public institute that pays pensions in Brazil. He made the announcement during a visit to a benefits office in downtown São Paulo, according to Folha de S.Paulo.Proof of life is the periodic check that keeps pension money flowing only to living beneficiaries, and the rule predates this election year. Queiroz said it comes from administrative order 1,408, issued in February 2022 by the INSS president at the time, José Carlos Oliveira. Voting and vaccination are among the acts listed as valid proof. Voting is compulsory in Brazil for citizens aged 18 to 70, which gives the measure broad reach.The mechanism was already used in the 2024 municipal elections. Voters who showed up at the polls had their records automatically validated, Folha reports.How verification works nowBefore the 2022 order, retirees and pensioners had to prove they were alive in person at the banks that paid their benefits. Since then, the government has cross-referenced public and private databases to confirm registrations. Verification is now required only from beneficiaries who rarely use public services or have limited digital access. They can comply through the Meu INSS app, with its gold security seal, or in person at the paying agency with a photo ID.Beyond the vote, the current list accepts use of the Meu INSS app with the gold seal, payroll loans taken out with biometric identification, updates to CadÚnico, the federal registry for social programs, benefit payments collected with biometrics, in-person visits to INSS offices, disability medical exams and the public health system, vaccination and records at traffic and public safety agencies. The news site MundoBA reports that filing an income tax return also counts.Beneficiaries with no recorded activity receive a WhatsApp notice from the INSS and have 30 days to comply. In October last year the notification reached about 4 million people.The first round of voting is scheduled for October 4, with a possible runoff on October 25. More than 158 million Brazilians are eligible to vote this year. For INSS beneficiaries, a trip to the polls will also settle the periodic requirement to prove they are alive.

Flavio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate of the right-wing PL party and the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, pledged on Thursday (17) to declare war on what he called "narco-terrorism" and accused the justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) of shielding fellow justice Alexandre de Moraes. He spoke during a campaign motorcycle rally, known in Brazil as a "motociata", in Vitoria da Conquista, in the state of Bahia, according to the news site G1.The senator arrived in the city by plane and addressed the crowd from a sound truck after the convoy rode through the main streets and avenues. The rally ended in front of a soccer stadium. Bolsonaro promised to classify criminal factions and militias as terrorist organizations and to step up the fight against those groups."I will rescue this Brazil for real. From January of next year, you can write it down. I will declare war on narco-terrorism. (...) And your days are numbered, because from next year on, you will either be arrested or neutralized by our police," he said.In another passage, Bolsonaro used the word "disgust" when he talked about the court debate over the validity of a Federal Police report involving Moraes. He said the justice "is no longer in a position" to remain on the court and said he will appoint new justices."As president of the republic, I will have the right to four seats. To place there men and women who are against drugs, who are against abortion, who respect the Constitution, who do not use the pen to persecute the opponents of the government of the day. Except it will not be four, it will be five, because Alexandre de Moraes is no longer in a position to continue" at the court, he said.The Moraes case at the STFThe merits of the case, meaning whether the full court will open an investigation into Moraes, have not yet been examined. In Tuesday's session (15), the justices heard a procedural motion filed by Gilmar Mendes and Flavio Dino that called for joining the related cases, reassigning the reporting justice by lottery and opening a window for the Attorney General's Office to weigh in. After Dino asked for more time, the tally ended 4 votes to 3 to keep separate the reviews of Moraes's conduct, in his relationship with businessman Daniel Vorcaro, and of Justice Andre Mendonca's handling of the report on the Banco Master case. Dino has up to 90 days, until December, to return the case to the full bench.The promises made in Bahia follow the public security plan "Brasil Sem Medo" (Brazil Without Fear), which Bolsonaro presented in June in Sao Paulo, according to the news site Poder360. The package has 12 measures, including the classification of criminal factions as narco-terrorist organizations, a lower age of criminal responsibility, federal prisons modeled on El Salvador's and a national facial recognition system. At the same rally, the candidate called the 15% increase in the Bolsa Familia welfare payment announced by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva "illegal" and "an act of desperation", according to Reuters. "The Bolsa Familia is guaranteed, nobody will touch that benefit of yours," he said.From southwestern Bahia, Bolsonaro flew to Brasilia for the next stops of his campaign. The first round of the presidential election is on October 4. At the STF, the decision on whether to open an investigation into Moraes depends on the reporting justice returning the case, with a deadline in December.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday that Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master case at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), used his post "to do politics". In an interview with the Brazilian radio station Rádio Itatiaia, Lula also backed the release of data from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro "so the people know the truth"."And now that the phone [of Daniel Vorcaro], which was with André Mendonça, who was using his post to do politics, is proven to have been doing politics, making selective accusations, releasing what interested him. So we are certain this will still yield a lot in politics," the president said.The phone is at the center of the dispute between two justices. On Monday (14), the Federal Police said it had delivered to the offices of Alexandre de Moraes, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes copies of the data extracted from the device. It was seized in November, during Operation Compliance Zero, and holds the messages the police cited in the report Mendonça used to ask the court to open an investigation into Moraes. A police survey identified 52 messages from Vorcaro with Moraes as a recipient, according to G1. The Master case takes its name from Banco Master, the bank under investigation."That famous secret phone that seemed to be on another planet in André Mendonça's hands... is now in Gilmar's [Mendes] hands, in Flávio Dino's hands, in Zanin's hands, in the hands of other justices of the Supreme Court. Now it is time to start leaking what truly needs to be leaked, so the people know the truth," Lula said.Mendonça spoke publicly on the same day. According to G1, he said he has "nothing to fear", that he expected to suffer reprisals, and he denied any irregularity or political motivation. He took over the Master case in February, after Justice Dias Toffoli left the investigation.On Moraes, Lula said the justice "will have to pay" if he made a mistake in the contract between Banco Master and the law firm of his wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, according to InfoMoney. In the same interview, the president tied the Bolsonaro family's fight with the justice to a different cause. "The Bolsonaro family's fight with Alexandre de Moraes is not about Banco Master. It is about the imprisonment of the family," he said.Lula also argued that the cases against Moraes and Mendonça should be tried together. "If you want to do justice in the vote, you have to put everyone on the same day. You cannot judge one person before the election and the rest after," he said. According to InfoMoney, an order motion on joining the cases, filed by the court's senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, has split the bench 4 to 3 in favor of trying them separately. A review request by Justice Flávio Dino could tie the vote.The judgment on Mendonça was postponed this week by acting Chief Justice Edson Fachin, who canceled a court session. The clash comes in a presidential election year. Vorcaro and his father, Henrique, were summoned by the Federal Police to testify on September 30.

Justice Cármen Lúcia of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top constitutional court, apologized to the Brazilian people during a plenary session on Tuesday, September 15. The extraordinary session had been called to examine the report on the relationship between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to news site G1, she said she was in a state of "deep consternation and sadness".She spoke after Justice Flávio Dino requested a "vista", a procedural move that suspends a trial to give a justice more time. Cármen Lúcia opened by asking her colleague for license. "I do not have the habit of anticipating a vote when there is a request for a vista," she said. She then attributed the strain of recent days to the court itself, which she said "provoked civic unease among all Brazilian citizens in these last days". The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported it was her only remark of the session before the vote on the procedural question.The justice said she had wanted to help calm the crisis among her colleagues and had failed."I apologize to the Brazilian people, who perhaps expected a different posture from me. But I think all of us here wanted the same thing, which was to try to resolve this, and the questions were not resolved and grew too large. So I apologize to the president of the Supreme Court and to all my colleagues, but above all to the Brazilian people, because I truly wanted to have been better and to have helped calm things down, and I could not"A crisis born of the Master bank caseThe crisis began in early September, when secrecy was lifted on Federal Police reports written during a probe into financial fraud at Banco Master. One document identified 52 messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes from December 2023 to November 2025, the month the businessman was first arrested. The report also recorded in-person meetings between the two and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law firm of the justice's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes.On the procedural question raised by Gilmar Mendes, which dominated the session, the tally was 4 to 3 to keep separate the review of Moraes's conduct and the review of how Justice André Mendonça handled the Master case report. Court President Edson Fachin, the session's rapporteur, voted for separation, joined by Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia. Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes himself argued for a joint trial. Dino, who had voted with that group, switched to the vista request, which suspended the judgment.What comes nextUnder the court's internal rules, set by a December 2022 decision, Dino has up to 90 days to return the case, counted from the publication of the session minutes, according to BBC News Brasil. If the deadline runs out without a return, the trial resumes automatically. The court has kept a session scheduled for September 23 to examine Moraes's accusations against Mendonça.

Justices Gilmar Mendes and André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) traded shouts on Tuesday (15) in the court's chamber in Brasília. The clash came during an extraordinary session on the Banco Master crisis engulfing the court, and began when Gilmar rose to defend Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and accused his colleague of "desfaçatez", shameless audacity, and "leviandade", recklessness.Gonet had just denied any closeness to Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. "There is no such thing, and I never had a relationship of proximity with Mr. Vorcaro", the prosecutor said, according to news site G1. Mendonça asked to respond. Gilmar cut him off and shouted: "The shamelessness of this man is astonishing!""It is astonishing, Mr. President, that a person of Mr. Paulo Gonet's stature should suffer this kind of insinuation. That is what recklessness is. A man gripped by a police-minded zeal together with his police commissioners. The shamelessness of this man is astonishing."Mendonça shouted back. "The shamelessness is yours, Your Excellency! Respect me, respect me. This is no joke!", he yelled. Gilmar replied: "Go ahead and cry, go ahead and cry." Mendonça answered: "I am not crying. There is no crying here. Respect me!"Justice Flávio Dino halted the session, asked for a "vista", the procedural step in which a justice requests the case files for review, and demanded action from court president Luiz Edson Fachin over the shouting match. "I have to interrupt this situation because we have a point of order. We are in no condition to deliberate. The climate is going from bad to worse, and society is watching something different from the procedure the law mandates", he said.A crisis that already involved MoraesThe fight opened a new front in the dispute between Mendonça and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The crisis deepened after Mendonça, the justice in charge of the Banco Master investigations, lifted secrecy on Federal Police reports. One document listed 52 messages between Vorcaro and Moraes, in-person meetings between the two, and a R$ 130 million contract between the bank and the law firm of Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes. Moraes accused his colleague of a "selective" release of the case files. Mendonça denied it and said he kept confidential only what was needed to protect ongoing investigations and third-party data.The session produced one more confrontation. Dino mentioned messages about court justices found on Vorcaro's phone, and Justice Luiz Fux reacted: "There are no messages with me." Dino insisted: "There are, Justice Fux. There are." Fux said he had never seen Vorcaro in his life, and Dino answered that his colleague "will have to clarify this at the proper time. Unfortunately".What comes nextThe session ended suspended, with a partial 4-3 tally in favor of keeping the cases of Moraes and Mendonça separate. Fachin, Cármen Lúcia, Luiz Fux and André Mendonça voted against the joint review sought by Gilmar; Gilmar, Cristiano Zanin and Alexandre de Moraes voted for it, according to InfoMoney. Dino had sided with that group but converted his vote into a request for review, suspending the judgment. The court resumes the case next week. The case against Mendonça is scheduled for September 23, and the review period can run up to 90 days. Justices Dias Toffoli and Kassio Nunes Marques had stepped aside, one citing personal reasons and the other the electoral calendar, leaving seven justices to vote.

A Quaest poll released on Monday, Sept. 14, has put Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL ahead of President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) in a simulated runoff in Brazil's 2026 presidential election for the first time in the institute's series: 42% to 40%. The two-point gap sits inside the poll's margin of error.The result drew an immediate reaction from the president's campaign. In Tuesday's edition of Folha de S.Paulo, columnist Elio Gaspari wrote under the headline "Flávio Bolsonaro grew and the PT tries to wake up"."Monday's Quaest poll landed like a bomb on Lula's campaign. For the first time, Flávio Bolsonaro overtook him in a simulated runoff (42% to 40%). On its own, that number says little. It is within the margin of error, and elections are won at the ballot box."According to Gaspari, the senator's rise tracks the government's wear. "Bolsonaro grew by absorbing the support of voters who had long viewed Lula 3.0 negatively" (his shorthand for Lula's third government), the columnist wrote, adding that it was "inevitable" that negative views would migrate to an opponent. In the same poll's first-round scenario, Lula still leads with 36% of voting intentions against 31% for Flávio Bolsonaro. Cury has 7%, Renan Calheiros 4%, Ronaldo Caiado 4% and Romeu Zema 1%, according to G1.Campaign and Planalto reactOther pollsters show a different picture. The CNT/MDA survey released on Tuesday gave Lula 47.3% to 40% in a runoff. According to JOTA Info, the BTG/Nexus poll "brings relief" to the president's team, while Quaest "sets off an alarm" in the Planalto, the seat of government, which has begun to reassess Lula's favorite status. "The perception that favorite status has changed sides may be the most dangerous data point for the PT," the website wrote. O Globo reported that Lula's campaign offered its own explanation for the numerical turnaround.The race is also split by region, according to Datafolha and Quaest state-level surveys compiled by Folha. Lula leads in ten states, including all nine in the Northeast plus Pará. Flávio Bolsonaro is ahead in nine states plus the Federal District, strongest in the South and most of the Center-West, with technical ties in six states.The first round is set for Oct. 4, less than three weeks away. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, a runoff will decide the election.

The Bahia-born businessman Carlos Seabra Suarez, known in Brazil's energy sector as the "Gas King", is the largest individual campaign donor in the 2026 election so far. He transferred R$ 5.7 million to the national directorates of six parties that Folha de S.Paulo describes as center and center-right: MDB, PP, PSD, PSDB, União Brasil and PSB. The figures come from the first partial campaign finance report released by the electoral court.The transfers, made between September 8 and 10, were R$ 1 million each to the MDB, PP, PSD, PSDB and União Brasil, plus R$ 700,000 to the PSB, according to O Globo. None of the money went directly to a candidate. Individual donors have given R$ 374.9 million to parties and candidates, according to the Folha tally based on the report released on Tuesday (15). O Globo, using data closed on September 14, counted R$ 368.7 million. Suarez alone accounts for about 1.5% of all money from individual donors, the newspaper calculated.Who is the "Gas King"Suarez, 74, started in real estate in Salvador. He is one of the founders of the construction firm OAS, and the "S" in the company's name comes from his surname, O Globo recalls. After leaving the contractor, he moved into natural gas. He founded Termogás and bought stakes in state distributors such as Potigás, Cergás, Algás and the Paraná gas company, Folha reports. The nickname comes from his control of eight distributors across northern, northeastern and central-western states, plus the federal district.Companies have been banned from funding Brazilian campaigns since 2015. Suarez therefore gives as an individual. He had already donated R$ 750,000 in the 2022 election and about R$ 1.2 million in the 2024 municipal races. According to Folha, his work in Brasília defends the sector's current regulatory framework and the expansion of gas infrastructure through private investment. He did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment.The rest of the rankingSecond place belongs to Alexandre Grendene Bartelle, co-founder of the shoe manufacturer Grendene, with R$ 3.6 million, according to O Globo. He took the opposite path from Suarez and gave directly to campaigns: R$ 2.5 million to Luciano Lorenzini Zucco (PL), a candidate for governor of Rio Grande do Sul, R$ 500,000 to Ciro Gomes (PSDB), running for governor of Ceará, and R$ 500,000 to Cid Gomes (PSB), a Senate candidate in the same state. Another R$ 100,000 went to a state assembly candidate in Rio Grande do Sul. Suarez's wife, Abigail Silva Suarez, donated R$ 620,000 to three campaigns in Bahia, the family's home state.The final destination of Suarez's money does not yet show up in any candidate's books. Because the funds went to party directorates, each party decides how to pass them on. If that happens, Suarez will not appear as a direct donor in the candidates' reports, O Globo explains. Party accounts follow their own calendar and can only be filed with the electoral court next year. Cash donations must be reported within 72 hours, and all data is available on the DivulgaCandContas system of the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court.

Senator Alessandro Vieira of Sergipe announced on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, that he will file a writ of mandamus with Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) to force Senate President Davi Alcolumbre to install a congressional inquiry into Banco Master. The request has 41 signatures and has sat on the Senate leadership's desk for six months. According to the magazine VEJA, the filing was expected on Tuesday itself.Vieira says he cannot get an answer from the Senate leadership. Alcolumbre, he says, has not responded to formal requests, official letters, rulings or phone calls on the matter. The 41 signatures exceed the constitutional minimum to open an inquiry, one third of the Senate's 81 members, or 27 names. A CPI, as congressional inquiries are known in Brazil, can compel testimony and demand documents with powers of a judicial authority."I will file a writ of mandamus, once again, asking the Supreme Court to order the president of the House to install a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry specifically to investigate the ministers' relationship with Daniel Vorcaro," Vieira told Poder360.What the inquiry would investigateThe inquiry would examine the ties between Justices Dias Toffoli and Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the founder of Banco Master. Vorcaro is under investigation for leading the largest fraud recorded in Brazil's financial system, Poder360 reports. In the filing, Vieira argues that the Senate cannot stay silent on suspicions involving members of the country's top court, and that the Constitution gives Congress the power to investigate members of the judiciary."This House cannot walk away from its responsibility. The Constitution is wise. It was not for nothing that the Constitution opened the possibility of prosecution for crimes of responsibility for us," Vieira said in a statement quoted by VEJA. "What we are defending is investigation. It is justice and law for everyone." He also linked the request to the report of the Senate's organized crime inquiry. "It is a deep infiltration of organized crime that reached the highest courts. I have said this since February 2019," he said, according to Poder360.Pressure on the day of a Supreme Court sessionThe announcement came on the same day the full Supreme Court began reviewing a Federal Police report that cites Moraes's relationship with Vorcaro. It was the first time the court weighed opening an investigation into one of its own justices, G1 reports. Toffoli, one of the two justices the proposed inquiry targets, recused himself and did not vote. The session ended without a decision, suspended by a request for review from Justice Flávio Dino.The next step is the filing of the writ at the STF, which will decide whether to order Alcolumbre to install the committee. In the plenary, Dino has up to 90 days to review; if he does not speak, the case automatically returns to the docket. Court President Edson Fachin must decide whether to keep a September 23 session on Justice André Mendonça.

The reelection campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has decided to publicly revive the record of Justice Alexandre de Moraes from before he joined the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court. The goal is to undo the link between the two that the opposition has built. The strategy is detailed in a Poder360 report published on Wednesday (Sept 16), one day after the court ended its session on the crisis around Moraes in the Banco Master case without a decision.Tuesday's session (Sept 15) was interrupted with a 4-3 vote to keep separate the cases of Moraes and Justice André Mendonça. Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the file, delaying the judgment. According to G1, until the case is returned, the justices cannot decide whether there are grounds to open an investigation into Moraes over a Federal Police report that identified 52 messages from former banker Daniel Vorcaro with an alleged connection to the justice.The record before the courtThe campaign's core argument is that Moraes has no political alignment with Lula. Then president Michel Temer (MDB) nominated Moraes to the court in 2017, after he ran the Justice Ministry in the same government. Earlier, he served as justice secretary (2002 to 2005) and public security secretary (2015 and 2016) of São Paulo state under Governor Geraldo Alckmin (then PSDB). Running public security, he oversaw clashes between the Military Police and protesters in 2015 and 2016, an approach still criticized by São Paulo members of Lula's Workers Party, according to Poder360. In 2018, as a justice, Moraes voted to reject a habeas corpus filed by Lula's defense against the early enforcement of his sentence in the Guarujá triplex case. Lula had been jailed since April of that year.Another front is the timeline of Banco Master. The campaign wants to remind voters that the bank began operating under President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and was liquidated under Lula. According to Poder360, the Workers Party's line is that the crisis around the justice is a matter for the judiciary and should not become part of the presidential race. The government says everyone involved must be investigated. In an interview with Record TV on Tuesday, Lula said everyone must be investigated "without distinction" and that no one should escape judgment when there is suspicion or accusation.A "gift" for Flávio BolsonaroAssessments inside the president's circle diverge on the electoral effect of the session, Poder360 found. One reading is that the court crisis helps neither Lula nor Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and hurts the country. Another is that the episode does not damage Lula at the polls. There is also a more critical view: according to columnist Bela Megale of the newspaper O Globo, government members assess that the bloc of justices allied with Moraes would have handed Flávio Bolsonaro "a gift" in the ruling. CNN Brasil analyst Caio Junqueira wrote that the day Moraes "won the first round" inside the court had "as its reverse effect a political gift for Flávio Bolsonaro".The campaigns are already fighting over the issue on television. In Tuesday's televised electoral program, Flávio Bolsonaro devoted his slot to tying the president to the justice. "The current president divided his power with Alexandre de Moraes. And, in the end, Brazil was left with no president at all. No command," the senator said, according to G1. The Workers Party program focused on the senator's exposure in the Master case, said he was "caught asking Daniel Vorcaro for 134 million reais" and ended with the slogan "Flávio, the worst of the Bolsonaros". Lula repeated his promise of a sweeping investigation: "It is essential that everyone be investigated, with no protection for anyone."The race is tight. A Quaest poll released on Monday (Sept 14) showed Flávio Bolsonaro with 42% of vote intentions against 40% for Lula in a possible runoff, a statistical tie. According to G1, the senator's campaign does not credit the court crisis for the gain; allies point to his performance among women as the main driver. The next step in the case sits on the court's calendar: Dino has up to 90 days to return the case, a deadline that ends in December, after the election, and the Sept 23 session that court president Edson Fachin scheduled to examine Mendonça's conduct has been jeopardized by the impasse.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday (Sept. 15) that members of Brazil's judiciary should not have relatives practicing law at the Supreme Court itself. In an interview with Jornal da Record, a nightly news program on Record TV, he called for "moralization criteria" for the judiciary and said the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court, must be "the magnanimous example" of Brazil."Things have to be clear. Whoever is a justice [of the STF] or works in the judiciary cannot want to get rich. Cannot want to get rich. People cannot be in the judiciary with a son practicing law, a wife practicing law, the father practicing law, in the Supreme Court itself. (...) The Supreme Court has to be the magnanimous example of this country. At the Supreme Court, no one can be under suspicion. It is important to investigate, and whoever made a mistake must pay the price the Brazilian people demand", Lula said, according to Poder360.Remarks in the middle of an STF crisisThe statement came on the same day the STF examined the cases involving Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça. The session was suspended after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case, with the tally at 4 to 3 for handling the two cases separately. The court's crisis deepened after the release of messages exchanged between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed on suspicion of billion-dollar fraud. According to InfoMoney, the investigation also found that Moraes edited a contract between the law office of his wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, and Banco Master.In the same interview, Lula, who is running for reelection, backed "a profound reform" of the judiciary. "I think we need a profound reform of the judiciary, in which we discuss the length of terms, the criteria for choosing candidates and how the person can be chosen", he said. The president has not detailed what a reform in a fourth term would include. Points mentioned so far, according to InfoMoney, include limits on monocratic rulings, in which a single justice decides, and more seats for civil society on the CNJ and CNMP, the councils that oversee judges and prosecutors.Lula denies responsibility for the appointmentsOn Wednesday (Sept. 16), on the podcast Desce a Letra Show, Lula said he cannot be blamed for the appointments of Moraes, Kássio Nunes Marques and Mendonça to the court, because he was not president when they were made. G1 reported that Moraes was nominated by then president Michel Temer in February 2017. "Everyone who made a mistake has to be tried. I support a fair trial, the right to a defense, but if you committed a crime, you have to pay. That applies to me, to Fachin, to Moraes", Lula said.The next move belongs to the STF itself. Dino has up to 90 days to release the case for a plenary vote, and the exact date will be set by Justice Edson Fachin, the BBC reported. It is still not clear whether the court will rule, on Sept. 23, on the accusations Moraes filed against Mendonça over his handling of the Banco Master and INSS investigations. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled for Oct. 4.

A Quaest poll released on Wednesday (Sept. 16) shows that 49% of Brazilians do not consider President Lula, of the Workers' Party, an honest politician. When the person being judged is Flávio Bolsonaro, of the PL party and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, 42% give the same answer.In the other direction, 28% of respondents called Lula honest, and 23% said the same of Flávio. The survey was commissioned by Globo and the newspaper O Globo. It interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over across Brazil between Sept. 10 and 13. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level, and it is registered with Brazil's electoral court, the TSE, under number BR-03607/2026.The question"Based on what you have seen or heard, is the candidate an honest politician, a dishonest one, or do you not know him well enough to say?"The question covered all six presidential candidates. For Lula, 23% said they did not know him well enough to answer or declined to respond. For Flávio, that share is larger: 35%. Among the other four names, the best honesty score belongs to Augusto Cury of Avante, with 17%, followed by Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD with 14% and Romeu Zema of Novo with 13%. Renan Santos of Missão has 6%. For those four, between 77% and 86% of respondents said they did not know the candidate well enough to judge.How different groups see the twoAccording to the g1 news site, the view that Lula is honest reaches 69% among his supporters and 45% in the Northeast. The opposite view prevails in the Southeast (61%), among evangelical voters (59%) and on the non-Bolsonarist right (85%). Flávio is seen as honest by 60% of Bolsonarists and 30% of evangelicals. The Northeast also holds the strongest rejection of the PL candidate: 55% there say he is not honest, and the share rises to 73% on the non-Lulist left.The release came one day after a session of Brazil's Supreme Court that ended without a final ruling on Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to g1, the bench voted 4-3 to try the cases of Moraes and of Justice André Mendonça separately, and a request by Justice Flávio Dino for more time suspended the outcome. The poll's fieldwork ended on Sept. 13, two days before the session, so the numbers do not capture any reaction to it.The first round of the election is set for Oct. 4. The court's ruling remains pending, and the crisis at the Supreme Court is a central theme of the race between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro.

The trial that will decide whether Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes should be investigated over his ties to Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, has no date to return to the bench. According to an analysis by BBC News Brasil, the case may not resume until 2027, after the October elections and the inauguration of Brazil's next president in January. The session was halted on Tuesday (Sept. 15) when Justice Flávio Dino requested a review period, known in Brazilian legal jargon as a pedido de vista, shortly after a provisional 4 to 3 vote to try the cases of Moraes and Justice André Mendonça separately.Under court rules, Dino has 90 days to release the case, a deadline that expires on December 15. Even then, the trial only returns if the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, puts it back on the docket and schedules a new session. The court goes into recess from December 20 to February 1. BBC News Brasil reports that a quick resumption is considered unlikely behind the scenes. Justice Luiz Fux, voting in an unrelated case on Wednesday, complained about review requests. "Each time a review is requested, the same topic piles up in chambers, and sometimes the notes get lost, because the vote is reprinted and so on", he said, according to news site G1.What the trial decidesThe trial does not examine whether Moraes broke any law. It weighs whether the Federal Police report linking the justice to Vorcaro is valid and whether an investigation into their relationship should be opened. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet challenged the document and argued that Mendonça could not have requested a Federal Police report against a fellow justice without prior authorization from the full court. Mendonça says he only asked the police to identify who received Vorcaro's messages and passed the case to his colleagues once Moraes was identified. Moraes countered with accusations that Mendonça acted illegally and with political bias in the Banco Master and INSS inquiries.Who votes and what comes nextOn Tuesday, voting was tied on a procedural motion filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes that called for a joint trial. Fachin accepted Dino's request and announced a 4 to 3 result for separate trials, leaving Dino's vote out; Dino did not object, according to BBC News Brasil. Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Moraes, Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin voted to join the cases, while Mendonça, Fachin, Fux and Cármen Lúcia voted against. Because voting was not closed, justices can still change their votes when the session resumes, and Dino has yet to vote. Justices Kássio Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli have declared themselves conflicted and will not take part.It remains open whether Moraes and Mendonça may vote on the merits. For legal scholar Ivar Hartmann, who holds a PhD in public law from Uerj and was consulted by BBC News Brasil, both should be barred from voting in the rest of the trial. "Alexandre de Moraes would be barred from taking part in the trial because he is a party or directly interested in the outcome of that decision", professor Ana Laura Barbosa, of FGV Law School and Insper, told Folha.A trial on the accusations against Mendonça remains scheduled for September 23, though BBC News Brasil found that Fachin is weighing a postponement after the uncertainty left by Tuesday's session. If Dino does not release the Moraes case by December 15, the resumption is likely to slip past the recess and the presidential inauguration, into 2027. When the full court returns to the case, the routine starts over: a report, a statement from the prosecutor general's office and oral arguments, followed by the votes, beginning with the rapporteur and then in reverse order of seniority, with Dino first.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the incumbent from the Workers Party, leads Brazil's presidential race in first-round voting intentions, but the poll's runoff scenarios against two opponents end in technical ties. The national survey by the DataTrends institute, released on Wednesday, puts Lula at 39% in the first round, ahead of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, at 35%. In a direct matchup, Flávio scores 45% to Lula's 44%, a difference within the margin of error.In the first-round simulation, writer Augusto Cury has 6%, Renan Santos has 4%, former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado has 3% and Romeu Zema has 1%, according to Correio Braziliense. Blank and null votes add up to 4%, and undecided voters reach 8%. In the other runoff scenarios, Lula leads numerically: 46% to 39% against Zema, 42% to 37% against Cury and 44% to 41% against Caiado, another technical tie.How the poll was conductedDataTrends interviewed 2,000 voters across all 27 units of the federation between Saturday, September 12, and Monday, September 14. The margin of error is 2.19 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. Interviews were automated phone calls, statistically calibrated by gender, age, education and income. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's election authority, under number BR-08691/2026.Region by regionIn the head-to-head matchup with Flávio, Lula leads alone only in the Northeast, with 65.9%, according to Revista Oeste. Flávio moves ahead in the Southeast (52.3% to 35.4%), the South (51.7% to 37.9%), the Center-West (57.9% to 26.4%) and the North (46.6% to 42.5%). The senator also leads among voters with a college degree, at 51.9%, and among those earning more than two minimum wages. Lula's strongest numbers come from voters with less schooling and incomes of up to two minimum wages.The poll also measured the federal government. 44% of respondents approve of Lula's administration and 50% disapprove; 6% did not know or did not answer. In the government rating, 28% call it excellent or good, 19% fair and 51% bad or terrible.Brazil votes on October 4, with a runoff set for October 25 if no candidate wins a majority. Other recent surveys show a tight race as well: Correio Braziliense reported that Datafolha puts Lula ahead in both rounds, while AtlasIntel found 46.4% for Flávio and 46.2% for Lula in the runoff.

The congressional office of federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PL party, São Paulo) has employed a former São Paulo Military Police sergeant suspected of ties to the leadership of the PCC, Brazil's largest criminal faction, since August 2024. G1 reported the hiring on Monday (14), the same day the Federal Police targeted the congressman in a search operation.The action was the third phase of Operação Transparência, which investigates suspected attempts to sway rulings by Brazil's high courts, according to news site O Antagonista. The warrants also targeted lawyer Valéria Rodrigues Linhares, the deputy's wife. In a statement, Cezinha's lawyers denied any wrongdoing."Calm in his full confidence in the Justice system and certain of his spotless conduct, federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira stands at the disposal of the authorities and will provide all necessary clarification," the lawyers' statement said.The employee's recordThe aide, Farani Salvador Júnior, was expelled from the São Paulo force in May 2023. The Military Police's internal affairs office concluded he had committed "acts offensive to the institution, the state and fundamental human rights, as well as dishonorable ones (...) amounting to serious disciplinary infractions".The disciplinary case was tied to the February 2020 killing of Military Police corporal Wanderley Oliveira Júnior. São Paulo's homicide division indicted Farani as the man who ordered the killing, and state prosecutors filed charges. G1 reports the accusation held that he ordered his colleague's death over a dossier the corporal had compiled linking the sergeant to PCC members in eastern São Paulo. Farani spent two years in pretrial detention and was acquitted by a jury in 2022.Suspected links between Farani and other military police officers and the PCC remain under investigation in both military and civilian courts. He is a defendant before a São Paulo court that handles tax crimes, criminal organizations and money laundering.What comes nextG1 said it sought comment from Cezinha's press office and had received no reply by its last update. The Federal Police, according to O Antagonista, said there is no evidence so far that members of the judiciary took part in the facts under investigation. The court cases involving Farani remain open, and the deputy's defense says he is available to answer the authorities on the inquiry behind Monday's operation.

Brasília's Praça dos Três Poderes will be closed to the public on Tuesday, September 15, for the session in which Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) reviews a Federal Police report on 52 messages exchanged between Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The Federal District's public security office said protests and demonstrations of any kind are banned from the square.The square sits between the seats of Brazil's three branches of government: Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court. The justices convene at 10 a.m., in a session called by Chief Justice Edson Fachin last Wednesday. The court will decide whether to open or shelve an investigation into Moraes, an unprecedented judgment on a sitting justice, and will weigh a request by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) to void the police report on procedural grounds.Security operationAccording to the Federal District security office, policing will be reinforced around the square's perimeter and at the court's annex. Demonstration groups will be allowed no closer than the José Sarney road, in front of Congress. Traffic on the Ministries Esplanade will remain open in both directions, subject to closures depending on the demonstrations. The district government will also fly Military Police drones and use surveillance cameras, along with the intelligence cell created in August to protect the capital during the 2026 election campaign, which brings together 22 district and federal agencies. Policing will also be reinforced at the central bus station and at the city's two main gateways, Brasília Airport and the interstate bus terminal.At the presidential palace, the Institutional Security Cabinet did not confirm additional measures but said it may deploy fences "to complement and reinforce security measures when the situation recommends." According to the blog of columnist Andréia Sadi at G1, a group of justices moved to postpone the session on the eve of the vote, and Fachin refused.Rules inside the courtAccess to the court building will feature metal detectors and X-ray equipment at the main building and the annex, including for lawyers, journalists, aides and staff. Only guests authorized by the protocol office may enter the chamber, cellphones will be sealed in plastic bags as in public service exams, and food, drinks and demonstrations are banned during the session. Fachin reserved the chamber's front row for 13 retired justices, ten of them former chief justices.Fachin opens the session with a summary of the facts, the PGR speaks, the rapporteur casts the first vote and the other justices follow in the court's standing order. According to reporting by G1, court insiders expect a narrow 4-to-3 vote in favor of opening some form of inquiry against Moraes. If one justice requests more time to review the case, a move known as vista, the 90-day deadline in the court's rules would push a final decision to February.

Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes called the investigation led by fellow Justice André Mendonça into messages attributed to banker Daniel Bueno Vorcaro, owner of the now-defunct Banco Master, "absolutely unconstitutional and illegal". In a filing sent to the court's presidency on Monday (14), Moraes spoke publicly for the first time since the start of the Operação Compliance Zero crisis and denied any wrongdoing or any favoritism toward Vorcaro and the bank. According to CNN Brasil, the document runs 44 pages and reached the court less than 12 hours before Tuesday's (15) session, in which Brazil's top court decides whether to open a formal inquiry against him.Moraes argues that the probe was opened without a request from the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), without a formal move by the Federal Police and without prior authorization from the full bench. "In the present case, in an absolutely unconstitutional and illegal manner, the reporting justice ordered, on his own initiative, investigative acts against a justice of the court," he wrote. CNN Brasil counted the word "illegal" 26 times in the filing.On the substance, Moraes says the Federal Police report "found no indication of any criminal offense" on his part. He says the document rests on notes found in the notepad app of Vorcaro's phone, calls the supposed exchanges "fanciful dialogues" and "criminal lies", and attacks the report's methods. According to G1, he says evidence was not properly preserved and the conclusions came from excerpts of messages and interpretations rather than technical forensics."There is not a single message, absolutely none, authored by Justice Alexandre de Moraes that indicates any legal advice, favoritism or prior knowledge of any police operation."The core of his defense is the operation's own outcome. Vorcaro was arrested at Guarulhos International Airport as he prepared to board a flight, carrying his real passport and his mobile phone. For Moraes, the success of the arrest and the seizure of the device shows the banker did not know there was a warrant against him, so it is "not logical, reasonable and plausible" to conclude there was favoritism or a leak. Moraes also denies having ruled on any case involving Banco Master or the law office of his wife, Viviane Barci, and describes the offensive against him as having a "political-electoral" motivation, an attempt at "revenge".Mendonça's responseIn a separate filing also sent Monday to Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin, Mendonça defended the steps he took. He explained the in-person meeting with Federal Police investigators in his office on August 24 as a precaution, because a police document mentioned the force's director general, Andrei Rodrigues, and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet in a note Vorcaro sent to a still unidentified contact. Mendonça also said he ordered the police to deliver, within 72 hours, updated information on members of Vorcaro's supposed "influence and monitoring network". Fachin had set a deadline for Moraes, Mendonça, Gonet and Rodrigues to provide explanations before the session.What the court decides on TuesdayThe extraordinary session starts at 10 am. The justices will review the Federal Police report and decide whether the messages justify opening an investigation into Moraes. The PGR has formally asked for the report to be annulled and shelved over procedural flaws, and, according to G1, one scenario under discussion behind the scenes is for Fachin to void the report and send the data to a new deputy prosecutor general for review. It remains open whether Moraes and Mendonça will vote; Justice Dias Toffoli is expected to stay out after declaring himself conflicted in related matters. Sources heard by G1 estimate a tight 4-to-3 split in favor of opening some form of inquiry. A request for review time, with a 90-day deadline under court rules, could delay the outcome.

São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes said on Monday (Sept 14) that the city's free internet program in poor outskirts neighborhoods may be shut down if the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal, orders the contract with an NGO run by businesswoman Karina da Gama to end. Gama produced "Dark Horse", a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. The statement came days after Justice Flávio Dino froze all public payments to entities linked to her.The deal with the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), which Gama chairs, was signed in June 2024, months before the municipal election Nunes won. According to G1, the contract was worth 108 million reais to install 5,000 free wi-fi points in peripheral areas. The NGO installed 3,200 points and received 113.9 million reais from the city over two years, through May. In a WhatsApp message to reporters, the mayor said Prodam, the city's data processing company, cannot run the service at the price paid to the NGO."Prodam cannot do the service at a price of 1,260 reais per point. I will have to cancel and run a new call for proposals. The same service done by Prodam costs 6,699.99 reais per point."What the investigation saysIn a Sept 3 ruling, Dino ordered payments halted to all entities linked to Gama. On Thursday (Sept 10), federal police served 49 search and seizure warrants in an operation called Make Up. Targets included Gama, also a partner at Go Up Entertainment, the producer of "Dark Horse", and federal deputy Mario Frias (PL-SP), who reportedly directed 2 million reais in congressional budget earmarks to the institute, according to CNN Brasil. Investigators are examining suspected embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and bid irregularities. Dino also moved the inquiry, previously handled by the São Paulo state Civil Police, to the federal police under Supreme Court supervision.A report by the São Paulo Civil Police, made public on Sunday (Sept 13) after the justice lifted the secrecy order, points to "consistent suspicions" of commingling of assets. According to the document, the state audit court had flagged at least 20 serious irregularities in the procurement process."There are consistent suspicions of asset commingling and that public funds from the WiFi Livre SP program were diverted to finance the production of the film, using accounts of subcontracted companies and of other social organizations managed by the person under investigation to launder money taken from São Paulo's public coffers."Defense and next stepsNunes denies any wrongdoing. On Friday (Sept 11), he told CNN Brasil he would ask the STF whether the contract must be broken and insisted the city deal is separate from the film. "Our contract has nothing to do with 'Dark Horse'", he said. In Monday's message, the mayor argued the call for proposals stayed open for 30 days without any challenge, said the audit court's observations had been addressed, and called the complaint that started the case, filed by a member of the Workers' Party (PT) from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, "lunatic". "Nobody, not her, not a mayor, not a journalist, not a judge, is above the law. If anyone made a mistake, they must pay for it," he said.On Monday, the city attorney's office asked Dino to reconsider the freeze, arguing that an abrupt halt could cause losses. The request is for the ICB to keep running only this contract, or for a longer deadline to switch companies. The decision now rests with the justice. If the freeze stands and no new company is hired, Nunes says he will cancel the program and open a new call for proposals, removing the 3,200 free wi-fi points now active in communities, while federal police investigate the case under Supreme Court supervision.

Fifty percent of Brazilians disapprove of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government, while 43% approve, according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (September 14). Another 7% did not know or did not answer. The survey lands three weeks before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, set for October 4, with Lula running for reelection.The figures match the previous Quaest round, from September 7, which also showed 50% disapproval and 43% approval. In a separate question on how voters rate the government, 38% call it bad, 32% good and 27% regular, with 3% giving no answer. In the September 7 round, the rating had been 34% good and 25% regular, according to CNN Brasil. The margin of error is two percentage points.Globo, Brazil's largest media group, commissioned the poll in partnership with its newspaper O Globo. Quaest, one of the country's main polling firms, interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and older across the country between September 10 and 13. The confidence level is 95%, and the survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that runs elections in Brazil, under number BR-03607/2026.The pollster's readingFor Quaest, the disapproval number helps explain the state of the race. In an analysis published by g1, Globo's news portal, Felipe Nunes, a professor and pollster at Quaest, wrote:"The high and constant disapproval of the Lula government (50%) also helps explain this moment. It is unprecedented for an incumbent seeking reelection not to improve approval during the campaign."Nunes also noted that approval converts almost fully into votes: in a runoff simulation, Lula gets 40%, the equivalent of 93% of the 43% who approve of the government. In the same poll, Lula has 36% of first-round vote intentions against 31% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the closest gap between the two in the institute's historical series. In a runoff, the two are in a statistical tie, with 42% for Flávio Bolsonaro and 40% for Lula.A Nexus/BTG survey released the same day shows a similar picture: 49% disapprove of the government and 47% approve, according to CNN Brasil. The first round is set for October 4. Until October 3, the eve of the vote, Globo's outlets will publish 130 polls commissioned from Quaest and Datafolha covering the races for the presidency, the Senate and the governorships of every state and the Federal District.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing PL party has moved numerically ahead of President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) in a simulated runoff for the first time since Brazil's presidential campaign began. The Quaest poll released on Monday (14) shows Bolsonaro, a senator and the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, with 42% of voter support against 40% for the incumbent.The two-point gap falls within the survey's margin of error of two percentage points, so the race remains a statistical tie. In the previous round, released on September 7, both men had 41%. Quaest interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over between September 10 and 13, in a survey commissioned by Globo together with the newspaper O Globo. It is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number BR-03607/2026, with a 95% confidence level. Brazilian broadcaster Itatiaia reported the same figures.Where the votes are movingQuaest director Felipe Nunes points to two shifts behind the result: Bolsonaro's gains among women and in the Southeast region. Among women, the race is now a statistical tie, with 41% for Lula and 38% for Bolsonaro. In August, the president led by 12 points in that group."Flávio has managed a surprisingly strong performance among women, who were the main source of rejection of Bolsonaro after the pandemic and the gun-access easing policies of the previous government," Nunes said.In the Southeast, home to Brazil's three biggest electorates, Bolsonaro leads by 16 points, 47% to 31%. Lula stays ahead only in the Northeast, where he has 60% against 28%. By income, the president wins among the poorest voters (51% to 32%) and loses among middle-income ones (36% to 46%) and the wealthiest (34% to 47%). Among Catholics, Lula has 46% to 38%. Among evangelicals, Bolsonaro has 51% to 28%. Among voters who identify with neither the right nor the left, Bolsonaro leads 36% to 26%.In the first-round scenario, the same Quaest round shows Lula with 36%, Bolsonaro with 31% and Augusto Cury with 7%. Among Cury's voters, 41% say they would back Bolsonaro in a runoff, against 25% who would choose Lula.Brazil's first-round election is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the runoff takes place on October 25.

Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, hired businessman Francisco Feitosa, known as Chiquinho, in 2024. Feitosa is a former brother-in-law of Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). Messages seized by the Federal Police indicate a fee of R$ 500,000 a month (500,000 reais), negotiated in September 2024, plus an extra R$ 800,000 in the first payment. During that period Gilmar was the reporting justice on cases about opening new medical schools, and Chiquinho handled the banker's interests tied to private universities.The reports were published by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo early on Friday (18) and by Estadão on Thursday night (17). According to Folha, exchanges between Vorcaro and a phone number attributed to Chiquinho run from April 2024 to June 2025. Estadão reports that conversations pulled from the banker's phone by the Federal Police cover April 15 to November 13, 2024, and record payments for advisory work. At the time, Chiquinho was still the justice's brother-in-law: his sister, lawyer Guiomar Feitosa, was married to Gilmar until their divorce in November 2025.Medical schools and court-ordered debts on the agendaEstadão reports that Chiquinho discussed with Vorcaro two cases then before the court. One involved precatórios, court-ordered government debts, of the Usina Agroindustrial Tabu, a sugar mill in Paraíba state, which had been bought by Master funds. The other, reported by Gilmar, set rules for opening medical school seats, a field in which the bank was at the time a partner in and financier of a university through one of its funds. In both cases, according to the paper, the justice voted against Master's interests.Reached for comment, Gilmar denied any involvement and said in a note to Estadão:"The Justice had no knowledge of any dealings between him and Daniel Vorcaro, was not approached by him on the matters mentioned, and is not responsible for the private or professional relations of a former relative."His office told Folha that the justice never discussed Education Ministry matters with Vorcaro or Chiquinho and that his vote in the case on new courses favored the government, not the universities. Gilmar acknowledged receiving Master's lawyers at an audience at the court and stressed that the meeting took place "at the court's headquarters, in an institutional setting, not in a private space".A contract admitted for a "short period"Chiquinho, a former congressman and senator for Ceará, first denied having worked for Vorcaro. Confronted by Estadão's reporters with the contract, he admitted providing services for a "short period" and said the hiring company, Super Empreendimentos, was seen as reputable and "operated in several segments". "I was not hired to promote or broker a meeting between any people, much less Justice Gilmar Mendes", he said. According to Folha, he said he arranged, at Vorcaro's request, a meeting with his sister, Guiomar. "He was supposed to bring her case numbers, which never happened."Folha reports that the Federal Police is investigating Super Empreendimentos as an alleged channel for Vorcaro's payments to a private militia and to public officials. Estadão notes that police describe the company as an instrument of money laundering and asset concealment. Chiquinho did not disclose the amounts or the services provided. The exchanges are part of the material from Vorcaro's phone seized in the inquiry, which remains open at the Federal Police.

Banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, met Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on April 11, 2024. At the meeting, he asked the justice to vote in favor of a billion-real case involving sugar and ethanol mills that would have directly benefited Vorcaro. The meeting is described in a column by Mônica Bergamo in Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper, published on Thursday (17).The account draws on conversations that the Federal Police extracted from Vorcaro's phone. Estadão confirmed that the meeting with Gilmar took place and reported that Vorcaro hired former senator Francisco Feitosa de Albuquerque Lima, known as Chiquinho Feitosa (Republicans, Ceará), who was the justice's brother-in-law at the time and worked to arrange the meeting between the bank and the minister. Messages cited by the newspaper point to a contract worth 500,000 reais a month.The role of the former brother-in-lawChiquinho is the brother of lawyer Guiomar Feitosa, who was married to Gilmar until their divorce in November 2025. According to Estadão, conversations extracted by the Federal Police between April 15 and November 13, 2024 show that he received payments from Vorcaro for advisory work. He was hired by Super Empreendimentos, a company the Federal Police identifies as a vehicle for money laundering and hiding assets.Contacted by the newspaper, Chiquinho first denied working for Vorcaro's bank. Confronted with the contract, he acknowledged providing services, though only for "a short period," and said the company was seen at the time as "reputable" and operating "in several sectors." In a September 11, 2024 message, he updated Vorcaro on negotiations over precatórios, the court-ordered debt certificates that the Brazilian government must pay, and on education matters, and discussed his own contract: "he sent the contract for us to sign and issue the invoice on the 15th, as agreed." Estadão also confirmed that a meeting between lawyer Bruno Bianco, a former head of the federal government's legal office, and Gilmar took place, and that Vorcaro introduced Bianco to Chiquinho. Bianco was hired by Banco Master to defend funds that bought sugar mill precatórios.The requests failedIn both cases discussed between Vorcaro and the former senator, Gilmar's votes went against Banco Master's interests, Estadão reports. One involved precatórios of Usina Agroindustrial Tabu, in the state of Paraíba, bought by the bank's funds. The other dealt with rules for creating medical school slots; Master had been a partner in and funder of a university with medical courses through one of its funds, and Gilmar, as rapporteur, voted to keep the existing law, a ruling the newspaper says went indirectly against Vorcaro's interest.The disclosures land as the Supreme Court remains in crisis over the data extracted from Vorcaro's phone. The court's president postponed this week the judgment on the case involving Justice André Mendonça; Gilmar attacked the case's rapporteur on social media and accused his colleague of acting for political and electoral ends. Mendonça said he never used the court's bench "as a campaign platform or a circus ring." Contacted on Thursday afternoon, Gilmar did not respond, and the newspaper says his space to comment remains open. The two rulings tied to Vorcaro's requests have already been decided, and both were defeats for the bank.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his party's candidate for Brazil's presidency, said on Thursday that he will recruit volunteers to act as his poll watchers on election day. The announcement came during his weekly livestream, 17 days before the first round on October 4.The candidate said his campaign will soon launch a website where people can sign up. Volunteers will go through screening, accreditation and training. "There will be a quick lesson on how to monitor the voting machines, especially at the moment the machine closes," he said.Flávio avoided alleging fraud in the electronic vote, an argument he had floated in July before denying he had attacked the electoral system, according to Folha de S.Paulo. This time he said the monitoring would stop people from voting in place of others. "We have to have our own people monitoring all over Brazil, to keep bad-faith people from voting in place of others and from committing illegal acts like those," he said.His father's strategyPoll watchers are already part of Brazilian electoral law. As O Globo reported, parties, federations and coalitions can accredit representatives to observe voting and the count, under rules set by the electoral courts.The move repeats the strategy of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who launched a similar sign-up site during the 2022 campaign. According to Folha, the elder Bolsonaro repeatedly attacked the electronic voting machines, tried to push a printed-ballot bill through Congress in 2021 and, after losing the runoff, his party asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazilian elections, to void the second-round votes. The complaint became part of the coup-plot case that led to his prison sentence in 2025.The race is close. A Datafolha poll released on Thursday shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) with 39% of first-round voting preferences against 36% for Flávio, and a statistical tie in a runoff, at 46% to 44%. The first round is scheduled for October 4.

With Brazil's presidential election less than three weeks away, the poll aggregator of BBC News Brasil shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro technically tied in every runoff scenario. In data compiled through September 15, each had 44% of voting intentions. The Datafolha poll released on Thursday (17) matched the picture: 46% for Lula against 44% for Flávio, a gap within the two-point margin of error.In first-round scenarios, Datafolha, Brazil's best-known polling institute, gives Lula 39% and Flávio 36%, another technical tie. Augusto Cury, a self-help writer running for the small Avante party, has 6%, followed by Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) with 4%, Renan Santos (Missão) with 3% and Romeu Zema (Novo) with 2%. Blank, null or no-candidate answers add up to 6%, and 3% are undecided. The institute heard 2,002 voters between September 15 and 17. The survey was commissioned by TV Globo and Folha de S.Paulo and is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number BR-04029/2026. In the BBC aggregator, which pools results from several pollsters, first-round scenarios through September 15 showed Lula at 39% and Flávio at 35%.This was the first Datafolha round after Tuesday's (15) session of the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil's top court, marked by open disputes among justices in the case involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. According to InfoMoney, the numbers show no significant change between the last two rounds. Flávio rose from 33% on August 21 to 36% now; Lula has held at 39% since then. InfoMoney also reports that Flávio has intensified criticism of Moraes and sought to link the court crisis to Lula, while the PT campaign argues that any irregularities should be investigated.The voters who may decide itThe BBC notes that at this point in 2022 Lula led Jair Bolsonaro by 9 points, 49% to 40%, according to Polling Data, the broadcaster's partner. This year the outlet examined four polls, Atlas/Bloomberg, Nexus/BTG, Quaest and Datafolha, to map the voter groups that could decide the election. The group most cited by political scientists is made up of voters with no clear allegiance to either pole: they account for 32% of the electorate according to Quaest and 18% are "non-polarized" according to Nexus."I think this election will be decided by a very small share of the electorate, around 10%, at most 15%, that has no party ties or necessarily an ideological preference, and is more open to backing whatever the candidates put before them," said Yuri Sanches, head of political risk and political analysis at AtlasIntel.Augusto Cury showed the weight of these voters. After the August 23 debate on TV Bandeirantes, he reached 10% in the BBC aggregator; he now stands at 6%. In Quaest polling, he had 24% among independent voters on September 2, ahead of Lula (21%) and Flávio (9%), and fell to 15% in the September 14 round.The Bolsa Família splitThe Datafolha cross-tab published by g1 shows where each candidate dominates. Among voters who receive Bolsa Família, the country's main cash-transfer program for poor families, or live with a recipient, Lula has 53% in the first round against 28% for Flávio, and 60% to 33% in a runoff. Among those with no link to the program, the senator leads, 37% to 36%. The margin of error for that subgroup is five points. According to g1, most interviews were held before Thursday's announcement of a 15% increase in the benefit: the minimum payment will rise from 600 to 691 reais, with payments starting October 19.The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes, the top two go to a runoff on October 25.

The government of President Lula, who is running for reelection, is rated as bad or terrible by 42% of Brazilians, according to a Datafolha poll released on Thursday (Sept. 17). The positive rating, combining excellent and good, stands at 34%, while 23% call the government average. The survey was commissioned by Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Datafolha, one of Brazil's main polling institutes, interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 and older on Sept. 15 and 16. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, under number BR-04029/2026. In the previous survey, on Sept. 11, the negative rating was also 42% and the positive one 32%. According to Folha, the result, though within the margin of error, suggests the negative picture has stopped getting worse for Lula's campaign.On job performance, 50% disapprove of the government and 48% approve of it. Last week the figures were 50% and 47%, according to the news site g1. The same poll shows a statistical tie between Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), his main rival in the October presidential race: 39% to 36% in first-round voting intentions and 46% to 44% in a runoff scenario. Rejection is also tied, at 47% each. Datafolha says the three-point gap is the narrowest since mid-May.Campaign backdropFolha notes that Lula has spent the past two weeks in the negative spotlight of political news, because of the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court that has engulfed Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to the newspaper, approval ratings help map the limits of the hunt for undecided and swing voters, who may decide the election.The Bolsa Familia raiseOn Thursday, as the survey was being completed, Lula announced a 15.04% increase in Bolsa Familia, the government's flagship cash-transfer program. The minimum monthly payment rises from 600 to 691 reais. Because the interviews were held on Sept. 15 and 16, the announcement does not show up in this poll. Flavio Bolsonaro called the move an "act of desperation" at a rally in Vitoria da Conquista, in Bahia state."Lula, in an act of desperation, has just issued a decree, knowing full well that it is illegal and prohibited during the elections," the senator said.Senator Rogerio Marinho (PL-RN), political coordinator of Flavio Bolsonaro's campaign, said in a statement that "public money cannot be used as an electoral instrument, running over Congress and the law". Justice Andre Mendonca, of the TSE, on Thursday rejected a request to suspend the raise, without ruling on its merits. The first round is set for Oct. 4. The new Bolsa Familia floor starts being paid on Oct. 19, less than a week before a possible runoff on Oct. 25.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Thursday (17) rejected a lawsuit seeking to block the 15.04% increase in the Bolsa Família welfare payment. He dismissed the case on procedural grounds, without ruling on the legality of the measure, which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that same morning, 17 days before the first round of the presidential election.The suit was filed by federal deputy Zé Trovão of the right-wing PL party, a reelection candidate from Santa Catarina and an ally of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the party's presidential nominee. Assigned the case by lot, Mendonça applied TSE precedent holding that a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies has no standing to sue a presidential candidate, because the two offices are contested in different electoral districts: Zé Trovão runs in his state, Lula nationwide."I note that the finding of lack of standing implies no ruling on the legality or constitutionality of the Bolsa Família increase, nor on whether it falls under Article 73, Paragraph 10, of Law 9,504/1997," Mendonça wrote in the decision.Filed hours before the ruling, the suit asked for an injunction to stop the government from applying the new value until the case was decided or the election was over. Zé Trovão argued that "the intervention of the Electoral Court" was necessary to keep the administrative machinery and public funds from being used in a way that could "undermine equal opportunity among candidates". According to InfoMoney, the deputy claimed the increase could amount to conduct barred for public officials during a campaign.The raise and the government's defenseWith the adjustment, the program's floor rises from 600 to 691 reais a month, and the average payment goes from 675 to 777 reais. The new values take effect in October, with payments starting on the 19th, between the first round and a possible runoff. The Planning Ministry puts the cost at 5.8 billion reais this year and about 22 billion reais in 2027.The government says the adjustment only restores inflation accumulated since the program was overhauled in 2023. "The Bolsa Família law gives us authorization to make this inflation adjustment, to guarantee the purchasing power of Bolsa Família beneficiaries, the most vulnerable population of this country," said Planning Minister Bruno Moretti, who denied any link between the measure and the election. The government's legal office, the Advocacia-Geral da União, says the 2023 law allows the executive to correct benefit values and bars reducing them. The payment had been frozen since July 2022, when then-president Jair Bolsonaro raised it from 400 to 600 reais on the eve of that year's election.The ruling closes this case but sets no TSE position on the merits. The legality of the increase and its compatibility with electoral rules remain undecided at the court, while the new values take effect in the month of the election.

São Paulo governor and reelection candidate Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos party) said on Thursday (17) that his relationship with former São Paulo City Council president Milton Leite (União Brasil), the target of a temporary arrest warrant in the Vectura Corrupta operation, was always "institutional". He spoke to journalists at the site of the future Regional Hospital of Itapetininga, in the state's interior, during a campaign stop.The operation, led by the São Paulo state prosecutor's office and the civil police, investigates infiltration by the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Brazil's largest criminal faction, into public office and the city's bus system. According to InfoMoney, agents went out to serve 16 arrest warrants and 18 search and seizure warrants. Leite led the City Council for six years and is an ally of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), who praised Leite's "history" and said it is up to him to prove his innocence.Praise during the campaignTarcísio was asked about remarks he made on August 30, at the launch of the campaigns of Leite's sons, Alexandre Leite and Milton Leite Filho. At the time, according to G1, he called Leite a great ally and said the family took him in when he arrived in São Paulo. Asked whether the operation changes his support for the sons' candidacies, the governor did not answer directly, according to InfoMoney.In his reply, he cited sanitation work at the Billings and Guarapiranga reservoirs and the arrival of rail service to Parelheiros, in the city's south, as examples of the relationship. "This has nothing to do with other matters, which are the subject of investigation", he said, according to InfoMoney."The relationship we had was always an institutional relationship, a relationship to discuss the water sources, the treatment, basic sanitation at Billings, at Guarapiranga [...], so it was always an institutional relationship, a constructive relationship, focused on projects", Tarcísio said."No one is above the law"Tarcísio also argued that investigations do not follow political criteria. According to G1, he told TV TEM that the operation stems from an investigation opened in 2024 into criminal interference in the transport sector. "This also shows that no one is above the law, operations do not see people, they do not see parties, they do not see political positions, they see facts", he said. He added that those involved have the rights to defense and to be heard, guaranteed by the Constitution, and that it falls to the police and prosecutors "to provide clarification, to deepen the investigations".After the interview, Tarcísio gave a speech and joined a walkabout in downtown Itapetininga alongside Senate candidates Guilherme Derrite (PP) and André do Prado (PL), then traveled on to Itapeva. The campaign schedule comes less than three weeks before the first round of Brazil's general elections, set for October 4, which includes the São Paulo governorship. The PCC investigation remains with the state civil police and prosecutors, and Leite is still the target of the temporary arrest warrant.

Aides to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have described as "very serious" a United States report that accused Brazil of failing to confront the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command (CV), two of the country's largest criminal gangs. According to G1, the government's foreign policy team reads the document as one that "opens the way for militarized US actions in disregard of international law".The report went to the US Congress on Tuesday (15) and was released on Wednesday (16) by the State Department. In it, President Donald Trump urges Brazil to adopt, "urgently", "strong measures to confront" the two organizations. The text says other governments in the Western Hemisphere are taking "courageous steps" against cartels while Brazil has not confronted the gangs. The PCC, born in São Paulo prisons, and the CV, from Rio de Janeiro, were recently added to the US list of terrorist organizations.The Itamaraty's readingOfficials assess that the report ties organized crime and drug trafficking to US national security, a framing they say leaves room for military action without international backing. The precedent they cite is Venezuela: in January, the United States captured the country's deposed president, Nicolás Maduro, who was accused of conspiring in favor of narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.Hours after the report was released, the Brazilian government issued a statement denying any failures or omissions in the fight against transnational organized crime."The allusion in the text does not correspond to the legal category of formal noncompliance provided for in the US legislation governing this annual mechanism. It is, therefore, a circumstantial statement inserted in the narrative part of the document, without support in its operative part."The Justice Ministry said the criticism overlooks the anti-gang law approved by Congress and signed by Lula, and ignores cooperation already in place between the two countries. According to CNN Brasil, Justice Minister Wellington Lima pointed to Wednesday's operation, which led to 137 arrests and the freezing of more than 508 million reais across 19 states. "These actions totally contradict what Donald Trump said," the minister said, adding that the government will formally rebut the assessment.The dispute lands in the final stretch of Brazil's presidential campaign. Analyst Clarissa Oliveira, of CNN, said the document "basically equates Brazil with nations where drug trafficking dominates many of the structures" and carries a political, rather than technical, character. The next step belongs to the government: the formal response to the report is being prepared by the Justice Ministry.

Federal deputy Zé Trovão, of the PL party from the southern state of Santa Catarina, has taken the 15.04% increase in the Bolsa Família, Brazil's main cash-transfer program, to the TSE, the country's top electoral court. The raise was announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday, 17 days before the first round of the presidential election. In his petition, the lawmaker accuses the president of abuse of political power during the campaign. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Supreme Federal Court justice André Mendonça will serve as rapporteur on the case.Trovão is an ally of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate running against Lula. His petition argues that the raise does not appear in the 2027 budget bill the government sent to Congress. The measure lifts the program's minimum monthly payment from 600 to 691 reais. According to Folha, the new value takes effect on October 19.Opposition reaction and the government's defenseFlávio Bolsonaro, whom the g1 describes as Lula's main rival in the race, called the decree illegal. At a campaign event in Vitória da Conquista, in the state of Bahia, the senator said:"Lula, in an act of despair, has just issued a decree knowing it is illegal and prohibited during the elections. He did something he failed to do in four years of government, and with 17 days to go he thinks he can fool anyone with a Bolsa Família raise."The government rejects the accusation. The Finance Ministry said the increase only replaces inflation losses from recent years and does not amount to a hike in benefits, which electoral law restricts. The Attorney General's Office, the AGU, said the 2023 law that created the revamped Bolsa Família authorizes the executive branch to adjust the payments and bars any reduction. "Correcting the benefit by inflation, without expanding the number of recipients, is beyond the reach of any electoral restriction," the office said, according to the g1.Precedent and next stepsThe courts have already weighed in on welfare spending in an election year. In 2024, the Supreme Court struck down provisions of the so-called PEC das Bondades, an emergency spending amendment passed under Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, the year he lost to Lula. That same year brought the program's last increase, when Auxílio Brasil, as it was then called, rose from 400 to 600 reais. Planning Minister Bruno Moretti said the current raise will cost 5.8 billion reais between October and December and 22.7 billion reais a year in 2027 and 2028. "We are confident the fiscal space is larger than what is needed to fund this measure," he said. According to the g1, the raise reaches about 19.3 million families.Mendonça now examines the petition before the case goes before the full electoral court. The calendar is tight: the first round is set for October 4, the new minimum payment takes effect on October 19, and a possible runoff follows on October 25.

Brazil's Datafolha institute releases on Thursday night (17) the first presidential poll conducted since the session of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) that examined the relationship between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and justices of the court. The survey was commissioned by TV Globo and the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo. It heard 2,002 voters aged 16 or older from Tuesday (15) to Thursday (17), with a margin of error of two percentage points, a 95% confidence level and registration with the Superior Electoral Court under number BR-04029/2026, according to the newspaper O Globo.The previous round, released on September 11, gave President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) 39% of first-round voting intentions against 35% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party), the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, in the scenario without Pablo Marçal. Augusto Cury had 6%, Ronaldo Caiado 4%, Renan Santos 3% and Romeu Zema 2%. In a runoff simulation, Lula led 46% to 44%, a difference within the margin of error. Datafolha said the four-point first-round gap was the narrowest since mid-May, and rejection was identical on both sides: 46% said they would not vote for a Liberal Party candidate, the same share that ruled out a Workers' Party candidate.The fieldwork for that earlier poll ended before two episodes changed the tone of the race. On September 15, the full court debated Vorcaro's ties to justices, a session centered on the Master Bank case and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Separately came the revelation that Flávio Bolsonaro had become a target of an inquiry into the financing of a film about his father. According to Folha, Thursday's poll is the first to measure voters after both facts.Recent surveys disagree on how the court crisis is affecting the election. In the Quaest poll, commissioned by Globo and O Globo, 67% of voters said the Supreme Court crisis does not influence their presidential vote, and 7% said they could change candidates after new revelations in the Master case. AtlasIntel, in a survey cited by CNN Brasil, put Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of Lula in a simulated runoff, 47.2% to 46.8%.The numbers will be presented from 7:15 p.m. in a live broadcast by Folha with Datafolha director Luciana Chong and columnists Mônica Bergamo and Fábio Zanini. The first round is set for October 4, 17 days away. Two decisions could still change the race: electoral courts have yet to rule on Pablo Marçal's candidacy, which forces Datafolha to test two first-round scenarios, and court president Edson Fachin removed from the agenda on Thursday a ruling on Justice André Mendonça that had been scheduled for September 23.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, removed from the docket on Thursday (17) the review of Justice André Mendonça's conduct in investigations tied to the Banco Master case. The session had been scheduled for September 23. On the same day, Fachin canceled an extraordinary plenary session.Both decisions came amid an escalating internal crisis at the court, after a week of public clashes between justices. The dispatch sets no new date. Fachin wrote that pending disputes, including how the cases should proceed and who should serve as reporting justice, bear directly on the review."Considering the direct relation of the points in the Question of Order above to the review of these records, including challenges to the regularity of the reporting justice itself, the listing on the docket will be rescheduled in due course," Fachin wrote.Vote frozen by a review requestThe removal came two days after a chaotic session. On Tuesday (15), the justices debated how to handle the Master case proceedings. The vote stopped when Justice Flávio Dino asked for "vista", a Brazilian court procedure that gives a justice up to 90 days to study the case. The score stood at 4 votes to 3 in favor of keeping the reviews of Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Mendonça separate, according to G1. Justices close to Moraes wanted the two cases joined; Fachin rejected that.The Moraes case reached the plenary after a Federal Police report requested by Mendonça, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The document describes Moraes as an interlocutor of Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the defunct Banco Master and accused of financial fraud. According to G1, the report cites messages between the two, in-person meetings and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the office of Moraes's wife. Mendonça lifted the secrecy of the document, and Moraes accused him of a "selective" release.Clash in the openThe cancellation of the extraordinary session came hours after a new public clash between Justices Gilmar Mendes and André Mendonça. Gilmar published a statement defending Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, accused his colleague of acting with "political-electoral" goals and called him an "electoral pixuleco", an insult in Portuguese. Mendonça answered in a note, denied tolerating leaks and said he never turned "the plenary into a pulpit or circus ring".What comes next: the review of Mendonça's conduct has no date. The case procedure remains open until Dino returns the file, within his 90-day window, and Fachin said the docket listing "will be rescheduled in due course". The court gave no new date.

The Independent Fiscal Institution (IFI), the Brazilian Senate's fiscal watchdog, projected on Thursday (Sept. 17) a primary deficit of R$ 86.1 billion in central government accounts for 2027. The estimate, published in the IFI's September Fiscal Monitoring Report, clashes with the budget bill sent to Congress in late August, which forecasts a surplus of R$ 18.6 billion for next year. The gap between the two projections reaches R$ 104.8 billion.A primary deficit means the government spends more than it collects before interest payments. The government's target for 2027 is a primary surplus of R$ 73.2 billion, or 0.5% of GDP. Under Brazil's fiscal rules, known as the fiscal framework, the result can slide to a deficit of up to R$ 28.1 billion without a formal breach, because a tolerance band and R$ 64.7 billion in spending kept outside the expenditure limit widen the allowed margin. If the IFI scenario holds, the 2027 target will be missed without additional spending cuts, the Senate body said."In this situation, the IFI points to the need for a contingency [spending freeze] of R$ 35.7 billion to meet the target next year. This is without counting the new expense of R$ 33.8 billion for the State Compensation Fund, linked to the replacement of the IPI tax by the Selective Tax under the tax reform. Although this expense is not counted in the spending cap, it affects compliance with the primary result target," the report says.Where the estimates divergeThe IFI blames the gap first on macroeconomic assumptions. The 2027 budget bill assumes GDP growth of 2.5%; the IFI forecasts 1.8%, and the Focus survey, the Central Bank's weekly poll of market analysts, sees 1.5%. "This has deep implications for the sizing of public revenues," the body said.Other disagreements follow. The government projects payroll growth of 10.1% in 2027, against 7.3% by the IFI. The watchdog also flags R$ 42 billion in expected revenue from a new Selective Tax on goods such as cigarettes and alcohol, listed in the budget as a conditional source even though the bill creating the tax has not been sent to Congress. "The IFI believes the numbers in the budget proposal are relatively optimistic. For its part, the government trusts its spending review strategy," the report adds. The projection was calculated before Thursday's 15.04% increase in the Bolsa Familia welfare payment, which the Planning Ministry says will cost R$ 22.7 billion in 2027.Rising debtThe IFI's own data show gross public debt climbing from 82.5% of GDP this year to 86.4% in 2027. Even if the fiscal target is met, the report says, "the reality will be very far from the fiscal result needed to stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio". Congress has yet to start reviewing the 2027 budget bill. According to G1, the text is expected to be taken up only after the electoral period, and budget votes usually happen in December. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is less than three weeks away.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is numerically ahead of President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) in a runoff scenario for Brazil's presidential election. The latest AtlasIntel poll, commissioned by Bloomberg and released on Thursday (17), gives the senator 47.2% against 46.8% for the incumbent, who is running for reelection. With a one-percentage-point margin of error, the scenario is a technical tie. Among valid votes, which exclude blank and spoiled ballots, Flávio has 50.2% and Lula 49.8%.Lula still leads the first round, with 44.1% of voter intentions against 41.7% for Flávio. The gap has narrowed, though. It stood at 5.6 points in the previous round, when the president had 43% and the senator 37.4%. The survey shows Flávio gained five points between the two rounds. Augusto Cury (Avante) fell to 3.5%, and Renan Santos (Missão) stands at 5.1%.AtlasIntel interviewed 5,018 voters online through random digital recruitment between September 11 and 16. The margin of error is one percentage point in either direction, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number BR-06221/2026. The same round puts approval of the Lula government at 45.4%, against 53.6% disapproval.Where each candidate is strongestThe regional and demographic breakdowns show distinct bases. Lula leads in the Northeast (57.2% to 33.1%), among women (52.7% to 35.1%) and among Catholics (50.6% to 38.8%). Flávio dominates in the North (63% to 32.3%), among men (49.3% to 34.2%) and among evangelical voters (62.7% to 21.5%). In the Southeast, the PL candidate has 42.9% against the president's 40.8%. In the Center-West, the two are technically tied at 46.3% to 45.8%.The Futura pollA second survey, by Futura Inteligência, released the same morning by CNN Brasil, points the same way. In the runoff, Flávio Bolsonaro has 48.1% and Lula 43.7%. The 4.4-point difference falls within the poll's 2.2-point margin of error, another technical tie. The institute interviewed 2,000 voters by phone between September 11 and 15, using its own funds, and the poll is registered with the TSE under number BR-00749/2026. In alternative scenarios, Lula also appears technically tied with Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Romeu Zema (Novo) and Augusto Cury.Other pollsters still show the president with a wider first-round lead. According to a roundup by Band, September surveys by Quaest, Datafolha and BTG/Nexus put Lula between five and seven points ahead. The first round takes place on October 4, 17 days from now. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two face a runoff on October 25.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Thursday (17) a roughly 15% increase in the benefits paid by Bolsa Família, Brazil's main cash-transfer program for poor families. The program's base payment rises from R$ 600 to R$ 691. The average benefit goes from R$ 675 to R$ 777, according to the Planning Ministry. The announcement came less than three weeks before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.Lula announced the measure at the Planalto presidential palace, alongside Civil House chief minister Miriam Belchior, Planning Minister Bruno Moretti and Social Development Minister Wellington Dias, according to Folha de S.Paulo. It is the first increase since the program was relaunched in March 2023. The government has not said when the new values take effect.Moretti framed the figure as compensation for inflation. According to the minister, the INPC, a national consumer price index, rose 15.04% between the start of the program and August. The government says the increase is allowed under the law that recreated the program, which permits corrections at most every two years, as reported by G1."What we found, on inflation, is that the INPC from the start of the program through August, the latest measured index, is 15%. Or 15.04%, to be precise. That gives a linear adjustment of 15% for each of the Bolsa Família benefits. So the program's floor, which is R$ 600, goes to R$ 691. The program's average benefit goes from R$ 675 to R$ 777," Moretti said.The increase will cost R$ 5.8 billion this year, according to Moretti. In 2027, when it will apply for a full year, the estimated impact is R$ 22 billion. The minister said the government found fiscal room to cover the expense. The money set aside for the program in the 2027 budget bill will rise from R$ 157.1 billion to about R$ 179 billion. The bill was sent to Congress in August without the increase and will have to be amended.The R$ 600 floor dates from 2022The minimum payment was set in 2022 under President Jair Bolsonaro, of the right-wing PL party, also just before an election, when the program was called Auxílio Brasil. The payment was made possible by a constitutional amendment approved by Congress, BBC News Brasil recalled. Lula kept the R$ 600 floor and restored the Bolsa Família name in March 2023. In August, the benefit reached about 19.3 million families. Families currently receive extra payments of R$ 150 per child up to age 6 and R$ 50 for pregnant women, babies up to 6 months and young people aged 7 to 18. The government has not detailed how those add-ons will be updated.The announcement comes in the middle of the campaign. The BBC News Brasil poll aggregator shows Lula tied with the PL candidate, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, in a likely runoff. In Congress, the next step is amending the 2027 budget bill, now under consideration there. The Planalto still has to set the date on which the new values enter into force.

The most senior justice on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Gilmar Mendes, publicly called fellow justice André Mendonça a "campaign prop" and an "electoral pixuleco" on Thursday (Sept. 17). The attack appeared in a social media post defending Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and deepens an open conflict inside Brazil's top court over the Banco Master investigation.Gilmar wrote that Mendonça, the reporting judge for the Banco Master investigation, exposed Gonet needlessly. According to the post, Mendonça had acknowledged in session that nothing implicated the prosecutor. "In the courtroom, the rapporteur himself acknowledged, loud and clear, the integrity of Gonet's conduct and admitted that there was nothing against him. Nothing. So why expose him?" Gilmar wrote. Then came the direct insult: "Whoever acts like this is not an impartial judge: he is a campaign prop, an electoral pixuleco", using a Portuguese slang word for a puppet.Gilmar also wrote that Gonet "has an unblemished reputation and a public life of unquestioned integrity" and argued that "no one undoes a headline with a late correction in the courtroom". He compared the release of the Federal Police report to what he described as the selective publicity of the Lava Jato corruption probe, named former judge Sergio Moro and former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, and wrote that "a serious institution respects due process from the first act".Mendonça's responseMendonça answered with a formal note on Thursday morning. Without naming Gilmar, he cited Article 36 of Brazil's organic law on the judiciary, which bars judges from publicly commenting on pending cases, and said the request to lift the secrecy of the entire investigation did not come from him. "It came from those who now claim to be outraged by the publicity of the case files," he wrote. Mendonça added that the full lifting of secrecy was ordered by Chief Justice Edson Fachin, that he has ordered an inquiry into every improper disclosure, including a phase on leaks tied to a Federal Police employee, and that the court should adopt a code of ethics covering how justices address one another, a proposal backed by Fachin."The rapporteur never threatened anyone with public disgrace, nor used improper language to push anyone out of a judgment. Nor did he ever turn the courtroom into a stage or a circus ring, shouting at the top of his lungs to disguise empty insinuations, devoid of any minimally acceptable legal basis, with bullying. Disagreement is legitimate and part of a collegial court. What is illegitimate is the attempt to pressure the judge."Tuesday's sessionThe insults on Thursday escalate a clash that began in Tuesday's (Sept. 15) session, called to examine references to Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the Federal Police report on the Master case. In that session, Gilmar had already called Mendonça a "pixuleco" and an "electoral prop" and accused him of "recklessness" and "shamelessness". Mendonça demanded respect; Gilmar replied "go ahead and cry, go ahead and cry". Gonet, mentioned in the report for messages attributed to him on the phone of former Master owner Daniel Vorcaro, denied any closeness to the former banker and described their single conversation as "brief and banal".The session ended without a decision on Moraes. The full court was voting a procedural motion filed by Gilmar himself, asking that the Moraes case be joined with the proceeding involving Mendonça, when Justice Flávio Dino requested time to review the case. The partial vote stood suspended at 4 to 3 for keeping the proceedings separate, and no date has been set for the judgment to resume. The clash among the justices comes less than three weeks before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 4.

The national council of the OAB, Brazil's bar association, joined by its 27 state chapters, on Wednesday (16) published a note expressing "total disapproval" of a remark by Flávio Dino, a justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), that "there is no sale of a ruling without a lawyer buying it." He made the comment on Tuesday (15), during a session in which the court weighed whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes over messages exchanged with Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master.According to Poder360, Dino added: "There is no passive corruption without active corruption." The remark came as the justices debated the transfer of the case's rapporteurship from André Mendonça's office to the court presidency under Edson Fachin. Dino argued that allowing chief justices to pull cases away from their rapporteurs opens room for distortions in the judiciary. As reported by ND Mais, he also said the country is living through "the most corrupt moment in the history of the judiciary in Brazil's history."The bar association's noteIn the note, the OAB says the statement "casts a generic and undue suspicion" over the legal profession and argues that any misconduct must be investigated and punished individually. "No generalization is fair or correct, especially when it reaches the overwhelming majority of Brazilian lawyers," the text reads. The association notes that it enforces a code of ethics and can sanction its members, up to expulsion."The Brazilian legal profession cannot be held collectively responsible for individual conduct," the note states, closing with: "The OAB does not accept the criminalization of the legal profession. The institution demands respect for Brazil's lawyers."A standing ovation in Santa CatarinaThe reaction reached the Tribunal de Justiça de Santa Catarina, the top appeals court of the southern state. The closing of its special chamber session on Wednesday was marked by a collective demonstration by the state's appeals judges against the generalizations voiced at the STF. According to ND Mais, the judges said such statements strike at the honor, independence and dedication of thousands of judges and court workers, and they ended the session with a round of applause for the state's bench. The court's acting president, Justice André Luiz Dacol, standing in for Rubens Schulz until October 2, read the act aloud in the chamber."In an act of firmness and rectitude, the justices expressed their vehement indignation against the generalizations that, like shadows, try to obscure the true face of the Brazilian judiciary."The STF session where Dino spoke ended without a decision. According to CNN Brasil, he asked for vista, a request for review that pauses deliberation, suspending analysis of a procedural question raised by Gilmar Mendes on whether to join the cases. At the interruption, the vote stood at 4 to 3 to keep the cases separate, with Fachin, André Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia on that side, and Gilmar, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes favoring a joint review. Dino argued that the Moraes and Mendonça cases should be heard together in a session on September 23.

Brazil's Congress is pushing a reform of the judiciary as the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, goes through an institutional crisis. At least 30 proposals on the subject are pending in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, according to news site G1. Most target the STF itself: fixed terms for justices, a new appointment system and new criteria for a seat on the court.Two proposed constitutional amendments are circulating in the lower house. Congressman Reginaldo Lopes of the Workers' Party (PT-MG) wants a single, non-renewable term of up to ten years for justices of the superior courts and members of the audit courts. The term would end on the tenth anniversary of the appointment or when the judge turns 75. His text also sets a minimum age of 50 and a maximum of 70 for future nominees. "We should get there by the end of the week," Lopes told Congresso em Foco, about gathering signatures.Congressman Danilo Forte (PP-CE) filed his own proposal last week. It creates an eight-year term for new STF justices and rotates nominations among the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. It adds conduct and accountability rules for judges and limits monocratic rulings, decisions issued by a single justice. Current members would keep their seats, and the model would be phased in as vacancies open. The Parliamentary Front for Entrepreneurship, a caucus of more than 250 lawmakers, backed the bill on Monday (14) and will help collect signatures when Congress resumes. A constitutional amendment needs the signatures of 171 of the 513 deputies to be formally introduced.Supreme Court crisis speeds up the debateThe push comes less than a month before the first round of Brazil's general elections, set for October 4. The crisis deepened after Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on Federal Police reports about Banco Master. One document pointed to 52 messages between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in-person meetings between the two and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law office of Moraes's wife. Court president Edson Fachin split the disputes into separate cases. The trial on the messages began on Tuesday (15) and was interrupted when Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the record.The debate gained political force last week. The national executive of Lula's Workers' Party approved a resolution on Thursday (10) in defense of the discussion, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, spoke publicly in favor of fixed terms. "No one can stay 40 years in the same job," Lula said, according to Congresso em Foco. In the Senate, the Human Rights Committee approved on Tuesday (15) a motion by Senator Damares Alves asking the Constitution and Justice Committee to create a working group and deliver a unified text within 60 days. Inside the STF, the body studying the reform has received 87 proposals, and a code of ethics is listed as a priority for Fachin. The next president will likely choose up to four justices in four years: Luiz Fux, Cármen Lúcia and Gilmar Mendes reach mandatory retirement in that period, and the seat left by Luís Roberto Barroso is still open.The last judiciary reform dates to 2004, when Congress created the National Council of Justice and the National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office after nearly 13 years of debate. According to Folha de S.Paulo, slow proceedings, a pileup of cases, excessive monocratic rulings and outsized salaries remain among the bottlenecks of the system. Reginaldo Lopes expects to finish collecting signatures by the end of this week. Damares Alves's motion now goes to the Constitution and Justice Committee, which will decide whether to create the working group. At the STF, a trial on Mendonça's conduct is scheduled for September 23, according to BBC News Brasil, and Dino has until December 15 to return the case on Moraes.

Brazil's leading presidential candidates have already declared R$151 million in campaign spending with 17 days to go before the first round. The figures come from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top election authority, with data updated through Thursday (17), and were compiled by G1, Globo's news portal. The vote is set for October 4.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT), who is running for reelection, accounts for the largest share: R$65 million. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is next with R$55 million. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) declared R$24 million, Romeu Zema (Novo) R$4 million, Renan Santos (Missão) R$1.2 million and Augusto Cury (Avante) R$265,000. Lula has already spent 73% of the R$88.9 million ceiling the TSE allows for the first round; Flávio has used 62% of the limit.The records are part of the partial campaign finance reports published on DivulgaCand, the TSE's disclosure platform. They cover financial movements between August 16 and September 8; the filing deadline closed on September 13. Brazilian rules set a spending cap for each office in each election: presidential candidates may spend up to R$88.9 million in the first round and another R$44.5 million in a runoff, which adds up to R$133.4 million for the whole campaign. Final reports are due within 30 days of the election, or after the runoff for those who advance. Winners who fail to file cannot receive their diplomas, the formal certification of election, while they remain in default.Nearly half of Lula's spending went to one agencyA single contract accounts for 47% of Lula's spending: R$31 million paid to the agency Delta3 Comunicação for "specialized communication and marketing services," according to the DivulgaCand record. The firm belongs to Bahia-born advertising executive Raul Rabelo and film director Francisco Mascarenhas Kertész, known as Chico Kertész. The two were partners of Sidônio Palmeira, the current minister of the Social Communication Secretariat and a member of Lula's campaign, at M4 Comunicação, later renamed Nordx Estratégia e Criatividade. Sidônio is no longer a partner in the company.The rest of Lula's ledger spreads across production, media and legal work. The campaign paid R$4.2 million to Log Produções & Filmes, R$2.7 million for print advertising and stickers to the printer NMC Gráfica across 100 payments, and R$2.5 million to boost content on Facebook, an amount registered under the platform's name even though the ads may also run on other Meta apps such as Instagram. Another R$100,000 went to boosting on Kwai. Legal services totaled R$4 million split among five law firms; the largest transfer, R$1.5 million, went to Ferraro e Novaes Advogados, the firm of the campaign's legal coordinator, Ângelo Ferraro. Lula also spent R$1.5 million on internal election polling with Oma Pesquisa and distributed R$950,000 to Workers' Party state chapters in 11 states.What comes nextAccording to G1, the filings show similar strategies behind very different budgets: digital communication, social media boosting and legal services appear in the accounts of nearly every presidential campaign, alongside old-fashioned street materials such as stickers and flags. The next milestone is the October 4 vote. Whoever reaches a runoff gets an extra spending cap of R$44.5 million and more time to report: the final filing is due 30 days after the election.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, used a São Paulo apartment during his campaign that until February belonged to Fabiano Zettel, the brother-in-law identified as the top financial operator of former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The magazine piauí published the report on Wednesday. The apartment sits in the l'Adresse tower in Vila Nova Conceição, one of the most expensive neighborhoods of the city.According to the magazine, the senator spent several days there in the first half of August. He met his team to settle final campaign strategy, recorded videos for the free electoral airtime on TV and radio, held meetings around Faria Lima avenue and recorded podcasts. The campaign office stood five minutes away by car, on Avenida República do Líbano, where he taped his Thursday livestreams. Plainclothes officers of the Polícia Legislativa, the congressional police, swept the building's common areas during his stay.From the operator to a friend of the candidateZettel bought the 158.87-square-meter apartment on April 17, 2025 for 5.5 million reais, a market price. Less than ten months later, on February 10, 2026, he sold it for 3.5 million reais to WT Administração de Imóveis e Bens, a company owned by lawyer Willer Tomaz, a longtime friend of the candidate. The deal, first revealed by Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by piauí, meant a nominal loss of 2 million reais, about 36 percent of what Zettel had paid. The transfer was registered in a notary office on March 4, after the Supreme Court had ordered Zettel's assets frozen and on the very day he was arrested in the third phase of Operação Compliance Zero.piauí's reporters visited the building and spoke with residents and with an employee of the school where the congressional police cars were parked. They confirmed Flávio's presence and the movement of officers. An influencer who lived in the apartment while it belonged to Zettel said the businessman, once a pastor at the Lagoinha Baptist Church, used it on his visits to São Paulo. Residents bothered by the sweeps asked the building manager for the security camera footage and were told the recordings had been accidentally erased. The manager did not answer the magazine's questions about the erasure.Conflicting accountsThe answers given to the reporters contradict the findings. Tomaz denied by phone that Flávio had used his property. A day later, in a statement, he said he did not know Zettel or Vorcaro and had never had any "personal, commercial or corporate relationship" with either. He did not directly answer whether the candidate had used the apartment. Flávio's campaign said the candidate stayed only in hotels in the area and did not reply when asked how the apartment had been used.Zettel is a central figure in the investigations of the so-called Caso Master, the scandal around Vorcaro, the former controller of Banco Master, that has thrown the Supreme Court into crisis. According to the Federal Police, companies in Zettel's name were used in operations controlled by Vorcaro, and a police report said it was "conclusively established" that he was the banker's front man. He also appears in negotiations to finance "Dark Horse", a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro; the timeline assembled by the police shows Zettel involved in those operations while Flávio pressed for and tracked payments from Vorcaro. Tomaz, targeted by a Federal Police search in August in Operação Sem Desconto, an investigation into fraud in INSS benefit discounts, is not under investigation in the Master case, according to the magazine. It also reports that the lawyer helped Flávio arrange nominations to high courts, and that interlocutors say Flávio met Supreme Court Justice Kassio Nunes Marques at Tomaz's home.The report lands 18 days before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4. Neither the campaign nor Tomaz answered the central question raised by the reporting: whether the candidate used, during his campaign, an apartment that once belonged to Vorcaro's operator.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attacked presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro at a reelection campaign rally on Wednesday (Sept 16). Speaking in Ceilândia, a working-class district of Brasília, Lula said the senator "sent his brother to the United States to plot against Brazil".According to G1, Eduardo, a former congressman whose mandate was revoked and a son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is in the United States meeting politicians and officials tied to the government of Donald Trump. Lula again called him a "traitor to the fatherland" and said he is there "badmouthing Brazil and asking Trump to intervene in the country"."This country cannot stomach a mutt of a politician. This country cannot stomach a politician who displays the national flag by day and by night gets on all fours for the United States, for the American flag. Brazil is tired, Brazil does not want to be anyone's colony. Brazil wants to be sovereign, run by Brazilians, and build its future with the sweat and blood of Brazilians."The term "vira-lata", literally mongrel, is used in Brazil for an inferiority complex toward foreign powers.Rally in CeilândiaThe event, called "Brasil Pronto pra Mais" (Brazil Ready for More), drew about 15,000 people to the Praça do Trabalhador square, according to organizers cited by Folha de S.Paulo. Lula shared the stage with first lady Janja and with local candidates: Leandro Grass (PT) for governor of the Federal District and Erika Kokay (PT) and Leila do Vôlei (PDT) for the Senate.G1 reports that Lula has blamed members of the Bolsonaro family for defending measures Trump has taken against Brazil and accused them of trying to pressure Brazilian authorities through lobbying abroad. Over the past year he has tied Eduardo's activities to the tensions between the two countries.A word with Trump at the UNLula said he will travel to the United States this weekend for the UN General Assembly and plans to talk with Trump. "I'm going to the UN meeting to have a chat with Trump and tell him not to meddle in Brazil's elections. Brazil has only one owner, and the owner of Brazil is the Brazilian people," he said.The trip to New York comes before the first round of Brazil's October election, in which Lula seeks reelection and Flávio Bolsonaro is running for the presidency.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is preparing a provisional measure to ban online games and restrict sports betting in Brazil. According to a report by UOL on Wednesday (16), the final text is still being drafted, but the vetoes on the sector will be broad. The presidential palace aims to publish the measure within days.UOL reports that the government treats the text as something close to the extinction of online gaming in Brazil. The restrictions on sports betting still face a final adjustment, and one option under discussion is a limit on advertising. A provisional measure, or MP, is a presidential act with immediate force of law that must be approved by Congress within 120 days, or it loses effect.Tougher rhetoricThe decision follows weeks of public criticism by the president of the "bets", as betting platforms are known in Brazil. In an interview with the broadcaster SBT, Lula said: "I called everyone who complains about the bets, I called society and I listened. Now we have mapped it all out and systematized it. Now I am going to make a decision." Earlier in the week, after meeting families harmed by gambling, he called betting a disease."We are making decisions and very soon we will announce the decision we will take on this, because it is a disease, it is not a game. It is the induction of innocents into an addiction," Lula said, in remarks cited by UOL.Among the families received by Lula was Vânia de Souza Borges, a teacher from Uberlândia, in Minas Gerais state, according to the investigative outlet Agência Pública. Her son, Rafael, died in March 2024, at age 26, after eight months of gambling addiction. "I asked Lula to end the bets; I said that regulation alone is not enough," she said. In a live social media broadcast, the president described the meeting and said: "If it were up to me, I would shut the bets down." He added: "We remain passive before a society that is killing itself with debt." Vânia had reported her son's death in a letter to the Senate's betting inquiry, the CPI das Bets, whose final report was rejected without the indictment of 16 companies and individuals.Pressure from clubs and the industryFootball clubs are already organizing against the measure. According to UOL, the clubs estimate losses of about R$ 1 billion in sponsorship under a ban, and Flamengo, Corinthians, Palmeiras and São Paulo each hold contracts worth more than R$ 100 million a year with betting companies. Betting firms are weighing legal action and argue that a ban would expand illegal gambling through platforms registered abroad that pay no taxes in Brazil. The report also points to resistance from broadcasters that show football matches and profit from betting ads; Globo, Brazil's largest media group, owns a betting company, according to UOL.The change also reaches public accounts. Through July, the government had collected about R$ 10 billion in taxes on online games, according to UOL. The measure is expected less than three weeks before the first round of the presidential election, in which Lula seeks reelection, and UOL assesses that the restriction aims to recover his popularity, especially among women. Once published, the measure goes to Congress, which has 120 days to approve it. As the final text is closed, clubs and betting companies are preparing their response.

Justice Estela Aranha of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) reinstated on Wednesday a ban on the use of former president Jair Bolsonaro's image in the campaign of Lucas Bove, a candidate for the São Paulo state legislature from Bolsonaro's PL party. The injunction suspends a ruling by the São Paulo Regional Electoral Court (TRE-SP) that had allowed the material, and it holds until the TSE rules on the merits of the case.The dispute began with a complaint filed by Duda Hidalgo, a Workers' Party candidate for the same state legislature, according to the news site g1. It challenged the distribution of about 50,000 campaign leaflets, known in Brazil as santinhos, and wind banners in the city of Ribeirão Preto showing Bove alongside a photo of the former president.According to g1, Bolsonaro is serving a sentence after the Supreme Federal Court (STF) convicted him in criminal case 2.668, linked to the alleged coup plot, and his political rights were suspended over the January 8, 2023 attacks. CNN Brasil reports that an order by Justice Alexandre de Moraes bars him from political campaign statements until the end of the 2026 elections, including through third parties. Aranha wrote that the STF restrictions cover such statements "including by third parties, regardless of the means used"."It is plausible that the use, in campaign material, of Jair Messias Bolsonaro's image in a prominent position next to the photograph, name and ballot number of the respondent signals to voters an endorsement of his candidacy, in circumvention of that STF ruling", Aranha wrote.Back and forth in electoral courtOn September 1, electoral judge Ronnie Hebert Barros Soares banned the use of the photo and set fines of 2,000 to 8,000 reais for violations. On September 11, the TRE-SP reversed that sentence unanimously. The judges accepted the defense argument that the STF ruling had a specific recipient, Bolsonaro himself, and imposed no automatic restrictions on third parties. Bove's lawyers said publishing the image did not amount to personal, voluntary participation by the former president. The Electoral Prosecutor's Office supported pulling the material.In her injunction, Aranha wrote that the regional court had started from the mistaken premise that the STF restriction applied only to Bolsonaro, ignoring Moraes' reservation about disclosures through third parties. She also cited the risk of delay, given the proximity of the first round of the 2026 elections and the volume of material already in circulation. According to CNN Brasil, the decision does not ban every image of the former president: historical photos of his career are not covered, and the restriction targets material that suggests current support for a specific candidacy.Bove must now stop distributing the leaflets and wind banners with Bolsonaro's photo until the TSE's full bench judges the appeal. No date has been set.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) is rated as bad or very bad by 43% of Brazilians, an Ipsos-Ipec survey released on Wednesday showed. Another 33% call it excellent or good, and 23% call it merely fair. The poll, published by Globo's news site G1, was conducted from September 9 to 13 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.The negative rating is the highest since June 2025, G1 reported. In June this year it stood at 38%. The positive rating edged up from 32% to 33%, while the share calling the government fair fell from 28% to 23%. UOL, Band and SpaceMoney carried the same figures.Approval and trustOn how Lula runs the country, 53% disapprove and 42% approve. In June, disapproval was 50% and approval 44%. Trust in the president also slipped: 57% say they do not trust Lula, and 40% say they do.For 45% of respondents, the government has been worse than they expected, up from 42% in the previous round. Another 28% say it matches expectations, and 24% call it better than expected.Economy and the electionViews on the economy worsened. Some 45% say the country's economic situation is worse than six months ago, against 41% in June. Expectations for the coming months improved, however: 42% expect an improvement over the next six months, up from 36%, while 25% expect things to get worse, down from 32%.The poll lands 18 days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election, set for October 4, according to Poder360. Lula is running for reelection, with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) among his main challengers.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law on Wednesday (16) a bill creating the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals, known in Brazil by the acronym PNMCE. Congress approved the text in early September. According to G1, the signing lands in the middle of a global race by governments and companies for access to minerals such as lithium, rare earths, nickel, graphite and copper.The law authorizes a guarantee fund of up to R$ 5 billion to back projects in the sector and creates a tax credit of R$ 5 billion for companies that process and refine these minerals in Brazil. The federal government may join the fund, which is privately run, with a contribution capped at R$ 2 billion, and the fund cannot carry any public guarantee. According to the bill's rapporteur, the national development bank BNDES estimates that R$ 5 billion is needed to unblock the investments.A law with geopolitical overtonesAt the signing ceremony, Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira called the policy "a declaration of economic independence and of political courage by a nation that does not bow to external threats." According to G1, he did not name the United States. U.S. interest in Brazilian minerals is a recurring theme for President Donald Trump. Last month, the American company USA Rare Earth moved forward with the purchase of Serra Verde, Brazil's only operating rare earth mine, a deal criticized by sectors in Brazil. The U.S. Geological Survey ranks Brazil second in the world in rare earth reserves, about 21 million tonnes, behind only China."The great opportunity is not only in extraction. It lies especially in the capacity to install in Brazil the stages of processing, separation, refining, transformation and production of advanced materials, components and industrial products," Silveira said.Brazil still ships much of these minerals abroad as raw commodities, without industrial processing, according to G1. Silveira said the budget of the National Mining Agency (ANM) for geological surveying will rise from R$ 8 million to R$ 300 million next year.The law also creates a National Council for the Industrialization of Critical and Strategic Minerals, attached to the presidential palace. The council will draft the list of which minerals count as critical or strategic, to be revised every four years. It will also sign off, together with the ANM, on the sale of mining companies holding exploration rights and on foreign stakes in licensed miners.The tax credit runs from 2030 to 2034, with an annual cap of R$ 1 billion, and grows as products climb the industrial chain, from concentrates to battery materials, electric motor magnets, fertilizers and energy storage systems. Only companies incorporated under Brazilian law, with headquarters and management in the country, qualify.According to Silveira, the first company investments in refining and processing critical minerals in Brazil will be announced as soon as next week.

Brazil's federal highway police will restrict inspections, policing and patrols on federal roads on election days. Voters go to the polls on October 4, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., to choose the president, state governors, senators and federal, state and district legislators. A possible runoff is set for October 25.The rules come from Joint Ordinance TSE No. 4, signed on September 14 and published in the official gazette, the Diário Oficial da União, on Tuesday (15), according to G1 and the force itself. Under the ordinance, actions by the Polícia Rodoviária Federal (PRF) may not create an "improper obstacle to the movement of voters." Operations must allow voters to circulate freely, protect people traveling to polling stations and be planned to avoid blockades, holds or operations that unjustifiably disrupt traffic flow.On voting days, stops of vehicles and drivers "shall not be used to check administrative traffic violations that do not pose a concrete risk," the text says. In its official announcement, the PRF says enforcement of such violations is limited to situations posing a "concrete and imminent" risk to life or physical integrity. Any roadblock on a federal highway requires prior notice and justification to the competent Regional Electoral Court (TRE), with alternative routes indicated, except in cases of arrest in flagrante delicto or violations of traffic safety rules.Coordination with the electoral courtThe ordinance was drafted in coordination with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) and the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that runs Brazil's elections, the PRF said. It complements Article 236 of the Electoral Code, which restricts arrests of voters, candidates and poll workers in the days around the vote. Beyond patrols, the force will provide logistical support to electoral authorities on request, including transport of materials and electronic voting machines and security of facilities, and will coordinate contingency action for extreme weather events."Since 2023, the PRF, the MJSP and the TSE have worked together to define the best model for PRF operations during the election period. The result of this first effort, successfully applied in the 2024 elections, helped build a calm environment and contributed to guaranteeing all citizens and citizens the full exercise of the right to vote," said PRF director-general Fernando Oliveira.The 2022 precedentThe ordinance arrives four years after the PRF defied a TSE order during the 2022 runoff. On election day, the force stopped at least 610 buses carrying voters, according to G1. In December 2025, former PRF director-general Silvinei Vasques was sentenced to 24 years and six months in prison on charges of belonging to a criminal organization that plotted a coup d'état. According to the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), he worked to block voter transit in areas where the then candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party led in polling. Vasques was ordered arrested by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.The ordinance applies nationwide in both rounds. "The PRF's commitment is to democracy," Oliveira said. The first round takes place on October 4; a second round, if needed, on October 25.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday (Sept. 15) came out in favor of fixed terms for the justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) and for new rules on how they are selected. He made the remarks in an interview with broadcaster Record, on the same day as the tensest session yet of the institutional crisis inside the court. Under the current rules, STF justices serve with no term limit and face mandatory retirement at age 75.A profound reform"I think we have to have a profound reform of the judiciary, in which we discuss the length of the term, the criteria for choosing the candidate and how the person can be chosen," Lula said, according to news site InfoMoney.He also called for what he described as "ethical standards". No one in the judiciary, he argued, should seek to get rich in office, and relatives of justices should not practice law in cases before the court."One thing has to be clear: whoever is a justice or works in the judiciary cannot want to get rich. People cannot be in the judiciary while a son, a wife and a father practice law before the very Supreme Court. We need to create ethical standards," the president said.According to InfoMoney, Lula's Workers' Party has pushed for a judiciary overhaul since the start of the year. Points raised by the party include limits on monocratic decisions, issued by a single justice, and a bigger role for civil society in the National Council of Justice (CNJ) and the National Council of the Prosecutor's Office (CNMP). The site also reports that Lula has not detailed what a possible reform would include, and that his focus on the issue aims to limit the damage the STF crisis does to his campaign in this year's presidential race.The Moraes-Mendonça crisisThe interview aired on the day the full bench of the STF debated, for the first time, whether to open an investigation against one of its own members. The session examined a Federal Police report that identified 52 messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, a central figure in the Banco Master scandal. The report was produced at the request of Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the inquiry. Moraes says the messages are far-fetched.The session ended without a decision after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to study the case. When the session was suspended, the vote stood at 4 to 3 to analyze Moraes and Mendonça separately. Opening the session, court president Edson Fachin asked the justices to keep disagreements from turning into personal fights. "We do not judge people; we judge facts and questions of law. Disagreement is legitimate; personal confrontation is not," he said, according to news site g1.The next move belongs to Fachin. He must decide whether to keep the Sept. 23 session on Mendonça's handling of the Master case or postpone it; justices aligned with Mendonça favor a postponement, according to g1. Dino has up to 90 days to return the case, a deadline that runs out in December, after the election. Until then, the bench cannot decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in the final stage of approving a national rule that waives environmental licensing for mineral exploration, the early phase of mining when companies survey, drill and test deposits without permission to extract or sell ore. Folha de S.Paulo reported on Tuesday (Sept. 15) that it obtained the draft resolution, which has already cleared legal review and is being prepared by the Mines and Energy Ministry and the Entrepreneurship Ministry. The stated goal is to speed up the hunt for critical and strategic minerals such as rare earths, nickel, niobium, potassium and phosphate.How the waiver worksUnder the draft, exploration activities would be classified as risk level 1, the lowest category of Brazil's Economic Freedom Law, which allows low-risk activities to skip licensing. The text sets limits: no new access roads in the surveyed area, no clearing of Atlantic Forest in medium or advanced stages of regeneration, and no impact on cave systems. Extraction, removal and processing of ore remain outside the exemption.Rules currently vary by state. According to the National Mineral Policy Council, cited by Folha, 18 of the 26 states plus the Federal District have no risk classification for authorizing exploration at this stage. The government's assessment is that the lack of a standard creates legal uncertainty and subjects companies to different demands depending on where they drill.The Mines and Energy Ministry confirmed the changes and said standardization could "reduce processing times, stimulate mineral exploration in the country and expand the identification of new areas with potential for the activity." In a statement, the ministry said the initiative "aims above all to favor exploration of critical and strategic minerals such as rare earths, nickel, niobium, potassium and phosphate."The proposal originated in the National Mineral Policy Council, which is tied to the ministry. On July 2, the council approved a resolution recommending that mineral exploration be treated as a low environmental risk activity, according to CNN Brasil. Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira defended the measure the same day."Whoever wants to invest and produce in Brazil needs to find a state that provides security and eliminates unnecessary bureaucracy. We are simplifying procedures without loosening environmental protection, because economic development and socio-environmental responsibility go together in the view of Brazil's government," Silveira said.The waiver does not erase other requirements. The Environment Ministry, which took part in drafting the rule, said that "the possible waiver of environmental licensing does not exempt the entrepreneur from obtaining other authorizations, licenses or consents provided for in legislation." The ministry said the current patchwork produces "administrative subjectivity, distinct requirements, asymmetric decisions and legal uncertainty." Ibama, the federal environmental agency, said it has applied the same framing since June 2025 for activities of negligible impact. The National Mining Agency told Folha it had not yet seen the proposal.The final step sits with CGSIM, a simplification committee run by the Entrepreneurship Ministry and the Federal Revenue Service, which issues the binding resolution. According to Folha, the text is in its final stage of approval. Once published, the low-risk classification becomes the national standard for mineral exploration.

Half of the public money funding races for Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, is concentrated in just 7% of the candidates. The finding comes from an analysis by Folha de S.Paulo of the partial campaign finance reports filed with the TSE, the electoral court that runs Brazilian elections. The filing deadline closed on Sunday (13), less than three weeks before the first round of the 2026 elections.The gap between campaigns is wide. The 7,700 candidates running for federal deputy received R$ 2.76 billion (about 470 million dollars) in public funds routed through their parties. Only 579 of them (7.4%) took in more than R$ 1.58 million each, half of the R$ 3.17 million spending cap for the office. Together, this small group controls R$ 1.36 billion, nearly half of all the money distributed in the race.The same pattern shows up in the state legislature races. Among the 11,700 candidates for state and district deputy, R$ 1.1 billion was distributed. Only 388 of them (3%) received more than R$ 635,000, half of the R$ 1.27 million cap for those offices, according to Folha.The weight of public moneyPublic money has dominated Brazilian campaign finance since corporate donations were banned in 2015. In this election, parties control R$ 4.96 billion from the Special Campaign Financing Fund, a pool of federal money known as the electoral fund, plus allocations from the party fund, which can also be spent on campaigns. A survey by the platform 72Horas, published by Congresso em Foco, shows the scale: by September 3, campaigns had declared R$ 3.38 billion, and 93% of it came from the two public funds.Most candidates sit far from that money. In the same survey, 2,975 candidates for the Chamber, 38% of the total, had reported no revenue at all by September 3, and across all races 45% of candidacies were in that position. The news outlet Sul21, which examined party transfers in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, found the same pattern: parties concentrate most resources on reelection bids and familiar names such as former mayors and former lawmakers. The concentration reaches the parties too. The PL, PT, PSD, PP and União Brasil together held R$ 2.13 billion, 63% of everything declared.The next date is the ballot box. The first round is scheduled for October 4. Once the vote is over, campaigns must file their final reports with the electoral court, when the full picture of the fund's distribution can be checked.

The senior council of Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office (CSMPF) has scheduled a session for September 25 to examine messages from former banker Daniel Vorcaro that mention the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet. The exchanges were recovered from the phone of the former Banco Master coordinator by federal police. Gonet denies any close ties.Gonet addressed the matter on Tuesday during an extraordinary session of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that was debating the validity of a federal police report involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes. He asked to speak after Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur on the case, mentioned him by name, according to CNN Brasil."There is not, nor has there ever been, a relationship of proximity with Mr. Vorcaro. The only meeting I had with Mr. Vorcaro took place with several authorities, in April 2024. The only phone call, intermediated by a lawyer, was extremely brief and banal," Gonet said.The messagesAccording to the federal police report, whose seal of secrecy was lifted by Mendonça on September 1, lawyer Ciro Soares, a former defense counsel for Master, appears as the main go-between for Vorcaro and the prosecutor general. On March 15, 2025, Soares sent the former banker a photo of himself beside Gonet and then wrote "Call me here" and "He wants to talk to you." Forensic examiners logged four consecutive voice calls between Vorcaro and the lawyer, lasting 57 seconds, 27 seconds, 17 seconds and 3 minutes and 49 seconds. In the police reading, the records indicate the banker spoke with the prosecutor general through the lawyer's phone.On March 29, 2025, Soares wrote to Vorcaro that "Gonet asked whether his son could come with us to London." On April 11, the former banker approved paying the London travel expenses of "Pedro and ciro", a reference, according to the report, to Pedro Gonet, the prosecutor general's son, and the lawyer.Gonet's defenseIn a filing to the council, Gonet wrote that he has no "friendship whatsoever" with Vorcaro and no personal stake in cases in which the banker is a party or a suspect. According to the document, the only in-person meeting took place in April 2024, in London, at an event held by Grupo Voto and the legal news outlet Consultor Jurídico. On the brokered call, Gonet described a "brief greeting" and said Soares had told him that day that Banco Master was about to complete its purchase of bank BRB. "It was not a matter within my professional remit, but as a courtesy, I offered congratulations," Gonet wrote.Gonet argues that nothing justifies opening a proceeding against him and says he is "legally fully able to act freely and unhindered in the proceedings involving Banco Master." At the STF, he has asked that the federal police report be voided and argued that Mendonça should have taken any suspicion to the court's president, Edson Fachin, for the full bench to weigh. The CSMPF, the internal disciplinary body of the federal prosecutors, is set to meet on September 25.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday (15) that Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça leaked parts of the Master case investigation as it suited his own interests and called for the files to be opened in full. Lula spoke to broadcaster Record hours after the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, met to decide whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes.According to Folha de S.Paulo, Lula was answering questions about the session held earlier in the day. A Federal Police report identified Moraes as an interlocutor of Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed in the inquiry. Mendonça, who reports the case at the court and was nominated to it by former president Jair Bolsonaro, lifted the confidentiality of the messages between the two men."What André Mendonça kept as a state secret, releasing only what interested him, can now be opened so all of society knows who was involved. [To know] why [Dias] Toffoli did not vote, why Kássio [Nunes Marques] did not vote, who took part in Vorcaro's scheme. Because Vorcaro is a criminal ring that moved many people across several levels of the judiciary and the political class."The two justices named by Lula stepped aside from the trial. Dias Toffoli declared himself unable to sit for personal reasons of conscience ("foro íntimo"), and Kássio Nunes Marques said he was barred because he chairs the Superior Electoral Court in an election year. Folha reports that the names of both men and of family members had already surfaced in the Master inquiry. Nunes Marques denied wrongdoing: "My son never provided any service to the bank and was never paid by the bank," he said, according to G1.Lula also demanded a full accounting inside the court. "We have reached a defining moment in the history of this country. There is no one who can escape judgment when there is suspicion or accusation against him," he said. "The Supreme Court must be an example and must not contribute to society's distrust." On the court's president, Edson Fachin, Lula said: "Fachin now has the knife and the cheese in hand to open everything and find out who did what in the Supreme Court. And whoever did something must be punished, judged."What happens nextTuesday's session ended without a ruling. Justice Flávio Dino requested a review period, and the trial was suspended at a partial tally of 4 to 3 for keeping the cases of Moraes and Mendonça separate, according to InfoMoney. The case involving Mendonça is scheduled for September 23. The review period can last up to 90 days. When the justices resume, they must settle that procedural question before deciding whether Moraes will face an investigation.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, asked Justice André Mendonça on Monday (14) to lift the secrecy on records detailing the payment network of banker Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master who is jailed in Brasília. Mendonça complied the same day and opened access to Petition 15.645, which holds a report on the payments.Fachin was acting on a request filed on Sunday (13) by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to G1, Globo's news portal, Moraes asked for the records to be unsealed before Tuesday's (15) session, which was set to discuss whether the court should investigate his ties to Vorcaro. Fachin sent the request to the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), which backed the measure, and only then formally asked Mendonça to act.The PGR opinion was signed by Deputy Prosecutor General Hindenburgo Chateaubriand. He said prosecutors had not weighed in earlier because they did not know the document existed, and supported lifting the secrecy."Because it is a document deemed relevant so that a Justice of this Court can grasp the full range of factors involved in the matter to be debated, in line with the premises of the previous opinion, the Prosecutor General's Office understands that the secrecy should also be lifted"What is now publicThe released material includes financial intelligence reports from Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council, requested by the Federal Police during the Banco Master investigation. G1 reports that the court has already made 53 case files related to the affair public. According to Poder360, the unsealed petition shows the Federal Police request to investigate the payments and the list of amounts paid by Vorcaro, with particular weight on Fabiano Zettel, the banker's brother-in-law. The deputy prosecutor general also pressed Mendonça's office to explain what steps, if any, were taken in the inquiry.A court in crisisThe secrecy fight is part of the crisis set off by a Federal Police report that Mendonça ordered based on data extracted from Vorcaro's phone. The document points to a possible relationship between Moraes and the banker. G1 reports that the police found 52 messages exchanged between the two from December 2023 to November 2025, and that the report states Moraes took direct part in reviewing and editing a 130 million reais contract between Banco Master and the Barci de Moraes law firm of Viviane Barci, the justice's wife. The PGR wants the report voided, arguing it was produced without prior notice to the STF presidency, without submission to the full bench and with alleged bias.At Tuesday's (15) session, the bench debated whether to try Moraes's case together with Mendonça's. The vote was suspended after Justice Flávio Dino asked for more time to review the case, leaving a 4-3 tally in favor of separate trials, according to InfoMoney. The merits remain pending: the justices still must decide whether to uphold or void the police report, and whether there are grounds to open an investigation of Moraes or close the case. Mendonça's case is scheduled for September 23.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) suspended its session on Tuesday (Sept 15), the first devoted to the Master crisis, without deciding whether the cases of Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça will be tried together. Justice Flávio Dino requested a "vista", a procedural move that gives a justice more time to study the case files, and the vote stopped. The tally stood at 4 to 3 for keeping the two reviews separate, with no final ruling yet.Court President Edson Fachin, the session's rapporteur, voted against a procedural motion filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes, who wanted to postpone the review of Moraes and merge it with the Mendonça case. Fachin was joined by Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia. Gilmar, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes himself backed the joint review. Dino had sided with that group, then switched to the review request, which removed his vote from the count.Fachin also rejected redistributing the report on Moraes, which he had pulled into the court presidency's chambers. Gilmar had called for a lottery to pick a new rapporteur, arguing this is what the court's internal rules require. "I want to state from the outset that I favor keeping not only the separation between the trials. I vote to proceed with today's session, not to join the cases mentioned and, as a consequence, the redistribution under the internal rules is moot," Fachin said, according to news site g1.Diverging votesDino opened the split. "Mr. President, it seems to me the path is to respect the connection that brought us here, and for that reason I consider that the route in Justice Gilmar's motion best preserves our role as providers of justice and of legal security," he said. Zanin joined the motion and said Mendonça should not vote on the analysis of Vorcaro's messages to Moraes. Mendonça, who is judging his own conduct in the session, argued for separation:I see no common factual basis. What there is, regarding me, is a supposed intelligence report, an illegal report, with monitoring and selective collection of data on STF justices and other authorities, in an activity typical of a parallel Federal Police. An illegal document that the document itself says has no probative value. These are entirely distinct factual and legal questions.Moraes voted for the joint review. "We face a concrete risk of contradictory rulings and of procedural turmoil, judging the same things, only with the sign inverted (...) I join Justice Gilmar's motion," he said. According to g1, Dino changed course after a shouting match between Gilmar and Mendonça; InfoMoney reported that Dino said there was no climate to proceed with the analysis.Context and what comes nextThe session never reached the merits, the possible opening of a criminal investigation into Moraes. Two justices did not vote: Kassio Nunes Marques declared himself barred and cited the proximity of this year's elections, and Dias Toffoli recused himself as a matter of conscience, according to InfoMoney. The crisis escalated after Mendonça lifted the secrecy on Federal Police reports about the Banco Master investigation. One document cited 52 messages between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Moraes, in-person meetings between the two and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law firm of the justice's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes.The review period can last up to 90 days, though the justice may return the case sooner. If Dino does not present his position within that window, the case goes back on the docket automatically. The session on Mendonça's conduct is scheduled for September 23. When the review of Moraes resumes, Dino may present his vote again, and the full bench must settle the procedural question before moving to the merits.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) ended the first session of the Banco Master crisis on Tuesday (Sept. 15) with a provisional 4-3 vote to judge the cases of Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça separately. Justice Flávio Dino then asked for a "vista," a procedural request that suspends a vote so a justice can study the case files, and the trial resumes next week.The tally answered a procedural motion filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes, who argued the two cases should be examined together. Voting to keep them apart were the court's president and the session's rapporteur, Edson Fachin, joined by André Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia. Voting for a joint review were Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Alexandre de Moraes himself. Dino had signaled he would join that side, but switched to the review request instead.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the result proclaimed by Fachin is temporary, and Dino's request can suspend the trial for up to 90 days. If his vote were counted in favor of a joint review, the tally would be tied at 4-4. In that scenario the court's internal rules would give extra weight to the president's vote, known as the casting vote; the newspaper reports there are still doubts inside the court about that reading, because Fachin is the case's rapporteur.What was at stakeTuesday's session focused on Moraes. A Federal Police report identified 52 messages exchanged between the justice and Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, between December 2023 and November 2025, along with in-person meetings and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law office of Moraes's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes. According to G1, it was the first time in the court's history that the full bench discussed opening an investigation against one of its own sitting justices. The session on Mendonça, whom Moraes accuses of a "selective" release of case files, is scheduled for Sept. 23.An open confrontationThe session was marked by open clashes. Moraes said that on May 18 Mendonça ordered the seizure of two files, named "Moraes.pdf" and "Toffoli.pdf," which he described as part of a dossier. Mendonça replied that he never treated the files' content as true and kept the case under seal to protect the investigation. When André Mendonça rose to answer Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, Gilmar Mendes shouted at him: "The nerve of this man is astonishing!". Gonet, who denied any closeness with Vorcaro, defended the Federal Prosecutor's Office.It was in that atmosphere that Dino cut the debate short. "I have to interrupt this situation because we have a point of order. We are not in a position to deliberate. The climate is only getting worse, and society is watching something different from the procedure the law mandates," the justice said.Cármen Lúcia voted against joining the trials and spoke about the court's moment, with Brazil's national election less than three weeks away. "I find myself, like perhaps many of my colleagues, in a state of deep consternation and sadness," she said."I apologize to the Brazilian people, who perhaps expected a different stance from me. But I think all of us here wanted the same thing, which was to try to solve this, and the questions were not solved and grew far too large. So I am apologizing to the president of the Supreme Court and to all my colleagues, but above all to the Brazilian people, because I truly wanted to have done better and to have helped calm things down, and I could not."According to G1, Dino asked Fachin to send the speech to the Foreign Ministry and to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to head off new United States sanctions against Moraes. The trial resumes next week, with two questions still open: the final ruling on how the two cases will be handled, and the decision on whether to open an investigation against Moraes.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law on Tuesday (15) the two bills that create Brazil's new tax incentive program for data centers, the Redata, at a ceremony in the Planalto Palace. According to Tele.Síntese, the regime was created by bill PL 278/2026 and given fiscal footing by complementary bill PLP 74/2026, both approved by Congress in early September. In practice, the program cuts federal taxes for companies that build or expand data centers in the country.The new law suspends and later zeroes the rates of the IPI federal excise tax, PIS/Pasep and Cofins contributions on the purchase and import of information and communication technology equipment, SBT News reports. The import tax also drops when there is no equivalent domestic production. The benefits run for five years. The government estimates a 5.2 billion reais tax waiver in 2026 alone, according to news site g1. The money is already earmarked in this year's budget, but the delay in Congress had left the benefit in a budgetary and legal limbo, as Folha de S.Paulo reported. The Redata had first been created by a provisional measure in September 2025 and expired in February without a vote.Veto removes rider on budget amendmentsAlongside the signature, Lula vetoed a provision dealing with municipalities and the Fiscal Responsibility Law, or LRF, the Brazilian rulebook for public accounts. The provision was a rider, known in Brazil as a jabuti, a clause unrelated to the bill's main subject, and it did not affect the structure of the Redata. SBT News reports the government judged the loosening of fiscal requirements a step backward. Lula did not speak at the event. The rider had been added in the Chamber of Deputies by rapporteur Isnaldo Bulhões of the MDB party. It opens a loophole in the LRF allowing congressional budget amendments to reach cities with fewer than 65,000 residents, including those in debt with the federal government or lacking transparent accounts. According to the National Confederation of Municipalities, cited by g1, the change affects more than 5,000 cities, about 90% of Brazil's 5,569 municipalities."Those municipalities that are the smallest in the country, in every corner, from South to North, from North to Northeast, deserve special treatment, because they increasingly want to improve and seek technical capacity to meet this type of requirement, which sometimes, over simple compliance problems, leaves them unable to receive some funds" (Isnaldo Bulhões, on the Chamber floor).The bill carrying the rider passed by a wide margin, with 364 votes in favor, 46 against and three abstentions. The idea is not new. Congress had already inserted a similar exception in the 2026 budget guidelines law; Lula vetoed that text and lawmakers overturned the veto, as g1 notes. Deputy Gilson Marques of the Novo party criticized the change for removing the fiscal responsibility requirement.Requirements and next stepsIn exchange for the tax breaks, companies face conditions. They must reserve at least 10% of the processing, storage and data handling capacity built with the incentive for the Brazilian market, and invest 2% of the value of the goods purchased under the program in research, development and innovation, with part of the funds going to the North, Northeast and Center-West regions. They must also secure renewable or low-carbon energy and meet a water efficiency standard of up to 0.05 liters per kWh. Companies under the Simples Nacional small-business tax regime are excluded, and the Federal Revenue Service will handle eligibility, SBT News reports. "The Redata deals with the fundamental base of this digital economy. Digital infrastructure is what we need to make everything work", said Affonso Nina, executive president of tech association Brasscom. According to the presidential palace, about 60% of Brazilians' data are stored abroad.Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, cited by Tele.Síntese, said a 100-megawatt project can require at least 1 billion reais in construction and between 4 billion and 5 billion reais in equipment. A representative of the Finance Ministry said at the ceremony: "This project makes it possible for the supply of these services from Brazil to become competitive". What comes next: the program still depends on a presidential decree, in its final stage of drafting, and on an interministerial ordinance with the technical criteria. Congress, in turn, will decide whether to uphold or overturn Lula's veto of the rider.

The Brazilian Renewal Labor Party (PRTB) filed on Monday (14) with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) the substitution of Pablo Marçal by Leonardo Avalanche as its presidential candidate. Avalanche, the party's national president, was the running mate on the original ticket and now moves to the top of it. The new vice presidential candidate is Silvia Hellen da Silva Pereira, born in Anapolis, in the state of Goias.The filing came on the last day of the legal window to replace candidates for majoritarian races, according to the party. The swap already appears in the TSE's candidate disclosure system, but it still needs the approval of the court's full bench in Brasilia. The case's rapporteur, Justice Estela Aranha, cast the first vote in favor of the substitution on Monday. In a ruling published that night, she granted the party's Registry of Regular Party Acts (DRAP) and declared the PRTB eligible to run in the 2026 election."I grant the Registry of Regular Party Acts (DRAP) and, consequently, declare the Brazilian Renewal Labor Party (PRTB) eligible to take part in the 2026 election for president and vice president of the Republic," the justice wrote.Why Marçal is outThe substitution follows the court's unanimous rejection on Friday (11) of the ticket formed by Marçal and Avalanche. According to the TSE, Marçal failed to prove he had joined a party within the legal deadline, and the former coach remains ineligible until 2032 over a conviction for misuse of media in his 2024 campaign for mayor of Sao Paulo. The Electoral Prosecutor's Office argued that in April, the month of the membership deadline, Marçal was still listed with Uniao Brasil. Aranha also wrote that ruling.Avalanche, who according to G1 brokered Marçal's entry into the race weeks ago, said in a statement that he will take the top slot to keep their project alive. "We fought until the last minute to keep Pablo in the race. We tried every possible way, but the whole system turned against us," he wrote. "Faced with that, Pablo and I decided together not to give up on Brazil. Since his name was not approved, we will carry on the project under my name, carrying everything we have always defended, side by side, to the end of this race."According to Jornal Opção, Avalanche's name now appears twice in DivulgaCand, the TSE system that lists candidacies: as vice president, on a ticket already ruled ineligible, and as president, still pending review. The court is also handling, under Justice Nunes Marques, a petition from party member Bruno Marinho Barcelos asking for Avalanche's arrest and removal over suspected irregularities in the use of part of the 3.3 million reais in campaign funds allocated to the PRTB. The next step is a vote by the full TSE bench, which decides whether the Avalanche-Silvia ticket stays in the October race.

Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) attacked on Tuesday (15) the decision by fellow justice André Mendonça to remove Andrei Rodrigues, the director-general of the Federal Police. According to G1, Gilmar called the move a "disgrace" for the institution and said it should never have been adopted. He spoke during a full-court session examining the conduct of the investigation involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes.Gilmar compared the removal of the federal police chief to scenarios that, in his view, no manager would accept. His remarks, recorded by G1, went further."Any citizen with the slightest notion of what the Federal Police is, an armed body under a chain of command, would not remove a director-general of the police. It is like removing the president of NASA or taking away the commander of the Army."Then he hardened the tone. "The man has to handcuff himself before doing this kind of thing. When he feels the temptation, he has to ask God to intercede and not do it," Gilmar said. He also said he had expected the removal to provoke a reaction inside the court, and that subjecting the force to such a situation is a "gravity I have never seen", according to G1.The disputed removalMendonça ordered Rodrigues's removal during the inquiry into how the Federal Police produced a report on Moraes. The document recorded 52 messages between the justice and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the central figure of the Banco Master case, according to G1. Mendonça argued that keeping the director-general in office could compromise the inquiry. Days later, Justice Flávio Dino suspended the effects of the decision and returned Rodrigues to command, on the grounds that the measure required more robust justification. Court President Edson Fachin then took the dispute to the full bench. Before Gilmar spoke, Fachin said the justices had issued diverging rulings and that the presidency could not "stand still".Later in the session, Justice Luiz Fux defended the Second Chamber, one of the court's two smaller panels, which considered the Federal Police's conduct in the episode anomalous. "They set up an agency of their own dedicated to spying on Supreme Court justices," Fux said, according to G1.What comes nextThe court suspended the morning session and the justices return at 2 p.m. Brasilia time. According to BBC News Brasil, the judgment decides whether Moraes will face an investigation over his relationship with Vorcaro. It is the first time in the court's history that the STF meets to decide whether one of its own members should be investigated, G1 reported. Gilmar and Justice Flávio Dino filed a procedural motion to suspend the judgment and resume the analysis next Tuesday (23). The motion would join the cases of Moraes and Mendonça, redistribute the reporting duties and set a deadline for the Attorney General's Office to weigh in. Fachin said the return of the session will be devoted to the motion.

Brazil's presidential candidates reacted on Tuesday (15) to a session of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, that will decide whether Justice Alexandre de Moraes faces an investigation. Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD and Romeo Zema of the Novo party demanded Moraes's immediate removal. Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL released a video tying President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT to the justice. Lula, who is running for reelection, ignored questions about the case.It is the first time in the court's history that the justices have met to decide whether to investigate one of their own. The session examines a Federal Police report that pointed to 52 messages between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, who is jailed in a billion-dollar fraud case. According to Metrópoles, the document lists messages sent by Vorcaro to the justice and does not show what, if anything, was answered. Before the session began, Justice Dias Toffoli declared himself barred by conflict of interest and Kassio Nunes Marques stepped aside. "As president of the TSE (the electoral court), I do not feel comfortable taking part in this judgment, and I affirm my impediment," Nunes Marques said, according to BBC News Brasil.Opposition trains fire on MoraesFlávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, posted a video statement minutes before the session started. "The current president divided his power with Alexandre de Moraes," he said. In the recording, cited by Metrópoles, the senator said the government "created an institutional imbalance" and "decided to govern alongside a part of the Supreme Federal Tribunal that broke the law". He added that the administration "is part of this rotten system". Folha de S.Paulo reported that he kept linking Lula's government to Moraes throughout the day.Caiado took to social media during the session. "The only acceptable course will be the immediate removal of Justice Alexandre de Moraes," the senator wrote, saying he had never seen "a scandal of this gravity" hit the court and calling the session historic. Zema called a rally on the lawn across from Congress to pressure the court as the justices met."This demonstration is not about left or right. It is the demonstration of Brazilians' outrage at the abuses we are seeing at the Supreme Court, not only by Alexandre de Moraes but by nearly all the justices," Zema told Metrópoles.The Novo candidate also said Brazilians "no longer accept this clown show" from Moraes at the court. In an interview, he said he hopes the justice's removal "will be the first of many", according to SBT News.Lula avoids the issuePresident Lula was asked by reporters about the session and did not comment, according to Estadão. His campaign is working to separate the president's image from the justice's, as reported by Metrópoles. Lula has publicly called for lifting the secrecy over the Banco Master investigations. Renan Santos, another presidential candidate, said the absence of Nunes Marques could favor Moraes in the vote, according to Tribuna do Norte. Brazil holds the first round of the election in less than three weeks, and a Quaest poll released on Monday (14) put Flávio Bolsonaro numerically ahead of Lula in a possible runoff, 42% to 40%, within the margin of error.The court suspended the session in the early afternoon and resumed at 2pm. On the return, STF President Edson Fachin said the justices will take up a procedural motion filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes proposing to suspend the judgment, draw a new rapporteur by lot and merge the case with a hearing already scheduled for September 23. The Prosecutor General's office has asked that the Federal Police procedure behind the report be voided. The deadline for Justice André Mendonça to respond to the partiality accusations Moraes filed against him ends on September 21.

Justice Dias Toffoli recused himself from the vote, citing personal conviction, as Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) weighs opening an investigation against fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In the same session on Tuesday (15), Justice Kassio Nunes Marques declared himself barred from taking part and left the bench. It is the first time in the court's history that its members meet to decide whether one of their own should be investigated, according to news portal G1. The two recusals change the quorum: nine of the court's 11 justices remain in the session, among them Moraes himself and André Mendonça, who requested the Federal Police report that triggered the case."Not because I feel prevented from taking part, but out of a suspicion of personal conviction, for the sake of the Court (...) I declare my recusal for this judgment, but I will not leave," Toffoli said.The justice said he will not take part in the vote but will stay in the session and may ask to speak during the debate, according to G1. Toffoli has recused himself from Banco Master case rulings in the court's Second Chamber since stepping down as the investigations' rapporteur in February.Nunes Marques, who heads the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that runs Brazil's elections, cited the proximity of the 2026 vote. "As president of the TSE, I do not feel comfortable taking part in this judgment and I declare my impediment," he said, before asking court president Edson Fachin for permission to leave. BBC News Brasil reported that the justice said securing balanced elections matters more, at this moment, than his role in the trial.Before stepping aside, Nunes Marques responded to messages reported by the press that link him to Daniel Vorcaro, the Master Bank owner jailed in the case. He denied ever exchanging messages with the banker. "I have never ruled on any case related to Master. My son never provided any service to the bank or was paid by the bank," he said. "If I felt uncomfortable or co-opted in any way, I would never have voted to confirm the arrest of Daniel Vorcaro, his father and others involved."Why Toffoli stepped asideToffoli left the Master Bank investigations' rapporteurship in February, after Federal Police probes pointed to his own ties to the bank. In 2021, a company run by his brothers, in which he acknowledged being a partner, sold a stake in the Tayaya resort in Parana state for 3.1 million reais to a fund linked to Vorcaro's brother-in-law, G1 reported. Since then, he has stayed out of the case's rulings in the Second Chamber, including votes that confirmed the banker's arrest and that of relatives.What the session decides and what comes nextThe full court is weighing petition 16,662, opened after Mendonça made public, on September 1, messages linking Moraes to Vorcaro. The Federal Police report, with 52 messages exchanged between the two, shows the banker demanding special attention to payments under a 131-million-real contract between the bank and the law office run by Moraes's wife. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet asked the court to void the report. Fachin took over the case's rapporteurship on Saturday, after a string of individual decisions by justices set off the crisis at the court.The session, which began at 10 a.m., was suspended around midday and resumed at 2 p.m. Upon the return, Fachin said the bench would discuss a point of order filed by Justice Gilmar Mendes: suspend the trial, draw the rapporteurship by lot, join Moraes's case with Mendonça's and resume on September 23, with a deadline for the prosecutor general to weigh in. If the proposal fails, the justices move to the vote on the report's validity and on the annulment request.

Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, has asked Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to bar President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the PT candidate for reelection, from holding campaign livestreams at the Palácio da Alvorada, the president's official residence in Brasília. The filing was submitted on Monday night, September 14, according to G1. It challenges a campaign livestream broadcast from the residence on Sunday, September 13, which lasted about 45 minutes.Flávio's lawyers argue that Lula committed "conduta vedada a agente público", a category of prohibited conduct for public officials under Brazilian electoral law. The law allows official residences to be used exceptionally for campaign meetings and contacts, the petition says, but such activities cannot take on the character of a public act. TSE rules, according to the PL candidate's defense, set cumulative conditions for election broadcasts from the official residence: a neutral environment without institutional symbols; participation restricted to the officeholder alone; content exclusively about the candidate's own campaign; and no public resources or services.The filing says Sunday's livestream featured active participation by PT national president Edinho Silva, the party's national communications secretary Éden Valadares and communicator Ana Flávia. That, Flávio's campaign argues, violated the requirement that only the officeholder take part. The petition also cites the 2022 precedent, when the TSE itself barred then president Jair Bolsonaro from holding campaign livestreams at the Alvorada.The requests and the PT responseFlávio is asking for immediate removal of the video from Lula's official YouTube channel and for Google Brasil to be summoned. He also requests a preliminary injunction to stop the governing ticket from holding new electoral broadcasts or using the Alvorada's structure and public services in breach of the law. At the end of the process, his campaign requests a fine.Lula's campaign press office said on Sunday that the livestream "used strictly the campaign's equipment" and that "the Palácio da Alvorada is the official residence of the government and President Lula's private space". The PT team says it follows TSE rules and has taken electoral-period measures since July, moving political broadcasts from the state broadcaster EBC's networks to the candidate's personal and campaign pages.The livestream aired after a street mobilization called "Dia 13 com Lula", organized by PT supporters. It showed campaign jingles, ads and instructions for supporters on social media. Lula spoke about his economic record, his proposals on public security and education, and directly criticized Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, linking the opposition to militia groups, according to G1. The TSE has not yet ruled on the request. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) traded accusations openly on Tuesday (15) during a full bench session. The session decides whether the court will open an investigation into Moraes based on messages found on the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master. Moraes demanded that his own conduct and Mendonça's handling of the case be judged together, and accused his colleague of bias.The clash began when Moraes resumed his accusation that Mendonça tried to steer the work of the Federal Police. "There is no way to judge today [Moraes's situation] without judging [Mendonça's situation]. Who is afraid of the Federal Police?", he asked. Mendonça replied: "It is not a question of fear.""I am not asking Your Excellency", Moraes said. "But I am answering you", Mendonça said.Moraes said he has witnesses that his colleague asked the Federal Police, in a meeting, to include a justice in a plea bargain. "I have witnesses that minister André, in a meeting, said: 'Ask for this'", he declared. Mendonça shot back: "That is a lie." According to news site G1, he added: "A lie, a lie. Call whoever you want, they will lie." Moraes raised his tone and said Mendonça "is serving a political group that tried to stage a coup in this country". He called the investigation used against him "fraudulent" and argued that the Federal Police intelligence reports behind his own accusations against his colleague are not anonymous documents, because they were produced by police delegates.Background to the crisisThe crisis at the court deepened after Mendonça, the justice overseeing the Master investigations, lifted the secrecy on Federal Police reports. One document listed 52 messages between Vorcaro and Moraes, in person meetings between the two, and a 130 million reais contract between the bank and the law firm of the justice's wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes. In Tuesday's session, the court examines the validity of that report and a request by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) to void it. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet argues that Mendonça should not have requested investigations into the recipient of the messages without a request from prosecutors or from the police itself.Court president Edson Fachin split the cases. The messages between Vorcaro and Moraes stayed on Tuesday's agenda; Moraes's accusations against Mendonça were set for September 23, because investigation deadlines remain open. Earlier in the session, Dias Toffoli declared himself suspect for reasons of personal conviction and Kássio Nunes Marques declared himself barred from voting. Neither will take part in the vote.The justices continue the session to decide whether there are grounds to open the investigation against Moraes. The next round of the standoff is scheduled for September 23, when the full court takes up Moraes's accusations against Mendonça.

Justice Kassio Nunes Marques recused himself on Tuesday (15) from the session of Brazil's Supreme Court, the STF, that is examining a Federal Police report on messages sent by Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker at the center of the so-called Master case, to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Nunes Marques heads the Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, which runs Brazilian elections, and said the ruling could affect this year's race. He then asked Chief Justice Edson Fachin for permission and left the chamber. The colleague "has an election to take care of", Fachin said, according to BBC News Brasil."I believe I have a mission (...) which is to ensure balance in the 2026 elections. (...) So I do not feel comfortable taking part in this judgment. I declare myself barred," the justice said, right after Fachin presented his report.Before the announcement, Nunes Marques defended himself on the floor. Dialogues extracted from Vorcaro's phone, disclosed on Monday, mention the justice and his son, the lawyer Kevin Marques. In one exchange, Banco Master's former legal director Luiz Rennó replies to Vorcaro with data on Kevin and a reference to 500,000 reais a month; payments would be routed through the consultancy Consult Inteligência Tributária, according to the news site G1."I have never judged any case related to Master. My son never provided any service to the bank and was never paid by the bank," the justice said. He also said he had never spoken with Vorcaro and claimed "absolute impartiality". In a statement, the defense of Kevin Marques confirmed that he received 281,600 reais from Consult for tax-related legal work and denied any link to the Supreme Court.Effect on the courtThe withdrawal weakens Justice André Mendonça in the court's internal dispute, according to an analysis by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Nunes Marques had voted with Mendonça in every ruling of the inquiry so far and endorsed his decision to remove Andrei Rodrigues as head of the Federal Police. Mendonça now has one close ally left on the bench, Luiz Fux. Moraes, the initial target of the session, has been backed by Justices Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes, the newspaper reports.Justice Dias Toffoli is not voting either. He declared himself suspect in March, stepping away from Master case rulings after reports that he had sold his stake in a resort in Paraná state to a fund linked to Banco Master, and he reaffirmed the position on Tuesday. He stayed in the chamber. "If I find it necessary to speak, I will," he said.The session, which Folha called unprecedented, decides whether Moraes becomes the target of an investigation over his ties to Vorcaro. Fachin opened the proceedings by recalling that Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet has asked for the Federal Police inquiry to be annulled. Voting continues among the remaining justices, about three weeks before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would beat Senator Flavio Bolsonaro by 47.3% to 40% in a runoff of Brazil's presidential race, according to a new CNT/MDA poll released on Tuesday (15). Lula, who is seeking reelection, leads the first-round simulation with 40.5% of voting intentions, against 30.4% for the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, a 10-point lead. Blank and spoiled votes add up to 10.2% in the head-to-head scenario, and 2.5% of respondents say they are undecided.The survey was commissioned by CNT, Brazil's national transport confederation, and carried out by pollster MDA. It interviewed 2,002 voters in person between September 9 and 13. The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points either way, and the poll is registered with electoral authorities under code BR-06902/2026.The lead narrowedCompared with the institute's August round, Lula slipped from 48% to 47.3% while Flavio rose from 39.1% to 40%, CartaCapital reported. The runoff gap fell from about nine points to 7.3, a shift that stayed within the margin of error. Since June, the president has lost three points in the runoff scenario and the senator has gained three, according to Exame.The first-round score also tightened. Lula polled 42.4% in August and now has 40.5%; Flavio went from 28.7% to 30.4%. Augusto Cury (Avante) ranks third with 6%, statistically tied with the candidates behind him.The poll tested four other runoff pairings. Lula would win against Augusto Cury by 45.3% to 38.4%, against former Goias governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) by 46.4% to 37.3%, against Renan Santos (Missao) by 47.3% to 33.9% and against former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) by 47.7% to 34.5%. The scenario against Renan Santos has the highest share of blank and spoiled votes, 15.7%.The round contrasts with a week of conflicting surveys. The Quaest poll, published on Monday (14), put Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of Lula in a runoff for the first time, while Indexa showed the two tied in the direct matchup. The first round is set for October 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) asked the court's president, Edson Fachin, on Tuesday (Sept. 15) to investigate a possible link between Banco Master, an institute founded by fellow Justice André Mendonça and contracts signed by the city of São Paulo. According to g1, the request came on the same day the court's full bench is reviewing a Federal Police report on messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the central figure of the so-called Caso Master, and voting on whether to open an investigation against Moraes.Dino filed the request in a case about rules for private cemeteries in São Paulo state. The case is tied to an inquiry by São Paulo state prosecutors into alleged irregularities in the cemetery concession and a possible connection between the operator, Cortel, and Banco Master. According to CNN Brasil, Dino ordered a copy of the case records sent to Fachin and asked him to weigh the new material in the review of Mendonça's conduct. In Dino's view, the information points to possible conflicts of interest.What Dino listedIn the ruling, Dino lists circumstances he says need to be clarified. The first is Mendonça's own vote in the cemetery case: when the trial resumed in April 2025, he voted against keeping an injunction that affected private cemeteries, aligning himself with the companies' requests. Dino also notes that Alexandre de Almeida Mendonça, the justice's brother, works at SP Regula, the agency that regulates public services in São Paulo, specifically in the funeral and cemetery division.The ruling also points to a meeting between André Mendonça and Vorcaro, former owner of the now-defunct Banco Master. According to the ruling, the meeting took place on March 14, 2025, at the headquarters of Instituto Iter, a body Mendonça founded. In Dino's reading, the meeting matters because the institute went on to hold paid contracts with the city of São Paulo, a direct party in the cemetery case. The document also names Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, who is under investigation in Operação Compliance Zero and worked at Cortel. Dino says the institute signed, without a bidding process, a contract of about 1.63 million reais with the Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Educação (FDE), an education foundation tied to the São Paulo state government.Mendonça said on Sept. 3 that he had decided to leave his stake in the institute, created in 2024 for educational and academic work. Dino's ruling does not state that the facts prove wrongdoing or favoritism by the justice. Its stated goal is to establish whether there is any connection between the meeting with Vorcaro, the institute, its contracts and Mendonça's conduct in the cemetery case.The file now sits with Fachin, who must decide whether to fold the material into the review of Mendonça's conduct. The same day, the full court is deciding whether to open an investigation into Moraes over the Vorcaro messages. Fachin votes first, under the session rules set by the court.

Federal Police findings made public on Monday (Sept 14) show that lawyer Valéria Rodrigues Linhares, the ex-wife of federal congressman Cezinha de Madureira (PL-SP), allegedly negotiated a R$ 2 million success fee tied to the release of a jailed former education official whose case is before the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court. The material grounded search warrants executed the same day against the congressman and the lawyer. Justice Flávio Dino, who oversees the case, unsealed the ruling that authorized the warrants. According to the document, Cezinha offered to raise the matter personally with Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, the case's rapporteur.The jailed secretary's caseThe case is Reclamação 81.608, a procedural complaint filed by Denis de Souza Macedo, former education secretary of Belford Roxo, a city in Rio de Janeiro state. He was arrested last year in a Federal Police operation investigating the diversion of R$ 112 million from Fundeb, the basic education fund, and the national school meals program. The first contract discussed in the messages paid R$ 1 million to the office of lawyer Mariângela Fialek, known as Tuca, if the complaint succeeded. Fialek then proposed an amendment raising the fee to R$ 2 million if the former secretary were released. The unsealed excerpt does not show whether the deal was signed at that value, but Fialek still appears in the case as one of Denis's lawyers, Valor Econômico reports.The messages came from Tuca's phone. Police describe her as one of the main operators of the "secret budget," a congressional earmark scheme, during Arthur Lira's term as speaker of the lower house of Congress. In the police reading, Tuca recruited clients and drafted briefs, Linhares signed contracts and million-reais credit assignments, and the congressman held direct contacts with justices. "The congressman did not merely forward documents: he committed to making a personal and direct request to the judge, on behalf of parties represented by lawyers linked to him by marriage and by financial interest," the police wrote in a passage highlighted by Dino."It seems clear to me that the facts under investigation may involve, in theory, a federal congressman who lacks a license to practice law and yet apparently uses the standing of his office to instill in third parties the perception of influence over judges of the superior courts. I stress that the perception of high pay seems to rule out the idea that this was a mere 'political act'," Dino wrote.After Nunes Marques's office sent a formal reply to a meeting request on Aug 21, 2025, Tuca complained to the congressman about the difficulty of reaching the justice's staff. He answered "calma," or calm down, and said he would "go there and gauge it." Seven days later he asked her to send "the print of the agenda request" again. For Dino, the exchange shows "the continuation of the personal handling of the matter." The ruling also cites fees of R$ 500,000 tied to a favorable decision for the mayor of Beberibe, in Ceará state, and messages in which the congressman mentions "André," "minister Kassio" and "Antônio Carlos." Police are checking whether these refer to Justices André Mendonça and Kassio Nunes Marques, of the STF, and Antônio Carlos Ferreira, of the Superior Court of Justice.Reactions and next stepsIn a statement, Cezinha's lawyers deny any wrongdoing and say the congressman stands ready to give authorities every clarification. Linhares's defense said it will request access to the case files and noted she was married to Cezinha for 24 years and has been divorced for a year and a half; the police document had listed her as his wife. Fialek's lawyers had not commented by publication time. Nunes Marques said meeting parties is "part of the routine" of judges and that a judge in his office took a video call from Fialek on Aug 1, 2025, adding that he decides "independently and based on the laws and the Constitution." Both the police and Dino stress that the justices named in the messages are not under investigation.The inquiry is an offshoot of Operation Transparência, launched in December 2025 to probe influence peddling, exploitation of prestige, passive corruption and money laundering in cases before the STF, the Superior Court of Justice and the Superior Electoral Court. Dino remains the rapporteur. The Federal Police investigation continues, and the defense teams will get full access to the records before any ruling on the merits.

Opposition senators threatened on Monday (14) to stall all Senate business if the chamber's president, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), does not open impeachment proceedings against Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). The warning came at a press conference in the Senate, one day before the court decides whether to open an investigation into the justice. Under Brazil's constitution, the Senate is the body that tries Supreme Court justices accused of crimes of responsibility.Senator Carlos Viana of Minas Gerais led the charge. "If this removal does not happen, we will demand that Alcolumbre move the impeachment of Alexandre de Moraes. Otherwise, we will obstruct the work of the chamber," he said, according to radio station Itatiaia. He then widened the threat before reporters, according to news site Poder360:"We are unanimous in demanding that the president of the Federal Senate has the obligation to open the impeachment process against Moraes for the good of the Brazilian Republic. Otherwise, we will mount a continuous obstruction of all the work to call on the Brazilian people."The Senate opposition leader, Rogério Marinho (PL), told Poder360 that 61 signatures already back the justice's removal. He said Alcolumbre has refused to meet with senators on the matter. Marinho also coordinates the presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).Pressure on the rulebookUnder current Senate rules, the power to move or shelve cases against Supreme Court justices belongs to the Senate president alone. Marinho said the rules give Alcolumbre excessive power and announced a proposal to change them:"We will propose changing the Senate's rules so that, once 49 senators file a request to open an investigation for a crime of responsibility, it is opened automatically, regardless of the will of the chamber's president."Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-MS) attended the press conference. According to the newspaper Estadão, she activated 40 senators to be in Brasilia for Moraes's trial at the Supreme Court, set for 10 a.m. on Tuesday (15). "We are hopeful that tomorrow, during the Supreme Court session, they will carry out the role that is, in fact, ours," Marinho said.Tuesday's rulingThe court's full bench meets in a special session to weigh a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the defunct Banco Master. Justices will decide whether the material justifies a formal probe into Moraes. According to G1, sources inside the court expect a tight 4-3 vote in favor of opening some form of inquiry.Moraes spoke publicly about the case for the first time on Monday, according to G1. In a filing sent to Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin, he denied any wrongdoing, said he never favored Vorcaro or Banco Master, and described the investigation ordered by Justice André Mendonça as "absolutely unconstitutional and illegal".Tuesday settles both fronts. At 10 a.m. the court votes on whether Moraes becomes a formal suspect. At the Senate, if Alcolumbre does not put the impeachment on the agenda, the opposition promises to freeze the chamber's work in the middle of the 2026 presidential campaign.

One day before Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) decides whether to open an investigation against him, Justice Alexandre de Moraes called the report filed by fellow Justice André Mendonça a "farce". The statement appears in a 44-page reply with 121 items sent Monday night (14) to the court's chief justice, Edson Fachin.According to Folha de S.Paulo, Moraes said the document, which collects messages sent to him by former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, shows there is no indication whatsoever of a criminal offense to investigate. In his view, the report carries a political-electoral motivation built on "criminosas mentiras", or criminal lies."VENGEANCE. The attempt at revenge by allies of those who tried to destroy Democracy and the Rule of Law and were convicted by the SUPREME FEDERAL TRIBUNAL is very clear"The line opens Moraes' reply to Fachin. As CartaCapital notes, Mendonça was appointed to the court by former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted in the coup plot case by the court's First Panel, where Moraes sits.What the defense saysMoraes wrote that "NADA OCORREU" (nothing happened) and that a review of the 7,742 documents from Operação Compliance, spread across 48 petitions, one complaint and four inquiries, shows no indication of any illicit activity by him. He argues he never judged a case involving Banco Master or Vorcaro, during or after the contract between the bank, liquidated by the Central Bank, and the law firm of his wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes.Mendonça's request rests on a Federal Police report with messages Vorcaro sent to a phone number attributed to Moraes. The records show requests to the justice during a period when the banker was trying to block measures against his businesses, CartaCapital reports. According to Folha, the Federal Police says the R$ 131 million contract between Banco Master and his wife's firm was edited by Moraes before it was signed, and Revenue Service records show payments of R$ 80.2 million over two years. The firm confirmed Moraes' interventions "as the husband of the partner", at the request of its compliance office, and said the goal was to check for legal impediments, which were not found. There is no formal charge or criminal action against the justice.Tuesday's sessionThe full court meets at 10 a.m. Tuesday (15), with Fachin voting first. Some justices tried to postpone the session and failed, as reported by Andréia Sadi's blog at G1. Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques are seen as favoring the investigation; Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin as opposing it. Moraes, the target of the review, may not vote, and Dias Toffoli is expected to sit out after declaring a conflict of interest in Master-related matters. The votes of Fachin and Cármen Lúcia are treated as decisive.Moraes' allies are discussing a request for review that would delay the decision, G1 reports. The plenary must now decide whether the messages and the contract are enough to open the inquiry.

A Quaest poll released on Monday (14) shows that 37% of Brazilian voters believe Justice André Mendonça is acting correctly in the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court, the STF, the country's top tribunal. Another 16% say Alexandre de Moraes is the one acting correctly. According to news site G1, the institute interviewed 2,004 voters between September 10 and 13, with a margin of error of two percentage points.Another 20% of respondents said neither justice is acting correctly, 2% said both are, and 25% did not know or did not answer. The dispute between the two justices is part of the court's crisis tied to the Banco Master scandal, in a presidential election year. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper O Globo and TV Globo, according to Veja magazine.Where each side's support sitsThe breakdown by political group shows a split. Among right-wing voters who are not Bolsonaro supporters, 67% say Mendonça is right, against 5% who point to Moraes. Among Bolsonaro supporters, Mendonça gets 58% and Moraes 6%. Among supporters of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the result flips: 34% back Moraes and 12% Mendonça, while 32% did not know or did not answer.Left-wing voters who do not support Lula are split, at 22% for Mendonça and 22% for Moraes. Among independents, Mendonça leads with 33%, against 13% for Moraes. Religion also marks the divide: 46% of evangelical voters say Mendonça acts correctly, against 11% for Moraes; among Catholics, the figures are 32% and 19%.Pressure to change the courtIn the same round of questions, 68% of respondents support raising the requirements to appoint justices, such as a minimum age and professional legal experience; 20% are against. Fixed terms for justices get 53% support, with 30% opposed, and a new code of ethics barring commercial or private ties gets 53%, with 32% against. Half of respondents, 50%, accept that Congress and the judiciary itself could appoint justices, and 61% reject a ban on monocratic rulings, the decisions a single justice can issue alone. Veja also reports that trust in the court fell ten points in one month, with 56% of Brazilians saying they distrust the tribunal.The poll lands on the eve of an STF session scheduled for Tuesday (15). Under the proceedings released by the court, the justices will decide whether to open an investigation into the conduct of Moraes in the Banco Master case, with Justice Luiz Edson Fachin set to cast the first vote.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) published on Monday (14) the rules for the extraordinary plenary session that will decide whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The session is set for Tuesday (15) at 10 a.m. in Brasília. As the case's rapporteur, the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin, will cast the first vote.Fachin will also read the Federal Police report that gathered 52 messages exchanged between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the report identifies Moraes as an interlocutor of the former banker, who is at the center of the Banco Master scandal. Fachin took over the case on Saturday (12), after removing Justice André Mendonça from command of the investigation.How the session will runThe order of business follows the court's usual practice, according to the guidelines released by the tribunal. After the opening, the justices approve the minutes of the previous session. The clerk then calls the case, the formal start of the trial. Fachin reads his report and defines which questions the full bench will decide. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), Brazil's federal prosecutors, may then speak, and there is room for oral arguments.Fachin votes next. The other justices follow in the order set by the court's internal rules, and the president announces the result. TV Justiça, Rádio Justiça and the court's YouTube channel will broadcast the session live, according to CNN Brasil. The network also reports that Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet will represent the PGR in the trial.The trial can still stall on Tuesday. If any justice asks for a review period, known as a vista, the analysis of the case is suspended for 90 days, Folha reports.Reinforced securityThe court will operate under a reinforced security scheme, inside and outside its building. According to Folha, the plan joins forces commanded by the judiciary, such as the Judicial Police Secretariat; by the Federal District government, through its public security office; and by the federal executive, including the Planalto Military Command, the Armed Forces and the Institutional Security Cabinet (GSI). According to CNN Brasil, access to the chamber will be limited to confirmed guests, cell phones will be sealed in bags and Three Powers Square will be closed, with air space restrictions and drone monitoring. Journalists will follow the session from the entrance canopy of the court's headquarters.At stake is whether the court will open an investigation into one of its own justices, in a session that G1 describes as unprecedented. G1 reports that the eve of the trial was surrounded by uncertainty over the quorum and the scope of what will be voted on. The answer starts to come out at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Almost seven in ten Brazilian voters, 67%, say the crisis at the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, does not change their vote for president, according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (14). The institute interviewed 2,004 voters aged 16 and over across Brazil between September 10 and 13. The survey was commissioned by Globo together with the newspaper O Globo.Asked whether the crisis influences their presidential vote, 22% said it reinforces the choice they have already made and 7% said they would consider changing candidates. Another 4% did not know or did not answer. The margin of error is two percentage points in either direction, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number BR-03607/2026.The reinforcement concentrates on the rightThe numbers shift with political affiliation. Among self-declared supporters of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 84% say the crisis does not affect their vote and only 3% would consider switching candidates. Among the non-Lulist left, 76% report no impact and 12% could change their choice. Independent voters, one third of the sample, break down as 66% no influence, 19% reinforced choice and 9% open to change.The reinforcement effect is strongest on the right. Among non-Bolsonarist right-wing voters, 40% say the crisis reinforces their decision, against 51% who see no influence. Among Bolsonarists, 35% report reinforcement and 52% report no impact. "If this scenario of lulists and bolsonarists frozen in place holds, independents will make the difference," Felipe Nunes, director of Quaest and a professor at Fundacao Getulio Vargas, wrote on X.According to CNN Brasil, which reported other findings from the same round of interviews, 73% of respondents say they know about the case involving justices Andre Mendonca and Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. On the dispute between the two justices, 37% say Mendonca is acting correctly, 16% approve of Moraes, 20% say both are acting wrongly and 25% did not answer.What happens nextThe crisis escalated in early September, when Mendonca lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report citing messages that Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master who is jailed over billion-real frauds, sent to a contact the police attributed to Moraes. Moraes asked the court to investigate Mendonca for abuse of power. Court president Fachin canceled plenary sessions at the height of the confrontation, suspended conflicting orders issued by his colleagues, removed Moraes from the fake news inquiry and centralized crisis-related decisions in the court presidency.Fachin has scheduled a plenary session for Tuesday (15) to examine the Federal Police report on the relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro and the request by the Prosecutor General's office to void the document. The session takes place in the middle of the presidential campaign.

Messages obtained by Brazil's Federal Police show that federal lawmaker Cezinha de Madureira, of the PL party, told associates he had direct access to Justice Kassio Nunes Marques of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, and that he would make requests in cases assigned to the justice. The exchanges appear in a ruling by Justice Flávio Dino that authorized searches targeting the congressman on Monday (14). According to the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo, the police report links the lawmaker's actions to Nunes Marques in two cases before the court, with fees of 1 million reais cited in the ruling.The two casesOne case involved Denis de Souza Macedo, a former education secretary of Belford Roxo, in Rio de Janeiro state, arrested in 2025 in an operation that investigated the diversion of 112 million reais from Fundeb and PNAE, two federal education funding programs, according to CNN Brasil. The contract set fees of 1 million reais plus another 2 million reais in case of success, defined as "the granting of the CLIENT's release". The other case concerned an attempt by the then mayor of Beberibe, in Ceará state, Michele Cariello de Sá Queiroz Rocha, to challenge an investigation by the Ceará state prosecutors; a payment of 500,000 reais was tied to the ruling on her claim at the STF.In one exchange cited by investigators, Chamber of Deputies staffer Mariângela Fialek, a former aide to lawmaker Arthur Lira, asks: "Will you be with Justice Kassio at 4?". Cezinha replies that the justice had scheduled a video call for 4pm. "I had asked him to see me early today, he could not see me, he scheduled a video call with me at 4:00. Justice Kassio. Understood? Then I will ask him", he wrote. On August 5, 2025, the lawmaker sent Fialek a one-time-view image and wrote: "I already spoke". She replied: "Cezinha, and there is the Rio one". According to the ruling, the message most likely referred to Macedo's case. The congressman is under investigation for suspected exploitation of prestige, influence peddling, passive corruption and money laundering.Nunes Marques is not a targetIn the justice's reading, the messages show the lawmaker promised more than the forwarding of court filings."The expressions 'I will ask him', 'I need to ask expressly' and the naming of the interlocutor ('Justice Kassio') show, in a preliminary assessment, that the lawmaker was not limited to forwarding filings: he committed to making a personal and direct request to the judge, on behalf of parties represented by lawyers linked to him by marriage and by economic interest", Dino wrote.According to the police report, Fialek brought in the clients and drafted legal briefs; lawyer Valéria Rodrigues Linhares, the lawmaker's wife, drafted and signed the contracts; and Cezinha held "supposed personal and direct contact with justices of the superior courts". In the Federal Police's reading, the two lawyers formed a partnership to "obtain favorable rulings in cases pending at the STF, with the help of Cezinha de Madureira".Nunes Marques and Justice André Mendonça are not targets of the investigation, Poder360 reports. CNN Brasil and Poder360 contacted the offices of both justices and had received no reply by publication time. The inquiry also examines the suspected sale of influence in references to the solicitor general, Jorge Messias, whom President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva nominated for an STF seat; the AGU, the government's legal office, said the lawmaker's support for the nomination "did not imply any interference, participation or intrusion" by him in the process. Dino also took over a separate investigation that seized 510,000 reais in cash from a relative of Cezinha at Congonhas airport in São Paulo. The inquiry remains under Dino at the STF while the Federal Police reviews the material seized in Monday's searches.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) holds an extraordinary plenary session on Tuesday (Sept. 15), at 10 a.m., to decide whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The justices will examine a Federal Police report that gathered 52 messages exchanged between the justice and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master and a central figure in the Caso Master scandal, according to news outlet G1.It is an unprecedented session. According to G1, the full bench will weigh for the first time whether one of its own members should be investigated. On the eve of the ruling, the court still had open questions about the procedure, the quorum and the exact scope of what will be voted on.How the session will runThe court released the session's rules on Monday (14). According to Folha de S.Paulo, the rapporteur will read the report, the Office of the Prosecutor General (PGR, Brazil's federal prosecution service) may speak, and the votes follow. Court President Edson Fachin will vote first. If any justice asks for a "vista", the Brazilian court rule that grants more time to study a case, the analysis is suspended for 90 days.Fachin took over the Caso Master relatoria, the rapporteur role, after removing Justice André Mendonça from command of the investigation, Folha reports. As rapporteur, Fachin will present a summary of the facts at issue and set the order of the debates, according to G1.Tight securitySecurity will be reinforced inside and outside the court building, according to Folha. The Three Powers Plaza will be closed, and visitors and protesters will not be allowed near the site. The Ministries Esplanade will be blocked at Avenida José Sarney, with fences and police officers, and parking is banned from the Itamaraty Palace onward. The operation brings together forces under the judiciary, the Federal District government and the federal executive, including the Armed Forces and the Institutional Security Office.Interest extends beyond the court's walls. The FGV law school in São Paulo will gather professors and students in an auditorium to comment on the ruling in real time, according to Folha's Painel column. The session starts at 10 a.m. on Tuesday (15) in the STF's plenary hall in Brasilia, and could open the way for a sitting justice of the court to be formally investigated.

Fernando Haddad, the Workers' Party (PT) candidate for governor of São Paulo, said on Monday (14) that he has never had any contact with former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master and the central figure in the scandal hanging over this year's election in Brazil. In a live interview with SP1, TV Globo's newscast in São Paulo, the former finance minister also admitted frustration with monetary policy under Central Bank President Gabriel Galípolo."I never received Daniel Vorcaro in my life. I was never in the same room with him. I never received a message or a phone call from him. I never sought him out because my team had already warned me that Daniel Vorcaro was a problem, a serious problem. We just didn't know the size of the problem. We are talking about the largest banking fraud in the country: 60 billion reais."Asked about possible electoral fallout, Haddad tried to tie the scandal to right-wing politicians. "He financed Tarcísio's campaign, he financed Jair Bolsonaro's campaign. He has business with three of Bolsonaro's former ministers," he said. According to G1, Vorcaro donated 3 million reais to Bolsonaro's 2022 presidential campaign and 2 million reais to the campaign of Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicanos party, Haddad's main rival in the São Paulo race.Supervision and secrecyThe candidate repeated his argument that the Master crisis grew out of supervision failures under Roberto Campos Neto, who ran the Central Bank. "There is a serious problem at the Central Bank, because it was under the Central Bank of Roberto Campos, appointed by Jair Bolsonaro, that banker Daniel Vorcaro emerged, and his bank was liquidated and he was arrested under our administration. So we did our homework and took a very dangerous person out of circulation," he said. Poder360 reported the same remarks.Haddad called for the secrecy on the investigations to be lifted before October's vote. "The judiciary cannot withhold information from citizens. Open everything. Whoever has to answer, let them answer. Whoever has to pay for something, let them pay, regardless of political party," he said. The SP1 anchor brought up Senator Jaques Wagner of the PT, whose name appears among those mentioned in the context of the inquiry. Haddad said the rule should apply to all parties.Frustration with GalípoloOn the economy, Haddad said interest rates of 14% with inflation at 4% "are not justified". Asked whether appointing Galípolo was a decision he regretted, he admitted dissatisfaction with how the monetary authority has acted. "I have been frustrated with monetary policy. I think monetary policy is excessively tight, unnecessarily so," he said. He noted that most members of the Monetary Policy Committee, Galípolo included, were appointed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but said the mandate gives them independence: "After you appoint someone, that person has a mandate. They do as they please." The former minister said he respects the bank's formal autonomy and that his conversations with its officials are limited to presenting data and economic arguments.His remarks came on a busy day at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. According to G1, Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on another line of investigation into payments tied to Master on Monday, at the request of Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The full bench returns to the case on Tuesday (15). The São Paulo race continues meanwhile: a RealTime Big Data poll released in September put Tarcísio at 53% and Haddad at 36% of voter intentions for the first round.

Brazil's Federal Police has told the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that federal deputy Cezinha de Madureira (PL-SP) is the central figure in a suspected scheme that sold influence over justices of Brazil's high courts, the tribunais superiores that sit just below the STF. The details were reported by news site G1, which reviewed the police filing and the decision by Justice Flávio Dino. The congressman was served with search and seizure warrants on Monday (14) in the third phase of Operation Transparência. According to G1, both the police filing and Dino's ruling state clearly that the justices and judges mentioned in the intercepted conversations are not targets of the investigation and are not suspected of any wrongdoing.Cezinha de Madureira is a pastor in the Assembleia de Deus church of the Madureira branch and one of the most influential evangelical politicians in São Paulo state, according to G1. Investigators say he used the institutional access that comes with his mandate to give clients the impression that he could sway decisions by judges. In his ruling, Dino wrote that the deputy used the "ascendancy of the parliamentary function" to trade on that perceived influence. The police describe a division of labor between the deputy and two lawyers.The role of each suspect, according to the policeThe deputy, police say, was in charge of direct contacts with justices of the high courts and of the so-called "despachos", private meetings to discuss pending cases. Valéria Rodrigues Linhares, a lawyer and former congressional candidate in the Federal District whom the police identify as the deputy's wife, drafted, reviewed and signed service contracts and documents for credit assignments worth millions of reais. Mariângela Fialek, known as "Tuca", at the time a civil servant at the Chamber of Deputies and already under investigation over suspected diversion of congressional budget funds, recruited the cases and prepared legal briefs. Her phone was forensically examined in the first phase of the operation, and that analysis is cited among the grounds for the new measures.Contingent contracts and cashMessages obtained by investigators show negotiations over specific cases then before the STF. In the defense of the mayor of Beberibe, in Ceará state, contracts set a fee of 500,000 reais if the ruling went the client's way. In the defense of a former city secretary of Belford Roxo, in Rio de Janeiro state, documents provided payments of 1 million reais, with addenda reaching 2 million reais conditioned on the revocation of pretrial detention. In the conversations, the deputy reported back on meetings and audiences with judges, using phrases such as "já falei" (already spoke), "despachei sim" (yes, I followed up) and "assunto reforçado agora" (issue reinforced now).Dino also moved to the STF the inquiry into the seizure of 510,000 reais in cash from Valéria at Congonhas airport in São Paulo on August 25. To investigators, the cash suggests fees paid outside the banking system to make financial tracking harder. The justice authorized searches at the deputy's and the lawyer's homes and offices in Brasília and São Paulo, and the seizure of valuables, vehicles and sums above 10,000 reais. He denied a police request to search the deputy's office inside the Chamber of Deputies, finding no concrete grounds to justify a search in the legislative workplace.In a statement, the defense said the congressman "is certain that the facts will be duly clarified in the due process of law, with the demonstration that no irregularity was committed". A second statement released on Monday denied any wrongdoing and criticized the operation for taking place amid a "political and electoral circumstance". Three days before the warrants, the deputy had posted a video saying his phone was stolen on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo. As G1 reports, Dino signed the search decision on September 5, six days before the date the deputy claimed.Operation Transparência grew out of an inquiry opened in December 2025 into suspected diversion of congressional budget amendments, known as emendas, and now covers corruption, money laundering and influence peddling. The case remains with Dino at the STF, where he handles the lawsuits on the allocation and transparency of amendment funds. The next steps depend on the forensic review of the material seized on Monday.

Marília Arraes of the PDT has 18% of voter intentions in the race for the Senate in Pernambuco, a state in Brazil's Northeast. Humberto Costa of the Workers' Party (PT) has 16%. The numbers come from a Datafolha poll released on Friday, September 11, commissioned by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and TV Globo. Pernambuco elects two senators in October's elections, and each voter casts two Senate votes.The margin of error is three percentage points in either direction. Within that range, Arraes and Costa are technically tied for the lead. Mendonça Filho of the PL party has 12%, and Eduardo da Fonte of the PP has 10%. G1, Globo's news portal, describes the four as technically tied at the top. Folha notes that Mendonça Filho sits at the edge of the margin of error relative to Arraes, a situation in which a statistical tie is unlikely.In the prompted scenario, Datafolha accepted up to two names from each respondent, since voters will choose two Senate candidates this year. In the previous poll, released on August 21, the four were in a quadruple tie: Arraes had 15%, Costa 14%, Mendonça Filho 12% and Eduardo da Fonte 11%. Arraes gained three points and Costa two, while Eduardo da Fonte dropped one and Mendonça Filho held steady.How voters split their two votesDatafolha asked separately who voters would pick for the first seat and for the second, as G1 reports. For the first seat, Arraes has 21%, Costa 18% and Mendonça Filho 17%, while Eduardo da Fonte falls to 8%. For the second seat, Arraes leads with 15%, followed by Costa with 13%, Eduardo da Fonte with 12% and Mendonça Filho with 7%.Further back come Túlio Gadêlha of the PSD with 5%, and Carlos Sant'Anna (Novo) and Pastor Gilvan Costa (Democrata) with 2% each. Three candidates have 1% each, and two scored zero. Blank, spoiled or no votes add up to 22%, and undecided voters to 10%. In the unprompted question, where no names are read, 58% cannot name a candidate; Arraes and Costa lead with 8%.Methodology and what comes nextDatafolha interviewed 1,204 people aged 16 or older between September 8 and 10, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the electoral court under numbers PE-04411/2026 and BR-05923/2026. Voting takes place in October, alongside Brazil's presidential election. Before then, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) still has to rule on Pastor Gilvan Costa, whose candidacy was rejected by the electoral court even as he remained on the list shown to respondents, according to G1.

The phone seized from former banker Daniel Vorcaro is in Federal Police custody. The rapporteur for the Banco Master case at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice André Mendonça, said on Friday (11), in a reply to Justice Cristiano Zanin, that his chambers hold only a sealed, encrypted backup copy of its contents.According to the rapporteur, a February 2026 ruling expressly ordered the seized items to remain in Federal Police storage to preserve the chain of custody. The device, an iPhone 17 Pro, was seized by the force. As G1 reports, Mendonça said the force voluntarily sent his chambers an encrypted hard drive in March 2026, inside a closed envelope, and that it has remained sealed and untouched since.Zanin reiterates the requestOn the same day, Zanin sent a new formal request to the court's president, Justice Luiz Edson Fachin, insisting on full access to the material. He argued that the delivery in a sealed envelope by the police authority does not remove the duty to share the contents with the other justices."The requested media is in Your Excellency's chambers and must be shared with the other judges, so that everyone has the same opportunity to analyze the elements related to the case in question," Zanin wrote.Zanin argued that "the preservation of the chain of custody must be carried out in relation to the original material, and not in relation to the copy." He noted that court practice gives all justices access to the rapporteur's case file before rulings, and that Vorcaro's lawyers have already received a copy of the mirrored data from the Federal Police. Restricting the same content from the justices, he wrote, would amount to "evident incongruence" and cause "severe difficulties" in the judgment. As an alternative, Zanin asked the STF presidency to order the Federal Police to send a copy of the data directly to each justice's chambers.In a separate filing, Justice Alexandre de Moraes backed Zanin's request. "It is not up to the rapporteur justice to choose which documents are accessible to the full bench to carry out its judgment," Moraes said.Tuesday's sessionThe standoff precedes Tuesday's session (15), when the court will review the Federal Police report that identified 52 messages from Vorcaro to Moraes. The justices will decide whether to open an investigation against Moraes. Zanin argued that every member of the bench must have the same opportunity to examine the material before the vote, regardless of the analysis carried out by the rapporteur.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) said on Friday (11) that Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case, is conducting a "selective and directed lifting of secrecy" to give "ostensive protection to a certain political group". The accusation appears in a memo Moraes sent to the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin.According to G1, Moraes raised the stakes in a crisis that has set the two justices against each other since a partial release of documents on Thursday (10). "The selective and directed lifting of secrecy carried out by Minister André Mendonça, in the ostensive protection of a certain political group, repeats the illegal conduct of steering plea-bargain agreements and ordering investigative steps on the court's own initiative against predetermined targets," Moraes wrote.How the crisis beganThe clash started when Mendonça declassified the main investigations into Banco Master and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the central figures of the case, but kept other fronts sealed. One of them is the financing of "Dark Horse", a biographical film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. That inquiry covers conversations between Vorcaro and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Earlier on Friday, Moraes asked for every seal to be lifted at once. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGR, Brazil's federal prosecutors) asked Fachin to make all documents public, and the STF president gave the rapporteur 24 hours to release them.Mendonça denied any selective declassification. In his reply to Fachin, he said he had followed the court presidency's request and made public every proceeding tied to next Tuesday's (15) session. He also pushed back on Justice Cristiano Zanin's request for full access to Vorcaro's seized phone. The original device is in Federal Police custody, Mendonça said, and his office holds only a sealed, encrypted copy. Zanin insisted on the request, arguing that the media "must be shared with the other judges so that all have the same opportunity for analysis". In a separate memo, Moraes wrote that "it is not up to the reporting justice to choose which documents are accessible to the full bench for its judgment".A broader releaseLate on Friday, according to Folha de S.Paulo, Mendonça lifted the seal on the Dark Horse investigation and other Master case proceedings, making 31 documents public in all. He granted the PGR's request and wrote that the files "do not relate" to Tuesday's agenda, but that there is no impediment to declassifying them.The court meets on Tuesday (15) to review a Federal Police report that logged 52 messages from Vorcaro to Moraes. The justices will decide whether to open an investigation against Moraes.

Benedita da Silva of the Workers Party (PT) leads the race for Rio de Janeiro's two Senate seats with 18% of voter intentions, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday (11) and commissioned by Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Carlos Jordy and Carlos Portinho, both of the Liberal Party (PL), follow with 10% each.With a margin of error of three percentage points, Jordy and Portinho are statistically tied with Pedro Paulo (PSD), Marcelo Crivella (Republicanos) and Monica Benicio (PSOL). Pedro Paulo and Crivella have 7% each, while Monica has 6%. Waguinho (Republicanos) registers 3%. Blank and null answers, together with voters who name no candidate, add up to 18%, and 13% are undecided.This was the second Datafolha survey on the current Senate race in the state. Compared with the August 21 round, Benedita rose from 15% to 18%. Jordy and Portinho climbed from 8% to 10% each. Pedro Paulo and Crivella went from 6% to 7%, and Monica held at 6%.Datafolha interviewed 1,204 voters in Rio de Janeiro state between September 8 and 10. The confidence level is 95%, and the poll is registered with electoral authorities under number RJ-09217/2026. In the prompted scenario, interviewers show the candidate list and each respondent answers twice, once for each seat. In the unprompted question, where no names are shown, 62% could not name a candidate, down from 77% in August. Benedita was mentioned by 9%.First vote and second voteOn the first vote, Benedita has a clear lead: 30%, against 12% for Jordy, 9% for Portinho and 8% for Crivella. Pedro Paulo registers 6%. On the second vote, Portinho moves ahead with 11%; Pedro Paulo, Jordy and Monica have 9% each, and Benedita polls 8%. Blank and null answers reach 21% on the second choice, with 16% undecided.In Brazil's 2026 elections, each state and the Federal District elects two senators, renewing 54 of the chamber's 81 seats. Every voter must choose two different candidates and cannot pick the same name twice. Rio de Janeiro voters go to the polls in October to choose the state's two new senators.

Documents released by Brazil's Federal Police (PF) on Friday (11) show what investigators describe as coded language used to settle the value of a R$ 2.45 million apartment tied to Senator Jaques Wagner of the Workers' Party (PT-BA), a former government leader in the Senate. The material is part of the report on the Banco Master case, made public after Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) President Edson Fachin ordered Justice André Mendonça to lift the secrecy on every document in the inquiry.In an intercepted message, Daniel Lopes Monteiro, described by the PF as a legal and financial operator connected to Master, wrote to Guilherme Henrique Sodré Martins, known as "Tio Guiga" and a trusted aide of the senator: "A altura do vão é 2,45m" (the height of the gap is 2.45m). The reply was one word: "Perfect". Investigators read the phrase as a reference to the property price, R$ 2.45 million, and not to any architectural measurement.The apartment sits in the Poemè Horto development, a high-end project by builder Moura Dubeux in the Horto Florestal neighborhood of Salvador, in the state of Bahia. The PF links the exchange to an earlier conversation between Wagner and businessman Augusto Ferreira Lima, owner of Banco Pleno and a former partner of Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master. In November 2024, the senator sent Lima the contact of a sales manager at the construction company, followed by details of a property valued at R$ 2.45 million. According to the report, the senator asked Lima for the apartment as an "improper advantage".Talks went on after Vorcaro's arrestVorcaro was arrested in November 2025, in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero. The property negotiations, by the PF's account, did not stop. The report cites "contractual maneuvers carried out with the purpose of preventing investigators from discovering the illicit deal". Three days after the operation began, on November 21, 2025, messages passed between one of Lima's operators and Master directors about contacting Wagner's supposed operators. Negotiation resumed on November 25 with more guarded messages. In February 2026, intermediaries exchanged the signed draft of the purchase contract, along with finishing details whose replacement would add R$ 20,000 to the price. Monteiro and Sodré favored video calls and in-person meetings, a format the PF says made the conversations harder to expose.ReactionsWagner was targeted by a search and seizure warrant in the ninth phase of Compliance Zero, launched on June 18. At the time, the national president of the PT, Edinho Silva, defended the senator:"Senator Jaques Wagner holds our full confidence. We support every investigation involving Banco Master; society has the right to know the truth."Lima's defense called the police measures unnecessary, arguing that the businessman had been available to the authorities, and said the steps "will help demonstrate that the facts under investigation in this phase are strictly lawful".The Master inquiry now sits at the STF, where Fachin has ordered full disclosure of the case files. Further excerpts of the wiretaps are expected to become public as the order is carried out. Wagner remains under investigation, and the case continues under review at the court.

The defense of Senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro asked Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) at least four times to concentrate the Dark Horse investigation in the hands of Justice André Mendonça. The goal was to take away from Justice Flávio Dino the parts of the case that involve congressional budget earmarks. Folha de S.Paulo and Globo's news portal g1 reported the filings.The requests were made between July 13 and 29, according to Folha. The first two were addressed to the court's president, Edson Fachin, and the others to Dino himself, according to g1.How the case is splitThe investigation into the film, a biopic about former president Jair Bolsonaro, runs on two tracks. Mendonça, the first justice to take up the matter, examines 62.8 million reais transferred by Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, at Flávio Bolsonaro's request, and the possible use of part of that money to support former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro in the United States, g1 reported. Dino oversees the inquiry into earmarks directed to organizations tied to the film's producer, Go Up. Folha reports that this portion stayed with him because earmarks fall under his docket at the court.In one of the filings, the lawyers argued that Mendonça already served as rapporteur on two other petitions in the case and should take the rest. The defense said that of six earlier actions in the same batch of the investigation, five had gone to him."Manipulation of the rules," the defense saysThe lawyers say the current split was engineered. They claim the petitions were filed inside ADPF 854, the STF case on congressional earmarks, to create an artificial hold for Dino over the facts. Under Brazilian court procedure, a rule called "prevenção" keeps related matters with the justice who examines them first."It was shown that the filing of the petitions within ADPF No. 854 was no accident, but rather a true manipulation of the rules of jurisdiction, in order to create an artificial and nonexistent prevention for Justice Flávio Dino over the facts," the lawyers wrote.A filing dated July 28 repeated the argument and asked for the case to be reassigned."Had they been filed in the correct manner, that is, autonomously and without any attempt at artificial manipulation of jurisdiction, the requests that gave rise to Petition No. 16,070 would have been unequivocally assigned by prevention to Justice André Mendonça," the document says.The dispute carries political weight. Mendonça joined the court on a nomination from Jair Bolsonaro; Dino on a nomination from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Folha reports. Neither Folha nor g1 reports a ruling on the requests, and the fight over jurisdiction remains pending. Meanwhile the case stays split: on Thursday (10), Dino authorized the Federal Police operation that served 49 search warrants on the film's financing, targeting federal congressman Mário Frias and Karina Gama, owner of Go Up. On Friday (11), Mendonça ordered the investigation files unsealed, according to g1.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, attacked on Saturday (12) the handling of the Banco Master cases at Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court. At a rally in central Curitiba, Lula targeted the justice who reports on the cases, André Mendonça, and said that "quem fez putaria vai ser desmascarado", a vulgar Portuguese phrase meaning roughly "whoever did filth will be unmasked".Without naming the justice, the president described a conversation with the court's president, Edson Fachin."I was with Fachin and I told him that it was not possible for a citizen who is a reporting justice to keep releasing cherry-picked stories, only on what interested him. I asked for the whole case file to be released. To find out who is behind this. And we will bring everything into the light to see for real who is a thief and who is corrupt in this country. And the Bolsonaro family will not escape," Lula said, according to the news site G1.He then spoke about Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, jailed since November 2025 and under investigation for suspected fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais, according to BBC News Brasil."Vorcaro is already in prison. But now the orgies he used to throw will start to come out. The women from Switzerland, from Sweden, to get up to shenanigans with a lot of people in politics. This will start to come out. So whoever did putaria will be unmasked," he said, according to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Lula also said the opposition turned a loan shark into a banker in 2019, in a reference to Vorcaro, according to G1. And he returned to a message he has repeated in recent days: judges should not use their posts for personal enrichment, again without naming anyone. "No one can be a justice of the supreme court to get rich. That is a priesthood. People must hold themselves to a standard of conduct above the average of society," he said. He repeated that his eldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, a target of three investigations at the court, will not be shielded. "He was born to do the right things and I believe in his innocence. But if he made a mistake, he will have to pay for the mistake he made."In the same speech, Lula attacked former judge Sergio Moro, the PL candidate for governor of Paraná who convicted him in the Lava Jato corruption investigation in 2017. "Our opponent is very weak, a liar. I am a victim of his lies," he said. On stage with him were the Workers' Party (PT) Senate candidates Gleisi Hoffmann and Dr. Rosinha, and Requião Filho of the PDT, candidate for state governor. According to Folha, Lula had already called on Wednesday (9), in a social media post, for the full lifting of secrecy over the Master investigations involving all those under scrutiny.The crisis at the Supreme CourtThe court's crisis began on September 1, when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report indicating that Vorcaro exchanged information with Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Days later, Moraes released Federal Police intelligence reports that point to suspected bias in Mendonça's conduct as the rapporteur. On Friday (11), in a formal letter to Fachin, Moraes accused his colleague of a "selective choice" in the release of case files: according to G1, he said the rapporteur had made only 15 case files available, in incomplete form, and omitted 180 documents. Moraes, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes also demanded full access to the contents of Vorcaro's phone. Mendonça replied to Fachin that the device is stored at the Federal Police and that his office holds only a sealed backup copy.The dispute now moves to the full bench. On Saturday, Fachin rejected a request to judge the cases against Moraes and Mendonça jointly and kept an extraordinary session scheduled for Tuesday (15), dedicated to the petition containing the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. The review of the requests to investigate Mendonça was set for September 23. According to BBC News Brasil, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) has asked for Mendonça's procedure against Moraes to be declared null, and that question may also reach Tuesday's agenda.

Brazil's Congress will examine the intelligence reports at the center of the conflict among justices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court. Senator Nelsinho Trad (PSD-MS), who chairs the Joint Committee for Oversight of Intelligence Activities (CCAI), will convene an extraordinary session to debate the documents, according to the column Painel of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Saturday (Sept 12).The meeting is not expected before the STF session scheduled for Tuesday (Sept 15). According to the news site Metrópoles, Trad rejected pressure to hold the session on Monday (Sept 14) and is considering a new date once the justices have spoken, to keep the debate from being shaped by the heat of the court's internal dispute. Inside the committee, the view is that it must exercise oversight with independence and caution, without turning the session into a stage for political confrontation.Who pushed for a dateBehind the scenes, Senator Rogério Marinho (PL-RN) and Representative Marcel van Hattem (Novo-RS) had pushed for a Monday session and told colleagues and journalists it would happen, even though neither has the authority to set the date. The opposition wants the committee to establish under what circumstances the reports were produced and demands explanations about the leadership of the Federal Police, Metrópoles reports. Van Hattem is also collecting signatures for a joint investigative committee of Congress, which lawmakers have nicknamed the "spying CPMI", and Marinho, who coordinates Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential campaign, is organizing the same effort in the Senate, according to CNN Brasil. Even if the inquiry is never installed, lawmakers heard by the network expect the push to feed the opposition's campaign rhetoric.The reports at the center of the crisisThe documents are attributed to Federal Police intelligence and reportedly revealed the monitoring of conversations of Justice André Mendonça and the government's chief legal adviser, Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, according to CNN Brasil. One of the reports states it has no "evidentiary value". It is not printed on Federal Police letterhead and carries no signature from any police delegate or officer.The document served as the basis for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to request an investigation of Mendonça for suspected administrative misconduct and abuse of authority. According to Moraes, in measures issued in the operations "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero", Mendonça usurped the Federal Police's investigative powers, acted with bias and broke the chain of custody of seized evidence. The request came days after Mendonça himself asked for an investigation into Moraes' conduct. The report surfaced after a court-ordered disclosure of records showed that Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, consulted Moraes about a possible escape from the country.When it takes place, the CCAI session will be closed to the public, as required by the committee's rules. Congress is in a recess observed during the election season, but senators are mobilizing to be in Brasília next week to secure a quorum to vote on the matter. The next step is the STF session on Tuesday (Sept 15). New rulings by the justices, Metrópoles reports, should help define the facts the committee will examine.

Most Brazilians think the justices of the Supreme Federal Court, the STF, Brazil's highest court, hold too much power. A Datafolha poll released on Saturday (12) found 76% agree with that view, while 18% disagree. The survey, commissioned by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and broadcaster Globo, heard 2,002 people aged 16 and older in 125 cities between September 8 and 10, in the middle of the crisis between Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça.In the same questionnaire, 71% said the court is essential to protect democracy in Brazil, and 21% disagreed. On trust, 77% agreed that "people believe less in the STF now than in the past", against 16% who disagreed. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level, G1 reported. The poll is registered with Brazil's electoral court as BR-01833/2026.The crisis behind the numbersFieldwork ran as the court faced what Folha called its most complex moment in 135 years of the Republic. On September 1, Mendonça, the rapporteur for the Banco Master case, released a Federal Police report containing messages from former banker Daniel Vorcaro to a contact investigators attribute to Moraes. According to the newspaper, the file includes a 131 million reais contract between Vorcaro and the law firm of Moraes' wife. The Prosecutor General's Office asked the court to void the report, and the full bench will decide the next steps.On September 3, Moraes cited internal Federal Police reports to argue there were signs of wrongdoing by Mendonça, including administrative improbity and crime of responsibility. G1 reported that those documents carried caveats saying they had no probative value. Court President Edson Fachin removed Moraes as rapporteur of the fake news inquiry. On September 8, Mendonça suspended Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada. Justice Flávio Dino ordered both reinstated the next day, and Fachin suspended the conflicting decisions, leaving Andrei in office. In a filing sent to Fachin on Friday (11), Andrei denied the force had monitored Mendonça and said the reports were produced regularly by its intelligence division.Folha reported the new results are close to those from April, when Datafolha asked the same questions, suggesting the crisis has not yet shifted public opinion. The next step comes on Tuesday (15). Fachin called an extraordinary plenary session to discuss the Federal Police report on Vorcaro's messages to Moraes and the direction of the case, and ordered the full release of Banco Master documents under Mendonça's rapporteurship before the session.

Brazil's institutional crisis at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court, has not moved the presidential race. A Datafolha poll released on Saturday (12) shows that revelations about Justice Alexandre de Moraes did not change the preference of 85% of voters. In the case of accusations against Justice André Mendonça, the figure is 86%.Datafolha interviewed 2,002 voters in 125 municipalities from Tuesday (8) to Thursday (10) of September. The margin of error is two percentage points. According to news site g1, the survey was commissioned by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and broadcaster Globo, and registered with the electoral court as BR-01833/2026. Folha notes the fieldwork captures only part of the latest crisis revelations.Few voters changed sidesOverall, 7% of respondents said the episodes left them unsure about whom to vote for, and another 4% said they actually switched candidates. Doubt is higher among voters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, at 8%, against 5% among supporters of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing PL party. In each group, 2% switched candidates. According to Folha, both frontrunners ticked up: Lula from 38% to 39%, and Flávio Bolsonaro, brother of former president Jair Bolsonaro, from 33% to 35%. The senator has tied his rival to Moraes on the campaign trail. The first round is on October 4.Awareness of the crisis is high. Datafolha found that 66% of voters know of the episode involving Moraes; among them, 26% say they are well informed. The share rises to 75% among Flávio Bolsonaro voters, against 61% among those who declare a first-round vote for Lula. On the suspicions surrounding Mendonça, 45% say they know the accusations, according to news outlet Itatiaia.Court session set for TuesdayThe crisis began on September 1, when Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report on the ties between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master. The document cites a 131 million reais contract between the banker and the law firm of Moraes's wife, plus messages in which Vorcaro weighed whether to leave the country to avoid arrest. There is no record of a reply from the justice.Court President Edson Fachin has called an in-person plenary session for Tuesday (15) to discuss the Federal Police report and how to proceed. According to g1, Fachin rejected a joint trial of the two justices and scheduled for September 23 the session on Mendonça's conduct as rapporteur of the Master case.

Brazil's two leading presidential campaigns took their messages to the streets on Sunday (13), three weeks before the first round of the general elections on October 4. The Workers' Party (PT) of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Liberal Party (PL) of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro scheduled rallies in several states on the same day, according to Correio Braziliense. Severe storms in the Southeast disrupted both sides: Lula postponed a rally in Santa Catarina state and Flávio Bolsonaro canceled events in interior São Paulo state, newspaper O Tempo reported.The PT had called Sunday a "day to mobilize and strengthen Lula's campaign across the country" on its website. Its main rally was on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, with Fernando Haddad, the party's candidate for state governor, and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. G1 reported that morning rains thinned the crowd. Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, lead voter intentions in Datafolha polls released this week in five states.Haddad used the rally to demand the lifting of every secrecy order in the Banco Master investigation, including the phones of former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the central figure of the scandal."If we lift the secrecy on Vorcaro's phones now, I think we will have the chance to clean this country up before the first round is over," Haddad said.In his view, documents already made public show an "intersection between bolsonarismo and Vorcaro's scheme." Alckmin argued the same: "What society expects, what the people expect, is the lifting of every secrecy order. Much of it has been lifted now. Rigorous investigation and the search for the truth." He also tied the bank to the previous administration: "The bank was created under the Bolsonaro government, Vorcaro became a banker under the Bolsonaro government, and it was under our government that Banco Master was shut down."Storms and cancellationsOn the other side, Flávio Bolsonaro canceled his schedule in Presidente Prudente, in interior São Paulo state, about an hour before his first event. His staff cited "recent developments" and "the heavy rains hitting the region" and denied any link to the ongoing investigations, CNN Brasil reported. Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicans party, who is running for reelection in São Paulo, also canceled his events and is monitoring the storms from a crisis cabinet. In São Paulo city, the death toll from the collapse of a building under construction on the east side rose to five on Sunday.The cancellation came after a week of revelations in the Banco Master case, a scandal that has shaken Brazilian politics. According to CNN Brasil, the Federal Police identified at least four meetings between Flávio Bolsonaro and Vorcaro in 2025 and direct conversations about financing Dark Horse, a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. The Prosecutor General's Office pointed to signs of possible wrongdoing and asked for a review of any link between the senator's legislative work and the bank's interests. Flávio Bolsonaro denies any wrongdoing and says the revelations will have "zero impact" on his candidacy.The first round is set for October 4, when voters will make six choices on the ballot, including two senators, according to the electoral court. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign said the canceled events will be rescheduled "at an appropriate time."

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) held a livestream on Sunday (13) from the Palácio da Alvorada, the presidential residence in Brasília, to promote his own reelection bid. The broadcast also featured the party's national president, Edinho Silva, and its national communications secretary, Éden Valadares, according to G1.The 2022 banThe setting has an electoral history. In September 2022, Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, barred then president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) from using the same palace for livestreams promoting candidacies. According to G1, Bolsonaro had said in a broadcast from the palace library that he would deliver his own "horário eleitoral gratuito", the free campaign airtime parties receive on Brazilian radio and television, and asked viewers to vote for allies in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and São Paulo, naming them and their ballot numbers. Three days later the court banned such broadcasts from the palace, and a TSE justice ordered the earlier video taken down.Lula's campaign press office said in a statement that the broadcast "used strictly campaign equipment" and that "the Palácio da Alvorada is the official residence of the government and President Lula's private space". It added that the campaign follows all TSE rules.What Lula saidDuring the livestream, Lula attacked his main rival in this year's presidential race, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of Jair Bolsonaro."There is a candidate who was born in the middle of the militia, takes part in the militia and is mixed up in every scam since the robbery of Social Security. What, is Lula's son involved? It is true, if my son is involved, he will pay a very high price. But the one who shares an office with Careca is Flávio Bolsonaro, not my son," he said.According to Folha de S.Paulo, Lula asked supporters to spread the "truth" in the final stretch of the first round to defeat "denialists": "We need to turn these 20 days of campaign into the absolute truth to defeat the absolute lie." The newspaper also reported that the president spoke little about the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court (STF) and the Master bank investigation, and that he highlighted inflation, on track for the lowest reading on the eve of an election since the start of the Real Plan.Since July 14, under the campaign restriction period known as defeso, the government says it has followed the limits Brazilian law imposes on public officials. Broadcasts of the president's events stopped airing on the public broadcaster EBC and moved to Lula's own social media accounts, as happened on Sunday. According to G1, he has preferred to hold campaign meetings at the Alvorada rather than at the campaign headquarters in Lago Sul, which he visits mostly for recordings.The livestream closed the "Dia 13 com Lula", a nationwide day of PT mobilization with sticker drives, leafleting, walks and rallies. The first round of the presidential election takes place in October. In 2022, the TSE ruling came three days after the broadcast that prompted it; as of Sunday night, no electoral challenge to Lula's livestream had been reported at the court.

A RealTime Big Data poll released on Monday (Sept 14) gives São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas, of the Republicanos party, 53% of voter intentions in the first round of the state election. Fernando Haddad, of the Workers' Party (PT), trails with 36%. The 17-point gap is well beyond the two percentage point margin of error. The figures were published by UOL and detailed by the news site Metrópoles.The institute interviewed 2,000 voters across São Paulo state between Sept 9 and 12. The confidence level is 95% and the survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number SP-02794/2026. According to Metrópoles, "if the scenario holds, Tarcísio would be reelected in the first round". Blank, spoiled and undecided answers add up to 9% of the total.In the spontaneous survey, where candidates' names are not presented to respondents, Tarcísio has 28% and Haddad 15%. Other candidates add up to 2%. In a runoff between the two leaders, the governor would take 57% against 38%.Datafolha points the same wayIndependent figures back the reading of the São Paulo race. A Datafolha poll commissioned by Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, released on Friday (Sept 11), puts Tarcísio at 49% and Haddad at 29%. In the previous round, released on Aug 26, the score was 45% to 27%. VEJA magazine summed it up: "Tarcísio moves up and has a chance of reelection in the first round".Datafolha interviewed 1,610 voters between Sept 8 and 11, with a two percentage point margin of error and a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the electoral courts as BR-03904/2026 and SP-04189/2026. In a runoff scenario, the institute gives Tarcísio 56% and Haddad 35%.In Brazil, a candidate can only win a governorship in the first round with more than half of the valid votes. The first round is set for Oct 4. Tarcísio is running for a second consecutive term. Haddad is trying to return the PT to power in the country's largest state electorate.

Files from the São Paulo state police made public after the end of secrecy in the "Dark Horse" case include messages that try to link Senator Flávio Bolsonaro to the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital), one of Brazil's largest criminal factions, according to a column in Folha de S.Paulo. The release follows a decision by Justice Flávio Dino of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, who on Sunday (13) lifted the secrecy on the investigation into the film's financing and ordered the material sent to the Federal Police.For Folha, the decision put the case back at the center of Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential campaign. The senator, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a candidate in this year's race, has faced the issue since May, when an audio recording became public in which he asks former banker Daniel Vorcaro for money to fund the biopic about his father. According to the newspaper, recent disclosures show the senator was already under investigation over suspected irregularities in the film's production, and further evidence could hurt his candidacy.The decision that named the PCCDino mentioned the faction twice in Sunday's ruling, according to news magazine CartaCapital. Taking over the investigation, the justice wrote that the suspected scheme to divert public money "would reach, even, ties with the PCC faction, as an investigative line mentioned in the case files". He also cited "interconnected acts even with the PCC criminal faction, which may mean an interstate dimension, recommending action by the Federal Police".The link to the faction described in the files runs through Alex Leandro Bispo dos Santos, described by police as a significant PCC figure in São Paulo state. He was a partner in Urban Connect Serviços e Tecnologia, a company that received more than 1.2 million reais from the Instituto Conhecer Brasil, an organization controlled by Karina Ferreira da Gama, a partner in Go Up Entertainment, the producer of "Dark Horse". "If bank owners, politicians or judges appear as suspects in a set of proceedings, all investigations must move in step, with wide publicity", Dino wrote, in a passage quoted by Poder360.The operation and what comes nextOn Thursday (10), the Federal Police launched Operation Make Up to investigate the diversion of public funds through congressional budget earmarks tied to the film. Targets included federal congressman Mário Frias (PL-SP), the film's screenwriter and executive producer, and Karina. Frias called the inquiry a "smoke screen". In a statement to G1, Karina's lawyers said lifting the secrecy was "positive" and that "the publicity of the elements of the investigation will allow the facts to be known in their entirety and examined objectively".Dino ordered all raw data extracted from phones seized by state police to be sent to the Federal Police, which now holds the devices. The inquiry into the budget earmarks remains with Dino at the Supreme Court, alongside the separate Banco Master investigation led by Justice André Mendonça. No deadline has been set for the review of the material.

The British newspaper Financial Times says the unprecedented crisis at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) could have a decisive impact on the country's presidential election next month. In a report published on Sunday, the newspaper describes the crisis as a "fierce dispute" between Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça that it says is "casting a shadow" over the race between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party.Voters head to the polls with the race wide open. The BBC News Brasil poll of polls puts Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro in a technical tie for a runoff. According to the Financial Times, the senator has closed the gap in opinion polls in recent weeks against a rival who is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive term.Why the crisis hurts LulaThe crisis grew out of an inquiry at the court into Banco Master, a Brazilian bank. Lula has not been accused in the case. The newspaper argues, however, that the episode touches a raw nerve for the incumbent."Although Lula has not been accused in the Banco Master case, the episode touches a sensitive spot of the veteran leftwing leader, who was jailed in the past for corruption in convictions later annulled," the newspaper writes.Analysts cited by the Financial Times see the crisis as potentially damaging to Lula in the race. One of them says part of the Brazilian electorate believes Moraes is somehow aligned with the government side. The newspaper adds that the episode has tarnished the credibility of an institution that won international praise in recent years for defending Brazil against a military coup attempt by Jair Bolsonaro after his 2022 election defeat to Lula. It also says the crisis has revitalized the Brazilian right, which has long accused Moraes of unfairly persecuting conservatives and restricting free speech.Flávio Bolsonaro's playFlávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was cited in the Banco Master case after revelations in May that he asked the banker Daniel Vorcaro for money to produce the film Dark Horse. The senator says the request broke no law. He has renewed calls for the removal of Moraes, who convicted his father. "A vote for Lula is a vote for Moraes," Flávio told supporters last week, according to the newspaper.The Financial Times writes that the episode "brought the court to the brink of an institutional collapse" and fueled calls for judicial reform. The election is next month. Until then, Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro remain tied in the polling average, and the standoff between Moraes and Mendonça is unresolved at the court.

Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) said on Monday (14) that it favors lifting the secrecy on case Pet 15.645, which holds details of the payment network of businessman Daniel Vorcaro and Banco Master, according to CNN Brasil. The opinion, signed by Deputy Prosecutor General Hindemburgo Chateaubriand, answers a request for input from the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin.Justice Alexandre de Moraes asked for the files to be opened on Sunday (13). According to G1, he wants the material made available to all justices before Tuesday's (15) session. Fachin forwarded the request to the PGR and asked for a position "with brevity". In the petition, quoted by G1, Moraes wrote:"However, the secrecy of PET 15645, assigned by prevention to Justice André Mendonça and containing elements essential to the ruling on PET 16662, scheduled for next Tuesday, September 15, has not been lifted. I ask Your Excellency to order the lifting of the secrecy of PET 15645 and the release of the files to all members of the bench before that ruling."Chateaubriand said the PGR did not know the case existed and that it did not even appear as visible to the office in the court's system. He still backed opening it. Quoted by Folha, he said secrecy should end because the file is a "document considered relevant so that a justice of this court can understand the totality of the factors that the matter to be debated involves". Folha reports that the payment details come from a report by Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence council. In March, the Federal Police had already asked the case's reporting justice, André Mendonça, for access to the sealed data, and the request has not been reviewed so far.The fight over documents comes just before Tuesday's session, the latest chapter in a crisis that has split Brazil's top court. On Friday (11), Mendonça lifted the secrecy on dozens of proceedings after pressure from the PGR and from fellow justices. Moraes called the release "selective" and said digital files remained outside the set made available. CNN Brasil reports the dispute also covers data from Vorcaro's phone, which Moraes and Justices Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes asked to see in full.Tuesday's sessionThe full court is set to examine a Federal Police report produced at Mendonça's request, which points to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. The material records 52 messages exchanged between December 21, 2023 and November 17, 2025, the day the banker was first arrested. According to G1, the report says Moraes took part directly in reviewing and editing a contract worth 130 million reais between Master and the Barci de Moraes law firm of lawyer Viviane Barci, the justice's wife. The PGR has already asked for the report to be shelved, arguing it was produced irregularly, without prior notice to the court's presidency.The call on Pet 15.645 now rests with Fachin. The session is scheduled for Tuesday (15), when the justices decide the fate of the report on the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro.

A network of Brazilian influencers is attacking women's suffrage and the right of women to go to the polls. That is the finding of a three-month investigation by BBC News Brasil, reported by Shin Suzuki, published on Monday (14) and also carried by Folha de S.Paulo, one of Brazil's leading newspapers. The attacks drew national attention in June, when Paulo Figueiredo, an influencer linked to the Bolsonaro family, criticized "the quality" of women's votes.The statement is far from isolated, the report says. Social media carries entire shows and podcast clips that gather thousands of likes and comments with phrases such as "women's suffrage is the mistake of Western democracy". Other clips blame women's voting for society's problems and for the hardships of modern men's lives. The BBC mapped an ecosystem that also includes women: Fernanda Guardian says she would give up her own right to vote, and influencer Pietra Bertolazzi has attacked women's suffrage. Speech that once seemed confined to internet niches now echoes in Brazil's political debate and in conservative circles in the United States, in a general election year.From the manosphere to podcastsMany of these influencers belong to the so-called manosphere and to redpill culture, communities that praise a strong, dominant man who stays permanently alert to a woman's intentions, the report describes. A central figure is Renato Amoedo, known as Renato 38ao, a nickname that refers to a revolver caliber. He had more than 900,000 Instagram followers in August. The profile is no longer available, and he says the account was taken down.In a post this year, Amoedo used crude terms to attack the votes of unmarried women. It drew more than 20,000 likes and nearly 500 comments, most of them supportive, according to the BBC. He argues that study and work should not be a woman's life focus, and said on a podcast that women's suffrage, established by decree in Brazil in 1932, was the origin of the modern welfare state. "For a woman to make work and study the priority of her life is spiritual, physical and financial self-destruction," he said. "They are cheap because they are poor." In 2022, asked about the legality of a hypothetical union between a 50-year-old man and an eight-year-old child, he replied: "If the parents agree and everyone agrees...". The BBC contacted Amoedo repeatedly; he declined an interview, and an aide said he was traveling through Monaco and Portugal. He is a regular guest on Redcast, a podcast created for the manosphere audience, with slightly more than one million YouTube subscribers."The Constitution would have to be torn up"The BBC showed some of the videos to Justice Carmen Lucia of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court and its only female member today. "This is democracy, people being able to say even this," she said."If they did not have the vote, they would not have the freedom to express what we want, including being against it. That is what democracy guarantees, something a dictatorship does not guarantee."In Carmen Lucia's view, the mere proposal of changing voting rights in Brazil, which are universal today, is unconstitutional. To end women's suffrage, she said, "the Constitution would have to be torn up". The full findings appear in the report and in the documentary "O Ataque ao Voto Feminino" (The Attack on Women's Vote), on BBC News Brasil's YouTube channel. The first round of Brazil's presidential election takes place in October.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers Party has 42% of voting intentions in the first round of Brazil's presidential election. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party has 37%. The figures come from the 14th round of the poll by bank BTG Pactual with the Nexus institute, released on Monday (14). Lula's five-point lead is larger than the survey's margin of error of two percentage points in either direction.First roundAccording to Folha de S.Paulo, Lula gained three points from the previous round, when he had 39%. Bolsonaro, a senator from Rio de Janeiro and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, rose two points, from 35% to 37%. Writer Augusto Cury (Avante) fell from 9% to 6%. Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) rose one point to 5%. Renan Santos (Missão) has 2%, and former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) and Samara Martins (UP) stand at 1% each. Blank and spoiled votes total 4%, and 2% of respondents did not know or declined to answer.The main figures come from the scenario that excludes Pablo Marçal (PRTB). Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, rejected the influencer's candidacy unanimously on Friday (11), according to Folha. In the unprompted question, where respondents answer without seeing a list of names, Lula has 40% and Flavio Bolsonaro 34%, news site R7 reported.RunoffIn a simulated runoff between the two leaders, Lula has 47% and Flavio Bolsonaro 46%, a technical tie. In the previous round, the senator was one point ahead, 46% to 45%.The Nexus institute also tested other opponents for the president. Against Caiado, Lula would win 47% to 41%. Against Zema, 49% to 39%. Against Renan Santos, 49% to 38%. Against Cury, the gap narrows to three points, 45% to 42%, according to R7.Pollsters interviewed 2,003 voters by phone between Friday (11) and Sunday (13). The confidence level is 95%, and the survey is registered with the TSE under code BR-04076/2026.The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4, three weeks after this poll was released. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff.

Brazil's Federal Police launched the third phase of Operation Transparency on Monday (Sept. 14), an investigation into suspected irregularities in the handling of congressional earmarks, the budget funds that legislators direct to works, hospitals and social projects in their states and municipalities. Officers are serving four search and seizure warrants in the Federal District and in São Paulo state. The orders came from Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino, according to G1.The operation investigates possible exploitation of prestige, influence peddling, passive corruption and money laundering, the force said. It is an offshoot of an inquiry opened in December 2025 into the allocation of the earmarks.In a statement, the Federal Police said the investigation indicates that "members of the group negotiated with third parties the payment of significant amounts, conditioned on the outcome of cases in progress, under the pretext of influencing judicial decisions." The statement added that "there are no elements indicating the participation of members of the Judiciary in the facts under investigation." The force reported no arrests in this phase and did not name the targets.One target was identified by the press: federal Deputy Cezinha Madureira, according to the column of Mônica Bergamo in the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The column describes the lawmaker as a friend and ally of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça. The G1 report, still being updated, had named no targets by Monday morning.Congressional earmarks, known in Brazil as emendas parlamentares, let members of Congress reserve federal budget money for projects back home. The allocation of those funds is what the inquiry has examined since December 2025.Next come the review of the material seized in the searches and, at the close of the inquiry, a final report to the Supreme Court, where Dino issued the warrants. If prosecutors at the Attorney General's Office find sufficient evidence against a sitting lawmaker, they can file charges before the Supreme Court itself, which tries members of Congress under Brazil's Constitution.

Presidential candidates casting themselves as alternatives to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, spent last week attacking Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) over the release of documents from the Banco Master investigations. Romeu Zema of the Novo party called a rally in Brasília for Tuesday (Sept. 15), the day the court's full bench decides whether to authorize an investigation of Justice Alexandre de Moraes.The session will weigh a Federal Police report on material found on the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, including records connected to Moraes, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The rally is set for 9 a.m. on the Alameda dos Estados, an hour before the session is due to begin.Zema takes his case to the streetsPoder360 reported the rally call on Wednesday night (Sept. 9), hours after Chief Justice Edson Fachin removed Moraes from the command of the "fake news" inquiry and scheduled the Sept. 15 vote. On Thursday (Sept. 10), Zema and his running mate, Senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE), renewed the call after Moraes canceled a public statement he had been due to give that morning, Folha reports. Zema said the justice was "running away" and wrote: "If you owe nothing, you fear nothing."In his posts, Zema asked supporters to come and "pressure this day that can mark the victory of Brazilians against the untouchables". "It is no longer left against right. It is Brazilians against an untouchable," he wrote. He called Sept. 15 "the beginning of the end of the untouchables" and publishes a series called "Os Intocáveis" ("The Untouchables"), produced with artificial intelligence, criticizing STF members, politicians and business figures named in the Master investigations.In a recording, Girão called for the removal of Moraes, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) and Lula himself, according to Folha. On Sunday (Sept. 13), Zema attacked Alcolumbre, calling him "Xandão's paquita", a Portuguese term for a TV variety-show assistant, and "the untouchable from Amapá". He said he and Girão had asked for the senator's removal earlier this year.In a livestream on Sunday, Zema called Tuesday's session "one of the most important days in the history of Brazil". He said the vote will define whether the country remains a "republic of untouchables", and that pressure from the streets, civil society and the press could influence the outcome of the crisis. Renan Santos of the Missão party reacted to the document release on Friday (Sept. 11): "This lifting of secrecy on the Banco Master inquiry will keep many presidential candidates from sleeping tonight. I will sleep soundly."What happens nextThe full court meets Tuesday at 10 a.m. to decide whether to let the Federal Police investigate Moraes based on the report on Vorcaro's phone. The rally called by Zema is set for an hour earlier on the Alameda dos Estados, in Brasília.

Daniel Vorcaro told Brazil's Federal Police that he cannot remember who received the message in which, according to investigators, he asked Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes for help containing Federal Police and federal prosecutors' actions against Banco Master. The testimony was given on August 28. Its details were reported by G1 on Sunday (13).Vorcaro was questioned about suspicions that he paid bribes to Central Bank directors and about an alleged leak of investigations targeting him. Federal Police delegate Albert Paulo Sérvio de Moura showed him screenshots that forensic examiners found on his phone. According to the Federal Police report, the messages were sent to Moraes.In one of them, dated October 30, 2025, Vorcaro writes that he would change a flight to meet Moraes and discusses Central Bank inquiries into Master. He says he received informal, confidential information from inside the regulator and cites "G", a reference to Central Bank president Gabriel Galípolo, and to other directors under pressure from oversight bodies.The delegate also asked about a note on the device mentioning a trip to Abu Dhabi, the credit guarantee fund, and the names "Andrei" and "Paulo". The Federal Police says these would be its own director-general, Andrei Rodrigues, and the Prosecutor General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet. Vorcaro answered: "I was talking to many people about this bank transaction, people close to me". He also said the "G" is "probably Galípolo, the president".When the delegate pressed him, asking whether he remembered "where these messages went, their destination", Vorcaro said he could not recall where the material had gone."I would have to remember who the messages were sent to. [...] I don't want to make an inference here without being sure, I can answer later, at the proper time, so I don't make a mistake here."A future plea deal and Tuesday's sessionVorcaro's lawyer said his client is willing to cooperate, but only under a future plea bargain agreement, the instrument known in Brazil as delação premiada, because other people may be involved. "Some facts related to some people he can in fact talk about, provided it is in the future setting of a new [plea deal]", the lawyer said, according to G1.Earlier this month, Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report that identified 52 messages between Vorcaro and Moraes. According to BBC News Brasil, the decision came on September 1, and on Wednesday (9) Supreme Court President Edson Fachin removed Moraes as rapporteur of the Fake News inquiry and called a full-court session to address the crisis. Vorcaro was arrested in November 2025 and is under investigation for fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais, BBC News Brasil reports.Mendonça has asked the full court to decide whether to open an investigation into Moraes, a decision that could come in Tuesday's session (15). In response, Moraes sent the court's presidency a Federal Police intelligence report, without evidentiary value, that questions Mendonça's handling of the Master and INSS inquiries. That material is due to be examined on September 23.

A group of former cabinet ministers from the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, joined by jurists, economists and business leaders, sent a letter of support to Edson Fachin on Sunday (13). Fachin is the president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court. The manifesto has 198 signatures, according to G1; Poder360 counts 199. It backs the steps Fachin has taken in the court's institutional crisis and demands that Tuesday's (15) plenary session be held in public.The signatories call the moment "the most serious crisis in the history of the Supreme Federal Tribunal and certainly one of the most serious in our turbulent republican history". The letter asks for "broad transparency in the investigations and in the plenary session" set for Tuesday, which it says must be public under Article 93, item IX, of the Brazilian Constitution."Investigating the facts and holding accountable those who may have violated the law and the dignity of their offices are indispensable if we are to regain trust in our institutions and preserve our democracy," the document reads.According to Poder360, the signatories include former Finance Minister Pedro Malan and former chief of staff Pedro Parente, both from the Cardoso government, former Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo, who served under Rousseff, and former human rights minister Paulo Vannuchi, from the Lula government. Two former central bank presidents, Armínio Fraga and Pérsio Arida, the economists Edmar Bacha and André Lara Resende, former Itaú Unibanco chief Candido Bracher and former Suzano CEO Walter Schalka also signed.The letter also calls for urgent institutional reforms at the court, to "strengthen collegiality, ensure the impartiality of trials, prevent conflicts of interest, establish rigorous standards of conduct and broaden transparency". In its sharpest passage, the group writes: "The Supreme Federal Tribunal cannot allow its jurisdiction to be captured by illicit interests of a personal, political or economic nature".Background: how the crisis beganThe crisis escalated in early September, when Justice André Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report produced in the investigation into Banco Master. The document revealed messages and contacts between the former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes then asked for Mendonça to be investigated for alleged abuse of authority. The standoff led Mendonça to remove Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues, a decision reversed by Justice Flávio Dino and then suspended by Fachin pending a plenary review.Fachin has since centralized crisis-related decisions in the court's presidency, removed Moraes from the fake news inquiry and ruled that any proceedings targeting justices must first go through his office. On Tuesday (15), the full court is set to weigh the Federal Police report linking Moraes to Vorcaro and a request from the Prosecutor General's Office to void it. Poder360 reports the session will be broadcast live. That openness is what the letter's signatories want guaranteed.

Brazil's Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes has asked the court's president, Edson Fachin, to lift the secrecy on one of the inquiries into the Banco Master case. The request was filed on Sunday, September 13, two days before the full bench examines a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between the justice and banker Daniel Vorcaro. Fachin referred the request to the PGR, the federal prosecution service led by Brazil's attorney general.In his petition, Moraes says that justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master case, kept part of the investigation under seal. That material contains "essential elements" for Tuesday's judgment, he argues, and should be released to every justice before the session. He wrote:"The secrecy of PET 15645, assigned to Minister André Mendonça, has not been lifted, and it contains essential elements for the judgment of PET 16662, scheduled for next Tuesday, September 15. I ask Your Excellency to order the lifting of secrecy on PET 15645 and to make the case files available to every member of the panel before that judgment"What is under sealAccording to Folha de S.Paulo, the sealed section covers Master's payment network. The data sit in a financial intelligence report, or RIF, produced by Coaf, the Brazilian government council that tracks suspicious financial activity. The inquiry includes banking and tax records obtained under court order and precautionary measures still in progress. Folha also reported that the Federal Police asked Mendonça in March to give investigators access to the sealed data, a request the rapporteur has yet to rule on.Fachin's responseFachin answered in the early evening of Sunday. In an official letter, he asked the PGR to weigh in "promptly" on the request, according to news site g1. The website InfoMoney reported that the court president deferred a final decision: prosecutors will first say whether the petition's content falls within the scope of what the justices are to examine on Tuesday.The report the justices will review was produced at Mendonça's request and, according to g1, set off an unprecedented crisis at the court. Fachin convened the session last week and on Saturday, September 12, took over the case files concerning Moraes's situation. The PGR has already asked for the report to be shelved, arguing it was produced irregularly, without prior notice to the court's presidency and without review by the full bench.Over the course of the investigation, the Federal Police recovered 52 messages between Moraes and Vorcaro, sent between December 21, 2023 and November 17, 2025, the day Vorcaro was first arrested. The report says the justice took part directly in reviewing and editing a 130 million reais contract between Banco Master and the Barci de Moraes law firm of Viviane Barci, his wife.Mendonça opposes a broad release of data before the session. In his view, it could "disrupt" the judgment and harm ongoing investigations, and the material relevant to Tuesday's analysis is already available to the justices. Moraes and the justices Gilmar Mendes and Cristiano Zanin have pressed for full disclosure of the case, according to Folha. On Tuesday the full court will decide whether there are grounds to open an investigation against Moraes. The PGR's opinion on the sealed petition should determine whether it joins the case file for the session or stays out of it.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice Cristiano Zanin ordered the director general of the Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, to deliver by 11 p.m. on Sunday (13) a full copy of the data from the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master. Zanin reported his decision to the court's president, Justice Luiz Edson Fachin.The device is an iPhone 17 Pro seized on November 18, 2025, in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, the Federal Police inquiry into the bank, on the day Vorcaro was first arrested. The extracted data are part of the case file and include records involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The order comes two days before a full-bench session set for Tuesday (15), when the justices are due to review the Federal Police report on messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes.Mendonça objects, and the police push backEarlier on Sunday, Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur on the case, the justice who reviews the evidence and reports it to his colleagues, sent a formal note against opening and sharing the full contents. In his view, doing so "would only contribute to disrupting the trial" and would place "at risk the entire continuation and success of the investigations." Mendonça said the justices already hold the material they need for the session. He quoted a statement by Fachin that "the gravity of the facts does not allow shortcuts" and added: "It also tolerates no subterfuges or detours toward interests other than those of justice."The Federal Police contradicted the rapporteur's warning. In a message to Fachin, the force said it has "full technical conditions" to supply copies to every justice's office while preserving the chain of custody, identifying each copy individually and certifying the material's integrity. According to G1, Zanin cited that information in his order.Zanin's argumentsIn the order to the police, Zanin pushed back against Mendonça. He wrote that there is no "hierarchy among the STF justices" and that the evidence belongs to the court's full bench and to all of its members. Zanin said he needs the complete material to form his conviction and judge the case on Tuesday, and noted the content has already been made available to Vorcaro's lawyers."No restriction on access to information can be imposed on the judges, since they are all bound by the duty of confidentiality and of performing their functions well, with impartiality and independence," Zanin wrote.The demand for full access does not come from Zanin alone. According to InfoMoney, Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Gilmar Mendes have also expressed interest in the complete mirror of the device, and the Prosecutor General's office requested the full content to assess the context of the messages. Some of the replies attributed to Moraes were sent through view-once or deleted messaging features, which prevented full recovery of the conversations.Zanin's order sets the 11 p.m. deadline "without prejudice to other offices that may send identical requests" for the same data. The full bench meets again on Tuesday (15), when it may decide whether there are grounds to open a formal investigation of Moraes.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) said in a formal filing released on Sunday, September 13, that sharing with his fellow justices the full contents extracted from former banker Daniel Vorcaro's phone would only serve to "disrupt the trial" and would "put at risk the entire continuation and success of the investigations". The filing comes two days before a full-court session on Tuesday, September 15, when the justices are to review a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes."The insertion of additional elements, which are not currently part of the case record, including the opening of all the information contained on Daniel Vorcaro's phone, would only contribute to disrupting the trial and would also put at risk the entire continuation and success of the investigations, giving rise to questions of every kind, to divert the case set for judgment from its natural course."That is how Mendonça, as quoted by G1, answered colleagues demanding access to the material before the session. According to InfoMoney, the justice believes broad disclosure now could compromise ongoing inquiries into fraud attributed to Banco Master, a financial group at the center of a sprawling case, and shift the debate away from the point he sees as central, the validity and the content of the police report on Moraes.Pressure from the benchIn recent days, Justices Cristiano Zanin, Gilmar Mendes and Moraes himself have asked the STF presidency for full access to a mirror of the iPhone, which the Federal Police seized in 2025 during investigations tied to Banco Master, as Folha de S.Paulo reported. Zanin and Gilmar argued that justices need the full context to decide. For Moraes, "it is not up to the rapporteur to choose which documents are accessible to the bench for its judgment".Mendonça pushed back. "I reiterate that all the material to be used in next Tuesday's judgment is available, in full, to every justice of this court. For that purpose, this justice has exactly the same set of information elements made available to the other peers who will take part in the session," he wrote. Citing Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin, he closed by saying that "the gravity of the facts does not allow shortcuts", but it also does not tolerate "subterfuges or detours, toward interests other than those of justice".Federal Police reply and a request to officersThe standoff accelerated over the weekend. On Saturday, September 12, Fachin gave the Federal Police 24 hours to explain the status of the device and the integrity of the chain of custody. On Sunday morning, the force replied that the iPhone and the original extraction remain safely stored at the institution and that it has "full technical capacity" to send identical copies to any chamber that requests one. According to the police, the file delivered to Mendonça's office in March was a copy, sent at the rapporteur's formal request. Mendonça has previously said he kept the files sealed and encrypted as a security counterproof and never handled them.In the same filing, according to G1, Mendonça asked Fachin to order four Federal Police officers to provide information within 24 hours on how reports and media files reached his office in March. He wants them to explain the circumstances of the delivery and to say whether they faced any "constraints" during the investigations.On Tuesday, the full court decides whether there are grounds to open an investigation against Moraes. According to G1, the justice's allies plan to raise preliminary motions and procedural nullities, citing alleged irregularities in the drafting and routing of the report and the lack of prior access to the full phone contents. The Attorney General's Office (PGR) has already recommended shelving the report over procedural flaws.

Brazil's Federal Police told the president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Luiz Edson Fachin, on Sunday morning (13) that it has full technical capacity to produce and send identical copies of the data extracted from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro to every justice's office that has requested the material. The reply met a 24-hour deadline Fachin had set on Saturday (12).In a statement, the force said the device and the original extraction remain stored in its own facilities and have never left the institution. It added that the file sent in March to the office of Justice André Mendonça, who had been reporting investigations tied to the case, was a copy of the extracted data, not the original, and that the delivery answered a formal request from his own office.The Federal Police said it is committed to preserving the chain of custody of the evidence and stands ready to provide further information or run integrity checks. According to InfoMoney, the sharing can happen immediately once Fachin authorizes it, with individual identification of seals and certification of the material's integrity. The decision now rests with the court's president.The dispute inside the courtThe response comes amid a dispute among the justices over unrestricted access to a full mirror of the device, an iPhone 17 Pro seized in Operação Compliance Zero, an investigation into billion-real fraud at Banco Master. Vorcaro, a former controller of the bank, was arrested in November 2025 and is under investigation for fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais (about 2.2 billion dollars), according to BBC News Brasil.Justices Cristiano Zanin, Alexandre de Moraes and Gilmar Mendes, the court's most senior member, have pressed Fachin for access to the complete data. "The requested media is in Your Excellency's cabinet and must be shared with the other judges so that everyone has the same opportunity to analyze the elements related to this case," Zanin wrote in an official letter. Moraes said it is "not up to the reporting justice to choose which documents are accessible to the panel to conduct its judgment." Gilmar asked the presidency to requisition the media directly from the Federal Police, with urgency, if the rapporteur does not release them.Mendonça has said the material in his possession is a sealed, encrypted backup copy kept as a safeguard in case the original is lost, and that he has not handled it. He told Fachin the phone itself is stored in Federal Police deposits.On Tuesday (15), the full court is scheduled to review the Federal Police report that flagged messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Justice Moraes. The Prosecutor General's office has also asked for access to the full content, arguing that selective disclosure of messages must be avoided. Whether the data reach the justices' offices before the session now depends on Fachin.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) rejected a Federal Police request to use a mansion valued at 30 million reais as a work base in Belo Horizonte, and ordered the property sold at auction. The owner is former banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master and a target of the court's money laundering inquiry known as the Master case. According to G1 and Folha de S.Paulo, the case became public on Friday (11), when court documents were unsealed. The police request dated from March 18.The police requestThe force wanted the house to host its newly created corruption and money laundering investigation group in Minas Gerais state, which had no office of its own. "There would be strong public interest in the measure, considering the evidence of money laundering committed by the investigated de facto owner of the property," the Federal Police wrote. The Attorney General's Office (PGR) backed the request.The mansion sits in Belvedere, one of the most expensive neighborhoods of the Minas Gerais capital, according to Folha. It has a pool, a spa, a gym, sports courts, an elevator and a home theater. Nobody was living there when officers served a search warrant. The newspaper also reports the house changed hands for 30 million reais in a private contract, although the taxable value listed with the city government was 12.5 million reais.The ruling and the dispute"Although no one currently lives in the property, the inspection report shows it is a luxurious house with high-end furniture, leisure areas, a gourmet space with bars, a gym, a spa and game courts. The photographs in the case file confirm the eminently residential and recreational nature of the asset, showing wide and sophisticated spaces designed for leisure, rest and private use, not for the ordinary operation of a police unit or an investigative administrative structure," Mendonça wrote.The justice added that converting the house for institutional use would require "significant interventions" and could generate high costs. He chose an early sale instead: "The administrative use of a high-end property, with leisure areas, bars, a spa and a game court, is less suited to the intended public purpose than its conversion into value through early disposal."Vorcaro's lawyers called the police request "absurd" and are fighting the auction. In their view, the investigation is still running and no criminal charges have been filed. "Considering what is concrete and has been disclosed by the investigations, there is effectively no debt established outside the Liquidation, that is, no definitively settled financial issue has been raised," the defense said.In the latest filing, on August 26, the PGR opposed the defense request to suspend the auction. Mendonça has issued no new ruling on the property since. The Master case inquiries have been sent to the court's presidency under Justice Edson Fachin, according to G1.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva directly attacked Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça at a campaign rally in Curitiba on Saturday, September 12. According to the newspaper O Globo, Lula accused the justice of leaking details of investigations that suited him. The president said he took the complaint to the court's chief justice, Edson Fachin.Lula described the request he made to Fachin. "It was not acceptable for the reporting judge to keep releasing cherry-picked stories, only what interested him," he said. The president also asked for the full case files to be opened. "We will put everything in the open, to see who is truly a thief and corrupt in this country. The Bolsonaro family will not escape."He then turned to Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master and in custody in the investigations into the bank.Vorcaro is already in jail. But now the orgies he used to throw will start to come out. The women from Switzerland, from Sweden, to mess around with a lot of people in politics. Whoever took part in this filth will be unmasked.The reference to "orgies" follows a report by the magazine Piauí published on Friday, September 11, cited by O Globo. In an October 2023 exchange with former minister Fábio Faria, Vorcaro was told that senators Davi Alcolumbre and Rodrigo Pacheco, along with STF Justice Dias Toffoli, would attend a party he planned to host in São Paulo. "Davi is dying to know if the Swiss girls are coming," Faria wrote, according to the magazine. In Curitiba, Lula called Vorcaro a "loan shark". "In 2019, they took a loan shark and turned him into a banker. This Vorcaro corrupted many people in the Republic. They opened the bank and we shut the bank," he said, according to Poder360.The court in crisisThe rally came in the middle of a conflict among the justices of the court, Brazil's top judicial body. On Friday, Fachin took over the review of the supposed relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, removed the case from Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master and INSS investigations, and sent the files to the court's presidency, where they sit until his next decision, according to G1. The Federal Police report requested by Mendonça had pointed to that alleged tie. Fellow justices criticized him for seeking a probe into a colleague without approval from the full bench, and the Prosecutor General's office asked that the document be voided. That same day, Mendonça lifted secrecy on further Master-related cases, including the inquiry into the financing of the film "Dark Horse", which targets Flávio Bolsonaro, according to Poder360.Fachin also gave the Federal Police 24 hours to explain the conditions of Vorcaro's phone. Justices Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Moraes want full access to the device before Tuesday's session. "It is not up to the reporting justice to choose which documents the bench may see to reach a ruling," Moraes said, according to G1.Lula is running for reelection against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and told the crowd that 22 days remained until the vote, with the first round set for October 4. He also addressed his son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, whom the Federal Police is investigating over ties to Antônio Carlos Camilo Antunes, the "Careca do INSS" figure at the center of the scandal over improper deductions from retirees' pensions. "When they started talking about my son, I said my son will not be protected. I believe in his innocence, but if he made a mistake, he will have to pay for that mistake," Lula said. "That goes for me, for my son, and for any justice of the Supreme Court. No one can be a Supreme Court justice to get rich."Lula said the justices must behave to a higher standard. "People have to hold themselves to a standard of conduct above the average of society," he said, according to O Globo. The campaign swing continues in the south of the country: on Friday he had rallied in Porto Alegre.The court's calendar sets what comes next. On Tuesday, September 15, the full bench debates the validity of the Federal Police report and decides whether to open an investigation into Moraes or dismiss the case. According to O Globo, Fachin has set September 23 for the session that will examine the police reports on Mendonça, and denied the joint session requested by Moraes.

Chief Justice Edson Fachin of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) arranged with Justice André Mendonça to take over as rapporteur of the case involving Alexandre de Moraes before the move was announced. The daily Estadão reported the backstage agreement on Sunday, Sept. 13. According to the paper, Mendonça first handed the case over at the court president's request.The formal decision came on Saturday night, Sept. 12, in a court order. Earlier that day, Mendonça had returned to the court's presidency the case file on conversations between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, a jailed former banker. Fachin wrote:"Considering the possibility that the outcome of the deliberation in PET 16.662 may lead to the application of Article 144, IV, of the Civil Procedure Code, I order, under Article 13, XV, of the STF's internal rules, that the clerk's office transfer the rapporteurship of PET 16.662 to the Presidency of the Supreme Federal Tribunal."In the same order, Fachin sent two other case files, covering the investigations into Banco Master and the INSS pension fraud, to the court's presidency. He did not take over as rapporteur of those cases. They remain frozen until a new decision by the president, according to news site g1.The backstage dealFachin's appointment as rapporteur was built in an agreement with Mendonça before the announcement, Estadão found. The justice first ceded the case at the STF president's request. Part of the decision, however, drew surprised reactions inside the court, the paper reported.On Sept. 9, Fachin had already suspended investigations targeting STF members and required that the case files be sent to the presidency for review. Mendonça complied with that order on Saturday, according to InfoMoney.What happens nextAs rapporteur, Fachin will present the summary of the main facts to the full bench, cast the first vote and set whether procedural questions are examined before the merits, g1 explains. On Tuesday, Sept. 15, the court will examine the Federal Police report requested by Mendonça that pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. The justices will also rule on a nullity request from the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) and decide whether to open or shelve an investigation against Moraes. The PGR argues Mendonça should not have ordered a probe into the recipient of the banker's messages without a request from prosecutors or the Federal Police itself.The session will be broadcast on TV Justiça, with access to the plenary restricted. Fachin will set and announce the procedure, a first for such a case at the court. The Master and INSS investigations remain on hold until his next decision.

Justices on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) are preparing two ways to counter the requests for review expected at Tuesday's session (Sept. 15), the court's first plenary meeting on the crisis surrounding Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to Valor Econômico, one option is early voting: justices who favor opening an investigation of Moraes would register their ballots in advance. The other is a procedural motion, likely filed by the rapporteur, André Mendonça, to request the precautionary suspension of the colleague named in conversations with the former banker Daniel Vorcaro, ex-controller of Banco Master and jailed in the bank's fraud scandal.The maneuver has a limit. A request for review suspends the trial, and neither early votes nor a precautionary suspension can make a final verdict take effect, writes Maria Cristina Fernandes in Valor. The anticipated votes serve to deflate whoever wants to delay the session: they show where the majority stands.In the tally the newspaper compiled on Saturday (12), the bloc against opening an investigation of Moraes had only the votes of Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin, three out of eight. Moraes himself and Dias Toffoli are not expected to vote. Toffoli has already recused himself from cases tied to Master, according to Folha de S.Paulo.What the session will decideThe plenary will weigh the validity of a Federal Police report commissioned by Mendonça, which pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro, and will rule on a nullity request from the Prosecutor General's office (PGR). The justices are also expected to decide whether to open or shelve an investigation of Moraes, G1 reported. The PGR argues Mendonça could not commission a probe into a colleague without the plenary's authorization, and that the full court holds the power to rule on the matter.Since Saturday, the case has been out of Mendonça's hands. Court President Edson Fachin took over the case file on the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro and sent the investigations into Banco Master and the INSS benefit fraud to the presidency, leaving them frozen until he rules again. Fachin also refused, on Saturday morning, a request from the court's senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, to add Moraes' own bid to investigate Mendonça for alleged abuse of authority to Tuesday's agenda, Valor reported. In his order, Fachin cited the possibility of a judge's disqualification under the Civil Procedure Code."Considering the possibility that the deliberation on PET 16.662 may trigger the application of Article 144, IV, of the Civil Procedure Code, I order the judiciary secretariat, under Article 13, XV, of the STF's internal rules, to transfer the rapporteurship of PET 16.662 to the presidency of the Supreme Federal Court."The session will be broadcast on TV Justiça, with access to the courtroom restricted, according to G1. Thirteen former STF justices signed a statement calling for an open session and rigorous fact-finding, and bar association (OAB) leaders and lawmakers are expected to attend, Valor reported. The next step is set for Tuesday: whether Moraes becomes the formal target of an investigation by the full court.

Justices aligned with Alexandre de Moraes on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) are weighing a move to disqualify colleagues Kassio Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux from Tuesday's vote. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the plan is for one of Moraes' three supporters, Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino or Cristiano Zanin, to raise a procedural motion questioning whether the two can vote at all. It will be the first time the full court meets to debate the crisis that has engulfed it.The motion will cite alleged ties between the sons of both justices and Banco Master, Folha reports. A consultancy linked to lawyer Kevin Marques, Kassio's son, received 6.6 million reais from the bank, and lawyer Rodrigo Fux, Fux's son, was a guest of former banker Daniel Vorcaro, Master's owner, in a VIP box at Rio's Sambadrome during the 2025 Carnival. The paper describes Kassio and Fux as the two justices closest to André Mendonça. Moraes and his allies argue the reports may signal a conflict of interest that the full court must examine before turning to the substance of the messages Vorcaro sent.What is at stake on TuesdayCourt president Edson Fachin put only one case on Tuesday's agenda: the suspicions against Moraes raised in a Federal Police report requested by Mendonça. He left off the docket a separate case alleging abuse of authority and illegal methods by Mendonça himself. On Saturday (12), Fachin stripped Mendonça of the reporting role and took the case himself, in a ruling that cites a possible application of Article 144, item IV, of the Civil Procedure Code, which covers when a judge is barred from a case. According to G1, the investigations into Banco Master and the INSS pension scandal were sent to the court's presidency.In the session, the justices will debate the validity of the Federal Police report, weigh a nullity request from the Attorney General's office and decide whether to open or shelve an investigation of Moraes. The sitting will be broadcast on TV Justiça, the court's channel, with restricted access to the chamber, and Fachin, as rapporteur, votes first and sets the order of debate.Justice Dias Toffoli has signaled he will not vote, having already declared himself conflicted in Master-related cases. Aides to three justices nonetheless consider it impossible to avoid the report naming Toffoli as the final beneficiary of a fund that received 35 million reais from Vorcaro, Folha reports. The Moraes camp also plans to raise Mendonça's 2025 meeting with Vorcaro and the allegation that the justice received a suit as a gift from people tied to the former banker, which he denies.The Mônica Bergamo column in Folha reported that justices in the group have said that if the court is to be cleaned up, every member's rot should be exposed on the same day. One magistrate described the coming session as a potential "institutional carnage", according to the paper. If the procedural motion is filed, the full court must rule on whether Kassio and Fux can vote before any ballot on the merits.

Messages collected by Brazil's Federal Police and obtained by Folha de S.Paulo show WhatsApp conversations attributed to André Mendonça, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), with Cláudio Castro, a former governor of Rio de Janeiro from the PL party, discussing cases of interest to the politician. In one exchange, on the night of November 11, 2022, they discussed the case of Sérgio Cabral, another former Rio governor, whose habeas corpus was pending before the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel that includes Mendonça.The exchange began at 7:37 p.m. Castro wrote "Friend, I need to talk urgently" and mentioned the "Cabral case". He then sent two files with habeas corpus requests and a release order filed by the defense. Mendonça replied at 8:25 p.m. with a description of the case from the 13th Federal Court of Curitiba, which had ordered Cabral's pretrial detention on corruption charges in the Car Wash investigation. He then wrote "I'll call in a few minutes". Seven minutes later, he sent Castro a link to the STF page for Cabral's habeas corpus.The 2022 rulingThe contact came at a delicate point in the case. According to Folha, Mendonça had asked to hold the case on October 24, 2022, after the rapporteur, Justice Edson Fachin, voted to keep Cabral in prison. Mendonça returned the case to the panel on November 28, 17 days after the messages. On December 9, he voted to lift the pretrial detention. "Given the long period since the arrest order and the significant change in the factual circumstances, the grounds that justified the custody have become unsustainable," he wrote, as reported by G1. In the other habeas corpus under review, he voted to keep the case before the Curitiba federal court, ruling against the defense.On December 16, 2022, according to Folha, the Second Chamber lifted the imprisonment by 3 votes to 2. Cabral, in pretrial detention for six years under Car Wash, moved to house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. According to G1, the former governor had already been convicted in 23 criminal cases in federal courts, with sentences adding up to 425 years and 20 days in prison.Responses and what comes nextIn a statement, Mendonça's office said the justice has no friendship with Castro and that the two met in an institutional capacity, when he served as justice minister. The office also said there is no record of any dealing over the merits of the case. "Such approaches do not change the examination of cases, which is based exclusively on the case files," the statement said. "The vote cast in this case is publicly available, is reasoned and reflects a position the justice applied uniformly in similar cases." Castro, also in a statement, said he raised the possible release of Cabral because of its importance to the state and denied making any request about a judicial case to Mendonça or any other Supreme Court justice. His lawyers said expressions such as "friend", "partner" and "brother" are common in politics.According to Folha, the messages were collected by the Federal Police in Operation Sem Refino, which investigates suspected favoritism in licenses for the Refit refinery in Rio de Janeiro. Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized the operation and lifted the secrecy of the case, but the conversations remain under seal; Mendonça is not a target of the investigation. The disclosure comes before the session on Tuesday (September 15), when the full court reviews the Federal Police report that pointed to an alleged relationship between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, and decides whether to open an investigation against the justice. Fachin, the court's president, took over that case and sent the investigations into the INSS pension agency and Banco Master to the court's presidency, leaving them on hold pending a new decision.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, has ordered the Federal Police to report within 24 hours on the custody and condition of data extracted from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The decision came on Saturday (12) and responds to three justices who demand access to the full material before a trial scheduled for Tuesday (15).Justices Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Alexandre de Moraes made the request. As an alternative to a handover by the case's rapporteur, they asked that the court itself order the Federal Police to provide copies of the data. According to CNN Brasil, Fachin has not yet decided whether he will authorize sharing the material with the other justices.The dispute over the deviceThe phone is an iPhone 17 Pro seized by the Federal Police. On Friday (11), Zanin asked Fachin for access to the full mirror of the device, arguing that the full bench needs the complete context of the data before ruling. The rapporteur of the Banco Master investigations, Justice André Mendonça, explained that his office holds only a backup copy of the material, on an encrypted hard drive sent by the police in March 2026. The copy remains sealed and inaccessible, he said, and he "never handled" it. The original device, according to Mendonça, is stored in Federal Police deposits. In the response cited by Fachin, the rapporteur wrote:"It is a counter-proof to be used only in case of loss or misplacement of the original material, which is in the possession of the Federal Police, within its chain of custody."Zanin rejected that justification in a new filing. He argued that the seal on a backup copy does not prevent it from being shared with the other justices, and noted that Vorcaro's own defense has already had access to the full material. Moraes reinforced the request: "It is not up to the reporting justice to choose which documents are accessible to the bench to carry out its judgment." Gilmar, also in a filing, pressed for the content to be released before Tuesday's session, either through Mendonça's office or directly by the police.What comes nextThe Prosecutor General's office (PGR) has joined the dispute. In a filing sent on Saturday, it called it "relevant" that the justices review beforehand all material that may ground Tuesday's judgment, repeating a position presented the day before.The deadline for the Federal Police expires on Sunday (13). On Tuesday, the full court will debate the validity of a Federal Police report that pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro, who is jailed in the Banco Master investigations, and will decide whether to open or shelve an investigation against the justice. Fachin, who took over as the case's rapporteur this week, will lead the session, to be broadcast on TV Justiça, the court's channel.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, ordered on Saturday (12) the removal of Justice André Mendonça as relator of the case that examines a supposed relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. The file now goes to the court presidency, which Fachin holds. In the same ruling, he required Mendonça to send the full records of the investigations into the INSS, Brazil's federal social security institute, and Banco Master to the presidency. In the STF, the relator is the justice who reviews a case and writes the report that opens the debate.Fachin justified the move on the grounds that the judgment of the case could create a situation of impedimento, in which a judge is barred from hearing a matter. The case is docketed as PET 16.662. It discusses the federal police report that Mendonça commissioned."Considering the possibility that the result of the deliberation in PET 16.662 may warrant the application of article 144, item IV, of the Code of Civil Procedure, I determine, under article 13, item XV, of the Internal Rules of the Supreme Federal Court, that the Judicial Secretariat substitute the rapporteurship of PET 16.662 to the Presidency of the Supreme Federal Court," the president wrote in the ruling, as quoted by G1.On Master and the INSS, Fachin cited a filing by Moraes himself. "By the same grounds, and considering the content of the manifestation by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, I determine the remittance to the Presidency of PETs 15.041 and 15.556, with all cases related to them," the ruling says. According to G1, the two investigations are frozen until Fachin issues a new order. He can take the two case files himself once the records reach the presidency, or he can put the question to the full bench.Tuesday's sessionThe swap changes the session set for Tuesday (15). Fachin, who replaced Mendonça as relator, is expected to open the meeting with the reading of the report on the facts found by the federal police, and he is expected to cast the first vote, depending on what the justices decide. The agenda covers the validity of the police report, which some justices criticized on the grounds that Mendonça had a colleague investigated without authorization from the full bench. The justices will also rule on a nullity request filed by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and decide whether to open or shelve an investigation of Moraes. The PGR argues that Mendonça should not have requested the examination of the recipient of Vorcaro's messages without a request from prosecutors or the police itself, and that only the full bench can decide on any probe involving Moraes.The ruling lands in what Folha de S.Paulo describes as the biggest crisis in the recent history of the court, with Moraes and Mendonça at its center. On Tuesday (8), Mendonça ordered the removal of Andrei Rodrigues as head of the federal police; the measure reached the court's Second Chamber, where a majority had formed, and the vote was suspended on a review request for more time by Justice Gilmar Mendes. On Wednesday (9), according to Folha, Fachin had already stripped Moraes of the file on Vorcaro's messages. On Friday (11), he denied a request by Gilmar to add the investigation of Mendonça to Tuesday's agenda and scheduled it for September 23.The full bench judges the Moraes case on Tuesday (15). The investigation of Mendonça goes to the bench on the 23rd. Until then, the Master and INSS inquiries stay frozen while Fachin decides who will run them.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, took over on Saturday (12) the reporting role in the case on the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. Fachin also ordered that the files of the investigations into the INSS pension fraud and Banco Master be sent to the court's presidency, according to news outlet G1.The order removes Justice André Mendonça from the case. In Brazil's top court, the reporting justice reviews the files and drafts the opinion that guides the vote. With the change, the two investigations are on hold until a new order from Fachin. He may take over the reporting role himself once the material reaches the presidency, or he may leave the decision to the full bench of eleven justices.Fachin justified the move by citing the possibility that the ruling could trigger a conflict-of-interest rule known as impedimento, under which a judge is barred from hearing a case, as the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported. In his order, he wrote:"Considering the possibility that the outcome of the deliberation in PET 16.662 may require the application of Article 144, IV, of the Civil Procedure Code, I order the Judicial Secretariat, on the grounds of Article 13, XV, of the Supreme Federal Tribunal's internal rules, to transfer the reporting role in PET 16.662 to the presidency of the Supreme Federal Tribunal." (translated from Portuguese)In the same decision, Fachin ordered petitions 15.041 and 15.556, with all related case files, sent to the president's chambers. Folha reported that he asked Mendonça to hand over the complete files of the INSS and Banco Master investigations.Tuesday's sessionThe dispute centers on a Federal Police report commissioned by Mendonça that pointed to Moraes as an interlocutor of Vorcaro, a former banker now in prison. On Tuesday (15), the court will debate the validity of the document, which some justices have criticized on the grounds that Mendonça had a colleague investigated without authorization from the full bench.With Fachin as the new reporting justice, he, and no longer Mendonça, is expected to open the session by reading the police report and to cast the first vote, depending on what the justices decide. The agenda also includes a nullity request from the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and a decision on whether to open or shelve an investigation against Moraes.The PGR argued that Mendonça should not have requested an examination of the recipient of the banker's messages without a request from prosecutors or the police, and that only the full bench has jurisdiction over any investigation involving Moraes.What comes nextOn Friday (11), Fachin had kept only the Moraes case on Tuesday's agenda and denied a request from the court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, to also include the investigation against Mendonça, which was scheduled for September 23. Folha de S.Paulo describes the standoff between Moraes and Mendonça as the biggest crisis in the court's recent history.

Brazil's Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) renewed its request on Saturday (Sept 12) that all justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, be given full access to data extracted from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro ahead of a trial scheduled for Tuesday (Sept 15). The filing went to the court's president, Justice Luiz Edson Fachin, and is signed by Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet.In the document, Gonet repeats a position presented a day earlier and argues the justices should review the material before forming a judgment. The filing also carries the signatures of deputy attorneys general Antônio Edílio Magalhães Teixeira and André de Carvalho Ramos, and of vice prosecutor general Hindemburgo Chateaubriand Filho, who filed the first request for total access to the Master bank data, according to news site G1."Likewise, it seems relevant to us, above all and especially given the peculiarities of this case, that all justices have prior knowledge of the full set of data needed to form a judgment on the matter under debate," Gonet wrote.The PGR joins three justices who called for full access on Friday: Cristiano Zanin, Alexandre de Moraes and Gilmar Mendes. The dispute comes days before a session in which the full court will review a Federal Police report on messages exchanged between Vorcaro and Moraes.Pressure on the rapporteurThe rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça, told Fachin that the phone, an iPhone 17 Pro seized by the Federal Police, is held in the police's own storage to preserve the chain of custody. He said his office holds only a backup copy on an encrypted hard drive, sent by the police in March 2026, which remains intact and sealed.Zanin rejected that explanation and argued the seal on the copy does not prevent sharing it with the other justices, since Vorcaro's own defense has already had access to the full material. Moraes reinforced the request. "It is not up to the rapporteur to choose which documents the court may access to reach its judgment," he said. Gilmar Mendes, the court's most senior justice, backed Zanin and asked Fachin to "urgently" request that the Federal Police send copies directly to the justices' offices if Mendonça does not release the files, saying "asymmetric" access undermines the court's collegiality, according to BBC News Brasil.Tuesday's sessionVorcaro was arrested in November 2025 and is under investigation for suspected financial fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais at Banco Master, according to the BBC. The crisis among the justices began with the release of Federal Police reports: on September 1, Mendonça lifted the seal on a document suggesting Vorcaro had sought advice from Moraes, and two days later Moraes released reports on the colleague's alleged irregular conduct. On Wednesday, Fachin removed Moraes as rapporteur of the so-called Fake News investigation and called Tuesday's plenary session. Until then, the court's president must decide whether to grant the PGR's request and order the full data sent to every justice's office.

A Datafolha poll released on Saturday (12) measures the damage done to the two justices at the center of the crisis in the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court. 34% of respondents say Justice Alexandre de Moraes should be temporarily suspended from his post, and 28% say he should face impeachment. For his colleague André Mendonça, 37% support a temporary suspension and 12% impeachment. In Brazil, an impeachment case against a Supreme Court justice is tried by the Senate.Datafolha, Brazil's best-known polling institute, heard 2,002 people in 125 cities from Tuesday (8) to Thursday (10). The margin of error is two percentage points and the confidence level is 95%. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and by Globo, and is registered before the electoral court under code BR-01833/2026. According to Folha, fieldwork ended before key developments on Friday (11).How the crisis beganThe crisis broke on September 1, when Mendonça, the justice reporting the Banco Master case at the STF, released a Federal Police report with messages sent by former banker Daniel Vorcaro to a contact that investigators attribute to Moraes. The document cites a 131 million reais contract between Vorcaro and the law firm of Moraes's wife, and messages in which the banker asked whether he should flee the country to avoid arrest. Folha calls it the gravest institutional crisis in the court's history.Moraes then said there were signs of irregularities in Mendonça's conduct, including possible political favoritism, and asked that his colleague be investigated in the so-called fake news inquiry. Court President Edson Fachin removed the request from that inquiry and stripped Moraes of its rapporteurship. The dispute also reached the Federal Police: on the 8th, Mendonça suspended director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada; Justice Flávio Dino ordered their reinstatement the next day; Fachin suspended both decisions, leaving Rodrigues in office. In a submission to Fachin on Friday (11), Rodrigues denied that the police had monitored Mendonça and said the reports were produced regularly and sent to Moraes under a court order.What else the poll foundOther questions in the same survey gauge the court's reputational damage. According to the news site g1, 76% of respondents say STF justices have too much power and 77% agree that people trust the court less than in the past. Even so, 71% say the STF is essential to protect democracy. The crisis has also reached the presidential race: for 85% of voters, the accusations against Moraes have not changed their vote intention; for Mendonça, the figure is 86%. Folha reports that 66% of respondents say they know about the case involving Moraes.The next chapter comes on Tuesday (15), when Fachin has called an extraordinary session of the full court to discuss the Federal Police report and the handling of Moraes's case. On Saturday, according to g1, Fachin rejected a joint trial of the two justices and scheduled a session on Mendonça for September 23. The Prosecutor General's office has asked the court to annul the Federal Police report.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of the PL party, a candidate in October's presidential election, welcomed on September 11 the lifting of court secrecy over the investigation into "Dark Horse", a biopic about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, and called for the release of the inquiries targeting Fabio Luiz Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the son of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. According to Folha de S.Paulo, he spoke at a campaign stop in Cabo Frio, in Rio de Janeiro state, and said the disclosure would have no effect on the race."Thank God, the secrecy has been lifted from everything, and it is out in the open for everyone to see what I have always said, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this film. I am very calm, the impact is zero. Everything is open for whoever wants to look."The release of documents on Banco Master, a bank at the center of a Federal Police investigation, and its former controller, Daniel Vorcaro, showed that Flavio himself is under investigation in the film inquiry. The Federal Police is examining possible money laundering, currency evasion, corruption and related crimes. Folha reports that investigators suspect part of the money paid for the stay of Eduardo Bolsonaro, the senator's brother and a former federal lawmaker, in the United States. Flavio dismissed the development. "To my surprise, I have been investigated for two months and what has surfaced against me? Nothing. This is the greatest certificate of integrity, it is what I needed," he said, adding that he wanted the files made public so that Lula would "no longer use this narrative".The senator then demanded the release of the inquiries into Lulinha. "I want to know how much money stolen from retirees ended up in the account of Lula's son, Lulinha. I want to know which ministries Marcola, Lula's chief of staff, opened for his son to do business inside the government," he said, referring to the INSS case. The INSS is Brazil's social security institute, which was hit by a fraud scandal.According to the news site Poder360, two inquiries assigned to Andre Mendonca, a justice of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, examine possible influence peddling and money laundering involving Lulinha, the lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger, Lula's former chief of staff Marco Aurelio Ribeiro, known as Marcola, and former Health Ministry secretary Swedenberger Barbosa. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) has asked that the cases be sent to a lower court and says they have no connection to the INSS fraud. The outlet reported that prosecutors found no link between the scheme run by the man known as "Careca do INSS" and the president's son. Lulinha's lawyers say the case files justify archiving the inquiries.What comes next depends on Mendonca. He has signaled he will not yet rule on the PGR request; if he refuses to send the cases to a lower court, prosecutors can take the dispute to the court's Second Panel. In the "Dark Horse" inquiry, the files ordered released on Friday (11) already show 20.9 million reais in production spending in Brazil, according to G1. The election is set for October 4, and the latest Datafolha poll gives Lula 39% against Flavio Bolsonaro's 35% in the first round.

Federal Police agents found a handwritten sheet titled "Câmara", or Chamber, listing first names of deputies and, beside each one, numbers that investigators say are "probably" values. The paper was inside the barbecue grill of Senator Ciro Nogueira's home. It was seized in May, during the fifth phase of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates the Banco Master scandal. Details of the seizure report became public on Saturday (12), in a story by the news portal g1.The sheet lists only first names. The Federal Police wrote that "ARTHUR" is "probably" Deputy Arthur Lira, a former Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil's lower house, and linked "HUGO" to Hugo Motta, "ELMAR" to Elmar Nascimento, "LUIZINHO" to Doutor Luizinho, "ADOLFO" to Adolfo Viana and "ISNALDO" to Isnaldo Bulhões. Diego, Altineu and a ninth name also appear, rendered as "Netinho" by g1 and as "Motinho" by the outlet TMC. The number 40 sits beside "Arthur"; the other names carry 10 or 5. According to TMC, the lower part of the sheet bears initials and calculations, with a highlighted total of 8.75 million reais."The police team found a draft bearing the name 'CAMARA', followed by several names, possibly of members of congress, such as 'ARTHUR' (probably Arthur Lira), 'HUGO' (probably Hugo Motta) (...), among others subject to identification. It should be noted that beside each name there are numbers and then values (probably), which requires clarification," the Federal Police wrote.The order to burn the papersA housekeeper identified as Débora told agents that Ciro Nogueira handed her the papers to be burned because they were "old or useless". The report says the destruction did not happen because she ran out of time. "In the barbecue grill of the residence, documents were located which, according to the employee Débora, had been handed over by the suspect to be burned (...). These papers will be sent for contextual analysis by the investigation team," the officers wrote. The report does not say when the instruction was given.In a statement, the office of Arthur Lira said the former Speaker "does not know the notes mentioned and cannot answer for this record". g1 sought comment from Ciro Nogueira, Hugo Motta, Doutor Luizinho and Isnaldo Bulhões, and said the space remained open at publication time. According to TMC, the senator did not respond and, during the search, refused to give officers the password to unlock his phone."High economic standard"The same report notes signs of a "high economic standard" at the house, in Lago Sul, one of the most expensive neighborhoods of Brasília, the capital. Agents described a cellar with high-value wines and whiskies, international designer handbags and, in the closet, empty suitcases tagged in the names of third parties, including relatives of the suspect. "A circumstance that raised suspicions as to their possible use for transporting values," the Federal Police wrote.The recovered papers remain under contextual analysis by the investigation team. The force said the exact nature of the numbers on the list still "requires clarification" as the inquiries continue.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, on Saturday (12) denied a request from the court's longest-serving justice, Gilmar Mendes, and kept only the investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes on the agenda of Tuesday's (15) special session. In the same ruling, Fachin set Sept. 23 to review questions about the conduct of Justice André Mendonça in the Master and INSS cases.According to Folha de S.Paulo, Fachin wrote in the ruling that keeping only the Moraes case on the docket allows the court to define precisely what it will decide:"[The measure] ensures the precise delimitation of the object of this Court's deliberation, enabling the review of a matter whose adversarial process and preliminary clarification will already have been completed."Why Fachin split the casesGilmar had asked, in a formal letter, that the report against Mendonça also be placed on the agenda and that the session be postponed. Fachin refused both. According to the news site G1, the court president explained that the two cases are at different stages: the material on Moraes was ready and cleared for judgment, while the Mendonça case still has open deadlines for gathering information and formal filings. Bringing the second case to the full bench early, Fachin concluded, would make the review unworkable.Moraes lost as well. He had asked the STF presidency to have the two cases decided together, citing, per G1, a "concrete risk of contradictory decisions and procedural turmoil." Fachin rejected the request.What started the crisisThe standoff began with messages that former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, allegedly sent to Moraes. They were revealed by the newspaper Estadão, and Folha said it also had access to them. In the days before his arrest by the Federal Police in Operation Compliance Zero, Vorcaro asked the justice for information about the investigation, arranged meetings with him and asked whether he should flee the country. The Federal Police report cites more than 50 messages from the banker to the justice, according to G1.The exchange was recorded in a Federal Police report requested by Mendonça, who also made it public. The material mentions Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet. Moraes hit back: relying on a Federal Police intelligence report pointing to supposedly improper methods by Mendonça, he asked that his colleague be investigated for abuse of authority. Fachin then ordered the report against Moraes to the full court and put it on Tuesday's agenda. That session examines the Moraes investigation; on Sept. 23, the court takes up the questions about Mendonça.

Gilmar Mendes, the dean of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), has asked the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, to requisition the Federal Police and have copies of the data extracted from former banker Daniel Vorcaro's phone sent directly to the justices' offices, if rapporteur André Mendonça does not release the files himself. According to InfoMoney and BBC News Brasil, the memo was filed on Saturday (12); G1 dates the filing to Friday (11). The standoff comes days before a full-court session set for Tuesday (15).In the memo, Gilmar backs the requests filed by Justice Cristiano Zanin and argues that handing a copy of the media only to Mendonça's office upsets the court's internal balance. Unrestricted sharing, he wrote, would allow a more consistent deliberation, with each justice building a conviction on the full body of evidence rather than on "partial summaries"."Such a measure is necessary to ensure that all Justices have knowledge of all the information relevant to the judgment, since the persistence of asymmetric access to the body of information undermines parity among the members of the Court and, ultimately, the collegiality that must preside over the judgment," Gilmar wrote.The fallback request is explicit. "Should the data not be provided by the office of the eminent rapporteur, I reinforce the request filed by Zanin that the Federal Police be requisitioned, with urgency, through the Coordination of Inquiries in the Higher Courts, to provide the aforementioned copies," he wrote. The unit, known as CINQ/PF, handles federal investigations pending before the higher courts.The standoff over the phoneThe phone, an iPhone 17 Pro seized by the Federal Police, holds the messages between Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master jailed since November 2025 in an inquiry into fraud estimated at 12.2 billion reais, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Pressed by Zanin, Mendonça told Fachin that the original device is stored in Federal Police deposits to preserve the chain of custody, and that his office holds only an encrypted backup hard drive sent by the police in March 2026, untouched and sealed. The rapporteur said releasing the full contents could harm ongoing investigations and denied that the parity among the justices has been broken."This rapporteur also has no access to information that has not been duly formalized," Mendonça wrote, according to InfoMoney. Zanin countered that a sealed backup copy does not prevent sharing and noted that Vorcaro's own defense has already seen the material in full. Moraes backed the request, writing that "it is not up to the rapporteur to choose which documents are accessible to the bench".Tuesday's session will examine the Federal Police report that identified the message exchanges, first reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo and also obtained by Folha. According to Folha, the messages show Vorcaro asking Moraes for information about the Master investigation and at one point asking the justice whether he should flee the country. Folha also reports that Gilmar asked for the justices to receive copies of every document in the Banco Master investigation. Fachin has not yet ruled on the requests.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, the longest-serving member of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), said on Friday (11) that the court cannot judge, at its session on September 15, the case naming his colleague Alexandre de Moraes in the Banco Master investigation. In a formal letter to the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, Mendes argued that the petition scheduled for Tuesday is not ready to be judged. He asked that it be joined to Pet 16.704, a proceeding already run by the presidency, and that Fachin also take over the request to investigate Justice André Mendonça.A case with no request to decideGilmar, on the court for more than 24 years, voiced "serious doubts" about the maturity of the proceeding and described its nature as "amorphous". In his account, Pet 16.662 does not define its object, the procedure to be followed, who stands as an investigated person, or what measure the full bench is supposed to take. "Strictly speaking, in Pet 16.662 there is not even a request to be decided", he wrote. The file was built from Federal Police information requested by the rapporteur himself, and the case was opened "on his own motion", without a filing by the police authority. The Prosecutor General's Office, he added, asked the plenary for no measure and argued the Federal Police report was void.Fachin called the extraordinary session for Tuesday (15) to discuss the Federal Police report that pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the imprisoned founder of Banco Master. Mendonça lifted the secrecy of the document on September 1, the move that opened the crisis between the two justices. The released chapter contained 52 messages sent by Vorcaro to Moraes, extracted from the former banker's phone; the justice's replies were not in the material and, according to the news site G1, the report did not indicate that Moraes was a target of the investigation. On the same day, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet asked for the probe to be declared void.Judgment would start with preliminary questionsFor Gilmar, going ahead with a single case would fragment proceedings that rest on common facts. "The fragmentation of proceedings resting on common factual bases, besides hindering the court's understanding of the overall picture, can produce precisely what the rules on joinder seek to avoid: irreconcilable decisions and procedural disorder", he wrote. He summed up his position in another passage of the letter: "This moment demands, above all, unity of conduct, clarity about the object of the judgment and strict observance of the procedural guarantees of all involved".Gilmar did leave an alternative open if Fachin keeps the date. The judgment should start with preliminary questions, before any ruling on the merits. "I refer, in particular, to the nullity raised by the Prosecutor General regarding the rapporteur's order to produce the Federal Police report, of more than 200 pages, on targets chosen at the rapporteur's whim", he wrote.Fachin has not yet responded to the letter, and the Tuesday session remains called. Moraes also sent a request on Friday, according to G1, asking for a joint judgment of the two pending petitions: the one on his messages with Vorcaro and the one gathering reports that point to a supposed breach of impartiality and suspicions of administrative misconduct, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority against Mendonça in the operations "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero". The decision to hold or postpone the session of the 15th now belongs to the court's president.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used a campaign rally in Porto Alegre, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, on Friday night (Sept. 11) to link banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, to the government of Jair Bolsonaro. It was Lula's first visit to the state since the official start of his reelection campaign, 23 days before the first round, according to Brasil de Fato.The remark came as the president spoke about alleged benefit fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security institute, which is being examined by a joint congressional inquiry known as a CPMI. G1 reported that it was the only moment in which Lula addressed the Banco Master scandal during his trip. He said the following about the previous administration:"They created a banker named Vorcaro in 2019. In their time, the criminal became a banker. In my term, he became a prisoner, because it was the biggest scam in this country's history."The Master caseVorcaro is in jail and is a central target of Supreme Court (STF) investigations into the bank. According to the Federal Police, two Central Bank officials took bribes to advise the banker in meetings with the institution. On the same Friday, Justice André Mendonça of the STF unsealed new case documents that mention Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate and son of the former president, as well as Ciro Nogueira and Jaques Wagner, G1 reported.The state visit and the electionThe rally was held at Largo Glênio Peres, in downtown Porto Alegre, with Juliana Brizola, the PDT candidate for governor, her running mate Edegar Pretto of Lula's Workers Party (PT), and Senate candidates Paulo Pimenta and Manuela D'Ávila sharing the stage, according to Brasil de Fato. Lula spoke about education, protection of women and national sovereignty, praised the legacy of Leonel Brizola and asked for votes for allied candidates.Earlier, in the city of Canoas, Lula signed the transfer of 1.5 billion reais in federal funds for drainage works, part of a 6.5 billion reais package under the New PAC infrastructure program for recovery from the 2024 floods, according to Poder360. At that event, he interrupted Governor Eduardo Leite as Leite compared state projects to the São Francisco river diversion. "Because I don't want a comparison," the president replied.The first round of the election is set for Oct. 4. A Datafolha poll released on Friday put Lula at 39 percent of first-round voting intentions against 35 percent for Flávio Bolsonaro, with a statistical tie in a runoff (46 to 44). At the Supreme Court, the justices remain split over how much of the Master case file should be made public.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) lifted the secrecy on Friday night (11) from investigations into the film Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and from other files in the Master case. The ruling covers presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, senators Jaques Wagner (PT) and Ciro Nogueira (PP), former Rio de Janeiro governor Cláudio Castro and Thiago Miranda, according to G1.The order made 38 case files public, 18 of them from the Master case and 20 related ones. Added to those released a day earlier, they bring the total to 53 public proceedings. Folha de S.Paulo reports the files concern fraud attributed to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who controlled Banco Master. They include inquiry 5.070, on the financing of Dark Horse, and inquiry 5.050, on Wagner's relationship with Vorcaro, according to BBC News Brasil.The prosecutors' requestMendonça acted on a request from the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), which asked that every inquiry in the Master case be made public. Releasing only part of the files could create "an erroneous idea of transparency", the PGR argued. It said the justice's list omitted most proceedings from Operation Compliance Zero, the core of the investigation."I note, at the outset, that these cases bear no relation to the subject of the extraordinary session to be held next Tuesday. In any event, I find there is no impediment to lifting the corresponding secrecy."Mendonça moved after court president Edson Fachin gave him 24 hours to release "without exception" the files tied to PET 15.556, the root of the Master investigation. On Thursday (10), the justice had made 15 petitions public, limited to exchanges between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.An open rift at the courtThe partial release drew accusations from fellow justices. Moraes wrote to Fachin that Mendonça had made a "selective choice" and had kept out 180 documents, "making public only what he deemed convenient". Justice Cristiano Zanin asked for full access to the data from Vorcaro's phone. Mendonça replied that the original device is in Federal Police custody and that his office holds only a "sealed and untouched" copy. By Friday night the files were still not visible on the court's system. The STF press office told the BBC that the technical process takes time and that the system may become congested.The next step is an extraordinary session on Tuesday (15), when the court will examine the exchanges between Vorcaro and Moraes. Moraes asked that this petition be judged together with the one alleging irregularities in Mendonça's conduct. The ruling lands in the middle of the campaign: Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president, is running for president in October's election.

Brazil's Federal Police executed 49 search and seizure warrants on Thursday against federal deputy Mario Frias (PL-SP) and Karina Ferreira da Gama, the producer of Dark Horse, a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. Operation Make Up investigates the suspected diversion of public money through congressional earmarks, the budget amendments Brazilian lawmakers direct to projects of their choice. The warrants came from the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) and were executed in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ceará states and in the capital, Brasília.Justice Flávio Dino authorized the operation and oversees the inquiry into suspected diversion of earmarked funds. According to the police, the public money reached nonprofit organizations through termos de fomento, a type of federal funding agreement. Frias wrote and executive-produced the film. According to BBC News Brasil, he is accused of transferring 2 million reais to Gama, who runs a social projects institute and, at the same time, the production company Go Up Entertainment, which made Dark Horse.What the police allegeThe investigation points to a criminal organization of public and private agents. In the police account, the money was routed to subcontracted companies without proof that the contracted services were delivered, with financial flows in the hundreds of millions of reais. "The attempts to disguise the diversions would have extended until July of this year," the force said in a statement. The crimes under investigation are embezzlement, document forgery, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding fraud.Among the addresses searched were two entities tied to Gama, the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB) and the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC). Dino cited a concrete risk that evidence would be hidden or destroyed and imposed precautionary measures: the suspects are barred from leaving the country and from contacting one another, and their passports were ordered surrendered. His decision also notes that audits by the CGU, the federal comptroller's office, found problems from the moment the ICB was chosen to receive the money. The justice wrote:"The elements already produced reveal the existence of a sophisticated financial and operational structure designed to circulate resources among entities, companies and individuals linked to the investigated core, including reports of the use of companies based abroad, such as Go Up Entertainment LLC."Reactions and a parallel inquiryFrias answered in a video posted on social media on Thursday night. He called the operation a "smokescreen" timed to the election season and said the earmark under investigation paid for a sports and digital literacy project for children, with documents and receipts proving the spending was lawful. "They took my phone, my documents, my computer. Nobody was arrested. Of course not, because there is no arrest warrant against me or anyone else," he said. The deputy also said his lawyers cannot access the inquiry. In May, Frias had denied directing earmarks to the film and called the claim "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary support and defamatory." State outlet Agência Brasil said it had received no reply from his office and was still trying to reach Gama.Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the former president's son and a presidential candidate in October's election, commented on the operation during a YouTube livestream. He accused Dino of acting politically to hurt his campaign and insisted that "it was all perfectly in order, private investment in a private movie." The film's financing is also the subject of a separate STF inquiry under Justice André Mendonça, which examines whether the transfer of 61 million reais from banker Daniel Vorcaro to the film, at Flávio's request, was irregular. That case surfaced in May, when the news site The Intercept published audio of a conversation between the senator and Vorcaro from last November. Flávio denies any improper deal and says the film's funding was entirely private. Both inquiries remain open, and no arrests have been made.

Brazil's Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça said on Friday (11) that he "could never make public" the entire set of proceedings in the Master case. In a filing sent to Chief Justice Edson Fachin, he denied leaving out cases when he lifted confidentiality and stated that "all effectively available documents have been duly made public". The response came a day after the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the federal prosecutors' office, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes accused him of selective disclosure.The PGR asked Fachin on Friday to unseal more documents. In the request, signed by Deputy Attorney General Hindenburgo Chateaubriand Filho, prosecutors said the list sent by the rapporteur omitted most proceedings tied to the broader Federal Police investigation, Operation Compliance Zero, and that releasing only part of the files could "lead to a mistaken idea of transparency". According to UOL, the PGR counted 18 cases left out of the declassification. Attorney General Paulo Gonet will work the case alongside his deputy.Moraes went further in his own letter to Fachin. He wrote that Mendonça, "directly interested in the judgment", "subjectively selected the lifting of confidentiality, making public only what he deemed convenient". He counted 180 documents and digital files excluded from the set released on Thursday (10), when the rapporteur unsealed 15 case files at Fachin's request. The Master case, an investigation into Banco Master and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, has been under Mendonça since February.A point-by-point responseMendonça answered the same day. On the 180 documents, he said the figure came from an improper comparison between the "documents made available" and the piece count in eDigital, the court's electronic case system. The numbers can diverge "for multiple reasons" without meaning a partial release, he wrote. He also defended the exceptions: Fachin's own order allowed keeping under seal any diligence in which confidentiality was indispensable, such as proceedings holding banking and tax data on individuals and companies."The totality of the proceedings contained in or related to PET 15.556 could never be made public."PET 15.556 is the docket that gathers the Master proceedings at the court. According to the justice, all material relevant to the judgment set for Tuesday (15) has already been sent to the justices' chambers. On Friday night, he granted the PGR's request and unsealed 18 case files from the Master case, plus 21 more, as reported by news outlet G1. They include inquiries involving Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI), Cláudio Castro (PL-RJ), Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA) and Thiago Miranda.What comes nextThe exchange of letters precedes Tuesday's (15) session, when the court is set to weigh petitions in the case. Moraes asked that two be judged together: one on messages he exchanged with Vorcaro and another on reports about Mendonça's conduct in investigations. Fachin granted the PGR's and Moraes's requests and gave Mendonça 24 hours to unseal all documents, provided the move does not harm ongoing police work. Justice Cristiano Zanin reiterated his request for access to media from Vorcaro's phone; Mendonça replied that the device is with the Federal Police and his office holds only a sealed copy, according to G1. The dispute has exposed open divisions among the justices, the PGR and the leadership of the Federal Police.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes is working with allied justices on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) to postpone the session scheduled for Tuesday, September 15. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the group will only accept that the full bench meets if the agenda also includes the case against Justice André Mendonça.Court President Edson Fachin called the session to discuss a Federal Police report that identified Moraes as one of the interlocutors of Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker behind Banco Master, the financial group at the center of a sprawling corruption investigation. The report became public on September 1, after Mendonça, the justice overseeing the Banco Master case, lifted its secrecy. It contains 52 messages sent by Vorcaro to Moraes; the justice's replies do not appear in the material. According to Folha, colleagues advised Fachin to put both issues on the agenda together, arguing they cannot be separated.The pressure became formal on Friday (11). Moraes sent a written request to Fachin asking that the two pending petitions be judged together, G1 reported. One of them gathers reports pointing to suspected breach of impartiality, administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority by Mendonça in running the operations "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero". The court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, went further: he asked for the September 15 session to be postponed, for the case against Mendonça to be added to the agenda, and for Fachin to take over all related proceedings. "The moment demands, above all, unity of direction, clarity on the object of the judgment and strict observance of the procedural guarantees of everyone involved," Gilmar wrote.On the risk of splitting the cases, he wrote:"The fragmentation of proceedings built on common factual bases, beyond making it harder for the bench to understand the overall picture, can produce exactly what the rules on joinder seek to avoid: irreconcilable decisions and procedural disorder."A court split down the middleAccording to Folha, Moraes currently has the support of Justices Gilmar Mendes, Cristiano Zanin and Flávio Dino. Mendonça is aligned with Luiz Fux, Kassio Nunes Marques and Fachin himself. Since Dias Toffoli is not expected to vote, Justice Cármen Lúcia is likely to hold the deciding vote.The calendar problemFachin has told colleagues in private conversations that the deadline he gave Mendonça to explain his conduct will not have run out by Tuesday. It expires on September 21. Against that backdrop, Folha reports, justices have warned that a request for more review time, known in Brazil as a pedido de vista, could halt the judgment. The device allows a justice up to 90 days to study the case files and, for Moraes's group, would buy time and get around the obstacle raised by Fachin.The full bench remains summoned for Tuesday, September 15. Until then, Fachin must decide whether to keep the agenda, postpone the session or merge the two cases. Mendonça's deadline runs to September 21.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is rated as bad or terrible by 42% of Brazilians. Another 32% call it good or great, and 25% call it fair. The figures come from a Datafolha poll released on Friday (Sept. 11), a little over three weeks before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.In the poll, 47% approve of Lula's personal performance as president and 50% disapprove. Lula, of the Workers' Party, is running for reelection. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the top two advance to a runoff.Numbers hold steady within the margin of errorIn the previous survey, released on Sept. 3, 42% called the government bad or terrible, 31% good or great and 25% fair. Lula's personal disapproval stood at 51%, against 45% approval. This week's shifts sit inside the margin of error of two percentage points, either way.Datafolha interviewed 2,002 voters aged 16 and older between Tuesday (8) and Thursday (10) in 125 municipalities. The confidence level is 95%. The survey was commissioned by Folha de S.Paulo and TV Globo and is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under code BR-01833/2026.Supreme Court crisis dominates the final stretchFolha reports that the week's political news was dominated by the crisis at the Supreme Federal Tribunal, Brazil's top court. The opposition's tactic, the paper says, is to tie Lula to Justice Alexandre de Moraes, whose relationship with the former owner of Banco Master was exposed by fellow justice André Mendonça.Lula's rival Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) told an Independence Day event on Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, on Sept. 7 that "voting for Lula is voting for Moraes." Folha notes that Flávio himself is implicated in the case for having demanded money from Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master.The same round of Datafolha numbers, reported by G1, shows Lula with 39% of first-round voting intentions against 35% for Flávio Bolsonaro. In a runoff, Lula would have 46% to Bolsonaro's 44%, a gap equal to the margin of error. The Supreme Court session on Moraes is scheduled for Tuesday (Sept. 15), according to Folha. Brazilians vote in the first round a little over three weeks after the poll's release.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, the longest-serving member of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), asked the court's president, Edson Fachin, on Friday (11) to take personal charge of the case built on a Federal Police report that logged messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and the jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro. In a formal letter, Gilmar argued that the full court should review that report together with another document that raises suspicions against Justice André Mendonça, the justice overseeing the Banco Master case. According to Folha de S.Paulo, he also suggested postponing the session set for Tuesday (15).Gilmar criticized the split handling of cases built on the same facts. "The fragmentation of proceedings resting on common factual grounds, in addition to hindering the court's understanding of the overall picture, can produce exactly what the rules of connection seek to avoid: irreconcilable decisions and procedural disorder," he wrote."The moment demands, above all, unity of conduct, clarity on the object of the judgment and strict observance of the procedural guarantees of everyone involved."Pressure on Fachin before the sessionFachin summoned the full court to discuss the Federal Police report on Tuesday (15). The document pointed to a possible relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro, the founder of Banco Master, the bank at the center of the investigation. Moraes himself sent Fachin a letter on Friday asking that two pending petitions be judged together: one covering his messages with Vorcaro, and one collecting reports alleging a breach of impartiality, administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority by Mendonça in the operations "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero".How the crisis beganThe dispute among the justices grew out of the Banco Master investigations. On September 1, Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a proceeding that contained a chapter of the Federal Police report listing 52 messages sent by Vorcaro to Moraes. The justice's replies do not appear in the material, which was produced from data extracted from the banker's phone. Two days later, Moraes asked Fachin to open an investigation into Mendonça, citing suspected administrative improbity, abuse of authority and a crime of responsibility in his handling of the Master and INSS cases.The Attorney General's Office, under Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, had already called for the investigation ordered by Mendonça to be declared void. Fachin must now decide whether to accept the joint-review requests and whether to keep Tuesday's session, when the justices are expected to set the procedure for debating the report.

President Lula of the Workers' Party leads Brazil's presidential race with 39% of first-round voting intentions, against 35% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday (11). In a simulated runoff, Lula has 46% and Flávio Bolsonaro 44%, a difference within the survey's two-percentage-point margin of error, a technical tie. Datafolha, one of Brazil's main polling institutes, conducted the survey for Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.The scenario tested excludes Pablo Marçal, an influencer who is currently barred from running; according to G1, electoral courts have yet to decide whether he can compete. Behind the two leaders, writer Augusto Cury (Avante) has 6%, Goiás Governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) 4%, Renan Santos (Missão) 3% and Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema (Novo) 2%. Blank and spoiled votes total 6%, and 4% of respondents are undecided. Flávio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, rose two points from the September 3 round, when he had 33%; Lula gained one point; and Cury fell from 8% to 6%.Runoff scenariosThe Lula-versus-Flávio runoff numbers repeat the September 3 round point for point. In the second half of August, the gap was four points, 47% to 43. Datafolha tested a runoff against Cury for the first time: 45% to 43, another technical tie. Against Caiado, Lula leads 46% to 41. The margin widens against Zema, 48% to 39, and Renan Santos, 48% to 37.Rejection of the two front-runners is identical: 46% of voters say they would never vote for Lula, and another 46% say the same of Flávio Bolsonaro, the institute found. The survey also shows that 75% of voters are fully decided on their choice, while 25% say they could still change.The same poll measured the government's standing: 47% of respondents approve of Lula's administration and 50% disapprove. On September 3 the figures were 45% and 51%. In the overall evaluation, 42% rate the government as bad or terrible, 32% as excellent or good, and 25% as fair.Datafolha interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 and over across the country between September 8 and 10. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, Brazil's top electoral tribunal, under number BR-01833/2026. The first round of the election takes place in October. Before that, the electoral courts must decide whether Pablo Marçal can enter the race.

Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro (PL), the wife of former president Jair Bolsonaro, leads the Senate race in Brazil's Federal District with 21% of voter intentions, a Datafolha poll released on Friday showed. Senator Leila do Vôlei of the PDT is second, at 18%. Two of the district's three Senate seats are on the ballot in October.The gap between them falls inside the poll's margin of error of three percentage points, which counts as a statistical tie. Datafolha conducted the survey for Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, interviewing 910 voters between September 8 and 11. The confidence level is 95%, and the poll is registered with electoral authorities as DF-06055/2026 and BR-04623/2026.Bia Kicis (PL) follows at 15% and Erika Kokay (PT) at 14%, both technically tied with Leila. No other candidate tops 2%. Blank, null or no candidate answers total 11%, and 9% of respondents are undecided.Gains since AugustAll four front-runners grew since the previous survey, released on August 21. Michelle moved from 19% to 21%, and Leila from 16% to 18%. Bia Kicis jumped from 11% to 15%, and Erika Kokay from 12% to 14%. Blank and null answers fell from 16% to 11%, and undecided voters from 14% to 9%.In the spontaneous survey, where candidates' names are not shown to respondents, undecideds dropped from 67% to 49%. Michelle went from 8% to 15% of mentions, and Bia Kicis from 4% to 11%. Leila rose from 5% to 7%, and Erika Kokay from 4% to 6%.Two votes per voterBrazil renews two of the three Senate seats held by each state and by the Federal District, the area that includes the capital, Brasilia. Every voter casts two Senate votes. On the first, Michelle leads with 34%, up from 29%, ahead of Leila at 18%, Erika Kokay at 17% and Bia Kicis at 8%. On the second, Bia Kicis moves to the front with 21%, followed by Leila at 19%, Erika Kokay at 11% and Michelle at 9%.Folha published a methodology note alongside the numbers:"Poll results are not forecasts; they do not aim to anticipate what will come out of the ballot boxes. They are a snapshot of respondents' opinions at the moment interviewers were in the field."The first round is set for October 4. According to news site g1, Globo outlets will publish 130 polls on the presidential, state and Senate races through the eve of the vote, commissioned from Datafolha and fellow pollster Quaest.

A Datafolha poll released on Friday (11) shows former Rio mayor Eduardo Paes, of the PSD, leading the race for governor of Rio de Janeiro state with 43% of first-round voting intentions. Douglas Ruas, of the PL party, is second with 25%, and Anthony Garotinho, of Republicanos, has 10%, according to news website g1.Paes's lead narrowed from 22 to 18 percentage points compared with the previous poll, while Ruas gained 6 points. Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo commissioned the survey, one of Brazil's most closely watched election polls. Interviewers heard 1,204 people between September 8 and 10. The margin of error is three percentage points, with a 95% confidence level, and the poll is registered with electoral authorities under number RJ-09217/2026.Garotinho in third despite barred candidacyGarotinho reached 10% even though the state electoral court, the TRE-RJ, unanimously denied his candidacy registration earlier on Friday. The court found that the former governor's political rights are suspended for eight years because of a final conviction for administrative improbity in a case over the diversion of Health Department funds. The case covered his time as government secretary under his wife, former governor Rosinha Garotinho.The electoral prosecutor's office says the conviction became final on July 11, 2025. "He cannot vote or be voted for," said regional electoral prosecutor Flávio Paixão. Garotinho can still appeal to the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court."I reaffirm that I am a candidate for the state government, and the TRE-RJ ruling does not affect the campaign, as the TSE recently decided. I remain firm and strong to save the state of Rio de Janeiro from this den of corruption."Runoff scenarioIn a simulated runoff between Paes and Ruas, the former mayor takes 54% against 34% for the PL candidate. Blank, null and no-candidate answers add up to 10%, and 2% are undecided, g1 reported.The same Datafolha wave puts approval of Governor Ricardo Couto's administration at 45%, against 34% disapproval. In the Senate race, Benedita leads with 18%, ahead of Carlos Jordy and Carlos Portinho, at 10% each. Nine candidates are running for the Palácio Guanabara, the seat of the state government. The TSE is the next stop for Garotinho's appeal. The first round of voting is less than a month away.

Senator Cleitinho Azevedo of the Republicanos party leads the race for governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil's second most populous state, with 37% of voter intentions in the first round, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday (Sept. 11). Patrus Ananias of the Workers' Party (PT), a former mayor of Belo Horizonte, has 13%. Alexandre Kalil of the PDT, another former mayor of the state capital, has 11%.Datafolha, one of Brazil's main polling institutes, ran the survey for Folha de S.Paulo and Globo. It interviewed 1,204 voters aged 16 and older between Sept. 8 and 10, in face-to-face interviews. The margin of error is three percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with electoral authorities under number MG-01611/2026.Cleitinho gains five points since AugustIn the previous poll, on Aug. 21, Cleitinho had 32%. The five-point gain puts the senator 24 points ahead of the runner-up. Patrus rose from 12% to 13%, a change within the margin of error. Kalil slipped from 12% to 11%. According to Folha, the two former mayors are technically tied for second place.Farther back sit Governor Mateus Simões of the PSD, who is running for reelection, businessman Flávio Roscoe of the PL, and Gabriel Azevedo of the MDB, all at 4%. Approval of the state government fell from 41% to 37% since August, while disapproval rose from 32% to 38%. Blank, null or no answers total 11%, and undecided voters account for 10%.Lead holds in runoff scenariosFor the first time this election, Datafolha also published valid votes, a measure that excludes blank, null and undecided responses. On that basis, Cleitinho reaches 47%, against 17% for Patrus and 14% for Kalil. Patrus has the highest rejection rate among the front-runners: 30% of voters say they would not vote for him. Cleitinho's rejection stands at 15%.In simulated runoffs, the senator beats both rivals. Against Kalil, Cleitinho takes 54% to 29%. Against Patrus, he reaches 59% to 24%. The first round of Brazil's elections is scheduled for Oct. 4.

Governor Raquel Lyra of the PSD leads the race for the governorship of Pernambuco with 47% of voter intentions, against 42% for former Recife mayor João Campos of the PSB, a Datafolha poll released on Friday, September 11 shows. The five-point gap falls inside the poll's three-percentage-point margin of error, and the result is treated as a statistical tie.Datafolha, one of Brazil's best-known polling institutes, conducted the survey for the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and TV Globo. Lyra, who governs the northeastern state, is running for reelection. Campos is a former mayor of Recife, the state capital. In the previous round of the poll, published on August 21, Lyra had 47% and Campos 40%; his gain stayed within the margin of error, Folha reported. The other candidates trail far behind: Ivan Moraes (PSOL), Renan Hallais (Missão) and Professora Camila, a teacher candidate of the UP, each poll 1%, while Guilherme Fonseca (PSTU), Professor Jeremias do Banco (Democrata) and Victor Assis (PCO) registered zero.First round or runoffCounting only valid votes, which exclude blank, spoiled and undecided responses, Lyra reaches 51% against 46% for Campos. If that held on election day, she would win outright in the first round. Factoring in the margin of error, however, she could have as little as 48% of valid votes, Folha noted. In the full-candidate scenario, blank, spoiled or none-of-the-above answers add up to 6%, and 2% of respondents gave no answer.In a simulated runoff between the two, Lyra polls 51% against 44% for Campos, with 4% blank or spoiled votes and 1% undecided. The August 21 survey had included no runoff scenario, g1 reported. The same poll found that 48% of voters rate Lyra's administration positively and 20% negatively.Datafolha interviewed 1,204 voters aged 16 and over in 48 municipalities across Pernambuco between September 8 and 10, according to Folha. The survey has a 95% confidence level, g1 reported, and is registered with the electoral court under numbers PE-04411/2026 and BR-05923/2026.The first round of Brazil's elections is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, Lyra and Campos would face each other in a runoff on October 25.

Former ministers Marina Silva (Rede) and Simone Tebet (PSB) lead the race for São Paulo's two Senate seats with 13% of voter intentions each, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday (11). Datafolha is one of Brazil's main polling institutes, and the survey was commissioned by TV Globo and Folha de S.Paulo. With a margin of error of two percentage points, state deputy André do Prado (PL), at 11%, and federal deputy Guilherme Derrite (PP), at 10%, are technically tied with the two leaders: a four-way statistical tie.How the poll was conductedAccording to G1, 1,610 people were interviewed between September 8 and 10, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number SP-04189/2026. InfoMoney, which also published the results, reports fieldwork from September 8 to 11.In the combined tally for both seats, Ricardo Salles (Novo) has 5%, and Geraldo Rufino (Podemos) and Guto Schiavetto (Missão) have 3% each. Five other candidates poll 2% and one polls 1%, while two did not register a single mention. Another 18% said they will cast a blank or null vote or support no candidate, and 14% are undecided. In the spontaneous question, where names are not shown to respondents, 68% could not name a candidate; Tebet, Derrite and Marina each got 5%.Two votes per voterIn 2026 Brazil elects two senators in every state and in the Federal District, renewing 54 of the Senate's 81 seats. Each voter must mark two different names. As G1 explains:"That is why each voter needs to vote for two different candidates. It is not possible to choose the same name twice."The picture shifts when answers are broken down by seat. For the first seat, Marina, Tebet and Derrite each poll 15%, with Prado at 13%. For the second, Marina and Tebet hold 11%, Prado drops to 9%, and Salles and Derrite tie at 6%. Derrite's support is concentrated in the first vote, while Salles gains in the second.Schiavetto entered the survey in this round: he was not yet listed as a candidate in the electoral court's system when the previous poll was registered, and, according to G1, the results cannot be compared. For InfoMoney, the 18% of blank and null answers plus 14% of undecided voters show the race is still largely undefined.The first round is scheduled for October 4. Four names remain within the margin of error for the two seats at stake in Brazil's most populous state.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Friday (11) gave Justice André Mendonça 24 hours to lift the secrecy on additional files in the Banco Master case. The order grants a request from the federal prosecution service (PGR) and requires Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, to send the court presidency and the justices' offices every proceeding tied to Petition 15.556, the origin of the investigation, and to Operation Compliance Zero.Fachin granted the request filed by Deputy Attorney General Hindenburgo Chateaubriand Filho, who leads the criminal case and will act alongside Attorney General Paulo Gonet. The files must be delivered on a dedicated hard drive. Only ongoing investigative steps whose effectiveness could be harmed by early disclosure are exempt."...order, within 24 hours, the delivery, on a dedicated hard drive, to this Presidency and to the offices of the distinguished Justices, of all proceedings contained in or related to Petition 15.556 and to the so-called 'Operation Compliance Zero' (Inquiry 5026), as well as the lifting of secrecy over Petition 15.556 (and the proceedings contained in or related to it)," Fachin wrote.Pressure from prosecutors and MoraesThe decision answers prosecutors' criticism of the release Mendonça issued on Thursday (10). Petition 15.556 is the original core of Compliance Zero, a Federal Police investigation into an alleged financial fraud and money laundering scheme involving Banco Master and its owner, Daniel Vorcaro, with allegations reaching members of Congress and Justice Moraes himself. According to the PGR, the published list leaves out a large share of the proceedings tied to the broader inquiry. "What is verified, however, from the list sent is that it does not contain a large part of the proceedings currently connected to the broader investigation known as Operation Compliance Zero," the office said, warning that a partial release could create a "misleading idea of transparency."Justice Alexandre de Moraes pressed in the same direction. In a memo to Fachin, he said Mendonça made a "selective choice" and "subjectively selected the lifting of secrecy, making public only what he considered convenient." According to Moraes, of the 4,514 documents across the 15 proceedings tied to the case, only 4,334 were made public and 180 remain sealed. "The lifting of secrecy was partial, excluding 180 documents and, as a consequence, making the evidentiary analysis harder," he wrote. Moraes also asked that two petitions be tried together: 16.662, which covers his message exchanges with Vorcaro, and 16.704, which gathers reports on Mendonça's handling of court cases.Mendonça's response and Tuesday's sessionMendonça denied acting selectively. In a filing sent to Fachin, he said he had complied with the president's request and made public every proceeding related to the matter the court will weigh on Tuesday (15). Keeping other inquiries sealed, he said, followed "a prudent and responsible analysis, considering the existence of ongoing investigations and the need to protect the personal data of those under investigation." He argued that proceedings used to obtain banking and tax records can never be published in full. According to G1, Thursday's release kept secret probes including one linked to Senator Jaques Wagner and one into the financing of the film "Dark Horse."In a separate order, Fachin told Mendonça to state his position on Justice Cristiano Zanin's request for access to the full data seized from Vorcaro's phone, which Zanin says he needs for a "complete and necessary" review. The 24-hour clock started running on Friday. On Tuesday (15), the full court meets in a session called by Fachin to judge Petition 16.662. Adding Petition 16.704 to the agenda still depends on a decision by the court presidency.

São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicanos party has 49% of voter intentions in the first round of the race for Brazil's most populous state, according to a Datafolha poll released on Friday (Sept. 11). Former minister Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT) has 29%. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and by Globo.Among valid votes, a count that excludes blank and spoiled ballots and undecided voters, Tarcísio reaches 56% against Haddad's 32%. It is the first time the institute has published this calculation in the 2026 race. In Brazil, a candidate wins outright in the first round with more than half of valid votes. At that level, the governor could secure reelection on Oct. 4.The lead has grown since AugustIn the previous Datafolha round, on Aug. 21, Tarcísio had 45% and Haddad 27%. The gap widened from 18 to 20 points. In the spontaneous survey, where no list of names is shown, the governor has 32% and the PT candidate 16%, with 41% undecided. In a possible runoff, Datafolha has Tarcísio winning 56% to 35%. Rejection is higher for Haddad: 48% of respondents say they would not vote for him, against 29% for the governor.Government approval and the rest of the fieldTarcísio's administration is rated excellent or good by 46% of São Paulo voters. Another 30% call it fair and 21% poor or terrible. In August, the positive rating was 42%. The governor's work is approved by 63% and disapproved by 32%.The other candidates trail far behind: police officer Edjane of Agir and Carlos Machado of the PCB have 3% each, Vera Lúcia (PSTU) and Vivian Mendes (UP) have 2% each, and Izadora Dias (PCO) has 1%. Blank and spoiled ballots and those who say they would vote for no one add up to 8%, and 3% are undecided. For 66% of respondents the vote is settled; 34% say they may change before election day.Datafolha interviewed 1,610 voters in São Paulo state between Sept. 8 and 10. The margin of error is two percentage points in either direction, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) as SP-04189/2026. Voting takes place on Oct. 4.

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) formed a majority on Friday (11) to reject the presidential candidacy registration of businessman Pablo Marçal (PRTB). Four justices voted against the bid in the court's virtual plenary session. The ruling prevents Marçal from running in the October election and restricts his campaign's access to public funds and television and radio airtime.Reporting Justice Estela Aranha voted to deny the registration based on Marçal's previous political disqualification. Justices Nunes Marques, André Mendonça, and Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva joined her opinion. With four votes in the seven-seat court, the ruling formed a conclusive majority against the ticket.The decision reinforces an existing ruling against Marçal, who remains ineligible to run for public office until 2032 under a decision by the Regional Electoral Court of São Paulo (TRE-SP). The regional court convicted him of improper use of communication media during the 2024 São Paulo mayoral election. The TRE-SP unanimously rejected all appeals filed by his defense and upheld the eight-year ban.The Electoral Public Prosecutor's Office (MPE) also challenged the timing of Marçal's party affiliation with the PRTB. The prosecution established that Marçal was publicly affiliated with the União Brasil party in April, the statutory deadline six months prior to the general election."It is uncontroversial that searches across open internet sources demonstrate, in a convergent manner, that challenged candidate Pablo Marçal (...) presented himself publicly as an affiliated member of the União Brasil party."The MPE also requested an immediate ban on public campaign funding transfers and the suspension of free television and radio campaign broadcasts. The virtual plenary session remains open for the remaining three TSE justices to record their votes ahead of the official certification of the final result.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took charge on Tuesday night (8) of an operation to contain the crisis at the top of Brazil's judiciary. According to Folha de S.Paulo, his aides concluded that an endless dispute inside the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's highest court, is seriously hurting his campaign for reelection this year, and Lula decided it is urgent to rebuild a majority able to isolate Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur of the Master and INSS investigations.On the president's instructions, Folha reports, cabinet ministers, justices seen as close to the Planalto, the seat of government, and lawmakers coordinated in recent hours a response to Mendonça's decision on Tuesday to remove Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada. On Wednesday morning (9), Justice Flávio Dino ordered both reinstated. Interlocutors told the newspaper that many of the arguments in Dino's ruling reflect Lula's own views.An offensive against the justiceThe backroom diagnosis, according to the newspaper, is that attempts to negotiate the court's neutrality in this year's election through dialogue with Mendonça have failed. Jorge Messias, the head of the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the federal government's top legal counsel, had acted as a bridge to the justice. Allies convinced Lula that Mendonça, a former minister under Jair Bolsonaro, is working to damage his reelection bid and shield his main rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the former president's son. Lula then authorized an offensive against the rapporteur.People aware of the talks told Folha that the decision to have Andrei file a rehabilitation petition in an investigation handled by Dino came from Lula's negotiation with allies. The inquiry covers suspected irregularities in budget earmarks tied to "Dark Horse", a film about Jair Bolsonaro. Examining Andrei's petition on Wednesday, Dino wrote that hiring and firing the Federal Police chief is the exclusive power of the president and asked, in the ruling, whether "a party can be its own judge and anticipate value judgments about Federal Police reports that explicitly mention it".The public attackLula also took his case public. In a post on X on Wednesday, he criticized "selective leaks" affecting the electoral race and called for an end to the secrecy around the Master case, which the Federal Police says involved artificially inflating the value of the now defunct Banco Master. "The Brazilian people need explanations and immediate measures to face the institutional crisis that has taken over the Judiciary", the president wrote, according to news outlet G1."It is urgent to fully lift the secrecy of the investigations into everyone involved in the Master case, whoever they are and no matter whom it hurts. Brazil needs to know the truth."The crisis escalated after Mendonça released Federal Police reports exposing message exchanges between former banker Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in the Banco Master fraud scheme, and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who asked Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin to open a probe into the rapporteur's conduct. The next move belongs to Fachin, according to G1: he canceled the court's plenary session on Wednesday, was expected to receive Moraes during the day, and set a deadline for the parties to weigh in on the intelligence reports before taking the matter to the full bench.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) President Edson Fachin on Wednesday (9) suspended the ruling by Justice André Mendonça that removed Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada from their posts. Fachin also suspended the decision by Justice Flávio Dino, issued hours earlier, that returned both officers to their jobs. According to news site G1, Rodrigues remains at the head of the Federal Police, Brazil's main federal investigative agency, and the merits of his removal will be examined later.In orders released on Wednesday, Fachin criticized a pattern of individual rulings by the court's own justices being challenged by one another."It is a grave situation when decisions by justices come to be challenged horizontally, especially while the trial under way in this court's Second Chamber and the request to suspend the injunction pending before this Presidency remain unresolved.""I consider it necessary to suspend the decisions analyzed here because, beyond any judgment on the merits of removing or not removing these officials, which will be carried out in due course, it is necessary to stop a pattern of conflicts and procedural overlaps that in themselves constitute injury to public order and to the integrity of this court," Fachin wrote (translated from Portuguese). The suspension holds while the Second Chamber trial and the injunction request remain pending.How the dispute beganThe fight over the Federal Police command began on Tuesday (8), when Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of Rodrigues and Almada. The ruling granted a request from the Novo party and opened criminal and administrative disciplinary proceedings against the director-general before the force's internal affairs office. Mendonça said he and Solicitor General Jorge Messias had been subjected to illegal "systematic monitoring" by police intelligence. "It was a correct and necessary decision," Novo party president Eduardo Ribeiro said in defense of the justice.The Second Chamber, a five-justice panel convened in an extraordinary virtual session to endorse the removal, halted the trial after Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for review. Mendes questioned the panel's jurisdiction and argued the full court should judge the case. That same night, the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the government's legal counsel, asked Fachin to suspend the removal urgently. In its statement, the office said the measure causes "grave injury to public and administrative order" and "frontally violates the constitutional prerogative vested exclusively in the President of the Republic to appoint and dismiss Federal Police leadership positions." All 11 Federal Police directors placed their posts at the disposal of substitute director-general William Marcel Murad and called the removal "unjustified attacks."On Wednesday, before Fachin intervened, Dino had reinstated Rodrigues and Almada in a separate case, after a petition filed by Rodrigues's defense in an investigation under Dino's charge. According to InfoMoney, the justice said Novo had no standing to request precautionary criminal measures and that the removal could undermine investigations that depend on the police intelligence branch, including the probe into payments for "Dark Horse," a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro.What comes nextThree steps are pending: the Second Chamber trial, halted by Mendes's review request; the 72-hour deadline Fachin set for Mendonça to respond to the AGU request; and a full-court session the court president called for Tuesday (15), when the justices are to discuss the Federal Police report on the alleged relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, along with a request by the Prosecutor General's Office to void the inquiry. The court has yet to decide how the dispute over the police command reaches the full bench.

Brazil's national bar association, the OAB, decided on Wednesday (9) not to file an impeachment request with the Senate against justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the country's top court. The decision came out of an extraordinary closed-door meeting in Brasilia with representatives of the order's 27 state chapters. Instead of the request, the organization will create a commission to examine the justices' conduct in the Banco Master case.According to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the order discarded a proposal approved a day earlier by councilors of its Brasilia chapter, who had called for impeachment proceedings against Justices Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli over "indications of the crime of responsibility". The newspaper reported that both justices had ties to the bank of former banker Daniel Vorcaro.Commission will seek access to the case filesCNN Brasil reported that the panel was created on Wednesday night by the OAB's national president, Beto Simonetti. Made up of members of the national leadership and state chapter presidents, the commission will ask Supreme Court President Edson Fachin for access to the case files of the investigations into the relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. The result will be a legal opinion on the justices' conduct, to be voted on by the OAB's Federal Council."Just as the Supreme Court, its justices, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Police are capable, through their agents, of conducting this entire investigation, we also have the intellectual capacity, through our federal councilors, chapter presidents and jurists who have already volunteered to join this commission, to carry out a deep analysis of all this documentation," Simonetti told CNN.The meeting also approved other requests filed with the Supreme Court. The OAB asked that Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet not act personally in the case discussing Federal Police reports containing records of interactions between Moraes and Vorcaro. According to the organization, the measure is "strictly procedural and preventive" and does not represent a conclusion about Gonet's conduct. The order also requested access to evidence and documents from the crisis, including sealed materials within limits set by the court, and the opening of investigations into possible crimes, including those that may involve members of the court.The commission's opinion still needs a vote by the Federal Council, and CNN reported that an impeachment request against Moraes remains among the options to be weighed. The decision came amid pressure from state chapters, a movement led by the Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Parana offices. At the Supreme Court, the full bench is scheduled to meet on September 15 to address the crisis, including a possible investigation of Moraes.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, has given Andrei Rodrigues, the director-general of the Federal Police, 48 hours to provide information. The deadline was set in a ruling signed on Wednesday, Sept. 9. Once it expires, Fachin will decide whether Rodrigues keeps the job."Mr. Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues shall be summoned to provide information within 48 (forty-eight) hours, after which his continuation as Director-General of the Federal Police, under article 33, sole paragraph, of LOMAN [Brazil's organic law on the judiciary], will be examined by this Presidency," Fachin wrote, as reported by G1.How the standoff unfoldedThe deadline is part of a batch of rulings in which Fachin suspended orders issued by justices André Mendonça and Flávio Dino. On Tuesday, Sept. 8, Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of Rodrigues and of the Federal Police intelligence director, Leandro Almada, and opened criminal investigative proceedings into how intelligence reports were produced. He said the removal was needed to protect evidence and the investigations. He asked the court's Second Chamber to review the order in a virtual session, and it had formed a three-vote majority to uphold the removals when Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time, halting the vote.On Wednesday, Dino reversed the removal at Rodrigues's own request. The police chief argued the order was holding up an investigation connected to "Dark Horse," a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro that Dino oversees. Hours later, Fachin suspended both rulings. The suspension of Mendonça's order followed a request from the Attorney General's Office, the AGU, which said in a statement that the decision "restores public and administrative order" and reaffirms the president's constitutional power to appoint and dismiss federal police commanders.In the same rulings, Fachin took the so-called Fake News inquiry away from Justice Alexandre de Moraes and suspended every investigation aimed at members of the court. "The Presidency has the duty to safeguard the preservation of the Court's integrity and is convinced that it does so and will do so," Fachin wrote, describing a moment of "conflicts and procedural overlaps" causing "grave harm to public order and to the integrity" of the court. The clash began with investigations into the Master bank.What comes nextFachin has called the full bench to a session on Tuesday, Sept. 15, to weigh a Federal Police report on an alleged relationship between Moraes and the jailed banker Daniel Vorcaro, and to rule on a nullity request filed by the Prosecutor General's office. Meanwhile, Rodrigues's 48-hour clock is running. According to G1, he spent Wednesday afternoon at the Federal Police headquarters in Brasília and had not commented on the ruling as of the latest update.

The national council of Brazil's bar association, the OAB, asked the president of the country's highest court, the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Wednesday (9) to keep Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet from acting personally in the case that examines a Federal Police report logging contacts between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Banco Master banker Daniel Vorcaro. The request was approved in an emergency meeting of the OAB national body with the presidents of its 27 state chapters and filed under case PET 16.662/DF, according to Metrópoles.Why the bar wants Gonet off the caseThe OAB argues that Gonet now holds an unusual position. His office, the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR), has already taken a stance in the case, arguing that the order which produced the Federal Police report, and any material derived from it, should be voided, CNN Brasil reported. At the same time, Fachin summoned Gonet to answer questions in the proceeding the court's presidency opened to centralize review of the crisis between the justices and the Federal Police.In the association's view, holding both roles at once means Gonet should step aside personally. Federal prosecutors would stay in the case through the prosecutor-general's legal substitute. The OAB itself stressed that the request draws no conclusion about Gonet's conduct. The filing describes the measure as "strictly procedural and preventive". In a statement, the council said the request "does not intend to interfere with the investigation, replace the competent authorities or give unrestricted publicity to information protected by law".Other requests and what comes nextThe OAB also asked for access to the reports, evidence, filings and other documents tied to the crisis, including sealed material, within the limits set by the court. It requested that investigations be opened into "possible unlawful acts related to the facts, without distinction based on the office or function of the authorities eventually involved". Any inquiry, the entity argues, must be individualized and preserve due process, the right to a full defense and the presumption of innocence. For the association, it is "through regular investigation, and not through presumptions or anticipated conclusions" that facts of such institutional relevance must be clarified.The request adds a chapter to the friction between the bar association and the Supreme Court. In the same meeting, the OAB decided to create a commission of national board members and chapter presidents to review the documents and issue an opinion on the conduct of the justices involved. An impeachment petition against Moraes is among the options the commission may weigh, CNN Brasil reported. Removing a sitting justice requires a trial in the Senate.The case already has its next date on the calendar. Fachin called an extraordinary plenary session for September 15, at 10 a.m., to review the referral of Justice André Mendonça's ruling on the messages exchanged between Moraes and Vorcaro. Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, had already sent the matter to the full court. It is now up to Fachin to rule on the OAB's request concerning Gonet.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party has 38% of voting intentions in the first round of Brazil's presidential election, against 36% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, according to the PoderData/Aya poll released on Thursday (10). Interviewers reached 3,000 voters by phone between September 6 and 9. With a margin of error of 1.8 percentage points, the two are in a technical tie.In a runoff, Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has 47% against 45% for Lula, also a statistical tie. According to CNN Brasil, the senator rose 2 points from the previous round and the president rose 1. The pollster also tested the writer Augusto Cury of Avante in alternative runoffs: he beats Lula by 44% to 43% and loses to Flávio by 36% to 43%.A tighter raceCury ranks third in the first round with 10%, holding the level he reached last week, when he jumped from 4% to 10%, according to Poder360. Renan Santos (Missão party) has 3%, while Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Pablo Marçal (PRTB) have 2% each. Hertz Dias, Romeu Zema, Rui Costa Pimenta and Edmilson Costa sit at 1% each, and Clariana Barão, Samara Martins and Wilson Grassi did not score. Blank and spoiled votes add up to 3%, and 1% of respondents were undecided.Lula's lead has narrowed over the series. The 2-point gap is the smallest since May, Poder360 reports. A week earlier the president led by 3 points. The same round puts rejection of Lula at 50%, against 45% for Flávio Bolsonaro.How the poll was conductedPoderData is the polling institute of the Poder360 media group, which funded the survey with its own resources. Aya Bancah, a digital newsstand, is the distribution partner. The poll heard 3,000 voters in 623 municipalities across all 27 Brazilian states. The confidence level is 95%, and the survey is registered with the TSE, the country's superior electoral court, under number BR-04914/2026. The series will run weekly until election day.In its analysis, Poder360 says Lula "reaches the final stretch without the lead he held for most of this year", in a race overshadowed by the crisis at the Supreme Federal Tribunal. The first round is scheduled for October 4, and a possible runoff for October 25. The next PoderData/Aya round is expected next week.

Augusto Cury, a presidential candidate for the Avante party and a psychiatrist and author who polls third in the race, said on Thursday (10) in São Paulo that he could back Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a possible runoff, on the condition that the candidate prove there was no corruption in the funding of the film "Dark Horse". President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) was ruled out entirely: "I would not support Lula under any circumstance. Not even 0.01%", Cury said, according to O Globo.Conditions for backing Flávio BolsonaroThe statements came hours after the Federal Police launched Operation Make Up, which investigates the suspected diversion of congressional budget earmarks to entities tied to the production of the film about Jair Bolsonaro's political rise. Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL's presidential candidate and son of the former president, is not a target of that operation, but his name appears in a separate investigation into fundraising for the film with former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, according to G1. Vorcaro is suspected of running a financial fraud scheme, O Globo reports. The newspaper also reports that Flávio Bolsonaro sought R$ 134 million for the production, of which about R$ 69 million went to a fund in the United States with no transparency. The senator says the transfers were private sponsorship and denies wrongdoing.Cury set three conditions before releasing his voters to back the senator: proof that there was no corruption, an account of where the money went, and the public signing of his government plan. "As for Flávio, he has to prove that he has no corruption. He has to prove where the money for 'Dark Horse' went. He has to take my government plan and, at a notary's office, sign that he will carry it out. If he does that, the people who follow me are released to vote for him", he said, according to G1. To O Globo, he added: "I would not stay neutral. But he would have to prove he is not corrupt, he would have to explain 'Dark Horse'"."He [Vorcaro] was wearing an electronic ankle monitor and [Flávio] went there to ask for part of the money he still owed. That promiscuity with Banco Master has to be resolved no matter the cost. Because Brazil does not belong to a group of people, it belongs to 210, to 213 million Brazilians."Lula, "not even 0.01%"On Lula, Cury was categorical. "I will not support Lula, clearly, in the second round. I believe I will be in a second round strongly with my team. And Lula's nightmare, with all due respect, is my candidacy", he said during a campaign stop in São Paulo, according to G1. At a meeting with financial market executives organized by Banco Genial, he added, to applause: "Lula has to retire, the PT's model has to retire", O Globo reported.In a Quaest poll released this week, Cury has 8% of voting intentions, in third place behind Lula (36%) and Flávio Bolsonaro (29%). In runoff simulations, the two front-runners tie numerically at 41%, with a margin of error of two percentage points. Avante, led by federal deputy Luís Tibé, is allied with the PT in four states and with the PL in seven. "If you find a party that is a convent, call me and I will join it", Cury replied, according to O Globo.The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two go to a runoff on October 25, and the decision of Cury, currently third in the polls, could influence the outcome. His support remains conditional on Flávio Bolsonaro's explanations about "Dark Horse", while the Federal Police and the Supreme Court continue to investigate the film's financing.

The British magazine The Economist said on Thursday that Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, the STF, has gone from defending Brazilian democracy to threatening it. The article, titled "When democracy's defenders turn their backs", ties the shift to the Banco Master scandal and the clash between Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça. It was published 24 days before Brazil's October 4 general election."Facing constant threats, including from Donald Trump, the justices pressed ahead serenely with the prosecution of the former populist president, sentencing him to 27 years in prison in September 2025. Most Brazilians celebrated that the country's young democracy had been saved. Now, with the general election approaching on October 4, democracy's defenders have become a threat to it," the magazine writes, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo.Moraes at the centerThe main target is Alexandre de Moraes, the justice who presided over the trial that convicted Jair Bolsonaro of plotting a coup. "The Supreme Court sits at the center of a sordid and ever-expanding corruption scandal. At its epicenter is the justice who oversaw the case against Bolsonaro," the text says, crediting him with "questionable decisions" in that trial. The magazine also faults his running of the so-called Fake News inquiry, a disinformation probe he led until court president Edson Fachin removed him as rapporteur on Wednesday.According to BBC News Brasil, the inquiry's secrecy and long duration make it impossible to know how many social media accounts Moraes had "censored". Folha reports that, in the magazine's reading, he combined "the roles of victim, prosecutor and judge" and used the probe to shield himself. On the Master case, the article cites the contract between the bank and the law office of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, and a Federal Police report that, per G1, listed 52 messages from banker Daniel Vorcaro to Moraes. In those exchanges, Vorcaro allegedly sought advice on when to leave Brazil to escape prison, and the messages grew more frequent shortly before his arrest as he tried to flee the country. "Moraes denies any wrongdoing," the magazine writes.Mendonça is a target tooThe court's crisis began on September 1, when Mendonça lifted the seal on the Federal Police report. Two days later, Moraes asked for his colleague to be included in the Fake News inquiry for "abuse of authority". The Economist concedes that Moraes "has a point": Mendonça has not released evidence against other judges who also had dealings with Vorcaro. The criticism of Mendonça runs long. The Federal Police accused him of interfering with evidence collection, he tried to remove the force's chief on September 8, and in 2020, as Bolsonaro's justice minister, he oversaw a dossier on hundreds of police officers and academics the then president saw as enemies.In the magazine's assessment, the court's "dysfunction", Mendonça's "procedural missteps" and Moraes's "blatant attempts to protect himself" endanger the Master investigation itself. Procedural errors could give legal cover to close the case, which would benefit Moraes and dozens of politicians, including presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, CNN Brasil reports, relaying the publication's conclusion that "the biggest loser would be democracy". BBC adds that Congress could push ahead with impeaching STF justices and pardoning the crimes Bolsonaro was convicted of."Brazilians are tired of the corruption scandals that sully the political class every few years. The misuse of their institutions could undermine confidence in democracy more than Bolsonaro ever did."The article lands in a decisive week for the court. On Tuesday the 15th, the STF's full bench is set to debate whether to open an investigation into Moraes based on the Federal Police report, G1 reports. Fachin has canceled the plenary sessions of Wednesday and Thursday and spent the day in private consultations with the justices. Moraes, the prosecutor general, Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues and Mendonça have until the session to submit information. G1 reports that Moraes is expected to speak publicly on Monday the 14th, the eve of the decision.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday (10) that he is satisfied with the decisions taken by Edson Fachin, the president of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's highest court, to contain the crisis among its justices. He spoke in an interview with the broadcaster SBT, in a presidential election year.In the president's assessment, Fachin acted correctly but has not finished the job. "Fachin took the right step, he has not finished taking the necessary steps. I hope he does more to put the house in order and restore the credibility the Brazilian people have always had in the Supreme Court," Lula said, according to news site g1. Folha de S.Paulo transcribed the same passage differently, recording that the president said Fachin had put "a bit of order in the house".On those responsible for the crisis, Lula named Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça, and Fachin himself."If Alexandre de Moraes is guilty, he must pay. If Mendonça is guilty, he must pay. If Fachin is guilty, he must pay. Everyone must be at the disposal of our Constitution. The law above all, and let the truth be sovereign."What Fachin decidedOn Wednesday (9), Fachin suspended Mendonça's order removing Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada from their posts. He also suspended the ruling by Justice Flávio Dino that had reinstated the two the same day, leaving both directors in office. Fachin further took over the report of the so-called Fake News inquiry, suspended every investigation procedure against members of the court, and halted a review by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) into alleged interference in the production of the Federal Police report.The crisis began with investigations into Banco Master, a bank controlled by financier Daniel Vorcaro, and now involves Justices Mendonça and Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and the Federal Police leadership. In the interview, Lula again called for the secrecy on the Master case files to be lifted and reiterated his confidence in Rodrigues, whom he appointed to the post. "Andrei is a very competent professional, with more than 30 years of career," the president said, while backing an investigation if irregularities are found, as Folha reported.What comes nextFachin has called a full court session for Tuesday (15), when the justices will discuss the Federal Police report that pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro. Lula said the work at the court is not done: "There is still more to do: we still have to find out who is really guilty".

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday (10) that Supreme Federal Court justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça "have to pay" if they are guilty of any crime. He spoke in an interview with broadcaster SBT, in the middle of his reelection campaign and days after the conflict between the two justices escalated at Brazil's top court.According to CNN Brasil, Lula extended the rule to Chief Justice Edson Fachin:"If Alexandre de Moraes is guilty, he has to pay. If [André] Mendonça is guilty, he has to pay, if [Edson] Fachin is guilty he has to pay."The president called for a public investigation with no secrecy, with no "half information" or "half words". He said he spoke with Fachin on Wednesday (9) and asked for the case files to be opened. "It was the first thing I asked for, I don't like secretive investigations. If there has to be an investigation, it is better to make it public so that people can be formally accused," he said.Asked about the effect on the election, Lula said an inquiry run by the court "should not impact the electoral process," but he criticized selective leaks. "Since there are selective leaks, I spoke with Minister Fachin yesterday and the secrecy of everything has to be lifted, to put everyone before Brazilian society, to see if the Supreme Court recovers its credibility and punishes whoever has to be punished," he said. According to Reuters, he again demanded an end to the secrecy of the Banco Master investigations and said Brazil should discuss fixed terms for Supreme Court justices.How the crisis beganThe confrontation started after a Federal Police report requested by Mendonça pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is jailed in the Banco Master case, according to news site g1. Moraes, in turn, cited indications that Mendonça acted with partiality as the justice in charge of the bank's cases. On Wednesday (9), Fachin removed Moraes from the Fake News inquiry and struck down decisions by Mendonça and Justice Flávio Dino on the removal and reinstatement of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. "I think Fachin acted correctly yesterday. He will have to take this process, bring it to himself and put the house in order," Lula said.The full court is scheduled to meet on Tuesday (15) to review the Federal Police report on Moraes and Vorcaro and to decide how the inquiry proceeds. The first round of the presidential election, in which Lula runs for reelection, is scheduled for early October.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, canceled the court's plenary session for the second day in a row on Thursday (10) and spent the day in internal consultations ahead of Tuesday's session, when the 11-member court will decide whether to open an investigation into Justice Alexandre de Moraes.According to g1, Fachin received six justices in the president's office: Moraes, André Mendonça, Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin and, in a joint meeting, Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, the country's top prosecutor, also visited the court's presidency. Late at night, Fachin went to Justice Cármen Lúcia's office for further talks. In the assessment of one justice heard by g1, the court's president "has been listening a lot and speaking little".The vote countThe case has no precedent at the court. Fachin decided to send to the full bench a Federal Police report that pointed to 52 messages from former banker Daniel Vorcaro to Moraes. Vorcaro is held in preventive prison under Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates financial fraud at Banco Master and an alleged "monitoring and influence network". André Mendonça is the justice in charge of the Master case and ordered the report.Behind the scenes, according to g1, six votes are considered more settled. Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin are seen as aligned with Moraes. André Mendonça would count on the support of Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques. There is uncertainty about the votes of Fachin and Cármen Lúcia, who have received overtures from both sides. Dias Toffoli has reportedly told colleagues he tends not to take part, because the case is an offshoot of the Master investigation and he has declared himself barred from voting on offshoots since leaving the reporting role. Part of the court argues he can vote, since the discussion involves procedural questions, such as the model for investigating a sitting justice.Session formatThe rules for Tuesday's session have not been confirmed, but the indication is that Moraes would not vote. The wing that supports him also argues that Mendonça should not judge the matter, after questions about his handling of the inquiries. Interlocutors cited by g1 say Fachin prefers an open session, with some restriction for security reasons, the model used in the trial of the alleged coup plot. A closed session is also under discussion.Folha de S.Paulo reports that justices from different wings fear the broadcast will become ammunition for the presidential campaign, in which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva faces Flávio Bolsonaro, through clips cut to go viral on social media. Some in the court considered trying to persuade Fachin to close the session, although he is inclined to keep it public. Another idea is a longer broadcast delay. According to interlocutors cited by Folha, Fachin has appealed for a minimum of civility during the proceedings. One court member described the episode as a potential "institutional carnage".Moraes is still weighing when to speak publicly about the crisis. He had said he would address it on Thursday, then pulled back, and the expectation is that he will speak on Monday (14). The justice, the prosecutor general's office, Federal Police director Andrei Rodrigues and Mendonça have until then to provide information on the report. Fachin also gave the justices a copy on Thursday of all the Federal Police material on the alleged relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) has lifted the secrecy on only part of the investigations into the Master case, the scandal surrounding Banco Master and its owner, banker Daniel Vorcaro. The decision follows a request made hours earlier by the court's president, Edson Fachin, and the documents became public on Friday (11). According to BBC News Brasil, 14 case files tied to the bank were released.The released files include probes involving Vorcaro, the target of the Compliance Zero investigation into suspected financial fraud and money laundering. Left out, according to G1, were the inquiries into the financing of Dark Horse, a film about Jair Bolsonaro's life, and into the ties between Senator Jaques Wagner and Augusto Ferreira Lima, Vorcaro's former partner.The sealed threads cover sensitive ground. Federal Police records cited by G1 list 74 phone calls between Wagner and Lima over 18 months and say the senator defended the bank's interests in Congress in exchange for benefits, including a Salvador apartment valued at 2.5 million reais. On the film, G1 reports that Vorcaro sent 61 million reais to the producers through a fund in the United States, and, according to The Intercept Brasil, presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro reportedly negotiated a 24 million dollar transfer for the project.What Fachin asked forOn Thursday (10), Fachin asked Mendonça, the justice who reports on the Master investigations at the court, to send the offices of the president and the other justices a hard drive with information from case filing 15.556, the original core of Compliance Zero. That filing includes accusations against members of Congress and against Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Fachin allowed one exception: data deemed "essential" to the investigations could stay protected.Solicitor General Jorge Messias praised the decision and noted that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already called for the secrecy to be lifted."Publicity is the rule of the Republic. Transparency protects institutions, guarantees equal treatment for those involved, clarifies citizens' choices and lets society learn the facts without cuts, versions or selectivity," Messias wrote on social media.The September 15 sessionThe release comes at the height of a standoff between Mendonça and Moraes. On September 1, Mendonça unsealed a Federal Police report suggesting that Vorcaro had sought advice from and exchanged information with Moraes. Two days later, Moraes released police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça. On Wednesday (9), Fachin removed Moraes as the reporting justice of the so-called Fake News inquiry and scheduled the plenary session on the Master case.The next step is set. On Tuesday (15), the full court is due to examine case filing 16.662, which grew out of 15.556. The session could open an investigation into Moraes, a decision that belongs to the court's eleven justices.

Ministers of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) began saying on Friday (11) that they will bring accusations against colleagues into the debate of the September 15 session, if the court judges only the request to open an investigation against Alexandre de Moraes. The report comes from the column of Mônica Bergamo in Folha de S.Paulo.According to the column, the ministers say that if the request against Moraes is judged without the same happening to André Mendonça, "not one stone will be left upon another" in the debate. They say several members of the court have already been the target of complaints, including alleged ties to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, the bank at the center of a scandal that has shaken Brasília. In their view, if the STF is to be cleaned up, it will be fitting to discuss the "podres", or dirty laundry, of everyone else present at the session on the same day.Pressure on Fachin's agendaThe warning from behind the scenes arrives four days before the session. On Wednesday (9), STF President Edson Fachin scheduled September 15 for the judgment of the investigation request against Moraes, which concerns messages he exchanged with Vorcaro. In the same decision, Fachin suspended the back-and-forth changes at the head of the Federal Police and took away from Moraes the rapporteurship of the fake news inquiry, reports Poder360.Moraes fought back on Friday. In a formal letter to Fachin, he asked that the request to investigate Mendonça for "abuse of authority" be scheduled for the same date, on the grounds that the two cases involve "connected facts". In his words, Mendonça is "directly interested in the judgment" and left 180 documents out of the declassification of the case files, according to Poder360 and G1.How the crisis beganThe crisis started on September 1, when Mendonça made public a Federal Police report containing conversations between Vorcaro and Moraes. The investigation identified multimillion-dollar contracts between the Master group and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the minister's wife. On September 3, Moraes filed a request to investigate Mendonça for "abuse of authority".The next move belongs to Fachin. He decides whether to add the case against Mendonça to the Tuesday (15) session. The STF president also gave Mendonça a 24-hour deadline, counted from Friday, to lift the secrecy on all documents of Petition 15.556, which holds the core of Operation Compliance Zero.

Documents from Brazil's Federal Police and the federal prosecutor's office (PGR), released by the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) on Friday (11), show that former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro advised in a message how money for "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, should be managed and moved in the United States. In the text, he called sending funds from Brazil for the film "problematic" and said the ideal would be for the money to already be in the US.According to G1, a PGR opinion signed in July by prosecutor general Paulo Gonet cleared the opening of the STF inquiry into the film's transnational financing. Eduardo, who lives in the United States, is one of the targets of the investigation. Investigators obtained a screenshot of a conversation attributed to him with instructions on how to operationalize sending the money abroad. The document does not say who received the message."The ideal would be to have the funds already in the US. From the US to the US it is easy. If the Brazilian company sending to the US does not have that large budget we mentioned as an example, it will be problematic, the transfers will have to be made little by little and this would take about 6 months, we calculate."In the same message, Eduardo suggests sending "as much as possible" through the current system and offers Altieris Santana, identified by investigators as director of Havengate Development Fund, a Texas-based fund that held the money and passed it to producer Go Up Entertainment. Folha de S.Paulo reports that the documents also indicate Eduardo acted as manager of the money raised for the film.A US$ 24 million deal and a plea agreementThe investigation found that in December 2024 publicist Thiago Miranda sent Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master, a draft "Production Financing Agreement" for "Capitão do Povo", the film's earlier name, foreseeing US$ 24 million in 14 installments. International transfers totaled US$ 12.3 million in 2025 and were made by Entre Investimentos, a company owned by businessman Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior, known as "Mineiro". His plea agreement with the PGR was approved on Wednesday (9) by Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the case at the STF.In its filing to the court, the Federal Police wrote that the amounts are "significantly divergent" from available benchmarks in Brazil's audiovisual market and that the gap reinforces the need to investigate "the economic viability and the true purpose of the operation". The police lists points to clarify, among them the origin of the funds, the function of the Havengate fund, the final beneficiaries and the role of Eduardo and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate in the October election, in structuring, collecting and directing the money. Flávio denied wrongdoing in May, in an interview with GloboNews: "All the resources that were put into this fund, which is specifically for the production of the film, were used entirely to make the film."The "Dark Horse" inquiry continues before Mendonça at the STF, and Flávio asked on Friday for all documents on the film to be declassified. Separately, the court is ruling until September 18 on the defense appeal against Eduardo's sentence of 4 years and 2 months in prison for coercion in the case on the 2023 coup attempt. The justice presiding, Alexandre de Moraes, voted to reject the appeal and uphold the sentence.

Justice Dias Toffoli ordered the Master bank case moved to Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) one day after the Federal Police reported finding no evidence of crimes by officials entitled to foro privilegiado, the special jurisdiction that routes cases involving senior officeholders to higher courts. The sequence emerged from case files that Justice André Mendonça, the current rapporteur, unsealed on Thursday night (Sept 10). CNN Brasil and Valor Econômico reported the details on Friday (11).The timeline in the case filesThe Federal Police memo is dated December 2, 2025. The force said it had sifted through the evidence gathered in the inquiry into Operation Compliance Zero and the bank controlled by financier Daniel Vorcaro, including cell phones and electronic devices, and that the criminal theory at that point covered only financial crimes."To date, after a thorough screening of the collected evidence, including cell phones and electronic equipment, no evidence whatsoever has been found of crimes committed by politically exposed persons or authorities with prerogative of forum, and the criminal hypothesis remains unchanged, limited to investigating financial crimes," the Federal Police wrote.According to CNN Brasil, the next day, December 3, Toffoli ordered the entire case sent to the STF and taken away from lower courts, under his own rapporteurship. He justified the move as a way to "avoid leaks that could harm the investigations". Valor Econômico dates to December 9 the decision that consolidated all Compliance Zero and Master proceedings at the court. The newspaper says the stated reason was a possible connection to federal deputy João Carlos Bacelar (PL-BA), after the police found a document mentioning the lawmaker at Vorcaro's home.In the police assessment, that document was an unsigned draft for a property sale between Bacelar and Vorcaro, a deal that never closed and held "no interest whatsoever for the investigation". Days before the ruling, according to Valor, lawyers for Vorcaro and other suspects had asked Toffoli to send the case to the STF. The reasoning the minister adopted matched the defense argument.CNN Brasil adds another entry to the timeline. Toffoli had been drawn as rapporteur of a claim filed by Vorcaro himself, lodged on November 28, 2025, five days before pulling the whole investigation to the STF. Days later he placed the case under maximum secrecy. In February, after the police pointed to possible connections between the justice and Vorcaro, Toffoli left the rapporteurship. CNN describes his departure as a removal over suspected involvement with the banker; Valor reports he stepped aside voluntarily. Mendonça was then drawn as the new rapporteur.Fallout at the courtThe partial release reignited tensions at the STF. On Friday (11), Justice Alexandre de Moraes sent a formal letter to the court's president, Edson Fachin, accusing Mendonça of a "selective choice" in lifting the secrecy. According to Moraes, only 15 proceedings were released in part, with 180 pieces and digital documents excluded. He asked for immediate full disclosure and a joint ruling on the two pending petitions. The review of Moraes's own situation is scheduled for Tuesday (15). Fachin is still defining the format of the trial.

Banker Daniel Vorcaro told his ex-girlfriend, Martha Graeff, about eight meetings with Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), during 2025, according to Federal Police reports detailed by R7. The WhatsApp messages were released by the court in the early hours of Friday (11). The PF treats the records as suspected meetings, held in Brasília, São Paulo and Campos do Jordão.The messagesOn March 19, 2025, Vorcaro wrote to his then girlfriend: "Estou com o ministro aqui" ("I am with the minister here"). The next day he sent: "Chegando Hugo e Ciro para falar com Alexandre" ("Hugo and Ciro are arriving to talk to Alexandre"). G1 reports that the meeting began on the night of the 19th and ran into the dawn of the 20th, when Chamber of Deputies Speaker Hugo Motta and Senator Ciro Nogueira arrived at the residence.On April 19, Martha asked what he had gone to Campos for, and Vorcaro replied: "Foi passar feriado" ("Went for the holiday"). The PF considers the location to be Campos do Jordão, a mountain town in São Paulo state, according to R7. On April 29, the banker wrote "Agora to com Alexandre" ("Now I am with Alexandre") and, after a phone call, told his girlfriend that the voice on the line "era de Alexandre de Moraes".The other mentions follow the same pattern. On May 21, Vorcaro said he was in a meeting at home "com ciro e alexandre". On May 26, he said he had arranged a couples dinner with "Moraes e Fabio Faria". On August 8, he cited "reuniao alexandre e depois com ciro". The PF says all of these exchanges refer to the justice. The messages also record plans for a dinner to bring together Moraes and his wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, who had a contract with Master, along with former minister Fábio Faria and his wife.The chats came from one of the phones seized in Operation Compliance Zero, which led to Vorcaro's pretrial arrest in November 2025. A PF report made public on September 1, after case rapporteur Justice André Mendonça lifted its secrecy, lists at least 16 moments when the two men may have met, eight of them treated as confirmed. The confirmations came from messages with several people, including Vorcaro's daughter Stella. A year earlier, in April 2024, the banker had organized with Moraes the First Legal Forum in London, sponsored by Banco Master.What comes nextThe release comes amid an open crisis at the court. On Friday, Moraes asked STF President Luiz Edson Fachin to immediately lift the secrecy on every document in the Master case and called the partial release ordered by Mendonça a "selective choice" that excluded 180 pieces. The Prosecutor General's Office also requested full disclosure, and Justice Cristiano Zanin asked for access to media from Vorcaro's phone to review requests from prosecutors. The review of Moraes's situation is scheduled for Tuesday (15). Fachin is still defining how the trial will be conducted.

The campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will use Brazil's free electoral TV and radio airtime, plus social media, to explore the release on Friday (11) of details of a Supreme Federal Court (STF) inquiry that names Senator Flávio Bolsonaro among those investigated over the financing of the film "Dark Horse". Flávio, eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is the presidential candidate of the right-wing PL party. According to the blog of Valdo Cruz on G1, one ad already prepared states: "Justice confirms: Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation for corruption and money laundering in Dark Horse". Others are being produced to stress that the candidate is personally investigated in the case.The Federal Police requested the inquiry, the Attorney General's Office backed it, and Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master case at the court, authorized it in July. On Friday, at the request of Chief Justice Edson Fachin, Mendonça unsealed part of the file. According to G1, the papers state that Flávio worked to secure about 70 million reais from Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker who controlled the now-defunct Banco Master, for the project, a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro. Released documents show Vorcaro transferred 61 million reais to the producers through a fund based in the United States.Why the campaign sees an openingThe move follows weeks of political damage from the crisis between the court and Banco Master. Campaign members assess that Lula's political closeness to Justice Alexandre de Moraes pulled the president into the public debate on the crisis, G1 reports. In the coordinators' reading, the disclosure of the inquiry against Flávio offers a chance to shift part of the political focus and hit the president's main opponent directly."Lula is not under investigation. Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation. We will hammer on this to show the difference between the two candidates in this Banco Master crisis."The statement came from one of the campaign coordinators, in a conversation with the G1 blog. The internal reading has an echo elsewhere: the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo reports that after weeks of concern over Flávio's growth in the polls, the campaign believes the inquiry revelations should interrupt the senator's favorable wave.Flávio denies any wrongdoing. On Thursday, the Federal Police carried out 49 search warrants in Operation Make Up, which investigates suspected misuse of public funds from congressional amendments and targets congressman Mario Frias (PL) and Karina Ferreira da Gama, producer of "Dark Horse". In a live YouTube broadcast, the candidate accused Justice Flávio Dino, who oversees that operation, of acting politically to harm his candidacy, and defended the film. "With complete peace of mind, once again, there is nothing wrong with Bolsonaro's movie. Turn it inside out, pull it from top to bottom, back to front, from side to side. Everything there was perfectly in order, private investment in a private film," he said, according to BBC News Brasil.The ads should start running in the next blocks of electoral airtime, less than a month before the first round of the presidential election, set for October 4. The rest of the inquiry remains under seal at the STF.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, has pressed Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet to step aside from the Banco Master case and skip the court session that will examine a report portraying Justice Alexandre de Moraes as an interlocutor of banker Daniel Vorcaro. The account comes from Folha de S.Paulo. The session is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15.Court sources heard by Folha say Fachin considered ordering Gonet's removal from the case through a judicial measure in recent days. He changed course and concluded that a move by the prosecutor himself would work better. The two met for about half an hour on Thursday (10) at the office of the court's presidency. People familiar with the talks say Fachin suggested that the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR), which leads federal prosecutions in Brazil, be represented on Tuesday by another prosecutor. One option raised was deputy prosecutor general Hindenburgo Chateaubriand.Why the case reaches the PGRThe report that casts Moraes as an interlocutor of Vorcaro, the owner of the defunct Banco Master who is jailed in Brasília, also mentions the head of the PGR. The police investigation includes exchanges in which lawyer Ciro Soares forwards to the banker messages attributed to the prosecutor general. In other excerpts, Vorcaro asks Moraes to activate Gonet and Federal Police director Andrei Rodrigues to block an operation against the bank. According to the findings, Gonet's son also asked the banker to attend an event funded by him in London, with expenses paid.Gonet denies any wrongdoing. In conversations with his team in recent days, as reported by Folha, he denied a close relationship with Vorcaro and said Moraes never asked for interference in the Master investigations. Members of the office who work directly with him say he knew lawyer Ciro Soares and treated him in a friendly way, which they describe as his style.What comes nextTuesday's session is part of the crisis that the Master investigations have opened at the STF, drawing in Fachin, Moraes, rapporteur André Mendonça, the PGR and the Federal Police leadership. Behind the scenes, the view is that Gonet's absence matters most if the office chooses to argue orally before the full bench. Moraes sent Fachin a letter on Friday (11) speaking of a "selective choice" in the partial release of documents ordered by Mendonça and asking that the two case files be judged together, according to G1. Fachin has yet to define the procedure for the trial.

The National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) demanded explanations on Thursday (September 10) for the crisis involving the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the Federal Police and other institutions of the republic. In an official message, the body that gathers Brazil's Catholic bishops said any possible wrongdoing must be investigated with independence, transparency and respect for constitutional guarantees, and summed up its position in one phrase: "justice without privileges".The crisis stems from a dispute inside the Supreme Court itself over sealed files from investigations tied to the so-called Master case, a banking scandal, which include private conversations between justices. Justice André Mendonça lifted the seal on part of the material, and the justices remain divided over what else to release and how the court should judge the case, according to news site g1.In the document, the CNBB said the moment demands "serenity, responsibility and clear institutional responses" and called on "the branches of the republic, their authorities and all of society" to clarify the facts, according to the newspaper Correio Braziliense. "The independence and balance between the branches are indispensable conditions for the preservation of justice, liberty and social peace," the text reads.'No one can be above the law'"No one can be above the law, just as no one should be condemned beforehand without being assured the right of defense and the constitutional guarantees."The bishops said defending democratic institutions is no reason to block investigations. In their view, the credibility of institutions grows when the facts are examined independently, impartially and transparently. The conference asked that questions of great institutional weight be decided by the full court in public, collegiate sessions, so society can follow the proceedings and read the reasoning behind each ruling. It also urged the STF to move forward with a code of ethics now under preparation, meant to strengthen ethical responsibility, prevent conflicts of interest and set clear standards of conduct.An election-year messageThe message arrives in the middle of Brazil's 2026 election campaign. According to g1, the CNBB said institutional crises must not be used to deepen public distrust or serve partisan interests, and defended conditions for free and reliable elections. "Legitimate divergences cannot feed generalized distrust in institutions," the bishops said. The Correio Braziliense column adds that the Workers' Party plans to press its long-standing proposal to overhaul the judiciary, including fixed terms for judges on the higher courts.The message was signed by CNBB president Dom Jaime Spengler, the archbishop of Porto Alegre, by the two vice presidents and by the secretary-general of the conference. The next step belongs to the court: the justices still have to settle what more will be disclosed and how the case will be tried, under growing pressure for open plenary sessions.In its closing lines, the CNBB wrote that "Brazil needs truth without manipulation, justice without privileges, institutions that serve the common good, lucidity and peace". It added: "The truth does not weaken institutions. When sought with justice, transparency, humility and respect for the law, it strengthens them and strengthens democracy itself."

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) asked the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, on Friday (11) to immediately lift all secrecy from the Banco Master case files. In a formal letter to the presidency of the court, Moraes described as "selective" the partial release of documents made the previous day by the case's rapporteur, Justice André Mendonça.According to Moraes, Mendonça released only 15 case files, in partial form, and left out 180 documents and digital records. Moraes attached a table comparing what was made available with what is registered in the court's electronic system: of 4,514 items on record for the 15 files, 4,334 became accessible. The largest gap is in Inquiry 5026, where 61 of 1,086 pieces remain sealed. Moraes also asked the court's information technology directorate to certify the exact number of procedures tied to the investigation."By partially complying with Your Excellency's decision, Minister André Mendonça, directly interested in the judgment of both PETs 16,704 and 16,662, subjectively selected the lifting of secrecy, making public only what he deemed convenient," Moraes wrote, according to Folha de S.Paulo.Three formal requestsIn the letter, Moraes made three requests to Fachin: a joint trial of petitions 16,662 and 16,704; a total and unrestricted lifting of secrecy; and the summons of every justice named in the records, so they can give clarifications. Petition 16,662 covers messages exchanged between Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, and Moraes himself. Petition 16,704 gathers Federal Police intelligence reports alleging a breach of impartiality by Mendonça in his handling of the operations "Sem Desconto" and "Compliance Zero", including claims that he steered investigations toward targets such as Moraes and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. According to G1, Moraes noted that Fachin himself had acknowledged a link between the two petitions, to avoid contradictory rulings.Mendonça unsealed part of the case on Thursday (10), at Fachin's request. The order covered petition 15,556, the root of the investigation, and the procedures derived from it. Fachin reserved one exception, for material related to investigative steps whose secrecy is "essential" to the case. BBC News Brasil reported that 14 procedures were published in addition to the main one. Left under seal were fronts such as the inquiry into Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA) and the financing of "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro that placed conversations between Vorcaro and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) under Federal Police scrutiny.What comes nextThe review of Moraes's situation is scheduled for Tuesday (15), at a plenary session convened by Fachin that, according to BBC News Brasil, could lead to the opening of an investigation against the justice. Fachin has yet to define the trial procedure. The dispute between the two justices became public on September 1, when Mendonça released a Federal Police report with signs that Vorcaro had sought advice from Moraes. Two days later, Moraes released reports on Mendonça's conduct. On Wednesday (9), Fachin removed Moraes as rapporteur of the Fake News inquiry and scheduled the September 15 session.

The First Chamber of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) began judging on Friday (11) an appeal filed on behalf of former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro against his sentence of four years and two months in prison, set for a semi-open regime, which in Brazil allows inmates to work or study outside prison during the day. According to CNN Brasil, the session in the court's virtual plenary opened at 10 a.m., runs for one week and is due to end on Friday, September 18.The sentence was handed down in June for coercion in the case of the alleged coup plot. According to the court, Eduardo lobbied US officials, including President Donald Trump, to press for sanctions against Brazil and against STF justices, in an attempt to benefit his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. Revista Oeste reports that the former congressman now lives in the United States.The defense argumentThe appeal, a motion known in Brazil as embargos de declaração (clarification embargos), was filed in July by the Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU). The office does not contest the facts behind the conviction. It argues that the ruling contains a contradiction. According to the defense, all four justices who decided the case relied on Eduardo's public statements as proof of a confession. The reporting justice, Alexandre de Moraes, wrote that the defendant "expressly confessed the crime" in interviews. Cristiano Zanin and Cármen Lúcia made similar statements, and Flávio Dino used the same wording more narrowly, when addressing the intent to commit the crime.None of them, however, counted the confession as a mitigating factor when calculating the sentence. The defender's office says the omission violates Brazil's Penal Code and settled precedents of the Superior Court of Justice and of the STF itself.Clarification embargos exist to fix contradictions or omissions in a ruling, not to reopen the merits of the case. If the chamber grants the request, the sentence can be recalculated. If it rejects the appeal, the conviction stands and the case moves to the enforcement stage. The virtual vote remains open until September 18.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate in Brazil's October election, is among the targets of a Federal Police inquiry at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, into the financing of Dark Horse, a film about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. The ruling that placed him under investigation was issued on July 22 by Justice André Mendonça. His name became public on Friday (11), after Mendonça partially lifted the seal on the case at the request of the court's president, Justice Edson Fachin. Parts of the case remain secret.According to G1, the police are investigating suspected money laundering, illegal currency transfers abroad and corruption allegedly involving Flávio in connection with financing arranged with Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the now defunct Banco Master. The office of the prosecutor general was consulted and did not oppose opening the inquiry. Mendonça ordered the case sent to the Federal Police so that investigators could proceed with steps that do not require judicial authorization.The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reports that Flávio negotiated directly with Vorcaro a transfer of at least US$ 10 million, about R$ 61 million, to fund the production, a figure first revealed by the news site The Intercept. The senator's press office did not respond to a request for comment on Friday. He has previously denied any wrongdoing and said the film was financed with private money only. Folha also reports that Vorcaro is in prison, under investigation for a billion-dollar fraud against Brazil's financial system.Parallel inquiriesThe financing of Dark Horse is being examined in two separate STF inquiries. The one led by Mendonça looks at the transfers made by Vorcaro: the circumstances, the origin of the money, the exact amount and the final destination of the funds. Investigators suspect part of the money was never spent on the film. The second, under Justice Flávio Dino, examines whether the production company Go Up Entertainment used congressional earmarks, known in Brazil as "emendas parlamentares", to pay for the movie. São Paulo state police are also investigating a contract of more than R$ 150 million between Go Up and the city government to install public wi-fi in outlying neighborhoods, which was not fully delivered.On that second front, federal police carried out Operation Make Up on Thursday (10), serving 49 search warrants in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. Among the 29 targets are federal lawmaker Mario Frias and Karina Ferreira da Gama, owner of Go Up and founder of the Instituto Conhecer Brasil, which received R$ 2 million in earmarks designated by the lawmaker. Dino barred the targets from leaving the country and from contacting one another. Frias called the operation a "smoke screen" during the campaign and said he has documents proving his conduct was lawful. "They took my phone, my documents, my computer. Nobody was arrested", he said.The Federal Police is expected to continue with investigative steps that do not require judicial authorization. The remaining files on the film inquiry stay sealed, and further disclosures depend on Mendonça's decisions on lifting the secrecy. The revelation comes less than a month before the first round of the presidential election.

Brazil's Federal Police suspects that Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, acted to influence the vote of Dias Toffoli, a justice of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, in a ruling on precatórios, the court-ordered debt payments the government owes to creditors who win lawsuits against it. The finding appears in a police report obtained by the magazine piauí and detailed on Friday (Sept. 11) by Poder360 and Revista Oeste.The case concerned the Alcídia distillery, owned by the Atvos group, which sought compensation from the federal government for losses dating to the 1980s. The ruling could have affected a portfolio of more than R$ 10 billion in precatórios carried on the bank's balance sheet. According to the report, Toffoli had a record of ruling in favor of the mills in similar disputes. Days before the Alcídia judgment, he sided with the government in a comparable case brought by Raízen.The messagesIn messages extracted from Vorcaro's phone, the bank's then legal director, André Kruschewsky, asked: "Shall we get moving?". Vorcaro replied that he was following the case "more than you can imagine" and wrote: "Toffoli flipped his vote" and "I'm handling it here".Kruschewsky offered to help pull the case from the docket. For the Federal Police, the exchange indicates that the director "appears to have access to the Supreme Court" to try to interfere with the case. The judgment was postponed after Justice Kassio Nunes Marques asked for more time to review the record. When it resumed, Toffoli voted in favor of Alcídia, back to the position he had historically taken. The mill's thesis won by 3 votes to 2. A bank operator told Vorcaro the result, and the banker replied with an approval emoji.Denial and caveatsThe Federal Police said the messages exchanged before the ruling carry "special relevance", but cautioned that the evidence gathered does not yet allow definitive conclusions and that the episode "demands deeper analysis". Toffoli's office denied any "change of vote" and said the justice kept his position in the Raízen case. The police report compares the two judgments and notes that, in the Alcídia ruling, Toffoli again voted against the government.The same document says Vorcaro channeled at least R$ 35 million into the Arleen fund, which held a stake in the Tayayá resort, a business tied to Toffoli's family. Police raised the suspicion that the justice could be the fund's ultimate beneficiary. Toffoli denies having received any money from the banker. The inquiry remains open within the broader Master case, and the Federal Police says the matter will be examined further.

Justice André Mendonça ordered late on Thursday (10) the end of secrecy over the main investigations of the Master Bank case at Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's highest court. The decision answers a request made hours earlier by the court's president, Edson Fachin. According to BBC News Brasil, the files are expected to become public on Friday (11).Mendonça, the justice assigned to the case (the "relator"), released Petition 15,556, considered the main investigation, and 14 other proceedings tied to it. According to G1, the list includes Inquiries 5,026 and 5,035, Complaint 88,121 and Petitions 15,198, 15,478, 15,504, 15,562, 15,563, 15,693, 15,976, 15,977, 15,978, 16,019 and 16,662. Other cases connected to the probe remain sealed. The justice also ordered that full copies of the records be sent to the STF presidency and to the offices of the other justices."In harmony with the request made by the esteemed President, Minister Edson Fachin, I lift the secrecy of the records of Petition No. 15,556 and of the proceedings contained or related to it," Mendonça wrote in his order.Fachin's request and a rift between justicesFachin asked for the files to be opened after scheduling an extraordinary session for Tuesday (15) to judge the validity of a Federal Police report produced at Mendonça's request. The document pointed to a supposed relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. In his letter to the justice, according to G1, the court's president argued that opening the records would give the justices access to the full set of information before the session, with an exception only for investigative steps whose disclosure could compromise future investigations. InfoMoney reports that Fachin asked for a hard drive with the data of Petition 15,556 to be sent to the justices' offices, excluding only information whose secrecy is considered essential to the probe. According to reporting by Andreia Sadi's blog at G1, Fachin had agreed the move in advance with Mendonça and received seven justices and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet during the day, after canceling the court's session of judgments.Petition 15,556 is the original core of Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates an alleged scheme of financial fraud and money laundering involving Banco Master and its owner, Daniel Vorcaro. It includes accusations against members of Congress and against Moraes. The dispute between Mendonça and Moraes escalated on September 1, when Mendonça released a Federal Police report with indications that Vorcaro had sought advice and exchanged information with the justice. Two days later, Moraes released police intelligence reports on alleged irregular conduct by Mendonça. On Wednesday (9), Fachin removed Moraes from his role leading the so-called Fake News inquiry and called the September 15 session. According to InfoMoney, some justices questioned Mendonça's initiative to investigate a member of the court itself without first submitting the matter to the full bench.Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, the government's top lawyer, praised the decision on social media and noted that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already asked for the secrecy to be lifted."Publicity is the rule of the Republic. Transparency protects institutions, ensures equal treatment of those involved, clarifies citizens' choices and allows society to know the facts without cuts, versions or selectivity," Messias wrote.On Friday (11), the released files are expected to open to the public. On Tuesday (15), the full court is set to examine the Federal Police report and the steps for a possible investigation involving Moraes, which would proceed under Petition 16,662.

Brazil's top court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), resumes on Friday (11) its review of changes Congress approved to the Clean Record law, the statute that bars candidates convicted of certain crimes from running for office. The vote of Justice Gilmar Mendes reopens case ADI 7881, stalled since May, when he asked for time to study the file. The outcome may decide the campaigns of candidates whose registrations have been denied or challenged in electoral courts, including José Roberto Arruda, who is running for governor of the Federal District, and Anthony Garotinho, a candidate for governor of Rio de Janeiro state.The score stands at 2 to 0 for striking down parts of Complementary Law 219/2025. The rapporteur, Justice Cármen Lúcia, and Justice Luiz Fux have voted that the changes violate the Constitution. According to G1, Globo's news portal, eight votes remain, and they can be cast in the court's electronic system until September 18. The case returned to the virtual plenary after the 90-day deadline for returning files requested for review, set by Internal Rule Amendment 58/22, as reported by Migalhas, a legal news outlet. The rapporteur argued for restoring the previous rules.The lawsuit was filed by the Rede Sustentabilidade party. It challenges the starting points used to count the eight years of ineligibility set by Law 64/90, Brazil's ineligibility statute. In May, Cármen Lúcia proposed striking down the changes to clauses b, c, e, k and l of article 1, as well as the 12-year cap on combined ineligibility periods from administrative improbity convictions."The changes made by Complementary Law 219/2025 concern the starting points and the counting of the ineligibility period and establish a scenario of patent setback to what had been set up as an instrument guaranteeing republican principles, administrative probity and public morality," the justice wrote.What the 2025 law changedCongress passed the changes and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Complementary Law 219/2025 into force, with line-item vetoes, in September of last year. The central change shortened punishment periods. A lawmaker removed from office for breaking congressional ethics rules used to be barred from running for the remainder of the term plus eight years; now the eight years count from the ruling that strips the mandate. Anyone who resigns to escape removal is ineligible for the eight years after the resignation, with no added remainder of the term.For people convicted in court, the general rule became eight years counted from the conviction. Under the previous legislation, the period generally ran until eight years after the sentence was served. The exception was kept for crimes against public administration, money laundering, drug trafficking, racism, torture and criminal organizations: in those cases, ineligibility lasts until eight years after the sentence is served. The law also set a 12-year cap when ineligibility for improbity is combined with a later conviction.Campaigns on holdInside the court, according to G1, there is expectation that Gilmar Mendes will diverge from the rapporteur and open a line of votes upholding at least part of the changes, such as the new counting method. Gilmar is a longtime critic of the Clean Record law. G1 also reports that nothing prevents a new request for review, if any justice asks for more time.The immediate effect runs through the electoral courts. The Federal District's regional electoral court rejected Arruda's candidacy registration by 5 to 0 on September 3. The electoral prosecutor pointed to seven administrative improbity convictions tied to the Pandora's Box corruption investigation, six of them published less than eight years ago. The presiding judge, Guilherme Pupe, considered the new Clean Record rules but rejected applying the new calculation retroactively, according to Migalhas. Garotinho is fighting a similar eligibility fight in Rio de Janeiro.The eight remaining votes can be cast in the STF system until September 18. Arruda's lawyers can appeal to the Superior Electoral Court, and he remains authorized to campaign while there is no final ruling on his registration.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, delivered the complete case file on Justice Alexandre de Moraes to the justices' chambers on Thursday (Sept. 10). The material arrives five days before an extraordinary session on Tuesday (Sept. 15), when the full bench will weigh the validity of a Federal Police report that pointed to a supposed relationship between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro. The court's regular Thursday session was cancelled once again.The file contains the Federal Police report with messages attributed to Vorcaro that refer to Moraes, at the center of an internal crisis that has gripped the court for weeks. Its seal was lifted by Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the investigations into the Banco Master case, which include Petition 15.556 and related proceedings. "In harmony with the request formulated by the eminent President, Minister Edson Fachin, I promote the lifting of the secrecy of the records of PET no. 15.556 and of the proceedings contained therein or related to them," Mendonça wrote in a ruling quoted by G1, Brazil's largest news portal.The release lets the justices and their staff read the material before the vote. Fachin also suspended, until the full bench rules, the proceedings involving members of the court. The crisis escalated on Thursday, when Moraes asked for an investigation of Mendonça. Fachin set a deadline for both to respond. Attorney General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, both named in Vorcaro's messages, are also expected to give explanations.Instead of holding the plenary, Fachin met with seven justices and Gonet through the day. According to reporting by the blog of journalist Andreia Sadi at G1, the court president spoke with Moraes, then with Dias Toffoli and then with Mendonça. He then heard Gonet, Cristiano Zanin, Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques. In the early evening, he met Justice Cármen Lúcia in her chambers.At an event at the Planalto Palace, the seat of Brazil's presidency, Fachin said the court's response will be "firm and rigorous", though without "precipitation". The "gravity" of the facts, he said, does not "authorize shortcuts"."Institutions must be preserved, above all in moments of greater tension. No authority is above the Constitution. No branch of government is above the law. No circumstantial interest can override the integrity of the democratic state of law."Session format still undecidedThe format of Tuesday's session remains open. According to Folha de S.Paulo, justices from different wings of the court fear that session videos will become campaign ammunition, through clips cut to go viral online. One member of the court called the session a potential "institutional carnage", the newspaper reported. A closed session has been considered, though Fachin leans toward keeping it public. The ruling comes less than a month before Brazil's presidential election in October.

The administration of Donald Trump is weighing new sanctions on Brazilian officials amid the crisis at the STF, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court, and already has measures drafted for possible adoption, according to a senior State Department official quoted by Folha de S.Paulo. Justice Alexandre de Moraes is among the names being watched by Washington.The official told Folha that the measures are more than just under consideration: they have been drafted, and the Trump administration is ready to move forward with imposing them. Washington is also examining the conduct of other members of the court beyond Moraes.The Sept. 15 session is on Washington's radarThe extraordinary session scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 15, is seen by the US government as an important moment in its assessment. On that date, STF President Edson Fachin has convened the full bench to decide on a Federal Police report that identifies Moraes as an interlocutor of former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master. The ruling could open an investigation against the justice or annul the report, which contains messages attributed to both men.According to the official quoted by Folha, Washington will watch the justices' statements and votes at the session, seen as a key point in deciding next steps. The State Department is weighing a range of instruments to impose consequences and may turn to the Treasury for the sanctions. That opens the possibility of a new use of the Magnitsky Act, a US financial sanctions law administered by the Treasury Department against foreign officials.In mid-August, before the Banco Master crisis broke, the Financial Times had already reported that measures against Moraes were regaining momentum, Folha notes. The trigger cited was the search and seizure operations the justice authorized against sources of journalist Luís Pablo, from the state of Maranhão, who had published articles about Justice Flávio Dino.The crisis inside the courtThe crisis has gripped the STF for weeks, after the release of a Federal Police report with messages attributed to Vorcaro that mention Moraes. Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on the document. On Thursday, Fachin handed the full case file to the justices' chambers for review ahead of Tuesday's session, according to InfoMoney.Fachin addressed the crisis at an event at the Planalto Palace, the presidential offices. He said the response will be "firme e rigorosa" (firm and rigorous), without "precipitation", and that the gravity of the facts does not allow shortcuts.Institutions must be preserved, above all in moments of greatest tension. No authority is above the Constitution. No branch of government is above the law.The next step comes on Tuesday, Sept. 15, when the full court decides between opening an investigation against Moraes or annulling the police report. The justices' votes will also be watched by Washington as a reference for its next moves on sanctions.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came out in defense of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues in an interview with the TV network SBT on Thursday (10). The statement came amid a standoff between the government and Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) over the fate of the police chief, whom Lula himself appointed to the post."Andrei is a very competent federal police officer, he has more than 30 years of career, he is the colleague who possibly carried out the biggest search and seizure in the history of organized crime in this country," Lula said, according to news site G1. The president also credited him with the oversight of Banco Master and the arrest of banker Daniel Vorcaro, and added that Andrei bothers people "because the Federal Police has never worked so much"."I think he bothers a lot of people because the Federal Police has never worked so much, never arrested so much, never recovered so much money and so many drugs as in Andrei's term. That is why I want to say out loud that Andrei has my total confidence, he is a colleague, you know, an expert like few police commissioners in the history of this country."The crisis at the Supreme CourtJustice André Mendonça ordered Andrei's preventive removal on Tuesday (8). According to the justice, the Federal Police leadership carried out illegal monitoring, known in Brazil as "arapongagem", against Mendonça himself and against the Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias, while producing intelligence reports that later supported measures taken by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The court's Second Panel formed a majority of three votes to uphold the removals, but the ruling was interrupted when Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time to review the case.On Wednesday (9), Justice Flávio Dino reversed the removal in a separate ruling. G1 reported that the request came from the director-general himself; Folha de S.Paulo attributed it to the Attorney General's Office. Hours later, Chief Justice Edson Fachin suspended both decisions and kept Andrei in office.In the same interview, Lula called for everyone involved in the court's crisis to be investigated. "If [Alexandre de] Moraes is guilty, he has to pay; if [André] Mendonça is guilty, he has to pay; if Fachin is guilty, he has to pay," the president said, according to Folha.The next step now sits with Fachin. In this week's ruling, he gave Andrei up to 48 hours to provide information. After that deadline, the chief justice will decide whether the director-general keeps his job.

Brazil's Federal Police says the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), an organization led by "Dark Horse" producer Karina Ferreira da Gama, paid R$ 300,000 to an institute that operated inside a clothing store in Guarulhos, in greater São Paulo. The money came from R$ 2 million in emendas, parliamentary budget earmarks that federal deputy Mário Frias of the PL party of São Paulo directed to the organization. According to G1, police also suspect a R$ 645,000 transfer from the lawmaker to the film's producer.The findings are part of Operation Make Up, launched on Thursday (10). Frias wrote and executive-produced "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro played by Jim Caviezel. With part of the earmarks, the ICB hired the Instituto Super Poder Educacional, which goes by Super Leitores, to run a project called "Projeto Jovens Empreendedores": a digital teaching kit, a platform and 12-month use licenses, budgeted at R$ 300,000.Signs of collusionInvestigators found that a clothing store operates at the address Super Leitores listed as its headquarters. The person responsible for the institute, Pamella Cristiane Dias, said she "used a room in the establishment" and later moved to working from home. Police say this calls into question the firm's ability to deliver the service. A technical note from the force points to "evidence of collusion" among the companies that competed for the contract. Two bid R$ 200,000 and one R$ 230,000, below the R$ 300,000 charged by Super Leitores, and three competitors shared the same phone numbers and the same accountant in their registry records. The Federal Police also states that the hired company "has ties to the business group identified in this investigation". Metadata reviewed by the CGU, the federal audit office, showed that the payment invoice was issued minutes before the ICB created the budget sent to the bidding process. Karina's institute justified the choice by citing a wider scope of service, with 24 original video lessons.The project website was only created in March 2026, 11 months after the payment invoice was issued. The ten video lessons posted drew seven views combined, according to the police report."Numbers that appear incompatible with the training of 250 multipliers and the assistance of 2,250 students," the Federal Police states.Dias told the CGU she was not responsible for the platform. "However, she is listed as the holder of the domain registration linked to the platform," the police replied. Her Instagram profile presents her as editorial coordinator of HD Cultural, one of the companies that competed for the contract. G1 says it is still waiting for her response.Travel ban and the deputy's defenseThe operation served 49 search and seizure warrants issued by the Supreme Federal Court in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. Justice Flávio Dino, who oversees the case, cited a concrete risk of evidence being hidden or destroyed, barred Frias and the other suspects from leaving Brazil and from contacting each other, and ordered their passports seized."The elements already produced reveal the existence of a sophisticated financial and operational structure intended to circulate resources among entities, companies and individuals linked to the core under investigation, including reports of the use of companies based abroad, as is the case of Go Up Entertainment LLC," Dino wrote.In a video posted on social media, Frias called the operation a "smoke screen". He denied wrongdoing, said he will cooperate and hand over all requested documents, and said he believes the case will be closed. In May he had already called the claim that he steered earmarks to the film "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary support and defamatory". The Federal Police is investigating embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and bid-rigging crimes. Financial records cited by BBC News Brasil show movements of hundreds of millions of reais among the companies in the scheme. In a parallel inquiry at the same court, Justice André Mendonça is examining R$ 61 million that banker Daniel Vorcaro sent to the film at the request of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.

Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) decided on Thursday (10), at an emergency meeting of its National Executive in Brasília, to call in a political resolution for fixed terms for justices of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, and the other superior courts. The move answers an internal diagnosis that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's reelection campaign is at risk amid the crisis that has split the court.Party leaders concluded that Lula faces a real risk of losing the election to Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), who has gained ground in the polls since the crisis erupted, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The technical tie in recent surveys has put allies on alert, and several PT politicians interrupted their state campaigns to attend the meeting in person. Party president Edinho Silva, who also coordinates Lula's campaign, called further meetings with the government's coalition parties and with trade union federations.The assessment, according to Folha, is that the political landscape has changed completely and the national campaign needs a "freio de arrumação", a Portuguese expression for a course correction. "We are talking about expanding the CNMP [National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office] and the CNJ [National Council of Justice], so that civil society has more seats in the bodies that oversee them. And also the question of fixed terms for the courts," Edinho told journalists after the leadership meeting."It is about opening the debate on fixed terms. We did not specify or detail [the proposal]. We have to raise our voice and be more emphatic in what we defend, a reform of the Judiciary, which is a historic banner of the PT," Edinho Silva said in remarks reported by CNN Brasil.The internal resolution was to be published later on Thursday, according to CNN Brasil. It reinforces the party's call for a reform of the judiciary, opens the debate on terms for the STF and the superior courts, and asks for more seats for civil society in the CNJ and the CNMP, the oversight bodies of the judiciary and of the prosecutor's office. Lula himself had publicly floated fixed terms for the STF months earlier, as Folha reported.Campaign reactionBeyond the resolution, the PT is preparing changes in the campaign's tone, according to CNN Brasil: sharper speeches, a focus on public security and education, direct comparisons between the Lula and Bolsonaro governments, more street actions to energize the base and adjustments in the paid radio and TV programs. Historic allies such as social movements and unions complain of apathy and demand a bigger role in the campaign, on the scale of 2022, according to Folha.The next milestones sit with the court and with the ballot box. The STF's full bench is scheduled to rule on September 15 on the investigation involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Vorcaro, the case at the center of the court crisis. The first round of the presidential election takes place on October 4.

Brazil's Federal Police has flagged a coincidence between expenses recorded during the shooting of "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, and transfers tied to congressional earmarks that reached the film's producer. The finding appears in a report included in the decision by Justice Flávio Dino of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, that authorized Operation Make Up on Thursday (Sept. 10). Dino lifted the secrecy over the case files the same day, according to the news outlet g1. Earmarks, called "emendas parlamentares" in Brazil, are budget funds that individual lawmakers direct to projects and social organizations.The operation is carrying out 49 search and seizure warrants in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. The main targets are federal deputy Mario Frias of the right-wing PL party, the film's screenwriter and executive producer, and producer Karina Gama. She presides over the Conhecer Brasil Institute (ICB) and the National Culture Academy (ANC) and owns Go Up Entertainment, the company behind the film, according to the state news agency Agência Brasil.A coincidence in timingAccording to the report, Go Up moved 19,033,071 reais between Nov. 10 and Dec. 30, 2025. The PF records that the film was shot in São Paulo between Oct. 20 and Dec. 7 of that year. Investigators suspect public money may have paid for stays at a high-end hotel, meals and payments to other production companies tied to the film."The temporal coincidence between the shoot and the period of the reported transactions (Nov. 10 to Dec. 30, 2025) draws attention, as does the nature of the expenses, which involve a high-end hotel and meals, in addition to expenses with production companies," the PF report says.The ICB received 2 million reais from two earmarks authored by Frias. In the period under review, NTT Brasil, a company owned by Heric Dias, transferred 750,000 reais to Go Up. The amount is close to the 700,000 reais the institute paid to Dinâmica Editora and the Super Poder Educational Institute, companies in the same group. The PF says there are signs that money originally intended for the institute's contracts traveled that route to the producer.Investigators also flagged a transfer of 645,400 reais sent by the deputy himself to Go Up. Data from Coaf, the financial intelligence agency, reproduced in Dino's decision show 8.9 million reais in credits and 10 million reais in debits in the company's accounts in the period. Among the senders are Marcello, a former political marketer who worked behind the scenes on Flávio Bolsonaro's pre-campaign, with 1 million reais, and Frias himself."Also noteworthy is the transfer of 645,400.00 reais to Go Up by federal deputy Mário Frias himself, whose monthly income reaches 44,008.52 reais, raising questions about the financial wherewithal to support the transfers made to Karina Gama's company in less than sixty days," the report says.The decision and what comes nextIn the decision, Dino said there was a concrete risk of evidence being hidden or destroyed. "The elements already produced reveal the existence of a sophisticated financial and operational structure designed to circulate funds among entities, companies and individuals linked to the investigated core, including reports of the use of companies based abroad, such as Go Up Entertainment LLC," he wrote, according to BBC News Brasil. Audits by the CGU, the federal control office, had already found problems in the choice of the ICB to receive the funds and in the execution of the projects. The PF is investigating embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and procurement crimes, with movements estimated in the hundreds of millions of reais.TV Globo contacted Frias and Gama's defense and received no reply, according to g1. In May, the deputy called the claim that he had steered earmarks to the film "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary basis and defamatory".The case runs parallel to the inquiry into the 61 million reais that banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the defunct Banco Master, transferred to the production. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro admitted brokering the dealings, according to g1, and denies any wrongdoing. That inquiry is before Justice André Mendonça. According to UOL, Dino authorized Thursday's operation two days after a report by Mendonça. The PF will now examine the seized material, and the inquiry remains with Dino until it is concluded, when the Prosecutor General's Office will decide on charges.

Brazil's Federal Police carried out 49 search and seizure warrants on Thursday (Sept. 10) against federal lawmaker Mario Frias and Karina Gama, producer of the film Dark Horse, in an operation authorized by Justice Flávio Dino of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. The raids came the morning after the court's president, Edson Fachin, suspended decisions by Dino and Justice André Mendonça and stripped Alexandre de Moraes of the fake news inquiry, opened in 2019 to investigate attacks on the court and its members, in an attempt to calm the feud between the justices. In the assessment of Folha de S.Paulo, Dino's offensive buried that truce, and the conflict inside the court "is no longer distinguishable from the electoral race" between Lula (Workers' Party) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).According to Agência Brasil, Operation Make Up investigates the suspected diversion of public funds through congressional earmarks routed to private companies, and Dino handles the case at the STF. Warrants were served in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District, including two entities owned by Gama, the Instituto Conhecer Brasil and the Academia Nacional de Cultura. Frias wrote and executive-produced Dark Horse, a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. Police are investigating embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and procurement crimes, with authorities estimating diversions in the hundreds of millions of reais.A truce that lasted a dayFachin acted on Wednesday (9), one day after Mendonça ordered the preventive removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and hours after Dino ordered his reinstatement. The court president suspended both decisions at the request of the Attorney General's Office (AGU) and also suspended petition 16.662, the case in which Mendonça made public conversations between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. Fachin wrote that the STF presidency has a duty to "preserve the integrity of the court" and described a state of "conflicts and procedural overlaps". He also ordered the fake news inquiry files sent to the Federal Police and then to the Prosecutor General's Office, which will decide between closing the case or filing charges. The AGU said the ruling "restores public and administrative order".The crisis grew out of the Banco Master investigation. On Sept. 1, Mendonça, the case's rapporteur at the STF, lifted the seal on a Federal Police report containing conversations between Moraes and Vorcaro. Two days later, Moraes asked for an investigation of his colleague, saying Mendonça had, "in theory", committed administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority, with "favoritism toward certain political groups".From the bench to the campaignFolha columnist Igor Gielow writes that the court's calendar and the campaign calendar have merged. The paper notes that Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate, politicized the case and attacked the alliance between Lula and Moraes, while leaving out his group's ties to Mendonça, appointed to the court by Jair Bolsonaro, and the fact that he is himself a target of suspicion in the Master case. In May, the outlet The Intercept revealed that the senator had asked Vorcaro for money to finance the shooting of Dark Horse; Flávio denied any wrongdoing and said the funding was entirely private. The case examining the transfer of 61 million reais from Vorcaro to the film, at the senator's request, runs separately under Mendonça. Folha notes that none of the senator's arguments on the matter has held up so far: he has never presented an accounting of the support he claims to have given the film, and public money was involved in the project.Lula, running for reelection, weighed in on Wednesday, posting that it is "urgent" to lift "the complete secrecy of the investigations into everyone involved in the Master case, whoever it may be, no matter who it hurts", according to BBC News Brasil. Moraes called a press statement for Thursday and canceled it shortly after; his office said only that it would be "rescheduled at an opportune time", according to G1. The next step belongs to the full court: Fachin has called a plenary session for Tuesday (Sept. 15), when the justices are to discuss the aftermath of the Police report and set the course of the investigation into Moraes and Vorcaro.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) imposed precautionary measures on federal deputy Mario Frias (PL-SP) on Thursday (10). The lawmaker is barred from leaving Brazil and from any contact with the other suspects in an inquiry into the diversion of public money from congressional budget earmarks, the "Dark Horse" case. According to G1, the restrictions cover all 29 targets of Operation Make Up, launched by the Federal Police together with the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU).The operation served 49 search and seizure warrants in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceara and the Federal District. Alongside Frias, producer Karina Gama is one of the main targets. Two entities she owns, the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB) and the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC), were also searched. Because cases against sitting federal lawmakers in Brazil are heard by the STF, the inquiry runs before Dino.What the inquiry investigatesAccording to the Federal Police, a criminal organization of public and private actors allegedly channeled public funds to a civil society organization and from there to irregularly subcontracted companies, with no proof that the services were delivered. Investigators point to financial movements in the hundreds of millions of reais and attempts to hide the diversions that lasted until July. The inquiry covers embezzlement, document forgery, money laundering, criminal organization and public bidding crimes.A CGU audit found signs of irregularity in the routing of a 2 million reais earmark Frias indicated for entities tied to Karina Gama, G1 reported. Frias is the screenwriter and executive producer of "Dark Horse", an unreleased film about the career of former president Jair Bolsonaro starring the American actor Jim Caviezel. In May, in a filing to the STF, the deputy denied that the earmarks went to "any film production".Searches, reactions and next stepsDuring the raids, the Federal Police seized seven firearms registered in Frias's name at an address that is not the lawmaker's, which opened an investigation into illegal possession of a weapon; his cellphone was also seized, according to G1. Frias's office did not reply to state news agency Agencia Brasil, and TV Globo received no response from the deputy or from Gama's defense. In a phone call to columnist Monica Bergamo of Folha de S.Paulo the day before the search, Gama said she feels threatened and that, "if arrested, she has nothing to reveal". She said people posing as court officers rang her doorbell at 9 p.m. without showing identification.The case remains with Dino as the reporting justice, and the Federal Police and the CGU are examining the seized material. Separately, according to Agencia Brasil, the STF is reviewing in a distinct case, under Justice Andre Mendonca, the transfer of 61 million reais from banker Daniel Vorcaro to the film.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Court called off a statement to the press roughly an hour after scheduling it for 11 a.m. on Thursday (September 10). It would have been his first public remarks since court president Edson Fachin removed him a day earlier from his role as reporter of the so-called fake news inquiry, a probe Moraes had run for more than seven years.According to BBC News Brasil, his office messaged journalists at 7:41 a.m. saying Moraes would speak at 11 a.m. in the chamber of the court's First Panel. At 8:45 a.m., the same office announced the cancellation, saying only that the statement would be rescheduled "for an appropriate date". The subject of the remarks was never officially disclosed. Court insiders expected a defense of his handling of the fake news inquiry and general comments on its investigations, G1 reported. The press would not have been allowed to film: only the court's own channel, TV Justica, would record the event and share the footage.Fachin's movesThe episode came a day after Fachin stripped Moraes of the fake news inquiry, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The president of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's highest court, concentrated review of the crisis-related cases in the presidency, suspended decisions by justices Andre Mendonca and Flavio Dino, and called a full court session for Tuesday (September 15).In his ruling, Fachin wrote that the court faces a "situation of conflicts and overlapping proceedings that constitute a serious injury to public order and to the integrity of this Tribunal", with "successive unilateral decisions issued by members of this Court in distinct incidents, yet intertwined by the same facts and authorities". He also said the presidency has a duty to "safeguard the preservation of the Court's integrity", G1 reported.Origins and next stepsThe crisis began with investigations tied to Banco Master and deepened after the Federal Police released a report with messages recovered from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro. On September 1, Mendonca made public messages Vorcaro sent to a contact saved as "Alexandre de Moraes" under petition 16.662, according to BBC News Brasil. Since then, decisions by Moraes, Mendonca, Dino, the federal Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and the Federal Police itself have widened the dispute inside the court.On Tuesday (15), the full court is set to review the Federal Police report and the PGR's nullity request, which argues Mendonca should have taken the matter to the full bench before ordering an investigation of a fellow justice. As of this article's last update, no new date had been set for Moraes's statement.

Brazil's Federal Police launched Operation Make Up on Thursday (10), investigating the suspected diversion of R$ 2 million in public money sent by federal deputy Mario Frias (PL-SP) to organizations tied to the producer of Dark Horse, a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Officers are executing 49 search and seizure warrants authorized by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Flávio Dino across São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Ceará and the Federal District. The funds came from congressional earmarks, a budget mechanism that lets Brazilian lawmakers direct federal money to projects of their choosing.The targets include the congressman and two NGOs run by Karina Ferreira da Gama, the film's producer: the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB) and the Academia Nacional de Cultura (ANC). According to G1, the production company behind the film, Go Up, is not covered by the warrants. G1 also reported that Frias's cell phone was seized during the searches. InfoMoney reported the operation is being carried out jointly with the Comptroller General's Office (CGU), the federal audit agency.In a statement, the Federal Police said it suspects a criminal organization of public officials and private actors."The investigations point to the existence of a criminal organization, made up of public and private agents, suspected of directing the funds received to irregularly subcontracted companies, without proof that the contracted services were actually provided."The force said the operation covers suspected embezzlement, document fraud, money laundering, criminal organization and bidding-related crimes. Investigators said companies tied to the scheme moved amounts in the hundreds of millions of reais, and that attempts to conceal the diversions allegedly continued until July of this year.How the case reached the Supreme CourtDeputy Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) asked the court to examine the transfers. On March 21, Dino gave Frias five days to respond. A court officer tried three times to find the congressman at his Brasília office and could not serve the summons, the court logged on April 14. On April 15, the justice opened a preliminary inquiry into earmarks from deputies of the PL party to NGOs tied to the producer.Frias responded on May 25 and denied directing earmarks to finance the film. He called the claim "absolutely false, devoid of any evidentiary basis and defamatory," and said the earmark in question was not destined for "any film production."The film's financing and the court crisisEarlier reporting revealed that Dark Horse was allegedly financed by Daniel Vorcaro, owner of the defunct Banco Master, who is jailed in Brasília. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a presidential candidate in this year's election, admitted brokering the negotiations and demanding payments from Vorcaro. According to Intercept Brasil, Vorcaro transferred at least R$ 61 million in 2025 to a US-based fund run by a lawyer linked to former deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro.The inquiry landed in the middle of a standoff between the court and the Federal Police command. On Wednesday (9), Dino cited the case's investigative steps when he reinstated Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues and Intelligence Director Leandro Almada, who had been removed a day earlier by Justice André Mendonça. Court President Edson Fachin later suspended both rulings.The next step is the review of the material seized in the 49 searches. Dino's preliminary inquiry remains open at the STF. TV Globo sought comment from Frias and from Karina's defense and had received no reply by publication time.

The crisis at Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) has moved to the center of the 2026 presidential race. According to a report by G1, the campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate and eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, plans to step up attacks on Justice Alexandre de Moraes in speeches and advertising. On the other side, part of President Lula's reelection team wants him to keep his distance from the justice. Both campaigns are recalculating their strategies after a week of conflicting rulings inside the court.In Flávio's circle, the assessment is that the longer the crisis stays in public debate, the better for his candidacy. Behind the scenes, the strategy is summed up as "Lula is Moraes": tie the justice politically to the president and keep the court in daily messaging and in the free campaign ad slots on TV and radio. The guidance is to avoid attacking the Supreme Court as an institution and to concentrate criticism on Moraes and specific rulings. At the September 7 rally in São Paulo, Flávio said the court "is not Alexandre" and that it is necessary to "protect the STF from Alexandre de Moraes".The campaign also wants to push the political persecution narrative around the film "Dark Horse" and the senator's ties to banker Daniel Vorcaro, who transferred money to finance the production. At the same rally, Flávio said there would be an attempt at a "third stab" against him and his allies, a reference to the 2018 knife attack on Jair Bolsonaro and to the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasília. On Wednesday (Sept 9), in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais state, he criticized a ruling by Justice Flávio Dino, accused the justice of interfering in the process and said Lula wants to win "no tapetão", a Portuguese expression for winning through trickery. Allies see the candidate in a comfortable position in the race, which would give him time to reduce rejection rates, and they welcomed the arrival of marketer Duda Lima.The "Dark Horse" investigation worries Flávio's campThe return of Andrei Rodrigues to the command of the Federal Police raised an alarm. Campaign insiders cited by G1 fear that advances in the "Dark Horse" investigation could hit people close to the candidate, among them members of the production company and Congressman Mario Frias, the film's executive producer. Rodrigues returned after STF President Edson Fachin suspended the decisions by Justice André Mendonça that had removed him. Even so, the campaign assesses that the electoral gains of the crisis still outweigh the risks. Some insiders went as far as saying that a possible removal of Moraes could end up helping Lula, by taking out of the race the figure Flávio wants to tie to the president.Lula raises his tone, without naming MoraesAt the Planalto presidential palace, the crisis creates a different problem. As columnist Andréia Sadi of G1 reported, part of the campaign wants Lula to take a firmer stance and distance himself from Moraes, but allies say his role as president limits direct criticism. The government entered the dispute institutionally when the Attorney General's Office challenged the removal of the Federal Police leadership. Palace sources told Reuters that Lula concluded on Tuesday (Sept 8) that an acute crisis at the court would hurt both his government and his campaign. On Wednesday, the president raised his tone and called for the complete lifting of secrecy in the investigations of the Master case, in a post on X that did not mention Moraes:"It is urgent to fully lift the secrecy of the investigations of everyone involved in the Master case, whoever it is, whatever it costs. Brazil needs to know the truth."Edinho Silva, president of Lula's Workers' Party and coordinator of the campaign, called the moment an institutional crisis, defended investigating every complaint and said he trusts Fachin to keep the court running and its processes transparent. According to columnist Mônica Bergamo of Folha de S.Paulo, cited by BBC News Brasil, PT lawyers asked Justices André Mendonça and Flávio Dino to lift the secrecy, arguing that the case already runs on "selective publicity". Part of Lula's campaign describes the situation as "an installed problem, hard to solve". The next steps depend on the court: Fachin has called the full bench into session on Tuesday (Sept 15) to review the Federal Police report that pointed to an alleged relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro, and he will still decide, in a procedure under the court presidency, whether Andrei Rodrigues stays in command of the Federal Police.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday (September 10) signs into law a provisional measure that scraps the so-called blusinha tax, the 20% import duty on international purchases of up to US$ 50. The ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Planalto Palace, the presidential office in Brasília. Congress gave the measure final approval last week; without it, the provisional measure, a temporary presidential decree that expires unless lawmakers ratify it, would have lapsed.The 20% charge has been in force since May and applies to international postal shipments, the low-value orders placed on platforms such as Shein, Shopee and AliExpress. According to news site g1, the measure was unblocked in Congress through a deal between Lula, House Speaker Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. Valor Econômico reported that Lula invited allies to the signing ceremony as Flávio Bolsonaro gains ground in presidential election polls.What changes for shoppersWithout the import duty, a US$ 50 purchase is subject only to ICMS, a state-level sales tax of 17% in most of Brazil, 20% in some states. Because the tax is calculated "from within" the price, the US$ 50 is divided by 0.83 and the total reaches US$ 60.24, about R$ 312, according to calculations by foreign trade specialist Jackson Campos cited by g1. With the duty, the same order came to US$ 72.29, or R$ 374.53. In practice, one product can fall from R$ 374 to R$ 312.Impact monitoringThe text approved by Congress added a mechanism to assess the economic effects of the exemption on Brazilian industries. The first review by the Finance Ministry comes three months after the signing, then every six months. It will track effects on jobs, income, federal revenue and the competitiveness of industry and retail, so the ministry can study mitigation measures.The review is mandatory for textiles and clothing, footwear, accessories, toys and cosmetics. Congress will also reassess the end of the tax every year, based on data the Finance Ministry must release by April 30. Under the new rule, the finance minister gains the power to change import duty rates on postal shipments, including cutting the charge to zero for purchases of up to US$ 50. The ICMS continues to be collected, and exempting it is up to each state governor.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said again on Wednesday that Brazil will not accept interference by the United States in October's presidential election. At a campaign rally for his reelection bid in Teresina, in the northeastern state of Piauí, he added that he hopes "the electoral court does not come up with any falcatrua", a Portuguese slang word for a rigged trick. Both G1 and Metrópoles reported that he did not make clear whether he meant the Superior Electoral Court, or TSE, the tribunal that runs Brazil's elections."We want to prove that Brazilians owe nothing to anyone. May the Americans not come and try to influence our elections. And may the electoral court not come up with any falcatrua. Because we know what they are capable of, and if they come and meddle here, we will defeat them, we will defeat the Americans and we will defeat anyone who meddles."The lines came right after Lula mentioned the government of Donald Trump. He said Brazilians "know what they are capable of" and attacked the U.S. president directly. "Trump should stick to his own country. Here it is our problem, a problem for Brazilians, and nobody meddles. They will have to learn a lesson from us. We are poor, but we are proud," he said, according to G1.According to G1, Lula and Trump spoke by phone for 1 hour and 20 minutes in late August, at the Brazilian president's request. In the call, Trump asked about the October election. Lula has said he told him that Brazil accepts no interference from anyone in its electoral process.In the same speech, Lula criticized opposition supporters who carry U.S. flags to rallies, Metrópoles reported. "Those who only carry the flag of Brazil and go to a rally carrying an American flag are vira-latas, they are traitors to the homeland, with no commitment whatsoever to this country," he said, using a Portuguese term that implies servility toward foreign powers. On stage with the president were Governor Rafael Fonteles of Piauí, also running for reelection, and first lady Janja, who also spoke.What comes nextThe electoral court has pending decisions in this race. The TSE has yet to rule on a request by Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's main rival, to strike the ticket of Lula and his running mate Geraldo Alckmin over a parade at Rio de Janeiro's Sambadrome. Recent polls show a statistical tie between the two men in the first round and a lead for Flávio Bolsonaro in most runoff scenarios. The first round is scheduled for October.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, called the full bench into session on Wednesday (9) for a hearing on Tuesday, September 15. The justices will decide the fate of the review that pointed to a supposed relationship between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former controlling shareholder of Banco Master, a large Brazilian investment bank.What the bench will decideAccording to G1, the session must settle whether the Federal Police report is valid. It was produced at the request of Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master case at the court. The justices will also weigh the nullity request filed by the Attorney General's Office (PGR, the federal prosecutors' office) and choose between opening an investigation into Moraes and closing the matter.The PGR asked for the review to be voided on September 1. In its view, Mendonça should not have asked the Federal Police to examine who the banker was messaging without a request from prosecutors or from the police itself. The office, led by Attorney General Paulo Gonet, also argued that only the full bench can decide on any probe of a sitting justice. It did not say whether the conduct described amounts to evidence of a crime.How the case reached the benchThe Federal Police report drew on WhatsApp conversations between Vorcaro and various contacts from March 2024 to August 2025. His phone was seized in Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates suspected financial fraud tied to Banco Master. The records sat in a chapter on "other meetings" between Vorcaro and Moraes. The document became public on September 1, after Mendonça lifted its seal.Some justices have questioned how Mendonça commissioned the work. In their reading, as reported by G1, an inquiry into another member of the court could not start without the bench's authorization. BBC News Brasil reported that thirteen retired STF justices, the national bar association (OAB) and business leaders had pressed Fachin in recent days to convene the session."A picture thus emerges of conflicts and procedural overlaps that amount to a grave injury to public order and to the integrity of this court: successive rulings by individual justices, issued by members of this court in separate proceedings yet bound together by the same facts and officials," Fachin wrote.The September 15 session will take up Petition 16.662, the proceeding in which Mendonça made the conversations public and suggested an investigation into his colleague. Fachin has taken the case out of Mendonça's chambers and will report on it himself. The vote will determine whether the Federal Police report stands, is voided on procedural grounds, or becomes the starting point of an investigation into Moraes.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Wednesday suspended rulings by Justices André Mendonça and Flávio Dino on the leadership of the Federal Police and removed Alexandre de Moraes as head of the so-called fake news inquiry, taking the case himself. Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues stays in his post.The Federal Police ruling answered a request from the AGU, the federal government's top legal office, which is trying to reverse the removal. Fachin suspended Mendonça's Tuesday decision removing Rodrigues and police intelligence director Leandro Almada, and struck down the order by Dino that hours earlier had reinstated them, according to Folha de S.Paulo and BBC News Brasil.On the fake news inquiry, opened in 2019 to investigate attacks, threats and false news against the court and its justices, Fachin revoked the order of March 14, 2019 that had assigned the case to Moraes. The revocation takes effect this Wednesday, preserves all acts taken over the past seven years and leaves Moraes with only the criminal cases in which charges have been formally accepted. The inquiry has produced account suspensions, search warrants and the 2021 arrest of then congressman Daniel Silveira, as G1 recalled.Investigations into justices suspendedFachin also suspended every proceeding that involves a possible investigation of court members, including the probes into the link between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, which had been under Mendonça. He also removed petition 16.662 from Mendonça's office, the filing in which the justice made public the reported messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. Both cases now sit with the presidency of the court."A picture of conflicts and procedural overlap is taking shape, causing serious injury to public order and to the integrity of this court: successive one-judge rulings by members of this court in separate but intertwined cases involving the same facts and authorities," Fachin wrote (translated from Portuguese).In his view, Moraes and Mendonça were ruling on related matters based on shared evidence, which shows "a concrete risk of contradictory decisions and procedural turmoil," as Folha reported.The crisis began on September 1, when Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master case at the STF, lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report about messages between Moraes and Vorcaro. Moraes then used police intelligence reports to accuse Mendonça of administrative misconduct, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority, and Mendonça replied with criticism of his colleague's handling of the INSS pension fraud and Banco Master cases. On Tuesday, Mendonça removed Rodrigues, and Fachin gave him 72 hours to respond. On Wednesday, Dino ordered the reinstatement in response to a request from Rodrigues himself, in an inquiry into congressional budget funds tied to "Dark Horse", a film about Jair Bolsonaro.What comes nextFachin has called the full bench for September 15. The justices will weigh petition 16.662 and challenges to the legality of Mendonça's conduct in the Master case and in the proceeding against Moraes, according to BBC News Brasil. The session follows pressure from thirteen retired STF justices, the national bar association OAB and business leaders.

A war of "liminares", the preliminary injunctions that individual justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) can grant on their own, has piled pressure on Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin to announce a concrete step against the crisis gripping the tribunal. Justices phoned Fachin on Wednesday (9) shortly after Justice Flávio Dino reversed the removal of Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada, which fellow Justice André Mendonça had ordered the day before. According to reporting by TV Globo, one of the calls came from Mendonça himself, who called Dino's ruling "illegal" and demanded action.The back-to-back rulings pointing in opposite directions within 24 hours led court members to conclude there is no longer room to wait for the standoff to settle on its own, according to accounts given to the newspaper O Globo and republished by InfoMoney. In private conversations, justices argued that Fachin must take control of the crisis and curb the factions around Alexandre de Moraes and Mendonça. The prevailing view behind the scenes is that both groups have ridden roughshod over the president's prerogatives. Under pressure, Fachin canceled Wednesday's plenary session and was expected to receive Moraes, the court's vice president, later in the day. O Globo also reported that Mendonça considers the ruling illegal but does not plan to challenge it in the case records.What Dino's ruling saysMendonça had removed the two Federal Police commanders on Tuesday (8). The justice said he had been the target of "systematic monitoring" by the force's intelligence directorate, which produced six reports on his conduct and on his ties to Brazil's solicitor general, Jorge Messias, between Aug. 3 and 31. The disputed reports address an alleged relationship between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, jailed in the Banco Master case, and question Mendonça's handling of the INSS and Master inquiries. On Wednesday, Dino reversed the removal. He wrote that Mendonça overstepped his powers by ruling alone, without waiting for Fachin or the full bench, and that the request, filed by the Novo party, lacked standing. "The lack of legitimacy of the Novo party to request the precautionary measure is unequivocal," Dino wrote. He also cited the risk of damage to cases under his rapporteurship, including investigations into the embezzlement of congressional budget amendments, and ordered:"With the aim of preventing irreparable damage to cases under my rapporteurship, I grant provisional relief to order the president of the Republic, the authority competent to appoint the director-general of the Federal Police, to ensure the immediate reinstatement of Andrei Augusto Passos Rodrigues."Because Dino's injunction is the most recent, it is the one now in force. The court's Second Panel, one of the STF's two five-justice chambers, had formed a majority on Tuesday to uphold the removal, but Justice Gilmar Mendes asked to review the case, halting the analysis in the virtual plenary. Dino noted in his ruling that Fachin has already set a deadline for the parties to weigh in on the police reports and should send the matter to the full bench.A role for Lula?One alternative discussed privately involves President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Supreme Court interlocutors quoted by O Globo see Lula as the only outside actor with enough political weight today to broker an accommodation between the two camps, and one of the hypotheses floated is a change at the top of the Federal Police. There is no indication that Lula has embraced the proposal or is negotiating on those terms.The next steps sit with Fachin. The chief justice was set to meet Moraes on Wednesday under pressure to announce a measure that contains the escalation, while the deadline for responses on the intelligence reports remains open. The Second Panel's review stays frozen by Mendes's request.

Former president Michel Temer said he advised Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes to seek dialogue with fellow Justice André Mendonça to contain the rift dividing Brazil's top court. The phone call took place on Monday (7), a national holiday, before Mendonça's ruling on Tuesday (8) that removed the leadership of the Federal Police. Temer said the ruling made a truce harder.Temer, who governed Brazil from 2016 to 2018, appointed Moraes to the court, known as STF, in 2017. He confirmed the call to CNN Brasil and said he spoke "very quickly" with the justice. He said he had not spoken with Mendonça. "I did not speak with Mendonça. I spoke very quickly with Alexandre by phone. I said a bit that the ideal solution would be that, but it was simply that," he said.A harder truceOn Tuesday, Mendonça provisionally removed Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada. "It got complicated. I recognize it got quite complicated. Until Sunday, for example, there was no such stricter decision. So I think it has now become a bit difficult," Temer said.Interlocutors of the former president told Folha de S.Paulo that he told Moraes a way out would require some accommodation between the two justices. In Temer's assessment, the decision raises the conflict to a new level by drawing in the Federal Police command and, indirectly, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva."The ideal would be for them to talk there, all of them, and reach an accommodation, because any litigious solution the Supreme Court may hand down will be terrible for the country."The 2021 precedentIt is not the first time Temer has acted as a bridge in crises involving Moraes. In September 2021, at the height of the clash between then president Jair Bolsonaro and the justice, after Bolsonaro called Moraes a "scoundrel" at an Independence Day rally, Temer arranged a phone call between the two and helped draft the "Declaration to the Nation" in which Bolsonaro stepped back from the attacks. The truce was short-lived. In an op-ed published in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, Folha reports, Temer wrote that both justices are highly capable jurists and that the court must preserve the country's unity and the stability of its institutions.The crisis grew after Mendonça unsealed messages extracted from the phone of former banker Daniel Vorcaro that mention the businessman's relationship with Moraes. Chief Justice Edson Fachin gave the two justices five days to explain themselves. The full court's review of the Federal Police removals was suspended on Tuesday after Justice Gilmar Mendes requested a view, with a majority already formed to keep the officials removed, according to news outlet g1. Temer still hopes for a way out: "I still hope, as a guess, that they find a solution of internal harmony. It will look very bad for the Supreme Court and for the country," he said.

Eleven directors of Brazil's Federal Police placed their posts at the disposal of the acting director-general on Tuesday (Sept. 8), in a show of support for suspended chief Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada. In a joint statement, the agency's leadership declared its "total support" for the two officers and rejected what it called unjustified attacks on the institution. The statement was released hours after Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça ordered the preventive suspension of both officials."To make it absolutely clear, we repudiate any and every attempt to impute to them or to the Federal Police a non-republican conduct. Such accusations, devoid of foundation, offend the history, the credibility and the institutional commitment that have always guided their conduct. In this act, we place our posts at the disposal of the substitute director-general."The posts were offered to executive director William Marcel Murad, the agency's number two, who took over as interim chief. The Federal Police, Brazil's main federal investigative force, has 15 directorates in all, according to news site G1. Besides the two suspended officials, the statement was not signed by the internal affairs chief, Aletea Vega Marona Kunde, or by Murad himself. Signatories include the heads of the organized crime and corruption directorate (Dennis Cali) and the Amazon and environment directorate (Humberto Freire de Barros). The directors also dismissed the criticism as politically driven: "Narratives markedly influenced by political-electoral interests do not have the power to erase the history, the reputation and the professional trajectory of anyone," the note reads.Why the chief was suspendedMendonça argued that the Federal Police had carried out systematic, illegal surveillance for more than a month targeting his own work and that of Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias, the government's top lawyer. The justice also ordered the immediate opening of criminal and administrative proceedings before the police's internal affairs office and suspended the production and sharing of intelligence reports analyzing the conduct of judges, government lawyers or judicial police activity.What happens nextThe STF's Second Panel, a five-justice chamber, reviewed the order in a virtual session and a majority of three voted to keep the suspensions in place: Mendonça himself and Justices Kassio Nunes Marques and Luiz Fux. The vote was suspended when Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time to study the case. According to G1, the request does not overturn Mendonça's injunction, which remains in force.The panel's judgment stays suspended until Mendes returns the case. In the meantime, Rodrigues and Almada remain out of their posts, and the internal affairs office must open the inquiries Mendonça ordered. The office of the Attorney General of the Union is preparing a challenge to the decision, arguing it violates the president's exclusive power to appoint and dismiss the Federal Police chief, according to the G1 blog of journalist Andreia Sadi.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, is weighing whether to take the Master and INSS investigations away from Justice André Mendonça and keep them himself. The aim is to contain the crisis that has engulfed the court, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Fachin gathered his closest aides on Sunday (6) to map how to handle the confrontation between Mendonça and Justice Alexandre de Moraes.The debate began before Mendonça's order on Tuesday (8) removing Andrei Rodrigues as head of the Federal Police. The case reached the court's Second Chamber, where a majority formed to uphold the removal, but the session was suspended after Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time to review the case.According to Folha, stripping Mendonça of the cases is also the play of the STF wing that backs Moraes. That group wants Fachin to pull the rapporteur while any doubt remains about the justice's methods. Interlocutors of the president see the move as a way to cool tempers on both sides of the dispute and reduce attacks between the factions.Fachin already moved last week. He removed from the fake news inquiry a request by Moraes to open an investigation of Mendonça for abuse of authority, administrative misconduct and a crime of responsibility. On Friday (4), at the Planalto Palace, he defended ending the inquiry, opened in 2019 and in Moraes's hands ever since, and adopting a code of ethics for the court."There will be no haste, but there will also be no omission... The institutional response will be firm, proportional and rigorous."What comes nextFachin has not decided whether to pull the cases from Mendonça. Thirteen retired justices and former STF presidents, including Celso de Mello, Rosa Weber and Joaquim Barbosa, asked in a letter for an urgent public plenary session to order an "immediate and rigorous investigation" into the facts damaging the court's authority, BBC News Brasil reported.The Second Chamber vote on the removal of Andrei Rodrigues resumes once Gilmar Mendes presents his vote. The Attorney General's Office (AGU), the federal government's legal counsel, said it will appeal Mendonça's decision on the grounds that it invades the president's exclusive power to appoint and dismiss the head of the Federal Police, according to news outlet G1.

Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicans party has 42% of voter support in the first round of the race for the São Paulo state government. Former Finance Minister Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party (PT) has 27%, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (Sept. 8) and commissioned by TV Globo. In the previous round, in late August, the governor had 40% and the PT candidate 27%.Quaest surveyed 1,800 people aged 16 and older across São Paulo state, Brazil's most populous state and largest electoral college, between Sept. 4 and 7. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under code SP-00959/2026.14% of voters still undecidedAmong the other candidates, Policial Edjane (Agir) fell from 2% to 1%. Vera Lúcia (PSTU), Izadora Dias (PCO) and Carlos Machado (PCB) each have 1%, and Vivian Mendes (UP) did not score. Blank and spoiled ballots add up to 13%, and undecided voters reach 14%. For 69% of respondents the choice is already final; 31% say they could still change their vote before the election on Oct. 4.In a simulated runoff, Tarcísio has 48% against Haddad's 31%, with 11% blank or spoiled ballots and 10% undecided. Both rose from the previous round, when the governor had 47% and the PT candidate 30%.Haddad has the highest rejection rate in the race: 57% of respondents know him and would not vote for him, against 35% who know him and would. Tarcísio's rejection stands at 37%, unchanged, and 50% know him and would vote for him. In the spontaneous poll, where candidate names are not read to voters, the governor scores 22% and the PT candidate 10%, with 64% undecided.Haddad entered the São Paulo race to give the PT a strong platform in the country's largest electorate, according to Folha de S.Paulo. He began his campaign alongside President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in São Bernardo do Campo, in the ABC industrial region, and has not yet held his own launch event, G1 reports. Tarcísio, who is running for reelection and launched his bid in Osasco, backs Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in the presidential race, while his party chose to stay neutral. The first round is on Oct. 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads the presidential race in Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-largest state electorate, with 31% of voting intentions in the first round. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro follows with 27%, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (September 8).Globo, Brazil's largest media group, commissioned the survey, which was conducted between September 4 and 7. Quaest interviewed 1,506 voters aged 16 and older, CartaCapital reported. The margin of error is three percentage points, with a 95% confidence level, and the poll is registered with electoral authorities under number MG-04716/2026. The full batch of Quaest state polls released on Tuesday is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under BR-04442/2026, according to g1.Behind the two frontrunners come writer Augusto Cury (Avante) with 8%, Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema (Novo) with 6%, Goiás Governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) with 3%, and Renan Santos (Missão) with 2%. The other candidates scored zero. Undecided voters total 15%, and blank or spoiled ballots plus those who say they will not vote add up to 8%.Compared with August, the state's leadership flipped. Flavio Bolsonaro had 31% last month, one point ahead of Lula's 30%. Now Lula stands at 31% and the senator at 27%. The biggest jump belonged to Cury, who rose from 1% to 8%, CartaCapital reported.Runoff simulationIn a possible runoff, the order reverses. Flavio Bolsonaro has 40% against Lula's 37%, a scenario that g1 describes as a statistical tie within the three-point margin of error. In August, Lula led the simulation 38% to 35%. For political scientist Felipe Nunes, in an analysis published by g1, this is the first time Flavio polls numerically ahead of Lula in the "thermometer state", the nickname Minas Gerais carries in presidential races.The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins more than half of valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff on October 25.

A wing of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) wants the decision on whether to open investigations against Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça postponed until after the October election. The position is held by justices closer to Moraes, according to news site G1. The court's press office said on Tuesday (8) that all information requested by Chief Justice Luiz Edson Fachin on the crisis must be delivered by September 21.In private conversations, on condition of anonymity, these justices say the September 7 demonstrations, which targeted Moraes with criticism and defended Mendonça, reinforced the electoral tone the case has taken. They also argue the two cases should move forward jointly, so that both sides of the dispute carry the same weight.Aides to Fachin say the chief justice has not decided what to do. He views the facts involving Moraes, the court's vice president, as serious and demanding a response. In their view, the court cannot keep ignoring the suspicions raised. Fachin has said he will take the necessary measures "at the right time". Moraes has not spoken publicly. On Friday (4), beside President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the chief justice said: "There will be neither haste nor omission", as reported by Brasil 247.Deadlines set by FachinFachin opened two deadlines. In the first, on the Federal Police report about messages from Daniel Vorcaro to Moraes, Mendonça, Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and suspended Federal Police director Andrei Rodrigues may respond until September 14. Fachin asked whether the rules were followed for probing someone who can only be tried by the Supreme Court, and whether the confidential report was improperly accessed, which would suggest a leak.In the second, Moraes asked for an investigation of Mendonça based on an intelligence report that, in his view, has no probative value. The justice alleged administrative improbity, abuse of authority, malfeasance in office and favoritism toward political groups in Mendonça's handling of the Banco Master and INSS pension fraud cases. The Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) speaks first. After that, Mendonça has until September 21 to provide information, if he chooses to.The material lands shortly before the first round of the presidential election in October. The crisis reached a new stage on Tuesday, when Mendonça suspended Andrei Rodrigues as head of the Federal Police. The court's Second Chamber formed a majority to uphold the decision, with votes from the reporting justice, Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques, according to InfoMoney. Justice Gilmar Mendes then requested review, Dias Toffoli has not voted and the injunction remains in force. Fux canceled the afternoon session, BBC News Brasil reported. Later in the day Fachin met Justice Minister Wellington Lima e Silva and Solicitor General Jorge Messias, according to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Next come the deadlines. Responses on the Vorcaro case are due September 14. All information on the crisis must reach Fachin by September 21. After that, the chief justice decides whether to take the dispute to the full bench. Brasil 247 reported that Fachin has signaled he will do so only after the election.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to try to calm the dispute between Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) and the Federal Police (PF) and push for institutional solutions to what he calls a "crisis of institutionality". That is the assessment of Painel, the political column of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, published on Tuesday (8), after the president met with allies and cabinet ministers. According to the paper, the government should also avoid attacks on Justice André Mendonça of the STF.How the crisis startedThe standoff began with a ruling in which Mendonça, acting alone, preventively removed Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence director Leandro Almada da Costa. According to G1, the justice said he and the head of the federal government's legal office, the Advocacia-Geral da União, Jorge Messias, had been illegally monitored through unattributed intelligence reports. Folha reports that Mendonça described the police material as "surreal" and "unimaginable" and said he and Messias were watched for at least 30 days this year.The trigger was an internal Federal Police report used by Justice Alexandre de Moraes to request an investigation of Mendonça, who as case rapporteur oversees the Banco Master and INSS pension fund matters. According to Folha, the document suggested crimes of abuse of authority and administrative improbity in his handling of those cases, and accused Mendonça of steering investigations against Moraes and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre "in breach of judicial impartiality".The government's responseOn Tuesday, the AGU appealed to STF President Justice Edson Fachin and asked, on an urgent basis, for an injunction to immediately suspend the removals. The filing, signed by Messias and the AGU leadership, argues there is "serious harm to public and administrative order" and a "risk of institutional disorganization".The preventive removal flagrantly violates the constitutional prerogative vested exclusively in the President of the Republic to appoint and dismiss Federal Police leadership positions.In the court's Second Chamber, an extraordinary virtual session called to ratify the removals formed a 3-0 majority, with votes from Mendonça, Luiz Fux and Nunes Marques. A review request from Justice Gilmar Mendes suspended the session. Until the panel resumes its deliberations, Mendonça's individual ruling stands, and William Marcel Murad runs the Federal Police. The force's directors published a note of "total support" for Rodrigues and put their posts at the substitute's disposal.Three decisions are now pending. Fachin is weighing the AGU's injunction request. The Second Chamber must resume the judgment interrupted by Gilmar Mendes. And the National Association of Federal Criminal Experts wants the case taken to the full court, which currently has 10 justices.

The Brasilia chapter of the Brazilian Bar Association, OAB-DF, opened an ethics disciplinary proceeding on Tuesday, September 8, against the five partners of the Barci de Moraes law firm, owned by the wife and children of Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Chapter president Paulo Mauricio Siqueira, known as Poli, ordered the case and announced it at an extraordinary session of the full council.The session had been called to discuss the crisis surrounding the Supreme Court, Metropoles reported. The chapter said the case rests on "facts recently made public and contained in a Federal Police report." Folha de S.Paulo identified the document as the report of inquiry IPJ-A 3298613/2026, built from data on the phone of Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master.According to the bar's national register, the firm's partners are Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, Giuliana and Alexandre Barci de Moraes, the couple's children, Ana Claudia Consani de Moraes, his sister-in-law, and Fernanda Ghiuro Valentini Fritoli. All five will be summoned to answer the case.What is at stakeThe chapter's ethics tribunal will examine possible violations of the bar's code of ethics and professional statute. Conduct under possible review, according to Metropoles, includes conflicts of interest, improper solicitation of clients, conduct incompatible with the dignity of the profession and any use of the firm's structure for illegal practices.Penalties range from fines to suspension. The most severe is exclusion, the cancellation of a lawyer's license, which requires a two-thirds vote of the chapter's full council, G1 reported."The practice of law is not a means for committing crimes"Poli set out the chapter's position at Tuesday's session. "The practice of law is not a means for committing crimes. And the OAB-DF, in the case of this firm, registered in our house, we have the duty to investigate these facts," he said.The firm responded with a statement. "The Barci de Moraes firm regrets that matters already reviewed and dismissed by the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) are being used in an electoral context at the OAB/DF. It hopes that the entity's president, Paulo Mauricio Braz Siqueira, will revise his statements and provide the necessary clarifications, avoiding the adoption of appropriate measures."The OAB-DF will also open a proceeding against lawyer Ciro Soares, identified in the Federal Police report as the go-between for communication between Vorcaro and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet. Justice Andre Mendonca, who oversees the Banco Master case at the Supreme Court, made the report public on September 1, igniting a crisis inside the court. According to G1, the report reconstructs only the messages Vorcaro sent to a contact saved as "Alexandre de Moraes BRASILIA", including the discussion of two contracts with Viviane Barci and his claim of a "life debt" to the justice. There is no record of what was received in reply.Both cases will proceed under seal and have no deadline for a ruling. The OAB-DF said the proceeding will "observe all constitutional guarantees of due process" and involves "no advance judgment of guilt". The next step is the formal summons of the five partners to present their defense.

Former Rio city mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) leads the race for governor of Rio de Janeiro state with 39% of voting intentions, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (Sept 8) and commissioned by the media group Globo. His main rival, Douglas Ruas (PL), has 18%, 21 points behind.Former state governor Anthony Garotinho (Republicanos) stands at 8%, followed by Cyro Garcia (PSTU) with 2% and by William Siri (PSOL), André Marinho (Novo) and Coronel Busnello (Missão) with 1% each. Juliete (UP) and Luan Monteiro (PCO) scored zero. In Quaest's previous round, Paes had 37%, Ruas 18% and Garotinho 7%.Runoff scenariosPaes wins every second-round scenario tested by the pollster. Against Ruas, the score would be 52% to 26%. Against Garotinho, 53% to 17%. The poll's margin of error is three percentage points.The share of undecided voters fell from 20% to 16%, and blank or spoiled ballots from 16% to 14%. Quaest also found that 34% of voters say they could still change their vote before election day, down from 42% in the previous round.Senate raceIn the election for Rio de Janeiro's two Senate seats, Benedita da Silva (PT) leads with 15%, followed by former mayor Marcelo Crivella (Republicanos) with 8%. Carlos Jordy (PL), Pedro Paulo (PSD) and Carlos Portinho (PL) have 6% each, and Mônica Benício (PSOL) has 4%. Undecided voters reach 24%, and blank or spoiled ballots 25%.Quaest interviewed 1,302 people aged 16 and older between Friday (Sept 4) and Monday (Sept 7). The confidence level is 95%, and the poll is registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, under number RJ-04768/2026. The first round of Brazil's national elections is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate passes 50% of valid votes, the top two face a runoff on October 25.

The main candidates in Brazil's 2026 presidential race have declared R$ 74 million in campaign spending so far. The figures come from DivulgaCand, the disclosure platform of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top election authority, and were compiled by news site g1. Wednesday (Sep 9) opened the window for candidates, parties, federations and coalitions to file the mandatory interim campaign finance report.Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) accounts for the largest share: R$ 49 million. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) follows with R$ 20 million, and Romeu Zema (Novo) with R$ 2 million. At the other end, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who is running for reelection, declared R$ 100,000. Writer and psychiatrist Augusto Cury (Avante) reported R$ 55,000. The newspaper Estadão reached the same result in its own tally: Flávio Bolsonaro spends nearly R$ 50 million and tops the list of presidential hopefuls.Where the money wentAccording to g1, Flávio Bolsonaro's single largest expense, R$ 13.1 million, covered strategic planning and political marketing. The senator paid R$ 5 million to video producer Paranoá Digital, booked as "digital planning services", and spent R$ 3.7 million on a YouTube channel that broadcasts 24 hours a day about his candidacy. A R$ 500,000 payment to fintech DLocal buys credits to boost posts on Facebook and Instagram; the campaign told g1 that the company is Meta's "payment hub".The filing also shows R$ 3.6 million to Algoritmo Dados Estratégia e Comunicação, a press advisory firm founded by Fábio Portela, former communications secretary to São Paulo mayor Ricardo Nunes, plus R$ 3.4 million to a second communications consultancy. Legal services cost R$ 3.1 million, paid to the law office of Maria Claudia Bucchianeri, the campaign's legal head and a former TSE justice. Aircraft chartering took R$ 2.2 million, paid to Alljet Aviation.Caiado declared R$ 20.9 million, of which R$ 20 million went to a single digital marketing company. Lula put nearly all of his declared spending into printed material: R$ 93,900 to Amazon Etiquetas in three payments on Aug 26, plus R$ 6,100 in crowdfunding administration fees. Cury spent R$ 50,000 on social media boosting through Ebanx; g1 reported he has directed R$ 116,000 to boosting since the start of the year. His filing even lists R$ 958 for snacks at campaign planning meetings.What happens nextThe interim report covers all financial activity from the start of the campaign on Aug 16 through Sep 8, and is filed through Conta+JE, the electoral court system that centralizes campaign accounts. According to regional electoral courts, the filing deadline is Sunday, Sep 13. The first round of the election is on Oct 4.

Polls by the Quaest institute released on Tuesday (September 8) show Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, numerically ahead of President Lula in a hypothetical runoff in four of the five units of the federation surveyed: São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and the Federal District. Lula leads only in Pernambuco, in the Northeast. The surveys were commissioned by Globo and conducted between September 4 and 7.According to g1, Bolsonaro's lead exceeds the margin of error in São Paulo and in the Federal District. In Rio de Janeiro, the six-point gap sits at the limit of the three-point margin. In Minas Gerais, the two are technically tied, with Bolsonaro ahead in raw numbers.São Paulo: Flávio Bolsonaro 41%, Lula 33%, blank/spoiled/will not vote 16%, undecided 10%Minas Gerais: Flávio Bolsonaro 40%, Lula 37%, blank/spoiled/will not vote 15%, undecided 8%Rio de Janeiro: Flávio Bolsonaro 43%, Lula 37%, blank/spoiled/will not vote 15%, undecided 5%Pernambuco: Lula 57%, Flávio Bolsonaro 26%, blank/spoiled/will not vote 11%, undecided 6%Federal District: Flávio Bolsonaro 45%, Lula 38%, blank/spoiled/will not vote 13%, undecided 4%The message from MinasMinas Gerais carries the main political reading of the round. According to political scientist Felipe Nunes, in an analysis published by g1, every presidential winner from 1989 to 2022 also carried Minas in the decisive round. "The inversion is numerical. But the political signal is relevant," he wrote.In July, Quaest had Lula at 38% and Bolsonaro at 35% in Minas. The score now reads 40% to 37%. The shift comes alongside a 41% to 41% tie between the two in Quaest's national poll released on September 7. In that survey's Southeast break, Bolsonaro had 43% to Lula's 34%, according to g1.Electoral weight and calendarSão Paulo (34.1 million voters), Minas Gerais (16.3 million) and Rio de Janeiro (12.8 million) are Brazil's three largest electorates. In all, 158.7 million Brazilians are eligible to vote this year. The margin of error is two percentage points in São Paulo and three points elsewhere, in either direction, with a 95% confidence level. According to CartaCapital, the polls heard 1,800 respondents in São Paulo, 1,506 in Minas Gerais, 1,302 in Rio de Janeiro and 1,104 in the Federal District.Brazil votes in the first round of the presidential election on October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the runoff is scheduled for October 25. All five surveys are registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).

A state electoral court in southern Brazil has cleared Deltan Dallagnol, a former federal prosecutor and Lava Jato task force member, to run for the Senate this year. The Regional Electoral Court of Paraná (TRE-PR) voted 4 to 3 on the night of Tuesday, September 8, to approve his candidacy registration. Court president Luciano Carrasco Falavinha Souza cast the tie-breaking vote after roughly seven hours of deliberation, according to news site Revista Oeste.The ruling rejected a challenge filed by the coalition of the Workers' Party (PT) and the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in Paraná's race for state governor. The challenge argued that Dallagnol was ineligible because the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral court, revoked his federal congressional mandate in 2023. Rapporteur judge Vanessa Jamus Marchi voted to approve the registration. In her view, the proceedings over alleged infractions committed during his years as a federal prosecutor produced no sanctions capable of grounding an ineligibility ruling. "The situation has changed and no ineligibility is found," she said. The electoral prosecutors' office had also backed his eligibility.Why his candidacy was challengedDallagnol was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2022 after gaining national prominence as a member of the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba, the Car Wash anti-corruption investigation. In May 2023, the TSE stripped him of the seat. The court found that his 2021 request to leave the federal prosecution service was meant to avoid the consequences of disciplinary proceedings then underway at the National Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office (CNMP), and applied the criteria of Brazil's "Ficha Limpa" clean-record law for prosecutors who leave office while facing a disciplinary case. His lawyers countered that the 2023 ruling did not expressly declare an eight-year ineligibility, and that part of the proceedings were later archived, expired under the statute of limitations, or closed without a sanction involving loss of office.Alongside the rapporteur and the court president, judges Gisele Lemke and Osvaldo Canela Júnior voted to approve the registration. Judges Everton Jonir Fagundes Menengola, Fernando Antonio Prazeres and Nicole Trauczynski voted against it.Fine over confidential filesAt the end of the session, Falavinha Souza fined Dallagnol 100,000 reais for litigation in bad faith. The penalty came after his defense attached to the case confidential tax and banking records of Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin. The court president called the conduct reckless and said it offended the dignity of the justice system. "I sentence the candidate for litigation in bad faith in the amount of 100,000 reais," he said. According to broadcaster Band, Zanin formally asked the electoral court to remedy the irregularity and to hold those responsible accountable, including on criminal grounds. Dallagnol's lawyers said the documents were part of a disciplinary complaint of thousands of pages filed with the CNMP when Zanin was still a practicing lawyer.After the ruling, Dallagnol called it a victory for election law and for the voters' right to choose. "Today, the law, justice and the will of Paraná to decide its own future prevailed," he said. His candidacy remains valid, but the legal fight may continue: according to Folha de S.Paulo, the challenging parties are expected to appeal to the TSE.

A poll released on Wednesday by the institute Palver shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberals (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, statistically tied in the first round of Brazil's presidential race. In a scenario without Pablo Marçal, Lula has 40% of voter intentions against 39% for the senator from Rio de Janeiro; with Marçal in the race, both stand at 40%. The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo called the result a technical tie in its Painel column, and CNN Brasil described a numerical tie, with Lula ahead by a gap within the margin of error.Renan Santos, of the Missão party, polls at 11% in the scenario without Marçal, and Augusto Cury of Avante has 4%. Ronaldo Caiado, Romeu Zema and Marçal score 1% each. Undecided voters account for 1%, and blank or spoiled ballots for another 1%, according to CNN Brasil.Runoff and government approvalIn a simulated runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator leads 46% to 44%. CNN Brasil says the 2-point gap falls within the 3-point margin of error, which makes the race a tie. Blank and spoiled ballots plus abstentions add up to 9% in that scenario, and 1% of voters are undecided.Matched against other opposition figures, Lula is statistically tied with Caiado (43% to 40%) and with Zema (43% to 42%), and beats Cury (42% to 30%) and Renan Santos (43% to 31%). The same survey measured the government's standing: 57% of respondents disapprove of the way Lula governs, while 42% approve.MethodologyPalver interviewed 5,000 voters online between September 4 and 7. The margin of error is 3 percentage points in either direction, with a 95% confidence level. The institute paid for the poll with its own funds and registered it with the Superior Electoral Court, Brazil's top electoral tribunal, under protocol BR-05420/2026.Brazilians vote in the first round of the presidential election on October 4. If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, the top two face a runoff on October 25.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has 36% of first-round presidential voting intentions against 29% for Senator Flavio Bolsonaro in a batch of Quaest polls covering five states: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and the Federal District, which includes the capital Brasilia. The writer Augusto Cury stands at 8%. The figures, from a stimulated survey in which candidates' names are read to respondents, were released on Tuesday by g1, the news portal of Grupo Globo, which commissioned the polls. Renan Santos and Ronaldo Caiado poll 3% each, and Romeu Zema 2%.The state-by-state picture splits the race. Lula leads in Minas Gerais, 31% to 27%, and in Pernambuco, 51% to 21%. Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is ahead in Rio de Janeiro (34% to 32%), Sao Paulo (31% to 30%) and the Federal District (31% to 28%). According to g1, the gaps in those three states do not exceed the margin of error; in Minas Gerais and Pernambuco, Lula's lead is larger than the margin.Movement since August 25In the Federal District, Flavio Bolsonaro rose from 26% to 31% since the previous wave, released on August 25. In Minas Gerais the move went the other way: he fell from 31% to 27%, while Lula edged up from 30% to 31%. In Rio, undecided voters fell from 16% to 9%, and both front-runners gained ground, with Flavio at 34% and Lula at 32%. Cury advanced in all five states, reaching 8% in Minas, Sao Paulo and the Federal District, 6% in Pernambuco and 5% in Rio; the previous wave had him between 1% and 3%. Caiado posts his best number in the Federal District, 12%, and Zema has 6% in Minas.Methodology and the Pablo Marcal scenarioQuaest interviewed voters aged 16 and older from September 4 to 7. Sample sizes were 1,800 in Sao Paulo, 1,506 in Minas Gerais, 1,302 in Rio de Janeiro, 1,302 in Pernambuco and 1,104 in the Federal District. The margin of error is two percentage points in Sao Paulo and three points elsewhere, with a 95% confidence level. The polls are registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, including MG-04716/2026 and BR-04705/2026.CNN Brasil, which also reported the batch, says Quaest tested a scenario including Pablo Marcal in Minas Gerais: Lula would have 32%, Flavio Bolsonaro 28% and Marcal 2%. Marcal is barred from running and is waiting for the TSE to rule on his candidacy. On undecided voters in Minas, g1 reports 15%, while CNN Brasil recorded 8%.Quaest calls Minas Gerais the country's "pendulum state": every president elected since 1989 has won it, and it is Brazil's second-largest electorate, according to g1. In 2022, Lula took 50.20% of the vote there against 49.80% for Jair Bolsonaro. The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, a runoff follows on October 25.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has ordered the federal government and Congress to present, by November 30, 2026, a joint proposal to create a single tracking code for congressional earmarks, the emendas parlamentares through which lawmakers direct federal money to projects and municipalities. The ruling was released on Wednesday (Sept 9) in a case brought by the Psol party demanding more transparency in federal spending, according to news site G1.The code must bind each lawmaker's designation to the corresponding disbursement in the federal budget platforms Transferegov.br and Siafi, the government's integrated financial management system. "The report to be presented on 11/30/2026 shall include a joint proposal, accompanied by the respective implementation schedule, for the creation of a single identifier for congressional earmarks," Dino wrote in the ruling.The Denasus auditIn the same decision, Dino informed the parties of a report by the National Audit Department of the SUS (Denasus), the body that audits Brazil's public health system, which examined earmarked transfers for public health. The audit covered 100 accounts of municipalities and states. In a complementary round of 25 audits, 17 cases, or 68%, led to proposals to return or recompose public funds. The review found R$ 8.42 million in irregularly spent money: R$ 7.74 million in damages to the public treasury and R$ 677,800 in misuse of purpose. Bench earmarks, requested jointly by a state's congressional delegation, accounted for 78% of the loss, R$ 6.58 million, including a single case of R$ 4.5 million. Only 4% of the audits confirmed clear public disclosure of how the money was spent.State deadlinesDino also summoned the attorneys general of 22 states and the Federal District to report, within 30 days, the corrective measures taken on their local transparency portals. The order follows Psol's complaint that states still fail to publish execution documents and data on final beneficiaries. Maranhão received a separate 30-day deadline to prove that its transparency portal works fully.Groups that monitor the federal budget described the core problem raised in the case: the codes now used by Congress are not preserved in Siafi and Transferegov.br, which prevents a precise link between each designation, its disbursement and the final beneficiary. In a filing with the court, the Chamber of Deputies acknowledged "the possibility of adopting improvement measures". The Senate said that preserving a single identifier along the entire path of the funds "depends primarily on the architecture of the execution systems maintained by the Executive Branch".The calendar now has two deadlines. States and the Federal District must detail their fixes within 30 days. The government and Congress have until November 30 to deliver the joint proposal with the schedule for the single identifier. Dino follows compliance as the justice assigned to the case at the STF.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the opposition PL presidential candidate and eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has 47% of voter support in a simulated runoff against President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT), who is seeking reelection with 40%, according to a Gerp poll released on Wednesday (Sept 9) by CNN Brasil. The seven-point lead exceeds the survey's margin of error of two percentage points.The poll heard 2,400 voters across Brazil between Sept 3 and Sept 8, according to the technical sheet published by Poder360. The confidence level is 95%. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees Brazilian elections, under number BR-00251/2026 and cost 15,000 reais, paid by the institute itself.In the runoff scenario, 11% of respondents said they would cast a blank or spoiled ballot or vote for neither candidate. Another 3% did not know or did not answer.Technical tie in the first roundFor the first round, Gerp shows a technical tie: Flavio Bolsonaro with 37% and Lula with 34%. Augusto Cury (Avante) has 6%, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) 5%, Renan Santos (Missao) 4%, Pablo Marcal (PRTB) 2% and Romeu Zema (Novo) 1%.The survey also measured rejection. Lula is the name 49% of voters say they would not vote for under any circumstances, while Flavio Bolsonaro is rejected by 40%. On the government's record, 41% of respondents approve of Lula's administration and 52% disapprove.The institute's series shows a steady move toward the senator. On Aug 24, Gerp had a technical tie at 42% to 40; two days later, Flavio Bolsonaro led 47% to 42, according to CNN Brasil. Other pollsters publishing this week show a similar picture: Palver has him ahead 46% to 44, BTG/Nexus 46% to 45, and Meio/Ideia recorded a 46% tie. The first round is set for Oct 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the runoff takes place on Oct 25.

The BBC News Brasil poll tracker, which compiles surveys registered with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) for the presidential race, now reflects the tightest picture of the 2026 campaign. A Meio/Ideia poll released on Wednesday (9) shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) numerically ahead in the first round, with 38.4% of voter intentions, against 37.3% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The 1.1-point gap falls within the 2.5-point margin of error, a technical tie.In a runoff between the two, Meio/Ideia has them dead even at 46% each. Blank and spoiled ballots add up to 3.5% in that scenario, and 4.5% of respondents were undecided.Pollsters split on the gapThe individual surveys gathered by the BBC show a clear divide among polling firms. Veritá, which interviewed 3,840 voters between September 1 and 4, is the only one with Flávio ahead in the first round, 38.9% to 38.4%. Nexus has Lula up 39% to 35% and 39% to 34% in its two scenarios, Datafolha measures 38% to 33% and 39% to 32%, and Quaest puts the race at 36% to 29%. The tracker also follows the rise of writer Augusto Cury (Avante), who ranges from 6.6% to 12.2% across the compiled polls.In simulated runoffs against other contenders, Meio/Ideia gives Lula 46% against 40.3% for Renan Santos (Missão), 38% for Romeu Zema (Novo) and 40.9% for Cury. Against Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), the 46% to 42% score is also a technical tie. On rejection, Lula still posts the highest figure among presidential candidates: 46.6% of voters say they would not vote for him, against 45.7% for Flávio.Meio/Ideia interviewed 1,500 people between September 4 and 7. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points in either direction, and the survey is registered with the TSE as BR-07935/2026.The next test comes on Thursday (10), when AtlasIntel releases a poll covering the runoff, rejection rates and voter confidence in 13 policy areas, according to InfoMoney. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, the runoff takes place on October 25.

The presidential ticket of Flávio Bolsonaro and Alfredo Gaspar filed a lawsuit on Tuesday (8) at Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, seeking to revoke the registration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his running mate Geraldo Alckmin, and to have Lula declared ineligible. The suit is an AIJE, a Brazilian legal tool to investigate abuse of power in campaigns that can end with a candidacy being struck. It alleges abuse of political power, abuse of economic power and improper use of media in the Acadêmicos de Niterói samba school parade on February 15, held at the Marquês de Sapucaí sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, which honored Lula with the theme "Do alto do Mulungu surge a esperança: Lula, o operário do Brasil".In the filing, Bolsonaro's lawyers call the episode "the largest case of use of the state apparatus in favor of a presidential candidacy ever seen in Brazil's democratic history" and argue it broke the equal footing between the candidates. According to G1, the defense says the tribute had an electoral purpose and gave Lula an unfair advantage in an election year.Financing at the centerFinancing is the core of the case. The suit says at least R$ 9.65 million in public money went to the school's parade, combining federal, state and municipal transfers. Of that, R$ 1 million came from the tourism agency Embratur and R$ 4 million from the city of Niterói, which the petition says was double the amount the school received the year before. The filing also cites R$ 2.5 million in private fundraising attributed to first lady Rosângela da Silva, known as Janja, from three businessmen. The petition itself acknowledges that this point needs further investigation during the proceedings.Bolsonaro's lawyers also point to meetings between school officials and staff at the Planalto and Alvorada presidential palaces, engagements at the government's institutional relations office, trips by Janja on Brazilian Air Force planes, and presidential staff helping organize guests. In their reading, the parade went beyond a biographical tribute. The filing cites the chant "olê, olê, olê, olá, Lula, Lula", references to the number 13, symbols of Lula's Workers Party and criticism of political opponents. Lula watched the parade alongside cabinet ministers; Janja did not take part. Beyond Lula and Alckmin, the defendants include Janja, former Embratur head Marcelo Freixo and Niterói mayor Rodrigo Neves.The case at the accounts courtBrazil's federal accounts court, the TCU, is already looking into the parade. In April, TCU minister Augusto Nardes opened an investigation into possible misuse of public funds, after a complaint from lawmakers of the Novo party. Before Carnival, then-TCU minister Aroldo Cedraz had rejected a request to suspend the Embratur transfer. He said the R$ 12 million agreement was split evenly among the 12 schools of the special division, with R$ 1 million each, and that at the time there was no evidence of favoritism toward the school because of the tribute.The TSE must now decide whether to admit the suit. If it does, the defendants will be called to respond before the court rules on the merits, and no deadline is set for a ruling. According to CNN Brasil, sources in Bolsonaro's campaign say this is the first in a series of challenges that will be filed before the October election.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ordered on Tuesday the release of Virgílio Antônio Ribeiro de Oliveira Filho, former attorney general of the INSS, the federal institute that pays Brazil's pensions. He had been jailed since November of last year in Operation Sem Desconto, the Federal Police investigation into a scheme that diverted money from retirees through irregular association dues.Mendonça attached conditions. Virgílio must wear an electronic ankle monitor and is barred from contacting other suspects and witnesses, from visiting any association under investigation and from entering INSS or Dataprev facilities, the state company that processes benefit payments. He is also banned from leaving the country. According to G1, the Federal Police found that the former official received R$ 11.9 million through companies and bank accounts in his wife's name from firms tied to the investigated associations.The justice wrote that pretrial detention no longer holds at this stage. Whatever weight is given to the indictment, he said, "the investigative phase relevant to the assessment of VIRGÍLIO's personal situation has advanced significantly"."In these conditions, VIRGÍLIO will not be in an objective position to resume the illicit activities attributed to him, as he will be simultaneously barred from contacting the other suspects and witnesses, kept away from the institutional environments connected to the investigated scheme, forbidden from leaving the country and subject to the permanent oversight that comes with electronic monitoring."Other rulingsIn decisions issued the same day, Mendonça replaced pretrial detention with an ankle monitor for Samuel Bomfim Júnior, the accountant of farm group Conafer whom the police describe as a financial operator of the scheme. The justice also removed the ankle monitors of Pedro Corrêa Neto, a former agriculture secretary, José Carlos Oliveira, a former Social Security minister under Bolsonaro, and lawyer Gilmar Stelo. According to the justice, those investigations have advanced enough that the restrictions are no longer justified.According to CNN Brasil, the police inquiry holds that Virgílio ratified a technical position that allowed a bulk unblocking of pension benefits for association discounts at the request of Contag, one of the entities in the case. The inquiry says he and his wife concealed assets even after the investigation began. He was removed from the agency in April of last year and testified before the joint congressional inquiry into the INSS in October, one month before his arrest.The ruling comes amid the open crisis between the Supreme Court and the Federal Police. According to Estadão, Justice Fachin is weighing taking over the rapporteurship of the Master Bank and INSS cases to contain the fallout inside the court. Virgílio remains indicted by the police and bound by the restrictions for as long as the investigation lasts.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Tuesday ordered the release of targets of Operation Sem Desconto, the Federal Police investigation into improper deductions from pensions paid by the INSS, Brazil's national social security institute. There were six decisions in all, which revoked arrests, replaced jail with electronic ankle monitors and eased restrictions on suspects, according to news outlet G1 and newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.The most symbolic decision covered the INSS's former attorney general, Virgílio Antônio Ribeiro de Oliveira Filho, held in pretrial detention since November 2025. He will now wear an ankle monitor and is barred from contacting other suspects and witnesses, from entering association offices and INSS or Dataprev facilities, and from leaving the country. Federal Police investigators say he received 11.9 million reais through companies and bank accounts in his wife's name, from firms tied to the associations under investigation.An advanced stage of the probeIn the ruling, Mendonça wrote that detention is no longer justified at this stage of the investigation. The investigative phase relevant to assessing Virgílio's personal situation has "advanced significantly," he said. Elsewhere, he wrote that "the remaining risks can be adequately addressed by measures less burdensome than pretrial detention"."In these conditions, VIRGÍLIO will not be in a position, at the current stage of the investigation, to objectively resume the illicit activities attributed to him, since he will simultaneously be barred from contact with the other suspects and witnesses, kept away from the institutional environments related to the scheme, prohibited from leaving the country and subject to the permanent surveillance of electronic monitoring," the justice wrote.According to Folha, Mendonça downgraded each measure by one level, on the understanding that those involved have already left their posts and the evidence in the case has been collected.Other decisions reached central figures of the scheme. The prison order for Thaisa Hoffmann Jonasso, Virgílio's wife, who was under house arrest because she has a daughter under 12, was revoked. Conafer accountant Samuel Chrisóstomo do Bomfim Júnior, described by police as the scheme's financial operator, had pretrial detention replaced with an ankle monitor. A survey by the CGU, the federal audit office, found that Conafer, the association that received the second-largest amount of pension deductions, collected about 484 million reais between 2019 and 2024. Mendonça also ordered the removal of ankle monitors from former Social Security minister José Carlos Oliveira, of the Bolsonaro government, who now goes by Ahmed Mohamad Oliveira, as well as from Pedro Corrêa Neto, a former agriculture secretary, and lawyer Gilmar Stelo.A disputed case assignmentThe decisions came amid backstage discussions by court President Luiz Edson Fachin to rethink the assignment of the INSS and Banco Master cases and contain the crisis between Mendonça and fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Folha reported.Mendonça's office expects to review the situations of other targets of the investigation. The debate over whether Fachin will strip him of the case remains open at the court.

Quaest polls released on Tuesday (Sept. 8) show Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party ahead of President Lula of the Workers' Party (PT) beyond the margin of error in São Paulo and the Federal District in a hypothetical presidential runoff. The five surveys were commissioned by Globo and interviewed voters between Sept. 4 and 7. Lula leads in Pernambuco. In Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, the two are statistically tied, with Bolsonaro numerically ahead.Numbers by stateIn São Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, Flávio Bolsonaro has 41% of voting intentions against 33% for Lula. In the Federal District, home to the capital Brasilia, the score is 45% to 38%. In Minas Gerais, the senator polls 40% to the president's 37%, a gap within the three-point margin. In Rio de Janeiro, the score is 43% to 37%, with the difference at the edge of the margin of error, according to g1, Globo's news portal. Pernambuco is the only one of the five territories surveyed where Lula holds a clear lead: 57% to 26%.São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro are Brazil's three largest electoral colleges, with 34.1 million, 16.3 million and 12.8 million voters respectively. In all, 158.7 million Brazilians are eligible to vote this year. The margin of error is two percentage points in São Paulo and three points in the other states, with a 95% confidence level. According to CartaCapital, the polls interviewed 1,800 people in São Paulo, 1,506 in Minas Gerais, 1,302 in Rio de Janeiro and 1,104 in the Federal District. All surveys are registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court.The final stretchOn the same day, the national BTG/Nexus poll showed Flávio numerically ahead of Lula for the first time in one of its runoff simulations, at 46% to 45%, a result within the margin of error. For Marcelo Tokarski, CEO of Nexus, the gap is still too small to signal a consolidated trend, but it deserves attention in a race that remains very tight, according to VEJA. In the poll's rating of the federal government, approval moved from 46% to 45%, while disapproval went from 51% to 50%.The first round is scheduled for Oct. 4. If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes, the runoff takes place on Oct. 25.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party has moved numerically ahead of President Lula of the PT in Minas Gerais for the first time in a simulated presidential runoff. The Quaest poll released on Tuesday (Sept. 8) puts the senator at 40% and the president at 37% in the state. The three-point gap falls within the margin of error, so the race there remains a technical tie.Globo, the broadcaster that commissioned the survey, polled voters between Sept. 4 and 7, according to news site g1. The margin of error in Minas Gerais is three percentage points either way, at a 95% confidence level, and the poll is registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, under number BR-09417/2026. Minas is the country's second-largest electorate, with 16.3 million eligible voters. In the runoff scenario, 15% say they would cast a blank or spoiled ballot or not vote at all, and 8% are undecided.The pendulum stateQuaest director Felipe Nunes, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), calls Minas "Brazil's pendulum state". He notes that no president has won the national election without also winning there."For the first time in Minas Gerais, Brazil's pendulum state, we see Flávio Bolsonaro numerically ahead of Lula: 40 to 37 in a simulated runoff."Quaest's own historical series shows the slide in Lula's numbers. The president went from 42% to 38%, 39% and 38% in earlier rounds, and now stands at 37%. "This is the worst reading we have measured for Lula in this key state," Nunes said. In August 2025, Lula led Flávio by nine points in Minas.Nunes cautions that a single round cannot show whether the result is an oscillation or a lasting shift among voters. "If you look at Lula's curve, you see a trend that is significant," he said.The other statesIn the same round of runoff simulations, Flávio leads Lula beyond the margin of error in Sao Paulo, 41% to 33%, and in the Federal District, 45% to 38%. In Rio de Janeiro, the senator has 43% against 37%, with the gap at the outer edge of the margin of error. Lula leads in Pernambuco, 57% to 26%.The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled for Oct. 4. If no candidate wins an absolute majority, the top two face a runoff on Oct. 25.

Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Luiz Fux on Tuesday canceled the afternoon session of the court's Second Panel. The five-judge panel is weighing a decision by Justice André Mendonça that removed Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and the force's intelligence chief, Leandro Almada, from their posts on a preventive basis.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the panel was set to meet in person after the review began in the court's virtual plenary, a remote system in which justices file votes without debate. Justice Gilmar Mendes then asked for a vista, a request for more time to study a case, which suspended the review, and Fux, who chairs the panel, canceled the session. The panel's Tuesday agenda had a single case, unrelated to Mendonça's decision, according to news outlet G1.Where the vote standsThe Second Panel brings together Fux, Mendonça, Gilmar Mendes, Kassio Nunes Marques and Dias Toffoli. Toffoli has recused himself from cases tied to the Banco Master scandal and did not vote. Mendonça, Fux and Marques have backed keeping the removals in place, with Fux and Marques casting their votes early after Gilmar's request. Three votes already form a majority on the panel, according to G1.The delay does not overturn Mendonça's injunction, which remains in force. With Rodrigues out, executive director William Murad is running the Federal Police on an interim basis. The ruling also ordered investigative proceedings at the force's internal affairs office and suspended Federal Police reports on judges, government lawyers and federal officers.The rift between Mendonça and Justice Alexandre de Moraes deepened after the disclosure of intelligence reports produced by the Federal Police. Mendonça says he was subjected to "systematic monitoring" by the force and that six reports were produced between August 3 and 31. He says the material was sent by Rodrigues on September 1.What comes next: the review stays suspended until Gilmar Mendes returns the case to the panel. InfoMoney reports that justices are using the extra time to seek a behind-the-scenes way out of the standoff. The injunction stands in the meantime.

A standoff between two justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) has opened debate over whether the Master case, the investigation into billion-real fraud at Banco Master, could be voided. An analysis by BBC News Brasil published on Tuesday (8) examines whether the conflict between Justices André Mendonça and Alexandre de Moraes could contaminate Operation Compliance Zero and nullify acts of the case.According to the BBC, Moraes says, based on a report he commissioned from the Federal Police within the so-called Fake News inquiry, that Mendonça may have committed, "in theory", administrative improbity, crimes of responsibility and abuse of authority, with a breach of "judicial impartiality" and "favoring certain political groups" while overseeing Operation Compliance Zero (Banco Master) and Operation Sem Desconto (INSS, the federal pension system). The document is apocryphal, unsigned by its authors, and the police itself classified it as having "no probative value".The allegations respond to another Federal Police report, commissioned by Mendonça, on messages exchanged between Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, arrested in November 2025. The conversations include a supposed request by the banker for Moraes to intervene in his favor with the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and the Federal Police. According to G1, Mendonça unsealed those messages on September 1. Moraes replied on September 3, unsealing Federal Police intelligence reports and asking STF President Edson Fachin to investigate his colleague. On Tuesday, Mendonça preventively removed Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and intelligence chief Leandro Almada.The Lava Jato precedentThe comparison lawyers keep returning to is Lava Jato, the corruption task force that collapsed in 2019. Leaked messages from the phone of Deltan Dallagnol, then the task force chief, showed suspicious interactions with judge Sergio Moro. The STF later found that Moro had not acted impartially and voided a series of criminal cases, including the convictions of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the BBC reports.For criminal lawyer Marina Coelho, a professor at Insper and vice-president of the São Paulo Lawyers Institute, Moraes's counterattack aims at the broad nullification of the Master case."He chose attack as his defense. And that attack cannot target only Mendonça, it has to target Mendonça and the operation as a whole. In the end, the defense he can mount is a defense of nullity, because on the merits, from what we can see, it is harder", she told the BBC.Coelho said she has no elements to state that Mendonça committed any illegality, because the case is under seal. In her assessment, what has been presented so far does not support an investigation of the justice. "A report has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. It has to state its objective, it has to be signed. Otherwise, it has no value whatsoever", she said.What the plenary decidesProsecutor General Paulo Gonet asked the court to void the report on Vorcaro's messages to Moraes. In the PGR's view, Mendonça should have taken the question to the full bench before ordering the initial probe. The final call belongs to the plenary. Coelho describes the document as a case of "fortuitous discovery of evidence", when an investigation finds evidence against someone who was not its original target, and says no investigation of Moraes was opened, only an analysis of the seized messages.According to UOL, a faction that backs Moraes believes it has a majority to declare the nullity of Mendonça's acts in the Master case, though the plenary tally is seen as uncertain. Meanwhile, the crisis stays on the court's docket. In Tuesday's Second Chamber session, which was judging Andrei Rodrigues's removal, Justice Gilmar Mendes asked for more time to review the case and suspended the vote; Justice Dias Toffoli had not yet voted.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing PL party leads President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva numerically for the first time in a runoff simulation by the BTG/Nexus poll released on Tuesday, September 8. The senator, eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has 46% of voting intentions against 45% for Lula, of the Workers' Party. The one-point gap sits inside the survey's two-point margin of error, which makes the race a technical tie.The result reverses the previous round, released on August 31, when Lula had 46% and Flávio 45%. Until now the president had led numerically in every head-to-head test between the two in the series. This was the 13th round, according to news site JOTA.Cury moves aheadIn another runoff scenario, physician and writer Augusto Cury, of the Avante party, scores 45% against 43% for Lula, also a technical tie. According to Congresso em Foco, the report for this round carries no historical series for that matchup. Blank and spoiled ballots add up to 10%, and 1% of respondents did not know or did not answer.Cury is the only opponent besides Flávio to sit numerically ahead of the president. Lula leads the three remaining scenarios: 46% to 43% over Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), 47% to 40% over Romeu Zema (Novo) and 47% to 39% over Renan Santos (Missão).First round and voter certaintyLula still leads the first-round ballot with 39%, against 35% for Flávio, as reported by Congresso em Foco and JOTA; CNN Brasil reported 34% for the senator. JOTA says the senator rose from 33% and reads the round as "a recovery for Flávio Bolsonaro after a week dominated by news involving the Supreme Federal Court". Cury has 9%, Caiado and Renan Santos have 4% each, and Zema has 1%.Nexus interviewed 2,002 voters by phone between September 4 and 7. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level, and the poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court as BR-06790/2026. Among Lula's voters, 90% say their decision is final; among Flávio's, 84%. For Cury, 58% say they will stick with him and 39% admit they may switch. CNN Brasil also reported rejection of Flávio at 50% and of Lula at 49%.An earlier Quaest round had already shown the two tied at 41% in a runoff. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is set for October 4, and a runoff, if needed, for October 25.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads Brazil's presidential race with 39% of voter intentions in the first round, while Senator Flávio Bolsonaro holds 34%, according to a BTG/Nexus poll released on Tuesday (8). The gap between the two frontrunners stands at five percentage points. In the firm's previous survey conducted last week, Lula registered 37% against 31% for Bolsonaro.The pollster tested two first-round scenarios because of ongoing legal uncertainty surrounding influencer Pablo Marçal (PRTB). In the scenario excluding Marçal, Lula remains at 39% while Flávio Bolsonaro rises to 35%, narrowing the gap to four points. In that same simulation a week earlier, Bolsonaro registered 33%.Author Augusto Cury (Avante) placed third with 9% support across both scenarios. That marks a two-point decrease from the 11% he scored in the previous survey. Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Free Brazil Movement leader Renan Santos (Missão party) received 4% each in both test ballots.Pablo Marçal drew 3% in the ballot containing his name, followed by former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) at 2%. Samara Martins (UP) received 1% in both simulations, while Rui Costa Pimenta (PCO) reached 1% only in the field without Marçal. In a head-to-head second-round simulation, the poll found a statistical tie, with Flávio Bolsonaro at 46% and Lula at 45%.The dual testing reflects a pending decision in Brazil's highest election court. Marçal is barred from running until 2032 under an ineligibility ruling, but secured a preliminary injunction from a São Paulo electoral court to register his ticket. The plenary of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is scheduled to rule on the final validity of his registration ahead of the election.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should appeal to the full Supreme Federal Court before complying with an order suspending Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues. The assessment was made by lawyer Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, head of Lula's campaign in São Paulo and coordinator of the Prerrogativas legal collective, speaking to Folha de S.Paulo on Tuesday.Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça ordered the immediate suspension of Rodrigues and the head of police intelligence, Leandro Almada da Costa, earlier on Tuesday. The individual injunction cited allegations of unauthorized monitoring of public officials, including Mendonça himself and Attorney General Jorge Messias.Carvalho stated that an immediate legal challenge is the proper route for the presidential palace. According to the lawyer, the president should take this step "given the gravity of the measure." Government officials contend that the individual court ruling infringes on the president's exclusive constitutional authority to appoint and dismiss the leadership of the Federal Police.The institutional response will be filed by the Office of the Attorney General (AGU). The federal attorneys are preparing a petition to challenge Mendonça's jurisdiction and request a ruling from the full bench of eleven justices.Developments inside the court moved swiftly on Tuesday. In the Supreme Court's Second Panel, Justices Luiz Fux and Nunes Marques voted to uphold Mendonça's order before Justice Gilmar Mendes requested a formal review, halting the vote. Mendonça's individual injunction remains active while the court awaits the return of Mendes's review and the filing of the administration's appeal.

Brazil's Attorney General's Office, the AGU, will contest the ruling by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice André Mendonça that removed Andrei Rodrigues, director-general of the Federal Police, from his post on Tuesday (8). According to sources heard by Andréia Sadi's blog at g1, the office's argument will be that the measure breaches a power held exclusively by the presidency: appointing and dismissing the head of the force.The ruling was monocratic, meaning Mendonça signed it alone, without a vote by his fellow justices. Besides the director-general, the justice removed the Federal Police's police intelligence director, Leandro Almada da Costa, ordered criminal and disciplinary investigations by the force's internal affairs office, and suspended the production and sharing of intelligence reports analyzing the work of judges and government lawyers.Secret intelligence reportsMendonça's decision responds to at least six intelligence reports produced secretly between August 3 and 31 and sent by the director-general to Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the Fake News Inquiry, a long-running disinformation investigation. According to the ruling, cited by g1, the documents subjected Mendonça himself and the attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, to what the justice called "systematic monitoring and directed collection" of information. Folha de S.Paulo traces the trigger to an internal police report that Moraes used to request an investigation of Mendonça for abuse of authority in the Banco Master and INSS case.Marco Aurélio de Carvalho, a lawyer who coordinates President Lula's campaign in São Paulo, told Folha's Mônica Bergamo column that the government should appeal to the court's full bench before complying with the ruling, "given the gravity of the measure."What comes nextThe ruling must now be ratified by the court's Second Chamber, a five-justice panel made up of Luiz Fux, who chairs it, Gilmar Mendes, Dias Toffoli, Nunes Marques and Mendonça himself. Fux called an extraordinary virtual session for Tuesday (8) to review the case. The AGU's challenge is expected to be filed with the court next, and Rodrigues remains suspended until the panel rules.

Senator Veneziano Vital do Rêgo of the MDB, who represents Paraíba, steered R$ 210 million in budget amendments to the widening of the BR-230 highway in his state. Companies owned by relatives and partners of two aides who passed through his office are carrying out part of the works, and one of the two still works for him. The findings were published on Tuesday by Folha de S.Paulo, based on documents obtained by the newspaper, and no other outlet has independently confirmed them so far.Two consortia run the project: one covers a stretch in Campina Grande, Paraíba's second-largest city, the other a route in Cabedelo, on the coast. According to Folha, both subcontracted Comtech, later replaced by Com Infraestrutura e Mineração, and Selecta Construções. When the deal was signed, Comtech had Rodrigo Neves as a partner. He worked in Veneziano's office until 2017. Com Infraestrutura e Mineração belongs to a former business partner of his, and Selecta to a brother-in-law. Rodrigo's brother, Marcelo Neves, has worked in the senator's office since 2019.How the money reached the worksOf the total, R$ 160 million came through rapporteur amendments Veneziano indicated in the 2023 federal budget, a channel in which the budget's rapporteur distributes funds, and R$ 50 million from the Senate Infrastructure Committee, Folha reports. The works began in 2017, were suspended the following year and resumed in 2023, after the Transport Ministry signed a new service order funded by the Transition PEC, a constitutional amendment. Announcing the resumption on the Senate floor in September 2023, the senator described how he sought money from the 2023 budget's lead rapporteur, then senator Marcelo Castro:"We approved R$ 50 million in the Infrastructure Committee, and I went to Senator Marcelo Castro [...] and the senator, seeing the importance of the BR-230, added another R$ 83 million, making R$ 127 million for the 31 kilometers."In the same session, Veneziano said he expected the works to be finished in 2026 and noted the highway serves Campina Grande, a city of 415,000 people, and a surrounding region of about 1 million.The senator's responseIn a statement, Veneziano confirmed sending the amendments and said his role went no further. Decisions on execution, he argued, belong elsewhere:"The senator does not take part in bidding, does not choose companies, does not appoint subcontractors, does not authorize payments and does not interfere in contract oversight. Those duties belong exclusively to the administrative structures responsible for executing the works."Trying to connect the amendments with the subcontracted companies, the statement says, "means deliberately confusing parliamentary action with administrative and business acts of management in which the senator takes no part." On the former aide, it says past professional ties "likewise do not mean participation, influence or responsibility of the senator" over third parties' later business activities.The report arrives in the middle of Veneziano's campaign for reelection to the Senate in October's elections. In an interview with the news site TH+ on August 25, he had presented about R$ 2.3 billion secured for Paraíba as the balance of his term, including R$ 267 million for the BR-230.

Presidential candidate Augusto Cury, a best-selling writer running for the small Avante party, held a campaign rally on Monday (Sept 7), Brazil's Independence Day, on the beachfront of Copacabana in southern Rio de Janeiro. Attendance peaked at 1,400 people at 11:30 a.m., according to the Monitor do Debate Político, a crowd-counting project of the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Cebrap research institute, in partnership with the More in Common group. From a sound truck, Cury again cast himself as an alternative to the race between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the right-wing PL, and closed his speech with a message to André Mendonça, a justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court."Before I finish, I want to send a very special hug to doctor André Mendonça," Cury said, according to news site Poder360. Asked afterward about the remark, he said he was not taking sides within the court. He said Mendonça and the court's president, Edson Fachin, must be free to conduct their investigations. He did not mention Justice Alexandre de Moraes."At the STF no one should be spared. Everyone must be investigated, and if no guilt is proven, they are free. But if there is guilt, there must be a conviction," Cury said.The gesture comes amid a crisis at the court triggered by the release of messages exchanged between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master. Mendonça is the justice overseeing the investigation into the bank and lifted the seal on the Federal Police report that identified the exchanges, Poder360 reported.The rally on the Copacabana waterfrontThe "Caminhada da Independência Cury Brasil" (Cury Brasil Independence Walk) ran along the beach from lifeguard post 6 to post 5. Cury arrived at 11:25 a.m. and wrapped up around 12:45 p.m., according to news site g1. The crowd was counted by artificial intelligence software using aerial photographs. With a 12% margin of error, the real figure may have ranged from 1,300 to 1,600 people, Veja magazine reported; it described Copacabana as a stronghold of Bolsonaro supporters.In his speech, Cury criticized Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro on farming policy. He said the two had "never planted a vegetable garden" and still want to decide the sector's future. According to UOL, the candidate presented himself as a "third way" and praised voters of both the right and the left.The race in OctoberOn the same holiday, a rally by Flávio Bolsonaro on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo drew 28,500 people at its peak under the same counting method. A Quaest poll released on Monday put Lula at 36% of first-round voting intentions, Flávio Bolsonaro at 29% and Cury at 8%, leaving the writer in third place.The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for Oct. 4. Mendonça remains the rapporteur, or reporting justice, of the Banco Master case at the STF.

Allies of Senate President Davi Alcolumbre expect him to wait until after Brazil's October election before deciding what to do with impeachment requests against ministers of the Supreme Federal Court, known as STF, Folha de S.Paulo reported on Monday (7). The report comes amid an escalating crisis at the court.A person close to Alcolumbre told the newspaper he will not give in to pressure from the Bolsonaro movement to remove court members before knowing who the next president will be and who the 54 newly elected senators will be. Only then will he decide whether to open an impeachment case, and against whom.In the Senate, the chances of a removal request now succeeding are treated as real even by lawmakers who used to reject the idea, Folha reports. Alcolumbre's calculation involves his own race: senators elect their president on the first working day of the new Congress, in February, and allies see the impeachment of Justice Alexandre de Moraes as the only bargaining chip able to win bolsonarista votes for his reelection. In Brazil, the Senate is the chamber that tries impeachments.Alcolumbre is a friend of Moraes and has always opposed removing him. People close to him say that position has not changed. Part of his circle concedes, though, that depending on the profile of the senators elected, it may be hard to stop a case from being opened.Opposition pressureThe opposition is pressing for action. At a news conference on September 2, the PL party leader in the Senate, Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ), said his group of 32 senators will pressure Alcolumbre daily. "For us senators who already have the majority and the support for impeachment, our job is not only to ask for his resignation but to start the impeachment process," he said.The requests gained force after reports on Moraes's ties to banker Daniel Vorcaro of Banco Master fueled the crisis at the court. "More and more keeps coming out. Many did not believe us when we said there was a capture of powers by the STF minister," Portinho said. He ruled out, for now, a general obstruction of Senate votes and raised the possibility that a new Senate president, chosen by the majority that emerges from the ballot, could take over the process next year.According to Folha, impeaching Moraes became one of the main causes of allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) after his conviction for attempting a coup. The first round of the election is set for October 4 and renews 54 of the Senate's 81 seats. The new Congress takes office in February, when senators choose their president. Until then, the decision to open, or not open, a case rests with Alcolumbre.

A plan by Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, Rio de Janeiro) to ease environmental licensing for resorts and large tourism projects in Angra dos Reis, in Rio de Janeiro state, would directly benefit businesses of lawyer Willer Tomaz. Tomaz is a personal friend of the presidential candidate and is under federal police investigation in the inquiry into fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. The report came from the Mônica Bergamo column of Folha de S.Paulo, published on Monday.According to Folha, Tomaz owns three properties in Angra dos Reis registered under two of his companies, Friponor and WT Administração de Imóveis. Two sit on Ilha Comprida and one on Ilha do José André. In 2025 he asked Inea, the state environmental agency, what share of one of the plots could be used for tourism operations, according to a document obtained by the newspaper.Construction work and the mansion disputed with RicharlisonFootage recorded on July 8, 2025 and obtained by the column shows construction on a second property, a mansion valued at around 10 million reais that was at the center of a court dispute with the footballer Richarlison. A second floor is going up, along with rooms separate from the main building, a layout typical of tourism ventures. The previous owner, Antônio Marcos da Silva, who sold the property to the player, told Folha that Tomaz and Flavio Bolsonaro "treated each other as partners" during a visit to the site.The candidate's office denies that any partnership, business stake or joint venture ever existed between the two. According to Folha, it did not answer the specific questions about the licensing plan. Tomaz also denies any link between the plan and his projects. In a statement, he said he took no part in drafting the idea, was not consulted and had no dealings with the candidate on the matter, and called the connection between the two facts a "thematic coincidence" turned into an insinuation of favoritism with no factual basis.The federal police operation and the campaignTomaz is a longtime friend of Flavio Bolsonaro, whom he often joins on official engagements and private trips, and is also close to Senator Weverton Rocha (PDT, Maranhão), according to Correio Braziliense. On August 4, federal police searched his home in a phase of Operação Sem Desconto, which investigates improper discounts on INSS benefits and suspected money laundering. The force served 18 warrants issued by the Supreme Federal Court in Brasília and in Maranhão state. According to Diário do Centro do Mundo, a federal police report recorded 45.5 million reais in unusual transactions attributed to the lawyer between May and November 2021, though the force has not linked that money directly to the discount scheme. His lawyers say he is not part of the group under investigation and that the search was tied to one of his aircraft, used by Weverton Rocha on a trip.At a campaign rally in Angra dos Reis on August 29, Flavio called for revising municipal master plans together with city halls so that works on "condominiums, large projects and resorts" can move forward "quickly". He said environmental questions are holding back the region, whose tourism potential he compared with Cancún and Indonesia. The police inquiry remains open at the Supreme Court, and Tomaz's defense says he is available to clarify matters with the authorities. The licensing change stands as a campaign pledge for the October presidential election.

Thirteen retired justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, have asked its president, Justice Edson Fachin, to call an urgent public session so the full bench can order an "immediate and rigorous" investigation into the crisis gripping the tribunal. The statement was released on Monday night (Sept. 7), according to G1 and Folha de S.Paulo.What the retired justices wantIn the letter, the signatories describe the moment as the "most acute crisis" in the court's history. They express confidence in Fachin and say they expect the session to be called "with all urgency". The document reads:"The retired justices and former presidents undersigned hereby express full confidence in the seriousness, discernment and firmness of Your Excellency in leading this Supreme Court, in the most acute crisis of its history, and the absolute conviction that Your Excellency will designate, with all urgency, a public session so that the full bench may determine an immediate and rigorous investigation, under due process of law, of the gravest facts whose disclosure has been compromising the prestige and authority of this Tribunal, the trust of the people and even the stability of democratic institutions", the letter to Fachin says.The group includes Celso de Mello, Nelson Jobim, Ellen Gracie, Joaquim Barbosa and Rosa Weber. Thirteen names signed:Néri da SilveiraFrancisco RezekSydney SanchesCelso de MelloCarlos VellosoIlmar GalvãoNelson JobimEllen GracieCezar PelusoAyres BrittoJoaquim BarbosaEros GrauRosa WeberAccording to G1, the text names no sitting justice and does not specify which episodes should be investigated. The statement also stops short of asking for any member of the court to step aside.How the crisis beganAccording to Folha, the crisis escalated on September 1, when Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report that showed exchanges between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. Moraes reacted by asking, in a filing in the so-called fake news inquiry, that Mendonça be investigated for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crimes of responsibility. Days later, Fachin removed Moraes's request against Mendonça from the inquiry. The standoff has divided the court's justices.Fachin has not yet scheduled the session requested by the retired justices. According to CNN Brasil, the court's president is awaiting explanations from Moraes and André Mendonça over the case. The letter's signatories expect the summons "with all urgency".

Disapproval of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reached 50% of Brazilian voters, while approval fell to 43%, according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (7). The survey was commissioned by Globo and the newspaper O Globo. Another 7% did not know or did not answer.In the previous round, released on September 2, disapproval stood at 48% and approval at 45%. According to G1, Globo's news portal, both movements stayed within the poll's margin of error of two percentage points. Even so, the gap between the two numbers widened from three to seven points, ending the technical tie between approval and disapproval.Quaest, one of Brazil's leading polling firms, interviewed 2,004 voters between September 3 and 6. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's elections authority, under number BR-01720/2026. The margin of error is two percentage points and the confidence level is 95%.Economy and household debtThe negative evaluation of the government, which combines the answers "bad" and "terrible", rose from 37% to 38%, while the positive one, "great" and "good", fell from 35% to 34%. The share calling the government merely fair held at 25%. Views on the economy were unchanged: 49% of voters say the country's situation worsened in the past 12 months, 29% say it stayed the same and 19% say it improved. Overall, 54% say their family income did not rise or grew less than the cost of living over the past year.Household debt was the only indicator to move beyond the margin of error. The share of voters who say they have many debts rose from 22%, in the August 5 round, to 28%. Those reporting no debts fell from 31% to 27%, and those with few debts, from 47% to 44%.According to InfoMoney, this was the first Quaest round conducted after new details emerged in the Banco Master investigation involving Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Pollster Vera Magalhães, of O Globo, said "the movement revealed by Quaest is very negative for Lula". Lula is running for reelection this year, and the coming Quaest rounds will show whether the two-point drop in approval, still within the margin of error, holds through the final stretch of the campaign.

An investigation by the newspaper Estadão, published on Sunday (September 6), identified at least 40 accounts of influencers who rarely, if ever, discuss politics posting videos in support of Augusto Cury, the self-help author running for president for the small Avante party. The report, by Bianca Gomes and Guilherme Caetano, also found that the campaign is receiving help from two professionals tied to Pablo Marçal, the digital coach and influencer who filed his own presidential bid for the PRTB.According to the newspaper, the accounts posted videos asking for votes or praising the candidate between August 26 and 29. They cover finance, healthy living, entrepreneurship, humor, beauty, cars, religion and motherhood, and some have only a few thousand followers. Many use the same hashtag with Cury's name and the same image showing his picture and his ballot number, 70.Some profiles admit they had never discussed politics before. "I'm going to vote for him, every video I put up is about this guy, I don't even want to know what he does," says a humor account with 14,300 followers. "I won't reveal that my vote is 70," says a general-interest profile followed by 119,000 people. A beauty and fitness influencer with 661,000 followers said: "In all these years I never talked about politics, I never took a political stand. But this man gave me hope."Surge on Instagram, jump in the pollsThe wave began on August 26, according to Estadão, when Cury's Instagram followers rose from 8.4 million to 10.7 million in two days. Gazeta do Povo, citing the monitoring platform Sólon, reported that the mobilization gained strength on August 25, when the author had 8.4 million followers.Polls registered the surge days later. In the Nexus/BTG survey released on August 31, Cury jumped from 2% to 11% and moved into third place. In Atlas/Bloomberg polling, he rose from 1.6% to 7.8%. A Quaest poll on September 2 put him at 10%, alone in front of the other candidates outside the two main camps of Lula's PT and Flávio Bolsonaro's PL.Ties to MarçalEstadão reports that the campaign counts on Filippe Neto, Marçal's business partner, and Nahuel Gómez Medina, the coach's aide. Medina attacked Duda Lima, at the time the campaign marketer for politician Ricardo Nunes (MDB), during an electoral debate in 2024. Lima now works for Flávio Bolsonaro's presidential campaign.Cury and Marçal shared a stage in early July at O Código da Voz, an event on neuroscience and influence whose most expensive ticket cost 5,497 reais, according to its website. Neto, who says Marçal is his wedding godfather, was among the speakers. On his Instagram, Neto says he created the slogan "O Brasil tem Cura. O Brasil tem Cury" (Brazil has a cure, Brazil has Cury), adopted by the Avante campaign. Marçal filed his own presidential candidacy with the PRTB on August 15, even though he is legally barred from holding office, according to Poder360.Cury's running mate, former congressman Júlio Delgado of the PRTB, told the newspaper Valor Econômico, in an interview reported by Poder360 on Wednesday (September 2), that the support from people tied to Marçal was "organic and spontaneous"."There is talk that Marçal has a personal relationship with Dr. Augusto Cury, but he has not taken part in the campaign in any overt way. You could say he brings in influencers connected to him. That may happen eventually, but only if it is in an organic and spontaneous way," Delgado said.Delgado said the campaign had boosted only 20,000 to 25,000 reais in posts the previous week, paid with money donated by Cury himself, the campaign's only donor so far. He said Cury had an organic base of 8.5 million Instagram followers and grew 30%. In his view, the rise comes because "people are fed up with the polarization between Lula and Bolsonaro". Campaign-linked professionals described the movement as spontaneous, according to Estadão.The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled for October 4. The next polls will show whether the digital wave holds until election day.

The campaign rally of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) drew about 28,500 people to Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo on Monday (7). The figure is an estimate by the Political Debate Monitor of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (Cebrap) and the organization More in Common. With a 12% margin of error, attendance ranged from 25,100 to 32,000 people at 4:32 p.m., the peak moment.The event was called "Flávio Bolsonaro: Fora Lula, Fora Moraes" ("Out with Lula, out with Moraes", a reference to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes). It was held on Brazil's Independence Day holiday. Bolsonaro's party, the PL, had set a public goal of 100,000 attendees. The count came in below that target.How the count worksThe tally relies on aerial photographs analyzed by artificial intelligence software. The method, called Point to Point Network (P2PNet), detects and marks each person's head in the images, according to the research groups. Researchers recorded the rally at three times: 3:15 p.m., 3:44 p.m. and 4:32 p.m. The peak estimate drew on 12 photographs taken at 4:32 p.m. that covered the full length of the protest without overlap. The methodology has been in use since August 2022.According to the same tally, Monday's crowd was 32.5% smaller than the Independence Day rally held on Avenida Paulista in 2025, which drew 42,200 people. In 2024, the protest there gathered 45,400 participants. In 2022, 32,700 people were counted in Sao Paulo. There was no official protest in 2023.In Rio de Janeiro, the "Independence Walk" of presidential candidate Augusto Cury (Avante) drew 1,400 people to Copacabana beach under the same methodology. With the margin of error, attendance ranged from 1,300 to 1,600 at 11:30 a.m., the moment of highest concentration.The race now moves toward the first round of the presidential election in early October. A Quaest poll released the same day by G1 and InfoMoney put President Lula (Workers' Party) at 36% of voting intentions against 29% for Flávio Bolsonaro, and a numerical tie at 41% each in a runoff scenario.

Presidential candidate Augusto Cury, a writer running for the small Avante party, said on Monday (Sept. 7), Brazil's Independence Day, that the Senate must take up impeachment requests against justices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court. In an interview on the Jovem Pan network, he also said he would review the imprisonment of defendants from the January 8, 2023 riots, when crowds stormed the seats of the three branches of government in Brasília, and promised to "retire" President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party if he reaches the runoff. Hours later, he held a rally on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro and announced financing for 10 million micro businesses in communities and favelas.Impeachment and the January 8 prisoners"There has to be impeachment. The Federal Senate has to discuss it. How could it not? It has to have responsibility," Cury said, according to the newspaper Estadão. "No one should be protected. No one is above the law," he added. He called Congress "very fragile" in the face of the court and repeated his proposal to cut the bench from 11 to 9 justices, modeled on the United States Supreme Court. "I draw a lot of inspiration from what happens in some countries. The American court, for example, has nine. We need to trim the ranks," he said.On the January 8 prisoners, Cury said that, if elected, he would request a full report on their cases in the first week of his government and review them case by case. "In my first week in government, if Brazilian society chooses me, I want a report on everything," he said. In his view, "the great majority" of those still in prison or under restrictive measures should be out. "No one who was wronged will be left behind," he declared. He cited former minister José Múcio among analysts who argue that the riots showed intent to stage a coup, without carrying it out.Rally on Copacabana beachAbout 1,400 people attended the rally in Copacabana, in the south zone of Rio, according to an estimate by the Monitor do Debate Político of USP/Cebrap, a University of São Paulo research group, in partnership with More in Common. Walking 500 meters along Avenida Atlântica in the rain, supporters went from lifeguard post 6 to post 5. From a sound truck, Cury promised to finance 10 million micro businesses "in every community or favela" and to open an agency of the Banco do Empreendedor, the public bank for small entrepreneurs, and an entrepreneurship school in every public school. He also said he would give up the presidential salary and use it to finance two micro businesses of public school students each month, which his campaign confirmed to g1.At the close of the event, he returned to the court, sent "a very special hug" to Justice André Mendonça and expressed solidarity with Chief Justice Edson Fachin. "I want every investigation to be carried out, no matter whom it hurts," he said, warning that the country "will collapse" if signs of corruption are not investigated "to the very last consequences"."At the STF, no one should be spared. Everyone must be investigated. If no guilt is proven, they are free. But if there is any, there has to be a conviction."As for Lula, Cury called himself the president's "nightmare", according to the Gazeta do Povo. In Rio, without naming anyone, he said that "Brazil can no longer stand being captured by just 2 families", adding that he respects "millions" of remarkable people from both the right and the left. Cury ranks third in the race: in a Quaest poll released on Monday, he had 8% of first-round voting intentions, against 36% for Lula and 29% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, down from 10% a week earlier. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

Brazilian President Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro are tied at 41% each in a simulated runoff of the presidential race, according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (7). The survey is the institute's first since turmoil erupted at the Supreme Court, known as STF. Quaest interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over nationwide between September 3 and 6.In the first-round scenario, Lula has 36% of voting intentions and Flávio Bolsonaro 29%. Writer Augusto Cury ranks third with 8%. In the previous round, released on September 2, the president had 37%, the senator 30% and Cury 10%, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Renan Santos and Ronaldo Caiado poll 3% each, Romeu Zema has 2% and Samara Martins 1%. Undecided voters make up 10%, and 8% plan to cast a blank or spoiled ballot or not vote.Runoff scenariosIn the head-to-head with Flávio, Lula slipped from 42% to 41%, while the senator held at 41%. Blank, spoiled and non-votes add up to 13%, with 5% undecided, according to g1. The margin of error is two percentage points and the confidence level is 95%. The poll was commissioned by Globo and the newspaper O Globo, and registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which runs Brazilian elections, under number BR-01720/2026.Lula is also technically tied with Ronaldo Caiado, 41% to 38%, and with Augusto Cury, 39% to 35%. Against Renan Santos the score is 42% to 37%; against Romeu Zema, 44% to 33%. Every shift from the September 2 round stayed within the margin of error.The trend line shows a tightening race. In July, Lula led a simulated runoff with 45% to Flávio's 37%, an eight-point advantage that has vanished, according to InfoMoney. The new round also shows no clear impact so far on voting intentions from the fallout over messages exchanged between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and businessman Daniel Vorcaro, or from the opening of investigations into the president's son Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha. The same poll puts rejection of Lula at 53% and of Flávio at 55%.What comes nextThe first-round scenario excludes influencer Pablo Marçal, barred from running for office until 2032, who registered a presidential candidacy after an injunction from the São Paulo state electoral court. The TSE will rule on the case; it has already barred him from campaign funds, televised debates and free electoral airtime. According to Folha, two justices and advisers to two others expect the request to be rejected. The first round is set for October 4, with a runoff on October 25 if needed.

79% of Brazilian voters say the opinion of religious leaders does not influence their choice for president. The figure comes from a Quaest poll released on Monday (7), less than a month before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.According to G1, which published the results, the poll asked voters how much weight religious leaders carry in their presidential vote. Positive answers total 18%: 10% say the opinion of a religious leader influences them a lot and 8% a little. Another 2% said they have no religious leader, and 1% did not know or did not answer.Catholics and evangelicalsRejection of religious guidance appears in every religious group. Among Catholics, 81% say there is no influence, while 9% acknowledge some weight. Among evangelicals, one of the fastest-growing religious groups in Brazil, 79% said they do not follow their leader's position when voting, and 13% said they do.The pattern holds across political groups. Independent voters gave 80% no-influence answers; supporters of Lula, 77%; and supporters of Flávio Bolsonaro, 74%, the lowest share in the survey. Among those who say their vote is strongly influenced, the figure reaches 13% for both Lula and Bolsonaro supporters, against 9% among independents.Women, education and incomeWomen deny the influence at a higher rate: 81%, against 8% who acknowledge it. Among men, 77% said no and 11% said the influence is strong. Education widens the gap. Voters with a university degree answered "no influence" at 86%, compared with 79% among those with only primary schooling. Income follows the same path: 75% of those earning up to two minimum wages say religious opinion carries no weight in their vote, a share that rises to 83% among those earning more than five minimum wages.By region, the South has the highest no-influence rate, 80%. The Center-West and North have the lowest, 75%, and the Northeast and the Center-West/North lead positive answers, with 13% each. UOL Notícias also reported the overall 79% figure. The first round is set for October 4. In the same Quaest round published by G1, a simulated runoff shows Lula at 42% and Flávio Bolsonaro at 41%.

Protests against Brazil's Supreme Court and Justice Alexandre de Moraes were held in at least seven state capitals on Monday (7), running parallel to the Independence Day military parades across the country. According to G1, right-wing parties and movements organized the rallies under the slogans "Fora Lula" and "Fora Moraes", roughly "Lula out" and "Moraes out".In Brasília, two groups gathered in the city's Plano Piloto core and demanded the removal of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and of Moraes. Demonstrators also criticized Senate President Davi Alcolumbre for refusing to put an impeachment request against the justice to a vote. One group protested outside the Central Bank.Where the rallies took placeIn the Northeast, the group Movimento Brasil organized a march in Maceió from the Corredor Vera Arruda to the Marco dos Corais that criticized Moraes and backed Justice André Mendonça, also of the court. In Recife, protesters met on Avenida Boa Viagem in the south of the city on Monday afternoon and called for Moraes to be suspended; candidates in this year's elections were among those present. In Salvador, a rally at the Farol da Barra backed candidates of the PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro's family, with federal and state lawmakers and city councilors in attendance. In São Luís, a motorcycle caravan organized by right-wing movements crossed the city and ended downtown.In Belo Horizonte, the União dos Movimentos de Direita de Minas Gerais called a rally at Praça da Liberdade that organizers described as nonpartisan. In Goiânia, right-wing leaders gathered at Praça Tamandaré in the city center; no attendance figure was released.São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro saw no anti-Moraes rallies. In São Paulo, presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL spoke on Avenida Paulista as the crowd chanted "Fora Lula, Fora Moraes". Vice presidential candidate Alfredo Gaspar told the rally that "there is no Lula without Alexandre". Folha de S.Paulo reported that messages exchanged between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, fueled the calls to mobilize. In Rio, candidate Augusto Cury of Avante sent "a very special hug to doctor André Mendonça" at an event in Copacabana and made no mention of the court's crisis.The next chapter is institutional. According to CNN Brasil, Justice Edson Fachin is waiting for explanations from Moraes and Mendonça within the five-day deadline he set for them. In the Senate, the impeachment request against Moraes remains unscheduled, a decision that rests with Alcolumbre.

Presidential candidate Renan Santos of the Missão party called on Monday (7) for the immediate removal of Supreme Court ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli, Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues and prosecutor general of the Republic Paulo Gonet. The demands are part of a manifesto he presented at a rally by the Obelisk in Ibirapuera park, in southern São Paulo, on Brazil's Independence Day holiday.According to G1, the document also calls for the investigations into Banco Master to continue "at any cost", including the conduct of political, business and legal figures. "Let the black box of Banco Master be opened and let them all go to jail", Renan said.Folha de S.Paulo reports the rally sought to capitalize on the damage caused to the court and to the Federal Police leadership by recent revelations about the ties between officials and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master. According to the newspaper, the manifesto lists four demands, among them the immediate removal and arrest of Toffoli and Moraes.The manifestoThe document, called "Manifesto for the Future of the Nation", was read to supporters and presented as a "final summons in favor of the nation's future". It calls the Brazilian political debate a "farce" and denies the country is split by ideological polarization."There is no polarization. The hegemonic right and the governing left are dominated by the same partners in crime, Daniel Vorcaro among them. The Supreme Federal Court, the central piece of this arrangement, has gangsters in its ranks, men who have settled into everyday banditry", says the manifesto read by the candidate.In his speech, Renan attacked the country's elites. "Our elite is trash. The people who hold positions of power in Brazil deserve the trash our country has become. They are co-responsible for it. They are the failure", he said. He also targeted the two poll leaders, as Folha describes them: President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, whom he cast as the risk of an authoritarian government of the left, and Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL, whom he tied to an "oligarchy of corrupt centrão politicians".A new ConstitutionRenan defended convening a new Constitution. "We need to win the elections so that our country becomes a nation, so that we get a new Constitution. This must be said: our Constitution and our constituent lawmakers have failed", he said. According to G1, he did not detail how a constituent process would be called or which parts of the 1988 charter he wants to change.On public safety, he said police officers should shoot armed criminals and rejected calls to label the idea radical. He then said: "I do not accept this democracy that makes Brazilians slaves of organized crime and thieves the owners of our streets. If that is democracy to you, I am not a democrat."The rally feeds into a presidential race in which, according to Folha, Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro lead the polls. Renan said the scenario frightened him. "The Brazilian people show that the goal was never to fight corruption, never to have a decent country, but to say that your thief steals less than your neighbor's thief", he said.

Presidential candidate Romeu Zema of the Novo party, a former governor of Minas Gerais, hung a giant banner showing Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), behind bars on São Paulo's Paulista avenue on Monday (7), the country's Independence Day. The Novo party installed the piece on the side of the Anchieta building for its September 7 rally. In his speech, Zema spoke of a "gang" ("turminha") around Moraes inside the court and pressed Justice Cármen Lúcia to take a stand.The montage shows the justice in his robe and a prison uniform under the slogan "Chega de Intocáveis", or "No More Untouchables", the name of a web series on Zema's social media accounts, according to news site Poder360. The banner also carries a photo by O Globo journalist Brenno Carvalho of Moraes laughing with fellow justices after the court's September 2 session, an image that spread online at the height of the crisis between the justice and Daniel Vorcaro, the founder of Master bank. Before the rally, Zema recorded a video from the top of the Chypre building, also on the Paulista, with the banner behind him: "In Brasília we have a gang of untouchables who consider themselves above the laws, above the Constitution and, above all, above the rest of us, decent Brazilians who pay taxes."The "gang" and the pressure on Cármen Lúcia"Justice Flávio Dino is part of the little gang that wants everything to stay as it is, because powerful people are benefiting. He is part of the gang of Moraes, of Toffoli, of Gilmar Mendes, it is the same gang. And we are seeing what they are capable of doing," Zema said, in a CNN Brasil transcript.The candidate went further, according to Poder360: "In any minimally civilized country, one with a sense of shame, a justice like this [Alexandre de Moraes], serving a criminal, would have been expelled and very probably locked up." CNN Brasil notes the remarks came days after Justice André Mendonça lifted the seal on a Federal Police report that revealed messages Vorcaro sent to Moraes.On Cármen Lúcia, who like Zema is from Minas Gerais, the candidate said he hopes her "conscience speaks louder than the corporatist spirit" of the court. "I will send her a message. I thought about it yesterday and the day before, and I will send it. I have her contact, I know she is a good person. Today she is isolated there, she is the only woman on the Supreme, and I will raise this with her," he said. Zema also promised to be "the president who will nominate the most women to the Supreme"; CNN Brasil notes that three seats are expected to open on the court during the next presidential term.What comes nextThe STF, Brazil's top court, has been in institutional crisis since September 1 over the Master case and Federal Police findings on officials tied to a favors scheme run by Vorcaro. Mendonça has sent the case on the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro to the full court, where Chief Justice Edson Fachin sets the next steps. According to Poder360, an eventual full-court vote on an investigation of Moraes is tied, and Cármen Lúcia is the only justice whose vote remains undecided.Later on Monday, the same avenue hosts a rally called by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate, under the slogans "Out with Lula, out with Moraes" and "It is now or never". Zema said his message to Cármen Lúcia will go out in the coming days.

The election program of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers Party, set to air Tuesday night (September 8), will sharpen its tone against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The segment will call the presidential candidate of the right-wing PL party and his family "traitors to the fatherland", according to the Folha de S.Paulo blog Brasília Hoje.The broadcast will set statements by the Bolsonaro family on the US tariff offensive and on President Donald Trump's government against criticism from Lula and his allies, with references to national sovereignty. Early in the program, a narrator says: "We cannot forget that there is a family that wears our colors and speaks of patriotism, but in the end serves another country".The segment then cuts between three family statements. Flávio Bolsonaro: "The tariff will reach Brazil". His brother, former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro: "If there is a scorched-earth scenario, at least I will be avenged". And their father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced last year to 27 years and three months in prison over the coup plot trial: "My salute to the American flag".A phrase already in rotationThe phrase "traitors to the fatherland" is not new to Lula's campaign. In the September 1 program, he used it about Brazil's rare earths reserves. "There are people out there watching, and there are people here ready to hand it all over on a silver platter. They are the true traitors to the fatherland," the president said, as reported by Poder360.Sovereignty has been a campaign theme since Trump imposed a tariff shock, which Brazilians call the "tarifaço", on Brazilian products last year, as G1 reports. In his Independence Day address on Sunday, carried on national radio and television, Lula said: "We are not, and we will never be, anybody's colony." Folha describes Flávio Bolsonaro, who leads the opposition field, as the president's main rival in the race.The program airs four days after the September 7 military parade, which carried the sovereignty theme to Brasília's Esplanada dos Ministérios, and one month before the first round of the presidential election, scheduled for October 4.

Brazil's PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is holding a rally on São Paulo's Paulista avenue on Monday (Sept. 7), the Independence Day holiday, with a goal of drawing 100,000 people. The gathering is set to start at 3 p.m., and its central slogans are "Fora Lula" and "Fora Moraes", Portuguese for "out with Lula" and "out with Moraes", aimed at President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Alexandre de Moraes, a justice on Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal, the STF. According to Poder360, the rally is organized by the party's São Paulo branch and is part of the presidential campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro's son and the PL's candidate in the October election.Speeches are scheduled from Flávio Bolsonaro, former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro and São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas of the Republicans party. São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes, Congressman Guilherme Derrite, state Assembly Speaker André do Prado and national PL president Valdemar Costa Neto are also set to speak. Pastor Silas Malafaia said he will attend. InfoMoney reported that the party's state branch and allies of Tarcísio worked to bring representatives from about 300 municipalities, and that organizers instructed speakers to aim their criticism at Moraes rather than the court as an institution, while pressing for impeachment requests against the justice to move forward.A show of strength without Jair BolsonaroThe rally is a test of the Bolsonaro movement's ability to mobilize without Jair Bolsonaro, who was jailed on Moraes's order. It runs parallel to Lula's official Independence Day parade in Brasília. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign gained momentum after Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on the investigations into Banco Master; the 218-page report includes conversations between the bank's founder, Daniel Vorcaro, and Moraes, and the candidate wants the justice investigated and removed from the court. In the Quaest poll released Wednesday, Lula had 37% of voting intentions to Flávio's 30%, and a runoff would be a statistical tie, 42% to 41%. Last year, Poder360 counted 48,800 people at the September 7 rally on the Paulista, less than half the party's current target.In Brasília, the same chants and support for MendonçaTwo anti-Moraes protests filled the morning in the capital, drawing about 600 people combined, according to the news site Metrópoles. The PL event was called by Congresswoman Bia Kicis, a Senate candidate from the Federal District, and gathered more than 300 people at a Funarte parking lot. As UOL reported, the crowd chanted for Lula and Moraes to go and voiced support for Justice André Mendonça. Kicis said Moraes "wanted to include another justice, André Mendonça, in the inquiry and persecute him because he is doing his job as a judge". She also called for amnesty for Jair Bolsonaro. "The one who should be on ballot number 22 was Jair Bolsonaro", she said.A separate protest in front of the Central Bank was called by appellate judge and Senate candidate Sebastião Coelho of the Novo party, and Senator Eduardo Girão, the vice presidential running mate of candidate Romeu Zema, attended. Girão said Mendonça, whom the group supports, had sent the investigation of his rival to the full court."Yesterday, André Mendonça, whom we support fully and unconditionally, sent to the judgment of the Supreme Court the investigation of Justice Moraes, who has 130 million reasons to be removed immediately"Folha de S.Paulo reported that demonstrators also criticized Senate President Davi Alcolumbre for refusing to schedule a vote on the impeachment requests against Moraes. What comes next: the Paulista rally begins at 3 p.m., and its crowd size will be read as one of the day's main political indicators. The impeachment requests remain pending in the Senate, and the Supreme Court's full bench has received the case of the messages exchanged between Moraes and Vorcaro. Brazil holds its presidential election in October.

Part of the crowd at Brazil's Independence Day parade shouted for an end to the 6x1 work schedule as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived at the Esplanada dos Ministérios in Brasília on Monday. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the chants alternated with cries of "olê, olê, olá, Lula, Lula" and with the anthems played by the band throughout the parade.Lula watched the ceremony from the presidential box alongside the heads of Brazil's three branches of government: Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) President Edson Fachin, Senate President Davi Alcolumbre and Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta. First lady Janja da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin also attended, according to the news site G1. At another point, parts of the crowd shouted "sem anistia", or "no amnesty", Folha reported.The 6x1 schedule means six consecutive workdays followed by a single day of rest. A proposed constitutional amendment on the scale, the PEC da 6x1, is pending in Congress. The same demand reached the streets that day: the annual Grito dos Excluídos demonstrations carried calls for housing and for the end of the 6x1 schedule, according to Brasil 247.A sober tone in an election yearThe parade marked the 204th anniversary of Brazil's independence. Its themes were national sovereignty, violence against women and the 2027 Women's World Cup, which Brazil will host, alongside the traditional display by the Armed Forces. The government used the motto "A Força que Uni o Brasil" ("The Force that Unites Brazil"), Folha reported. On the advice of the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the event kept an institutional character, with no elements that could be read as partisan campaigning during the election season, G1 reported. The presidency estimated 70,000 people attended.Fachin attended as the Supreme Court navigates an internal crisis. Attorney General of the Union Jorge Messias and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues, two figures in the latest clash, a Federal Police report requested by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, were both present. The two passed close to each other without greeting each other; Messias left around 10:20 a.m., while the parade was still under way, Folha reported. Last year, no Supreme Court justice attended the celebrations, which took place during the trial of the coup plot, G1 noted.What happens next is up to Congress. Alcolumbre has said the 6x1 amendment and a public security amendment will wait until after the October election, in which Lula is running for reelection.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended Brazil's Independence Day military parade on Monday morning (7) along the Esplanada dos Ministérios in Brasília. The front row of the honorary stand held the heads of all three branches of government: Supreme Federal Court (STF) President Edson Fachin, Senate and Congress President Davi Alcolumbre, and Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta, according to G1.The picture placed the executive, legislature and judiciary side by side in the middle of an institutional crisis centered on the top court. According to Folha de S.Paulo, two opposition protests ran in parallel with the parade in the capital and called for Lula and Justice Alexandre de Moraes to leave office. Protesters sang the national anthem and criticized Alcolumbre for refusing to schedule an impeachment vote against the justice in the Senate.Fachin's presence marked a contrast with last year, when no Supreme Court justice attended the celebrations. According to G1, the 2025 parade took place during the trial of the coup plot, which sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison.A sober official eventThe 204th Independence Day was organized around three themes: national sovereignty, the fight against violence targeting women, and the 2027 Women's World Cup. The presidency estimated that 70,000 people took part. Lula arrived in an open car with first lady Janja da Silva. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and his wife, Lu Alckmin, were also in the stand.The parade kept a sober tone on the recommendation of the Attorney General's Office (AGU). In an election year, with Brazil choosing its next president in October, the event was to stay institutional, with no element that could be read as partisan campaigning or an attempt to influence voters, G1 reported.Messages on sovereignty and womenNational sovereignty has been a recurring theme of the government since US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on Brazilian goods last year. In his Independence Day address, broadcast on national radio and television on Sunday (6), Lula said:"We need to stay strong and unbowed, without lowering our heads, so that Brazil does not become, once again, a colony of foreign powers. We are not, and we will not be, anyone's colony."The parade also highlighted measures Lula signed into law in May to protect victims of domestic violence, including a national registry of abusers and a rule that removes the aggressor from the home. The signing marked 100 days of a pact among the three branches to fight femicide.The holiday ends, the crisis does not. The impeachment request against Moraes still has no date for a Senate vote, and the presidential race moves toward the first round in October.

The government plans of Brazil's two leading presidential candidates both put public safety high on the agenda, and they point in opposite directions. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) bets on continuing his administration's policies, with emphasis on oversight of police activity. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) concentrates his proposals on harsher punishment: lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 16, tighter rules on sentence progression and chemical castration for people convicted of sex crimes. The comparison of the two programs comes from the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Lula bets on control and managementHis plan proposes expanding the use of police body cameras and setting national standards for how the footage is used, stored and preserved, according to Record News. "We will stimulate the strengthening of internal and external control mechanisms over police activity," the document says. For young offenders, the program prioritizes violence prevention, community mediation and restorative justice, and does not propose lowering the criminal age.It also includes institutional changes: a new Ministry of Public Security and a National Pact on Penal Enforcement to Fight Organized Crime. "We will keep supporting states to implement national standards for management, monitoring and modernization of state penitentiaries," the plan says. Folha also lists closer integration of security forces, the financial strangulation of organized crime and gun control as pillars of the program.Flávio Bolsonaro proposes harsher penaltiesHis plan calls for lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 and harsher punishment for people over 14 who commit serious crimes such as rape, drug trafficking, torture and murder, Folha reports. The program does not detail how the change would work. It also promises 500,000 new prison places and tighter rules on sentence progression. At a campaign event in Rio de Janeiro on August 22, Flávio spoke of taking criminals "out of circulation, standing or lying down," according to CNN Brasil.Surveillance has a central role in his program: a project called "Muralha Brasileira" (Brazilian Wall), with more than 1 million cameras and a national facial recognition system linked to criminal databases, plus five new maximum-security federal prisons, Record News reports. The model draws on Smart Sampa, run by the city of São Paulo, and on the Muralha Paulista program of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas. The lower criminal age, however, faces a constitutional barrier: the 18-year limit is written into Brazil's 1988 Constitution and can only change through a PEC, a constitutional amendment approved by Congress.Neither program details costs, targets or implementation, and several promises depend on legislation in Congress, Folha reports. A Datafolha poll released on September 3 shows Lula with 38% of first-round voting intentions against 33% for Flávio. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

Youth candidacies for Brazil's Congress and state legislatures in the 2026 elections include fewer Black women and more white men. The finding comes from the first report by Monitor Jovem DX, released in September and reported by Folha de S.Paulo. The survey covers candidates aged up to 29 running for federal and state deputy, and it interrupts, at least in the preliminary picture, a trend toward greater diversity.Women made up 49.1% of youth candidacies in 2022, after three elections close to parity. They now account for 40.5% of the records. The drop cuts across the ideological spectrum. Among left-wing youth candidacies, women fell from 51% to 46.7%; among right-wing ones, from 48.3% to 37.5%. The youth profile now resembles the overall candidate pool, in which women went from 34% in 2022 to 35.3% in 2026.The Missão effectThe combination of gender and race also changed sharply from the previous election, according to Folha. The shift coincides with the arrival of a new party. Missão, in its first election, accounts for 178 of the 912 youth candidacies identified by the monitor, or 19.5% of the total registered with the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court. And 70.8% of the party's young candidates are men."The debut of Missão is one of the main novelties of the 2026 race and stands out for the strong presence of young people in the party," said Beatriz Besen, coordinator of Monitor Jovem DX and a researcher at Nupmos, the political psychology and social movements research center at PUC São Paulo.Besen said the imbalance brought by Missão's entry is part of a broader change in the profile of youth candidacies. Among the party's names is influencer Vitor Antoun, 26, a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies from Rio de Janeiro, according to Folha. The monitor is run by the Instituto Democracia em Xeque in partnership with Nupmos, with support from the Heinrich Böll Foundation Brazil. It analyzed TSE data taken from the electoral court's Open Data Portal on September 3.Contrast with the overall poolThe youth numbers diverge from the overall race. A survey by Inesc, the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies, and the consultancy CommonData, based on TSE data through August 16 and released by state news agency Agência Brasil, found that Black candidates reached 49.8% of the 20,448 valid candidacies. White men remain the largest single group, with 6,688 candidacies (32.7% of the total). Black women total 3,719 records (18.2%), up from 17.3% in 2022.Carmela Zigoni, a political adviser at Inesc, cautions that a place on party tickets does not guarantee equal conditions in the race. Funding, party structure, advertising time and heteroidentification mechanisms must also factor into any assessment of representation, she said. Constitutional Amendment 133, approved in 2024, changed the criteria for distributing electoral funds earmarked for Black candidacies.The figures remain preliminary until candidacies are final. Inesc and CommonData will present the complete survey results at the end of September. Monitor Jovem DX plans further reports over the campaign.

The presidential palace, allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and a faction of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) have set in motion an agreement to shield Justice Alexandre de Moraes from investigation until after October's election. The report, published on Sunday (6), is from Poder360. According to the outlet, the court's president, Edson Fachin, has already delivered the first part of the deal by postponing until after September 22 the review of the suspicions hanging over the justice.The suspicions concern a possible improper relationship between Moraes, the court's vice president and the justice in charge of the so-called fake news inquiry, and Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master. According to Poder360, Justice André Mendonça made public on September 1 a set of 52 messages Vorcaro sent to Moraes's phone, recovered from the notes app on the banker's device. No replies from Moraes appear in the material. On March 6, in a note released by the court's communications office, Moraes denied in writing that he had received messages from Vorcaro. Poder360 describes the standoff as the biggest institutional crisis in the court's history.The group working to keep Moraes on the bench, according to Poder360, includes Justices Gilmar Mendes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin. The bloc's goal, the outlet reports, is to keep the crisis from shifting the balance of power inside the court. Dino posted about the crisis on social media on Sunday."Real and serious problems are being mixed with electoral and economic interests, foreign objectives and even personal hatreds"Elsewhere in the post, the justice wrote that "institutional integrity is too serious a matter to be shuffled together with electoral interests or with lies".The calendar pushes the decision to the eve of the voteThe deadlines Fachin set move the rulings close to election day. The court's president gave Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police director Andrei Rodrigues until Friday (11) to submit their accounts of the affair. A decision on opening an investigation into Moraes can only come after September 14. The request by Moraes to place Mendonça inside the fake news inquiry, filed on September 3 and removed from the inquiry by Fachin the next day, is now set for resolution after September 22, twelve days before the first round of the presidential election on October 4. Poder360 says the likely outcome is a joint ruling on both cases after that date, on the argument that the review should wait for the first round, or even the runoff on October 25.Fachin decides whether and when the full bench rulesMendonça on Sunday (6) released for a full-bench vote the Federal Police report on the alleged relationship between Moraes and Vorcaro, G1 reports. It is now up to Fachin to decide whether and when the court hears the case, and whether the session is open or closed. G1 reports the court president leans toward a public session. According to the blog of journalist Valdo Cruz, cited by G1, Fachin told Lula he intends to send the fallout from the crisis to the full bench. The Prosecutor General's office, in turn, asked on Tuesday (1) that Mendonça's investigation be voided, arguing that only the full bench can decide on any probe targeting Moraes.Speaking at the Planalto on Friday (4), Fachin said "no authority stands above the Constitution" and that the gravity of the facts "does not justify shortcuts". Mendonça has defended a full-bench review, calling the plenary the "sovereign body to analyze the matter in a technical and strictly legal way". On the campaign trail, Folha de S.Paulo reports that Lula's team plans to take ownership of the debate on judicial reform, pairing it with anti-corruption measures and spending limits for judges and prosecutors, to keep the presidential race from being consumed by the fight between the justices. The next step is Friday's deadline (11). Once it passes, Fachin can put both cases on the bench's agenda or leave the decision until after the election.

The campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva released a video on Sunday (Sept 6), the eve of Brazil's Independence Day, that contrasts his statements with those of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his main rival in the presidential race, about the United States. The video arrives one month before the first round of the election, set for October 4, and after polls showed the race tightening.According to O Globo, the polls have caused concern inside the campaign of Lula's Workers' Party (PT). A Datafolha survey released on Friday (Sept 4) showed a technical tie in a runoff: 46% for Lula and 44% for Flávio Bolsonaro, within the two-point margin of error. On Sunday, the institute Veritá put the senator ahead in a runoff, 48.5% to 43.1%, and showed a statistical tie in the first round, 38.9% to 38.4%, CNN Brasil reported. Veritá heard 3,804 voters between Sept 1 and 4. Flávio Bolsonaro, of the right-wing PL party, is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro.The campaign videoA narrator opens the video, described by O Globo, by saying: "This year you will choose between two sides". The statements then alternate. Flávio Bolsonaro says "the tariff will reach Brazil". Lula answers: "They are traitors to the homeland. History will not forgive them". The video also includes Eduardo Bolsonaro, Flávio's brother and a former federal lawmaker stripped of his seat, praising the American payment app Zelle: "The Pix of the United States is Zelle. So you can go to a negotiating table with the Americans".Lula responds with a line about the instant payment system created by Brazil's central bank: "Pix belongs to Brazil, it is public, it is free and it will stay that way". Then comes a statement by Flávio on US President Donald Trump: "We are in no position to demand anything from the Trump government. He will do whatever he wants, regardless of our will". The president replies: "Nobody has to be afraid of anything because we are not going to bow our heads". At the end, Flávio says in English "God bless America", and Lula closes with "Long live the Brazilian people".The defense of national sovereignty is one of the main themes of Lula's campaign, according to O Globo. In the post that carries the video, the president wrote:"Tomorrow is September 7, Brazil's Independence Day. A fundamental day to remember that this year your vote defines whether we will have a Brazil that stands up to protect the nation or a country that makes itself small before other countries."On Monday (Sept 7), Lula attends the Independence Day parade in Brasília in the morning. Flávio Bolsonaro holds a rally in São Paulo in the afternoon and renews his attacks on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, according to O Globo. The newspaper and TV Globo will also release a new Quaest poll on the presidential race on Monday. The first round is set for October 4.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Sunday defended the court's single-justice rulings and questioned, without naming anyone, whether a judge should promise to end an inquiry. His Instagram post came two days after the court's president, Edson Fachin, publicly backed closing the so-called fake news inquiry, which Alexandre de Moraes has handled as rapporteur, the justice in charge of the case, since 2019. According to the magazine Veja, the passage was read as a jab at Fachin. Dino said he favors concluding investigations, but posed a rhetorical question about who may promise to shut them down: "Can a judge, whoever he is, 'promise' the end of an inquiry, as if he were a candidate or to receive applause? I am personally in favor of concluding the inquiries, since they were made to end anyway, through criminal charges or the appropriate dismissals. In any case, we have an interesting doctrinal debate here: before the statute of limitations runs out, should an inquiry be shelved because it has taken long? And who decides what 'taking long' means? Personal opinions? Or legal and procedural criteria?" Seven years under seal The fake news inquiry (Inquiry 4.781) was opened on March 14, 2019 by then court president Dias Toffoli, who handpicked Moraes as rapporteur. According to Poder360, the case is unusual: criminal investigations normally belong to police and prosecutors, rapporteurs are usually assigned by electronic lottery, and the inquiry remains open, under seal, with no deadline to close. This week Moraes asked that his colleague André Mendonça be investigated within the inquiry, and Fachin removed the request from its scope, according to G1. The court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, defended keeping the case open in April. "It was an important moment to open the inquiry and keep it until the elections," he said, in remarks cited by Poder360. Single-justice rulings and criminal jurisdiction Dino also rejected the criticism that "monocratic decisions are an evil in the STF". Such rulings, issued by one justice instead of the full bench, are essential in a system of binding precedents, he argued. "If every issue with settled case law has to go to the collegiate panels, the number of rulings will collapse and delays will grow. That would be good for criminals, serial debtors and the like," he wrote. On proposals to strip the STF of its criminal jurisdiction, he urged caution. "If you take it from there, you have to put it somewhere. Today there are 23,000 cases in the STF, while other courts have hundreds of thousands," he wrote. Changing the court's constitutional mandate, he said, requires "coherent and planned reforms". The post came amid an open clash between Moraes and Mendonça. On Tuesday, Mendonça lifted the secrecy on Federal Police reports containing messages between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former controller of Banco Master. Dino criticized the tone of the whole debate. "Real and serious problems are being mixed with electoral and economic interests, foreign objectives and even personal hatreds," he wrote, citing a phrase attributed to Aeschylus: "In war, the first casualty is truth." According to G1, Mendonça has sent the messages case to the full bench, where the next steps are up to Fachin. The Federal Police reports state themselves that they are not probative and cannot be used as court evidence.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva made national sovereignty the core of Brazil's Independence Day address, broadcast on national radio and television on Sunday night (Sept 6). According to Folha de S.Paulo, the president used the speech to reinforce themes of his third term that also anchor his reelection campaign: the defense of sovereignty and the development of strategic minerals.The indirect target was US President Donald Trump. News outlet G1 identified criticism of the tariffs Washington imposed on Brazilian goods. Folha reported that the speech rejected foreign interference in mineral exploration, oil drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River and international trade, as the United States works to curb China's advance in Latin America."We must stay strong and unbowed, without lowering our heads, so that Brazil does not once again become a colony of other foreign powers. We are not, and we will never be, anyone's colony," Lula said.In the speech, he defined a sovereign country as one able to "defend its territory, its borders, its environment, its wealth and its people from any foreign interests". On trade he was blunt: "No foreign ruler has the right to tell us whom we can buy from and whom we can sell to. We are a sovereign country, and our decisions belong to us and to no one else."Rare earths and the minerals frameworkLula mentioned rare earths, minerals used in electronics and military equipment, and oil at the mouth of the Amazon. He cited the Senate's approval of a bill creating the National Policy for Critical and Strategic Minerals, which sets up a guarantee fund to support projects and a 5 billion reais tax credit to encourage ore processing in Brazil, G1 reported."More than ever, we must fight for what is ours. We have the world's second largest rare earths reserve, and the largest source of fresh water. Last month, we discovered a new and rich oil reserve. This wealth must serve the future of the Brazilian people," he said.A speech cleared by the electoral courtThe broadcast only aired because Brazil's electoral court allowed it. In an election year, the presidential communications office asked the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that regulates Brazilian elections, for permission to avoid legal challenges. The court's president, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, authorized the broadcast on Friday (Sept 4) and called it a matter "of public interest", tied to a date with its own historical and institutional meaning.Minerals were already part of the campaign before the speech. In a televised campaign program last week, Lula used faces on periodic table symbols to explain rare earths to voters, Folha reported. The newspaper also noted that Ronaldo Caiado, one of the president's rivals in the race, proposed a partnership with the United States to mine in his state of Goiás, and that Trump rejected Jair Bolsonaro's conviction for attempting a coup, signaled sympathy for the campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro and tried to send officers to monitor Brazil's election.The first round of the presidential election takes place in October. Sovereignty remains one of the president's central arguments as he seeks reelection.

A Veritá poll released on Sunday (Sept. 6) shows a statistical tie in Brazil's presidential race. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, of the right-wing PL and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has 38.9% of voter intentions in a first round. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers' Party (PT), has 38.4%. The half-point gap sits inside the survey's two-point margin of error, according to CNN Brasil.Writer Augusto Cury, of the Avante party, ranks third with 12.2%. He is followed by Renan Santos (Missão) with 3.7%, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) with 1.9% and Pablo Marçal (PRTB) with 1.4%. Five other candidates score 0.4% or less. Blank or spoiled ballots account for 1.1% of respondents, and 0.9% did not answer.Runoff scenariosIn a head-to-head contest, Flavio Bolsonaro would have 48.5% against 43.1% for Lula. The 5.4-point lead exceeds the margin of error. Blank or spoiled ballots reach 4.9% in that scenario, and 3.6% did not answer.Lula leads the four other matchups tested by the institute. The president has 35.6% against 27% for Cury; 38.4% against 28.6% for Marçal; 37.8% against 19.3% for Renan Santos, a leader of the free-market MBL movement; and 36.8% against 24.9% for Caiado, a former governor of Goiás state. CNN Brasil notes that Marçal filed his candidacy but is barred from office for eight years under a ruling by the São Paulo electoral court, with appeals pending before the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court.MethodologyVeritá interviewed 3,804 voters nationwide between Sept. 1 and Sept. 4. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The institute paid for the survey with its own funds and registered it with the TSE under protocol BR-09426/2026. The portal GP1 published the same figures.The first round is set for Oct. 4. If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff on Oct. 25.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used Brazil's Independence Day address on Sunday (Sept. 6) to declare that the country "is not, and will never be, anyone's colony." The speech aired on national radio and television and centered on sovereignty, with what G1 described as indirect criticism of the tariffs the United States has imposed on Brazilian products."We need to stay strong and unbowed, without lowering our heads, so that Brazil does not once again become a colony of foreign powers. We are not, and we will not be, anyone's colony," Lula said.The president also spelled out his definition of a sovereign state. "A sovereign country is one able to defend its territory, its borders, its environment, its wealth and its people from any foreign interests," he said. He then defended free trade. "No foreign ruler has the right to tell us whom we can buy from, and whom we can sell to. We are a sovereign country, and our decisions belong to us and to no one else." The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo read the lines as indirect messages to U.S. President Donald Trump, who has rejected Jair Bolsonaro's conviction for attempting a coup and has voiced support for Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign.Rare earths and oilLula also cited rare earths mining and oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River. He noted that the Senate had approved a bill creating the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals, with a guarantee fund and 5 billion reais in tax credits to encourage ore processing in Brazil. "We hold the world's second largest rare earths reserve, and the largest source of fresh water. Last month we discovered a new and rich oil reserve. These riches must serve the future of the Brazilian people," he said. Folha reports that the minerals debate entered the campaign after Ronaldo Caiado, a rival presidential candidate, proposed a partnership with the United States to mine them in his state, Goiás.Electoral court clearanceBecause Brazil holds presidential elections in October, the presidential communications office asked the Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, for permission to broadcast the address. The court's president, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, authorized it on Friday (Sept. 4), writing that the broadcast "is in the public interest" because the holiday "is part of Brazil's official calendar and carries historical and institutional meaning of its own, apart from the functions of government."Folha notes that sovereignty and strategic minerals have become core themes of Lula's re-election bid. The speech came exactly four weeks before the first round of the presidential election, set for Oct. 4.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Sunday (Sept 6) referred to the court's full bench the case of the messages exchanged between his colleague Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master. The next move belongs to the court's president, Chief Justice Edson Fachin.According to g1, Fachin is expected to wait until Friday, Sept 11. That is the deadline he set for Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues to address the events that set off a crisis at the court. In a request filed Thursday (Sept 3), reported by Valor, Fachin asked, among other things, how Mendonça came to order the Federal Police report and whether police accessed private documents and sealed data while producing it.Fachin's optionsIf he chooses the full bench, Fachin must still decide whether the session will be open or closed. The justices would then vote to open an investigation of Moraes or to shelve the case. G1 lists two other paths: a closed-door meeting like the one in February, when the court discussed another Federal Police report with messages between Justice Dias Toffoli and the former Banco Master owner (Toffoli gave up the rapporteurship of the case after that meeting, Valor recalls), or a decision by Fachin alone, described by sources heard by g1 as the least likely outcome. The indication is that he prefers a public session, to be confirmed after the consultations he has been holding with colleagues. The court's internal rules do not say how an investigation against a justice must be conducted; they state only that the full bench processes and judges such cases.How the case reached the benchMendonça made the Federal Police report on Vorcaro's phone public on Tuesday (Sept 1), in case PET 16.662, opened after the force presented new information on the influence and monitoring network attributed to the banker in the Compliance Zero operation. The order did not name Moraes; the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo identified him as the recipient of the messages, as Poder360 reported. The report says Moraes received messages in which Vorcaro sought to interfere in and learn details of the inquiry that led to his first arrest, ordered in November last year. In one of them, the banker asked whether he should leave the country and requested protection from the Federal Police and the prosecutors. Two days before the arrest, on Nov 15, he wrote to the justice, according to Valor: "Can't we reverse this with Paulo or Andrei? This is a really dirty trick". The message referred to Gonet and Rodrigues. G1 also reports that messages from the same device suggest closeness between Vorcaro and Gonet, with lawyer Ciro Soares as the main intermediary.The Prosecutor General's office (PGR, Brazil's federal prosecution service) said on Sept 1 that Mendonça's inquiry should be declared void. It argued that he had no basis to ask the Federal Police to analyze the recipient of Vorcaro's messages without a request from prosecutors or the police itself, and that only the full bench can decide on any investigation of a justice. Gonet also says Mendonça overstepped into the Federal Police's powers by trying to direct police actions, Valor reports. Mendonça defended sending the matter to the full bench in a "public and transparent" session, calling it the "sovereign instance to analyze" the material "in a technical and strictly legal manner". Moraes fired back on Thursday (Sept 3), asking Fachin to open an investigation of Mendonça for abuse of authority, crime of responsibility and administrative improbity.Fachin has said the court will respond firmly, but at what he called the right moment. The case is now formally with the full bench, and the next step is his call by Friday: a public session, a closed meeting or a solo ruling.

Justice Flávio Dino of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's highest court, said on Sunday (6) that the judiciary's "real and serious problems" are "being mixed with electoral and economic interests, foreign objectives and even personal hatreds". He published the statement on social media, addressing the crisis that has set Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça against each other at the court.Dino opened the post with a line attributed to Aeschylus: "In war, the first victim is the truth". According to the justice, that is what he has seen in the "clumsy debate" about the judiciary. The post then takes up three topics he said deserve deeper discussion: single-justice decisions, the court's criminal jurisdiction and the end of inquiries seen as too old. "I insist on one point: institutional matters are a subject far too serious to be shuffled together with electoral interests or with lies", he wrote. He also recalled what he called the Christian teaching that "the DEVIL is the 'father of lies'".A promised end to the fake news inquiryThe most political passage concerns the fake news inquérito, an inquiry opened seven years ago to investigate attacks, threats and false news against the court, now overseen by rapporteur Moraes. "Is it possible for a judge, whoever he may be, to 'promise' the end of an inquiry, as if he were a candidate, or to receive applause?", Dino asked. According to Folha de S.Paulo, he did not name the court's president, Edson Fachin. Two days earlier, on Friday (4), Fachin had called for the inquiry to be closed and said that measure, together with a proposed code of ethics for the court, would solve the crisis."I am personally in favor of concluding the inquiries, since they were indeed created to end, through criminal charges or the appropriate closures. In any case, we have here an interesting doctrinal debate: before the statute of limitations expires, should an inquiry be archived because it has taken too long? And who decides what 'taken too long' means? Personal opinions? Or legal and procedural criteria?"Single-justice decisions and criminal jurisdictionDino rejected the argument that single-justice decisions, known in Brazil as monocratic rulings, are an evil at the STF. In his view, they are essential in a system of binding precedents, in which other courts must follow case law already settled by higher courts. "If every question with settled case law has to go to the panels, the number of rulings will collapse and delays will grow. That would be good for criminals, serial debtors and the like", he argued. On the court's power to try criminal cases, he defended the status quo. "If you take it away from there, it has to go somewhere. Today there are 23,000 cases at the STF, while other courts have hundreds of thousands", he wrote. Changing the court's constitutional jurisdiction, he said, requires "coherent and planned reforms".The crisis began on Tuesday (1), when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on reports produced by the Federal Police at his request. According to G1, the documents contained messages suggesting closeness between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master at the time of the facts under investigation. Drawing on the police files, Moraes then asked for his colleague's conduct to be investigated within the fake news inquiry, citing signs of uneven handling of the Master and INSS cases; the INSS is Brazil's federal social security institute. Fachin removed the request from the inquiry's scope. The police documents are not probative and cannot be used as evidence in court.The announced next step is the court's institutional response to the crisis. "There will be no haste, but neither omission. The institutional response will be firm, proportional and rigorous", Fachin said on Friday (4), according to Folha. Dino's post, published 48 hours later, questions the very closure Fachin defended. The debate unfolds in the middle of Brazil's presidential campaign.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate for the PL party and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, publicly demanded on Saturday (5) that Justice Carmen Lucia of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) vote to open an investigation into her fellow justice Alexandre de Moraes. Speaking in a social media livestream, he said the country will be watching the decision and warned that siding with Moraes could hurt her biography, according to O Globo."Carmen Lucia, Brazil is waiting to see how you will vote next week, whether you will allow Alexandre de Moraes to be formally investigated or whether you will go easy on him after everything that has come to light. It will look very bad for your story, for your biography," Flavio said.In the same livestream, the candidate asked how a justice who has "always defended democracy, freedom, and has always been against impunity" would now position herself. He defended Justice Andre Mendonca, the target of the investigation request filed by Moraes, saying he "does nothing more than be a fair judge who persecutes no one". About Moraes, he was blunt: "He can no longer stay on the Supreme Court. He makes no secret from anyone that he thinks he runs the country."Why Carmen Lucia's vote mattersCarmen Lucia is seen as the decisive vote when the full court reviews the conduct of the two men. According to Folha de S.Paulo, she sees mistakes by both Mendonca and Moraes in the moves that pushed the court into an institutional crisis and has not yet decided which of them she will back. Moraes and Mendonca are competing for her vote as their groups fight for dominance on the bench, the newspaper reported. Folha also reported that she called Moraes on Thursday (3), before he announced his counterattack.The court has two questions before it. First, whether Mendonca's methods were arbitrary in the investigations into Banco Master and the INSS, Brazil's social security institute, which produced a Federal Police report naming Moraes as an interlocutor of former banker Daniel Vorcaro. Second, whether it was proper for Moraes to use the so-called fake news inquiry to request an investigation of Mendonca for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and a crime of responsibility.Flavio tied the size of the protests to the outcome of the judgment. "If the streets are full all over Brazil on September 7, the judgment will be one thing; if they are empty, it will be another," he said, two days before the Independence Day rallies he called against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and against Moraes. Folha reported that his campaign wants a large rally on Paulista avenue in Sao Paulo to break a statistical tie in the polls and take the lead heading into a likely runoff. The newspaper also noted that, during the livestream, he heard people defend the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia.The court's calendarThe decisions, however, may take longer than the candidate suggested. According to Poder360, STF President Justice Edson Fachin set deadlines that push the review of both cases into late September. In the Banco Master case, filings from Mendonca, Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director General Andrei Rodrigues are due by Friday (11), which moves any decision past September 14. In the fake news inquiry dispute, Gonet has five business days to respond, followed by five more for Mendonca, placing the matter before the full court only after September 22, twelve days before the first round of the election. Carmen Lucia has not said publicly how she will vote.

Presidential candidates used social media and public events on Sunday (6), the eve of Brazil's Independence Day, to mobilize voters and sharpen their campaign messages. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party, who is running for reelection, released a video contrasting his remarks with statements by Senator Flavio Bolsonaro and his brother, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, about Brazil's relationship with the United States. Flavio Bolsonaro, his main rival in the polls, held a live stream. On the streets, Renan Santos rode a motorcade in Fortaleza and Ronaldo Caiado visited a street market in Aparecida de Goiania, in Goias state, according to G1.Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro trade blows onlineIn the video, Lula says the election will force voters to choose between "two sides". The clip cuts between the Bolsonaro brothers' statements and the president's replies. After Flavio Bolsonaro says "the tariff will reach Brazil", Lula answers: "They are traitors to the homeland. History does not forgive them". On Pix, the free instant payment system created by Brazil's central bank, the president says: "The Pix belongs to Brazil. It is public, it is free, and it will remain ours". The video closes with a clash of slogans: Flavio Bolsonaro says "God bless America", and Lula ends with "Long live the Brazilian people". The caption says this year's vote decides whether the country will have "a Brazil that stands up to protect the nation or a country that shrinks before other nations".Flavio Bolsonaro used his live stream to mark eight years since his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was stabbed during the 2018 campaign in Juiz de Fora. The candidate said he is barred from contact with his father, who is under house arrest, and asked supporters to leave messages for the former president as if he were watching. Flavio Bolsonaro also attacked Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, criticized the Lula administration and questioned the arrests tied to the January 8, 2023 riots, when the seats of Brazil's three branches of government were stormed and ransacked. According to the newspaper Estado de S. Paulo, he pressed Justice Carmen Lucia for a vote to open an investigation into Moraes and called supporters to a rally on Monday (7).A motorcade in Fortaleza, a street market in GoiasIn Fortaleza, Renan Santos rode through the city wearing a bulletproof vest. Campaign aides told G1 the gear was a response to threats from criminal gangs. He was joined by Delegado Huggo, a candidate for governor of Ceara. In Goias, Caiado attacked the tax burden, interest rates and crime during his visit to the Garavelo street market. Augusto Cury and Romeu Zema had no public events, according to their campaigns. Cury announced upcoming events on social media, while Zema posted a gym photo and a teaser of the series "Os intocaveis" ("The Untouchables"), in which he criticizes Supreme Court justices.Both camps treat the holiday as strategic. According to CNN Brasil, Lula's team admits that the crisis at the Supreme Court and leaks about investigations involving the president's son have set the tone of the race, and sees a "new moment" after polls showed the two front-runners closing in on each other. Flavio Bolsonaro's circle expects to take the lead after the holiday and is organizing a rally by his party, the PL, on Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo. Lula will address the nation on Monday, with authorization from the electoral court, and is expected to focus on sovereignty.Monday brings the Independence Day military parades, the PL rally on Paulista Avenue and the president's address. From there, the campaign moves toward the first round of the election in October.

Writer Augusto Cury, the Avante party candidate in Brazil's presidential race, has crossed the 10% mark in voting intention polls and taken third place, ahead of former governors Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Romeu Zema (Novo). According to the newspaper Gazeta do Povo, seven polling firms released surveys in the past week that captured his rise. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.In the Quaest poll released on September 2, commissioned by the newspaper O Globo and broadcaster Globo, President Lula, who is running for reelection, leads with 37%, followed by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) with 29% and Cury with 10%. Caiado and Zema stood at 1% each. In the institute's previous survey, on August 14, Cury had 2%, though the two rounds are not fully comparable because the PRTB slot changed candidates. The margin of error is two percentage points.Other pollsters show the same trend. Real Time Big Data, which surveyed 2,000 people by phone between August 27 and 31, put Cury at 11% in its September 1 poll, behind Lula (38%) and Flávio (30%), and noted growth already detected by the Nexus and AtlasIntel polls released on August 31. The PoderData institute gave Cury 10% on September 3, with Lula (37%) and Flávio (34%) in a statistical tie, according to Gazeta do Povo.What is driving the surgeFelipe Nunes, director of Quaest and a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, credits the rise to Cury's performance among independent voters."In this segment, the Avante candidate already reaches 24% and is numerically ahead of Lula."In the same poll, Cury has the lowest rejection rate among the leading candidates: 25% of voters say they know him and would not vote for him, compared with 55% for Flávio Bolsonaro and 53% for Lula. For the first time, Quaest tested Cury in a runoff scenario, in which Lula wins 40% to 34%, with 21% of blank or spoiled ballots or voters who say they will not vote. In the unaided survey, where candidates' names are not read out, Cury gets 4%.Rising with the least TV timeThe growth comes with the smallest campaign structure in the race. Avante holds only seven seats in the Chamber of Deputies, which means less television ad time and less campaign money, Gazeta do Povo reports. Lula has the most TV time of any candidate, at 5 minutes 32 seconds. UOL described Cury's campaign events, where a funk-beat jingle, "Cury é a cura!" ("Cury is the cure"), plays again and again, and noted his trademark label as the "gestor da emoção", or manager of emotions.Cury's support remains the softest in the race: 48% of his voters say they could still change their choice by October 4, against 20% of Lula's voters and 25% of Flávio's, according to Quaest. The next test is the presidential debate set for September 14, whose organizers are pressing Lula and Flávio to confirm their attendance. The Superior Electoral Court approved the six presidential tickets on September 3, and a new Quaest round is due on Monday, September 7.

Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro posted a message of support on Saturday night (Sep 5) for André Mendonça, a justice on Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). A Senate candidate for the right-wing PL party in the Federal District, home to the capital Brasília, she called the justice "chosen and anointed of the Lord." The Instagram post came one day after court president Luiz Edson Fachin removed from the fake news inquiry a request by Justice Alexandre de Moraes to investigate his colleague.Michelle wrote that the church loves Mendonça and that people pray, weep and rejoice for him. "You were called for this time. Our greatest joy is to know that you are a great and true man of God," she said. According to the news site Revista Oeste, she also posted a photo holding hands with the justice and ended the message with a command: "Be strong and courageous. Do not back down!"From a "vision" to the courtMichelle said she had a vision before then president Jair Bolsonaro nominated Mendonça to the court in July 2021."On a very remarkable day, in our little consecration room, God revealed to me your entrance to that court. He opened my vision, and I saw you entering with a white cloud over your head."A Presbyterian pastor who had served as solicitor general and justice minister, Mendonça was confirmed by the Senate on December 1, 2021, by 47 votes to 32. At the time, Bolsonaro had promised to nominate someone "terribly evangelical." Michelle watched the vote and celebrated the result alongside religious leaders.The clash between Mendonça and MoraesMendonça is the reporting justice in the investigation of Banco Master, an investment bank. Last week he lifted the secrecy on Federal Police documents containing messages attributed to the bank's founder, Daniel Vorcaro, that point to contact with Moraes. Moraes hit back on Thursday (Sep 3), asking that his colleague be investigated for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and malfeasance in two police operations: Compliance Zero, which covers Banco Master, and Sem Desconto, which probes fraud at INSS, Brazil's social security system. According to Moraes, Mendonça steered investigations against Justices Gilmar Mendes, Dias Toffoli, Luiz Fux and Kassio Nunes Marques. Mendonça contests the accusations.On Friday (Sep 4), Fachin removed the documents from the fake news inquiry and moved them to Petition 16.704, under the STF presidency. The decision did not endorse the accusations or automatically open an investigation. Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet has five business days to weigh in on Moraes's request. Mendonça then has the same period to respond.The post lands in the middle of the campaign for October's general elections. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Michelle could become the first Brazilian former first lady elected to public office. The court's calendar runs in parallel: once the deadlines for Gonet and Mendonça lapse, it falls to Fachin to decide whether to open the investigation requested by Moraes.

A businessman who told prosecutors he carried bags of cash for Daniel Vorcaro, the former controlling owner of Banco Master, was logged entering Brazil's presidential palace, the Palácio do Planalto, on January 23, 2024. The record comes from the palace gate logs, obtained by columnist Andreza Matais of the news site Metrópoles through Brazil's freedom of information law. In a plea deal signed with the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the businessman, Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior, known as Mineiro, described himself as Vorcaro's "homem da mala", or bagman.The entry was registered at 2:42 p.m. on a Tuesday. According to Metrópoles, it was Freixo's only recorded visit to the palace between January 2022 and March 2025, the period covered by the logs. His name does not appear on the official schedule of any official based in the building.What the plea deal saysFreixo told the PGR he converted amounts into cash and delivered them in bags holding between 1 million and 1.5 million reais to recipients chosen by Vorcaro. He says he moved about 1.3 billion reais in this activity between 2020 and 2025, and said he understood part of the money paid commissions and undue advantages. Metrópoles reports he also claimed to have videos of the cash deliveries.Freixo owns Entre Investimentos, the company Vorcaro used to channel at least 14 million US dollars, about 72 million reais at the time, into Dark Horse, a film biography of Jair Bolsonaro. The money left Banco Master, passed through Freixo's company and reached the Havengate Development Fund, set up in the state of Texas and run by lawyer Paulo Calixto, an ally of former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro.Metrópoles said it sought comment from the presidential communications office and from Freixo himself. Neither had responded by publication time.Pending decisionThe plea deal was signed with the PGR in August and sent to Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, who has yet to decide whether to ratify it. Metrópoles reports that an auxiliary judge from his chamber is expected to hear Freixo on Tuesday, September 8, to check whether he entered the deal voluntarily, a standard step in such agreements. It is the second plea deal in the Master case, a scandal that has convulsed the Supreme Court in recent weeks. The first was signed by João Carlos Mansur, former owner of asset manager Reag, who according to news site O Antagonista said he has information on about 20 billion reais in hidden assets in Brazil.

Pollster Quaest releases on Monday (Sept 7) its third presidential vote intention survey of the year, commissioned by TV Globo and the newspaper O Globo. According to Valor Econômico, it is the first round of fieldwork able to measure how the crisis at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) has affected the race. Interviews began on Thursday (Sept 3) and end this Sunday (Sept 6), with the first round of the election less than a month away.The fieldwork covers the peak of the confrontation between justices André Mendonça and Alexandre de Moraes. On Tuesday (Sept 1), Mendonça lifted the seal on a court filing that exposed messages exchanged between former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, Moraes, and people linked to the justice and to Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet. On Thursday, Moraes accused his colleague of crimes of responsibility, administrative improbity, abuse of authority and violation of the principle of impartiality, within the inquiry into fake news. On Friday (Sept 4), court president Edson Fachin took over the investigation and gave those involved five days to explain themselves.The starting pointThe previous round, released on Sept 2, shows the baseline the new survey will test. President Lula (Workers' Party) had 37% of first-round vote intentions, against 29% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and 10% for writer Augusto Cury, who had jumped from 2% in the previous measurement. The poll heard 2,004 voters between Aug 30 and Sept 1, with a margin of error of two percentage points and registration BR-07065/2026 with the electoral court (TSE).In runoff scenarios, it found a statistical tie between Lula, at 42%, and Flávio, at 41%. It was also the first time Quaest tested a head-to-head between the president and Cury: 40% to 34%. Valor reports that the new round will gauge whether the writer's rise holds and will include runoff simulations against Flávio Bolsonaro, Cury, Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema.State by stateState-level Quaest surveys commissioned by Globo and its affiliate broadcasters, compiled by g1, show Lula ahead beyond the margin of error in eight states: Alagoas, Bahia, Maranhão, Pará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. Flávio Bolsonaro leads in seven: Acre, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, Paraná, Rondônia, Roraima and Santa Catarina. The two are statistically tied in nine others, including the country's three largest electoral colleges, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. In Maranhão, the president's lead reaches 58% against 20%; in Acre, the senator has 42% against 25%. Goiás is the only state where Caiado is numerically ahead, at 32%, in a technical tie with Flávio, at 27%, with Lula at 20%. In Ceará, a poll commissioned by TV Verdes Mares and released on Friday gave Lula 54% and Flávio 16%.The new national numbers come out on Monday, Brazil's Independence Day holiday. At the Supreme Court, the five-day deadline set by Fachin has been running since Friday, and the review of the crisis now sits with the court's president himself.

Brazil's Congress wrapped up a week of concentrated legislative work with partial wins for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Lawmakers approved the end of the so-called blusinhas tax on small international purchases, a national policy for critical minerals and a special tax regime for data centers. Two of Lula's priorities, however, stalled: the constitutional amendments ending the 6x1 work schedule and overhauling public safety will only be voted after the October 4 election.The call belonged to Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. On Thursday (3) he said the vote on the work schedule change will happen after the elections, without saying whether after the first or the second round, according to G1. CNN Brasil reports that Alcolumbre confirmed a new concentrated work window after the first round. Under Brazilian rules, a constitutional amendment cannot be enacted without a vote on the Senate floor.The 6x1 amendment, which targets the six-days-on, one-day-off shift common in Brazilian retail and services, cleared the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee but stalled in the full chamber. Government leader in Congress Randolfe Rodrigues told reporters after Wednesday's (2) session that he had checked with Alcolumbre on the quorum and concluded not enough senators were present, CNN Brasil reports. The committee text cuts the workweek from 44 to 40 hours in two steps over 14 months and guarantees two rest days, preferably Sundays, taking effect 60 days after enactment.What passedThe repeal of the blusinhas tax followed a deal among Lula, Alcolumbre and Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta. The measure scraps a 20% levy, created by Lula's own government, on international purchases of up to US$ 50, and had to pass by September 8 or it would lapse. Lula is expected to sign it into law next week. To answer criticism from retailers and industry, Congress added periodic reviews of the exemption's impact. Lawmakers also approved the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals, with a 5 billion reais guarantee fund, and the Redata regime for data centers, with an estimated 5.2 billion reais in federal tax breaks for 2026, according to G1.Public safety and the Supreme Court standoffOn public safety, the government already concedes there will be no vote before the elections. The bill has not finished its review in the Constitution and Justice Committee, where three amendments remain pending, according to G1. The text gives constitutional status to Brazil's unified public safety system, the SUSP, and to national public safety and prison funds, and sets a fixed funding source. It faced resistance because it draws money from other areas, such as sports: the Brazilian Olympic Committee estimated losses of about 500 million reais, and Olympic sport leaders traveled to Brasília during the week to demand the funding stay, CNN Brasil reports.Holding the 6x1 vote before the likely runoff became harder amid the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court involving Justices André Mendonça and Alexandre de Moraes. Close to Moraes and at odds with Mendonça, Alcolumbre has resisted pressure from opposition senators to schedule impeachment proceedings against Moraes. This week he defended the justice and took a swipe at Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's main rival in the race, according to G1."Everyone forgot that they asked for 130 million reais for the same person to make a film. And now the only one to blame is Justice Alexandre de Moraes," Alcolumbre said.Lula struck a more sober tone, saying everyone involved should be investigated and criticizing, without naming anyone, what he called "selective leaks," according to G1. Congress is not in formal recess, but legislative activity has nearly stopped since the campaign began, and lawmakers now return to their states. Government allies are working to convince Alcolumbre to put the 6x1 amendment on the agenda in the work week planned after the first round, which would hand Lula a political win weeks before the likely runoff.

Brazil's presidential election is one month away, and the government plans of the 13 candidates point in very different directions for the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top constitutional court. Reviews by g1, Globo's news portal, and Poder360, both published on Saturday (5), found six candidates with concrete proposals to change the court's structure or operation. The ideas range from restricting the justices' powers to abolishing the court.The judiciary became a campaign issue amid the crisis surrounding investigations tied to Banco Master, which involve court justices, the federal prosecutors' office (PGR) and the Federal Police, as g1 reports. Poder360 names justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça as the center of the episode, and says the case widened the debate over conflicts of interest and oversight of the court.Those who want to restrain the courtThe plan of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), second in the Datafolha poll released on September 3, proposes ending the STF's original criminal jurisdiction, which today lets the court try members of Congress. They would instead be judged by lower courts such as the Superior Court of Justice and the regional federal courts. He also promises to restrict rulings issued by a single justice, impose a one-year quarantine before Cabinet ministers could be nominated to the court, and bar law firms that employ relatives of justices up to the third degree from practicing before them. According to Poder360, the plan would focus the court on its constitutional function.Former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) proposes fighting what he calls "judicial activism". His plan sets a minimum age of 60 for new justices and requires "an exemplary legal career with no party militancy". He wants to end single-justice rulings, limit the privileged forum that sends politicians' cases to the top court, and strip the STF of jurisdiction over criminal and tax matters. The plan also creates an independent inspector general to police the justices, according to Poder360.Those who want to change its makeupAugusto Cury (Avante) backs the deepest overhaul. New justices would serve fixed eight-year terms; today they stay until mandatory retirement at 75. The bench would shrink from 11 to nine members, with six from the judiciary, two from the prosecutors' office and one from the bar. The president would lose the power to pick justices: they would be chosen by their own professional classes. The minimum age would rise to 50, and anyone with party membership in the previous five years could not be named. At least three of the nine seats would be reserved for women.On the left, Edmilson Costa (PCB) proposes 10-year terms, open to revocation, for members of regional and superior courts. Samara Martins (UP) wants direct elections for judges and the superior courts. Rui Costa Pimenta (PCO) goes further and proposes abolishing the STF, with judges and prosecutors elected. All three plans appear in the Poder360 survey.The other six candidates have no specific STF proposals, according to Poder360: Pablo Marçal (PRTB), Hertz Dias (PSTU), Renan Santos (Missão), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Wilson Grassi (Partido Democrata) and Clariana Barão (DC). President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who is seeking reelection, does not mention the court directly in his plan. It acknowledges that Brazilian courts are slow because of a flood of cases and appeals, and calls for permanent dialogue with the judiciary. Poder360 says the plan speaks of "improvement" without detailing an institutional reform. Caiado proposes using artificial intelligence in the justice system, and Renan Santos wants specialized courts to judge criminal gangs, g1 reports.Under Article 101 of the Constitution, STF justices must be native-born Brazilians, between 35 and 70 years old, with notable legal knowledge and an unblemished reputation. They are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Any change to the court's structure requires a constitutional amendment approved by three-fifths of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in two rounds of voting.The first round is scheduled for October 4. The candidate order in the g1 review follows the Datafolha poll released on September 3: Lula leads, followed by Flávio Bolsonaro, Renan Santos, Ronaldo Caiado and Augusto Cury.

Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) filed a proposal on Saturday (5) to bar police officers and military personnel from serving as loaned staff in the chambers of the court's justices. The filing goes to Chief Justice Edson Fachin amid an escalating standoff between the court and the Federal Police.What the proposal coversAccording to G1, the ban would cover members of the Armed Forces, the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, state civilian police forces, state military police and military fire brigades, and the federal, state and district prison police. Legal news outlet JOTA reports that the only exception would be security duties, and that the change requires amending the court's internal rules.Under the current arrangement, two Federal Police delegados (commissioned federal investigators) advise Justice André Mendonça, who reports on sensitive cases including the Banco Master inquiry, the INSS benefits fraud investigation and the Lulinha case. Two more work in the chambers of Justice Alexandre de Moraes.The backgroundThe possible removal of the delegados was one of the causes of the dispute between Mendonça and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues. According to sources heard by G1, Mendonça saw the attempt to pull delegados from his staff as a way to interfere with ongoing investigations.Gilmar Mendes told interlocutors, according to G1, that the justices' chambers "were turning into police stations", with investigative decisions being made by the court instead of the Federal Police. Critics of the practice argue that delegados inside the court could affect the pace of inquiries, which the reporting justice is supposed to supervise.Gilmar had earlier taken to Fachin a narrower version of the idea, limited to Federal Police delegados. He met President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday to discuss the Master bank crisis and, according to Valdo Cruz's blog at G1, told the president the government was slow to act to keep the dispute between Mendonça and Rodrigues from worsening.Because it depends on a change to the internal rules, the proposal must be approved by the STF's full bench to take effect. G1 reports the measure may deepen internal friction at a court already strained by the crisis surrounding acts by Moraes and Mendonça.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, has pushed decisions in the two cases involving Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Justice André Mendonça and banker Daniel Vorcaro past September 22. According to Poder360, the deadlines set by Fachin leave the court's review just 12 days before the first round of Brazil's general election, scheduled for October 4.How the deadlines workIn the case opened by Mendonça, the justice lifted the secrecy of the Banco Master investigation on Tuesday (September 1) and made public messages exchanged between Vorcaro, the bank's founder, and Moraes. According to G1, the exchanges suggest Moraes discussed with the then bank owner the possibility of a Federal Police operation that would target Vorcaro. Fachin gave Mendonça, Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues five business days, until Friday, September 11, to respond. The full bench can only take up the material from September 14 onward.In the case brought by Moraes, who added Mendonça to the long-running fake news inquiry on Thursday (September 3), Fachin removed his colleague from the inquiry on Friday (September 4) and set two consecutive deadlines: five business days for Gonet to say whether the request is warranted, then five more business days for Mendonça to respond. According to Poder360, that case can only reach the full bench after September 22.What the justices will weighAccording to G1, the Master case was overseen by Mendonça and now sits with Fachin, who asked the Prosecutor General's Office and the Federal Police for explanations. Gonet replied that he had opened an external oversight procedure on how the police report was produced."I inform Your Excellency that, as set out in the order I am forwarding, I have determined the opening of a Police Activity External Control Procedure, the result of which will be reported to the Court in due course," Gonet wrote.The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reports that the justices will discuss whether Mendonça used arbitrary methods in the Banco Master and INSS investigations that produced the report in which the Federal Police names Moraes as an interlocutor of Vorcaro. They will also weigh the legality of Moraes using the fake news inquiry to request an investigation of his colleague for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crime of responsibility. Justice Cármen Lúcia sees errors on both sides and has not yet decided her vote, which is seen as decisive, the paper reports.Fachin promised a "firm" response in a speech at the presidential palace on Friday (September 4), but has not yet sent the report to the full bench. It is not clear whether the two cases will be judged together or separately. If together, according to Poder360, the question of investigating Moraes would also wait until after September 22. Responses in the Master case are due on September 11. Scheduling the votes is then up to Fachin.

The third Quaest presidential poll commissioned this year by TV Globo and the newspaper O Globo is due out on Monday, September 7, a national holiday marking Brazil's Independence Day. Interviewers started work on Thursday and finish this Sunday, talking to 2,004 voters. According to Valor Econômico, the fieldwork covers the peak of the crisis at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, and will show whether the clash between Justices André Mendonça and Alexandre de Moraes has moved the race between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL).The newspaper lays out the timeline. On Tuesday, September 1, Mendonça unsealed a petition containing messages exchanged between Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker behind investment house Banco Master, Moraes and people connected to the justice and to the Prosecutor General, Paulo Gonet; Mendonça asked the Prosecutor General's office to weigh possible crimes by those with special court standing. On Thursday, Moraes struck back inside the fake news investigation, accusing Mendonça of crimes of responsibility, administrative improbity, abuse of authority and violation of the principle of impartiality. On Friday, Chief Justice Edson Fachin took over the case and gave everyone involved five days to explain themselves.A technical tie as the starting pointThe previous round, released on Wednesday with interviews from August 30 to September 1 and a two-point margin of error, put Lula at 37% of first-round vote intentions in the scenario without Pablo Marçal, against 29% for Flávio Bolsonaro. Writer Augusto Cury of Avante jumped from 2% to 10%. In a runoff, the two frontrunners are in a statistical tie, 42% to 41% for Lula, who held a three-point numeric edge in mid-August. They also lead the rejection list: 55% for the senator, 53% for the president.The new round will test whether Cury's rise holds. "In that segment, the Avante candidate already reaches 24% and is numerically ahead of Lula," said Felipe Nunes, Quaest's director and a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, referring to independent voters. His support is softer than that of the frontrunners: 48% of Cury's voters say they could change their minds, against 20% of Lula's and 25% of Flávio's. The poll will simulate runoffs between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, Cury, Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD and Romeu Zema of Novo.Where the race is tightestG1 broke down the runoff numbers by group. Voters aged 35 to 59 split 42% for Lula and 41% for Flávio. Among independents, 32% to 29%. In the Center-West and North regions, Flávio leads 48% to 38%, within the five-point margin of error for that segment. Since the August 14 poll, the senator has moved ahead among men, 47% to 39%, and opened a 13-point lead among voters aged 16 to 34, 48% to 35%. The bases remain far apart: Lula wins the Northeast 62% to 28%; Flávio wins evangelical voters 53% to 30%.What comes next: the results land on Monday. Fachin's five-day clock for explanations is running. The first round is set for October 4, and the Superior Electoral Court still has to rule on whether Pablo Marçal of the PRTB, who is barred from office, may run.

A Datafolha poll released on Saturday (Sept. 5) shows that 57% of Brazilian voters say they are more decided to vote in this year's presidential election than they were in 2022. The survey was commissioned by TV Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Its margin of error is two percentage points.Datafolha, one of Brazil's main polling firms, interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 or older in 125 cities on Sept. 1 and 2. The confidence level is 95%. The poll is registered with the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, under number BR-03669/2026.According to the news site G1, 32% of respondents say they are as decided as in 2022, 11% say they are less decided and 1% did not answer. Among those who named a candidate, supporters of Flávio Bolsonaro (68%) and of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (61%) are the most decided. Supporters of Romeu Zema (22%) and Ronaldo Caiado (17%) account for the largest share of voters who feel less decided than four years ago. Among voters aligned with neither Lula's camp nor Bolsonarismo, 40% feel more decided, 41% equally decided and 18% less decided.Concern and informationConcern about the outcome also grew compared with 2022: 46% of respondents say they are more worried, 28% equally worried and 24% less worried. On campaign proposals, 41% say they are better informed than in the previous race, 36% equally informed and 21% less informed. On news, 42% say they follow more coverage of the presidential race than in 2022. Campaign engagement is the only item where most respondents report the same level as four years ago: 45% equally engaged, 32% less engaged and 18% more engaged.First round numbersThe same round of interviews, whose first round numbers were released on Thursday (Sept. 3), keeps Lula at 38% of voting intentions against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Augusto Cury rose six points to 8%. They are followed by Ronaldo Caiado at 4%, Renan Santos at 3% and Romeu Zema at 2%. Another 6% plan a blank or spoiled ballot and 3% are undecided. Folha reports that the five point gap between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro is half the margin recorded in May; in the previous poll two weeks earlier, the score was 39% to 33%.In a simulated runoff, Lula is numerically ahead of Flávio Bolsonaro, 46% to 44%, a difference within the margin of error, effectively a statistical tie. Rejection remains high for both men: 47% say they would never vote for the senator and 45% say the same of the president. The first round vote is scheduled for Oct. 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two advance to a runoff on Oct. 25.

Justice Cristiano Zanin of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) asked on Saturday (5) for those involved in the disclosure of his tax and bank records to be held accountable, including in the criminal sphere. The records were attached to the Senate candidacy registration of Deltan Dallagnol, of the Novo party, a former federal prosecutor running in the state of Paraná. The case was first reported by Metrópoles, in the column of Demétrio Vecchioli.According to Metrópoles, the files include tax and bank data of Zanin, his wife, his father-in-law, a sister-in-law and the law firm where he was a partner before joining the court. The information was obtained by the Car Wash task force in 2019, when Zanin was a lawyer for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The order that allowed the access was signed by Justice Marcelo Bretas and was later annulled by the STF's Second Panel. Zanin then filed a complaint against Dallagnol and other prosecutors with the CNMP, the national council that oversees prosecutors, and his tax data became part of those case files.To answer a challenge to his candidacy filed by the PT-led coalition in Paraná, Dallagnol's lawyers attached to his registration the full contents of the confidential CNMP proceedings against him. According to Poder360, the material was entered into the system of the TRE-PR, the electoral court of Paraná, and could be read on the public consultation page of the Superior Electoral Court. In a statement, his defense denied any intent to expose the justice:"The candidate's defense never intended to expose the then lawyer's data, but rather to fully exercise the political right to run for office, conclusively demonstrating his eligibility."The justice's reactionZanin sent an official letter to the president of the TRE-PR, Judge Luciano Carrasco Falavinha Souza. In the document, he cited the Metrópoles report and asked the court for measures:"In view of this, I ask Your Honor to take measures to remedy this illegality, as well as to make the appropriate notifications aimed at holding those involved accountable, including in the criminal sphere."Secrecy and next stepsThe case's rapporteur, Vanessa Jamus Marchi, ordered at 2:16 p.m. on Saturday that every document attached to challenges and responses be urgently classified as sealed under judicial secrecy. By 3:12 p.m. the order had not been fully carried out, according to Metrópoles. In a statement, the TRE-PR said it had "determined the immediate classification as confidential of documents in the case, which totals more than 5,000 pages".The court still has to rule on the challenge to Dallagnol's registration. Metrópoles reported that the electoral prosecutor's office has taken a position in favor of his eligibility. Zanin wants the TRE-PR to notify the competent authorities for criminal investigations. Dallagnol's defense maintains that the data is essential for the electoral court's decision on the candidacy.

Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party stopped his campaign schedule on Saturday (Sept. 5) to visit Filipe Martins, a former international affairs adviser to his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, at the Hildebrando de Souza public jail in Ponta Grossa, in the southern state of Paraná. According to Poder360, the visit was authorized by Alexandre de Moraes, a justice of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. Also at the jail were Sergio Moro, the PL candidate for governor of Paraná, and Filipe Barros, a PL candidate for the Senate.Speaking to reporters as he left, Flávio Bolsonaro linked the imprisonment to a ruling in which Moraes suspended the application of a sentencing law, the Lei da Dosimetria, while the STF reviews challenges to it, the G1 news site reported. In Brazil, the phrase the candidate used, "laranja podre" (rotten orange), works like the English "rotten apple": it suggests one bad member inside an institution."Filipe Martins is right here. If the sentencing law were in force, he would already be home. Brazil is living through very bad, very difficult times, and once again we need to protect the institution that is the Supreme Federal Court. That will be my role as president of the republic, to restore the credibility of institutions and not to protect people, because today Alexandre de Moraes is a rotten orange inside the Supreme Federal Court."Who is Filipe MartinsMartins served as special adviser for international affairs at the presidential palace during the Bolsonaro government. On Dec. 16, the STF's First Chamber sentenced him to 21 years in prison for attempting to abolish Brazil's democratic rule of law, attempting to depose the legitimately constituted government and taking part in a criminal organization, among other crimes. He was one of the defendants in the so-called "nucleo 2" of the coup plot, a group accused of working to keep Jair Bolsonaro in power after his election defeat. Five other defendants in the group were also convicted.Martins had been under house arrest until Jan. 2 of this year. On that date, Moraes ordered his arrest after a report said he had broken a ban on using social media. In the ruling, the justice said Martins's own lawyers acknowledged that he had used LinkedIn. "The defendant shows total disrespect for the rules imposed and for the constitutionally democratic institutions," Moraes wrote.What comes nextThe visit came in the middle of the 2026 presidential campaign, in which Flávio Bolsonaro faces President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT). The STF has yet to rule on the challenges to the sentencing law suspended by Moraes. Martins remains imprisoned in Ponta Grossa.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro are in a statistical tie in a possible runoff of Brazil's October presidential election, according to a Quaest poll released on Wednesday, September 2. Lula, of the Workers Party (PT), has 42% of vote intentions, against 41% for Flavio Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party (PL) and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The one-point gap sits inside the margin of error of two percentage points.Quaest interviewed 2,004 voters between August 30 and September 1 in a survey commissioned by broadcaster Globo and the newspaper O Globo. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, which runs Brazilian elections, under number BR-07065/2026, with a 95% confidence level. Compared with the previous round, released on August 14, Lula slipped from 43% to 42% and the senator rose from 40% to 41%, both shifts within the margin.Where the race is tiedThe segment breakdown, published by Globo's news portal G1 on Saturday, September 5, shows the contest is just as close inside specific voter groups. Voters aged 35 to 59 split 42% for Lula and 41% for Flavio Bolsonaro. Among self-declared independents, the score is 32% to 29% for the president. College graduates give the senator 44%, against 40% for Lula. Brazilians earning two to five minimum wages, a common benchmark for household income, prefer Flavio Bolsonaro by 45% to 39%, a tie at the edge of the margin. In the Center-West and North regions, the senator leads 48% to 38%; the margin for that segment is five points, which also keeps the race tied at the limit.Strongholds and shifts since August 14The moves between the two rounds of the survey favored the senator across part of the demographic map. Among men, a technical tie became a 47% to 39% lead. Among voters aged 16 to 34, a 41% deadlock for each candidate turned into 48% for Flavio Bolsonaro against 35% for Lula. Among college graduates, the senator's 11-point lead dissolved into the current tie. In the Center-West and North, the tie became a 10-point numerical lead, still at the limit of the margin.Lula still leads the lower-income and lower-schooling groups, but his gaps narrowed. Among voters who finished only elementary school, his lead fell from 21 to 14 points, now 49% to 35%. Among those earning up to two minimum wages, the president leads 51% to 29%, down from a 31-point to a 22-point advantage. The Northeast is his widest base, at 62% to 28%. He also leads among Black voters, 49% to 31%, among those 60 and older, 49% to 32%, and among Catholics, 48% to 35%.Flavio Bolsonaro runs strongest among evangelical Christians, 53% to 30%, in the South, 52% to 31%, and among white voters, 48% to 34%; among those earning more than five minimum wages he is 15 points ahead. In the head-to-head scenario, blank, spoiled votes and people who say they will not vote add up to 13%, and 4% of respondents are undecided. The first round takes place in October; if no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two face a runoff on the last Sunday of the month. O Globo and the newspaper Estadao also reported the poll's headline numbers.

A wave of Quaest polls released between August 24 and September 4 maps the 2026 presidential race across 25 of Brazil's states plus the Federal District. According to the data, compiled by G1 into a map published on Saturday (5), President Lula of the Workers' Party leads outside the margin of error in nine states, and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party leads in seven. The two are in a technical tie in nine more, including São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, the country's three largest electoral colleges.Broadcaster Globo and its affiliates commissioned the surveys. Margins of error are two percentage points in São Paulo and three points elsewhere, so smaller leads count as statistical ties. There was no poll in the state of Piauí.Lula is ahead in Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe, with the widest gaps in Maranhão (58% to 20%), Ceará (54% to 16%) and Bahia (50% to 17%). Flávio Bolsonaro leads in Acre (42% to 25%), Mato Grosso (43% to 26%), Espírito Santo (37% to 30%), Paraná, Rondônia, Roraima and Santa Catarina. The nine ties include Amazonas (38% to 33%), Amapá (36% to 33%) and Minas Gerais, where the senator has 31% against the president's 30%, with Romeu Zema at 7%. Goiás is the only state where a third candidate is numerically ahead: Ronaldo Caiado has 32%, against 27% for Flávio Bolsonaro, a technical tie, with Lula at 20%.Governor races and the effect on the presidential voteA Poder360 review of the latest polls registered with the electoral courts found that seven incumbent governors could win outright in the first round on October 4: Tarcísio de Freitas (São Paulo), Jorginho Mello (Santa Catarina), Arthur Henrique (Roraima), Eduardo Braide (Maranhão), Eduardo Riedel (Mato Grosso do Sul), Dr. Furlan (Amapá) and Rafael Fonteles (Piauí). Under Brazil's 1988 Constitution, a candidate needs more than half of valid votes to avoid a runoff.Among those seven, allies of Flávio Bolsonaro outnumber allies of Lula four to one: Arthur Henrique, Braide, Jorginho and Tarcísio are aligned with the senator, while only Fonteles backs the president. Fonteles also holds the largest lead, 62.4% of vote intentions in Piauí, in an AtlasIntel/Meio Norte poll released on September 3. In Alagoas, Bahia, Ceará and Pernambuco, two candidates are tied near the 50% mark; Poder360 says polarization there can create a kind of "anticipated runoff". The picture has shifted in a week: on September 2 the outlet counted nine governors with wide leads, and Raquel Lyra and Eduardo Paes have since lost that status.In 2022, 14 states and the Federal District chose governors in the first round. Current polls are registered with the Superior Electoral Court; the Alagoas survey, for instance, heard 804 voters between August 20 and 23, with a three-point margin of error and 95% confidence, according to CNN Brasil. The first round of 2026 is set for October 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attacked São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas on Saturday (5) at a campaign rally in São José do Rio Preto, in the interior of São Paulo state. The event was held alongside Fernando Haddad, the Workers' Party candidate for governor. From the same stage, Haddad tied Tarcísio to the Banco Master scandal and called the bank "a mafia to perpetuate itself in power".Lula spoke for about 20 minutes, according to Folha de S.Paulo. He called Tarcísio, a former Bolsonaro minister now seeking reelection, "a guy from Rio de Janeiro" and "an Army lieutenant", and contrasted the governor's record with that of Haddad, a University of São Paulo graduate and former mayor of the city."It is such an abomination that a guy from Rio de Janeiro shows up, an Army lieutenant who did not even know which school he would vote at, and the people of São Paulo prefer him over a comrade educated at USP, a comrade who was mayor of the city, Finance minister and Education minister," Lula said.He then dared the crowd to name a single public work delivered by the governor. "I challenge you to remember any work this man did in São Paulo. I doubt it, I doubt it. Can you remember? There is no work from the past government and no work now." According to Folha, Lula made no direct reference to presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro or to the institutional crisis at the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil's top court. He spent the speech listing federal government achievements and rallying supporters around Haddad.Haddad targets Banco MasterHaddad took a harsher tone. According to Folha, he said the bank did business with three former ministers of the Jair Bolsonaro government and that Master money also reached the Central Bank president, the candidate for São Paulo governor and the presidential candidate."Three ministers, the Central Bank president, the candidate for governor of São Paulo and the candidate for President of the Republic, everybody put money in, put their hands on Master's money, and we don't call it by its name? This is a mafia. Whoever built Banco Master in this country is a mafia to perpetuate itself in power," Haddad said.Poder360 reports that Haddad said the bank "was born, grew and developed" under Roberto Campos Neto, the Central Bank president appointed by Bolsonaro, and named former ministers Ciro Nogueira, Flávia Arruda and Fábio Faria as recipients of funds from Master founder Daniel Vorcaro. "Master and Daniel Vorcaro, without a doubt, corrupted a lot of people," he said. Haddad also went after Flávio Bolsonaro, saying Lula "is competing with a guy about whom little is known and everything known is bad". He called the rival a "pulha", Portuguese for scoundrel, and said former president Bolsonaro "tried to stage a coup to stop Lula and Alckmin from taking office".The claim against Tarcísio rests on a plea-bargain proposal from Vorcaro that the Federal Police and federal prosecutors rejected, as Folha reports. The former banker said he donated 3 million reais to the 2022 campaign of the then candidate for governor, without naming Tarcísio, in order to keep the Credcesta contract, Master's payroll-deductible credit card. Poder360 puts the figure at 5 million reais and says the transaction was handled by Gilberto Kassab, leader of the PSD party. Tarcísio and Kassab deny any wrongdoing.The first round of Brazil's general elections is set for October 4. Tarcísio runs for reelection as governor of São Paulo. Haddad, Lula's finance minister, seeks the statehouse. Lula seeks reelection against Flávio Bolsonaro and other candidates.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has projected the federal executive payroll for 2027 at R$ 361.5 billion. That is R$ 8 billion below the ceiling set by the arcabouço, Brazil's fiscal framework that replaced the old spending cap and limits the growth of public outlays. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the gap suggests the rule's restrictive trigger left room to spend more on civil servants instead of forcing a deeper squeeze on the accounts.The figures were presented on Monday, August 31, in the 2027 budget bill sent to Congress by Planning Minister Bruno Moretti and Finance Minister Dario Durigan. The rule allows executive payroll and benefits to rise from R$ 350.4 billion this year to as much as R$ 369.5 billion in 2027. The government proposed R$ 361.5 billion, a nominal increase of 3.2%. The calculation excludes court-ordered payments, Folha reports. The same numbers appear in a Poder360 review of the bill's personnel annex.How the trigger tightened the limitThe tighter ceiling follows from the fiscal trigger. Federal accounts posted a primary deficit of R$ 61.7 billion in 2025, and the law now caps real executive payroll growth in 2027 at 0.6% above inflation. Moretti defended the slowdown when the budget guidelines bill reached Congress in April:"We carried out a pay recovery that was fundamental for the Brazilian public service. It is natural that the growth rate of this spending decelerates, and that is guaranteed by the activation of this trigger provided for in the bill."In theory, the executive can fill the R$ 8 billion gap and expand the payroll next year. The condition is cutting funds reserved for other operating and investment programs. A government technician who spoke to Folha on condition of anonymity said there is currently no room inside the framework's global spending limit to raise payroll costs without cuts elsewhere. In this aide's assessment, the trigger served to "curb the ambitions" for raises and hiring across ministries.What happens nextThe bill sets aside R$ 9.1 billion in primary spending for salary increases and career restructuring in the executive in 2027, according to Poder360, and authorizes 34,211 civilian staff appointments, 19,438 of them linked to education. The money creates budget space but does not guarantee a raise: the decision will fall to the administration that takes office on January 1, 2027. Brazil holds a presidential election in October.Moretti told Folha that keeping spending below the ceiling will save money in later years, because the future limit will be calculated from the spending programmed in the budget. "The effect is bigger than I am saying," he said. The bill projects R$ 2.83 trillion in primary expenses and an effective primary surplus of R$ 18.6 billion. It now sits with Congress, which must approve it by the end of the year.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has 51.6% of voter intentions in the state of Ceará for the first round of Brazil's presidential election, against 25.7% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), an AtlasIntel poll released on Friday (September 4) shows, one month before the vote. The president's lead in the state stands at 25.9 percentage points.In a head-to-head runoff, Lula reaches 54.6% in Ceará against 30.1% for the senator from Rio de Janeiro, a gap of 24.5 points. Blank ballots, spoiled ballots and undecided voters add up to 15.3%. The institute also tested three alternative runoffs, and the president stays above 54% in all of them: 54.3% to 29.7% against former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), 54.8% to 27.5% against former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) and 54.5% to 24.8% against Renan Santos (Missão).Writer Augusto Cury (Avante) ranks third in the state with 12.3%, followed by Renan Santos (Missão) with 3.2%, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) with 1.6% and Romeu Zema (Novo) with 0.7%. Hertz Dias (PSTU) polls 0.1%. Clariana Barão (DC), Samara Martins (UP) and veterinarian Wilson Grassi (Democrata) register no votes. Blank or spoiled votes total 1%, and 3.7% of respondents say they do not know.A wider gap than the national raceThe state numbers diverge from the national race. In the most recent Datafolha survey, run by the institute of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Lula has 38% of first-round intentions against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro, and the two are in a technical tie in a runoff, meaning a difference within the margin of error. In Ceará, a state in Brazil's Northeast, the distance between them reaches nearly 26 points.How the poll was conductedAtlasIntel interviewed 1,834 voters in Ceará between August 28 and September 2, using random digital recruitment. The margin of error is two percentage points in either direction, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, Brazil's top electoral court, under protocol BR-07411/2026. According to Poder360, the study cost 55,000 reais and was paid for by the company Focus Comunicação e Mídia, which explains the Atlas/Focus branding. CNN Brasil, which also published the numbers, reports the poll was carried out with the institute's own funds.The same survey shows an opposite picture in the race for governor of Ceará. Ciro Gomes has 48% of first-round intentions against 45% for Governor Elmano de Freitas, who is running for reelection, according to CartaCapital. UOL classified the difference as a technical tie in both rounds.The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4. A possible runoff takes place on October 25.

A Quaest poll released on Sunday (6) shows that Brazilian voters choose a presidential candidate first of all by his record. For 31% of respondents, the most important trait is not being involved in corruption. For 28%, it is a commitment to democracy. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper O Globo and broadcaster Globo, and the figures were reported by G1, the group's news portal.Being tough on violence and crime comes next, at 15%. Political experience adds 9%, and being religious, 4%. Positions on Brazil's institutions barely register: being critical of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) was named by 2% of respondents, and being critical of Congress, by 1%. Being an ally of the STF scored 0%.What rules a candidate outThe order repeats when the poll asks what would make a voter rule out a candidate entirely. Involvement in corruption is a dealbreaker for 40%. Lacking a commitment to democracy turns away 21%, and being weak on crime, 13%. No other item exceeds 5%.Priorities shift with political allegiance. Among voters of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the most cited trait is commitment to democracy, at 29%. Among supporters of Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, 41% put having no ties to corruption first. Among self-declared independents, a clean record on corruption leads with 33%, followed by defending democracy, at 26%.The race itselfThe same Quaest round carries the first-round voting intentions reported by G1: Lula, who is running for reelection, has 37%; Flávio Bolsonaro, 29%; and the writer Augusto Cury, 10%. Renan Santos has 3%, and Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema, 1% each.Quaest interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over across the country between August 30 and September 1. The margin of error is two percentage points, and the confidence level is 95%. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number BR-07065/2026. Brazil votes in the first round of the presidential election in early October, one month away.

Brazil's Senate on Wednesday (September 2) approved a bill creating the National Policy for Critical and Strategic Minerals, a legal framework for rare earths and other minerals key to batteries, electronics and defense. The bill now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for signature or veto.The measure (PL 2.780/2024) was introduced by lower house lawmaker Zé Silva of the Solidariedade party and guided through the Senate by its rapporteur, Senator Eduardo Braga of the MDB, the lawmaker who reviews and presents a bill for a vote. It passed with no substantive changes, so it will not return to the Chamber of Deputies.The policy provides up to R$ 7 billion in government incentives, according to the Senate's official news agency. According to G1, the package includes R$ 5 billion in tax credits for mining companies and a guarantee fund with up to R$ 2 billion in federal money. The goal, G1 reports, is to stop Brazil from remaining a raw material exporter and to push companies to process minerals inside the country.The minerals covered include rare earths, a group of 17 elements used in smartphones, drones and wind power equipment, plus lithium, used in batteries for phones and electric cars, and niobium, used in strong metal alloys and aerospace products. Brazil holds the world's second largest rare earths reserve, behind only China, according to G1."Critical minerals have become the backbone of other productive chains, and their rupture or shortage can cause unwanted and significant effects in other relevant national sectors"rapporteur Eduardo Braga said during the floor debate. The bill was on the priority list set by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre together with Lula and Chamber President Hugo Motta.Rules for companiesUnder the new rules, companies involved in exploration, mining, processing or transformation must direct 0.2% of gross operating revenue to the Mineral Activity Guarantee Fund (FGAM) for six years, plus another 0.3% to research, development and innovation projects. After that period, the mandatory fund share can be redirected to research, raising the total to 0.5%. The bill also adds mineral prospecting and research to the projects eligible for incentive debentures, a financing tool already used in energy, transport and sanitation."Today, research and technology, mainly when you think about applications, are a risky investment. They need this support so they can develop the technology", André Pimenta, coordinator of the Rare Earths Laboratory at FIEMG, the industry federation of Minas Gerais state, told Jornal Nacional.State control and industry reactionThe bill also creates a national council charged with approving mergers, acquisitions, foreign capital entry and other market moves. Most of its members will come from the federal government, which worries mining industry representatives, who fear course changes in long term projects, according to G1."It is very important for us, as a country, to find the balance that means how we guarantee safety for people, safety for the country, but also guarantee the continuity of these financing flows, which remain the sector's great challenge"said Pablo Cesário, president of the Brazilian Mining Institute (Ibram). Senator Marcos Pontes (PL-SP) praised the vote: "It will help many sectors and mainly generate invoices, jobs, income and development".The bill now sits with the presidency. Lula can sign it into law, in full or in part, or veto it. According to the Senate news agency, the private research funds created by the law still depend on regulation.

Brazil's national association of Federal Police delegates has asked Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet to recuse himself from proceedings in the Banco Master case in which he is named. In a statement released on Saturday (5), the group, known as ADPF and representing more than 2,300 delegates according to Folha de S.Paulo, also asked that the review opened by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) into the force's conduct be shelved.Gonet told Supreme Federal Court (STF) President Edson Fachin on Friday night (4) that he had opened an external control procedure, a constitutional tool the prosecution uses to oversee police work. The review examines whether there was an outside order or interference in the drafting of a Federal Police report requested by Justice André Mendonça, who was then the case's rapporteur. The report pointed to contacts between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro, and it also names Gonet himself.What the delegates want"The ADPF requires that the Prosecutor General of the Republic recuse himself and abstain from performing any act, whether as custodian of the law or as head of external control, in proceedings related to the facts in which he is cited; that the procedure that was opened be archived as an inadequate route to question an act of the STF; and that the facts surfaced by Operation Compliance Zero be investigated in full, with no selectivity regarding the authorities involved"The legal argument relies on Brazil's Code of Criminal Procedure. "Article 258 of the Code of Criminal Procedure extends to the bodies of the prosecution the rules on judges' impediment and suspicion, for the same reason that no one may decide a cause of their own," the statement says.The delegates who wrote the report, the association says, carried out a court order "within the strict limits set in it", with no room for their own judgment on its merits. External control of police activity, the ADPF argues, "is not disciplinary power over delegates and agents, and is not a review body for court decisions". The group said the move has an objectively intimidating effect on investigators, "regardless of any judgment about intentions, which the ADPF does not offer".The PGR's caseThe Prosecutor General's office said it had not been informed of Mendonça's order. "The decision issued in Petition No. 15,556/DF was concealed from the prosecution, which was thus prevented from carrying out the necessary external control of police activity," the PGR said, according to news site G1. The Federal Police will have to clarify "the possible occurrence of an external order or interference in its drafting, that may have tainted its content".Gonet told Fachin he had ordered the procedure and that its result will be reported to the court "in due time". He had already said the investigation was void because it could not have been carried out without a request from the prosecution or the Federal Police itself, G1 reported.The case left Mendonça's docket and now sits with Fachin, who had asked Gonet for information. In the Sept. 1 ruling that lifted the secrecy of the report, Mendonça suggested the material be assessed by the full court. The ADPF's request now awaits Gonet's decision on his own recusal.

The president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, on Friday (Sept 4) authorized national radio and television networks to carry an address by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva marking September 7, Brazil's Independence Day. The message airs on Sunday (Sept 6) and runs 3 minutes and 43 seconds. The ruling comes in an election year, with Lula running for reelection.According to G1, Nunes Marques described the broadcast as being "of public interest". He wrote that the date "is part of the official Brazilian calendar and holds historical and institutional meaning of its own, separate from the functions of government and especially from the institutional duties of the head of state." The request came from the presidential communications office (Secom), which described the address as a message of "civic, historical and institutional" character about independence, national unity and permanent values of the Brazilian state. Poder360 reported that the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the federal government's legal counsel, issued an opinion in favor of the broadcast.What the message saysThe text was recorded at the Alvorada palace, the presidential residence, and is attached to the TSE ruling. In it, the president defends sovereignty and indirectly criticizes the wave of tariffs imposed by the United States on Brazilian products, G1 reports. "We need to remain strong and unbowed, without lowering our heads, so that Brazil does not become, once again, a colony of other foreign powers," Lula says in the message. "We are not, and we will never be, anyone's colony.""A sovereign country is one able to defend its territory, its borders, its environment, its wealth and its people from any foreign interests. A sovereign country is one able to create the opportunities its people need to conquer their own independence," the text reads.There had been concern the request could be refused because of the campaign, Poder360 reported. Sovereignty has been the government's rallying theme in 2026, a year of friction with the United States. Lula has listed national defense, rare earths mining and full-time schooling among his priorities.On Monday (Sept 7), the president will be in Brasília for the civic-military Independence Day parade. Guests include Cabinet ministers, Senate President Davi Alcolumbre and House Speaker Hugo Motta.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Luiz Edson Fachin, has told President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that he intends to move forward with the accusations exchanged between justices in recent days and take the cases involving Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça to the court's full bench. The conversation took place on Friday (Sept 4) at the presidential palace, the Planalto, according to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Fachin, who heads the Brazilian judiciary, expressed dissatisfaction with the means his colleagues chose to pursue their measures, Folha reported. He told Lula and others present that the matters are very serious and must be handled with due care. He said he does not intend to leave any of the issues filed with him unexamined, and that he will take whatever time is needed.The meeting at the PlanaltoBesides Fachin and Lula, those at the meeting included Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, the president of the Superior Court of Justice, Luis Felipe Salomão, Justice and Public Security Minister Wellington Lima e Silva, and Solicitor General Jorge Messias. The group met before a ceremony to sign bills related to the judiciary.A source briefed on the dialogue told Folha the initial mood between Fachin and Gonet was tense. The prosecutor general has already asked for the annulment of the Federal Police report that included Moraes' name in the Banco Master case, while Fachin has said he still needs information on the circumstances and the data gathered. The crisis began on Tuesday (Sept 1), when Mendonça ordered the release of previously sealed Federal Police reports citing Moraes, Gonet and the force's director general, Andrei Rodrigues. Days later, Moraes asked Fachin to open an investigation into his colleague's conduct.Speeches at the ceremonyAt the ceremony, Fachin said, without naming anyone, that the response to the crisis will be "firm, proportionate and rigorous", according to news site Poder360. "Recent events demonstrate the correctness and urgency of three goals of our administration: adopting a code of ethics, ending the fake news inquiry and modernizing the justice system," he said. Lula also spoke. Without mentioning Moraes, he criticized those who use public office for personal benefit and said: "I am certain that next year we will hold a deep discussion of the judiciary so that the people can keep believing in Justice."The full bench is the next step. The STF's 11 justices would decide the cases together in a plenary session. Fachin has shown he is willing to clarify the conduct at issue and schedule the final debate on the crisis, Folha reported. No date has been set. In the private conversation, Lula argued that answers must be given and leave no doubts in society.

Brazil's Ministry of Defense is set to receive the sixth-largest budget in the federal government in 2027. The projection is in the annual budget bill (LOA) sent to Congress this week, which allocates about R$ 148 billion to the ministry. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has cited the topic repeatedly amid international tensions and friction with the United States, according to news portal G1. The report ran alongside images of a military exercise to protect the Amazon held in Boa Vista, in the northern state of Roraima.Of the total, R$ 108 billion covers payroll and social charges for active-duty troops, retirees and pensioners of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Another R$ 21.7 billion goes to current expenses and R$ 12.7 billion to investment, about 8.6% of the ministry's budget. G1 reports that the Defense allocation exceeds the combined budgets of 17 ministries, including Justice and Public Security (R$ 27.5 billion), Transport (R$ 19.4 billion) and Science and Technology (R$ 15.9 billion). Data from the Transparency Portal, run by the federal Comptroller General's office (CGU), list 365,000 active-duty service members, 268,000 pensioners and 91,000 retired officers.Lula has called for higher defense spending in recent months. In June, he said he would expand the budget because the world is "full of crazy people," adding that he does not want war but does not want to be "caught by surprise." In July, he said the armed forces need to be "prepared" and pointed to the interest of the United States, Russia and China in rare earths and critical minerals. G1 links the push to the war in the Middle East and the U.S. decision to designate the Comando Vermelho and PCC criminal organizations as terrorist groups.In August, Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro said Brazil would be unable to fight the United States militarily in a hypothetical invasion scenario."I would open the gate, because we have no equipment to face them and no money to fix the gate. I prefer to open the gate," Múcio said at an event, drawing laughter from the audience.Where the money goesThe investment budget under the PAC, Brazil's flagship public investment program, sets aside R$ 10.2 billion for 16 defense projects in 2027. The largest single line is the FX-2 program for the Gripen fighter jets: R$ 2.89 billion for aircraft, weapons, support and associated components under the contract with Swedish manufacturer Saab, according to Revista Fórum. The plan also includes R$ 571.8 million for the Embraer KC-390 cargo aircraft, with one more plane due for delivery in 2027, and R$ 337.6 million to modernize the A-29 Super Tucano fleet.At the Navy, the nuclear program receives R$ 1.4 billion, including the Labgene laboratory in Ipero, Sao Paulo state, a land-based prototype of the propulsion plant for Brazil's future nuclear-powered submarine. The submarine itself has about R$ 400 million budgeted (R$ 388.8 million in the bill). Through May this year, the program had already spent R$ 5.8 billion of a total R$ 22.6 billion, with completion scheduled for 2037. The Tamandare-class frigate program gets R$ 900 million to build four ships.At the Army, highlights include R$ 1.02 billion for the armored forces program, with 116 vehicles due in 2027, and R$ 671.4 million for the ASTROS-FOGOS rocket and missile system. The MICLA long-range missile project receives R$ 11 million. The Sisfron border monitoring system will get R$ 467 million, and Army aviation and drones R$ 520 million.The next step belongs to Congress. The joint budget committee will appoint a rapporteur for the 2027 bill, and both chambers must approve the text for the budget to take effect on January 1, 2027.

The phone number Brazil's Federal Police attributes to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes in its report on his exchanges with banker Daniel Vorcaro is the same number a joint congressional inquiry into the INSS, Brazil's social security agency, identified in March. The finding was published by BBC News Brasil on Friday.In an independent check, the BBC queried OSINT Industries, a platform that cross-references public data, and the number came up associated with digital accounts bearing Moraes's name and with profiles apparently linked to his wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, and to one of the couple's daughters. On Vorcaro's phone, the contact was saved as "Alexandre de Moraes BRASILIA", "STF TSE NOVO" and "Eu STF". According to the police, the contacts were shared with the banker by former minister Fábio Faria, who served in the government of Jair Bolsonaro, in a WhatsApp conversation in December 2023.The report was made public on Tuesday by decision of Justice André Mendonça. The document does not say the police confirmed with the phone carrier that the justice used the line. Only Vorcaro's phone was seized, and the investigation recovered only the messages he sent. The exchanges show the banker pressing for special attention to payments under the 131 million reais contract between Banco Master and the Barci de Moraes law office, run by Viviane. The document also indicates Vorcaro discussed with that contact information about Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates suspected billion-real fraud at the bank, and measures that could affect his pretrial detention.The congressional trailThe inquiry, a mixed committee of both houses of Congress known as CPMI, reached the number while investigating fraud in pension payments. Banco Master operated in payroll loans to social security beneficiaries, and lawmakers broke Vorcaro's telephone records secrecy. Among his data were records bearing Moraes's name. On March 19, the senator who chaired the committee, Carlos Viana (PSD-MG), announced the response obtained through Sittel, the federal telephone records system: "In a formal response obtained via Sittel, it was informed that this number is linked to the Supreme Federal Tribunal."The court had spoken earlier that month. On March 6, at the request of Moraes's office, the court's communications secretariat published a note saying a technical analysis found that messages sent by Vorcaro "do not match the contacts of Justice Alexandre de Moraes in the seized files". According to the news site SBT News, which had access to the Sittel document, the line was activated on February 22, 2017, the day the Senate confirmed Moraes's nomination to the court.Viana is now demanding a new explanation from the court about who owns the line. "Now, with the new information revealed by the Federal Police and the independent checks reported by BBC News Brasil, this question has become even more important," he said in a statement to the BBC. Separately, the Attorney General's Office told court President Edson Fachin it has opened an external control procedure into the Federal Police's conduct in producing the report. Mendonça has already suggested the material be reviewed by the court's full bench.

The wing of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) that backs Justice Alexandre de Moraes wants Chief Justice Edson Fachin to temporarily remove Justice André Mendonça from leading the investigations into Banco Master and the INSS, Brazil's national social security institute. The report was published by Folha de S.Paulo on Friday (Sept. 4).The group's argument is institutional. In its view, as long as there is any doubt about Mendonça's conduct of the two cases, which Moraes has described as abuse of authority, the justice cannot keep authorizing judicial measures or accessing evidence in the inquiries.People close to Mendonça push back. According to Folha, they defend the integrity of the investigations and of the justice's acts, and argue that closing the fake news inquiry, which Moraes oversees as its rapporteur, should also be on the table as a way to settle the feud inside the court.How the crisis beganThe removal demand is an offshoot of the confrontation opened on Thursday (Sept. 3), when Moraes asked Fachin to investigate Mendonça for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crime of responsibility, the offense that can trigger impeachment. In the filing, according to the news site G1, Moraes wrote that Mendonça had "usurped the police authorities" in charge of the investigations, mishandled talks over a possible plea deal and steered the probe toward chosen targets for "personal and political reasons", among them Moraes himself and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. In Moraes's reading, the Federal Police report shows measures taken by his colleague "with a flagrant loss of impartiality".The request was lodged within the fake news inquiry two days after Mendonça, on Tuesday (Sept. 1), lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report exposing messages and contacts between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master.Fachin began to answer on Friday. He pulled the request out of the fake news inquiry, moved the case to the court's presidency and gave the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) and Mendonça five days to respond, G1 reported. Folha adds that the chief justice opened the instruction phase of the process that will weigh whether the request is admissible, and that the lawfulness of Moraes's own filing will also be examined. On Thursday night, Fachin had already ordered Moraes, Mendonça, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director General Andrei Rodrigues to provide information on the report linking Moraes and Vorcaro.In public remarks, Fachin said the response to the crisis will be "firm, proportional and rigorous" and that "recent events" prove the merits of his administration's goals, among them closing the fake news inquiry and adopting a code of ethics. Once the responses are in, it falls to the chief justice to decide whether the case against Mendonça proceeds.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Friday, Sept. 4, that he had told U.S. President Donald Trump that Brazil accepts no one's interference in its elections. He made the remarks in an interview with Rádio Progresso, a radio station in Juazeiro do Norte, in the northeastern state of Ceará, one month before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.Asked whether he saw a possibility of U.S. interference in this year's vote, the president answered:"If there is, it will lose. I told Trump this. We do not accept anyone's interference in the elections. And if it comes in, it will lose. If there is, it will lose," Lula said.The 80-minute phone callLula and Trump spoke by phone in late August. The call lasted one hour and 20 minutes and was requested by the Brazilian president, according to G1. The Planalto, the presidential palace, described the conversation as "friendly and cordial." During the call, Trump asked about the October elections, and Lula called the U.S. justifications for the recently imposed tariffs on Brazilian products "unfounded."According to Brazilian diplomatic sources cited by G1, Lula told Trump that Brazil's electoral process is running well and reliably. The sources described the exchange as casual and said it did not amount to a demand for explanations. Trump raised no speculation about Brazil's voting system or its electronic voting machines. Aides present at the call told the Reuters news agency that the election topic came up only in passing.Tariffs and renewed negotiationsThe United States recently announced two additional duties on Brazilian goods sold in its market: 25%, based on the White House's view that Brazil applies unfair practices against American businesses in six sectors, including the Pix payment system, deforestation, intellectual property and ethanol, and 12.5%, applied to dozens of countries including Brazil over alleged failures to block goods made with forced labor. In response, Brazil took the case to the World Trade Organization, arguing it had been treated in a discriminatory way.After the call between the two presidents, the countries resumed negotiations. Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Development, Industry and Trade Minister Márcio Elias Rosa held a virtual meeting on Monday, Aug. 31, with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. In a joint statement, the ministries said Brazil rejects the "discriminatory" and "unfair" treatment of its products and remains "open" to dialogue.In Friday's interview, Lula said he has a good relationship with Trump and played down the effect of the tariffs. "If the U.S. doesn't want to buy from us, am I going to cry and whine? No, I will look for whoever wants to buy," he said. He said bilateral trade fell after the taxation, but Brazilian exports grew in 17 countries, by more than 10% in every country he visited, according to the president. "We need to be very respected. My relationship with Trump is good," he added.The first round of the election is scheduled for Oct. 4, with a possible runoff later in the month. On trade, the U.S. government has said it is "available" to talk, but has not said whether the tariffs will be reversed. Brazilian diplomats say privately that they do not expect a WTO decision to roll back the surcharges, but see the complaint as a way to put Brazil's position on record before the international community.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, has begun consulting his fellow justices on personally taking over the Master case, which currently sits with Justice André Mendonça. The move was first reported by Valor Econômico, a Brazilian business daily, which said court members confirmed the president's consultations.Two options are under study, according to Valor. In the first, Fachin would take the full rapporteurship of the inquiry into fraud at Banco Master, one of Brazil's largest private banks. That requires approval by the full bench, because the court's internal rules do not allow the president to take a case away from a sitting rapporteur. In the second, Fachin would keep for himself, in a separate proceeding, only the portion of the investigation that names Justice Alexandre de Moraes and four other justices in Federal Police reports.A second internal dealIf confirmed, it would be the second change of rapporteur in the Master inquiry. The first, drawn by lot, was Justice Dias Toffoli. He resigned in February after reports that his family had sold shares in the Tayayá resort, in the state of Paraná, to a fund linked to Master. His resignation came out of a closed-door deal among all the justices. In a note, the STF presidency said that, "given the high institutional interests" at stake, the case would be redistributed, and a new lottery handed it to Mendonça.For Fachin to become rapporteur, Mendonça would also have to resign, and the bench would have to endorse the move. Valor reports that a new internal agreement is being sought to break the impasse.A crisis with deadlinesThe consultations come at the height of the confrontation between Moraes and Mendonça. On Tuesday, Mendonça unsealed a Federal Police report containing messages from Master founder Daniel Vorcaro to Moraes, including one in which the former banker asks whether it was time to leave Brazil. On Thursday, Moraes asked that Mendonça be investigated for alleged abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crime of responsibility. On Friday, Fachin pulled that request out of the fake news inquiry, where Moraes is rapporteur, to run as a separate proceeding under the court's presidency.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the wing of the court that backs Moraes wants Fachin to temporarily remove Mendonça from the Master and INSS, Brazil's social security institute, investigations. People close to Mendonça defend the integrity of the inquiries and of the justice's conduct. Fachin said on Friday that the response to the crisis will be "firm, proportional and rigorous". In a speech at the Planalto palace, quoted by G1, he said that "recent events demonstrate the correctness and urgency of three goals of our administration: the adoption of a Code of Ethics, the end of the fake news inquiry and the modernization of the justice system".The next steps have set deadlines. Fachin gave the Prosecutor General's office five days to weigh in on the request to investigate Moraes and, after that, five more days for Mendonça to respond. Contacted through his press office, the STF president did not reply to Valor.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has told colleagues in Congress that he may allow impeachment proceedings against two justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court. According to a report by Ana Flor in G1, Alcolumbre would authorize a case against Alexandre de Moraes and also against André Mendonça if pressure to target Moraes alone becomes impossible to resist.The signal, according to G1, cooled tempers in the Senate over recent days. The plan gained weight after Moraes, on Thursday night (Sept. 3), asked court President Edson Fachin to open an investigation of Mendonça. In the filing, made within the so-called fake news inquiry, Moraes cited signs of a crime of responsibility by Mendonça and noted that Alcolumbre himself had been investigated. In G1's account, senators read those points as a green light for Alcolumbre to act.On Friday (Sept. 4), Fachin pulled Moraes's request out of the fake news inquiry. He gave the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) and Mendonça five days to respond and moved the cases to the court's presidency. Both inquiries involving Moraes and Mendonça are now run by Fachin.Clashing accusationsIn the filing, Moraes says Mendonça usurped police authority over the investigations, mishandled talks on a possible plea deal and steered the probe toward chosen targets, including Moraes and Alcolumbre, for what he called "personal and political" reasons. The Federal Police report, in Moraes's reading, shows steps taken by Mendonça with "a blatant loss of impartiality". The dispute became public on Tuesday (Sept. 1), when Mendonça unsealed a Federal Police report he had ordered that exposed messages and contacts between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master.Reaction and next stepsPresidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party reacted on the campaign trail in São Carlos, in São Paulo state. According to Folha de S.Paulo, he said Alcolumbre has no interest in impeaching Moraes and that the Senate has never taken up any of the 54 impeachment requests filed against the justice."He chose to protect a friend instead of the institution. He is losing a great chance to restore the Senate's credibility and give the Supreme Court back to the people. They are worried about protecting themselves."The Prosecutor General's office and Mendonça have five days to answer Moraes's request. Fachin has opened the instruction phase that will decide whether Mendonça can be investigated for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crime of responsibility, and will also examine the regularity of Moraes's own filing, according to Folha. The court president said his response to the crisis will be "firm, proportional and rigorous".

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed into law on Friday (4) the bill creating Brazil's Justice System Fund (Fundo do Sistema de Justiça). The ceremony took place at the Planalto presidential palace in Brasília, with Supreme Federal Court (STF) Chief Justice Edson Fachin and Superior Court of Justice (STJ) President Luis Felipe Salomão in attendance, according to G1 and the STJ itself.In practice, the fund will work as a single account that pools money collected by the institutions of the justice system, including court fees (custas) and charges paid on lawsuits. According to G1, the money will finance efforts to widen access to justice, such as case-clearing campaigns (mutirões) and itinerant justice programs that bring court services to hard-to-reach regions. It may also pay for infrastructure and operational improvements across justice system bodies.The law aims above all to strengthen the federal public defender's office (DPU), which provides free legal counsel to Brazilians who cannot afford a lawyer. The fund's balance will be adjusted every year by the Selic rate, Brazil's benchmark interest rate, in what the government describes as an effort to secure a permanent funding source. Congress approved the bill in August.Ceremony amid the Supreme Court crisisThe STJ said the new law also updates the court fee rules for federal courts and for the STJ itself, a model in place for more than two decades. At the ceremony, Fachin praised dialogue among institutions and said that channeling money to the justice system should make the judiciary more efficient and improve services to the public. He then addressed the crisis involving the Supreme Court, the Attorney General's office (PGR) and the Federal Police over investigations tied to Banco Master, saying the facts are being investigated and that institutions must be preserved."What is right will be done, in the time and in the manner that the legal order requires. No authority is above the Constitution, no branch of government is above the law, and no passing interest can override the democratic rule of law"Fachin added that the gravity of the facts allows no shortcuts and promised a firm, proportional and rigorous institutional response. In recent days he took control of the proceedings related to requests filed by Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça, decisions that remain pending. The signing comes about one month before the presidential election, in which Lula is running for reelection, according to G1.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Edson Fachin, on Friday (September 4) called for an end to the so-called fake news inquiry and the approval of his ethics code as the answer to the crisis gripping the Court. He spoke at the Planalto Palace, at an event on funds for the justice system, alongside President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Solicitor General Jorge Messias.According to Folha de S.Paulo, Fachin said there will be no "precipitation, nor omission" and promised an institutional response that is "firm, proportional and rigorous". He told news portal G1 that "the gravity of the facts does not allow shortcuts"."Recent events demonstrate the soundness and urgency of three goals of our administration: the adoption of a Code of Ethics, the end of the fake news inquiry and the modernization of the justice system," Fachin said.The fake news inquiry was opened by the STF, Brazil's highest court, in 2019 to investigate fraudulent news, false crime reports, threats and other attacks against the tribunal, its justices and their families. It has been under the rapporteurship of Justice Alexandre de Moraes for seven years, according to G1.The clash behind the speechFachin spoke after Justice André Mendonça, who leads the Banco Master and INSS investigations at the Court, lifted the seal on a Federal Police report exposing messages between Moraes and former banker Daniel Vorcaro. In response, Moraes asked Fachin to open an investigation into his colleague, citing suspected administrative impropriety, abuse of authority and malfeasance, with "loss of judicial impartiality and favoritism toward certain political groups". The request rested on a Federal Police intelligence report that, by the document's own caveat, cannot be used as evidence.Earlier on Friday, Fachin removed Moraes's request from the fake news inquiry. The two proceedings involving Court justices now sit with the STF presidency, and it is Fachin who will set the procedures and decide whether the cases reach the full bench, G1 reported. The Prosecutor General's office and Mendonça have five days to respond to the request, according to InfoMoney.The next steps rest with the Court's president: setting the path for the two proceedings, deciding whether to send them to the full bench, and winning approval from his fellow justices for the ethics code he proposed.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is weighing whether to nominate Ricardo Couto, the interim governor of Rio de Janeiro state and a sitting judge, to Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). The seat had been informally reserved for Jorge Messias, head of the AGU, the federal government's top legal counsel office. CNN Brasil reported the plan on Thursday (Sept. 3), and Folha de S.Paulo confirmed it on Friday (Sept. 4).Supporters of the swap see the choice of Couto as "a demonstration of institutional respect," according to Folha. By picking the judge, Lula would give up appointing Messias, a loyal ally, in an effort to calm the judiciary. Members of the president's Workers' Party note that the Rio governor is not part of Lula's circle of friends.A name that resurfaced with the court crisisAides told Folha that Couto's name had been under consideration for about two months and returned to the table after a new clash between justices. The idea also reached the leadership of Lula's reelection campaign and was well received, CNN Brasil reports. The court is engulfed in a public feud between Justices Alexandre de Moraes and André Mendonça, tied to the Banco Master investigation. According to Caio Junqueira's column at CNN Brasil, the nomination would help "distance Lula from the wear on the Court caused by the exposure of the relations of Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro," a businessman under investigation in the case.Couto chaired the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice and took over the state government as third in the line of succession, after the governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the state assembly lost their posts over corruption suspicions. His administration has replaced civil servants with suspected ties to organized crime, CNN Brasil reports. Folha notes that Lula has publicly praised the judge's work.Electoral mathThe choice could pay off politically. Rio is the country's third-largest electoral college, Folha notes. After four months in office, 47% of Rio voters approve of the interim governor's work and 31% disapprove, according to a Datafolha poll. Internal surveys held by the campaign point to approval above 80%, CNN Brasil reports, and nominating him before the October elections would tie Lula's image to the governor. In the presidential race, Lula and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, are tied in second-round polling. In the state race, Lula-backed Eduardo Paes (PSD) watches the pro-Bolsonaro Douglas Ruas (PL) gain ground.Folha also reports that allies are pushing for the exit of Andrei Rodrigues, director-general of the Federal Police, one of the officials called to explain the crisis. Chief Justice Edson Fachin has demanded answers from Moraes, Mendonça, Rodrigues and the prosecutor general, according to Metrópoles. Nothing is decided: the presidential palace has not confirmed a nomination, and any justice must clear a confirmation vote in the Senate.

Brazil's Congress approved on Thursday (Sept 3) the bill PLC 74/2026, which unlocks funding for Redata, a federal tax incentive program meant to attract data centers to the country. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate passed the text on the same day. The Chamber vote was 364 in favor, 46 against and three abstentions, according to news outlet G1. The bill now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his signature.Buried in the text is a provision inserted by the rapporteur, Deputy Isnaldo Bulhões (MDB-AL), which G1 described as a "jabuti," Brazilian congressional jargon for a rider unrelated to a bill's main subject. It waives two requirements of Brazil's Fiscal Responsibility Law for municipalities with up to 65,000 residents to receive congressional budget earmarks, known as emendas: being current on debts owed to the federal government and accounting for federal funds received in previous years. According to the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), the rule covers more than five thousand cities, about 90% of Brazil's 5,569 municipalities."The smallest municipalities in the country, in every corner, from South to North, from North to Northeast, deserve special treatment, because they increasingly want to improve and gain the technical capacity to meet this kind of requirement, which sometimes, over simple matters, leaves them unable to receive some funds because of a lapse in compliance," Bulhões said on the floor.Deputy Gilson Marques (Novo-SC) criticized the change. In his view, the provision strips the law of its fiscal responsibility requirement, G1 reported. Congress has pushed this before: the 2026 budget guidelines law already contained the waiver for small cities. Lula vetoed that provision, and lawmakers overrode the veto.What Redata isRedata, the Special Taxation Regime for Data Center Services, was approved by Congress on Tuesday (Sept 1), according to news site Poder360. The 2026 budget sets aside R$ 5.2 billion in waived federal taxes for the program. Thursday's bill adds Redata to the list of exceptions to the fiscal rules of supplementary law 229/2026. Without that exception, the program's enactment would have been at risk, Poder360 reported. G1 said the text exempts the regime from the cap of 2% of GDP on tax benefits.The bill was introduced by former deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), now Lula's minister of institutional relations. The rapporteur added other measures to the package, among them a federal support program for people with cancer and disabilities and an exemption from IRPJ and CSLL, two taxes on corporate income, for reinsurers headquartered in Brazil, Poder360 reported. The next step is at the Planalto palace: Lula can sign the bill into law in full, veto parts of it or reject it entirely.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) relied on an internal Federal Police document that the force itself rates as having "no probative value" when he asked for his colleague André Mendonça to be investigated for abuse of authority, administrative improbity and crimes of responsibility. The finding comes from Folha de S.Paulo, in a report by José Marques published on Friday (4).The report is not signed by any Federal Police delegate. It is a "scenario analysis" of suspicions of a "possible encroachment on the plenary's jurisdiction and on the prerogative of a member of the Public Prosecutor's Office". The text itself sets its own limits of use."The information contained in it is not meant to support a proceeding of any nature, to ground a formal complaint, to support a defense brief, or to be cited as a source in an external document."Confidence levelsAccording to Folha, the Federal Police assigns a "low" or "moderate" confidence level to much of the material. In his decision, Moraes quotes the passages without that distinction. One of them supports the hypothesis that Mendonça was steering investigations against Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP)."It is assessed that Davi Alcolumbre constitutes a probable strategic target, given his political strength, his favored position to remain president of the Federal Senate and the resulting control of that chamber's agenda, notably the processing of impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices."The unsigned report also raises the hypothesis that Mendonça's moves "are part of a broader strategy by the rapporteur, with the intention of expanding his power in the Supreme Federal Court, to increase the chances that the worldview of the political group he belongs to will prevail". Right after, the text records its own confidence rating for that assessment."Confidence level: LOW. An entirely inferential judgment, about mental state and strategic intent, built from indicators that are mostly reported. Low confidence does not mean dismissal: it means the hypothesis remains open and under observation, and that any external use would be premature."The G1 news portal had access to the same material and confirms the police caveat: the document is an intelligence report of restricted diffusion, with no decision-making character and no probative value. According to G1, in a ruling published on Thursday (3), Moraes said the Federal Police had identified that Mendonça steered investigations against Alcolumbre. The reports also point to uneven treatment of politicians by Mendonça in the Banco Master case, with different evidentiary standards applied to Senators Weverton Rocha and Ciro Nogueira.The request sits with FachinMoraes addressed the request to Justice Edson Fachin, who is handling the crisis between the two justices at the court. Fachin has given Moraes, Mendonça, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) and the Federal Police five days to explain the standoff. The decision on investigating Mendonça now rests with him.

Brazil's Workers' Party (PT) filed a complaint on Wednesday (Sept. 2, 2026) with the Senate Ethics Council against Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator for Rio de Janeiro and the presidential candidate of the right-wing PL party. The party asks the council, which can remove senators for misconduct, to strip him of his mandate for breach of parliamentary decorum. The case rests on "Dark Horse", a film honoring his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. The party says the film's financing exposes contradictions in the senator's public statements.The complaint was signed by the PT's Senate leader, Camilo Santana. According to Poder360, the magazine Piauí reported this week that Daniel Vorcaro, the former banker who founded Banco Master, transferred more money to the project than the senator had admitted.The numbersPer Congresso em Foco, Bolsonaro negotiated with Vorcaro a financing package of US$ 24 million, about R$ 134 million. Records made public earlier showed at least US$ 10.6 million, about R$ 61 million, paid between February and May 2025. A report by Coaf, Brazil's financial intelligence unit, then recorded a transfer of US$ 1.6 million on Sept. 16, 2025 to the US fund Havengate Development, which financed the film. The money moved eight days after the senator pressed Vorcaro over late payments. Known transfers now total US$ 12.3 million, about R$ 65 million, per Poder360.After audio recordings surfaced in which he asks Vorcaro for money, Bolsonaro said in an interview that the last payment had come in May 2025. The Coaf record shows a payment four months later. Asked this week about the September transfer, the senator referred questions to the film's producer. He denies any personal gain or favors in exchange, and says the film about his father was financed with private sponsorship, with no public funds and no money from Rouanet, Brazil's federal culture incentive program. His office did not respond to Poder360 by publication time."The Federal Senate cannot ignore facts of this gravity. Whoever holds a mandate granted by the people has a duty to act with truth, responsibility and respect for institutions. Parliamentary immunity protects freedom of expression and the exercise of the mandate, but it cannot serve as a shield to deceive society," Camilo Santana said in a statement.A stalled councilThe complaint lands in a body that has not deliberated since July 2024. According to Poder360, the Ethics Council has met only five times in the past seven years and has no meeting scheduled for this year, even though Senate records list it as active. The PT's own website says the filing also bears the signature of party president Edinho Silva and recalls past Senate expulsions such as those of Luiz Estevão and Demóstenes Torres.The move is part of the party's offensive over the "Dark Horse" case, one month before the first round of the presidential election on Oct. 4. Allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva want the investigations declassified and an inquiry into the impartiality of Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, though the PT rules out supporting impeachment requests against him. What happens next depends on the council itself: to move forward, it must be convened, accept the complaint and install an investigative committee.

Brazil's federal government projects that it must review at least R$ 53.7 billion in mandatory spending by 2030. The projection is part of the 2027 annual budget bill, known as PLOA, which Congress received on August 31. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the review is needed to keep other public programs funded at their current levels.The figure could climb to R$ 63.6 billion. That version includes the extra room required to meet the minimum health funding floor in 2028 and 2029. The estimates measure the gap between what government agencies expect to spend to keep policies running and the space actually available for discretionary programs under the fiscal framework, the rule that has capped federal spending growth since 2023.The bill does not say which measures would deliver the savings. If none materialize, the number shows the size of the cut the executive branch would have to make in discretionary programs to stay within the rules. The projections sit in the medium-term budget section of the bill, which flags spending bottlenecks for the three years after 2027. O Globo reported that the government itself admits funding for public programs could run short from 2028 without the review.Planning and Budget Minister Bruno Moretti accepted the need for a review but cautioned about the number. He told Folha the instrument has methodological limitations and will need improvement. Moretti took office on March 31."The conclusion that a review is needed is correct, but the methodological limits of using this instrument as a projection are large," Moretti told Folha. He said the calculation works from aggregate spending figures.The 2027 budgetPresented by Moretti and Finance Minister Dario Durigan, the 2027 bill projects a primary surplus of R$ 83.4 billion, about R$ 10 billion above the target of R$ 73.2 billion, or 0.5% of GDP, according to state news agency Agência Brasil. Once spending outside the framework, such as court-ordered debt payments, is included, the effective surplus falls to R$ 18.6 billion. The bill estimates net revenue of R$ 2.849 trillion and total spending of R$ 2.83 trillion."One of our central messages is that next year we will have a balanced budget," Moretti said at the presentation. He credited triggers in the fiscal framework that hold back mandatory spending: a cap on civil servant raises of 0.6% above inflation should save about R$ 9 billion, and a ceiling of 2.5% above inflation for revenue-linked expenditures should save another R$ 8.9 billion. According to CNN Brasil, Durigan said the government plans to review tax benefits gradually.The bill now sits with Congress, which must pass the budget law by December 31. What remains open is which mandatory expenditures the government will revise to close the R$ 53.7 billion gap projected through 2030.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva broke his silence on Thursday (3) about the crisis at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). In a video recorded at the Planalto presidential palace and released by the government's communications office, Lula said the country "cannot be held hostage to selective leaks" and called for deep reforms of the political system and the judiciary. According to G1, it was the first time the president commented on the crisis at the court.Lula called the Banco Master scandal "the biggest robbery in Brazil's history" and noted that former banker Daniel Vorcaro was arrested and his bank shut down during his government."Millions of people in many states and municipalities were robbed. The banker who led the scheme has ties to many powerful people. (...) There is suspicion that politicians and public officials are involved. Our democracy cannot be held hostage to selective leaks," the president said in the video.He then pointed to a way out. "It is clear that our political system and judiciary need deep reforms. It is essential that everyone be investigated, with no one shielded, no matter who it hurts. The Brazilian people have the right to know the truth," he said, according to InfoMoney.Pressure on Fachin and the Prosecutor GeneralThe statement came amid revelations about the relationship between Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and about the meeting between the then Master owner and Justice André Mendonça in March 2025. Lula said he expects STF President Edson Fachin and Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet to lead the process. "As President of the Republic, I believe that only by acting with firmness and transparency will we ensure that institutions are respected by Brazilian society," he said.The president followed the line of a video by Workers Party (PT) chairman Edinho Silva, who said "no one is above the law" and proposed a code of ethics for the judiciary and the public prosecutor's office. On Tuesday (1st), Lula met with Justice Gilmar Mendes at the Planalto to discuss the crisis and also spoke with Fachin. According to Valdo Cruz's blog at G1, Gilmar told the president that the government acted too late to stop the dispute between Mendonça's office and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues from escalating.What comes nextMinutes before the video was released, Moraes asked Fachin to open an investigation into Mendonça. In the petition, he cited strong indications of administrative improbity, abuse of authority, crimes of responsibility and favoring political groups in his handling of the Master and INSS cases. Fachin then ordered Moraes, Mendonça, Gonet and Rodrigues to respond within five business days on the events behind the court crisis. The court president wants explanations on the use of institutional credentials, the disclosure of information under judicial seal and the external oversight of police activity.

Brazil's Senate approved on Thursday (Sept. 3), in a symbolic vote, the provisional measure that ends the so-called "blusinha tax", the 20% import duty on international purchases of up to US$ 50. The Chamber of Deputies had passed the same text earlier in the day, also by symbolic vote. With the two votes, the bill's path in Congress is closed and the matter now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for signature, according to G1.The duty had been in force since August 2024, created by Lula's own government under Remessa Conforme, a Federal Revenue program that brings international e-commerce shipments under tax rules. In May, the government issued a provisional measure, a decree with the force of law that lapses unless Congress approves it, and cut the rate to zero. The exemption has applied since then, but it needed Congress to become permanent: the measure would have expired on Sept. 8, and without approval the tax would have returned. The advance came from a deal between Lula, Chamber Speaker Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. According to CNN Brasil, the agreement was sealed at a lunch last week. The issue has wide popular appeal and is central to Lula's campaign for a fourth term.What the approved text saysOn Wednesday (Sept. 2), the joint committee that reviewed the measure approved the report of rapporteur Senator Leila Barros, under the chairmanship of Deputy Reginaldo Lopes. Its main change creates a mechanism to assess the economic impact of the exemption. The first review comes three months after the measure takes effect; after that, the Finance Ministry must run assessments every six months. Congress will reassess the policy each year, based on data the ministry must deliver by April 30. The review is mandatory for textiles and clothing, footwear, accessories, toys and cosmetics, and will track jobs, income, federal revenue and the competitiveness of industry and retail.Under the new rules, the finance minister has the power to change import duty rates on international postal shipments, including cutting the rate to zero for purchases of up to US$ 50. ICMS, a state-level sales tax, continues to apply, and waiving it is up to each state governor; ten states raised that tax on such purchases from 17% to 20% in April 2025, according to G1. CNN Brasil reported that the rapporteur also added authorization for the executive branch to set quantity or frequency limits per person, to curb the splitting of shipments. Ideas floated earlier, such as requiring deliveries through the postal service or paying consumers a cashback, were left out; lawmakers said the cashback question will be handled in the broader tax reform. In practice, by a G1 calculation with foreign trade specialist Jackson Campos, a US$ 50 order that cost about R$ 374 with the federal duty and the ICMS now comes to about R$ 312 with the state tax alone.Business groups criticized the change. The Brazilian Textile Retail Association (Abvtex) called the end of the duty, when the measure was issued, a "grave economic setback" and "a direct attack on national industry and retail". Federal Revenue data show the import duty on international orders brought in R$ 1.78 billion in the first four months of 2026, up 25% from the same period of 2025 and a record for the period. André Galhardo, chief economist at the consultancy Análise Econômica, defended the old duty and noted that the European Union and the United States have also started to tax low-value shipments, to curb a flood of cheap Asian goods."From a macroeconomic point of view, the measure helped defend national jobs and was relevant for the country."What comes nextThe text now goes to Lula for sanction, the step that turns it into law. Once signed, the exemption, in force since May, becomes permanent. The Sept. 8 deadline was met. The first impact assessment is due three months after the measure takes effect.

Brazil's National Congress approved on Thursday (Sept 3) the provisional measure that eliminates the so-called "blusinha tax", the 20% import duty on international purchases of up to US$ 50. The Senate passed the bill in a symbolic vote, hours after the Chamber of Deputies did the same. According to the Senate's official news service, the approval came at 8:51 p.m. in Brasília. The text now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his signature.A provisional measure is a presidential decree with the force of law that Congress must ratify by a set deadline. This one was issued in May and has already zeroed the rate. Without congressional approval by September 8, it would have expired and the tax would return. According to G1, the vote was unlocked by an agreement between Lula, Chamber Speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP). The issue has strong popular appeal and is central for Lula, who is seeking reelection to a fourth term, G1 reports.What it means for shoppersThe tax applies to purchases on international platforms such as Shein, Shopee and AliExpress. By G1's calculation, a US$ 50 purchase came to US$ 72.29 (374.53 reais) with the 20% import duty and the 17% ICMS, a state sales tax charged "inside" the price. Without the federal tax, the total falls to US$ 60.24, about 312 reais. The ICMS remains in place; ten states raised their rate on such purchases from 17% to 20% in April 2025.Congress amended the text before the final vote. On Wednesday, the joint committee, with Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF) as rapporteur and Deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG) in the chair, added a mechanism to assess the economic impact of the exemption on textiles and apparel, footwear, accessories, toys and cosmetics. A first assessment comes after three months, then every six months. Congress will review the end of the tax each year, using Finance Ministry data due by April 30. The measure also gives the finance minister power to change import duty rates on international parcels, including cutting them to zero.Industry criticismThe Brazilian Textile Retail Association (Abvtex) called the end of the charge, when the measure was issued in May, a "grave economic setback" and a "direct attack on national industry and retail". André Galhardo, chief economist at the Análise Econômica consultancy, says the tax worked as protection for Brazilian industry, especially in fashion."From a macroeconomic point of view, the measure helped defend national jobs and was relevant for the country," Galhardo said. "Not by chance, European Union countries and the United States itself have also started taxing small-value parcels recently," he added.The Federal Revenue Service says the government collected 1.78 billion reais in import duty on international parcels in the first four months of 2026, up 25% from the same period of 2025 and a record for the period. The tax was created in August 2024 under the Remessa Conforme program, after Congress approved it and Lula himself signed it into law. The next step is the presidential sanction: once signed, the exemption in force since May becomes permanent.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Edson Fachin, on Thursday (3) ordered two justices, the prosecutor general and the head of the Federal Police to explain, within five business days, the events behind a crisis gripping the court. According to G1, the order requires Justices André Mendonça and Alexandre de Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues to submit the information.What Fachin wants to knowFachin asked for information on four points:whether the Federal Police followed the rules of the Loman, the statute that governs Brazil's judiciary, when dealing with officials who can be tried only by the STF;signs that institutional access credentials were used to examine a strictly private document, and that information under judicial seal was revealed to a person under investigation;the circumstances in which Mendonça ordered the identification of people named in the Master Bank investigation;and the steps taken to provide external control of police activity."It falls to the presidency of the court to ensure that any collective review is carried out, in due time and manner, with the high sense of responsibility the facts demand, always guaranteeing respect for the constitutional guarantees of due process, full defense and adversarial proceedings," Fachin wrote.How the crisis beganThe order responds to a crisis that broke on Tuesday (1), when Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report exposing messages and contacts between Master Bank founder Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Moraes. In the same ruling, Mendonça argued the material belongs before the full bench. "...the inevitable path of these proceedings leads to the plenary of this Supreme Federal Court, the sovereign body to analyze, in a technical and strictly legal manner, the new elements brought by the police authority," he wrote.Gonet, who is mentioned in the reports Mendonça released, has said the investigation is void because it was carried out without a request from prosecutors or from the Federal Police itself. Fachin wrote that, alongside a later review of the possible procedural defects raised by the prosecutor general, the police findings, if confirmed, require the court presidency to "safeguard the prerogatives of the Tribunal," as set out in its internal rules.Moraes struck back the same day. According to G1 and InfoMoney, he asked Fachin, within the fake news inquiry, to open an investigation of Mendonça on suspicion of administrative improbity, abuse of authority, crimes of responsibility and favoring political groups in his handling of the Master Bank and INSS cases. Moraes also said Mendonça steered the investigation toward targets "for personal and political reasons," naming Moraes himself and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. Mendonça has not yet responded.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also spoke publicly for the first time since the report came out. "Our democracy cannot be held hostage to selective leaks," he said in a recorded statement at the presidential palace, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo. He added that "it is essential that everyone be investigated, with no one shielded."The five-business-day clock is running. Once the answers arrive, Fachin must decide whether to take the matter to the full court, the body that would rule collectively on the conduct of the justices.

A Datafolha poll released on Thursday (3) shows that 51% of Brazilians disapprove of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, while 45% approve of it. Another 4% did not answer. Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo commissioned the survey, which lands one month before the first round of Brazil's presidential election.In the previous round, in August, disapproval stood at 50% and approval at 47%, according to news site G1. Disapproval rose one point and approval fell two. The gap doubled, from three to six points. Business outlet InfoMoney notes both moves stayed within the poll's margin of error of two percentage points.Performance ratingAsked to rate the administration, 42% call it bad or terrible and 31% call it great or good. Another 25% rate it as fair. In August, bad or terrible reached 41% and great or good reached 33%. According to G1, Lula's numbers at three years and eight months in office are similar to those of former president Jair Bolsonaro in 2022, when he also sought reelection.The institute interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 and older on September 1 and 2, according to G1. The margin of error is two percentage points and the confidence level is 95%. The poll is registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, under number BR-03669/2026.Final stretch of the campaignLula is running for reelection. In the same survey, he has 38% of first-round voting intentions against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party. In a runoff between the two, the score is 46% to 44, a statistical tie, according to InfoMoney.G1 reports that 71% of voters surveyed say they have already decided their vote and 28% say they could still change their minds. The first round of the presidential election takes place in one month.

A Datafolha poll released on Thursday (Sept 3) shows 42% of Brazilian voters rate the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as bad or terrible. Another 31% call it excellent or good, and 25% say it is fair, the middle category in Brazilian poll ratings.Datafolha, one of Brazil's main polling institutes, interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 and over in 125 cities on Sept 1 and 2. The margin of error is two percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and TV Globo and is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, Brazil's elections authority, under number BR-03669/2026.The president's personal ratingOn Lula's personal performance, 51% disapprove of his administration and 45% approve. Two weeks earlier the two figures were in a statistical tie, with 50% negative ratings. Negative views of the government have also climbed steadily: 38% at the end of July and 41% in the previous round, in August.Folha notes that although the changes sit within the margin of error, the numbers hurt Lula because they follow a trend. The newspaper points to pressure between the two rounds of polling from the so-called Lulinha case, involving suspicions around the dealings of the president's son, Fábio Luís, plus a sharper public debate over deteriorating public finances and slower GDP growth in the second quarter. On the positive side, Folha cites progress in Congress on a bill to end the 6x1 rotating work schedule, a popular cause in Brazil.One month to the voteThe same Datafolha round puts Lula at 38% of first-round voting intentions, against 33% for Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party. In a potential runoff between the two, the score is 46% to 44%, a statistical tie. InfoMoney writes that the president enters the final stretch of the race with more voters disapproving of his administration than approving it.The first round of the presidential election, in which Lula seeks reelection, is about a month away. Between the last two Datafolha rounds, the gap between disapproval and approval widened from a statistical tie to six points.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva holds 38% of first-round voting intentions in Brazil's presidential race, against 33% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), according to a Datafolha poll released on Thursday (Sept. 3). In a potential runoff between the two, Lula scores 46% to Bolsonaro's 44%, a gap inside the poll's margin of error.Datafolha, one of Brazil's best known pollsters, interviewed 2,002 people aged 16 and older in 125 cities on Sept. 1 and 2. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, with 95% confidence. The survey was commissioned by TV Globo and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo and is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, Brazil's top election authority, under code BR-03669/2026.Cury in thirdWriter Augusto Cury (Avante) reached 8%, followed by Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) with 4%, Renan Santos (Missão) with 3% and Romeu Zema (Novo) with 2%, G1 reported. According to Folha, a social media strategy added 2.5 million followers to Cury's Instagram account.Rejection and the government recordLula's runoff lead has narrowed. In the institute's previous round the two candidates were four points apart. The gap is now two points, which InfoMoney describes as a statistical tie.Rejection remains high for both frontrunners. Datafolha found that 47% of voters say they would never vote for Flávio Bolsonaro, and 45% say the same about Lula. Two weeks earlier, those shares stood at 46% and 45%. Cury's rejection rate is 9%.Disapproval of Lula's government rose to 51%, while approval fell to 45%. In August the figures were 50% and 47%. Respondents rating the administration bad or terrible rose from 41% to 42%, while great-or-good ratings slipped from 33% to 31%. Another 25% call it merely average, InfoMoney reported. Folha attaches this note to its poll coverage:"The results of a poll are not forecasts, that is, they do not aim to predict what will come out of the ballot boxes. They form a portrait of the opinions of the interviewees at the moment the researchers were in the field."The poll lands a little over a month before the first round, set for early October. Lula is running for reelection. Flávio Bolsonaro was drafted into the race by his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who announced him from jail as this year's candidate, Folha recalled. If no candidate wins more than 50% of valid votes, the top two go to a runoff.

The president of Brazil's Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, sent a blunt message to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential candidate, during a floor session on Wednesday night (Sept. 2). Defending Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Alcolumbre brought up a request for R$ 130 million to fund "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro.According to G1, the remark carried two messages. Alcolumbre will block any attempt to impeach Moraes, currently the vice president of the court, known as STF, and he warned that the film funding request could resurface if the opposition keeps pushing the case of former Banco Master banker Daniel Vorcaro. As Senate president, Alcolumbre decides whether impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices are admitted for proceedings."I will get back on the agenda, because otherwise I will have to answer many attacks that, as Senate president, I have been receiving in recent days. Just one comment. At the right moment I will speak. Everyone has forgotten that R$ 130 million were requested from the same person to make a film. And now the only culprit is Justice Alexandre de Moraes," Alcolumbre said, in a translated quote.Alcolumbre named no one. CartaCapital reports that the R$ 130 million request refers to financing for "Dark Horse" and to Vorcaro's ties to the production linked to the Bolsonaro family. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign read the remark as a message aimed at the senator. An Alcolumbre interlocutor summed it up for G1: "the dirty one cannot talk about the badly washed".Response on three frontsFlávio Bolsonaro's campaign is discussing a response on three fronts, according to CartaCapital. The first is to increase pressure to open impeachment proceedings against Moraes. The second is to take the agenda to the campaigns of opposition candidates in October's Senate races, arguing that the chamber needs a new composition for such cases to move forward. The third targets Alcolumbre's succession as Senate president in 2027, with allies weighing whether to boost the pre-candidacies of Rogério Marinho or Tereza Cristina. The magazine reports that Alcolumbre received an informal signal of support from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to try to stay in the job next year.Self-defense and calendarFlávio Bolsonaro's allies also read the remark as self-defense, CartaCapital reports. Alcolumbre faces questions of his own in the Master Bank case over Amprev, the pension fund of public workers in his home state of Amapá. The fund was run by his ally Jocildo Silva Lemos and invested in Banco Master bonds. The senator denies any interference in the investments. G1 reports that pressure from a cross-party bloc favorable to Vorcaro in Congress blocked the Master Bank investigative committee in the first half of the year, and that for now the only route for investigation runs through the STF itself.The next test of the standoff is the Sept. 7 rally on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, on Monday (Sept. 7). Bolsonaristas expect the impeachment of Supreme Court justices to be one of the main themes, according to CartaCapital. Senators heard by G1 say Alcolumbre's shielding of Moraes may strengthen opposition Senate candidates who argue the chamber must be renewed to start proceedings against justices in October's elections.

Justice Gilmar Mendes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) on Thursday (3) asked the court's president, Luiz Edson Fachin, to bar Federal Police delegates from working in the justices' chambers as assigned staff. The request was first reported by Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by g1 and CartaCapital.Five delegates, the senior officers who run Federal Police investigations, are currently assigned to the court. According to g1, two advise André Mendonça, the justice in charge of sensitive cases including the Banco Master inquiry and the INSS pension fraud; two work with Alexandre de Moraes; and one sits in the chambers of Luiz Fux. CartaCapital counts differently: one delegate with Moraes, one with Fux and one assigned to court security.Mendes' argumentGilmar, the court's most senior justice, told associates that the chambers were turning into "police stations", with investigative decisions now made by the court rather than the Federal Police, g1 reports. One criticism of the practice, the outlet notes, is that delegates inside the court could affect the pace of investigations, since supervision of those inquiries belongs to each justice.The request lands in the middle of a fight between Mendonça and Federal Police director-general Andrei Rodrigues. The possible removal of delegates from the rapporteur's team was one trigger of the crisis: sources told g1 that Mendonça saw the attempt as interference in ongoing investigations. The force, in turn, asked the federal government's legal office, the Advocacia-Geral da União, to open a case against the justice, arguing he oversteps his judicial role by meddling in the inquiries, CartaCapital reports.The conversation with Fachin was requested by Gilmar two weeks ago, according to CartaCapital, and the proposed ban is set to be discussed at a meeting scheduled for Thursday. On Tuesday (1), Gilmar met President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to discuss the court's crisis and, according to Valdo Cruz's blog at g1, said the government was slow to act. Lula also spoke with Fachin that day.The next move belongs to the full court. Mendonça is expected to bring the Federal Police report on messages between banker Daniel Vorcaro and Moraes to the bench, asking the justices to decide whether to investigate one of their own. The Prosecutor General's office has already weighed in: it deems the current procedure null, because only the Federal Police and prosecutors can request an investigation of a sitting justice.

The editorials of Brazil's three leading newspapers have called for Justice Alexandre de Moraes to leave the Supreme Federal Court (STF), the country's top court. O Estado de S. Paulo and Folha de S.Paulo made the call on Tuesday (Sept 1), and O Globo joined on Wednesday (Sept 2). The trigger was the release on Tuesday of a 218-page Federal Police report on the justice's relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, founder of Banco Master, the bank at the center of the scandal.According to CNN Brasil and Poder360, Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur at the STF, unsealed the document on Tuesday. It gathers messages, contracts and records of meetings taken from Vorcaro's phone. Federal Police identified signs of at least six meetings between Vorcaro and Moraes between November 2024 and August 2025. In one message, the former banker asked whether he should leave Brazil two days before his arrest. He also asked Moraes to speak with the Federal Police director general, Andrei Rodrigues, and with Brazil's prosecutor general, Paulo Gonet.What the editorials sayEstadão ran the editorial "Moraes tem de deixar o Supremo" (Moraes must leave the Supreme Court) on Sept 1. In the paper's view, "investigating solves only part of the crisis", given "the weight of a justice whose continued presence compromises the authority of the court itself". The text says the investigation still has to clarify whether Moraes tried to interfere with the probe or shared confidential information. On Thursday (Sept 3), the paper returned to the subject with "Um apelo ao que resta do Supremo" (An appeal to what remains of the Supreme), asking the justices to express, without fear, "their horror at the moral collapse that threatens the STF".Folha published "A Moraes cabe a renúncia" (Resignation falls to Moraes) on Tuesday night. The paper described the messages, the meetings and the contracts between companies linked to Banco Master and the law office of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, as a "torrent of abominable situations". "There is no longer a place for Alexandre de Moraes at the STF. If the justice does not resign, it will fall to the Senate, through an impeachment trial", the paper wrote."As long as the justice remains in his seat, dishonor and discredit will pile up on the court. The most dignified and fastest step would be his resignation. It would spare the nation's institutions an unnecessary and drawn-out ordeal."O Globo ran "Alexandre de Moraes precisa deixar o STF" (Alexandre de Moraes must leave the STF) on Wednesday. "It will be a disgrace if, once again, the STF tries to protect one of its members in the face of so much evidence", the paper wrote. According to CNN Brasil, O Globo also demanded that Chief Justice Edson Fachin urgently convene the full bench and rejected the request by the Prosecutor General's office (PGR) to void the Federal Police report. "If Moraes or Gonet insist on preventing their peers from judging the PGR's opinion, the wish to hide everything will be clear. It would amount to a confession of guilt, in which case the best thing would be to resign", the paper wrote.What comes nextFachin has described the revelations as a moment of "especial gravidade" (special gravity) and said he will announce "medidas cabíveis" (appropriate measures) in the coming days. The full court still has to weigh the PGR opinion, which asks that the inquiry led by Mendonça be voided. If the court stalls, the newspapers point to the Senate, which tries impeachment cases against Supreme Court justices. Moraes had not publicly addressed the messages as of Thursday morning, according to Poder360. The Federal Police report is not conclusive, and other devices seized in the operation have yet to be examined. The first round of Brazil's presidential election is 31 days away.

Renan Santos, a presidential candidate of the Missão party, filed two impeachment requests with Brazil's Senate on Wednesday (Sep 2) against Supreme Court justices Alexandre de Moraes and Dias Toffoli. According to Poder360, the documents were handed to Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. In an interview published on Thursday (Sep 3), the candidate said that, if elected, he would refuse to comply with rulings issued by Moraes."An illegal ruling is not obeyed. Rulings that come from Alexandre de Moraes should not be recognized by the Brazilian state," Renan Santos told the outlet Brado Jornal, in an interview reported by g1, Globo's news portal. He said he would press the Federal Police and oversight bodies to stop enforcing decisions attributed to the justice, and called the current relationship between the Supreme Court and the Senate a "farra da impunidade", Portuguese for a spree of impunity.On the impeachment effort, the candidate said he intends to use the transition period, in November and December, to pressure the Senate to advance the requests against the two justices, conditioning the country's governability on it. "The country will remain shut down until these two are brought down," he said. According to him, the next president must take office ready to appoint six justices to the court, four to regular vacancies and two to replace Moraes and Toffoli.Grounds for the requestsThe filings came one day after Justice André Mendonça, the case's rapporteur, made public a Federal Police report on the relationship between former banker Daniel Vorcaro, founder of the defunct Banco Master, and members of the court. In the petition against Moraes, Renan Santos alleges a crime of responsibility under Article 39 of Law 1.079, which covers conduct "incompatible with the honor, dignity and decorum" of office. He writes that the justice received improper benefits and acted as "a kind of partner" of Vorcaro."Certainly, Vorcaro did not grant such advantages without the expectation of something in return," the petition against Alexandre de Moraes states.The request against Toffoli follows a similar line. Renan Santos cites reports that the justice kept an ownership stake in a resort in rural Paraná state, a project that received at least 35 million reais from funds linked to Vorcaro's companies, according to the candidate.Alcolumbre's messageAlcolumbre responded on Wednesday night from the Senate floor. According to the blog of Gerson Camarotti on g1, his defense of Moraes carried two messages: that the Senate president will block any attempt to impeach the court's vice president, and a veiled threat to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL presidential candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Allies of Flávio fear, according to g1, that Alcolumbre could revive the case of the film "Dark Horse", a biopic of the former president, just weeks before the October election."Everyone forgot that 130 million reais were requested from the same person to make a film. And now the only culprit is Justice Alexandre de Moraes," Alcolumbre said in the chamber.The decision to shelve or accept the complaints rests with Alcolumbre, a political step that works as the first filter of the process. Asked on Tuesday (Sep 1), he did not say whether he would move the new requests forward, and noted that the Senate already has 109 impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices pending, a volume he called "not normal". If a complaint is accepted, the process can move to a special committee and then to the full Senate.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice André Mendonça announced on Thursday (3) that he is leaving the partnership of the Instituto Iter, a private educational institute he founded. He will transfer all of his shares and those of his wife "without any financial consideration", and said he has never derived profit from the organization.The decision was made on Wednesday (2) in a conversation with the institute's president, Victor Godoy, according to the justice's office. Iter will be converted into a non-profit organization. Mendonça will remain linked to it only as a professor, providing "exclusively academic services"."Justice André Mendonça decided to leave the partnership of Instituto Iter, transferring the entirety of his shares and those of his wife, without any financial consideration. Created in 2024, Instituto Iter will be transformed into a non-profit entity, reinforcing its exclusively educational and social vocation. The justice has never derived profit from the institute," the statement says.Public contracts under scrutinyIn its own statement, Instituto Iter confirmed the departure and said that over two years of activity "there was no distribution of profits or dividends". The institute is led by Victor Godoy Veiga, a former education minister under Jair Bolsonaro and a career auditor on leave from the federal comptroller's office, the CGU.The institute has featured in recent news reports questioning its activities and contracts with public bodies, according to news site G1. Broadcaster Jovem Pan reported that the city government of São Paulo hired the institute without a bidding process, for 380,000 reais, to run two training courses for civil servants, under a contract signed in September 2025; the city's management secretariat said the hiring followed procurement law "strictly". According to UOL, the institute received 8.2 million reais in public funds over two years. Jovem Pan dates the institute's registration to November 2023, while the justice's statement says it was created in 2024.On the public contracts, the institute argued that training courses are "specialized technical services of a predominantly intellectual nature" and that Brazil's 2021 procurement law, which allows direct hiring without bidding in such cases, therefore applies. The choice of hiring method, it said, always belongs to the contracting agency.Mendonça, who is also a Presbyterian pastor, had already explained in a sermon in February how he would use any earnings from the institute: "I will set aside 10% as a tithe and the remaining 90% will be invested in social work and education." The transfer of the shares and the formal conversion of Iter into a non-profit organization remain to be completed. The institute said its educational activities "will continue normally".

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will gather ministers and beneficiaries at the Planalto Palace on Thursday (Sept. 3) at 3 p.m. to announce the end of the queue at the INSS, Brazil's federal social security institute, which pays pensions and disability benefits. The ceremony, called "Atendimento Sem Fila na Previdência Social", or Service Without a Queue in Social Security, comes one month before the first round of the presidential election, set for Oct. 4.Ending the backlog has been a Lula promise since the 2022 campaign, and he named it a priority in his inauguration speech to Congress on Jan. 1, 2023."Be certain that we will end, once again, the shameful INSS queue, another injustice restored in these times of destruction."Lula set the date himself. In an interview on TV Globo on Aug. 27, he told the journalist César Tralli: "If you promise to come to Brasília, next week I will announce that the queue has ended." In the same interview, he said that after the announcement "the 45-day wait will cover only 251,000 people, which is normal." According to Poder360, the government counts the queue as cleared once no application is older than the legal 45-day analysis window. About 1.3 million people are currently waiting for a benefit decision, according to G1.Record grants and record denialsMinistry of Social Security data show a sharp drop: from 3.07 million initial claims pending in January to 1.55 million at the end of July, the lowest level in 21 months. G1 puts the reduction so far this year at 74%. Denials have grown just as fast. Rejections approached 1 million in June, up 70% year to date, and Poder360 calculates an average of 812,600 denials per month from February to July, a record. Grants also hit a record, with 769,900 benefits approved per month on average over the period. The most rejected claims are incapacity benefits, such as temporary disability aid and disability retirement.A leadership change sped up the dropThe government replaced the head of the INSS in April. Lula dismissed Gilberto Waller, who had taken office in April 2025 amid a scandal over irregular deductions from benefits, and appointed Ana Cristina Viana Silveira, a career civil servant at the institute since 2003 who chaired the Social Security Appeals Council for nearly three years. The change was defended by Social Security Minister Wolney Queiroz. In June, Lula set September as the deadline to clear the queue.What comes next: the exact August queue figure will only be released at the end of September, with the Social Security statistical bulletin, according to Poder360. The first round of the presidential election is on Oct. 4.

Congressman Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG), a prominent Bolsonaro ally in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, asked banker Daniel Vorcaro for help in unblocking a mining asset tied to his lawyer and former congressional aide, Thiago Rodrigues de Faria. The request is in an audio message sent on March 30, 2025, to which the column of Juliana Dal Piva at ICL Notícias says it had exclusive access. In the recording, Nikolas calls Vorcaro, owner of the now-defunct Banco Master, "Dani" and "lindão", Portuguese for "handsome", and says he wishes the two were closer.Nikolas says he does not know what the matter is about and forwards it because he trusts his friend "totally". "Ei Dani, tudo bom? (...) É o seguinte, meu amigo, meu advogado, enfim, irmão meu aqui, comentou comigo e falou daqui do seu nome" (Hi Dani, how are you? My friend here, my lawyer, mentioned your name), he says at the start."Ele falou: 'cara, tô com um ativo minerário lá, inclusive já passou pela ficha técnica (...) tá pendente lá, tem algumas pessoas que sabem disso lá na empresa.' E eu falei: 'não, ué, eu posso dar um toque nele'. (...) Tô passando aí pra você (...) passar o contato dele aqui pra vocês tocarem isso, beleza? No mais, qualquer coisa tô aqui à disposição."Vorcaro replied minutes later with a single-view audio. Nikolas thanked him and sent Faria's contact. "Amém irmão. Estamos na guerra juntos" (Amen, brother. We are in this war together), the banker wrote. On April 1, 2025, Nikolas said Faria would be in Brasilia and available "qualquer horário" (at any time). Vorcaro answered a day later: "Deixa comigo" (Leave it to me). According to ICL Notícias, the messages do not show whether the banker acted on the request.Apologies and the 2022 flightsIn the same audio, Nikolas apologized for posts in April 2024 that had angered Vorcaro. At the time, the congressman questioned on social media who paid for a legal forum in London attended by justices of the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, and of the STJ and TSE, the top appeals and electoral courts; it later came to light that Banco Master had also financed the event. "Pastor, eu não fazia ideia que era este o Banco do Dani etc. e tudo, se não, obviamente eu não teria postado" (Pastor, I had no idea this was Dani's bank, otherwise I would obviously not have posted), Nikolas says, recalling a conversation with pastor André Valadão. The recording ends with "Um abraço, lindão" (A hug, handsome).Their ties resurfaced because of other messages. According to Estado de Minas, in April 2024 chats with businessman Flávio Carneiro, Vorcaro wrote: "Esse Nikolas eu banquei todos os voos dele" (I paid for all of this Nikolas's flights). He then threatened to expose the congressman: "Vouch (sic) mandar soltsr isso". The paper recalls that in the 2022 runoff campaign, Nikolas used a Vorcaro jet for about ten days on Jair Bolsonaro's behalf, crossing nine states plus the Federal District. The use of the aircraft was revealed in March by journalist Malu Gaspar of O Globo; Nikolas said at the time he did not know who owned the plane when he accepted the invitation. The messages do not detail how many flights the banker says he paid for, or over what period.The lawyer and Operação RejeitoThe column sent five questions to Nikolas and Faria. Faria said the congressman is campaigning and would not be bothered. "Essas perguntas são nada a ver" (These questions are beside the point), he said. In an audio, he said he works in mining, sent the asset "pra todo mundo" (to everyone) and denied any wrongdoing: he was "never called to testify to the Federal Police because I have nothing to do with this". According to Estado de Minas, Faria acted as intermediary, under a confidentiality contract, in a deal involving companies investigated in Operação Rejeito, launched in September 2025 against illegal iron ore extraction in the Serra do Curral, in Nova Lima, in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan area; the Federal Police made 22 arrests. According to the investigators, a January 2025 contract between Gmais Ambiental and Faria's firm provided for 25% of the profit in a deal estimated at between US$ 30 million and US$ 45 million.The exchanges surface as the Federal Police examines Vorcaro's relations with Carneiro, investigated on suspicion of being the banker's hidden partner, and as the Master case remains before the STF. The messages released so far do not show whether Vorcaro fulfilled the congressman's request.

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) held its first plenary session on Wednesday (Sept 2) since the release of messages exchanged between banker Daniel Vorcaro and a number attributed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. None of the ten justices present mentioned the crisis, according to CNN Brasil. Moraes and Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur in the Banco Master case, shared the bench without speaking to each other.The seating was not a choice. As CNN Brasil explains, seats on the bench follow seniority, measured by the date each justice joined the court. Chief Justice Edson Fachin sits at the center, and the others alternate to his right and left, from the most senior to the most recent. Moraes joined in 2017; Mendonça in 2021. Under the current makeup, the rule places them side by side.A routine sessionThe session ran on routine business. Fachin opened the proceedings normally and gave priority to cases with oral arguments, CNN Brasil reports. The agenda included, according to news site g1, the proclamation of the ruling on the constitutionality of the Funrural, a social security contribution charged to individual rural employers on their gross farm revenue. The justices debated the reach of the ruling, took a break and ended the day without addressing the crisis. Earlier, Fachin had described the moment as one of "special gravity" and said that "appropriate" measures would be announced in the coming days, according to CNN Brasil.An unresolved standoffThe silence on the bench contrasts with the fight behind the scenes. On Monday (Aug 31), Moraes and Mendonça had a conversation that CNN sources described as "direct, hard and brusque", after the rapporteur said he would send the Federal Police report with references to his colleague to the federal prosecutors' office, the PGR. On Tuesday, Mendonça lifted the secrecy on the material. The published excerpts include messages in which Vorcaro writes that he owes Moraes the "gratitude of my life" and asks, days before his arrest, whether he should leave the country. According to g1, the Federal Police says the banker offered the justice million-dollar contracts, luxury experiences and a trip to London, and records eight meetings between the two men.The court is now split on how to respond. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Fachin has been advised to let the temperature drop and not to schedule immediately the decision that could open a formal investigation of Moraes or nullify Mendonça's acts. The newspaper counts only one certain vote for the rapporteur, Justice Luiz Fux. Against Mendonça's methods, Folha reports, are Justices Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Gilmar Mendes. Justices Kassio Nunes Marques, Cármen Lúcia and Fachin himself are listed as undecided. A senior court adviser told Folha that Moraes would not take part in any vote because he is directly implicated, and that Dias Toffoli has already declared himself barred from Master-related cases.The next move belongs to Fachin. He promised to announce measures in the coming days, and the full court will have to decide the fate of the Federal Police report and of the rapporteur's acts. Neither Moraes nor Mendonça spoke to the press about the case after the session, according to CNN Brasil.

The Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of Brazil's Senate approved on Wednesday (Sept. 2) a constitutional amendment that ends the 6x1 work schedule, under which employees work six days in a row for a single day off. The vote was symbolic, with 27 senators present. The bill now goes to the Senate floor, where it needs at least 49 of 81 votes in two rounds. If it passes, the amendment is proclaimed at a solemn session of Congress, with no signature from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) required.Rapporteur Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) kept the text exactly as approved by the Chamber of Deputies on May 27. Since nothing changed, the bill will not return to the lower house if the Senate confirms it. All 36 amendments presented were rejected. Senators Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), Jaime Bagattoli (PL-RO), Hamilton Mourão (Republicans-RS) and Tereza Cristina (PP-MS) asked for their votes against to be recorded. The vote only took place on Wednesday because committee chairman Otto Alencar (PSD-BA) granted just a one-hour review of the report, which the opposition had requested to push the decision to a later meeting.The amendment sets a maximum workweek of 40 hours over five working days, with two rest days, one preferably Sunday, and no salary cut. The Constitution currently allows up to 44 hours a week, spread over as many as six working days with one day off. The two rest days take effect 60 days after the amendment is proclaimed. The workweek drops to 42 hours within the same period and reaches 40 hours one year later.The committee debatePresenting his report, Aziz asked for approval without changes and rejected every amendment, including a return to the 44-hour week backed by the PL caucus. "This is an amendment of empathy," he said. "The amendment is not only about reducing working hours, it goes beyond working hours." MDB leader Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM) said he will introduce a parallel amendment to soften the economic impact on sectors that run continuously, such as retail, food service, logistics, health care and other services. "And a pure transition requires more hiring, which can certainly raise the cost of the payroll," he said.Rogério Marinho, the opposition leader, called the bill electoral and defended his alternative amendment, based on free negotiation between employer and worker and pay by the hour. "The government cares about this bill right now for only one reason. It wants to reconnect with society, because the wear is heavy and it will lose the election," he said. Government leader in the Senate Teresa Leitão (PT-PE) countered that the proposal advanced because of its strong popular appeal and dared candidates to take a stand. "Whoever is in favor of ending the 6x1 schedule, candidates, say so," she said. According to BBC News Brasil, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the strongest challenger to Lula in the polls, declined to say on Sunday (Aug. 30) how he will vote on the floor.What comes nextThe Chamber passed the bill in two rounds on May 27, after a deal between Lula and Chamber President Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB). The proposal then sat in the Senate for almost three months, until Lula and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) rebuilt their ties. With elections one month away that will renew 54 of the 81 Senate seats, the government raced to schedule the vote before election day, according to BBC News Brasil.Senators also approved a special fast-track procedure for the floor vote, which allows deadlines to be shortened by agreement among party leaders. Government allies are pressing for a vote this week, but Alcolumbre would not commit to a date. On the floor, the amendment needs two rounds and at least 49 votes to be proclaimed.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke on Tuesday (September 1) with Edson Fachin, chief justice of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), about the crisis gripping the tribunal after the release of messages exchanged between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Justice Alexandre de Moraes. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Lula and his political circle are marking their distance from Moraes, an ally in recent years, to try to keep the case from damaging his reelection bid in October's presidential election.The messages became public on the same day. According to the Federal Police, cited by g1, Vorcaro offered Moraes multimillion-real contracts, luxury experiences and a trip to London, and the two reportedly met eight times. The Federal Police report that exposed the exchanges was ordered by Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Banco Master case at the court. Also on Tuesday, according to Folha, the court's most senior justice, Gilmar Mendes, reached out to Lula to warn him about what he calls the lack of support from government institutions for the Federal Police leadership.Lula discussed the matter with political allies on Wednesday morning (2). The group settled on a single public line: no one is above the law. The president is expected to address the case only when asked in interviews, and will likely use a softer tone than his campaign's.The campaign's voiceHours after taking part in the meeting with Lula, Workers' Party (PT) president and campaign coordinator Edinho Silva posted a video on social media. In it, he says Brazil's political and judicial system lives a "deep crisis" and has "rotted", and he calls for a code of ethics covering the judiciary and the prosecutors' office."No one is above the law. Be it an ordinary citizen, a government leader, a lawmaker or even a member of the judiciary. The Brazilian people can no longer stand living under this system of corruption and privileges", said Edinho Silva.Without mentioning the Master case directly, which also involves Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, Edinho called for an end to the "binge of congressional earmarks", to oversized public salaries and to "the promiscuity between public and private interests". According to g1, Lula had not spoken about the case as of the report's last update, while other presidential candidates already had.What comes nextThe institutional response now rests with the Supreme Court. Fachin said on Wednesday that he will announce in the coming days measures on the facts under review, stating that "the high authority of office confers no privileges, but imposes duties, limits and responsibilities". Lawmakers from the government's base petitioned the chief justice to lift the secrecy over investigations into "Dark Horse", a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro funded with Vorcaro's money, and to rule Justice Mendonça unfit to lead the Master inquiry. The court's bench held its first session since the revelations on Wednesday. Lula is expected to speak only when asked.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hosted Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Gilmar Mendes at the Planalto Palace in Brasília on Tuesday afternoon (Sept 1) to address the crisis at Brazil's top court triggered by the release of text messages between Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, a banker tied to Banco Master. The meeting was not listed on the official presidential agenda.According to sources heard by InfoMoney, Lula voiced concern about damage to the court's institutional image and said the tribunal must be spared further wear. The presidential communications office, Secom, was contacted and did not comment, and Mendes did not respond. For Folha de S.Paulo, Gilmar's message was a warning about what he calls a lack of support from government institutions for the Federal Police leadership. The warning came amid a standoff between Federal Police chief Andrei Rodrigues and Justice André Mendonça over the running of the Banco Master investigation. Mendonça ordered the police report that exposed the exchanges between Moraes and Vorcaro.The messages were made public on Tuesday at Mendonça's order; he is the case's rapporteur at the court. According to the Federal Police, as reported by G1, Vorcaro allegedly offered the justice million-real contracts, luxury experiences and a trip to London, and the two allegedly met eight times. In one message, sent on November 15, 2025, Vorcaro asked Moraes whether he had to leave the country. The question came two days before the banker's first arrest on suspicion of fraud.Lula keeps his distance from MoraesLula also spoke with court President Edson Fachin about the scandal on Tuesday, Folha reported. The president and his political group are marking distance from Moraes, an ally in recent years, to keep the case from hurting his reelection bid ahead of the October presidential vote. On Wednesday morning (2), Lula settled with allies on the line that "nobody is above the law". PT president and campaign coordinator Edinho Silva had already used the phrase and posted a video saying "the system has rotted". Lula is expected to address the matter only when asked in interviews.In the Senate, Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's main rival in the presidential race, demanded that Senate President Davi Alcolumbre bring an impeachment request against Moraes to the floor. Alcolumbre has ruled that out for now. Allies of the president privately distrust Mendonça's moves and speak of "selectivity". One justice, also speaking off the record, described a "tense" climate at the court, which is split between a wing closer to Moraes and one closer to Mendonça.What comes nextMendonça intends to take the matter to the full court, according to InfoMoney. Fachin said he will review the facts and announce measures in the coming days. The court held its first session since the messages were released on Wednesday, with the case off the agenda.

Brazil's top electoral court, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), has secured a majority to approve the presidential candidacy registrations of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT), Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL and Romeu Zema of the Novo party. The votes were cast in the court's virtual session, which opened on Monday (Aug. 31) and closes on Wednesday night (Sept. 2), according to the news site G1.Lula's ticket, with vice presidential candidate Geraldo Alckmin of the PSB, already has five of the court's seven votes in favor. The same count applies to the tickets of Samara Martins (UP) and Raquel Brício, of Zema and Eduardo Girão (Novo), and of Hertz Dias (PSTU) and Vanessa Portugal. Reporting Justice André Mendonça voted to approve, along with ministers Floriano de Azevedo Marques, Dias Toffoli, Nunes Marques and Antonio Carlos Ferreira. The votes of Estela Aranha and Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva are still pending.Flávio Bolsonaro and his running mate Alfredo Gaspar of the PL have six votes in favor, with only Villas Bôas Cueva left to vote. Edmilson Costa of the PCB and his running mate Cleusa Santos are in the same position. The ministers also approved the parties' Demonstrativo de Regularidade dos Atos Partidários (Drap), the filing that certifies party conventions, the selection of candidates and the legal requirements for launching a ticket.Prosecutors found no impedimentsBefore the court ruled, the electoral prosecutors of the Ministério Público Eleitoral issued favorable opinions on the registrations and asked for no candidate to be barred, according to radio station Itatiaia. On Lula, the prosecutors said the president filed all required documents and has no criminal or administrative misconduct conviction that could make him ineligible. Cases against him were archived without conviction or ended in acquittal.The opinions on Flávio Bolsonaro and Zema followed the same line. Prosecutors found the required paperwork, including government proposals and asset declarations, and saw nothing in the criminal and civil records that could block the candidacies. The court's decision is required to formally confirm each presidential ticket before the campaign.What remains pendingJustice Dias Toffoli pulled the registration of Renan Santos of the Missão party from the docket over "indications of illegality". In the filing submitted on Aug. 7, the candidate declared one account on X and one website; on Aug. 19, he disclosed 18 social media accounts. Still awaiting judgment are the registrations of Augusto Cury (Avante), Clariana Barão (DC), Pablo Marçal (PRTB) and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD). The virtual session closes on Wednesday night, and the outcomes will formalize the approved candidacies ahead of the October election.

Brazil's Senate approved on Wednesday (2) the bill that creates a legal framework for mining critical minerals and rare earths. The legislation provides R$ 5 billion in tax credits, a new guarantee fund and a council tied to the presidency with power to block deals involving foreign partners. The vote was symbolic, with no roll call, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The bill now goes to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for his signature.The bill, numbered PL 2780/2024, was written by lower house lawmaker Ze Silva and guided through the Senate by rapporteur Eduardo Braga of the MDB party. It advanced with practically no changes from the version passed by the Chamber of Deputies. Approval was a priority for Lula's government and was unlocked after the president reconciled with Senate leader Davi Alcolumbre. The agenda moved even as Brasilia faced a political crisis over messages exchanged between former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, as Folha reported.What the bill doesThe tax credits start in 2030. Companies incorporated under Brazilian law, with headquarters and management in the country, can receive up to R$ 1 billion per year through 2034. The benefit can reach 20% of spending on processing, transformation and urban mining. The bill also authorizes a Mineral Activity Guarantee Fund, private in nature, with federal participation capped at R$ 2 billion. Mining companies must set aside 0.5% of revenue in the first six years, split between research and the fund itself. According to Braga, the state development bank BNDES estimates that R$ 5 billion is needed to unlock projects in the sector."This bill will finally make it possible to generate jobs and income in national territory, adding value to the critical ores Brazil has and that, unfortunately, were being exported raw," Braga said.The National Council for the Industrialization of Critical and Strategic Minerals, known as CIMCE, will have up to 15 representatives from the federal executive plus states, municipalities, the private sector and academia. The council must sign off on operations deemed relevant to national sovereignty. The list includes direct or indirect changes of control at companies holding mineral rights, contracts, international supply agreements and partnerships, and the sale of mining titles granted by the federal government. Without the council's approval, a deal is blocked. Amendments that would have replaced the approval requirement with simple registration were rejected, and the bill also lets the executive branch attach value-added conditions to exports.A global raceBrazil holds the world's second-largest rare earths reserves, about 21 million tonnes, behind only China, according to the United States Geological Survey. Rare earths are a group of 17 chemical elements used in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, electronics and defense systems. According to Folha, the bill is part of Lula's answer to US advances in the sector: the administration of Donald Trump struck a deal to buy Serra Verde, a company based in the state of Goias, and the US Department of Defense announced an investment of US$ 750 million (R$ 3.8 billion).Lula says any partnerships must ensure processing in Brazil, technology transfer and national control over extraction. "Because it belongs to Brazil, we have to make sure these things become something that makes the Brazilian people dream of the possibility we have to mine, treat and produce important things in this country," he said at a lunch with Alcolumbre and Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta. The next step is Lula's: sign the bill into law or veto it. After enactment, the executive has 90 days to regulate the council and set the criteria for reviewing deals.

The Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of Brazil's Senate approved on Wednesday (2) the base text of the public security amendment, known as the PEC da Segurança, six months after the bill stalled in the chamber. The vote was symbolic, with no recorded roll call.The committee did not finish its work. Senators closed the session without examining three destaques, sections of the text submitted for separate votes, so the bill could not reach the Senate floor on Wednesday. It now moves to the plenary, with no date set for debate to begin.The text and the betting moneyThe report by the rapporteur, Senator Rogério Carvalho of the Workers' Party (PT-SE), kept the text passed by the Chamber of Deputies. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Carvalho accepted four of the 66 amendments filed to the PEC. All of them strip from the Constitution a rule, added by the Chamber, that earmarked 30% of fixed-odds betting revenue for the Public Security and Penitentiary funds."It is worth noting that this provision was not part of the original text of the amendment, nor of the substitute bill presented to the special committee set up by the Chamber of Deputies. It was only on the floor that this wording favoring the betting companies appeared, without a single amendment to that effect," Carvalho wrote in his report.What the amendment would doThe PEC writes into the Constitution a Unified Public Security System (SUSP) that integrates federal, state and Federal District forces against organized crime, with intergovernmental task forces and shared rules for police forces and municipal guards. "The federative entities and the public security forces must collaborate with each other, not compete," the rapporteur wrote.Against violent crime and gangs, the text requires imprisonment in maximum-security or special penal facilities, restricts sentence progression, provisional release and temporary exits, and allows the expropriation of assets tied to criminal organizations, paramilitary groups and private militias. It also authorizes municipal police forces for visible and community policing and lets the Federal Highway Police patrol waterways and railways and back other security forces when a governor requests it.The bill is a priority for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party). He has conditioned the creation of a Ministry of Public Security, a pledge from his 2022 campaign, on the approval of the amendment, and according to G1 he arranged the committee vote with Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, who had held the bill since March.Before the floor vote, the CCJ must still decide the three pending destaques. The amendment then needs approval in two rounds in the Senate, since the Chamber has already passed the text, according to Folha. No date is set. Senators are in a week of concentrated legislative effort focused on the bill ending the 6x1 work schedule (six days on, one day off), and they return to their campaigns next week, a month before elections that will renew 54 of the Senate's 81 seats, according to BBC News Brasil.

Leaders of the PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro and the largest group in both houses of Congress, demanded on Wednesday (2) that Senate President Davi Alcolumbre allow individualized investigations of the authorities named in the Master Bank case and advance impeachment requests against justices of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court. The statements came at a press conference in the Green Hall of the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, held by the party's leader in the Chamber, Deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), and its leader in the Senate, Senator Carlos Portinho (PL-RJ).According to G1, Cavalcante called for investigations into Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director General Andrei Rodrigues over the Banco Master scandal. "We have a responsibility to individualize conduct in the CPF and not in the institutions," said the deputy, referring to Brazil's individual taxpayer ID. The party also said it will keep pressing Alcolumbre to move forward the requests against STF justices pending in the Senate."The Public Prosecutor's Office is a serious institution that we will always defend, just like the STF and the Federal Police. We will not mix the mistakes and the possible mistakes of individuals with the institutions," Cavalcante said.Pressure on AlcolumbrePortinho said lawmakers will pressure the Senate president to have the requests analyzed. "President Davi Alcolumbre will be pressed today. He says there are more than 109 impeachment requests, but it takes just one [to move]," he said. According to SBT News, a request filed by the opposition on Tuesday (1) brought initiatives to remove Moraes to 110, a number without precedent in Brazilian history. Opening a process is the Senate president's decision alone, and approval requires two thirds of the chamber, 54 of 81 senators. The opposition currently holds 32 seats.Portinho admitted the lack of votes, but said the Master case has changed the 2026 election debate. "We will drop the election campaign, because that no longer matters," he said. Cavalcante agreed: "The election comes second for us. What cannot happen is to let a country be dominated by people who commit crimes in high positions of the Republic. That is not possible." Portinho warned that the pressure will be daily: "If Davi Alcolumbre is just talking and stalling, he will be pressed every day, and it is up to us to keep pressing. And where will we make the big turn? In the elections."According to Diário do Poder, Cavalcante also said the party backs a new impeachment request against Moraes, that the opposition is preparing legal measures and that more than 41 senators support one of the filed requests. The deputy asked President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to remove Andrei Rodrigues from the Federal Police so that accusations involving the force can be investigated independently. Portinho demanded the resignation of Moraes and the departure of Gonet.The Master caseThe press conference came one day after STF Justice André Mendonça lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report exposing messages between Banco Master founder Daniel Vorcaro and Moraes. The exchanges indicate the justice discussed with the former banker the possibility of a Federal Police operation targeting him. The content was first reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, and TV Globo said it had access to the information. Vorcaro was arrested on November 17, 2025 at Guarulhos airport, in São Paulo, as he tried to board a private jet to Dubai.The next move in the Senate belongs to Alcolumbre: without his decision, no process opens. At the STF, even after the Prosecutor General's request to shelve the matter, Mendonça is expected to insist that the full court examine the messages between Moraes and Vorcaro, according to G1.

Daniel Vorcaro, the former controlling shareholder of Banco Master, claimed in text messages that he had "friends" inside Brazil's central bank who took part in the regulator's internal meetings and fed him information about the bank. The exchange is dated October 30, 2025, days before the Federal Police launched the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, and was sent to an interlocutor the police identify as Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The police report was made public on Tuesday (September 1) by Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the case at the STF, Brazil's top court.What the messages sayVorcaro voiced concern about the central bank's president, Gabriel Galípolo. "The problem now is that I received informal and confidential information from the Banco Central crowd, that G and the directors are again under maximum pressure for a measure, because the Bacen is being heavily pressured by the PF and the MP, claiming they will do something against me," he wrote. According to the Federal Police, "G" refers to Galípolo."They took part in the meetings, that is why the info is 100%. I just cannot burn them, because there were few people there, and they will know they told me, if this reaches G."Earlier, the banker had sent Moraes a list of names tied to the Federal Police and to federal prosecutors. "These people went to the Bacen in person. The problem is not investigating, that is part of it. The problem is telling the Bacen they will soon take a measure against me. Then everyone there panics trying to hedge," he wrote. He then asked for backup from "Andrei" and "Paulo" so no one lower down "pulls a stunt, and then it all goes down the drain". The police say the references are to Andrei Rodrigues, the Federal Police director-general, and Paulo Gonet, Brazil's attorney general.Investigation and next stepsThe messages predate the extrajudicial liquidation of Banco Master, ordered in November 2025. According to Diário do Poder, the Federal Police is investigating whether Vorcaro received privileged information from two former central bank employees suspected of favoring the bank in exchange for financial benefits. Vorcaro testified before Mendonça's office in the week before the report was released. In the same October exchange, he also praised the justice: "Everything important in the end lands in your lap! Impressive! But your legacy for Brazil will be eternal."On Monday night (August 31), Mendonça sent the Attorney General's Office a formal request for explanations about the mentions of Andrei and Gonet, with a five-day deadline. The office had already asked for the inquiry into the messages to be shelved. According to G1, Mendonça is expected to insist that the full Supreme Court bench examine the material anyway.

The chair of the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), Otto Alencar of the PSD party, granted opposition senators a one-hour review on Wednesday (Sept. 2) of the report on a proposed constitutional amendment to end Brazil's "6x1" work schedule. Opposition senators to President Lula's government had asked for more time, and Alencar met the request only in part. The review window closes at 2:47 p.m., delaying the committee vote.Rapporteur Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) read his report at the start of the session. According to news outlet G1, Alencar granted committee members just one hour to study the text, after which the CCJ may begin voting.What the amendment doesThe proposal cuts the legal workweek from 44 to 40 hours within 14 months and keeps the 8-hour daily cap. Workers would get two weekly rest days with no pay cut, preferably including Sunday. The 6x1 schedule, six workdays followed by a single day off, common in Brazilian retail and services, would be banned 60 days after the amendment takes effect.The transition has two steps: after two months, the workweek drops to 42 hours with two rest days; after one year, it reaches 40 hours. Aziz left unchanged the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies and rejected 36 opposition amendments that sought to keep the current schedule, according to state news agency Agência Brasil. The 44-hour week has been in force for 30 years, the rapporteur noted, citing data from the Ipea research institute showing that long workweeks fall hardest on workers with lower income and less schooling."The long workweek is not a neutrally distributed phenomenon in the productive structure: it falls disproportionately on workers of lower income and less schooling. Reducing it is, in this exact measure, an act of distributive justice, and not only of labor policy," Aziz wrote in the report.What happens nextThe amendment, filed as PEC 221/2019, was approved by the Chamber in May, CNN Brasil reported. It had been stalled in the Senate by chamber president Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), who put it back on the committee agenda after recent rapprochement with Lula, according to G1. Aziz filed his favorable report on August 27, news site Poder360 reported.Once the review window closes, the CCJ can vote. If the report passes, the amendment moves to the Senate floor for two rounds of voting. Government floor leader Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP) is negotiating a waiver of the waiting period between rounds so both votes can happen the same day, CNN Brasil reported. Because the text carries no change in substance, the amendment can be promulgated without returning to the Chamber if the Senate passes it as is.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has received a series of appeals to speak publicly about the scandal linking former banker Daniel Vorcaro and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The pressure was reported on Wednesday (2) by columnist Mônica Bergamo of Folha de S.Paulo, one of Brazil's leading dailies. Inside the presidential palace, though, Lula is being advised to keep his distance and say nothing about the case, according to CNN Brasil.The pressure grew on Tuesday (1), when Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur for the Banco Master case at the STF, as Brazil's Supreme Court is known, lifted the seal on a Federal Police report documenting the ties between Moraes and Vorcaro, who controlled the now defunct Banco Master and is jailed in the scandal, according to Folha. The report contains messages attributed to exchanges between Vorcaro and a phone number linked to the justice, according to G1, the news portal of TV Globo.Why silence is hardThe report does not directly implicate Lula in the facts under investigation. The problem, according to CNN political analyst Jussara Soares, is image: the documents show what she called a "very un-republican" relationship, and allies of the president accept that the public already pairs him with Moraes. Two episodes feed that perception. Moraes was the justice who ran the inquiry that convicted former president Jair Bolsonaro for the coup plot, and a meeting between Lula and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre took place at Moraes's home.Lula is advised to stay out of the fight between the justices while tensions run high, but aides privately admit it is "quite difficult" to pull off, Soares said. "Even though president Lula is being advised to keep his distance, there is a concern to distance himself from this case," she said.The opposition pushes from the other side. On Tuesday, lawmakers filed fresh impeachment requests against Moraes, and Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party, Lula's rival in the presidential race, and his allies demanded the justice's resignation, CNN Brasil reported. The party wants to elect a right-wing bloc of senators willing to pursue impeachments of Supreme Court justices from 2027 onward, since opening such a trial depends on the Senate president putting it on the agenda.Within the government, the assessment is that the dispute between Mendonça and Moraes is an internal crisis of the judiciary that a president should not join, according to PT leaders heard by CNN Brasil. They also note that Mendonça oversees investigations involving Lula's son, Fábio Luiz Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha. The party line is that investigations must run their course "no matter whom it hurts", and Lula's campaign will use the unsealing of the Moraes report to demand that Mendonça do the same with the inquiry into the financing of "Dark Horse", a film about Jair Bolsonaro for which Flávio Bolsonaro sent Vorcaro an audio message asking for money, the channel reported.What comes nextWhile Lula weighs silence, STF President Edson Fachin began one-on-one consultations with the other justices on Tuesday and did not say whether the case will reach the full bench, according to G1. Speaking at an event at the court on Wednesday, he promised an answer."In the coming days, once the necessary analysis of the facts is complete and the pertinent institutional procedures are observed, this presidency will announce, in due time and without haste, the appropriate and necessary measures."The government itself assesses, according to CNN Brasil, that the scandal will inevitably bleed into the election campaign and reinforce the opposition's banner of attacks on the Supreme Court. "There is an impact. We do not know yet if it will decide the election, but it has an impact, and that worries president Lula's campaign a lot," Soares said.

A joint committee of Brazil's National Congress approved on Wednesday (2), in a symbolic vote, a report that ends the 20% import tax on international purchases of up to US$ 50, known in Brazil as the "blusinha tax", a nickname drawn from the small clothing shipments it affects. The report was written by Senator Leila Barros of the PDT on Provisional Measure 1.357/2026. It now goes to the floor of the Chamber of Deputies, where Speaker Hugo Motta has called a session for 2 p.m. on Wednesday.What the text doesThe report keeps the end of the 20% minimum charge and widens the Finance Ministry's control over taxation of international shipments. The minister will be able to cut the rate to zero for purchases of up to US$ 50, and to up to 30% for shipments of up to US$ 3,000; the previous floors of 20% and 60% come off the statute books, according to the news site Congresso em Foco. The ICMS, a state-level tax on goods and services, remains in force, and any exemption depends on each state governor, G1 reports.Barros added a mechanism to assess the economic effects of the exemption. The first Finance Ministry review comes in three months, then every six months after that. It will track employment, income, federal revenue and the competitiveness of industry and retail, with specific monitoring for textiles and clothing, footwear, accessories, toys and cosmetics."We will keep the base text of the measure and include, at the productive sector's request, a mechanism for the Finance Ministry to periodically assess the impacts, make the data public and, if relevant effects are identified, propose mitigation measures in the future."Barros made the statement after a meeting with the presidential palace. Congress will also reassess the end of the tax every year, based on data the ministry must release by April 30. "It is a criterion of transparency, evaluation and monitoring. The industrial sector keeps saying it is very harmful to national industry. So we created this provision," said Representative Reginaldo Lopes of the Workers' Party, who chairs the committee.A deal between powers and a deadlineA request linked to Correios, the state postal service, was rejected. It would have given the company exclusive control of the logistics for international purchases of up to US$ 50, from customs clearance to home delivery. The government concluded the idea was unconstitutional, since a monopoly cannot be created by ordinary law, G1 reports. The vote followed two days of delays and a deal between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, sealed over lunch on August 26. Lawmakers filed 112 amendments to the measure; nine were accepted, fully or partly, in the report, Congresso em Foco reports.The next step is the Chamber floor, and the Senate must still approve the text. A provisional measure in Brazil has the force of law but expires unless Congress ratifies it; this one lapses on September 8. If Congress does not finish voting by then, the tax returns on September 9. The goal, according to Lopes, is to complete the vote this week. The 20% tax has been in force since August 2024, when Congress created it under the Remessa Conforme program, which brought international e-commerce under federal revenue service rules, CNN Brasil reports.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) said on Wednesday (2) that he met banker Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, only once, in March 2025. According to his office, the subject was a case known as STP 976, a dispute over precatórios, the court-ordered debt payments that Brazil's federal, state and city governments must make once a ruling becomes final.The statement came hours after the news site ICL Notícias published messages in which lawyer Ciro Rocha Soares, an ally of Vorcaro, discussed a meeting with the justice. The exchanges were taken from the banker's phone, seized by the Federal Police in Operation Compliance Zero. Master bought large slices of precatório credits that investigators suspect were issued before the underlying lawsuits had ended, while the federal government could still appeal the amounts.The justice's account"Justice André Mendonça clarifies that he received businessman Daniel Vorcaro only once, in March 2025, at the businessman's own initiative, and that he limited himself to listening to him. In the same month, he also received the businessman's lawyer, and still keeps in his office records the written memoranda handed over at the meeting." (translation from Portuguese)According to the note, the STP 976 case was, on the exact date of the meeting, under review at the request of another justice, meaning it was paused. The meeting took place before Mendonça became the justice in charge of the Master case at the court, in February 2026. The note adds that the businessman sought similar contact with other members of the tribunal and that Mendonça's rulings went against the position defended by Vorcaro.Messages and next stepsAccording to CartaCapital, which based its reporting on material from journalist Paulo Motoryn's newsletter Noites Húngaras, the lawyer wrote to Vorcaro on February 7, 2025: "I'm with André M." The next day, he sent a photo beside the justice and an audio message: "I just took André to Vasco to have a suit made." On February 16, he wrote: "Opa, Dani!!! I really need to talk to you. A.M. wants to receive you. And I need to schedule it as soon as possible." Vorcaro replied: "Book Wednesday." The meeting took place on March 14, 2025, at the ITER Institute, founded by Mendonça in São Paulo, lasted about two hours and was scheduled by federal lawmaker Cezinha de Madureira (PL-SP), the magazine reported.The disclosure came a day after the secrecy was lifted on a Federal Police report containing messages between Vorcaro and a number linked to Justice Alexandre de Moraes. On Wednesday, court president Edson Fachin said he would announce "appropriate and necessary measures" in the coming days after reviewing the facts, and the court held its first plenary session since the revelations. Mendonça remains the justice in charge of the Master case.

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the top tribunal that runs the country's elections, fixed on Tuesday (Sept. 1) the legal standard for deepfake cases in the 2026 elections. By majority, the court ruled that the ban on the technique applies only when the synthetic content qualifies as campaign propaganda.In the same session, the full bench rejected by 4 votes to 3 a request to fine and remove a video with an AI avatar of former president Jair Bolsonaro, shown at the PL party's national convention on July 25. The challenge came from the Brasil da Esperança Federation, an alliance of the PT, PCdoB and PV. It argued early campaign propaganda, unlawful transfer of political capital and use of deepfake in the presidential bid of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son.The standardBy 5 votes to 2, according to the legal news service Migalhas, the court defined a deepfake as synthetic content produced or manipulated by artificial intelligence or an equivalent technology, with a degree of realism, meant to create, reproduce or alter the image, voice or statements of a living, dead or fictional person. The ban in the court's campaign rules applies only when the content can be characterized as campaign propaganda. Streaming a party convention online, the court added, does not by itself turn remarks addressed to delegates into early propaganda. Judges must weigh content, language, audience and context.The votesRapporteur Kassio Nunes Marques, who chairs the court, voted to dismiss the complaint, joined by ministers André Mendonça, Dias Toffoli and Antonio Carlos, Folha de S.Paulo reported. The majority also ruled out a fine and the removal of the video. Villas Bôas Cueva, Floriano de Azevedo Marques and Estela Aranha dissented on the convention question; on the deepfake definition, the dissenting votes were Villas Bôas Cueva's and Floriano's."The expression contains no appeal for votes. The conclusion does not change with the closing phrase; although it refers to the office sought, it does not call on citizens. The discussion is legally relevant because the law allows expressions of support," Kassio said.The rule sits in article 9-C of Resolution 23.610/2019, amended in March, which bans deepfakes meant to harm or help a candidacy even with the consent of the person reproduced. Violations can amount to abuse of political power and improper use of the media, with a possible loss of candidacy, Folha reported. The former president shown in the video is under house arrest, according to the state news agency Agência Brasil.The standard now guides similar cases pending in the electoral courts. The first round of the elections is set for Oct. 4, with a possible runoff on Oct. 25.

A Quaest poll released on Wednesday (2) shows the writer Augusto Cury, of the small Avante party, with 10% of voter intentions in the first round of Brazil's presidential election. In a likely runoff, President Lula gets 42% against 41% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The one-point gap sits inside the two-percentage-point margin of error, which makes the race a technical tie. The survey was commissioned by the newspaper O Globo and broadcaster Globo.In the first round, Lula leads with 37%, followed by Flávio Bolsonaro with 30%, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo and O Globo; the headline at g1, Globo's news site, recorded 29% for the senator. Renan Santos, of the Missão party, has 3%, and former governors Ronaldo Caiado and Romeu Zema have 1% each. According to Folha, this is the institute's first national poll since the official campaign began, and the picture is one of near stability from the previous round on August 14, when Lula had 38% and Flávio Bolsonaro 31%.Cury's riseCury gained eight percentage points from the previous Quaest round, when he stood at 2%. Folha notes that a direct comparison is limited, because the PRTB candidate in the scenario changed: Leonardo Avalanche left and Pablo Marçal entered. The writer's surge follows a BTG/Nexus poll released on Monday (31) that put him at 11%, behind only Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro. Between August 16 and 29, Cury gained about 2.5 million Instagram followers, according to a report by the Instituto Democracia em Xeque cited by Folha. Rival campaigns raised suspicions that influencers were paid to promote him; Cury's marketer, Sergio Lima, denied the practice in an interview with the newspaper.Rejection and government ratingsOn rejection, Flávio Bolsonaro leads with 55% of voters who say they know him and would not vote for him; Lula follows at 53%. Cury is still unknown to 54% of respondents, while 21% know him and would vote for him and 25% know him and would not. On Lula's government, 48% disapprove and 45% approve, according to g1.Quaest interviewed 2,004 people aged 16 and over across the country between August 30 and September 1. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number BR-07065/2026.The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins more than half of the valid votes, the runoff between the top two takes place on October 25.

The president of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, said on Wednesday (2) that he will review the facts of the Banco Master case and announce "appropriate and necessary" measures in the coming days. According to G1, he spoke at an event on democratic resistance. Fachin did not name Justices Alexandre de Moraes or André Mendonça.The court's president addressed the limits that come with a seat on Brazil's highest bench. According to Folha de S.Paulo, he said:"The high authority of the office does not confer privileges, but imposes duties, limits and responsibilities, which must be observed with absolute respect for the Constitution, the laws and the Supreme Federal Court."What the Federal Police report saysThe statement came one day after Mendonça, the justice assigned to the Banco Master case at the STF, lifted the secrecy on a Federal Police report containing messages exchanged by Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, with a contact saved as Alexandre de Moraes. The material came from a phone seized in Operation Compliance Zero, which investigates an alleged multibillion-real fraud scheme at the bank. According to G1, the report lists eight meetings between Vorcaro and the justice between April 2024 and August 2025.The documents also cover a contract of about R$ 131 million between Banco Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, and a second proposal worth R$ 50 million, to be paid with shares in a private jet and a helicopter. According to Folha, part of the messages is attributed directly to Moraes; in other passages, the Federal Police says it only suspects he was the interlocutor. The extraction recovered content sent by Vorcaro, not any replies, and the documents do not show that his requests were met. Folha also reports that Mendonça met Vorcaro in 2025, as first shown by the website ICL, and that part of the Federal Police sees possible excess in the rapporteur's conduct.Reactions and next stepsThe disclosure drew immediate political reactions. Senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro said Moraes "is no longer fit to remain in office". Presidential candidate Renan Santos announced impeachment requests against Moraes and Justice Dias Toffoli, according to BBC News Brasil.The next move belongs to Fachin. The STF president promised to announce the measures in the coming days, without detailing what will be decided. Mendonça remains the case's rapporteur.

Minister André Mendonça of Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, ordered on Tuesday (September 1) the suspension of a campaign ad for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), a candidate for president, that used the jingle "Rap do Silva". The spot did not mention the name of his running mate, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB). According to CNN Brasil, the ruling is an injunction and will go before the court's full bench in a virtual session.The order partially grants a complaint filed by Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), another presidential contender. The complaint was filed on August 28, the same day the ad aired in the first block of Brazil's free electoral airtime, the daily TV and radio slots the law reserves for candidates during campaigns. According to Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign, the spot was devoted entirely to Lula's life story, with an adaptation of the "Rap do Silva" jingle, and made no reference to Alckmin.The rule cited by Mendonça appears in Article 36 of Brazil's electoral law and in a 2019 TSE resolution. Campaign material for majority races, such as the presidency, must also display the running mate's name, in lettering at least 30% the size of the head of the ticket's name. Mendonça noted that the court's case law treats the requirement as objective: the running mate must be identified whenever the head of the ticket's name is publicized.Scope of the rulingThe order covers only the contested spot. Mendonça denied a request from Flávio Bolsonaro to force Lula's coalition to identify Alckmin in every future ad, finding a blanket order unnecessary at this point. The piece can return to the air if it meets the legal requirements on mentioning the running mate. The case was also reported by Estadão, O Globo and UOL.Next, the injunction goes to the TSE's full bench in a virtual session, where the ministers can uphold, modify or reverse it. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

Brazil's Senate Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) votes on Wednesday (2) on a constitutional amendment to end the 6x1 work schedule, in which employees work six days and rest one each week. The session is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and includes other agenda items, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The bill cuts the working week from 44 to 40 hours, keeps the 8-hour daily limit and guarantees two paid rest days a week, with no salary cut, one of them preferably Sunday.The bill's rapporteur, Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), said on Tuesday (1) that he will not change the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies. "We will vote. We have the numbers to pass it in the CCJ," he said. Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) cleared the matter for the agenda; according to g1, he has moved closer to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in recent weeks. Aziz said he will request a special calendar and warned that the opposition, which wants to avoid the vote, "will use the internal rules" to slow the bill down.What changes in hours, rest days and payUnder the text's timeline, the working week drops from 44 to 42 hours two months after enactment and reaches 40 hours twelve months later. The end of the 6x1 schedule, with at least two rest days a week, takes effect 60 days after enactment. Folha reports that clauses in collective agreements based on the current schedule lapse 60 days after the amendment is published, and that the PEC creates a "super-employee" category, exempt from working-hour controls for salaries of R$ 21,188.88 or more. Companies that open seven days a week must set up shift rotation; Sunday work without a compensating day off must be paid double. Labor lawyer Jorge Soares, of the firm IW Melcheds Advogados, told g1 that keeping pay while cutting hours raises the cost of each hour worked by about 10%.Aziz argues for approval without changes. His report notes that the 44-hour week has been in force for 30 years and cites data from Ipea, a federal research institute, showing that the 6x1 schedule is concentrated among workers with lower pay and less schooling."Long working hours are not evenly spread across the productive structure: they fall disproportionately on workers with lower incomes and less schooling. Reducing them is, in this exact measure, an act of distributive justice, and not only of labor policy," the rapporteur wrote.Business criticism and next stepsEmployers' associations want a longer transition and question changing work rules through a constitutional amendment. A survey by CNI, the national industry confederation, found that 70% of manufacturers expect a drop in competitiveness and 68% expect a drop in productivity. "We need a broader view, a more careful and deeper discussion, so we do not decide in the heat of an election year," said Rodrigo Hugueney do Amaral Mello, labor coordinator at CNA, the agriculture and livestock confederation, during a hearing in the Chamber. Elizabeth Regina Nunes Guedes, president of Confenen, which represents private schools, said: "Talking about cutting working hours, keeping pay and doing no objective planning is writing poetry, not labor policy. We need to keep our schools running." The approved text says a future supplementary law will set specific rules for individual microentrepreneurs, microenterprises and small businesses, provided employment levels are maintained.The bill began as PEC 221/2019, sponsored by Deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG), and absorbed PEC 8/2025, by Deputy Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP), which called for a 4x3 schedule. The Chamber passed it in two rounds, 472 to 22 and 461 to 19. If it clears the CCJ, it goes to the Senate floor, where a constitutional amendment needs two rounds of voting and three fifths of the chamber, or 49 of the 81 senators, according to Folha. Enactment falls to the Senate presidency, not the president of the republic. Aziz said he will request a special calendar to speed up the vote.

The president of Brazil's Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), said on Tuesday (September 1) that the number of impeachment requests against Supreme Court justices pending in Congress "is not normal". There are 109 requests for impeachment of the 10 justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's highest court. Asked about Justice Alexandre de Moraes, whom the opposition has targeted over his messages with a former banker, he said he would not discuss the content of the exchanges."My perception is that there are 109 requests. This is not normal. 109 impeachment requests against the 10 justices of the STF", Alcolumbre told journalists as he left the Senate, according to news site G1. On the messages between Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, he was brief: "I have not found anything, nor should I find anything."According to G1, the messages suggest that Moraes discussed with Vorcaro the possibility of a Federal Police operation that would have the former banker as its target. Alcolumbre did not say whether he intends to move any of the requests forward. The choice is his: under Brazil's Constitution, the Senate tries and judges Supreme Court justices for crimes of responsibility, and it falls to the Senate president to archive or admit each complaint. Only after a complaint is admitted can the case go to a special committee and then to a full floor vote. The maximum penalty is removal from office, with a ban on holding public office for up to five years.Pressure on the Senate floorThe pressure began during Tuesday's session itself. The Novo party and Senator Carlos Viana (PSD-MG) filed new impeachment requests against Moraes on the same day. Viana also asked that the justice be summoned to testify before the Senate. "Your Excellency, they are on your desk, under your responsibility and your history", Viana said, addressing Alcolumbre. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), his party's candidate for the presidency, said: "It is very worrying, this kind of anesthesia we are seeing from the Legislative branch, especially from this House."According to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, allies of Alcolumbre put the odds of a case against Moraes moving forward at zero. The paper reports that the Senate president keeps a close relationship with the justice, often dining with him and former Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSB-MG). Folha also notes that Alcolumbre said he has faced pressure over impeachment requests for a long time.What comes next depends on one person. Alcolumbre must decide whether to archive or admit the complaints, and he set no deadline. For now, the 109 requests wait without a defined path.

Justice André Mendonça, the rapporteur for the Banco Master case at Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), plans to release for a full-bench vote next week the question of messages exchanged between fellow Justice Alexandre de Moraes and banker Daniel Vorcaro. The move comes even after the Attorney General's Office (PGR), the federal prosecution service, asked that the inquiry be declared void. G1 reported the plan, citing sources at the court.Once the case is released, court President Edson Fachin sets the date of the session. The bench of eleven justices will face two questions, as G1 summarizes them: whether Moraes, the court's vice president, should be investigated over the messages attributed to him and over meetings with Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master; and whether Mendonça could run this inquiry on his own, since STF justices may only be investigated with the full bench's approval.The prosecutors' positionThe PGR filed its opinion on Tuesday (Sept 1), before the five-day deadline Mendonça had set on Monday. Attorney General Paulo Gonet argues the rapporteur's investigative order is void. Gonet himself is mentioned in Vorcaro's conversations, according to the G1 blog of journalist Ana Flor."The order given to the police authority to investigate specific people, without a request from the prosecution and without initiative from the police, is void, because it exceeds the limits of a magistrate's competence in the pre-trial phase."Gonet added that even if signs of wrongdoing had surfaced by chance, it would not fall to Mendonça to dig deeper into references to his colleague. Inside the court, according to G1, two readings of Mendonça's conduct circulate. One holds that he investigated no one: he merely asked the Federal Police for information on the Master inquiries and received material obtained through the chance discovery of evidence. The other, followed by the PGR, says a justice was investigated without the bench's authorization.What the Federal Police report saysThe messages were extracted from Vorcaro's phone and reported by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo; Mendonça lifted the secrecy of the report on Tuesday. The Federal Police document points to message exchanges and meetings between Moraes and Vorcaro since 2024 and details contracts between Banco Master and the law firm of Viviane Barci de Moraes, the justice's wife, one of them valued at R$ 131 million, according to BBC News Brasil. In one conversation, Vorcaro called the contract the bank's "most important" and asked that payments never slip by a single day. An analysis of the file's metadata indicated the contract was edited by Moraes. In a statement, the Barci de Moraes firm said its compliance office had consulted the justice about possible legal impediments before the deal and that he "never judged any case involving Banco Master".What follows is a matter of scheduling. Mendonça wants to release the case next week, according to G1, and Fachin will pick the day. In the ruling that lifted the secrecy, the rapporteur wrote that the deliberation should be public and transparent, at an in-person session of the full bench, which he called the "sovereign instance to analyze, in a technical and strictly legal manner, the new elements brought by the police authority".

Messages pulled from the phone of banker Daniel Vorcaro by Brazil's Federal Police show that he and former communications minister Fábio Faria acted on at least two occasions to fulfill requests attributed to Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes concerning the content of stories in Brazil Journal, a business news site widely read in São Paulo's financial market. The findings were reported by Folha de S.Paulo and draw on a 218-page Federal Police analysis of data from the phone seized from Vorcaro in Operation Compliance Zero. Valor Econômico and Brasil 247 also reported the case.In the first episode, on April 26, 2024, Vorcaro approached Geraldo Samor, the founder of Brazil Journal, during an event in London that gathered Supreme Court justices. According to the police analysis, Vorcaro told Samor that "Alexandre asked" for a story to include the information that "the three STF justices met privately with the former prime minister" Tony Blair. The police report describes the exchange as Vorcaro passing on to Samor a request from "Alexandre" about a news story.The London forumThe contact came during the Brasil de Ideias legal forum, held in London in April 2024. Other passages of the report show Vorcaro helping organize the event and discussing Moraes's attendance and demands with aides and with Fábio Faria. Days earlier, Vorcaro had told another contact he was putting together a "super exclusive event with Alexandre de Moraes in London".In a second episode located by the Federal Police, Vorcaro again handled the content of a Brazil Journal story, this time with Fábio Faria. The banker asked the former minister to check with "Alexandre" whether he wanted to "change or add anything" to the text, and pressed for a quick answer. Faria replied that the content was fine and sent the message "pode liberar", or release it.Ties to the outletLinks between Vorcaro's family and the outlet had already surfaced. Estadão reported in March that Fabiano Zettel, Vorcaro's brother-in-law, is the final investor in a fund that held a stake in the companies behind Brazil Journal and the politics site PlatôBR between 2024 and early 2025. In November, Samor wrote publicly that "neither Banco Master nor any of its shareholders has any kind of shareholding, direct or indirect, in the capital of Brazil Journal". Folha said it sought comment from the site and had received no reply by publication on Tuesday (Sept 1).The material now goes to the Supreme Court, Brazil's top judicial body. The Attorney General's Office argued on Tuesday that the investigation led by Justice André Mendonça, which documented ties between Moraes and Vorcaro, is void. According to news site G1, Mendonça intends to put the case before the full court next week, and court President Edson Fachin will set the date. The justices must decide whether Moraes should be investigated over the messages attributed to him, and whether Mendonça overstepped his powers by investigating a colleague without the court's authorization.

Brazil's Senate approved on Tuesday (Sept. 1) a bill creating Redata, a special federal tax regime meant to attract data centers to the country. The vote was symbolic. The bill now goes to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for his signature. Data centers are the facilities that store and process data, including cloud services and the training of artificial intelligence models.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the vote was the first test of the deal between Lula and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, which also unlocked the end of the 6x1 shift schedule and a legal framework for critical minerals. The bill was introduced by the government's leader in the Chamber of Deputies, José Guimarães, and replaced a provisional measure issued by the federal government, according to news site g1. A provisional measure is an emergency act that expires unless Congress turns it into law.What the regime grantsQualified companies stop paying the federal contributions PIS/Pasep and Cofins, including their import versions, plus the IPI industrial tax and the Import Tax on electronic components and information technology goods, according to InfoMoney. The benefits last five years. News site g1 reports the bill also zeroes taxes on the export of services in the sector. There are limits: the import tax suspension applies only to items with no equivalent domestic production, and the IPI suspension does not cover goods made in the Manaus Free Trade Zone.Companies must give something in return. They have to reserve at least 10% of the processing, storage and data-handling capacity installed under the program for the domestic market. They must also invest at least 2% of the value of the goods they buy in research and innovation projects, according to g1 and InfoMoney. They will also have to publish sustainability reports with the Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) index and their energy sources; InfoMoney cites a limit of 0.05 liters per kilowatt-hour, checked yearly. Firms based in the North, Northeast and Center-West regions get a 20% cut in both obligations. Companies that fail the requirements can be forced to repay the suspended taxes, with interest and fines.The natural gas maneuverThe original bill required data centers to meet their entire electricity demand with "clean or renewable" sources, such as wind and solar. The Senate replaced that rule with "low emission" sources, defined as those "with reduced environmental impact and low emissions of greenhouse gases". What qualifies will be set by regulation. For Folha, the change opens the door to natural gas.InfoMoney reports that congressional caucuses and industry groups had asked for gas to be named expressly as a complementary source. An explicit mention, however, could have sent the bill back to the Chamber of Deputies and delayed the vote. The rapporteur, Senator Cid Gomes, defended seizing the "window of opportunity" to bring investment to Brazil. Lula can now sign the bill into law, veto it entirely or strike parts of it.

Brazil's Senate voted 63 to 4 in a secret ballot on Tuesday to confirm Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSB-MG), 49, as a minister of the TCU, the federal accounts court that audits how public money is spent. The seat opened when minister Bruno Dantas resigned on Monday. The nomination came from Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP).Approval required at least 41 of the chamber's 81 votes. Senators first passed an urgency motion, which sent the nomination straight to the floor with no confirmation hearing in the economic affairs committee. The rapporteur was Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), a former Senate president whom Alcolumbre personally asked to write the report, according to InfoMoney. Alcolumbre and 19 senators co-signed the nomination, including government leader Teresa Leitão (PT-PE) and opposition leader Rogério Marinho (PL-RN).A chamber in tribute modeIn his report, Calheiros recited Pacheco's biography and endorsed the nominee."I offer the biographical references because they are necessary to prove the nominee's qualifications, so that no doubt hangs over a vote in favor of Rodrigo Pacheco. He will certainly add distinction to the Federal Court of Accounts, just as he did in the serene, wise and competent running of this House", Calheiros said.Senator Otto Alencar (PSD-BA) called for a unanimous vote and recalled Pacheco's term as Senate president during the January 8, 2023 attacks on government buildings in Brasília. "In the defense of democracy against the threats to the integrity of the electronic voting machines and on January 8, president Rodrigo Pacheco was one of the most important Brazilians of that moment", Alencar said. Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), the government's leader in Congress, said his friend is "fit for any post in our Republic". Pacheco thanked colleagues for the "honorable mission" and the "confidence of the broad majority". "My gratitude is immense at this moment, emotion takes over", he said, according to Folha de S.Paulo.The vacancy and the next stepDantas resigned in a letter to TCU President Vital do Rêgo Filho and said he was leaving to pursue "new projects", adding that "rotation in the country's high offices is a virtue". Lawmakers had treated Pacheco's move to the TCU as all but certain since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva passed him over for the Supreme Court seat left by Luís Roberto Barroso, according to InfoMoney. Lula nominated Jorge Messias, the Union's attorney general, and the Senate rejected him. Pacheco, one of Alcolumbre's closest allies, dropped a potential run for governor of Minas Gerais and announced he will leave electoral politics at the end of his term.The nomination now goes to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, which is expected to vote on Wednesday. If confirmed, Lula will formally appoint Pacheco to a post he can hold until mandatory retirement at 75, with a monthly salary of about 44,000 reais. Chamber President Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) has told allies he expects a smooth vote, and Senate government leader Teresa Leitão relayed that Lula said he takes "great pleasure" in Pacheco's approval, according to InfoMoney.

Justice Dias Toffoli, of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), ruled on Tuesday (September 1) to release the digital campaign of Renan Santos, a presidential candidate of the Missão party. The ruling reverses restrictions he imposed on Sunday (August 30) at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top elections authority, which had frozen his online campaign, barred him from debates and blocked transfers from the public election fund.Acting on a request from the candidate's defense, InfoMoney reported, Toffoli authorized electoral propaganda on every internet address already registered with the TSE, including the 16 profiles declared past the deadline and suspended over the weekend, G1 reported. He also allowed Santos to take part in debates on radio, television, podcasts and other media, and restored his access to the Fundo Eleitoral, the public money that finances Brazilian campaigns, including funds already transferred. Digital platforms had two hours to restore the candidate's profiles.The relief keeps controls in place. The profiles remain excluded from the platforms' content recommendation systems, and providers must reactivate the accounts registered in Divulgacand, the TSE's official campaign database, while keeping precautionary copies of access records, on pain of a 10,000-real fine per hour per profile, Folha de S.Paulo reported. Santos has 72 hours to say when each profile was created and when it began to be used for electoral purposes, and to declare any other accounts. The Electoral Prosecutor General's office must respond within 24 hours and assess possible electoral and criminal violations. Failure to comply can lead to the denial of his candidacy registration, according to InfoMoney.Why the campaign had been suspendedThe restrictions were imposed on Sunday after Santos disclosed to the TSE that 16 social media profiles were linked to his campaign, 12 days past the deadline. When he filed his candidacy, the businessman, a founder of the free-market activist group Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL) and a first-time candidate, had declared only a website and one X account. TSE rules require candidates to register every campaign account and order platforms to pull those accounts from recommendation algorithms. According to Folha, the suspension came after the newspaper revealed the omission, which left the undeclared profiles open to algorithmic reach, unlike those of his rivals. On Tuesday, Meta and TikTok told the TSE they had removed the accounts cited in Sunday's ruling.Toffoli wrote that Sunday's measures had a precautionary purpose, to preserve information and support the review of the candidacy registration, and that the TSE's technical staff had produced more than 1,000 pages of screenshots of the candidate's networks. In Tuesday's decision, he also stated that the "intentional or late omission" of the accounts amounts to evidence of fraud, InfoMoney reported.Minutes before the new ruling, Santos attacked the suspension at a news conference and linked the restrictions to his criticism of figures involved in the Banco Master case. He said he did not believe the timing was a coincidence, and told his lawyers to skip a meeting at Toffoli's office that his own defense had requested. "We will not meet, and we will not give in on anything we said, on anything we did," he declared. His candidacy registration remains pending at the TSE: the candidate has 72 hours to deliver the required information, and the prosecutor general's office has 24 hours to respond.

Digital records obtained in investigations show that Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, worked on the editing of a legal services contract worth roughly R$130 million between the law firm of his wife, attorney Viviane Barci de Moraes, and businessman Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master. The daily O Estado de S. Paulo published the findings on Tuesday (Sept. 1), and TV Globo confirmed them.Metadata from the file, which was sent over a messaging app and extracted from Vorcaro's phone, lists the justice's name and username as the author of the document's last modification, according to the report. The contract hired the firm Barci de Moraes Sociedade de Advogados for legal work and strategic consulting, with total fees of about R$130 million.What the law firm saysIn a statement, the firm confirmed that the justice took part in reviewing the draft contract. It said its compliance department had asked him, as "the husband of the managing partner", whether any legal bar to the deal existed, such as STF cases under his rapporteurship.Given the absence of any planned action at the STF or of any legal impediment, since Justice Alexandre de Moraes has never judged any case involving Banco Master, the contract was signed and the legal services were duly provided.The investigationFederal Police arrested Vorcaro in November last year in the Compliance Zero operation as he tried to board a private jet to Malta and then Dubai. According to the magazine VEJA, records from his phone also show messages exchanged with Moraes before the arrest, on Nov. 17. The banker asked whether "Galípolo knows", whether "we can do something" and whether "you think I should already be out by Monday?", a reference to Central Bank President Gabriel Galípolo.VEJA also reports that investigators found Vorcaro had authorized credit cards for the justice's two children, each with a limit of R$300,000. The seized material was sent to the office of Justice André Mendonça, who oversees the Master investigation at the STF.On Monday (Aug. 31), Mendonça sent a formal request to the Attorney General's Office (PGR) seeking clarification on a message from Vorcaro's phone in which he said he needed protection from Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet and Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues. The PGR has five days to respond and, according to G1, did not return requests for comment. The case remains under Mendonça's review.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed two decrees on Monday (Aug 31) at the Planalto presidential palace that change the rules for concerts and other cultural events in Brazil. One regulates online ticket sales and transfers and creates tools against digital scalping, the speculative resale of tickets. The other requires free drinking water at large events.The government says the goal is to stop abusive and misleading practices and make ticket prices transparent, according to news site g1. At the ceremony, Lula addressed administrators of fan club websites invited to the signing. "These decrees were signed thanks to you," he said, according to the newspaper Correio Braziliense. Culture Minister Margareth Menezes, first lady Janja, consumer protection secretary Ricardo Morishita and the ministers Guilherme Boulos, Sidônio Palmeira and Míriam Belchior attended, along with the fan representatives.New ticket rulesThe ticket decree orders the original seller to adopt measures to:"prevent and block the mass, abusive or speculative acquisition of tickets, including through automated systems, software, scripts or other means"Digital box offices must use virtual queues, pre-registration and per-customer limits, and must individualize tickets and guarantee authenticity and traceability to stop duplicates and forgeries. Buyers will see the total price and a breakdown of fees from the start, along with their position in the virtual queue and estimated waiting time. Duplicate fees, fees of a similar nature and fees with no service attached are banned, as is the automatic addition of extra services without the customer's consent.Resale platforms must make clear they are not official sales channels, disclose the ticket's face value and warn whenever a ticket sells above it. They must also flag habitual, professional or organized resale patterns and remove irregular listings. The decree protects the meia-entrada, Brazil's half-price ticket for students and other eligible groups: sellers cannot artificially restrict it, fees cannot erode the discount and companies must report how many discounted tickets were offered and sold. Ticket transfers will be free, and cancellations trigger a full refund, fees included. The rules cover digital sales only and do not apply to physical-only box offices or sports events, the Correio Braziliense reports.Free waterThe second decree turns into presidential-level rules a duty that since 2023 sat in an ordinance of Senacon, the national consumer protection office tied to the Justice Ministry. That ordinance came after the death of Ana Benevides, a 23-year-old fan who fell ill during Taylor Swift's concert in Rio de Janeiro, held in extreme heat. As a decree, an act of the presidency with the force of regulatory law, the rules now apply nationwide.Events expecting more than 1,000 people must provide drinking fountains or hand out water for free. The public may bring personal bottles or containers of drinking water, and selling beverages on site does not remove the free hydration duty. Water points and drink stands must sit in easily accessible spots, and venues must have structure for quick rescue in emergencies. What comes next is enforcement: consumer protection agencies will track bottled water prices at events to curb unjustified increases, and ticket platforms face the new transparency duties and the removal of irregular resale listings.

Justice André Mendonça of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) sent the Prosecutor General's Office (PGR) on Monday (Aug 31) a Federal Police report containing messages in which Daniel Vorcaro, former owner of Banco Master and an arrestee in the Compliance Zero operation, asks an unnamed interlocutor to have "Andrei and Paulo" act in his favor. The Federal Police believes the references point to Andrei Rodrigues, the force's director general, and Paulo Gonet, the prosecutor general who heads the PGR. Mendonça, who oversees the court's investigation into fraud at Banco Master, gave the office five days to respond.The document became public on Tuesday (Sept 1). The news site Metrópoles reported it first. Folha de S.Paulo and TV Globo confirmed its contents.What the message saysOfficers found the note on one of Vorcaro's phones in late October last year, according to G1. In it, Vorcaro described the bank's situation and the problems he faced. He wrote that Central Bank officials had given him confidential information that "G", whom the report links to bank president Gabriel Galípolo, and the other directors were under strong pressure to move against Master because of intense pressure from the Federal Police and federal prosecutors."Daniel Vorcaro also stated that it was important for the interlocutor to reinforce, with Andrei (probably Andrei Augusto Rodrigues, Director General of the Federal Police) and Paulo (probably Paulo Gonet Branco, Prosecutor General of the Republic), the need to stop subordinates within the hierarchies of the Federal Police and the prosecutors' office from pulling 'alguma sacanagem', a Portuguese phrase for a dirty trick, because, in his words, 'aí vai tudo pro saco', it would all go down the drain," the report says, in a passage quoted by G1 and translated from Portuguese.Who received the messageThe recipient has not been identified. Vorcaro had a habit of saving notes, taking screenshots and sending them as view-once images, which makes the exchanges hard to trace. Federal Police investigators do not rule out that the message was a request for protection addressed to Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the STF.The offices of Rodrigues, Gonet and Moraes had not replied to requests for comment by publication time. Folha said it contacted all three at 9:40 a.m. on Tuesday. The PGR also did not return G1's requests.Next comes the PGR's answer: the office has five days, counted from Monday's dispatch, to comment on the Federal Police report.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre on Monday (Aug. 31) nominated Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, a former Senate president, to the Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), the federal court that audits Brazil's public spending. The seat opened with the early exit of minister Bruno Dantas, who formalized his departure in a letter to the court's president, Vital do Rêgo Filho.In a statement and a video released Monday, Dantas said he is stepping down to pursue "new projects". News site G1 reported that he said he ends his term at the court convinced that "rotation in the country's high offices is a virtue". The seat belongs to the Senate's appointment quota. As at the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Brazil's top court, a TCU minister serves until mandatory retirement at age 75, unless he steps down earlier.The nomination was signed by Alcolumbre and 19 senators, among them the government's Senate leader, Teresa Leitão, and the opposition leader, Rogério Marinho. Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Alcolumbre asked party leaders to co-sign the act, to show publicly that the choice was collective. Earlier in the month, Eduardo Braga, leader of the MDB in the Senate, told the paper that Dantas' seat belonged to his party and that his caucus would only give it up in favor of Pacheco. Three Senate leaders consulted by Folha expect one of the largest vote totals in the chamber's history.Otto Alencar, who chairs the Senate Constitution and Justice Committee, praised the nominee to Folha:"Pacheco was one of the greatest and best presidents of the Senate and of Congress that I have served with. A democrat who showed his courage and strength in the 2022 elections, when he defended the integrity of the electronic voting system, and when he took a strong stand against the antidemocratic acts of January 8, 2023."The nomination follows a rift between Alcolumbre and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Alcolumbre had pushed Pacheco for the STF seat left by the retirement of Justice Luís Roberto Barroso. Lula instead nominated then Attorney General Jorge Messias, whom the Senate rejected. According to G1, Lula then distanced himself from Alcolumbre, believing the Senate president had worked to sink the confirmation. The two resumed talks in August, as the government seeks congressional support in an election year for priorities such as constitutional amendments to end the 6x1 schedule (six days of work followed by a single day off) and to tighten public security.What comes nextFolha reported that Alcolumbre intends to put the nomination to a Senate floor vote on Tuesday (Sept. 1); if the quorum is too low, by Wednesday (2) at the latest. G1 reported that the nomination was expected to go through the Economic Affairs Committee, with a confirmation hearing, but Folha said Alcolumbre called Alencar to say he wants a direct floor vote, without a hearing, which will happen. The Senate's internal rules allow skipping the hearing for the chamber's own nominees; the last one was held in 2021, when three senators competed for the seat and Pacheco, then Senate president, ordered it, with Antonio Anastasia beating Kátia Abreu and Fernando Bezerra. After the Senate, the nominee still needs approval in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house. Once both chambers approve, the president formally appoints the new minister.

Brazil's Chamber of Deputies approved on Monday (31) a provisional measure making up to 30 billion reais available in credit lines for ride-hailing app drivers, taxi drivers, taxi cooperatives and school transport drivers to buy new vehicles that meet sustainability criteria. The bill now goes to the Senate.President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued the measure in June as an extension of the Move Brasil program, whose credit lines were not fully used, according to G1. Chamber Speaker Hugo Motta defended the vote. "All the effort to get this provisional measure voted was aimed at giving these professionals, these drivers, the chance to access fairer credit, with subsidized interest," he said.How the credit will workThe lines will be offered by BNDES, Brazil's national development bank, along with state-owned Banco do Brasil and Caixa Econômica Federal, or by institutions accredited by them. The text allows the Operations Guarantee Fund (FGO) to back the loans: the guarantee can cover up to 100% of each operation, capped at 50% of each bank's guaranteed portfolio.According to CNN Brasil, the National Monetary Council (CMN) will set rates, terms and grace periods, and may establish better conditions for women drivers. Each paid transport driver will have access to one vehicle; in taxi cooperatives, the limit is one car per member. The credit can also finance insurance and safety equipment for women.The Finance and Industry, Trade and Services ministries will define which vehicles qualify, based on "environmental, social or economic sustainability criteria," the text says. Two weeks before the vote, the presidential palace raised the financing ceiling per vehicle from 150,000 to 200,000 reais. According to BNDES, the program has already approved more than 1 billion reais in loans, with an average of about 102,000 reais as of July.The measure now depends on the Senate. In Brazil, a provisional measure takes effect immediately upon issuance, but Congress must approve it for the rules to become permanent law.

Brazil's federal government sent its 2027 budget bill to Congress on Monday (Aug. 31), and the proposal ties pay raises for federal civil servants to a fiscal trigger. As long as the government keeps running a primary deficit, spending on personnel cannot grow more than 0.6% a year above inflation, according to news outlet G1 and state news agency Agência Brasil.The mechanism sits in Article 6 of Brazil's fiscal framework, the public accounts rule approved in 2023, the first year of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's current term. That framework caps spending growth at 70% of revenue growth, or 2.5% a year above inflation. At the end of 2024, Congress tightened the rule: whenever the government posts a primary deficit, meaning revenue falls short of expenditure before debt interest, spending limits kick in the following year and can only be lifted once a primary surplus returns. Brazil ran a deficit in 2025 and projects a R$ 52 billion shortfall for 2026, so the cap is set to bind in 2027, the first year of the next presidential term after October's election.A ceiling through 2030Through 2030, while the deficit persists, personnel spending cannot grow beyond the framework's minimum allowance for expenditure growth (0.6% a year above inflation). The ceiling covers active employees, retirees and pensioners, but not court-ordered payments such as precatórios, the government debts confirmed by final judicial rulings, Agência Brasil reported. In practice, the rule blocks any raise above inflation in 2027. Finance Minister Dario Durigan acknowledged the effect in June:"We have the new fiscal framework, we created an additional trigger. Next year we will not have a real gain for public servants, which is a gain [in terms of spending containment] in a first year of government," Durigan said.The restriction follows salary agreements the Executive branch signed in 2024 with most of the federal workforce. Those deals set raises for 2025 and 2026 and restructured careers, covering 98.2% of federal employees. Management and Innovation Minister Esther Dweck said at the time the agreements would replace inflation over Lula's term and still deliver a real gain.The budget bill now goes to committee review in Congress, where lawmakers can amend it. It must be approved before the fiscal year begins on Jan. 1, 2027.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes of Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the country's top court, has put on the docket of its virtual plenary the judgment of the criminal case over Eduardo Bolsonaro's actions in the United States against Brazilian institutions. The voting window runs from September 11 to 18, according to Folha de S.Paulo.The case sits with the court's First Panel, made up of Moraes, Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Cármen Lúcia. Folha describes the docket item as the trial of the criminal action, which covers the crimes of coercion, obstruction of investigation and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. CartaCapital and O Globo report that the session will weigh the appeal filed by the federal public defender's office (DPU) against Eduardo Bolsonaro's June conviction.The June convictionEduardo Bolsonaro, a son of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), was convicted in June to four years and two months in prison for coercion in the course of legal proceedings. According to CartaCapital, he tried to use blackmail against Brazil to spare his father from conviction for leading the attempted coup. The appeal now on the agenda was filed by the DPU, which represents him before the court.In the vote that led to the conviction, Moraes pointed to at least nine actions by Eduardo Bolsonaro to intimidate Brazilian authorities involving the work of the United States government. Justices Cristiano Zanin, Cármen Lúcia and Flávio Dino joined the rapporteur."In order to benefit his own father, the criminal activity of Eduardo Bolsonaro harmed the entire country and did not frighten this court, and will never frighten the STF," Moraes said at the trial.The September judgmentFolha reports that the criminal action names Eduardo Bolsonaro and the journalist Paulo Figueiredo as defendants. Both stand accused of orchestrating moves with the US government to interfere in the proceedings against Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. In July, CartaCapital reported that the defense has asked the justices for a reduced sentence.Eduardo Bolsonaro has lived in the United States since early 2025, according to CartaCapital, and can only begin serving his sentence once he turns himself in to the authorities. Folha identifies him as a federal deputy on leave from the PL party of Sao Paulo; CartaCapital calls him a former lawmaker. In the virtual plenary, the First Panel justices vote electronically over the week. The judgment opens on September 11 and the window closes on September 18; a request by any justice to review the case files can postpone the vote.

The minister Dias Toffoli of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the country's top electoral authority, suspended the digital election campaign of Renan Santos, the Missão party's presidential candidate. The order was signed on Sunday (30) and made public on Monday (31). Beyond the suspension, Toffoli blocked new transfers from the Special Campaign Financing Fund, the public money that bankrolls Brazilian campaigns, and banned the ticket from debates on radio, television, podcasts and other media. Toffoli is the rapporteur for the candidacy's registration case, and the ruling also covers the vice presidential candidate, Aroldo Medina.The "strategic omission" cited by ToffoliThe order targets social media profiles that were never declared to the electoral court. In the registration request filed on August 7, Santos reported only one account on X and a website, which may stay active. Only on August 19 did the ticket present 18 social media accounts, 16 of them past the deadline, according to the TSE. Electoral law requires candidates to declare, at the moment of registration, every account that will be used for campaign propaganda.Toffoli wrote that the ticket committed a "strategic omission" by delaying the information. "The strategic omission of information about the social networks, which underpins the entire legitimacy of the digital campaign to be carried out, denotes in itself a lack of commitment to those legal interests," the minister wrote."The unreported accounts benefit from opaque algorithms and evade social and legal control. They disguise themselves as ordinary users, moving on the margins of the legitimate space of competition in the digital environment."In a passage cited by BBC News Brasil, Toffoli states that the candidate knew of the obligation and that "the benefits already obtained are irreversible." Informing the addresses "by simple filing in the case records, with no request for urgency or even justification for the late action, requires immediate measures," the minister wrote.Fines and deadlines in the rulingViolating the order carries defined fines. Each propaganda post after the decision draws a fine of R$ 50,000, including posts on third-party profiles, and each debate appearance also costs R$ 50,000. Spending of fund money already transferred is suspended, on pain of a penalty of 1% of the amounts. Toffoli gave the campaign 24 hours to report the creation date of each profile and when it began to be used for propaganda. Digital platforms were also reached: they must preserve content posted since August 7, suspend the irregular accounts and remove them from recommendation systems, under a fine of R$ 10,000 per hour per profile, and hand over data on posts, boosts and ads, under a daily fine of R$ 50,000.Toffoli had already pulled the registration case from the court's agenda over the weekend, citing indications of irregularities, and repeated the argument now. The registration remains undecided. Santos, a businessman and founder of the MBL, the free-market activist group, is running in his first election. He has not publicly commented on the ruling and called a news conference for 5 p.m. on Monday in São Paulo.

The writer Augusto Cury, candidate of the small Avante party, climbed to third place in Brazil's presidential race in two polls released on Monday, August 31. In the BTG/Nexus survey he jumped from 2% to 11% of first-round voting intentions. According to CNN Brasil, he is the first so-called third-way candidate, meaning one outside the camps of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro, to reach double digits in this race.In the Atlas/Bloomberg poll, Cury went from 1.6% to 7.8%. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL remain in the lead. Lula polls at 43.4% against Bolsonaro's 33.7% in the Atlas survey, and at 39% against 33% in Nexus, according to the newspaper Estadão. Behind Cury in the Atlas poll come Renan Santos of the Missão party, at 7.6%, and former Goias governor Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD, at 3.3%. In Nexus, Caiado is fourth with 5%, followed by Renan Santos with 3% and Romeu Zema of the Novo party with 1%. In a separate first-round projection, the influencer Pablo Marçal, barred from running by the Electoral Court, still scores 3%.How the polls were conductedThe BTG/Nexus poll interviewed 2,005 people by phone between August 28 and 30, with a margin of error of two percentage points. It is registered with the Superior Electoral Court, which oversees Brazilian elections, under code BR-08900/2026. AtlasIntel heard 5,014 respondents between August 25 and 30, with a one-point margin of error, under registration BR-07972/2026. According to Estadão, both surveys capture the electorate's movement after the first presidential debate, TV Globo's one-on-one candidate interviews and the start of free campaign airtime on August 28.Social media surge and the campaigns' reactionThe polling jump follows a wave on social media. According to a Vox Radar survey released by CNN Brasil, Cury gained more Instagram followers than any other presidential candidate after the first debate, a 19.4% rise that took him from about 8.3 million to 9.9 million followers. Google searches for his name rose 900% in the week after the event. In the Nexus series, the writer stood at 1% on August 3 and 2% in the round released on August 24.Rival campaigns are skeptical. Officials of the Workers' Party and Bolsonaro's PL heard by CNN Brasil describe the surge as a "voo de galinha", Portuguese for a short-lived jump, and argue that Cury lacks the party structure to reach a runoff. Still, they share one warning. According to CNN Brasil, both campaigns fear that voters who moved to Cury out of frustration with polarization may simply stay home in a possible runoff between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro.The first round is scheduled for October 4. Neither pollster released runoff scenarios including Cury. In projections without him, Atlas shows Lula at 47.1% against Bolsonaro's 42.6%, and Nexus has 46% to 45%, a gap within the margin of error.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the incumbent seeking a fourth term, leads Brazil's presidential race with 39% of first-round voting intentions, while Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, dropped four points, from 37% to 33%, in the new BTG/Nexus poll released on Monday (Aug. 31). Writer Augusto Cury jumped from 2% to 11% and took third place alone.Lula had 41% in the previous wave of the tracking poll, commissioned by the investment bank BTG Pactual from pollster Nexus, so he slipped two points. According to VEJA magazine, this was the first wave after the first televised debate, the candidates' interviews on the Jornal Nacional evening news and the start of free campaign airtime on radio and TV. In the spontaneous poll, where no list of names is offered, Lula has 37%, Flávio 30% and Cury rose from 1% to 8%. Undecided voters fell from 15% to 13%.Technical tie in a runoffIn a hypothetical runoff, Lula has 46% and Flávio 45%, as reported by Poder360. The one-point gap sits within the two-percentage-point margin of error, a technical tie. Rejection remains highest for both frontrunners: 50% of voters say they would not vote for Flávio Bolsonaro, and 49% say the same about Lula.In a first-round scenario that includes Pablo Marçal (PRTB), Lula has 37% and Flávio 31%. Behind the top three, Ronaldo Caiado follows with 5%, Renan Santos with 3%, and Romeu Zema and Samara Martins with 1% each, VEJA reported.Government disapproval rises to 51%Disapproval of Lula's government rose from 49% to 51%, while approval fell from 48% to 46%. The five-point gap between the two indicators is the widest since May in the poll series. Among respondents who disapprove, 62% point to dissatisfaction with the results of the administration's policies, works and laws as the main reason, and 20% say they reject Lula's ideas.Nexus interviewed 2,005 voters between Aug. 28 and 30. The margin of error is two percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number BR-08900/2026 and was paid for by BTG Pactual. The first round is scheduled for Oct. 4; if no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the runoff takes place on Oct. 25.

Brazil resumes trade negotiations with the United States on Monday (31) with aides to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva skeptical that a deal can be reached. They fear the tariff offensive may become permanent if the standoff drags on, according to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.The round of talks will be held virtually, around 2:30 p.m. in Brasília, between Development, Industry, Trade and Services Minister Márcio Elias Rosa and Jamieson Greer of the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The ministry confirmed the meeting after Lula and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Friday (21), when the two presidents agreed on the need to resume dialogue, the outlet Brasil de Fato reports.The precedent that worries BrasíliaA government official told Folha that the trade barriers on steel and aluminum were imposed in 2018, during Trump's first term, and that his successor, Joe Biden, did nothing to revoke them. Part of the government fears the same fate for the 25 percent surcharge Washington applied citing Brazilian trade practices it calls unfair.In July, the United States imposed additional surcharges of 25 percent and 12.5 percent on portions of Brazilian imports. The combined measures reach 23.1 percent of Brazil's exports to the American market, according to Brasil de Fato. Brazil has taken the dispute to the World Trade Organization and is weighing reciprocity measures. Even so, Rosa argues that negotiation should come first.The phone call and the electionThe August 21 call unfroze the relationship, in the assessment of a member of Lula's team. He told Folha the conversation led White House officials to reach out to the presidential palace, and that without it only a proposal favoring the United States would have unlocked the talks. The call was again facilitated by major businessmen with direct access to Trump's cabinet. In 2025, Folha reported that Joesley Batista, owner of meatpacker JBS, played a key role in arranging the meeting between the two presidents.Aides say Lula has asked that Brazil stay at the negotiating table and try to close a deal. The view that constant friction with Trump helps Lula with voters is not a consensus inside the government. Some advisers believe an economic understanding would strengthen the president politically, though expectations of any agreement before October's presidential election, in which Lula is running for another term, are low. Monday's meeting is technical and will not include the presidents. The next steps depend on the talks between Rosa and Greer.

The reelection campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) filed four complaints with the TSE, Brazil's top electoral court, on Saturday (29) against rivals in the presidential race. The targets are presidential candidates Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) and Romeu Zema (Novo), plus São Paulo city councilman Lucas Pavanato (PL). According to Folha de S.Paulo, the filings cover false information, use of artificial intelligence, insults and abuse of power.The complaints were signed by the Federação Brasil da Esperança, the coalition of the PT, the PV and the PC do B that backs Lula. The toughest request concerns the Festa do Peão de Barretos, a rodeo festival in inland São Paulo state and one of the largest events of its kind in Latin America.The Barretos caseIn the complaint about the festival, Lula's coalition says the PL ticket used professional sound and lighting equipment and drew 60,000 people to a disguised campaign rally, a "showmício", paid for and sponsored by private companies and state bodies. In the campaign's reading, the episode amounts to illegal corporate financing. The federation asks the court to revoke the ticket's candidacy registration and to declare Flávio ineligible.According to Folha, Flávio took the stage alongside São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), who is running for reelection. He told the crowd that "everyone who believes in God" knows agribusiness is the heart of the country and presented himself as Brazil's future president. The festival announcer introduced him as "our candidate for president of Brazil", and the crowd chanted "Lula, thief, your place is in prison". The newspaper said it sought comment from the senator's staff and the festival's press office by WhatsApp and received no reply.The escalation at the courtThe offensive began earlier in the week. On Wednesday (26), Lula's legal team filed two complaints against Renan Santos (Missão) and Caiado over statements in the first presidential debate, which Lula skipped, according to CNN Brasil. The requests include removing the content from social media and fining each candidate 30,000 reais. Lawyer Ricardo Penteado, who represents Caiado's campaign, replied in a statement: "It is a disgrace that, in addition to refusing to answer the criticisms made against him, he wants to silence his opponent with this attempt at censorship. Obviously, Brazilian justice will not grant it."The four complaints filed on Saturday now await a decision by TSE justices. Flávio's campaign had already gone to the court on Thursday (27) to challenge Lula's use of the Palácio do Alvorada, the official presidential residence, for campaign purposes. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro of the PL party, a candidate in Brazil's presidential election, was questioned at length on TV Globo on Friday (28) by anchors Renata Vasconcellos and Cesar Tralli. The interview, broadcast from Globo's studios in Rio de Janeiro, was the fifth in a series with the six presidential candidates ranked highest in the Quaest poll released on August 14. This is the first election in which Globo airs these candidate interviews, known in Brazil as sabatinas, after the "Jornal Nacional" evening newscast. In previous races they ran inside the newscast itself. The running order was drawn by lot with party representatives present.Vorcaro and 'Dark Horse'The interview was dominated by the case of "Dark Horse", a film biography of former president Jair Bolsonaro, the candidate's father. Flavio said there was nothing wrong with having sought jailed former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, to bankroll the production."There is absolutely nothing irregular about this film (...) It was sponsorship, there was no transfer to Flavio Bolsonaro", the candidate said.In May, the website The Intercept Brasil published messages and an audio recording in which Flavio asks Vorcaro for money for the film. According to that report, the former banker transferred 61 million reais to the production. The payments are under investigation by the federal police in an inquiry authorized by Supreme Federal Tribunal Justice Andre Mendonca. Investigators are looking into whether part of the money paid bills of former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the candidate's brother, in the United States, and whether congressional budget funds were diverted. Asked about his relationship with Vorcaro, Flavio said: "The only relationship I had with him was about this film, nothing else". He added: "I didn't want that work of art to be lost (...) It was a dream coming true".Fact-checks and what comes nextPressed to release the film's contract and spending records, Flavio said the accounting had been delivered ahead of the 30-day deadline he himself had set, including to an inquiry at the Sao Paulo state civil police. Globo's Fato ou Fake team rated the claim false. According to the fact-check, a report submitted in June by businesswoman Karina Ferreira da Gama, owner of production company Go Up Entertainment, lists costs of 75.1 million reais but contains no invoices, receipts or proof of the origin of the money, and the hired expert admitted he had no access to the American Havengate fund. Another statement, that the transfer was private "sponsorship", got the outlet's "not quite" label: in May, Flavio himself had told GloboNews the funds went to a US-based fund run by Eduardo Bolsonaro's lawyer. According to the g1 blog of journalist Andreia Sadi, the federal police are probing suspected passive corruption and money laundering in deals involving the candidate and the film.Asked whether it was appropriate to visit Vorcaro in late 2025, when the banker was already under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor, Flavio did not answer directly and turned on President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. "What is not appropriate is a president receiving a banker in a secret meeting (...) it is Lula who owes explanations", he said. Lula said in February that he met Vorcaro in late 2024 at the request of former minister Guido Mantega, in a meeting kept off the official presidential calendar, and that he assured the banker there would be "a technical investigation, carried out by the Central Bank".On the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia, Flavio was asked what guarantees he could give voters that he would not attempt a coup. The candidate criticized the Supreme Court sentence of 27 years and 3 months handed to his father and said "a great farce was staged" to "take Bolsonaro out of public life".CNN Brasil reported on the same Friday that the producer of "Dark Horse" postponed to the coming week the handover to the federal police of documents on the film. The request was made on August 18, asking for invoices, contracts, expense statements and proof of the origin of the funds. The inquiry remains with Justice Mendonca at the Supreme Court. The interview series ended on Saturday (29) with Augusto Cury of the Avante party. The first round of the election is set for October 4. According to BBC News Brasil, Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro lead the polls.

A series of state-level polls released this week by Quaest, one of Brazil's leading polling firms, shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, technically tied in the country's three largest electorates: São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The surveys, compiled by G1, cover 23 states and the Federal District and measure voter intentions for the first round on October 4.In São Paulo, Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro each have 30%, according to G1 and O Globo. In Minas Gerais, the senator has 31% and the president 30%. In Rio de Janeiro, Flávio registers 31% and Lula 29%. In the Federal District, Lula leads 28% to 26%. The margin of error is two percentage points in São Paulo and three points elsewhere, which keeps all of those races statistically tied.Where each candidate leadsLula holds his widest leads in the North and Northeast. He is 38 points ahead in Maranhão (58% to 20%), 35 in Pernambuco (54% to 19%), 34 in Sergipe and 33 in Bahia (50% to 17%), according to G1. CNN Brasil confirmed the Maranhão figures and reported that the institute interviewed 900 voters in the state between August 20 and 23, with a three-point margin of error. Lula also leads in Amapá (36% to 33%) and Amazonas (38% to 33%), both within the margin.Flávio Bolsonaro leads in the South and in parts of the North and Center-West. According to G1, he is 35 points ahead in Roraima, 25 in Santa Catarina (45% to 20%), 20 in Rondônia and 17 in Acre (42% to 25%). In Paraná he has 41% to Lula's 23%, and in Mato Grosso 43% to 26%. Goiás is the only state where Governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) leads numerically, with 32%, technically tied with Flávio Bolsonaro at 27%. Lula has 20% there.Undecided voters draw the campaigns' attentionRio Grande do Sul has the highest share of undecided voters in the series, 18%, followed by Minas Gerais and Paraná at 17% each and Rio de Janeiro at 16%, according to G1. In Rio state, another 16% say they plan to cast a blank or null ballot or not vote at all.All polls in the series are registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees Brazilian elections. In Maranhão, the survey was commissioned by Rede Mirante, a Globo affiliate, CNN Brasil reported. The reports published by Quaest label the surveys as "Round 1", signaling further state measurements before the October 4 first round.

Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), the rapporteur of the constitutional amendment that ends the 6x1 work schedule (six days of work followed by one day off), presented a favorable report to the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) on Thursday (27) and rejected all 12 amendments filed by fellow senators. The decision keeps intact the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies in May and prevents the bill from having to return to the lower house, according to Poder360.The proposal, known as PEC 221/2019, changes the Constitution to cut the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours and guarantees two paid weekly rest days, with no salary reduction. The transition happens in two stages: the cap falls to 42 hours two months after promulgation and reaches 40 hours after 12 months. The text preserves collective bargaining and exempts workers with a college degree earning at least 2.5 times the INSS (social security) benefit ceiling, unless a collective agreement says otherwise.Rejected amendmentsAccording to Poder360, most of the rejected amendments sought to soften the new rights. Senator Izalci Lucas (PL-DF) proposed keeping the 44-hour limit and making any reduction depend solely on collective bargaining. Hermes Klann (PL-SC) and Oriovisto Guimarães (PSDB-PR) tried to create exceptions allowing up to 44 hours in specific sectors, while Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos-RS) suggested writing the 12x36 shift model (12 hours of work, 36 hours of rest) into the Constitution. Other amendments sought to stretch the transition period from just over one year to four years.Aziz argued that the amendments distorted the proposal, were unconstitutional because they clashed with the amendment's purpose, or created legal uncertainty. In his report, quoted by Agência Senado, the senator noted that the 44-hour limit was set by the 1988 Constitution and has remained unchanged for 38 years."Revising this limit is not a rupture, but an update that is long overdue," Aziz wrote. "Establishing a second paid weekly rest day, the core of the proposal and the origin of the broad social mobilization behind it, expands the time available for effective rest and physical and mental recovery."The Chamber of Deputies approved the amendment in May by wide margins: 472 votes to 22 in the first round and 461 to 19 in the second. The proposal became a congressional priority after Senate President Davi Alcolumbre met with President Lula and Chamber Speaker Hugo Motta on Wednesday (26), Agência Senado reported.The next step is a CCJ vote on the report. According to Poder360, Aziz is working to place the amendment as the first item on the committee's agenda next Wednesday, during Congress's "esforço concentrado" (a period of intensified voting sessions). If approved in committee, the proposal goes to two rounds of voting on the Senate floor. Because the rapporteur rejected every amendment, if senators pass the text without changes to its substance, it can be enacted directly, without going back to the Chamber.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is TV Globo's interview guest this Friday (28), part of the network's series of sit-down interviews with the presidential candidates in Brazil's 2026 election. According to g1, the interview starts at 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time), live, right after the Jornal Nacional newscast, from the Estúdios Globo in Rio de Janeiro. Journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli will conduct the interview.The date coincides with the start of Brazil's free campaign airtime on radio and TV, which begins this Friday under the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) calendar. The interview also comes at a moment of a tight race in the polls. The latest PoderData/Aya survey showed Lula (PT) with 38% and Flávio Bolsonaro with 35% of first-round voting intentions, a statistical tie within the margin of error. State-level Quaest polls also recorded ties between the two in São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.New format after the evening newsAccording to g1, this is the first time Globo's interviews with presidential candidates air after the Jornal Nacional instead of inside the newscast. Besides free-to-air TV, the broadcast can be followed on GloboNews and g1. After each interview, GloboNews airs Central das Eleições, with analysis of the candidates' statements. The full content becomes available on Globoplay and g1 after the broadcast.The network invited the six candidates best placed in the Quaest poll released on August 14, InfoMoney reported. The order of appearances was set by a draw, with party representatives present. Before Flávio Bolsonaro, the network interviewed Romeu Zema (Novo), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão) and Lula (PT), who sat for his interview on Thursday (27).During the interview period, Jornal Nacional is anchored by Ana Paula Araújo and Hélter Duarte from the network's studios in Rio de Janeiro's Jardim Botânico neighborhood.Globo's series ends this Saturday (29) with Augusto Cury (Avante). The campaign then continues with daily free advertising on radio and TV until the eve of the first round, scheduled for October 4.

The vice-mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Mello Araújo of the PL party, told state prosecutors he warned the administration of mayor Ricardo Nunes, including the mayor himself, about a "public money bleed" in the city's street lighting contract. The statements are part of testimony he gave on Tuesday (25), according to Folha de S.Paulo.Araújo was heard by prosecutors Karyna Mori and Silvio Antonio Marques in an inquiry into possible administrative improbity by current and former public officials in the handling of the contract. In his testimony, the vice-mayor called for an immediate cut in payments to the concessionaire and for the urgent resumption of the bidding process that originated the concession.The bidding disputeThe contract stems from an international tender opened in 2015 for a public-private partnership. The company Ilumina SP was hired in 2018. At the center of the dispute is the exclusion of the Walks consortium, which offered to do the work for about R$ 5.6 billion over 20 years, roughly R$ 1.3 billion less than the winner, Folha reports. Ilumina SP denies it was favored and says the bidding issues have already been investigated and clarified.Asked by the newspaper, the Nunes administration replied with a statement listing court decisions it says were complied with in sequence until the tender was reopened, as authorized by the courts in the middle of this year. City hall says the municipal regulator SP Regula reopened the bidding in June and that "any claim that the municipality is failing to comply with a final court order is mistaken". The administration rejects the idea that the current contract is irregular.One day after Araújo's testimony, São Paulo's 14th Public Treasury Court gave city hall 15 days to prove it has taken measures to comply with a ruling on the case, according to G1. The decision, by judge Nathalia Christina Caputo Gomes, orders the resumption of the 2015 tender, the immediate reinstatement of the Walks consortium and the annulment of the administrative acts that excluded the group. The judge allowed for the possibility of a daily fine in case of non-compliance.The inquiry continues at the Public and Social Patrimony Prosecutor's Office, which this month obtained an order freezing the assets of people under investigation, according to city hall's own statement. The next steps are the 15-day court deadline for city hall to prove compliance with the ruling and the continuation of testimony in the prosecutors' inquiry.

Brazil's National Congress on Friday (August 28) installed the joint committee of deputies and senators that will review the provisional measure (MP) ending the so-called "blouse tax", the 20% import levy on international purchases of up to US$ 50 (about R$ 258) from e-commerce sites like Shein, Shopee and AliExpress. Deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG) will chair the committee, and Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF) will be its rapporteur, according to Folha de S.Paulo and G1.Lopes is part of the economic wing of the Workers' Party and helped steer the tax reform through Congress. Taking the chair, he called the exemption a matter of tax fairness and scheduled a meeting to present and vote the report on Monday (August 31)."Exempting up to US$ 50 is almost an international practice. It is a symmetry of rights. Those with more economic power buy US$ 1,000 in their luggage and US$ 1,000 at the mall [...] Does anyone think that those who pay the most tax have no right to shop internationally too?", the deputy asked.The rapporteur said she is "absolutely in favor" of the government's original text, but promised to hear the productive sectors that oppose scrapping the levy. Leila Barros said she will meet the government caucus this Friday. "We will talk, as calmly as possible, with everyone who has presented their views. It will be a task force on Saturday and Sunday", she said. Lopes told G1 he has "an open agenda to hear everyone" and did not rule out changes to the text.The committee was installed after pressure from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and a failed first attempt by the government to agree on its leadership. The breakthrough came on Wednesday (August 26) at a lunch at the Alvorada Palace between Lula and the speakers of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP). Alcolumbre, who recently moved closer to Lula after months of strained relations, guaranteed the measure "will not expire".The blouse tax was created by the Lula administration itself in 2024 and drew backlash from consumers, who said it raised the price of popular products sold on international platforms. Brazilian retailers, in turn, argue that the exemption creates unfair competition with domestic commerce. The issue carries popular appeal and has become central to Lula, who is running for a fourth term in October.The timetable is tight. The rapporteur's report will be presented and may be voted by the committee on Monday (August 31). On Wednesday (September 2), the measure is expected on the floor of both the Chamber and the Senate. It must be approved by September 8 or it lapses. If that happens, the 20% tax returns on September 9, less than a month before the first round of the election.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) on Thursday (27) named the rapporteurs for five bills the Lula administration considers a priority. The picks share two traits: all are allies of the president, and all are involved in the 2026 election campaign, CartaCapital reported.The bills will be reviewed during Congress's "esforço concentrado," a week of concentrated voting sessions scheduled for August 31 to September 4. The assignments came one day after Lula hosted Alcolumbre and lower house Speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) for lunch at the Alvorada Palace. At the meeting, the three agreed to move forward on ending the 6x1 work schedule (six days on, one day off), scrapping the "taxa das blusinhas" (a 20% import tax on international online purchases of up to 50 dollars), the critical minerals framework and the Public Security constitutional amendment.Allies in charge of the agendaThe clearest case is Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), rapporteur of the amendment that ends the 6x1 schedule and a candidate for governor of Amazonas with Lula's backing. Aziz had already been picked for the role by the Constitution and Justice Committee chairman, Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), on August 21. The Public Security amendment goes to Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE), who is running for reelection on Lula's slate in Sergipe. According to CartaCapital, the proposal should advance in committee during the voting week and may reach the Senate floor.The critical minerals bill, which covers rare earths, will be reported by Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM), a reelection candidate and Lula's preferred name in Amazonas. The provisional measure on the "blusinhas" tax goes to Leila Barros (PDT-DF), who is running for reelection in the Federal District on the PT ticket. The fifth bill is Redata, which grants tax breaks for data centers and is a priority of the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services. Its rapporteur will be Cid Gomes (PSD-CE), chosen by Lula for the PT ticket in Ceará.Blusinhas tax races the deadlineThe joint committee reviewing the measure that ended the blusinhas tax was installed on Friday (28), with Congressman Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG) as chairman and Leila Barros as rapporteur, G1 reported. Leila presents her opinion on Monday (31), and the committee may vote the same day. On Wednesday (2), the measure is expected to go to the floor of both houses."My schedule is open to listen to everyone," Reginaldo Lopes told G1. Leila Barros, who said she is "absolutely in favor" of the government's original text, told Folha de S.Paulo: "We will dialogue as calmly as possible with everyone who has spoken out. It will be a task force on Saturday and Sunday."Published in May, the measure must be approved by September 8. If no vote happens, the 20% tax returns on September 9, on the eve of the election. The issue was unblocked at the Alvorada lunch. "I make a commitment, as I did with Motta, with Brazil, which needs this measure in force, that next week, in the short time of the concentrated effort, we will deliberate, so it can be signed into law," Alcolumbre said, according to G1.The rapporteur assignments come as Lula and Alcolumbre mend ties. The relationship had soured after the nomination and Senate rejection of Jorge Messias for the Supreme Court. In recent weeks, the two resumed dialogue and have met at least three times, according to CartaCapital. Alcolumbre told Folha the blusinhas measure "will not expire" and praised Lula's "courage." Next week will test the deal: besides the tax measure, the 6x1 amendment is ready for a committee vote, and the Public Security amendment may reach the Senate floor.

Brazil's National Congress installed on Friday (28) the joint committee that will review the provisional measure ending the so-called "blouse tax", a 20% import duty on international purchases of up to US$ 50. Deputy Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG), from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party, was chosen to chair the committee, and Senator Leila Barros (PDT-DF) will serve as rapporteur, according to G1 and Folha de S.Paulo.The timetable is tight. According to Reginaldo Lopes, the rapporteur presents her report on Monday (31), and the committee may vote the text on the same day. On Wednesday (2), the measure is expected to go to floor votes in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The deputy said committee members will hear the productive sector despite the short deadline and did not rule out changes to the text. "My schedule is open to hear everyone", he said.Speaking to Folha, the committee chairman defended the exemption as "tax justice". "Exempting up to US$ 50 is almost an international practice. It is a symmetry of rights. Those with more economic power buy US$ 1,000 in their luggage and US$ 1,000 at the mall. Does anyone think that those who pay the most tax have no right to buy from abroad too?", asked the Workers' Party deputy, who was one of the negotiators of the tax reform in Congress.Rapporteur backs the government's textLeila Barros said she is "absolutely in favor" of the government's original text, but stated she will talk to representatives of productive sectors opposed to ending the charge. The senator told Folha she meets with the government's congressional base still on Friday. "We will dialogue as calmly as possible with everyone who has spoken out. It will be a task force on Saturday and Sunday", she said.The provisional measure, a type of executive decree in Brazil that requires congressional approval to remain in force, was published in May and must be approved by September 8 or it expires. Under the measure, the Finance Ministry gained authority to change import tax rates on international postal shipments, including cutting to zero the levy on purchases of up to US$ 50, about R$ 258. The tax, nicknamed for the cheap clothing bought on platforms like Shein, Shopee and AliExpress, was created by Lula's own government in 2024 and drew backlash from consumers. Brazilian retailers, in turn, argue that the exemption favors imports and creates uneven competition with local commerce.The measure was unlocked at a lunch on Wednesday (26) at the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence, between Lula and the heads of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP). Alcolumbre guaranteed the measure "will not expire". "We will deliberate, so it can be signed into law, for millions of Brazilians to have a better quality of life", the Senate president declared. The issue has popular appeal and is central to Lula, who is running for a fourth term.The next step is the rapporteur's report on Monday. If Congress does not vote on the measure by September 8, the 20% tax returns the following day.

The reelection campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) opened the first day of Brazil's free election airtime on television on Friday (28) with attacks on Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), his main rival in the race. According to Folha de S.Paulo, a 30-second spot shown during commercial breaks ties the right-wing candidate to the Banco Master scandal, to contract killers and to the rachadinha case, the illegal scheme in which politicians pocket part of their aides' salaries.The offensive pairs the TV spots with similar posts on social media and has two goals, Folha reports: to drive up the senator's rejection rate over the course of the campaign and to put him under pressure before the live interview he gives Friday night to Jornal Nacional, Globo's flagship newscast and the most-watched in the country. The material on the air brands the rival "the worst of the Bolsonaros". The PT campaign also launched a website dedicated to attack pieces against Flávio, encouraging visitors to share them on WhatsApp. Campaign members believe the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, may order the page taken down at some point, the newspaper said.The Jornal Nacional interview runs 40 minutes and is one of the biggest showcases of the campaign. Flávio Bolsonaro is the fourth candidate interviewed in the series. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão) and Lula himself have already sat at the anchor desk. Augusto Cury (Avante) closes the round on Saturday (29). The five were selected because they hold the highest vote intentions.Full program starts SaturdayThe short spots anticipate the full election program, which debuts Saturday (29) on TV and radio. According to Estadão, Lula's campaign will hold the largest share of the airtime, with 5 minutes and 31 seconds per day. Flávio will have 4 minutes and 20 seconds, Caiado 2 minutes and 2 seconds, and Cury 35 seconds. Presidential ads air on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.According to campaign members heard by Estadão, Lula's advertising was split into two fronts. The first defends the results of his third term, with themes such as jobs, health, education and national sovereignty, and compares the current administration with that of Jair Bolsonaro. The second exploits the rival's vulnerabilities: the rachadinha case, the senator's relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Banco Master, and the financing of the film Dark Horse. Part of the footage was recorded at a house in Lago Sul, an upscale Brasília neighborhood, with Lula wearing the panama hat that appears in his ballot photo. The campaign also produced pieces aimed at female voters, a segment in which Lula leads Flávio by 50% to 40% in a potential runoff, according to pollster Datafolha.Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign, in turn, plans to lead with the economy and public safety and, over the course of the program, attack the PT candidate over suspicions involving his son Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, and Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola, Estadão reports. The next chapter of the dispute comes Friday night, with Flávio's live interview on Jornal Nacional. On Saturday, Cury closes the interview round and the full election program goes on the air.

The FNDE (National Education Development Fund, the federal agency that buys school materials in Brazil) has not yet published the tender notice for producing braille textbooks for 2027. According to Abridef, the association representing the assistive technology industry, thousands of blind students in public schools will start the next school year without the material. It would be the second consecutive year of distribution failures under the Lula government.Producing a braille-ink book takes six to nine months, the association says. The timeline covers transcription, specialized review, relief printing and delivery to schools. Publishers consulted by Folha de S.Paulo say the tenders need to be published between May and July of the previous year for books to reach classrooms before February. That window is already compromised."It is an enormous contradiction. The government says it solved this year's problem, but the tender for 2027 has not been published, which puts the production of the material at risk once again," said Rodrigo Rosso, president of Abridef.Asked by the newspaper, the FNDE, an agency linked to the Ministry of Education, did not say when it plans to publish the tender. The agency said it is preparing a five-year document to cover different stages of the PNLD, the national textbook program. It also said budget funds are planned for the 2027 production and that active contracts exist for printing already transcribed materials for the final years of elementary school and for adult education.A repeat of the 2026 failureThe delay repeats this year's scenario. Blind and low-vision students started 2026 without the adapted books after production delays. Abridef called the episode "an unprecedented institutional and pedagogical crisis" and estimates that about 45,000 school-age students were affected. In May, G1 reported that the Ministry of Education had delivered less than 40% of the braille books planned for blind public school students in 2026.In July, when Folha showed that the slow publication of the tender threatened to leave students without the material again, the FNDE denied any delay. The agency said the publication followed the PNLD schedule and depended on earlier stages, mainly the selection of titles by school systems. Now, according to Abridef, the delay is a certainty. The next step belongs to the FNDE: without the tender, there will not be enough time to produce and deliver the books before classes begin in 2027.

Bruno Dantas, a minister of the TCU, Brazil's federal audit court that oversees public spending, has decided to resign. Under the court's mandatory retirement rule, he would only have to leave in 2053, when he turns 75. The news was first reported by Veja and confirmed by Folha de S.Paulo on Friday (28).Dantas has already told the TCU's president, minister Vital do Rêgo Filho, about his decision, according to Folha. A public announcement is expected in the coming days. The minister is moving to the private sector. Folha reports he is in talks with three companies, including a law firm with operations in Brazil and the United States. Veja says he is set to take command of Avibras, a missile and defense systems manufacturer founded in the 1960s that, after a financial crisis, is being acquired by the J&F group of brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista. Folha lists Avibras as one of the options under discussion.A Senate-appointed seatThe resignation opens a seat that Congress has the power to fill, since part of the court's nine positions are congressional appointments. This one belongs to the Senate. The upper house's president, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), has expressed interest in nominating senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSB-MG), a former Senate president, according to Folha. Veja also names Pacheco, whose term is ending, as the direct beneficiary of Dantas' departure.Pacheco was Alcolumbre's preferred name for the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court, but President Lula (PT) passed him over and nominated the attorney general, Jorge Messias, who was defeated in a Senate floor vote in April. After the episode, the senator from Minas Gerais announced he is leaving politics and will not run for any office this year.The timeline now depends on when the resignation is formalized. According to TCU members heard by Folha, if the departure is made official by next week, the Senate can vote on the replacement during the concentrated voting session scheduled for the week of August 31 to September 4, when Congress resumes voting after the election recess. Otherwise, the choice of the new minister will wait until after the October elections.

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees elections, will rule on Tuesday (September 1) on a lawsuit filed by the Workers' Party (PT) over an AI-generated video that reproduced the image and voice of former president Jair Bolsonaro. The video was shown at the PL party convention that confirmed Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the former president's son, as its candidate for president. According to Valdo Cruz's blog at G1, the justices are inclined to keep the ban on deepfakes in the campaign, but are split on whether to fine the candidate.The PT alleges irregular use of artificial intelligence and illegal early campaigning, according to Congresso em Foco. In the recording, an artificial version of Bolsonaro endorses his son and says, in one passage, that he is "imprisoned and silenced by an unjust decision". The former president is under house arrest after being sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison in the coup plot case, and is barred from publishing statements of a political-electoral nature, including through third parties.Justices heard by G1 on condition of anonymity point to two camps on the fine. One group favors the penalty, arguing that the material qualifies as a deepfake and could lead part of the public to believe the statement was authentic. The other holds that no sanction applies because the video was shown at a closed party event aimed mainly at convention delegates and party members. Talks are ongoing, and there is no final position on the specific case.Deepfake ban expected to standThe general ban in the electoral resolution is expected to be preserved. According to G1, that view holds a majority among the justices and has the support of the TSE president, Kássio Nunes Marques. The central criterion would be the degree of realism: punishable content is that capable of making voters believe something actually happened. Memes, caricatures, satirical montages and animations whose artificial character is evident would be treated differently.Congresso em Foco reports that Justice André Mendonça proposed this week that the full court adopt this criterion to guide similar cases. According to the outlet, Nunes Marques had earlier floated the idea of allowing a kind of "good AI", used without offensive content and outside negative campaigning, but the interpretation met resistance among his colleagues. The TSE resolution for the 2026 elections prohibits the use, to favor or harm candidacies, of synthetic audio or video content that creates, replaces or alters the image or voice of living, deceased or fictional people. The ban applies even with the authorization of the person depicted.Defense cites "technological puppet"Flávio Bolsonaro's defense argues that the use of the technology was not concealed and that the audience was told it was not a physical presence, a live broadcast or an authentic recording. The lawyers compare the device to masks, puppets and other representation tools historically used in political campaigns."There was only the creation of a technological puppet, everything with the proper disclaimers and notices, without any falsification or inducement to error, with an appeal that does not come anywhere near an explicit request for votes, asking the delegates to 'welcome with open arms the person I chose to replace me'", the defense said.Justices heard by G1 say the main focus of the ruling is not the former president's specific situation, but setting parameters that apply to any candidate or party using artificial intelligence in the campaign. The TSE session is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday (September 1), according to Congresso em Foco. The first round of the elections is set for October 4, with a possible runoff on October 25.

The news site Poder360 compiled on Friday (28) 12 photographs of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva alongside lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger. The images were posted by the businesswoman herself on her Instagram profile between 2018 and 2023. The compilation came out one day after Lula said, in a televised interview with TV Globo, that he did not know her.In the interview on Thursday (27), the president was asked about messages attributed to the lobbyist and to his eldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha. The answer was blunt."I don't know this woman. I have never seen this woman in my life. I have never spoken to this woman. She has never been close to me," Lula said. He also called her a "crook".In one of the images compiled by Poder360, posted on July 20, 2022, the lobbyist appears with Lula and the first lady, Janja Lula da Silva. The caption read: "Who has friends has everything". In October 2023, she posted another photo with the president to wish him a happy birthday. A check by G1's Fato ou Fake fact-checking unit found at least three photographs and one video of the two together.Lula's campaign released a statement on Friday in response to the fallout. "President Lula is a public figure who, throughout his career and especially during campaigns and public events, is approached by countless people for photographs. The existence of these records does not mean a personal, professional or political relationship," the statement says. It concludes: "Lula has no relationship with Roberta Luchsinger and has never had any dealings with her."The Federal Police inquiryRoberta Luchsinger is a friend of Lulinha and is under investigation by the Federal Police in an inquiry into illegal deductions from pensions paid by the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. According to InfoMoney, the businesswoman and the president's son are investigated on suspicion of influence peddling in the government. In its investigation, the police identified payments from the lobbyist to the Presidency's then chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola.According to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo picked up by Poder360, messages obtained by the police show that Luchsinger asked Marcola to pressure the Health Ministry's executive secretary, Swedenberger Barbosa, to close a purchase of dengue test kits. The negotiations took place in late 2024 and the first half of 2025, when the lobbyist was also trying to sell cannabidiol-based products to the ministry. Neither contract was signed. Marcola's defense says he "never brokered negotiations" at the Health Ministry, and Lulinha's defense said it cannot attest to the authenticity of the messages.Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) reacted on X with a video contrasting Lula's statement with the photos. "Lying is all he knows," he wrote. According to InfoMoney, the opposition began exploiting the issue on social media right after the interview. The Federal Police inquiry remains open under seal, and the episode joins the campaign repertoire on the road to the first round in October.

Justice Flávio Dino, of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF), said on Friday (28) in Salvador that an excessive leading role for the judiciary is not desirable. He made the remarks during a lecture to students at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), according to Folha de S.Paulo."It is true that we have an overprotagonism of the judiciary. And it is true that this is not desirable," Dino said. He went on to argue that the court should not back down under pressure and must keep protecting fundamental rights."The Supreme Court should not stand at the center of the square [Brasília's Three Powers Square], but it also cannot run out of the square, as if it were fleeing, cornered, afraid of those who feel wronged by its decisions. If the Supreme Court runs away, there is nothing left there today to guarantee compliance with the Constitution," the justice said.Dino said the challenge is to redesign the space the judiciary occupies in Brazilian politics without harming the democratic rule of law. In his view, part of the judiciary's action responds to structural problems that the other branches of government have not solved. He cited STF rulings on family rights, indigenous health, the prison system, police lethality and environmental protection. He added that the courts can set targets, establish deadlines, monitor the execution of measures and demand public policies from the other branches through what Brazil calls structural cases, a type of lawsuit used to address systemic rights violations.Rapporteur's budget amendmentsDino is the rapporteur of ADPF 854, a constitutional case dealing with the expansion of the so-called rapporteur's amendments, a controversial congressional budget mechanism. He said the cases are "almost ready to be judged" and defended a broad debate on the issue. A decision on the future of the amendments now depends on the case being judged by the full bench of the STF.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will forecast a surplus of R$18 billion to R$20 billion in its 2027 budget proposal. Planning and Budget Minister Bruno Moretti gave the figures in an interview with Folha de S.Paulo. According to him, this is the effective result of the public accounts, calculated after counting all the exceptions that allow spending outside the limit set by the fiscal framework, the spending rule known as arcabouço."With or without spending containment, the accounts I run today deliver me a full primary surplus with public policies working, a real increase in the minimum wage, Bolsa Família and the health and education funding floors. We have a balanced budget again," Moretti told Folha.The exact figure will be announced on Monday (31), when the Executive branch sends Congress the PLOA, the annual budget bill, for 2027. It will be the first budget of the next president's term, which begins in January after the October election. In an interview with Valor Econômico, Moretti also said the bill provides for an increase of about 20% in discretionary spending, the portion of the budget the government can allocate freely, unlike mandatory items such as pensions and the Bolsa Família cash transfer program.The projected range is an improvement over the positive R$8 billion forecast in April, when the government sent Congress the 2027 budget guidelines bill, which sets the fiscal effort target for the year. Earlier, according to the portal Terra, the minister had already said the government will post a fiscal surplus in 2027 even counting the exceptions to the target.Most favorable proposal since 2015An effective surplus has been a central demand of critics of the Lula administration's fiscal policy. In recent years the government met its target with the help of exceptions written into law. The final balance, without those mechanisms, is what specialists call a "real" surplus. A primary surplus means revenue exceeds spending before interest payments, helping cover the cost of the public debt and avoiding new borrowing.With these values, according to Folha, the 2027 proposal is set to be the most favorable for the public accounts since the 2015 budget bill, sent in 2014, which projected a surplus of R$86 billion in values of the time.The constitutional deadline for submitting the budget bill ends on Monday (31). After submission, the text goes to Congress's joint budget committee, which must vote on it by the end of the year before it can be signed into law.

Fernando Haddad (Workers' Party) and Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) opened the free campaign airtime on Brazilian television this Friday (28) with sharply different strategies in the race for São Paulo's state government. Haddad brought President Lula onto his program and attacked the incumbent's record. Tarcísio, who is seeking reelection, centered his debut on the rebuilding of São Sebastião, a coastal town hit by deadly rains in 2023, and did not mention Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, his main political sponsor in the race, according to G1. The horário eleitoral gratuito is the block of mandatory campaign ads that TV and radio stations must carry by law. Tarcísio's first program, with no campaign jingle and an emotional soundtrack, devoted almost all of its time to testimony from survivors of the rains that left 65 dead on São Paulo's northern coast in February 2023, about two months after the governor took office. The Republican appeared back in the town wearing a Civil Defense vest and became emotional as residents whose homes were rebuilt thanked him. "Here, we understood what it means to give of yourself, we understood what it means to serve," the reelection candidate said, according to Estadão. Attacks on the governor and Lula's endorsement Haddad's ad opened with blindfolded voters sitting in front of a television, a reference to the idea that part of the population fails to see the state's problems under the current administration. The former finance minister accused his rival of offering "lies" and "crumbs" to the population and said Tarcísio "has diminished São Paulo," according to Estadão. The ad blamed the governor for cuts to essential services, setbacks in education and lost ground to organized crime, while also citing a record in femicides, the Cracolândia drug district and the state's privatizations. As a counterpoint, the PT program showed endorsements from Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), running mate Márcio França (PSB) and Senate candidates Simone Tebet (PSB) and Marina Silva (Rede), Estadão reported. The campaign recalled the creation of the Prouni scholarship program, the expansion of federal universities and institutes and the income tax exemption for those earning up to 5,000 reais a month. The ad closed with a jingle in sertanejo style, the country-music genre associated with the rival political camp, G1 noted. Tarcísio will have 6 minutes and 20 seconds of TV airtime, more than double Haddad's 2 minutes and 40 seconds, according to the São Paulo Regional Electoral Court (TRE-SP). The gap reflects the size of each coalition: eight parties back the governor, against five for the PT candidate. The broadcast order of the programs was set by a TRE-SP draw. The free airtime runs until October 1, with short inserts also airing during commercial programming, according to Estadão. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

Justices of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) see little chance that former banker Daniel Vorcaro will sign a new plea bargain, according to an R7 report published this Friday (28). The assessment inside the court is that the former controlling shareholder of Banco Master, which was liquidated by the Central Bank, is unlikely to turn his defense team's new push into a ratified deal.Vorcaro's lawyers are trying to make a third cooperation proposal viable. According to CNN Brasil, the team was reinforced with criminal lawyer Daniel Bialski and requested a hearing with the case rapporteur at the STF, Justice André Mendonça. The lawyers also asked for authorization to meet their jailed client for up to six hours a day. The strategy is to restart the relationship with the rapporteur from scratch, after friction between Mendonça and lawyer José Luís de Oliveira Lima, known as Juca, which sources describe as one of the causes of the first plea attempt's collapse.Mendonça has already signaled distance. On August 14, the justice told ICL Notícias that he does not negotiate plea bargain conditions with Vorcaro's lawyers. Investigators interviewed by the same outlet said on August 20 that they would only reopen negotiations for a complete plea deal, with a commitment that the former banker will not lie again.The two previous attempts collapsed. Gazeta do Povo reported in July that the Prosecutor-General's Office (PGR) and the Federal Police decided to end negotiations on the deal then on the table. On Sunday (23), Folha de S.Paulo reported that the Federal Police will refuse Vorcaro's new plea proposal.Deposition to the Federal PoliceThis Friday, Vorcaro testified for four and a half hours to the Federal Police, by videoconference, in the inquiry into whether he benefited former Central Bank supervisors Paulo Sérgio Neves de Souza and Bellini Santana during oversight of Master, according to G1. In a statement, the defense said the former banker answered the questions "clearly and consistently" and maintained that there was no act of corruption involving the civil servants.Vorcaro has been in pretrial detention since March. He had already been arrested in November 2025, in the first phase of Operation Compliance Zero, and released days later by decision of the 1st Region Federal Appeals Court. The next steps now lie with the institutions. The Federal Police planned to conclude the inquiry into the Master frauds and indict the former banker, and it is up to Mendonça to decide whether to grant the defense the requested hearing. Any new plea bargain would first require acceptance by the Federal Police and the PGR before it could reach the STF for ratification.

Federal lawmaker Aécio Neves (PSDB) announced on Friday (28) that he will run for the Senate in Minas Gerais on the ticket of Alexandre Kalil (PDT), the former Belo Horizonte mayor who is running for governor of the state. The announcement was made at a press conference at the PSDB headquarters in Belo Horizonte, alongside party allies, according to the newspaper O Tempo. The seat only opened up because the PDT withdrew its own candidate.On Wednesday (26), Marcelo Heringer (PDT), brother of the party's state leader Mário Heringer, dropped out of the Senate race. On Thursday (27), Gustavo Galassi (PSDB) followed. Each had polled at 1% in the latest Quaest survey, according to Estado de Minas. With both withdrawals, Aécio will be the only Senate candidate of the PSDB-Cidadania federation on Kalil's ticket. Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-largest electoral college, will fill two of its three Senate seats this year.The move was brokered by the parties themselves. On Wednesday, the PSDB-Cidadania federation and the PDT published a joint note urging Aécio to enter the race. The text, signed by Mário Heringer and by lawmaker Paulo Abi-Ackel, the PSDB president in Minas, cited requests from mayors, council members and state deputies and ended with an appeal:"Aécio, listen to this call. Minas needs you in the Senate."Aécio, a former governor of Minas Gerais and the national president of the PSDB, had said on August 4 that he would not run for any office and would focus on leading his party. On Friday, he explained the reversal. "I return to the game, I return to the electoral race, out of responsibility to Minas Gerais and with the awareness that I can, indeed, help Minas face and overcome its very serious difficulties. Let the people say what they think of this decision", he said, according to Estado de Minas. If elected, he said he plans to form a "Resistance Caucus" in the Senate to bring together indebted states and press for the renegotiation of Propag, the federal fiscal recovery program for state debts.The alliance marks a turnaround for Kalil. In 2022, he ran for governor alongside President Lula (PT). This year, he rejected a new deal with the PT and closed a coalition with the PSDB instead. Two weeks ago, in an interview with UOL, Kalil acknowledged the electoral interest behind the agreement: "If we don't have a senator, we will lose television time", he said, referring to Brazil's regulated free airtime for campaigns. On Friday, Aécio dismissed any contradiction in the partnership and invoked Tancredo Neves, his grandfather and a defining figure of Minas politics: "If we were apart in the past, nothing prevents us from being together today".The swap is allowed because Brazilian electoral law permits candidate substitution in cases of withdrawal up to 20 days before the vote. According to Estado de Minas, the final deadline is September 14. The election is scheduled for October 4.

Voters who identify as anti-Bolsonaro are the most willing to consult the government programs of presidential candidates. That is the finding of an exclusive breakdown of the BTG/Nexus poll published on Friday (28) by columnist Mônica Bergamo in Folha de S.Paulo. In that group, 68% say they intend to seek information about the candidates' electoral proposals. According to Folha, the breakdown defines anti-Bolsonaro voters as those who plan to vote for President Lula (PT), who is seeking a fourth term, in order to keep Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, from winning. The government-program figure was published only by Folha. Other outlets that covered the poll, released on Monday (24), did not detail that breakdown. The survey was conducted by the Nexus institute by telephone between August 21 and 23, with 2,006 voters across the country's 27 federation units. The margin of error is two percentage points. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's electoral authority, under code BR-09028/2026, according to CartaCapital. A tight race between Lula and Flávio The same poll shows the two main rivals in a technical tie, both in vote simulations and in rejection rates. According to Congresso em Foco, 49% of respondents say they would never vote for Lula, while 48% say the same about Flávio Bolsonaro. In a runoff simulation, the president has 46% of voting intentions and the senator, 45%. Another 8% would cast a blank or null ballot or vote for neither, and 1% did not answer. In the first round, CartaCapital reports Lula with 41% of voting intentions, against 37% for Flávio Bolsonaro in the main scenario. With Pablo Marçal (PRTB) in the race, the figures are 40% and 34%. Marçal registered his candidacy despite being ineligible. The TSE has registered 13 presidential candidacies, according to G1. The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins an absolute majority of valid votes, a runoff will be held on October 25.

Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça has signaled to aides that he sees no room for a truce with the Federal Police amid tensions surrounding the investigations targeting businessman Fábio Luiz Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, President Lula's son. The information comes from Folha de S.Paulo, in a report published this Friday (28). No other outlet has confirmed the reporting so far.The court's president, Edson Fachin, is following the crisis with concern and is trying to prevent an escalation. According to Folha, he told interlocutors it is his duty to preserve institutions and that he is discreetly seeking dialogue with everyone involved. Last week, Fachin met with the Federal Police director-general, Andrei Rodrigues, and with Justice Minister Wellington Lima e Silva, in meetings one interlocutor described as "hearings to smooth over differences".Mendonça is the rapporteur-justice in charge of the inquiries at the STF, Brazil's Supreme Court. According to the report, he complains about Federal Police delays in the probes into fraud at the INSS, the national social security institute, and sees an attempt to keep the investigations from reaching allies and relatives of President Lula, who is running for reelection in 2026. A judge close to Mendonça described the mood behind the scenes at the court as "a rush to lower the temperature".On the other side, the Federal Police leadership sees interference by the rapporteur-justice in the force's autonomy. One point of friction, according to Folha, is his order that any change in the team of investigators be communicated to him in advance. Police officials say the request to open three lines of investigation against Lulinha and an operation against Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), in the Banco Master case, show there is no political use of the probes. They also say Mendonça took less time to authorize measures against Wagner than against allies of former president Jair Bolsonaro, such as PP party chairman Ciro Nogueira and former Rio de Janeiro governor Cláudio Castro.The Banco Master case, one of the sources of the friction, kept moving this Friday. Former banker Daniel Vorcaro, in pretrial detention since March, testified to the Federal Police by videoconference for four and a half hours in the inquiry into suspected favoritism by Central Bank employees, according to G1. His defense said he answered every question and denied any act of corruption.For now, no truce is in sight. Fachin continues discreet talks with both sides, while Mendonça remains in charge of the inquiries as rapporteur. The next steps depend on the justice's decisions and on the progress of the police investigations, in a standoff the court is trying to keep from getting worse.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's reelection campaign has decided to hold back the "TariFlávio" nickname, coined by the Workers' Party (PT) to tie Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the race's main opposition candidate and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, to the tariff hike the United States imposed on Brazilian goods. According to Poder360, the campaign's immediate priority is to press the senator's relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, the jailed founder of Banco Master.The nickname will not appear in Lula's debut in the free election advertising slots on TV this Saturday (29), nor in the first programs, Poder360 reports. Under Brazil's election rules, candidates get free airtime proportional to their parties' size in Congress, and Lula holds the largest share. The president will present government achievements and attack his rival over the "Dark Horse" film episode, a biopic of Jair Bolsonaro whose financing was negotiated with Vorcaro. On radio, the campaign has already aired an adaptation of the viral "Osmarzinho" jingle linking Flávio to the banker's money, according to UOL.The "Osmarzinho" hitThe PT version of the song spread on social media this week. The Instagram profile "Lulaverso" posted a video with the jingle, which supporters then replicated, reported Sonar, O Globo's internet trends blog. The lyrics mention the R$ 61 million financing negotiated with Vorcaro for the film about Jair Bolsonaro, cash deposits at a chocolate shop linked to the senator, the purchase of a R$ 6 million mansion in Brasília and the self-imposed exile of Eduardo Bolsonaro, the senator's brother, in the United States. They also cite the "rachadinha" salary-splitting suspicions in Flávio's office, a case in which the accusations were shelved."Who asked Daniel Vorcaro for R$ 61 million to make a film about his father? It was Flávio Bolsonaro! Who had several cash deposits at the chocolate shop? It was Flávio Bolsonaro! Who is on the run in the United States because he could be arrested if he returns to Brazil? It's Eduardo, Flávio's brother!"The original jingle dates back to 2016, from the mayoral campaign of Osmar Vieira, known as Osmarzinho, in Cocal dos Alves, a town of 6,300 people in Piauí state. Elected on the PT ticket, he governed the town from 2017 to 2024. The song resurfaced in recent weeks, and the former mayor obtained a court order to take down posts using the hit, according to O Globo."TariFlávio" saved for laterThe nickname emerged during the escalation of U.S. tariffs this year and has been used by the PT on social media. The party even prepared different responses depending on the outcome of negotiations with Washington, Poder360 found. Defending national sovereignty will be one of the campaign's themes, a strategy the Planalto palace adopted in the second half of 2025 under Secom minister Sidônio Palmeira. In that period, Lula's approval reached 51% and surpassed disapproval for the first time.The backstory feeds the attack. In 2025, congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro backed the first tariff package announced by Donald Trump, arguing that economic pressure could help secure amnesty for former president Jair Bolsonaro, convicted for plotting a coup. The stance drew criticism from right-wing allies, including São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas and Flávio himself. The PT campaign also plans to exploit the senator's latest trip to the United States, where he took part in a public hearing held by the USTR, the U.S. trade office, asked Washington to postpone the 25% tariff until after the Brazilian election and advocated negotiating with a future government of his own.Lula debuts in the TV election slots this Saturday (29). The first round is set for October 4, and the "TariFlávio" line of attack is being kept for a later stage of the race, according to Poder360.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the party's candidate for president, promised to replace Brazil's current fiscal framework, known as the arcabouço, with a new spending cap if elected, at a dinner with bankers and business leaders on Thursday night (27) in São Paulo. The gathering brought together 14 financial market executives and was hosted by Marcelo Kayath, former head of Credit Suisse Brasil, according to SBT News.According to Valor Econômico, the candidate presented an outline of his government platform and named three priorities for a potential administration: public security, fiscal discipline and political coordination with Congress. The guest list published by SBT News includes Luiz Carlos Trabuco (Bradesco), Milton Maluhy (Itaú), Gilson Finkelsztain (Santander), Roberto Campos Neto (Nubank), Fábio Barbosa (Natura) and Pedro Parente (BRF), among others. Businesswoman Dani Marques also attended.According to SBT News, the senator's team argued for scrapping the arcabouço and bringing back the teto de gastos, a constitutional ceiling on federal spending, claiming that the Lula government had rendered the spending-limit rule meaningless. The judicial recovery filings of the Habib's restaurant chain and retailer Casas Bahia were cited as symptoms of the economic moment. Columnist Graciliano Rocha at UOL reported that Flávio promised to end the current framework and create a new mechanism to control public spending.Jokes about cabinet posts and the Central BankIn a joking tone, executives floated Dani Marques and Kayath as possible chiefs of staff and finance ministers, respectively, SBT News reports. Flávio was called "more fortunate" than his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), for having "two oil wells" instead of just "one Ipiranga gas station", a reference to former economy minister Paulo Guedes. The senator also joked that Roberto Campos Neto would get a third term at the Central Bank. The former monetary authority chief replied that he prefers to stay on Nubank's board.Guests interviewed by SBT News stressed that the dinner did not amount to a formal endorsement of the campaign, but a chance to hear the proposals. The meeting nonetheless marks a shift in the sector's stance toward the senator. In May, after the scandal involving the film "Dark Horse" and banker Daniel Vorcaro, few executives agreed to meet him publicly.The dinner took place right after Flávio's trip to Alagoas, where he held motorcade events in Maceió and in the state's countryside. With just over a month to go before the first round, a PoderData poll cited by SBT News shows Lula with 45% and Flávio with 44% of voting intentions in a potential runoff. The senator's campaign has not yet detailed how the promised new spending cap would work.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a candidate for president, refused on Friday (28) to explain where the money given by former banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, went in the film Dark Horse, a biography of his father. In an interview on TV Globo, after the Jornal Nacional newscast, the senator called his relationship with Vorcaro private and said he saw nothing irregular in the case."There is absolutely nothing wrong with a son seeking private financing for a film about his own father", he said, according to Folha de S.Paulo. "Once again: all the sponsorship that went into the film was used in the film. It was a good-faith sponsorship. There is nothing irregular."Flávio reduced the film's accounting to a private audit hired by the production company itself. He said "everything has already come out" and called the case a "closed book". He refused to show the contract with Master, the expense spreadsheet and the list of other investors. According to a G1 report, the auditor hired by the producer had no access to the American fund that received Vorcaro's money and presented no invoices, no transfer receipts and no trace of the path taken by R$ 75 million (about US$ 14 million).Message to Vorcaro and a R$ 61 million requestIn May, the website The Intercept Brasil revealed messages and audios in which the senator asks Vorcaro for R$ 61 million to bankroll the film. In the interview, Flávio did not explain what he meant when he wrote to the banker "I am and will always be with you". "The only relationship I had with him was about this film, nothing else", he said, according to G1. "I did not want that work of art to be lost. It was a dream coming true."Asked about the visit he paid Vorcaro in late 2025, when the banker was already jailed and wearing an ankle monitor, the candidate gave no direct answer and aimed his criticism at President Lula (PT). "What is not appropriate is a president of the Republic receiving a banker in a secret meeting, promising to help him solve his bank's problem. The one who owes explanations is Lula", he said. According to Folha, Flávio also said he had defended creating a CPI, a congressional inquiry, into Master so that the government's former leader in the Senate, Jaques Wagner (PT), would have to explain himself.The senator again attacked his father's conviction by the Supreme Court and Brazil's electronic voting system. According to G1, he did not answer whether he will respect the election result in case of defeat. "He was tried by his enemies", he said of Jair Bolsonaro, sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison for attempting a coup d'etat.The Master case remains under investigation. Vorcaro is in jail and is being investigated by the Federal Police for money laundering, corruption and criminal organization, among other crimes. Flávio's interview was the fifth in the Jornal Nacional series with presidential candidates, which ends on Saturday (29) with Augusto Cury. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a candidate in Brazil's October presidential election, said on Friday (28) there is "absolutely nothing wrong" in his relationship with Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master who is now in jail. He made the statement in an interview with TV Globo, conducted by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli and aired live after the network's flagship newscast. In the same interview, he said his brother, former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, made a mistake when he thanked US President Donald Trump for the tariffs imposed on Brazil, and he avoided answering directly whether he would accept the election result if he loses.The Master case and the 'Dark Horse' filmIn May, audio recordings revealed that Flávio asked Vorcaro for R$ 61 million (about US$ 11 million) to fund Dark Horse, a film about his father. "That was a sponsorship, there was no transfer to Flávio Bolsonaro," the senator said, according to G1. Asked about a message in which he told the banker "I will always be with you," he answered: "The only relationship I had with him was about this film, nothing else."The candidate said he demanded the production company present its accounts within 30 days and that it did so before the deadline, including to a São Paulo Civil Police investigation. According to G1's reporting, however, the auditor hired by the producer had no access to the US fund that received Vorcaro's money and presented no invoices, transfer receipts or the path taken by R$ 75 million. Flávio has not made the film's cost spreadsheets or the contract public.Asked whether it was appropriate to have visited Vorcaro in late 2025, when the banker was already jailed and wearing an electronic ankle monitor, the senator did not answer directly and turned the criticism to President Lula. "What is not appropriate is a president of the republic receiving a banker in a secret meeting, promising to help him solve his bank's problem. The one who owes explanations is Lula," he said. Vorcaro is under Federal Police investigation for money laundering, corruption and criminal organization, among other crimes.Tariffs and Eduardo BolsonaroOn the US tariffs on Brazilian products, Flávio blamed the Lula government and defended his brother, but acknowledged a mistake. "He never asked for tariffs on Brazilian companies. He was wrong to offer thanks regarding the tariffs. The work he did was to raise awareness, and the decision was made by the American government," he said, according to Poder360. When the tariffs were announced, Eduardo posted on X that Trump's letter confirmed "the success in conveying" the information he had been presenting to US officials. The former congressman has lived in the United States since early 2025 and was convicted by Brazil's Supreme Court of coercion during legal proceedings, for trying to interfere in criminal cases involving the former president.Asked about the credibility of Brazil's electronic voting machines, the PL candidate said: "I am not questioning the electronic voting machines. I will respect the electoral process, I will respect the election result." When the interviewers asked again whether he would accept a defeat, Flávio did not answer directly, said he will win in the first round and appealed to the more than 32 million voters who did not show up at the polls in 2022, Poder360 reported.The senator also criticized his father's conviction by the Supreme Court to 27 years and 3 months in prison for attempted coup d'etat after the 2022 election. "A great farce was set up" to "take Bolsonaro out of public life," he said. "He was judged by his enemies." On General Mario Fernandes, who confirmed he wrote the document planning the assassination of Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio answered: "If that general planned it, the responsibility is his."Flávio Bolsonaro's interview was the fifth in TV Globo's series with the six candidates best placed in the Quaest poll released on August 14. The round ends this Saturday (29) with Augusto Cury (Avante), after the evening newscast.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and his party's candidate for president, was interviewed on Friday night (28) on Jornal Nacional, the flagship newscast of TV Globo. Anchors César Tralli and Renata Vasconcellos questioned him live from the Estúdios Globo in Rio de Janeiro, in a series with the six presidential candidates best placed in the Quaest poll of August 14. He faced questions on electronic voting, the Banco Master sponsorship of a film about his father, Jair Bolsonaro's conviction at the Supreme Court and his economic plans.Asked about his past criticism of Brazil's electronic voting system, Flávio pledged to accept the outcome. "I want to tell all of you that I will respect the electoral process, I will respect the election results. I am running under these rules", he said. According to BBC News Brasil, the senator admitted he spoke "mistakenly" in July when he told foreign diplomats that Brazilian voting machines were made by the Venezuelan company Smartmatic, a claim the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) had already denied.His ties to Daniel Vorcaro, the former owner of the liquidated Banco Master who is in jail on suspicion of billion-real fraud, took up a central part of the interview. Flávio said the R$ 61 million sponsorship for Dark Horse, a film about his father, was made in "good faith" and compared it to other investments by the banker. "It is the same kind of private relationship of a banker who invested R$ 160 million in a Luciano Huck show here at Globo", he said, according to CNN Brasil. Pressed to release the sponsorship contract and a spending spreadsheet, he answered that "everything has already come out in the press" and that no public money went into the film. The Federal Police is investigating whether the bank's funds were actually used in the production.On his father's conviction for attempted coup, Flávio called the Supreme Court trial a "farce" and said Jair Bolsonaro was judged by his "enemies", naming justices Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino and Cristiano Zanin, according to BBC News Brasil. "I am the only candidate who can put the institutions back in their proper place", he said, without detailing how.Fiscal adjustment and his brother in the USOn the economy, the candidate promised a fiscal adjustment without touching pensions or the minimum wage appreciation policy. "There is no need to save money on the backs of retirees", he said, according to Folha de S.Paulo. He defended cutting ministries, political appointees and taxes. "I will run a lean government, reduce the number of ministries, cut bureaucracy, slash taxes", he said. Folha reported that he avoided questions about the level of public debt under his government.Flávio also addressed the role of his brother, former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, in the United States. "I think he was wrong to give thanks over the tariffs", he said, referring to Eduardo's public thank-you to Donald Trump after the 2025 tariff hike on Brazilian goods. He denied his brother influenced the American decision. "The decision was made by the American government", he said, according to CNN Brasil.The Jornal Nacional series ends on Saturday (29) with writer Augusto Cury. Next week, Quaest releases a new presidential poll that will measure the effects of the interview week.

Brazilian pollster Quaest will release a new presidential voting intention survey next Wednesday (September 2). The poll was commissioned by Globo and the newspaper O Globo, according to G1. The questionnaire, registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), includes two first-round scenarios: one with 12 candidates and another with 13.The difference between the two scenarios is Pablo Marçal (PRTB). The influencer is currently ineligible but registered his candidacy anyway, and the Electoral Court has yet to decide whether he can run. In Quaest's previous poll, released on August 14, the PRTB name tested was Leonardo Avalanche, who did not score. Avalanche is now Marçal's running mate. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, also appears in the questionnaire, alongside President Lula (PT) and ten other names.These are the candidates included in the 13-name first-round scenario:Clariana Barão (DC)Edmilson Costa (PCB)Augusto Cury (Avante)Flávio Bolsonaro (PL)Hertz Dias (PSTU)Lula (PT)Pablo Marçal (PRTB)Renan Santos (Missão)Romeu Zema (Novo)Ronaldo Caiado (PSD)Rui Costa Pimenta (PCO)Samara Martins (UP)Wilson Grassi (Democrata)According to data Quaest filed with the TSE, 2,004 people aged 16 or older will be interviewed between August 30 and September 1. The margin of error is two percentage points, plus or minus, with a 95% confidence level. The poll was registered with the electoral court under number BR-07065/2026.Runoff scenarios and other topicsQuaest will also simulate five possible runoff scenarios, all against Lula: Flávio Bolsonaro, Renan Santos, Romeu Zema, Ronaldo Caiado and Augusto Cury. The questionnaire also measures voter interest in the election and perceptions of the candidates' personal traits.The survey also covers approval and disapproval of the Lula government, how voters rate the economy, and questions about the "Dark Horse" and Lulinha investigations, involving respectively the film about Jair Bolsonaro financed by banker Daniel Vorcaro and the president's eldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva.Results will be released on Wednesday (September 2). Until then, the Electoral Court's decision on Marçal's candidacy registration remains pending, a ruling that will determine whether the PRTB name stays in future poll questionnaires.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, each hold a lead beyond the margin of error in seven states in the first round of Brazil's presidential race. That is the picture from a series of Quaest polls released between Monday (24) and Thursday (27) across 23 states and the Federal District, compiled by G1. In nine other states the two are in a statistical tie, including the country's three largest electorates: São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro.All seven of Lula's clear leads are in the Northeast, his party's traditional stronghold. According to Quaest, the president leads comfortably in Bahia (50% to 17% for Flávio), Maranhão (58% to 20%), Paraíba (50% to 21%) and Alagoas (44% to 29%), and also ahead in Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte and Sergipe. Flávio Bolsonaro holds his widest margins in Roraima (54% to 17%), Santa Catarina (45% to 20%), Mato Grosso (43% to 26%), Acre (42% to 25%) and Paraná (41% to 23%), plus leads in Espírito Santo and Rondônia.A statistical tie where most voters liveThe race is open where most of the electorate is concentrated. In Minas Gerais, Flávio has 31% and Lula 30%, within the margin of error, while the state's governor, Romeu Zema (Novo), polls 7% on his home turf. In the Federal District, Lula appears with 28% and Flávio with 26%. G1 reports that São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Mato Grosso do Sul, Amazonas, Amapá and Tocantins also show a statistical tie between the two front-runners.Goiás is the only state where a third candidate sits numerically on top. Governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) has 32%, in a statistical tie with Flávio Bolsonaro at 27%, with Lula at 20%. According to G1, the margin of error is two percentage points in the São Paulo survey and three points in the others. Quaest has not yet polled Ceará, Pará and Piauí.What comes nextThe first round is scheduled for October 4. Free campaign advertising on radio and TV, a fixture of Brazilian elections, began this Saturday (29), with airtime split among Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro, Caiado and writer Augusto Cury (Avante). Quaest said it will release a new national poll next week, according to G1, with scenarios expected to test other names in the race.

Brazil's Labor Prosecutor's Office (Ministério Público do Trabalho, MPT) has received 223 complaints of electoral harassment in the workplace in 2026, according to an updated tally published by G1. August, still underway, accounts for 95 reports: 42.6% of the total and more than double the 46 recorded in July. The increase coincides with the official start of the campaign on August 16, when candidates became allowed to ask for votes and advertise on the streets and online. The figures represent complaints filed with the MPT, not proven cases. Reports came from all 26 states and the Federal District. São Paulo leads in absolute numbers, with 29 complaints, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 21, and Pernambuco, with 14. Minas Gerais and Pará have 13 each. From January to July, the tally shows 128 reports: 25.5% above the 102 received in the same period of 2024 and 16 times the eight recorded in 2022. For Prosecutor-General of Labor Gláucio Araújo de Oliveira, closer coordination between agencies and easier reporting channels explain part of the growth. He expects, however, new complaints as this year's race hardens. "Presidential elections are more polarized than municipal ones, so the trend is that our action this year will be more intense than in the last elections," Gláucio told G1. Promises, threats and recent convictions Promises of pay raises in exchange for votes and threats of dismissal are among the forms of pressure cited by the prosecutor-general. In the public service, political choice can also draw threats of removal from office or loss of bonuses. In Eldorado, São Paulo state, mayor Noel Castelo da Costa (Solidariedade) was ordered to pay R$ 30,000 in collective moral damages after intimidating a civil servant associated with the opposition, according to the MPT. The first-instance ruling allowed an appeal. There are heavier precedents. In January 2024, retailer Havan and its owner, Luciano Hang, were convicted in first instance to pay R$ 85 million for electoral harassment during the 2018 presidential campaign. According to the MPT, the businessman questioned employees about their voting intentions and suggested he could lay off 15,000 people depending on the result. Hang denied wrongdoing, and the case was closed through a settlement in February 2025. In July 2024, the regional labor court TRT-15 upheld the conviction of Química Amparo, owner of the Ypê brand, over an online talk during the 2022 campaign that the court considered an attempt to persuade employees to vote for the reelection of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The company denied any coercion and said at the time it would appeal. The harassment does not need to come from the company owner, explains Rodrigo Trindade, an assistant judge at the presidency of the Superior Council of Labor Justice (CSJT). Conduct by managers and other hierarchical superiors also qualifies. "A single act can indeed constitute electoral harassment. Electoral harassment does not require a series or continuity of practices to be established," he told G1. The pressure is not limited to the physical workplace either. Federal prosecutor Nathália Mariel Ferreira de Souza Pereira points to messaging groups that employees must join to receive work instructions. "Everyone has their freedoms of thought, politics and expression, but the workspace, the space where this worker is naturally vulnerable, must be respected," she said. Informal workers, such as delivery riders pressured to display candidate stickers, can also be victims, she added. "The fact that the work is informal does not mean harassment cannot happen in that context as well," she said. With the campaign open and TV and radio election advertising starting this Saturday (29), the prosecutor-general expects the office's action to intensify through the vote in October. The MPT will keep receiving complaints throughout the race, and the August tally may still grow, since the month is not over.

A series of Quaest polls released this week across 23 Brazilian states and the Federal District shows that disapproval of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government exceeds approval in 15 of the 24 jurisdictions surveyed. The figures were compiled by G1.Maranhão, in the Northeast, is where Lula posts his highest approval: 66%, against 27% disapproval. In the same poll, the president draws 57% of first-round voting intentions in the state, against 20% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), his main challenger. At the other end, Roraima and Santa Catarina give the government its worst numbers, with just 28% approval each. Disapproval reaches 66% in Roraima and 69% in Santa Catarina.Northeast leads, South and Southeast lagAccording to G1, the Northeast is Lula's strongest region. Beyond Maranhão, approval tops 50% in Pernambuco (62%), Paraíba (61%), Rio Grande do Norte (60%), Sergipe (60%), Bahia (59%) and Alagoas (52%). The South-Southeast axis forms a low-approval bloc: São Paulo records 37% approval and 58% disapproval; Minas Gerais, 41% and 52%; Rio de Janeiro, 40% and 51%; Paraná, 36% and 60%; Rio Grande do Sul, 38% and 55%; and Espírito Santo, 41% and 53%. In the Federal District, which includes the capital Brasília, 39% approve and 55% disapprove.Disapproval also prevails in most of the remaining states. Goiás shows 33% approval and 58% disapproval; Mato Grosso, 36% and 55%; Acre, 36% and 57%; Rondônia, 35% and 56%; and Mato Grosso do Sul, 39% and 55%. Exceptions outside the Northeast are Amazonas, with 54% approval, and Tocantins, with 49% approval against 44% disapproval. Amapá is split: 46% approve and 47% disapprove.The state-level surveys carry a margin of error of three percentage points, except São Paulo, where the margin is two points, according to G1. Quaest has not yet polled in Ceará, Pará and Piauí.Next pollQuaest will release a new national voting-intention poll on Wednesday (2), commissioned by Globo and the newspaper O Globo. It will interview 2,004 people between August 30 and September 1, with a two-point margin of error, according to its filing with the Superior Electoral Court. The questionnaire again measures approval and disapproval of the Lula government. Brazil holds the first round of its general election in October.

The PL, the party of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, posted the largest wealth growth of any Brazilian party in the 2026 elections. According to a survey by G1 based on data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the assets declared by the party's 1,636 candidates total R$ 4.9 billion, up 184% from the R$ 1.7 billion recorded in 2022. That is an increase of R$ 3.2 billion in four years, with the number of candidates nearly unchanged: there were 1,629 in the last election.Across all parties and offices, declared wealth this year reaches R$ 31.1 billion (roughly US$ 6 billion), 30% above the R$ 23.9 billion of 2022. The asset list is a mandatory self-declaration filed with electoral authorities when a candidacy is registered. Candidates report real estate, vehicles, stocks and financial investments, among other items, and may declare the purchase price of an asset instead of its current market value. As of this article's publication, only G1 had released a full cross-analysis of the TSE data by party.With the jump, the average wealth of PL candidates rose from R$ 1 million to R$ 3 million, and the party climbed from seventh to second in the average-wealth ranking. The wealth is concentrated, though. Just twelve candidates account for half of the party's declared assets, about R$ 2.5 billion, while 319 declared they own nothing at all.The largest fortune in the party belongs to Luiz Osvaldo Pastore, a businessman and first alternate on the ticket of Senator Eduardo Gomes (PL-TO), who is running for reelection. Pastore declared R$ 677.7 million and is the third wealthiest candidate in the country. Next is Wilson Picler, an alternate on the Senate ticket of former prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol (Novo-PR) in Paraná, with R$ 478.7 million declared. Nearly half of that comes from his stake in the international university center Uninter, which he founded.Biggest proportional rise belongs to the Democrata partyThe largest proportional increase went to Democrata, formerly the Brazilian Woman's Party (PMB). Even with 396 fewer candidacies than in 2022, its total declared assets jumped from R$ 164 million to R$ 702 million, a 328% rise. Two candidates for state deputy in Minas Gerais, Antonio dos Reis Gonçalves Lerin and Sérgio Cassemiro, drove the result: together they declared R$ 533 million, 76% of the party's total.In the average-wealth ranking, the leader is the PRTB, the party of influencer Pablo Marçal, which has only 12 candidates and R$ 663.6 million combined. At the other end, the PCB has the lowest average, with 23 candidates and R$ 4.1 million in total. The Workers' Party (PT) of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ranks 20th, with an average of R$ 714,000 for each of its 1,103 candidates.In absolute terms, the five largest party totals are:PL: R$ 4.9 billion (1,636 candidates)MDB: R$ 3.3 billion (1,409 candidates)PSDB: R$ 2.6 billion (1,070 candidates)PSD: R$ 2.5 billion (1,129 candidates)Republicanos: R$ 2.5 billion (1,301 candidates)The declarations remain available for public consultation on the TSE's website. The first round of the election takes place in October, when voters decide the presidency, the 27 state governments and seats in Congress.

The Democracia Cristã (DC) party has nominated 39-year-old lawyer Clariana Zacarkim Barão as its candidate for the presidency of Brazil in the 2026 elections. The decision ends a streak of six consecutive presidential bids by José Maria Eymael, the party's founder and longtime leader, as reported by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.This marks the first time that Barão is running for public office. She currently serves as the party's state president in Mato Grosso. Her running mate will be fellow lawyer Fabiana Torquato, forming an all-female ticket. Eymael, a former federal deputy between 1986 and 1995 and a member of the assembly that drafted Brazil's 1988 Constitution, chose to step back from frontline campaign duties.Speaking at the party convention, the candidate addressed the transition:"I do not feel intimidated by the weight of the office. I am an honorable woman of firm principles, who values family and does not negotiate with dishonesty."In documents submitted to Brazil's electoral authorities, Barão declared assets totaling 1.8 million reais (approximately 346,000 dollars). According to records from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), 74 percent of her declared net worth consists of a property valued at 979,500 reais and a vehicle worth 376,000 reais.The ticket will run under ballot number 27 among 13 registered presidential candidates, according to TSE records. The first round of voting is scheduled for October 4, with candidate registrations still pending final validation by electoral judges.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro began their free airtime television and radio campaign broadcasts on Saturday. Both front-runners in the presidential race adopted moderate tones, directing their opening pitches toward undecided, centrist voters.The campaign broadcast for Flávio Bolsonaro positioned the Liberal Party candidate as a family-focused figure. The 45-year-old senator emphasized his generational contrast with the 80-year-old incumbent. References to his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, were minimal. The broadcast touched on household debt, business challenges, and public safety issues, Folha de S.Paulo reported.The campaign of Lula focused primarily on social programs and government achievements. Before the main program aired, his campaign ran short clips recalling past legal inquiries involving the Rio de Janeiro senator. The primary segment then emphasized cost-of-living relief and economic welfare measures.The cautious approach reflects a standard campaign strategy in Brazilian presidential races. Political consultants typically avoid heavy early attacks on broadcast television to prevent immediate backlash among swing voters.Free campaign broadcasting continues on television and radio stations across the country through late September. Brazilian voters head to the ballot boxes on October 4 for the first round of the presidential election.

Senator Sergio Moro (PL) leads the race for governor of Paraná with 37% of voting intentions, according to the first Quaest poll commissioned by RPC and released on August 24. State lawmaker Requião Filho (PDT), running with the backing of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), comes second with 21%. Federal lawmaker Sandro Alex (PSD), the candidate of incumbent governor Ratinho Junior, has 15%. The margin of error is three percentage points in either direction.A former judge in the Car Wash (Lava Jato) corruption probe and former justice minister under Jair Bolsonaro, Moro holds just over 49% of valid votes, according to G1. Within the margin of error, he could win outright in the first round. The lead repeats the results of the institute's previous surveys in April and July, as reported by Folha de S.Paulo.Ratinho's high approval does not turn into votesThe poll lays bare Governor Ratinho Junior's (PSD) difficulty in transferring his popularity. He has a 79% approval rating and a 68% positive evaluation, and 65% of voters say he deserves to elect his successor. Still, only 15% say they will vote for his pick. According to Quaest, 62% of Paraná voters do not know Sandro Alex, and just 21% know he is the governor's candidate."The data shows that Ratinho Junior has political capital to transfer, but that transfer has not happened yet. The 'problem', therefore, is not rejection of his government, but the lack of association between that legacy and Sandro Alex", Felipe Nunes, Quaest director and professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told G1.Ratinho Junior settled on a successor late. In March, the governor dropped his own pre-candidacy for the presidency to focus on the state race, and Sandro Alex, a former infrastructure secretary, was only announced on April 13. In the meantime, two allies left the PSD and launched pre-candidacies for other parties. Former Curitiba mayor Rafael Greca joined the MDB and ended up as Sandro Alex's running mate, announced on July 31. State lawmaker Alexandre Curi moved to the Republicanos party and is running for the Senate. "Without a doubt, Rafael Greca has a consolidated track record and is a name with far stronger political capital than Sandro Alex", Nilton Sainz, who holds a doctorate in political science from the Federal University of Paraná, told G1.For Karolina Roeder, a political scientist from the Federal University of Paraná and professor at Uninter, choosing a name unknown to voters reflects an "already won" mood inside the governor's camp. "At several points he keeps trying to attach himself to Ratinho Junior. But that leaves him without a face, without his own identity. And voters need to get to know him, not Ratinho Junior", she told G1.Five other candidates are in the race. According to Folha, cultural producer Tayná Miessa (Unidade Popular) and lawyer Luiz França (Missão) scored 1% each, while Alexandre Salomão (Mobiliza), Adriano Funileiro (PCO) and Professor Samuel Mattos (PSTU) did not register. The contest remains open: undecided voters and those who may still change their minds add up to more than 60% of the electorate, according to G1. Free campaign advertising on TV began on Friday (28) and runs until October 1, on the eve of the first round. If there is a runoff, the programming returns between October 9 and 23.

Rio de Janeiro has 2,017 registered candidates for the 2026 general election, the lowest number since 1998 and a 45% drop over eight years, according to an analysis by G1 based on data from the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court. The state had 3,695 candidates in 2018, the record for the historical series, and 2,785 in 2022.Most are running for a seat in the state legislature, the Alerj. There are 1,168 candidates for state deputy, 57% of the total, and 783 for federal deputy, 38%. The survey also counts 16 candidates for the Senate, 9 for governor, 9 for vice governor and 16 for each of the two Senate alternate seats.Party rules explain the declineG1 links the drop to three changes in Brazil's party structure: a smaller number of parties, the creation of party federations and new rules for proportional races. In legislative elections, parties and federations can register candidates up to 100% of the seats in dispute plus one. When parties join a federation, they share that cap instead of fielding full slates of their own. Federations were created in 2021 and applied for the first time in 2022.The performance clause, created by Constitutional Amendment 97/2017, reinforced the trend. In 2026, parties must win at least 2.5% of the valid votes for the Chamber of Deputies, spread over at least one third of the states with a minimum of 1.5% in each, or elect at least 13 federal deputies in at least one third of the federation units. Parties that fall short lose access to public party funding and free radio and TV time."With fewer parties, because they merged or formed a federation, the tendency is to have a smaller number of candidates," election lawyer Fabricio Souza Duarte, who holds a master's degree in public law, told G1.For Duarte, the decline makes races less competitive for newcomers to party politics. "There is a great concentration of power in the hands of the party leadership, which directly interferes in the competitiveness of candidates who have no influence in that circle," he said. He also pointed to mandatory congressional budget amendments, which expand the ability of incumbents to build support among mayors and city council members.Who the candidates areOf all registration requests, 67% are men and 33% are women. In proportional races, the law requires each gender to hold between 30% and 70% of the candidacies. The largest age group is 50 to 54, with 372 candidates, followed by 45 to 49 (344) and 55 to 59 (274). Together, the three brackets account for 990 people, about 49% of the total. There are 13 candidates aged 21 to 24 and two aged 90 to 94.More than half of the candidates, 51%, identify as Black or mixed-race. On education, 48% have completed a university degree and another 11% attended college without graduating.The registration requests still face review by the electoral courts, which can approve or reject each candidacy. The first round of voting is scheduled for October 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Saturday (Aug 29) that Congress will approve next week the proposed constitutional amendment (PEC) that ends the 6x1 work schedule, under which Brazilian workers can be rostered six days on with only one day off. He spoke at the campaign event Mulheres com Lula (Women with Lula) in Belo Horizonte.Lula framed the change as time won back for family life:"We will approve this week the end of the 6x1 scale so that women and men have more time to take care of their own lives, more time to care for their children, more time for leisure and more time to date as well," Lula said, according to Brasil de Fato.According to the newspaper Correio Braziliense, the president called the bill "sacred" for his government. In the same speech he said that no foreign government will "meter o bedelho" (meddle) in the country and pledged to spend every minute of a possible fourth term leaving young Brazilians "better informed and better paid".The bill, PEC 221/2019, is before the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ). The rapporteur, Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), filed a vote in favor on Thursday (Aug 27) and rejected the 12 amendments offered by senators. That keeps the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies on May 27, whose first signatory is Congressman Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG). According to Correio Braziliense, the committee is set to review the bill on Wednesday (Sept 2), and the government expects the committee and the full floor to vote on the same day.What the bill changesThe amendment cuts the legal maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours, a cap set by the 1988 Constitution, and guarantees two paid rest days per week with no salary cut. Implementation is gradual: two months after promulgation the limit drops to 42 hours, and after 12 months it reaches 40 hours. The text preserves collective bargaining agreements, including special regimes such as the 12x36 schedule (12 hours on, 36 hours off), and allows exceptions for workers with higher salaries and university degrees. The Senate's news agency notes that Chile, Colombia and Mexico have already cut or approved cuts to their workweeks in recent years.Saturday's event targeted women voters, who make up 52.84% of the national electorate, about 83.9 million voters, according to the Superior Electoral Court. First lady Janja, Senate candidates Marília Campos (PT) and Áurea Carolina (PSOL), Minas Gerais gubernatorial candidate Patrus Ananias (PT) and the government's Senate leader Teresa Leitão (PT-PE) attended. It was Lula's second trip to Minas Gerais since the campaign began. In a Real Time Big Data poll released on Thursday, Lula had 46% of second-round vote intentions in the state against 44% for Flávio Bolsonaro (PL); with a two-point margin of error, the two are statistically tied.The next step is the CCJ vote, scheduled for Wednesday (Sept 2). On the floor, the bill needs 49 votes, three fifths of the Senate, in two rounds. The measure was declared a priority at a Wednesday (Aug 26) meeting between Lula, Senate President Davi Alcolumbre and Chamber President Hugo Motta. Once approved, the amendment is promulgated in a solemn session of the National Congress.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) lands in Salvador on Friday (28) to boost the reelection campaign of Bahia governor Jerônimo Rodrigues and to try to contain the spread of the so-called "LuNeto vote", Folha de S.Paulo reports. The term describes voters who back Lula for president while choosing ACM Neto (União Brasil), a former Salvador mayor and Lula's main rival in the state, for governor.The event, branded "Sextou com Lula" (roughly "Friday with Lula") by the campaign, gathers at 4 p.m. at Largo do Guarani, in the Liberdade neighborhood, a predominantly Black district of Salvador, and proceeds on foot to the Plano Inclinado, according to Jornal Grande Bahia. Joining Jerônimo are his running mate and vice governor, Geraldo Júnior, and former governors Jaques Wagner and Rui Costa, both running for Bahia's two Senate seats. It is Lula's second trip to the state in a month, Folha says, and his first campaign stop in Bahia since the official campaign period began, on the same day free TV and radio election advertising debuts, Rádio Itatiaia notes.The trip reflects the Workers' Party strategy of a combined Lula-Jerônimo vote. The campaign wants to nationalize the state race and turn it into a choice between projects for and against the president, Folha reports. The governing coalition, built around the Brasil da Esperança federation (PT, PCdoB and PV), promotes the ticket under the label "Lula's team in Bahia", Jornal Grande Bahia reports.The playbook mirrors 2022. That year, Jerônimo took 52.8% of the vote and beat ACM Neto in a runoff, while Lula won 72.1% in Bahia and defeated Jair Bolsonaro by a margin of more than 4 million votes in the state. The gap between the two results measures the scale of split-ticket voting, which four years ago gained ground in Salvador and mid-sized cities in the interior, according to Folha.This year the combined vote has spread on social media, with jingles and comedy sketches openly advocating the "LuNeto vote". ACM Neto, meanwhile, has avoided attacking Lula on the trail, Folha says. The latest Quaest poll on the race put Neto at 39% of first-round voting intentions and Jerônimo at 37%.The Liberdade walk opens Lula's weekend of street campaigning. On Saturday morning (29), the president attends the National Women with Lula Meeting in Belo Horizonte, at 10 a.m., Itatiaia reports. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

Candidates running for Brazil's Senate in the October 2026 elections are using interests such as the Bible, military police officers, agribusiness and the Apple Watch to target ads on Facebook and Instagram. That is the finding of the study "O eleitorado sob medida" ("The tailor-made electorate") by NetLab, the internet and social media research lab at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), reported by g1 based on Meta's Ad Library.Of the 24 Senate campaigns that used this type of targeting, the 12 classified by the study as opposition to the federal government made 312 interest selections. The 12 grouped in the government's base made 208. Together, the two blocs accounted for 520 selections spread across 294 categories, which the researchers grouped into 13 themes. The split between government base and opposition was made by NetLab based on the candidates' public statements and positions.The tool lets campaigns ask Meta to show their ads more often to users the platform associates with certain interests, behaviors or demographic profiles. According to g1, this does not mean only the selected audience will see the ad, nor that the interest reflects a real trait of the person. An ad flagged as aimed at users interested in "Apple Watch", for example, only indicates that Meta associated that user with the topic.Opposition targets varied niches; government base focuses on politicsAmong pro-government candidates, targeting concentrated on politics, a theme used by 8 of the 12 campaigns analyzed, and on interests tied to activism, education and organized civil society. The group made no selections in the religion and theology category. The opposition used all 13 macrocategories in the report, with emphasis on agribusiness, militarism, family and consumption. The largest gaps between the two groups were:Agribusiness: 59 selections by the opposition, against 14 by the government base;Security forces and militarism: 48 by the opposition, against 11 by the base;Religion and theology: 31 by the opposition, against none by the base;Activism, education and civil society: 10 by the opposition, against 44 by the base;Politics: 16 by the opposition, against 36 by the base.Among opposition candidates, Alexandre Curi (Republicanos-PR) ran the most diversified strategy: he used 12 of the 13 macrocategories and made the most targeting selections. His ads targeted users associated with premium electronics such as the Apple Watch and the MacBook Pro, with merchants, and with people linked to pastors and the Bible. Zequinha Marinho (Podemos-PA) focused on agribusiness and family, with interests such as agriculture, fertilizer, dairy cattle, parenthood, the Bible and patriotism. Bruno Scheid (PL-RO) made 17 selections tied to religion and theology, while Mariana Carvalho (União-RO) made 15 tied to security forces and militarism, such as military police officers.Débora Salles, NetLab UFRJ's general coordinator, cautions that the opposition's numerical lead does not prove its campaigns are technically superior:"Although the report presents evidence that opposition candidates used the targeting feature in a more diversified way, it is not possible to say this activity is more sophisticated or more effective. The survey measures the quantity and diversity of the categories selected for audience targeting, but we have no way to gauge the performance of these strategies"g1 located ads by Vander Loubet and Alexandre Curi in the Ad Library, but Meta only discloses data at the advertiser level, which makes it impossible to link each individual ad to the interests selected by the campaign.Monitoring is set to gain weight in this election. According to NetLab UFRJ, Meta will be one of only two platforms, alongside Kwai, to formally allow political-electoral advertising in Brazil in 2026. The lab said it will analyze the digital political advertising ecosystem throughout the entire campaign period, up to the October vote.

The social media accounts of presidential candidate Renan Santos (Missão) spent more than ten days of the campaign outside the filter that Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) requires platforms to apply to candidates' profiles. The story was reported by Folha de S.Paulo, so far the only outlet to cover the case. In practice, Renan's Instagram, YouTube and TikTok accounts could be recommended to users who do not follow him, while his rivals' accounts remained restricted.Under a TSE rule from 2024, platforms must exclude profiles declared by candidates to the electoral courts from their recommendation algorithms. In practice, that prevents a network from showing a candidate's posts to people who do not follow the account.Renan Santos registered his candidacy on August 7 and declared only his profile on X (formerly Twitter) and a website, according to Folha. The campaign officially began on August 16. Three days later, on August 19, the candidate's legal team asked the court to include the other accounts.The request stalled. Until early Thursday evening (27), the profiles remained outside the TSE database and the candidate's official page on DivulgaCand, the court's public registry of candidates. According to Folha, the case moved only after the newspaper contacted the court on Thursday afternoon. At 7 p.m., a document certifying the request to add the accounts was attached to the case.Electoral advertising rules require profiles to be reported when the candidacy is registered. Accounts created during the campaign must be reported within 24 hours. Pre-existing profiles not reported on time can only be used in the campaign 48 hours after registration with the electoral courts. Folha contacted Renan Santos' campaign and received no reply.The next step lies with the platforms. Even with the TSE database updated, applying the filter to Renan's accounts depends on each social network updating its own systems. Until then, the Missão candidate keeps a recommendation reach his rivals do not have. The first round of the election is on October 4.

Free campaign airtime on radio and TV for the first round of Brazil's 2026 elections begins this Friday (28) without a final word from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees Brazilian elections, on the limits for using artificial intelligence and deepfakes in the race. According to G1, the court's full bench is expected to rule on the issue next week.The broadcast window runs Monday through Saturday until October 1, three days before the first round. This Friday's programs feature candidates for the Senate, state deputy and governor. Presidential ads start on Saturday (29). Under the time split calculated by the TSE, the coalition backing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) gets 5 minutes and 31 seconds per block, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) gets 4 minutes and 20 seconds, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) gets 2 minutes and 2 seconds, and Augusto Cury (Avante) gets 35 seconds. Romeu Zema (Novo) and Renan Santos (Missão) received no network time because their parties fell short of the performance threshold set by a 2017 constitutional amendment.Current TSE rules ban deepfakes, meaning videos, images or audio manipulated by AI to simulate the speech or actions of real people, when the tool is used to benefit or harm candidates. On Tuesday (25), TSE vice-president André Mendonça proposed that the court debate a thesis on the reach of that ban for the 2026 elections. The dispute gained traction after the PT filed a case against the PL and Flávio Bolsonaro over an AI-made video shown at the party's national convention in July.Where the parties standG1 asked the five main parties fielding presidential candidates about the issue. The PT said its leaders treat the use of AI in the campaign with caution and will wait for the TSE's position, expected next week, before setting its strategy. The PL did not respond, but Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign did: in its view, electoral law cannot aim to ban technologies, and the TSE resolution, as the campaign reads it, "does not prohibit the use of artificial intelligence in electoral advertising, but disciplines its use and imposes a transparency criterion". The ban would apply, the team said, only when the tool is used to create and spread what it called qualified falsehood.The Novo party defended the free use of generative AI in campaigns and drew a line between the technology in general and deepfakes. In a statement to G1, the party said: "There is no problem at all in using artificial intelligence in the campaign for the most diverse purposes. Zema himself uses it frequently, including in the satirical series 'Os Intocáveis'. But it is clear that, in the case of deepfakes, without the consent of the person portrayed and with the goal of deceiving the voter, it should not be allowed".The Missão party said it favors AI use, arguing the technology cuts costs for parties without large structures, and called it an "excess" the rule that bars synthetic content reproducing a person's image or voice even with authorization and labeling. The PSD, which launched Ronaldo Caiado's presidential bid, did not reply to G1.The next move belongs to the TSE. The full bench is expected to rule next week on the limits for AI use in the campaign, with radio and TV advertising already on the air. Broadcasts run until October 1, and the first round is set for October 4.

A group of five economists presented on Thursday (27) a proposal to reform Brazil's pension system that would unify the minimum retirement age at 67 for men and women and split workers' contributions into two accounts, one of them invested in financial markets under a capitalization regime. The document will be delivered to the presidential candidates, according to Folha de S.Paulo and Poder360.The group was organized by Arminio Fraga, a former central bank president under Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and coordinated by Paulo Tafner, an economist who took part in the debate over the 2019 pension reform. Leonardo Rolim, Rogério Nagamine and Sérgio Guimarães also signed the text. "Done in a broader way, as we propose, there will be no need to discuss new reforms so soon," Tafner told Folha.The diagnosis is demographic. Pension spending today equals 8% of GDP. Without new changes, it would reach 13% in 2070 and 17.4% in 2100, according to the study. With the reform, it would stabilize at around 10% of GDP by the end of the century. Rolim, who headed the INSS, Brazil's federal social security agency, between 2020 and 2021 and served as pension secretary under Jair Bolsonaro, told Poder360 that the population aged 65 or older has doubled since 2001, while the working-age population grew 30%.What would changeThe proposal gradually raises the minimum retirement age from the current 65 for men and 62 for women to 67 for both, in urban and rural areas, and creates an automatic trigger: the age would rise four months for every six-month increase in life expectancy. Congress rejected a similar mechanism in the 2019 reform. Women would receive a credit of 1.5 years of contributions per child, biological or adopted, capped at five children."In Brazil, women retire earlier as compensation for the so-called double shift. That is inadequate, because women do not become unable to work earlier than men," Rolim said.In the deepest change, pension contributions would be split equally into two accounts. Half the balance would be invested in financial markets, under a capitalization regime. The other half would be adjusted according to the variation of the total wages paid in the country. The transition for some items would take up to 30 years.The document is a technical proposal and is not before Congress. Part of the changes would require a constitutional amendment, known in Brazil as a PEC. Rolim said he sees no difference in the chances of approval whether Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) or Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) wins the October election, and noted that Flávio's campaign coordinator, Senator Rogério Marinho, was special secretary for pensions and labor in the Bolsonaro administration. The next step is delivering the text to the presidential campaigns, which will decide whether to include the reform in their government programs for 2027.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party, PT), who is running for reelection, was interviewed on Thursday (27) by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli at Globo's studios in Rio de Janeiro. The interview aired live right after Jornal Nacional, the network's flagship newscast, and was the fourth in a series with the six best-placed candidates in the Quaest poll released on August 14, according to G1.Lulinha and MarcolaAsked about Federal Police investigations into suspected corruption and influence peddling involving his son Fábio Luiz Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, Lula said he will not interfere. "I will not remove any Federal Police officer, I will not make any move on behalf of my son," he said. "If Fábio committed any offense, he will have to pay like any Brazilian citizen." The president called the accusations against his son "conjecture" and said he is sure he will be cleared. "There will not be a millimeter of movement from the Presidency to protect my son."Lula was also asked about payments made by lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger to Marco Aurélio Ribeiro, known as Marcola, a former chief of staff at the Presidency. "It is not appropriate, it is totally wrong. And Marcola knows the mistake he made, because that is not the role of a chief of staff," he said. The president called the lobbyist a "crook," said he does not know her and argued that the messages obtained by police do not prove a crime. "What we need to know is this: did this woman manage to release the money she said she was after? Is there proof of public money? Because that is where the crime is," he said, according to G1. As reported by Estadão, he summed it up: "He was someone I fully trusted, he made the mistake, he pays the price."On the fraud scheme at INSS, the federal agency that pays pensions and benefits, Lula said his government acted to punish those responsible and reimburse retirees and pensioners. "We made a point of putting those people in jail, we made a point of paying what was owed," he said, according to Estadão. Asked about the Banco Master case and Senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA), the president said there is a "more serious" case that is being "silenced," without elaborating.Public accounts and the postal serviceOn the economy, asked whether he plans to cut mandatory spending, as Finance Minister Dário Durigan advocates, Lula did not specify any expenses and guaranteed the country will post a surplus. "The deficit was 2.8%. The last one was 0.8% and now it will be positive. We will have a surplus," he said. He said he wants a "technological revolution" in an eventual new term, with investment in artificial intelligence, critical minerals, rare earths and defense. "I have already ended hunger twice. That is why I am seeking a fourth term."Lula also ruled out privatizing Correios, the state postal company, which has posted four straight years of losses and a record shortfall of R$ 15 billion. "I do not consider selling Correios, I do not. I want to recover Correios," he said, while acknowledging the company "did not adapt to a new era." According to G1, the candidate also addressed the growth of organized crime in recent decades and the quality of high school education.Globo's interview series continues on Friday (28) with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and ends on Saturday (29) with Augusto Cury. The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Thursday (27), in an interview with Globo, that his former chief of staff Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola, was wrong to ask lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger for money. In the sit-down with journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli on Jornal Nacional, Globo's flagship newscast, the reelection candidate also said his son Fábio Luiz Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, will pay like any citizen if he committed wrongdoing, and defended "taking back territory" now controlled by organized crime, according to G1.The Marcola case"It is not adequate, it is totally wrong. And Marcola knows the mistake he made, because that is not the role of a chief of staff," Lula said of the lobbyist's payments to his former aide. According to G1, the president acknowledged that the episode "generates distrust" and drags suspicion into the Planalto Palace, the seat of Brazil's presidency.According to CNN Brasil, Lula said he believes, for now, the loan version: "He said he took out a 249,000-real loan, that is what is in the press, only he knows the truth. When there is a confrontation hearing between the two, we will know whether there was a loan or not. For now, I believe he asked for a loan." He added: "Now it is this: he made the mistake, he will pay for the mistake. He was a person I trusted completely."The Lulinha caseThe Federal Police are investigating Lulinha and the lobbyist on suspicion of corruption and influence peddling, in inquiries before the Supreme Court, according to CNN Brasil. Asked about it, Lula said he will not interfere: "I am not a prosecutor, I am not a police investigator, I am not a judge. If Fábio committed any wrongdoing, he will have to pay like any Brazilian citizen." He added: "I will not remove any Federal Police investigator, I will not make any move for my son. There will not be a millimeter of movement from the Presidency to protect my son."Lula called the accusations against his son "conjecture" and compared the case to what he himself faced in the Lava Jato (Car Wash) operation, which put him in prison before his convictions were overturned. "He knows that Marisa died because of the false accusation made against me in Lava Jato. So he had an obligation not to have made the mistake," he said, referring to former first lady Marisa Letícia, who died in 2017.The president also called Roberta Luchsinger a "con artist" when commenting on the messages obtained by the Federal Police, and denied knowing her: "I do not know this woman, this woman was never close to me." About the message in which the lobbyist said Lula offered her a government post, he shot back with irony: "The only thing missing was her saying I offered her the Defense Ministry, the command of the Navy and the Air Force." For Lula, phone conversations alone do not prove a crime: "What we need to know is this: did this woman manage to release the money she said she was after? Is there proof of public money? Because that is where the crime is."Organized crimeAccording to G1, Lula also spoke about the growth of organized crime in Brazil over recent decades and said he wants to "take back territory" controlled by criminals. The interview was part of a Jornal Nacional series with the six best-placed candidates in the August 14 Quaest poll.The series continues on Friday (28) with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's main rival in the race, and ends on Saturday (29) with Augusto Cury. The Federal Police investigations into the lobbyist, Lulinha and the payments to Marcola remain open at the Supreme Court, with no deadline announced for completion.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party, PT) said on Thursday (27) that the accusations against his son Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, are "conjecture". He made the remarks in an interview with TV Globo, Brazil's largest network, broadcast live from the Globo Studios in Rio de Janeiro after the Jornal Nacional newscast."They are conjectures, conjectures and conjectures taken from phone calls", Lula said, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The president said his son must defend himself and guaranteed there will be no government interference in the investigation. He also accused the Federal Police of leaking information to the press. "I know this very well because I have lived through it", he said, referring to the Car Wash corruption probes that targeted him in the past.Criticism of former chief of staffLula also criticized the conduct of his former presidential chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Ribeiro, known as Marcola. According to the investigations, businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger paid R$ 217,000 in credit card bills, a vehicle loan and other expenses of the former aide. He says the money was loans."It is not appropriate, it is totally wrong, and Marcola knows the mistake he made, because that is not the role of a chief of staff."The president said he believes Marcola's account that the payments were loans, but demanded answers from his former aide: "Why didn't he talk to me? I told him: 'man, I am almost like a father to you.' Did he make a mistake? He will pay for the mistake he made."Asked about Luchsinger's phone messages in which Lulinha is mentioned, Lula called the lobbyist a "pilantra", a Portuguese word for a crook. "What can a crook do on a phone, or anyone on a phone? The fact that a conversation was picked up on a phone justifies absolutely nothing", he said. About the businesswoman, he added: "I do not know this woman. She has never been near me. A hustler is the same anywhere in the world."Luchsinger's ties to the Planalto presidential palace remain under Federal Police investigation. The Lula interview was part of a TV Globo series with the six best-polling presidential candidates ahead of the October election. The series continues on Friday (28) with senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL).

Former Salvador mayor ACM Neto (União Brasil) and Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT) are in a statistical tie in the race for governor of Bahia, Brazil's fourth most populous state. A Quaest poll released on Thursday (27) puts Neto at 39% of voting intentions and Jerônimo, who is seeking reelection, at 37%, according to Folha de S.Paulo and InfoMoney.The remaining candidates trail far behind. Ronaldo Mansur (PSOL), Ariel Capistrano (DC), Aroldo Felix (UP) and Maria Bona (PCO) each scored 1%. Blank and null votes plus abstentions add up to 8%, while 12% of Bahia voters say they are undecided.The survey was commissioned by TV Bahia and registered with the Electoral Court under number BA-06206/2026. Quaest interviewed 900 voters in person between Sunday (23) and Wednesday (26). The margin of error is three percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level.Runoff scenario also tiedIn a simulated runoff, the picture holds. Neto leads Jerônimo 44% to 41%, Folha reports, with 9% undecided and 6% saying they would cast a blank or null ballot. In the previous poll, released on July 27, the former mayor had 43% against the governor's 39% in that same scenario.In the Senate race, where Bahia voters will pick two names this year, former governor Rui Costa (PT) leads with 23% of mentions across both seats. Senator Jaques Wagner (PT) has 17%, followed by former minister João Roma (PL) with 7% and Senator Angelo Coronel (Republicanos) with 5%. Blank and null votes total 20% and undecided voters 22%, according to InfoMoney.The first round of Brazil's general election is set for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, Neto and Jerônimo will face off in a runoff on October 25.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the PL party's candidate for president of Brazil and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, announced on Thursday (27) that he will meet on Sunday (30) with Gustavo Villatoro, El Salvador's justice minister, to discuss public security policies. The announcement came during the candidate's weekly livestream on YouTube, according to G1 and InfoMoney."Villatoro is simply the justice minister of El Salvador, a country that stood out worldwide for having practically zeroed out crime, a place that was dominated by criminal gangs of drug traffickers, much like what happens here in Brazil today," Flávio said during the broadcast."El Salvador's homicide rate was 128 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world. It was one of the most violent countries in the world. Today that rate is below 2 per 100,000 inhabitants. El Salvador became one of the safest countries, and that is why we say it is indeed an inspiration for what we intend to do here in Brazil on public security," the senator added.The government of Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador since 2019, has been cited as a security reference by right-wing candidates in Brazil. Besides Flávio, Renan Santos (Missão) and Romeu Zema (Novo) have also praised the Salvadoran model, according to G1. Bukele's measures, however, draw criticism: the country built megaprisons and jailed thousands of people without warrants under a state of emergency. The Salvadoran government faces accusations of human rights violations, as InfoMoney notes.New names on the campaignThe livestream featured Daniella Marques, former president of state-owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal and the campaign's economic coordinator. According to the candidate, the team gained economist Adriano Pires, a former director of the National Petroleum Agency (ANP), and Adolfo Sachsida, a former mines and energy minister. Flávio also said the team includes "eight PhDs in economics".In the same broadcast, the senator again criticized the tax reform approved in 2023. He called the estimated 28% rate of the future value-added tax (IVA) "worrying". "There cannot be a good tax reform that raises taxes, it has to cut taxes," he said, according to InfoMoney.The meeting with Villatoro is set for Sunday (30). Before that, Flávio promised to announce another campaign team name on Friday (28). The candidate did not disclose the location or the agenda of the meeting with the Salvadoran minister.

The campaign of senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a candidate for president, filed a petition on Thursday (27) with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, against President Lula (PT), who is running for reelection. The target is an interview Lula gave to the Record network on Sunday (23), recorded at the Alvorada Palace, the official residence of the Brazilian presidency. According to G1, the case will be handled by the court's president, Justice Kassio Nunes Marques.The interview aired at the same time as the first presidential debate, hosted by the Band network, which neither Lula nor Flávio attended, according to Folha de S.Paulo. In the filing, the senator's lawyers argue that the use of the palace violated the principle of equality among candidates and cite previous TSE rulings."The candidate for reelection appeared before the electorate, in an exclusive interview, using as backdrop and material support a public asset to which he has access solely because of the office he holds," the defense wrote, according to G1.Flávio's lawyers ask that Lula refrain from using the Alvorada Palace and other public facilities with restricted access for the "recording, production or broadcast of interviews, livestreams, statements or content of an electoral nature." According to Folha, the campaign also wants the president to remove excerpts of the interview from his social media until a final ruling, and asks the court to fine Lula's campaign and order reimbursement of the public funds used in the recording.Brazilian electoral law bars officeholders from using "movable or immovable assets belonging to the direct or indirect public administration." The TSE, however, allows exceptions: electoral content inside official residences is permitted when the setting is neutral, without official symbols, without the use of public resources and with participation restricted to the officeholder. Flávio's campaign argues that Sunday's interview does not meet those conditions, invoking the precedent that "the use of public assets inaccessible to other competitors in favor of a candidacy violates electoral equality."The case now rests with Kassio Nunes Marques. As of Thursday evening, the rapporteur had not ruled on the request, which includes an injunction to block any further recording of campaign content at the palace.

President Lula has ordered the head of Brazil's Federal Police, Andrei Rodrigues, to reach out to Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça to ease the tension between the police force and the Court. The order was reported on Thursday (27) by G1 and Correio Braziliense, with behind-the-scenes details uncovered by CartaCapital.The dispute began in July, when the Federal Police asked the Attorney General's Office (AGU), the federal government's legal arm, to open proceedings against Mendonça over alleged "interference" in the force's work on the investigation into fraud at the INSS, Brazil's social security agency. The justice is the rapporteur at the Supreme Court of the case involving Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, the president's son. He ordered all investigation files sent immediately to his office and demanded prior notice of any removal of members of the police team.The measures angered investigators, who see the decision as an intrusion into the force's autonomy. According to agents close to the case interviewed by CartaCapital, the standard procedure is for the police to conduct the inquiry, submit it to the Federal Prosecutor's Office for a legality review after completion, and only then forward it to the rapporteur at the Supreme Court.AGU mediationThe mediation fell to Attorney General Jorge Messias. After a meeting between Mendonça and Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva, brokered by Messias, the two sides agreed that the justice's office and the police teams would meet to improve their workflow. According to sources at the AGU and in Mendonça's office, those meetings have already begun. Aides to the rapporteur play down the friction and call the dispute an "isolated problem".CartaCapital reports that Messias does not intend to take the case to the Supreme Court. The head of the AGU argues that a formal complaint against Mendonça, over a possible overreach of his duties as a judge, could open the door for defense lawyers to challenge the validity of evidence, including in other cases under the justice's rapporteurship, such as the Banco Master investigation. Correio Braziliense notes that Mendonça holds key decisions over investigative steps in both the Banco Master and INSS probes.The next step comes later on Thursday. Supreme Court Chief Justice Edson Fachin meets Messias in the afternoon. The agenda was not disclosed, but the expectation is that the friction between the Federal Police and Mendonça's office will be on the table. No date has been announced for the meeting between Andrei Rodrigues and the justice ordered by Lula.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has 38% of voting intentions in the first round of Brazil's October election, against 35% for senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to a PoderData/Aya poll released on Thursday (27). With a margin of error of 2 percentage points, the two are in a technical tie. Poder360, the newsroom behind the poll, says it is the smallest gap between the candidates since May. Fifteen days ago, Lula led the senator by 6 points.Behind them, Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão) and Augusto Cury (Avante) each register 4%. Pablo Marçal (PRTB) has 3%. Romeu Zema (Novo) and Hertz Dias (PSTU) score 2% each, while Edmilson Costa (PCB) and Samara Martins (UP) reach 1% each. Three other candidates did not score. Another 5% said they plan to cast a blank or null vote, and 2% did not answer.Runoff scenario also tiedIn a potential runoff, the poll puts Lula at 45% and Flávio at 44%, again within the margin of error. Both slipped 1 point over the past 15 days. According to Poder360, the president is also technically tied with Zema and Caiado in runoff scenarios and holds a clear lead of 7 points only against Renan Santos.Lula leads among women, with 48% to the senator's 39%. The president is also ahead in the Northeast (53%), among voters earning up to two minimum wages (47%) and among those with a college education (46%). Flávio performs better in the Center-West (50%), in the South (53%) and among voters with a high school education (46%).This is the first PoderData/Aya round conducted after the August 15 deadline for candidates to register with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees Brazilian elections. The institute interviewed 2,400 voters in 555 municipalities across all 27 states between August 23 and 26, by calls to mobile and landline phones. The confidence level is 95%. The poll is registered with the TSE under number BR-04974/2026.A separate survey released on Thursday points to a similar picture. According to VEJA, pollster Real Time Big Data interviewed 2,000 voters in Minas Gerais between August 22 and 26 and found Lula at 39% and Flávio at 34% in the first round in the state, an electoral stronghold where every elected president since the return to democracy has won.The candidacies filed with the TSE still need approval from electoral authorities and can be challenged. The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, a runoff will be held on October 25.

Planning and Budget Minister Bruno Moretti said on Thursday (27) that Brazil's 2027 budget proposal forecasts a primary surplus even when spending currently excluded from the fiscal target calculation is counted. He made the statement in an interview with GloboNews, according to Folha de S.Paulo and Reuters. On Monday (31), the government will deliver the 2027 annual budget bill, known as the PLOA, to Congress. It is the first budget of the next presidential term. The proposed fiscal target is a surplus of R$ 73.2 billion, equivalent to 0.5% of GDP. Today, part of federal spending is left out of the target calculation, including a share of payments of precatórios, court-ordered debts owed by the government. In the budget guidelines bill sent to Congress in April, the Lula administration's economic team had forecast the exclusion of R$ 65.7 billion in expenses, covering part of judicial sentences and investments tied to defense, health and education. "Counting all expenses, our horizon for next year is to deliver a positive primary result," Moretti told GloboNews. According to Reuters, the minister said the bill will foresee a decline in federal spending as a share of GDP. "Even with the so-called discounts to the target, our real expectation is that next year we will have more revenue than spending," he said. Moretti also said the government will not need to send Congress bills to raise revenue in order to meet the fiscal target, a break from the approach taken in recent years. The 2027 budget reaches the legislature on Monday. After delivery, the text goes to the joint budget committee and then to a vote on the floor of the National Congress.

Justice Kassio Nunes Marques, president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees elections in the country, has scheduled for next Tuesday (September 1) the trial of a case brought by the Workers' Party (PT) against a video of former president Jair Bolsonaro produced with artificial intelligence. The material was shown at the convention that confirmed Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son, as the PL party's presidential candidate. According to G1, justices indicate the ruling should set the court's interpretation of AI-generated content in the 2026 elections. The TSE resolution published this year bans the use of the technology "to harm or favor a candidacy, of synthetic content in audio, video or a combination of both," even with the authorization of the person portrayed. According to G1, the central question is whether the material can mislead voters into believing that a given fact occurred, with an appearance of authenticity. That line would be classified as a deepfake and would be banned, whether the content is positive or negative. A majority of the justices have voted along these lines in cases decided in the court's virtual plenary. TSE vice-president André Mendonça proposed a thesis with this interpretation when he ordered the removal of a video linking Flávio Bolsonaro to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who was jailed in Operation Compliance Zero. Justices heard on condition of anonymity by G1 signal that the video shown at the convention could be ruled irregular and that any punishment would likely be a fine. Bolsonaro is under house arrest serving a 27-year-and-three-month sentence in the so-called coup plot case and is barred by the courts from issuing political-electoral statements, including through third parties. The PT's case and the defense In its filing, the PT argues that, although the video states it is a simulation, TSE rules ban the use of synthetic content to favor a candidacy, even when there is authorization to reproduce a person's image or voice. "It is, therefore, a device that amplifies early electoral propaganda and, at the same time, breaches the ban on the use of artificial intelligence aimed at creating synthetic content to replace the image and voice of a living person, in addition to circumventing the judicial restriction imposed on the former president through the use of synthetic reproduction technology." Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign told the TSE that the video did not violate electoral law because it did not hide the use of the technology. In the footage, the avatar identifies itself as a "simulation" of the former president's image and voice. The defense compared the resource to the masks and paper puppets commonly used in campaigns. "There was only the creation of a technological puppet, all with the proper labels and warnings, without any falsification or inducement into error," the lawyers wrote, asking the TSE not to ban AI from the race entirely. The PT rebutted that thesis in a new petition, CNN Brasil reported. The party cited the precedent of Evandro Leitão (PT-CE), fined R$ 15,000 (about US$ 3,000) by the TSE itself after publishing AI videos featuring Barack Obama and Taylor Swift during the 2024 municipal elections. The party also pointed to legislation in the European Union, South Korea and the US states of Texas and Minnesota, where labeling a video as a deepfake does not authorize its use. "The very normalized circulation of realistic simulations of public figures erodes the probative value of the audiovisual record," the PT lawyers argued. TSE justices already met in August to seek common ground on the limits of AI before the merits trial, according to CNN Brasil. The vote is set for Tuesday (September 1) in a plenary session chaired by Kassio Nunes Marques, and should indicate whether the disclosed use of AI remains banned or whether the court will revise its guidelines.

The contract for Havengate, a US-based fund linked to former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, to finance the film "Dark Horse", a biopic of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was signed 11 days after the first million-dollar transfer to the fund ordered by banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master. The information appears in a forensic report prepared by the defense of producer Go Up Entertainment and filed with the São Paulo State Court, according to a report published Thursday (27) by ICL Notícias.According to the report, the contract between the fund and the producer was formalized on February 24, 2025. Documents originally published by The Intercept Brasil show that on February 13, 2025, the company Entre Investimentos e Participações transferred US$ 2 million to Havengate at Vorcaro's direction, at the request of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, according to ICL. A SWIFT bank receipt records the transaction. The next day, businessman Fabiano Zettel forwarded the receipt to Vorcaro with the message "Filme!" ("Movie!"). The report points to no document predating the contract that tied that first payment to the project, ICL reports.A schedule of nearly US$ 24 millionThe forensic report states that all the money spent producing "Dark Horse", US$ 13.39 million (about R$ 69 million), came from Havengate: US$ 3.7 million in expenses in Brazil and US$ 9.66 million in the United States. Under the documents, Vorcaro had committed to a payment schedule of nearly US$ 24 million: two US$ 2 million installments in January 2025 and monthly payments of US$ 1.66 million from March 2025 to January 2026. At least US$ 10.6 million was actually paid to the fund, with some of the first six installments arriving late.The messages obtained by The Intercept show that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's eldest son and now his party's presidential candidate, pressed Vorcaro more frequently as the Banco Master crisis deepened. On November 15, 2025, one day before the banker was arrested by the Federal Police, the senator wrote: "Brother, I am and will always be with you, there is no half conversation between us. I just need you to give me a light! Hugs!" The chats indicate Vorcaro had been approached to bankroll the film since at least December 2024. Vorcaro has been in jail in Brasilia since his arrest, as Banco Master collapsed under fraud investigations.In May, Flávio Bolsonaro said he would release the film's contract and accounting within 30 days. The deadline was not met. According to Revista Fórum, members of the Bolsonaro family have since presented the producer's own forensic report as public proof that the operation was regular.What happens nextThe financing of "Dark Horse" is the target of an inquiry opened at the request of the Prosecutor-General's Office to investigate suspected corruption involving Flávio, Eduardo Bolsonaro and Vorcaro. This week, Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino authorized the Federal Police to access material seized in the investigation of the production company. On Friday (28), Vorcaro is expected to testify by videoconference in a separate inquiry into Central Bank employees suspected of taking payments to favor Master. Thursday's session was postponed because of technical problems.

Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, unanimously approved on Thursday morning (27) the deployment of federal troops to reinforce security for the first round of the 2026 elections in the northeastern state of Ceará, scheduled for October 4. The request came from the state's regional electoral court, the TRE-CE, and covers 66 municipalities, including the state capital, Fortaleza. The decision was reported by G1.The case rapporteur was Justice Nunes Marques, president of the court, who voted to grant the request. He was joined by justices Dias Toffoli, Antonio Carlos Ferreira, Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, Floriano de Azevedo Marques and Estela Aranha.The reinforcement was requested amid reports of interference by criminal organizations in Ceará's electoral process. According to G1, members of the Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil's largest crime syndicates, based in Rio de Janeiro, charged candidates for state and federal deputy R$ 200,000 (about US$ 37,000) to allow them to campaign in Forquilha, in the state's northern region. Earlier this month, three city council members from Sobral were arrested in an operation investigating the syndicate's influence in the 2024 municipal elections and in this year's vote.Request came from electoral judgesThe TRE-CE approved the request unanimously in early July, following a recommendation from its Permanent Security Commission. According to the regional court, the body received statements from electoral judges in more than 60 municipalities defending the reinforcement so voters can cast their ballots safely. Consulted during the proceedings, state public security authorities said there was no need for a federal force, but did not oppose institutional cooperation between state and federal forces. The Electoral Public Prosecutor's Office backed sending the request to the TSE.Ceará was not the only state covered. According to Valor Econômico and Gazeta do Povo, the TSE on Thursday authorized the use of federal forces in elections in five states. In Acre, in the Amazon region, the request cited the advance of criminal factions, Gazeta reported.Requesting federal forces to guarantee order and the regularity of the vote is an exclusive power of the TSE. The next step is for the court to forward the request to the Presidency, which holds the authority to approve the deployment. Without that approval, federal troops will not be on the ground on election day, October 4.

Federal deputy Aécio Neves, national president of the PSDB party, is expected to announce this Friday (28) whether he will run for the Senate in Minas Gerais. The decision would reverse what he said in early August, when he stated he would stay out of the 2026 election, ending a 40-year streak of consecutive candidacies and mandates. The information comes from the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo.The path was opened by the PDT party. According to O Globo, the party said this Thursday (27) that it will give up its Senate candidacy in Minas to make room for Aécio on the ticket of gubernatorial candidate Alexandre Kalil (PDT), a former mayor of Belo Horizonte. The withdrawal is by Marcelo Heringer, until then the party's Senate nominee and brother of the PDT's Minas Gerais chairman, deputy Mário Heringer. The renunciation was formalized on Wednesday (26).The loophole in electoral lawThe Superior Electoral Court's deadline for candidate registration ended on August 15. The law, however, allows parties and coalitions to replace candidates who withdraw up to 20 days before the election, O Globo reports. For the swap to be valid, Heringer must file a renunciation request with the Minas Gerais Regional Electoral Court, which will review and approve it. Because the PSDB forms a federation with Cidadania and is allied to Kalil's PDT, the substitution can happen within the same ticket.In a joint statement, the PSDB-Cidadania federation and the PDT said they had received in recent days "appeals from party members, mayors, city councilors, deputies, activists and leaders from Minas" asking Aécio to reconsider and accept running again for a Senate seat representing the state."This movement reflects a legitimate concern for the future of Minas. Aécio, hear this call. Minas needs you in the Senate," the statement says.According to Diego Amorim's column at PlatôBR, Aécio has already told PSDB leaders that he accepts entering the race. What remains is a definitive conversation with Kalil, who has said the PSDB veteran would be "very welcome." The column found that more than 150 mayors signed a manifesto asking the deputy to reconsider his electoral retirement. Pressure grew amid uncertainties in the Minas political landscape, including the back-and-forth of senator Cleitinho Azevedo (Republicanos) in the race for governor.In the July Genial/Quaest poll, Aécio had 16% of voting intentions for the Senate, in a statistical tie with the leader, Marília Campos (PT), who had 18%, according to PlatôBR. At the state level, Cidadania, federated with the PSDB nationally, announced support for the reelection of governor Mateus Simões (PSD), according to O Globo.The next step is Aécio's announcement, expected this Friday. After that, the swap depends on Heringer filing his renunciation with the state electoral court and on the court's approval, within the substitution window that runs until 20 days before the first round.

Brazil's federal comptroller, the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU), has ordered the Advocacia-Geral da União (AGU), the office of government attorneys, to hand over within 30 days detailed data on the court-awarded legal fees (honorários de sucumbência) paid to its civil servants. The decision grants a request from the watchdog NGO Transparência Brasil, which will be allowed to access the material. The news was reported by G1 on Thursday (27) and confirmed by the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo.The sums involved are large. In 2025, sucumbência fees paid to AGU members reached R$ 6.1 billion, the highest figure on record, according to G1. Around 12,000 public lawyers received the payments. The money comes from losing parties in lawsuits won by the federal government and is treated as a top-up on top of regular salaries.AGU appeal rejectedIn May, the CGU had already granted the NGO access to the data, answering a request filed under Brazil's Freedom of Information Law (Lei de Acesso à Informação). The AGU appealed. It argued that providing the requested level of detail was unfeasible and that releasing microdata would breach the proportionality principle, allowing mass data mining, cross-referencing with other databases and excessive profiling of its servants' financial lives. The office also said the information was already disclosed proactively at a sufficient level.The CGU rejected the appeal. In its view, the Freedom of Information Law regulates how public bodies must pursue transparency and accountability, and the government's digital law obliges public entities to publish open data detailed enough to allow social oversight."This right aims to guarantee access to data, processed or not, that can be used to produce and transmit knowledge, contained in any medium, support or format," the CGU stated in the decision.The comptroller also answered the argument that the data was already on public portals. "The mere indication of institutional portals, where public content produced by the Administration is hosted, does not amount to providing the underlying database that feeds the panel of sucumbência attorney fee payments," the text says.Contacted by G1, the AGU said it would comment on the decision through an official statement. With the appeal rejected, the 30-day deadline for delivering the detailed data now runs, and Transparência Brasil will be able to access and analyze the material.

Organizations behind a campaign to tax Brazil's "super-rich" met on Tuesday (25) with Jose Sergio Gabrielli, the coordinator of the government program for a potential new term of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT). The information comes from Painel, the politics column of Folha de S.Paulo, published on Thursday (27).Gabrielli, 76, is an economist trained at the Federal University of Bahia. He ran state oil company Petrobras from 2005 to 2012, under Lula and Dilma Rousseff, and later served as planning secretary of Bahia state under Governor Jaques Wagner (PT). He now coordinates the drafting of the platform for Lula's reelection bid, according to Poder360.The meeting with the organizations took place one day after Folha published an interview in which Gabrielli defended raising taxes on the super-rich. According to Poder360, the economist said the growth of Brazil's public debt stems from interest charges. He also suggested the National Treasury intervene in the bond market through buybacks to bring down long-term interest rates.Government programThe PT's government program was registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, on August 7 and devotes a chapter to tax justice and reducing inequality. Under the guideline of "putting the poor in the budget and the rich in the income tax", the document cites the taxation of offshore accounts and exclusive investment funds as advances. A larger contribution from the super-rich is presented in the text as the funding source for tax relief for Brazilian families, Poder360 reported.On fiscal policy, Gabrielli pointed to the Treasury's bond buybacks in March, which totaled R$ 43.6 billion (about US$ 8 billion). According to Poder360, it was the largest intervention ever in nominal terms, above the R$ 35.56 billion repurchased in 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic.The tax proposals for a potential new term will be detailed over the course of the campaign. Lula's candidacy is already registered with the TSE, and the first round of the presidential election is scheduled for October.

Brazil's free TV and radio campaign airtime for the presidential race begins on Saturday (29). Lula (PT) will press the "Dark Horse" case against Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). The senator, for his part, will bet on rising prices and household debt to wear down the government, according to Folha de S.Paulo.Under the rotation drawn by the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, Flávio's program opens the slot and Lula's closes it. The Workers' Party candidate gets 5 minutes and 31 seconds, against 4 minutes and 20 seconds for his rival. The gap comes from coalitions: Lula added to PT's time the minutes of PSOL, Rede, PC do B, PV, PSB and PDT, while Flávio runs with PL alone. Airtime is proportional to the size of each party's caucus in Congress.Police record sheet and music clipAccording to Folha, Lula's first program will include attacks on his opponent. The senator's biography will be presented like a police record sheet. The program is expected to recall Flávio's conversations with banker Daniel Vorcaro, of Banco Master, to finance "Dark Horse", a biographical film about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. It should also mention the old rachadinha accusations, a salary kickback scheme, from his time as a state lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro. Lula allies told the paper the offensive will not take up most of the program and will appear more often in the shorter radio and TV spots. O Globo reported that the PT campaign was still debating whether the president would attack already in the debut, and that a specific offensive on the film and on the Bolsonaro family's real estate deals is being saved for later programs.The program will also mix a defense of the government's record with proposals for an eventual new term. Lula's life story will appear as a music clip, from his poor childhood to his entry into politics as a union leader and his three terms as president, O Globo reported. Women will have a prominent place, with references to fighting femicide. The recordings were made at a house in Lago Sul, an upscale Brasília district that houses the campaign's communications headquarters.Supermarket stage and end-of-month billsOn the PL side, the debut will have a lighter tone. Flávio recorded part of his material in a supermarket, a setting chosen to talk about food prices, fuel, household debt and loss of purchasing power, according to O Globo. Allies sum up the debut's two axes as the fear of "leaving home without having your phone stolen" and the question of "how they will pay the bills at the end of the month". The candidate's economic team is drafting a proposal for indebted families, to be detailed by the senator himself. Campaign members cite the judicial recovery of retailer Casas Bahia as an image that reinforces the message that companies and families are struggling.Jair Bolsonaro will have relevant space in his son's debut. Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro will make only a brief appearance. Running mate Alfredo Gaspar (PL) will appear on public security. São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) is scheduled for later programs. PL is saving for later the investigations involving Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the president's son.The order and duration of Saturday's programs are already set by the TSE. The topics of the next pieces are still to be decided by both campaigns, which are calibrating the dosage of attacks based on qualitative polls.

Brazil's Liberal Party (PL) transferred R$ 31 million (about $5.5 million) from its affiliated party foundation to support electoral campaigns across the country. The financial transfers appeared in official accounting filings submitted to election authorities and are currently under technical review by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), according to reporting by UOL Notícias and VEJA.The funds were channeled from the party's foundation to federal and state candidates. Under Brazilian electoral law, partisan research and educational foundations must use their public allocations exclusively for political education, policy research, and leadership training. Using these resources to cover direct campaign expenses is strictly restricted under the Political Parties Act.Technical auditors at the TSE are evaluating whether the transactions complied with electoral accounting resolutions. Investigators are examining whether the foundation transfers served as an indirect mechanism to bypass standard spending limits and distribution rules for the public Campaign Financing Fund. If regulators identify violations, the court can reject the accounting entries and order the full reimbursement of the funds.PL leadership representatives maintain that the payments funded legitimate candidate training seminars and political education programs held ahead of the elections. Party officials stated that all disbursements are backed by receipts and contracts that comply with existing campaign finance regulations.The TSE technical accounts audit division is currently finalizing its formal report on the transactions. The court's justices will schedule a definitive vote on the matter once the technical audit concludes, prior to the final certification of election results.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is weighing a provisional measure to create a standalone Ministry of Public Security. The initiative depends on whether the National Congress approves the constitutional amendment on public security scheduled for this week, according to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo. The plan would split the current Ministry of Justice and Public Security into two independent cabinet posts. Under the proposed model, federal oversight of police forces and penitentiary systems would separate from legal affairs and judicial policy. The division was previously adopted during the Temer administration in 2018 and has returned to internal discussions inside the Planalto presidential palace. The constitutional amendment now before lawmakers seeks to expand federal authority over organized crime and standardize national policing guidelines. Government officials note that implementing the constitutional changes will require dedicated federal machinery to manage law enforcement coordination alongside state governments. Lawmakers return to Brasília on Monday, August 31, for a concentrated legislative voting block ahead of the upcoming electoral period. The public security amendment is on the priority docket. The executive branch will decide whether to sign the provisional measure once Congress concludes its floor votes.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL), the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro and a candidate in Brazil's October presidential election, said in an interview with TV Globo on Friday (28) that he plans to reduce the number of ministries and political appointee positions to cut public spending if elected. In the same interview, conducted by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and Cesar Tralli, he announced physician Claudio Lottenberg, former president of Sao Paulo's Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital, as his pick to lead the Health Ministry, according to g1.Fiscal adjustment without a defined targetAsked how he intends to stabilize and reduce public debt, Flavio defended a "strong fiscal adjustment" and a leaner government. "I will cut ministries. I will take heavy scissors to appointed positions as well", he said. The candidate gave no figure for the cut, in reais or GDP points, and set no deadline. He also said he plans to reduce bureaucracy and revoke more than a thousand regulatory acts at the start of his term.Flavio blamed the fiscal situation and the level of interest rates on spending by the Lula administration. In his view, cutting expenses would create conditions for the central bank's benchmark Selic rate to fall, which would lower debt interest payments. He also linked household indebtedness to the current government's economic policy. "You who are watching me are probably in debt or know someone who is in debt, but it is not your fault. It is this current government's fault", he said.On the minimum wage, Flavio did not say whether he would keep or change the current adjustment formula, based on inflation and real GDP growth. "I will not cut costs at the expense of Brazil's most struggling people", he said, without explicitly committing to the rule in force. He also did not clarify whether he would keep pensions pegged to the minimum wage, saying only that he would not cut costs "on the backs of retirees". According to the candidate, the money would come from fighting fraud and corruption at the INSS, Brazil's social security agency, and from technology tools to control spending.Einstein hospital physician for HealthAn ophthalmologist, Lottenberg presided over the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital and now chairs its deliberative council, as well as the Brazilian Israelite Confederation (Conib) and the Health Coalition Institute (Icos). He holds a master's and a doctorate from the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Unifesp) and has served as an advisory board member for Unicef. "I will turn public health into quality health care, the SUS will be modern", Flavio promised, calling the sector a priority of a future administration. The SUS is Brazil's universal public health system.The interview was the fifth in Globo's series with presidential candidates, after Romeu Zema (Novo), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missao) and President Lula, who is seeking reelection. On Saturday (29), the interviewee will be Augusto Cury (Avante). The first round of the election takes place on October 4.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Friday (28) that he has no relationship with businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger and has never had any dealings with her. The statement came in a note released by his reelection campaign after photos of the two together circulated on social media.According to the statement, reproduced by G1 and InfoMoney, the photographic records do not indicate a bond of any kind:"President Lula is a public figure who, throughout his career and especially during campaigns and public events, is approached by countless people for photographs. The existence of these records does not mean a personal, professional or political relationship. Lula has no relationship with Roberta Luchsinger and has never had any interlocution with her."The note reaffirms what Lula said on Thursday in an interview with TV Globo's Jornal Nacional. Asked about the businesswoman, the president denied knowing her. "I do not know this woman, I have never seen this woman in my life, I have never spoken to this woman, she has never been close to me," he said.Right after the interview, the opposition began to seize on the issue and publish images of Lula next to Roberta, originally posted by the businesswoman herself on her social media accounts, according to InfoMoney. A check by Fato ou Fake, G1's fact-checking team, found at least three photographs and one video showing the two together on different occasions.Federal Police investigationRoberta Luchsinger is a friend of Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, the president's eldest son. She is under investigation by the Federal Police in the inquiry into illegal deductions from pensions and retirement benefits paid by the INSS, Brazil's social security institute. According to G1, investigators identified transfers from the businesswoman to Marco Aurélio Santana, known as Marcola, then chief of staff at the Presidency, as well as a draft contract to sell cannabidiol-based medicines to the Health Ministry. InfoMoney reports that Roberta and Lulinha are being investigated on suspicion of influence peddling in the government.The Federal Police inquiry into the INSS fraud remains open, with no deadline announced for its conclusion. On the campaign trail, the opposition has made clear it intends to keep the issue alive, while Lula's team argues the photos are part of the routine of a public figure at open events.

Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) delivered on Thursday (27) a favorable report on the constitutional amendment (PEC) that ends Brazil's 6x1 work schedule, in which employees work six days for every one day off. The report was presented to the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) and keeps the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies on May 27, according to G1.By making no changes, Aziz met a request from the Lula government and cleared the way for Congress to enact the amendment directly if the Senate approves it as is. Any modification would force the text back to the lower house, making approval before the October elections harder. Congress has only one more voting week, from August 31 to September 4, as announced by Senate president Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP).What the amendment doesThe proposal cuts the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours and guarantees two weekly rest days with no pay cut. Preferably, one of those days must be Sunday. The transition is gradual: within two months the workweek drops to 42 hours, and within one year it reaches 40. According to Agência Senado, the Senate's news service, the text includes exceptions for workers under differentiated regimes and for higher-paid employees with a college degree.In his report, Aziz noted that the 44-hour week has been in force for 30 years and cited data from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea), a federal think tank, showing that the 6x1 schedule falls hardest on lower-income and less-educated workers. "The prolonged workday is not, therefore, a phenomenon neutrally distributed across the productive structure: it falls disproportionately on lower-income and less-educated workers. Reducing it is, in this exact measure, a measure of distributive justice, and not only of labor policy", the rapporteur wrote.Rejected amendmentsSenators filed 12 amendments to the proposal. Aziz rejected all of them. They include three proposals by senator Izalci Lucas (PL-DF) to keep the 44-hour week, and amendments by senators Hermer Klann (PL-SC) and Oriovisto Guimarães (PSDB-PR) to stretch the transition period to up to four years. The PL, the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, opposes ending the 6x1 schedule. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a presidential candidate, co-signed an alternative amendment establishing hourly pay with flexible hours. That text is stalled in the Senate.The bill moved forward after a meeting between president Lula, Alcolumbre and Chamber of Deputies speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) on Wednesday (26) at the Alvorada Palace, the presidential residence. At the meeting, ending the 6x1 schedule entered Congress's priority list. "One thing I can guarantee: we will deliberate on these matters during the week of concentrated effort, because it will be the last week [of voting] we have before the elections", Alcolumbre said, according to Agência Senado.The next step is the CCJ vote, scheduled for next Wednesday (September 2), according to Folha de S.Paulo. After that, the amendment must be approved in two rounds on the Senate floor, with a regimental five-working-day interval between them. Alcolumbre has not guaranteed a floor vote next week. Lula allies are pressing for both rounds to be held on the same day and argue that the regimental deadlines can be set aside if there is political will, G1 reported.

Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) delivered his report on the constitutional amendment that would end Brazil's 6x1 work schedule to the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) on Thursday (27). The rapporteur kept the text approved by the Chamber of Deputies in May and rejected all 12 amendments filed by fellow senators, according to G1. The proposal is now ready for a committee vote next Wednesday (2), Folha de S.Paulo reports.The 6x1 schedule, in which employees work six days and rest one, is common in Brazil's retail and service sectors. Under the text Aziz upheld, the standard workweek drops from 44 to 40 hours, with a daily limit of 8 hours. The amendment guarantees two days of weekly rest with no pay cut, one of them preferably on Sunday. The rapporteur also kept the transition timeline unchanged: two months after promulgation, the workweek falls to 42 hours with two rest days; within one year, it reaches 40 hours.Among the rejected amendments were three proposals by Senator Izalci Lucas (PL-DF) to keep the 44-hour week, according to G1. Aziz also turned down amendments by Hermer Klann (PL-SC) and Oriovisto Guimarães (PSDB-PR) seeking a transition period of up to four years. The PL, the party of senator and presidential pre-candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, opposes ending the 6x1 schedule.In his report, Aziz cited data from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) showing that the 6x1 schedule weighs most heavily on lower-income and less-educated workers. He also noted that the 44-hour week has been in force for 30 years."The prolonged workday is not a neutrally distributed phenomenon in the productive structure: it falls disproportionately on lower-income and less-educated workers. Reducing it is, to that exact extent, a measure of distributive justice, and not just labor policy," Aziz wrote.The breakthrough came after President Lula met the speakers of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), on Wednesday night (26), according to Folha. The government is racing to approve the end of the 6x1 schedule before the October election, aiming to feature the issue in Lula's reelection campaign. Congress has only one more working week, from August 31 to September 4, before the vote.The timeline is tight. A constitutional amendment must clear the CCJ and then two rounds of voting on the Senate floor, with five business days between rounds. Lula's allies are pushing for both rounds to be held on the same day and argue that procedural deadlines can be waived, according to G1. Alcolumbre, however, did not commit to bringing the proposal to the floor next week. If Aziz's text passes unchanged, the amendment does not return to the Chamber and can be promulgated directly by Congress.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is considering extending for another 60 days the 12% tax on crude oil exports. The levy is currently upheld by a resolution of Camex, the federal foreign trade chamber, which expires in early September, and the chamber's executive committee (Gecex) meets this Thursday (27) to decide on the matter. The information was reported by Folha de S.Paulo, which obtained a letter sent this week by the Finance Ministry's executive secretary, Rogério Ceron, to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC). In the document, Ceron points to the technical viability of keeping the rate at this level for 60 more days.The tax was created in March through a provisional measure, a type of executive decree in Brazil that takes effect immediately but expires unless Congress converts it into law. The goal was to use the exceptional revenue to fund a diesel subsidy and prevent fuel prices from surging as oil rose during the war in Iran. The measure lapsed on July 9. To keep the tax in force, the government issued Gecex Resolution No. 938, valid for 60 days.Finance Ministry argues for cautionThe economic team has already signaled its position. In a technical note dated August 13, the Finance Ministry's Secretariat for Economic Reforms said it sees no grounds to remove or reduce the rate given the continued fluctuation of oil prices, according to Poder360. The document, signed by secretary Régis Dudena, cites uncertainty over the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman."The interim review indicates that the geopolitical risk that motivated Gecex Resolution No. 938 of 2026 has not dissipated," the technical note says.In the government's assessment, the tax discourages crude exports and helps secure supply for domestic refineries, according to Poder360.Oil companies go to courtOil companies have filed suit in the Federal Court of the Federal District to strike down the resolution. In a writ of mandamus filed by Abep, an association of oil and gas exploration and production companies, the mechanism adopted by the government is called a "crude artifice" to circumvent the lapse of the provisional measure. For the president of IBP, the Brazilian institute representing the oil, gas and biofuels industry, Roberto Ardenghy, imposing the tax "was already complicated through a provisional measure." "Using a Camex resolution is even more complicated from a legal standpoint," he told Folha.Gecex decides this Thursday whether to keep, remove or extend the tax. The outlets differ on the exact expiry of the current resolution: Folha reports it lapses on September 8, while Poder360 records September 9 as the closing date. Abep's writ of mandamus remains pending before the Federal Court in Brasília.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reached an agreement with Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre to form a joint congressional committee next Tuesday, September 1. The panel will review the provisional measure that suspended the 20% federal import tariff on foreign retail purchases up to $50, known in Brazil as the "taxa das blusinhas" (blouse tax), according to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo.The 20% levy on small cross-border parcels has been paused since May under an executive provisional measure issued by the government. The suspension faces strong pushback from domestic manufacturing and retail sectors. The National Confederation of Industry (CNI) issued an official statement on Wednesday opposing the tax repeal, warning that dropping the tariff threatens 109,000 domestic jobs.The CNI study relied on foreign trade figures compiled by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC). According to the confederation's economic analysts, local manufacturers lose 3.11 reais for every real spent by consumers on small parcels from international e-commerce platforms. The organization estimates that abolishing the tax entirely could cost Brazilian industrial producers 21.8 billion reais in losses.The tariff forms part of the federal tax authority's Remessa Conforme compliance program, which governs cross-border e-commerce shipments into Brazil. Domestic retailers have consistently argued that tax exemptions for foreign online sellers create unfair competition against Brazilian goods, which face standard local taxation.Lawmakers now face a tight legislative calendar. The provisional measure will officially expire on September 8 unless both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate vote to approve it. If Congress allows the measure to lapse, the 20% import tax will automatically resume less than four weeks before the first round of national elections on October 4.

Goiás Governor Ronaldo Caiado holds a slim numerical lead over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a projected second-round runoff for the 2026 presidential election. A nationwide survey released Thursday by pollster PoderData/AYA places Caiado at 44% of voting intentions against 43% for the incumbent president.The outcome represents a statistical tie within the survey's margin of error of two percentage points. Blank and spoiled ballots account for 10%, while 2% of respondents remain undecided. In the institute's previous poll earlier this month, Lula held the numerical edge with 45% against Caiado's 44%.Additional runoff projectionsThe PoderData/AYA poll tested three additional head-to-head simulations for a presidential runoff. Against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula registers 45% against 44% for the conservative lawmaker, another statistical tie. Against Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema, Lula holds 44% to Zema's 43%. Lula leads outside the margin of error only against Renan Santos, polling at 44% compared to 37% for the right-wing contender.In the first-round simulation, Lula leads with 38% followed by Flávio Bolsonaro at 35%. The poll also found that 50% of voters disapprove of Lula's administration, while 42% approve. Rejection ratings stood at 49% for both Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro.The PoderData/AYA poll surveyed 2,400 voters across 555 municipalities in all 27 Brazilian states between August 23 and 26. The survey has a 95% confidence level and is registered with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under protocol BR-04974/2026. Mandatory free electoral airtime on television and radio begins this Friday, August 28, opening daily campaign broadcasts across the country.

Senator Cleitinho Azevedo (Republicanos) holds a wide lead in the race for governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil's second largest electoral college. According to the third round of the DATATEMPO poll published by newspaper O TEMPO, the conservative lawmaker reaches 35.5% of voter intentions in the first round. The tally is more than triple the support recorded by each of his closest rivals competing for Palácio Tiradentes, the state government seat.Former Belo Horizonte mayor Alexandre Kalil (PDT) and federal deputy Patrus Ananias (PT) are tied within the statistical margin for second place. Survey data indicates that both candidates are competing closely to secure a spot in a potential runoff. Vice Governor Mateus Simões (PSD) and Belo Horizonte city council president Gabriel Azevedo (MDB) round out the main contenders in the simulated field.Clear lead across runoff scenariosIn head-to-head simulations for the second round, Cleitinho maintains a decisive advantage against every potential challenger. Corroborating numbers from pollster Real Time Big Data, Cleitinho defeats Kalil by 47% to 33% and bests Ananias by 48% to 36%. Against administration candidate Mateus Simões, the senator leads 49% to 27%.Reacting to the release, Cleitinho celebrated the findings while pledging to keep grounded: "We celebrate with joy, but with our feet on the ground and great humility." Kalil, on the campaign trail, pointed to his executive record in Belo Horizonte. "I do not promise land on the moon, nor do I make spectacles on social media," the PDT candidate stated in remarks contrasting his campaign with internet-focused opponents.Instituto DATATEMPO conducted 1,000 in-person household interviews across Minas Gerais between August 17 and August 20, 2026. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points with a 95% confidence level. The poll is officially registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under codes MG-03794/2026 and BR-08275/2026. The official race now heads into free television and radio airtime broadcasts ahead of the first round vote in October.

Five of the 13 presidential candidates registered with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) included targeted policies for autism and neurodiversity in their government platforms. The tally comes from a review published Thursday by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.A central proposal across the platforms is the creation of the National Neurodiversity Map. The project outlines a nationwide census tracking individuals with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, and high abilities. It also aims to collect data on school dropout rates, bullying, and access to specialized educational assistance across public schools.In education and health, candidates propose expanding early diagnostic screening and providing therapy sessions closer to patients' homes. The platforms also advocate making Individualized Educational Plans mandatory in classrooms, expanding specialized school capacity, and using public funds to accredit private clinics for autism care.One platform features the "Neuroinclusive Brazil Project." The plan calls on the education system to identify how atypical students learn best rather than focusing strictly on their learning limitations.With their policy documents formally registered at the electoral court, the candidates will now defend these proposals during television debates and mandatory campaign broadcasts ahead of the first round of voting in October.

The Brazilian Senate faces a political deadlock over Bill 6,461/2019, which establishes the new Apprentice Statute (Estatuto do Aprendiz). The measure is moving under an expedited fast-track procedure, but disagreement among senators threatens to postpone a plenary vote scheduled for early September. The legislation has spent seven years navigating the National Congress to overhaul labor regulations for young workers.Social organizations that place youth into corporate positions warn against pending amendments. According to the Company-School Integration Center (CIEE) and the Brazilian Federation of Socio-Educational Associations for Adolescents (Febraeda), legislative changes under review could eliminate roughly 500,000 apprentice jobs across Brazil. The figures were reported by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.The intermediary organizations project substantial employment growth if the framework passes without weakening quotas. Humberto Casagrande, chief executive of CIEE, stated that approving the baseline statutory rules could expand active apprenticeships from the current 800,000 positions to 1.2 million. The projection relies on official payroll records from the General Register of Employed and Unemployed Workers (Caged).Business groups and allied lawmakers have pushed amendments to soften corporate hiring obligations. The revisions seek to lower the mandatory hiring quotas, which scale based on each company's total workforce, and decrease financial penalties for non-compliance.Senate leaders must now determine whether to keep the bill on the voting calendar for September or delay the session to resolve competing demands from business lobbies and youth advocacy groups.

Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado, the PSD party's presidential candidate, was interviewed by TV Globo on Tuesday night (25) at the network's studios in Rio de Janeiro. In the sit-down with journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli, Caiado defended amnesty for those convicted over the January 8, 2023 attacks on Brazil's seats of power, a fiscal adjustment through a constitutional amendment and the creation of a South American police force. He was the second candidate interviewed in Globo's series with six presidential hopefuls, according to G1 and BBC News Brasil.In the first segment, Caiado promised to send Congress a bill granting amnesty to those convicted of attempting a coup on January 8, a group that includes former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who was convicted and jailed in the case. "We need to end this polarization, we have to pacify the country. Nobody can stand this situation anymore", he said."I will send the National Congress a bill so that there is a broad, general amnesty. In the same way, in a special way, the Supreme Court granted an amnesty to former president Lula", Caiado said.The comparison does not match what the Supreme Court actually decided. As G1 and the BBC pointed out, the court annulled Lula's convictions in the Car Wash investigation after finding that the federal court in Curitiba lacked jurisdiction over the cases and that then-judge Sergio Moro had acted with bias. There was no amnesty.Fiscal adjustment and spending cutsCaiado said he would send Congress, on his first day in office, a constitutional amendment capping the growth of federal spending at inflation plus 50% of GDP growth. Asked about the math behind the proposal, he asked for patience: "A patient was run over by a bus. Which points do you prioritize? I haven't even examined the patient. Calm down." The candidate called the current fiscal framework "a big sham" and defended an administrative reform cutting costs across all branches of government. "I will work on the administrative reform, with cuts not only in the Executive, but also in the Legislative, the Judiciary, the federal audit court, in every agency", he said, citing "extortionate salaries" and funds diverted from congressional budget earmarks as targets.South American police and pensionsOn public security, Caiado defended creating Sulpol, a joint police force made up of South American countries and modeled on Europol. "Brazil is a Disneyland for drug trafficking", he said. Under the proposal, officers from other countries could operate on Brazilian soil in cases involving smuggling, weapons, money laundering and drugs. Asked whether he would authorize United States operations in Brazil, he answered: "I have no reason to authorize them. What for, if we are going to handle it among ourselves here. We are ten countries." The US government announced anti-drug actions in Latin America in recent weeks, and the Lula administration is concerned about possible American operations on Brazilian soil, the BBC reported.Caiado also said he would carry out a pension reform, but did not answer whether he would change the minimum retirement age. On taxes, he said he would "revisit" the tax reform, which he attributed to economist Bernard Appy, and defended lowering the burden for self-employed workers and micro-entrepreneurs. He criticized the estimated 28% rate for the new value-added tax and the Selective Tax, which he called a "sin tax". At the end of the interview, he appealed to the Supreme Court to lift the secrecy of investigations into fraud at the INSS, the social security agency, the Master case and Operation Carbono Oculto, probes that, according to G1, could affect the campaigns of Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro.Globo's interview series continues on Thursday (27) with President Lula (PT). Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and Augusto Cury (Avante) will be interviewed in the coming days. Caiado's main proposals, such as the amnesty and the spending-cap amendment, would need Congressional approval if he is elected in October.

The revelation that Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) asked former banker Daniel Vorcaro for money to finance a film about former President Jair Bolsonaro has shaken his presidential campaign. That is the conclusion of an analysis published by Folha de S.Paulo on Thursday (27), which details the liabilities weighing on the candidate in Brazil's 2026 election.According to Folha, Flávio had been trying to pin the Banco Master scandal on the Workers' Party (PT) and the left. That line of attack lost force after Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP), a former minister under Jair Bolsonaro, was targeted by a Federal Police operation in the bank investigation. The analysis also lists against the candidate the weight of the Bolsonaro name, the lack of executive experience, the rachadinhas case, a salary kickback scheme from his time as a state deputy that was never fully clarified, purchases made in cash, his support for the Trump administration with talk of handing over natural resources, and his rejection among voters.The audio and the R$ 134 millionThe Vorcaro case surfaced in May, when Intercept Brasil released audio and messages from the negotiations. According to the material, Flávio asked the banker for up to US$ 24 million, about R$ 134 million, to bankroll Dark Horse, a fictionalized biopic of his father. Identified transfers total at least US$ 10.6 million, roughly R$ 61 million. In a September 2025 recording, the senator presses Vorcaro, who is now in jail, for more money.The money went to the Havengate Development Fund LP, a fund based in Texas, in the United States, represented by the law office of Paulo Calixto, who also works for Eduardo Bolsonaro, the senator's brother. Flávio confirmed he requested the funds. He said a confidentiality clause explained why he had not disclosed the relationship with Vorcaro before.Producer Go Up Entertainment states, in an expert report attached to a court case, that the film cost R$ 75 million, with R$ 54 million spent in the United States and R$ 20.9 million in Brazil. The document says the funding was private and channeled through Havengate, but does not identify the financiers. Vorcaro's name does not appear. The company denies receiving money from the former banker."A turned page"On the campaign trail, Flávio treats the matter as closed. "It already happened," he said on August 20 in São Paulo, saying he had seen the accounting and that "everything was in order." For the senator, Dark Horse is "a turned page." On Monday (24), at an event at Fiesp, the industry federation of the state of São Paulo, he was pressed again. "I am not the one who has to account for this. It is Lula who has to account for it," he replied. To reporters, he asked: "Are you going to stay stuck in time?"The deadline the senator himself announced to release a detailed accounting from the producer expired on June 18, with no documents made public. In July, he said he was "100% willing" to release the film's contract. The contract has not been released either.The production remains under investigation. According to Brasil de Fato, the inquiries include the possible irregular use of public funds and the absence of mandatory licenses from Ancine, Brazil's national film agency. With the first round set for October, less than six weeks away, the PL campaign is trying to contain the damage, while Folha notes that the episode has undercut Flávio's bid to present himself as a moderate without giving up his defense of amnesty and of his father's legacy.

Campaigns in Brazil's 2026 general elections raised R$ 770 million in the first ten days of campaigning. Political parties supplied most of the money: R$ 648.5 million, about 85% of the total. The figures come from Divulgacand, the disclosure system of the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, extracted on Wednesday (26) in a survey by the newspaper Folha. Donations from individuals, combined with crowdfunding and transfers from other candidates, reached R$ 78.4 million. Candidates also spent R$ 42.7 million of their own money. The amounts are still far from what campaigns are expected to spend. In 2022, individual donations topped R$ 1.1 billion in inflation-adjusted values, according to Folha. Public fund concentrates party money The weight of the parties comes from the FEFC, the Special Campaign Financing Fund known in Brazil as the fundão, a public fund bankrolled by taxpayers. Parties have so far passed on about 12% of the nearly R$ 5 billion reserved for the fund: R$ 591 million. The PL, the party of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, holds the largest share, more than R$ 880 million, and has already delivered about 30% of it to candidates. The PT of President Lula, who is seeking reelection, has about R$ 615 million and has transferred 15% of it, according to Wednesday's data. The PCdoB, the Communist Party of Brazil, distributed the largest percentage of the fund, about half of the R$ 60.5 million available to it. The liberal party Novo passed on 44% of its R$ 37 million. Beyond the public fund, parties finance campaigns in smaller volumes with private donations and the fundo partidário, a separate public fund that pays for party operations. R$ 1 billion transfer left out of the tally The Folha survey did not count a R$ 1 billion transfer from the PL to Diogo Siqueira, a candidate for federal deputy in Rio Grande do Sul, recorded in the TSE system. The candidate's staff told the newspaper the real amount is R$ 1 million and that there was an error in the registration. The official campaign began on August 16. The figures remain far from what campaigns are expected to spend, according to Folha, and close to 90% of the fundão is still in the parties' hands. The first round is scheduled for October 4.

Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and the Liberal Party (PL) candidate for president of Brazil, recorded a video supporting Eduardo Cunha, a former speaker of the lower house who is running for federal deputy in the state of Minas Gerais. The recording was posted on social media on Wednesday (26) and shared by Cunha on Instagram, according to Folha de S.Paulo and Metrópoles.In the video, Flávio Bolsonaro says Cunha played an important role in the country's history by leading, as speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, the impeachment proceedings against former president Dilma Rousseff of the Workers' Party (PT)."He was the one who opened the eyes of the Brazilian population and brought Dilma down, perhaps the worst president this country has had in its history and, thank God, Brazil reacted and reacted in time," Flávio said, as transcribed by Metrópoles.Cunha thanked him for the support and said he is campaigning for Flávio in Minas Gerais and across the country, even though his party, Republicanos, decided to stay neutral in the presidential race. "I am supporting Flávio Bolsonaro, my party, Republicanos, is neutral, but I am supporting Flávio Bolsonaro," the former deputy said in the video.From running the impeachment to losing his seatAs speaker, Cunha accepted the impeachment request against Rousseff in December 2015. The Chamber authorized the proceedings in April 2016, and the Senate removed her permanently on August 31 of that year, Folha reports. On September 12, 2016, the floor voted 450 to 10 to strip Cunha of his mandate, after he was accused of lying to the Petrobras congressional inquiry when he denied holding bank accounts abroad. Documents handed over by Swiss prosecutors proved the accounts existed, according to Metrópoles. At the time, Cunha said he was the target of political persecution.Also in 2016, Cunha was arrested as part of the Car Wash corruption investigation, known as Lava Jato, accused of taking bribes in Petrobras contracts. He was sentenced to almost 16 years in prison, but his convictions were annulled in 2021 and 2023. In 2022, he ran for state deputy in São Paulo for the PTB party and lost, Metrópoles reported.His candidacy in Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-largest electorate, is Cunha's attempt to return to the Chamber of Deputies ten years after being ousted. The race will be decided at the ballot box in the October general election, when voters in the state choose their federal deputies.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) would defeat any rival in a potential runoff in Brazil's 2026 election, according to an Indexa/Broadcast poll released on Wednesday (26), as reported by CartaCapital. His closest competitor is Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro: Lula takes 46% of voting intentions against 41% for the senator.The institute tested four runoff scenarios, and Lula comes out ahead in all of them. His lead ranges from 5 to 12 percentage points depending on the opponent. The numbers:Lula: 46% against 41% for Flávio Bolsonaro (PL);Lula: 45% against 34% for Romeu Zema (Novo), governor of Minas Gerais;Lula: 44% against 38% for Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), governor of Goiás;Lula: 46% against 34% for Renan Santos (Missão).First roundFor the first round, the survey tested two scenarios, one of them including Pablo Marçal (PRTB), who launched a candidacy but is currently ineligible. Lula leads both with 39%, according to CartaCapital. Flávio Bolsonaro comes second, with 34% when Marçal is out of the race and 33% when he is in. Caiado has 5% in both cases, and Renan Santos, 4%. When included, Marçal scores 2%.Indexa interviewed 2,000 voters by phone between August 20 and 23. The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points in either direction. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under code BR-06366/2026 and was commissioned by Broadcast, the news wire of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.Lula is running for reelection. Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator for Rio de Janeiro and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is the candidate of the PL, his father's party. The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the top two meet in a runoff later that month.

Brazilian immigrants living in New Jersey say they plan to stay home on October 4, the first round of Brazil's presidential election, out of fear of ICE, the United States immigration enforcement agency. The accounts were given to Folha de S.Paulo, which found that the fear guided the Consulate-General of Brazil in New York in choosing the polling site.According to the newspaper, daily life has changed in the cities hit hardest by immigration raids. Some Brazilians avoid going out during the day, order food through delivery apps to skip restaurants, and follow WhatsApp groups created to warn about the presence of agents. Because of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants, turnout among Brazilian voters in the United States is expected to be lower this year.The Consulate-General in New York serves voters living in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. According to Folha's reporting, the mission had two main concerns: finding a space where immigrants would feel protected and reducing the chance of illegal election-day campaigning and clashes between voters of opposing political camps.An educational complex in QueensThe chosen site is an educational complex in Queens, far from Manhattan and from New Jersey cities with large Brazilian communities, such as Newark. Its layout, the newspaper reports, prevents lines from forming in public spaces and keeps voters inside the buildings at all times.The choice rests on American law. ICE agents cannot enter private areas, such as homes and schools, without a judicial warrant signed by a judge. That is why most arrests happen in public places, and why isolated cases, like an arrest at Columbia University in Manhattan, drew wide attention. Folha also reported that the concern for Brazilian voters was shared by the New York City Mayor's Office of International Affairs and the New York Police Department.Brazilians living abroad vote only for president. The next test comes on October 4, when turnout at the consulate's polling stations will show how much fear has weighed on the region's electorate.

Presidential candidate Renan Santos, of the Missão party, defended on Wednesday (26) that Brazil develop nuclear weapons as a guarantee of sovereignty. In the same interview to TV Globo, he played down human rights violations under El Salvador's state of exception, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The session was conducted by Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli, anchors of Jornal Nacional, the country's leading newscast."If Brazil wants to be one of the five greatest nations in the world, one that sits at the table with the United States, India, Russia and China, it will need sovereignty, sovereignty over its own territory, military sovereignty, and it will have to discuss having atomic bombs", the candidate said, according to G1. He acknowledged Brazil could not produce the bomb in the next ten years and spoke of production "in the medium and long term".Santos said he needs no studies to back the proposal. "I do not need a scientific study to determine that a nation has to have political strength to protect itself from other nations. Reality is very clear: the most powerful nations in the world have nuclear weapons and they make themselves respected because of that", he stated.The proposal clashes with Brazilian law. The country has been a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1998, and the Constitution states that nuclear activity on national territory "will only be admitted for peaceful purposes". Santos defended leaving the treaty and cited North Korea, the only country to have done so, according to G1. "As much as it is a regime I consider oppressive and do not respect, at least it is respected internationally. It is a way of defending its own sovereignty", he said.The candidate denied the measure would strain relations with the United States and said it would be up to Washington to sit down and negotiate with Brazil, according to Folha. He compared Brazil's current standing in foreign policy to a "Zé Carioca of the world", a party destination, in a reference to the Disney parrot character tied to Brazil's carefree image. "If we want to be the world's eternal Zé Carioca, we accept our submissive position. Now, if we want to be a serious and respected nation in the next 30 years, we need nuclear weapons", he said.Public security and the Bukele modelOn public security, Santos reaffirmed his promise to retake within one year in office the territories controlled by criminal factions. Asked about the failure of the federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro, which cost R$ 1.2 billion in public funds and ended with organized crime stronger in the state, he said the country lives a "unilateral war" and declared himself in favor of a "declaration of war against organized crime". "Today almost 40 million Brazilians live directly or indirectly under the influence of crime", he said.The candidate cited as inspiration the security model of El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele. Confronted with the rights violations committed under the Salvadoran state of exception, Santos played them down, according to Folha. According to G1, he also proposes investing R$ 6 billion in building prisons and defends a state of exception in favelas.The interview was the third in Globo's series with the six candidates best placed in the August 14 Quaest poll, according to G1. Lula (PT) is up on Thursday (27). Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) speaks on Friday (28), and Augusto Cury (Avante) closes the series on Saturday (29). The first round of the election takes place on October 4.

Renan Santos, the presidential candidate of the Missão (Mission) party, said on Wednesday, August 26, that Brazil should develop nuclear weapons and proposed earmarking R$ 6 billion for prison construction. He spoke in a televised interview with TV Globo anchors Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli at the network's studios in Rio de Janeiro. Through Saturday (29), Globo is interviewing the six candidates best placed in the August 14 Quaest poll, in a special aired for the first time after the Jornal Nacional newscast rather than during it.Atomic bombAsked about earlier statements in which he defended an atomic bomb for the country, Santos stood by his position. "If Brazil wants to be one of the five biggest nations in the world, one that sits at the table with the United States, India, Russia and China, it will need sovereignty, sovereignty over its own territory, military sovereignty, and it will have to discuss having atomic bombs," he said, according to G1. The candidate said he needs no scientific study to sustain the thesis. "The most powerful nations in the world have nuclear weapons and they make themselves respected because of it," he said. He also defended Brazil's withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and cited North Korea, the only country to leave the pact. "As much as it is a regime I consider oppressive and that I do not respect, at least it is respected internationally. It is a way of defending its own sovereignty," he said."If we want to be the world's eternal Zé Carioca [...], we accept our submissive position. But if we want to be a serious, respected nation in the next 30 years, we need nuclear weapons."Zé Carioca, the Disney parrot, is shorthand in Brazil for a carefree, party-loving image of the country. Santos acknowledged that Brazil could not produce nuclear weapons in the next ten years and spoke of building them "in the medium and long term," according to Folha de S.Paulo. He denied the proposal would strain relations with the United States and said it would be up to Washington to sit down and negotiate. The measure, though, collides with Brazilian law: the country has been a Non-Proliferation Treaty signatory since 1998, and the Constitution states that all nuclear activity on national territory "will only be admitted for peaceful purposes," Folha noted.Prisons and organized crimeOn public safety, the candidate proposed investing R$ 6 billion in building prisons and defended a "regime of exception" in the favelas, according to G1. He repeated his promise to retake, within one year in office, every territory controlled by criminal factions. "Today almost 40 million Brazilians live directly or indirectly under the influence of crime," he said. Santos also wants to change the prison execution law to treat faction members as an "anomalous entity." Asked about the failed federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro, which cost R$ 1.2 billion and ended with organized crime stronger, he answered that the country lives a "war declared unilaterally" and defended a "declaration of war against organized crime," Folha reported. He cites the security model of El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, as inspiration.In the interview, Santos repeated that he would disobey rulings of the Supreme Court (STF) that he considers illegal. "Any citizen, faced with an illegal decision, can refuse to comply. In fact, he has a duty not to comply. An illegal decision is not to be complied with," he said. He denied, however, that he would disrespect all of the court's decisions, according to InfoMoney. On the economy, he promised a new pension reform. "I am not an electoral con man like other candidates who will come here and say it is not necessary. We will need to do another pension reform," he said.The Globo interview series continues on Thursday (27) with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is Friday's guest (28), and Augusto Cury (Avante) closes the series on Saturday (29). Romeu Zema (Novo) and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) were interviewed on Monday and Tuesday.

Presidential candidate Renan Santos, of the Missão party, said on Wednesday (26) that Brazil should develop nuclear weapons and stated that he will not comply with court rulings he considers illegal. He spoke in an interview with TV Globo conducted by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli, part of the network's series of interviews with the candidates in the 2026 presidential race.Atomic bomb and leaving the NPTAsked about earlier statements in favor of an atomic bomb, Santos stood by his position. "If Brazil wants to be one of the five biggest nations in the world, fit to sit at the table with the United States, India, Russia and China, it will need sovereignty, sovereignty over its own territory, military sovereignty, and it will have to discuss having atomic bombs," he said, according to G1.The candidate acknowledged that Brazil has no conditions to produce a nuclear weapon in the next ten years and defended pulling the country out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), citing North Korea, the only country to have left the treaty. "As much as it is a regime I consider oppressive and do not respect, at least it is respected internationally," he said. The proposal collides with Brazilian law: as Folha de S.Paulo points out, Brazil has been an NPT signatory since 1998 and the Constitution states that nuclear activity on national territory "will only be admitted for peaceful purposes."Supreme Court, pensions and public securityOn the Supreme Federal Court (STF), Brazil's top court, Santos said he does not intend to disrespect all of its rulings. "It is not that I said I would go around disrespecting every STF decision, that is absurd," he said, according to InfoMoney. He kept, however, his defense of disobeying rulings he deems illegal."Any citizen, faced with an illegal ruling, can refuse to comply. In fact, he has a duty not to comply. An illegal ruling is not to be obeyed. If an illegal ruling comes along that puts people at very great risk, you cannot comply with it."On the economy, the candidate promised a new pension reform. "I am not an election fraudster like other candidates who will come here and say it is not needed. We will need another pension reform. It will go broke in three years," he said. He also confirmed his pledge to cut R$ 1 trillion in public spending to stabilize the debt trajectory and defended unlinking the constitutionally mandated spending floors for health and education.On public security, Santos reaffirmed his plan to retake, within one year in office, all territories controlled by criminal factions and promised to invest R$ 6 billion in building prisons. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the candidate cited the security model of El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, as inspiration and said Brazil is fighting a "unilaterally declared war" against organized crime.TV Globo's interview series with the presidential candidates runs through Friday (29), when Vasconcellos and Tralli will question the remaining contenders.

Renan Santos, the presidential candidate of the Missão party, said in an interview with TV Globo on Wednesday (26) that he intends to spend R$ 6 billion on building federal prisons and to impose an emergency regime in favelas to fight organized crime.Under the proposal, ten new federal prisons would be built, each holding 30,000 to 40,000 inmates. Together, the units would create between 300,000 and 400,000 new spots. Brazil's federal penitentiary system currently has five maximum-security prisons with 1,040 spots in total, reserved mainly for high-risk inmates such as criminal faction leaders."On prisons alone, we need to spend R$ 6 billion to open spots and build ten prisons, each with 30,000 to 40,000 spots. The process needs to start now," Renan Santos said.Asked whether his promise to retake, within one year, all areas controlled by criminal factions across the country is feasible, the candidate said Brazil faces a war "declared unilaterally" by organized crime. According to him, about 40 million Brazilians live directly or indirectly under the influence of criminals."If you live in a favela, organized crime rules over you, it can drive you out of your home," he said. "Life in a country at war is a sad life."Emergency rule and the Bukele modelRenan defended changes to Brazil's Prison Execution Law so that members of criminal factions are treated as an "anomalous entity" under the law. In his view, arresting a drug trafficker is pointless if he is released shortly afterward.The candidate also named El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, as a reference. Bukele's crackdown on gangs has been the target of human rights violation complaints, including arbitrary arrests and torture. "The idea of confrontation using a special regime, here, the state of defense in areas dominated by crime, I will adopt it. There will be an emergency regime in favelas so I can retake the favela," he said.According to Folha de S.Paulo, when asked about the failed federal intervention in Rio de Janeiro, which cost R$ 1.2 billion in public funds and ended with organized crime expanding its control over the state, Renan answered that he favors a "declaration of war against organized crime".Renan Santos, 42, is a businessman and leader of the Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL), an activist group he helped found in 2014 that grew out of the protests for the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff. Missão, a party created in 2025, is running its first presidential race, and public safety is the central theme of his campaign. At the campaign launch, he went as far as defending "killing those who steal".The interview with Renan was the third in a Globo series with the six candidates best placed in the Quaest poll of August 14. Lula (PT) is interviewed on Thursday (27), followed by Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) on Friday (28) and Augusto Cury (Avante) on Saturday (29). The first round of the election is on October 4.

Brazil's federal government opposes the mining of rare earths in Minaçu, in northern Goiás state, by the American company USA Rare Earth and is studying ways to reverse the deal, according to reporting by G1 published on Tuesday (26). The company signed an agreement to buy Serra Verde, which runs the only rare earth mine in production in Brazil. The transaction still needs approval from shareholders at a meeting scheduled for Friday (28).The dealThe purchase of Serra Verde was announced in April for US$ 2.8 billion, about R$ 14 billion, according to Metrópoles and Poder360. The miner holds all eight of Brazil's rare earth mining concessions, all of them in Goiás, Poder360 reported. The two companies plan to build a complete magnet production chain, from extraction to manufacturing, outside Asia, the region that dominates that market, G1 reported. The clause most criticized by the government is the requirement that 100% of initial output be shipped to the United States.The deal moved forward with American public money. The US Department of War announced on Monday (24) a US$ 750 million investment, about R$ 3.9 billion, in a fund created to buy the output of the Pela Ema mine, plus a US$ 300 million purchase commitment, according to Poder360."This strategic partnership will establish a secure supply chain for rare earth elements critical to national defense and economic security," the US government said in a statement.Government officials told G1 that a strategy to reverse the contract is under study. The assessment is that rare earths sit in the subsoil and therefore belong to the Union, the legal term for Brazil's federal patrimony. In that reading, the company would hold no acquired right to exploit those resources once Congress passes a bill creating a National Policy for Critical Minerals. If the text stalls, the government weighs taking the case to court. The Ministry of Mines and Energy, however, has told the Chamber of Deputies that the transaction does not require prior federal approval because it changes the company's shareholding control without formally transferring the mining concession, according to Poder360.Vote in the SenateThe bill creating the national policy was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil's lower house, in May and awaits a Senate vote. The text creates the National Council for the Industrialization of Critical and Strategic Minerals (CIMCE), a body linked to the Presidency that would set sector guidelines and validate mining projects. After meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday, Senate President Davi Alcolumbre announced that the bill should be voted on next week.Lula had already defended regulating the sector on August 17, during an event in Amapá state, according to Metrópoles."We will not let anyone from abroad come here to exploit our minerals, because we want to transform them here," Lula said.Lula's ministers say the policy should encourage domestic private investment and that foreign capital will be accepted if the minerals are processed in Brazil into high-tech products such as chips, batteries and defense equipment, according to G1.Two dates will define what happens next. Shareholders vote on the deal on Friday (28). The Senate is expected to vote on the critical minerals bill next week. Without the law, the council will not be installed in the short term, and the Planalto, the seat of Brazil's presidency, is preparing a court challenge to try to reverse the mining in Minaçu.

The São Paulo Regional Electoral Court (TRE-SP) on Tuesday (25) reversed, by 5 votes to 1, one of the rulings that had barred businessman Pablo Marçal from holding elected office for eight years. The court threw out a lawsuit brought by the PSB party and dismissed accusations of abuse of power and misuse of media during the 2024 campaign, when Marçal ran for mayor of São Paulo for the PRTB party, according to G1 and CNN Brasil.The decision does not change Marçal's electoral status. He is running for president in 2026, according to CNN Brasil, and remains ineligible because of another conviction, upheld by the same court in December 2025 in the case of a so-called "clip contest" that promoted videos of the candidate on social media. An appeal to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral court, is still possible.The case judged on Tuesday was filed by the PSB's São Paulo municipal branch, which listed ten alleged irregularities in the mayoral race. The lower court upheld two of them: social media posts questioning the electoral process and the impartiality of the electoral courts, along with attacks on opponents, and a campaign website that, according to the accusation, encouraged voters to print campaign materials and bypass fundraising and spending rules.Judge Regis de Castilho, whose vote was followed by the majority, ruled that Marçal's statements did not threaten the work of the electoral courts."There is dissatisfaction and the exercise of the right to speak out about how the Judiciary works. There is nothing in the legal system, including the Federal Constitution, that bars criticism of the Judiciary, just as the Legislative and the Executive branches can be widely criticized. Court decisions can, indeed, be criticized," the judge said, according to CNN Brasil.Castilho was joined by appellate judges Roberto Maia and Mairan Maia Junior and judges Cláudia Bedotti and Danyelle Galvão. The case's original rapporteur, Judge Cláudio Langroiva, voted to keep the conviction and lost. In his view, Marçal's statements went beyond free speech by spreading false information and attacking democratic institutions. According to G1, Langroiva said the use of terms such as "dictatorship" and "censorship," combined with the candidate's reach on social media, could undermine trust in the electronic voting system. On the printing website, both judges agreed there was not enough evidence of irregular fundraising or spending, or of abuse of economic power.Other casesIn November 2025, the TRE-SP had already reversed another ineligibility ruling against Marçal, in a lawsuit filed by the PSB and by then mayoral candidate Guilherme Boulos. That case investigated the suspected sale of endorsements to city council candidates in exchange for payments via Pix, Brazil's instant payment system. Follow-up appeals were rejected in February, and the case now awaits a special appeal at the TSE, according to CNN Brasil.The conviction that keeps Marçal ineligible, over the "clip contest" that encouraged the production and sharing of videos with his statements, was upheld by the court in December 2025, along with a R$ 420,000 fine for disobeying a court order. A further appeal was rejected on August 5. The next step in that case is a pending appeal to the TSE. Tuesday's ruling can also be appealed.

Polls by Quaest released Tuesday (25th) show a statistical tie between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, Rio de Janeiro) in Brazil's three largest electoral states: São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. According to G1, the outlet that first reported the scenario, both campaigns are expected to intensify their schedules in the Southeast region in the coming weeks.In São Paulo, Brazil's largest electorate, Flávio Bolsonaro polls at 30% against Lula's 29%, within the poll's two-point margin of error. In Minas Gerais, Flávio leads 31% to 30%. In Rio de Janeiro, the senator has 31% against the president's 29%. Those two states carry a three-point margin of error, which also puts the race within statistical tie territory.The São Paulo survey polled 1,800 people between August 21 and 24, with a 95% confidence level, registered under number BR-02096/2026 with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE, the body that oversees and certifies elections). The polls also point to a significant share of undecided voters: 17% in Minas Gerais, 16% in Rio de Janeiro and 13% in São Paulo, according to G1.Campaign strategiesA member of Lula's inner campaign circle told G1 the Southeast will be a priority. "We will prioritize these three states, whether for their political weight, the size of the electorate, or the volume of investments the president has made," the source said. Internally, Lula's campaign believes he has completed public works and investments in the region during his term and now has stronger state-level running mates than in the 2022 race.On Flávio Bolsonaro's side, campaign coordinator Senator Rogério Marinho (Liberal Party, Rio Grande do Norte) told GloboNews he does not comment on polls, but confirmed the strategic focus on the region. "We will campaign in the Northeast and across all of Brazil. But our focus is to win, and the largest number of voters is in the Southeast," Marinho said. Analysts cited by G1 believe the pool of undecided voters could prove decisive in a tight final stretch, a dynamic that tends to draw campaigns toward states where more voters remain up for grabs.In the first two weeks of campaigning, both candidates already concentrated much of their schedules in the Southeast. Lula opened his campaign with a rally in São Paulo, while Flávio launched his candidacy in Rio de Janeiro. The following week, both kept commitments in Minas Gerais and returned to Rio seeking support. The election is set for October 4, and the pace of campaign stops in the region is expected to accelerate as both sides try to win over the Southeast's undecided voters.

The working group created by Brazil's Federal Supreme Court (STF) to discuss judicial reform has received 87 proposals from civil society organizations and institutions, according to G1. The suggestions include fixed terms for STF justices, limits on individual rulings, and new mechanisms for oversight and accountability.Among the most contentious ideas is the creation of 10 to 12 year terms for justices, a departure from Brazil's current system in which STF justices hold lifetime appointments until mandatory retirement. This would be a significant shift for a court accustomed to no term limits. Other proposals call for disciplinary authority over the justices themselves, cutting the court's 60 day annual recess to 30 days, a code of ethics for justices of Brazil's higher courts, an effective pay cap barring bonuses from exceeding a justice's base salary, and a quarantine period for judges after they leave the bench.Most of the submissions focus on mechanisms to prevent litigation and reduce repetitive lawsuits by favoring consensus based solutions. Others call for modernizing court management and strengthening the weight given to consolidated case law.Artificial intelligence draws scrutinyThe proposals reveal significant concern over the use of artificial intelligence in the judiciary. One recommendation calls for a governance framework for AI use in courts, with mandatory human oversight at sensitive stages of legal proceedings. The University of São Paulo's law school (FDRP-USP) argues for a constitutional or legal ban on AI replacing human judgment. According to G1, the school's proposal reads as follows:This prohibition should be elevated to constitutional status, through an amendment adding a paragraph to Article 93, or alternatively to legal status, by amending Complementary Law 35/1979, establishing that any decision based on artificial intelligence must be issued, reviewed and signed by a judge, with no delegation, full or partial, of the decision making function.The National Federation of Federal Judiciary Workers (Fenajufe) also addressed the issue, arguing, according to G1, that AI governance should constitute a permanent institutional policy based on transparency, democratic participation, human oversight, public accountability, data protection and continuous assessment of the social and institutional impacts of the technologies used. Brazil's national bar association (OAB), through its state chapters and affiliated entities, proposed limiting single justice rulings, revising the STF's jurisdiction, promoting gender and racial diversity, salary transparency, and governance rules for artificial intelligence.The 87 proposals will be reviewed starting in September by a group of 19 legal scholars, judges and academics, who have until the end of the year to consolidate a report with recommendations to modernize the system. Brazil's last judicial reform dates back to 2004. STF Chief Justice Edson Fachin has already appointed Justice Cármen Lúcia as rapporteur for a proposed code of ethics, but that discussion is not expected to move forward until after October's elections, and some within the court suggest the debate could be pushed to 2027.

State-level polls by pollster Quaest released Wednesday show President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's voting intentions stabilizing, while Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) gained ground. According to journalist Valdo Cruz's blog on G1, the numbers reinforced an assessment inside Lula's reelection campaign that new political developments with electoral impact will be needed before the first round of voting on October 4.In the state surveys, Flávio Bolsonaro edged ahead of Lula in São Paulo (30% to 29%), Minas Gerais (31% to 30%) and Rio de Janeiro (31% to 29%), all within the margin of error. Lula's campaign believes that passing two constitutional amendments before the election, one ending the '6x1' work schedule (six days on, one day off) and another overhauling public security policy, would hand the president fresh material for television and radio campaign ads.Meeting with Congress leadersOn Wednesday, Lula met with the Speaker of the Lower House, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and the President of the Senate, Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), to align strategy for both amendments and for a provisional measure that eliminated Brazil's import tax on small international purchases, popularly known as the 'taxa das blusinhas' (the 'little blouse tax'). Before the meeting, Lula wrote on social media: 'Today is an important day for our future. I will meet with Speaker Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre to address, with the urgency the Brazilian people need, four issues: ending the 6x1 schedule and the small-purchase tax, the public security amendment and the critical minerals framework law,' according to G1.Per G1, the amendment ending the 6x1 schedule sits in the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee and could be voted as soon as next Wednesday. Lula's allies are pushing to hold the full Senate floor vote the same day, combining what would normally be two separate rounds of voting, a maneuver used before when there is political consensus. Alcolumbre did not rule out the possibility but made no promises to government allies, the outlet reported.Folha de S.Paulo confirmed that both amendments will reach the Constitution and Justice Committee during Congress's 'concentrated effort' week, the same period in which a joint committee reviewing the import-tax measure is set to be installed on Tuesday. The newspaper reported the measure expires if not voted on by September 8, which would restore the 20% tax on international purchases under $50 less than a month before the first round. 'This provisional measure will not expire,' Alcolumbre said, according to Folha.Opposition pushbackThe opposition intends to slow the votes but acknowledges the difficulty of blocking the 6x1 amendment once it reaches the floor. 'If the Senate puts the end of the 6x1 schedule to a vote, senators running for reelection will have a hard time voting against an agenda with broad popular support,' an unnamed opposition leader told Valdo Cruz's blog. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign, meanwhile, expects to reach a statistical tie with Lula in upcoming first-round polls and to take a numerical lead by September, according to sources cited by G1. The Constitution and Justice Committee vote on the 6x1 amendment is scheduled for next Wednesday, and the timing of a full Senate floor vote, still uncertain, will determine whether the government secures the legislative win it is seeking before October.

President Lula announced an agreement on Wednesday with House Speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (Uniao-AP) to bring to a vote in Congress the provisional measure that ends the so called 'taxa das blusinhas', the 20% import tax that had been applied to international purchases under $50. The meeting took place at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia.According to Alcolumbre, the joint committee reviewing the measure will be installed next Tuesday, September 1, clearing the way for floor votes. 'It needs to be deliberated in committee, then on the floor of the House and the Senate. I make a commitment to you and to Brazilians who need this measure in force: next week, in this short window of concentrated effort, in the middle of the election process, we will deliberate so you can sign it into law', the Senate president said, according to InfoMoney. Alcolumbre also said this measure 'will not expire'.The measure, published by the government on May 13, suspended the 20% import tax on international purchases up to $50 (about R$258), a tax widely associated in Brazil with cheap clothing bought from platforms like Shein and Shopee, hence the nickname 'blusinhas' ('little blouses'). The text expires on September 8: if Congress does not vote on it by then, the tax automatically returns, less than a month before the first round of Brazil's presidential election on October 4. As of Wednesday, only the review committee had been created, with no agreement yet between party leaders on its key posts, according to Folha de S.Paulo.Other priorities on the tableMotta said the committee's chairmanship will be assigned by the House and its rapporteur role by the Senate. 'The goal is to use next week's window of concentrated effort to vote on the House floor and then the Senate floor', he said, according to InfoMoney. After the meeting, Motta handed the committee chairmanship to congressman Reginaldo Lopes (PT-MG), a member of the party's economic wing who helped negotiate Brazil's tax reform in Congress, according to Folha.The meeting also set the pace for other government priorities: a constitutional amendment ending the '6x1' work schedule (six days on, one day off), a public security constitutional amendment, and a bill on critical minerals. Reports on the 6x1 schedule and public security are expected to reach the Constitution and Justice Committee the same week, according to Folha. Next week will be Congress's last with floor votes before the campaign recess, adding pressure on the Lula government to close deals before lawmakers turn fully to their state races.The rapprochement between Lula and Alcolumbre follows more than three months of estrangement, triggered by the Senate's April rejection of Jorge Messias's nomination to Brazil's Supreme Court. The two resumed contact in early August, according to Folha. The joint committee still needs to be installed and both chambers still need to vote before the September 8 deadline, or the tax suspension will lapse.

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) announced on Wednesday that Congress will vote next week on the provisional measure that ended Brazil's so called "blusinhas tax," the import duty on low value international purchases. The announcement followed a lunch at the Alvorada Palace with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Lower House Speaker Hugo Motta."This provisional measure will not expire. It will be voted on in committee next Tuesday. I make this commitment, as I did with Motta, to Brazil, which needs this measure in force, that next week, in this short window of concentrated effort, we will deliberate so it can be signed into law, for millions of Brazilians to have a better quality of life," Alcolumbre said, according to G1.The provisional measure zeroed a 20 percent import tax on international purchases of up to $50, and it was published in May. Under Brazilian law, the text must be approved by Congress by September 8 or it loses validity, meaning the tax would return on September 9. Congress has not yet agreed on who will lead the joint committee responsible for reviewing the measure before it goes to a floor vote in both chambers, according to InfoMoney. Motta said the committee chair will be appointed by the Lower House and the rapporteur by the Senate. "The goal is to use next week's window of concentrated legislative effort to vote it on the Lower House floor and then in the Senate," he said.Alcolumbre also said the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) will review next week two proposed constitutional amendments: one on public security and another that would end the so called "6x1" work schedule, in which employees work six days and rest one. He did not guarantee both measures would reach the full Senate floor in the same period, which lawmakers are calling a "concentrated effort" of votes ahead of the first round of Brazil's presidential election on October 4. Allies of Lula are pressing for the labor schedule amendment to reach a floor vote the same day it clears committee, but a constitutional amendment normally requires two rounds of Senate votes with a five business day gap between them, unless there is political agreement to speed up the process.Industry pushback and other prioritiesBrazil's National Confederation of Industry (CNI) has opposed ending the import tax. In a statement cited by G1, the group's economy superintendent, Marcio Guerra, said zeroing the tax on purchases up to $50 "creates differentiated tax treatment for imports" and "harms the domestic market, violates fair competition and the constitutional principle of protecting the domestic market as national heritage." CNI estimates the change could put at risk 21.8 billion reais in domestic production and 109,000 jobs in 2026.Alcolumbre said the Senate should also advance Redata, a tax regime for data centers, and a national policy on critical minerals, both stalled on the floor. He said the joint committee for Redata had not previously been installed, leaving senators without the political cover to vote on it earlier this year. A new government backed bill, already approved by the Lower House, will now move forward given the importance of the investment it could attract to Brazil, he said.The next milestone is the installation of the joint committee overseeing the import tax measure, expected Tuesday, followed by floor votes in both chambers during next week's concentrated legislative push, the last voting window before the October 4 first round. The Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee is expected to take up both the labor schedule amendment and the public security amendment in the same period, though no date has been confirmed for either to reach the full floor.

President Lula hosted the leaders of Brazil's two legislative chambers, House Speaker Hugo Motta and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, for lunch at the Alvorada Palace on Wednesday. The meeting's main goal was to unblock a provisional decree that suspended what Brazilians call the 'blusinhas tax' (literally 'little blouses tax'), a nickname for the import levy on small international purchases, according to the news site O Antagonista.The decree suspended a 20% import tax on international purchases of up to 50 US dollars, a rule that mostly hits shoppers buying from platforms like Shein and AliExpress. The measure expires on September 8 unless both the lower house and the Senate approve it before then. If it lapses, the tax could return, adding pressure to the legislative calendar.On Sunday, Lula said he expected to announce the end of the 'blusinhas tax' after meeting with the two chamber presidents, according to reports covering his remarks. The government wants to use what it considers Congress's last concentrated work push before the campaign period slows legislative activity to get the decree approved.Other items on the agendaBesides the import tax measure, the lunch also covered a constitutional amendment on public security and another ending the so called '6x1' work schedule, a shift pattern requiring six days of work for one day off that labor advocates have pushed to abolish. Both proposals were sent by Alcolumbre to the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) after sitting without action for months, per O Antagonista. On the security amendment, rapporteur Rogério Carvalho (Workers' Party, Sergipe state) recommended keeping the text as approved by the lower house, a move meant to avoid sending it back to the Chamber of Deputies. That text would grant constitutional status to Brazil's national public security system and its associated funds.On the 6x1 work schedule amendment, rapporteur Omar Aziz (PSD, Amazonas state) said he will present his report to the CCJ on Thursday and plans to keep the version already approved by the lower house, again to avoid delays, according to G1. Aziz intends to propose a transition period of up to one year for cutting weekly working hours, with exceptions for specific sectors. A bill on critical and strategic minerals, already passed by the lower house and now in Senate committees, was also on the table.The outcome now hinges on the timeline Lula, Motta and Alcolumbre discussed at lunch. The import tax decree must clear both chambers before September 8 to avoid expiring, while Omar Aziz is set to present his report on the 6x1 schedule to the Senate committee on Thursday.

Argentine political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, known for admitting to using bot networks in far-right campaigns across Latin America, told his former partner, lawyer Nadia Beller, that he "would fight" for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in Brazil's 2026 presidential election. Beller gave the account in a video interview with newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Tuesday (25th).Cerimedo, a friend of former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL), was arrested on August 18 in Bolivia, accused of ordering an assassination attempt against Beller, who is pregnant. He denies involvement in the crime. According to the report, the lawyer was shot outside a hotel in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on the night of Monday the 17th, in an ambush involving two men dressed as delivery workers. She underwent surgery, survived and has since been discharged from the hospital.Asked by Folha about Cerimedo's ties to the Bolsonaro family, Beller said she directly questioned the consultant about whether Flávio had a real chance of winning the presidential race. "He told me it was difficult, but that they would fight. That was the only comment he made to me," she said."That's what I understood at the time, that they were going to try. This was right after the candidacy was announced. I asked: 'Does he have any chance?' He answered: 'Hmm, let's fight,'" Beller told Folha, when asked whether she interpreted Cerimedo's words as a promise to help the campaign.Folha sent three questions to Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign: whether the senator knows or has spoken with Cerimedo, whether he is aware of any conversation between the consultant and Eduardo Bolsonaro about support for this year's presidential bid, and whether he knew that Cerimedo worked for Jair Bolsonaro's 2022 campaign. As of publication, the campaign had not responded.A history with BolsonarismoAccording to Brazilian outlet Diário do Centro do Mundo, Cerimedo became known in Brazil for leading attacks on the country's electronic voting machines after Jair Bolsonaro's 2022 election loss, when he presented a dossier during a livestream alleging flaws in certain machine models, claims later refuted by Brazil's electoral court. He was indicted by the Federal Police in 2024 on suspicion of criminal organization and attempting a coup, but was left out of the final complaint filed by the Prosecutor General's Office for lack of sufficient evidence that he knowingly took part in the broader scheme.The case remains under investigation by Bolivian authorities. Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign has not yet publicly responded to questions about his ties to the Argentine consultant.

President Lula's (Workers' Party) reelection campaign has filed two formal complaints with Brazil's TSE (Superior Electoral Court) against presidential candidates Renan Santos (Missao party) and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), according to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The filings allege the two candidates offended Lula's honor during a debate hosted by broadcaster Band, which Lula did not attend. The complaint against Renan Santos is dated Tuesday, August 25, and the one targeting Caiado is dated Monday, August 24.Renan Santos is the main target of the legal action. Lula's legal team, led by attorney Angelo Ferraro, lists six statements the Missao candidate made during the debate that it considers offensive, along with their reposting on social media by Renan Santos himself and by his party. Among the remarks cited in the filing: "Lula had to come here to defend his legacy. I'm here calling him a thief. Why didn't he show up to defend himself?" and "Most of the time he's either drunk or with Janja. It's better to be drunk at times like these, right, Mr. President?", referring to Lula's wife, Janja da Silva.The campaign's argumentLula's lawyers argue it is "unmistakable that these accusations damage" the president's "honor and reputation," according to the excerpt of the filing cited by Folha. The legal team also raised concerns about how far the remarks spread online after the debate."In particular, the first attack on his honor made by the candidate, namely the label calling Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a 'thief,' has already logged more than 900,000 views on TikTok and nearly 200,000 likes on Instagram," Lula's legal team stated, according to Folha.The defense describes the posts as "slanderous, defamatory and injurious, with extremely high reach, being shared across a variety of platforms." The filing lists 20 posts on the social media profiles of Renan Santos and the Missao party, and asks the TSE, Brazil's electoral court that also rules on campaign conduct disputes, to order their removal and to fine both candidates and the Missao party.Folha de S.Paulo is the source for this report; no other outlet had published additional details on the filings at the time of writing. The TSE has not yet commented publicly on either complaint. It is now up to the court to decide whether to open a response period for Renan Santos, Caiado and Missao before ruling on the requests to remove content and impose fines.

Brazilian President Lula (Workers' Party, PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, PL) opened the first week of official election advertising online with opposite strategies, according to a survey by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo covering 89 Instagram posts by the two candidates between August 16 and 24.Lula's content centered on self-referential videos with emotional appeal, drawing on his political career and previous terms in office. The tone is institutional: the president does not attack his rival's weak points, including the senator's ties to banker Daniel Vorcaro, according to Folha's analysis. Vorcaro is at the center of a separate financial scandal that has drawn scrutiny to Flávio's campaign.This pattern is typical of whoever is leading the race, said Camilo Aggio, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and researcher at Brazil's National Institute of Science and Technology for Digital Democracy, in comments to Folha. In the first Datafolha poll conducted after candidacies were formally registered, Lula leads both electoral scenarios: in a first-round matchup he polls at 39% against Flávio's 33%, while in a runoff scenario he leads 47% to 43%, a margin that sits at the edge of the poll's margin of error.Aggio noted that negative campaigning is typically used by candidates who need to close a gap, which is the logic behind Flávio's approach on social media. The senator alternates daily attacks on the Lula administration with lighter content, such as a video featuring a dog he received as a gift at his campaign launch in Copacabana and a casual quiz alongside federal deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-Minas Gerais), which evokes the image of the senator's father, former president Jair Bolsonaro. According to researcher Monalisa Soares, a professor in the Social Sciences Department at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), the candidate uses Instagram like a personal profile in an effort to connect with ordinary users.Band debate and direct attacksOne of Flávio's attacks on the president came last Sunday, the day of a debate hosted by broadcaster Band, which the senator skipped. Allies of Flávio told Folha that the strategy of avoiding debates that do not include Lula is meant to directly confront the president without exposing the senator to attacks from other candidates in the race. That same day, Flávio recorded a lengthy video speaking directly to the camera in which he defended his willingness to debate on his own terms, according to Folha's reporting.The fight for social media traction is expected to intensify in the coming weeks as the campaign moves toward the first round of voting in October. Researchers cited by Folha expect Flávio to keep up the pace of attacks as he tries to close the gap in the polls, while Lula is likely to continue prioritizing an institutional message as long as he holds the lead in Datafolha's surveys.

Data from Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), reviewed by news outlet g1 on Wednesday (26), show that 1,768 candidates have so far declared donations to their own campaigns ahead of this year's elections. Two of them exceeded the legal limit on self-financing: Joaquim Passarinho, of the Liberal Party (PL) in Pará, who is running for reelection to the lower house of Congress, and José Eduardo Botelho, of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) in Mato Grosso, seeking reelection to the state legislature.Brazilian electoral law allows candidates to fund their own campaigns, but caps that contribution at 10% of the total spending ceiling the TSE sets for each office. Passarinho declared 500,000 reais (about 90,000 dollars) in personal funds. Since the federal deputy spending ceiling is 3,176,572.53 reais, his self-financing limit would have been 317,600 reais, meaning he exceeded it by 182,300 reais. Contacted by g1, Passarinho said he was unaware of the limit and will return the excess amount. The PL's Pará chapter did not respond to a request for comment.Botelho declared 200,000 reais in personal funds. Mato Grosso's spending ceiling for state deputy candidates is 1,270,629.01 reais, putting his self-financing limit at 127,000 reais, an excess of 72,900 reais. Neither Botelho nor the MDB responded to g1's requests for comment before publication. Both men are the largest individual donors to their own campaigns: Passarinho's personal contribution covered 89% of everything his campaign raised, and Botelho's covered 90%.What the law saysAccording to g1, exceeding the self-financing cap can trigger a fine of up to 100% of the excess amount and lead to the rejection of a campaign's accounts, but it does not automatically strip a candidate of their registration or trigger ineligibility. Those consequences require separate legal proceedings before Brazil's electoral courts. In a precedent cited by g1, a state legislature candidate in Pará who exceeded the limit by 318% after the 2022 election had his accounts rejected and was fined the full excess amount.Experts consulted by g1 caution that breaking the self-financing rule does not, on its own, amount to abuse of economic power, a distinct legal concept under Brazilian electoral law. Electoral lawyer Michel Bertoni Soares said the analysis should weigh the excess against the campaign's total fundraising. "One benchmark would be whether the irregularity corresponds to more than 20% of everything the campaign raised," he said. By that measure, Passarinho's excess equals 32.62% of the 559,000 reais his campaign raised, while Botelho's equals 33.15% of the 220,000 reais his campaign raised.Electoral lawyer Emma Roberta Bueno said abuse of economic power would only be established if the self-financing let a candidate run a more expensive campaign than the legal ceiling allows, distorting the race. She said the two candidates' accounts "should be rejected," but the law does not mandate registration cancellation or ineligibility as an automatic penalty in these cases, only repayment of misused funds. Lawyer Gabriela Rollemberg, of the Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law, noted that regulators still need to check whether the declared personal funds include payments for legal or accounting services, which fall outside the self-financing cap. "Legally, it is not possible to confirm a violation without first auditing the accounts," she said. The number of candidates who have self-funded, currently 1,768, is expected to keep rising through the campaign period as new donations are logged in the TSE's system. Final review of the campaign accounts, which will confirm or dismiss any irregularities, falls to Brazil's electoral courts after the vote.

Brazilian pollster Quaest released voting intention surveys on Tuesday, August 25, for the governor races in the states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondônia, with results broken down by gender, age, education, income, race, religion and political self-identification. Both surveys interviewed 804 people aged 16 or older in each state between August 21 and 24, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points and a 95% confidence level, according to G1.In Rondônia, a state in Brazil's northern Amazon region, Marcos Rogério of the Liberal Party (PL) leads with 24%, followed by Adailton Furia of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) with 21%, a statistical tie given the margin of error. Expedito Netto of the Workers' Party (PT) and Hildon Chaves of União Brasil each poll at 10%, while Samuel Costa of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) has 2% and Pedro Abib of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) has 1%. The poll is registered with Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, under numbers RO-05711/2026 and BR-00490/2026. Among men, Rogério's lead widens to 31% against Furia's 22%; among women, the two are tied at 19%. Furia has an edge among voters with a college degree (26% to 23%) and among Black voters (21% to 18%), while Netto performs best among voters 60 and older, where he reaches 18%.In Mato Grosso do Sul, a farming state on the border with Paraguay and Bolivia, incumbent Governor Eduardo Riedel of the Progressive Party (PP), who is seeking reelection, leads comfortably with 40% of first-round voting intentions, according to the poll commissioned by broadcaster TV Morena. He is followed by Fábio Trad of the PT with 13% and Delcídio Amaral of the Brazilian Renewal Democratic Party (PRD) with 8%. Rounding out the field are João Henrique Catan of Novo with 3%, Lucien Rezende of the Socialism and Liberty Party (Psol) with 2%, and Daniel Lemes of PCO, economist Renato Gomes of DC and Jeferson Bezerra of Agir, each with 1%. That poll is registered with the TSE under numbers MS-00793/2026 and BR-04312/2026.Ahead in nearly every bracketRiedel leads in almost every demographic segment measured by Quaest in Mato Grosso do Sul. His advantage grows among voters with a college education, where he polls at 55% against Trad's 15%. Among voters aged 35 to 59, he reaches 46%, his strongest age bracket. Trad performs best among voters 60 and older, where he climbs to 20%. Riedel's government has a 62% approval rating and 16% disapproval, according to the same Quaest survey, while in Rondônia, Governor Marcos Rocha of the PSD has 46% approval and 34% disapproval.The polling round also covered other races in both states. In Mato Grosso do Sul, Quaest's unprompted Senate poll showed Nelson Azambuja at 22%, Marcos Contar at 15%, Soraya Thronicke at 11% and Vander Loubet at 9%, though 86% of voters remain undecided in that format. In the presidential race within the state, Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL polls at 33% and Lula of the PT at 27%. In Rondônia, the presidential race shows Flávio at 45% and Lula at 25%, according to the same Quaest round.Voters in both states head to the polls for the first round in October. If no candidate wins an absolute majority of valid votes, a runoff will be held between the top two finishers in each state.

Federal Police Director-General Andrei Rodrigues is pressing the Attorney General's Office to legally challenge decisions issued by Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça. The request targets an investigation into INSS pension fraud that involves President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva. Police leadership claims the justice violated investigative autonomy by requiring raw evidence files and prohibiting changes to the police team without prior notice. Attorney General Jorge Messias has blocked the legal appeal and favors back-channel negotiations. According to CNN Brasil, the Federal Police took more than seven months to transfer bank, tax and phone records ordered by the justice. The delay prompted Mendonça to demand direct access to the unedited investigative databases. Legal experts view the police pressure against the Supreme Court justice as creating severe legal risks for the administration. Writing for news portal Metrópoles, columnist Mario Sabino cited reporting by journalist Roseann Kennedy on internal warnings within the government. Advisers to the Attorney General argue that filing a motion against the justice could draw accusations of obstructing justice. The Metrópoles report highlighted concerns regarding the potential impact on the presidency. "It was a trap. They did not realize that the request would explode in Lula's lap," stated an official close to the Attorney General's office quoted by Kennedy. Because the Attorney General represents the presidency, legal actions affecting an inquiry into the president's son carry major political consequences. Institutional friction remains high. According to CNN Brasil, Federal Police leadership previously attempted to reassign the probe away from Mendonça, but a court draw kept the case with him. Political analyst Caio Junqueira pointed to the lack of common ground. "There is no possible agreement because one side views the other as a source of leaks and a blocker of investigations against their political allies," Junqueira noted. The case now depends on whether the Attorney General agrees to submit a formal appeal or maintains private talks with the Supreme Court. The Federal Police awaits the outcome before determining how to handle the judge's order for unedited evidence files.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leads Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a simulated presidential runoff, with 46% of voting intentions against 41% for his rival. The figures come from an Indexa/Broadcast poll released on Wednesday (26) and registered with the electoral court under code BR-06366/2026.The five-point lead is wider than the poll's margin of error of 2.2 points in either direction. In that head-to-head matchup, 2% of respondents said they were undecided, 6% said they would not vote and 5% said they would cast a blank or null ballot. Flávio Bolsonaro, a son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, is the opponent who comes closest to Lula in the scenarios tested by the institute.Other runoff scenariosAccording to the survey, Lula would defeat any rival in an eventual second round. Against Romeu Zema (Novo), the governor of Minas Gerais, the president scores 45% to 34%. Against Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), the governor of Goiás, the result is 44% to 38%. Against Renan Santos (Missão), Lula has 46% to 34%. Depending on the opponent, the president's lead exceeds ten points.For the first round, the institute tested two scenarios. Without Pablo Marçal (PRTB), a businessman who launched a bid but is currently ineligible, Lula leads with 39%, followed by Flávio Bolsonaro at 34%, Caiado at 5%, Renan Santos at 4%, and Zema and Augusto Cury at 1% each. With Marçal included, he draws 2%, Flávio slips to 33% and Lula keeps his 39%.The institute conducted 2,000 telephone interviews between August 20 and 23. The poll was commissioned by Broadcast, the real-time news service of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.A Gerp survey released this month put Flávio Bolsonaro ahead in a runoff, with 47% to Lula's 42%. The first round is scheduled for October 4. If no candidate wins a majority of valid votes, a runoff will be held on October 25.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday (26) that Brazil "is ready" to move forward with ending the 6x1 work schedule, under which employees work six days for every day of rest, along with three other government priorities. The statement was posted on social media shortly before a meeting with the speaker of the lower house, Hugo Motta, and the Senate president, Davi Alcolumbre, according to G1."Today is an important day for our future. I will meet with speakers Hugo Motta (House) and Davi Alcolumbre (Senate) to address, with the urgency the Brazilian people need, four issues: the end of the 6x1 schedule and of the 'little blouses tax', the Public Security amendment and the Critical Minerals Legal Framework. Brazil is ready to take these steps and to guarantee more time and security for Brazilian families", Lula wrote.The government expects the four items to advance next week, when Congress holds its last votes before the October 4 election, according to G1.6x1 amendment could be voted in committee next WednesdayThe constitutional amendment (PEC, in the Portuguese acronym) that reduces working hours is in the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) and could be voted on next Wednesday (2). The rapporteur, Senator Omar Aziz, told Ana Flor's blog at G1 that he will deliver his report on Thursday (27). He said there is an agreement with the committee chairman, Otto Alencar, for the proposal to be the first item on the agenda. Aziz will propose a two-month transition to cut the workweek from 44 to 42 hours and up to one year to reach 40 hours. The text was drafted so it does not need to return to the lower house, which approved it in May.Lula's allies are pressing for the Senate floor to vote the amendment on the same day as the committee. Under congressional rules, an amendment approved in committee must pass two rounds of voting in the plenary, five business days apart. Alcolumbre has not ruled out the possibility, but made no promises, according to G1.Import tax decision due by Sept. 8Also on the meeting agenda is the provisional measure that scrapped the so-called "little blouses tax", a 20% import duty on international purchases of up to US$50 that mainly hit cheap online shopping. The measure was published in May and must be voted by Congress by September 8. Without a vote, the tax returns on September 9. So far, lawmakers have only installed the committee tasked with reviewing it. In an interview with TV Record on Sunday (23), Lula said he hopes to "announce the end of the little blouses tax, for the good of people who like to buy little things".The Public Security amendment will also be reviewed by the Senate committee next Wednesday, Otto Alencar confirmed, according to InfoMoney. The text, approved by the lower house on March 4 by 461 votes to 14, creates a constitutional basis for a tougher legal regime against criminal organizations. The Senate rapporteur, Rogério Carvalho, kept the deputies' text intact, which spares the bill a new lower-house vote if senators approve it unchanged.The calendar is tight. The committee votes both amendments next Wednesday, the deadline for the import tax measure ends on September 8, and next week is Congress's final week of votes before the October election.

Senator Omar Aziz, the rapporteur in Brazil's Senate for the bill ending the so-called 6x1 work schedule (six days of work followed by one day off), plans to present a text allowing a transition period of up to one year to reduce the standard work week, along with exceptions for specific sectors. The news was reported Wednesday, August 26, by journalist Ana Flor's blog on G1.According to Aziz, he will submit his report on Thursday, August 27, so that the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) can vote on the text the following week. The senator told the blog there is an agreement with committee chairman Otto Alencar for the proposal to be the first item on the agenda.Per G1's reporting, the report's main points include a two-month transition to cut the work week from 44 to 42 hours, followed by a transition of up to one year to bring it down further to 40 hours. The two weekly rest days would no longer have to fall on Saturday and Sunday and could be staggered across the week. Workers in what the report calls atypical activities, such as those on offshore platforms who spend days at sea, could be subject to special schedules to be defined through supplementary legislation.Why the rushAziz drafted the text so the measure would not need to return to the Chamber of Deputies, which approved its own version in May. G1 notes that the fast pace reflects election-year urgency: both President Lula's government and senators running in October's elections want to be seen by voters as responsible for shortening the work week. (In Brazil, the 6x1 schedule, six consecutive work days followed by a single day off, has become a major labor rights debate, especially in retail and services.)The report also links the bill's progress to a recent thaw in relations between the president and Senate leader Davi Alcolumbre, a rapprochement that reportedly prompted the Senate to revive the previously stalled proposal.

A new poll by the Quaest institute, released Tuesday, shows Senator Cleitinho Azevedo of the Republicanos party ahead in every simulated runoff scenario for governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil's second most populous state. The survey, commissioned by broadcaster TV Globo, interviewed 1,506 voters aged 16 and older between August 21 and 24, with a margin of error of three percentage points and a 95% confidence level. It was registered with Brazil's electoral court under number MG-04060/2026.In the first-round scenario where candidates are named to respondents, Cleitinho leads comfortably with 29% of voting intentions. He is followed by Patrus Ananias of the Workers' Party (PT) with 11%, Alexandre Kalil of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT) with 10%, and incumbent governor Mateus Simões of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) with 7%, a statistical tie with the two runners-up given the margin of error. Gabriel of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) polls at 5%. Undecided voters make up 19%, while blank, null or 'won't vote' responses total 12%.Runoff simulationsQuaest tested six hypothetical second-round matchups. In the three that include Cleitinho, he wins comfortably: 51% to 26% against Patrus Ananias, 49% to 17% against Mateus Simões, and 48% to 27% against Alexandre Kalil. In scenarios without Cleitinho, races tighten considerably. Kalil would beat Patrus 42% to 18%, edge past Simões by a narrow 32% to 30%, and Patrus would top Simões 35% to 31%, several of these margins falling within or close to the poll's margin of error.The poll also measured spontaneous voting intention, in which candidate names are not read aloud to respondents. In that format, 80% of Minas Gerais voters said they remain undecided about their choice for governor, and Cleitinho registered only 11% in unprompted mentions despite his commanding lead when names are presented. Political scientist Felipe Nunes, Quaest's director, said such high levels of indecision and low name recognition suggest the race could still see 'major upsets' before the first round of voting on October 4.Quaest also asked voters about the direction they want the next state government to take: 43% favor changing only what isn't working, 37% want total change, and 16% prefer continuity with the current administration. On political alliances, 34% said they would prefer a governor aligned with President Lula, 30% one aligned with Flavio Bolsonaro, and 31% want a candidate independent of both.

A growing divide between how men and women intend to vote is emerging as one of the most significant factors in Brazil's presidential race between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL), according to reporting by BBC News Brasil. Political scientists call the phenomenon the 'gender gap,' a measure of how far female and male voting preferences diverge, and it has been widening in Brazil since 2018.'To some extent, Lula's reelection is in women's hands. If Flávio can break through this rejection he faces among women, that's a step toward winning the election,' political scientist Jairo Nicolau, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and author of the book 'O país dividido' ('The Divided Country'), which examines Brazil's presidential races over the past two decades, told BBC News Brasil. Nicolau notes the gap between men's and women's votes existed before 2018 too, but was much narrower than what is seen today.He recalls that in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro faced stronger rejection among young women but still won the election with a small margin among female voters and a very wide margin among male voters. In 2022, the pattern flipped in an unprecedented way: Lula won with a clear advantage among women and narrowly lost among men, according to Nicolau's analysis of that year's voting-intention polls. He says it was the first time a candidate was elected while winning only one of the two gender segments.What the 2026 polls showThis year's surveys suggest the pattern could repeat. According to a Genial/Quaest poll conducted in early August, Lula holds 44% of voting intentions in a potential runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro, who has 39%. The BBC News Brasil Poll Aggregator shows a narrower gap, 45% to 44% in Lula's favor.Lula's advantage is driven almost entirely by female voters. Per Genial/Quaest, 47% of women say they would vote for the president versus 35% for Flávio, a 12 percentage point gap. At BBC News Brasil's request, pollster Quaest broke down that preference using the average of surveys conducted from February to August: among women in Brazil's Northeast region, Lula leads 62% to 23%; among Black women, 55% to 24%; and among women earning up to two minimum wages, 52% to 29%. By age group, the president holds an advantage of more than 10 points among both younger and older women, while among women aged 35 to 59 the gap narrows to 43% versus 37%. Among men, the pattern reverses but with a tighter margin: 44% say they would vote for Flávio against 40% for Lula.The near-even split of the electorate by gender amplifies the weight of the female vote in the final result. According to Superior Electoral Court (TSE) data cited in the report, 83.8 million women are registered to vote in this election, equivalent to 52.8% of the total electorate, about 9 million more than the 74.8 million registered male voters. The gap reflects mainly the fact that Brazilian women live, on average, longer than men, part of the country's broader aging demographics.Flávio Bolsonaro's responseIn late July, Flávio Bolsonaro expressed disbelief at his rejection by most women in the polls, arguing the right offers better proposals on issues such as public safety and the fight against drugs. 'What's missing? We need to communicate better. It's hard to understand how the polls show, for example, that women are voting more for the other side than for us,' the senator said, according to BBC News Brasil. 'Ask a mother if she wants her child on drugs. Is it the right or the left that's against drugs? The left runs programs to legalize drugs.'The report also notes that as the gap between women's and men's votes has widened, so has a wave of social media content attacking women's right to vote. Podcast clips with lines like 'the female vote is the error of Western democracy' have circulated on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, according to BBC News Brasil.

São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) holds 40% of voting intentions in his reelection bid, against 27% for former Finance Minister Fernando Haddad (PT), according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday, August 25. Commissioned by Globo, Brazil's largest media group, the survey interviewed 1,800 voters in person between August 21 and 24, with a margin of error of two percentage points either way and a 95% confidence level.The remaining candidates trail far behind the two front-runners. Policial Edjane (Agir), a police officer, registers 2%, while Vera Lúcia (PSTU), Carlos Machado (PCB), Izadora Dias (PCO) and Vivian Mendes (UP) hold 1% each, according to CartaCapital. Another 14% said they would cast a blank or null ballot or skip the vote, and 13% were undecided. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number SP-06946/2026.Compared with Quaest's previous round, released on July 29, Tarcísio slipped one point from 41% while Haddad rose one point from 26%. The governor's numerical lead narrowed from 15 to 13 points, a shift inside the margin of error, according to Estadão Conteúdo.Runoff scenarios and voter breakdownTarcísio also leads the second-round scenarios simulated by Quaest against Haddad, according to CNN Brasil. CartaCapital reports that the governor remains the favorite in an eventual runoff against the Workers' Party candidate. Under Brazilian rules, a runoff is held if no candidate wins a majority of valid votes in the October election. Haddad, a former mayor of the city of São Paulo, left the Finance Ministry to run for the state government.The demographic breakdown published by G1 shows Tarcísio's widest advantage among evangelical voters, at 49% to Haddad's 17%, with a four-point margin in that segment. Among Black voters, Haddad leads numerically by 33% to 27%, a statistical tie given the segment's eight-point margin. The institute also measured the state government's approval: 56% approve of Tarcísio's administration and 31% disapprove, according to G1.The same round measured the presidential race in São Paulo, the country's largest electorate, with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) at 30% and President Lula (PT) at 29%, inside the margin of error. In the state's Senate race, Derrite and Marina Silva have 12% each, with Simone Tebet at 11%, all in a technical tie, while André do Prado registers 7%. Brazilians vote in October.

A poll by Gerp released on Wednesday shows Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the PL party leading President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the PT in a hypothetical runoff for October's presidential election. According to the survey, published by Poder360, Bolsonaro has 47% of voting intentions against 42% for Lula. Another 8% of respondents said they would not vote for either candidate, and 3% did not answer.The pollster interviewed 2,400 voters nationwide between August 21 and 25, 2026. The margin of error is 2 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, under number BR-03547/2026. It cost 20,000 reais and was commissioned by the Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters of the State of Sao Paulo.In the first-round scenario, Gerp shows Flávio at 38% and Lula at 37%, a statistical tie within the margin of error. Behind the two front-runners are Pablo Marçal of the PRTB with 4%, and Renan Santos of the Missão movement and Ronaldo Caiado of the PSD, each with 3%. The poll also measured rejection: 49% of respondents said they would 'never' vote for Lula, compared to 40% for Flávio. On Lula's government, 51% disapprove and 43% approve.A different picture from other pollstersThe Gerp numbers contrast with other institutes tracking the presidential race. A PoderData/Aya poll released on August 13, also through Poder360, showed a much tighter runoff scenario, with Lula ahead 46% to 45%, within the margin of error. That survey had Lula leading the first round with 41% against Flávio's 35%. The gap between the two studies, conducted by different pollsters weeks apart, highlights the volatility that has marked election polling at this stage of the campaign.Under Brazilian electoral law, every pollster must register its methodology and funding source with the TSE for polls published during election year, which is how such divergent results can be traced and compared. Analysts recommend tracking the average of multiple surveys rather than any single poll to gauge real trends in the race between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, who is running as the standard-bearer of his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro's political movement.

Brazil's Regional Electoral Court of Sao Paulo (TRE-SP) overturned on Tuesday one of the rulings that had made Pablo Marcal, now a presidential candidate for the small party PRTB, ineligible to run for office until 2032. The decision was reported by the Brazilian news site O Antagonista.By a vote of five to one, the court dismissed claims of abuse of political power and misuse of social media during Marcal's 2024 campaign for mayor of Sao Paulo. The case had been filed by the local chapter of the PSB party, which alleged ten irregularities by the then candidate, but judges ruled the claims unfounded.The lone dissenting vote came from Judge Claudio Lagroiva, the case's original rapporteur, who argued Marcal crossed the line of free speech by spreading false information and inflammatory rhetoric. He wrote that the repeated use of charged terms like dictatorship and censorship, broadcast by a candidate with significant reach on social media, was serious enough to undermine confidence in the electronic voting system. Judge Regis de Castilho, who authored the winning opinion, countered that Marcal's rhetoric did not threaten the functioning of the electoral system, noting that Brazil's Constitution does not bar criticism of the judiciary any more than it bars criticism of the legislature or the executive branch. Four other judges joined Castilho's opinion.More legal hurdles remainTuesday's ruling does not resolve all of Marcal's legal troubles. According to Brazilian outlet CartaCapital, TRE-SP had already overturned a separate ineligibility ruling in November 2025, in a case involving allegations that Marcal sold political support to city council candidates in exchange for campaign donations made via Pix, Brazil's instant payment system. In that case, judges found insufficient evidence to sustain the original conviction.A third case remains pending: the so-called cut championship, a 2024 campaign strategy that encouraged staff to produce and distribute short video clips of Marcal on social media. In that case, TRE-SP upheld the conviction by a vote of four to three and fined the influencer 420,000 reais, roughly $80,000. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the country's highest electoral authority, still needs to rule on pending appeals in this and other cases before Marcal's eligibility status is fully settled.

Brazil's so-called Security PEC (a constitutional amendment, known in Portuguese as a 'PEC'), one of the top legislative priorities of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government, will be reviewed by the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) on Wednesday, September 2. The committee's chairman, Senator Otto Alencar of the PSD party, confirmed the schedule to GloboNews, according to a report by Brazilian outlet G1. 'Now that the report is ready, we will put it on the agenda for next Wednesday's meeting,' Alencar said.The amendment aims to toughen measures against organized crime, expand tools to fight criminal factions, and change constitutional provisions related to public safety. The lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, approved the text in two rounds of voting on March 4, but it sat idle in the Senate from March 10 onward. According to G1, the proposal was only sent to the CCJ the previous Friday, August 21, following a conversation between Lula and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre, a move that allies of the government interpreted as a signal that stalled priorities were moving again.Rapporteur kept the Chamber's versionThe bill's rapporteur in the committee is Senator Rogerio Carvalho, a Lula ally from the Workers' Party, who chose to preserve the version approved by the Chamber of Deputies without changes. That decision matters procedurally: if senators approve the text as is, it will not need to go back to the lower house for another vote, speeding up the process. Carvalho argues the text already reflects extensive negotiation among state governors, state public safety secretaries, police forces and civil society representatives, and that amending it now could delay enactment.Among the amendment's key provisions are tougher treatment for leaders and members of high-risk criminal organizations, who would serve sentences in maximum-security prisons under stricter rules with fewer benefits; the possibility of seizing, without compensation, money, real estate and other assets tied to criminal activity; and authorization for municipalities to expand the role of their local guards in patrol and community policing duties. The government's original proposal sought to give the federal government a bigger role in coordinating public safety policy nationwide, but that provision met resistance from governors and opposition lawmakers in the Chamber, who feared it would encroach on state authority. Deputies ultimately approved a leaner version that scaled back the federal government's role compared with the original plan.The CCJ vote is scheduled for the same session in which senators are expected to review another government priority: a separate constitutional amendment ending the '6x1' work schedule (six days on, one day off), a labor rule debated for reform in Brazil. In both cases, senators can still request more time for review, a procedural move that delays a final vote. According to G1, sources within the Senate suggest the security amendment enjoys broader consensus than the labor schedule proposal and has better odds of moving forward quickly.If approved by the committee, the amendment will go to a full Senate floor vote, where it needs support from at least three-fifths of senators, in two rounds, to be enacted. Because it is a constitutional amendment, it does not require presidential sign-off.

Ronaldo Caiado, the presidential candidate for the PSD party, was interviewed on Tuesday (25) by Brazil's largest broadcaster, Globo, in a sit-down conducted by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli at the network's Rio de Janeiro studios. The interview is part of a series featuring the six candidates leading a mid-August poll by the Quaest institute, and was the first to air after the flagship evening newscast rather than during it.According to BBC News Brasil, Caiado said he would send Congress a bill granting amnesty to everyone convicted over the January 8, 2023 riots, when supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed and vandalized Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace after his election defeat. Caiado said the measure would pacify the country and end what he called an endless cycle of revenge. To justify the proposal, he compared it to the Supreme Court's 2021 decision annulling President Lula's corruption convictions from the Car Wash (Lava Jato) probe, claiming the court had also granted Lula an amnesty.Fact-check flags error in comparison to Lula's caseG1's fact-checking unit, Fato ou Fake, rated that claim false. In March 2021 the Supreme Court threw out four cases against Lula because it found the Curitiba federal court that tried him, then overseen by judge Sergio Moro, was not the proper venue. Justice Edson Fachin, who wrote the ruling, did not assess the merits of the accusations or declare Lula innocent: the decision addressed a procedural flaw and restored his political rights. That is legally distinct from amnesty, defined by the Senate's own glossary as a pardon granted by law, a power that belongs exclusively to Congress, not the judiciary.Caiado also proposed creating a joint South American police force, called Sulpol in his platform and modeled on Europe's Europol, that would let officers from neighboring countries operate inside Brazil to fight smuggling, money laundering, arms and drug trafficking, with Brazilian police granted the same access abroad. Brazil is the Disneyland of drug trafficking, he said, according to the BBC. Asked whether he would authorize the United States to carry out operations on Brazilian soil, a question tied to Washington's recent announcement of anti-drug trafficking measures in Latin America, Caiado said he saw no need for that, arguing the region's ten countries should handle the problem themselves.On public safety, Caiado said 60 million Brazilians are today enslaved by drug trafficking. G1 rated the claim true with caveats: a survey by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security with pollster Datafolha, published in May, found 68 million Brazilians (41% of the population) perceive criminal groups tied to trafficking or militias operating in their neighborhoods, though only 12% of respondents said they had actually been forced to pay for services offered by criminals. A separate claim that 38 million voters skipped the last presidential election was rated inaccurate: Superior Electoral Court data show 32.7 million abstentions in the 2022 first round and 32.1 million in the runoff.Caiado additionally claimed 80% of Brazilians are burdened by debt, a figure G1 confirmed using data from the National Confederation of Commerce (CNC): in July, 82% of Brazilian households were in debt, the highest level in the survey's history. During the interview, Caiado also said he wants to revisit the tax reform designed by economist Bernard Appy, proposing changes to ease the burden on self-employed workers and small entrepreneurs, and said he would pursue a pension overhaul without specifying whether he would raise the minimum retirement age. Globo's interview series continues in coming days with candidates Renan Santos (Missão), Lula (PT), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and Augusto Cury (Avante).

Brazil's October presidential election gives voters a tight contest between left and right, but investors see few real differences on fiscal policy between the two leading candidates, according to a Reuters report carried by Folha de S.Paulo. Market analysts expect the country's public debt to keep rising regardless of who wins the race between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers' Party (PT), and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party (PL).Flávio has sharply criticized the current government's economic policy in his bid to defeat Lula, who holds a narrow lead in the polls. According to the report, analysts are already pricing in a possible Lula win followed by a modest fiscal adjustment, one that would only slow the pace of debt growth rather than reverse it. Markets, however, remain skeptical that either candidate can credibly launch a significant shift in the trajectory of public debt.The scale of the fiscal challengeStabilizing Brazil's debt by 2031 would require a fiscal effort of at least 2.5 percentage points of GDP (gross domestic product), roughly 350 billion reais (about US$65 billion), according to calculations by Roberto Secemski, Barclays' chief economist for Brazil, based in New York. He said an adjustment of that scale runs into Brazil's rigid budget structure and a fragmented Congress, making it "exceptionally difficult" no matter who occupies the presidential palace."It seems unlikely that either candidate will be able to carry out a full fiscal effort [of that magnitude]," Secemski said.The Barclays economist noted that the winning candidate's first measures in office will serve as an important signal to investors, since they need to be robust enough to convince markets that further adjustment steps will follow.Debt and deficit figuresCentral Bank data cited in the report show Brazil's nominal deficit averaged 8.6% of GDP between 2023 and 2025, and rose to 9.99% of GDP in the 12 months through June. Gross government debt reached 81.9% of GDP, up 3.3 percentage points over the period covered by the analysis.The election adds another layer of uncertainty to whoever wins the presidency and tries to push fiscal measures through. Beyond the presidency, October's vote will also decide all 513 seats in the lower house of Congress and 54 of the 81 Senate seats, a legislative outcome that market watchers say will be central to whether any fiscal proposal, from either Lula or Flávio Bolsonaro, can actually pass. Brazil's National Congress has two chambers, and a fragmented result would make sweeping budget cuts harder to negotiate regardless of who wins the top job.

The BBC News Brasil poll aggregator shows President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) just one point ahead of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) in Brazil's 2026 presidential race, with 45% against 44% of voting intentions in a hypothetical runoff, based on data compiled through Monday, August 24. That tight national scoreline, however, masks a far more uneven picture when pollsters survey state by state: a round of Quaest polls released this week across several states shows Lula leading by as much as 30 percentage points in some northeastern strongholds, while Flávio holds a comfortable lead in southern states.According to the BBC aggregator, Lula overtook Flávio in the runoff scenario in May, after reports linking the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro to banker Daniel Vorcaro surfaced. A Genial/Quaest poll from early August had shown a slightly wider lead for the president, 44% to 39% in the runoff, a gap the British broadcaster's aggregator narrowed as it incorporated more recent national surveys.The state-level breakdown, released by Quaest based on interviews conducted between August 20 and 23 and reported by G1, shows the regional contrasts clearly. In Alagoas, Lula polls at 44% against Flávio's 29%, a 15-point lead. In Maranhão, the gap exceeds 30 points, with the leftist president at 58% versus 20% for the senator from Bolsonaro's PL party. In Paraná, the picture flips: Flávio leads with 41% to Lula's 23%, an 18-point advantage for the Bolsonaro-aligned candidate. In Minas Gerais and the Federal District, the race sits within the margin of error, with the two candidates in a technical tie.In São Paulo, Brazil's largest electoral college, Quaest found an even tighter technical tie: Flávio numerically leads with 30% against Lula's 29%, a one-point gap within the poll's two-point margin of error, according to magazine Veja. The São Paulo survey, commissioned by broadcaster Globo, interviewed 1,800 voters between August 21 and 24.Women's vote favors LulaPart of Lula's national edge comes from female voters, according to BBC News Brasil reporting by journalist Mariana Schreiber. Averaging Genial/Quaest polls from February to August, women's preference for the president is driven mainly by voters in the Northeast (62% to 23%), Black women (55% to 24%) and those earning up to two minimum wages (52% to 29%). Among men, the pattern reverses more modestly: 44% back Flávio against 40% for Lula. Political scientist Jairo Nicolau, of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, says this gender gap, which has widened since 2018, could prove decisive because women make up the majority of Brazil's electorate: the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) counts 83.8 million registered female voters against 74.8 million men.Brazil's 2026 campaign officially opened on August 16, with 13 candidacies registered at the TSE. The first presidential debate, hosted by the Grupo Bandeirantes broadcaster on Sunday, August 23, featured only Augusto Cury, Renan Santos and Ronaldo Caiado; Lula and Flávio skipped it. Pablo Marçal (PRTB), barred from running until 2032, filed a candidacy and has been showing up in recent polls, but the TSE has blocked him from debates, campaigning, or accessing public campaign funds.

Brazil's 2026 general election will be the first held in the country since AI tools capable of producing increasingly realistic images, audio and video became widely available. In response, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) expanded its rules on the use of the technology during campaigns through Resolution 23.755, approved on March 2, which amends the campaign advertising rules in force since 2019, according to G1. Rules governing election-related content online have grown more layered with each election cycle, creating an increasingly complex landscape, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper notes.The use of artificial intelligence in campaign ads remains allowed, but disclosure is now mandatory: any AI-generated content must carry an explicit, clearly visible notice, including in printed materials. Among the new rules for 2026 is a ban on circulating AI-generated content in the 72 hours before the election and the 24 hours after voting closes. The court also ruled that AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Gemini cannot recommend candidates or rank candidacies, even if a user asks them to.Reversed burden of proof splits legal expertsOne of the most debated changes lets electoral judges shift the burden of proof in cases involving AI-generated content, when it would be excessively burdensome for the person filing a complaint to technically prove digital manipulation. In practice, someone accused of producing fake content with AI may have to prove no fraud took place or explain how the material was made.The measure divides legal experts consulted by G1. Fabiano Garrido, director of the Instituto Democracia em Xeque, calls the change positive because it recognizes a clear technical asymmetry: it is often extremely difficult for the target of manipulated content to technically prove the fraud. Electoral law attorney Guilherme Barcelos, however, calls the measure unacceptable:Reversing the burden of proof in this case imposes on the defendant the duty to show that the content was not manipulated. This conflicts with the standards of punitive electoral law and could amount, in practice, to a kind of forced confession, or to demanding an extremely difficult proof: proving one did not commit the irregularity.Content removal and rules for ordinary votersThe TSE also expanded the cases in which platforms must remove or block content without a court order, including material that attacks the integrity of the electronic voting system, incites crimes against the democratic rule of law, encourages a break in constitutional order, or amounts to political violence against women. Campaigns will also have to unambiguously label sponsored posts and disclose how much was spent boosting them, according to electoral lawyer Acacio Miranda, who says voters have the right, as part of advertising transparency, to know how much it cost to boost that post.For ordinary voters, free expression online remains protected, but posters must be identifiable, meaning not anonymous, according to Folha. Speech can be restricted when it offends the honor or image of candidates, parties or coalitions, or spreads facts known to be untrue. Only candidacies and parties can pay to boost campaign posts, and only to benefit their own candidate, never to attack an opponent: irregular boosting can bring a fine of between 5,000 and 30,000 reais, depending on the amount spent. Electoral lawyer Emma Roberta Bueno notes that the benefiting candidate can also be fined if they had prior knowledge, and that courts can use a like or comment from the candidate as evidence.The resolution also bans paying individuals or companies, including through rankings or prizes, to produce political content on their own profiles, a practice associated with the so-called cuts contest run by then-candidate Pablo Marcal (PRTB) during Sao Paulo's 2024 municipal race. In 2024 the TSE also created a transparency library for platforms offering paid boosting, which narrowed the field of eligible companies: in 2026, only Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) and Kwai are expected to keep offering the service, according to Folha.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again called for increased defense spending on Tuesday during a Soldier's Day ceremony at Army headquarters in Brasília, according to O Globo and G1. In brief remarks to reporters after the event, Lula said defense 'cannot be something left for when there is money left over,' describing the sector as a priority for Brazilian policy.According to G1, Lula pointed to the country's size and resources to justify the investment: 'This is a country with land and sea borders, forest reserves, critical minerals. We don't even know everything we have, oil. Defense cannot wait for leftover money, we have to prepare the country, not for war, but for peace, and to defend our territory and riches,' he said, per the outlet's report.The ceremony also marked the first time female soldiers took part in a Soldier's Day military parade, a milestone Lula highlighted in his remarks. Also attending were Defense Minister José Múcio, Army commander Tomás Paiva, Supreme Federal Court (STF) chief justice Edson Fachin, and senior STF justice Gilmar Mendes, according to O Globo.Rhetoric contrasts with budget figuresDespite the rhetoric, data from the Siga Brasil budget tracking system, cited by O Globo, show the Lula administration has actually spent 11% less on military investment than the previous government. Between 2023 and 2026, the current government earmarked 40.7 billion reais for investment in the Army, Navy and Air Force, compared with 45.7 billion reais spent by Jair Bolsonaro's government between 2019 and 2022.Lula has made similar remarks in recent weeks. At the Workers' Party (PT) national convention in São Paulo earlier this month, where his reelection bid was formally endorsed, he urged the political left to stop this 'nonsense' of not prioritizing defense, citing Brazil's 16,800 kilometers of land border and 8,000 kilometers of coastline. The week before, during a visit to the Aramar Nuclear Industrial Center in Iperó, São Paulo state, he also pledged to secure funding to finish Brazil's first nuclear-powered submarine.Asked by reporters about a Federal Police investigation involving his son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva (known as Lulinha), and former chief of staff Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, the president did not answer and left the venue, G1 reported. The matter has been raised repeatedly by Liberal Party (PL) presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's main rival in the election race.

The president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Kassio Nunes Marques, is considering dropping a plan to create an "accuracy seal" for polling institutes ahead of the 2026 elections, after the idea drew a wave of criticism, according to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The proposal would have rewarded polling companies whose final pre-election surveys came closest to actual results.Forty days after he first floated the idea, Nunes Marques has concluded reception was poor both among pollsters, who saw the plan as a mistake, and among his colleagues on the electoral court, Folha reported. Even so, the judge has told aides the seal has not been ruled out entirely and could still be adopted in future elections.Nunes Marques presented the idea on July 14 at a meeting with representatives of 16 polling institutes. The gathering was called after the judge himself imposed restrictions on a poll by Atlas/Bloomberg that showed a six-percentage-point drop in voting intentions for one of the candidates, according to Folha. The TSE is Brazil's top electoral authority, responsible for organizing elections and policing campaign conduct, including the accuracy and methodology of published polls.Beyond the seal, the court is studying other measures to regulate electoral polling and increase transparency around the methodologies pollsters use. People close to Nunes Marques say he treats the polling agenda as a priority of his term, but acknowledges that debate over artificial intelligence in the campaign is more pressing right now.AI deepfakes take priorityOne case pushing that urgency involves a video of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) used by the presidential campaign of his son, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). Aides to Nunes Marques say the matter should reach a full-court vote "soon" and that he himself is expected to vote for a broad ban on so-called deepfakes, a shift from his earlier position, which favored banning critical AI-generated videos while allowing positive AI content, in what he had called "good AI."

Brazil's average labor income has shown signs of stabilizing in recent months after hitting a record high during the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, according to data from Brazil's statistics agency IBGE reported by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The average income reached the highest point in the historical series of the Pnad Contínua, the country's continuous national household survey, in the quarter ending in March this year, when it hit 3,795 reais (about 700 dollars) a month. In the months that followed, the figure eased slightly: 3,776 reais in the quarter through April, 3,743 reais through May, and 3,738 reais through June.The Pnad Contínua survey, running since 2012, measures the real income Brazilians typically earn from all jobs, adjusted for inflation. It is calculated by adding up earnings from all professional activities and dividing the total by the number of employed people, meaning the average can be pulled up by workers entering higher-paying roles or pulled down by growth in lower-paying jobs.Over the course of Lula's third term, average income has climbed nearly 13%. That figure compares the latest reading, from the quarter through June 2026 (3,738 reais), with the level recorded in the last three months of 2022 (3,310 reais), when Brazil was still governed by Jair Bolsonaro. At that time the labor market was still recovering from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic: the lowest point of the entire historical series came in the quarter through December 2021, when average income fell to 3,061 reais.Slowdown expectedEconomists cited by Folha say the recent leveling-off could be an early sign of a broader labor market slowdown, linked to the high interest rates Brazil's central bank has kept in place to fight inflation. "2026 is still a positive year for income, but less so than the previous ones. It's a scenario of deceleration, of smaller gains. The outlook going forward points to a certain leveling off," said economist Bruno Imaizumi, of consultancy 4intelligence.Among the measures the Lula government has used to boost worker income is raising the minimum wage above inflation. The recovery of recent years also coincided with solid GDP growth, which analysts say increased demand for labor and helped push wages higher.Regional inequality remains stark. In the second quarter of 2026, average monthly income ranged from 2,284 reais in the northeastern state of Maranhão to 6,171 reais in the Federal District, home to Brasília, which traditionally tops the ranking because of its concentration of senior civil service jobs. São Paulo state ranks second, at 4,447 reais, the fourth-highest figure in its own historical series. Amazonas is the only state where average income (2,771 reais) remains below its 2012 starting level (2,914 reais).

The São Paulo state prosecutor's office (Ministério Público) has asked a court to order Mayor Ricardo Nunes, of the centrist MDB party, and João Manoel da Costa Neto, president of the city's regulatory agency SP Regula, to comply with judicial rulings tied to São Paulo's public street lighting contract, under threat of a daily fine of R$ 100,000 (about $18,500) each, according to a report published Wednesday by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Prosecutors want the Nunes administration and the municipal regulator to reopen and complete, within 120 days, an international bidding process for the lighting sector that was originally launched in 2015. The request, filed last Thursday, also demands that City Hall send monthly reports to the court detailing the steps it has taken.The demand is grounded in a ruling by Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), which ordered the reinstatement of a bidder that had been improperly excluded from the process. That ruling became final on December 18, 2024, after all appeals were exhausted.A billion-dollar gap between bidsThe excluded bidder, a consortium called Walks, had submitted a proposal that, over a 20-year contract, would have cost the city roughly R$ 1.3 billion less than the one submitted by Ilumina SP, the company that ultimately won. Ilumina SP signed its public-private partnership contract with the city in 2018, worth approximately R$ 6.9 billion.Although the original contract predates the current administration, prosecutors are seeking to penalize the sitting mayor and regulator on the grounds that the Supreme Court's order has still not been fulfilled. The city's Attorney General's Office (PGM), which handles the Nunes administration's legal defense, denies that the ruling is being ignored. City Hall, through SP Regula, argues the concession benefits the city, saying the Ilumina SP contract enabled a broad modernization of the public lighting network. Ilumina SP also denies any wrongdoing, saying every issue raised in the bidding process was investigated and clarified.

The first campaign trip by Flávio Bolsonaro to Brazil's Northeast exposed the political isolation of the PL party's presidential candidate in a region widely seen as decisive for the election's outcome. According to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the candidate was welcomed in Maceió on Tuesday (25) only by right-wing politicians and activists, saw allies from other parties avoid appearing alongside him, and leaned on support from religious leaders to try to expand his base there.The lack of broader backing stood out in Alagoas, the home state of Flávio's running mate, congressman Alfredo Gaspar. Allies of the candidate told Folha the difficulty reflects the challenge the Bolsonarista campaign faces across the Northeast because of President Lula's (Workers' Party, PT) popularity in the region. Those allies said the campaign's current strategy is to work quietly on alliances that would only be made public in a potential runoff.Recent electoral history helps explain the caution. In 2022, Lula won the national election by a margin of just 2.1 million votes over then-President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), a result heavily shaped by the 12.5 million vote lead Lula built in the Northeast, Brazil's second-most populous region. Given that history, Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign is trying to narrow the gap there with support from governors elected outright in the first round in states where they face PT-backed rivals.Tactical neutrality in round onePer Folha's reporting, the campaign's plan calls for centrão and center-right candidates allied with the PL to stay neutral in the presidential race during this first phase, to avoid risking votes from Lula supporters, particularly in smaller inland towns. Only in a second phase, once state-level races are decided, are these allies expected to campaign openly against Lula and the PT.For that reason, the PL has backed gubernatorial and Senate candidates without demanding public reciprocity right away. That includes ACM Neto (União Brasil) in Bahia, Ciro Gomes (PSDB) in Ceará and Joel Rodrigues (PP) in Piauí. The party is also backing Raquel Lyra (PSD) in Pernambuco, even without expecting a future endorsement. In Bahia, ACM Neto is running against Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT) but has endorsed Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) for president, avoiding a direct clash with Lula. Because Bahia's gubernatorial race is expected to be decided in the first round, allies of both Flávio and Neto say the understanding is that Neto will join the national campaign once the state contest wraps up.Folha's report is so far the only available account of the details of this Maceió trip; other outlets had not published their own coverage of the event at the time of writing.

Brazil's federal government has lowered its spending forecast for the national social security system, known as Previdência Social, by 5 billion reais (about $1 billion) for 2027. According to Brazilian outlet G1, pension and benefit payments are now expected to total 1.218 trillion reais next year, based on a projection presented Tuesday to the National Social Security Council (CNPS). The previous estimate, released in August, had put the figure at 1.223 trillion reais.Even with the reduction, the 2027 forecast still represents a 7.92% increase over the 1.129 trillion reais projected for 2026. The revised figure was approved unanimously by the CNPS.Per G1, the revision followed the government's move to factor in the growing number of benefits being approved and progress in clearing a backlog of pending applications at the National Social Security Institute (INSS), Brazil's equivalent of a social security administration. Data from the Ministry of Social Security show the backlog fell to 1.8 million pending benefit requests in June and to 1.55 million by the end of July, the lowest level in 21 months. Over the course of the year, the backlog has shrunk by 74%.Fewer delays, more payoutsClearing the backlog faster has a direct fiscal effect: the quicker INSS processes and approves claims, the more the government ends up paying out. That is why, despite the overall cut in the total forecast, most of the money projected for 2027 will still go toward paying pensions and other retirement benefits. For that category alone, the forecast stands at 1.161 trillion reais, an 8.76% increase over the 2026 projection.The fiscal room opened up by the 5 billion real cut can now be used by the government as it drafts the 2027 annual budget bill, which by law must be sent to Congress by August 31, G1 reported.

A court in the state of Paraná has scheduled a conciliation hearing for September 29, five days before the first round of Brazil's October elections, in a lawsuit filed by Senator Sergio Moro (PL) against former federal judge Luciana Dias Bauer, according to columnist Mônica Bergamo of newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Moro, who is now running for governor of Paraná, is seeking at least 100,000 reais (roughly $18,000) in damages.The lawsuit was filed in January this year after Bauer said in an interview with TV 247 that Moro had physically attacked her in 2016, when both served as federal judges in Curitiba. According to a report by outlet Brasil 247, the case is being heard by the 6th Civil Court of Curitiba under case number 0002520-98.2026.8.16.0001, filed on January 27.What Bauer allegesIn her interview with TV 247, Bauer said the episode followed a decision she made during a judicial duty shift ordering the release of a detainee under a habeas corpus ruling handed down by a higher court. She said court staff linked to the 13th Federal Court tried to talk her out of the decision, and that when she later reviewed the case files, the order had disappeared from the electronic system. "I saw that it had been deleted," she said, according to Brasil 247.Bauer said the alleged assault happened shortly afterward, inside an elevator reserved for judges. "As soon as the elevator door closed, he grabbed my throat," she said, according to the same report, adding that Moro allegedly ordered her to stay quiet. Sergio Moro was, at the time, a well known federal judge who later led the sprawling "Lava Jato" (Car Wash) anti-corruption probe before entering politics.Moro's defenseIn the lawsuit's initial filing, Moro's lawyers describe Bauer's statements as "extremely serious and manifestly false accusations" that damaged his honor, image and reputation. The defense calls her account a "vindictive fable" and argues the accusation only became public almost ten years after the alleged episode, with no police report or formal complaint filed with the TRF-4 appeals court's internal affairs office at the time, according to Brasil 247. Moro denies attacking his former colleague.The timing of the conciliation hearing, just days before the first round of voting, is likely to keep the case in the spotlight during the final stretch of Moro's campaign for governor. So far there is no public record of a forensic examination or other evidence confirming or disproving Bauer's account of the elevator incident.

Hostile debates between radical pre-candidates on podcasts have become a recurring format in Brazil's 2026 election campaign, generating heavy engagement on social media, according to a report by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The most cited case involved historian Jones Manoel, of the leftist party PSOL, and city councilman Eduardo Moura, of the free-market party Novo, both pre-candidates for federal deputy from the northeastern state of Pernambuco, in a confrontation lasting more than three hours on July 22.The debate was hosted by the podcast Fala Ordinário, an offshoot of the Instagram account Recife Ordinário, which has 2.2 million followers, according to Folha. Anticipation ran so high that bars in the city of Recife screened the live broadcast on big screens, the way they do for soccer matches. Before it began, Moura announced he would skip the debate, distressing host Gabriel Oliveira, only to show up by surprise at the last minute. That stunt set an already tense tone for what followed.The exchange of insults defined the encounter. Jones called Moura a "scoundrel," "unbalanced," "misogynist," "imbecile" and "deranged," while Moura called his opponent "human garbage," "semi-illiterate" and "scum," at one point saying he deserved the death penalty and prison time. The sharpest flashpoint came when Moura asked Jones whether he defended rapes committed by Hamas against women during the war against Israel. Jones responded by accusing Israel of committing mass rape and genocide in Gaza, according to Folha's account."It got heavy, the shouting and insults were so loud that people outside the studio could hear it," host Gabriel Oliveira told the newspaper. He said he left the studio uneasy about how the conversation had gone, but later acknowledged the effect the shouting match had on the audience: "The fighting, the trash talk, I really don't like it, but for some people it can be entertaining." He said more than 20,000 people watched the broadcast simultaneously on YouTube at its peak.Legal falloutThe shouting match had consequences beyond social media. According to news site Jamildo, Jones Manoel won an emergency court injunction ordering the removal of videos that linked him to condoning rape, with a daily fine of 1,000 reais (about 185 dollars) for Moura and for state legislature pre-candidate Gabriel Asafe, who had also shared the content. In the ruling, the judge wrote that "the very documentation submitted indicates that the plaintiff, during the debate, explicitly expressed repudiation of sexual violence," which undermined the narrative later spread online. Jones also asked federal police to open an investigation into Moura over the councilman's alleged possession of child abuse material, based on a remark Moura made during the show.Eduardo Moura called the court ruling censorship in a speech to Recife's city council, saying he had "made the debater admit his own truth." Councilwoman Liana Cirne, of the Workers' Party (PT), publicly criticized her colleague's stance: "Don't count on me to agree with this kind of practice that violates morality, privacy and the rights of children and adolescents." The episode illustrates how, per Folha, radicalized podcast debates have become a deliberate strategy for pre-candidates seeking digital visibility ahead of October's election. Under Brazil's electoral system, candidates who register as "pré-candidatos" campaign informally before parties formally confirm their nominations at conventions.

The campaign of João Campos (PSB) for governor of Pernambuco has stepped up pressure for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to take part in campaign events in the northeastern state as soon as possible. The information comes from the Painel column in Folha de S.Paulo, which reports that the appeals gained force as Campos's deficit to Governor Raquel Lyra (PSD), who is seeking reelection, has consolidated in the polls.A Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25) and commissioned by Globo shows Raquel Lyra with 44% of voting intentions, against 36% for João Campos, the mayor of Recife. In a runoff simulation, the governor has 47% to her rival's 37%. The institute interviewed 1,302 voters between August 21 and 24, with a margin of error of three percentage points, according to G1.Lula's weight in the stateThe push for the president's presence is explained by his own numbers among Pernambuco voters. In the same survey, Lula leads the presidential race in the state by a wide margin, with 54% of voting intentions against 19% for Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). Half of voters (50%) say they prefer a governor allied with Lula, while 29% want an independent governor and 17% prefer an ally of Flávio Bolsonaro.The poll also measured the limits of that endorsement: for 44% of respondents, Lula's support does not change their choice for governor; for 34%, it raises the chance of voting for his candidate; for 18%, it lowers it. Quaest also found high rejection rates for both front-runners: 40% say they know João Campos and would not vote for him, compared with 34% for Raquel Lyra.The governor, in turn, benefits from positive reviews of her administration: 68% approve of her government and 61% say she deserves reelection. "Pernambuco is a scenario in which the governor managed to turn approval into voting intentions at this moment, by 44% to 36%", Quaest director and Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) professor Felipe Nunes told G1.The son of former governor Eduardo Campos, who died in a plane crash in 2014, João Campos is trying to return the PSB to power in Pernambuco, a state the party governed for 16 years until Raquel Lyra's victory in 2022. The first round of the election is scheduled for October 4.

Eight in ten voters in Minas Gerais, Brazil's second-largest electorate, still do not know who they will back for governor in the October elections. That is the finding of the first spontaneous Quaest poll in the state, released on Tuesday (25) and commissioned by Globo. In the Senate race, indecision runs even higher: 94% of respondents could not name a candidate for the seat.In a spontaneous poll, voters answer without being shown the list of candidates. For governor, Senator Cleitinho Azevedo (Republicanos) was the most remembered name, with 11% of mentions. He was followed by Patrus Ananias, of President Lula's Workers' Party (PT), with 3%, and Alexandre Kalil (PDT), with 2%. Gabriel (MDB) and Governor Mateus Simões (PSD) had 1% each. Other names added up to 1%, and 1% said they would cast a blank or null ballot or would not vote.For the Senate, Marília Campos (PT) came up with 2%, Carlos Viana (PSD) with 1% and Áurea Carolina (PSOL) with 1%. No other candidate was mentioned spontaneously. Besides the 94% of undecided voters, 2% said they would vote blank, null or not at all."Most of the candidates running for governor and the Senate are largely unknown. This high level of unfamiliarity, combined with the indecision, shows why the recommendation is to look at the Minas Gerais race with great caution, tracking how voting intentions evolve to see how the campaign, which begins on television as early as next week, can help voters make a decision," said Felipe Nunes, political scientist and Quaest director.According to G1, Nunes believes such high levels of indecision open the door to "major turnarounds" before the first round, scheduled for October 4.Prompted scenariosIn prompted questions, where candidate names are shown to voters, the picture looks different. Cleitinho leads the governor's race with 29%, followed by Patrus (11%), Kalil (10%), Simões (7%) and Gabriel (5%), according to the same poll. In the Senate race, Marília Campos leads with 15%, while Carlos Viana has 8%. In second-round simulations for governor, Cleitinho defeats every opponent tested, as reported by Poder360.Quaest interviewed 1,506 voters aged 16 or older between August 21 and 24. The margin of error is three percentage points, plus or minus, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Electoral Court under number MG-04060/2026. According to Poder360, the survey cost R$ 212,346 and was paid for by Globo.

Brazilian voters have donated at least 8.8 million reais (roughly $1.6 million) through crowdfunding platforms to 2026 election campaigns, according to a survey by G1 based on data pulled Tuesday, August 25, from DivulgaCand, the disclosure platform of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Half of that total, about 4.2 million reais, is concentrated among just ten candidates. The figures were reported to the TSE by four crowdfunding companies that have already begun filing financial disclosures: Elegis (336,486.48 reais), Conectei (20,212.00 reais), Contribua (20,236.59 reais) and QueroApoiar (8,481,538.80 reais).G1 notes that despite the TSE data being updated continuously, the figures reported by the platforms do not necessarily reflect the full amount raised so far. Disclosure only happens once funds are transferred into a campaign's bank account, a step candidates must complete within 72 hours under Brazilian electoral law, and it is candidates themselves who submit the data to the electoral system. The window for parties and candidates to reconcile accounts covering the whole campaign runs from September 9 to 13, with complete filings allowed until November 14.Who leads the rankingCounting only virtual donation platforms, the ten most-supported candidates have collected 4.2 million reais combined, more than half of everything reported so far. At the top is Renan Santos of the Missao party, a presidential pre-candidate, with 1.26 million reais, followed by Marcel Van Hattem of Novo, running for a Senate seat from Rio Grande do Sul, with 743,000 reais. Next come Jones Manoel of the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), a federal deputy candidate in Pernambuco, with 573,000 reais, Rodrigo Spada of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), running for federal deputy in Sao Paulo, with 469,000 reais, and Kim Kataguiri of Missao, also a federal deputy candidate in Sao Paulo, with 216,000 reais. Rounding out the top ten are Humberto Matos (Communist Party of Brazil, state deputy candidate in Rio Grande do Sul, 207,000 reais), Flavio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, presidential pre-candidate, 203,000 reais), Deputado Caravina (Brazilian Social Democracy Party, state deputy candidate in Mato Grosso do Sul, 196,000 reais), Professor Jose (Brazilian Socialist Party, federal deputy candidate in Rio de Janeiro, 185,000 reais) and Elias Jabbour (Communist Party of Brazil, federal deputy candidate in Rio de Janeiro, 184,000 reais).According to G1, nearly all the names at the top of the ranking have a strong social media presence, and most lean right. Political scientist Marco Antonio Teixeira, a professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), told G1 this is no coincidence: right-wing politicians have been active on social media for longer, while the left only recently started engaging with social media. He sees a direct correlation between financial support and digital reach, since social platforms let candidates mobilize voters who are not involved in parties, unions or traditional associations but who want to engage politically from their screens.Teixeira also stressed that the ranking reflects years of organizational groundwork rather than a spontaneous phenomenon. Renan Santos and Kim Kataguiri benefit from the Missao party's infrastructure, while Jones Manoel, who joined PSOL in March, has nearly 2 million Instagram followers and a history of individual activism that predates his party affiliation. Elias Jabbour, an economics professor at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), previously advised former president Dilma Rousseff at the New Development Bank in Shanghai, known as the BRICS bank, and Rodrigo Spada is a former Sao Paulo state tax auditor who led the National Association of State Tax Auditors.Within the QueroApoiar platform, Missao is the party that has raised the most so far, one of the small parties that will receive only the minimum share of the TSE's Electoral Fund, 3,307,679.85 reais. Amanda Vettorazzo, a Sao Paulo city councilwoman who coordinates Santos's campaign, told G1 that Missao will have very limited Electoral Fund resources and no Party Fund, which will be split among the other candidates except pre-candidate Renan Santos, who will raise his own funds through online crowdfunding. Electoral law attorney Francisco Zardo told G1 this reliance on self-generated funds explains why other presidential pre-candidates have not yet launched crowdfunding drives.

The six best-positioned candidates in Brazil's presidential polls are proposing partnerships with neighboring countries and investment in technology to fight organized crime in border regions, according to a review by G1 based on government platforms filed with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). Lula (PT), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão), Romeu Zema (Novo) and Augusto Cury (Avante) submitted their proposals when registering their candidacies ahead of October's election.Public safety ranks among voters' top concerns in opinion polls, and the candidates argue that stronger federal presence at the borders, working alongside neighboring countries' authorities, would make the fight against organized crime more effective. The issue has gained urgency amid a string of recent operations: in July, Brazil's Federal Police launched an action against suspects in human trafficking on the border with Guyana; in June, another federal operation arrested suspects in fuel smuggling on the border with Bolivia; and, also in June, federal highway police seized 26 rifles, 16 pistols and thousands of rounds of ammunition in western Paraná state, near the border with Paraguay, aboard a truck that reportedly left Argentina bound for Minas Gerais.What each candidate proposesLula backs river and air patrols by the armed forces, investment in radar, drones, sensors and satellite imagery, plus international cooperation with neighboring countries. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, proposes creating a National Border System bringing together the Army, Navy and Air Force, with investment in intelligence and technology for military operations and expanded cooperation against cross-border environmental crimes. Ronaldo Caiado, governor of Goiás state, wants to create a National Border Command involving the armed forces, Federal Police, federal highway police and state forces, using artificial intelligence and remotely piloted aircraft.Renan Santos offers the most institutionally ambitious proposal: an 'Inter-American Pact Against Organized Crime' led by Brazil, a Central Operations Center for Latin America, and a specialized international tribunal for transnational crime. Romeu Zema, governor of Minas Gerais, calls for coordination with the United States and South American countries against factions he classifies as terrorist organizations, including shared intelligence and joint action against financial and operational networks that cross borders. Augusto Cury proposes strengthening cooperation with international bodies and neighboring countries to combat international trafficking, financial crimes, terrorism, money laundering and transnational criminal organizations.While all six converge on the need for external partnerships and technology, their plans differ widely in detail and institutional scope, ranging from operational reinforcements at existing borders to the creation of entirely new federal commands and international mechanisms. The topic is expected to remain part of the campaign debate through October's vote as candidates flesh out their public safety platforms.

Former Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes, of the PSD party, leads the race for governor of Rio de Janeiro state in every scenario tested by a new poll from the Instituto Paraná Pesquisas, released Tuesday. In the scenario including all candidates, Paes polls at 44.5%, followed by Douglas Ruas of the PL party, who currently presides over the state legislature (Alerj), at 15.5%, and former governor Anthony Garotinho of Republicanos at 11.6%.Rounding out the field are André Marinho (Novo) with 3.1%, Cyro Garcia (PSTU) with 2.9%, Coronel Busnello (Missão) with 2.3%, Juliete Pantoja (UP) and William Siri (PSOL) with 1.3% each, and Luan Monteiro (PCO) with 0.4%. Blank and null votes total 10.9%, while undecided voters account for 6.3%, according to the poll, which was reported by outlets including CNN Brasil and O Antagonista.Scenario Without GarotinhoThe survey also tested a scenario excluding Anthony Garotinho, an option that gained relevance after Judge Ricardo Cyfer of Rio's 4th Public Treasury Court ordered on August 10 the enforcement of a ruling that strips the former governor of his political rights for eight years. The conviction, for administrative misconduct, stems from accusations that roughly 234 million reais were diverted from the state Health Department during his administration. The sentence was originally issued in 2018 and Garotinho appealed all the way to the Supreme Federal Court (STF), but the judge declared the case final this past Monday. On August 17, Brazil's electoral prosecutors had already asked the Rio de Janeiro Regional Electoral Court (TRE-RJ) to challenge Garotinho's candidacy.Without Garotinho in the race, Paes rises to 48.3% and Ruas climbs to 18.6%. The remaining candidates poll as follows: André Marinho, 3.8%; Cyro Garcia, 3.6%; Coronel Busnello, 2.7%; William Siri, 1.6%; Juliete Pantoja, 1.4%; and Luan Monteiro, 0.8%. Blank, null and undecided votes combined reach 19.4% in this scenario, according to the poll.Despite his wide lead, Paes's numbers in Paraná Pesquisas surveys have slipped in recent weeks. A July 31 poll had him at 48.6%, against 11.1% for Ruas and 11% for Garotinho. A month earlier, on July 2, Paes stood at 54.2% against Ruas's 14.6%; in the scenario that included Garotinho, Paes had 50.7%, Ruas 13.8% and Garotinho 9.8%.Instituto Paraná Pesquisas interviewed 1,600 voters in person across 58 municipalities in Rio de Janeiro state between August 22 and 24. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The poll was funded with the institute's own resources and is registered with Brazil's electoral authorities under protocol RJ-02422/2026.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a candidate for Brazil's presidency, has again avoided detailing his conversations with former banker Daniel Vorcaro about financing for the film "Dark Horse," a biography of former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to a report published Tuesday by newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Asked by the paper on Monday why he never released the film's contract with the former owner of Banco Master, as he had promised in May, the senator responded with irritation: "Are you going to keep stuck in the past? Do you want to keep insisting on a private fund relationship that has no public counterpart at all?" he said, according to the report.The case surfaced in May, when conversations between Flávio and Vorcaro became public showing the senator pressing the banker to pay the 134 million reais (about $25 million) he had promised for producing "Dark Horse." On the day of Vorcaro's arrest in November 2025, Flávio sent a message of support: "Brother, I am and will always be with you." In the end, according to Folha, 61 million reais were transferred to the project. Shortly after the messages leaked, the presidential candidate publicly said he was "100% willing" to release the film contract, but the document has not been produced.Two separate probes at the Supreme CourtThe episode has triggered two distinct investigations at Brazil's Supreme Court, according to a report by newspaper O Globo published the same day. The first, overseen by Justice André Mendonça, is an offshoot of the inquiry into fraud at Banco Master, which Brazilian authorities estimate cost society at least 60 billion reais. The inquiry was opened in July at the request of the Federal Police, with the backing of the Prosecutor General's Office, to investigate suspected currency evasion, money laundering and corruption in Vorcaro's transfers to the film's production company, made through a fund based in the United States. According to O Globo, the investigation also seeks to determine whether the funds covered expenses abroad for former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in the United States.A second line of investigation, led by Justice Flávio Dino, examines the possible misuse of 2.6 million reais in parliamentary earmarks that allies of Jair Bolsonaro directed in 2024 to a nonprofit run by a partner in the film's production company. According to O Globo, congressmen Mário Frias, Bia Kicis and Marcos Pollon maintain the earmarks funded unrelated cultural projects. On Monday, Dino authorized the Federal Police to access evidence gathered by São Paulo's state police on production company Go Up Entertainment, as part of an investigation into alleged bidding fraud and commingled assets between the nonprofit and the production firm.Folha's editorial argues the core problem is not the private financing itself, but that the fund used to bankroll the film belongs to a network that the paper describes as having run the country's largest financial fraud, with ties reaching officials across all three branches of government at both federal and state levels, raising strong indications of influence peddling and corruption. The paper contends the press has a duty to scrutinize those in power and that public officials are obligated to clarify their involvement in a criminal case of this scale.Contacted by Folha, Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign had not produced the promised contract or offered further details about the relationship with Vorcaro by the time the report was published. The senator remains one of the leading presidential contenders in polling for Brazil's 2026 election, running against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other candidates.

Ronaldo Caiado, the presidential candidate for the PSD party, said on Tuesday that if elected he will send Congress a bill granting a 'general and broad' amnesty to those convicted over the January 8, 2023 attack on Brazil's government buildings, including former president Jair Bolsonaro. The remarks came during a televised interview on Rede Globo's flagship evening news program, part of a series of sit-down interviews with 2026 presidential candidates conducted by anchors Renata Vasconcellos and Cesar Tralli, according to G1.Caiado compared the proposed amnesty to the Supreme Court's 2021 decision to annul corruption convictions against President Lula, which restored his political rights. 'In the same way, the Supreme Court granted a special amnesty to former president Lula,' Caiado said, according to G1. However, Folha de S.Paulo noted the comparison is inaccurate: Lula was not granted amnesty by the court, which instead annulled his convictions after finding procedural flaws in the 'Car Wash' (Lava Jato) corruption probe, not through a pardon. Lula spent 580 days in prison after being convicted of corruption and money laundering in a case involving a beachfront apartment, and was released in November 2019.On fiscal policy, Caiado promised to send Congress a constitutional amendment on the first day of his prospective government that would cap growth in federal spending at inflation plus 50% of GDP growth. Pressed by the anchors for the calculations behind that target, Caiado asked for 'patience,' comparing Brazil's fiscal situation to a car-accident victim who has not yet been examined by doctors. According to Folha, Caiado avoided directly answering whether he would raise the minimum retirement age, saying he was not in a position to 'detail minutiae' at this stage. He also called Brazil's current fiscal framework a 'big farce' and said he would cut spending across the executive, legislative and judicial branches, as well as at the federal audit court (TCU).Public safety and pension reformOn public safety, the former governor of Goias state renewed his proposal for a transnational police force among Latin American countries, which he calls 'SulPol,' modeled on Europol, the European Union's police cooperation agency, according to Folha. Per G1, Caiado argued that most governments in the region are now center-right, citing Argentina and Colombia as examples, and said Brazil has become the region's 'biggest drug trafficking hub,' with Brazilian, Colombian and Mexican criminal factions operating there. Under his proposal, the joint force could make arrests on Brazilian soil and in other participating countries, handing suspects over to local authorities, while expanding intelligence sharing among nations.On the minimum wage, Caiado said he intends to preserve the purchasing power of workers and retirees and pledged to cut what he called 'abusive salaries' in the public sector to set an example. On pension reform, he avoided detailing his own proposals, saying he would seek out the country's 'best minds' to draft suggestions, a reference to economist Bernard Appy, the architect of Brazil's recent tax reform.Caiado argued that ending political polarization is a precondition for pacifying the country. 'We need to end this polarization, we have to make peace in this country. Nobody can take this situation anymore,' he said, according to G1. The interview is part of a series of televised sit-downs Globo is holding with presidential candidates between August 24 and 29.

A Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25) shows a tight contest for Rondonia's two Senate seats in October's elections. According to G1, the survey was commissioned by the regional broadcaster Rede Amazonica and shows candidate Dr. Fernando Maximo of the Liberal Party (PL) numerically ahead with 17% of voting intentions in the combined count, closely followed by three other names: Silvia Cristina (PP) and Bruno Bolsonaro Sheid (PL), both at 11%, and Mariana Carvalho (Republicanos), at 10%.Brazil elects two senators per state in 2026, and each voter must choose two different candidates, without being able to pick the same name twice. Because of that, Quaest breaks its results down three ways: a combined total for both seats, and separate figures for the first and second seat choices. In the first-seat tally, Maximo leads with 20%, Silvia Cristina has 16%, Sheid has 12% and Mariana Carvalho has 10%. In the second-seat tally, Maximo again leads with 15%, followed by Sheid at 10% and Mariana Carvalho at 9%, while Silvia Cristina drops to 6%.Rounding out the combined field are Acir Gurgacz (PDT) with 5%, Luciana Oliveira of the Workers' Party (PT) with 4%, and Engenheiro Thulio (Missao), Luis Fernando (PSD) and Neidinha (PSB), each with 1%. Aires Mota (PV) registered no support. Blank, null or non-votes account for 13%, and 26% of respondents remain undecided.An unprompted question, in which candidates' names are not shown to respondents, illustrates how little known the race still is: 83% of those surveyed could not name a single Senate candidate on their own. A separate rejection measure found that Acir Gurgacz and Mariana Carvalho have the highest shares of voters who say they know the candidate but would not vote for them, at 23% and 22% respectively. Maximo is the best known of the group: 37% say they know him and would vote for him, against 47% who do not know him at all.MethodologyAccording to G1, Quaest interviewed 804 people aged 16 and older between August 21 and 24, 2026. The margin of error is 3 percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The poll was registered with Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, under numbers RO-05711/2026 and BR-00490/2026. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said their choice of candidate is final, while 42% said they could still change their vote before election day on October 4.

Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado, a presidential candidate for the PSD party, compared a proposed broad amnesty for people convicted over the January 8, 2023, riots in Brasília to the Supreme Court's annulment of corruption convictions against President Lula, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Caiado made the remarks on Tuesday during an interview on Globo television as part of a series of sit-down interviews the network's evening newscast, Jornal Nacional, is holding with Brazil's leading 2026 presidential candidates, hosted by Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli.Caiado said that, if elected, he would send Congress a bill granting a broad, unrestricted amnesty to those convicted over the attacks on the headquarters of Brazil's three branches of government in the capital, arguing the move would help pacify the country. He described the pardon as equivalent to what he characterized as the Supreme Court's treatment of Lula, saying he intends to act the same way the Supreme Court, in its own special manner, also granted relief to President Lula.The comparison contains a factual inaccuracy that Folha itself pointed out: Lula was not granted amnesty by the Supreme Court. The court annulled his convictions from the Car Wash (Lava Jato) corruption probe in 2021 after finding procedural flaws, including bias by the presiding judge at the time, Sergio Moro, not through a political pardon of the kind Caiado is proposing for the January 8 defendants.During the interview, Caiado said he has never contested election results and described himself as a democrat. To justify amnesty for the rioters, he cited historical precedents of pardons in Brazil, pointing to one granted by then-president Juscelino Kubitschek in the 1950s, and said the Brazilian character is not one of harboring hatred.Economy and public securityAsked about economic policy, Caiado avoided detailing how he would change the retirement age or handle fiscal adjustment, saying he was in no position to detail the specifics at this point. He said he intends to cap public spending at 50% of GDP, adjusted for inflation, through a constitutional amendment he would send on his first day in office if elected. He also reiterated his public security proposal, dubbed SulPol, a joint police force with Brazil's neighboring countries modeled on Europol, the European Union's police cooperation agency, saying he would seek to coordinate joint arrests with the presidents of bordering nations.

The presidential campaign of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has internally conceded that Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is likely to fully ban AI-generated content simulating candidates in political advertising. According to Folha de S.Paulo's Painel column, the campaign team has "thrown in the towel" on the issue and now views a full veto as the most probable outcome of the court's review of AI rules for the 2026 elections. A TSE resolution issued earlier this year prohibits the use, to harm or favor a candidacy, of synthetic content in audio, video or a combination of both, generated or digitally manipulated, "even with authorization", to create, replace or alter the image or voice of a living, deceased or fictitious person. Campaign strategists had held out hope that positive uses of AI technology might be cleared by the court, a scenario Flávio's team now considers unlikely, according to Folha. A proposed rule on deepfakes The debate took on new urgency on Tuesday (25), when Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça, sitting on the electoral court, proposed a legal thesis to define what constitutes a deepfake. In Mendonça's view, the ban should apply when synthetic audio or video shows "a degree of realism or verisimilitude objectively capable of producing a false perception of authenticity", meaning it could fool voters into believing it is genuine, according to G1. If adopted, the rule would help judges separate illegal deepfakes from memes, caricatures, animations and other obviously fanciful representations made with AI. Mendonça also stressed that adding a label declaring that content was generated by AI does not make lawful any material that meets the deepfake criteria, which remains subject to strict prohibition. He argued that a clear standard is necessary given the importance of the issue and the expectation of repeated disputes during the 2026 campaign. The proposed thesis came in a decision that granted a request from Flávio Bolsonaro's own campaign, ordering the removal of an AI-generated video. The video linked the senator to former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who was preventively arrested in Operation Compliance Zero, and alleged financial kickbacks from a "rachadinha", a scheme in which politicians pocket parts of their employees' public salaries. Mendonça preliminarily ruled the video was a deepfake lacking mandatory AI disclosures, restricting his decision to removing that specific piece.

Senator and former governor Omar Aziz (PSD) leads the race for governor of Amazonas with 26% of voting intentions, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25) and commissioned by the Rede Amazônica TV network. Lawmaker Roberto Cidade (União Brasil) comes in second with 18%, followed by businesswoman and professor Maria do Carmo Seffair (PL) with 16% and former Manaus mayor David Almeida (Avante) with 15%. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the three are statistically tied within the three-point margin of error.Aziz is running on a coalition of PSD, MDB and Republicanos. An ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), he is the Senate rapporteur of the constitutional amendment that would end Brazil's six-days-on, one-day-off work schedule, known as the escala 6x1. Cidade, a former president of the Amazonas Legislative Assembly, belongs to the political group of Wilson Lima (União Brasil), who is running for the Senate. Maria do Carmo leads the state campaign of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL). Cabo Daciolo (Mobiliza) scored 2%, Isael Munduruku (Rede) 1%, and Gilberto Vasconcelos (PSTU) did not register. Blank and null votes totaled 6%, with 16% of voters undecided, according to G1.It is the institute's first poll in the state since candidacies were made official. In the previous survey, in March, Aziz had 33%, while David Almeida and Maria do Carmo were statistically tied at 23% and 21%, respectively. Cidade's name was not tested at the time.Rejection rates and runoff scenariosIn the spontaneous survey, in which voters are not shown a list of names, Aziz also leads with 10%, but 70% did not answer. Quaest also simulated six runoff scenarios. Aziz comes out ahead in every matchup in which he is included: 45% to 44% against Maria do Carmo, 44% to 40% against Cidade and 49% to 36% against David Almeida. Without the senator, Cidade would beat Maria do Carmo by 43% to 38% and David Almeida by 41% to 39%, while the PL candidate would edge the former Manaus mayor by 41% to 40%.David Almeida has the highest rejection rate: 54% say they know him and would not vote for him. Aziz and Cidade follow with 41% each, while Maria do Carmo has 26%. For 57% of respondents, their vote is already final, while 43% say they could still change candidates before the October 4 election.Asked about the profile of the next state government, 34% prefer an ally of Lula, 28% an ally of Flávio Bolsonaro and 33% want an independent governor. Health care was named the state's main problem by 32% of voters, followed by violence at 17%. The state government has a 56% approval rating, but 58% say Wilson Lima does not deserve to elect a successor.The poll surveyed 804 voters between August 21 and 24. The confidence level is 95% and the maximum margin of error is three percentage points in either direction. The survey was registered with Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under the number BR-06252/2026.

The governor of Paraíba, a state in Brazil's Northeast region, Lucas Ribeiro of the Progressive Party (PP), leads voting intentions for his reelection bid with 38%, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25). Former João Pessoa mayor Cícero Lucena of the MDB party polls second with 19%, and senator Efraim Filho of the PL party has 18%, according to G1 and Folha de S.Paulo.The remaining candidates register low numbers in the poll's stimulated format, where respondents are shown the full list of names: Pedro Coutinho has 2%, Camilo Duarte 1%, and Yuri Ezequiel did not register. Blank, null or non-voting responses total 10%, while undecided voters represent 12%. In the unprompted version of the survey, where names are not shown to respondents, Ribeiro also leads with 26% of mentions, followed by Lucena and Efraim Filho tied at 7% each.The survey was commissioned by local broadcasters TV Cabo Branco and TV Paraíba and polled 804 people aged 16 and older in face-to-face interviews conducted between August 21 and 24. The margin of error is three percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with Brazil's top electoral court, the TSE, under code PB-07850/2026.Runoff scenarios and approval ratingsThe poll also simulated three potential runoff scenarios. Ribeiro would win both matchups in which he appears, beating Efraim Filho 47% to 33% and Lucena 48% to 29%. In a hypothetical scenario without the incumbent governor, Lucena would edge out Efraim Filho, 39% to 32%.Ribeiro's approval ratings are also favorable: 61% of respondents approve of his administration, against 17% who disapprove, while 22% did not answer. Among the opposition candidates, rejection rates run high. According to G1, 46% of voters say they know Cícero Lucena and would not vote for him, and the same share gives the same answer about Efraim Filho.Paraíba's gubernatorial election takes place on October 4, alongside the rest of Brazil's national vote. According to the poll, 69% of respondents say their choice of candidate is already final, while 30% say they could still change their vote before election day.

Sao Paulo's deputy mayor, Colonel Ricardo Mello Araújo of the Liberal Party (PL), says he has been left out of campaign events for Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) in the state capital, even when Mayor Ricardo Nunes of the MDB party attends, according to the Painel column in newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, published Tuesday (25).According to Folha, Mello Araújo has told allies he keeps being sidelined at official events for the governing coalition, even though Nunes, his running mate at City Hall, regularly appears alongside Tarcísio at these events. The report does not detail the reasons Mello Araújo cited for his exclusion, nor does it include a response from the state government or Tarcísio's campaign.Mello Araújo is aligned with former president Jair Bolsonaro within the PL and was elected deputy mayor on Nunes' ticket in the 2024 municipal election, when the pair defeated Guilherme Boulos (Socialism and Liberty Party, Psol) and Marta Suplicy (Workers' Party, PT) in a runoff. In a July interview with the outlet Revista Oeste, he had already signaled friction with his party's leadership, confirming he had been considered for a Sao Paulo Senate bid before party president Valdemar Costa Neto and lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro chose state deputy André do Prado instead.The episode comes amid the election race in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest electoral college. A Quaest poll cited by G1 and the news site Metrópoles shows Tarcísio with 40% of voting intentions for a first-round win in the governor's race, against 27% for former mayor Fernando Haddad (PT). In the presidential race within Sao Paulo state, a separate Quaest survey shows a statistical tie between Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) and President Lula (PT), each at 30%.Folha is so far the only outlet to report Mello Araújo's claim of exclusion from the campaign trail, and neither Tarcísio's government nor Sao Paulo's City Hall has commented publicly on the matter.

Senator Wellington Fagundes (PL) holds a narrow numerical lead in the race for governor of Mato Grosso, a major farming state in Brazil's center-west, with 27% of voting intentions against 23% for Governor Otaviano Pivetta (Republicanos), who is seeking reelection. The figures come from a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25) and commissioned by the Rede Matogrossense de Comunicação (RMC), a local media group. With a margin of error of three percentage points in either direction, the two are statistically tied.In the prompted survey, in which respondents are shown the candidate list, physician and professor Natasha Slhessarenko (PSD), known as Doutora Natasha, ranks third with 8%. Sargento Laudicério (Agir) and Rafaell Milas (Missão) each have 2%, while Maurício Coelho (Mobiliza) has 1%. Another 29% said they would cast a blank or null ballot or would vote for none of the candidates, and 8% were undecided, according to results published by g1 and Folha de S.Paulo.In the spontaneous version, where no names are read out, Pivetta leads with 9% against 6% for Fagundes, and 78% of voters did not name anyone. Quaest also measured how firm voting intentions are: 52% of respondents said their choice is final, while 47% admitted they could change candidates before the first round on October 4.Runoff scenarios and rejection ratesIn hypothetical runoff matchups, Fagundes would beat Pivetta by 38% to 29% and Doutora Natasha by 45% to 20%. In a contest between the governor and the PSD candidate, Pivetta would win by 34% to 23%. Undecided voters in these scenarios range from 22% to 27%.The poll also gauged rejection levels. Fagundes is known by 70% of voters: 38% said they would vote for him and 32% said they would not. Pivetta is unknown to 46% of the electorate; 30% would vote for the governor and 24% reject him. The state government posts 53% approval against 12% disapproval. On political alliances, 41% prefer a governor aligned with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a presidential pre-candidate, 20% want an ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and 34% prefer an independent.A businessman and farm producer, Pivetta took office in 2022 after Governor Mauro Mendes (União Brasil), under whom he served as vice governor, stepped down. He previously served three terms as mayor of Lucas do Rio Verde and as a state lawmaker, according to Folha. Fagundes has been a senator since 2015, served six terms in the lower house of Congress, and represents the bolsonarista camp, the political movement of former President Jair Bolsonaro, in the race for the Palácio Paiaguás, the seat of the state government. Quaest interviewed 804 voters aged 16 and over in Mato Grosso between August 21 and 24; the confidence level is 95%, and the poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under numbers MT-04846/2026 and BR-00817/2026.

Senator Cleitinho Azevedo of the Republicanos party leads the race for governor of Minas Gerais with 29% of voter support, according to a Quaest poll released Tuesday and commissioned by Brazilian broadcaster Globo. He is followed by federal lawmaker Patrus Ananias of the Workers' Party (PT), with 11%, and former Belo Horizonte mayor Alexandre Kalil of the PDT party, with 10%, according to G1, Globo's news portal.Minas Gerais is Brazil's second most populous state and one of the country's largest electoral colleges, making its gubernatorial race closely watched nationally. In the poll's stimulated format, in which candidate names are read aloud to respondents, current governor Mateus Simões of the PSD party, who took office after Romeu Zema resigned to run for president, polled at 7%, followed by Gabriel Azevedo of the MDB party with 5%. Trailing candidates included Flávio Roscoe (PL) with 3%, Ben Mendes (Missão) with 2%, and two candidates tied at 1% each. Undecided voters made up 19% of respondents, while 12% said they would cast a blank or null vote or not vote at all.The survey also measured spontaneous recall, without prompting names. In that format, Cleitinho scored 11%, Patrus 3% and Kalil 2%, while 80% of respondents said they were undecided, a sign that most candidates remain largely unknown to voters without prompting.Runoff scenariosQuaest simulated six possible runoff matchups. Cleitinho led in every head-to-head scenario tested: 48% to 27% against Kalil, 51% to 26% against Patrus, and 49% to 17% against Simões. In matchups excluding the senator, Kalil beat Patrus 42% to 18% and narrowly edged Simões 32% to 30%, while Patrus defeated Simões 35% to 31%.According to G1, the poll interviewed 1,506 voters aged 16 and older between August 21 and 24, with a margin of error of three percentage points and a 95% confidence level. The survey was registered with Brazil's electoral court under number MG-04060/2026. Of those surveyed, 54% said their choice of candidate was final, while 45% said they could still change their vote before the October 4 election.Voters also ranked the state's top problems: health care topped the list at 28%, followed by violence (13%), the economy (10%), education (9%), corruption (7%) and infrastructure (7%). Asked about the direction of the next state government, 43% favored fixing only what is not working, 37% wanted total change and 16% preferred continuity with the current administration's work.

Senator Professora Dorinha (União Brasil) leads the race for governor of Tocantins, a state in Brazil's North region, with 37% of voting intentions, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25). Federal deputy Vicentinho Júnior (PSDB) comes in second, with 28%. It is the institute's first survey in the state for the 2026 elections.Laurez Moreira (PSD) is third, with 7%. Ataídes de Oliveira (Novo) registered 3%, and Subtenente Luiz Carlos (Democrata), 2%. Witer Naves (PSOL) and Du Pereira (DC) did not score. Undecided voters add up to 16%, while blank and null ballots plus voters who say they do not intend to vote reach 7%.Quaest interviewed 804 people between Friday (21) and Monday (24). The maximum margin of error is three percentage points, with a 95% confidence level. The survey was registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, under the code TO-02161/2026 and, according to G1, was commissioned by TV Anhanguera, the Globo affiliate in Tocantins.In a potential runoff, Dorinha would have 46% of voting intentions against 38% for Vicentinho Júnior, the same survey indicates.Dorinha is a senator for Tocantins, and Vicentinho Júnior is a federal deputy. Days before the poll's fieldwork, the candidates for governor took part in the first debate of the state's 2026 campaign, marked by clashes over public management, health and job creation, according to G1.

A Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25) shows Antônio Furlan (PSD), known as Dr. Furlan, leading the race for governor of Amapá, a small state in Brazil's far north, with 55% of voting intentions. The incumbent governor, Clécio Luís (União Brasil), comes in second with 35%. The survey, the institute's first in the state in this election cycle, was commissioned by the Rede Amazônica TV network.In the prompted scenario, in which voters are shown the list of candidates, Jairo Palheta (PCO) registers 1%, while Carlos Cley (PSTU) and Delegado Marcos (Democracia Cristã) score zero. Undecided voters add up to 8%, and 1% say they will cast a blank or null ballot or not vote at all. In the spontaneous survey, in which no names are read out, Dr. Furlan reaches 43% and Clécio Luís 22%, with 35% undecided.In a runoff simulation, Dr. Furlan would win by 54% to 36%. Blank and null votes plus abstentions total 4%, and 6% are undecided. For 80% of those interviewed, the choice of candidate is already final.Rejection and political backdropQuaest also measured rejection rates. Clécio Luís has the highest: 50% of voters say they know him and would not vote for him, against 22% for Dr. Furlan. According to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the governor is an ally of Senate president Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) and is waiting for President Lula to decide whether to endorse his reelection bid, as talks between the federal government and Senate leadership resume.Dr. Furlan was reelected mayor of Macapá, the state capital, in 2024 with 85.08% of valid votes, Folha reports. The poll also shows 53% of voters approve of the current state government and 37% disapprove. Asked about Amapá's main problem, 43% point to health care, followed by unemployment (10%) and infrastructure (9%).The race takes place amid the discovery of signs of oil in the Foz do Amazonas basin, in ultra-deep waters off the state's coast. Candidates have been sparring over the issue, competing for the credit of bringing a Petrobras base to the region, according to Folha.Quaest interviewed 804 people aged 16 or older between August 21 and 24. The margin of error is three percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under number AP-09438/2026. The election takes place on October 4.

A Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25) shows a statistical tie at the top of the race for governor of Rondônia, a state in Brazil's western Amazon. Senator Marcos Rogério (PL), the leading Bolsonaro-aligned name in the state, has 24% of voting intentions in the first round, against 21% for Adailton Fúria (PSD), a former mayor of Cacoal, a city known as the Amazon's "coffee capital". With a margin of error of three percentage points, the two are technically tied.Hildon Chaves (União Brasil), a former mayor of the state capital Porto Velho, and Expedito Netto (PT), a former federal deputy who left the PSDB to join President Lula's Workers' Party, each have 10%. Samuel Costa and Pedro Abib (MDB) trail with 2% and 1%. Blank and spoiled ballots plus voters who say they will not vote add up to 10%, while undecided voters reach 22%.It is the first poll the institute has conducted in the state in this electoral cycle. Quaest interviewed 804 voters aged 16 or older between August 21 and 24. The survey, commissioned by the Rede Amazônica TV network, is registered with the TSE, Brazil's electoral court, under the numbers RO-05711/2026 and BR-00490/2026, with a 95% confidence level.In the spontaneous poll, in which no candidate names are read out, 65% of respondents could not say who they would vote for. Among those who named a candidate, Adailton Fúria leads with 12%, closely followed by Marcos Rogério at 11%. Hildon Chaves has 4% and Expedito Netto, 3%.In runoff simulations, Marcos Rogério wins in all three scenarios tested: he would beat Fúria by 40% to 29%, Expedito Netto by 49% to 23% and Hildon Chaves by 47% to 20%. Without the senator, Fúria would defeat Chaves by 37% to 23% and Netto by 41% to 18%. In the only scenario without the two front-runners, Chaves would beat Netto by 33% to 27%.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called on Tuesday for increased investment in national defense during a ceremony marking Soldier's Day at the Army Headquarters in Brasília. According to G1, Lula said the defense sector needs resources to 'protect the country's territory and wealth.'Soldier's Day is an annual Brazilian military commemoration honoring the army. Lula spoke alongside Army commander General Tomás Ribeiro Paiva and Defense Minister José Múcio. Per R7, Lula said defense spending cannot be something left for whenever there's money left over and argued Brazil should prepare not for war, but for peace in order to protect its territory, natural resources and people.This is a country with land and maritime borders, forest reserves, critical minerals. We don't even know everything we have, oil included. Defense can't wait until there's spare money. We have to prepare the country, not for war, but for peace, and defend our territory and our wealth, the president said, according to G1.The push for higher military spending is not new. According to R7, during a visit to the Aramar Nuclear Industrial Center in the interior of São Paulo state the previous week, Lula had already pledged to seek funding to complete Brazil's first nuclear-powered submarine and criticized the lack of continuity in financing projects considered strategic for national sovereignty.Courting the military, dodging other questionsAt Tuesday's ceremony, Lula also highlighted the first-ever participation of women soldiers in the military parade. These are the Army's first female recruits who joined this year, and they are ready to show that women can be anywhere, he said, according to R7. G1 noted the ceremony took place in Brasília's Urban Military Sector, the same area where pro-coup encampments gathered after the 2022 election.Reporters at the event pressed Lula about a Federal Police investigation involving his son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, known as Lulinha, and his former chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, known as Marcola. According to G1, Lula did not answer the questions and left shortly after his remarks on defense. In an interview with TV Record on Sunday, the president had said no one would go unpunished 'if they made a mistake' and that Lulinha would have to 'prove his innocence.'

A Brazilian court has ordered São Paulo's vice-governor, Felício Ramuth (MDB), to pay damages to the Workers' Party (PT) over remarks that linked the party to drug trafficking, Folha de S.Paulo reported on Tuesday (25) in its Painel column. The ruling can still be appealed.The comments were made in January during an official event. Commenting on the crisis in Venezuela, Ramuth called the PT a "narcoafetivo" party, a coined word in Portuguese mixing "narco" and "afetivo" (affective) that suggests an affinity between the party and organized crime. According to O Globo and CNN Brasil, the remark came as the vice-governor commented on the arrest of Nicolás Maduro.Days later, Ramuth reaffirmed the statement and the PT announced it would sue him, as Jovem Pan reported at the time.Ramuth is the deputy of Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), who is seeking reelection in São Paulo in this year's elections. The ruling comes in the middle of the campaign, with the PT also competing in the state race.Folha's column did not disclose the amount of the damages or the court that issued the sentence.

Mato Grosso do Sul governor Eduardo Riedel (PP) leads the race for reelection with 40% of voting intentions, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25). Former federal deputy Fábio Trad (PT), who heads the opposition ticket, comes second with 13%, followed by former senator Delcídio Amaral (PRD) with 8%. The survey, the institute's first in the state in this election cycle, was commissioned by TV Morena, the local Globo affiliate.Five other candidates registered in the state appear further back. João Henrique Catan (Novo) scored 3%, and Lucien Rezende (PSOL), 2%. Indigenous leader Daniel Lemes (PCO), economist Renato Gomes (DC) and Jefferson Bezerra (Agir) each drew 1%. Voters planning to cast a blank or null ballot, or to skip the election, add up to 11%, while 20% are undecided. Half of respondents say their choice is final; the other half say they may still change their minds before the October 4 vote.In the spontaneous round, in which candidates' names are not read to voters, Riedel has 18% and Trad 4%, while 77% say they do not know who they will vote for. Quaest interviewed 804 voters between August 21 and 24. The margin of error is about 3 percentage points either way, with a 95% confidence level. The poll is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, under numbers MS-00793/2026 and BR-04312/2026.Runoff scenarios and government approvalRiedel starts ahead in every runoff simulation. He would beat Delcídio by 54% to 23%, Trad by 59% to 22% and Catan by 61% to 13%, the poll shows. The governor also posts the lowest rejection rate: 22% say they know Riedel and would not vote for him, compared with 47% for Delcídio and 44% for Trad.The state government is approved by 62% of respondents and disapproved by 16%, and 66% say Riedel deserves reelection. Asked about the state's main problem, 39% cite health care, followed by infrastructure (13%) and the economy (9%).Riedel was elected in 2022 as a member of the PSDB and later switched to the PP. He now heads an alliance that includes Republicanos, União Brasil, PL, MDB, Avante, PSDB, PSD and Cidadania. First-round voting is scheduled for October 4.

Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), the rapporteur for the constitutional amendment that would end Brazil's so-called 6x1 work schedule, said he plans to present his report to the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) on Thursday, August 27. The bill, which had been stalled in the Senate since May, has gained new momentum in recent days amid expectations among government allies that it could advance during Congress's concentrated legislative push next week.According to G1, Aziz decided to keep the text as approved by the Chamber of Deputies without changes. The choice is strategic: any amendment to the bill's content would force it back to the Chamber for another vote, delaying its progress. The measure would cut the maximum weekly work hours from 44 to 40, replacing the current model in which employees work six days and rest only one with a schedule guaranteeing two paid days off, while keeping current wage levels intact, according to Brazilian outlet Jornal GGN. The 6x1 schedule refers to the common Brazilian shift pattern of six working days followed by a single day of rest.If approved by the CCJ, the measure moves to the Senate floor, where it needs at least 49 favorable votes across two rounds of voting, since it is a constitutional amendment. Senate rules require a minimum gap of five sessions between the first and second round votes, a timeline the opposition intends to use to try to delay the bill.Opposition pushbackThe presidential campaign team of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) is working to prevent a vote on the 6x1 bill before this year's elections, according to G1. Even so, allies of the candidate acknowledge the measure has a strong chance of passing if it reaches the floor, since opposition senators would find it politically difficult to vote against the measure during the campaign. According to sources close to Senator Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), the opposition leader in the Senate and coordinator of Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign, the strategy will be to publicly defend the importance of the issue while arguing it needs further debate and should not be voted on in the heat of the presidential race.The PL party had been counting on tensions between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) to stall the bill, but a recent rapprochement between the two dashed that expectation, G1 reported. On Wednesday, August 26, Lula is scheduled to meet with Alcolumbre and Chamber of Deputies President Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) to discuss the votes planned for the following week. On social media, Lula has framed the bill as a commitment to Brazilian workers, saying the end of the 6x1 schedule will move forward in Congress without any pay cut.Speaking to Brazilian outlet UOL, according to Jornal GGN, Aziz pushed back against criticism from the business sector over potential economic damage, arguing that alarmist rhetoric has historically accompanied revisions to Brazil's labor laws. PL deputies themselves voted mostly in favor of the measure when it passed the Chamber of Deputies, a point party members in the Senate now cite as a sign the bill could also pass there.

The first debate among candidates for Brazil's presidency in the 2026 election took place on Sunday, August 23, with only three of the leading contenders on stage: Augusto Cury (Avante), Renan Santos (Missão) and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD). The event, organized by broadcaster Rede Bandeirantes and the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, ran for about ninety minutes and was described by BBC News Brasil as the emptiest presidential debate since 1989, since the two frontrunners in the polls, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers' Party, PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party, PL), did not attend.According to the BBC News Brasil Poll Aggregator, the three participants together hold about 10% of first-round voting intentions. Lula leads the race with 40%, followed by Flávio Bolsonaro with 34%, while Caiado sits a distant third with 5%, based on the most recent tally released Tuesday, August 25. During the debate, the three candidates present pushed their platforms and directed criticism at the absent frontrunners.Romeu Zema (Novo), another invited candidate, also skipped the Band debate. He had confirmed his attendance but pulled out on Saturday, August 22, after learning that Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro would not be there. Instead, Zema opted for a one-on-one interview on Globo's evening newscast Jornal Nacional on Monday, August 24, kicking off a series of individual interviews the network is running with the six candidates who polled highest in an August 14 Quaest survey.Individual interviews on GloboThe Jornal Nacional interview series continues through the week: after Zema, Ronaldo Caiado appeared on Tuesday, August 25; Renan Santos is scheduled for Wednesday, the 26th; Lula for Thursday, the 27th; Flávio Bolsonaro for Friday, the 28th; and Augusto Cury closes out the round on Saturday, the 29th. In his Globo interview, Caiado defended a broad and unrestricted amnesty for those convicted over the January 8, 2023 attempted coup, including former president Jair Bolsonaro, comparing the measure to the Federal Supreme Court's annulment of Lula's corruption convictions, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The newspaper notes that Lula was not granted an amnesty: the court annulled his convictions in 2021 after finding procedural flaws in the cases tied to the Car Wash (Lava Jato) corruption probe.Asked about fiscal adjustment, Caiado did not detail how he would reform the pension system, but said that, if elected, he would send a constitutional amendment on his first day in office capping public spending at 50% of gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation. He also renewed his proposal for a joint police force with neighboring countries, dubbed SulPol, modeled on Europe's Europol.Meanwhile, Augusto Cury kept up his own campaign schedule. According to G1, the Avante candidate visited São Paulo and then Montes Claros, in the state of Minas Gerais, where he discussed agribusiness proposals, called for fiscal responsibility measures to lower interest rates, and pledged to finance 10 million microenterprises. He also proposed changes to the Bolsa Família welfare program so that beneficiaries who get a formal job or open a microenterprise would not immediately lose the benefit, keeping it for a transition period.

Former Goias governor Ronaldo Caiado, a presidential candidate for the PSD party, defended a "broad, general and unrestricted" amnesty for those convicted over the January 8, 2023 attack on Brazil's seat of government, during a live interview on Globo TV on Tuesday. The sit-down, hosted by anchors Renata Vasconcellos and Cesar Tralli as part of a special election program, aired right after the flagship evening newscast Jornal Nacional from Globo's studios in Rio de Janeiro. Caiado was the second of six leading candidates to face the format, which began the day before with Romeu Zema of the Novo party and runs through August 29, with sessions for Renan Santos (Missao), President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT), Senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) and writer Augusto Cury (Avante).According to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Caiado said he intends to send Congress a broad amnesty bill that would cover former president Jair Bolsonaro, framing it as a way to "pacify the country." He compared the proposal to the Supreme Federal Court's (STF) decision to annul Lula's corruption convictions from the Car Wash (Lava Jato) probe, saying he would act "the same way the Supreme Court granted relief to President Lula." The comparison is not quite accurate: Lula was not granted amnesty by the court. In 2021 the STF threw out those convictions after finding procedural flaws, including bias by the presiding judge at the time, Sergio Moro, not because it forgave the underlying crimes on political grounds.Caiado said he has never contested an election result and described himself as a democrat. To justify amnesty for those convicted over the January 8 riots, when supporters of Bolsonaro stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace after his 2022 election loss, Caiado pointed to what he called a Brazilian tradition of political pardons, citing a measure signed by then president Juscelino Kubitschek in the 1950s. "The Brazilian character is not built on hatred," he said, per Folha.Fiscal plan light on detailPressed on economic policy, Caiado did not directly answer whether he would raise the minimum retirement age or how he would balance the federal budget. "I'm not in a position to spell out the details," he said. He set a goal of capping public spending at no more than 50% of gross domestic product (GDP), adjusted for inflation, and said he would send a constitutional amendment to Congress with that proposal on his first day in office if elected.On public safety, Caiado again pitched a joint police force with Brazil's neighbors, which he calls SulPol, modeled on Europol, the European Union's police cooperation agency. According to G1, which also covered the interview live, Caiado was asked about military involvement in the coup attempt and about the so-called "Green and Yellow Dagger" plot, a plan by coup supporters to assassinate Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes.Per the BBC News Brasil polling aggregator, which compiles surveys from pollsters including Datafolha, Quaest, AtlasIntel and MDA, Caiado ranked third in the presidential race as of Tuesday, with 5% of first round voting intentions, trailing Lula at 40% and Flavio Bolsonaro at 34%. The six candidates featured in Globo's interview series were chosen because they topped a Quaest poll released on August 14.

Justice André Mendonça, vice president of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE), proposed on Tuesday that the court adopt a binding legal standard to define which uses of artificial intelligence in campaign material count as an illegal 'deepfake' versus other permitted AI content. Under his proposal, only synthetic audio or video with a 'degree of realism or verisimilitude objectively capable of producing a false perception of authenticity', meaning content convincing enough to pass as a genuine recording, would qualify as a deepfake.Mendonça made the proposal in an individual ruling on a request from the campaign of presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), ordering the removal of an AI-generated video. According to newspaper O Globo, the video was posted on August 11 by the Instagram account '@forabolsonaronacional' and shows a voice actor speaking in the first person as if he were former banker Daniel Vorcaro, who is in pretrial detention as part of the Compliance Zero investigation, falsely linking the senator to a corrupt kickback scheme known in Brazil as 'rachadinha'. Mendonça classified the video as a deepfake in a preliminary assessment and ordered it taken down and not reposted.Per O Globo, the proposed standard splits AI-generated election content into two categories already outlined in a TSE resolution passed earlier this year: synthetic material that can circulate as long as it is properly labeled as AI-generated, and deepfakes, which face an outright ban. Mendonça argued that simply labeling content as AI-made 'does not have the capacity to make lawful' material that otherwise meets the criteria for a deepfake. He also said it is not necessary to prove any voter was actually fooled: the objective test is whether the content, given its realism and context, is capable of passing as an authentic record.Aiming for a uniform standardMendonça said he brought the proposal given the 'relevance of the matter' and the expectation that similar disputes will multiply throughout Brazil's 2026 campaign, arguing the court needs more legal certainty and predictability. The proposal, issued as an individual ruling, still needs to go before the full TSE bench. O Globo reported it is expected to be reviewed first through the court's virtual session rather than Thursday's in-person hearing, though any justice could request it be moved to a live session.Mendonça's proposed standard runs counter to an interpretation that had been gaining ground among other TSE justices. O Globo reported that recent rulings in the court's virtual sessions, led by Justice Estela Aranha, had taken a broader reading of the resolution, treating any AI-generated depiction of a candidate saying or doing something that never happened as improper, regardless of how realistic it looked. Mendonça was on the losing side of those earlier votes before the court paused its review. The Folha de S.Paulo column Painel reported that Flávio Bolsonaro's own campaign already expects to lose the broader case over deepfakes and anticipates the TSE will ban ads using the technology, a reminder that Brazil's top electoral court still hasn't settled a common standard for AI in politics ahead of the 2026 vote.

São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas holds a solid lead in his re-election bid with 40% of first-round voting intentions, according to a Quaest poll released on Tuesday (25). Finance Minister Fernando Haddad stands in second place with 27% in Brazil's largest voting state. The survey, commissioned by TV Globo, places the incumbent governor ahead beyond the poll's two percentage point margin of error. The figures highlight Freitas's standing in conservative politics within São Paulo state ahead of the upcoming electoral race. The Quaest poll also evaluated public sentiment regarding the regional government. Results show that 56% of voters approve of Freitas's governorship, while 31% register disapproval. The approval numbers reflect steady voter backing across both the metropolitan area and the state's interior. The survey was released alongside national figures for Brazil's wealthiest state. In the presidential scenario measured within São Paulo, federal lawmaker Flávio Bolsonaro reached 30% of voter preference, while President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recorded 29%, showing a tight race in the key electoral battlefield.

A new Quaest poll released on Tuesday shows a statistical tie between Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, of the Liberal Party (PL), and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, of the Workers' Party (PT), in the presidential race among voters in Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest electoral college. In the first round scenario with candidate names shown to respondents, Bolsonaro numerically leads with 30% of voting intentions, against 29% for Lula, according to Brazilian magazine VEJA.The one point gap falls within the poll's margin of error of two percentage points in either direction, which makes it a statistical tie between the two front runners. The survey was commissioned by Grupo Globo and interviewed 1,800 voters in the state of Sao Paulo between August 21 and 24.Other candidates trail far behindBehind the two leaders, the poll shows a wide gap to the other names tested. Renan Santos, of the Missão party, comes in third with 5% of voting intentions. Ronaldo Caiado, of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), registers 4%, while Romeu Zema, of the Novo party, has 3%. Given the two point margin of error, all three are statistically tied with each other.Author Augusto Cury, of the Avante party, polls at 2%. Samara Martins, Rui Costa Pimenta and Wilson Grassi each register 1%, while Clariana Barão and Hertz Dias show 0%. In a separate scenario that includes Pablo Marçal, who has been ruled ineligible to run by Brazil's electoral court, he polls at 4%.The survey also found 13% of undecided voters and 12% who say they will cast blank or null ballots or do not plan to vote at all. Those numbers underline how competitive the race remains in a state that holds the largest number of voters in Brazil and has historically been decisive for the outcome of presidential elections.The same round of Quaest polling in Sao Paulo also measured other races in the state on Tuesday, including the governor's race, where Tarcísio de Freitas leads Fernando Haddad, and the Senate race, marked by a three way statistical tie among Guilherme Derrite, Marina Silva and Simone Tebet.

The US Supreme Court on Monday (24) allowed President Donald Trump's administration to move ahead with an executive order restricting mail-in voting, a little over two months before the November 3 midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. In an emergency ruling, the justices suspended an injunction by federal judge Indira Talwani of Boston that since June had blocked the directive in 23 states and in Washington, DC, according to reports by Folha de S.Paulo and InfoMoney.The decision was unsigned, as is common in emergency orders. The court's 6-to-3 conservative majority accepted the Justice Department's argument that the government would "likely suffer irreparable harm" if the stay were not granted. The three liberal justices dissented, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that the majority "needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty" into the upcoming midterms.What the order saysSigned by Trump in March, the order directs the Department of Homeland Security to compile lists of citizens eligible to vote in each state and tells the Justice Department to prioritize investigating election officials who issue ballots to people deemed ineligible. It also requires the US Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters on each state's approved mail-in voting list.In June, Talwani ruled that the president had no authority to order changes in how states run federal elections, noting that the US Constitution leaves voter eligibility rules to the states. She also found that federal agencies lack the capacity to compile accurate lists of citizens. The suing states, most of them governed by Democrats, argued that the rushed change so close to the election risked disenfranchising "a substantial number of voters".Despite Trump's win, the practical reach of the ruling remains limited. The court did not address a second Talwani injunction, issued on August 11 in a separate case brought by voting rights groups, which still bars the Postal Service from enforcing the stricter rules nationwide. With early voting about to begin in several states, it is unclear whether the White House rules will be in force on election day.The order is part of Trump's broader push to change US election rules. The president has long questioned the security of mail ballots and made false claims of widespread fraud, including about his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though evidence of election fraud in the country is rare. He is also pressing the Republican-controlled Congress to pass a package of voting restrictions known as the SAVE America Act. Restricting mail voting is expected to benefit Republicans, since Democratic voters have historically been more likely to vote by mail.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, leads the presidential race in São Paulo, Brazil's largest electoral college, according to a Real Time Big Data poll released on Monday (24). In the first-round scenario, he draws 38% of voting intentions, against 33% for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who is seeking reelection. The margin of error is two percentage points either way.Renan Santos (Missão) and businessman Pablo Marçal (PRTB) come next, tied at 7% each. Marçal registered his candidacy despite being barred from public office until 2032, and São Paulo's regional electoral court upheld the sanction on Monday, according to Revista Oeste. Former Goiás governor Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) has 4%, former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo) has 3%, and writer Augusto Cury (Avante) has 1%. The remaining candidates tested add up to 1%. Blank and null votes account for 3%, the same share as undecided voters.In the only runoff matchup tested by the institute, Flávio Bolsonaro reaches 49% against 44% for Lula. Blank and null votes total 3%, and 4% of respondents did not know or did not answer.The poll also measured rejection rates and the federal government's standing in the state, according to CNN Brasil and Exame. Lula is the most rejected name: 51% of São Paulo voters say they would never vote for him, while 49% say the same about Flávio. The president's administration is disapproved of by 55% of respondents in the state and approved by 41%. For 40%, the administration is bad or terrible; 25% rate it as great or good, and 32% as regular. By voter profile, there is a tie among women at 36% each. Lula performs best among voters over 60 (39%) and those earning up to two minimum wages (43%), while Flávio leads among men (40%) and in the higher income brackets (40%), Exame reports.A smaller gap than his father's in 2022The result keeps São Paulo tilted toward the bolsonarista camp, but with a narrower margin than in 2022, InfoMoney notes. In that year's runoff, Jair Bolsonaro beat Lula in the state by 55.23% to 44.77% and won 547 of the 645 municipalities. The 44% now assigned to Lula in the runoff simulation is close to the 44.77% he actually received four years ago; the bigger drop is on the PL side, since Flávio's father topped 55%. Nationally, the picture is different: a Nexus/BTG poll, also released on Monday, puts Lula ahead in the first round with 41% against 37% for Flávio, according to CNN Brasil.Real Time Big Data interviewed 2,000 voters across São Paulo state between August 19 and 22. The self-funded survey has a margin of error of two percentage points and a 95% confidence level, and it is registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under protocol BR-06537/2026.

Brazil's Federal Police are investigating Leonardo Avalanche, national president of the PRTB party and running mate on Pablo Marçal's presidential ticket, on suspicion of diverting R$ 750,000 (about US$ 140,000) from the party's share of the public electoral fund during the 2024 municipal elections. The case was revealed on Tuesday by columnist Artur Rodrigues of UOL and also reported by Diário do Centro do Mundo. According to the investigation, the main beneficiaries were Avalanche himself and his relatives, who allegedly received part of the money through intermediary companies.The inquiry began after an anonymous tip about a transfer from the party to the law firm of Samuel Alves de Azevedo, the PRTB's secretary-general. The firm received R$ 750,000 from the electoral fund, a taxpayer-financed pool that Brazilian parties use to pay for campaigns, in early September 2024. After obtaining bank records, investigators found that between that month and February 2025, R$ 501,000 flowed to accounts linked to Avalanche and his family through two companies, JFX Consultoria and Superstar Corporate Ltda., both suspected of taking part in the scheme.According to the records examined by the Federal Police, the law firm transferred R$ 100,000 to Avalanche's wife, Ana Cláudia Ferreira de Faria Alves, who returned the money in three transactions in October 2024 and received R$ 150,000 from Superstar ten days later. The same company sent R$ 100,000 to Avalanche's son, who was 13 years old at the time. The teenager moved R$ 751,000 during the eight months covered by the court-ordered disclosure, including transfers to his own parents. Police also traced two payments of R$ 50,000 each, made by a company owned by Adevando Junior, then the PRTB's treasurer, to Avalanche's wife and son.Investigators found signs that the companies were used to hide where the money came from and where it went. JFX Consultoria, created in April 2024, handled R$ 160,000 in transactions with the suspects. Superstar was registered at a residential street in Americanópolis, on the outskirts of São Paulo, while its partner at the time listed an address in Vilhena, in the state of Rondônia.This is not Avalanche's first legal problem. According to O Globo, he is a defendant before São Paulo's electoral court on charges of political violence and criminal association, in a case under judicial seal. Prosecutors accuse him of rigging the internal election that put him in charge of the PRTB in 2024, using supposed party founders enrolled retroactively, and of making death threats against a party official. He denies all the charges.On the electoral fund investigation, Avalanche denied wrongdoing in a statement and said he is cooperating. "I cannot comment on specific aspects of the case outside the court record," he said, adding that he will give testimony "at the appropriate procedural moment." He is expected to be questioned in the coming weeks. Samuel Alves, Superstar and Adevando Junior did not respond to requests for comment.

The presidential campaign of senator Flavio Bolsonaro (PL) has mobilized allies in Brazil's Senate to delay the vote on a constitutional amendment (known as a PEC) that would end the 6x1 work schedule, six days on and one day off, newspaper O Globo reports. The push began after Senate president Davi Alcolumbre signaled he may bring the proposal to a vote. The measure is a campaign banner for president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who wants it approved before October's election.According to O Globo, the effort is led by senator Rogerio Marinho (PL-RN), coordinator of Flavio's campaign. During Congress's first concentrated voting week in August, Marinho sought a deal with Alcolumbre to keep the PEC off the agenda during the electoral period. The strategy suffered a setback when Alcolumbre met Lula that same week, committed to unblocking the proposal and sent it to the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), where senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), a government ally, will be rapporteur.The newspaper reports that the opposition plans to use procedural requests for extra review time and amendments to run out the clock and stop the text from clearing the committee and the floor during the last concentrated voting week, set to start on August 31. Even government allies, including CCJ chairman Otto Alencar (PSD-BA) and Aziz himself, say the outcome is uncertain and there is no guarantee of a deal to vote before the election. Aziz says he will present his report during the voting week, but party leaders will decide the date.Approved by the Chamber of Deputies on May 27, the amendment cuts the maximum workweek to 40 hours and guarantees two paid rest days with no pay reduction, according to the Senate's news agency. The transition is gradual: 60 days after promulgation the workweek drops to 42 hours, and after 12 months it settles at 40. To pass, the text needs at least 49 votes in the Senate floor, in two rounds of voting.Marinho has filed an alternative amendment that would let workers choose between the traditional labor-code regime and a model based on hours actually worked, negotiated individually or collectively. Alencar said he will not appoint a rapporteur for it, though parts could be folded into the main text if there is a deal. Publicly, Flavio's campaign avoids attacking the measure itself and argues the debate should happen outside the electoral period. "Lula is desperate, his government was a disaster," said congressman Alfredo Gaspar, Flavio's running mate, who voted for the PEC in the lower house. Daniella Marques, of the candidate's economic team, called the discussion "a populist debate" at a business event on Friday.On the other side, news site g1 reports that Lula meets on Wednesday (26) with Alcolumbre and Chamber speaker Hugo Motta to unblock bills with potential electoral impact, including the 6x1 amendment, a public security amendment, a critical minerals bill and the provisional measure that scrapped the import tax on low-value online purchases.

Discord is negotiating with Brazil's federal government a conduct adjustment agreement, known as a TAC, to bring its features in line with Brazilian rules, end ongoing investigations and avoid new penalties against the platform, according to Folha de S.Paulo. The talks involve the Ministry of Justice and the AGU, the federal government's legal office. The ANPD, Brazil's data protection authority, would stay out of the deal, at least initially, and continue its own proceedings against the company.Pressure on the app grew after the death of a 13-year-old girl in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul in July. According to investigators, she was induced by other teenagers to self-harm and take her own life in scenes streamed on the platform. The case drew national attention and led first lady Janja Lula da Silva to call for Discord to be blocked in Brazil.Suspension of livestreams and appealOn August 7, the ANPD opened an inspection process into failures in the protection of children and teenagers. Five days later, it ordered the suspension of livestreaming, including the "Go Live" feature, and other video tools until the company proves it has effective safeguards for minors. Discord complied on August 17, keeping messages and audio available, but appealed. On Monday (24), it filed a new appeal asking for the measure to be annulled, calling it "disproportionate", according to G1. The company argues the suspension amounts to a sanction that, under its reading of the ECA Digital, Brazil's new child online protection law, could only be imposed by the courts.In documents sent to the ANPD and obtained by CNN Brasil, Discord disputes any direct link between the death and the platform. The company says the teenager died at 5:03 a.m. on July 22, while the server tied to the case had already been removed at 4:15 a.m. Under that timeline, the first external alert came at 3:50 a.m., through an emergency request from NOAD, a government digital monitoring unit; the case was escalated internally at 4:10 a.m. and the server was taken down five minutes later. The platform also says it found signs that part of the criminal activity was coordinated on other apps, such as Telegram and TikTok, though it acknowledged that risk signals present in the server did not trigger alerts before the episode.Parallel tracksThe TAC negotiation runs in parallel with the ANPD process. According to Folha, the talks began before the livestream suspension: the AGU had already received a Discord proposal to strengthen user safety, especially for minors, and was weighing turning it into a formal agreement. The agency has signaled that streams may resume if the company presents measures it considers reasonable. The case is also being watched by Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office, which opened a procedure on August 18 to oversee age verification tools, moderation of audiovisual content and the company's institutional representation in the country.Discord did not comment when contacted by CNN Brasil.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is discussing a regulation that would determine how big tech companies must make available data on the ads and paid boosts they sell on their platforms, Folha de S.Paulo reported on Tuesday (25), citing members of the government. According to the newspaper, the talks are centered at the Ministry of Justice, and there is still no consensus on which data companies would have to release or on the level of public access to that information.Today, the only digital advertising transparency obligations in Brazil apply to companies that allow paid electoral advertising, under rules from the TSE, the country's electoral court. In this year's general election, only Meta and Kwai offer that kind of service. A future ordinance, Folha reports, would cover advertising on any topic.The stated priority of government officials is to fight and investigate fraud and scams carried out through social media ads. A decree issued by the government in May, based on the terms of a Supreme Federal Court ruling, already required companies to keep data on ads aired on their platforms for one year. The text, however, left the way oversight bodies would access that information to future regulation.If the new rule is published and takes effect still during the campaign, it would open one more channel to oversee platforms that say they do not allow the boosting of political content. The measure would help verify whether they are in fact blocking that kind of ad.According to Folha, government members met in recent weeks with representatives of companies and organizations linked to the sector to discuss the issue, but there is no certainty a decision will come before the end of the current term. One of the sources heard by the newspaper cited the ad itself and the advertiser's name as basic data that could potentially be public. The amount paid for the advertising is seen as more sensitive information.

The São Paulo state prosecutor's office has opened a new front in its investigation into alleged irregularities in the street lighting contract of Brazil's largest city, valued at R$ 6.9 billion. In a dispatch issued on Thursday (20), prosecutors specializing in public assets demanded explanations from the city attorney general, Luciana Sant'Ana Nardi, for allegedly creating obstacles to compliance with rulings by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) that would lead to the cancellation of the current contract, Folha de S.Paulo reported.The administration of mayor Ricardo Nunes, of the centrist MDB party, told the newspaper it executes the contract regularly and will provide all necessary clarifications to the courts once formally notified.The contract with the Ilumina SP consortium, made up of construction firms FM Rodrigues and CLD Construtora, came out of a tender concluded in 2018 and covers lighting services for 20 years. In a case closed in December 2024, the Supreme Court found that the tender had irregularly disqualified the Walks consortium, whose bid was about R$ 1.3 billion cheaper. In 2022, already under Nunes, an amendment signed without a new tender added traffic light services to the contract at a cost of R$ 3.8 billion.Prosecutors estimate that keeping the contract they consider irregular has caused accumulated losses of R$ 513 million through July of this year, including payments already made. Based on that figure, the São Paulo state court (TJ-SP) ordered on August 14 the freezing of about R$ 1 billion in assets belonging to former public officials and the companies involved, the sum of the alleged loss plus a fine of equal value. On Thursday (20), appeals court justice Borelli Thomaz, of the 13th Public Law Chamber, rejected a challenge by the companies and upheld the freeze, set at R$ 1,026,618,672.72, according to g1.Alleged favoritismInvestigators point to alleged favoritism toward the winning consortium in the international tender opened in 2015. According to g1, an internal inquiry by the city's comptroller general, concluded in January 2020, found "robust and converging indications" that staff at Ilume, the municipal lighting department, acted to disqualify the Walks consortium before the commercial bids were opened. The department's then director, Denise Maria Ayres de Abreu, is suspected of receiving monthly payments from FM Rodrigues, a suspicion reinforced by audio recordings from 2017. She is among the targets of the asset freeze, alongside former municipal services and works secretary Marcos Rodrigues Penido and João Manoel da Costa Neto, chief executive of the regulator SP Regula.In a statement, Penido said he will present a technical defense and provide all necessary clarifications. Ilumina SP said the points raised by prosecutors had already been investigated in the past, when the concessionaire provided all clarifications.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spoke by phone on Monday (24) with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the two leaders agreed to deepen bilateral defense cooperation. Brazil will send a delegation to Ankara made up of representatives from the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce to begin implementing the Defense Industry Cooperation Agreement, already ratified by both countries' parliaments.According to Poder360, Lula said Brazil intends to expand investment in the defense sector and wants to encourage partnerships between Brazilian and Turkish companies. The two governments also decided to create a strategic council led by their respective vice presidents, tasked with drawing up a roadmap to deepen bilateral relations, Congresso em Foco reported.In a statement, the Turkish government said Erdogan believes the two countries can implement "a model of economic cooperation capable of expanding the prosperity of their peoples in the face of protectionist trends". The Turkish president also praised Brazilian foreign policy, which, in his assessment, "contributes to world peace" by prioritizing peace in regional and global matters.Invitation to COP31During the call, Erdogan formally invited Lula to attend COP31, the UN climate conference scheduled for November 9 to 20 in Antalya, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, weeks after the runoff in Brazil's presidential election. Lula confirmed he will attend. It will be the third climate conference with both leaders present: they attended COP28, in the United Arab Emirates, and COP29, in Azerbaijan.According to a statement from the Brazilian presidency, the presidents "lamented the persistence of conflicts around the world and emphasized the importance of intensifying dialogue to find paths to peace in Ukraine and the Middle East".

Brazil's National Cinema Agency (Ancine) granted on August 7 the Foreign Work Registration (ROE) for "Dark Horse," a fiction feature about former president Jair Bolsonaro starring American actor Jim Caviezel. The registration is a preliminary step toward a commercial release in Brazil, and it was obtained while the film's production company, Go Up Entertainment, remains the target of investigations.According to Folha de S.Paulo, the film is expected to be released in Brazil under the title "O Azarão" ("The Underdog"), runs 1 hour and 40 minutes and has no set release date. To reach theaters, the work still needs a Title Registration Certificate (CRT), which proves the commercial exploitation rights in the country. Ancine says distributor Europa Filmes has not yet filed that request. After the certificate, the film will still need an age rating from the Ministry of Justice.The registration request was filed in June. In the same period, the agency opened an administrative proceeding against Go Up Entertainment after a complaint that the production, spoken in English and directed and starred by Americans, was shot on Brazilian soil without prior notice to Ancine, as regulations require for foreign productions. If the irregularity is confirmed, the company can be fined R$ 2,000 to R$ 100,000. Last week, the Federal Police asked the agency for information about the case. According to Ancine, the producer had not submitted the documentation required for the shoots.Financing under scrutinyAlso in June, Go Up was at the center of a Civil Police operation tied to an inquiry into whether a municipal contract was subject to irregularities and diversions and whether the funds ended up with the film's crew, Folha reported. In July, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) authorized an inquiry into transfers made to the production by businessman Daniel Vorcaro, former controller of Banco Master, according to G1. The investigation seeks to verify whether the money was actually used to finance the film.The financing probe stems from messages and audio recordings published by The Intercept Brasil indicating that Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son and the Liberal Party (PL) presidential pre-candidate, asked Vorcaro for money to fund the production. The amount initially mentioned in the negotiations reached US$ 24 million (about R$ 134 million), but how much was actually transferred remains under investigation.According to Ancine, registration procedures take up to 30 days to complete when there are no pending requirements. The film can only be released commercially after all stages are fulfilled.

The vice-president of Brazil's Supreme Court (STF), Alexandre de Moraes, said on Monday, August 24, that the country's electoral model has "failed" and defended a gradual shift from pure proportional representation to a mixed district system. He spoke during a lecture at the São Paulo Municipal Court of Accounts (TCMSP), at an event of the National Congress of Public Law, External Control and Public Governance, according to Estadão and Estado de Minas.In his view, the current system favors the election of lawmakers with no ties to their parties and helps weaken Congress."This electoral model has failed, because it produces candidates and elected officials with no ties whatsoever to parties, who care much more about livestreaming from the lower house than discussing the bill being voted on. [Candidates and elected officials] who weaken Congress," Moraes said.Gradual transitionUnder a mixed district system, part of the seats is elected directly in geographic districts and the rest is allocated according to each party's vote share. In Moraes' assessment, the format would strengthen the bond between voters, candidates and parties. He argued the change should start with a smaller share of seats and expand in later elections."I have defended for a long time, since my days as a prosecutor, that Brazil leave the pure proportional system and move to a mixed district system. We can start with 30% district seats. Then, in the next one, 40%, 60%," he said. Brazil currently elects federal, state and district deputies and city councilors by proportional representation, while senators and executive officeholders are chosen by majority vote.Moraes linked the electoral system to Brazil's governability problems and said the 1988 Constitution was designed for a democracy with strong parties. "If we do not have strong parties, we will always have this governability problem," he said. According to the portal Claudio Dantas, he also defended reviewing party financing rules as part of a broader political reform. In the same lecture, the justice cited the two presidential impeachments since 1988 and the January 8, 2023 attacks on the seats of the three branches of government as crises the institutions overcame. "There is no safer path to maintaining democracy, even with all its problems, than strengthening the institutions," he said, defending reforms across the three branches, including faster court rulings on cases involving public works and investments.Moraes also said Brazil was "naive" to believe that big tech companies were neutral and argued that platform algorithms can influence electoral debate. Finally, he defended coordinated action by the police, prosecutors and the courts against organized crime, with faster and better coordinated responses.

Brazil's Finance Minister, Dario Durigan, said on Monday (24) that the federal government estimates the minimum wage at R$ 1,741 for 2027. The figure will be included in the annual budget bill, known in Brazil as PLOA, which must be sent to Congress by August 31, according to G1. The estimate is higher than the one in the 2027 Budget Guidelines Law (PLDO), in which the government had calculated a floor of R$ 1,717. If confirmed, the new value represents a raise of about 7.4%, or R$ 120, over the current minimum of R$ 1,621. According to Poder360, Durigan spoke to journalists at the Finance Ministry after meeting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the economic team to finalize the 2027 budget proposal. "The minimum wage, with the readjustments provided by law, reaches R$ 1,741 next year. Following Brazilian legislation, and in line with our spirit of privileging the poorest population, it will also apply to Social Security and to the social benefits indexed to the minimum wage," the minister said, as quoted by G1. Final figure only in December The number can still change until December 2026. The definitive minimum wage will only be known when the November reading of the INPC, the inflation index used to correct the floor, is released. Under the current rule, the readjustment combines the INPC accumulated over 12 months through November of the previous year with GDP growth from two years earlier. Durigan ruled out unlinking the minimum wage from social benefits, which means pensions and other payments tied to the floor will also reflect the raise. The minister said the 2027 budget proposal foresees a surplus, with the government spending less than it collects next year. The minimum wage now stands at R$ 1,621, after a 6.79% readjustment granted this year. Created in January 1936 under President Getúlio Vargas, the Brazilian minimum wage turned 90 in 2026. Dieese, a labor research institute, calculates that the wage needed to support a family of four should be R$ 7,425.99, or 4.58 times the current floor.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, leads voting intentions in Santa Catarina with 45%, against 20% for President Lula (PT), according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (24). The survey, commissioned by local broadcaster NSC, measured the presidential race in the southern state ahead of the first round on October 4.Behind the two front-runners come Renan Santos (Missão), with 4%, and, tied at 3% each, former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema (Novo), writer Augusto Cury (Avante) and Ronaldo Caiado (PSD). Samara Martins (UP) has 1%, and the remaining candidates score 0%, G1 reported. Undecided voters total 13%, while 8% say they will cast a blank or null ballot or will not vote.Quaest also tested a scenario including Pablo Marçal (PRTB), who filed his candidacy despite being ineligible; the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, has yet to rule on whether he can run. In that version, Flávio Bolsonaro holds at 45% and Lula at 20%. Marçal appears with 2%, tied with Cury, while Renan Santos keeps 4% and Zema and Caiado, 3% each. Blank, null and non-voters drop to 7%.Settled votesFor 70% of those interviewed, the choice of candidate is final. Another 30% say they may still change their vote before the election. According to NSC, 79% of Flávio Bolsonaro's voters consider their decision settled; among Lula's voters, the share reaches 80%.Lula's ratings in the stateThe poll also gauged the federal government's image in Santa Catarina: 69% of respondents disapprove of the Lula administration and 28% approve. Sixty percent rate the government as negative, 19% as average and 20% as positive.Quaest interviewed 804 people aged 16 and over between August 20 and 23. The margin of error is three percentage points, plus or minus, with a 95% confidence level. The survey is registered with the TSE under numbers SC-00517/2026 and BR-07160/2026.

Luciano Zucco (PL) and Juliana Brizola (PDT) are in a statistical tie in the race for governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (24). Zucco, of the party of former president Jair Bolsonaro, has 26% of voting intentions, against 23% for Brizola, within the three-point margin of error. The survey, commissioned by the RBS media group, interviewed 900 voters aged 16 and over between August 20 and 23, G1 reports.Gabriel Souza (MDB) comes third with 9%, followed by Marcelo Maranata (PSDB) with 2% and Priscila Voigt (UP) with 1%. Cesar Pontes (PCO) and Rejane de Oliveira (PSTU) scored 0%. Undecided voters total 27%, and 12% say they will cast a blank or null ballot or will not vote. For 61% of those surveyed, the choice is final; 39% say they may still change their vote before the October 4 election.In the spontaneous version of the poll, in which candidates' names are not read out, Zucco leads with 13%, followed by Brizola with 7% and Souza with 2%, while undecided voters reach 74%. The survey has a 95% confidence level and is registered with the Superior Electoral Court under number RS-06875/2026.Runoff scenariosQuaest tested three second-round matchups. In a head-to-head race, Brizola has 36% and Zucco 33%, also a statistical tie. Against Souza, the PDT candidate would win by 32% to 24%. In a Zucco-Souza contest, the PL candidate would come out on top by 33% to 22%.Rejection rates and the Leite governmentBrizola is the most rejected candidate: 36% of voters say they know her and would never vote for her, while 33% still do not know her. Zucco has a 19% rejection rate but is unknown to 53% of those surveyed. Souza is the least known of the top three: 72% say they do not know him.The government of Governor Eduardo Leite is disapproved by 45% of voters and approved by 42%, and 56% say he does not deserve to elect a successor. Health and floods tie as the state's top problem, each cited by 22% of respondents, in a state still recovering from the historic floods of 2024. On the next governor's profile, 39% prefer an independent, 32% want an ally of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and 25% an ally of President Lula.In the Senate race, the poll shows a five-way statistical tie for the state's two seats, according to InfoMoney. Combining votes, Manuela d'Ávila (PSOL) leads with 12%, followed by Pimenta (PT) and Marcel van Hattem (Novo) with 9% each, and Sanderson (PL) and Rigotto (MDB) with 8% each. Undecided voters total 37%.

Senator Sergio Moro (PL), the former judge who led Brazil's Operation Car Wash corruption investigations, leads the race for governor of Paraná with 37% of voting intentions, according to the first Quaest poll commissioned by RPC, TV Globo's affiliate in the southern state, released on Monday, August 24. Requião Filho (PDT) comes second with 21%, followed by Sandro Alex (PSD) with 15%. According to InfoMoney, the two are statistically tied once the three-point margin of error is taken into account.Luiz França (Missão) and Tayná Miessa (Unidade Popular) have 1% each, while Alexandre Salomão (Mobiliza), Adriano Funileiro (PCO) and Samuel de Mattos (PSTU) scored zero. Undecided voters add up to 18%, and 7% say they will cast a blank or null ballot or will not vote. In the spontaneous survey, in which no names are read to voters, Moro has 13%, Requião Filho 7% and Sandro Alex 4%, with 73% undecided. According to G1, 56% of respondents say their choice is final, while 44% say they may still change their vote before the October 4 election.Runoff scenariosMoro wins both runoff matchups tested by Quaest. He beats Requião Filho by 51% to 27% and Sandro Alex by 48% to 19%, a scenario in which undecided voters reach 22%. In a race without the PL senator, Requião Filho would defeat Sandro Alex by 37% to 24%. Under Brazilian rules, a runoff takes place if no candidate wins a majority of valid votes in the first round.Rejection rates and the incumbentRequião Filho, son of former governor Roberto Requião, has the highest rejection rate in the race: 44% of voters say they know him and would never vote for him. Moro records a 33% rejection rate and a 54% potential vote. Sandro Alex, a former mayor of Ponta Grossa, is the least known of the three: 62% of respondents say they do not know him, and his rejection rate is 16%.The poll also measured the popularity of Governor Ratinho Junior (PSD): 79% approve of the state administration, 14% disapprove, and 65% say he deserves to elect a successor. Asked about the profile they want in the next governor, 38% prefer an ally of presidential hopeful Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro; 35% prefer an ally of President Lula, and 24% want an independent governor.Quaest interviewed 804 voters aged 16 and over (voting is voluntary from age 16 in Brazil) between August 20 and 23, with a 95% confidence level. The poll was registered with the electoral court under number PR-05388/2026. The institute also measured the race for Paraná's two Senate seats: according to InfoMoney, Alexandre Curi (Republicanos) leads with 15% of total votes, followed by Gleisi Hoffmann (PT), with 11%.

Presidential candidate Romeu Zema of the Novo party said on Monday (24) that, if elected, he will guarantee that Brazil's minimum wage keeps pace with inflation, but stopped short of promising any real increase for workers. In an interview with Globo, the first in the network's series with presidential hopefuls, the former Minas Gerais governor also said he would "for now" leave minimum retirement ages unchanged.According to G1, Zema tied any adjustment above inflation to economic performance and said he would keep the real gain linked to the growth of the previous two years if the economy "is doing well". The minimum wage now stands at R$ 1,621, and Finance Minister Dario Durigan has estimated R$ 1,741 for 2027 in the budget bill due in Congress by the end of the month; the final figure will only be known in December. Because pensions and social benefits are indexed to the minimum wage, the adjustment policy also affects millions of beneficiaries of the INSS, Brazil's social security institute.In the same interview, Zema said his economic priority is to bring down the benchmark interest rate. "With a serious government, with credibility, fighting corruption and fraud, that rate falls to 6%. That alone will save the economy R$ 800 billion a year", he said, without detailing the fiscal adjustment measures he proposes.PensionsOn social security, Zema said he does not intend, "for now", to raise minimum retirement ages. He did not rule out future changes, saying they would depend on factors such as rising life expectancy and greater formalization of the labor market. Asked about the rules for rural workers and the military, he also tied decisions to the outcome of the fiscal adjustment he plans to carry out, arguing that spending cuts, fighting fraud and corruption and a more efficient public administration could reduce the need for new changes to pension rules."Retirement will depend a lot on that. Now, Brazilians already work a lot. I don't want Brazilians working longer. I want Brazilians' income to rise", Zema said.The interview was conducted by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli at Globo's studios in Rio de Janeiro. The network invited the six best-placed candidates in a Quaest poll published on August 14, and the order was drawn by lot. Zema, who resigned as governor in March to run for president, opened the series; President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) is scheduled for Thursday (27) and senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) for Friday (28). The first round of the election takes place on October 4.

Brazil's Mines and Energy Minister, Alexandre Silveira, said on Monday (24) that the government expects the Senate to approve the critical minerals bill next week. He spoke at Exposibram, a mining industry congress in Belo Horizonte, in the state of Minas Gerais, according to Folha de S.Paulo.The government's strategy is for the Senate to pass the text exactly as it left the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil's lower house, so the bill does not have to return there for a new vote. "Naturally we are waiting, I as Brazil's mines minister, anxiously for it to be approved. I believe the bill is very well suited to the national interest," Silveira said.What the bill doesAccording to Folha, the text approved by the lower house expands the executive branch's powers to regulate the sector and creates a national policy for critical minerals aimed at defending national sovereignty, encouraging ore refining inside Brazil, so the country does not remain a mere commodity exporter, and supporting the energy transition. The bill also creates the National Council for the Industrialization of Critical Minerals, a government body that could approve or block international contracts, agreements or partnerships "under conditions that may affect the country's economic or geopolitical security."The proposal cleared the Chamber in early June but stalled in the Senate before the July parliamentary recess, amid tension between Senate president Davi Alcolumbre and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, CNN Brasil reported. At the time the bill still had no appointed rapporteur, even though the Planalto, Brazil's presidential palace, treated it as one of its priorities for the semester.Silveira said Lula has called a meeting for Thursday (27) with him, Chief of Staff Minister Miriam Belchior and the Planning and Finance ministers to discuss the bill's next steps. "From there, we will unfold it into decrees, into policies that can promote the country's growth," he said, arguing that Brazil should seize a "window of opportunity" to decide how to use its natural resources. At the same event, the minister defended expanding strategic mineral projects, especially rare earths: "Brazil with rare earths will be an opportunity to reindustrialize the country, to strengthen jobs, income and inclusion," he said, according to local outlet Rede 98. Brazil, he added, is living a "minerals paradise" moment.Industry concernsDespite the government's optimism, the proposal divides opinion. According to CNN Brasil, the mining industry recognizes the need for a national policy for the sector but is wary of provisions that expand state intervention, such as domestic processing requirements, conditions on exports and the future council's power to veto operations considered contrary to national interests. Mining companies argue the criteria for such vetoes should be defined objectively in the bill itself rather than left to later regulation, citing legal uncertainty at a time of global competition for rare earths, lithium, graphite and nickel, inputs seen as essential for the energy transition and the defense industry.

Senator Renan Filho (MDB) has 42% of voting intentions in the race for governor of the northeastern state of Alagoas, against 40% for João Henrique Caldas, known as JHC (PSDB), according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (24). With a margin of error of three percentage points in either direction, the result is a statistical tie. It is the institute's first survey in the state, commissioned by TV Asa Branca, the Globo network affiliate in Alagoas.According to G1, Lenilda Luna (UP) scored 1% and Márcio Jambo (DC) did not register in the prompted survey, in which respondents are shown the list of candidates. Blank and null votes total 7%, and 10% of voters say they are undecided.In the spontaneous survey, in which names are not read out, Renan Filho, a senator and former governor of Alagoas, has 17% and JHC 16%, with 65% undecided. In a runoff simulation, the two tie at 42% each. For 65% of those interviewed, the vote is already final; 34% say they could change candidates before the October 4 election.Rejection rates and Governor Paulo Dantas's standingQuaest also measured name recognition and rejection. Renan Filho is the best known: 55% say they would vote for him and 31% say they would not. JHC has 52% of "know him and would vote for him", a 24% rejection rate, and is still unknown to 24% of voters.The government of incumbent Paulo Dantas (MDB) has a 56% approval rating against 28% disapproval, and 55% of respondents say he deserves to elect his successor. Health was named the state's main problem by 41% of voters, followed by violence (16%) and unemployment (8%).On the national divide, 42% prefer a governor allied with President Lula, 22% want an ally of Flávio Bolsonaro and 30% prefer a governor independent of both. Quaest interviewed 804 people at home between August 20 and 23, with a 95% confidence level. The poll was registered with the TSE, Brazil's Superior Electoral Court, under protocols AL-05503/2026 and BR-09091/2026.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva meets this Wednesday (26) with Senate president Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) and Chamber of Deputies speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB) to try to unblock bills the government wants approved this year, according to G1. The meeting targets the week of August 31 to September 4, the only scheduled window of concentrated voting sessions in Congress before the October elections. Congress is not in recess, but parliamentary activity has nearly stopped since the campaign began.In the Senate, the Planalto wants progress on a constitutional amendment to end the 6x1 schedule (six days of work for one day off) and reduce working hours, a public security amendment, and a bill creating a legal framework for critical minerals and rare earths. According to G1, the Constitution and Justice Committee chairman, Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), agreed with Alcolumbre that senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM) will be the rapporteur for the 6x1 amendment, while Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE) will handle the security one. The working-hours proposal passed the Chamber in May and has been stuck in the Senate since, CNN Brasil reported, adding that after a meeting with Lula on the 14th, Alcolumbre signaled the text would only move in November."Blouses tax" races against the clockIn the Chamber, the priority is the provisional measure that scrapped the "taxa das blusinhas" (blouses tax), a 20% import levy on international purchases of up to US$ 50. In Brazil, a provisional measure is an executive order that takes effect immediately but needs congressional approval. MP 1.357/2026 expires on September 8 if not voted, according to Congresso em Foco and InfoMoney. The joint committee tasked with reviewing the text is expected to be installed on September 1, after two postponements, and still has no chair or rapporteur, G1 reported.Retail business groups are lobbying for the measure to lapse, which would bring the tax back. Speaking to InfoMoney, deputy Luiz Gastão (PSD-CE), a member of the measure's working group, defended the levy. "I am in favor of bringing the tax back. If we do not control the entry of tax-free products into Brazil, several retail sectors, especially textiles, will be hurt, and that could trigger a wave of bankruptcies in the country," he said.Lula also wants the Chamber to vote on a bill authorizing the use of surplus oil revenue to curb gasoline and diesel price increases, according to G1. Announcing the meeting on Thursday (20) at a campaign rally in Rio Grande do Norte, Lula tied the agenda to his reelection bid. "Hugo, Alcolumbre and I will decide on Wednesday to end the blouses tax," he said, as quoted by Congresso em Foco. "I want you to vote for our deputies so we can approve the end of the 6x1 schedule, end the blouses tax, and let women buy whatever they want for 50 dollars."Relations with AlcolumbreThe meeting follows months of tension between Lula and Alcolumbre since the Senate rejected the nomination of Solicitor General Jorge Messias to the Supreme Federal Court, Brazil's top court. In an interview with TV Record on Sunday (23), Lula called the Senate president a "friend," G1 reported. After meeting Lula on the 14th, Alcolumbre described the dialogue as "mature, republican and frank," according to CNN Brasil.

Economist José Sergio Gabrielli, general coordinator of the government program for President Lula's reelection campaign, told Folha de S.Paulo that Brazil's National Treasury should intervene in the public bond market to bring down long-term interest rates. He also said the campaign is discussing a further increase in the income tax paid by the "super-rich" in an eventual new term, on top of changes in force since January.Gabrielli, a former Petrobras president, said one possible measure would be for the Treasury to buy back public bonds, following the example of an announcement made last week by the United States government to contain rising interest rates. In Brazil, this kind of operation is used to stabilize the market when it malfunctions. In March, the Treasury bought nearly R$ 30 billion in bonds amid expectations that the central bank's benchmark Selic rate would remain high because of the war in Iran. According to Folha, it was the Treasury's largest intervention in the interest rate market since 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared.Gabrielli attributes the growth of public debt to interest charges. The private sector takes the opposite view and defends fiscal restraint to contain government spending. The economist also criticized a Folha editorial published on August 16 that demanded urgent cuts in federal spending to avoid a fiscal crisis and prolonged high interest rates. In his view, the text placed Brazil "on the brink of chaos."New increase in tax on the super-richThe income tax changes mentioned by Gabrielli have been in force since January, under a law signed by Lula in November 2025 that exempted monthly earnings of up to R$ 5,000 and created a minimum tax on high incomes, of up to 10 percent for those earning more than R$ 600,000 a year. He told Folha the campaign is discussing raising that charge again in a next term.Although he coordinates the government program, Gabrielli has not been tapped to speak on behalf of Lula's campaign since a June interview with Folha, the newspaper reported. His criticism of the fiscal framework rule known as the arcabouço triggered what became known as the "Gabrielli effect" and led Finance Minister Dario Durigan to work on containing the damage in financial markets. Lula is seeking a new term in the October elections.

Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) holds this Tuesday (25) the second and final day of a public hearing on the Anti-Gang Law (Law 15.358/2026), the country's new legal framework against organized crime, approved by Congress and signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in March. The debate is led by Justice Alexandre de Moraes, rapporteur of the four constitutional challenges against the law, and gathers 48 authorities, experts and civil society representatives in the First Chamber's session room, broadcast on the court's TV channel and YouTube.The law is targeted by four direct actions of unconstitutionality (ADIs 7952, 7956, 7957 and 7958), filed by a mayors' association (ANPV), the Brazilian Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Abracrim), a national union of female criminal lawyers and legal academics (Unaa) and an association of members of the Prosecutor's Office (Conamp). According to the court, the testimony collected over the two days will inform the full bench's judgment of the challenges, which has yet to take place.Opening the sessions on Monday (24), Moraes defended cooperation between police forces and state governments, saying organized crime cannot be fought in a "each state does its own" style. "Criminal organizations today are interstate, international. If there is no coordination, no cooperation, we will not move forward," he said. The court's longest-serving justice, Gilmar Mendes, pointed to what he called the paradox of nationally organized crime being confronted by a state that still acts in a fragmented way. Moraes also said that simply raising prison terms is not enough to reduce crime: "Brazil jails a lot, but unfortunately jails badly."Challenged provisionsThe lawsuits contest, among other provisions, the creation of crimes with what the plaintiffs consider vague definitions and sentences of up to 60 years for leaders of "ultraviolent" criminal organizations; the ban on parole and the end of a benefit paid to inmates' dependents (known as auxílio-reclusão) for those convicted of "structured social domination" crimes; a presumption in favor of pretrial detention in such cases; and the trial of homicides committed by members of these organizations by panels of judges instead of a jury. Also challenged are the loss, freezing and early sale of assets before a final conviction, the inclusion of names in a national database of ultraviolent organizations with a presumption of affiliation, and the monitoring and recording of inmates' meetings with visitors and lawyers.TestimonyOn Tuesday, Alessandra Martins Gonçalves Jirardi, of the mayors' association, said the law's sentences will in practice amount to life imprisonment and called the monitoring of lawyer-client communications unconstitutional. "Fighting organized crime is a non-negotiable duty of the state. Punishment is necessary, but no legitimate goal turns unconstitutional means into constitutional ones," she said, according to G1.Taking the opposite view, federal prosecutor Vladimir Aras, speaking for the National Association of Federal Prosecutors (ANPR), defended the law's asset measures, such as forfeiture without a final conviction. "We are looking at tools that are extremely important for the economic suffocation of crime," he said. Helena Morgado, representing state and federal district public defenders' offices, asked the court to review what she called disproportionate sentences and suggested using penalties for related crimes already in the legal system, as in the Genocide Law. On Monday evening, Moraes also met with court presidents at the STF to discuss the Judiciary's role in the face of the new reality of organized crime, according to the court's press office.

The government programs of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) for education leave gaps about a new direction for the sector, show little appetite for firm targets and recycle old promises. That is the conclusion of an analysis published Monday night (24) by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, which compared the plans of the two presidential candidates. Lula filed his program with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's electoral authority, on August 7, and Flávio on August 13, according to the news site Poder360.According to Folha, both documents reflect each candidate's vision of the country but share weaknesses: a lack of concrete goals, no robust programs for the different stages of school and academic life, reused promises and little substance to face learning challenges with equity in basic education. The sector runs on a multibillion-real budget and includes one of the largest basic education systems in the world, with 46 million students, 80% of them in public schools.Slow learning gainsRecent data shows progress remains slow. The 2025 Ideb, the official index that measures the quality of basic education in Brazil, reinforced a pattern of stronger improvement in the early years of elementary school that loses steam in the later years and in high school. Only 11 states recorded relevant learning gains in Portuguese and math in high school between 2015 and 2025, the newspaper points out. Between 2005 and 2015, only three did.Recycled promises, few targetsLula's program touts achievements of the current administration and stresses that the Education Ministry had to rebuild policies, budget and even its own structure after what the text describes as the dismantling of the sector under former president Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio's father. But, the analysis notes, promises cited in the plan are already in legislation, such as the pledge to follow the targets of the National Education Plan law (PNE), or had already been announced by the current government: 111 new federal institutes (today there are 39 institutes and two Federal Centers of Technological Education), universal school connectivity and 80% of children literate at the right age, up from 66% now.The most assertive target identified by Folha is in Flávio's program: to eliminate by 2030 the number of schools without water. Today, 4% of the country's 137,000 public schools have no access to piped water. On literacy, the senator proposes the national adoption of the phonics method, a policy of his father's administration that, according to the newspaper, drew a negative reaction and produced little result.Despite the differences, the programs converge on some topics. A comparison by Poder360 of the two candidates' proposals for the 2027 to 2030 term found that both promise to expand access to full-time schooling. The plans were presented early in the campaign for the first round of the election, scheduled for October 4.

The government plans of Brazil's leading presidential candidates address violence against children and adolescents mainly through responses to crimes rather than prevention, according to an analysis by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) released on Monday (24). The agency reviewed the platforms filed with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Brazil's top electoral authority, by the five candidates leading the polls: Lula (PT), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Romeu Zema (Novo) and Renan Santos (Missão).According to G1, the five programs contain 178 mentions of children and adolescents, spread across education (42), violence or public safety (39), health (30), social protection (28), sport (8) and other rights (31). Where violence is addressed, proposals for responding to crime dominate, such as tougher sentences, more policing and stronger criminal investigation. References to prevention, to strengthening Brazil's child rights protection system and to responses involving sectors beyond public security are less frequent."This is not about choosing between prevention or repression. Yes, perpetrators of violence must be investigated and held accountable. But to protect children and adolescents it is also essential to act before violence happens, through education policies and opportunities for young people, social assistance, health, strengthening families and systems that identify and refer situations of violence," said Joaquin Gonzalez-Aleman, Unicef's representative in Brazil.Differences among the candidatesAccording to the review, the programs of Flávio Bolsonaro and Romeu Zema focus on punishment and response to violence against children or committed by them. Caiado's plan stresses investigating and penalizing perpetrators but also includes cross-sector prevention proposals, while Lula's leans more toward preventive action. Metrópoles reports that Caiado leads in mentions of childhood issues, with 86, followed by Lula (37), Flávio Bolsonaro (28) and Zema (24). Renan Santos makes only three mentions, all related to education, and does not explicitly address violence against children. Unicef noted that the analysis counted explicit mentions and that policies phrased in other terms may not have been captured.Sexual violence appears in the plans of Lula, Flávio Bolsonaro and Caiado. Risks in digital environments and domestic violence are mentioned only by Lula and Caiado, and homicides of children and adolescents only in Caiado's program. No plan includes proposals on deaths resulting from police operations. For Unicef, the only measures aimed at adolescents, tied to lowering the age of criminal responsibility and changing the juvenile justice system, reflect a view of adolescents as "perpetrators" of violence rather than among the biggest victims of rights violations. The agency also points out that the plans treat children as a homogeneous group, without distinctions of race, gender, disability or territory, and make no reference to Black and Indigenous children.The scale of the problemFigures from the 2026 Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, cited by G1, show the scale of the issue: in 2025, 2,079 children and adolescents were killed violently in Brazil, almost six per day, most of them Black male adolescents. Cases of mistreatment at home rose 106% between 2024 and 2025, with more than 38,000 records last year, and 61,000 rapes or statutory rapes were registered, most of them occurring at home.

The race for the two Senate seats in Alagoas, a state in Brazil's Northeast, is wide open, according to a Quaest poll released on Monday (24). Federal lawmaker and former lower house speaker Arthur Lira (PP) leads with 20% of voting intentions, followed by senator and former governor Renan Calheiros (MDB), with 18%, and Marina JHC (PSDB), wife of former Maceió mayor JHC, with 15%. Given the three-point margin of error, the three are in a statistical tie, according to O Globo's Pulso blog. The survey was commissioned by TV Asa Branca Alagoas, a local broadcaster.In October, each Brazilian state and the Federal District will elect two senators, renewing 54 of the upper house's 81 seats, so voters must pick two different names on the ballot. In Quaest's prompted poll, each respondent answered twice, once for each seat, and the combined results add up to 100% of voting intentions. See the numbers:Arthur Lira (PP): 20%Renan (MDB): 18%Marina JHC (PSDB): 15%Davi Davino Filho (Republicanos): 10%Dr. Wanderley (MDB): 5%Mariedson (Democrata): 1%Alexandre Fleming (UP): 0%Blank, null or will not vote: 12%Undecided: 19%Looking only at the first seat, Lira has 25%, Renan 21% and Marina JHC 17%. For the second seat, the order flips: Renan has 16%, Lira 15% and Marina 13%. Davi Davino Filho scores 10% for the first seat and 11% for the second, also statistically tied with Marina within the margin of error, according to Pulso. In the spontaneous poll, in which no names are shown to voters, indecision dominates: 86% could not name a candidate. Lira was mentioned by 4% and Renan by 3%.Rejection and decided votesThe two best-known candidates are also the most rejected. Renan is known by 82% of respondents: 48% say they would vote for him and 34% say they would not. Lira is known by 79%, with 48% saying they would vote for him and 31% rejecting him. Marina JHC is known by 52% of voters, of whom 30% would vote for her and 22% would not. For 61% of those polled, their Senate choice is already final, while 38% say they could still change their minds before the election, scheduled for October 4.Quaest interviewed 804 people aged 16 and over between August 20 and 23. The margin of error is three percentage points, plus or minus, with a 95% confidence level. The survey was registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under numbers AL-05503/2026 and BR-09091/2026. The same poll showed the Alagoas governor's race in a statistical tie, with Renan Filho (MDB) at 42% and JHC (PSDB) at 40%.

The coalition backing Fernando Haddad, the Workers' Party (PT) candidate for governor of São Paulo, has asked the state's electoral court (TRE-SP) to take off the road a campaign bus used by Ricardo Salles, a federal deputy running for the Senate for the Novo party. The bus is decorated with the slogan "Fora Lula!" ("Lula Out") and a figure of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva dressed as a prisoner. The complaint was first reported on Monday (24) by the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo and confirmed by CNN Brasil. According to Folha, the vehicle has been touring the interior of São Paulo state since last week and has already stopped in cities such as Mogi das Cruzes and Limeira. In its filing, Haddad's coalition argues that the bus works as a moving billboard and violates electoral advertising rules, which allow only stickers of up to 0.5 square meters on vehicles. "Electoral advertising on motor vehicles is authorized by law only in the specific and exceptional case of a sticker that does not exceed 0.5 square meters, and the juxtaposition of pieces is also forbidden, a ban that exists to prevent private property from being used to create the effect of a billboard," the complaint reads. "All of these rules were and continue to be violated by the candidate named in the case, who drives around with his motorized billboard, illegally covering the entire state of São Paulo." The Lula figure is a reproduction of the "pixuleco", the doll that became famous at protests in support of the Lava Jato (Car Wash) anti-corruption operation last decade. In a separate dispute, Novo went to the Superior Tribunal de Justiça (STJ), one of Brazil's highest courts, to secure the right to use the doll and the "Fora Lula" slogan. According to CNN Brasil, Justice Carlos Pires Brandão found there was no just cause to ban the material and allowed its use. "This is a legitimate act of expression," Salles told CNN. Regarding the bus, the congressman said he will adjust the size of the stickers to comply with the electoral court's criteria. The PT wants the vehicle barred from circulating anywhere in the state of São Paulo. It is now up to the TRE-SP to rule on the coalition's complaint.

The campaign of senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, approached São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos) with a proposal to end reelection in Brazil, with a commitment that the new rule would already apply to his own term if he wins the October presidential election. The information comes from journalist Ana Flor's blog on G1, which heard from two sources close to the PL campaign and one source close to the governor. According to the report, the guarantor of the pact would be senator Rogério Marinho (PL-RN), the campaign coordinator. In private conversations, Marinho has said a constitutional amendment ending reelection could be introduced right after the election or that, if he wins the race for the Senate presidency, he would secure the text's approval in the upper house. The package was designed to lock in Tarcísio's engagement in the presidential campaign, which allies have so far treated as uncertain. As G1 reports, the move exposes the weak engagement of prominent right-wing figures with Flávio's candidacy. Two endorsements are seen as central by the campaign: Tarcísio, who can deliver votes in São Paulo, the country's largest electoral college, and former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, viewed as able to widen support among women and religious voters. On Friday (21), at an event alongside Tarcísio, Flávio told the governor he accepts serving a "transition term": "I intend to go down in history, Tarcísio, even if it is as a transition president. Because this Brazil needs to cross this rough sea right now," the senator said. On Monday (24), Tarcísio played down his absence from Flávio's campaign events in São Paulo and avoided discussing a possible presidential bid in 2030. The governor, who coordinates the PL campaign in the state, denied any distancing from the ally and said the campaign strategy calls for separate agendas, according to G1. Amendment stalled in Congress In May 2025, the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee approved a constitutional amendment that ends reelection for president, governors and mayors and extends terms from four to five years. The text still awaits a floor vote in the Senate and would also need to clear the Chamber of Deputies to take effect.

The First Panel of Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled unanimously to keep Jordana Alves Jardim, 25, in the Tocantins Military Police (PMTO) entrance contest. The candidate, who stands 1.55 m tall, had been cut at the documents and medical exams stage even after passing the physical fitness test, known in Brazil as the TAF. The judgment took place in a virtual session that ended on Friday (21), with the justices rejecting an appeal by the state Attorney General's Office, which sought to uphold her disqualification on height grounds, according to g1.Jardim was disqualified for falling five centimeters short of the 1.60 m required by the contest rules and by Tocantins State Law No. 2,578/2012. In April, her lawyers took the case straight to the Supreme Court through a constitutional complaint, a mechanism used when one of the court's binding precedents is disobeyed. The rapporteur, Justice Cristiano Zanin, granted an injunction suspending her elimination, and the case went to trial before the First Panel.Reviewing the state's appeal, Zanin said the elimination breached STF precedents, particularly Theme 1,424 of the court's general repercussion system and the ruling in ADI 5,044/DF. Under the court's settled case law, minimum height requirements for security force contests must follow the parameters of the Brazilian Army, set by Federal Law No. 12,705/2012: 1.60 m for men and 1.55 m for women. Because Jardim measures exactly 1.55 m and had already passed the fitness test, the panel held that her disqualification could not stand.Justices Flávio Dino, the panel's president, Alexandre de Moraes and Cármen Lúcia voted with the rapporteur. According to Jornal Opção, Cármen Lúcia added a reservation about awarding attorney fees in constitutional complaints, though she joined her colleagues. The panel applied article 85, paragraph 11, of the Code of Civil Procedure and raised by 10% the legal fees the state must pay her lawyers.The state's argumentsIn its appeal, the Tocantins government argued that the constitutional complaint was not the proper instrument to challenge the state law, and that setting aside the height requirement would amount to a constitutional review without the full bench safeguard required by article 97 of the Constitution. The state Attorney General's Office also argued that loosening the requirement could harm the principles of legality, of the binding force of the contest rules and of equal treatment among candidates.In a statement, the Tocantins Military Police said it will fully comply with the ruling and take the administrative steps needed to keep Jardim in the contest, noting that the decision has an individual effect and that the corporation will follow the law to preserve fairness and the regularity of the selection process. Her defense called the outcome a unanimous victory and said the decision "has relevance that goes beyond the concrete case", because the court reaffirmed that attorney fees can be awarded in constitutional complaints.

Businessman and influencer Pablo Marçal (PRTB) promises, in the government plan filed with Brazil's electoral authorities, to keep Bolsa Família, the country's main cash transfer program, if he is elected president in October. The pledge was reported on Monday (24) by Painel, the politics column of the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, and marks a reversal for a candidate who once promised to end the program and criticized it again during his 2024 run for São Paulo mayor.The document was filed with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) last Tuesday (18), together with his candidacy registration. According to SBT News, the 28-page plan is organized into seven "missions" and lists more than 230 items, almost all of them without estimated costs, funding sources or deadlines.Besides keeping Bolsa Família, the text commits to the constitutional rights of Indigenous peoples, quilombola and traditional communities, land titling, the fight against illegal deforestation and regulation of the carbon market, a package SBT News described as a "swerve to the left". At the same time, the plan promises to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, permanently review spending and gradually cut taxes on production, investment and job creation. Marçal also pledges to set the minimum wage as "the best in South America", which would require more than doubling its current value, and proposes a "Ministry of Entrepreneurship", with companies opened through a digital taxpayer ID within 24 hours.Past criticismMarçal's criticism of Bolsa Família goes back years. In 2024, still as a pre-candidate for São Paulo mayor, he promised to end the benefit, according to reporting by the news portal FDR. Later, in an interview with UOL and Folha during the municipal campaign, he claimed that recipients of the program are barred from working. The claim does not match the program's rules, which allow beneficiaries to hold formal jobs.Created in 2003, Bolsa Família was renamed Auxílio Brasil under former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and recovered its original name when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) returned to office. In 2024, the program reached 20.7 million families living in poverty across the country, with a minimum benefit of R$ 600 a month.Despite the filing by PRTB, Marçal's candidacy remains uncertain. The São Paulo Regional Electoral Court (TRE-SP) this month unanimously upheld the conviction that makes him ineligible for eight years from 2024, over the misuse of media in the municipal campaign, including a scheme known as "concurso de cortes", in which followers were paid to produce and share videos of the candidate. The decision can still be appealed to the TSE.

The first presidential debate of Brazil's 2026 election, held on Sunday night (August 23) in São Paulo by Band in partnership with Estadão, Jovem Pan and Gazeta, brought together only three of the six invited candidates and turned the no-shows of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, into its central theme. Taking the stage were Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão) and Augusto Cury (Avante). Besides Lula and Flávio, Romeu Zema (Novo) also stayed away, and the podiums reserved for the three absentees remained empty on stage, according to G1.Criticism of the absent candidates ran through the debate from start to finish. Before the program began, Renan held up diapers printed with the names of Lula and Flávio. Answering the first question, on public security, the Missão candidate stepped between the empty podiums and called the pair "cowards". Caiado said the studio was expecting "the two pre-candidates who are also the most rejected in the country". Cury addressed the president directly: "Lula da Silva, you should be here to answer for the chaos in education". In the first round of direct questions between candidates, Renan tried to aim his at Lula and was told by the moderators that the rules required him to pick someone present. He then cited the mensalão and petrolão corruption scandals and asked Cury why part of the electorate still votes for the Workers' Party leader.Cury himself nearly sat out the event. According to BBC News Brasil, the Avante candidate entered the broadcaster's headquarters but refused to go into the studio after learning that Lula would give an interview to Record in the same time slot as the debate, which he called "the last straw". He eventually relented and took the stage. Outside, members of Unidade Popular (UP) protested the absence of the party's candidate, Samara Martins, from the event.On policy, Renan defended declaring a state of defense and deploying Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) operations, in which the armed forces back up police forces, in regions controlled by organized crime, building "super prisons" with between 300,000 and 500,000 places and ordering federal intervention in states that fail to confront criminal gangs. Caiado promised a "credibility shock" for the economy, with spending restraint and inflation brought into a 3% to 4% range. Cury said education is in "chaos", stated that the country has "32 million neurodivergent people" and pointed to students' "digital intoxication" as one of the problems. The three also debated violence against women, Brazil's relations with the United States and ending the 6x1 schedule, under which employees work six days for every day off.No clear winnerIt was the emptiest opening debate of a presidential campaign since 1989, when Lula first ran for president, according to BBC News Brasil. Analysts heard by the broadcaster saw no clear winner, but assessed that Renan made the best use of the stage to introduce himself to voters. The Missão candidate has 4% of voting intentions in the BBC's poll aggregator, will have no advertising time on TV and radio and may be left out of upcoming debates: under electoral law, a guaranteed slot goes only to candidates whose parties have at least five members of Congress, and Missão has just one, Congressman Kim Kataguiri. The next debate is scheduled for September 14.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has 46% of voting intentions in a hypothetical runoff against 45% for Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), according to a BTG/Nexus poll released on Monday (24). With a margin of error of two percentage points in either direction, the result amounts to a statistical tie between the two candidates ahead of October's presidential election.The institute interviewed 2,006 voters aged 16 and over by telephone between August 21 and 23. The survey has a 95% confidence level and was registered with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) under the number BR-09028/2026. According to Poder360, the poll cost R$ 164,888.89 and was paid by Banco BTG Pactual.Tight race in the first round as wellIn the main first-round scenario, Lula appears with 41% of voting intentions, against 37% for Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator from Rio de Janeiro and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) has 5%, Renan Santos (Missão) and Romeu Zema (Novo) have 3% each, and writer Augusto Cury (Avante) registers 2%. CartaCapital describes that gap as a statistical tie at the edge of the margin of error; Poder360, in turn, stresses that the incumbent leads in both scenarios tested. In the simulation that includes Pablo Marçal (PRTB), who registered his candidacy despite being ruled ineligible until 2032, Lula has 40%, Flávio adds 34%, Caiado keeps his 5% and Marçal debuts at 4%.The poll also measured rejection rates and government approval. Lula is the most rejected name: 49% of respondents said they would never vote for him, while 48% said the same about Flávio. The government is approved by 48% and disapproved by 49% of voters; 43% rate the administration as bad or terrible, and 35% as good or great.The survey went into the field after the official start of the campaign and wrapped up interviews on Sunday (23), the same day as the year's first presidential debate, hosted by Band and skipped by Lula, Flávio and Zema. A new national poll, by Instituto Vox Brasil, begins on Tuesday (25) specifically to measure the debate's impact on the race, according to VEJA.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign has decided to take to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees Brazil's elections, a suspected mass dissemination of videos and images about food prices, described as coordinated and inauthentic activity. The move was reported on Monday (24) by columnist Daniela Lima at UOL and picked up by outlets such as Brasil 247 and Diário do Centro do Mundo.The survey prepared by Lula's Workers' Party (PT) lists more than 20 influencers and points to the use of identical scripts and image files in posts attacking the president. The suspicion is that profiles boosted by leaders of the Liberal Party (PL), the party of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula's main rival in the 2026 race and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, acted in a coordinated way to spread messages about the high cost of food.Repeated script and one sirloin photo on 33 accountsAccording to Diário do Centro do Mundo, the document the campaign plans to present to the electoral court argues that the similarities between the contents go beyond the topic of the videos. "It is the script. The same recording location, the same object in the frame, the same gesture and the same speech structure", the report says, noting that one structure appeared in seven posts by six profiles. A photograph of a piece of sirloin steak with the same barcode on the label circulated on 33 accounts; on June 25, three of them posted the file within six minutes and 23 seconds of each other.The material also gathers nine cases in which content creators describe concrete benefits obtained after the posts, such as follower growth, personal access to politicians, status or physical improvements to their homes. A woman from Rio Grande do Norte says in one of the videos that she received a television after sharing her situation on social media: "I got this TV here because I went there to talk about the country's poverty, because I showed the poverty in my house on social media". The survey also cites three motions of congratulation filed by a PL city councilman on March 5, 2026, honoring three influencers on the list. Some of the influencers said on their own pages that they received donations from businessmen and pro-Bolsonaro channels after publishing attacks on the government.On the other side, the PL has also gone to the TSE against profiles it accuses of spreading false and manipulated content against Flávio Bolsonaro. In one of the actions, the party pointed to 409 profiles that allegedly acted in coordination. The senator's office said the courts ordered account blocks and that Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, asked for more time to comply with the orders given the volume of material.Content about supermarkets and food prices has become one of the main fronts of the online battle between the two camps, in a campaign where the cost of living is a central issue. It will be up to the electoral court to decide whether to open an investigation into the material presented by Lula's campaign.

The Brazilian government has earmarked R$4 billion in subsidized credit for the fertilizer and critical minerals sectors in the third phase of the Brasil Soberano (Sovereign Brazil) program, a package launched in response to the 37.5% tariff imposed by the United States in July. The allocation was approved by the program's interministerial council and published in Monday's (24) edition of the Federal Official Gazette, according to G1.The R$4 billion represents about 29% of the R$13.5 billion made available by the Treasury for the credit line, even though fertilizers and critical minerals are not among the products targeted by the U.S. tariffs, Folha de S.Paulo reports. The largest share, R$5 billion (37%), goes to exporters and suppliers directly hit by the American tariffs, such as processed wood, footwear and machinery. Another R$3.5 billion will support companies that trade with Persian Gulf countries and were affected by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and R$1 billion will go to sectors deemed strategic for Brazil's trade balance.Below-market interest ratesWithin the third phase, R$2 billion will fund industrial and technological projects covering mineral extraction combined with processing, refining or transformation, while another R$2 billion will finance the production of fertilizers and intermediate inputs, G1 details. The government projects interest rates of 3% to 9.8%, generally below market levels: working capital lines will carry the highest rates, while the critical minerals line will have the program's lowest rate, according to Folha. The credit line still requires a resolution from the National Monetary Council (CMN), the country's top financial policy body, before it can start operating.For fertilizers, the goal is to cut a chronic reliance on imports in a sector that is essential to Brazilian agriculture. Importers have faced scarcity and high international prices since the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and amid the war in Ukraine, and the government wants to boost domestic production, Folha reports.The credit lines will be open to exporting companies, cooperatives and associations of industrial goods and their suppliers, as well as producers and exporters in agriculture, livestock and fishing and companies tied to mineral exports. Funds may be used to buy machinery, reinforce working capital or invest in technological innovation, among other purposes.On top of the R$13.5 billion already regulated, state development bank BNDES will contribute R$5 billion of its own resources to Brasil Soberano, bringing the total to R$18.5 billion, according to Folha. The bank will also oversee the operations and must send monthly reports to the interministerial council on approved proposals, signed contracts and amounts actually disbursed, G1 reports.

Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), rapporteur of the constitutional amendment that would end Brazil's 6x1 work schedule, in which employees work six days and rest one per week, told Folha de S.Paulo on Monday (24) that he plans to deliver his report on Thursday (27). The goal is for the Senate's Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) to vote the text the following Wednesday. Aziz did not commit, however, to keeping the version approved by the Chamber of Deputies."I want to present the report on Thursday, so we can vote the following Wednesday [in the CCJ]. I will still analyze the proposal, I have not decided whether I will keep the Chamber's text or not," the senator said.Before reaching the Senate floor, the amendment needs approval from the CCJ, chaired by Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), who, like Aziz, is seen as an ally of the Lula administration in the Senate. According to CartaCapital, the proposal was sent to the committee last week, after a period of friction between Senate president Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP) and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The two have since resumed talks.Tight calendar because of the electionEnding the 6x1 schedule has become a central theme of Lula's reelection campaign, and the government is in a hurry to approve the proposal before the October vote. Because of the electoral calendar, Congress will have only one week of votes, from August 31 to September 4. The administration's plan is to approve the text in the committee and, if possible, on the floor on the same day. According to CartaCapital, the expectation is that Aziz will not propose substantial changes, since any alteration would send the bill back to the Chamber and delay final approval.On the other side, the presidential campaign of Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, opposes voting on the change before the election and defends free negotiation between employers and workers, with pay by the hour, Folha reported. To contain the opposition, the government is considering shortening the time allowed for requests to review the report, so all senators can read it without pushing the vote to the 3rd.On Monday, Lula took to social media to criticize, without naming Flávio, the effort to delay the vote, according to CartaCapital. "The working people who keep this country moving deserve more time for leisure, to take care of their health and to watch their children grow. It is about time for the family," the president wrote.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday (24) linked the end of Brazil's "6x1" schedule, in which employees work six days for every one day off, to workers having more time with their families, in a public push for Congress to approve the change before the October elections. The statement came in a post on X, according to Folha de S.Paulo and CNN Brasil."Some people act against the interests of Brazil's workers, but our government is mobilized to approve the end of the 6x1 schedule, with no pay cut," Lula wrote. "The working people who keep this country moving deserve more time for leisure, to take care of their health and to watch their children grow. This is about time for the family."Shorter working hours are a central theme of the reelection campaign of Lula, who is seeking a new term this year, and a priority for unions close to his Workers' Party (PT). According to Folha, allies who spoke to the newspaper see the issue as a way to translate the government's record for voters who do not traditionally back the president. The Planalto palace wants the proposal approved before the October vote, though government interlocutors admitted to CNN Brasil they cannot yet count on that timeline.Bill unblocked in the Senate after deal with AlcolumbreThe proposal, a constitutional amendment known as PEC 221/2019, passed the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, on May 27 and then sat for nearly three months in the Senate. During that period, relations between Lula and Senate president Davi Alcolumbre soured after the upper house rejected the nomination of Jorge Messias to the Supreme Court, according to Congresso em Foco. The two resumed talks in the first half of August and met at the presidential residence on the 14th, in a public gesture of rapprochement.On Friday (21), Alcolumbre sent the text to the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ), where the rapporteur is Senator Omar Aziz, a Lula ally running for governor of Amazonas on the president's coalition. Aziz promised to move the analysis "as fast as possible" and said he intends to keep the main points approved by the deputies.The Chamber's text cuts the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours with no pay cut and guarantees two days of paid weekly rest. The shift would be gradual: hours would drop by two within 60 days of enactment and by two more 12 months later. To pass, the amendment needs at least 49 of 81 Senate votes in two rounds. Any substantive change would send it back to the Chamber of Deputies.

Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Flávio Dino has authorized Brazil's Federal Police to access evidence gathered by the São Paulo state police in an operation against Go Up Entertainment, the production company behind "Dark Horse", a film about former president Jair Bolsonaro. The decision was issued on Friday (21) under seal and was first reported by the newspaper O Globo and confirmed by Folha de S.Paulo.The material will feed a Supreme Court inquiry, overseen by Dino, into whether congressional budget allocations earmarked by lawmakers from the Liberal Party (PL) helped finance the feature film. According to G1, the Federal Police told the court that the Instituto Conhecer Brasil (ICB), a nonprofit tied to the producer, sits at the center of that investigation and that the items seized by the state police could deepen and even speed up the work.The R$ 108 million contractThe São Paulo state police operation, dubbed Operação Wi-Fi, was launched in June at addresses linked to the producer and to a city hall department. Investigators are examining possible fraud and diversion of funds from a R$ 108 million per year contract signed between Mayor Ricardo Nunes' administration and the ICB to provide free wireless internet to low-income communities, and whether part of the money was used to finance the film's crew.According to G1, the Federal Police gained access to data from computers, cell phones, accounting documents, invoices, payment receipts and financial records, including raw data and reports already produced on the seized devices. Dino found the request and its justification appropriate and in line with the court's understanding on this type of evidence sharing.The Supreme Court inquiry was opened after Dino asked the federal comptroller's office (CGU) to review budget allocations from lawmakers Mário Frias, Bia Kicis and Marcos Pollon, all from the PL, directed to the ICB and to the National Academy of Culture (ANC), entities seen as part of a single management group coordinated by Karina Ferreira da Gama, owner of the institute and a partner at Go Up. The Federal Police are now mapping Karina's business relationships and examining possible campaign donations linked to those under investigation.The film has become a central liability for the presidential bid of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's son, after the release of audios in which he asks former banker Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, for R$ 61 million to finish the project. According to the producer, Vorcaro funded more than 90% of the film's budget. Reached by Folha, Karina Ferreira da Gama did not respond to requests for comment.

Brazil's Finance Minister, Dario Durigan, on Monday (Aug. 24) defended cracking down on the practice known as pejotização as a way to contain the country's growing Social Security deficit. He made the remarks in an interview with Broadcast, the real-time news service of Agência Estado, speaking once again as a representative of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's reelection campaign, according to G1. Lula is seeking a fourth term.Pejotização is the systematic hiring of workers as legal entities (from pessoa jurídica, or PJ) instead of formal employees with registered contracts. The model is legal in many activities, but it becomes controversial when used to replace the formal employment ties set out in Brazilian labor law. According to Durigan, studies show some companies have moved formally hired workers into PJ arrangements, which would be deepening the pension system's shortfall. Some of these workers are hired as individual microentrepreneurs (MEI), a status that carries a reduced social security contribution.Durigan said the economic team is studying a rule that would cap the share of a company's workforce hired as contractors:"We could have a rule in the country setting a percentage of what a company hires as contractors. If it is 10%, the company is outsourcing a service, that is within the rules of the game, it is ok. Now, a company that has 80% of its workforce as contractors could eventually be required to pay a social security contribution to level the field and offer its workers a future that is a bit more protected from a social welfare standpoint."According to the minister, such a proposal could be sent to the National Congress in a possible new Lula administration. "We have already had some debates along these lines", he added.Labor minister raised the issue in JuneLabor Minister Luiz Marinho had already addressed the issue. In late June, he said the MEI status cannot be used for labor fraud and that a microentrepreneur cannot have the characteristics of a formally employed worker. As an example, he cited a hospital that bids out the outsourcing of a service whose contractor then hires MEIs as de facto employees. According to Marinho, the practice could drain resources from Social Security, from the FGTS (an employer-funded severance guarantee fund) and from the so-called Sistema S, a network of training institutions such as Senai, Sesi and Senac financed by payroll contributions.At the time, Marinho said he hoped the Supreme Federal Court (STF), which is hearing a case on pejotização in the economy, will not allow this kind of hiring. "We cannot use the MEI as labor fraud, the person must be an entrepreneur", he told journalists.

Fernando Haddad, the Workers' Party (PT) candidate for governor of São Paulo, Brazil's most populous and richest state, faced a live-streamed sabatina, a Q&A interview with journalists, held by UOL and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on Monday (24). The former finance minister promised to make the state Military Police's body cameras record without interruption, ruled out re-nationalizing services privatized under the current administration and said police lethality has doubled under Governor Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos), who is seeking re-election.Body cameras and police lethalityAccording to G1, Haddad said: "I will put the body cameras to work nonstop. I think he bought the cameras, which was a good thing, but this business of the guy switching it off whenever he wants, that will not do." The model now in place was changed after an agreement approved by the Supreme Court (STF) in May 2025 and does not require continuous recording: officers can switch the devices on manually or have them triggered remotely by the police operations center. Social organizations and human rights groups criticize the arrangement because incidents can go unfilmed when no one activates the camera.Haddad also said police lethality doubled under Tarcísio and criticized the lack of investment in intelligence, technology and data analysis. "That will not happen with police reports filed the way they are, bureaucratized, without working the data to guide street patrols," he said. According to the candidate, fewer than 5% of crimes committed in the state lead to the identification of perpetrators and a conviction.Re-nationalization and contractsAsked about the privatizations pushed through by Tarcísio, Haddad said he will not re-nationalize concessions, Poder360 reported. "Re-nationalizing is very complicated, because the contracts are so tightly structured that it sometimes costs more to re-nationalize than to impose fairer rules for consumers on the concessionaire," he said, a position UOL summed up in its headline as "Better to change the manager." Instead, the candidate promised a fine-tooth review of current contracts and said Tarcísio, as Jair Bolsonaro's infrastructure minister from 2019 to 2022, "signed contracts harmful to the National Treasury." He cited a review of railway concession contracts carried out with the federal audit court and said his team at the Finance Ministry identified R$ 4 billion owed by mining giant Vale, money that, according to him, has been paid.Cracolândia and the Federal PoliceOn Cracolândia, the open-air crack cocaine scene in downtown São Paulo, Haddad rejected the state and city governments' claim that the problem is over. "I invite people to take a walk through the Brás district after 8 or 9 p.m. to see whether Cracolândia has ended," he said, also citing clusters of users in Itaquera and along the Tietê and Pinheiros expressways. He defended a public health approach, with treatment, shelter and paths back to work, along the lines of De Braços Abertos (With Open Arms), a harm reduction program he created in 2014 as mayor of the city of São Paulo, and proposed splitting tasks: the state would fight trafficking while city halls treat addicts.Haddad also addressed suspicions that sealed investigation data were leaked in the case involving Lulinha, President Lula's eldest son. He said he trusts the Federal Police as an institution, but argued Brazilians cannot be naive enough to think that "polarization does not run through institutions," and praised Supreme Court Justice André Mendonça for ordering an inquiry into the leaks. Free campaign advertising in São Paulo starts on Friday (28); according to the state electoral court, Tarcísio will get 6 minutes and 20 seconds of daily radio and TV time, against 2 minutes and 40 seconds for Haddad, G1 reported.

Former Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema, of the Novo party, is the guest this Monday (Aug. 24) on the interview series that TV Globo, Brazil's largest network, is holding with the 2026 presidential candidates. The conversation airs live from 9:05 p.m. local time at Estúdios Globo in Rio de Janeiro, right after Jornal Nacional, the network's flagship evening newscast, according to g1.The series runs from August 24 to 29 and features the six candidates best placed in the Quaest voting-intention poll published on August 14. The order was set by a draw attended by party representatives. After Zema, the studio receives Ronaldo Caiado (PSD) on Tuesday (25), Renan Santos (Missão) on Wednesday (26), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) on Thursday (27), Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) on Friday (28) and Augusto Cury (Avante) on Saturday (29).The interviews are conducted by journalists Renata Vasconcellos and César Tralli. It is the first time Globo airs its presidential interviews after Jornal Nacional instead of inside the newscast. Besides free-to-air TV, viewers can watch on the GloboNews cable channel and on g1, with the full interviews later available on the Globoplay streaming service. After each conversation, GloboNews airs Central das Eleições, with analysis of the candidates' statements and proposals. During the series, Jornal Nacional is anchored by Ana Paula Araújo and Márcio Bomfim from the network's studios in Rio's Jardim Botânico neighborhood.A businessman, Zema governed the southeastern state of Minas Gerais from 2019 until March this year, when he left office. On Saturday (23) he skipped the campaign's first televised debate, broadcast by Band, which gathered only three candidates: Caiado, Renan Santos and Cury, according to Poder360. Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro also did not attend.

Nearly three in ten candidacy registrations for Brazil's 2026 general elections belong to people who have not run in any race since 1994. Of the 20,608 registrations filed this year, 5,587 are ballot first-timers, or 27.1%, according to an analysis by news portal G1 based on data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the body that oversees Brazilian elections. The remaining 15,021 registrations (72.9%) come from people who had already contested at least one election in the period.The analysis classifies as first-timers the candidates who do not appear in previous general or municipal elections in the TSE databases reviewed, covering 1994 to 2024. For the 1994 and 1996 files, which lack usable taxpayer or voter ID numbers, the cross-check also used names and birth dates. The criterion only measures the absence of past candidacies: these people may have held non-elected office or party roles, or run before 1994.Legislative races draw 92.5% of first-timersMore than nine in ten first-timers are running for a legislative seat. Races for state, federal and district deputy account for 5,169 registrations with no previous candidacy on record, or 92.5% of the group. In absolute terms, state deputy races lead, with 2,923 first-timers among 11,139 candidates (26.2%). Proportionally, the highest share is in the race for district deputy, a seat in the Federal District's local legislature, where 54% of the 426 candidates had never run before. At the other end, the vice presidency has the lowest share of newcomers, with only one of 13 registrations (7.7%), followed by senator (14.3%) and governor (17.3%). Among the 13 presidential candidates, three (23.1%) are running for the first time.Among parties, the highest shares of first-timers appear in the newest organizations. Missão, a party registered by the TSE in November 2025 and contesting its first national election, has 77.4% first-time candidates; UP has 62.2%. The lowest rates are in the PT of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (17.1%), PP (17.7%), PL (19.1%) and União Brasil (19.5%). For Luciana Santana, a political science professor at the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), the low presence of newcomers is tied to how parties choose their candidates."Party leaderships end up preserving some candidacies for figures who have already held office, have public visibility, broader political networks and the capacity to secure funding," Santana told G1.First-time share is higher among womenOf the 7,214 female candidacies, 2,637 are first-timers, or 36.6%; among men, there are 3,325 newcomers out of 13,468 candidates, or 24.7%. Women account for 34.9% of all 2026 candidates but make up 44.2% of the group that had not contested an election since 1994. For Hannah Maruci, a political scientist at the University of São Paulo (USP), the higher rate among women may be linked to the historical barriers that hindered the building of female electoral careers."When women reach the race, we are looking at the end of a trajectory of underrepresentation and barriers that began much earlier, including in defining who is considered a viable name to occupy positions of power," Maruci said.By state, São Paulo has the largest absolute number of first-timers: 678, or 26.2% of its 2,590 registrations, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 594 and Minas Gerais with 450. Proportionally, the Federal District ranks first: 51.5% of its candidates had not run since 1994. The lowest shares are in Mato Grosso do Sul (21.2%) and Rio Grande do Sul (21.9%).

Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino said on Monday (24) that congressional budget amendments, a mechanism that lets Brazilian federal lawmakers direct public funds to projects of their choice, are today the "biggest vector of corruption" in the country. He made the remark while speaking remotely at an event of the Money Laundering Study Group at the University of São Paulo (USP) Law School, according to reporting by Folha de S.Paulo.Dino traced the problem to the loosening of fiscal rules during the Covid-19 pandemic. "The idea of a new budget emerged, what was called the war budget. A rule that allowed the removal of practically all fiscal limits. It is something to be studied: how quickly criminal enterprises formed inside it," he said, according to Folha.In Dino's assessment, the amendments drifted from their goal of improving "national and regional public policies" and came to serve "private and electoral interests, often involving corruption schemes and the diversion of public funds on a national scale."The Supreme Court caseThe remarks come as Dino acts as rapporteur of ADPF 854, a case before the court that deals with the expansion of so-called rapporteur amendments, known as RP9. He inherited the case after Justice Rosa Weber retired and has ordered the blocking and return of funds, a stance that has raised tensions between the judiciary and Congress.On Sunday (23), Dino declared the absolute nullity of amendment transfers indicated by party presidents and by politicians who do not hold an elected mandate. The suspicions under investigation involve the president of the Liberal Party (PL), Valdemar Costa Neto, and former federal deputy Eduardo Cunha (Republicanos), who currently holds no seat in Congress, among other names, according to Folha. Also on Monday, the Podemos and Solidariedade parties denied to the court any interference by party leaders in the allocation of amendments, responding to Dino's order that party presidents explain whether "quotas" exist for distributing the funds, according to O Globo and CNN Brasil.The lecture, titled "Crime, State and Market," featured professors Renato de Mello de Jorge Silveira and Pierpaolo Cruz Bottini and the school's director, Ana Elisa Bechara. Dino said the theme is relevant because those categories have never been so "amalgamated."

Federal District civil police have opened an inquiry into the death of veterinarian Vitória Valle de Oliveira Pinha, 36, who was attacked by a dog from the K-9 unit of Brazil's Senate. The case is being handled by the 5th police precinct in Brasilia as a workplace accident, according to newspaper Folha de S.Paulo.Vitória was bitten on Tuesday, August 18, while tending to animals at the Senate kennel. According to the police, she was on duty when, "under circumstances still to be properly clarified", the dog attacked her. She suffered severe neck injuries and went into cardiopulmonary arrest before colleagues came to her aid. Treated by military firefighters, she was taken to the Hospital de Base, underwent surgery and remained in critical condition. The Senate confirmed her death on Saturday, August 22.Rescue and investigationAccording to the Na Mira column of news portal Metrópoles, a colleague who arrived at the kennel after the attack found the dog still loose and managed to shut it inside a crate before finding Vitória on the floor, bleeding heavily. Staff used the Senate's pre-hospital care kit to compress her wounds until the institution's own brigade and then an emergency crew took over.The incident was registered as "failure to take due care in guarding or handling animals", and the site underwent forensic examination. Detectives from the 5th precinct carried out procedures at the kennel and the hospital and heard witnesses to establish how the attack unfolded. Police told Folha that, depending on the findings, the inquiry could be used to hold possible culprits accountable and to support a compensation claim by the family.In a statement, the Senate mourned the death and said Vitória worked as a dog handler: she was a veterinary medicine intern at the institution from 2022 to 2024 and later returned as an outsourced professional providing animal care. "In this moment of grief, the Senate expresses its solidarity with Vitória's family, friends and work colleagues, remembered for the dedication she always brought to her duties," the statement read. Folha sought comment from the Senate on Monday, August 24, about the inquiry but had received no reply by publication time.The dog that attacked the veterinarian is a Belgian Malinois, a medium-to-large breed used in police and guard operations that demands experienced handlers. According to Metrópoles, the animal was trained to serve in the K-9 unit of the Legislative Police, the force responsible for security in Congress. Folha reports the dog was pulled from duty after the attack. Cinotecnia, the name of the Senate's dog service in Portuguese, is the field of training and handling working dogs.

The Carter Center has reversed an earlier decision and will send an election observation mission to Brazil's October vote, about 20 days after telling the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), the country's top electoral authority, that it would not take part. The reversal was reported on Monday (24) by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. The organization is the only U.S. group invited by the electoral court to monitor this year's election.According to people who follow the matter and spoke to Folha, the center's team of experts plans to focus its work on Brazil's electronic voting system and on voter education. At the end of the process, the observers will produce a report covering both areas.The organization had informed the court of its withdrawal in early August. At the time, it cited financial difficulties caused by a US$9 billion cut to U.S. foreign aid, proposed by President Donald Trump and approved by the U.S. Congress last year, which led to the shutdown of USAID, the American international development agency. According to CartaCapital magazine, the Carter Center's losses were estimated at US$11 million, worsened by European donors redirecting funds to the European Union's own mission for the October vote.The electoral court's bet on international observersJustice Kassio Nunes Marques, the TSE's president, has told associates he wants to expand international monitoring to shield the election from potential challenges to the results and to the electronic voting machines used nationwide. On August 17, he received representatives of dozens of foreign embassies in Brasília and said the observation missions will "assess the integrity, the operational effectiveness and the strict compliance with Brazilian electoral rules." He did not mention the Carter Center among the confirmed organizations at the time precisely because the court had already been told the group could not come."In this election, as has been done since 2018, international observation missions will be able to officially follow different stages of the electoral process, including public audit ceremonies, the preparation of electronic voting machines, voting, counting and the tabulation of votes," Kassio told the diplomats.Alongside the Carter Center, the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations are also set to observe the vote, according to CartaCapital. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems, another U.S. group, has said it will not participate this year. The back-and-forth comes amid diplomatic friction between Brasília and Washington: last month, Brazil's Foreign Ministry denied visas to two U.S. government employees on the grounds that they intended to interfere in the Brazilian election, the magazine reported.Founded in 1982 by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) and his wife, Rosalynn Carter (1927-2023), the Carter Center has organized more than 100 election observation missions in some 40 countries. In Brazil, it monitored the 2022 election, won by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over Jair Bolsonaro, with a team of four specialists over two months. Its final report on that vote attested to the integrity of the process and the reliability of the voting machines, while recommending that the TSE step up its fight against disinformation.

Brazil's federal government published in Monday's (24) edition of the Diário Oficial da União, the country's official gazette, a resolution approving R$ 13.5 billion in financing lines for companies hurt by the United States' tariff hike on Brazilian products and by international conflicts. According to G1, the allocation was approved by the Interministerial Council of the Sovereign Brazil Plan (Plano Brasil Soberano), a package of measures announced by the executive branch in July in response to the trade dispute with Washington.The largest share, R$ 5 billion, will go to exporters and supply chains hit by the higher tariff rates applied by the U.S. government. Another R$ 3.5 billion is earmarked for companies and suppliers that sell to Persian Gulf countries, to cushion the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict.The remaining R$ 5 billion targets areas the government considers strategic. According to InfoMoney, R$ 2 billion will finance industrial and technological projects involving minerals, covering extraction stages linked to processing, refining or transformation of the raw material. A further R$ 2 billion will fund fertilizer production or intermediate inputs for the sector, and R$ 1 billion will serve industrial sectors considered important for Brazil's trade balance.Who can applyExporting companies, cooperatives and associations of industrial goods can tap the credit lines, as can their suppliers. The resolution also covers producers and exporters of agriculture, livestock and fishing, plus firms tied to mineral exports; InfoMoney reports that aquaculture and planted forests are also included. The funds may be used to buy machinery and equipment, reinforce working capital, expand productive capacity and develop technological innovation.Oversight of the operations will fall to BNDES, the state-owned national development bank. The bank must send monthly reports to the Interministerial Council detailing approved proposals, signed contracts and amounts actually disbursed. The council may revise the distribution of funds among the credit lines depending on how quickly the money is used and on the priorities set by the government.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in an exclusive interview with broadcaster Record that his eldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva — known as Lulinha — must defend himself against the accusations he faces, and insisted that no one is above the law. The remarks were released on Sunday (23), the day the full interview was set to air on the Sunday-night program Domingo Espetacular, amid a Federal Police (PF) investigation involving Lulinha and the president's former chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Santana Ribeiro, nicknamed Marcola.Asked about the probes, Lula said it is not his role to act as judge, prosecutor or police chief, and denied any intention of interfering with the investigators' work, according to excerpts of the interview reported by InfoMoney and the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo."I am not a president who tries to ban investigations. I don't threaten to fire ministers. I don't threaten to punish police chiefs. Let them investigate. And everyone has the right to prove they are innocent," the president said.Lula added that the same rule applies to his own son. "This goes for my son, it goes for anyone. No one is [above the law] if they do wrong," he said. According to InfoMoney, the president also said that if proven irregularities caused losses to public coffers, those responsible "will have to pay."Probe involves lobbyist and former chief of staffAccording to Folha de S.Paulo, Lulinha was named as an indirect beneficiary of the work of lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger, who sought political contacts to facilitate the sale of a medication to the federal government. Marcola, a trusted aide who at times placed phone calls for the president — who does not have a cell phone — was also targeted by the PF on suspicion of receiving undue advantages, including financial ones, to assist the lobbyist."My son knows that if he made a mistake, he will be tried, he will be punished or he will be acquitted. But he has to prove his innocence," Lula said. The president also said there are "many insinuations" surrounding the case and urged caution in the face of unproven accusations, according to InfoMoney.In explaining the guidance he gives his son, Lula drew on his own history with investigations and mentioned his late ex-wife Marisa Letícia, Lulinha's mother, who he said "died because of the Car Wash operation," the sweeping corruption probe — known in Portuguese as Lava Jato — that the president publicly blames for her death.The remarks come in a presidential election year. According to Folha, a key element of the Workers' Party (PT) strategy on the case is to stress that, under the current government, the Federal Police is free to investigate, in contrast with the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, which faced repeated allegations of interference in the force to protect his sons — among them Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), who is now running for president.

Brazil's first presidential debate of the 2026 election, hosted by TV network Band starting at 8 p.m. this Sunday (Aug. 23) at its studios in Morumbi, in São Paulo's south zone, will feature only three candidates on stage: Ronaldo Caiado (PSD), Renan Santos (Missão) and Augusto Cury (Avante). According to Folha de S.Paulo, it is the smallest field for an opening debate since 1989, when Brazilian broadcasters began holding such events as the country returned to democracy. The absences dominate the spotlight. President Lula (PT, the Workers' Party) and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), the two frontrunners in the polls, had already declined to attend. On Sunday, Romeu Zema (Novo), a former governor of Minas Gerais, also pulled out, blaming the absence of the two favorites and a change of date — the debate had originally been scheduled for Aug. 16 and was pushed back a week in an attempt to accommodate Lula, according to Poder360. "The change of date of the debate promoted by Rede Bandeirantes from Aug. 16 to Aug. 23 had been considered under the premise and expectation that candidate Lula would take part, ensuring the plurality of the event. Given the absence of Lula and other contenders, the date change lost its initial purpose," Zema's campaign said in a statement. According to Poder360, Lula's team believes the president would be the main target of his rivals on stage and says he is focused on the campaign and government duties — the tendency is for him to prioritize higher-rated debates later in the race. Flávio Bolsonaro, in turn, conditioned his participation in debates on Lula's presence: without the Workers' Party candidate, his campaign calculates, the senator would absorb the attacks of everyone else. Polls and a barred candidate The numbers help explain the empty stage. In a Datafolha poll released Friday (21), Lula leads first-round voting intentions with 39%, followed by Flávio Bolsonaro with 33%. Caiado has 5%, Renan Santos 4%, Zema 3% and Cury 2% — combined, the three candidates taking the stage on Sunday account for just 11 percentage points. Pablo Marçal (PRTB) was never even invited: on Thursday (20), the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) unanimously barred him from debates, public campaign funding and free TV airtime until the court rules on the validity of his candidacy registration, Folha reported. Zema's withdrawal carries its own cost. According to Folha's Painel column, the debate was one of the few chances for the former governor to appear on television, since his Novo party has no right to free electoral airtime — his invitation was a concession by the broadcaster, not a legal obligation. Reactions The three confirmed candidates pushed back against the no-shows. Caiado said he "won't back down even for a train loaded with dynamite" and added: "I'll be there." Renan Santos called the situation "a shame," saying that "from right to left, everyone is uncommitted." Arriving at the studios, the Missão candidate held up diapers bearing the names of Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro, called both men "criminals who do business with organized crime" and said their absence proved cowardice. About Zema, he quipped: "I didn't even remember him." The thin field contrasts with history. The first televised debate between Brazilian presidential candidates, also promoted by Band in July 1989, featured names such as Paulo Maluf, Mario Covas and Lula himself — as well as a young congressman named Ronaldo Caiado, a link between two elections 37 years apart, according to images from Folha's archive.

The Brazilian government has revoked the visa of Darren Beattie, a far-right adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, after he attempted to arrange a visit to former President Jair Bolsonaro, currently imprisoned at the Papuda penitentiary complex in Brasília. The decision, announced on Friday, highlights persistent diplomatic tensions between the two countries, even during a period of relative warming in bilateral relations. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva confirmed the revocation during a public event in Rio de Janeiro, drawing a direct equivalence with previous actions by the American government. "That American guy who said he was coming here to visit Jair Bolsonaro was prohibited from visiting," Lula stated, framing the decision as a reciprocal response to the revocation of visas of Brazilian officials in Washington, including Health Minister Alexandre Padilha's. The Brazilian president stated that Beattie's entry would remain barred until the United States restored Padilha's visa. Brazilian authorities informed news agencies, including AFP, that Beattie had misrepresented the purpose of his trip on his visa application, providing additional grounds for the revocation. Bolsonaro's legal team had petitioned the Supreme Court earlier that week requesting authorization for Beattie's visit, but the request was rejected by the court on Thursday. The episode fits within a broader context of friction between Brasília and Washington. Last August, Trump imposed steep tariffs on Brazilian products — among the highest applied globally — in protest against the prosecution and conviction of Bolsonaro, his political ally. Following diplomatic meetings held in September and October, relations between the two governments showed signs of easing, and in November Trump modified the tariff scope on certain Brazilian products. Beattie, who has been a vocal critic of the Lula administration, carries a controversial background: during Trump's first term, he was fired after revelations that he had attended a white nationalist conference. The case takes on even more complex dimensions in Brazil's current political landscape, with October presidential elections approaching and Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president's eldest son, emerging as the leading opposition candidate in electoral polls. Diplomacy between Brazil and the United States continues to walk a delicate tightrope, where gestures of rapprochement coexist with demonstrations of firmness on matters of sovereignty and institutional reciprocity.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro remains hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Hospital DF Star in Brasília, where he was admitted on March 13 after developing a severe case of bilateral bacterial bronchopneumonia, likely of aspirative origin. Bolsonaro was rushed to the private hospital by the Mobile Emergency Care Service (Samu) after presenting high fever, a significant drop in oxygen saturation, heavy sweating, and chills. The former president, who is serving a 27-year and 3-month sentence at the Papuda penitentiary complex following his conviction related to an attempted coup d'état after the 2022 elections, was transferred from the prison facility directly to the hospital. Imaging and laboratory tests conducted upon admission confirmed the diagnosis of bacterial bronchopneumonia affecting both lungs. According to medical bulletins signed by cardiologist Brasil Caiado, ICU general coordinator Antônio Aurélio de Paiva Fagundes Júnior, and hospital director-general Allisson B. Barcelos Borges, treatment includes intravenous antibiotic therapy, intensive clinical support, and respiratory and motor physiotherapy. Over the following days, medical updates indicated progressive clinical and laboratory improvement, though Bolsonaro remains in the ICU with no discharge date established. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized the presence of his wife Michelle Bolsonaro as a hospital companion, as well as visits from children Jair Renan, Flávio, Carlos, Laura, and stepdaughter Letícia. Hospital security is maintained through a permanent police detail, with two officers stationed at the room door and additional teams at internal and external access points. Electronic devices including computers and cell phones are prohibited, except for medical equipment. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), the former president's eldest son, was the first to announce the hospitalization via social media. After visiting his father at the hospital, Flávio stated that "the doctors said this was his worst hospitalization here regarding the amount of fluid in his lungs." The senator also appealed for humanitarian home confinement, arguing that conditions at the prison facility hinder adequate medical care for the former president, who has a history of health complications stemming from the stabbing attack he suffered in 2018.