Brazil

• Friday, October 23rd 2026 - 09:48 UTC

  Sanders and Democratic lawmakers ask Meta to explain alleged favouritism towards Bolsonaro

  

  US Senator Bernie Sanders and 11 other Democratic lawmakers on Thursday asked Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to explain the alleged unequal treatment by Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp of the campaigns of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who face each other on Sunday in Brazil’s presidential runoff.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2026 - 14:21 UTC

  Lula ramps up public handouts in the final stretch of Brazil’s presidential campaign

  

  Some 20 million Brazilian families begin receiving this week a 15% increase in the Bolsa Família social programme, the centrepiece of a broad package of aid, subsidies and tax cuts announced by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the final stretch of the campaign for Sunday’s runoff, in which he faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in a statistical tie.

• Wednesday, October 21st 2026 - 13:29 UTC

  Amazon fires rise 62% in October as deforestation falls to a record low

  

  Satellites detected 9,045 fire hotspots in the Brazilian Amazon in the first half of October, 62% more than in the same period last year, amid a drought aggravated by El Niño. The increase contrasts with the fall in deforestation, which over the past year reached its lowest level since 1988.

• Tuesday, October 20th 2026 - 15:29 UTC

  Milei calls Lula a “leftist thief” and says he hopes he will not “steal” Brazil’s election

  

  Argentine President Javier Milei attacked his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva again on Tuesday, accusing him of a “dirty campaign” and saying he hoped Lula would not try to “steal” Sunday’s presidential runoff, in which he faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, whom Milei has publicly backed.

• Tuesday, October 20th 2026 - 10:09 UTC

  Meta races the clock to prove to Brazil’s electoral court it treats Lula and Bolsonaro equally

  

  The 24-hour deadline given by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court to Meta to show that its algorithms and artificial intelligence treat President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro equally expires on Tuesday, five days before the runoff. If the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp fails to show compliance, the daily fine will double from 500,000 to one million reais.

• Monday, October 19th 2026 - 06:15 UTC

  Lula asks Bolsonaro whether he will wield “Milei’s chainsaw” in a heated debate

  

  Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva asked his rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, on Sunday whether he intends to apply Argentine President Javier Milei’s “chainsaw” to cut 250 billion reais in public spending, during a first televised debate marked by mutual accusations of corruption, a week before the October 25 runoff.

• Sunday, October 18th 2026 - 19:43 UTC

  Lula’s campaign takes alleged Meta favouritism towards Bolsonaro to the UN and federal police

  

  The coalition backing Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election on Saturday reported to the UN alleged unequal treatment by Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, in favour of his rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, and asked the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Federal Police to investigate possible illegal funding of his campaign. Meta attributes the incidents to technical errors.

• Saturday, October 17th 2026 - 06:23 UTC

  Bolsonaro and Lula head into the final stretch of Brazil’s campaign in a statistical tie

  

  Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are heading into the final days of the campaign for the October 25 runoff in a statistical tie, according to two new polls. A Datafolha survey released on Thursday night gives Bolsonaro 51% of valid votes and Lula 49%, compared with 52% and 48% a week earlier, with a margin of error of two points.

• Friday, October 16th 2026 - 09:40 UTC

  Argentina abstains on a Russian UN resolution on colonialism and draws criticism

  

  Argentina abstained on Thursday in a vote by the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee on a Russian-sponsored draft on “contemporary forms of colonialism”, a decision that Buenos Aires province’s government minister, opposition figure Carlos Bianco, linked to President Javier Milei’s alignment with the United States and to Argentina’s strategy over the Falklands.

• Thursday, October 15th 2026 - 20:54 UTC

  Brazil approves a 40-hour week and two days off ten days before the runoff

  

  Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday approved, by 75 votes to one, a cut in the maximum working week from 44 to 40 hours with no reduction in pay, ending the so-called 6x1 schedule of six working days and one day off and extending to two the days off for formal-sector workers. The reform, which according to Reuters benefits some 37 million people, comes ten days before the presidential runoff between Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro.