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A group of House Democrats penned a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday asking him to condemn far-right Brazilian presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro. The lawmakers, led by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), cited concerns for "rising threats to democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Brazil" in making their request. “Given the regional repercussions of this sort of development, this is not a threat that our country can take lightly,” they wrote. Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad of the left-wing Workers’ Party are the two candidates in Sunday's run-off vote to become the new president, and Bolsonaro...

Last Thursday in the southeastern Brazilian city of Juiz de Fora, Jair Bolsonaro—variously described as “the most misogynistic, hateful elected official in the democratic world” and maybe even “the world’s most repulsive politician”—was nearly stabbed to death while crowd-surfing through a mostly adoring mob. Bolsonaro, who has been called “The Trump of the Tropics,” has been riding atop Brazil’s presidential polls all summer. Then again, Bolsonaro’s chief rival, former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Workers’ Party, would be outpolling him if he weren’t currently in prison on a 12-year corruption bid. Please share this article...

Even as the overall population of Christians in the United States declines, evangelicals have become an energetic right-wing voting base, helping President Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016. In Brazil, where Pentecostal and other charismatic Christian churches are rapidly gaining members, evangelical voters are only beginning to flex their electoral muscle. In 1970, 90 percent of Brazil’s population identified as Roman Catholic. By 2017 just under 65 percent did. Evangelicals now make up an estimated 27 percent of Brazil’s 208 million people. As their numbers have grown, so has the evangelical influence over Brazilian politics. My demographic research in...

Brazil’s conservative president Michel Temer has ordered the army and federal police to clear highways blockaded by striking truck drivers after a protest over soaring fuel prices entered its fifth day. The blockades have paralysed much of the country’s economy and prompted São Paulo, the biggest city in South America, to declare a state of emergency over fuel shortages. “I have actioned the federal security forces to unblock highways and I am asking governors to do the same,” Temer said in a televised address on Friday. “We will not let the population do without its primary needs.” The protests began...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (JTA) — Brazil’s front-running presidential candidate has announced he will close the Palestinian embassy in Brasilia in addition to moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “Is Palestine a country? Palestine is not a country, so there should be no embassy here,” Jair Bolsonaro, a lawmaker from the Social Liberal Party, declared on Tuesday when the National Congress reopened after a three-week recess. “You do not negotiate with terrorists,” he added.

JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil (Reuters) - The leading candidate in Brazil’s presidential election is in serious but stable condition after being stabbed by an assailant at a campaign rally on Thursday, doctors said, pushing an already chaotic campaign into further disarray. -snip- The Federal Police said in a statement that it had officers escorting Bolsonaro at the time of the knife attack and the “aggressor” was caught in the act. It said the circumstances were being investigated. Local police in Juiz de Fora confirmed to Reuters that the suspect, Adelio Bispo de Oliveira, 40, was in custody and that he...

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s front-running far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is in serious but stable condition in hospital following “successful” surgery after he was stabbed while campaigning on Thursday, his running mate said. Flavio Bolsonaro, the candidate’s son, wrote on Twitter that his father had been wounded in the liver, lung and intestine. “He lost a lot of blood, arrived at the hospital ... almost dead. He appears to have stabilized now,” he said.

Brazil has a violent crime rate about 1,000 times that of America's worst cities. In some areas the police have no presence and no control because Criminal gangs of traffickers, heroine dealers, etc have murdered any law enforcement. It looks like the police are taking some of these areas back over after the election. When the liberals start whining on TV about police brutality, etc in another country, remember some of these police officers have friends and co workers that have been beheaded and often times were lured to kill zones by women working with the drug gangs Watch: Ar-15...

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - Jair Bolsonaro topped the poll in the first round of Brazil's presidential elections, having seduced tens of millions of voters with simple -- though radical -- solutions to eradicating violence in one of the world's deadliest countries. For many, Bolsonaro has the answer to the question that has preoccupied them for years -- how to lower the crime rate in a country with more than seven murders an hour? "Give guns to good people," the former paratrooper insisted during campaign meetings.

The number of murders in Brazil increased by by 3 percent to a record high of 63,880 in 2017, according to data released by the Brazilian Public Security Forum Thursday. The data showed that 175 people were murdered each day and an overall murder rate of 30.8 per 100,000 people, up from 29.9 in 2016. An average of 14 people were killed in interactions with police, up 20 percent from 2016. Rapes also increased by 8 percent to to 60,018 and murders of women rose 6.1 percent to 4,539. "It is a devastating scenario," director of the Brazilian Public Security...

Popular presidential candidate in Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, narrowly missed winning with a first-round election. In Brazil, there are multiple parties. The top two candidates have a run-off election for the presidency. If one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, there is no run-off. Jair Bolsonaro won the first round in a crowded field. With 46%, he almost won outright. The next nearest contender received 29%. From ft.com: Former army captain Jair Bolsonaro won a resounding victory in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election, raising the prospect of a return of the far-right in a country...

Far-right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro won a decisive victory on Sunday in Brazil’s presidential runoff election. His win represents a significant break in Brazilian politics, as voters abandoned the leftist party that had dominated past elections. Bolsonaro’s showing on Sunday is even more remarkable because he largely began his presidential campaign as he has a long history of making controversial "racist and sexist statements"; his unfiltered rhetoric and his “law and order” platform have earned him the nickname the “Trump of the Tropics.”

President Trump on Sunday evening called Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro to congratulate him on his win. Trump and Bolsonaro told one another that they are looking forward to working "side-by-side" as "regional leaders of the Americas," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. Bolsonaro, the controversial right-wing populist who has been nicknamed "Trump of the Tropics," won 55.1 percent of the vote with 99 percent voting by Sunday evening in the U.S.

It appears that today, 28 October, 2018, Jain Bolsonaro is the new President of Brazil. AP reports that with 92 percent of the votes counted, Bolsonaro, the conservative candidate, has 55.6 percent of the vote. From the sun-sentinal.com: With more than 92 percent of the votes counted, 55.6 percent supported Bolsonaro, compared to 44.4 percent for leftist Fernando Haddad of the Workers' Party, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Final results were expected later Sunday. AP calls this a "commanding lead". It is mathematically impossible for Jain Bolsonaro to lose, if these numbers are correct. 55.6% of 92% =...

The far-right Brazilian populist Jair Bolsonaro has secured a resounding victory in the first-round of his country’s presidential election, but fallen just short of the majority required to avoid a second-round run-off. After a campaign as improbable and electrifying as any Brazilian telenovela – although infinitely more consequential for the future of one of the world’s largest and most diverse democracies – Bolsonaro secured 46.93% of votes - with 94% of all votes counted. second-placed candidate, the leftist Workers’ party Fernando Haddad, won 28% of the vote, according to Brazil’s superior electoral court, the TSE. Behind him came the Democratic...

He shocks many Western liberals, and some of his rhetoric on women and gays is certainly extreme. Still, Jair Bolsonaro's rise in the Brazilian polls isn't hard to understand. Because he is focused on three issues that now carry outsized concern in most Brazilian minds: reducing crime, countering corruption, and boosting the economy. Correspondingly, the simplest issue in Bolsonaro's favor is that which was in Donald Trump's favor in 2016: popular anger over a sense of wasted potential. It's an easy case to make in Brazil today. That nation has vast natural resources, a comparatively well-educated population, but also pathetic...

Brazilians will vote for president on Sunday.  It will likely go to a second round, but center-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is getting some good news, according to this report from Forbes: Bolsonaro fever has hit Brazil, that is for sure.  Depending on how you look at it, the fever is either something that requires Tamiflu and plenty of sleep, or the kind of fever associated with a major sporting event or Carnaval in Rio. Bolsonaro was all over the front pages of the Estado and Folha de Sao Paulo newspapers on Wednesday.  Below the fold, meanwhile, a survey by the pollsters at Datafolha shows...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday discussed ways he plans to work with Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, the controversial right-wing populist who won around 55 percent of the vote after a volatile and divisive presidential campaign. Pompeo in a phone call congratulated Bolsonaro on the win and discussed collaboration on issues including Venezuela, transnational crime and economic ties between "the two largest economies in the Western Hemisphere," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement. ADVERTISEMENT The call comes days after a group of House Democrats penned a letter to Pompeo asking him to condemn Bolsonaro, who was...

China’s state-run Global Times panicked over the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil, penning a Monday editorial sternly lecturing the new Brazilian leader that shifting trade away from China to the United States would be “unthinkable...On the other hand, Reuters found Chinese officials and senior executives eyeing Bolsonaro with “varying degrees of concern,” particularly when he talks about tightening Brasilia’s grip on the supremely valuable niobium industry. Bolsonaro has been critical of China’s efforts to dominate Brazilian mines, but might be obliged to mute his criticism because China has become such an important customer for Brazilian iron and...

Scores of Hollywood celebrities, including Cher, freaked out over the victory of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday, a conservative firebrand who has pledged to upend the country’s powerful left-wing political establishment.