Brazil
Lula urges EU to review trade barriers on Brazilian meat and steel
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa to push for a review of EU restrictions on Brazilian exports, including meat and steel.
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Eduardo Bolsonaro conviction deepens crisis for brother's bid to lead Brazil
Brazil's Supreme Court convicted former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting to influence his father's coup-plot case through contacts with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
World Bank cuts Latin America growth outlook as Middle East oil shock takes toll
The World Bank has trimmed its growth forecasts for Latin America and the Caribbean for both 2026 and 2027, blaming the inflationary and monetary fallout from the Middle East conflict.
LONG READ: The Post-Pax Americana Interregnum has already started
Empires tend to last about a hundred years, and true to form the Pax Americana has passed its peak. What follows is decades of instability and lower growth as the leading countries of the world vie to fill the void. The Interregnum has started.
Europe eyes Brazil’s rare earth rush
The European Union is stepping up efforts to secure access to Brazil’s rare earth reserves as Brussels seeks alternatives to Chinese supply chains and responds to growing US interest in the sector, according to diplomats and EU officials.
Where do deaths outnumber births? - OWID
For most of human history, more people were born each year than died. Populations grew very slowly for most of this history, then rapidly in recent centuries, as child mortality plummeted and people lived longer.
The demographic point of no return: the world is running out of mothers
China and the EU have crossed the threshold beyond which population decline is mathematically irreversible. Once the median age of women passes 40, a country no longer has enough potential mothers to keep the population stable.
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Supply chain disruptions are back at 2022 levels – Statista
Global supply chain pressures have risen again in recent months, returning to levels last seen during the height of pandemic-related disruptions, Statista reports.
The world's record heatwaves - Statista
According to NASA, there is “unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate”, Statista reports.
Brazil seeks new partners, expands credit lines as US tariff threat mounts
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed to pursue alternative trade partners and pledged to attend next month's G7 summit in France, as his government scrambled to contain the fallout from fresh US tariff threats.
Brazil-US trade row deepens as Lula slams Rubio and brands Bolsonaro a traitor
Lula branded rival Bolsonaro a "traitor to the nation" and attacked Secretary of State Rubio as Washington proposes sweeping 25% tariffs on Brazilian goods, threatening to unravel a fragile diplomatic truce struck just weeks ago.
Flávio Bolsonaro turns to Trump as Brazil probe deepens
Flávio Bolsonaro travelled to Washington on May 26 for a private meeting with Donald Trump, seeking to shore up his political standing ahead of Brazil's October presidential election following a financial scandal involving a disgraced banker.
The baby bust: how a global demographic crisis crept up on everyone
Just a decade ago, the dominant demographic narrative was of "dying Russia" — a population hollowed out by the chaos that followed the Soviet collapse, shrinking through a combination of low birth rates, high mortality and mass emigration.
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Brazil's Bolsonaro dynasty faces fresh scandal over film deal with disgraced banker
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro solicited financial backing from a scandal-plagued banker for a film about his father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, according to messages published by Intercept Brasil.
IMF: Extreme inequality is fuelling a global debt crisis
During the Great Depression, as he saw ordinary people’s purchasing power collapse, Federal Reserve Chairman Marriner Eccles warned that excessive saving by the rich was draining demand and deepening the downturn.
Latin America's democracies face silent erosion from within, UN warns
Latin America and the Caribbean's political systems are experiencing a gradual institutional decay that rarely manifests as outright democratic collapse but instead hollows out governance from within, the UNDP has warned in a new report.
World oil inventories falling fast towards hard operational floor
The world's oil buffer is disappearing faster than at any point in recorded history. Two months into the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, global inventories are drawing down at a pace that has already exceeded the previous quarterly record.
Global biofuel production up sevenfold in the last two decades - OWID
In the late 20th century, a handful of countries — led by Brazil and the United States — turned to liquid biofuels to reduce their dependence on foreign oil markets, producing transport fuels from cheap crops instead.
The world's piracy hotspots – Statista
A fourth vessel has been hijacked by Somali pirates, this time off the coast of Yemen. The oil tanker MT Eureka was captured in the Gulf of Aden on May 2 and reportedly taken toward Somalia, marking the latest incident in a renewed wave of piracy.
A world more afraid: Wars fuelling rising fears of foreign attacks
The world is simultaneously more afraid of war and less willing to fight one, according to the 2026 Democracy Perception Index. Governments are spending more on defence, but in the Western world the citizens are increasingly unwilling to go to war.