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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is also the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh-largest by population, with over 214 million people. Brazil is a federation composed of 26 states and a Federal District, which hosts the capital, Brasília. Its most populous city is São Paulo, followed by Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has the largest Lusophone population in the world and is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas, where it is the official language.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi), among the longest in the world. Covering roughly half of South America's land area, it borders all other countries and territories on the continent except Ecuador and Chile. Brazil encompasses a wide range of tropical and subtropical landscapes, as well as wetlands, savannas, plateaus, and low mountains. It contains most of the Amazon basin, including the world's largest river system and most extensive virgin tropical forest. Brazil has diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. It ranks first among 17 megadiverse countries, with its natural heritage being the subject of significant global interest, as environmental degradation (through processes such as deforestation) directly affect global issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Brazil was inhabited by various indigenous peoples prior to the landing of Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500. The territory was subsequently claimed and settled by Portugal, which founded the country's first city, São Vicente, in 1532 and imported enslaved Africans to work on plantations. Brazil remained a colony until 1815, when it was elevated to a united kingdom with Portugal after the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro. Prince Pedro of Braganza declared Brazilian independence in 1822 and, after waging a war against Portugal, established the Empire of Brazil. The country's first constitution in 1824 established a bicameral legislature and enshrined principles such as freedom of religion and the press; slavery was gradually abolished until its final abolition in 1888. Brazil became a presidential republic following a military coup d'état in 1889. An armed revolution in 1930 ended the First Republic and brought Getúlio Vargas to power. Vargas' self-coup in 1937 ushered the authoritarian Estado Novo, in which he oversaw Brazil's involvement in World War II. Democracy was restored after Vargas' ousting in 1945. An authoritarian military dictatorship emerged in 1964 with support from the United States and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, enacted in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic.

Brazil is a regional and middle power, and has been described as a rising global power. It is an emerging, upper-middle income economy and newly industrialized country, with one of the 10 largest economies in the world in both nominal and PPP terms, the largest economy in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest share of wealth in South America. With a complex and highly diversified economy, Brazil is one of the world's major or primary exporters of various agricultural goods, mineral resources, and manufactured products. The country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, G4, Mercosur, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries; it is also an observer state of the Arab League and a major non-NATO ally of the United States. (Full article...)

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Feijoada, one of the best-known Brazilian dishes, is usually served with rice, farofa, collard greens, and orange

Brazilian cuisine is the set of cooking practices and traditions of Brazil, and is characterized by African, European, Amerindian and Asian (Levantine, Japanese, and most recently, Chinese) influences. It varies greatly by region, reflecting the country's mix of native and immigrant populations, and its continental size as well. This has created a national cuisine marked by the preservation of regional differences.

Ingredients first used by native peoples in Brazil include cashews, cassava, pineapple, guaraná, açaí, cumaru, and tucupi. From there, the many waves of immigrants brought some of their typical dishes, replacing missing ingredients with local equivalents. For instance, the European immigrants (primarily from Portugal, Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, and Ukraine), were accustomed to a wheat-based diet, and introduced wine, leafy vegetables, and dairy products into Brazilian cuisine. When potatoes were not available, they discovered how to use the native sweet manioc as a replacement. Enslaved Africans also had a role in developing Brazilian cuisine, especially in the coastal states. The foreign influence extended to later migratory waves; Japanese immigrants brought most of the food items that Brazilians associate with Asian cuisine today, and introduced large-scale aviaries well into the 20th century. (Full article...)

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27 August 2026 – 2026 Diamond League
In athletics, Brazilian Alison dos Santos and American Masai Russell break the world records in men's 400 metres hurdles (45.80 seconds) and women's 100 metres hurdles (12.09 seconds), respectively, at the 2026 Weltklasse Zürich in Zurich, Switzerland. (Reuters)
25 August 2026 – Lawsuits involving TikTok
Brazil's national data protection authority fines TikTok R$153.7 million (US$29.9 million) for inadequate child-safety measures and orders its developer, ByteDance, to delete improperly collected data and strengthen protections for users under 16. (AFP via France 24)
19 August 2026 –
Twenty-three people are killed and five others are injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck on the BR-373 near Ipiranga, Paraná, Brazil. (Reuters) (UOL)
17 August 2026 –
Discord suspends live streaming, screen sharing, and video calls in Brazil to comply with an order from the national data protection authority following the death of a 13-year-old girl allegedly encouraged to kill herself during an online broadcast. (AFP via RFI)
16 August 2026 –
Ten people are killed after a tourist bus overturns near Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Xinhua) (O Globo in Portuguese)

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The leader of the Revolt of the Lash, João Cândido (front row, directly to the left of the man in the dark suit), with reporters, police officers and sailors on board Minas Geraes on 26 November 1910.

The Revolt of the Lash (Portuguese: Revolta da Chibata) was a naval mutiny in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in late November 1910. It was the direct result of the use of whips ("lashes") by white naval officers when punishing Afro-Brazilian and mixed-race enlisted sailors.

At the beginning of the new century rising demand for coffee and rubber enabled Brazilian politicians to attempt to transform their country into an international power. A key part of this would come from modernizing the Brazilian Navy, which had been neglected since the 1889 coup, by purchasing battleships of the dreadnought type, which had been recently introduced. Social conditions in the Brazilian Navy, however, did not keep pace with this new technology. Elite white officers were in charge of mostly black and mixed-race crewmen, many of whom had been forced into the navy on long-term contracts. These officers frequently inflicted corporal punishment on the crewmen for major and minor offenses alike despite the practice's ban in most other countries and in the rest of Brazil. (Full article...)

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Portrait by Insley Pacheco, c. 1870

Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá (Portuguese pronunciation: [iɾiˈnew ivɐ̃ʒeˈliʃtɐ dʒi ˈsowzɐ]; 28 December 1813 – 21 October 1889), was a Brazilian entrepreneur, industrialist, banker and politician. Born to a family of small estancieiros (ranchers), Sousa became one of the world's richest men; by 1867, his wealth was larger than the annual budget of the Brazilian Empire. He was called the Rothschild of the South American continent by The New York Times in 1871. He received the titles of baron in 1854 and visconde com grandeza (viscount with grandee) of Mauá, in 1874. A pioneer in several areas of the economy of Brazil, one of his greatest achievements was to start the construction of the Mauá Railroad, the first railroad in Brazil, in 1852.

At his peak, Sousa controlled eight of the country's ten largest companies (the remaining two were state-owned); his banking interests stretched over to Britain, France, the United States and Argentina. Mauá also founded the first bank in Uruguay (Banco Mauá y Cia). (Full article...)

Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... that after Brazilian influencer Gabi Moura was criticized for wearing a revealing dress at the 2025 Kentucky Derby, she defended herself on the basis of having large breasts?
  • ... that Dandara dos Santos, a murdered Brazilian, was honored with a sculpture exhibited in Manhattan from 2019 to 2020?

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Arcos da Lapa
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Goiânia /ɡɔɪˈɑːniə/, is the capital and the largest city in the Brazilian state of Goiás. With a population of 1,265,394 people, it is the second largest city in the Central-West Region and the thirteenth largest in the country. Its metropolitan area has a total population of 2,063,744, being the eleventh largest in Brazil.

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