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Gabriela Sá Pessoa

Freelance journalist based in São Paulo, Brazil

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AP News •

What to know about Elon Musk's 'free speech' feud with a Brazilian judge

SAO PAULO (AP) — Headline-grabbing billionaire Elon Musk is clashing with a in Brazil over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation on X, the social media platform Musk bought when it was Twitter.

Since his many of Twitter’s policies, and transformed what people see on the site. As its owner and perhaps most influential user, he’s also used it to try to sway political discourse around the world. His latest entanglement is inside the nation of 203 million people that has the largest po
AP News •

Brazil Supreme Court strikes down military intervention thesis in symbolic vote for democracy

SAO PAULO (AP) — unanimously voted Monday that the armed forces have no constitutional power to intervene in disputes between government branches, a largely symbolic decision aimed at bolstering democracy after years of increasing threat of military intervention.

The court’s decision came in response to an argument that and his allies deployed in recent years. They have claimed that Article 142 of Brazil’s Constitution affords the military so-called “moderating power” between the executive, leg
AP News •

A Rio councilwoman's killing was a mystery. An arrest gave a peek at corruption keeping it unsolved

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Two days after Rio de Janeiro city councilwoman , her widow sat down with the chief of the state’s civil police, Rivaldo Barbosa, who pledged to do everything in his power to hold the guilty parties to account.

In fact, the man Veja magazine once exalted as “Rio’s Sherlock” had the exact opposite intent, according to newly revealed allegations. Federal Police arrested Barbosa on March 24 — over six years later — for allegedly helping orchestrate Franco’s killing and taking
AP News •

Brazilian police arrest suspected masterminds behind the killing of councilwoman-turned-icon

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s federal police arrested two men Sunday for allegedly ordering the killing of a popular Rio de Janeiro councilwoman in 2018, a long-awaited step after years of society clamoring for justice.

The assassination of Marielle Franco, a 38-year-old city councilwoman, in a drive-by shooting shook Brazil profoundly and reverberated around the world. She stood out as one of the only Black women on the council and was also bisexual. Her assertiveness and mere presence ruffle
The New York Times •

They Tried to Rally South America Behind Ukraine. They Nearly Got Killed.

Héctor Abad Faciolince grew up in what had been one of the most violent cities on earth. Since Colombia won its independence more than 200 years ago, it has weathered political unrest, military crackdowns and violent drug cartels.

His own father, who had accused the military of sponsoring death squads, was assassinated in 1987 by paramilitary forces that had turned his hometown, Medellín, into a war zone.

But his brush with death came half a world away.

At the end of a trip last month that he
The New York Times •

A Ukrainian fencer is disqualified after refusing to shake hands with a Russian opponent.

Olga Kharlan, left, of Ukraine, refused to shake the hand of Anna Smirnova, of Russia, after their Fencing World Championship bout in Milan on Thursday. Ms. Kharlan’s gesture resulted in her disqualification from the tournament.

Olga Kharlan, a four-time Olympic fencing medalist, was disqualified from the World Fencing Championships in Milan on Thursday after refusing to shake hands with her Russian opponent. After Ms. Kharlan defeated Anna Smirnova, a Russian competitor who had joined the comp

'Salva' por brasileiros, cidade nos EUA recruta professores bilíngues

O trem perde velocidade e as fachadas começam a ficar mais claras. Primeiro, o Rei da Carne. Depois, a Igreja Cristã Evangélica. Pouco à frente, a Brazilian Stakehouse, uma churrascaria. E um encanto se quebra quando o maquinista avisa, em inglês: "This is Framingham" (Aqui é Framingham).

É o português de sotaque mineiro que parece a língua oficial da cidade. Na padaria Pão Brasil, uma televisão ligada na hora do almoço exibe ao vivo as últimas notícias de Minas Gerais no MGTV, da TV Globo. A o
The Boston Globe •

Saving the Amazon, before it’s too late - The Boston Globe

And they should act soon because preserving the Amazon has become a matter of international urgency. The forest stores an enormous amount of carbon that would be unleashed into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change if deforestation by farmers, loggers, and miners in Brazil isn’t halted. Last year, the Amazon was estimated to be losing about 60 square miles of rainforest — an area just bigger than the whole city of Boston — per week.

Through their purchases, American consumers may be u
The Washington Post •

Brazil to reopen probe of George Santos in 2008 checkbook fraud case

SANTOS, Brazil — Authorities in Brazil are seeking to reinstate a 15-year-old fraud charge against George Santos, the latest controversy to hit the New York Republican, who was due to be sworn in to Congress on Tuesday. The charge, news about which was first reported by the New York Times on Monday, stems from the alleged theft and use of a checkbook in Rio de Janeiro state in 2008, when Santos was 19. Authorities opened an investigation but suspended it when they were unable to find him. He is
The Washington Post •

Brazil’s toxic politics stain a soccer icon: The national team jersey

As Brazil begins World Cup play Thursday favored to win a record sixth title, what would normally be a moment of joyful anticipation in Latin America’s largest nation is being dampened by lingering division in the aftermath of last month’s ugly presidential election. The divide is ripping at the seams of the canarinho, the once-sacred “little canary” shirt, which was co-opted as campaign wear before, during and after the vote by supporters of the “Trump of the Tropics” — election loser Jair Bols
The Washington Post •

Brazil gets tough on Crackland, and the drug market spreads

It’s been two months since hundreds of drug-addicted people spilled into Mendes’s neighborhood, and her morning walks have been tense ever since. Now, when she goes to the gym, the retired tourism manager takes only her key. She avoids going out at night at all.

Since crack cocaine engulfed São Paulo in the 1990s, nearly every city administration has proclaimed victory over Crackland, only to see it resurge, whack-a-mole style, in a different location, to the horror of the residents and busines
Washington Post •

'A good opportunity for us’: Brazil’s Bolsonaro uses Ukraine war to justify exploiting Indigenous land

Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soy and coffee. It needs a steady supply of fertilizers to power its mighty agricultural industry. But its largest international supplier of fertilizers is Russia, which last year sold Brazil roughly $3.5 billion worth. Economic sanctions imposed by Western countries have caused Russia to announce it will suspend that flow, fueling worries here that Brazil may soon face a shortage.

That argument has outraged environmentalists and Indigenous communities
Washington Post •

We traveled deep into the Amazon to investigate deforestation. A grisly discovery awaited us.

A highway is speeding the destruction of the vital global resource. Along this stretch, the killings have already begun.

Terrence McCoy, who covers Brazil for The Washington Post, traversed the length of Highway 319 to report this story.

First the road was cragged and cracked. Then it was a thick slop of mud. Then a swirl of red dust. But now, after we had traveled hundreds of miles through the densest of jungle, the highway was finally good — paved and smooth — and it was here that the driver
Washington Post •

Brazil mudslides: Climate change turns favelas into disasters waiting to happen

Her mother’s body had been found the day before, far from the broken vestiges of her red-brick house. The avalanche of mud that came through here last week, destroying everything in its path, had arrived with such force that it had carried her body hundreds of yards, depositing it far below, at the base of the mountain. Neves now had little hope that her father had survived. She just wanted to find his body.

Brazil now has a problem that many here fear is impossible to solve. In a country of pr
Washington Post •

Floundering in the polls, Brazil’s Bolsonaro woos a surprising new demographic: The poor

For Bolsonaro, who has dominated and divided Brazil as few politicians have, time appears to be running out. For much of the past year, as the virus he belittled killed hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and drove millions more into poverty, the polls have been grim. His approval rating has bottomed out at 22 percent. Projections show him badly trailing leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whom he’ll almost certainly face in October’s election.

He tripled the number of trips he
Washington Post •

A young Congolese refugee demanded his back pay, his family says. He was beaten to death.

But his family’s hopes that their life here would be free of violence cratered last week, when they say Kabagambe was savagely beaten to death beside the stall where he worked. He had gone to demand two days of back pay, which they say sparked an argument that turned violent.

“From the day we arrived, Brazilians have always been good people,” his mother, Lotsove Lolo Lavy Ivone, wrote in Epoca. “But, today, I don’t know anymore. Moïse worked at this stall before the pandemic, during the pandemi
Washington Post •

How did Bolsonaro win Time magazine’s Person of the Year reader poll? Thank Telegram.

In the end, Time named billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk its Person of the Year this past week. But the Tesla and SpaceX executive didn’t get the most reader votes — not by a long shot. That honor belonged to Bolsonaro, who won in a landslide, garnering one-fourth of the 9 million votes — twice as many as his closest competitor, friend Donald Trump.

In the past several years, as Bolsonaro has repeatedly encouraged people to join him on the app, it has been downloaded to more than half of the p
Washington Post •

São Paulo says it has fully vaccinated 100 percent of its adults. Will it be enough to stop omicron?

In this city of 12.3 million, the story has gone differently. For months, day after day, long and orderly lines formed outside the city’s vaccination stations. Young and old, rich and poor, highly and barely educated: People showed up when their names were called. Then returned weeks later for the second dose. “The world’s vaccine capital,” the city has dubbed itself.

There are caveats. Population estimates in São Paulo — a sprawling urban center dotted with the low-income, irregular communitie
Washington Post •

Brazil’s Amazon hit by worst deforestation since 2006

More on COP26 and climate change
• None ‘It is not enough’: World leaders react to COP26 climate agreement
• None Nations reach agreement to speed climate action, but world remains off target

After two weeks of talks in Glasgow, diplomats from almost 200 countries have agreed to ramp up their carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poor countries on the front lines of climate change. Read the full agreement here.

More on the causes and effects climate change
Washington Post •

Brazil, once a champion of environmentalism, grapples with new role as climate antagonist

As leaders meet in Scotland for the United Nations climate summit known as COP26, it’s been a week in which Brazil has been forced to reckon with just how out of step it now is with the rest of the world. In the span of a decade, Latin America’s largest country has gone from environmental champion to antagonist, led by the divisive Bolsonaro, who has seen globalist subterfuge in concern over the burning biome. In a world increasingly willing to cooperate to curb global warming, Bolsonaro has ins
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Hello, there!

I am an investigative journalist whose works have been published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, BBC, UOL, and Folha de S.Paulo. I have also been researching, producing, and fact-checking for two documentaries that will soon be featured on major streaming platforms. I was the 2023 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow at MIT Center for International Studies, The Boston Globe and The New York Times. 

Jornalista investigativa e pesquisadora. Já tive trabalhos publicados no The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, BBC, UOL e Folha de S.Paulo. Também tenho experiêcia com pesquisa e checagem para audiovisual - um podcast e dois documentários em produção para duas plataformas de streaming. Em 2023, vivi nos Estados Unidos como IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer em uma temporada no MIT, no The Boston Globe e no New York Times.

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