Brazil

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t – Putin and the BRICS summit

Putin’s decision to avoid the BRICS summit is not all it seems. Between 22 and 24 August, South Africa will have the honour of hosting the 2023 annual BRICS summit. The big names – Brazil, India, China and the hosts, South Africa – will be present in full force. The Russian President will not. BRICS …

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Russia’s second front

Vladimir Putin’s efforts to change the world’s balance of power requires not just a strong military, but serious influence over the world’s oil & gas markets, and to be really effective, he needs more than just Saudi Arabia and Iran on side – he needs control directly or indirectly of South America’s oil production as …

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Brazil: Future imperfect

Although according to its national anthem, Brazil’s future ‘mirrors greatness’, the country presently finds itself looking to the past, in more ways than one. After four years of rule by the right-wing Jair Bolsonaro, this dictatorial populist lost by a margin of just 1.8%, the thinnest in Brazil’s history, to Lula da Silva – who …

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Brazil: Fear For The Future?

Since the last column on Brazil, much has changed. The most traditionally left-leaning continent on the planet has seen the election in its largest country of the most right-wing leader it has ever had. While Brazil faces an uncertain immediate future – to say nothing of how its place and policies might dramatically shift in …

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Football Cyber

Play Up, Play Up, And Play The Great Game

The drones of today can be applied to many purposes. Surveillance footage of a suspected terrorist hideout? Certainly. Delivery of online shopping purchases? If you like. Finding out whether the big game formation will be 4-4-2 again? Hang about… At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, headlines were briefly made when the French national team …

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