Thursday was the day Parliament moved against Ramaphosa, Aliko Dangote moved against the LSE listing ceiling, and the Nigerian Air Force moved past the second mass-civilian-casualty airstrike of the month. The questions are no longer rhetorical. Today’s Africa intelligence brief tracks six institutional decisions that arrived in the same 24 hours. 01 · South Africa […]

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Key Facts —The arrest: Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) arrested Henrique Moura Vorcaro, father of jailed Banco Master owner Daniel Vorcaro, in Belo Horizonte on Thursday morning May 14 as part of the sixth phase of Operation Compliance Zero, executing seven preventive arrest warrants and 17 search-and-seizure warrants authorized by Supreme Court Minister André Mendonça across […]

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Key Facts —The headline: Bilateral trade between the United States and Venezuela grew 22.78% year-on-year in Q1 2026, reaching $3.293 billion versus $2.682 billion in Q1 2025, an increase of $611 million driven primarily by Venezuelan crude oil exports following the reactivation of formal commercial channels after the Maduro government’s removal in January, according to […]

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Key Facts —The plan: Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure, founder of Claure Group and vice chairman of Shein, has detailed in a Bloomberg Línea exclusive his Bolivia 360 plan to prevent what he calls the imminent “economic collapse” of Bolivia, a 15-month structural-reform program developed with the Harvard Growth Lab under Ricardo Hausmann. —The diagnosis: Claure […]

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Key Facts —The thesis: JPMorgan Private Bank’s 2026 Latin America outlook, authored by Head of Investment Strategy Nur Cristiani and titled “Between Promise and Pressure, the Answer is Optionality,” positions the region as a portfolio hedge against US technology concentration risk rather than a directional growth bet. —The growth map: JPMorgan projects 2026 regional GDP […]

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Key Facts —The frame: Four months after US forces captured Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on January 3, 2026, interim president Delcy Rodríguez (Maduro’s vice president since 2018) has executed approximately 13 of 32 ministerial changes, dissolved the State Intelligence coordination center, replaced two of the most senior military commanders, signed an amnesty law that released […]

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Key Facts —The report: An international investigation titled “Combatants, Mercenaries or Victims of Human Trafficking? Russia’s Exploitation of Foreign Fighters in Its War Against Ukraine” was presented in Kyiv on April 29 by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds, and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights, estimating that […]

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01 Tonight’s Vibe Menu Thursday São Paulo nightlife runs the last warm night of the working week before tomorrow’s cold front. The marquee booking is genuinely sharp: at Blue Note SP 20h, the Musicman Jazz collective plays Charles Mingus’s “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) front-to-back — the Grammy Hall of Fame album cut in the same […]

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01 Tonight’s Vibe Menu Thursday Rio de Janeiro nightlife runs on a quiet thematic coincidence: Tim Maia is the centre of gravity on both sides of the city. At Blue Note Rio, Maria Alcina opens at 20h with “A Turma da Tijuca” — Roberto, Erasmo, Tim and Jorge Ben, the four cantores who met in […]

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Key Facts —The action: Brazil’s electricity regulator Aneel suspended on May 13 the homologation of the 2026 LRCAP capacity-reserve auction won by a consortium including the Batista brothers (J&F group), André Esteves’s BTG Pactual, Petrobras and others, pending judicial decision after the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) demanded immediate suspension of all homologation, adjudication and contract-signing […]

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