The Trump regime has intensified its campaign to help Brazil’s former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro avoid accountability for his alleged role in masterminding a failed coup, after his 2022 election defeat to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Since July, Trump has attempted to pressure Brazil to drop charges against Bolsonaro by imposing a 50 percent tariff on imports from the South American country and sanctioning Brazil’s Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial.
(“U.S. Steps Up Efforts to Help Bolsonaro Avoid Jail Over Alleged Coup Plot,” The Guardian, Aug. 5, 2025; “Bolsonaro House Arrest Cast Shadow Over US-Brazil Trade Talks,” New York Times, Aug. 5, 2025)
In Florida’s current home insurance crisis, much attention has been focused on huge premium increases for the wealthy owners of pricey homes in coastal South Florida most vulnerable to more frequent extreme weather events. But a recent investigation by Inside Climate News found that Florida’s poor, inland rural communities around Lake Okeechobee are an overlooked epicenter of the crisis, where data indicates a spike in non-renewals of home insurance policies.
(“Florida’s Home Insurance Crisis Hits Hardest in Some of the State’s Poorest Counties,” Inside Climate News, July 6, 2025)
Right-wing pundit and social media influencer Laura Loomer has exercised real clout inside the White House, owing to her friendship with President Donald Trump. Loomer, who has a blog and weekly streaming show, has claimed credit for the firing of National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, Food and Drug Administration vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad and cancelled cybersecurity expert Jen Easterly’s faculty appointment to West Point. Loomer was banned from social media for years for her “Islamophobic” views, but was reinstated on X by billionaire Elon Musk. Since Trump was re-elected in 2024, Loomer has increased her followers to 1.3 million.
(“Inside Laura Loomer’s Rise: ‘Obsessive’ Research, Oval Office Visits,” Washington Post, Aug. 5, 2025)
