Folha de S.Paulo

"Lula promises to tackle crime in the Amazon if he returns to power." "Lula wants to lead the fight against climate change." Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's interview, on Monday (22), took place in São Paulo, but these headlines were not published in Brazil. Perhaps because the country has countless other issues to discuss, but not only that. Environment, climate, Amazon, everyone thinks that's important. In theory, that is.

Published on 08/31/2022 - 12h21

This year's election will be full of commotion and great stories, such as the embarrassing altercation between Jair Bolsonaro and the YouTuber who called him "centrão [pork-barrel faction in Congress] sweetheart". Or the applause to the electronic ballot boxes at the inauguration of Alexandre de Moraes in the Supreme Electoral Court, again, not one of the president's finest hours in the last week. It is not the excess of facts, however, that explains the lack of excitement of the press regarding the excellent article by Metrópoles about subversive dialogues in a WhatsApp group of Bolsonarista businessmen. In it, the coup d'etat was discussed with the resourcefulness of someone who preaches a tax reform.

Published on 08/24/2022 - 12h50

The reader is from Boa Vista and has written to the ombudsman to complain about the editorial "Espinheiro Amazônico" ( Amazonian thorns). Folha criticized the paving of the BR-319, which connects Porto Velho to Manaus, built in the 1970s to soon become impassable, according to its brief but illuminating description. "As an alternative, a ferry transport system was created, going down the Madeira River and up the Amazon, to the city of Manaus. Such a journey takes a long time and greatly burdens the freight of goods."

Published on 08/19/2022 - 15h58

An important part of Folha's readers, the generation that experienced the first signs that full democracy was feasible in the country, got used to reading an activist newspaper, engaged in the Diretas Já campaign. There was no doubt in the 1980s. It was to seek the light or remain in the darkness. There was no partisan issue, the point was to guarantee freedom of expression and the right to vote for president. It was from that moment that Folha became the most important newspaper in the country. Not for reporting what was seen on the streets, as there were still those who tried to hide what was happening, but also for not being afraid to participate or to be noticed participating. There was a public, civic feeling impossible to ignore. It was only natural for the newspaper to be part of the whole exciting mess.

Published on 08/12/2022 - 12h20

"Relatives of the 'woman in the abandoned house' are being investigated for abandonment of an incapable person"; "Understand why the woman in the abandoned house cannot be arrested"; "The Woman in the Abandoned House: How is the health of rescued dogs"; "The Woman in the Abandoned House: find out how the people in the case are doing"; "Why can't the FBI arrest the 'woman in the abandoned house?'"; "The Woman in the Abandoned House: See new photos from inside the mansion"; "'Peace is over': the impact of the 'abandoned house' podcast in Higienópolis".

Published on 07/15/2022 - 15h30

"It looked like a dolphin showing off." This is how the president of Caixa Econômica Federal is portrayed in the pool. As Reinaldo Azevedo wrote, the Bolsonaro government is so absurd that it lacks verisimilitude. The flipper moment might not have passed in the analysis of this B-movie script that is the country. The phrase reported to Folha certainly does: "I'm in the mood for you." Not even a mythological being, in the water or in the office, can speak so nauseatingly.

Published on 07/12/2022 - 14h40

Going to the Amazon to do journalism is one of the most challenging jobs nowadays. And it's where the exercise of the profession is under constant threat. It is not an adventure, as President Jair Bolsonaro says, whose bravado sponsors a retrograde and opportunistic vision of the most important biome on the planet.

Published on 06/24/2022 - 13h24

Mario Sergio Conti, last weekend, wrote about the semicolon?s risk of extinction. He also recalled that "exclamation points abound, buried in the newspaper by the swashbuckling columnists." I add another pesky abundance to the analysis: the colon sign.

Published on 06/07/2022 - 14h08

The Duke of Caxias, on horseback, wields his sword. The statue of the patron of the Army is immense, but the granite block that houses it is even larger, disproportionate. The whole statue is more than 40 meters high, but, at eye level, it is the pedestal that draws the attention of those in Praça Princesa Isabel. The asymmetry only increases with the unfinished setback and lack of a garden surrounding the monument. São Paulo takes poor care of its public spaces, but this one seems out of place from conception. Folha readers, in the last week, saw Caxias up close. A series of images of the square was taken from a drone. The place was in the news for housing the new cracolândia, after the previous stronghold, a few blocks away, was demobilized in March by the police or drug trafficking. Two versions coexist in the press. On Wednesday (11), however, police and public agents surrounded the area. The shift tactic is to disperse users and avoid crowds at all costs, making drug consumption and traffickers' work possible. The problem is in the at any cost, something that the newspaper until Saturday (14) discussed little, privileging the factual report of the chaos. Hygiene in the square was successful. The images from above showed the space full of tents and dirt, then just dirt and clean on Thursday (12). The comparison spent two days in a row in a prominent position on the newspaper's website and ended up on the front page of the print. However, the big picture of the coverage was on the cover of Cotidiano. In the square, the now earthly frame by photographer Danilo Verpa forgot about Caxias and showed a mass of people sitting on the floor around the granite block. Lots of lost eyes under the orders of municipal guards. What from afar looked like dirt up close translated into people. All this was supposed to be just a semiotic digression by the ombudsman, but on Friday (13), the newspaper published the editorial "Beyond repression." When analyzing the issue and defending support for dependents, Folha stressed that "retaking the space occupied by cracolândia is a duty." Hours earlier, civil police officers had shot at users in the middle of Avenida Rio Branco. One person was killed. A clean square is not worth so much. Much less Caxias.

Published on 05/30/2022 - 13h35