Good morning! Why did São Paulo skies turn dark in the middle of the afternoon? Brazilian soy in the middle of the U.S.-China trade war. Presidential pressure sees tax secretary sacked. (This newsletter is for platinum subscribers only. Become one now!)
Did Bolsonaro turn day into night?
Citizens of São Paulo were shocked on Monday afternoon as the city’s skies became abnormally dark around 3 pm, three hours before sunset. While the National Institute of Meteorology put the phenomenon down to incredibly thick low cloud and an incoming cold front, Twitter users were quick to make a connection between the unusual darkness and a cloud of smoke coming from deliberate forest fires in Brazil’s North. Experts from the National Institute of Space Research (Inpe) dismissed claims that the dark clouds were a result of the traveling mass of smoke, but conceded that fires from Paraguay and Brazil’s Center-West state of Mato Grosso may have made some contribution.
Why it matters. Inpe data has shown that forest fires have increased 82% in Brazil this year, concentrated largely in the state of Rondônia, the south of Pará, and Mato Grosso. Cities with the most fires are also those which...