Brazil by the Numbers

Today we’re launching Brazil by the Numbers, a weekly digest of the most interesting figures tucked inside the latest news about Brazil. Random numbers that help explain what is going on in Brazil. Send any suggestions to contribute@brazilian.report

10 days of rest

President Jair Bolsonaro will undergo surgery on September 8 to remove a hernia from his abdomen, which was caused by the three previous procedures he underwent after being stabbed last year during a campaign rally. Mr. Bolsonaro’s intestines suffered several perforations, causing a loss of 2.5 liters of blood, which brought the president very close to death. Click here to recover information on the assassination attempt—and how it shaped Brazilian politics in the past year. His doctor, Antonio Luiz Macedo, said the president should be released from the hospital in time to attend the United Nations General Assembly, on September 22. Since 1955, Brazil has opened the 5-day “general debate,” for a very curious reason: “In very early times, when no one wanted to speak first, Brazil always … offered to do it,” Desmond Parker, the UN’s protocol chief, told NPR in 2010.

50,000 new clients per day

Digital bank Nubank announced that it has reached the milestone of 10 million active digital bank accounts. Founded in 2013, the fintech has an astonishing growth rate of 50,000...