The US State Department revoked the visa of Brazil's ambassador to Washington and said the quiet part out loud: it is retaliation for Brasília withholding agrément from Trump's pick to serve as the ambassador to Brazil. Two months before the first round, that is not a protocol dispute. It is leverage.

Gustavo Ribeiro is joined by James Green, professor at Brown University and chairman of the board of the Washington Brazil Office, to unpack the escalation and what it may be building toward — including the case that isolating Brazil lays the groundwork for questioning the October results.

They also take stock of the rest of a rough week in the neighborhood: relations with Argentina downgraded to chargé d'affaires level after Javier Milei's insults delivered on Brazilian soil, and Lula's unforced error on Paraguay, which reopened the wound of the War of the Triple Alliance. On the same day the visa news broke, Marco Rubio was hosting Paraguay's vice president and signing a nuclear cooperation deal.

Then to the campaign: Flávio Bolsonaro's running mate, why no major party wants to join either ticket, and how the public campaign fund and TV ad rules quietly favor the incumbent.