Ana Ionova | The New York Times

A gambler bets on bingo and sports simultaneously, using cash and his cell phone, in Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 22, 2024. Online gambling is booming in Brazil since it was legalized in 2018.

Americas

The mafia’s grip on a Brazilian lottery seemed invincible. Until the apps came

Digital gambling could spell the end for a lottery run by criminal gangs that has been a fixture of Brazilian life for decades.

Fernanda Torres and her mother Fernanda Montenegro, who is 95, at the Torres home in Rio de Janeiro.

Arts & Culture

A surprise blockbuster in Brazil stokes Oscar hopes, and a reckoning

Ana Ionova | The New York Times

Decades after her mother missed out on an Oscar, Brazil’s Fernanda Torres may have a chance to win a golden statuette with a role in a film that has set off deep soul-searching.

FILE Ñ A giant anteater and cub forage for food in the Caiman Ecological Refuge, in the Pantanal region of Brazil, Oct. 22, 2017. At least three anteaters have died in fires in 2024.

Americas

The world's largest wetland is burning, and rare animals are dying

Ana Ionova | The New York Times

In Brazil, wildfires have roared across the Pantanal, a maze of rivers, forests and marshlands that sprawl over an area 20 times the size of the Everglades.

People look out of the window of their apartment, in Rio de Janeiro, on April 15, 2024. Most older buildings in Rio de JaneiroÕs Copacabana neighborhood have small servantsÕ rooms and separate entrances for domestic workers. (Magdalena Arrellaga/The New York Times)

Americas

37 square feet that show Brazil’s racist past

Ana Ionova | The New York Times

In Brazil, rooms for maids, a vestige of the country’s history of slavery, are disappearing or being transformed as the country confronts deeply ingrained inequities.