United States of America Scoping: Brazil Asks What Went Wrong

Brazil Asks What Went Wrong

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Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good

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May 27, 2021

Brazil Asks What Went Wrong

Brazil's congressional inquiry into the handling of Covid-19 is unlikely to bring down President Jair Bolsonaro, despite murmurs throughout the pandemic about impeachment, Oliver Stuenkel wrote for Americas Quarterly when the panel first convened—but it threatened to be embarrassing, nonetheless.

And so it has been, writes Brazilian journalist and New York Times opinion contributor Vanessa Barbara, now that the exegesis is underway. Bolsonaro notoriously disparaged masks and suggested mRNA vaccines might turn people into crocodiles, and Barbara writes that as former ministers testify, "[t]he upshot of their accounts is obvious, yet still totally outrageous: … Bolsonaro apparently intended to lead the country to herd immunity by natural infection, whatever the consequences."

Among the dramas, Barbara notes a changing story, offered by the Bolsonaro government's former communications director, Fabio Wajngarten, as to who was responsible for an early-pandemic social-media campaign called "Brazil can't stop," which urged people not to change their habits. Wajngarten eventually said his office came up with it, but it was never approved. "A senator called for the arrest of Mr. Wajngarten, who threw a contemplative, almost poetic glance to the horizon," Barbara writes. "The camera even tried to zoom in. It was wild. That's just one episode; no wonder the inquiry holds the attention of many Brazilians."

Brazil is not alone in conducting a review. In the UK on Wednesday, Dominic Cummings, the former top aide to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, detailed to Parliament a disorganized early response to Covid-19 and questioned Johnson's fitness for the job. At The Guardian, University of Edinburgh global public-health chair Devi Sridhar writes, "In many ways, the testimony merely affirms what many public health experts suspected at the beginning of the pandemic."

Exxon's Board Shakeup: A Turning Point for Big Oil?

Climate-minded activist investors at the hedge fund Engine No. 1 succeeded in replacing at least two of ExxonMobil's 12 board members, in a shareholder vote on Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board all but calls it a travesty, casting the turn toward carbon neutrality in finance as a phenomenon of "big union pension funds"—two California state-worker pension funds are among Exxon's institutional shareholders—"… and asset managers like BlackRock … trying to get in the good graces of the anti-fossil fuel crowd who run Washington."

The Economist writes that Exxon—long viewed as "the most unrepentant in its defence of crude" among the oil majors and supermajors—could be nudged closer to the path taken by European oil giants like BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Total, which have "been pushed harder to go greener" and have turned more sharply toward diversification. The Exxon vote, the magazine writes, is "the latest sign that outside pressure for the oil business to embrace the transition to a low-carbon future is mounting."

The Indian Variant: From Hyperbolic Nomenclature to Serious Concern

"My goodness, if I get asked one more time, 'Is it the double mutant?'" Brown University public-health dean Dr. Ashish Jha remarked last month, on a public conference call to discuss India's burgeoning Covid-19 crisis. Jha was referring to a new Covid-19 variant discovered in India and bearing a name he found sensational, given that mutations—even multiple genomic adaptations—are common for SARS-CoV-2.

As evidence has grown, scientists and governments have become more concerned. In eight areas where the variant is now spreading in the UK, the government has recommended that people avoid meeting indoors. David Adam writes for Nature that as the Indian variant "has spread to dozens of other countries," including the US, experts think it could be more transmissible—by anywhere from 20% to 50%, according to one guesstimate—than others, including the UK variant already noted for its faster spread. So far, Adams hears from experts, there is no indication that the Indian variant evades immunity more easily than Covid-19's original strain.

Is a Bigger Iran Deal Possible?

Despite campaigning on the failure of former President Donald Trump's Iran policies, President Joe Biden nonetheless has yet to rejoin the Obama-orchestrated 2015 nuclear deal, as talk simmers of achieving something more expansive—for instance covering the issues of Iran's ballistic missiles and regional proxies, or extending the deal's timeline. At Foreign Affairs, Jamsheed K. Choksy and Carol E. B. Choksy argue something bigger should be possible.

In their view, Iran wouldn't pay much of a price if it accepted, once again, the nuclear restrictions it agreed to in 2015. "By continuing enrichment, Iran has demonstrated to itself and to the world that it can overcome strikes against its nuclear facilities and the assassinations of its scientists," they write; even under the old deal, they suggest, Iran could remain on the cusp of nuclear breakout. Another reason has to do with Iranian politics and geopolitics: As Iran relies on Russia and China for support in the face of US demands at the UN, its history with colonial powers makes Iranians wary of needing outside help, the authors write. In March, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei signaled the deal could be changed if the alterations were "in favor of Iran"; to the authors, this adds up to realistic prospects of a broadened agreement.