Posh-looking drivers in expensive cars are honking their horns on a beachfront avenue in Rio de Janeiro, blaring their approval at a vendor selling green-and-yellow Brazilian flags outside President Jair Bolsonaro's former home.
Welcome to Barra da Tijuca, the neighborhood known as the "Brazilian Miami," a bastion of support for the far-right incumbent as he fights to win reelection in his October 30 runoff battle against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).
Known for its upscale shopping malls, gated communities and luxury condos with sweeping views of the emerald coastline, Barra voted heavily for Bolsonaro in the first-round election on October 2, when Lula took 48 percent of the vote nationwide, to 43 percent for the incumbent.
In Barra, Bolsonaro won 50 percent of the vote, to 37 percent for Lula -- a preference visible in the abundance of Brazilian flags fluttering from the west-side neighborhood's balconies, a symbol adopted by the president's supporters.
"People here in Barra are very in sync with Bolsonaro ideologically. The majority of people support him, because there are a lot of businesspeople," says resident Felipe Fontenelle, a 58-year-old entrepreneur who owns a communications security firm and stakes in two restaurants.
Lula, he warns, represents "communism."
Developed in 1969 by renowned modernist urban planner Lucio Costa, Barra underwent a demographic boom in the 1980s, becoming a magnet for celebrities, politicians and the upwardly mobile as they sought a haven from the city's violence.
Now home to some 135,000 people, its elite status was cemented when it was chosen as the site for the Olympic village for the 2016 Rio Games.
"It's a neighborhood for the nouveau riche, especially people who believe in the idea of the self-made man: that they worked hard and succeeded," says sociologist Paulo Gracino Junior of Candido Mendes University, calling it an enclave of executives, professionals and military top brass.
He points out it is also home to ex-cop Ronnie Lessa, a convicted arms trafficker who is the chief suspect in the 2018 killing of black LGBT activist and Rio city councillor Marielle Franco.
Lessa and Bolsonaro lived on the same street.
Bolsonaro, then a congressman representing Rio, moved to Barra with his family in the 2000s.
They still own the house they bought in Vivendas da Barra, a gated community that sits behind a cement wall topped with barbed wire.
The private condo has become a rallying point for Bolsonaro backers.
Visiting Rio from the southern state of Santa Catarina, retired lawyer Mirian Rebelo and her son Rodrigo, a dentist, stopped there to take selfies, both sporting Tommy Hilfiger T-shirts and sunglasses.
"I love the president's focus on the family. And he doesn't mince words. He speaks his mind," says Mirian, 65.
"Every country deserves a Bolsonaro," says Rodrigo, 41, praising the president's "crackdown on corruption and the ideology of evil."
Cacalo Matarazzo, a lawyer and jiu-jitsu teacher who lives next door to Bolsonaro's condo complex, says he counts the president as a friend.
"Everyone here knows him well. He even invited me over for coffee before his inauguration" in 2019, says the stern, square-jawed 73-year-old, after proudly showing a series of photographs of himself with Bolsonaro on his cell phone.
"But it's not just about Bolsonaro, it's about a guy who's fighting to build a better Brazil."
Matarazzo is no fan of Lula, who makes a cameo among the Bolsonaro merch on sale out front.
There, the veteran leftist, who was jailed in 2018 on controversial, since-overturned corruption charges, appears in effigy as an inflatable doll in a prison uniform.
"Thief! Scum! Son of a bitch!" Matarazzo spits at the image of the former president.
Sportscaster Jessica Kaimu didn't know the world was watching when she reacted to the news anchor like this.
You can always count on the ex-president to processes bad news in a calm and controlled manner. He was in fine form following the hearing on Thursday
“This is about doing what is right,” an attorney stated.
The daylight kidnapping of a 14-year-old in Los Angeles was caught on chilling surveillance footage before the suspect allegedly sexually assaulted the victim in a park bathroom.
George Stephanopoulos recalled then-candidate Donald Trump had a fit off-camera over interview questions about Russia.
Alexandra Daddario is in Paris, and she took a moment to go nude and makeup free in an Instagram selfie. Alex believes her skin health is tied to mental health.
Russian forces have been forced to pull obsolete, Soviet-era tanks from storage to compensate for the losses of modern equipment in battle.
A woman claims she was told she dressed inappropriately at work — so she asked TikTok for feedback.
The actor is honoring his late father.
Trump asked the Supreme Court to jump intro a thorny legal dispute over roughly 100 classified documents seized by the FBI at his Mar-a-Lago club.
The Prince and Princess of Wales may make an important trip to NYC during their visit to the States.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyThe Jan. 6 Committee’s issuing a subpoena to former President Donald Trump makes clear that our country is not on the brink of a Constitutional crisis—it’s already in a Constitutional crisis.The definition of just what is a Constitutional crisis may be debated, but in plain English it’s where the structure of our Constitution is stressed or broken.The Justice Department Needs to Get Out of Its Own Way in the Trump InvestigationsPresident
Thursday's disclosure of internal Secret Service communications is not the first time the agency has pulled back the curtain on a president's conduct.
Greene stood up for her fellow conspiracy theorist after a jury ordered Jones to pay $965 million for spreading lies about the Sandy Hook school massacre.
“That’s gonna be a big old NOPE from me,” one person commented.
"It was very cool for him to say, 'Hey I just heard that you were upset about this,'" Miller said of Reynolds. "I said, 'I'm not' and we hashed it out pretty quickly."
Jamie Lee Curtis posed nude behind a rock and in a bathing suit and fishnets for the New York Times. She prioritizes sleep and uses Nivea beauty products.
It's giving mermaid meets raver.
UKRAINSKA PRAVDA - THURSDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2022, 23:07 The head of a department at the office of the Mayor of Moscow was sent to fight in Ukraine without any combat experience. Russian media report that the official has been killed in hostilities in Ukraine.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield was a no-show at the portion of practice open to reporters on Thursday, further increasing the likelihood that P.J. Walker will start for the Carolina Panthers against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Panthers interim head coach Steve Wilks said Wednesday that he wasn't ready to rule out Mayfield from playing despite a sprained left ankle, but emphasized he would have to see the 2018 No. 1 overall draft pick practice before considering that option. Wilks took over the Panthers (1-4) on Monday after Matt Rhule was fired.