The Bolsonaro administration’s ticking time-bomb

The only time during the whole of the coronavirus pandemic that Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has looked genuinely shaken was during his weekly Facebook Live session on the evening of June 18th. Appearing dishevelled in a baggy anorak that contrasted oddly with the tidy rows of books behind him, the usually voluble far-right leader was despondent. But he had not been reduced to a near stupor by the mounting death toll from Covid-19 and a soaring infection rate which meant tens of thousands more Brazilians were certain to die. Nor was it any realisation that his administration had spectacularly botched its response to the outbreak. Or that his own trenchant denialism about the virus was...