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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh-largest by population, with over 212 million people. The country is a federation composed of 26 states and a Federal District, which hosts the capital, Brasília. Its most populous city is São Paulo, followed by Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has the most Portuguese speakers in the world and is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese is an official language.

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi). Covering roughly half of South America's land area, it borders all other countries and territories on the continent except Ecuador and Chile. Brazil encompasses a wide range of tropical and subtropical landscapes, as well as wetlands, savannas, plateaus, and low mountains. It contains most of the Amazon basin, including the world’s largest river system and most extensive virgin tropical forest. Brazil has diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. The country ranks first among 17 megadiverse countries, with its natural heritage being the subject of significant global interest, as environmental degradation (through processes such as deforestation) directly affect global issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

Brazil was inhabited by various indigenous peoples prior to the landing of Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500. It was claimed and settled by Portugal, which imported enslaved Africans to work on plantations. Brazil remained a colony until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of a united kingdom with Portugal after the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro. Prince Pedro of Braganza declared the country's independence in 1822, establishing the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Brazil's first constitution in 1824 established a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress, and enshrined principles such as freedom of religion and the press, but retained slavery, which was gradually abolished throughout the 19th century until its final abolition in 1888. Brazil became a presidential republic following a military coup d'état in 1889. An armed revolution in 1930 put an end to the First Republic and brought Getúlio Vargas to power. While initially committing to democratic governance, Vargas assumed dictatorial powers following a self-coup in 1937, marking the beginning of the Estado Novo. Democracy was restored after Vargas' ousting in 1945. An authoritarian military dictatorship emerged in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, enacted in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic.

Brazil is a regional and middle power and rising global power. It is an emerging, upper-middle income economy and newly industrialized country, with one of the 10 largest economies in the world in both nominal and PPP terms, the largest economy in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest share of wealth in South America. With a complex and highly diversified economy, Brazil is one of the world's major or primary exporters of various agricultural goods, mineral resources, and manufactured products. Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, G4, Mercosur, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries; it is also an observer state of the Arab League and a major non-NATO ally of the United States. (Full article...)

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São Paulo (/ˌs ˈpl/; Portuguese: [sɐ̃w ˈpawlu] ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the capital of the state of São Paulo, as well as the most populous city in Brazil, the Americas, and both the Western and Southern Hemispheres. Listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as an alpha global city, it exerts substantial international influence in commerce, finance, arts, and entertainment. It is the largest urban area by population outside Asia and the most populous Portuguese-speaking city in the world. The city's name honors Paul the Apostle and people from the city are known as paulistanos. The city's Latin motto is Non ducor, duco, which translates as "I am not led, I lead."

Founded in 1554 by Jesuit priests, the city was the center of the bandeirantes settlers during Colonial Brazil, but it became a relevant economic force only during the Brazilian coffee cycle in the mid-19th century and later consolidated its role as the main national economic hub with industrialization in Brazil in the 20th century, which made the city a cosmopolitan melting pot, home to the largest Arab, Italian, and Japanese diasporas in the world, with ethnic neighborhoods like Bixiga, Bom Retiro, and Liberdade, and people from more than 200 other countries. The city's metropolitan area, Greater São Paulo, is home to more than 20 million inhabitants and ranks as the most populous in Brazil and one of the most populous in the world. The process of conurbation between the metropolitan areas around Greater São Paulo also created the São Paulo Macrometropolis, the first megalopolis in the Southern Hemisphere, with more than 30 million inhabitants. (Full article...)

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Tec Toy S.A., trading as Tectoy since 1997, is a Brazilian toy and electronics company headquartered in São Paulo. It is best known for producing, publishing, and distributing Sega consoles and video games in Brazil. The company was founded by Daniel Dazcal, Leo Kryss, and Abe Kryss in 1987 because Dazcal saw an opportunity to develop a market for electronic toys and video games, product categories that competitors did not sell in Brazil at the time. The company stock is traded on the Bovespa.

Soon after its founding, Tectoy completed a licensing agreement with Sega allowing it to market a laser gun game based on the Japanese anime Zillion, which sold more units in Brazil than in Japan. Tectoy would later bring the Master System and Mega Drive to the region, as well as Sega's later video game consoles and the Sega Meganet service. Other products developed by Tectoy include educational toys such as the Pense Bem, karaoke machines, and original Master System and Mega Drive games released exclusively in Brazil, such as Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau and Portuguese translations and alternate versions of video games. Over its history, Tectoy has diversified to include more electronic products, such as DVD and Blu-ray players and the Zeebo console. While successful at times, the company has also undergone debt restructuring in 2000 and actions to consolidate its two public stock offerings into one. (Full article...)

Bündchen in 2015

Gisele Caroline Bündchen (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒiˈzɛli ˈbĩtʃẽ], German: [ˈbʏntçn̩], born 20 July 1980) is a Brazilian fashion model. Since 2001, she has been one of the highest-paid models in the world. In 2007, Bündchen was the 16th-richest woman in the entertainment industry and earned the top spot on Forbes top-earning models list in 2012. In 2014, she was listed as the 89th-most-powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Vogue credited Bündchen with ending the heroin chic era of modeling in 1999. Bündchen was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 1999 until 2006. She is credited with pioneering and popularizing the horse walk, a stomping movement created by a model lifting her knees high and kicking her feet to step. In 2007, Claudia Schiffer called Bündchen the only remaining supermodel. Bündchen has appeared on more than 1,200 magazine covers. (Full article...)

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Credit: Morio

Sobradinho Reservoir is both a dam and an artificial lake located in the north of the Brazilian state of Bahia and a city with the same name located near the lake. The lake is about 320 km long, with a surface of 4,214 square kilometers and a storage capacity of 34.1 cubic kilometers at its nominal elevation of 392.50 meters, making it the 12th-largest artificial lake in the world.

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