Musk’s Latin America effect

Musk’s visit comes at a time of voter restlessness across Latin America. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( The richest man on the planet looks to be heading to Brazil to see the Trump of the Tropics. Whether intentionally political or not, it’s a good look for Jair Bolsonaro five months out from elections. Brazilian media report that Tesla billionaire Elon Musk will fly in today to meet with the president, whose nativism, judge-bashing and, not least, a fondness for social media, earned him the comparison to former US President Donald Trump. They will discuss rural broadband and monitoring of the Amazon, O Globo newspaper reported. Key reading: - [Elon Musk Is Expected to Visit Brazil to Meet With Bolsonaro]( - [Commodities Giant Latin America Is Poised for a Green Revolution]( - [Colombian Election Transformed by Surge for Outsider, Poll Finds]( - [Lula Gets Married, Boosting Family-Man Credentials Ahead of Vote]( Bolsonaro faces leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in the election in October, and Musk was a darling of the incumbent’s supporters even before announcing that he’s buying Twitter and shifting his political allegiance to the US Republicans. Bolsonaro has had Twitter posts taken down for breaching rules against spreading falsehoods, and Musk’s plan to use the platform to defend “free speech” is a boon so close to the election. Musk’s intervention comes at a time of voter restlessness across Latin America. Mexico, Argentina and Peru have all shifted to the left in recent years. In March, a 36-year-old former student protest leader, Gabriel Boric, became Chile’s youngest-ever president pledging to tackle inequality. The next test is Colombia, where polls for the May 29 presidential first round show Gustavo Petro leading his conservative rival on a platform of phasing out the oil and coal industries. Petro is instead tapping into a well of environmentalism and support for indigenous rights, especially among the young, that he says lie at the root of the gulf between rich and poor. That’s a potential revolution in a commodities-rich, yet deeply unequal region. Brazil, as Latin America’s heavyweight economy, is the litmus test of whether real change is coming. Bolsonaro, armed with his Twitter account, will surely do all he can to prevent it. — [Alan Crawford]( A campaign rally for Petro in Cucuta, Colombia, on May 5. Photographer: Nathalia Angarita/Bloomberg Click [here]( for this week’s most compelling political images and share this newsletter with others too. They can sign up [here](. Global Headlines Building ties | Joe Biden started his first presidential trip to South Korea and Japan with a visit to a Samsung semiconductor complex today as he seeks to [bolster]( supply chains that reduce US reliance on China. He’s also looking to firm up support for plans to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion and counter security threats posed by Beijing and North Korea. - Biden’s visit comes as Pyongyang appears to be [readying]( to launch another intercontinental ballistic missile and possibly conduct its first nuclear weapons test since 2017. - The US president is also expected to [unveil]( his Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, although some Asian nations are reluctant to sign up because the specifics of the plan are unclear. Defense discord | German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed in February to end decades of military underfunding with a debt-financed $105 billion defense package, overturning key tenets of the country’s foreign policy since World War II. Now that fund is facing [headwinds](, with a parliamentary vote set for today being postponed because parties couldn’t agree on how to spend the money. - Read the latest developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine [here](. - The US Senate [passed]( a more than $40 billion aid package for Ukraine, significantly larger than Biden had requested, and sent the measure to the president for his signature. Humanity’s future | A single microbe has [destabilized]( health-care systems, unbalanced economies and confounded government leaders worldwide. [Brian Bremner]( outlines why humanity repeatedly fails to deal with contagions on a massive scale such as Covid-19 even as new challenges emerge, from the outbreak of rare viral monkeypox to an unexplained run of child hepatitis. China’s coronavirus lockdowns mean its economic growth may [undershoot]( the US’s for the first time in almost 50 years, Bloomberg Economics writes in a report. It estimates the expansion of the world’s second-largest economy at just 2% this year which, if borne out, would be the first time that China’s full-year growth has lagged its rival since 1976, when it was emerging from the tumultuous decade of the Cultural Revolution. Best of Bloomberg Opinion - [There’s One Way to Wean India Off Russian Weapons: Mihir Sharma]( - [US, China, Russia and an Avalanche of History: Niall Ferguson]( - [Why All the Social Networks Want to Be Like TikTok: Parmy Olson]( Supporting growth | China’s plans to bolster growth as Covid outbreaks and lockdowns crush activity will see a whopping $5.3 trillion [pumped]( into its economy this year. The figure — based on Bloomberg’s calculations of announced monetary and fiscal measures — is about a third of its $17 trillion economy, but is smaller than the stimulus in 2020 when the pandemic first hit. Explainers you can use - [How Huawei Landed at the Center of Global Tech Tussle]( - [What Is the ‘Quad’ and Should China Fear It?]( - [Why Wiping Out Smallpox Has Stoked Risk of Monkeypox]( Final days | Australia’s election campaign is in the final sprint, with the opposition Labor Party leading the Liberal National Coalition in voter surveys. With wrong calls by pollsters in the 2019 vote hanging over tomorrow’s [ballot](, Labor is trying to stick the blame for rising inflation and tepid wage growth on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to deny his party a fourth term in office. Bloomberg TV and Radio air Balance of Power with [David Westin]( weekdays from 12 to 1 p.m. ET, with a second hour on Bloomberg Radio from 1 to 2 p.m. ET. You can watch and listen on Bloomberg channels and online [here]( or check out prior episodes and guest clips [here](. News to Note - Canada joined its closest intelligence allies in [banning]( Huawei from fifth-generation wireless networks, saying the Chinese company poses a threat to its national security. - A group of the world’s richest nations offered South Africa [debt guarantees]( as part of a proposed $8.5 billion deal to cut reliance on coal for power generation, sources say. - UK consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in at least 48 years after a surge in the cost-of-living left people more [gloomy]( than at the depths of the 1970s energy crisis. - A top adviser to Biden dismissed calls for the US to [unilaterally]( lift sanctions against Venezuela, saying more democratic steps are needed before relief. Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). The leader of which country mobilized the military to help fight a Covid-19 outbreak that is threatening to overwhelm its health system? Send your answers to balancepower@bloomberg.net. And finally ... Farmers across the world — raising more than 40 billion pigs, cows, buffalo, sheep, goats and poultry to slaughter for your plate — are contending with near-record [prices]( for livestock feed as supplies of grains and soy shrink. Everything from electricity bills to transport fees have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine, compounding challenges including droughts and bird-flu outbreaks and meaning the cost of meat will stay high for some time. An avian influenza outbreak across the Northern Hemisphere killed 37 million birds. Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Balance of Power newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022