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Gabriela Sá Pessoa

Freelance journalist based in São Paulo, Brazil

Who I am

I am an journalist working as a stringer in Sao Paulo for The Associated Press.  My works have been published by revista piauí, Rest of World, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, BBC, UOL, and Folha de S.Paulo. I have also done research and fact-checking for documentaries. I was the 2023 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow at MIT Center for International Studies, The Boston Globe and The New York Times. 

Jornalista e pesquisadora. Trabalho como freelancer em São Paulo para a Associated Press, revista piauí, Rest of World e outros veículos.  Já publiquei no The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, BBC, UOL e Folha de S.Paulo. Também tenho experiêcia com pesquisa e checagem para audiovisual. Em 2023, vivi nos EUA como IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow, em uma temporada no MIT, The Boston Globe e New York Times.

What I've been doing

revista piauí - _pra quem tem um clique a mais •

Cocaína, álcool, bingo e… bets - revista piauí

Quando o médico Hermano Tavares começou a estudar o vício em jogos, nos anos 1990, o problema da vez eram os bingos. Em São Paulo, jogadores compulsivos que perdiam até o salário do mês de olho nas cartelas buscavam ajuda no Hospital de Clínicas, onde Tavares concluía sua residência em psiquiatria. O bingo seria proibido em 2004. Hoje, porém, o acesso a apostas rápidas está literalmente na palma da mão: o celular permite que se coloque dinheiro em partidas de futebol e em jogos como o Fortune Ti...
Rest of World •

Uber and Chinese-owned rival 99 have a common enemy in Brazil

“Uber Moto: Rio de Janeiro has it,” declared a digital billboard along one of São Paulo’s busiest streets last month. “São Paulo doesn’t.”


The ad, from Uber, is the latest in a monthslong battle that has pitted the ride-hailing giant against the São Paulo city government, which banned motorcycle transport via app in 2023. Uber has found an unlikely ally in its Chinese-owned competitor, 99.


Brazil, home to more than 211 million people, is the largest ride-hailing market in the region, and t...
revista piauí - _pra quem tem um clique a mais •

Quando os socialistas fazem o “L” - revista piauí

Era junho de 2004 e o governo Lula, iniciado havia pouco mais de um ano, acelerava “a rota para o precipício”. Assim dizia (ainda diz) o quinto parágrafo do programa do Partido Socialismo e Liberdade, o Psol. Aprovado em uma convenção com cerca de setecentos militantes, em pleno domingo, no Minas Brasília Tênis Clube, o texto inaugurou “a verdadeira oposição ao governo Lula”, nas palavras do então deputado federal Babá. O mundo só recebeu a notícia no dia seguinte, quando, postados em frente a u...
AP News •

Brazil ex-President Bolsonaro will stand trial over an alleged coup plan. Here’s what happens next

SAO PAULO (AP) — A panel of Brazil Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled that former President Jair Bolsonaro and seven of his associates will stand trial on five counts, including attempting to stage a coup after the far-right leader lost the 2022 election.The panel will review existing evidence, potentially gather new evidence and hear testimonies. Legal experts estimate that Bolsonaro could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison, though his actual jail time — if convicted — would be less...
AP News •

Oscar fever for Brazil's Fernanda Torres has made her this year's Carnival muse

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Carnival muse this year isn’t one of the divas or drum queens parading with the Rio de Janeiro samba schools. It’s Fernanda Torres, who’s competing for the best actress Oscar on Sunday.The Oscars fall smack in the middle of Carnival, Brazil’s largest celebration, which runs through Tuesday. During the five-day revelry, the rest of the universe usually fades into the background as Brazilians cut loose and indulge.Not this year, and the keen focus on the Oscars speaks to...
Quatro cinco um •

Ina Kerner analisa o alvo comum da extrema direita

Uma viagem ao México e à América Central como mochileira no começo dos anos 90 mudaria para sempre o rumo da trajetória intelectual de Ina Kerner, cientista política e professora no departamento de estudos culturais da Universidade Koblenz, na Alemanha. “Vivi coisas que, na época, não conseguia explicar, como ser recebida e tratada extremamente bem em quase todos os lugares aonde fui, enquanto, de volta à Alemanha, migrantes estavam sendo mortos por extremistas de direita”, ela conta, em entrevi...
AP News •

Brazilian film 'I’m Still Here' tops box office, forcing nation to reckon with dictatorship trauma

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian-made dramas rarely last long in local cinemas. But, nearly two months after its release, “I’m Still Here,” a film about a family torn apart by the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for more than two decades, has drawn millions of moviegoers across the South American country.The film’s domestic box office success — with nearly 3 million tickets sold, it secured the fifth spot at the 2024 box office by mid December — is rooted in its exploration of a long-neglected...
revista piauí - _pra quem tem um clique a mais •

Colaboração - O bonde do tigrinho - revista piauí

Casada com um bombeiro e mãe de um menino, Tathiara Barbosa Fonseca ganhava em média 15 mil reais mensais como corretora imobiliária em Gravataí, na Região Metropolitana de Porto Alegre. Em maio de 2022, ela vivia uma fase de estabilidade financeira, depois de receber sua parte na venda de um imóvel de família. Nas horas de descanso, sacava o celular e se entretinha com influenciadores nas redes sociais.
Um dia, deslizando pelos stories do Instagram, Fonseca viu a gaúcha Tali Ramos (hoje com 1,5...
revista piauí - _pra quem tem um clique a mais •

A vida em Marçal City - revista piauí

Duas pistas da Avenida Chucri Zaidan, na Zona Sul de São Paulo, foram fechadas. Em frente ao Edifício Jornalista Roberto Marinho, sede paulista da TV Globo, carros, motos e ônibus se espremiam para atravessar um mar de apoiadores estridentes de Pablo Marçal (PRTB). Faltava mais de uma hora para o debate entre os candidatos à prefeitura de São Paulo, o último antes do primeiro turno. O ex-coach, candidato azarão que dominou a pauta da eleição até aqui, havia convidado seus eleitores para recebê-l...
AP News •

Brazil drought punishes coffee farms and threatens to push prices even higher

CACONDE, Brazil (AP) — Silvio Almeida’s coffee plantation sits at an ideal altitude on a Brazilian hillside, whose clay-rich soil does well at retaining moisture from rainfall and a nearby reservoir. Lately, though, water is scarce on Almeida’s modest farm in Caconde, a town in one of Sao Paulo state’s key growing regions. He can’t get his coffee to grow the way it should.In Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, Almeida and other farmers have started grappling with the nation’s worst drou...
AP News •

Drought is making Sao Paulo's river emerald green while smoke turns its skies grey

SAO PAULO (AP) — A major river in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo is suddenly emerald green and clear skies this week turned from blue to grey. In the late afternoon, the sun’s rays filtering through the smoky haze exhibit the color of deep orange.This isn’t a fantasy world: Environmental threats in recent days have transformed the colors of the city’s landscape.The state’s environmental authority attributes the Pinheiros River’s new green hue to an algae bloom, the result of severe drough...
AP News •

On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world

SAO PAULO (AP) — The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians on Saturday had difficulty and doubts over navigating other social media in its absence.The shutdown of Elon Musk’s platform started early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country, missing a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Al...
AP News •

Brazilian moms are leading the charge to secure CBD for sick kids

SAO PAULO (AP) — The 4-year-old boy struggled to balance while walking through the living room. His mother’s eyes attentively followed his every move. Then a seizure knocked him to the ground, the dull thud of his small body echoing through the home.On this July morning in Guaruja, a coastal city in Brazil’s state of Sao Paulo, Murillo quickly regained his senses as his mom, Janaína Silva, cradled him.“From five minutes of agony, it’s now just seconds,” Silva said, recalling how only three month...
AP News •

Masked assailants ransack Venezuela opposition leader's headquarters as post-election tensions mount

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A half dozen masked assailants ransacked the headquarters of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in the latest escalation of violence against opponents of Nicolás Maduro following the country’s disputed presidential election.The raid occurred at around 3 a.m., Machado’s party said, adding that the assailants broke down doors and hauled away valuable documents and equipment. Images published by Machado’s party on social media show several walls covered in b...
AP News •

Brazil's Pantanal wetlands fire season hasn't officially started but it's already breaking records

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s massive Pantanal wetlands haven’t technically entered annual fire season, but already the number of blazes has broken records and is leading experts to predict this year will be the most devastating in decades.

Typically dry out and are prone to fires But the National Space Research Institute’s satellites spotted over 2,500 fires in the region in June alone -- by far the most ever recorded for the month in data going back to 1998. It’s more than six times the amount in
AP News •

Outraged Brazilian women stage protests against bill to equate late abortions with homicide

SAO PAULO (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Sao Paulo on Saturday as protests sweep across Brazil in opposition to a bill that would further criminalize abortions. If passed, the law would equate the termination of a pregnancy after 22 weeks with homicide.

The bill, proposed by conservative lawmakers and heading for a vote in the lower house, would also apply in cases of rape. Critics say those who seek an abortion so late are mostly child rape victims, as their pregnanci
Valor Econômico •

Área do Nordeste se torna definitivamente árida

As mudanças climáticas já fizeram com que o clima do norte na Bahia mudasse de vez. Uma região da Caatinga de 5,7 mil km2, na divisa com Pernambuco, se tornou definitivamente árida - a primeira do país, mostra um estudo recente do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Inpe) e do Centro Nacional de Monitoramento e Alertas de Desastres Naturais (Cemaden). Agora, produtores rurais e cientistas somam esforços para adaptar espécies e evitar os riscos de desertificação, o que tornaria essas terra
AP News •

A second scourge is battering Brazil's flooded south: Disinformation

SAO PAULO (AP) — While flooding that has devastated Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state has yet to subside, another scourge has spread across the region: disinformation on social media that has hampered desperate efforts to get aid to hundreds of thousands in need.

Among fake postings that have stirred outrage: That official agencies aren’t conducting rescues in Brazil’s southernmost state. That bureaucracy is holding up donations of food, water and clothing. One persistent rumor contends that aut
AP News •

Caramelo, the Brazilian horse stranded on a roof by floods, is rescued after stirring the nation

CANOAS, Brazil (AP) — A Brazilian horse nicknamed Caramelo by social media users garnered national attention after a television news helicopter filmed him stranded on a rooftop in southern Brazil, where massive floods have killed more than 100 people .

About 24 hours after he was first spotted and with people clamoring for his rescue, a team in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state on Thursday successfully removed Caramelo, providing a dose of hope to a beleaguered region.

The brown horse had been
AP News •

Too much water, and not enough: Brazil's flooded south struggles to access basic goods

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (AP) — The mayor of a major city in southern Brazil on Tuesday pleaded with residents to comply with his water rationing decree, given that some four-fifths of the population is without running water, a week after major flooding that has left at least 90 people dead and more than 130 others missing.

Efforts were continuing to rescue people stranded by the floods in the , as more rains were forecast for the region into next week. The capital, Porto Alegre, has been virtually
AP News •

Revival of vinyl records in Brazil spares a 77-year-old singer – and others – from oblivion

SAO PAULO (AP) — It took almost a half century for Brazilian singer Cátia de França to find her audience, but she finally has — with the help of a near-obsolete audio technology.

Born in Paraíba, a state in Brazil’s poor northeast region, 77-year-old de França’s blend of psychedelic rock with traditional rhythms and modernist poetry long went overlooked, even as she toured the nation in the 1970s and ‘80s.

During the pandemic, she retreated to a conservation area in the mountains above , “wher
AP News •

What to know about Elon Musk's 'free speech' feud with a Brazilian judge

SAO PAULO (AP) — Headline-grabbing billionaire Elon Musk is clashing with a in Brazil over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation on X, the social media platform Musk bought when it was Twitter.

Since his many of Twitter’s policies, and transformed what people see on the site. As its owner and perhaps most influential user, he’s also used it to try to sway political discourse around the world. His latest entanglement is inside the nation of 203 million people that has the largest po
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