Polymarket's "Brazil Presidential Election" market, with nearly $150 million in trading volume, now favors right-wing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro over leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of October's election. The shift follows polling data released earlier this week showing Bolsonaro pulling ahead in a hypothetical runoff, although the candidates remain statistically tied within the margin of error.
Bolsonaro took the lead on Polymarket around 8:20 a.m. ET, and by early Thursday afternoon, he stood at around 52.8% versus Lula's 44%.
On Tuesday, the BTG Pactual/Nexus survey showed that Bolsonaro had edged ahead of Lula for the first time. This comes as a deepening Supreme Court scandal strengthens the conservative challenger's campaign.
As the gap between Bolsonaro and Lula narrowed in recent weeks and the race became a toss-up, we pointed out an "explosive surge" in call open interest in the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ).
And someone appears to be making a huge bet on just that: explosive surge in EWZ call OI https://t.co/nqFaGgms4R pic.twitter.com/uen9bXmqBw
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 8, 2026On Thursday, Citi chief Latin America economist Ernesto Revilla told clients that Latin America is "poised for take-off," as a right-wing political shift across the continent, a weaker dollar, firm commodity prices, and global supply-chain realignment were producing tailwinds for the region.
Also this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio kicked off his South America tour on Tuesday, first meeting with Trump-backed Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella to strengthen security and economic ties as several countries in the region shift toward right-wing governments.
A Bolsonaro victory would cement South America's broader shift from unhinged left-wing regimes toward the common-sense right.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/10/2026 - 18:00Authored by Tom Gantert via The Epoch Times,
The Trump administration is proposing to change how the U.S. Census is conducted by excluding illegal immigrants from the population totals that are used to determine political representation.
The Census Bureau posted a proposed rule on Wednesday that said it also wants to prohibit the inclusion of questions about race and ethnicity or sexual orientation on the census in "short-form questionnaire or any questionnaire used for purposes of the enumeration."
The proposed rule said that questions about race and sexual orientation have a "sensitive" nature and could impede responses, and removing them could lead to a higher rate of participation.
The proposed rule cites the definition of "usual residence" as a reason to exclude illegal immigrants.
It states, "Given the historical meaning of 'usual residence' as tied to allegiance, durable permission from the sovereign to settle within the United States, and establishment of domicile within the United States, the Census Bureau proposes to include lawful permanent residents within the apportionment base, while excluding from the apportionment base illegal aliens and aliens whose legal status is less durable and indefinite in length than lawful permanent resident status."
The proposal would extend beyond unauthorized immigrants. It would also exclude foreign citizens whose legal status is "less durable and indefinite in length" than lawful permanent resident status.
The Census Bureau said it is considering using its "enormously broad access" to administrative records to determine an individual's legal status.
The proposed restrictions on demographic questions would apply to the census conducted every 10 years, but not to the American Community Survey or other Census Bureau surveys.
The Census determines how the 435 seats in the House are divided among states, affects Electoral College representation, and the distribution of federal funding.
Excluding undocumented immigrants could reduce the representation of states with large immigrant populations, such as New York and California.
New York Attorney General Letitia James's office said it was exploring legal options over the proposed changes in a post on X on Wednesday.
"The Constitution is clear. Every person living in the United States, regardless of immigration status, must be counted in the Census," James's office stated.
"We stopped the Trump administration's Census attacks in 2020, and we're exploring our legal options to fight back again."
The White House didn't respond to an email seeking comment.
Trump directed the Commerce Department to develop a plan for the U.S. Census that excluded undocumented immigrants in August 2025.
Trump said the count should use modern data, including information from the 2024 election, but did not specify whether he wanted an additional Census before 2030 or a change applying to future counts.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/10/2026 - 17:40Tech professionals who add AI skills to their existing expertise can earn significantly more than those in traditional roles, according to a September 2026 study by software talent marketplace Lemon.io. In some cases, the salary premium approaches 85%, while several career transitions could take less than six months, according to Lemon.io.
The research compared established tech jobs with their AI focused equivalents using average base salary data from Indeed, Built In, and Coursera. It also analyzed Google Jobs postings and monthly search volume to determine which AI titles have genuine hiring demand. The roles were then ranked by the salary increase over their traditional counterparts.
ML site reliability engineers came out on top, earning an estimated $240,000 a year compared with $130,000 for traditional site reliability engineers. That is an increase of nearly 85%, or $110,000 annually. The role builds on distributed systems expertise while adding skills such as GPU fleet management and maintaining reliable machine learning training workloads. The transition is estimated to take five to nine months, with 587 job postings identified.
AI/GPU cloud engineers followed with a salary of $250,000, the highest overall pay in the study. Traditional cloud engineers earn around $140,000, meaning AI specialization could increase their salary by nearly 79%. The role requires additional expertise in GPU computing, high speed networking, and storage for large AI workloads. The estimated transition takes five to nine months.
AI solutions architects can earn around $215,000 a year, nearly 60% more than the $135,000 average for traditional solutions architects. The additional skills center on areas such as RAG architecture, model selection, and AI governance rather than deep infrastructure expertise. Experienced architects could potentially make the transition in three to six months, and the study found 765 job postings for the role.
The Lemon.io study shows that Software engineers moving into AI engineering could increase their average salary from $145,000 to $230,000, adding about $85,000 to their annual pay. Existing programming, system design, and CI/CD experience remains valuable, while additional skills include LLM orchestration, RAG pipelines, and AI agent frameworks. The transition takes an estimated four to eight months, and nearly 1,000 job postings were identified.
AI product managers earn an estimated $210,000 annually, compared with $135,000 for traditional product managers, a salary increase of nearly 56%. The role does not require engineering level expertise, but it does demand a solid understanding of AI technologies and their capabilities and limitations. With an estimated transition time of three to six months, it is also one of the more accessible moves in the ranking.
AI analytics engineers can increase their average salary from $122,000 to $185,000, a gain of almost 52%. The transition is among the quickest, taking an estimated three to five months. The research identified 700 job postings for the position.
AI infrastructure engineers earn around $185,000 annually, compared with $130,000 for traditional infrastructure engineers, representing an increase of about 42%. The transition takes an estimated six to 12 months, making it one of the longer paths, but hiring demand is substantial, with 993 job postings identified.
AI data architects earn approximately $190,000 a year, around 40% more than the $136,000 average for traditional data architects. Professionals could potentially make the transition within four to seven months. The study recorded 488 available positions for the role.
LLM engineers earn an estimated $215,000 annually, compared with a baseline salary of $155,000, resulting in a salary premium of nearly 39%. The role also generated more search interest than any other position in the study, with 1.27 million monthly searches. The research identified 817 job postings, while the transition is estimated to take three to six months.
AI application developers round out the top 10, earning around $180,000 a year compared with $137,000 for traditional application developers, an increase of just over 31%. Despite having the smallest salary premium in the ranking, the role had the most job openings, with 1,254 postings. The estimated transition takes four to six months.
The findings suggest that tech professionals may not need to completely change careers to benefit from growing demand for AI expertise. Adding AI capabilities to existing experience in software development, cloud computing, infrastructure, data, or product management could translate into tens of thousands of dollars in additional annual pay.
The salary advantage may not last indefinitely, however. A senior talent sourcer at Lemon.io said employers are currently paying a premium because qualified AI candidates remain relatively scarce. As more professionals acquire these skills and the talent pool expands, the gap between traditional tech salaries and their AI equivalents is likely to narrow.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/10/2026 - 17:20Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com
Protesters gathered near the US Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday to rally against joining the US war with Iran, as the South Korean government is considering deploying military forces to help the US efforts to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Carrying signs that read "Do Not Join a War of Aggression" and "No Military Deployment to Hormuz," the protesters chanted, "We cannot send our young people into a sea of death," according to AFP, which reported from the scene and estimated that about 60 people took part in the demonstration.
via AFP"Sending our troops to an illegal war waged by the United States is unacceptable," Choi Young-ok, a member of Korean Peace Solidarity for Sovereignty and Reunification, a group that is highly critical of the US military presence in South Korea, told AFP.
"There is no reason for us to send troops when no other country has done so or said it would," added Choi, who also warned that sending South Korean troops would "inevitably lead to casualties."
Also on Wednesday, the office of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said it has not yet made a final decision on whether Seoul will send troops to the Strait of Hormuz. "The government has not yet finalized its policy and is cautiously assessing it," said Seong Ghi-hong, a press secretary for the presidential office.
Due to its reliance on energy and other exports from the Persian Gulf, the US’s war with Iran has triggered an energy and economic shock in South Korea, and the US is now reportedly putting pressure on Seoul to join the war in some way.
The South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday that the South Korean Defense Ministry has sent a fact-finding mission to the region to assess the potential deployment.
The team is expected to visit the UAE, which hosts US military bases, and could serve as a hub for operations if South Korean forces are deployed to assist in the war.
Amid the South Korean government’s deliberations, Iran has warned Seoul not to get involved.
South Koreans protest a possible military deployment to the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran warns Seoul and polls show majority opposition.
Al Jazeera’s Jack Barton reports. pic.twitter.com/d3mAfiApXE
"The military presence or operational participation of other nations in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz would inevitably be viewed as direct support for the party committing acts of aggression, and would lead to serious consequences," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei wrote on X on Monday.
Tyler Durden Thu, 09/10/2026 - 17:00