Rodrigo Brandao

Comms professional and nonfiction filmmaker. Founder @storyjusticepr / Former comms director @TheIntercept and @KinoLorber

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

It was long delayed, but here they come: the Israeli concentration camps.

[Whitney Webb @_whitneywebb]

We've been quiet recently because Mark Goodwin and I have been working to write the most comprehensive investigation into Polymarket's origins and ambitions to date.

We found that Polymarket's "official" origin story, that Shayne Coplan founded the company alone in 2020 and then built "the company in his bathroom", is a lie. Polymarket really started years earlier as another company called TokenBnk that was deeply tied to Israeli interests, specifically a crypto company founded by Benjamin Netanyahu's niece and nephew. Coplan has actively tried to obfuscate this company from his story and it's not the only thing either.

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we unravel the real history of Polymarket, directly connecting the company to Peter Thiel's efforts to resurrect controversial DARPA programs from its now defunct Information Awareness Office. Polymarket appears to have been chosen by Thiel and his associates to succeed in resurrecting DARPA's Policy Analysis Market where another Thiel-linked company, Augur, had previously failed.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where we explore the current influence of prediction markets and Polymarket, including how an insidious effort to have prediction markets replace representative democracy as a governance model is already being slowly implemented by the White House.

Read Part 1 here: https://t.co/xTmU5RzoZz

[Rodrigo Brandao @BrandaoNYC]

I wonder if Eggers has seen HARD TO BE A GOD, by the late Russian master Aleksei German. Seeing some direct influences on his @werwulfmovie trailer. (I worked on the US release of German's film and edited the trailer below during my @KinoLorber era.) https://t.co/oPZ6akWdHe

[Werwulf @werwulfmovie]

Do not dread the darkness. Embrace it.

Robert Eggers' WERWULF is only in theaters this Christmas.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Karl: Israel is a Jewish state. That’s in the charter. Do you support that?

Mamdani: I’ve said time and again that I support the state of Israel as a state with equal rights.

Karl: As jewish state?

Mamdani: I believe that any state that privileges one religion over another is one that I can’t tell you I support, whether it be Israel or Saudi Arabia or anywhere else. And a lot of that comes back to a fundamental belief that we should all be considered equal, no matter what our faith is.

[Bhaskar Sunkara @sunraysunray]

The margins are large enough that this should be rephrased as “there's some hurt feelings tonight, particularly among campaign staff and paid organizers of color.”

Everyone agrees DSA need a deeper social base. But they don't have one either!

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Supreme Court Sentences Bolsonaro’s Son to Prison Over US Lobbying Campaign

Former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced by Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday to four years and two months in prison, finding that he illegally lobbied the Trump administration to sanction Brazilian judges and pressure them to halt his father’s coup trial.

The unanimous ruling also bars him from public office for eight years. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, himself sanctioned by Washington last July, said a Brazilian lawmaker’s job “is not to lobby overseas against his own country.”

Eduardo, who has been living in the U.S. since February 2025, was sentenced in absentia. His father is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula.

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Welcome to the greatest city on Earth.

Here are some tips and tricks for how to get around and make the most of your time here.

Learn more at https://t.co/mki8gOyIED.

[Rodrigo Brandao @BrandaoNYC]

@artieharris25 @Brianr4NY Art, you loser bot!

[Brian Romero, MSW @Brianr4NY]

Today was so special in many ways. I will fight for every queer and trans New Yorker, especially my neighbors, with everything I have.

Fuck ICE. Free Palestine. Tax the rich!

[Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod]

Claudia Sheinbaum has approval ratings of between 70 and 80%, thanks to her progressive policies which have lifted over 8 million people out of poverty.

So of course the @NYTimes finds some reason to attack her.

They hate her because she shows what can be done.

[Brian Romero, MSW @Brianr4NY]

NEW: With the ongoing threats of unregulated artificial intelligence on labor, the environment, and more today I’m releasing my “Regulating AI” platform.

1️⃣ A data center moratorium
2️⃣ The end of surveillance and auto employment decision-making tools being used on workers
3️⃣ Banning AI therapy

[Brian Romero, MSW @Brianr4NY]

HUGE NEWS! I’m SO honored to be endorsed by my friend and the Mayor our city has needed, @ZohranKMamdani.

From our time in the Assembly to now we have always been great partners.

Let’s make NY affordable, protect immigrant and LGBT NYers, and tax the rich!

[KimStim @KimStimFilms]

Wonderful sold-out 🔥QA /wMANAS' Marianna Brennand & Journalist @sarahl_sax at @FilmForumNYC last night!! Brennand discussed how she brought a decade of doc research into the exploitation of women and girls in the Amazon rainforest to make the powerful film. One more tonight!

[KimStim @KimStimFilms]

We have moderators for post-screening MANAS QAs! 5/22 w/human rights researcher & investigative journalist @sarahl_sax, 5/23 w/social & environmental justice communications Rodrigo @BrandaoNYC.
@FilmForumNYC @manasfilme

[William De Lucca @delucca]

Ué gente eu achei que o Mario Frias havia dito seu filme não tinha recebido um centavo do Daniel Vorcaro.

Ele estava agradecendo o que aqui então?

[Fabio @oifabio2026]

@pfigueiredo08 Filme: "ele enfrentou o sistema"

Realidade:

[Rodrigo Brandao @BrandaoNYC]

I hope you can some reporting on this @AndreasWiseman

[Rodrigo Brandao @BrandaoNYC]

According to a report by @TheInterceptBr, the upcoming biopic about Jair Bolsonaro starring @reallycaviezel, directed by @CyrusNowrasteh, was shot in Brazil irregularly, without meeting requirements from the country's film agency Ancine. https://t.co/XW7CwLRqdh @deadline @variety

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Congratulations to Mayor Mamdani. He inherited a huge budget deficit, brought it down to zero, and still invested in childcare, housing and city infrastructure.

When municipal governments stand with working families, not billionaires, there is nothing they cannot accomplish.

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

Pretty impressive run for Mamdani here