Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

A hundred years ago, a single event launched the modern artistic culture of Brazil, which

managed to remain independent from decades of rocky politics. We ask how art today is

surviving the current president's nationalism and cultural esfixia.

And when Thailand's army seized power in 2014, it vowed to clean up Bangkok's streets.

In practice, that's meant evicting most street food traders. Our correspondent

reckons street food is so central to the city's culture that the campaign may never be complete.

First up, though.

Tunisia is often referred to as the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring.

It may not hang on to that distinction for long. For the past decade, the only real change

Tunisians have seen is a conveyor belt of governments, ten of them. The latest leader,

President Kaís Sayed, was voted in on a landslide as a reformer, a clean-up man.

But so far, all he's done is consolidate power. Last summer, he said he'd rule by decree

and sent a tank to the doors of parliament. Plenty of Tunisians tolerated the move, even cheerded.

The head of the executive had a grip on the legislature with only the judiciary to check his power.

Last weekend, that fell too. On Sunday, the Tunisian President moved against the country's third

and final branch of government. Greg Carlstrom is a Middle East correspondent for the economist.

He had already suspended parliament last summer, along with much of the constitution.

He'd moved Tunisia towards being more of a strong presidential system. Now he's set his

sights on the country's judiciary. He issued a decree that dissolved what's called the Supreme

Judicial Council and replaced it with what he says as a temporary alternative. He's aggregated

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