Rio de Janeiro Governor Cláudio Castro confirmed on Thursday the dismissal of Transport Secretary Washington Reis and appointed Priscila Haidar Sakalem, a long-time adviser and tax-law specialist, to head the state’s Transport and Urban Mobility department. The change, published in an extraordinary edition of the state’s Official Gazette, follows Reis’s contentious removal on 3 July by State Assembly President Rodrigo Bacellar while Castro was abroad. Castro called Bacellar’s action “intempestive and disrespectful” but said Reis’s exit had already been under discussion because of policy disagreements, including a disputed proposal to cut rail and metro fares to R$4.70 — an initiative the governor said lacked technical backing. In the same decree, Castro reversed Bacellar’s earlier dismissal of Kennedy de Assis Martins from the Institute of Weights and Measures, signalling an attempt to steady relations with parties whose support will be critical in the 2026 gubernatorial race. Separately in Brasília, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sent to the Senate the nomination of Maria Marluce Caldas Bezerra, a 37-year veteran of the Alagoas state prosecutor’s office, for a vacancy on the Superior Tribunal de Justiça. Lula also reconfirmed Floriano de Azevedo Marques and named Estela Aranha to the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral. All three nominees must undergo confirmation hearings in the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee before their appointments are finalised.