Far-right senator banned from leaving country as supreme court judge’s ruling cites money-laundering case
The far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro was banned from leaving Brazil and ordered to surrender his passports just hours after his dramatic loss in the presidential election to the leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The ruling was issued by Alexandre de Moraes, the same supreme court justice who oversaw the trial of the senator’s father, the former president Jair Bolsonaro, for attempting a coup.
Activists say struggle must go on until their ‘maximum’ demands are met over teacher shortages and building repairs
French children should continue to barricade their schools and take part in street protests, a student union said on Monday after the government announced a package of education measures to try to stem the crisis.
“Today we’re at the negotiating table, we’re able to negotiate with the government,” Pierre Sourzat of Les Lycéens told France Info television. “We’re in a power struggle and we still need to call for continued mobilisation to meet a maximum of our demands.”
Two years after the Novi Sad tragedy gave birth to a youthful political movement, Sunday’s remarkable election has taken the country into a new era
This weekend it will be two years since the collapse of a shoddily constructed train station canopy in Serbia’s second city, Novi Sad. The tragedy, killing 16 people, was swiftly attributed to state corruption and failures of regulation, sparking student-led protests across the country.
Some of those demonstrators dared to imagine that they could become the catalyst for a democratic revolution.
Clarification comes after PM fuelled speculation about EU-UK relationship in series of interviews at weekend
Downing Street has been forced to clarify Andy Burnham’s stance on whether the UK would return to having freedom of movement with the EU after the prime minister said an “honest discussion” was needed on the issue.
Burnham fuelled speculation about a return to freedom of movement in an interview at the weekend, prompting questions about how close the UK could become to Brussels.
Amid widespread protests, Muriel E Cockcroft has sympathy for French youth but fears how much steam will be let out at the next convulsion
I’m writing in response to your editorial (The Guardian view on France’s protests: a polarised country is in a perilous political moment, 19 October). While the focus is on Emmanuel Macron, let us not forget the hierarchical structure of French administration, from mayors to MPs to senators to prefects and heads of region. All are part of the government, but few stood up to bring leaky school roofs and missing teachers to national consciousness. I deplore the senseless destruction of shops and state buildings. But I also deplore the fact that students had to protest to be heard. In the many administrative tiers of this highly hierarchical country, no one acted and inertia prevailed.
Centrally, the government is financially challenged but refuses to acknowledge that having a huge deficit, an ageing population and a low retirement age are perhaps connected. Modest attempts to increase the retirement age also provoked violent protests. Financial tools for individual retirement remain complex and restricted. Thus, this sclerotic system presses on until the next crisis.
Non-hierarchical movement is seeking to ‘rebuild society’ in Balkan country after years of authoritarian rule
Serbia’s triumphant but untested Student List movement is preparing to start talks on forming a government capable of reversing 14 years of increasingly authoritarian nationalist rule, after a seismic weekend election win.
Supporters of the movement, which has no experience of government, took to the streets in the west Balkan country on Monday after the strongman former president, Aleksandar Vučić, was defeated in a historic landslide.
Commanders suspected of sexual violence during the largest and fastest slaughter of civilians in more than 30 years have been subjected to travel ban and asset freeze
Senior Sudanese commanders implicated in a “campaign of rape” have been targeted by the UK on the first anniversary of a mass atrocity that saw tens of thousands of civilians killed over several days.
A year after the fall of El Fasher, the British government said it had sanctioned military leaders from both sides in the country’s ongoing conflict whom it suspected of sexual violence during the siege of the city.
Gernot Döllner criticised for in-person announcement of major investment in US days before midterm elections
The head of the luxury carmaker Audi is under fire in Germany for appearing at a rally with Donald Trump just days before the US midterm elections, to announce billions of dollars of investment in battleground state Georgia.
Gernot Döllner joined Trump on stage after the US president gave a speech criticised by the head of an elected body of employees at Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, as being full of “racism, sexism, transphobia [and] contempt for democracy”.
Citizens want greater democracy, while tourists seek out Soviet-era nostalgia, but could Russia’s war on Ukraine be the ultimate decider of country’s fate?
In the heart of Tbilisi’s Armenian quarter, Avlabari Square is where crowds gather for the “Saturday March”. Every weekend, protesters head towards the Bridge of Love, reach Freedom Square and march towards parliament, chanting slogans against Irakli Kobakhidze’s government.
Demonstrators in Tblisi take part in the Saturday March, when pro-European parties and movements march through the historic centre to protest against the policies of the ruling Georgian Dream party, which critics accuse of being pro-Russian.
Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, denies charges that he fatally strangled Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel on the island of Okinawa
Prosecutors in Japan have filed formal charges against a US marine suspected of murdering and robbing a woman while stationed on the country’s island of Okinawa, according to Japanese media.
Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old lance corporal assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, is charged with fatally strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in the city and stealing from her a backpack containing a wallet, the public broadcaster NHK reported.
In the recent past, countless international observers had ample reason to fear the ascendancy of strongman leaders in nations around the globe, as democracies suffered one setback after another. Donald Trump’s return to the American presidency offered a dramatic example for the West, but the broader authoritarian pattern extended elsewhere.
This year, however, democracy and its champions are starting to turn the tide.
In April, then-Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a lopsided defeat, ending his radically regressive 16-year reign, despite the White House’s intervention on his behalf.
Six months later, the 14-year reign of Serbian strongman Aleksandar Vucic also crashed, thanks in large part to a student-led progressive movement. The Associated Press reported:
The long-ruling authoritarian leader on Sunday conceded the defeat of his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party to a grassroots movement of university students who led protests for almost two years against him before unseating him in a historic change of government. […]
The diverse youth movement’s message that rampant corruption, cronyism and organized crime under Vucic were eating away at the country resonated widely with voters.
Sounding a rather pitiful note after having been rejected by his own country’s electorate, Vucic attributed his defeat to a series of perceived enemies, including “the deep American state, the one that is also against President Trump.”
The celebrations in Belgrade continued anyway.
People in Belgrade celebrated following Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic speech conceding defeat to a student-led protest movement in a historic election that ends his long grip on power and heralds a new political era in the Balkan country. reut.rs/4zkXvww
“I have just spoken by phone with the leaders of the Students’ List, who won the elections in Serbia, to congratulate them on their victory,” Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said in a statement. “I assured them of Hungary’s support. I was delighted to hear how much strength our victory in April had given them during this difficult struggle.”
Hours later, the world learned that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a surprising fourth term, defeating his right-wing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, four years after Bolsonaro’s father attempted a coup that ultimately sent him to prison, and who also enjoyed the White House’s backing.
As The New York Times noted, Bolsonaro refused to accept the outcome, “increasing the risk of unrest over the election result.”
Time will tell what becomes of conditions in Brasília and who ultimately succeeds Vucic. But as the dust settles on these elections, there is an obvious and heartening through line connecting the election results out of Hungary, Serbia and Brazil: Democracies defeated autocracies.
Every country has its own unique political dynamics, and the victors in these countries are hardly identical. But when leaders of the global authoritarian movement lose, it’s worth celebrating — because when voters reject candidates like Vucic and Bolsonaro, it’s not just a setback for them and their parties, it’s also a failure for the movements they help represent.
That said, there’s fresh evidence to believe the White House hasn’t yet gotten the message: The Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration is eyeing Orbán to serve as the next United Nations secretary-general, which is both bonkers and evidence that the broader democratic fight remains ongoing.
Exclusive: Coordinated airstrikes on territory held by al-Shabaab are driving the civilian population to find refuge alongside a river where rising water levels are a threat to safety. Is it a deliberate military strategy?
The water was rising rapidly. It had already reached Cayni Ali’s waist. Her home, five metres from the flooded River Juba in southern Somalia, never stood a chance. There was nowhere to go. Ali’s city of Jilib was under attack. Repeated airstrikes, said the mother of six, were pinning its population beside the rising river.
“The drones come all the time,” said the 27-year-old. “We hear them constantly. They kill animals, civilians. The town is big but destruction is everywhere.”
Huge crowds gathered in Slavija Square in Belgrade to celebrate after Serbia's long-serving leader, Aleksandar Vučić, conceded defeat in an election. Late on Sunday night, people thronged the streets after a two-year student-led opposition movement ousted Vučić's rightwing government
Jump fuelled by fears of further Middle East supply disruptions amid reports of US-Israeli plans to strike Iran
European gas prices have jumped to levels not seen since 2022 as fears continue to grow around the continent’s supply this winter and the conflict in the Middle East.
Wholesale gas prices hit €97 (£81) a megawatt-hour on Monday, as temperatures across Europe fell and traders priced in stronger demand for heating.
Sabato mattina, all’interno del Safaripark Beekse Bergen nei Paesi Bassi, una guardiana cinquantenne con venticinque anni di esperienza è entrata nel recinto di due leopardi persiani maschi mentre l’area, per un errore di procedura non ancora chiarito, era accessibile anche ai felini. La violazione del rigido protocollo di sicurezza — che impone l’assoluta separazione fisica tra personale umano e predatori — si è tradotta in un attacco immediato. I colleghi, allertati dalle richieste di soccorso lanciate dalla vittima stessa via walkie-talkie, si sono precipitati nella struttura trovando la donna, cosciente ma in condizioni gravissime, con traumi critici e profondi alla testa e al collo.
La tragedia si è consumata nella mattinata di sabato. La vittima, che lavorava nella struttura da quando aveva 17 anni e operava nel settore dei grandi predatori da ormai otto anni, stava eseguendo il suo turno in solitaria nell’area che ospita due esemplari maschi di leopardo persiano. Improvvisamente, la situazione è precipitata. I colleghi inorriditi hanno udito le sue disperate grida d’aiuto risuonare attraverso i walkie-talkie in dotazione.
Precipitati sul posto, hanno trovato la donna all’interno del recinto dei felini con ferite devastanti alla testa e al collo. Immediato l’intervento dei soccorsi: la zookeeper, seppur gravemente ferita, era ancora cosciente quando è stata caricata sull’eliambulanza e trasportata d’urgenza in ospedale. “La donna è stata immediatamente operata”, ha confermato un portavoce del parco, precisando che, sebbene l’intervento sia tecnicamente riuscito e la paziente abbia superato la prima notte, le sue condizioni rimangono “preoccupanti” e le speranze di recupero ridotte al lumicino. “Siamo naturalmente e profondamente addolorati da questa notizia e stiamo facendo tutto il possibile per supportare la sua famiglia, i colleghi e le persone a lei care”.
Rapid Support Forces strike five power stations in three states controlled by Sudanese army
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have launched a coordinated drone attack against five power stations, causing mass power outages across the country’s east, a government official said.
The drones hit two power stations each in the states of Al-Jazira and Gedaref and one in White Nile state, “resulting in power outages across large parts of these three states”, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Faced with a stagnant jobs market, many are spurning children or pets in favour of ‘raising bricks’
Young adults in China looking for a cheaper, low-maintenance alternative to having children or pets have found an answer: raising bricks.
Bricks may not be as cuddly as cats or as life-affirming as human offspring, but they also cost next to nothing. “No cats, no dating, I started raising a brick,” wrote one brick parent on social media.
EU exit has damaged economy and failed to bring promised benefits, says PM, but he rules out big pre-election changes
Brexit has not “played out” like it was promised to the public, has weakened the economy and the current deal is not good enough, Andy Burnham has said, while ruling out any major changes in the current parliament.
The prime minister said Britain had ended up with a “harder Brexit than was proposed in the referendum campaign” and it had not helped to control the small boats crisis. Backing the home secretary’s tougher immigration rules, he said Brexit had weakened the UK’s ability to control its borders as it could no longer send people back to Europe.
Maka Gogaladze’s debut feature looks at generational differences in the context of Georgia’s education system and emphasis on collectivism
The scars imprinted on impressionable young minds can never fully fade away. Aiming her lens at a rocky beach thrashed by crashing waves, Maka Gogaladze opens her intimate film with a painful anecdote from her adolescent years. Through on-screen texts against a stormy sky, the Georgian film-maker recalls the time she dumped all of her poems into the garbage. The impulsive decision was a gesture of rebellion against her domineering mother; Gogaladze had wanted her to feel guilty.
This debut feature would appear, at first glance, to be another act of revolt. Putting her mother in front of the camera, Gogaladze asks probing, at times blunt, questions about the strict education thrust on her in childhood. Together, they talk about piano lessons that ended in tears, and tough academic exams that continued to haunt the director well into her adulthood. Their contrasting personalities are fascinatingly revealed across these conversations in all their tension, yet these sequences also represent a moving effort to reach across generational differences.
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