Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Belgium from October 9-12, marching against the government’s austerity and militarization policies, as well as in solidarity with Palestine. 

Read more: Peter Mertens: “We have to restore people’s confidence in collective strength”

“Four mobilizations, one shared struggle: that of the Belgium of those at the bottom — who refuse to foot the bill for a system that benefits a tiny minority, and who refuse to remain complicit in an apartheid state,” wrote the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA). “They thought they could impose their anti-social measures without resistance. They were wrong.” 

50,000-strong demonstration against austerity

The weekend began with a 50,000-strong demonstration against austerity in Brussels on October 9, building on months of resistance to budget cuts, anti-labor reforms, and threats to pension rights. Various blocs joined the protest, including the youth movement, who demonstrated against tuition hikes, education budget reductions, and attacks on services they depend on – notably public transport. 

“The government is desperately trying to balance its budget,” the General Labour Federation of Belgium (ABVV-FGTB) wrote in their protest call. “And to find the missing billions, it seems to have made a habit of always digging into the same pockets: ours. Yours.”

“If money is needed, the government should go get it where it actually is: from great fortunes, capital income, big corporations and their lucrative handouts.”

The Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV-CSC) echoed concerns about the unfair distribution of the burden envisioned by the De Wever–Bouchez administration. “The budget must be balanced, but the distribution of the burden must also be fair,” the confederation’s leader Marie-Hélène Ska said. “The Prime Minister appeals to everyone’s sense of responsibility. It is time for him, too, to abandon dogmas and clichés and put forward an honest proposal.” 

“Twenty months into this government’s term, social resistance remains very much alive,” wrote PTB-PVDA President Raoul Hedebouw. “Many young people are also taking to the streets to protest austerity measures and stand up for their future.”

Protests reject complicity in genocide, inadequate climate policies

The following day, Palestine solidarity groups around the country joined the global day of action against genocide and occupation with local actions. Like other European governments, the De Wever–Bouchez administration has failed to take substantial steps to hold Israel accountable for crimes committed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, causing widespread anger at home. 

This failure has gone hand in hand with plans for massive investment in armament at the expense of public services and climate justice policies.

As a result, on Sunday, October 11, approximately 60,000 people – once again with strong participation from the youth – joined a climate march. 

The demonstration’s demands were heavily influenced by the memory of the past summer, when heat waves and wildfires ravaged parts of the country. Due to previous cuts to public services, firefighting forces responded to the crisis in inadequate numbers, with implications for their health and overall response capacity. 

“We need a genuine plan to tackle heatwaves, strengthened public and emergency services, and massive investment in public transport, home insulation, and renewable energy that is accessible to everyone,” PTB-PVDA said.

“The De Wever–Bouchez government wants to balance the budget by targeting our public services and imposing austerity,” Hedebouw wrote, drawing a direct link between the government’s cut drive and the state of essential services like firefighting. “But if we cut funding for public services, we will all pay the price. What will happen during the next fire if we have fewer firefighters and insufficient equipment?”

Wealth tax demands

The protests rolled out as the government is trying to balance the national budget. Yet the scale of the response indicates the chosen path will remain contested every step of the way. 

Another sign came on Monday, October 12, as trade unions in the public sector called for strikes and mobilizations to protect these services and the workers who make them run.

“The plans currently on the table are unacceptable to many people,” Hedebouw emphasized. “They see their purchasing power steadily eroding while fuel prices skyrocket. Yet at this very moment, De Wever is proposing a VAT hike, an attack on wage indexation, and further cuts to our healthcare system.”

Protesters insisted the government should design and implement policies that would enable adequate funding for labor rights, public services, and climate transformation – policies that begin with a millionaire tax as outlined by the country’s left.

BANGKOK — Marine biologist and photojournalist Sirachai “Shin” Arunrugstichai has taken many notable photographs in Thailand, from white bleached coral reefs to beaches blackened by oil spills. He shot the viral, award-winning photo of orphan baby dugong (Dugong dugon) Marium being hugged by her carer. Many of Shin’s works have ignited public awareness of marine conservation in Thailand. He recently took part in a scientific study on necrophilia behavior in squids, which was inspired by his photographs. In an interview with Mongabay, Shin, 39, talks about his career journey, recent research and how his work can make a difference. Trained as a marine biologist, Thai photojournalist Sirachai Arunrugstichai has a passion for taking pictures of marine wildlife and telling stories through photographs. Image courtesy of Pratch Rujivanarom. Mongabay: Can you tell me how the research about necrophilia behavior in squid began? Sirachai Arunrugstichai: I was working at Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar from 2019 to 2020. We found ghost fishing nets wrapped around an entire reef. So, our team went diving to retrieve the net. I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be two squids mating. I thought it was strange, so I swam closer. I found that one squid was trapped in the net while another was outside, mating with it. I felt it was very unusual that a dying squid would still be mating. However, after I finished photographing them, I noticed that the trapped squid was actually already decaying. Its tentacles were completely severed, and there were…This article was originally published on Mongabay

“Protected areas are protected areas,” says Nadège Nzoyem, WWF’s regional director for the Congo Basin. For her, mining has no place in landscapes that governments have committed to conserve. Yet keeping extractive industries out and ensuring effective protection remain major challenges across the region. A recent analysis by U.S.-based Earth Insight highlights the conflict between conservation commitments and extractive interests. Across the tropical countries examined, the report says, oil and gas blocks overlap across nearly 62 million hectares (153 million acres) of protected and conserved areas. Mining concessions overlap with another 43 million hectares (106 million acres). In the Congo Basin, 29% of identified terrestrial Key Biodiversity Areas remain unprotected. The findings raise questions about where protection is needed and how effective it is against industrial pressures. WWF’s “Living Planet Report 2026” adds to those concerns. It reports an average 80% decline in monitored wildlife population sizes across Africa between 1970 and 2022. The figure is continent-wide, not specific to the Congo Basin. Next week, the global community will meet for the biodiversity COP17 in Armenia, where the urgency of meeting the global 30×30 target puts protected areas under greater scrutiny. Conserving 30% of land and waters by 2030 means more than drawing boundaries, the Earth Insight report argues. It requires effective management, equitable governance, and respect for Indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights. Semi-industrial mining at Muchacha along the Ituri River, in the southwestern sector of Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the DRC, has caused deforestation and contamination of water…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A Airbel, empresa especializada em marketing olfativo com mais de uma década de atividade, está a reforçar a sua aposta no setor hoteleiro. Em entrevista ao TNews, a empresa explica como são desenvolvidas identidades olfativas adaptadas ao posicionamento, conceito e perfil de cada unidade hoteleira e descreve a abertura da sua primeira loja na Madeira, no passado dia 1 de outubro, como um "passo importante" na consolidação da presença na região.

In September, Henry Price observed a classroom of 7- to 8-year-olds learn about the Stone Age. They discussed and wrote about cave paintings, then put on virtual reality headsets to...

© Rest of World/iStock

With Election Day just a few weeks away — and millions of votes already cast — midterm polls are everywhere. While polling can be a helpful tool to understand the electorate, it's not a crystal ball.

(Image credit: Tom Brenner)

What Israel has done, is doing, to Gaza has not sprung ex nihilo from October 7. Genocide is not a situational counter-response to aggression. It’s a coming-out event of sorts. Differently put: There are no legitimate antecedents to genocide. Genocide is not a “war crime” to which a set of mitigating or exculpating legal defenses...

A Ávoris está a preparar uma revisão da sua programação de longo curso para 2027, ajustando a capacidade para o México e a República Dominicana e introduzindo novos destinos. Em entrevista ao TNews, Constantino Pinto, revelou que estão em negociação duas novas operações, que deverão ficar definidas antes da Black Friday.

It has been one year since Hamas released the remaining Israeli hostages and President Trump promised an end to the war, but Palestinians say the past 12 months have been a ceasefire in name only.

(Image credit: Anas Baba)

One of the main elements in India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar’s speech at the U.N General Assembly’s annual session was highlighting the weaponization of elements once considered to be the hallmarks of global cooperation. In today’s broken world, cooperation is considered to be a luxury. States are busy making relative gains at the […]

Duarte Nobre Guedes, presidente do Conselho Diretor da Associação Nacional dos Locadores de Veículos (ARAC), alertou para o "aumento de situações de criminalidade associadas ao roubo e ao uso indevido das viaturas de aluguer, com enormes prejuízos para o setor e para a sociedade" na sessão de abertura da VII Convenção Nacional da ARAC, que decorre esta sexta-feira, 9 de outubro, em Óbidos.

O presidente da Turismo Centro de Portugal, Rui Ventura, alertou que as dificuldades de mobilidade e acessibilidade podem comprometer a promoção turística dos territórios e a distribuição dos benefícios económicos do turismo.

Spanish trade unions representing millions of workers have announced a general strike for November 11. The announcement comes amid nationwide mobilizations for the right to housing and only days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called early elections for November 29.

Read more: Housing crisis leads to snap election in Spain

The strike was announced by the two largest union organizations, the General Union of Workers (UGT) and the Workers’ Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CCOO), alongside the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Basque unions ELA and LAB, and the Galician confederation CIG.

It will be the country’s first general strike in 14 years, excluding the feminist strike of March 8, 2018. 

Housing and wages are the same struggle

“A key demand of this strike is to vindicate decent salaries to afford housing,” the Madrid Tenants Union wrote.

In their strike call, unions emphasized several demands that have been on their agenda for months. These include reductions in working hours, wage increases, health and safety measures in the workplace, eradicating precarious employment and progress in collective bargaining – a process that has been obstructed by employers for almost a year.

Yet, echoing the sentiment voiced on the streets, where hundreds of thousands have protested and erected encampments against a predatory housing system, the trade union call links all these demands to the right to housing.

“This is a strike with very clear foundations and labor demands,” CCOO’s Carlos Gutiérrez said. “Is it being called because working families cannot access affordable housing? Yes. But we cannot separate the inability to access affordable housing from the wage situation in our country and what is happening in the workplace.”

The general strike builds on a protest wave triggered by the eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal in late September. After years of battle to keep the home she had been living in for 70 years, Abascal was carried out of the apartment on a stretcher. She remained hospitalized until Wednesday, October 7, when the Madrid Tenants Union announced her death.

“Although a historic agreement was reached that would have allowed her to return to her home, this solution came too late,” the organization wrote. “An absolutely avoidable situation, following an agonizing process.”

A strike against all who “do nothing to solve the housing crisis”

Many of those participating in the protests recognized that Sánchez’s administration failed to implement policies that would truly address the housing crisis. Yet union and civil society statements emphasize the problem goes much further than the behavior of a specific political option.

“It’s important to make clear that this is not a strike against any particular government, but against those who do nothing to solve the housing crisis, and also against the employers, who have kept the Agreement for Employment and Collective Bargaining (AENC) blocked for nearly a year,” Patricia Ruiz from UGT was quoted as saying in Público.

Political parties from the center-left to the left have largely expressed support for the strike. Even PSOE figures who share the responsibility for not addressing the housing crisis signaled support for concerns outlined by trade unions.

While a general strike held only a couple of weeks ahead of an election would usually spell trouble for the incumbent administration, local political analysts say this is a peculiar situation that could swing both ways. 

Read more: Far right exploits Ceuta incident to call for border crackdown

Right-wing options are polling high, but ongoing housing mobilizations could steer the electoral campaign away from scapegoating migrants toward issues of social justice – topics they are generally keen to avoid.

Israel marked three years since the Oct. 7 attacks with memorials for those killed. And in Gaza, people are living among the ruins of a war they say has never ended.

Africa’s monitored wildlife populations have declined an average of 80% since 1970, according to a new global assessment. The report also points to pockets of recovery where conservation efforts have been maintained over decades. The report on the decline in the average size of monitored populations was released Oct. 8 in the Living Planet Report 2026. It tracked monitored populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians between 1970 and 2022. Africa’s 80% decline compares with a global average of 73%; Latin America and the Caribbean recorded the largest regional decline, at 95%. The findings come as governments prepare to assess progress on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, whose 23 targets include commitments to halt human-induced extinctions and support the recovery of threatened species by 2030. The framework also calls for conserving at least 30% of the world’s land, inland waters and seas by 2030. The Living Planet Index, managed by the Zoological Society of London in partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), draws on 35,803 population trends from 5,790 vertebrate species worldwide. The index measure changes in the average size of monitored populations, it does not mean that Africa lost 80% of its wild animals or wildlife species, a press release obtained by Mongabay cautions. Habitat destruction and degradation are the most frequently reported pressures on the wildlife populations tracked globally, the report finds. Overexploitation, climate change, pollution, disease and invasive species are among the other threats identified. In the Congo Basin, for example, those pressures…This article was originally published on Mongabay

KHON KAEN, Thailand – A wildlife officer holds a leopard cat cub in one hand, its entire body small enough for her fingers to wrap around its torso. With the other hand, she feeds it formula milk from a syringe. This is the latest rescue at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife’s rescue center in Khon Kaen, northeastern Thailand, which rehabilitates and ultimately releases dozens of lost and injured leopard cat cubs every year. Behind the officer, 15 larger leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis), rescued as young cubs months earlier, pace around inside their cages. They look a lot like domestic cats, only slightly more slender and with sharply defined markings on their fur; unlike domestic cats, they bare their teeth and growl whenever a human walks past. Nine of the cats, between 8 and 9 months old, will be released in the forest that afternoon. The other six, a younger cohort, will take their place in the center’s specialized behavioral rehabilitation pens, where they will spend two months practicing their climbing and hunting skills in preparation for life in the wild. Leopard cats are small wild felines common across much of Asia. The IUCN classes them as least concern, though experts believe populations are increasingly vulnerable to hunting and habitat loss. Highly adaptable to changing landscapes, leopard cats often live close to farms and villages. In northeastern Thailand, females are frequently found raising their litters in sugarcane fields. The tall leaves offer shelter from the sun, but proximity to…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The withdrawal of American troops from Iraq is a watershed moment in the geopolitics of the Middle East. There comes a moment in global politics where imperialism loses and the world clings to the hope of a better future, a future based on prosperity, inclusivity, and promotion of human dignity. This moment has found its […]

Massive school protests are ongoing in France, where students have been mobilizing for their right to education – and against the austerity measures undermining it. Roughly 1,800 high schools were forced to shut down on Tuesday, October 6, as students – supported by trade unions, families, and progressive politicians – took to the streets. According to trade unions, over 450,000 people participated in protests across the country.

Students at 90% of French universities organized actions on the same day, adding even more weight to the historic mobilization.

The students’ main demands include urgent measures to address the critical situation in French schools: a shortage of teaching and support staff, oversized classes, and dilapidated buildings – particularly in working-class areas. Protesters are also calling for more manageable timetables, affordable and quality food and student housing, and an equitable education system.

Austerity at the roots of the protests

The situation in schools is strongly linked to years of neoliberal policies pushed by President Emmanuel Macron and several administrations. The mobilizations are taking place amid widespread discontent over the planned continuation – and harshening – of the same policies.

The country’s public deficit reached 5.1% of GDP in 2025, and debt interest rates represent a growing driver of this deficit. In 2025, the interest burden amounted to around €66 billion across all public administrations; it is expected to reach €91 billion in 2027 and approximately €120 billion in 2030, warned Francesco Tirro for Progetto Me-Ti.

Read more: Tens of thousands of Chilean students demand ‘not a single peso less for education’

Mainstream economists suggest the only way to address that deficit is through cuts – an approach the current administration is only too eager to try, including through attacks on the pension and education systems.

Police repression against students

In response to the protests, French authorities have unleashed a rarely seen wave of police violence against students. The Ministry of Interior recorded approximately 5,000 arrests between September 21 and October 2, with 85% of those detained underage. Police used rubber bullets and dispersal grenades on children, leading to serious injuries – including protesters losing limbs and vision.

“Footage and testimonies widely reported over the last week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of tear gas, batons and restraint techniques by police,” said Anne Savinel-Barras from Amnesty International France. The organization emphasized that authorities must ensure the response to demonstrations is “necessary and proportionate,” and that “children and young people peacefully demanding their right to education are protected rather than being beaten, tear-gassed, or arbitrarily detained.”

While human rights organizations appealed for an end to state-sanctioned violence against students, things were much quieter among the European political establishment. Where reactions were formulated, they were mild at best.

Unions and left support the students

Different progressive movements have sharpened their support for the student demonstrations over the past week, resulting in thousands of trade union members and dozens of elected officials forming cordons between police and students to shield the youth. “All over the country, union members have turned out in large numbers to provide protection and support for high school students,” one of the main student associations, Union Syndicale Lycéenne, stated on Tuesday.

“Today’s high school and university students are tomorrow’s workers, and they shouldn’t have to pay the price for austerity policies,” the General Confederation of Labor (Confédération Générale du Travail, CGT) emphasized. “When there is a shortage of teachers, when classrooms are overcrowded, when buildings are falling apart, and when young people see their future prospects shrinking, the answer cannot be repression.”

Progressive politicians, notably from La France Insoumise (LFI), also joined the protests, providing physical protection for students. As the mobilization began to roll out from Créteil, home of LFI’s Clémence Guetté and several other members, the left party was among the first to offer support – and remained by their side as repression grew. One of the most notable examples was Saint-Denis mayor Bally Bagayoko, filmed as he protected students from more violence.

“The coming together of labor unions, the youth movement, and the parliamentary left-wing opposition forms a kind of ‘tortoise formation’ of mutual protection, making a broader collective momentum possible,” emphasized left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Read more: Students and teachers in Italy strike against right-wing reforms and militarization

Solidarity statements came from youth organizations in other European countries, including Greece. “Young people are reacting massively to the cuts in education spending, given that the French government, as in the rest of the EU, is spending billions on military equipment at the expense of wages, healthcare and education,” the Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) wrote in a statement, foreshadowing more student struggles to follow.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced a snap election for late November after two housing bills were defeated in a parliamentary vote on Friday, October 2. The bills came amid widespread mass mobilizations demanding urgent action on the country’s housing crisis, following the eviction of an 87-year-old woman in Madrid.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of approximately 50 cities over the weekend in support of these demands.

“It is true that there are still many injustices to correct, many social goals to achieve, and many problems to solve – above all in the areas of inequality, public services, and access to housing,” Sánchez said in his speech on Monday, as he appealed to voters to give progressive forces more decisive electoral support to allow them to implement reforms more easily.

Real estate speculation drives housing crisis

While Sánchez’s administration has profiled itself as one of the more progressive governments in Europe in terms of international policy, national movements remain frustrated by the lack of decisiveness it has approached making changes at home – including in housing policy.

For years, tenants unions have been warning against the different ways house-owners, particularly real estate speculation funds, have exacerbated housing insecurity for the general population.

Existing anger spilled over as Maricarmen Abascal, an elderly tenant in Madrid, faced eviction from the home she had lived in for 70 years. After the development company Urbagestión Desarrollo e Inversión SL acquired the house Abascal lived in, they imposed a 275% rent increase that she was not able to meet, leading, after a lengthy legal process, to her eviction at the end of last month.

Read more: Die Linke wins Berlin election with focus on socialization of housing

The mobilizations that followed addressed a wider set of problems. “Maricarmen’s situation reflects a housing model that prioritizes real estate profits while abandoning the very people who built our neighborhoods over the decades,” Madrid Tenants’ Union (Sindicato de Inquilinas e Inquilinos de Madrid) warned.

“Most serious of all is that this situation cannot be understood without considering the weight of laws inherited from the Franco regime that denied women basic rights,” the union emphasized in May. “The original contract was signed solely by Maricarmen’s father because the legal system of the time rendered women invisible within the family. Had that same contract been signed today, both parents would have been named as holders, and Maricarmen would remain fully protected.”

“Yet an extremely restrictive interpretation of the regulations has ultimately weighed more heavily than social reality, than the desire to protect those who rent, and more than seventy years of roots in a neighborhood,” they added. “For the Madrid Tenants’ Union, the position is clear: no formalistic interpretation of the law can justify evicting an 87-year-old woman from the home where she has lived her entire life simply to boost the profitability of a real estate investment.”

Unions promise building general strike for housing

The protests formulated several demands to the government, including a ban on eviction of vulnerable tenants where alternative housing is not available; a limit to short-term and room rentals; a rent freeze; and an extension for contracts ending in 2026 and 2027.

Such demands were generally by the public, as well as by trade unions. “Housing and work are not separate struggles,” unions wrote, pledging to work towards a general strike for housing. “The rise in rents is a direct transfer of wealth from the working class to rentierism. Our wages end up, month after month, in the pockets of the rentiers who control our homes.”

The uproar pushed Sánchez’s government to reflect these demands in two bills it presented to parliament. Most considered this a significant breakthrough for the housing movement despite the official texts not fully corresponding to the protesters’ vocabulary and the vote taking place on two separate proposals. 

Watered down or not, right-wing and far-right parties voted against both bills.

Read more: Far-right leaders gather in Madrid to “make Europe great again”

“We have a democracy held hostage by rentiers and speculators,” the progressive party Podemos wrote as protests rolled out over the weekend. “The housing mobilization must keep growing and move toward a general strike until the speculators and those who defend them in the institutions have nowhere left to hide.”

“Between now and November 29, the voices of all of us who want peace must be heard,” Irene Montero from Podemos added after the snap election announcement. “Those of us who want our sons and daughters to avoid war and to have healthcare and education, instead of money being spent on weapons; who want homes to live in; who want jobs and time to spend with our loved ones; and who want the cost of living to go down.”

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O Brasil que sai do primeiro turno está flertando com uma crise institucional permanente. Flávio Bolsonaro teve 2,2 milhões de votos a mais que Lula, ficando em 47% dos votos versus 45,1% do atual presidente. Se eleito, Flávio teria uma bancada de 28 nomes no Senado e 121 na Câmara dos Deputados apenas do PL, seu partido, um desempenho histórico. 

Mas Flávio Bolsonaro é um candidato com muitos esqueletos no armário. Está enredado em vários escândalos e corrupção dos quais, hoje, conseguimos ter apenas um vislumbre, mas que vão se aprofundar nos próximos meses. E isso levará necessariamente a um governo maculado por revelações do seu primeiro ao seu último dia. 

A jornalista Flávia de Oliveira chamou a atenção para o fato de que, por conta da ação de André Mendonça de manter sigilo do caso Master, Flávio é o único candidato investigado por corrupção, lavagem de dinheiro e evasão de divisas – e o eleitor não foi informado disso a tempo. 

Mesmo que você esteja acompanhando as notícias, é possível que tenha perdido as revelações mais recentes.  

Pois vamos a elas. 

Primeiro, as rachadinhas, esquema de desvio de verba pública dos mandatos de Jair Bolsonaro e seus filhos através de saques em dinheiro vivo de funcionários, que depois repassavam à família, das quais Flávio sempre foi figura central. O resultado foi demonstrado há alguns anos pelos jornalistas Juliana Dal Piva e Thiago Herdy: 51 imóveis dos Bolsonaro foram pagos parcialmente em dinheiro vivo. O processo judicial das rachadinhas foi extinto pelo STJ, que questionou a quebra de sigilo fiscal, mas as evidências existem e podem gerar novas investigações.  

Segundo, vamos ao caso Master. Ainda hoje sabe-se apenas parcialmente sobre a relação entre Flávio e Daniel Vorcaro. Além do financiamento generoso do filme Dark Horse e dos muitos diálogos resgatados do celular de Vorcaro, não sabemos qual o valor real dos depósitos, que tipo de dinheiro criminoso foi usado para o pagamento pela empresa Entre Investimentos, que lavava inclusive dinheiro para o crime organizado, e nem para que fim o dinheiro foi usado nos EUA. Não se sabe, ainda, que outros favores e apoios foram prestados pelo banqueiro para Flávio – com quem ele tinha uma relação de amizade, segundo demonstram os diálogos completos publicados pela revista piauí: são 50 mensagens de Flávio, 46 de Vorcaro e 14 ligações – oito delas atendidas. Sempre se tratando como “irmãos”, Flávio chegou a oferecer a Vorcaro uma reunião com Eduardo Bolsonaro em Dubai em novembro do ano passado: “Tá precisando de algo lá? Peço pra ele te encontrar”. Além disso, jantares, cafés da manhã e muitas ligações organizadas entre os dois. 

A mesma revista revelou, ainda, que Flávio e Vorcaro viajaram para Fort Lauderdale, na Flórida, no feriado prolongado de 1º de maio de 2025, tendo passado 3 dias ao mesmo tempo no balneário, apenas dias depois do primeiro depósito de Vorcaro para o filme Dark Horse. É provável que tenham passado e celebrado juntos em uma das famosas festas de Vorcaro nestes três dias. Ainda não sabemos até onde foi essa relação. 

Terceiro, a ligação próxima com o “Careca de INSS”. Como revelou o ICL, Flávio tem uma empresa de capacetes que está registrada no mesmo lugar de empresas do operador financeiro do esquema que desviava verba dos aposentados e causou prejuízo de R$ 2 bilhões aos cofres públicos. Além de usar o mesmo escritório, a empresa de Flávio usava a mesma contabilidade de Antonio Carlos Camilo Antunes, mais conhecido como “Careca do INSS”, atualmente preso.

Quarto, os indícios de corrupção na gestão de hospitais públicos no Rio de Janeiro, inclusive durante a pandemia de Covid. Em uma reportagem bastante detalhada  aqui na Agência Pública, mostramos como Flávio comandava as decisões administrativas e indicações para a gestão dos hospitais federais durante a epidemia. Há diversos indícios de superfaturamento e má conduta em diversos destes hospitais, segundo investigações do TCU e outros órgãos. Esta história está só no começo.  

Quinto, a figura do advogado Willer Tomáz começa a aparecer como uma sombra sobre o passado de Flávio. O advogado já foi descrito como amigo de Flávio pelo próprio, viajou com ele para um safári na África do Sul e usou o jatinho de Willer em sociedade com Daniel Vorcaro. Willer Tomaz atualmente é investigado pela PF depois de iniciar um processo judicial no qual alega que apostou R$ 6,6 bilhões na bet Blaze por “ludopatia” e tenta recuperar R$ 163 milhões.  

Sexto, possível lobby junto ao ministro do STF Kassio Nunes, um expediente descrito por Rodrigo Rangel na sua reportagem sobre a relação de Flávio Bolsonaro com Alexandre Ferreira Dias Santini, ex-sócio seu na fábrica da Kopenhagen, publicado no site Platô. Nas palavras do jornalista, Flávio era um “resolvedor-geral da República” durante o governo de Jair Bolsonaro e teria recebido mimos por isso, incluindo um rolex de 300 mil reais. Rangel é uma das pessoas em Brasília que tem muito mais documentos sobre a relação de Flávio e o ex-sócio, mas não o único. Dentre o material descrito na reportagem estão notas fiscais, relatos, fotos “impublicáveis” de Flávio em orgias com o ex-sócio, segundo descrito na reportagem. Mais gente tem esses documentos – eles vão acabar vindo à tona.

Se for eleito, Flávio Bolsonaro terá as investigações do caso Master suspensas, segundo análise do Jota. Mas o jornalismo investigativo continuará a fazer o seu papel. 

Temos um presidente maculado por corrupção e escândalos variados antes mesmo de pisar no Palácio do Planalto. Não há bancada forte que segure o impacto disto sobre a opinião pública. Além disso, vale lembrar, a liderança de Flávio é contestada mesmo dentro das fileiras do Bolsonarismo. A bancada eleita tem sua agenda própria e desafetos variados que não vão tardar a aparecer.     

Portanto, esta coluna é um aviso. Se o Brasil eleger Flávio Bolsonaro, não estamos flertando apenas com um governo de viés autoritário, mas com um governo que será maculado por escândalos e turbulências, assombrado por ex-sócios, fotos e vídeos “impublicáveis”, e que para se manter no poder só terá o caminho de chafurdar-se mais ainda na lama e perseguir a imprensa e os oponentes – como fez Trump nos EUA. 

Para quem busca “estabilidade”, “previsibilidade” e “segurança fiscal”: está dado o recado.