13 h. ago ‘I’m holding his political wake’: the trumpeter waiting to mark Bolsonaro’s judgment day

Brazil’s ex-president is expected to be convicted over failed coup – and Fabiano Leitão, who has provoked him for years, is readyWhen Jair Bolsonaro was Brazil’s far-right president, the guerrilla trumpeter Fabiano Leitão would stalk him around the capital, Brasília, to taunt him with renditions of the anti-fascist anthem Bella Ciao.In March, when Bolsonaro was charged with plotting a coup, Leitão changed his tune and began provoking the ex-president by serenading him with Chopin’s Funeral March. “It symbolises his political demise, which is what we want to see,” said the 46-year-old musician. Continue reading...

Politics

41 h. ago ‘Literature can be a form of resistance’: Lea Ypi talks to Elif Shafak about writing in the age of demagogues

The Albanian author of Free and Turkish novelist discuss the rise of populism, censorship – and how today’s conflicts all come from the unresolved trauma of the pastLea Ypi’s prize-winning memoir, Free, detailed the experience of growing up in Albania both before and after communist rule. Her new book, Indignity, reconstructs the life of her grandmother, who arrived in Tirana from Salonica as a young woman and became closely involved with the country’s political life. She currently holds the Ralph Miliband chair in politics and philosophy at the London School of Economics. The Turkish writer Elif Shafak is author of more than 20 books, both nonfiction and fiction, including the Booker-shortlisted novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World and, most recently, There Are Rivers in the Sky. When the pair talked over videocall, Ypi travelling in India and Shafak at home in London, their conversation ranged over the threats of censorship and the rise of populism, the challenge...

Politics

2 w. ago 'We were right on 20mph, Brexit was wrong and Nigel Farage would be a disaster for Wales'

Departing Welsh Government cabinet member Julie James gave her no holds barred take as she prepares to leave frontline politics

Events

2 w. ago Trump to hold press conference after ordering homeless to leave Washington DC – US politics live

President says he has plans to make capital ‘safer and more beautiful’ after social media attack on homeless peoplePresident Donald Trump’s news conference is due to take place in about two-and-a-half hours and it follows his Truth Social promising the new measures“will, essentially, stop violent crime” in the capital district, without explaining how.In a subsequent post, he said that the news conference at 10am on Monday, “will not only involve ending the Crime, Murder, and Death in our Nation’s Capital, but will also be about Cleanliness”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago ITV The Chase star Mark Labbett says he could not 'wait to get away' from recent date

Mark Labbett could not "wait to get away" from a recent date because he did not find them attractive.

Politics

3 w. ago Women behind the lens: ‘In Venezuela, the culture of pageants goes far beyond beauty’

Photographer Fabiola Ferrero explores her country’s obsession with beauty competitions and how they they are intertwined with politics and oilVenezuela holds two world records: the most international beauty crowns and the largest proven oil reserves in the world – two apparently unrelated titles that in fact are closely aligned. In the minds of Venezuelans, beauty and oil are tied to the idea of progress, modernity and our relationship with power, especially since the oil boom of the mid 20th century transformed us from a rural country to the richest nation in Latin America in the 1970s.During this time Miss Venezuela epitomised the nation’s aspirations. Even in the midst of the hardest economic and political crisis in our history, the pageants continue. Continue reading...

Politics