7 h. ago The Guardian view on Bolsonaro’s coup conviction: a landmark for Brazilian democracy – but this fight isn’t over | Editorial

Though the far-right former president has been held accountable for overseeing the plot, supporters at home and abroad still rally to his causeA populist president refused to accept his defeat at the ballot box, insisting that the election had been stolen. A far-right mob stormed the country’s institutions in his support. Yet democracy prevailed. And then, on Thursday, Brazil’s supreme court sentenced the former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for leading a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2022 elections and “annihilate” democracy through a coup. The sprawling plot was both modern and crudely old school – extending from an online disinformation campaign to undermine faith in the voting system, to aborted plans to assassinate the newly elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, and the supreme court justice investigating Bolsonaro. It culminated in the riots in Brasília in January 2023.Four of the five judges on the panel found Bolsonaro guilty...

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10 h. ago Brazilians take to the streets to celebrate Bolsonaro conviction

Indigenous groups and other minorities praise verdict while US officials issue warnings of possible sanctions• Operation World Cup: the murder plot at the heart of Brazil’s trial of the century• Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years for plotting military coup in BrazilThousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets to rejoice at Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction for plotting a coup, as progressive politicians celebrated the historic move and rightwing figures linked to Donald Trump responded with anger and threats.Chile’s leftwing president, Gabriel Boric, led regional congratulations of the decision to jail Bolsonaro for 27 years for leading a criminal organisation that sought to seize power after the far-right populist lost the 2022 election. Continue reading...

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26 h. ago Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years in jail for election coup plot

The former president sought to remain in power after losing 2022 election

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28 h. ago Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro guilty of coup plot

The former president is facing a potential decades-long prison sentence for attempting to unlawfully remain in power after his defeat in the 2022 election

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29 h. ago Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro found guilty of 2022 election coup plot

The former president faces decades-long jail sentence for seeking to remain in power after losing 2022 election

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29 h. ago Brazil’s supreme court finds former leader Bolsonaro guilty of plotting coup

Case against former hard-right president has divided the South American country

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31 h. ago The Guardian view on the killing of Charlie Kirk: a perilous moment that may lead to more | Editorial

The shooting of the Turning Point USA co-founder should not be used to foment further division in a polarised country“Democracy is the way that we have diverse societies that don’t kill each other, largely,” Lilliana Mason, a leading scholar of partisanship, observed recently. She added: “As soon as we stop believing in it, it disappears.” Dr Mason’s own research suggests that there is sharply rising tolerance of political violence. On Wednesday, it claimed one more victim.The shocking killing of the co-founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk, a hugely influential activist who rallied young people to Donald Trump’s cause and far-right ideology more broadly, has been widely and rightly condemned across the political spectrum. Leading Democrats and progressive activists made clear that such violence must not be tolerated.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in ...

Events

31 h. ago The Guardian view on Peter Mandelson in Washington: a parable of short

Any association with Jeffrey Epstein was obviously toxic and it reflects poorly on Keir Starmer’s judgment that he didn’t anticipate the riskAs UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson was obviously a risky appointment. There was never any doubt that the former cabinet minister, European commissioner and international business lobbyist would be a skilled operator. The danger came from another of his reliable traits – attracting attention for the wrong reasons.Sure enough, little over six months into the role, Lord Mandelson’s position became untenable. Sir Keir Starmer had stood by him when links to Jeffrey Epstein first resurfaced – extraordinary given the billionaire financier’s status as a convicted paedophile. The position changed with the publication of evidence showing that Lord Mandelson reaffirmed the friendship even after Epstein’s conviction, expressing solidarity and urging him to seek early release.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this ar...

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33 h. ago Brazil's Bolsonaro faces final votes by Supreme Court's justices in his attempted coup trial

Brazil’s Supreme Court is to deliver the final two votes by its justices on former President Jair Bolsonaro alleged coup attempt — votes that could send the far-right politician to prison within weeks and deeply impact the nation’s politics

Politics

54 h. ago The Guardian view on Israel’s attack in Doha: western passivity is allowing Netanyahu to cross every red line | Editorial

The attempt to assassinate Hamas negotiators in the capital of a US ally was the act of a rogue government uninterested in peace“Why does the PM insist on blowing up any deal that comes close?” despaired the mother of a hostage held in Gaza, following Israel’s airstrike in Qatar on Tuesday. For anyone who doubted Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to the forever war he unleashed after 7 October, the attempt to wipe out Hamas’s ceasefire negotiation team in Doha offered grim confirmation that peace – and the return of Israeli hostages – is low on Mr Netanyahu’s list of current priorities.Just how close Hamas’s leadership was to endorsing ceasefire proposals backed by Donald Trump – which were being discussed in the capital of an established US ally – is unclear. However, Mr Netanyahu’s strike has ensured that its negotiators will not agree to sit round a table again anytime soon. Israel swiftly stated that the attack was in response to the Hamas-claimed shooting in Jerusalem o...

Politics

3 d. ago Brazil: two judges of five vote to convict Jair Bolsonaro in coup plot trial

Three more supreme court justices to cast their votes in coming days, with verdict expected by Thursday‘He’s always on the attack’: the Brazilian judge prosecuting Bolsonaro inspires both love and hateJair Bolsonaro led a criminal organisation that sought to plunge Brazil back into dictatorship with a murderous power grab involving special forces assassins and a vast disinformation campaign, the supreme court judge presiding over the former president’s trial has claimed as he voted for Bolsonaro’s conviction.Alexandre de Moraes was the first supreme court justice of five to announce his decision on Tuesday, as the trial of Bolsonaro and seven alleged co-conspirators – including four senior members of the military and the former head of Brazil’s answer to MI6 – entered its final stretch. Continue reading...

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3 d. ago The Guardian view on public health: if Labour is serious about reducing illness, it must focus on causes | Editorial

A shift to prevention will only succeed if ministers take a bold approach to regulation and lift people out of povertyDramatic increases in life expectancy are one of the defining achievements of the modern era. From 56 years for men and 60 for women in the UK a century ago, this vital measure of the quantity of life rose to 79 and 83 respectively in 2022. The trend towards increased longevity is global, although not all countries have seen gains on the same scale, and the pandemic sent it into temporary reverse.We probably don’t talk about this enough. It is remarkable that most of us can expect to live for so long and that deaths from diseases such as tuberculosis, and of women in childbirth, have been so drastically reduced.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Science

3 d. ago The Guardian view on political chaos in France: time for Emmanuel Macron to face reality and compromise with the left | Editorial

The French president has seen four prime ministers come and go in three years. The rancorous stasis of his second term is a gift to Marine Le PenIn the lead-up to the vote that ejected him from office this week after a mere nine months, the centre-right French prime minister, François Bayrou, appeared stoically reconciled to his fate. “There are worse disasters in life than the fall of a government,” Mr Bayrou observed on national radio, implicitly acknowledging his failure to win backing for a swingeing austerity strategy. On Monday, MPs duly used a debate called by the prime minister himself to oust him.And so another one bites the dust. The entrance to Matignon, France’s baroque prime ministerial residence, has become a revolving door during Emmanuel Macron’s benighted second term. Lacking a majority in a divided and deadlocked parliament, the president has gone through four premiers in a little over three years. Following the departure of the latest, he announced ...

Politics

4 d. ago ‘He’s always on the attack’: the Brazilian judge prosecuting Bolsonaro inspires both love and hate

Alexandre de Moraes is leading the criminal trial against the former president for allegedly engineering a coupAnatomy of a coup plot: why Jair Bolsonaro is on trialTattoo artist Bruno Ferreira has inked countless superheroes and superstars on to Brazilian bodies during his 25-year career: Wonder Woman, Batman, Ayrton Senna and Pelé.But when Adauto Gomes Nascimento marched into his studio earlier this year, he had a different personality in mind: a muscular, shaven-headed supreme court judge called Alexandre de Moraes, who is now one of Brazil’s biggest and most controversial celebrities. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago The Guardian view on the ‘war on drugs’: Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a more dangerous reality | Editorial

The strike on a speedboat allegedly containing Venezuelan drug traffickers may be performative, but sets a frightening precedentMore than five decades ago, Richard Nixon launched a “war on drugs”. The drugs won. Now Donald Trump is turning a failed metaphor into a worse reality.On Tuesday the US president claimed that the military had killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela, posting footage of the strike that US officials said took place on a speedboat in international waters in the Caribbean. The administration supplied no evidence for its claim that the boat contained Tren de Aragua members, or drugs, and gave varying accounts of its destination. It also warned that there was more to come, with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, arguing that intercepting boats had not curbed the drugs problem: “What will stop them is when you blow them up.” Earlier this year, Mr Trump secretly ordered the use of military force against cartels internationally. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago The Guardian view on the ‘twin’ Vermeers: how to spot a masterpiece | Editorial

Two versions of the Guitar Player raise important questions of attribution. In our age of fake images, authenticity in art is more vital than ever“How do you know how much to pay if you don’t know what it is worth?” So ends Theft: A Love Story by the Australian novelist Peter Carey. This scabrous riff on the slipperiness of cultural value in the international art scene asks: is a copy so good that even experts mistake it for the original painting still a fake?Questions of authenticity and attribution are behind a new display by English Heritage at Kenwood House in London to mark the 350th anniversary of the death of Johannes Vermeer. For the first time in 300 years, two nearly identical paintings of the Guitar Player, one signed by the Dutch master, the other on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and until recently believed to be a 17th- or 18th-century copy, will hang side by side. Experts have puzzled over the relationship between the two paintings for 100 years. Now visito...

Politics

8 d. ago The Guardian view on Xi, Putin and Kim: heed China’s statement of intent, but don’t take it as fact | Editorial

Images of the autocrats at Wednesday’s military parade reflected the shifting global order. But Donald Trump is hastening Beijing’s riseOn Wednesday morning, Beijingers living near Tiananmen Square were issued with cold breakfast packs and ordered to refrain from cooking, lest smoke from stoves cloud the skies above the mammoth military parade. China’s Communist party goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure that nothing obscures the message of such performances – in this case, that Xi Jinping is reshaping the global order and that China is, in his words, “unstoppable”.The parade marked 80 years since the end of the second world war, positioning China as the critical force in victory in the east then, and a force to be similarly reckoned with today as “humanity is again faced with the choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, win-win or zero-sum”, in Mr Xi’s words. China is “not afraid of bullies”. Continue reading...

Politics

9 d. ago The Guardian view on fiscal rules and financial myths: Britain must stop fearing imaginary bond vigilantes | Editorial

Liz Truss fell not for borrowing, but for incompetence. Rachel Reeves mustn’t repeat the mistake with rules markets don’t demandIn 1995, Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old trader for Barings Bank, brought down the City’s oldest finance house by, among other things, betting that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) couldn’t keep rates low forever after its financial crash led to a borrowing spree. The devastating Kobe earthquake was the final blow. The BoJ cut rates, bond prices rose and his losses spiralled to $1.4bn. His bet that markets would beat Japan brought down the bank.Barings’ collapse is perhaps a spectacular example of the “widowmaker” trade, where speculators think they can outsmart Japanese authorities. They’ve ended up with egg on their face as their gamble on Japan losing fiscal control proved misguided. Japan, with its own currency and a central bank working with the government, shows how the state shapes markets, not the other way round.Do you have an opinion on the issue...

Politics

1 week ago The Guardian view on Zack Polanski’s rise: he wants to replace Labour, not work with it | Editorial

A mass politics of anti-austerity, identity and climate is emerging from the left’s margins. Keir Starmer cannot afford to ignore itZack Polanski’s landslide election as leader of the Green party marks a turning point for Britain’s fractured left. Young, rhetorically fluent and unafraid to cloak climate arguments in those about class, Mr Polanski is nothing if not ambitious. He sees his party not as a parliamentary pressure group but as a replacement for Labour itself.His ascent might have seemed fanciful last July when Labour had just won a thumping majority. Yet Labour languishes in the polls. Sir Keir Starmer’s personal ratings have collapsed. On the extreme right Reform UK now boasts 237,000 members, 870 councillors, and 10 councils under its control. The Greens have more MPs than ever before. And the uneasy leadership team of Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana is preparing to launch a new party to Labour’s left. This is no longer political noise at the margins. This is about t...

Politics

1 week ago The Guardian view on the dental divide: ministers must brush up their policy as well as children’s teeth | Editorial

Gaps in access to dentists mirror other health inequalities. And ‘golden hellos’ won’t solve the problem on their ownDisadvantaged primary school pupils at the government’s first wave of new breakfast clubs can expect to be trained in toothbrushing, as well as fed. Data showing that a fifth of all five-year-olds in England have experienced tooth decay persuaded ministers to make improved oral health part of the early years and reception class curriculum. But the prevalence of decay is not evenly spread across the country. And research showing how much worse the situation is for children in deprived areas is in line with other findings about widening health inequalities.New analysis from the Local Government Association highlights the differing availability of dental care across council areas – a situation sometimes described as a dental divide. It found no specific correlation between the numbers of NHS dentists and young children with tooth decay. But it adds to a body of...

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