BRASILIA: Brazilians began voting on Sunday in a polarized presidential race that could result in the election of a far-right former army captain, whose praise of past dictatorships enrages critics but whose promise of a brutal crackdown on crime and corruption has electrified his supporters.
Front-runner Jair Bolsonaro has surged in opinion polls in the past week, all but guaranteeing a spot in the second round of voting and raising a slim chance of a first-round victory.
He is riding a wave of anger at the establishment after the uncovering of one of the world’s largest political graft schemes, opposition to a return to power by the leftist Workers Party (PT) blamed for much of that corruption, and fears about spiking crime in the country with more murders than any other.
But Brazil is split over what cost to its democracy it may pay if it chooses Bolsonaro, a long-time congressman who has repeatedly praised the 1964-85 military regime and suggested that opponents could only win through electoral fraud, although he now vows to respect the democratic process.
Geneis Correa, a 46-year-old business manager in Brasilia, said she voted for Bolsonaro and would support a coup if the PT wins, blaming the party for rampant corruption.
“If they win, it will become Venezuela, people will be hungry, with a currency that is worth nothing,” she said, while exiting a polling station with her daughter.
“If the PT is voted into power and there is a military intervention, I would support it.”
Bolsonaro’s closest rival is PT candidate Fernando Haddad, a former mayor of Sao Paulo and one-time education minister. He is standing in for the party’s imprisoned founder, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Many Brazilians like 65-year-old Ruth Pereira Santos fondly remember the years of rapid growth that Lula oversaw and benefited from his programs that lifted many out of poverty.
“Who could buy a car? Through the love of God today I have a car in my garage. This wasn’t accessible before,” said Santos, a caretaker for the elderly.
Two polls published late on Saturday showed Bolsonaro had increased his lead over Haddad in the past two days, taking 36 percent of voter intentions compared with Haddad’s 22 percent. The pair are deadlocked in a likely run-off vote on Oct. 28 that is required if no candidate takes a majority of valid votes on Sunday.
Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) and the last will close at 7 p.m. Brasilia time (2200 GMT). Exit polls and official results will start flowing in soon after that because Brazil uses an electronic voting system.
The 147 million voters will choose the president, all 513 members of the lower house of Congress, two-thirds of the 81-member Senate plus governors and lawmakers in all 27 states.
Almost two-thirds of the electorate are concentrated in the more populous south and southeast of Brazil where its biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio Janeiro, are located — and where Bolsonaro holds a commanding lead. A quarter of the voters are in the less developed northeast, traditionally a PT stronghold.
’WE HAVE EVERYTHING’
In the most polarized election since the end of military rule in 1985, Bolsonaro is backed by a group of retired generals who have criticized the PT governments from 2003-2016 and publicly advocate military intervention if corruption continues.
In a final appeal for votes on a live Facebook stream on Saturday night, Bolsonaro, 63, called on Brazilians to help him clean up the political system and establish better government of Brazil’s rich mineral and agricultural resources.
“We have everything. What we need are politicians who are committed to their country and not to party interests,” he said from his home, where he is recovering from a near-fatal stabbing at a campaign rally. He underwent two emergency surgeries and it is not clear how much campaigning he will be able to do if the vote heads into a runoff.
Bolsonaro, who has compared his campaign to that of US President Donald Trump, dismissed as “fake news” accusations that he was sexist, racist and homophobic.
A Bolsonaro government would speed up the privatization of state companies to reduce Brazil’s budget deficit and relax environmental controls for farming and mining. It would also block efforts to legalize abortion, drugs and gay marriage.
Haddad, who has presented himself as a fiscally responsible moderate, spent the last day of the campaign targeting undecided voters in the Bahia state in Brazil’s northeast, the heartland of the PT’s support, but where Bolsonaro has made gains in polling.
Haddad took Bolsonaro to task for skipping the last presidential debate on Thursday, which other candidates said was a sign he was unprepared to govern. Bolsonaro said he could not attend on the orders of his medical team.
The PT candidate said Bolsonaro wants to “win in the first round vote without having to debate the issues and that is bad for democracy.”
“We have the ability to defeat what Bolsonaro stands for, in terms of reversing social gains, in terms of civility, in terms of solidarity and in terms of mutual respect,” Haddad said.
Brazilians vote in tense presidential race led by right-winger
Brazilians vote in tense presidential race led by right-winger
- Former paratrooper Jair Bolsonaro is thought to be in line for a third of the vote
- If Bolsonaro gets more than 50 percent of the vote to lead the field of 13 candidates, he will win the presidency outright
Philippine bishops instruct flock to pray for rain, heat relief
- Rising temperatures have forced the government to shut down tens of thousands of schools over the past week
- Increased demand has also stressed the country’s already strained power supply
MANILA: Catholic bishops in the Philippines are pitching in to seek divine relief from the extreme heatwave scorching the country, instructing their flock to recite special prayers for rain and lower temperatures.
Rising temperatures have forced the government to shut down tens of thousands of schools over the past week, while increased demand has stressed the country’s already strained power supply.
A widespread El Nino drought that began early this year is compounding the problem, ruining 5.9 billion pesos ($103 million) worth of farm produce so far according to the Department of Agriculture.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued an “Oratio Imperata,” instructing parishes in the mainly Catholic nation to recite a prayer for deliverance from calamities during masses, according to the text seen by AFP on Saturday.
“We humbly ask you to grant us relief from the extreme heat that besets your people at this time, disrupting their activities and threatening their lives and livelihood,” the prayer read.
“Send us rain to replenish our depleting water sources, to irrigate our fields, to stave off water and power shortages and to provide water for our daily needs.”
A record-high 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in the capital Manila on April 27, forcing the closure of more than 47,000 schools for two days.
Nearly 8,000 schools remained shuttered as of Friday, the education department said, while the highest temperature in the country was recorded at 38.2C on the island of Mindoro south of the capital.
Indonesia to permanently relocate 10,000 people after Ruang volcano eruptions
- Authorities warned of the a possible tsunami if parts of the mountain collapse into the surrounding waters
- Indonesia straddles the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity where multiple tectonic plates meet
JAKARTA: The Indonesian government will permanently relocate almost 10,000 residents after a series of explosive eruptions of the Ruang volcano has raised concerns about the dangers of residing on the island in future, a minister said on Friday.
About 9,800 people live on Ruang island, in the province of North Sulawesi, but in recent weeks all residents have been forced to evacuate after the mountain has continued to spew incandescent lava and columns of ash kilometers into the sky.
Authorities this week raised the alert status of the volcano to the highest level, closed the provincial airport in Manado, and also warned of the a possible tsunami if parts of the mountain collapse into the surrounding waters.
Hundreds of “simple but permanent” homes would be built in the Bolaang Mongondow area to facilitate the relocations, said coordinating human development minister Muhadjir Effendy, after a cabinet meeting to discuss the volcano on Friday.
“As instructed by President Joko Widodo, we will build houses that meet disaster-standards,” he said, adding that the site was located about 200 km (125 miles) from Ruang island.
Mount Ruang began to dramatically erupt last month, with experts saying the eruptions were triggered by increased seismic activity, including deep sea earthquakes.
The mountain erupted again on Tuesday, causing damage to some homes and forcing residents to evacuate from the Tagulandang island, where they had initially sought refuge, to the provincial capital of Manado.
Roads and buildings on Tagulandang were blanketed in a thick layer of volcanic ash, and the roofs of some homes had collapsed, according a Reuters witness.
The volcano had not erupted on Friday but Manado’s Sam Ratulangi Airport remained closed until the evening due to the spread of volcanic ash.
Indonesia straddles the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity where multiple tectonic plates meet.
US congressman praises heckling of war protesters, including 1 who made monkey gestures at Black woman
JACKSON, Mississippi: Israel-Hamas war demonstrations at the University of Mississippi turned ugly this week when one counter-protester appeared to make monkey noises and gestures at a Black student in a raucous gathering that was endorsed by a far-right congressman from Georgia.
“Ole Miss taking care of business,” Republican US Rep. Mike Collins wrote Friday on the social platform X with a with a link to the video showing the racist jeers.
The Associated Press left voicemail messages for Collins on Friday at his offices in Georgia and Washington and sent an email to his spokesperson, asking for an explanation of what Collins meant. There was no immediate response.
The taunting brought sharp criticism on and off campus.
“Students were calling for an end to genocide. They were met with racism,” James M. Thomas, a sociology professor at the University of Mississippi, wrote Friday on X.
The Rev. Cornell William Brooks, a former president and CEO of the NAACP and professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, wrote on X that a white man mocking a Black woman as a monkey “isn’t about ‘Stand With Israel’ or ‘Free Palestine.’ This is protest as performative racism.”
Collins was first elected to Congress in 2022 and made several social media posts criticizing campus protests.
Nobody was arrested during the demonstration Thursday at the University of Mississippi, where hecklers vastly outnumbered war protesters. According to a count by AP, more than 2,400 arrests have occurred on 46 US university or college campuses since April 17 during demonstrations against the war.
The student newspaper, The Daily Mississippian, reported about 30 protesters on the Oxford campus billed themselves as UMiss for Palestine. Videos and photos from the event showed the protesters were in a grassy area near the main library, blocked off by barriers erected by campus security.
They chanted “Free, free Palestine,” and carried Palestinian flags and signs with slogans including, “Stop the Genocide” and “US bombs take Palestine lives.”
Student journalist Stacey J. Spiehler shot video that showed campus police officers and the dean of students standing between anti-war protesters and hecklers. After the Black woman protesting the war had what appeared to be a heated exchange of words with several white hecklers, one of the men made the monkey gestures and noises at her.
About 76 percent of the university’s students were white and about 11 percent were Black in 2022-23, the most recent data available on the school’s website.
University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce said the school is committed to people expressing their views. He said some statements made on campus Thursday were “offensive and unacceptable.”
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves reposted a video on X that showed counter-protesters on the campus singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“Warms my heart,” Reeves wrote. “I love Mississippi!”
US campus protests wane after crackdowns, Biden rebuke
- More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the past two weeks across the US
NEW YORK: Pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked US campuses for weeks were more muted Friday after a series of clashes with police, mass arrests and a stern White House directive to restore order.
Police in Manhattan cleared an encampment at New York University after sunrise, with video posted to social media by an official showing protesters exiting their tents and dispersing when ordered to do so.
The scene appeared relatively calm compared to crackdowns at other campuses around the country — and some worldwide — where protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza have multiplied in recent weeks.
University administrators, who have tried to balance the right to protest and complaints of violence and hate speech, have increasingly called on police to clear out the demonstrators ahead of year-end exams and graduation ceremonies.
At the University of Chicago, law enforcement appeared set to dismantle an encampment Friday after the school’s president said talks with protesters on a compromise had failed.
Before the clearing operation began, dozens of American flag-wielding counter-protesters showed up and confronted the pro-Palestinian group, but police separated the two sides, local media reported.
More than 2,000 arrests have been made in the past two weeks across the US, some during violent confrontations with police, giving rise to accusations of use of excessive force.
President Joe Biden, who has faced pressure from all political sides over the conflict in Gaza, gave his first expansive remarks on the protests Thursday, saying that “order must prevail.”
“We are not an authoritarian nation where we silence people or squash dissent,” Biden said in a brief address from the White House.
“But neither are we a lawless country. We’re a civil society, and order must prevail.”
His remarks came hours after police moved in on demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, which had seen a violent confrontation when counter-protesters attacked a fortified encampment there.
A large police contingent forcibly cleared the sprawling encampment early Thursday while flashbangs were launched to disperse crowds gathered outside.
Schools officials said that more than 200 people were arrested.
On the US East coast Thursday, protesters at New Jersey’s Rutgers University agreed to take down their camp after reaching a compromise with administrators — a similar deal to one made at Brown University in Rhode Island.
Republicans have accused Biden of being soft on what they say is anti-Semitic sentiment among the protesters, while he faces opposition in his own party for his strong support for Israel’s military offensive.
“There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for anti-Semitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students,” Biden said.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona echoed the condemnation in a letter to university leaders on Friday, pledging to investigate reports of anti-Semitism “aggressively,” CNN reported.
Meanwhile, similar student protests have popped up in countries around the world, including in Australia, France, Mexico and Canada.
In Paris, police moved in to clear students staging a sit-in at the Sciences Po university.
An encampment has grown at Canada’s prestigious McGill University, where administrators on Wednesday demanded it be taken down “without delay.”
However, police had yet to take action against the site as of Friday.
The Gaza war started when Hamas militants staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel estimates that 128 hostages remain in Gaza. The Israeli military says 35 of them are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 34,600 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Biden to host Jordan king next week amid Gaza talks
- Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of trying to derail the proposed Gaza deal with his threats to launch an operation in Rafah
- Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will host Jordan’s King Abdullah II next week, the White House said Friday, as negotiations continue in the Middle East for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The meeting will be “private” and will be followed by a readout, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, without giving a date for the encounter.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of talks for a deal to release hostages and secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after nearly seven months of war.
The talks, which come after months of efforts by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to broker a new agreement between the combatants, are at a critical juncture.
The United States has urged the Palestinian militant group to accept the “extraordinarily generous” offer.
But Hamas accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday of trying to derail the proposed Gaza deal with his threats to launch an operation in Rafah.
King Abdullah II last visited the White House in February when he called for an immediate ceasefire and warned an attack on Rafah would cause a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
In April, Jordan worked alongside the United States and other allies to shoot down Iranian drones that Tehran sent toward Israel, with the kingdom keen to avoid a wider conflict.
