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Far right on the march and Lula’s failures: key drivers of Flávio Bolsonaro’s Brazil surge

On Sunday night, as the scale of the far-right triumph in Brazil sank in, an adapted football chant rang out in one of Rio’s most leftwing areas. “Let’s turn this around, Lu-laaaaa! Let’s turn this around, Lu-laaaaa! Let’s turn this around, Lu-laaaaa!” crestfallen progressives bellowed while drowning their sorrows after witnessing an excruciating election setback for their leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But the scale of the challenge facing the veteran leftist looks immense after Flávio Bolsonaro’s shock first-round win, which analysts attribute to a complex lattice of social, political and religious phenomena. “Flávio Bolsonaro’s result shows that Bolsonarismo is a far-right movement … that has put down deep roots in Brazilian society,” said Bernardo Mello Franco, a political columnist for the Rio broadsheet O Globo. “His father [Jair Bolsonaro] was convicted and jailed for attempting a coup d’état [in 2022-23] yet despite this, his allies won elections across the country, and his son is the frontrunner in the second round of the presidential election.” Among the main drivers behind Bolsonaro’s strong showing: The evangelical church Brazil’s evangelical church has expanded dramatically since the 1980s, with evangelical Christians now making up nearly a third of the population. Many evangelical voters – often influenced by church leaders – have thrown their weight behind the radical populist movement built by Jair Bolsonaro, and now spearheaded by his evangelical eldest son. As president from 2018 to 2022, Bolsonaro’s ultra-conservative policies helped him cement a lasting alliance with powerful megachurch leaders such as the televangelist Silas Malafaia. “This religious machine … was put at the service of Bolsonarismo: starting with these pastors who have millions of followers on social media, who buy airtime on TV, who lead churches with millions of members, and who turned themselves into canvassers for the Bolsonaro family,” said Mello Franco. Urban violence Mello Franco believed urban violence was another factor that had turbocharged the “far-right windstorm” sweeping Brazil. Rightwing populists such as the pro-gun Bolsonaros were offering voters “misguided but easy-to-understand solutions” to high crime rates, such as increased police violence, mass incarceration and lowering the age of criminal responsibility. “This appeals to an electorate that is scared of violence and crime,” Mello Franco said. The leading light of such “security populism” in Latin America is El Salvador’s authoritarian president, Nayib Bukele, who has jailed thousands of people, often without due process, in his successful bid to cut murder rates. Mello Franco said El Salvador’s “proto-dictator” and his supposedly “magic solutions” had been held up as an inspiration by Bolsonarista politicians during the 2026 campaign. Such hardline proposals have also been boosted by Donald Trump’s decision to designate Brazil’s two biggest crime groups, Rio’s Red Command and São Paulo’s PCC, as foreign terrorist organizations. On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro and his allies have vowed to “neutralize narco-terrorists” and chemically castrate rapists – promises that appear to have won over many violence-weary voters. Lula’s campaign Analysts say Lula’s failure to focus on day-to-day issues such as crime may have hurt his prospects. The leftwing veteran spent much of the campaign vowing to defend Brazil’s sovereignty from Donald Trump’s “colonial” designs and protect its rare earth reserves. “Meanwhile, what voters wanted were solutions to more immediate problems such as bank debts, the cost of food, and insecurity,” Mello Franco said. During one recent rally in suburban Rio, some Lula supporters visibly zoned out as the president waxed lyrical about critical minerals and artificial intelligence. Political analyst Thomas Traumann, who was spokesperson for the former leftwing president Dilma Rousseff, believed Lula’s third administration had ignored a large chunk of society that was unsatisfied over economic issues or because of controversies involving the supreme court. “The government treated any kind of criticism … as a display of fascism – which undoubtedly exists in Brazil – and elitism, which also exists,” he said. “But what also exists is a group of voters who expected more from the government and who are neither fascists, nor elitists. They are simply people who didn’t like the government and decided to punish it.” A Brazilian Biden? Some critics have also pointed to Lula’s age as his achilles heel and blame him for failing to produce an obvious successor. He will turn 81 two days after the election’s 25 October second round. One recent story in the Economist called Lula “a doddering leftie” and compared him to the “geriatric leader” Joe Biden, who was forced to abandon his 2024 re-election campaign after a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Traumann called questions over Lula’s physical or mental state “ridiculous”. “When you see him speak, you can tell it’s not about this,” he said of the gym-going octogenarian. Mello Franco agreed: “Unlike Biden, Lula has at no point shown any kind of physical frailty or cognitive impairment. I don’t think this was an issue.” But Traumann did see one parallel with the former US president: like Biden, Lula was stubborn, had not listened enough to others, and appeared to have thought decent economic indicators were enough to ensure re-election. “This disconnection from reality reminds me of Biden,” he said, attributing it to “the stubbornness of age”. From the start of the campaign, Lula seemed to believe “the election was in the bag”. “And it wasn’t,” Traumann said. The global far right Many observers saw Sunday’s rightwing victory as another chapter in the global advance of the social media-savvy far right. “We’re seeing this revolution in many other parts of the world. We’re seeing this in the US, we’re seeing it in parts of Latin America, we’re see this in a different way in Europe,” said Miguel Lagos, a political scientist. Lagos believed that in Brazil, the movement was driven by a deep “rage against the classical political elites” including journalists, traditional politicians and intellectuals. Jair Bolsonaro and his son Flávio are career politicians. Between them, they have spent half a century working in Rio’s state legislature or the Brazilian congress. Even so, father and son have managed to portray themselves as Trump-style anti-establishment outsiders who have come to drain a swamp of which they, too, are part. Mello Franco believed Bolsonaro was now the favourite to become president. “But I don’t think the contest is over,” he cautioned. “Brazil is always showing us that plot twists aren’t just possible – they’re practically part of the landscape.”

Flydubai co-pilot originally planned attack for July, investigators believe

Investigators believe the co-pilot who tried to take control of a plane from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week originally planned his attack for July but postponed the hijacking, possibly because a friend was among the crew, regional and Israeli officials have said. The evidence of prior planning suggests that Hamam al-Hammami, 29, may have specifically sought employment with an airline that flew to Israel in order to carry out the attack on last Wednesday’s flydubai ‌flight FZ1073, experts believe. Police and security agencies in at least six countries are scrambling to piece together the background of Hammami, an Omani national, and his intentions, as well as to establish if he acted entirely alone. Hammami allegedly used an emergency crash axe kept in the cockpit to launch a surprise attack on the pilot approximately two hours and 20 minutes after takeoff. The plane was carrying more than 180 passengers – almost all Israeli – and crew on a routine flight. Israeli media have quoted from Hammami’s statements to interrogators since being transferred to United Arab Emirates custody on Thursday to report that he planned to crash into Ben Gurion airport near ⁠Tel Aviv, or possibly another high-profile target nearby. The flight’s captain, Smit Machchhar, said on Saturday that shortly after Hammami had left his seat to pray, he felt a “big blow” to the back of his head. In a phone call with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Saturday, Machchhar said: “The blows kept coming … That’s when I realised that it’s not the aircraft, it’s the other guy who was in the cockpit with me.” Despite his injuries Machchhar was able to unlock the cockpit’s security door to allow passengers to overpower Hammami. A reserve flydubai pilot travelling on the flight took control of the aircraft and landed it at a regional airport in north-western Saudi Arabia, where the co-pilot was detained by Saudi authorities. The investigation into Hammami has now spread to more than eight countries. Authorities in New Zealand and Australia are examining reports that the co-pilot studied in both nations about 10 years ago. Hammami, who has an Omani father and a Syrian mother, is thought to have been employed by Oman Air from 2018 to June 2025, but left the airline after being moved to a desk job out of concerns that he had developed extremist views. He was then hired by Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan national flag carrier, but did not obtain permission to fly and gave up his job there. Shortly afterward, Hammami was hired at the state-owned flydubai, which has needed pilots as it expands rapidly. The airline conducted checks for a criminal record but not for evidence of radicalisation, officials have said. A key question for investigators is when Hammami began to formulate his plan to attack a plane full of Israelis or target Israel. Netanyahu has claimed Hammami had undergone “radical Islamist indoctrination” and was clearly suicidal, without giving details. Nine hours after the attack, a post was made to an online social media account in Hammami’s name praising Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former al-Qaida leader, as well as a militant responsible for a lethal suicide attack on US troops in Afghanistan in 2009. A second post contained religious imagery. An analysis of Hammami’s X account by a company that uses AI to measure the toxicity of individuals’ social media accounts found dozens of misogynistic posts, including public threats against women. The analysis by Accountability! – which recovered Hammami’s deleted account by scraping internet archives, and reviewed almost 3,000 posts and responses – found repeated use of slurs against women, and a “consistent pattern” of use of terms meaning “whores”, and “filthy feminist”. The researchers also found homophobic slurs directed at men. “Beyond offensive language, the analysis surfaced explicit conditional threats of physical violence … including repeated imagery of stomping on a woman’s head and making her ‘a lesson for others’,” the analysis found. “Online toxicity isn’t just corrosive, it’s a warning sign. This pilot was telling the world who he was in his posts. Had anyone in charge been listening, nearly 200 people might never have been put in danger,” said Gur Megiddo, a co-founder and chief executive of Accountability!. Regional officials said Emirati authorities had shared information about the passengers and crew, including their nationalities, with Israel. The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, said the transportation ministry was responsible for vetting passenger lists from foreign flights but the transportation minister, Miri Regev, said on X that the security agencies handled flight security. Israeli newspapers reported that a key database of foreign pilots had not been checked despite concerns raised by official reports. The attack occurred at a sensitive time for Israel, a week before the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 which triggered the war in Gaza, and weeks before a fiercely contested general election in which security – and responsibility for failures to keep Israelis safe – has been a central issue. Opposition politicians have seized on the apparent lapses to attack Netanyahu, who has boasted of his ability to keep Israelis safe. “This is exactly what system collapse looks like,” Yair Golan, the head of the opposition Democrats party, wrote on X. “A transportation minister who completely abandons our skies, and a prime minister who abandons national security.”

UK threatens to expel Israeli diplomats over planned East Jerusalem consulate closure

The UK has threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced to leave Israel as a result of Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem later this week. This could mean as many as 27 Israeli diplomats being expelled from the UK, a step that would arguably mark the lowest point in British-Israeli diplomatic relations since the formation of the state of Israel. The mass expulsion threat – more reminiscent of British-Russian diplomatic relations – was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Ynet, citing a message sent to Israeli officials. The UK Foreign Office said it would not comment on speculation, rather than denying the report outright. Israel has threatened to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem in protest at the UK decision to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and to impose sanctions on British firms that aid, support or facilitate the construction of further illegal settlements. The Foreign Office has been advised informally by the former UK attorney general Dominic Grieve that Israel is acting unlawfully if it closes the consulate on the basis it is sited in East Jerusalem, which is recognised by the United Nations and most of its members, including the UK, as being occupied Palestinian territory. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, has said that Britain’s ‌decision to impose sanctions was “morally distorted” and accused Britain’s ruling Labour party of being hostile towards the country. The consulate, which Israel’s foreign ministry has said will close on Thursday, is separate from the UK embassy based in Tel Aviv and has a distinct diplomatic role, covering East Jerusalem, the rest of the West Bank and Gaza. It is located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. An Israeli diplomatic source said: “There is no reason for us to respond to speculation about decisions that other countries may or may not take in the future. “We have already demonstrated that any step taken against Israel will be met with an appropriate response, and that will continue to be the case.” The UK national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, travelled to Jerusalem last week in an effort to persuade the Israeli government to rescind or defer the closure of the consulate but the talks failed. It has been reported that Powell opposed the decision of the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, to press ahead with the settlement trade ban decision, fearing that it might play to the advantage of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the national election on 27 October as he seeks to bolster his case that only his brand of leadership can bring Israel security. There is no evidence yet that the UK decision has featured in the campaign, but tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats may raise its profile. The ‌incident highlighted growing frustration among Israel’s longtime allies over its settlements in the occupied West Bank, viewed by much of the world as illegal under international law. In his statement to the UK parliament, Miliband said settler terrorists, supported by Netanyahu’s government, are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. Israel disputes this. Diplomats from other western countries have been very worried about the closure setting a precedent, and suggest that Britain had to respond strongly to the Israeli move because it has implications beyond the immediate dispute. Shutting down the consulate involves Israel claiming authority in Jerusalem that it does not have under international law, so it is effectively a challenge to the status quo. “We are all concerned because if this (closure of the consulate) goes ahead it would be an incredibly damaging precedent for the status of missions in Jerusalem, which are monitoring the status quo,” said one western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It would be inconceivable for the British government to accept (the closure) because they don’t recognise the authority of the Israeli government over Jerusalem under international law. Particularly as Israel is taking this step over British measures which are simply applying international law.” Israel has also said it is to revoke the credentials of Dutch diplomats from the country’s mission to Palestine, in response to the Netherlands’ ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements. Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza means diplomats need Israeli accreditation to operate in Palestine. The decision also in effect bars them from Israel-controlled East Jerusalem. France and Canada, which also joined the UK in the settlement trade ban, have not had action taken against them. Miliband received a very warm reception at the UK Labour party conference last week during a speech in which he highlighted his decision to get tough with Israel over illegal settlements. UK-Israeli relations have deteriorated steadily during the war in Gaza begun by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 massacre of Israelis as the UK became increasingly critical of the way in which Netanyahu seemed prepared to tolerate the death of thousands of Palestinians in a bid to render Hamas inoperative, a task both the Conservative and Labour governments thought was unachievable through his methods. The UK has rescinded a large number of arms export licences to Israel as a result and Miliband has spoken of evidence of war crimes in Gaza. He has declined to accuse Israel of genocide on the grounds that he believes this is a matter for international courts alone to determine.

Norway plans temporary ban on smart glasses in some public places

Norway is planning a temporary ban on smart glasses in some public places, amid rising global concern at the spread of the AI-enabled recording devices. The Oslo government is planning a bill to prevent the use of the camera-enabled spectacles in parks, beaches, museums, shopping centres, schools, daycare centres, healthcare facilities, gyms and public events, although private use would still be allowed. There is already a growing patchwork of restrictions on the use of the glasses including in UK and US courtrooms and in pubs, cinemas and restaurants where owners have raised privacy fears. Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway’s minister of digital affairs, said he was “worried that ‌new, powerful technology is being introduced where people risk being ‌photographed, filmed or audio-recorded without knowing it”. “We do not want a society where people worry about being recorded without their knowledge, photographed or filmed in places and situations where they are accustomed to not being monitored,” he said. Norway’s Labour party, which heads a minority government, needs the support of other parties to pass the proposed ban. It said it planned to submit a bill “as soon as possible”, while tasking an expert group with drawing up permanent regulations on the issue. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta sells “smart” versions of Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses that allow users to film, take photos, make phone calls, play music and execute AI prompts. It has sold at least 9m pairs of the Ray-Ban versions since the start of 2023. In the UK restaurateurs such as Jeremy King, who created the Wolseley and Delaunay restaurants, and pub chain Wetherspoons have already said they do not want customers using the devices. Cinemas said in August they had begun introducing policies to ban or restrict the use of smart glasses citing both privacy and film piracy concerns. Last week the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, vetoed legislation that would have penalised citizens for using smart glasses to record people without their permission in changing rooms, doctors’ offices and other spaces people generally consider private. The state already has laws governing unlawful recording. In France, the child welfare group E-enfance said it had this year received about 20 reports of women being filmed without their knowledge using glasses fitted with a camera, the majority of which involved Meta smart glasses. It said the incidents often followed the same pattern: a young girl or woman approached in a public place, filmed without her knowledge, with the clip then posted on social media in the form of a prank or a street interview. Meta has stressed that each pair of glasses is fitted with a tamper-proof LED light that blinks white when the user is recording or taking pictures. It advises users: “Not everyone loves being photographed. Stop recording if anyone expresses that they would rather you not.” A Meta spokesperson said: “We’re excited that our glasses continue to be very popular for listening to music, making calls, or getting live translations, so we’re continuing to expand styles and features around the world. Every pair with a camera has a bright light on the front that blinks when you take a photo or video. It can’t be turned off and the camera is disabled if someone covers or tampers with it -- something smartphones and other camera’s don’t have.”

Flávio Bolsonaro poised to win Brazilian presidency after shock first-round victory

Flávio Bolsonaro is in pole position to win Brazil’s presidential election, after a far-right tsunami propelled him to a shock first-round victory over the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leaving progressive voters reeling. The 45-year-old rightwing candidate received 56.1m votes to Lula’s 53.8m – 47.03% to 45.16% – meaning the 80-year-old leftwinger has a mountain to climb if he is to bounce back in the second round on 25 October. Never, since the return of democracy to Brazil in 1985, has the first-round runner-up managed to turn the game around and win the second ballot. “Miracles are possible in politics. But I don’t see that happening,” the political scientist Miguel Lago said of Lula’s chances of snapping back. “I don’t see Flávio losing this election now.” The far-right surge was a triumph – albeit an incomplete one – for the Bolsonaro clan and its 71-year-old patriarch, Jair Bolsonaro. The disgraced ex-president, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula, saw four relatives elected to congress. His 44-year-old wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, won a seat in the senate, as did his second son, Carlos Bolsonaro, who is 43. Bolsonaro’s youngest son, 28-year-old Jair Renan Bolsonaro, and the ex-president’s 62-year-old brother, Renato Bolsonaro, both won seats in the lower house of congress. Across Latin America’s biggest democracy, key congressional and gubernatorial races were also won by staunch Bolsonaristas including Tarcísio de Freitas, who was re-elected as the governor of São Paulo state, and Sérgio Moro, who was elected governor of the southern state of Paraná. Both men were ministers during Bolsonaro’s 2018-22 government. Bolsonaro’s Liberal party (PL) will now boast the largest caucus in the senate with 28 of its 81 seats. Combined with the seats of other hard-right parties, that number rises to 43, giving the movement an upper house majority. Meanwhile, pro-Lula senate candidates, including the former environment minister Marina Silva, the leftwing veteran Benedita da Silva, and the centrist former planning minister Simone Tebet, suffered bitter defeats. Nikolas Ferreira and Lucas Pavanato, two young Bolsonarista social media warriors, became the best-voted congresspeople in Brazilian history, securing more than 3m votes. “We are experiencing a revolution … The far right is growing in a very consistent way, election after election,” said Lago, calling the election the worst for progressive and moderate centrist parties since the late 80s. Lago believed Lula had managed to interrupt the advance of Bolsonaro’s populist movement in 2022, thanks to positive voter memories of his first two terms, from 2002 to 2010. Back then, a global commodities boom allowed Brazil’s first working-class president to fund major social welfare programmes that helped millions escape poverty. “But it was just an interregnum,” Lago said. Control of the senate should allow pro-Bolsonaro politicians to approve an amnesty for their movement’s charismatic leader, allowing the former president to emerge from the Brasília mansion where he is living under house arrest and reassert his leadership of the far right. “I think he will be freed and I think he will be very important during Flávio Bolsonaro’s [presidency],” said Lago. “Flávio will be running the country and [Jair] Bolsonaro will be doing what he has always done: leading the revolution.” The senate majority may also help Bolsonaro’s third son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, return from self-imposed exile in the US. The 42-year-old, who has close ties to Donald Trump’s Maga movement, was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison earlier this year for coercion – the result of his lobbying the Trump administration to interfere in his father’s coup trial. Eduardo Bolsonaro reportedly hopes to become foreign minister if his brother wins the presidency. Trump, who has been accused of trying to sway the election in Bolsonaro’s favour, has yet to comment on Sunday’s result, although writing on his Truth Social network, he praised the speed of the vote count. But the US president will be delighted by the strong rightwing showing, a major boost to his attempt to expand the conservative “orange wave” sweeping Latin America to its biggest democracy and economy. Recent years have seen a succession of pro-Trump presidents win power in the region, from Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador to Chile and Colombia. One of Trump’s most enthusiastic regional cheerleaders, the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, celebrated Bolsonaro’s “historic” victory against “the communist Lula”. “The American continent belongs to citizens who want to live in freedom,” Milei wrote on X. The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, wished Bolsonaro “good luck in the final” and celebrated his “great victory”. He wrote on X: “I look forward to restoring the extraordinary friendship between Israel and Brazil.” Speaking after Sunday’s result was confirmed, Lula put a brave face on what analysts called a catastrophic night for the left. “From tomorrow we will launch a new campaign: [and in] a campaign with only two candidates we will be able to show the difference between our proposals for Brazil,” he said, vowing to expose his rival’s “dark past”, which involves well-documented ties to members of Rio’s underworld and corruption allegations, which Bolsonaro has denied. But the mood at Lula’s post-election event was reportedly funereal and Bolsonaro goes into the second round as the firm favourite. He is likely to be boosted by the migration of votes from the election’s other rightwing candidates – Ronaldo Caiado, Renan Santos and Romeu Zema – who, between them, won more than 5.5m votes. Santos quickly announced he would endorse neither candidate, considering both Lula and Bolsonaro to be “crooks”. Zema has vowed to vote against Lula’s Worker’s party (PT) in the runoff, while Caiado has yet to declare his intentions. Lula’s best hope may be convincing some of the record 33 million Brazilians who did not vote to turn out next time. “He will need to mobilise these apathetic voters who, in a sense, have already abandoned politics, which will be an extremely difficult task,” said Camila Rocha, a political scientist who studies Brazil’s new right. Rocha has spent recent months interviewing undecided voters and identified “a great deal of voter apathy, especially among those who are not aligned with Bolsonarismo, and who could potentially vote for Lula”. Although Flávio Bolsonaro has held political office for more than 20 years, “for undecided voters, his main positive characteristic is this idea of ‘renewal’, despite his possible involvement in corruption and with paramilitary groups,” Rocha added. Lago believed only a dramatic shift from Lula’s campaign – such as changing the candidate, or a severe scandal involving Bolsonaro – could change the election’s outcome. But he was doubtful that would occur.

Nearly 200 students injured in French schools protests as clashes with police continue – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Nearly 200 French students have been injured since the protests began, France’s education minister Édouard Geffray said, at protests and violent clashes with police continued for another day (14:15, 16:49). A 15-year-old boy ‌had his hand ‌blown off at a protest outside a high school in the northern town of Lens, local authorities confirmed (14:04, 17:24). At least 5,000 people – 85% of them teenagers – have been arrested since the start of the protests (16:47). Tuesday is expected to bring even more disruption after different groups called for a national day of protests. In other news, Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has once again staked his political future on a snap general election called after rightwing parties torpedoed emergency legislation to tackle the housing crisis (9:01, 9:04, 9:09, 9:10, 9:13, 9:17, 9:23). Pedro Sánchez is hoping to mobilise voters around the housing crisis and the broader message of hope, with opinion polls suggesting his left-wing government might otherwise struggle to retain power (9:37). As he deals with a fragmented left-wing bloc and criticism over the migration crisis in Ceuta, it’s not hard to see why the prime minister may have decided that an early election was preferable to several more months of legislative deadlock, mud-slinging and uncomfortable headlines (12:33). The opposition leader, the People’s Party’s Alberto Núñez Feijóo, welcomed the move, saying “at last” Spaniards will have a chance to oust the PM (10:24). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

France braces for national day of school protests as boy loses hand

France is bracing for a national day of protests and high-school blockades as a youth protest movement gathers pace amid a growing debate over the scale of the police response. In one incident, a 15-year-old protesting against what demonstrators said were France’s dilapidated ⁠and understaffed schools ‌had his hand ‌blown off outside a high school in the northern town of Lens, said François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais. Lauch declined to comment on the exact circumstances, but said between 150 and 200 protesters had been hurling a series of objects at police when riot officers intervened. It was uncertain if the incident had involved a police stun grenade or how the injury happened. Lauch said an investigation had been opened. The family of a 16-year-old school pupil in Tours also filed a complaint about police violence after he lost sight in his right eye last week. The state prosecutor said the boy’s injuries were in line with the impact from a police rubber bullet. A police investigation is under way. The French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had earlier attempted to calm the protests by accepting schoolchildren’s grievances as “legitimate” and saying the government must listen. Lecornu ordered ministers to tackle the students’ five major demands. These include organising the replacement of absent teachers, in recognition that pupils in some areas miss months of teaching because of staff absences – even in key exam years. Lecornu also called for a review of France’s lengthy school days, which are among the longest in Europe. The government will also look at repairs to dilapidated school buildings. Children on blockades across France have described water leaking into classrooms during class, cockroaches, collapsing ceilings and unbearable heat in summer. Lecornu said ministers must come up with proposals by the end of the month. Sophie Binet, the head of the leftwing CGT trade union, said the government had been late in offering to tackle the schoolchildren’s demands. She said the number of absent teachers who were not replaced had doubled in 10 years and class sizes were at a record high. “Amid such anger, a few measures just for show aren’t going to satisfy demands,” Binet said. She called for the government to instead stop all budget cuts as well as cuts to teachers’ positions. Student unions have called for a national day of protest on Tuesday with more schools expected to be barricaded. Thousands of trade unionists, teachers, public sector workers and parents’ groups are expected to join marches of support in cities and towns across France. Binet said trade unionists would march to ensure there was no violence on the edge of any protests on Tuesday, as she criticised heavy policing. “We’ve been appalled by what we have seen over the past 10 days and by the unprecedented crackdown that the government has organised against the protests by high school students,” she said. University students continued to support the school protests on Monday, with up to 40 university buildings blockaded across France. Philippe Baptiste, the minister for higher education, told French radio he felt student and high school protests could intensify with the national protests due to take place on Tuesday. Between 400 and 500 high schools are expected to remain completely or partly closed on ⁠Monday out of a total of 3,700, the minister said. A government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, told CNews television on Monday: “Our priority is to restore order.” The protests began in late September ‌at a high school ‌in a Paris suburb over teacher shortages. The government was taken by surprise as protests then spread nationwide, amid anger at social inequality and a lack of investment in the education system. Since last Monday, about 5,000 people, mostly ‌teenagers, have been arrested across France and dozens injured. Teachers have also been injured. Damage to property is estimated in the tens of millions of euros.

US closely monitoring case of lab worker who ‘possibly’ died of plague in Siberia, says Rubio

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the US is closely monitoring the case of a Russian laboratory worker who died last week after a reported accident at a plague research institute in Siberia. “We’re watching and monitoring it closely,” Rubio said on Monday before leaving for a trip to Europe. “I ⁠don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause just to keep an ⁠eye on it.” Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee at the anti-plague institute in the city of Irkutsk, became ill at work. She died two days later on the night of 2 October at a regional hospital in the nearby town of Shelekhov. It remains unclear how she became unwell. Unconfirmed reports in Russian media have suggested Shipilova may have been infected after a mishap at the laboratory. Officials have not publicly confirmed that account. Local media have reported that the institute has subsequently been locked down, with staff forced to sleep on the floor and on chairs. “They’ve been isolating everybody since Friday – more than 60 people,” one relative, Roman, told the news portal Siberia.Realities. He said family members were allowed to drop off food at a checkpoint while tests were carried out inside the building. Similar quarantine restrictions have been placed on several other hospitals in and around the city. Rubio, citing what ‌Russians have released about the death, said it seemed a worker in the lab became infected and there was concern the disease may have spread internally. “There’s very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously,” he said. “But like anything else, something like that gets out, it just quickly spreads.” Senior Russian officials have added to public disquiet by sending conflicting messages. Alexey Tsydenov, the head of the Buryatia region, which neighbours Irkutsk, initially wrote that Shipilova had died of plague, before editing his post to say she had “possibly” died of the disease. Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, said Shipilova died from “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”. It insisted that tests found no micro-organisms linked to her professional work and described the “sanitary and epidemiological” situation in the area as stable. Authorities in the nearby city of Baikalsk briefly urged residents to avoid travelling to Shelekhov and surrounding settlements after what they said was unofficial information about a possible plague infection. They later deleted the post from social media. “There are no obvious changes to daily life on the streets, but people are worried and anxious. Locals are angry that they are not being told anything,” said Elena Trifonova, a journalist with People of Baikal, an exiled Russian media outlet specialising in Siberia. Despite the lack of a confirmed diagnosis, precautionary measures appear to have been introduced across the region. The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on Monday that several hospitals in Irkutsk had been placed under quarantine. The outlet confirmed that staff from Shipilova’s workplace, the Irkutsk Anti-plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, had been kept inside the institute since 2 October. Patients at Irkutsk city clinical hospital No 1 and the Ivano-Matreninskaya children’s hospital said relatives were not being allowed to visit and people inside were not permitted to leave. On social media, local residents described some of the precautions being introduced. Ulyana Gavryunina, who went on Monday to one of Irkutsk’s main maternity hospitals for a routine check-up on Monday, said doctors refused to allow her mother in, citing a quarantine imposed over the suspected plague case. Gavryunina said staff member checked her for flu-like symptoms and asked her to fill out a screening form for infections, on which “plague” was listed. She posted a photograph of the form on Instagram. Elsewhere, a mask requirement was introduced at the Irkutsk aluminium smelter in Shelekhov. The plant’s director, Artyom Fominykh, called it a preventive measure, saying: “Better safe than sorry.” Over the weekend several public events in Irkutsk were cancelled. Shipolova’s death has prompted intervention from senior federal health officials. Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor and the country’s chief sanitary doctor, travelled to Irkutsk on Friday. She attended an emergency meeting of the regional sanitary and anti-epidemic commission over what officials called a suspected case of a “particularly dangerous infection”. Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, urged residents to remain calm after meeting Popova to coordinate the response. “All identified contacts have been placed under medical observation. As of today, none is showing signs of illness and laboratory tests have returned negative results,” he wrote on Telegram. Kobzev made no reference to reports that a laboratory worker had died. US politicians have raised concerns about the incident, which follows longstanding and unfounded allegations by the Kremlin that Ukraine has secretly carried out biological weapons research with the support of Washington. A Republican representative, Don Bacon, a senior member of the House armed services committee, wrote on social media: “I remember hearing from anti-Ukraine voices about their so-called bio labs. It was Russian disinformation ops at their best. But in reality it is Russia with the bio labs.” Plague remains endemic in parts of Siberia and the Russian far east, where the bacterium persists naturally among wild rodents and their fleas. But human cases in Russia are rare. Before the suspected Irkutsk case, the country’s last recorded human infection was in 2016, when a 10-year-old boy in Siberia’s Altai Republic contracted plague after helping butcher a marmot. “This case here seems like a rare lab accident and is unlikely to go much further,” Prof Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, in the UK, said. “Although it is true that pneumonic plague is directly transmissible, the contacts of the primary case are known and can be treated if they show any sign of infection.” He added: “Plague carries a huge history and is still present in many parts of the world, including Russia, but the living conditions associated with previously spread plague are no longer generally true, antibiotics are available and its potential is therefore limited.”