Deeply divided Sao Paolo a perfect metaphor for Brazil’s contentious election
There’s a Gotham City-esque feel to the towering skyscrapers that dominate the skyline in every direction as far as the eye can see.
Sao Paulo is a megacity.
It’s a bustling financial hub, home to over 12 million people. The city proper is the most populous in the Americas, the western and southern hemispheres.
It’s the largest Portuguese-speaking city in the world – and that includes Portugal.
Sao Paulo has incredible wealth and dreadful poverty.
It is a deeply divided place. And is the perfect metaphor for Brazil‘s presidential election that is tearing the country apart.
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Across the country they’re voting in the second round of this election after neither the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, nor his main opponent Lula da Silva secured the vital 50% plus one vote needed for victory earlier this month.
The country is on a knife’s edge. It’s impossible to tell where this is going.
Both candidates are populists in their own ways.
Jair Bolsonaro is often compared to Donald Trump, and he certainly apes his United States’ buddy’s approach to faith, gender issues, gun ownership, and human rights – and appears to simultaneously bask in abject rudeness with a tenuous adherence to fact if it doesn’t suit his personal agenda.
Like Trump, he and his advisers have been casting the election as rigged against them.
There is a huge trade in election merchandise
This week his 26-year-old son Flavio Bolsonaro said his father is “the victim of the largest electoral fraud ever seen”, though they’ve offered no evidence.
And if Bolsonaro does win, that allegation will probably be dropped instantly.
He could win, the polls are neck and neck.
There is fear amongst Lula da Silva’s supporters that they lost momentum after the first round, that the polls had given them an inflated sense of confidence, and that the election result might not go their way.
Lula, a former president, is bidding to stage a remarkable comeback to the top of the political ladder.
Read more:
Confidence and exuberance at Lula da Silva rally in Brazil
Arrested in 2018 on corruption charges, later quashed, he was consistently the most popular political leader in the world with approval ratings in the 80s and 90s during his time in office from 2003 until 2011.
Many thought he could win the presidency in the first round on 1 October. He didn’t, and worse for him and his party, President Bolsonaro closed the gap to a handful of points.
Now everything is to play for.
The polling companies in Brazil are very sophisticated, but their results have been questioned by many.
There is a huge trade in election merchandise here; towels, flags, buttons, and caps for both candidates are sold on street corners and outside virtually every subway station and at newsagents.
Jair Bolsonaro is often compared to Donald Trump
Saulo Adriel and his brother set up store on Paulista Avenue, this city’s equivalent of Oxford Street, and he’s doing a big trade in presidential merch.
Hanging on the traffic lights next to a pedestrian crossing, Saulo has a chalkboard where he keeps a running tally which candidate’s merchandise is selling the best.
He told me after the first round it was literally neck and neck, but today, Lula appeared to be well ahead. That could be because he was about to hold a rally on the same street.
The real point is Saulo says he’s been totalling his figures up, and it appears to be too close to call.
“I don’t know who is going to win anymore. This is the most polarised election in history, I guess,” he told me while overseeing more sales.
“I think there will be 500,000 to one million votes difference between them, though I can’t say, literally, who is going to win.”
Saulo Adriel and his brother set up store on Paulista Avenue
While I spoke to him, he updated the chalkboard with another two sales for Lula.
Still, it’s so close he’s investing his money on both of them.
“My brother and I have already invested in 1,000 Bolsonaro supporter badges and 1,000 Lula badges, so it’s fifty-fifty, you know?”
The two candidates have finished their final election rallies.
President Bolsonaro took to his motorcycle in Belo Horizonte in Brazil’s south, and was greeted by thousands of adoring supporters, some also on their motorcycles.
Belo Horizonte is a bellwether state that usually predicts the eventual winner.
On Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue, Lula da Silva was greeted by huge numbers of partying supporters as he took to a cavalcade through the city.
In the crowd we met a group of university professors who were there dressed in white, as opposed to the party’s usual red.
Lula da Silva merchandise for sale
They explained the rally had been divided into a series of colours, and white indicated that they were there demonstrating for the protection of democratic principles and peace.
Marcos Oliveira, a professor at the University of Rio de Janeiro, told me he believes the behaviour of Donald Trump and his supporters after his election loss has been co-opted by Bolsonaro’s team, and threatens Brazilian democracy.
“The ideology behind Bolsonaro’s administration is the very same one that was built for Donald Trump,” he said.
“So, the structure behind it and the narratives are exactly the same, the difference is we know now in advance because of what happened with the elections in the United States, it prepared the groundwork for us to strike back, so we need to have this in mind.”
Standing next to him, his friend Professor Ariel Silva from Sao Paulo, nodded in agreement.
Marcos Oliveira (L) and his friend professor Ariel Silva
“Their strategy is very similar to the strategy of Trump in the last election, so we more or less have an idea what to expect, but we are here to fight for democracy,” Silva added.
On the final day then, either could win, it seems to be that close.
The problem for Brazil is that the divisions are so deep any reconciliation between the two sides will prove incredibly difficult.
It is an earthquake for the MAGA ecosystem.
Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene were a formidable alliance on the Republican Party’s hard-right flank.
For years, the congresswoman for Georgia embodied the combative, conspiracy-tinged politics that define Trump’s presidency.
She called him “the father of the America First movement,” campaigned to be his running mate, and was quick to defend him.
“David Cameron can kiss my ass,” she told Sky News when asked about the former UK Prime Minister’s concerns about US fading support for Ukraine.
Door-stepped by my colleague Martha Kelner, she said: “We don’t give a crap about your country or your reporting.
“The Trump administration is doing a great job and I stand by their statements,” she added.
“I’m thankful to President Trump that he is leading us out of wars.”
Watch Sky’s Martha Kelner’s encounter with Taylor Greene from earlier this year…
But in recent months, she had expressed concerns about Trump’s involvement in the Middle East, Ukraine and elsewhere.
It escalated when she stood with victims of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to demand justice and joined Democrats in demanding a vote on the release of all files.
Just days ago, President Trump told reporters Taylor Greene had “lost her way”, but something triggered a war of words late on Friday.
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‘Shame on everyone that protected Epstein’
The president had taken questions on Air Force One, with two reporters citing Taylor Green’s demand that the files be released.
Moments later, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he was withdrawing his endorsement of the congresswoman.
He branded her a “ranting lunatic”, “wacky Marjorie”, and said all she ever does is “COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN.”
Her reply came very quickly, in a post claiming she had sent the president text messages about Jeffrey Epstein.
“Apparently this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein Files,” she posted.
Read more on Jeffrey Epstein:
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘wants Trump to commute sentence’
What Epstein’s right-hand woman said about Trump and Andrew
She accused him of “coming after” her to “scare all the other Republicans” before next week’s vote to release the Epstein files.
“It’s astonishing how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level,” she added.
For years, they were joined at the hip – Trump the movement’s figurehead, Taylor Greene its megaphone – but it has now descended into open hostility.
Epstein, the story that won’t go away, has just cost Trump one of his most loyal allies, and rocked the internal dynamics of his political movement.
At least nine people have been killed and 32 injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The accidental blast occurred late on Friday in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, as forensic and police personnel were evaluating the explosive material, according to police director-general Nalin Prabhat.
Most of the dead were officers and forensic staff, police said, adding that several of the injured remained in a critical condition.
The massive explosion tore through the police station, setting the building and several vehicles on fire.
“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100-200m away from the police station,” a police source said.
A series of smaller successive blasts slowed rescue operations.
A police official lays flowers on a coffin at a ceremony for the victims. Pic: Reuters
The police station blast comes just days after a deadly car explosion in New Delhi on Monday, which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort.
The car explosion occurred hours after police in Kashmir said they had dismantled a suspected militant cell operating from the region, arresting at least seven people, including two doctors from Indian cities.
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Police also seized a large quantity of bomb-making material in Faridabad, near New Delhi.
Indian security forces have conducted multiple raids across Kashmir during their investigation, questioning hundreds and detaining dozens.
Relatives protest following the blast. Pic: Reuters
Authorities said DNA testing identified the car’s driver as a Kashmiri doctor, and government forces demolished his family home in Pulwama district on Thursday night.
In the past, security forces have demolished the homes of individuals they allege were linked to militants opposing Indian rule in Kashmir as a form of punishment.
India and Pakistan both claim all of Kashmir, though each controls only part of the territory.
Militants in the Indian-administered region have been fighting against New Delhi since 1989, with India labeling it Pakistan-backed terrorism.
Pakistan denies the claim, saying that many Kashmiris view it as a legitimate struggle for independence.
World
Donald Trump withdraws support for Marjorie Taylor Greene after she calls for Epstein files to be released
Donald Trump has withdrawn support for Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene – which she claims is over her support for releasing files about Jeffrey Epstein.
In comments made on Truth Social, Mr Trump said he would support any challenger who wants to take Ms Greene’s seat in Georgia.
It comes after weeks of the MAGA ally breaking ranks from the president – and according to a post on X after his withdrawal, she believes it’s over a possible vote on releasing all of the Epstein files.
Read more: Marjorie Taylor Greene – the MAGA ally known for embracing conspiracies and insulting journalists
After the US government shutdown ended, a petition to vote on the full release of the files about disgraced pedophile financier Epstein received enough signatures – including Ms Greene’s – to bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives.
While such a vote does not yet have a date, Mr Trump has called the files a “hoax” and accused the Democrats of using them “to try and deflect from their disastrous SHUTDOWN”.
Earlier this week, thousands of documents from Epstein were released, which reference Mr Trump, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson, among others.
Read more: What do Epstein documents say about Trump, Andrew and Mandelson?
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The new Epstein files: The key takeaways
Trump attacks ‘Wacky’ Majorie
In his post on Truth Social overnight, Mr Trump said: “all I see “Wacky” Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!
“It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement – which she wasn’t about to get!).”
The president went on to claim “she has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore”, before adding: “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.
“I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support.”
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Will new Epstein emails hurt Trump?
Greene: Trump’s fight to stop files ‘astonishing’
Around an hour later, Ms Greene responded on X to say “President Trump just attacked me and lied about me”, and shared text messages to him and a White House aide about releasing information on the deceased pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“Of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files,” she added on social media.
“It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”
Read more: Why this is dangerous terrain for Trump
Marjorie Taylor Greene was an ardent supporter of MAGA and became a Republican Congresswoman in 2021. File pic: AP
She then said “most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America… that’s what I voted for”.
“I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him,” she added.
“But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump… I remain the same today as I’ve always been and I will continue to pray this administration will be successful because the American people desperately deserve what they voted for.”
Watch Sky’s Martha Kelner’s encounter with Greene from earlier this year…
Earlier this week, Mr Trump accused the MAGA loyalist of “catering to the other side” after she criticised his focus on foreign policy, which she described as “America Last”.
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Trump rebukes MAGA ally over foreign policy
Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking charges and was accused of running a “vast network” of underage girls for sex. He pleaded not guilty.
Following a conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, he was registered as a sex offender.
It comes after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published several emails, which they said “raises questions about Trump and Epstein’s relationship, Trump’s knowledge of Epstein’s crimes”, and the president’s relationship to Epstein’s victims.
Mr Trump has consistently denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and called claims linking him to the financier a “hoax”.
Read more on Jeffrey Epstein:
Ghislaine Maxwell ‘wants Trump to commute sentence’
What Epstein’s right-hand woman said about Trump and Andrew
The White House also said the “selectively leaked emails” were an attempt to “create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.
Republicans retaliated by releasing more than 20,000 pages from Epstein’s files and accusing Democrats of “cherry-picking” their documents.
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