“Military intervention NOW!”
If you’ve been following the Brazilian election, this will now be a familiar phrase.
Lula da Silva’s electoral victory over right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in October prompted demonstrations from the former president’s most ardent supporters in over 70 Brazilian cities.
Many claimed that the election was a fraud, that Brazil was “stolen” and called for the military to step in.
Five weeks on, demonstrations continue, but have dwindled. Online, however, these calls are stronger than ever.
Experts have told Sky News that the election result has made calls for a military coup the dominant narrative among Brazil’s online far-right groups which, on Telegram, have seen “increased radicalisation”.
Sky News has analysed over 25 channels and pages across Telegram, TikTok and Instagram associated with Brazil’s far-right.
In them, we found baseless claims that a coup is imminent, or even already under way circulating in forums with a combined following of over 300,000.
And with Lula’s upcoming inauguration on 1 January 2023, experts say we can expect to see this kind of discourse escalate.
Protesters across Brazil have used the black Brazilian flag to symbolise their view and it’s the same online. Here, the image can be seen with the words: ‘Say no to communism, join this fight, military intervention now!’
One of the largest pages we found currently has over 34,000 subscribers on Telegram – an increase of 11,000 compared to the previous week.
The channel’s description reads: “WE ARE THE RESISTANCE! MILITARY INTERVENTION YES!”
But the channel goes beyond calling for a coup. Many of its posts imply that military intervention may be just around the corner.
One message posted by the channel’s owner tells followers to begin stockpiling water, medicine and food. It’s been viewed over 18,000 times.
Another voice message spanning over 51 minutes details Brazil’s allies and enemies in the supposedly imminent “war” and urges followers to “get ready now”. The message containing the lengthy monologue has been reacted to over 1,000 times.
Videos of military equipment being transported around Brazil are frequently shared here and across many of the channels we looked at.
These screengrabs are taken from a TikTok that had been shared around many of the channels we observed. The writing on the side of the lorry indicates that it is part of the Brazilian Army’s transportation unit
One clip was originally posted to TikTok with the caption “Patriots ready for this war #sosarmedforces #brazilianarmy”
It was posted in the channel with the message:
“This is without doubt the best coverage of the movements of the Brazilian Army! Very rich in time and details.”
In it, we see a convoy of military vehicles in transit on a busy road.
The woman filming says: “Attention patriots, today on December 4th, there is movement from the army on the main roads.”
“We are seeing they are getting ready for something. What, we don’t know.”
Sky News has not been able to independently verify the reason the equipment in the video was being transported. But Dr Vinicius de Carvalho, director of the Brazil Institute at Kings College London, says the videos show nothing out of the ordinary.
He says: “This is something that happens quite often in Brazil. This video is a convoy of the ECT – which is Brazil’s Army Transport Unit. Their responsibility is to securely transport military equipment around the country.”
The video has been viewed 30,000 times on TikTok. But in reality, it has been seen far more widely. The version posted to the channel alone had an additional 20,000 views.
“The groups that are promoting misinformation currently in Brazil are taking every single opportunity to reinforce their narrative that an intervention is on its way,” Dr de Carvalho tells Sky News.
“But realistically, there is no movement among the Forces that indicate that this is the case.”
This image is one of many similar ones circling in the groups we monitored. It reads ‘S.O.S Armed Forces, Save Our Country’
Another message we saw across numerous channels points to a 5 December publication by Brazil’s Ministry of Defence.
The guide, which is available on Brazil’s government website, “serves as a doctrinal basis for knowledge, planning, preparation and execution of military mobilisation”.
“Brazil is under military guardianship. It came out in the official journal,” reads one post in a group of 13,600.
Another shared the document with the message: “PREPARE FOR WAR, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, IT’S SERIOUS.” It’s been viewed over 24,000 times.
“Everything is falling into place,” someone else added.
Further searching on Brazil’s government website reveals that the update is the result of a working group set up in April 2022 to build on a version initially published in 2015.
“This sort of manual is constantly being updated and reviewed. It’s the result of months of studies,” says Dr de Carvalho.
Another image that had been shared around many of the groups. It reads: “Brazil needs you!”
These are just some of the narratives being promoted in the groups we observed.
“Even though far-right forums on Telegram and other closed platforms have always been more extreme and conspiratorial than those on the surface internet, there seems to be increased radicalisation in the aftermath of the elections,” says Leticia Cesarino, professor of anthropology at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
However, Prof Cesarino says claims around electoral fraud have long been peddled on Brazil’s far-right.
“It was kept alive during the Bolsonaro administration in different guises: demand for a print ballot, suspicion about statistics, opinion polls, experts, media pundits and the judiciary system,” she says.
“So the turn to more explicit coup-mongering after the election results was entirely predictable.”
Over five weeks on, these claims can still be heard at protest camps across Brazil.
In Brasilia, demonstrators dressed in the bright colours of Brazil’s flag have been camped outside the military headquarters since the result was announced.
Brazil’s courts have made efforts to quell the spread of misinformation in Brazil in recent years.
Since 2019, the Federal Supreme Court has led an at times controversial inquiry into what they called “digital militias” committing “anti-democratic acts”.
It’s resulted in the court-ordered removal of some of the biggest channels charged with promoting misinformation. Telegram was even briefly banned in Brazil earlier in 2022 for this reason, before being reinstated just two days later.
This has continued in the aftermath of the election. But experts say we can expect to see more, not less, of these narratives as the time for Lula to take office approaches.
“It is likely that anti-fraud discourse will escalate as Lula’s inauguration gets closer. These people are very adamant that Lula must not take office or Brazil will sink into moral and economic chaos” Prof Cesarino tells Sky News.
“These forums are now permanent on the Brazilian internet, and will continue to exist and perhaps even regain growth as a persistent movement for de-stabilising the next government.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
World
Iran says ‘indirect talks’ have taken place with US over nuclear programme – with more to follow
Iran says “indirect talks” over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme have taken place with US officials, with more to come next week.
The discussions on Saturday took place in Muscat, Oman, with the host nation’s officials mediating between representatives of Iran and the US, who were seated in separate rooms, according to Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry.
After the talks concluded, Oman and Iranian officials reported that Iran and the US had had agreed to hold more negotiations next week.
Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi tweeted after the meeting, thanking Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for joining the negotiations aimed at “global peace, security and stability”.
“We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal,” he added.
(L-R) Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi meets his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi. Pic: Iranian foreign ministry/AP
Iranian state media claimed the US and Iranian officials “briefly spoke in the presence of the Omani foreign minister” at the end of the talks – a claim Mr Araghchi echoed in a statement on Telegram.
He added the talks took place in a “constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect” and that they would continue next week.
American officials did not immediately acknowledge the reports from Iran.
Mr Araghchi said before the meeting on Saturday there was a “chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party [US] enters the talks with an equal stance”.
He told Iran’s state TV: “Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement – from an equal footing.
“And if the other side has also entered from the same position, God willing, there will be a chance for an initial agreement that can lead to a path of negotiations.”
Reuters news agency said an Omani source told it the talks were focused on de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions in exchange for controlling Iran’s nuclear programme.
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Trump on Monday: ‘We’re in direct talks with Iran’
President Donald Trump has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.
He said on Monday that the talks would be direct, but Tehran officials insisted it would be conducted through an intermediary.
Mr Trump also warned Iran would be in “great danger” if negotiations fail.
“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.”
He added Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran”.
The comments came after Mr Trump’s previous warnings of possible military action against Iran if there is no deal over its nuclear programme.
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Polish president backs Trump over Ukraine
Saturday’s meeting marked the first between the countries since Mr Trump’s second term in the White House began.
During his first term, he withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.
He also reimposed US sanctions.
Iran has since far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes but Western powers accuse it of having a clandestine agenda.
Mr Witkoff came from talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday, as the US tries to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
World
President Duda says Trump best chance for Ukraine peace – and urges allies to stay calm over tariffs ‘shock therapy’
Poland’s outgoing President Andrzej Duda has kept few revelations for the final weeks of his presidency.
Ten years in office – a tenure spanning Donald Trump’s first and current term – his admiration for the incumbent leader of the free world remains undimmed. As is his conviction that Ukraine’s only chance of peace lies with the US leader.
In an interview with Sky News in the presidential palace in Warsaw, President Duda described Mr Trump‘s tariff policy as “shock therapy”, a negotiating tactic from a man “of huge business and commercial success” that he now brings to the arena of politics.
That may not be what European politicians are used to, Mr Duda says, but Donald Trump is answerable to the US taxpayer and not to his European counterparts, and allies must “stay calm” in the face of this new transatlantic modus operandi.
As for negotiations with Vladimir Putin, President Duda is sure that Donald Trump has the measure of the Russian leader, while refusing to be drawn on the competencies of his chief negotiator Steve Witkoff who landed on Friday in Moscow for further talks with Vladimir Putin – a man Mr Witkoff has described as “trustworthy” and “not a bad guy”.
Putting the kybosh on Nord Stream 2 in his first term and thwarting President Putin’s energy ambitions via his state-owned energy giant Gazprom are evidence enough that Mr Trump knows where to hit so it hurts, Mr Duda says.
Given the failures of Europe’s leaders to negotiate peace through the Minsk accords, he believes the onus now falls on Donald Trump.
“If anyone is able to force the end of Russia’s war, it is most likely only the President of the United States,” he says.
“The question is whether he will be determined enough to do that in a way – because it is also very important here in Europe being a neighbour of Russian aggression against Ukraine – that the peace is fair and lasting.”
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The Polish NATO base on the frontline with Russia
President Duda has just weeks left in office before the country votes for a new president in May.
Originally from Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party, one of the few points of alignment with the liberal and euro-centric prime minister Donald Tusk is the emphasis both place on security.
Hopes for ‘Fort Trump’ base
So did the announcement this week that the US would be withdrawing from the Jasionka air base near Rzeszow, which is the key logistics hub for allied support into Ukraine, come as a shock to the president, as it did to many Poles?
Not at all, Mr Duda says.
“We were warned that the change was planned. I have not received any information from [the US] about decreasing the number of American soldiers. Quite the opposite.”
US defence secretary Hegseth and President Duda met in February. Pic: Reuters
He referred back to talks with US defence secretary Pete Hegseth in February, saying: “We discussed strengthening the American presence in Poland, and I mentioned the idea of creating a huge base of US troops. Then, we called it Fort Trump. I do still hope that this idea will be implemented.”
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Eyewitness: Inside Polish NATO base on frontline with Russia
Andrzej Duda has staked his legacy on close ties with Donald Trump at a time when many NATO allies are considering a form of de-Americanisation, as they consider new trading realities and build up their own defence capabilities.
Poland has proven itself a model in terms of defence spending, investing more than any other NATO member – a massive 4.7% of GDP for 2025. But as the case of Canada shows, even the best of friendships can turn sour.
The Canadian conservative party, once dubbed a maple MAGA, was flying high in the polls before Donald Trump decided to savage links with his closest trading partner.
Now in the space of just a few months they are floundering behind the ruling liberal party. Is this a cautionary tale for Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party?
“For Canadian conservatives it is a kind of side effect of President Trump’s very tough economic policy,” Mr Duda says.
“In Poland, this does not have such an impact. The security issues are the most important. That’s the most important issue in Poland.”
World
Athens: Bomb explodes outside Hellenic Train’s offices amid anger over Greece’s worst train disaster
Police in Greece are investigating after a bomb exploded outside the offices of the country’s main railway company.
There were no reports of injuries after the blast next to Hellenic Train’s offices in central Athens on Friday evening.
An anonymous phone warning was reportedly made to a newspaper and a news website, saying a bomb had been left outside the railway company offices and would go off within about 40 minutes.
Police forensics experts wearing white coveralls were pictured collecting evidence at the scene following the blast on Syngrou Avenue, a major road in the Greek capital.
A police officer at the scene. Pic: Reuters
The bomb caused limited damage but no injuries to Hellenic Trains’ offices. Pic: AP
The male caller gave a timeframe of 35 to 40 minutes and insisted it was not a joke, local media outlet efsyn said.
Police cordoned off the site, keeping people away from the building in an area with several bars and restaurants.
A bag, described in local media as a rucksack, containing an explosive device had been placed near the Hellenic Train building.
The explosion comes amid widespread public anger over the Tempe railway disaster in which 57 people, mostly university students, were killed in northern Greece.
The government has been widely criticised for its handling of the aftermath of the country’s deadliest rail disaster when a freight train and a passenger train heading in opposite directions were accidentally put on the same track on 28 February 2023.
Unhappiness has grown over the last few weeks in the wake of the second anniversary of the tragedy.
Pic: Reuters
A worker cleans the area after the bomb. Pic: AP
Safety deficiencies exposed
The crash, which exposed severe deficiencies in Greece’s railway system, including in safety systems, has triggered mass protests, led by the relatives of those killed, which have targeted the country’s conservative government.
Critics accuse authorities of failing to take political responsibility for the disaster or hold senior officials accountable.
So far, only rail officials have been charged with any crimes. Several protests in recent weeks have turned violent, with demonstrators clashing with police.
Heated debate in parliament
Earlier on Friday, a heated debate on the accident in the Greek parliament saw a former cabinet minister referred to investigators for alleged failures in his handling of the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Hellenic Train said it “unreservedly condemns every form of violence and tension which are triggering a climate of toxicity that is undermining all progress”.
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Greece has a long history of politically motivated violence, with domestic extremist groups carrying out small-scale bombings which usually cause damage but rarely lead to injuries.
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