Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said he is willing to stand as a candidate in elections against incumbent leader Jair Bolsonaro, labelling his potential opponent “a poor copy of Trump.”
Speaking in Brussels at a media conference in the European Parliament on Monday, Lula announced that the Workers Party needs to put forward a presidential candidate to take over from right-wing Bolsonaro in 2022 and said he was willing to run in the elections again.
“I’m willing, I’m motivated, I’m in good health,” Lula stated, adding that said he would only make his decision early next year, some months before the election scheduled for October 2022. The popular leftist said his candidacy would depend on whether the party wanted him.
“We need to have someone who stands, we need to win the elections. And at the same time, we have to rebuild Brazil,” he said, speaking on behalf of his Workers Party.
Lula, 76, also took aim at the incumbent president. “He’s a poor copy of Trump. But Bolsonaro doesn’t think, he doesn’t have any ideas,” the former president said, claiming the incumbent leader was hellbent on ensuring the beneficial legacies of Lula’s administration were “torn down.”
A recent poll put him 27 points ahead of Bolsonaro, despite his candidacy not officially being announced.
In 2010, Lula made way for his protégé, Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff was ousted from power in what was described by her supporters as a parliamentary coup. Lula served nearly two years in prison after being convicted on money laundering and corruption, despite a nine-and-a-half-year sentence. He was also barred from running in the 2018 election.
A number of judges have subsequently ruled that the case against Lula was unlawful and the Supreme Court annulled his earlier convictions, meaning he can face off against Bolsonaro in 2022.
France’s best-known book of words, Le Petit Robert dictionary, has caused a stir by including the non-binary personal pronoun as an alternative to the existing masculine and feminine terms.
While the annual update of the Petit Robert dictionary is often a topic of considerable debate in French media, the latest edition has caused quite the backlash, with some, including a cabinet member, accusing it of pandering to wokeism.
The word “iel,” a neologism combining the French words for he and she (“il” and “elle“), is described as the personal pronoun for a person of any gender. “Personal pronoun subject to the third person singular and plural, used to evoke a person of any gender. The use of the pronominal in inclusive communication,” the dictionary’s entry reads.
Striking out at the latest inclusion, François Jolivet, an MP in President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party took his protest to the Académie Française, the official guardians of the French language.
Describing the move as “wokeism,” Jolivet said in a letter to the Académie that the word “iel” had no place in the French language and claimed it would be a precursor to the rise of ‘woke’ ideology, which undermines the values of the Gallic nation.
Outspoken Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer also chimed in. “Inclusive writing is not the future of the French language,” he tweeted, sharing Jolivet’s letter. “Just as our schoolchildren are consolidating their basic skills, they don’t need to have this as a reference,” he added.
The head of Gaullist party Debout La France, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, further criticized Petit Robert’s “woke” addition. “Let’s defend our language against these ridiculous fanatics of deconstruction and let’s boycott the collaborators who give into them,” he tweeted.
Le Petit Robert has responded to the “lively debate” by claiming that the pronoun has been used increasingly in society in recent months and they chose to reflect this by adding it to their latest update. The publication also said that some have welcomed the addition.
France’s offensive against wokeism, which has been described by some as an Anglo-Saxon import, recently saw Blanquer vow to increase the teaching of ancient Greek and Latin languages. The education minister claims that the classical vernaculars respond to a demand for logos (language as a tool for reason), in a world where “a lack of reason is spreading like wildfire.”
At least ten people have been killed and several wounded by security forces during mass demonstrations in Sudan against the recent military coup, a medics organization has said.
“The coup forces used live bullets heavily in different areas of the capital and there are tens of gunshot injuries, some of them in serious condition,” the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) said in a statement.
The group of medics, which supports the protest movement, said several of the injured were in critical condition. It reported ten deaths across Bahri, Omdurman and the capital Khartoum.
According to AFP, citing witnesses, security forces also fired tear gas at protesters in the capital.
Although internet services have been disrupted and telephone lines cut since the military coup on October 25, thousands of people made it to the streets of major cities.
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which also supports the demonstrators, said people were witnessing “excessive repression” and that there was a “deliberate interruption of voice and internet communications services.”
Videos posted on social media show protesters wrapping up in national flags, chanting anti-military mottos and demanding the release of activists detained by the military since the takeover. Resistance committees across Sudan adopted the Liverpool Football Club’s chant ‘You Will Never Walk Alone’ as their slogan, which has already become a popular hashtag on Twitter.
“The street is calling Thwra (revolution), The revolution says Madaniya (civilian gov)”
On October 25, following a long period of tensions between Sudan’s military and civilian-led government, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the dissolution of both the Sovereign Council and the transitional government, declaring a state of emergency. The apparent military coup immediately prompted mass protests across the country.
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