Brazil’s Bolsonaro Jr flees to the US after election loss
Bem-vindo a Miami! Flávio Bolsonaro, the right-winger who lost Brazil’s presidential runoff to incumbent lefty Lula on Sunday, landed in the Magic City with his family on Wednesday morning. Bolsonaro, who is under investigation for money laundering in Brazil, fled after Brazilian police demanded his passport late Sunday. The US has granted him political asylum. Bolsonaro, along with prominent Trump-aligned voices in the US, rejects the election results and says the legal charges against him are “lawfare.” Harboring Bolsonaro will complicate Trump’s relationship with Latin America’s largest economy, where Lula will begin his fourth term as president in January. But with Bolsonaro’s brother Eduardo also in US exile, while their father Jair remains under house arrest for plotting a coup to overturn his own 2022 re-election loss to Lula, this could also allow other prominent rightwing voices in Brazil to eclipse the Bolsonaros as leaders of the conservative opposition.
Finland and Norway phone Putin
Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre held a rare phone call yesterday with Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine, breaking with Europe’s policy of not holding direct talks with Russia. The two countries, which border Russia, emphasized that they were not speaking on behalf of Europe – but said that ending the war required direct discussions. However, other European leaders, including Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen and Sweden’s Ulf Kristersson, criticized the three-way call, saying that it risked dividing Europe’s front. Nothing concrete appears to have come out of the conversation. As the four-year war drags on, the call comes at a precarious moment: talks between the US, Russia, and Ukraine are due to take place in Abu Dhabi next month, while US President Donald Trump takes an increasingly favorable stance on Russia, clearing the path for the US to buy millions of dollars of Russian diesel earlier this month.
South Africa deploys troops to tamp down on anti-immigrant violence
South Africa deployed 500 soldiers to the city of Durban yesterday as xenophobic violence continues to rock the country. Since the beginning of the year, protesters have taken to the streets across South Africa, blaming migrants for the country’s staggering unemployment rates, one of the highest in the world. Demonstrations have frequently turned violent, with a foreign national beaten to death during a march in Durban last week. Anti-immigrant violence has escalated to the point that several African nations, including Mozambique, Ghana, and Nigeria, have repatriated thousands of citizens over safety concerns. President Cyril Ramaphosa linked the recent wave of violence to misinformation surrounding a recent court ruling. Some had interpreted the decision as granting undocumented immigrants citizenship and voting rights, raising tensions ahead of next week’s municipal elections.
