International

Thousands of Brazilians demand army support to block Lula taking power

Photo: Florian Plaucheur / AFP

| By AFP |

Thousands of Brazilians gathered outside Army barracks in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and other cities on Tuesday demanding the military intervene to prevent leftist president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva taking power next year.

“We want a better Brazil. We don’t want Lula to take charge on January 1, we don’t want a communist country,” bank employee Lais Nunes, 30, told AFP in Rio.

Protesters draped in green and gold waved Brazilian flags and sung the national anthem on what was a bank holiday.

“There is various information that there was electoral fraud … we can’t accept that,” added police officer Leandro de Oliveira, 38, who claimed the national electoral tribunal was responsible for the supposed fraud.

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Supporters of outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro have alleged fraud surrounding the electronic voting system that has been used since 1996.

Bolsonaro himself did likewise repeatedly, without providing any supporting evidence.

Brazil’s defense ministry has, however, produced a report dismissing alleged inconsistencies in the electronic results, while international observers also validated the election result.

Lula, who was also president from 2003-10 and left with sky-high approval ratings, won the October 30 run-off with just under 51 percent of the vote compared to Bolsonaro’s 49 percent.

In the capital Brasilia, thousands more gathered at the army’s headquarters with some holding up banners such as “S.O.S Armed Forces” and “Audit at the polls.”

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Security was stepped up in the capital and police restricted access to the area around the presidential palace, parliament and supreme court.

Similar protests took place straight after the second round election last month.

Since then, many people set up a camp outside the army headquarters in Sao Paulo, where there were also protests on Tuesday, as well as in Belo Horizonte.

Apart from a brief speech two days after his defeat, Bolsonaro has remained tight-lipped and a recluse, with his official diary left empty.

He has not only disappeared from public life but also from social media, where he used to be extremely active, even running the majority of his successful 2018 campaign online.

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He is not attending the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, where Brazil is being represented by its top diplomat Carlos Franca.

International

Hiroshima survivor who embraced Obama dies at 88

The emotional embrace between Barack Obama and Hiroshima survivor Mori—who was eight years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb in 1945—resonated around the world.

According to Asahi Shimbun and other local media, Mori died on Saturday at a hospital in Hiroshima.

Mori, known for his research on the fate of American prisoners of war in Hiroshima, was thrown into a river by the force of the explosion on August 6, 1945, during the atomic bombing of the city.

In a past interview with AFP, ahead of his meeting with Obama at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in 2016, Mori recalled the chaos and desperation that followed the blast.

He described how, after emerging from the water, he encountered injured civilians seeking help amid the devastation, an experience that stayed with him throughout his life.

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In 2016, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Hiroshima, where he paid tribute to the victims of the first atomic bomb used in warfare. During the visit, Mori was visibly moved as he met the president, sharing a brief but powerful moment that symbolized remembrance and reconciliation.

The bombing of Hiroshima resulted in the deaths of approximately 140,000 people, including those who succumbed to radiation exposure in the aftermath.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 74,000 people and contributing to the end of World War II.

International

Colombia seeks ‘total suffocation’ of armed groups with regional support

Colombia is advancing a strategy aimed at the “total suffocation” of illegal armed groups, seeking to corner them in border regions with the support of Ecuador and Venezuela, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said in an interview with AFP.

According to the minister, coordinated pressure from neighboring countries—backed by United States—aims to dismantle criminal networks that use cross-border routes to traffic Colombian cocaine toward North America and Europe.

For decades, armed groups involved in Colombia’s internal conflict have relied on border territories as strategic rear bases to evade military operations and maintain logistical support.

However, Sánchez said that dynamic is beginning to change.

“We expect a total suffocation between both nations so they have no spaces where they can live or feel safe […] to close off any room they might have,” he stated during the interview in Bogotá, less than five months before the end of President Gustavo Petro’s term.

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Regional developments have reinforced this strategy. Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. military operation, Washington has increased its influence in Caracas, where interim leader Delcy Rodríguez has implemented a renewed anti-narcotics policy.

Meanwhile, in Ecuador, President Daniel Noboa—a key U.S. ally in the region—has launched a two-week security plan under strict curfews to combat criminal gangs, with U.S. support.

Sánchez argued that these combined efforts leave illegal organizations with fewer escape routes and operational spaces, effectively placing them in a “dead end.”

International

Two killed in shooting at restaurant near Frankfurt Airport

Two people were shot dead early Tuesday at a restaurant in Raunheim, near Frankfurt Airport, according to local police.

Preliminary findings indicate that an armed individual entered the establishment at around 03:45 local time (02:45 GMT) and opened fire on the victims, who died at the scene from their injuries.

The suspect fled and remains at large, while the motive behind the shooting is still unclear, German media reported. Authorities have launched a large-scale search operation.