International

Bolsonaro closes gap but Lula still leads Brazil polls

AFP

President Jair Bolsonaro has gained ground ahead of Brazil’s October elections, but still trails well behind ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is seeking to make a come-back, according to a poll released Thursday.

The far-right incumbent currently has 26 percent of the vote — up from 22 percent in December — to 43 percent for his left-wing nemesis, leading polling firm Datafolha found.

Lula, the popular but tarnished former steelworker who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, had 48 percent of the vote in the December poll — though Datafolha cautioned the two surveys could not be directly compared, given that the field of other candidates had changed.

The latest poll found Lula would defeat Bolsonaro 55 percent to 34 percent in a runoff.

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Neither politician has officially declared himself a candidate.

As in December, no other name broke into double digits, despite a push from the political center for a “third-way” candidate.

“A lot of voters on the right perceive that the only alternative to avoid (Lula’s) Workers Party returning to power is to vote for Bolsonaro,” said political analyst Creomar de Souza of consultancy Dharma, explaining the incumbent’s bump in the latest poll.

Bolsonaro may also have gotten a boost from launching a large new social program that increased some 20 million poor Brazilians’ monthly welfare payments by nearly 20 percent.

Brazil is deeply polarized heading into the October elections.

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Bolsonaro, 67, surged to victory in 2018 on a wave of outrage at an economic crisis and massive corruption scandal that marked the end of 14 years of Workers Party rule.

But the president known as the “Tropical Trump” has seen his own popularity plummet as Brazil has been battered by Covid-19 — a virus he dismissed as a “little flu” — and its impact on the economy.

Lula, 76, was hugely popular as president, but became a pariah to many Brazilians when he was jailed on corruption charges in 2018.

The Supreme Court annulled his convictions last year on procedural grounds, clearing the way for him to run for office again.

The Datafolha poll was carried out March 22 and 23, with 2,556 respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.

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International

Three U.S. Executions Set for Same Day as Trump Pushes to Expand Death Penalty

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states, while three others —California, Oregon and Pennsylvania— currently have moratoriums in place.

The United States is set to carry out three executions on the same day, a rare occurrence that has not happened since 2010, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

President Donald Trump has sought to expand the use of capital punishment for what he describes as “the most heinous crimes.” In April, the Department of Justice proposed expanding execution methods to include firing squads, lethal gas and electrocution.

Tennessee is scheduled to execute Anthony Darrell Dugard Hines, 66, on Thursday. He was sentenced to death for the 1985 murder of a woman, according to local media.

In Oklahoma, Carlos Cuesta-Rodríguez, 70, is scheduled to be executed for a 2003 murder.

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Meanwhile, Alabama plans to execute Jeremy Williams, 42, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl.

The United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, the highest number since 2009, when 52 executions were recorded.

Florida conducted the largest number of executions last year, with 19, followed by Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, with five each.

Of the executions carried out in 2025, 39 were conducted by lethal injection. Three were carried out by firing squad and five through nitrogen hypoxia, a method that involves forcing nitrogen gas into a face mask, depriving the prisoner of oxygen.

The United Nations has condemned nitrogen gas as a cruel and inhumane method of capital punishment.

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International

Colombia Earthquake Death Toll Reaches 265 as Rescue Teams Race Against Time

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on Monday, the strongest to hit the country this century, has so far left 265 people dead and around 3,500 injured.

In Cali, Pereira and other cities in western Colombia, rescue teams are working around the clock as they search for survivors. The first 72 hours following the earthquake will be reached at 7:34 a.m. local time (12:34 GMT), a critical window for rescue efforts as the chances of finding survivors generally decline significantly after that point.

Among those anxiously awaiting news is Valeria Cardona, a 26-year-old student searching for two of her cousins in Cali.

“We have some suspicions about their location, but there are no signs of life,” she said. “Hope is the last thing you lose, but we are anxious about receiving news we don’t want to hear.”

A team of members from the Topos Aztecas, the renowned Mexican volunteer rescue group, has also arrived in Cali to join the search. The rescuers had been working in neighboring Venezuela, where a double earthquake on June 24 left more than 6,000 people dead.

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“We all came from Venezuela, from La Guaira. The 41 days we spent working there made us stronger because we overcame hunger, pain and sleepless nights,” said Héctor Méndez, 80, president of Topos Aztecas.

Méndez encouraged those affected by the disaster not to lose hope and emphasized the commitment required from rescue teams during an emergency.

“Do not feel like victims. This is not an office or workshop schedule. This is real life, where the best part of the human spirit emerges. These are things of nature that happen,” he said.

International

German Authorities Investigate More Than 100 New Cases Against Convicted Nurse

German authorities announced Monday that they are investigating more than 100 additional cases involving a nurse who was sentenced to life in prison in November for the murder of 10 patients.

The man, who was 44 at the time of his conviction, worked in palliative care at a hospital in Würselen, near Aachen. He was also found guilty of 27 attempted murders.

Aachen prosecutors are now examining 121 new cases, a spokesperson for the office said.

Prosecutors leading the investigation are preparing a new indictment that could be filed next year. Nearly 40 bodies have so far been exhumed as part of the investigation, which covers alleged incidents dating back to September 2022.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the city of Cologne are investigating 18 additional cases. According to a spokesperson, the oldest case dates back to 2010.

Before working at the Würselen hospital, the nurse is believed to have worked at a clinic in eastern Cologne, according to local media reports.

At the time of his November conviction, the court ruled that the severity of his crimes was particularly serious, a finding that would make it difficult for him to obtain early release after 15 years in prison.

Between December 2023 and May 2024, the nurse administered overdoses of sedatives or painkillers to terminally ill patients, most of them elderly, according to the indictment in the original case.

His alleged motive was to sedate patients who required care so that he could minimize his workload during night shifts, prosecutors said.

According to the indictment, the nurse worked «without enthusiasm» and «without motivation». When faced with patients requiring extensive care, he allegedly became «irritated» and showed a lack of empathy.

The case has revived painful memories in Germany of Niels Högel, a former nurse and serial killer who was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 2019 for the murders of at least 85 patients.