Month: January 2023

In the country’s largest city of São Paulo, crowds chanted that Mr Bolsonaro must go to prison.

About 1,500 people have been held over Sunday’s riots in the capital Brasília.

They came a week after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in after October’s election that divided Brazil.

On Monday evening, the 77-year-old new leader – widely known as Lula – visited the damaged buildings of Congress, the presidential palace and Supreme Court together with the country’s governors, condemning the “terrorist acts” and vowing to punish the perpetrators.

Mr Bolsonaro, 67, has not admitted defeat in the tightly-fought election, and flew to the US before the handover on 1 January. On Monday, he was admitted to hospital in Florida with abdominal pain.

On Monday, street rallies were held in a number of cities and towns.

The turnout at São Paulo’s demonstration was impressive, the BBC’s Katy Watson reports from the city. A part of Paulista Avenue, Brazil’s most famous street, was blocked off as crowds filled the area, singing, dancing and chanting for justice.

Many came dressed in red, the colours of Lula’s Workers’ Party; others waved placards saying “No amnesty for the coup mongers” and called for those responsible to be punished. There were also chants of “Prison for Bolsonaro”.

“I don’t agree with what happened in Brasília – it was a nightmare. I don’t agree with those who believe that with democracy you can use your power to destroy democracy,” Gabriel, who only gave his first name, told the BBC.

“I want to show to the world and our country that even though there are thousands of people who believe the elections weren’t valid, here in Brazil, we have a gigantic number of people who believe we can trust our government, we can trust in our democracy,” he said.

Marina Rodrigues Carmona, another demonstrator, told the BBC: “Polarisation is a big problem – everyone has their own ideas, and I don’t think there’s much dialogue between the two sides.”

There was, however, a huge police presence. At times, the atmosphere has felt tense. People are still processing what happened in Brasilia and nerves haven’t yet calmed for many, our correspondent says.

Sunday’s dramatic scenes in Brasília saw thousands of protesters clad in yellow Brazil football shirts and flags overrun police and ransack the heart of the Brazilian state.

Lula was forced to declare emergency powers.

On Monday morning, heavily armed officers started dismantling a camp of Mr Bolsonaro’s supporters in Brasília – one of a number that have been set up outside army barracks around the country since the tightly-fought presidential election.

Authorities arrested 1,200 people on Monday – in addition to 300 detained a day earlier.

Mr Bolsonaro condemned the attack and denied responsibility for encouraging the rioters in a post on Twitter some six hours after violence broke out.

Meanwhile, Brasília Governor Ibaneis Rocha has been removed from his post for 90 days by the Supreme Court.

Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes accused him of failing to prevent the riot and of being “painfully silent” in the face of the attack.

Video shared by the Brazilian outlet O Globo showed some officers laughing and taking photos together as demonstrators occupied the congressional campus in the background.

Bolsonaro supporters created camps in cities across Brazil, some of them outside the military barracks. That is because his most ardent supporters want the military to intervene and make good elections that they say were stolen.

Some protesters are not just angry that Mr Bolsonaro lost the election – they want President Lula to return to prison.

Lula spent 18 months in jail after being found guilty of corruption in 2017. His convictions were later annulled, after initially being sentenced to more than nine years.

Heads of state around the world have also denounced the violence.

Late on Monday, President Joe Biden “conveyed the unwavering support of the United States for Brazil’s democracy” during a phone call with Lula, the White House said in a statement.

Comparisons have been drawn with the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 by supporters of Donald Trump, an ally of Mr Bolsonaro. Mr Biden was sworn in that day after defeating Mr Trump in presidential elections the previous November.

Fans queuing to buy a hardback copy described wanting to hear the story “from the horse’s mouth”.

It follows the chaotic launch of Spare with multiple leaks and copies being made available in Spain last week.

Waterstones says Prince Harry’s book has been one of its “biggest pre-order titles for a decade”.

The booksellers opened their flagship Piccadilly branch early on Tuesday in expectation of high customer demand, as the book was published around the world in 16 languages.

Branches of WH Smith in locations including Euston, Victoria, Heathrow and Gatwick were also among those to extend their hours for the release.

The memoir is already top of the best sellers in the UK for online retailer Amazon, after days of headline-grabbing revelations from leaks – ranging from how Prince Harry lost his virginity to claims that Prince Harry was attacked by his brother, Prince William.

The 410-page memoir, revealing the conflict and personal tensions inside royal palaces, shows Prince Harry’s version of growing up and then falling out with the Royal Family.

So far Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have not responded.

But the claims in the book include that Prince Harry begged his father not re-marry, that he killed 25 Taliban fighters while serving in Afghanistan, that he took psychedelic drugs, partly in response to panic attacks, and that Meghan and Catherine had a difficult relationship.

A major theme in the book is the sense of unresolved grief for the loss of his mother, Princess Diana, with Prince Harry saying he had a “post-traumatic stress injury”.

The press are held responsible for pursuing Diana and Prince Harry said in one of several interviews promoting the book that it would be his “life’s work” to change the media landscape.

There are also unexpected details such as Prince Harry and Prince William calling each other “Harold” and “Willy”, that Harry used to get his clothes at discount outlet TK Maxx and watched a lot of Friends on television.

Prince Harry recalls he first found out from the BBC website that the late Queen Elizabeth had died, rather than from his family.

The revelations about tensions with the Royal Family, including Camilla, the Queen Consort, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, has provoked much controversy.

Have you been queuing for a copy of Harry’s book? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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Despite the leaks, many queued late into the night to buy the memoir.

Professor Chris Imafidon, from Epping, was in line at Victoria Station and said he was “extremely curious” to hear why Harry had stepped back from royal life.

“I really want to know from the horse’s mouth,” he said.

Also in the queue was bartender Sasha Pursell, 27, who has moved to London from Melbourne, Australia.

“I’m just intrigued,” she said. “I’ve heard so much press about the book and it’s also just a bit exciting – I’ve never been to a midnight release.”

And Sarah Nakana, 46, from south London, said she had already downloaded the audiobook because she wanted to try to “get ahead of the British press and their narratives”.

She added she needed “to cut the noise here, read it and be like, ‘fine, I can move on now'”.

Opinion polling from YouGov, published on Monday, showed an initial dip in Prince Harry’s popularity in the UK.

There were 64% of people who had a negative view of Prince Harry, compared with 26% who had a positive view of him, down from 33% in the autumn, and the lowest figure in more than a decade of this regular survey.

Five years ago this tracking survey, based on a sample of about 1,700 adults, showed 80% had been positive about Harry.

But the latest figures for January 2023 showed more support among young people, aged 18-24, with numbers almost evenly split between those with positive and negative views of Prince Harry.

In a speech, Jonathan Ashworth will promise improved support for those who have recently left employment.

He will also say more flexibility over fitness-to-work tests could help those on sickness benefits to find work.

The government says it is increasing employment support for the over-50s.

A spokesperson said ministers were also expanding the “mid-Life MOT” service offered to workers in their forties and fifties to review their skills.

In his speech, Mr Ashworth will warn of a “monumental waste of human potential,” with 2.5 million people out of work because of long-term ill-health.

In the address to the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank founded by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, he will say that “hundreds of thousands” could be helped back into work with better support.

He will accuse the Conservatives of “writing people off” – and argue that better help for jobseekers is now “urgent”.

He will pledge that if it wins power at the next election, Labour would make it easier for those on sickness benefits to restart their payments if they take a job that doesn’t work out.

Currently, many such claimants have to repeat the work capability assessment they initially took to determine what benefits they are eligible for.

Mr Ashworth is expected to argue this acts as a disincentive to taking a job. He will say a Labour government would instead let them return to claiming benefits within a year without a re-assessment.

Mr Ashworth will also promise local councils control over a proportion of the skills budget currently spent by central government, to help ensure job training is better tailored to local areas.

He will also say his party would introduce greater flexibility to the government grants available to people with health conditions or disabilities to help them stay in work.

He is expected to say this would include allowing “in-principle” decisions to applicants so that employers have more certainty about what help is available.

Responding to a preview of the speech, a spokesperson for the government said it was investing an extra £22m in employment support for the over 50s.

They added that the Department for Work and Pensions was reviewing workforce participation to see what action could be taken to cut economic inactivity.

Instead a slew of carollers sang to the public from across the heavily-guarded fences of the Presidential Secretariat. Next to the building rose an 80 ft (24m) Christmas tree, the signature piece in a landscape dotted with décor, food stalls and musical shows. And as fireworks ushered in the new year, a massive crowd flocked to the oceanfront promenade known as Galle Face Green.

It was all part of a festive zone planned by the government as a year-end tourist attraction in the central business district of Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital.

But for many locals, who used the site as their “ground zero” for Occupy-style protests from April to August and demanded their leaders resign, there is little to celebrate.

“It’s disgusting,” says Swasthika Arulingam. “It’s an indecent display of wealth that this country does not have, and of resources this country is denying to the weakest sectors of our population.”

The carnival lighting is particularly galling, she adds, given that the state-run electricity board has incurred a loss of 150bn Sri Lankan rupees (£344m) this year.

The prospect of extended daily blackouts looms again. Food staples, transport fees and children’s school supplies are increasingly unaffordable. And the new year brings with it steep tax hikes that will only compound the misery.

There is “a kind of pseudo-stability” right now, Ms Arulingam says, but residents are under tremendous stress as it grows harder to make a living.

Through much of last year, Sri Lankans faced acute shortages of food, fuel and other basic supplies after a slew of government policies followed by the pandemic had depleted foreign reserves and left the country teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Lengthy fuel queues and power outages sparked months of mass unrest, culminating in the storming and occupation of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official workplace and residence in July, forcing him to flee the country.

Six months on, with more pain on the horizon, there have been calls for early elections. Mr Rajapaksa’s parliament-appointed replacement, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has largely demurred, but local government elections are expected to take place next month after a one-year delay.

Mr Wickremesinghe has also cracked down on the anti-government protest movement and its leaders, after vowing that he will not allow “fascists” to “tear up our constitution”.

“Any form of protest is controlled in Sri Lanka right now,” says Shreen Saroor, a local human rights campaigner. “He has kept his powers well intact to do what he needs to do and in case he needs to call on the military to control the country.”

Ms Saroor points to how Mr Wickremesing has retained the powers of executive presidency – he can deploy security forces, and issue detention orders under what is known as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Critics say the system, which heavily centralises power in the hands of the president, was bolstered by the Rajapaksas during their two decades in power, and lacks the appropriate checks and balances. Calls for abolishing it and reforming the constitution were a key demand in last year’s protests.

Father Jeewantha Peiris, a Catholic clergyman, is among the protest leaders who have been charged with various criminal offences, including assault and unlawful assembly, under PTA. He is fighting back in court against what he calls “baseless accusations”.

Parliament “totally betrayed” the people when they voted in Mr Wickremesinghe as president, he says, referring to the former six-time prime minister as “another culprit who had been engaged with the corrupt system”.

“Apparently the crisis is now solved but, underneath, its real causes have not been treated,” he says. “Corruption is still taking place. Real issues like malnutrition and medicine shortages exist. Downtrodden people cannot face this inflation.”

The state is intimidating citizens like him, he alleged, but “unless they bring to account those who have committed economic injustices and violated human rights, this crisis will not be solved”.

Father Peiris is the parish priest to mostly Tamil-minority rubber estate workers in the village of Doloswala in the south-central Ratnapura district. He says successive governments have neglected Sri Lanka’s poorest and most vulnerable.

When the pandemic arrived, he claims, villagers fell ill in droves with no ability to socially distance inside their homes and no access to vaccines – and with schools shut, their children suffered with no prospect of remote learning.

“Mothers would come to my cottage and cry for their starving children,” he says. “As a priest working among them, I could not wait around and watch them in their daily misery.”

With his black locks and pristine white cassock, the parishioner was at the Galle Face Green protests every day. His message: the country needs a national movement for structural change.

He describes it as the first time Sri Lankans united, in a struggle for the greater good, irrespective of race, religion or ideology: “We had no divisions among us and we all felt we were victims.”

Beginning on 9 April, daily demonstrations quickly grew into “GotaGoGama” – a word that combines the Sinhalese word for “village” with protesters’ demand for Mr Rajapaksa to step down as president.

Camped opposite the Presidential Secretariat, the little community spawned rallies, candlelight vigils, stage dramas and a huge library of donated books, all focused on broadening political literacy.

It commemorated atrocities from Sri Lanka’s past, held open forums about minority divisions and, when government-aligned thugs brutally laid siege to the site, grew even stronger.

But by July, as protesters grew increasingly restive over Mr Rajapaksa’s refusal to leave office, the crowds had grown larger and more uncontrollable.

In the days after the president’s home and office were stormed, as Mr Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives and finally resigned, security forces under the orders of his successor reclaimed the two buildings and raided the GotaGoGama protest camp, arresting demonstrators and dismantling their tents.

With many of its key figures now behind bars, facing legal action or under regular surveillance, the so-called “aragalaya” – or people’s struggle in Sinhala – has largely gone silent.

“It was a national movement, a vision of what Sri Lanka could be,” says Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, founder of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, but “the middle class has deserted it, the ordinary community groups have all deserted it”.

“[Mr Wickremesinghe] successfully changed the narrative to show there’s a good aragalaya and a bad aragalaya, and what we’re now lumped with is the bad aragalaya,” he says.

Dr Saravanamuttu argues that sections of the population, particularly older Sri Lankans, view Mr Wickremesinghe as the best possible option to salvage the cash-strapped economy, but he must adhere to a reasonable timetable for elections at the local and presidential level.

“The sooner we have some legitimacy, the better,” he adds. “But from Ranil’s point of view, he wants to be elected president of this country, so he’s not going to do anything that will register a huge rebuke against any government that he is heading.”

As Sri Lanka waits on a US$2.9bn (£2.4bn) IMF bailout and financing assurances from China and other bilateral creditors, its people will struggle for a while longer. Dr Saravanamuttu warns a fresh outbreak of mass protests is on the cards in the near future, particularly in areas outside of Colombo where people are poorer and will be hit harder by rising food costs and fuel shortages.

“People will come out, not because they want constitutional reform or they want impunity checked, but because they can’t survive,” he says. “And that might be more dangerous, because it will be spontaneous and it will have a them-versus-us dimension.”

For Buwanaka Perera, a 27-year old social media activist who helped organise the GotaGoGama protests, whatever comes next, the protest movement of 2022 has left a permanent mark.

“People stood up against monsters and gave them the finger,” he says.

“We managed to send Gotabaya home. If people could send him fleeing, and hiding in [army] camps and on islands, there’s no stepping back from that.”

Supporters of the ousted far-right leader also stormed the Supreme Court and surrounded the presidential palace.

But police regained control of the buildings in the capital Brasilia on Sunday evening after hours of clashes.

Arriving in the city, Lula toured the Supreme Court building to see the damage for himself.

Justice Minister Flavio Dino told local media that some 200 people had already been arrested.

The Governor of Brasilia, Ibaneis Rocha, has been removed from his post for 90 days by the Supreme Court. Justice Alexandre de Moraes accused him of failing to prevent the riot and of being “painfully silent” in the face of the attack.

Pro-democracy rallies are being called by leftist leaders and groups across Brazil.

The dramatic scenes – which saw thousands of protesters clad in yellow Brazil football shirts and flags overrun police and ransack the heart of the Brazilian state – come just a week after Lula’s inauguration.

The veteran left-wing leader was forced to declare emergency powers before dispatching the national guard into the capital to restore order.

He also ordered the closure of the centre of the capital – including the main avenue where governmental buildings are – for 24 hours.

Mr Dino said some 40 busses which had been used to transport protesters to the capital had been seized and he called the invasion an “absurd attempt to impose [the protesters’] will by force”.

Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly refused to accept that he lost October’s election and last week left the country instead of taking part in inaugural ceremonies, which would have seen him hand over the iconic presidential sash.

The 67-year-old – who is believed to be in Florida – condemned the attack and denied responsibility for encouraging the rioters in a post on Twitter some six hours after violence broke out.

Speaking before he arrived in Brasilia, Lula said there was “no precedent in the history of our country” for the scenes seen in Brasilia and called the violence the “acts of vandals and fascists”.

And he took aim at security forces whom he accused of “incompetence, bad faith or malice” for failing to stop demonstrators accessing Congress.

“You will see in the images that they [police officers] are guiding people on the walk to Praca dos Tres Powers,” he said. “We are going to find out who the financiers of these vandals who went to Brasilia are and they will all pay with the force of law.”

Video shared by the Brazilian outlet O Globo showed some officers laughing and taking photos together as demonstrators occupied the congressional campus in the background.

US President Joe Biden tweeted: “I condemn the assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil. Brazil’s democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined.”

Some protesters smashed windows, while others reached the Senate chamber, where they jumped on to seats and used benches as slides.

Videos on social media show protesters pulling a policeman from his horse and attacking him outside the building.

Footage broadcast by national media show police detaining dozens of protesters in their yellow jerseys outside the presidential palace.

Other suspects – whose hands were bound behind their backs – are also seen being led out of the building.

Protesters had been gathering since morning on the lawns in front of the parliament and up and down the kilometre of the Esplanada avenue, which is lined with government ministries and national monuments.

Security had appeared tight, with the roads closed for about a block around the parliament area and armed police pairs guarding every entrance into the area.

The BBC had seen about 50 police officers around on Sunday morning local time and cars were turned away at entry points, while those entering on foot were frisked by police checking bags.

Demonstrators were quick to defend their actions when approached by reporters.

Lima, a 27-year-old production engineer, said: “We need to re-establish order after this fraudulent election.”

“I’m here for history, for my daughters,” she told AFP news agency.

Others in the capital expressed outrage at the violence and said the attack marked a sad day for the country.

“I voted for Bolsanaro but I don’t agree with what they’re doing,” Daniel Lacerda, 21, told the BBC. “If you don’t agree with the president you should just say it and move on, you shouldn’t go hold protests and commit all the violence like they’re doing.”

And many are drawing comparisons with the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 by supporters of Donald Trump, an ally of Mr Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro supporters created camps in cities across Brazil, some of them outside the military barracks. That is because his most ardent supporters want the military to intervene and make good elections that they say were stolen.

It looked like their movement had been curbed by Lula’s inauguration – the camps in Brasilia had been dismantled and there was no disruption on the day he was sworn in.

But Sunday’s scenes show that those predictions were premature.

Leaders from Latin America have condemned the violence:

And French President Emmanuel Macron said the “will of the Brazilian people and the democratic institutions must be respected” and pledged the “unfailing support of France” to Lula.

Mr Sunak told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that his healthcare was “a personal choice”.

Nursing union leader Pat Cullen said the PM “needed to come clean as a public servant”.

And when asked the same question, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he did not use private healthcare.

In the interview, Laura Kuenssberg suggested there was huge public interest in Mr Sunak’s decisions and that former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was open about her choice to use a private GP.

Mr Sunak said healthcare was “something that is private”, adding he “grew up in an NHS family”, with a dad who was GP, and a mum who was a pharmacist.

But when pressed again, Mr Sunak did not answer the question and instead said, in general, “we should be making use of the independent sector” so patients could choose where they have treatment.

A newspaper report in November last year suggested Mr Sunak was registered with a private GP practice that offers on-the-day appointments and charges £250 for a half-hour consultation.

The latest NHS figures show that, in November last year, 58% of NHS patients were not seen on the day they made an appointment.

At the same time, a record high of more than seven million people are waiting for hospital treatment, as the NHS faces one of the worst winters in its history.

Ms Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said public servants “ought to be clear with the public whether or not you are using private health cover”.

“That’s about being open, it’s about being transparent and it’s about honesty,” she said.

Mr Streeting said the PM’s answer to the question about his healthcare showed him to be someone who did not understand the biggest crisis in NHS history.

He said private healthcare created a two-tier system, but patients were free to make their own choices about treatment.

Mr Sunak has said he has a policy of not commenting on his family’s healthcare arrangements, when asked previously.

Laura Kuenssberg said there was likely to be a political row over Mr Sunak’s personal healthcare choices.

One former minister told the BBC presenter: “[Mr Sunak’s] lack of transparency shows he thinks going private is a problem. It is – he’s taking decisions on public spend that affect a version of ‘the public’ that he’s not willing to be part of.”

Some of Mr Sunak’s predecessors have made a point of drawing attention to their use of the NHS when they were prime minister.

David Cameron often spoke about how the NHS cared for his disabled son, while Boris Johnson said the health service saved his life after he fell seriously ill with Covid.

But when Mrs Thatcher was prime minister she was candid about her use of private health insurance, which she said was vital for her to “go into hospital on the day I want, at the time I want, and with a doctor I want”.

The prime minister says how he arranges his personal life should not matter, what’s important is how his government manages the NHS. Many would agree.

But refusing to be transparent leaves him politically vulnerable.

First there’s the charge, already levelled, that he’s not being open and honest about his arrangements. That’s damaging in itself.

Second, some may infer that perhaps the prime minister does have private healthcare but doesn’t want to admit it. If so, perhaps he’s worried about giving any impression that he may think NHS is not good enough for him and his family.

And perhaps what could be most harmful is the perception that leaves. When the NHS is under enormous stress, is Mr Sunak distanced from the reality of the service most are using?

Mr Sunak was interviewed as senior doctors warn of a NHS on a knife edge, with health workers striking over pay and some hospitals in crisis.

A sharp rise in Covid-19 and flu admissions in recent weeks has put pressure on hospitals, which are also dealing with a backlog of treatment that built up during the pandemic.

A&E waits and ambulance delays are at their worst levels on record.

In Sunday’s interview, Mr Sunak acknowledged the NHS was “undeniably under enormous pressure”.

When asked if the NHS was “in crisis”, he said while recovering from the pandemic “was going to be tough”, he was optimistic “we can get to grips with this problem”.

In his new year speech this week, Mr Sunak said bringing down NHS waiting lists was one of his five top priorities and has since held talks with health leaders to alleviate the crisis.