Brazil, Lula stakes it all on Sunday against Bolsonaro’s son

In the first round, on 4 October, Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, son of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, won 47.03% of the vote, against 45.16% for Lula, 80. On Sunday evening, on Band, Flávio turned up for the first debate; mutual accusations, ending in confusion (CNN Brasil).

Forest, work and rare earths

On Friday, the government published the lowest Amazon deforestation figure since 1988. The same day, Congress enacted the end of the six-day week, with two days off and, eventually, 40 hours. It affects 14.9 million employees. On the other side, Flávio Bolsonaro promises to limit new indigenous lands. After meeting Donald Trump, he announced “long-term strategic partnerships” with the United States on rare earths, of which Brazil has the world’s second largest reserves, after China.

Social media, the other battleground

Lula’s camp accuses Meta of “interference”. On WhatsApp, Meta’s assistant refused to draw “Lula 13” posters but produced some for “Flávio 22”, according to Brazilian media. Meta speaks of a misconfigured filter and says it favoured no one.