World

A little-known woman senator has emerged as kingmaker in Brazil’s knife-edge presidential runoff.

Many Brazilians saw Simone Tebet, a lawyer and university professor, for the first time when she took stage the night of August 29 for the campaign’s first televised debate, standing alongside rightwing President Jair Bolsonaro and leftist icon and ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

She made a strong impression.

When Bolsonaro at one point insulted a woman journalist asking questions at the debate, the senator leapt to her defense, pointing at the president with her index finger and saying firmly: “I am not afraid of him.”

Tebet, 52, finished third in the first round voting with four percent of the votes, far behind Lula, who took 48 percent, and Bolsonaro with 43 percent.

But her share of the pie amounts to 4.9 million votes — and the difference between the two frontrunners was 6.1 million.

Instantly, Tebet became the candidate to woo. And she endorsed Lula.

– ‘Third option’ –

Tebet’s candidacy was organized by centrist parties and supported by part of the Brazilian establishment as a way to temper the polarization generated by the far-right president Bolsonaro and the leftist hero of the working class and poor, Lula, of the Workers Party.

Tebet is from the city of Tres Lagoas, which has a population of 125,000, and she was its mayor from 2005 to 2010. It is in the west-central state of Mato Grosso do Sul, where the economy is based on agribusiness.

Tebet played a prominent role on a congressional committee that in 2021 investigated the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. And while on this panel, she clashed loudly with Bolsonaro allies. 

Tebet, a Catholic who describes herself as feminist, was also the first woman to preside over the Brazilian senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee, considered the chamber’s most important panel.

But her biggest jump to notoriety came with her presidential candidacy, which was promoted as a third way between the right and left.

Tebet managed “to fill a lagoon that was empty,” said Marco Antonio Teixeira, a professor of political science at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Sao Paulo.

She succeeded because “she billed herself as an actual third option, strong in her criticisms of Bolsonaro and of the Workers Party in a balanced way, not simply seeking confrontation,” said Teixeira.

In the presidential debates, she challenged Bolsonaro and urged him to show respect for women; the president has a penchant for making remarks seen as sexist.

This helped Tebet grab third place from center-left candidate Ciro Gomes, who polls had predicted would take that spot.

– Conservative and close to agribusiness –

Up through the midway point of Bolsonaro’s term, Tebet supported his government in 86 percent of the votes taken in the Senate, including one that extended gun-carrying rights to land outside rural properties, according to investigative news outlet Agencia Publica. 

Tebet owns three rural estates, one of which sits on land claimed by Indigenous people in Mato Grosso do Sul.

She broke with Bolsonaro after she joined the congressional commission that probed the pandemic, which killed more than 680,000 people in Brazil.

During the campaign for the first round of presidential voting, Tebet promised to bring transparency to huge amounts of money administered by Congress, boost spending on science and technology, and provide scholarships for students at the intermediate level of education to head off school dropouts.

Now, as analysts say Lula has to veer toward the center to win new supporters, Tebet — who has said Brazil is conservative and not ready, say, to legalize abortion — is an important person to have on your side.

Last week, she formally endorsed Lula in the runoff on October 30, while denying that this gesture meant she has given up on creating a third path in Brazilian politics.

Tebet’s party, however, called the Brazilian Democratic Movement, chose to remain neutral in the race between Bolsonaro and Lula.

“What is at stake is bigger than each of us,” she said.

Tebet said she would vote for Lula because of his “commitment to democracy and the constitution,” which she said she does not see in Bolsonaro.

But she criticized Lula, credited with bringing millions of people out of poverty during his rule from 2003 to 2010, for not really “looking in the rear view mirror” and making new proposals for how he would govern if he regains power.

“Tebet has a way of speaking with agribusiness and women that is much more direct than Lula,” said Teixeira.

She can lure for Lula centrist voters tired of the tensions born of Bolsonaro-Lula polarization, he added.

Brazilian press reports have suggested Tebet, who is married to a politician from her state with whom she has two daughters, could become a minister in Lula’s government if he wins. Tebet has denied being interested in such a job.

The day after Burkina Faso’s latest coup, protesters attacked the French Institute, wrecking not just a symbol of the country’s former colonial power but also a valued showcase for artists and free expression.

Demonstrators left charred walls, smashed windows and books strewn across the floor of the cultural centre in Ouagadougou, Burkina’s capital.

Standing in front of a pile of paintings, artist Ali Ouedraogo said it was “a great sadness” to see the Institute in such a state.

“We’ve been coming to this place for years — it’s become a second home for us,” he said. It is “a loss for Burkinabe, especially artists.”

“This is the work of real monsters,” said William Somda, who organises cultural events. 

“Nothing today justify the destruction of a venue that is so important to the cultural, academic, professional and artistic world.”

The Institute was just one of the French buildings targeted during the turmoil, which began on the evening of September 30.

Demonstrators also attacked the French embassy in the capital the Institute in Burkina’s second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso.

They accused Paris — which has a military presence in the West African country — of protecting former junta leader Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who seized power in January before being ousted by junior officers led a 34-year-old captain, Ibrahim Traore.

In a statement read out on national television, the officers said Damiba was suspected to have taken refuge at a French military base “to plan a counteroffensive to stir up trouble in our defence and security forces.”

Damiba denied he was at the base but provided no further details about his whereabouts at the time. It later emerged he had fled to neighbouring Togo after a prolonged standoff.

France bluntly denied that it had been harbouring him.

Anti-French sentiment was palpable on the streets at the height of the turbulence.

Demonstratorschanted: “France out.” Some waved Russian flags.

The road leading to the Institute is still littered with broken glass, smashed computers and burnt air conditioning units.

In the entrance hall, there are burnt gates and baggage scanners.

Police have cordoned off the building, AFP saw on Wednesday.

“The damage is enormous,” said the centre’s manager, Thierry Bambara. “We’ll have to wait for a complete assessment before we can put a figure on it.”

“All the buildings were ransacked,” from the centre’s language unit to its performance areas, he said. 

In the Institute’s library, the floor is a clutter of keyboards, CDs, toppled shelves and books covered in soot.

Burkina Faso is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranked 182nd out of 189 nations under the UN’s Human Development Index. High-quality concert venues and libraries are rare.

“The ransacking… is a tough blow for us,” said Burkinabe musician Kantala. “Our plans are taking a hit — we’re not sure we can find a replacement for what this place offered us.” 

The Institutes in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso are closed until further notice, according to the French embassy, which has also suspended its services.

Thousands of Afghan girls and women sat university entrance exams on Thursday under the guard of Taliban snipers, two weeks after a bomber killed dozens of students preparing for the tests.

Since the Taliban returned to power last August, many girls have been banned from secondary education.

Meanwhile a collapsed economy has made university unaffordable to many, and parents have pulled children from class over safety fears.

Last month an attacker burst into an education centre in Kabul, detonating himself in a segregated study hall killing 53 students, including 46 women and girls.

“There is so much anxiety,” said 18-year-old student Zahra, who hopes to study computer science.

“Our minds are disturbed, always feeling that at any time there could be a blast,” she told AFP before entering.

Dressed in black hijabs and headscarves, the students were under the heavy guard of Taliban personnel as they queued for their entrance exams outside the prestigious Kabul University.

Students were thoroughly searched before being allowed to sit the exam, while Taliban forces patrolled the surrounding area and shut nearby streets with roadblocks.

“This time all my worries are due to the security situation. Everyone is so scared,” said student Madina. “Please pray that there are no blasts.”

Boys and men had taken their exams earlier in the day.

Students also told AFP that many of their classmates were staying away from the university, cancelling the test for fear of an attack.

The entrance tests, which all prospective university students must take, were being held for the first time since the Taliban’s return to power.

However, with restrictions on girls’ secondary education, fewer female students will qualify for the exam.

“If there are no educated girls then how could we have a developed society?” said one female student, declining to give her name.

Kabul University was attacked in November 2020 by gunmen who killed more than 20 students.

But “nobody can stop us”, said professor Yahya Homai.

“Nobody can take away the pen and book from our hands,” he added.

The Taliban’s return to power brought an end to a two-decade war against a US-backed government, leading to a significant reduction in violence, but security has begun to deteriorate in recent months.

The recent attack on the Kaj education centre has not yet been claimed by any group.

However most victims were members of the minority Shiite Hazara community, frequently targeted by the Islamic State jihadist organisation.

The famed Iguazu waterfalls on the border between Argentina and Brazil have registered 10 times their usual water volume after heavy rains, authorities said, closing one of the site’s main tourist walkways for safety reasons.

The flow through the massive waterfall system reached 14.5 million liters (3.8 million gallons) per second Wednesday night, far above the usual 1.5 million per second, said Wemerson Augusto, spokesman for Iguazu National Park.

The high water level led officials to close the “Devil’s Throat” walkway, famed for its breathtaking views of the falls, after it was partly submerged, Augusto told AFP.

He said such a large rush of water was “atypical” for October.

Walkways on the Argentine side were also closed Tuesday.

The falls have been swollen by heavy rains in Parana state in southern Brazil, where emergency officials said Wednesday 24 counties had been hit by “severe weather events” that damaged some 400 houses and forced more than 1,200 people from their homes.

The water volume was the highest registered at the falls since June 2014, when the flow hit 47 million liters per second.

Despite a rocket attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone, Iraqi lawmakers Thursday elected a new president in hopes of ending a year of political gridlock and violence in the war-scarred nation.

Iraqi Kurd Abdel Latif Rashid, 78, was elected as the new Iraqi head of state, replacing Barham Saleh, by the assembly in the capital’s heavily fortified government and diplomatic district.

Rashid won more than 160 votes against 99 for the incumbent Saleh, an assembly official said.

Rashid’s first task was expected to be nominating a candidate for prime minister to replace the current caretaker premier, Mustafa al-Kadhemi, and attempt to form a new government for the crisis-hit nation.

A favoured candidate for the prime minister’s post was Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, 52, of the Shiite Muslim bloc the Coordination Framework, which includes pro-Iranian former paramilitary groups.

When Sudani was first proposed in July, this sparked mass protests by backers of his Shiite rival, the fiery populist and cleric Moqtada Sadr, whose followers breached the Green Zone and stormed parliament.

A new reminder of Iraq’s troubles came Thursday as the lawmakers headed into parliament, when a barrage of nine Katyusha-style rockets rained down on the area, the security forces said.

At least 10 people were wounded, including six members of the security forces or bodyguards of lawmakers, as well as four civilians in a nearby district, a security official told AFP.

US Ambassador Alina Romanowski condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” on Twitter and warned that “the people of Iraq must resolve their political differences & grievances solely thru peaceful means. 

“Attacks like these undermine democracy & trap Iraq in a perpetual cycle of violence.”

– ‘Crisis breeds instability’ –

The democratic institutions built in oil-rich Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein remain fragile, and neighbouring Iran wields major influence.

Over a year since its last general elections, Iraq has so far failed to form a new government to tackle the problems facing the country plagued by unemployment, decaying infrastructure, corruption and the impacts of climate change.

The United Nations mission in Iraq warned this week that “the protracted crisis is breeding further instability” and that the divisive politics are “generating bitter public disillusion”.

Lawmakers had made three previous attempts to elect a new head of state, in February and March, but failed to even reach the required two-thirds threshold for a quorum.

Under Iraq’s post-Saddam power-sharing system, meant to avoid more sectarian conflict, the state president by convention is Kurdish, the prime minister is a Shiite and the parliament speaker a Sunni.

The presidency has usually been held by the PUK of Rashid and Saleh. This year the rival Democratic Party of Kurdistan had demanded the presidency but finally abandoned the bid.

Rashid, a hydraulic engineer versed in environmental issues, is seen as a compromise candidate for a the polarised country.

Iraq’s rival Shiite political factions, the most powerful players, have been bitterly vying for influence and the right to select the new premier.

Sadr has pushed for parliament to be dissolved and new elections, while the Coordination Framework has urged a new government before fresh polls are held.

The standoff has seen both sides set up protest camps in the Green Zone this year. 

Tensions boiled over on August 29 when more than 30 Sadr supporters were killed in battles with Iran-backed factions and the army.