A large metallic robot depicting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday night towered over Rio de Janeiro’s famed Sambadrome avenue in a carnival parade that has drawn ire for its tribute to a sitting president in an election year.
Samba school Academicos de Niteroi launched three days of dazzling parades with the homage to Lula, tracing his life as a boy growing up in poverty in the arid northeast, to a metalworker, union leader and then president.
The opposition has slammed the parade as veiled early campaigning ahead of October polls in which the 80-year-old Lula is seeking a fourth term.
Photo: AP
Lula and his wife, Rosangela “Janja” da Silva, watched the parade from one of the many VIP boxes lining the avenue.
There were striking workers, dancers draped in giant lightbulbs to represent access to electricity and those depicting the poor getting benefits in what was also an ode to a raft of leftist concerns.
The crowd seated along the 700m avenue sang along to the theme song chosen by Academicos de Niteroi, which included the catchy refrain often used by the president’s supporters: “Ole, ole, ole, ola; Lula, Lula.”
Photo: AP
Luena Holliday, 51, an events organizer, said she was a fan of the veteran leftist, but she was torn about the choice of theme.
“I find it confusing. I support Lula ... but we’re in a very divided moment in the country, and I don’t know how appropriate it is to associate carnival with Lula,” she said.
The parades of the city’s top 12 samba schools — a ferocious competition featuring massive, animated floats, thundering drum sections and scantily clad samba queens — are the showpiece of Rio’s carnival.
Behind the pomp and glitter, each school chooses an annual theme, often linked to Afro-Brazilian heritage, social or political commentary, mythology or environmental issues. The parade — the first to honor a serving president — made no mention of the election, but did not shy away from politics.
The theme song declares “no amnesty” — the leftist chant against efforts to free former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro from a 27-year jail term he is serving for plotting a failed coup.
One of the floats depicted a giant Bozo the Clown in prison stripes behind bars, with a massive ankle bracelet, a clear reference to Bolsonaro, who has often been nicknamed “Bozo” by his critics.
Bolsonaro was moved from house arrest to prison before the official start of his sentence after trying to remove his ankle monitoring bracelet with a soldering iron.
“Bozo in Jail? That’s where he is supposed to be,” a glitter-covered Nelia Macedo, 44, said, praising a parade which “exceeded all expectations.”
Marcia Alves, 59, a retired businesswoman, who admits she is not a supporter of Lula, said “you shouldn’t mix carnival with politics. It’s for everyone to have fun, everyone has their own opinion.”
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS