Brazil's leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returns to power on Jan. 1.
Who is #Lula? And what might his return to the presidency mean for low-income people in Brazil, Amazon deforestation and even Palestinian statehood? 🧵
Lula first came to power in 2003, after decades as a union organizer.
The son of farmers, he was a metal worker by 14.
His first presidency's social welfare programs lifted millions from poverty, targeting high-poverty groups, farmers and Indigenous/Afro-Brazilian communities.
Poverty fell 55% when Lula's Workers' Party controlled Brazil from 2003-2016: from about 22 million people in poverty to under 10 million.
By the end of Jair Bolsonaro's 2019-2022 term, the poverty rate skyrocketed — from 4.8% when the Workers' Party left power to almost 30%.
Lula has long championed Palestinian rights: One of his last acts in office in 2010 was to recognize Palestine as a state.
While the U.S. and most of Europe still resist recognition of Palestinian statehood, Lula's move was quickly followed by more Latin American nations.
Lula pledged to aim for "zero deforestation" of the Amazon, saying: "There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon."
Rainforest destruction skyrocketed under President Bolsonaro:
The Amazon lost over 8.4 million acres — an area bigger than Belgium.
Amazon deforestation reached historic lows under Lula's first presidency.
He vowed to reverse Bolsonaro polices that:
▪️ saw Amazon destruction rise 75%
▪️ gutted the environmental budget
▪️ saw a 500% surge in illegal mining
▪️ would destroy 2.5M more acres of Indigenous land
Attacks on Indigenous people skyrocketed under Brazil's President Bolsonaro:
▪️ murders of Indigenous people hit record levels, with 182 in 2020
▪️ invasions of Indigenous lands tripled
▪️ 20,000+ illegal miners, linked to violent attacks, reported on Yanomami lands alone
#Lula has said reducing poverty in Brazil is a top priority — through tax reform, expanded welfare and raising the minimum wage.
In Brazil in 2022:
▪️ 100 million people were in poverty
▪️ 33 million faced acute hunger
President Bolsonaro called widespread hunger "a big lie."
Brazil is one of the most unequal places on Earth today:
An average white worker makes almost 2x the average Afro-Latino worker.
The 1% of richest Brazilians (mostly white) control almost 30% of the country's entire wealth — more than all Afro-Brazilian women put together.
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Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation:
▪️ West Bank: surrounded by 200+ illegal settlements, 700+ barriers/checkpoints
▪️ Gaza: blockaded for 15 years, 50% live in poverty
▪️ East Jerusalem: face forced displacement
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians face huge restrictions on movement, surrounded by illegal settlements, checkpoints and Jewish-only roads.
Israeli forces:
▪️ conduct near-daily raids
▪️ killed 140+ Palestinians in 2022
▪️ destroyed homes of 3,100+ Palestinians since 2020
Palestinians in occupied Gaza have been under Israeli land/sea/air blockade since 2007.
Infrastructure is ravaged by Israel’s airstrikes and blocking of construction materials:
▪️ 50% live in poverty
▪️ 97% of water undrinkable
▪️ 33% of exit requests for medical needs denied
Israel says it won't cooperate in a reported U.S. investigation on the killing of Palestinian-American journalist #ShireenAbuAkleh. The U.S. has not yet confirmed the probe.
Israeli soldiers shot Shireen in May as she wore a press vest. Israel refused a criminal investigation.
Israeli forces have killed at least 45 journalists since 2000, say Palestinians.
0 Israeli soldiers were charged for killing them.
140+ journalists have been badly wounded by Israeli live fire and other weapons since 2018, some injuries resulting in amputation and blindness.
Family of #ShireenAbuAkleh welcomed news of a possible U.S. investigation into her killing:
"It is what the United States should do when a U.S. citizen is killed abroad... by a foreign military."
The U.S. has delayed a formal investigation for 6 months.
In the United Kingdom, the last few prime ministers were initially chosen by just 0.3% of voters (or less).
Here's why: 🧵
The UK PM is not chosen by all voters — usually only by members of the ruling political party or its MPs.
Currently, that is 150,000+ Conservative Party members (0.3% of all voters), who are overwhelmingly older, richer and more often male and white than the average voter.
The last 4 UK prime ministers all initially came to power without most voters getting any say:
▪️ Theresa May, after David Cameron resigned
▪️ Boris Johnson, after May resigned
▪️ Liz Truss, after Johnson resigned
▪️ Rishi Sunak, after Truss resigned
Texas schools are sending children home with DNA kits so parents can identify them "in case of an emergency."
After the Uvalde shooting, parents had to provide such samples to identify victims. Texas' GOP rejected calls for reform and expanded the right to carry guns in public.
The Uvalde gunman used an AR-15 he legally bought at age 18 to kill 19 children and 2 adults.
Victims' families called on Texas to raise the min. age to buy guns, but Gov. Abbott instead pushed to relax gun laws and claimed banning sales to people under 21 is "unconstitutional."
The Texas GOP and Gov. Abbott have consistently relaxed gun laws after mass shootings.
After the 2019 El Paso shooting, they backed laws that:
▪️ allow carrying handguns in places of worship
▪️ allow storing guns in school parking lots
▪️ block landlords from banning firearms