SAO PAULO (AP) – Brazil’s former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has announced his intention to unseat the far-right populist president Jair Bolsonaro. Lula publicly declared his intention to retake the presidency office from his arch-enemy and rebuild the country devastated by the “irresponsible and criminal” administration of Bolsonaro. The 76-year-old charismatic leader told supporters gathered in Sao Paulo, “I’m jumping back into the fight.” “We have a dream. We are moved by hope – and there is no force greater than the hope of a people who know they can be happy once more … Once again we are going to care for Brazil and the Brazilian people,” the charismatic leader said. “We’re ready to work not only to win the election on October 2, but to rebuild and transform Brazil, which will be even more difficult,” he added. “We need to change Brazil once again... We need to return to a place where no one ever dares to defy democracy again. We need to send fascism back to the sewer of history, where it should have been all along,” Lula told his cheering supporters, calling on the nation to unite in an effort to bring down the far-right incumbent in upcoming elections. He called on “all democrats” to join him in the fight against “incompetence and authoritarianism.” The rally was described by his campaign as a “pre-launch” as official campaigning begins in August. However, Lula has been in unofficial campaign mode since March last year, when the country’s Supreme Court annulled the years-long corruption convictions that led to his imprisonment and prevented him from running again for office, sidelining him from politics for years.

 

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MUMBAI (Reuters) – Sitting in an office lined with books overlooking a giant prayer hall, Mohammed Ashfaq Kazi, the main preacher at the largest mosque in Mumbai, checked a decibel meter attached to the loudspeakers before he gave the call to worship.  “The volume of our azaan (call to prayer) has become a political issue, but I don’t want it to take a communal turn,” said Kazi, one of the most influential Islamic scholars in the sprawling metropolis on India’s western coast. As he spoke he pointed to loudspeakers attached to the minarets of the ornate, sand-colored Juma Masjid in Mumbai’s old trading quarters. Kazi and three other senior clerics from Maharashtra where Mumbai is located said more than 900 mosques in the west of the state had agreed to turn the volume down on calls to prayer following complaints from a local Hindu politician. Raj Thackeray, leader of a regional Hindu party, demanded in April that mosques and other places of worship kept within allowed noise limits. If they did not, he said his followers would chant Hindu prayers outside mosques in protest. Leaders of India’s 200 million Muslims see the move, which coincided with the holy festival of Eid, as another attempt by hard-line Hindus to undermine their rights to free worship and religious expression, with the tacit agreement of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

 

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HONG KONG (AFP) – A former security chief was appointed Hong Kong new leader on Sunday. John Lee, 64, succeeded outgoing leader Carrie Lam. Hong Kong’s leader is chosen by an election committee currently comprised of 1,461 people. After a brief secret ballot on Sunday, 99 percent (1,416 members) voted for Lee while eight voted against, according to officials. Beijing hailed the near-unanimous result saying it showed “Hong Kong society has a high level of recognition and approval” for Lee. “This is a real demonstration of democratic spirit,” the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office said in a statement. Hong Kong faces economic difficulties thanks to two years of strict pandemic curbs that have damaged its reputation as a business hub and left residents cut off as rivals re-open. Under the slogan “Starting a new chapter for Hong Kong together”, Lee has vowed to bring in “result-oriented” governance, forge unity and reboot the city’s economy. A 44-page manifesto he released last week stuck to broad goals. Lee has said he will unveil more details when he makes his first policy address.

 

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LOS ANGELES (Xinhua) – “The exploitation of Black women continues,” according to an article recently published on the website of the U.S. newspaper The Washington Post. The writer, Eddie Neal, noted in a letter to the newspaper’s editors that “the spectrum of African American skin color results from the rape of Black women during and following the slave era.” “As an amateur genealogist tracking my Black ancestors in North Carolina, I find instances in which females were selectively groomed by enslavers as children and then gave birth to multiple offspring by these men before they reached adulthood,” Neal wrote, adding that “enslavers often fathered children when they were fathering children in their marriages.” “My research shows that the practice of rape of Black women by White men who wielded legal and economic control of their lives continued into the mid-20th century” and “mothers of mixed-race children played a pivotal and heroic role in documenting fatherhood by informing their children who their fathers were and entering the names of biological fathers on official documents, especially birth, marriage and death certificates,” the writer pointed out. “Genetic analysis using DNA samples provides a quantitative method of tracking fatherhood to the actual father or close relatives,” wrote the writer, adding that “data sharing between Black and White descendants of enslavers and their researchers can facilitate the process.”

 

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COLOMBO (Al Jazeera) – The prime minister of Sri Lanka has been heckled on his first public appearance since protests against the country’s worst-ever economic downturn erupted. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was also booed on Sunday by protesters demanding his ruling family resign over the worsening crisis. As people queue for fuel around the country, essential staples are being rationed in stores and medicine shortages and blackouts are increasing, citizens across the South Asian island took to the streets to demand the resignation of Mahinda and his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. On Sunday the prime minister, visiting one of the Buddhist temples in Anuradhapura, was met by dozens of men and women carrying placards and chanting slogans demanding “thieves” be banned from the sacred city, 200km (90 miles) north of Colombo, the commercial capital and largest city in Sri Lanka. Heavily armed security forces were deployed while police moved to clear the road for Rajapaksa’s convoy of six vehicles. Officials said the prime minister would return to the capital by helicopter.