BRAZIL ERUPTS AS LULA DEFEATS BOLSONARO Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva staged a remarkable political comeback, defeating far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro to secure a historic fourth term, sparking mass celebrations nationwide. With 100% of votes counted, the 80-year-old Lula secured 51.79% against Bolsonaro’s 48.21%, winning by approximately 4.4 million votes. The victory marks an unprecedented reversal in Brazil’s modern democratic history. After narrowly losing the first round earlier this month, Lula became the first presidential candidate since the end of the military dictatorship in the 1980s to overturn a first-round defeat and win the run-off. But allegations of interference by US technology giant Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, overshadowed the election. Lula’s campaign accused the company of favouring Bolsonaro through its algorithms, amplifying right-wing content while restricting pro-Lula material, including allegedly limiting the reach of Lula’s official Facebook page. Meta denied deliberately favouring either candidate. Bolsonaro’s campaign also faced allegations of electoral misconduct, including the use of AI-generated material targeting Lula, some of which Brazil’s electoral court ordered removed. Despite the controversies, Lula emerged victorious. Bolsonaro, however, refused to concede defeat and demanded that the election results be annulled. Meanwhile, an estimated one million Lula supporters reportedly flooded São Paulo’s iconic Avenida Paulista on Sunday night, turning the streets into a sea of celebration, with fireworks, music and crowds cheering the result. For Lula, who was imprisoned in 2018 on corruption charges widely criticised as politically motivated before his convictions were annulled, the victory marks another extraordinary chapter in a political career that has taken him from working-class trade union leader to a historic fourth term as Brazil’s president.