Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro have wrapped up their election campaigns, each voicing confidence in victory ahead of Sunday’s tightly contested first-round presidential vote.

Lula, 80, closed his re-election bid on Saturday with a march through Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic powerhouse, drawing what his campaign called a record crowd for a closing rally.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to win the elections in the first round,” he told supporters, describing Sunday’s vote as a choice between “democracy and barbarism” and promising to “defeat the far right”.

He has also framed the election as a test of Brazil’s sovereignty, warning against “meddling” by Washington.

Trump, nosediving in the polls and bristling over a disastrous war on Iran, needs a scapegoat – and the Israeli prime minister best fits the bill

Benjamin Netanyahu’s whirlwind visit to the United States last week to address the United Nations General Assembly was further evidence that the Israeli prime minister is now a universal pariah.

He is being abandoned even by his closest allies.

It was perhaps not surprising that 77 nations, including a handful of European states, walked out of the chamber in protest that a wanted war crimes suspect - a fugitive from the International Criminal Court (ICC) - was being given a platform to speak on the world’s largest stage.

Far more notable was what happened - or rather, didn’t - away from the podium. Netanyahu spent just eight hours in the US before heading back to Israel. It is hard to believe that that was his choice.

He was denied his usual moment in the sun with Donald Trump at the White House, and could not even secure a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

They are children who have fallen through the cracks of society, outcasts who have run away or been thrown out of their homes. Known as ‘Toyoko kids’, they hang out in the most infamous neighbourhood in Tokyo. This episode of ARTE Reportage went to meet them.

We are in a gas crisis in all but the name, gas in my area is over $6 a gallon and even in states where it's normally "cheap" (taxpayer subsidized) it's still well over $4. Its been six years since COVID and since then we saw it peak, drop to slightly lower but still higher than ever before covid, and now this. It also appears that gas, even if it does go down, will never be "cheap" again.

and yet, even with all of that I still see new giant cars rolling off the logs. Giant Santa Fes, brand new F150s, brand new plates. People are still buying these. Not luxury "I can spend whatever I want" rich folks, everyday people buying these things.

What is going on in peoples heads? I know most never take gas into account when buying a car and then are all shocked pikachu at the pump, but seriously even now it's not an issue?

I have seen maybe, maybe one new car that was a hybrid out of my anecdotal experience. No one considering those, or an EV, or god forbid biking or taking transit. (In my area both are very viable alternatives).

I'm just so exasperated at how stupid people are being. They think 50k for a car is expensive and then never take into account what powers the damn thing.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

OC by @[email protected]

The Green Party of England and Wales has voted to declare Zionism a form of racism in an unprecedented move at its party conference in Brighton, Middle East Eye has learnt.

The vote by party members on Sunday makes it the first major party in the UK to recognise Zionism as a form of racism - and to back a single democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all ethnic and religious groups, rather than a two-state solution.

1,022 members voted for the motion while 813 voted against it.

Co-Deputy Leader Mothin Ali told Middle East Eye on Sunday that he was strongly in favour of the motion, unlike Green MPs Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, who criticised it.

"As defined in the motion," Ali said, "Zionism is an ethno-nationalist state. Zionism is resulting in ethnic cleansing, in the belief that one group of people is superior to another."