Brazil’s political temperature may have dipped slightly in the days since far-right extremists stormed the presidential palace in Brasília, but the threat to the nation’s democracy remains high.
In his artwork for this week’s cover, illustrator Ben Hickey wanted to show the chaotic nature of the protests. “The raised fists show the crowd’s discontent but also a celebration at the destruction in the background,” Ben says. “The forms of the protesters blend together to make a single shadowy mass.”
As the dust settled – literally – on one of the most notorious days in Brazilian history, our Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips reflects this week on the jeopardy facing the fledgling presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has accused supporters of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, of attempting a coup.
World affairs editor Julian Borger then reflects on how events can be seen as a result of the close bonds between the hard right in Brazil and the US – and the inevitable connection between Bolsonaro and Donald Trump.
The UK was shocked this week by revelations that an elite London police officer was a serial rapist over the course of 17 years, as crime correspondent Vikram Dodd reports. Further on in the edition, Samira Shackle tells the story of the brutal murder of Zara Aleena in east London and the questions raised about a society that breeds violence against women.
From Australia we catch up with innovations in the battery-powered aviation market while, on the opinion pages, David Marr assesses the divisive life and times of Cardinal George Pell, who died last week.
In features, a fascinating double header from Ashifa Kassam and Sam Jones considers what humanity can learn from shipwrecks about the past and the future. And, on the occasion of David Lynch’s 77th birthday – an auspicious number for him – Culture reflects on the film director and auteur’s unsettling body of work.
