In a debate held by TV Globo this Thursday (27), the President of the Republic and candidate for re-election, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), even joked that he felt like he was “in the Public Prosecutor’s Office”, due to the questions focused exclusively on Federal Police investigations and without questioning about proposals for a future government.

The interview was conducted by journalists César Tralli and Renata Vasconcellos, who focused almost half of the conversation on issues concerning the investigations against the president’s son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, as well as the INSS scandal and investigations into Lula’s former chief of staff, Marco Aurélio Ribeiro, suspected of involvement with a lobbyist.

Lula was direct in recalling that he was a victim of one of the biggest cases of judicial persecution, in Operation Lava Jato, in which his trial and conviction were annulled. “I know this very well because I lived it. I was a victim of Lava Jato , the biggest lie ever told in this country to keep me out of the election. I spent 580 days in prison to prove that [former judge Sérgio] Moro was lying,” Lula emphasized.

“I put my face out there. I could have left Brazil. I wanted to prove that Moro is a liar, Dallagnol is a liar. And the press bought that lie. The press never apologized to me for creating a monster called Moro,” Lula stated, demanding accountability from TV Globo itself in the case, highlighting the dissemination of the PowerPoint presentation that accused him of being the leader of a criminal organization. Faced with the questioning, the journalists offered a timid “mea culpa,” with Tralli saying that the network “retracted its statement.”

When questioned about the investigations against Fábio Luís, who is being investigated in three inquiries opened by the Federal Police (PF) this year , which are investigating alleged influence peddling in favor of companies interested in obtaining contracts with the federal government, Lula reiterated that his son must prove his innocence, but that it is necessary to guarantee the progress of the investigation and the presumption of innocence.

Lula also emphasized that he would never use his position to benefit his son, “as others have done,” referring to former President Jair Bolsonaro’s statement in 2020 that he would replace security agents to protect his family.

“There are no accusations, only inferences drawn from phone calls. I know this very well because I’ve lived it. I’m not from the Public Prosecutor’s Office, I’m not from the police, I’m the president. I’m not going to remove a delegate like others have done. He [Fábio] knows what I went through, what Marisa [Letícia] went through with Lava Jato. He has an obligation to prove he did nothing wrong; he has to prove his innocence. I won’t make an inch to protect my son. That’s the behavior of the President of the Republic,” Lula stated.

“The fact that he intercepted phone conversations doesn’t justify anything at all. Not a single cent was embezzled. There is no proof of any conversation with a minister,” Lula added, reinforcing that all the accusations made about his son stem from leaks during the investigations.

Lula also admitted that the investigations against the former chief of staff raise suspicions, but that there is no proof that the lobbyist obtained anything she wanted. “It’s not appropriate, it’s totally wrong. And Marcola knows that this is not the role of a chief of staff. What is the role of a chief of staff? If someone requests a meeting, their role is to forward it to the ministry. The question is: did she get what she wanted? Did she get any public money? Because that’s where the crime lies,” he stated.

Lula was also questioned about the investigation into the scandal involving irregular deductions from pensions and retirement benefits at the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), and he emphasized that his government dismantled a scheme that began in 2019, during Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, and that public agencies had complete freedom to investigate.

“We have already returned R$ 3 billion to retirees who were robbed. And this will be reimbursed with the assets we seized from the criminal organization, which was created in 2019. The concrete fact is that the organization was formed in 2019, we investigated and dismantled it. The Federal Police, the Comptroller General’s Office (CGU), and the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) had complete freedom to investigate,” he stated.

The mega-package, inspired by El Salvador and aligned with the US, lacks support even from sectors of the government itself. José Antonio Kast, president of Chile since March, makes no secret of his longing for the times of dictator Augusto Pinochet. “If Pinochet were alive, he would vote for me,” the current president once said, when he was still a congressman, criticizing the defeated proposal for a new Constitution in the country. Kast has good reason to evoke memories of those dark times: a conservative Catholic lawyer, son of German immigrants, the president embodied, like few others in the Chilean public scene, the desire for Pinochet’s policies to remain in democratic times. In economic terms, his project aligns with liberalism based on restricting the state to a minimum. However, in the field of public security, what prevails is not the liberal character, but an enthusiast of a heavy hand.

Just shy of six months in office in Chile, Kast sent a package of laws to the country’s Senate that aims to reshape the role of the Chilean state in the field of public security, expanding its powers, creating a new type of state of exception, and restricting individual freedoms.

The security reform is part of what the Kast government calls the “Agenda against Organized Crime and Terrorism” (ACOT), an initiative aimed at processing 30 bills simultaneously. Last week, the Chilean president sent a specific proposal for constitutional reform to the Senate. Among other measures, the bill intends to restrict access to state-funded social benefits for people convicted of crimes related to terrorism and organized crime. In another point, the government proposes incorporating public security into Article 1 of the Chilean Constitution, creating a registry of criminal and terrorist organizations, and establishing a new state of emergency.

This state of emergency would be decreed by the government and would not need to be approved by Congress, having an initial duration of 120 days, extendable for an equal period. The objective? To expand powers in the face of a “serious and imminent threat” to public safety. Kast could also suspend or restrict freedom of movement, the right to assembly, the right to association, and even intercept documents and communications.

In parallel, the government also presented a bill called “Antiparricadas 2.0,” which aims to amend the Penal Code to apply punishments to those who totally or partially disrupt traffic and transportation services, without requiring proof of violence or intimidation.

“It is, in a way, an import of the Bukele model, which is considered successful in combating delinquency and crime. The discussion behind Kast’s proposal is the implementation of policies that focus on resolving impasses in the public security debate at the expense of democracy, of the survival of the democratic political system,” explains political scientist Talita São Thiago Tanscheit, professor in the Department of Social Sciences at PUC-Rio, to Brasil de Fato .

According to the researcher, the initiative is not accidental. By embracing a discourse of maximum attention to the issue of public security, the president brings to his government platform a demand that has been growing in Chilean society. “Kast was elected based on an agenda focused mainly on migration and public security: law and order and the defense of hardline policies . The problem of public security in Chile today is largely attributed to the high migratory flows the country has experienced in recent years,” she analyzes.

Ignacio Bustos, a Chilean economist and political scientist, former president of the Progressive Party, explains that Chile has four constitutional states of exception, valid for cases of catastrophes, external aggression, internal unrest, and wars. In a conversation with Brasil de Fato , he states that “the new state proposed by the government surpasses the current ones and does not even have the support of the most radical sectors of the Chilean right.”

Beirut, Aug 28 (Prensa Latina) An Israeli drone flew at low altitude over the southern suburbs of this capital today, while Israeli forces bombed several southern areas of Lebanon, official media reported today.

Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported that Israeli artillery attacked the towns of Houla and Wadi al-Salouqi, amid machine gun fire in the area.

The source added that Israeli forces carried out an intense bombardment at dawn against the town of Mansouri, with no casualties or material damage reported so far.

These actions come amid a persistent Israeli escalation against towns and cities in southern Lebanon, despite the agreement between Beirut and Tel Aviv for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops within a US-sponsored negotiation process.

Since March 2, 2026, Israeli attacks against Lebanon have resulted in 4,350 deaths and 12,307 injuries, in addition to the displacement of more than one million people, according to Lebanese authorities.

Israel maintains occupation of several areas in southern Lebanon, some since previous conflicts and others incorporated during the current offensive, while continuing its presence in Palestinian territories and parts of Syria.