Bolsonaro charged with coup plot as global tensions rise

• Height difference is not an obstacle, writes Reuters. The tallest woman in the world, Rumeysa Gelgi, met the shortest, Jyoti Amge. During a Guinness World Records meeting in London, the women enjoyed each other's company.

• Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and over 30 other people have been charged with planning a coup. Police announced the charges after nearly two years of speculation about Bolsonaro's role in questioning the election results and the riots led by his supporters in the country's capital, Brasília, in January 2023, a week after the inauguration of his rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as president. Many participants in these protests admitted that they wanted to create chaos to justify a military coup, emphasized Reuters.

• Donald Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the position of U.S. Attorney General after Matt Gaetz withdrew on Thursday afternoon. An investigation involving Gaetz by the FBI and a Congressional committee was ongoing concerning payments for sex with a 17-year-old.

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant against him was met with constructive mobilization led by "many friends from the USA", which he believes shows that this step will have "serious consequences for the ICC and those cooperating with it." Netanyahu released a video on Thursday evening on social media criticizing the ICC's decision. He called it "an anti-Semitic move" aimed at deterring Israel from defending itself against its enemies who want to destroy the Jewish state.

• Residents of the Havana, Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba metropolitan areas, and several other Cuban cities are protesting against numerous power outages. There has been no electricity in some parts of the island for two weeks. In most cases, protests against the energy crisis and the government's ineffectiveness in resolving it involve nighttime marches and banging spoons against pots.

• Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X and the world's richest man, criticized the Australian government for banning social media use by children under the age of 16. "It seems like a way to control the internet access of all Australians through the back door," Musk wrote in response to a tweet from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Source: Reuters/X/PAP/WP