Just How Dangerous Is Brazil’s New Right Wing President Jair Bolsonaro?

“He basks in the comparison to Donald Trump; that is what he wants us all to think but I think in some ways he is far more dangerous and far more ideological than Donald Trump and I think his potential to cause harm to different social groups is far, far greater.”

Today In Focus / The Guardian (10/31/18)

For his 27 years in Brazil’s congress, Jair Bolsonaro was a mostly marginal figure who made occasional headlines with his extreme views on the LGBT community, minorities and women. But after one of the most vicious and divisive elections in the country’s history, Bolsonaro has emerged as Brazil’s president-elect.

The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, has followed every twist of the 2018 campaign, including a surreal encounter with Bolsonaro in the Amazon. He traces his rise from the military to the presidency, and looks ahead to why his victory is so alarming for indigenous groups, environmental activists and his political opponents.

Also today: Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee tore into the UK’s former chancellor George Osborne on the BBC’s Newsnight this week. She told him his ‘treatment of the poorest people in this country has been despicable’. As the government attempts to move on from austerity, Polly argues that Osborne’s cuts will continue to bite for years to come.

Link to 21-Minute Audio