Brazil’s president calls for security forces and citizens who shoot alleged offenders to be shielded from prosecution

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said he hopes criminals will “die in the streets like cockroaches” as a result of hard-line legislation he is pushing to shield security forces and citizens who shoot alleged offenders from prosecution.

In an interview broadcast on Monday, Bolsonaro said he hoped Congress would approve his controversial plans to expand the so-called excludente de ilicitude – an article in Brazil’s criminal code that makes some normally illegal acts permissible.

Sérgio Moro became a national hero for his role as a judge in the sweeping graft scandal Operation Car Wash

Brazil’s justice minister, Sérgio Moro, has been granted a leave of absence following a slew of damaging leaks that have cast serious doubts over his impartiality as a judge in a sweeping graft scandal.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s far-right president, approved the break, from 15-19 July, for Moro to “deal with personal matters”, according to an official government document published on Monday.

In new disclosures, conservative magazine Veja says Sergio Moro, who led Operation Car Wash, guilty of serious ‘irregularities’

Brazil’s justice minister Sérgio Moro is facing renewed pressure to resign after the country’s leading conservative magazine waded into a snowballing scandal over his role in a mammoth anti-corruption investigation that helped reshape South America’s political landscape.

Related: Outcry after reports Brazil plans to investigate Glenn Greenwald

Former ambassadors say far-right leader has cuddled up to rightwing nationalists, irked China, infuriated Middle Eastern partners, and jettisoned its position as climate crisis leader

It has long been considered one of the jewels of Latin American statecraft; a shrewd, dependable and highly trained foreign service that helped make Brazil a global climate leader and soft power heavyweight.

But six months into the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, even veteran diplomats struggle to mask their horror at the wrecking ball being taken to the country’s nearly two century-old foreign office, known as Itamaraty after the Rio palace where it was once housed.

Judge rules to convert Adélio Bispo de Oliveira’s detention to internment in state medical facility

A man who stabbed the then Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro in the torso last year has been absolved after a judge ruled he was mentally ill.

Adélio Bispo de Oliveira has been in police custody since 6 September 2018 when he was accused of stabbing Bolsonaro while he was campaigning in the streets of Juiz de Fora, a city 115 miles (186km) north of Rio de Janeiro. The blade pierced the candidate’s intestine and put his life in danger. The attacker was beaten badly by Bolsonaro supporters after the stabbing.

From Amazon cities to small towns in the deep south, demonstrators turned out to condemn funding cuts

Tens of thousands of students, academics and teachers have taken to the streets of Brazil for their latest mass protest against what they call far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s assault on education.

Up and down the country – from Amazon cities to small towns in Brazil’s deep south – demonstrators turned out to condemn Bolsonaro’s highly controversial moves to slash funding for public education and science.

Rallies were reported in more than 300 towns and cities, including Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Juiz de Fora

Hardcore devotees of Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, have taken to the streets across the country in their first major show of force since his landslide election victory last October.

“Wake up Brazilian people!!! Today is the day to march,” Carla Zambelli, a prominent Bolsonarista congresswoman, tweeted as supporters of the radical populist began gathering on Sunday morning.

Rise comes under Governor Wilson Witzel, a Bolsonaro ally who has promised a zero-tolerance policy against criminals

Police killings in the state of Rio de Janeiro have hit a record high, rising by 18% in the first three months of this year.

Official data reviewed by the Associated Press on Friday show police forces in Rio killed 434 people during clashes in those months, compared with 368 people in same period last year.

President Bolsonaro has accused schoolteachers of indoctrination but educators say his aim is to stifle critical thinking

Jair Bolsonaro has encouraged school students to film teachers during class if they suspect them of pushing leftist ideas, reigniting a battle in one of the most contested arenas of Brazil’s raging culture wars.

“Teachers need to teach and not indoctrinate,” Bolsonaro tweeted this week as he shared a video shot in class by a student who accused her teacher of criticizing the far-right president.