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.

Spat points to ideological rift between two factions while some see it as distraction

A turf war has broken out at the pinnacle of Brazilian politics, pitting a presidential son nicknamed ‘pitbull’ and a Steve Bannon-backed polemicist against a group of retired military chiefs led by Brazil’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão.

The animosity between the two factions was exposed last week after Carlos Bolsonaro – son of the incumbent far-right president Jair Bolsonaro – repeatedly bashed Mourão on Twitter for urging the US-based Olavo de Carvalho to stop meddling in Brazilian politics and return to his former career as an astrologer.

Ricardo Vélez accused of ‘historical revisionism’ after saying school history books will be rewritten to give ‘a fuller version’

Brazil’s education minister has been accused of “historical revisionism” after saying school history books will be rewritten to give a positive spin to the country’s 1964 coup and 21-year military dictatorship.

Related: Brazil: tortured dissidents appalled by Bolsonaro's praise for dictatorship