The fate of Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in the balance as the country’s supreme court prepares to hand down a ruling that could lead to him being jailed before October elections for which he is currently the frontrunner.  Tensions are running high with Brazil rocked by the recent killing of a Rio councillor, Marielle Franco, and Wednesday’s judicial decision seems likely to further polarise an already bitterly divided country. If Lula is jailed, his supporters will cry political persecution; if not, his detractors will allege corruption.

Lula’s conviction for corruption and money laundering was upheld by an appeals court in January and his sentence increased to 12 years. On Wednesday the supreme court must decide whether to uphold a 2016 ruling that defendants should begin prison sentences after the first appeal is rejected. Lula’s Worker’s party says the conviction was politically motivated to prevent the former president, who remains popular with poorer Brazilians, from running again in October. The case was part of Brazil’s sprawling “Car Wash” investigation that has jailed dozens of top executives and politicians.(theguardian)…[+]

French rail workers have launched three months of rolling train strikes in what threatens to become the largest and most chaotic industrial action against Emmanuel Macron’s drive to overhaul state transport and liberalise the economy. Called “Black Tuesday” in the media, the opening day of train strikes was expected to cause disruption for France’s 4.5 million rail passengers around 33% of all train staff and more than 75% of drivers walked out.

Only one regional train in five and one high-speed TGV train out of eight was running. Commuter lines into Paris were severely affected, and international train services were cut, with no trains between France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain and three out of four trains running on the Eurostar service connecting to London. Stoppages are planned across the country’s rail network for two days out of every five until 28 June. Unions are protesting against the centrist French president’s plan to push through sweeping changes to the vast state rail system.The rail sector is traditionally one of France’s riskiest political issues; a battleground on which Macron is refusing to budge in order to prove that he can face down strikes and continue with a liberalising overhaul of other sectors.(theguardian)…[+]

Justin Kapitu is dying. He does not know it yet, and the doctors treating the 22-year-old rebel fighter are unlikely to tell him soon, but his chances of surviving more than a few months are virtually non-existent.

Kapitu was wounded in a clash between his rebel group and a rival faction in December. Even in the remote green forested valleys and hills of the far east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the battle took place, few paid much attention. Such scrappy, bloody confrontations have become an almost daily occurrence. Bullets shattered Kapitu’s right arm and damaged his intestines. Emaciated and traumatised, he is being treated at the single hospital serving the half million inhabitants of Masisi territory, about a thousand miles east of Kinshasa, the capital. Kapitu weighs only 30kg (4st 7lb), is in constant pain and can absorb just a fifth of the nutritional value of the small amount of food he can ingest. Abandoned by his former comrades, he is unsure of the whereabouts of his family. “I was just a foot soldier so I don’t really know why we were fighting,” he said. “There are lots of reasons I think …. I don’t think the wars here will ever stop. They will probably get worse.”(theguardian)…[+]