Brazil is bracing for a historic court decision which could remove the most popular leader in modern Brazilian history from an election he is currently poised to win – and may prove devastating to the leftwing Workers’ party he founded. Nerves are stretched taut ahead of Wednesday’s appeals court decision, in which three judges will decide whether or not to uphold the conviction of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption and money laundering charges.

Lula – who is still hugely popular after his 2003-2010 two-term presidency – is currently the early favourite in October’s presidential election. Porto Alegre’s rightwing mayor Nelson Marchezan asked for the army to protect the city from thousands of Lula supporters expected to descend. The Workers’ party president, Gleisi Hoffmann, said last week that for Lula to be arrested, “they will have to kill people” – although she later qualified the remark. Authorities have closed airspace over the court, sealed off the surrounding streets, and plan to deploy helicopters, elevated observation platforms and even rooftop sharpshooters.(theguardian)…[+]

The world’s first fully electric, emission-free and potentially crewless container barges are to operate from the ports of Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam from this summer. The vessels, designed to fit beneath bridges as they transport their goods around the inland waterways of Belgium and the Netherlands, are expected to vastly reduce the use of diesel-powered trucks for moving freight.

Dubbed the “Tesla of the canals”, their electric motors will be driven by 20-foot batteries, charged on shore by the carbon-free energy provider Eneco. The barges are designed to operate without any crew, although the vessels will be manned in their first period of operation as new infrastructure is erected around some of the busiest inland waterways in Europe.

In August, five barges – 52 metres long and 6.7m wide, and able to carry 24 20ft containers weighing up to 425 tonnes – will be in operation. They will be fitted with a power box giving them 15 hours of power. As there is no need for a traditional engine room, the boats have up to 8% extra space, according to their Dutch manufacturer, Port Liner. About 23,000 trucks, mainly running on diesel, are expected to be removed from the roads as a result. At a later date, six larger 110m-long barges, carrying 270 containers, will run on four battery boxes capable of providing 35 hours of autonomous driving. Their use alone could lead to a reduction of about 18,000 tonnes per year of CO2, it is claimed.(theguardian)…[+]

Cape Town residents may lose piped water to their homes within two months if they do not act to counter the effects of the worst drought to hit South Africa’s second city in almost a century. Local authorities have warned four million people that if they do not reduce consumption by “day zero” – 12 April – they will have to queue at 200 standpipes for daily rations of 25 litres (6.6 US gallons).

The city, which attracts millions of tourists every year, has enforced strict waste controls, including prosecuting homeowners who use more than the 87-litre daily limit. However, the measures have not been enough, forcing local officials to bring forward “day zero” by nine days. “Due to a drop in the dam levels of 1.4%, day zero has, as of today, moved forward to 12 April,” the deputy mayor, Ian Neilson, said in a statement on Tuesday. Every day that consumption exceeded 500m litres, the last day of normal water supply drew closer, he said.(theguardian)…[+]

One person was killed and others were wounded on Tuesday morning in a high school shooting in rural Kentucky, according to authorities. In a tweet from a verified account, Governor Matt Bevin said it happened at Marshall County high school in south-west Kentucky.

In the tweet, Bevin said a shooting suspect was in custody. A Marshall County sheriff’s deputy reportedly apprehended the shooter. “Tragic shooting at Marshall County HS,” wrote Bevin. “Shooter is in custody, one confirmed fatality, multiple others wounded…Much yet unknown…Please do not speculate or spread hearsay…Let’s let the first responders do their job and be grateful that they are there to do it for us.” No other details were immediately available.(theguardian)…[+]

Russia’s culture ministry has withdrawn permission for the release of Armando Iannucci’s black comedy The Death of Stalin, after officials and top arts figures labelled the movie offensive and extremist. An advisory committee to the ministry had earlier recommended postponing the release to avoid it clashing with the 75th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, after officials and film directors attended a private viewing on Monday.

“The distribution certificate for the film The Death of Stalin has been withdrawn,” a culture ministry spokeswoman told Agence France-Presse. The film had been set for a limited release in cinemas from Thursday after local distributors Volga Film gained an 18+ certificate. Yelena Drapeko, deputy head of the lower house of parliament’s culture committee, told RBK news she had “never seen anything so disgusting in my life”. “(The audience), me included, saw elements of extremism in the film,” she said.(theguardian)…[+]

Multiple American citizens were killed and injured in the Taliban’s 14-hour siege of an upscale Kabul hotel last weekend, the state department said on Tuesday. No exact figures were immediately available for either fatalities or injuries. In total, 22 people were killed in the attack including 14 foreigners, Afghan officials said. Eleven of the 14 foreigners had been identified as working for an Afghan private airline, KamAir.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed gunmen belonging to the group were responsible for the attack. The Afghan interior ministry blamed the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, which killed 21 people at the same hotel in 2011.“We offer our deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who were killed and wish for the speedy recovery of those wounded,” the state department said. “Out of respect for the families of the deceased, we have no further comment.” (theguardian)…[+]

The United States will open its embassy in Jerusalem next year, ahead of schedule, Vice-President Mike Pence has said in an address to the Israeli parliament. Pence defended Donald Trump’s December declaration recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which has been condemned by the Palestinians, their Arab allies, and much of the wider diplomatic community.

He said the US administration will advance its plan in the coming weeks and the embassy will open by the end of 2019. Previous estimates had said that the move would take three or four years. Pence is the highest-level US official to visit the region since Trump promised to move the US embassy to the city, an announcement that prompted Palestinians to reject the US as a peace broker.(theguardian)…[+]

Turkey has resumed shelling a Kurdish enclave inside Syria on the third day of a military campaign that the government says aims to create a “safe zone” across the border. The fighting is ongoing in villages and towns around Afrin, which is controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD) and its military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara says is the Syrian arm of a terror group that has fought a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey.The Turkish prime minister, Binali Yıldırım said on Sunday the aim of the campaign, dubbed “Operation Olive Branch”, would be to create a zone inside Syria’s borders that was 30km (19 miles) deep. Turkish officials also said they wanted to significantly degrade the military capabilities of the YPG, which they say has 8,000 to 10,000 fighters in Afrin.

The “safe zone” would probably be secured and administered by Turkey’s Syrian rebel allies, creating a buffer zone with the Turkish border. Turkish officials have also hinted that it could be used as a safe area for civilians who wish to return to Syria, modelled on other parts of the country that Turkey had seized from Isis in an offensive called “Euphrates Shield” that was launched in the summer of 2016.(theguardian)…[+]

The gradual repatriation of more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees to Myanmar from Bangladesh has been postponed amid widespread fears that refugees would be forced to return against their will, a Bangladeshi official has said. “The main thing is that the process has to be voluntary,” said Abul Kalam, the refugee and repatriation commissioner. He added that paperwork for returning refugees had not yet been finalised and transit camps had yet to be built in Bangladesh.Myanmar had announced that the repatriation process would begin on Tuesday, two months after the signing of the first agreement on returns, on 23 November. Bangladeshi officials, however, have appeared reluctant to confirm a start date.

On Sunday, AH Mahmood Ali, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, told a press conference he could not could not give a specific day. “The process is ongoing,” he said. “You will see when it begins.” It was not immediately clear whether a new commencement date would be set.(theguardian)…[+]

Turkey said it had begun a ground incursion into the Kurdish enclave in Syria known as Afrin a day after intense aerial bombardment that signalled the opening of hostilities in a new phase of Ankara’s involvement in the war across the border.

The launch of the ground campaign by the Turkish military on Sunday, alongside Syrian rebel factions under Ankara’s tutelage, came on the second day of a military offensive called “Operation Olive Branch” by the Turkish government, with dozens of airstrikes hitting more than 150 targets in the Kurdish-dominated district from late on Saturday afternoon. Kurdish militias shelled the Turkish province of Kilis across the border in response. One person was killed and 32 wounded after a missile from Syria struck the Turkish bordertown of Reyhanli.

A spokesman for the Kurdish militias that control the Afrin enclave said they had blocked the Turkish army-led initial attempt at a ground incursion on Sunday morning. “The Turkish army and its Syrian agent factions have not entered one inch of Afrin district inside Syria,” the spokesman claimed.(theguardian)…[+]