Lula acknowledges his decision to uphold 27-year sentence could be overridden by conservative lawmakers

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has promised to veto a bill passed by congress to reduce the prison term of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president who was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for masterminding an attempted coup to overturn the 2022 elections.

Lawmakers passed the bill late on Wednesday after it was approved last week by the lower house. On Thursday, Brazil’s leftist president – who, investigations showed, was the target of an assassination plan as part of the coup plot – acknowledged his veto could be overridden by the largely conservative congress.

Writers cited Machado’s support for Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro

At least three writers have withdrawn from next month’s Hay festival in Cartagena, Colombia, in protest at an invitation extended to the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado.

The main reason cited by them is Machado’s support for Donald Trump’s four-month pressure campaign against Venezuela’s dictator Nicolás Maduro and her comments in favour of a potential US military intervention in the Caribbean country.

Joesley Batista is credited as a major force behind the reconciliation between Trump and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Six international airlines had suspended flights to Venezuela over the risk of possible US military strikes when an ultra-long-haul executive jet from São Paulo, Brazil, landed calmly in Caracas.

On board that flight on 23 November was the Brazilian meat tycoon Joesley Batista – twice jailed for corruption and whose companies have a long record of environmental violations. After a meeting with the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, he returned to Brazil the following day.