As Colombia approaches presidential elections next year, the US decision to decertify the country in the war on drugs plays into the hands of its allies on the political right, writes NICK MacWILLIAM

THE news of Lula’s defeat of Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazil presidential election has broken through like a ray of light on the horizon, reminding us that the sun still shines despite the gloom and bringing hope, not just for the people and environment of Brazil, but for the rest of the world too.
Lula’s triumph at the polls is the world’s most significant election of 2022. On winning, Lula vowed to unify the country with a politics of peace, love and hope.
The election outcome is a powerful demonstration of the determination of progressive forces in Brazil to reclaim democracy against all odds. He is the first person to be democratically elected as president of Brazil three times.

CLAUDIA WEBBE argues that Labour gains nothing from its adoption of right-wing stances on immigration, and seems instead to be deliberately paving the way for the far right to become an established force in British politics, as it has already in Europe

The Met Police arrested a staggering 890 people, many elderly, disabled, and even blind in a single demonstration — all to back up the government’s unhinged campaign against non-violent civil disobedience at the behest of Israel, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE

CLAUDIA WEBBE says a UN agency’s finding that Gaza’s famine, killing up to 400 people a day, is entirely man-made must prompt a renewed revolt against our government’s complicity in this horror

Starmer’s decision to suspend Diane Abbott yet again demonstrates a determination to maintain and propagate a hierarchy of racism, writes CLAUDIA WEBBE