On Sunday a student-led democratic movement ousted Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić, a key ally of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, from power.
asserted
movement → lead → power
Today Serbian TV started its news program by apologizing to viewers.
asserted
TV → start → viewers
“For years, we failed to fulfill our duty.
asserted
we → fail → duty
We kept silent, turned a blind eye, reported events one-sidedly and failed to ask necessary questions.
asserted
We → keep → questions
We owe our viewers an apology.”
asserted
We → owe → apology
Also on Sunday, right-wing presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro lost to leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
asserted
Bolsonaro → lose → Silva
Despite what appears to have been the restriction by Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, of social media accounts that promoted Lula and its promotion of pro-Bolsonaro accounts, Lula pulled out a victory.
asserted
Lula → appear → victory
Tiago Rogero and Tom Phillips of the Guardian reported that Lula’s victory came, in large part, from street protesters who helped different factions come together against Bolsonaro and from Lula’s supporters’ use of social media to override Meta’s restrictions and make pro-Lula content perform well on social media.
asserted
content → report → media
Lula ally André Janones created a WhatsApp channel called “Lula’s Army” that organized more than 10 million followers to push back against Bolsonaro content and boost Lula.
asserted
that → create → Lula
Three weeks ago, many observers thought Bolsonaro would win the election.
asserted
Bolsonaro → think → election
Bolsonaro and his supporters had cultivated the idea they were allied with Trump in fighting off a perceived communist threat.
asserted
they → cultivate → threat
A victory for Bolsonaro would help to spread the idea of Trump’s control over the Western Hemisphere as he helped to install right-wing leaders across Latin America.
asserted
he → help → America
Lula supporters organized voters, explained what social media was suppressing, helped folks get to the polls, and Lula won by more than 4 million votes.
asserted
Lula → organize → votes
Initially, Bolsonaro said that he would not accept defeat and would ask for the result of the election to be annulled.
asserted
he → say → election
In that refusal to accept the results of an election, Bolsonaro echoed his father, right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil who in 2023 launched a coup to remain in power after voters elected Lula.
asserted
voters → accept → Lula
The elder Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence for his role in that coup attempt.
asserted
Bolsonaro → serve → attempt
As Megan Messerly, Daniel Desrochers, Ari Hawkins, and Phelim Kine of Politico reported, the younger Bolsonaro had the support of MAGA insiders in the U.S., who claimed the Brazilian election had been stolen.
asserted
election → report → U.S.
On Sunday, Trump himself told reporters that Brazil’s election “looked so, so corrupt, so terrible.”
asserted
election → tell → reporters
But on Monday, Trump suggested to reporters he would not intervene in the election, and as Michael Birnbaum, Marina Dias, and Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post reported, minutes later, Bolsonaro effectively conceded.
uncertain
Bolsonaro → suggest → Post
A Bolsonaro advisor told the reporters: “Flávio has given up.
asserted
Flávio → tell → reporters
He’s terrified.
asserted
He → ’ → ?
He is worried his father will die in jail, that he himself will be jailed this week and that he may have a long prison term ahead.”
uncertain
he → die → term
Brazilian authorities ordered Flávio Bolsonaro, who is under investigation for corruption, money laundering, and currency evasion, to surrender his passport and stay in the country.
asserted
who → order → country
Bolsonaro posted a video saying he would comply and that he had never thought of leaving Brazil.
asserted
he → post → Brazil
But today he went missing.
asserted
he → go → ?
Brazil’s Federal Police canceled his passports and began to look for him.
asserted
Police → cancel → him
Bolsonaro and his family turned up this afternoon in the United States, where a senior State Department official told reporters the State Department would offer the family visas to enter the country.
asserted
Department → turn → country
Bolsonaro’s allies cheered that he would lead Brazil’s right-wing opposition to Lula from the United States.
asserted
he → cheer → States
Meanwhile, concerns are circulating about a manipulation of information in the U.S. before the midterm election, similar to what happened in Brazil.
asserted
what → circulate → Brazil
As Kevin Frey of MS NOW reported today, Democratic representatives Robert Garcia of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland are demanding that Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg explain why the main Instagram account of No Kings was suspended earlier this month during the October 17 No Kings rallies around the country that were encouraging Americans to vote.
asserted
that → report → Americans
The representatives wrote that the “apparent” act of “corporate censorship of political speech raise[s] serious concerns about Meta’s dedication to ensuring free and fair elections.”
asserted
act → write → elections
The representatives dismissed Meta’s explanation that the outage was caused by an automated action triggered “when accounts post, share or comment at very high frequencies.”
asserted
accounts → dismiss → frequencies
Garcia and Raskin wrote that such an explanation strained “public credulity,” and noted that Meta appeared to have interfered in Brazil’s election.
asserted
Meta → write → election
“Technical glitches occur,” the congressmen wrote, “but at Meta they are happening frequently and, curiously, seem to disproportionately impact the political opponents of President Trump and his authoritarian political alliances
asserted
they → occur → Trump
Garcia and Raskin noted that the interests of Zuckerberg and Meta in government contracts mean they have a financial incentive to cooperate with Trump.
asserted
they → note → Trump
As George Chidi of the Guardian reported today, disinformation, driven by AI, is running rampant on social media in the U.S. in the runup to the midterm election.
asserted
disinformation → report → election
Social media companies reduced their efforts to stop the flood of disinformation in the wake of Trump’s reelection, Chidi writes, and now official government sources like the Department of Homeland Security sometimes amplify the lies.
asserted
sources → reduce → lies
Trump and his allies have always relied on a false narrative to gain and then to keep power.
asserted
Trump → rely → power
They adopted a strategy developed by Russian political theorists to overturn democracy by using modern media to create a false political world.
asserted
They → adopt → world
Voters begin to base their political decisions on that fake image, rather than on reality, and are manipulated into giving up control of their government to an authoritarian.
asserted
Voters → begin → authoritarian
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
