Episode description

On Sunday (8 January), hundreds of Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed Oscar Niemeyer’s modernist government buildings in the Brazilian capital Brasilia in an apparent attempt to overthrow the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Ido Vock and Jeremy Cliffe in Berlin are joined by Alona Ferber in London to discuss who was behind the failed coup and what it means for the country, as well as the disturbing parallels between this insurrection and the one at the US Capitol two years ago.

Next, the team turn to Israel, where the new governing coalition, led once more by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who is still on trial for criminal charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud), has been busy pushing judicial reforms that his opponents say will erode the country's democracy.

They discuss his attempted reforms, whether the shift to the right is a continuation or a break for the country, and what this means for Israel’s foreign policy relations, particularly in the Middle East. 

Then in You Ask Us, a listener question asks why Ukrainian hero Stepan Bandera is considered to be so controversial by the country's allies.

If you have a question for You Ask Us, go to newstatesman.com/youaskus

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Read more:

Alona on the biggest winner in Israel's election - the far right.

Ido on Ukraine’s problematic nationalist heroes

Sarah Manavis writes the Brazil riots were openly planned on social media. So why was nothing done?

Oliver Basciano write the attack on Brazil's Congress had the aesthetics of a coup, without the danger

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