Ione WellsSouth America correspondent in Brasília and
Vanessa BuschschlüterBBC News
EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images
Jair Bolsonaro was found guilty of five charges
The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison after being found guilty of plotting a military coup.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence just hours after they had convicted the former leader.
They ruled he was guilty of leading a conspiracy aimed at keeping him in power after he lost the 2022 election to his left-wing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Four of the justices found him guilty while one voted to acquit him.
Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, did not attend the trial but has in the past called it a “witch hunt”.
His words have previously been echoed by US President, Donald Trump, who imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, framing them as retaliation for Bolsonaro’s prosecution.
Reacting to the guilty verdict, Trump said he found it “very surprising” and compared it to his own experience: “That’s very much like they tried to do with me. But they didn’t get away with it at all.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Brazil’s Supreme Court had “unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro” and threatened to “respond accordingly to this witch hunt”.
Brazil’s foreign ministry reacted swiftly, posting on X that “threats like the one made today by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement that attacks a Brazilian authority and ignores the facts and the compelling evidence on record, will not intimidate our democracy”.
Bolsonaro, who is 70, now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.
His lawyers are expected to argue that he should be kept under house arrest instead of being sent to jail.
They will also plead for a lower sentence.
However, they will not be able to appeal against the verdict itself, as that would only have been possible if two out of the five justices had voted to acquit.
Bolsonaro was found guilty of five charges, all relating to his attempt to cling to power after he was beaten in the 2022 election.
But prosecutors said he had started to plot to stay in power long before, proposing a coup to military commanders and sowing unfounded doubts about the electoral system.
They also said that Bolsonaro knew of a plan to assassinate Lula and his vice-presidential running mate, as well as a Supreme Court Justice.
The justices found he had led a conspiracy and also convicted seven of his co-conspirators, including senior military officers. Among them are two former defence ministers, a former spy chief and former security minster.
While the plot failed to enlist enough support from the military to go ahead, it did culminate in the storming of government buildings by Bolsonaro’s supporters on 8 January 2023, the justices found.
Order was quickly restored and more than 1,500 people were arrested.
But, according to Alexandre de Moraes – the justice who oversaw the trial – Brazil had come close to descending into authoritarianism.
“We are slowly forgetting that Brazil almost returned to its 20-year dictatorship because a criminal organisation, comprised of a political group, doesn’t know how to lose elections,” he said before casting his guilty vote.
Brazil’s recent history and the decades it spent under military rule were also invoked by Justice Cármen Lúcia, who cast the decisive third “guilty” vote on Thursday.
She compared the attempted coup to a “virus”, which, if left to fester, can kill the society in which it has taken hold in.
The sole dissenting voice on the five-member panel was Luiz Fux, who argued in an 11-hour speech on Wednesday that the accusations against Jair Bolsonaro were unfounded and voted for him to be acquitted.
But on Thursday, Cármen Lúcia, the only woman on the panel, insisted that Brazil’s democratic order had been at risk and warned that “there was no immunity to authoritarianism”.
Two franchises who are polar opposites, when it comes to roster construction, will collide Thursday night at Lambeau Field with the Washington Commanders (1-0) facing off against the host Green Bay Packers (1-0).
Washington is the NFL’s oldest team with an average age of 28 years and 243 days while Green Bay is the NFl’s youngest team for the third consecutive season with an average age of 25 years and 292 days. Thursday night will also feature a reunion of old “friends” with new Packers All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons reconnecting with one of his former NFC East foes in Washington 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year quarterback Jayden Daniels.
Parsons obliterated the Commanders’ front in his two matchups as a Dallas Cowboy in 2024: he totaled seven quarterback pressures and four-and-a-half sacks in those meetings. That production made Parsons the only player in the NFL to sack Daniels more than twice last season.
On the other side of the ball, Packers quarterback Jordan Love will become the first quarterback to start for Green Bay against Washington other than either Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers since Don Majkowski in 1988. Love also has eight consecutive regular season starts without an interception, and with a clean game Thursday night, he can tie Rodgers’ nine-game stretch in 2018 for the longest interception-less streak by a Packers quarterback in the Super Bowl era.
Will Love, Parsons and the Packers power Green Bay to their first 2-0 start since 2020? Or will Daniels lead the Commanders to their first win at Lambeau Field since 1986? Stay tuned to our live blog below to find out!
DC Comics has canceled the just-released “Red Hood” comic book series after author Gretchen Felker-Martinmade commentsabout Charlie Kirk’s death on social media.
Kirk, a conservative activist and campaigner for President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday at a speaking event at a university in Utah.
In since-deleted posts captured in screengrabs shared by other social media users, Felker-Martin allegedly wrote on social media after news of Kirk’s death: “Hope the bullet’s OK.”
Felker-Martin, who identifies as transgender, also referred to Kirk as a “Nazi b*tch.”
Kirk was outspoken in his opposition to trans rights.
In a statement shared with CNN on Thursday, a spokesperson for the company said: “At DC Comics, we place the highest value on our creators and community and affirm the right to peaceful, individual expression of personal viewpoints. Posts or public comments that can be viewed as promoting hostility or violence are inconsistent with DC’s standards of conduct.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for Felker-Martin and “Red Hood” artist Jeff Spokes for comment.
CNN, like DC Comics, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Red Hood is the moniker of Jason Todd, who exists within the Gotham City-Batman subset of DC characters. The new series from Felker-Martin hit comic book store shelves on Wednesday.
Future issues of “Red Hood” were set to be released through next June, with a second volume slated to run through December 2026, according to a DC press release.
Kirk’s death prompted an outpouring of condemnation from both sides of the aisle and prompted fears of continued violent threats to political figures.
Charlie Kirk’s body was flown Thursday on Air Force Two — the vice president’s plane — from Utah to Arizona, where he lived with his family.
The 31-year-old conservative activist was shot and killed Wednesday afternoon at an event at a Utah university. He is survived by his wife, Erika, and two young children.
Vice President JD Vance was seen helping carry Kirk’s casket on a tarmac in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a video posted on social media by Tyler Bower, who worked with Kirk at his organization Turning Point USA. The vice presidential aircraft would transport Kirk’s body to Phoenix, officials familiar with the matter had said earlier.
The plane landed in Phoenix shortly before 5 p.m. local time.
Kirk’s family and some of his friends were expected to travel with Vance and second lady Usha Vance to Arizona, officials said earlier Thursday.
Air Force Two, with Vice President JD Vance and the casket of Charlie Kirk on board, takes off at Roland R. Wright Air National Guard Base on Sept. 11, 2025, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
George Frey / Getty Images
Spokespeople for the vice president declined to comment.
Kirk was killed as he was speaking to a crowd at an outdoor “Prove Me Wrong” debate at Utah Valley University. A suspect has not yet been identified.
Kirk’s body was transferred from the hospital to a medical examiner’s office on Wednesday night, Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said.
Vance noted on Wednesday that he and Kirk were friends and said Kirk advocated “in public and private” for President Trump to pick him as his running mate last year. Vance praised Turning Point USA’s role in organizing pro-Trump events last year and credited Kirk with some of the Trump administration’s personnel decisions.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene,” Vance wrote. “He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.”
