He was still relatively unknown in Brazil just a few months ago. The 45-year-old senator is now neck and neck with incumbent President Lula in the polls for the upcoming presidential election. Flavio Bolsonaro's victory would add Brazil to the long list of Latin American countries that have shifted to the right or far right in recent months.

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome award-winning author Rob Franklin, joining us to discuss Great Black Hope, his acclaimed debut novel exploring race, class, respectability and belonging. Franklin wanted to write about the worlds he had spent years observing since childhood: including how class and race shape even our most intimate relationships.  At its centre is David Smith, a young Black man from a Southern bourgeois family. His education, manners and connections give him access, but he is constantly aware of the possibility of being cast out. That tension led him to think about respectability politics and the psychological cost of constantly performing an acceptable version of oneself. 

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday signed an order banning fixed-odds betting just over a week ahead of the first round of the presidential election, in a move he said was designed to tackle the pervasive problem of families falling into debt.

President Donald Trump rolled out an unusually lavish welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping, praising their personal friendship throughout a White House state dinner and other ceremonial events. While both leaders said they held frank discussions behind closed doors, the visit produced no major breakthroughs, prompting criticism from Democratic lawmakers who argued the pageantry overshadowed pressing issues including Iran, Taiwan, AI and trade.

Erin Ogunkeye is pleased to welcome Henrietta Levin, Senior Fellow with the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. The US remains a powerful actor in its relationship with China. But power on paper is not the same thing as leverage at the negotiating table. Levin warns that President Trump’s highly personalized approach to Xi Jinping offers Beijing opportunities that China can easily exploit. Xi does not approach the relationship in the same way. Au contraire, he sees the United States as an adversary to be managed while China pursues its domestic priorities and strategic objectives in Asia, including on Taiwan. 

🇺🇸 🇨🇳 As Donald #Trump welcomed his Chinese counterpart Xi #Jinping for a state visit on the tarmac of an airport near #Washington, the sound of a fighter jet during the military ceremony caught the US president off guard, prompting a series of startled facial expressions.

Eve Irvine is pleased to welcome Dimitry Elias Léger, journalist and author of "Death of the Soccer God". He begins with an extraordinary but largely forgotten moment in sporting history: the Haitian-born Joe Gaetjens scoring the goal that gave the US its famous victory over England at the 1950 World Cup. But Léger is less interested in reconstructing Gaetjens’s biography than in using the football star's journey as a " jumping point" to examining diaspora, fame, mortality and moral responsibility. Success offers neither immunity from history nor escape from mortality: as he puts it, “You could be super famous and end up on death row” or die wealthy in your own bed: “Either way, you’re going to die.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to address the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, as US President Donald Trump pushes for an end to Russia’s war and Kyiv seeks to shape renewed diplomatic efforts after more than four and a half years of conflict. France 24 International affairs commentator Douglas Herbert shares further details.

Russia hammered Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with drones in daylight attacks on Wednesday, killing two people and wounding 23, just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to address world leaders at the UN General Assembly. Zelenskyy met US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as Trump has expressed frustration over the lack of progress in talks aimed at ending the war and the continued escalation of aerial attacks by both sides. Emerald Maxwell reports.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s speech in his address to the UN General Assembly. He opened by showing images of Iranian civilians killed in US strikes, saying they demonstrated the impact of US and Israeli military action against Iran. During his speech, the US delegation walked out of the General Assembly hall. France 24 International Affairs Editor Kethevane Gorjestani has more.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is speaking before the UN General Assembly Wednesday in his first speech at the world body since the US and Israel launched the conflict with his country. His address comes a day after US President Donald Trump told the UNGA he could "annihilate the Islamic Republic" and "drive them into hell".

AI leaders are due to brief the UN Security Council at an emergency session later today. The meeting comes after weeks of warnings about the potentially uncontrollable risks posed by artificial intelligence. Delano D’Souza reports.

The US-China trade war has hit exports ranging from soybeans to solar panels, but one industry appears to be weathering the tariffs remarkably well. As Donald Trump and Xi Jinping prepare to meet in Washington this week, big-ticket exports are likely to be high on the agenda. But Chinese beauty products such as wigs, hair extensions and false eyelashes have proved highly resilient, with low prices and strong demand encouraging consumers to absorb the extra costs. China’s press-on nail industry, concentrated largely in one city, is also coming through the trade war without a scratch. Bryan Quinn

Hurricane Polo has strengthened into one of the most powerful Pacific cyclones in decades and is expected to skirt Mexico’s southwestern coast as a Category 5 storm. The Miami-based National Hurricane Center described Polo as an “extremely dangerous” storm, with maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour.

The day began with Donald Trump threatening to annihilate Iran but ended with a three-hour meeting between US and Iranian mediators, which Trump described as “very good.” Trump also held a high-level meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both sides saying they wanted the war in Ukraine to end before winter. Today, as the UN General Assembly continues, Zelensky and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are among those expected to address the assembly, as world leaders seek ways to end the two conflicts dominating international politics. France 24 International Affairs Editor Kethevane Gorjestani shares further insights.

🇫🇷 French President Emmanuel Macron criticised Gaza diplomacy at the UN General Assembly, calling it a "shameful spectacle" and urging action to reopen humanitarian routes.

Donald Trump has once again criticised Cuba, saying in his UN General Assembly address on Tuesday that the country would “fall.” His remarks prompted reactions ranging from outrage to indifference among Cubans, as the island faces one of its most severe economic crises and continues to deal with pressure and threats from its US neighbour. Camille Corcoran reports.

On Tuesday, September 22, Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in New York to discuss the war in Ukraine. Ahead of Zelensky’s address to the UN General Assembly today, he said he wants the war to end before winter, stressing that people across Ukraine are living in increasingly difficult conditions and that the longer the conflict continues, the greater the risk of further deaths on the frontline. Trump has also said that Ukraine and Russia agreed not to target each other’s energy infrastructure, after previously criticising Kyiv for striking Russian oil refineries. According to France 24 correspondent from Ukraine, Gulliver Cragg, Another potential area for a temporary ceasefire could be the Black Sea, where attacks have disrupted Ukrainian and Russian grain shipments. Ukraine has indicated it is willing to cooperate, although Zelensky has questioned whether Russia would do the same. Analysts say the growing Ukrainian pressure on Russian oil infrastructure could create an opening for a limited ceasefire, although there is uncertainty over how strongly Trump is pushing for such an agreement and when he would want it to happen. France 24 International Affairs editor Philip Turle shares further details.

US media outlets are usually fierce competitors, but Donald Trump’s ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW has prompted an unusual show of solidarity among journalists. The move is changing the way the White House is covered, as Trump arrives in New York for the UN General Assembly. Camille Knight reports.

The day began with Donald Trump threatening to annihilate Iran but ended with a three-hour meeting between US and Iranian mediators, which Trump described as “very good.” Trump also held a high-level meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with both sides saying they wanted the war in Ukraine to end before winter. Today, as the UN General Assembly continues, Zelensky and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are among those expected to address the assembly, as world leaders seek ways to end the two conflicts dominating international politics. First, Morgan Ayre reports on the latest developments in the Middle East.