Brazilians went to the polls yesterday and elected a new president, with election results indicating that the winner is Jair Bolsonaro. With all respect to the Brazilian democracy and out of friendship with the Brazilian people, Socialists and Democrats call on the new president to respect the universal values of human rights and democracy and the principles enshrined in the Brazilian Constitution.

S&D MEPs have today expressed serious concern at the increasing attacks on health workers and the kidnapping of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The attacks, carried out by armed rebels and militia in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces, are hampering efforts to contain and eradicate the Ebola outbreak, with potentially devastating consequences.

Following yesterday’s shooting at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, in which at least 11 people were killed and six other were wounded by a man shouting anti-Semitic slurs, the S&D president Udo Bullmann, and two vice-presidents Elena Valenciano and Victor Boştinaru said:

Following the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the European Parliament adopted today - at the initiative of the Socialists and Democrats - a strong resolution, in which it calls for an independent, international investigation into the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death, sanctions against all implicated in his savage murder and finally for an EU-wide arms embargo on Saudi Arabia.