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‘You can’t build new homes without roads, parks and schools to match, and the community shouldn’t have to wait for them,’ premier says

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Developers in New South Wales will be able to choose between paying a levy of $12,000 per lot, or building infrastructure such as roads and parks themselves as an “in kind payment” in a further push to speed up theconstruction of new housingin the state.

The changes will be revealed on Thursday by the premier,Chris Minns, before next week’s state budget.

It will likely be welcomed by groups such as the Property Council ofNew South Wales, which has long complained that the $12,000 levy adds to developers’ financing costs and puts them at the mercy of government agencies to provide infrastructure such as roads, parks and schools.

However, past experiments with developer-constructed infrastructure has resulted in serious problems. A housing development at Wilton on Sydney’s fringe was without sewer services when homeowners began moving in, leaving residents reliant on having sewage trucked away.

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“You can’t build new homes without roads, parks and schools to match, and the community shouldn’t have to wait for them,” Minns said of the new arrangements.

“Whether it’s new tax incentives, planning reforms or fast-tracking infrastructure, we’re focused on making it faster and easier to build the homes and communities NSW needs.”

The treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, said the government’s focus was improving efficiency of investment and that meant making government investment more effective as well as making private sector investment easier.

“Household income is beginning to be rebuilt but we do have a challenge of making sure that the economy is growing so living standards are growing … and that we are delivering for people the quality of life that they expect,” he said.

“And so that’s what’s been sitting behind, thinking around the strategy of this budget, that we have to fix the essentials that people rely upon and set the state up for growth.”

A focus of the budget is likely to be further streamlining investment in planning.

The budget will probably allocate funds to overhaul NSW’s planning laws after a roundtable in February and an offer by the opposition to work on planning reform.

The government has already announced changes to zoning around transport nodes to encourage low and medium-density development. Thetransport oriented development programis designed to build 112,000 new homes within 800 metres of transport within five years.

Mookhey will also announce changes to tax concessions for build-to-rent developments, which are designed to promote investment in developments that offer long-term, stable rental options and, in some cases, housing for key workers.

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BTR projects have been slow to gain acceptance among developers in NSW despite a 50% land tax discount, introduced by the previous government. Labor will announce the discount will be extended indefinitely.

Victoria leads the way with 11,098 BTR units either completed or under construction, and another 14,440 in the pipeline – totalling 25,538.

NSW has 3,584 completed or under construction and 11,505 in the pipeline, with the total number of BTR units totalling 15,089.

Build-to-rent developments typically provide returns to investors through long-term and stable rental income.

This means that build-to-rent housing may offer longer-term lease options, better security for tenants and more housing choice for people at different life stages.

The expiry of the tax concession in 2039 is a key factor affecting investment decisions today, Mookhey said.

The budget, which will be handed down on Tuesday, will reveal the pressures that natural disasters have put on the state’s finances, as well as the increased claims for psychological injuries, particularly by the state’s workers.

Analysis shows local chiefs earning 55 times more than average workers in Australia amid call to keep watch for ‘egregious’ bonuses

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News Corp’s chief executive has become the highest-paid CEO of an Australian-listed company, a new analysis of CEO pay has found.

CEOs of ASX-listed companies are still being paid 55 times more than average workers in Australia but the gap is yet to widen to extremes seen overseas, according to the annual analysis from the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI).

Robert Thomson, who heads up the American media company News Corp, was paid nearly $42m in 2024, a $300,000 pay rise compared withthe previous year, when he was the second-highest-paid Australian chief.

Jewellery retailer Lovisa soared to second forCEO payafter handing $39.5m to its recently departed chief, Victor Herrero, in 2024, despite being smaller than more than 140 other ASX-listed companies.

Macquarie Group’s Shemara Wikramanayake took $29.8m in 2024, swapping places with commercial real estate giant co-founder Greg Goodman to become the third-best-paid Australian chief. If only ASX 100 companies are analysed, Wikramanayake is the highest paid CEO.

The disparity between what CEOs and average workers earned grew in 2024 compared with the year before, after ASX’s top 100 companies gave their chief executives anear 14% pay rise on average in the 2023-24 financial year. The average worker’s earnings rose 4.6% in the same period, according to theAustralian Bureau of Statistics.

The gap has fallen since 2014, when chief executives were paid 70 timesmore than typical workers, the report found. Average CEO pay in 2024 was only slightly higher than it was in 2014, at $5.7m, whereas ordinary wages rose by nearly a third over the past decade.

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Local chiefs were paid 55 times more than average workers but Australia compared favourably to overseas, where CEO pay packets have soared, according to ACSI’s executive manager of stewardship, Ed Johns.

“We’re probably doing something right in Australia, where we’ve seen a real breakout in CEO pay in other countries,” he said.

Chief executives at the top 100 US companies were paid 348 times the median American employee in 2024, or more than US$33m (A$51m) on average, according to research from analytics firmEquilar using a different methodology.

The 100 biggest British companies paid their CEOs 78 times more than their median employees, the UK’s HighPayCentre campaign grouprevealed on Monday.

Australian investors and company boards have protested against big bonuses put forward by numerous companies in recent years, includingQantas,WoolworthsandAMP.

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But American enthusiasm for big pay packets was already lifting Australia’s CEO pay levels and Australia’s disparity could rise if investors stopped keeping watch for “egregious” bonuses, Johns warned.

“We could see a breakout if that focus is lost, so in the upcoming reporting season we’ll be watching really closely … to make sure that the pay is actually in line with investor expectations,” he said.

The analysis found the average CEO for a foreign-based, ASX 200 listed company was paid $600,000 more than CEOs of domestic ASX 200 companies, which ACSI attributed to “North American pay practices”.

Two US companies made the top five: News Corp and American-headquartered health company ResMed, which paid its Australian head, Mick Farrell, $20m in 2024. Another three US-based businesses cracked the top 20.

“We wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of those names continue to be represented in that list,” Johns said.

“[But] we don’t want to see Australian companies follow that same path, particularly where these large bonuses don’t actually match company performance.”

ResMed’s Farrell had held the top-paid position the previous year, with $47m pay, but took a cut to $20m after shares in the company tumbled in value over the prospectweight loss drugs would eradicate the needfor Resmed’s sleep apnoea devices.

Garth Hamilton says special tax breaks for mothers would better support ‘modern families’

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Special tax breaks for mothers should be considered as part of an overhaul of the tax system to better support “modern families”, a Coalition MP has argued.

As Jim Chalmersopened the door to a national debate on tax reform, the opposition backbencher Garth Hamilton said “everything must be on the table” to redesign the system in favour of families.

The new Liberal leader,Sussan Ley, will soon outline details of the process her party will use to review its policies – including on tax and net zero – after its thumping federal election defeat.

But Hamilton, who was the deputy chair of the house economic committee in the previous parliament, said he was not waiting for the party review process to start, joining other Liberal MPs in publicly floating tax ideas.

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The advocacy offers a preview of the types of ideas that will be raised, and how public and contested the internal policy brawl will be, as the Liberals thrash out a platform to fight the next election.

Hamilton is planning to run a tax review process of his own, which would bring together like-minded MPs during parliamentary sittings and host events with expert speakers.

“Our tax system must have a purpose and that purpose must be to make life better for Australian families. It’s no longer enough to invent new taxes just so governments can have more money to spend,” the Groom MP told Guardian Australia.

“We need a tax system that’s inclusive, that supports modern families, whatever shape they may be. If you are looking after each other, Australia should be looking after you.”

Hamilton said one of the ideas that should be on the table was lifetime tax rate deductions for mothers, in recognition of the fact they faced lower salaries when returning to the workforce.

Viktor Orban’sfar-right government in Hungary is introducing a radical version of the idea,offering lifetimeincome tax exemptions for mothers of two or more children as part of a plan to address the country’s falling fertility rate.

Hamilton understood the fertility rate argument but said he viewed the policy as more of an incentive to work and to help womenbuild their super balances.

He is also among the conservative MPs who support income splitting,a recurring policy ideathat would allow parents to split combined incomes evenly across two tax returns, lowering the household’s overall tax bill.

For example, if one parent earned $120,000 and the other earned $40,000 then both would be taxed at the rate of someone on $80,000.

One Nationpushed the policy at this year’s federal election as a means of supporting stay-at-home parents. The former Coalition senator Gerard Rennick asked the Parliamentary Budget Office to model a similar policy earlier this year, which calculated it would costroughly $12.5bn over two years.

In a sign of widening support in conservative circles, the rightwing Liberal senator and shadow assistant minister for families and communities,Leah Blyth, has publicly argued the case for income splitting over the past week.

“It’s not fair. It’s not sustainable. And it’s time we backed families,” Blyth said of the existing tax settings in a social media post last week.

The Australian Financial Reviewreported Blyth was also working on a proposal to make private school fees tax deductible while cutting taxpayer funding to them.

Speaking before Chalmers used a speech to the National Press Club to set the scene for tax changes, the shadow finance minister, James Paterson, reiterated that the Coalition was prepared to work “constructively” with the government.

“It is self-evident that we do not collect tax in this country as efficiently as we could, and it holds back our prosperity and our productivity and our efficiency as an economy, and there are gains that can be made by reforming the tax system,” Paterson, who is acting shadow treasurer, told Sky News.

“But that is not a blank cheque for this government to increase taxes.”

TheAustralian Energy Market Commission(AEMC) announced new rules today that will bar energy retailers from raising prices more than once per year for most people and remove fees for vulnerable customers, among other changes meant to help Australians find better energy deals.

While the changes don’t address the base price of energy, the bulk of most power bills, they will provide more information for consumers to make better choices about their providers. The changes include:

Customers cannot be charged higher prices for their loyalty and will pay no more than the standing offer price if their plan changes or expires.

The removal of unreasonably high penalties for not paying bills on time.

Restrict price increases in market retail contract from more than once every 12 months.

Prohibit fees for vulnerable customers and limit fees and charges to reasonable costs for others.

The chair of AEMC,Anna Collyer, said:

These reforms will help ensure that Australian households can have greater confidence in their energy plans and that those experiencing financial difficulty receive appropriate support.

Some reporters in the region face jail for alleged defamation in countries where news outlets often lack resources to defend lawsuits

The Pacific is facing a “critical moment” for press freedom, the region’s media watchdog has warned, as a number of senior journalists in a range of Pacific countries are facing costly lawsuits and criminal prosecution for alleged defamation.

“We have seen a few cases coming up … challenging the fundamentals of press freedom in the region,” said Robert Iroga, the chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum.

Iroga said that Pacific countries – while all distinct and with separate laws governing media – often face similar cultural and economic challenges that affect press freedom.

These include the fact that news outlets are often small with very limited budgets, which means defending lawsuits brought against them can often bankrupt an outlet.

Concerns have been raised about press freedom in some Pacific countries in recent years, including in Solomon Islands, where the former prime minister Manasseh Sogavarereportedly threatened to ban foreign journalistsin 2022 if they were not “respectful” in stories about the country’s ties with China, and in Papua New Guinea where reporters have been suspended over theircoverage of certain political stories. Papua New Guinea is the lowest-ranked Pacific country – 91st in the world – when it comes to press freedom, according to the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2024.

“It limits the ability of a journalist to report, knowing that if they enter into a legal suit, that might destroy the company, because they don’t have money to fight those legal suits which are very expensive,” Iroga said.

“This is a critical moment for us in the Pacific,” he said. “Threats have slowly been creeping in, eroding the freedom of the press.”

Among those facing legal action are Leilani Reklai, the publisher of Island Times newspaper in Palau, and the deputy chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum.

She is being sued for defamation by Surangel and Sons Co, a company owned by the father of Palau’s president, Surangel Whipps Jr, for an article she published last year about the company’s tax affairs.

The company alleged in a statement that Reklai’s article contained “false and unsubstantiated allegations against the company” constituting “negligence and defamation”. Reklai denies this.

Reklai’s case is still in the discovery phase and so far she says it has cost her $10,000 in legal fees. She has been told her fees could end up being five times that amount. In Palau, the average salary for a journalist is approximately $9,500 a year before tax.

To fund the suit, the local media community has engaged in fundraising for her, but she says her family and her clan may have to sell land to pay the rest of the bill.

“It’s stressful financially and emotionally. But it’s not something that we can afford to just drop or compromise on,” she said. “Everybody’s watching this, reporters are watching this, our community as a whole is watching it to see what message is coming out at the end of the day.”

Speaking generally about the challenges of reporting in the Pacific, Reklai said that because communities are often quite small and Pacific cultures often put a premium on respect for authority and reputation, there can be a tendency toward self-censorship.

“[There is] a pressure to report only what is acceptable or not culturally or politically too sensitive. There is that sort of self-censorship… because we know everyone, we are related to everybody in this whole community,” she said.

This concern for reputation was a key factor in the re-criminalising of defamation in Samoa in 2017, which means that someone found guilty of defamation could face up to three months in jail.

Lagi Keresoma, a veteran journalist at Talamua Media and the president of the Journalists Association of (Western) Samoa (JAWS), is now charged with criminal defamation for a story she wrote in May.

Keresoma, who is due to appear in court later this month on the charges, says she will plead not guilty.

“As the president of the media association here, I cannot bow down and set a bad example for others. If I have to go to jail on this one, I’ll take it, but I’m not going to apologise for something [when] I believe there was no wrong in it.”

In Papua New Guinea defamation is also a criminal charge, carrying a penalty of up to 25 years.

The Pacific Freedom Forum has launched a fundraising appeal to raise money for the defence of these – and other – Pacific journalists facing lawsuits.

“It’s quite scary, because some of them, if they lose these court cases, it’s basically the end of their business and that will be very sad a chapter for the media industry in this region,” said Iroga.

“Regardless of the challenges we face, we are determined across the region to defend press freedom, to defend democracy.”

New report estimates that China now has at least 600 nuclear warheads, with around 100 per year being added to the stockpile since 2023

China isgrowing its stockpile of nuclear warheadsat a faster rate than any other country, according to newly published research.

Areportpublished on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated that China now has at least 600 nuclear warheads, with about 100 per year being added to the stockpile since 2023.

At a regular foreign ministry press briefing on Monday, spokesperson Guo Jiakun declined to comment on the report but said: “China has always adhered to the nuclear strategy of self-defence, always maintained its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security, and has not participated in the arms race.”

Guo said that China adheres to a policy of not being the first to use nuclear weapons at any time, and that China would not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear armed states.

“China will continue to firmly commit to safeguarding its legitimate security interests and maintaining world peace and stability,” Guo said.

At the current rate of increases, China could have 1,500 nuclear warheads by 2035. That is nearly as many as Russia and the US currently have ready for use at short notice.

Russia and the US’s total inventories of weapons, which include both ready-to-use weapons and mothballed warheads, are far bigger. According to SIPRI’s research, Russia has 5,459 warheads while the US has 5,177. The two countries hold about 90% of the global stockpile.

Last year, the USapproved a new nuclear strategythat is focused on the threat from China.

China is thought to have 24 nuclear warheads that are already placed on missiles or located in bases with operational forces, meaning that they could be deployed at very short notice.

Xi Jinping, China’s leader, has expanded the country’s nuclear arsenal faster than any other Chinese leader. Previous leaders, such as Deng Xiaoping, argued that China only needed modest reserves to act as a deterrent for potential adversaries.

China’s nuclear capabilities are of particular concern toTaiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as part of its own territory. Beijing has resolved to “unify” Taiwan with the People’s Republic of China, using force if necessary. Chinese scholars have argued that having a powerful deterrent, such as nuclear weapons, could prevent any third party from intervening in a conflict. The threat of a US intervention in support of Taiwan is one of the factors that is keeping a war at bay.

The report’s authors noted fewer warheads are being dismantled each year, while the pace of deployment of new nuclear weapons is accelerating.

Hans M. Kristensen, an associate senior fellow at SIPRI, said: “The era of reductions in the number of nuclear weapons in the world, which had lasted since the end of the cold war, is coming to an end”.

Hundreds of facilities for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), long-range missiles used to deliver nuclear weapons, are being built in desert fields in the north of China. Three mountainous areas in the east of China also house ICBM silos, according to the report.

Additional research by Lillian Yang

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on the island of Flores, east of Bali, erupted on Tuesday afternoon, leading to several airlines cancelling flights

A volcano in easternIndonesiahas spewed a colossal ash tower into the sky, forcing the cancellation of dozens of flights to and from Bali.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,584m twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, east ofBali, erupted at 5.35pm local time on Tuesday, the volcanology agency said in a statement.

Officialsraised Indonesia’s disaster alert levelto the highest of a four-tiered system in response to the eruption.

“The height of the eruption column was observed at approximately 10,000 metres above the summit. The ash column was observed to be grey with thick intensity,” it said, after the alert level was raised.

There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.

Geology agency head Muhammad Wafid said residents and tourists should avoid carrying out any activities within at least 7km of the volcano’s crater.

Virgin Australia confirmed some flights between Brisbane and Melbourne and Bali were cancelled on Wednesday due to the eruption.

Jetstar also cancelled four flights from Australia into Bali on Wednesday morning, while Qantas said it was keeping a “close eye” on the situation with flights scheduled to leave later this afternoon.

Air New Zealand cancelled two flights between Bali and Aukland on Wednesday, saying it would “continue to closely monitor” the volcanic ash cloud.

“Safety is always our first priority and we will only operate into and out of Denpasar when it is safe to fly,” the airline said.

Air India, Singapore’s TigerAir and China’s Juneyao Airlines also cancelled flights “due to volcano”, Bali’s international airport website said.

Several domestic AirAsia flights leaving for Labuan Bajo on Flores were also cancelled.

“Ngurah Rai is still operating normally but it depends on the flight schedule, but some of the flights are cancelled due to a volcano. It depends on the route and also the airline,” a Bali airport customer service agent who declined to give their name told AFP.

Wafid warned of the possibility of hazardous lahar floods – a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials – if heavy rain occurs, particularly for communities near to rivers.

He also urged residents to wear face masks to protect themselves from volcanic ash.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement late Tuesday that at least one village had to evacuate, without providing numbers, and ash rain was reported in several villages outside the exclusion zone.

The spokesman called on residents around the volcano “to evacuate to safe locations” as tremors were still being detected, which indicated ongoing volcanic activity.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted multiple times in November, killing nine people and forcing thousands to evacuate, as well as the cancellation of scores of international flights to Bali.

Laki-Laki, which means man in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1,703m (5,587-foot) volcano named Perempuan, after the Indonesian word for woman.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

The 39-year-old senator was shot at a campaign rally in Bogota on 7 June and has now undergone three surgeries

Colombian senator and presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe, who has been hospitalised since he was shot in the head during a campaign event, is out of an emergency surgery performed but is in “extremely critical” condition, the Santa Fe Foundation hospital said.

Uribe, 39, a potential presidential candidate from the right-wing opposition,was shot in Bogotá on 7 June during a rally.

“Patient Miguel Uribe Turbay is out of surgery and his condition is extremely critical, characterized by a persistent cerebral edema and difficult to control inter-cerebral bleeding,” the hospital said in a statement on Monday, adding that his condition is of “maximum seriousness.“

The more than six-hour surgery was Uribe’s third since he was shot. He was rushed into emergency surgery for bleeding in his brain on Monday morning, the hospital said, after undergoing another surgical procedure.

“I’ve come out to again ask all Colombians, appealing to their good hearts, to the love they feel for Miguel, for my family and for Colombia, for us to hold a mass prayer. Today is crucial,” his wife, Maria Claudia Tarazona, told journalists outside the hospital.

The shooting, which was caught on video, recalled a streak of candidate assassinations inColombiain the 1980s and 1990s, a time when fighting between armed guerrillas, paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and state security forces touched the lives of many Colombians.

Marches were held on Sunday around the country to call for peace, and several vigils for Uribe’s health have taken place.

Three suspects, including a 15-year-old alleged to be the shooter, are in custody. An adult man and woman are also being held. The man, Carlos Eduardo Mora, has been charged for alleged involvement in planning the attack, providing the gun and being in the vehicle where the shooter changed his clothes after the attack, according to the attorney general’s office.

Though the government had floated a connection between them and the shooting, the main dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrilla group on Friday denied responsibility for the assassination attempt on Uribe, though it did accept responsibility for a series of unrelated bombings.

Campaigning for the 2026 election is just beginning for potential candidates who want to succeed leftist president Gustavo Petro, who has vowed to advance peace efforts through negotiations and surrender deals with little success.

Uribe, a married father of one, is a senator for the right-wing Democratic Center party and announced his intention to run in the May 2026 presidential election last October.

Senator Uribe comes from a prominent political family. His grandfather Julio Cesar Turbay was president from 1978 to 1982, and his mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 in a botched rescue attempt after being kidnapped by an armed group led by drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Six killed and hundreds injured in weeks of unrest, as supporters demand former president be allowed to run

Fatal clashes between police and supporters of former presidentEvo Moraleshave deepened Bolivia’s political and economic crisis, heightening tensions in the Andean country just two months before the presidential election.

Six people have been killed and more than 300 injured in weeks of unrest. The dead include four police officers, one of whom was reportedly killed bydynamite which had been strapped to his body.

Demonstrators have blockaded roads across the country since 2 June in response to rulings by the constitutional and electoral courts that barred Morales, 65, from seeking a fourth term in the 17 August election.

On Sunday the protestersannounced a “humanitarian pause”at the blockades, but someremained in place, prolonging a two-week-long disruption in delivering food, medicine, and fuel.

In response to the protests he called, Morales has himself become the target of a new“terrorism” investigation, announced by the government of current president Luis Arce, 61 – who served as finance minister under the former president and is now his main rival.

Moraleshas been entrenchedsince October in the coca-growing region of Chapare, wherehundreds of coca farmersare preventing police and military forces fromexecuting an arrest warrantover allegations that Moralesfathered a child with a 15-year-old girlduring his presidency in 2016.

“Democracy in our country is at risk,”said President Arcefollowing the killing of the four police officers.

Three officers were shot dead by protesters last Wednesday in the mining town of Llallagua, where a 17-year-old student also died, reportedly beaten to death by protesters whoaccused him of being a police informant.

The fourth officer was in a village in the Cochabamba department when, according to the government, he was “kidnapped by a mob” and killed with dynamite strapped to his chest. In the same village, a civilian was shot dead by what the government claims was gunfire from protesters.

“[The officers] were Bolivians who gave their lives at a time when the country is under siege, facing the risk that elections might not be able to take place,”said Arce.

The UN human rights office has called for an“impartial and thorough” investigationinto the deaths.

Morales, who had defended “mobilisation and blockades” as “legitimate expressions of resistance,” later said he is an “enemy of protests” and claimed that“what happened in Llallagua was well staged”to incriminate his supporters.

“It’s crazy for him to say that, because he is the ‘father’ of the blockades: he built his entire political career blocking roads,” said economic analyst Gonzalo Chávez Alvarez, a professor at the Universidad Católica Boliviana.

Morales is barred from running by a constitutional court ruling that reaffirmed the constitution’s two-term presidential limit and by the electoral court, which argued that his party is not officially registered.

Bolivia’s longest-serving leader governed from 2006 to 2019. After about a decade of prosperity driven by a natural gas boom, reserves had dwindled, and an economic crisis began.

In 2019,he sought a fourth term; there was a blackout during the vote count, and when it resumed, it showed him as the winner. The countryerupted in violent protests, and Moralesfled to Mexicoand later to Argentina.

After his protégé Arce won the presidency in 2020, Morales returned, butthe two soon fell out.

Under Arce, the economy has deteriorated, and the country is now facing its worst economic crisis since the hyperinflation of 1985, withinflationand ashortage of US dollars and fuel.

Deeply unpopular, the president reversed his decision to seek re-election and now backs his former interior minister, 36-year-old lawyer Eduardo del Castillo.

Even within the left, he will face competition from the equally young senate president, 36-year-old Andrónico Rodríguez, once seen as Morales’s natural heir due to his Indigenous roots and leadership in the coca growers’ union, but now treated as a traitor by the former president.

On the right, businessman Samuel Doria Medina, 66, and former president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, 65, are polling well, and will try to oust the Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party after nearly two decades in power.

Meanwhile, police and military forces have so far failed to execute the arrest warrant against Morales over the allegation of statutory rape.

Last week, all other presidential candidates except him met in the capital, La Paz. At the end of the meeting, the head of the electoral court, Óscar Hassenteufel, pledged that elections wouldgo ahead “without fail” on 17 August.

“Morales wants to enter the elections at all costs, and he won’t succeed,” said economist Alvarez. “So there’s uncertainty over whether the elections will really happen because it’s hard to say whether Morales will have enough strength to stop them.”

Former president has denied wrongdoing as federal police accuse him of overseeing a spy network targeting rivals

Federal police have formally accused Brazil’s former far-right president,Jair Bolsonaro, of presiding over an illegal spying network which allegedly snooped on political rivals, journalists and environmentalists during his administration.

Bolsonaro is already facing the prospect of jail time over hisalleged role in masterminding a military coup plotdesigned to help him keep power after losing the 2022 election to the leftwing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There is broad consensus among analysts that Bolsonaro’s conviction is a foregone conclusion and the 70-year-old populist is expected to face arrest in the coming months once a supreme court trial concludes.

The latest accusations relate to a two-year federal police investigation into suspicions that a “parallel” intelligence agency was set up during Bolsonaro’s 2019-23 administration in order to monitor those considered government foes.

On Tuesday, police accused Bolsonaro’s alleged former spy chief, Alexandre Ramagem – who ran Brazil’s intelligence agency, Abin, from 2019 to 2022 – of running the clandestine operation and accused more than 30 others of being involved, including the president’s politician son Carlos Bolsonaro.

The news website G1saidinvestigators had concluded that under Bolsonaro members of Abin “formed a criminal organization in order to monitor people and public authorities, invading mobile phones and computers”.

Some of the information gathered was allegedly provided to a covert social media team that operated within the presidential palace and allegedly used illegally collected information as ammunition to launch online attacks.

The targets reportedly included four supreme court ministers and powerful politicians including the former president of Brazil’s lower house, Arthur Lira, and the then governor of São Paulo, João Doria, a prominent rightwing rival to the president.

Journalists and public servants were also reportedly spied on, including Hugo Loss, a respected member of the environmental agency, Ibama, who was on the front line of efforts to protect the Amazon at a time when illegal loggers and miners were emboldened by Bolsonaro’s anti-environment rhetoric and climate denial.

Loss had worked closely with Bruno Pereira, the Indigenous expert and former government employee who wasmurdered in the rainforest regionthree years ago this month with the British journalist Dom Phillips.

The newspaper O Globo said police believed the Bolsonarista spy network was created in order “to make it possible for Bolsonaro to remain in the presidential chair”.

Bolsonaro and Ramagem made no immediate comment on the accusations but have previously denied such charges. Carlos Bolsonaro responded to the allegations on X, suggesting that they were the result of a political grudge against his father’s political movement. “Was anyone in any doubt that Lula’s PF [federal police] would do this to me?” he tweeted.