Eduardo Cunha the former head of Brazil’s lower house of congress has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for his role in the massive Car Wash corruption scandal.

Cunha’s conviction is one of the stiffest penalties handed down to such a senior politician since the end of the dictatorship era in 1985, but public satisfaction with the judgement will be mixed with concern that he could yet win an appeal and many other powerful figures accused of similar crimes remain unpunished. Curitiba lower court judge Sergio Moro found Cunha – a rightwing evangelical Christian – guilty of corruption, money laundering and currency law evasion in connection with a $1.6m bribe he received from a deal by state-run oil firm Petrobras to buy exploration rights in Benin. The judgement also noted a pending case in Switzerland related to $2.3m stashed in a secret bank account in the European country.(the guardian)…[+]

François Hollande has told Theresa May the EU is not prepared to discuss Britain’s future relationship with the bloc until the conditions of its exit have been agreed. The French president used a phone conversation with the prime minister on Thursday to echo remarks by the European council president, Donald Tusk, and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, that trade and divorce talks could not be held in parallel.

Meanwhile, May published articles in five European newspapers that linked security cooperation with the Brexit talks, reiterating the controversial position taken in her article 50 letter on Wednesday.

According to a statement released by the Elysée Palace, Hollande told May: “First we must begin discussions on the modalities of the withdrawal, especially on the rights of citizens and the obligations arising from the commitments that the United Kingdom has made. “On the basis of progress made, we could then open discussions on the framework of the future relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union,” he said, calling for clear and constructive talks that respected the rules and interests of the EU(the guardian)…[+]

The number of refugees who have fled Syria has topped five million people for the first time since the civil war began six years ago, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

Half of Syria’s 22 million population has been uprooted by a conflict that has now lasted longer than the second world war, the figures released by the UNHCR show, with 6.3 million people who are still inside the country’s borders forced from their homes. It urged Europeans not to “put humanity on a ballot” in elections in France and Germany this year, where far-right candidates opposed to refugee arrivals could make gains.

A surge in violence in Aleppo, as government forces backed by Russian airstrikes retook Syria’s second city at the end of 2016, resulted in 47,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Turkey, it said. Camps for internally displaced people close to the Turkish border also hold those who have fled the fighting in northern Syria.

The latest arrivals into Turkey mean the number of Syrians who have fled the country stands at more than five million, four years after the UNHCR announced that one million people had fled.(the guardian)…[+]