Top Section
Explore Business Standard
Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.
Kenya's cost-of-living crisis, to martial law in South Korea. Here's a look at major protests that erupted across the globe in 2024
The follow-up procedure had been discussed by doctors since Tuesday's surgery, and does not represent a worsening of Lula's health situation, according to Kalil
A trove of leaked audio recordings from late 2022 reveal high-ranking members of Brazil's army discussing efforts to pressure then-President Jair Bolsonaro to carry out a coup and remain in power. The 53 audios, obtained by the Federal Police and accessed by The Associated Press on Monday, provide a rare chance to hear military members expressing in their own voices their desire to keep leftist Luiz Incio Lula da Silva from taking office. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the police's sprawling investigation, quoted some of those audios in his ruling last week ordering the arrest of five people for plotting the assassination of then-President-elect Lula in 2022 and then attempting to oust him from power on January 8, 2023, when Bolsonaro supporters destroyed government buildings in capital Brasilia. Audios from one former army officer who was not among those de Moraes ordered arrested last week are particularly supportive of a coup, and weren't referenced in
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday welcomed China's President Xi Jinping for a state visit at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, the latest sign of deepening ties between the two countries that analysts say may accelerate as Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025. China overtook the US as Brazil's biggest export market in 2009. Since then, the links between the two nations have strengthened in trade and investment and on Wednesday the two leaders signed 37 agreements in areas ranging from trade and tourism to agriculture, industry, science and technology, health, energy, culture and education. That reflects a broader trend, experts said. Last week, Xi inaugurated a USD 1.3 billion megaport in Peru, perhaps the clearest sign of Latin America's reorientation. Latin America has always been forgotten by the United States and the European Union. Who fills that void? China, said Flavia Loss, an international relations professor at Foundation School of ...
Brazil's federal police arrested on Tuesday five officers accused of plotting a coup that included plans to overthrow the government following the 2022 elections and kill then-President-elect Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, authorities said. The five also planned to kill Lula's running mate, Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The arrested included four special operations military personnel, one of whom is a retired brigadier general, and a federal police officer. The police said they also carried out three search warrants along with other measures, including seizing the suspects' passports and preventing them from contacting others. It was not clear when charges would be officially raised against the five suspects. "The objective was to prevent the inauguration of the legitimately elected government and undermine the free exercise of democracy and the authority of Brazil's judiciary," de Moraes, who authorised the arrests, said of the plot in his order. "Thes
Brazil's air force said on Tuesday that an aeroplane carrying President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva experienced a technical problem after leaving Mexico City and will return to the country's capital so he can board another flight to return home. The aircraft, an Airbus A319, was still flying over the Mexican capital on Tuesday afternoon, the Brazilian air force said in a statement. The aeroplane had been in the air for two hours, according to plane tracking site FlightAware. The Brazilian air force added that "security procedures for the problem" were performed successfully but pilots must "wait for the necessary fuel consumption so the aeroplane returns to the same airport it took off from". Earlier, Lula attended the inauguration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. He arrived in Mexico on Monday and had a meeting with outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The plane was circling the Felipe Angeles airport, about an hour's drive north of Mexico City. The commercial airp
In Venezuela, protesters took to streets, waving flags and demanding President Nicolas Maduro acknowledge he lost Sunday's election to an opposition that claimed it clinched a landslide victory
Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva unveiled a global alliance against hunger and poverty in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, an initiative he described as one of Brazil's top priorities for its current presidency of the Group of 20 nations. Hunger is not something natural. Hunger is something that requires a political decision, Lula said during a ministerial meeting to establish the global alliance. The leftist leader slammed the perpetuation of hunger across the world despite sufficient production. Lula was seeking to bolster support ahead of the formal establishment of the alliance later this year, when world leaders will gather in Rio de Janeiro for the Nov. 18-19 summit of the leading 20 rich and developing nations. The alliance aims to implement a mechanism to mobilize funds and knowledge to support the expansion of policies and programs to combat inequality and poverty, according to a statement from Brazil's G20 press office on Tuesday. It will be managed from a ...
The decision to hold back on spending comes amid market worries about the government's ability to meet its goal of eliminating the primary deficit.
Given the choice between a far-right convention to bash his enemies and a presidential summit to discuss regional trade policy, Argentine President Javier Milei preferred the stadium packed with cheering fans. The libertarian leader was in Brazil on Sunday, preparing to headline the country's version of CPAC, the conservative political action conference, alongside former President Javier Bolsonaro in Brazil's southern city of Balneario Camboriu. In skipping the Mercosur trade bloc summit in Paraguay and sidling up to Bolsonaro just days after federal police indicted the right-wing populist in a scheme to embezzle Saudi diamonds, Milei delivered another harsh rebuke to Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, escalating a risky feud with his country's biggest trading partner. It was the latest example of Milei's provocative foreign policy, courting the global spotlight through friendships with hard-right allies rather than following diplomatic convention. Bolsonaro on
The meeting takes place after a week of speculation that Prates would be replaced
Tens of thousands of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro rallied in Brazil's biggest city Sunday to defend him against legal challenges that could put him in jail. The far-right leader said in a speech that he seeks "pacification to erase the past, taking a more conciliatory tone than when he was in office. Bolsonaro is seeking to show his base is resilient as he is being investigated by federal police over his alleged role in the January 8, 2023, attacks on government buildings by his supporters over his election loss. He wants the dozens of people still in jail for those incidents to get pardons. Bolsonaro is also accused of illegally receiving jewels from Saudi Arabia during his presidency. Six blocks of Paulista Avenue filled with Bolsonaro supporters, many of them saying that he is being persecuted by Brazil's Supreme Court and that President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva unfairly won his narrow victory in the 2022 election. Some also carried Israeli flags as a show of .
Israel has condemned Brazil's president for comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust, accusing him of being antisemitic and trivializing the Nazi genocide of European Jews during World War II. The outcry further strained relations between the countries, which have deteriorated since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to office last year. Lula has portrayed himself as a leader of the Global South, a loosely defined group of developing countries. Speaking to reporters at the African Union summit in Ethiopia, Lula said that what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn't been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews." Such comments strike a raw nerve in Israel, a country established as a haven for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel rejects any comparisons of its conduct in the war in Gaza to the Holocaust. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula's comments trivialised the Holocaus
Brazil's Congress has everything ready to open an exhibit Monday featuring pieces including a tapestry crafted by renowned artist Burle Marx and a replica of the country's constitution dated 1988. The display is notable not because of the rarity of the objects, but because they are the living memory of one of the grimmest episodes in Brazil's recent history: As unprecedented riots in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro took place on January 8, 2023, in government buildings in the capital Brasilia, the tapestry was damaged and the replica constitution was taken. Many saw the rioting as part of a failed attempt by Bolsonaro to remain in power following his election loss. A year and hundreds of arrests later, Brazil is still recovering. Brazil's society still doesn't know how to handle what happened, there's no consensus, said Creomar de Souza, founder of political risk consultancy Dharma Politics. Brazil's society is now in extreme opposites. And parts of those opposites are in
Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva likes to boast he had a good first year after returning to the job. The economy is improving, Congress passed a long-overdue tax reform bill, rioters who wanted to oust him are now in jail, and his predecessor and foe Jair Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030. Still, the 78-year-old leader has struggled to boost his support among citizens and lawmakers. Some major setbacks, including a series of votes by Congress to override his vetoes, signaled that Lula's future could be less productive in a Brazil almost evenly split between his supporters and Bolsonaro's. Brazil's political polarization is such that it crystallized the opinions of Lula and Bolsonaro voters beyond the economy, said political consultant Thomas Traumann, the author of a recent best-selling book on Brazil's political divisions. These groups are separated by very different world views, the values that form the identity of each group are more important than
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva on Friday shared concerns on the situation in West Asia and expressed deep concern over terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives there. Modi's conversation with Lula da Silva comes amid the Israel-Hamas conflict. Prime Minister Modi received a telephone call from the President of Brazil, a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office said. The two leaders shared concerns on the ongoing developments in West Asia, it said. They expressed deep concern at terrorism, violence and loss of civilian lives and called for concerted efforts for early resolution of the situation, the statement said. Prime Minister Modi conveyed India's full support for the success of Brazilian Presidency of the G20. They also discussed ways to further expand bilateral cooperation in all areas in follow-up to their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi, the statement said. After his telephonic conversatio
-Brazil's President Luiz InAcio Lula da Silva said Wednesday he is sending the armed forces to boost security at some of the country's most important airports, ports and international borders as part of a renewed effort to tackle organized crime in Latin America's largest nation. The decision comes days after members of a criminal gang set fire to dozens of buses in Rio de Janeiro, apparently in retaliation for the police slaying their leader's nephew. We have reached a very serious situation," Lula said at a news conference in Brasilia after signing the decree. So we have made the decision to have the federal government participate actively, with all its potential, to help state governments, and Brazil itself, to get rid of organized crime." Brazil will mobilise 3,600 members of the army, navy and air force to increase patrols and monitor the international airports in Rio and Sao Paulo, as well as two maritime ports in Rio and Sao Paulo's Santos port, the busiest in Latin America -
Brazil is back. That has been Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's refrain for the better part of the last year, with the president deploying the snappy slogan to cast Brazil and himself as a leader of the Global South no longer content to abide the world's outdated workings. Last year, Lula thwarted the reelection bid of the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, who showed little interest in geopolitics or diplomacy during his four years in office. Lula, by contrast, has crisscrossed the globe and visited 21 countries in recent months, from the United States to China, Italy to India, Argentina to Angola. He has sought to boost Brazil's cred with each state visit and speech, one multilateral forum after another. On Tuesday, his address at the UN General Assembly will mark his return to that rostrum for the first time since 2009, the last year of his previous presidency's second term. We will see references to the Brazil is back' narrative, as Brazil seeks to more broadly project itself as a country t
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin's arrest on war crimes charges in March
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly skipped international gatherings, including the G20 Summit in New Delhi, where foreign minister Sergey Lavrov represented Russia