Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 9 (Reuters) - An unusual statement by Israeli spy agency Mossad saying that it had helped foil a Hezbollah attack in Brazil is the latest incident to strain relations between Israel and Latin America's largest nation against the backdrop of the Gaza war.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio 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.

27 October 2023; MEMO: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva slammed Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip as a “genocide”.

In a meeting held at the Planalto presidential palace in the capital, Brasilia, da Silva said: “What is happening is not a war. It is a genocide that led to the killing of nearly 2,000 children who had nothing to do with this war. They are the victims of this war.”

MANAUS (Brazil), Oct 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Manaus, the largest city in Brazil’s Amazonas state, has for days been engulfed by a toxic cloud of smoke from forest fires lit by what the government labeled “criminals”.

The city of nearly two million people has been forced to cancel some public events including a marathon.

The fires in the Amazon have produced a blanket of grey smoke over the capital of the northern state of Amazonas since Wednesday.

Air quality in the city is among the worst in the world, according to the World Air Quality Index.

BRASILIA, Oct12 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on the international community to intervene to stop the situation of children who are in the line of fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

‘It is necessary that the Hamas movement releases Israeli children who have been kidnapped from their families. Also Israel should cease bombing so that Palestinian children and their mothers leave the Gaza Strip through the border with Egypt,’ Lula wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).

BRASILIA, Oct 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 59 percent in September compared to the same month last year, official data showed, confirming a positive trend that began after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power this year.

However, it hit new highs in the tropical savannah region known as the Cerrado, south of the Amazon, which has been hit by incursions from farming companies.

Sept 21 (Reuters) - A close aide to Jair Bolsonaro told police the former Brazilian president and senior military officers met last year to discuss a military intervention to overturn the result of the election after he lost, newspaper O Globo and news website UOL reported on Thursday.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil is reinstating stronger greenhouse gas commitments it made in 2015 as part of the Paris Agreement that were weakened under former President Jair Bolsonaro.

The announcement was made Thursday by the country’s Committee on Climate Change, a joint body made up of 18 government ministries. “Brazil is a major actor in helping the planet in this challenging moment,” Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said during the committee meeting in Brasilia.

BRASILIA, Sept 14 (NNN-XINHUA) — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva swore in three new ministers Wednesday in the first reform of his cabinet to broaden the government’s allied base.

The new cabinet members, Andre Fufuca (Progressives Party) and Silvio Costa Filho (Republicans Party), assumed the posts of Minister of Sports and Minister of Ports and Airports, respectively.

Sept 11 (Reuters) - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rowed back on Monday from saying Brazil would ignore a war crimes arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, while saying he would review Brazil's membership in the International Criminal Court.

On Saturday, while in India for a Group of 20 nations meeting, Lula told a local interviewer that there was "no way" Putin would be arrested if he attended next year's summit, which is due to be held in Rio de Janeiro.