Petrobras Boosts Lula's Economic Agenda With Refining Investment
The group of investments focus on producing renewable fuels and improving energy efficiency. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will travel to Rio on Friday for an official announcement of the projects that could create more than 38,000 jobs, according to the company.
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New York Times
34 minutes ago
- New York Times
An Isolated Iran Looks to BRICS for Allies, Testing a New World Order
Battered by 12 days of war, Iran stands mostly alone and weakened in the Middle East. Yet the Islamic republic has found friends elsewhere in the world. Starting Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Iran will join a two-day meeting of the BRICS group that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and other countries. It will be a chance for Iran, a newcomer to the group, to show it has powerful allies, even as it faces sanctions and threats of more military strikes over its nuclear program. After Israel and the United States launched military strikes on Iran last month, the BRICS group issued a statement expressing 'grave concern' and calling the attacks a breach of international law and the United Nations Charter. Still the alliance, whose members represent more than half of the world's population, stopped short of outright criticizing Israel or the United States. Behind the scenes, divisions over how harshly BRICS should condemn the strikes have tested the alliance's ambitions to rebalance global power dynamics by offering a counterweight to the West. 'There is no alignment whatsoever on Iran,' said Oliver Stuenkel, an expert on BRICS and an associate professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian university. 'So the solution was this very inoffensive position.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Brazil's Lula hints at 2026 re-election bid
DUQUE DE CAXIAS, Brazil (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suggested on Friday that he will stand for re-election in 2026, but stopped short of making a formal announcement. "Get ready. If everything goes the way I am thinking, this country will, for the first time, have a president elected four times by the Brazilian people," Lula told an event in Rio de Janeiro. The 79-year-old leftist leader was elected in 2022 for his third non-consecutive term, having previously served as president between 2003 and 2010. His remarks come as he faces a popularity crisis, with his approval ratings hovering around historic lows amid high inflation in Latin America's largest economy, and tensions with Congress, where he lacks a solid coalition. Lula is Brazil's oldest sitting president ever and has had some health scares, including a pair of emergency surgeries last year to treat and prevent bleeding in his head.
News24
16 hours ago
- News24
Rio to host BRICS summit wary of Trump
Ricardo Stuckert/Brazilian Presidency/AFP The BRICS nations will convene for a summit in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday and Monday, with members hoping to weigh in on global crises while tiptoeing around US President Donald Trump's policies. The city, with beefed-up security, will play host to leaders and diplomats from 11 emerging economies including China, India, Russia, South Africa and host Brazil, which represent nearly half of the world's population and 40% of its GDP. Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have to navigate the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will miss the summit for the first time. Beijing will instead be represented by Premier Li Qiang. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is facing a pending International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, will not travel to Brazil, but is set to participate via video link, according to the Kremlin. Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, fresh from a 12-day conflict with Israel and a skirmish with the United States, will also be absent, as will his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a Brazilian government source told AFP. Tensions in the Middle East, including Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, will weigh on the summit, as well as the grim anticipation of tariffs threatened by Trump and due next week. Trump said that starting Friday, his administration would send countries letters stating their tariff levels, as negotiations to avoid higher US levies enter the final stretch. 'Cautious' 'We're anticipating a summit with a cautious tone: it will be difficult to mention the United States by name in the final declaration,' Marta Fernandez, director of the BRICS Policy Centre at Rio's Pontifical Catholic University, told AFP. China, for example, 'is trying to adopt a restrained position on the Middle East,' Fernandez said, pointing out that Beijing was also in tricky tariff negotiations with Washington. 'This doesn't seem to be the right time to provoke further friction' between the world's two leading economies, the researcher said. BRICS members did not issue a strong statement on the Iran-Israel conflict and subsequent US military strikes due to their 'diverging' interests, according to Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. Brazil, nevertheless, hopes that countries can take a common stand at the summit, including on the most sensitive issues. Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told AFP: BRICS (countries), throughout their history, have managed to speak with one voice on major international issues, and there's no reason why that shouldn't be the case this time on the subject of the Middle East. Lula, on Friday, again defended the idea of finding an alternative to the dollar for trade among BRICS nations. 'I know it is complicated. There are political problems,' Lula said at a BRICS banking event. 'But if we do not find a new formula, we are going to finish the 21st century the way we started the 20th.' 'Multilateralism' However, talks on this idea are likely dead in the water. For Fernandez, it is almost 'forbidden' to mention the idea within the group since Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on countries that challenge the dollar's international dominance. Brazil, which will host the COP30 UN climate conference later this year, also hopes to find unity in the fight against climate change. Artificial intelligence and global governance reform will also be on the menu. 'The escalation of the Middle East conflict reinforces the urgency of the debate on the need to reform global governance and strengthen multilateralism,' said Foreign Minister Vieira. Since 2023, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Iran and Indonesia have joined BRICS, formed in 2009 as a counter-balance to leading Western economies. But, as Fernandez points out, this expansion 'makes it all the more difficult to build a strong consensus.'
