Lula and Modi Take Center Stage as BRICS Begins With Xi Absent
Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, hosting the two-day meeting of BRICS countries, took center stage, flanked by South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa and India's Narendra Modi on either side. Other representatives from the newly-expanded bloc fanned out from there, with the most controversial international attendees — the foreign ministers of Russia and Iran — on either flank.
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Trump urges Brazil to spare its former president over attempted coup
President Donald Trump is coming to the defense of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro as he faces a trial for his role in trying to overturn the results of his country's 2022 election. Bolsonaro is accused of participating in a plot to prevent the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the presidency of the largest nation in South America, an attempt that echoed Trump's own earlier efforts to stay in office despite losing an election. 'Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro,' Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. 'I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year! He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE.' Trump enjoyed a warm relationship with the former Brazilian president when both were in office, and Bolsonaro endorsed Trump in the 2020 election. The two met at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, and their administrations negotiated a trade agreement. 'I have gotten to know Jair Bolsonaro, and he was a strong Leader, who truly loved his Country,' Trump wrote. Trump in his social media post linked Bolsonaro's legal difficulties to his own stemming from the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Bolsonaro has also claimed he is a victim of political persecution. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison. 'This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent — Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10, and now our Country is the 'HOTTEST' in the World! The Great People of Brazil will not stand for what they are doing to their former President,' Trump wrote.
