Tag Archives: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Brazilian Judge Orders Total Suspension of Elon Musk’s X Social Network

“Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary,” said Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 8-30-2024 by Common Dreams

*Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Photo: TSE – Tribunal Superior Eleitoral/flickr/Public domain*

Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Friday ordered the nationwide suspension of Elon Musk’s X social media platform in response to the billionaire’s failure to comply with the judge’s directive to appoint a legal representative in the South American country.

Moraes ordered the “immediate, complete, and total suspension of X’s operations” in the nation of 215 million people, “until the court’s judicial decisions are complied with and the fines applied are paid” and “until a representative of the company in the country is appointed.”

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G20 Nations Take ‘Important Step’ Toward Fair Taxation of Ultra-Rich

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“Our proposal for a common minimum tax on billionaires is now on the map. G20 finance ministers have started to engage with it—and there is no going back,” said progressive economist Gabriel Zucman.

By Julia Conley. Published 7-26-2024 by Common Dreams

Despite pushback from the United States delegation, finance ministers at a meeting of the G20 countries in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday agreed on the need to develop a global taxation system in which the richest in the world are taxed at a higher rate—potentially unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars annually to help close the international wealth gap.

Ahead of the G20 Summit scheduled for November, which Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government will host, the finance officials met this week to discuss economic issues and ultimately agreed to start a “dialogue on fair and progressive taxation, including of ultra-high-net-worth individuals.”

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Led by Left Coalition, French Election Shows ‘How You Defeat the Far Right’

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France’s left-of-center parties held off a far-right advance in the country’s parliamentary elections by building a progressive platform and forming strategic alliances, their supporters say.

By Edward Carver. Published 7-8-2024 by Common Dreams

*Supporters of La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) part of The Nouveau Front Populaire coalition, celebrate the election results. Screenshot: CNN*

Political figures from across the world congratulated France’s left-of-center coalition following parliamentary elections on Sunday in which it gained the most seats of any group, outperforming the far-right party that many feared would take control of the National Assembly, in what The Washington Post called “one of the greatest political upsets in recent French history.”

In the second and final round of voting, the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) won roughly 180 out of the 577 seats in the assembly, far from a majority but more than President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition, which won about 160, or Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN), which won about 140 or 145.

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Brazilian rape victims who have abortions may face longer in jail than rapists

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Proposed law would further limit access to abortion for the 75% of reported rape victims in Brazil who are under 18

By Diana Cariboni. Published 6-20-2024 by openDemocracy

*Demonstrators gathered in front of Brazil’s National Congress in Brasilia on Wednesday to protest a bill that would further criminalise abortions. Screenshot: Euronews*

Abortion is illegal in Brazil with only three exceptions: risk to the life of the pregnant person, fetus anencephaly (a condition in which parts of the fetus’ skull and brain don’t develop) and rape. In these cases, people can seek an abortion with no time limits.

But a new bill that Brazilian conservatives are attempting to push through seeks to declare all abortions performed after week 22 of the pregnancy as homicide – and punishable with prison terms of up to 20 years.

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War for Oil Fears Grow as US Holds Military Drills in Guyana Amid Venezuela Dispute

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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offered to help forge a diplomatic solution, saying, “If there’s one thing we don’t want here in South America, it’s war.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 12-8-2023 by Common Dreams

*Satellite map showing the Region of Guayana Esequiba that is disputed between Venezuela and Guyana. Image: SurinameCentral/Wikimedia Commons/CC*

U.S. forces held joint military drills within Guyanese airspace on Thursday as a longstanding and intensifying territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana sparked fears of war in South America.

At the center of the dispute is Essequibo, an oil-rich region that Guyana has controlled for more than a century. Venezuela has claimed sovereignty over Essequibo for decades, and the two nations agreed in 1966 to resolve the controversy in a way that’s “satisfactory” for both sides.

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Brazil Inquiry Calls Bolsonaro ‘Author’ of Attempted Coup, Recommends Indictments

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The congressional probe’s rapporteur said the former far-right president and his supporters are culpable for the “greatest attack on democracy in our recent history.”

By Brett Wilkins. Published 10-18-2023 by Common Dreams

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, seen here at the U.N. General Assembly’s 74th session on Sept. 24, 2019, said Wednesday that the fires and deforestation in his country aren’t coming to an end. (Photo: Cia Pak/U.N.)

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was the “intellectual and moral author of a coup movement” that culminated in the January 8, 2023 attacks on government buildings, and he and scores of his supporters should be criminally indicted for their “willful coup attempt,” an inquiry by Brazil’s Congress concluded Tuesday.

The final report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Investigation (CPMI) into the attempted coup was presented Tuesday by Sen. Eliziane Gama, a member of the Social Democratic Party from the northeastern state of Maranhão and special rapporteur for the probe. Gama said the evidence indicates Bolsonao and many of his far-right supporters should be indicted for criminal association, political violence, violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, and coup d’état.

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‘Historic Day’ as Brazilian Court Hits Bolsonaro With 8-Year Political Ban Over Election Lies

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“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it,” said one political scientist.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 6-30-2023 by Common Dreams

Jair Bolsonaro, speaking during the Session: “Special Address by Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil“ at the Annual Meeting 2019 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 22, 2018. Photo: World Economic Forum/Flickr/CC

Brazil’s highest election authority on Friday barred Jair Bolsonaro from running for any public office for the next eight years over the disgraced former far-right president’s abuse of power related to baseless claims of electoral fraud—the first of 16 election-related charges he faces.

Five members of the seven-judge Superior Electoral Court (TSE) found that Bolsonaro violated election law last July when he summoned more than 100 international diplomats for a nationally televised 50-minute presentation in the Palacio da Alvarada—the executive residence—during which he disparaged the judiciary and claimed the country’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to hacking.

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Brazil’s Indigenous peoples survived Bolsonaro. Now Lula has won, what next?

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Bolsonaro’s genocidal policies devastated Indigenous communities. After four years of trauma, they can breathe again

By Sarah Shenker. Published 2-3-2023 by openDemocracy.

Indigenous women in Brazil have led protests during Bolsonaro’s rule.. Photo: Survival International

The news broke on 28 October 2018. Through the crackle and hiss of the radio, we made out one sentence: “Jair Bolsonaro has been elected president of Brazil.”

It was a long way from Brasília to Maçaranduba, an Indigenous community in the Amazon rainforest, but the significance of the news was clear. Some of our Awá and Tenetehar friends paced up and down, others held their heads in their hands. One let out a visceral scream, before reaching for a bottle of sugarcane spirit. Continue reading →

Bolsonaro Requests Six-Month US Tourist Visa to Prolong Florida Trip as Brazilian Probes Mount

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Brazil’s far-right ex-president has applied for a visa to remain in the U.S. amid worsening legal troubles in his home country, where he is facing multiple investigations.

By Kenny Stancil. Published 1-30-2023 by Common Dreams

Jair and Michelle Bolsonaro in Jacksonville, FL, 2020 Photo: Alan Santos/PR/flickr/CC

Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro has applied for a six-month visitor visa to remain in the United States amid worsening legal troubles in his home country.

U.S. authorities received Bolsonaro’s application on Friday, The Financial Times reported Monday, citing “his lawyer, Felipe Alexandre, who has advised the former president not to leave the country while it is being processed—a period that could last several months.”

Bolsonaro is facing multiple investigations in Brazil. That includes longstanding probes into alleged wrongdoing committed during his four-year presidential term as well as the Brazilian Supreme Court’s recently launched inquiry aimed at determining whether his incessant lies about electoral fraud are to blame for the coup attempt that his supporters launched in Brasília on January 8. Continue reading →

Nobody loved you, 2022

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From devastating floods in Pakistan to Italy’s far-right PM to overturning Roe v Wade, this was a year of extremes

By Adam Ramsay Published 12-30-2022 by openDemocracy

A flooded village in Matiari, in the Sindh province of Pakistan. Photo: Asad Zaidi/UNICEF

How do you turn 365 days experienced by eight billion people – and billions more other beings – into some kind of story?

Maybe you start with some events?

In which case, 2022 was the year that Covid vaccines kicked in. Daily global deaths hit 77,000 on 7 February, and have declined fairly steadily ever since. It was the year Russia invaded Ukraine, the first war between major European powers since 1945. Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

War for Oil Fears Grow as US Holds Military Drills in Guyana Amid Venezuela Dispute

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva offered to help forge a diplomatic solution, saying, “If there’s one thing we don’t want here in South America, it’s war.”