In 1988, on the eve of Just Cause, the US indicted Noriega for drug smuggling – just as they have w/ Maduro who recently had a $50m bounty put on his head. “So they’ve established a convenient pretext if they choose to pursue a military route”

“It’s so sad to see what’s happening in our communities. It’s terrible what the people who live there are going through … Those who live in war zones will understand this pain, this despair and this revolt.”

“In 30 years working in the favelas this is the greatest act of savagery, the biggest massacre I have seen” Horrifying report from @tomphillips.bsky.social on Rio’s deadliest-ever police raid www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Between 4.15am and 9am, when government body collectors finally arrived, the Guardian witnessed pick up trucks delivering dozens of corpses to a square in Vila Cruzeiro named after Saint Luke the Evangelist. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

"This doesn’t solve the problem,” said Rene Silva, from @vozdascomunidades.com.br “Rio’s crime problem needs to be combated in other places – not just in the favelas" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Not AI

“He’s not Joe Biden,” Lula’s friend and biographer, Fernando Morais, tells me. “He’s someone who has astounding physical energy, not to mention the energy of his soul”

A Venezuela mission would not be the first in Latin America & the Caribbean conducted by the Night Stalkers, whose pilots specialise in infiltrating and exfiltrating special forces troops – called “customers” – from hostile places, nearly always at night.

Keir Starmer will attend Cop30 in Brazil, No 10 confirms

Entrevista do diretor Kleber Mendonça Filho para o The Guardian @kmendoncafilho.bsky.social @theguardian.com VIVA O CINEMA NACIONAL

“I am very proud of what is happening in Brazil,” @kmendoncafilho.bsky.social tells me as his incredible new film The Secret Agent hits the big screen www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

“I just want to know why Donald Trump killing poor people just so,” Joseph’s uncle, known only as “Dollars”, said. “Just because he going after the people gas and their oil. He going after people riches and killing poor people children.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

“Since Milei took office & slashed spending, traffickers are taking advantage of rising needs, according to priests & community leaders. Gang bosses support soup kitchens, run events for children & offer jobs & loans in drive to expand their control of poor areas” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

In Venezuela’s ‘darkest hours’, will peace prize boost opposition or backfire?

“Would receiving the prestigious prize advance Machado’s tenacious campaign to unseat Maduro, or could it backfire and lead to greater repression from the autocrat’s feared security forces?”

“It caught her totally by surprise” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

“The remark went viral and unleashed a torrent of criticism, with many comparing it to Bolsonaro’s callous and incompetent response to Covid, which killed more than 700,000 Brazilians.” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

🤦🏽‍♂️

“Many observers suspect Trump’s counter-narcotics crusade is really a pretext to depose Maduro, either by sparking an internal rebellion against Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian heir or perhaps through direct military intervention within Venezuela itself” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

"I had a great talk with the president of Brazil. He's a good man ... Yeah, we'll start doing business" - Trump on Lula just now 👀

“We exchanged numbers”

No Guardian: "Animais selvagens são apanhados no fogo cruzado do Rio. De macacos-prego a gaviões-pombos, o Instituto Vida Livre trata de uma miríade de animais abatidos numa cidade devastada pela criminalidade com armas de fogo" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

"Not even animals escape the extreme barbarity we’ve been living through" 😥 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

“A final decision has not yet been taken on the prime minister’s attendance at Cop30, which will begin with a leaders’ summit in Belém, on the mouth of the Amazon, led by Brazil’s president, Lula”

'Yu used ancient Chinese water systems to reimagine modern architecture, building systems to help cities conserve and re-use rainwater. "It’s important to make friends with water,” he once said.' www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

👀👀

What a lovely man with a big heart. I miss our conversations about China, from which I always learned so much. RIP.

Trump on Lula: "He seemed like a very nice man, actually ... at least for about 39 seconds we had excellent chemistry - it's a good sign."

“Huge crowds packed the squares and beaches of some of Brazil’s biggest cities to voice their opposition to rightwing endeavors to help Bolsonaro escape jail for his failed power grab”

Even on dry land, clambering into a transatlantic narco-sub is NOT a fun experience www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

Today’s podcast on the downfall of Jair (with the brilliant @helenpidd.bsky.social) www.theguardian.com/world/audio/...

Exclusive: Sadiq Khan has accused Donald Trump of doing more than anyone else to encourage the intolerant far right across the globe as the US president arrives in the UK. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

"ANALYSIS-Brazil's Bolsonaro is going to prison. Here is how he can get out..." explains @reuters.com Dig a tunnel? Climb a wall??

No Guardian: "Ministro brasileiro fala da revogação do visto de sua filha de 10 anos pelos EUA. O pai de Alexandre Padilha fugiu da ditadura para os EUA e agora, a família do ministro da Saúde é alvo das táticas de intimidação de Trump" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

“When Alexandre Padilha’s father most needed help during the dictatorship, the US took him in. So more than 5 decades later, it came as a nasty surprise when Padilha’s 10-year-old daughter became the youngest victim of Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Brazilian authorities.”

Brazil must read of the weekend, by @ceclynch.bsky.social

EXC - Keir Starmer condemns far right racism and violence at yesterday's march Says there will be "no surrender" of British flag to those who promote hate Our story here - www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Rest in Peace, Hermeto Pascoal, you genius. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and your cuddly toys in Curitiba back in the day www.theguardian.com/music/2011/n...

“For nearly 50 years, his fate has remained a mystery, sparking desperate searches, raising suspicions of government complicity, and inspiring international documentaries. Now the mystery has been solved,” writes @harrietbarber.bsky.social

"This [plan] wasn’t printed out in a cave. It wasn’t printed out hidden away in a room of terrorists. It was printed out in the presidential palace." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

"How dangerous is Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's new president?" we asked in the first ever episode of the @guardian podcast Today in Focus back in 2018. Now we know. www.theguardian.com/world/audio/...

Guilty www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

"Brazil nearly went back to being a dictatorship … because a criminal organization made up of a political group led by Jair Bolsonaro doesn’t understand that the alternation of power is a principle of republican democracy​" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

“Johnson later suggested he had been acting as a diplomatic backchannel, but weeks after attending the 45-minute meeting, the Guardian can reveal, Johnson received £240,000 from Petermann.”

Still haven't worked out a good translation for 'núcleo crucial'... ☹️

“He means everything to me. He’s someone who sticks up for Brazil … He’s a good person and a good judge,” said Nascimento, a 37-year-old butcher from the Amazon city of Belém, explaining why he spent six hours and 3,000 reais (£410, $550) to get Alexandre de Moraes’s face tattooed on his shin.’

“He’s the only one who can save us … Trump is our only salvation"

Missing in the Amazon: the frontline – episode six

😬

"It’ll become the cause celebre for every kind of criminal or illegal armed group in the Americas … You’ll end up having people going to Venezuela to fight the Yankees and I think it’ll get messy" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...