International

Rosangela da Silva hopes to be a different kind of Brazilian first lady

AFP | Eugenia Logiuratto

Rosangela da Silva, a sociologist and left-wing activist who married Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in May, has promised to give new meaning to being first lady if her husband wins Brazil’s election.

“I am as in love as if I were 20 years old,” the former two-term president has said of his wife, a long-time member of the Workers Party.

He is 76, she 56. This age difference seems to have breathed new life into Lula, a leftist icon in Brazil. He was deeply saddened by the 2017 death of Marisa Leticia, his wife of 30 years, with whom he has four children.

His first wife, Maria de Lourdes, died in 1971.

“When you lose your wife, and you think, well, my life has no more meaning. Then suddenly, this person appears who makes you feel like you want to live again,” Lula told Time magazine in an interview published in May.

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Rosangela da Silva was born in the south of Brazil and earned a sociology degree from the university in Curitiba, capital of Parana state. She worked there for 20 years for Itaipu Binacional, a public utility that runs the Itaipu dam, one of the world’s biggest.

In 1983 she joined the Workers Party, which Lula had co-founded two years earlier.

– A kiss outside prison –

Brazilian press reports say the two have known each other for decades, but Lula’s press people say their romance began only in late 2017 at an event with left-leaning artists.

But the love affair between this smiling woman with long chestnut hair and the aging lion of the Brazilian left became widely known only in May 2019, while Lula was serving a prison sentence on a corruption conviction.

“Lula is in love, and the first thing he wants to do when he gets out of prison is get married,” said one of his lawyers after a visit with Lula.

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In the end, the two wed only this year. It was a discreet ceremony — by Lula’s standards. The 200 guests included celebrities like singer Gilberto Gil, who had served as culture minister under Lula.

While Lula was in prison, “Janja,” as Rosangela is nicknamed, would pen affectionate tweets about him. “All I want to do is hug you and cuddle with you non-stop,” she wrote on his 74th birthday.

In November 2019, shortly after Lula’s release from prison, they shared a kiss before a crowd gathered outside the prison in Curitiba, where Lula had spent 18 months locked up.

While she has been active in Lula’s campaign, on stage and on social media, Rosangela da Silva is very private with her personal life. The magazine Veja says she was previously married for more than 10 years and has no children.

– Campaign song –

“I want to give new meaning to the role of first lady, by focusing on topics that are priorities for women, such as food insecurity or domestic violence,” she said last month.

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Since the Supreme Court vacated Lula’s conviction in early 2021, allowing him to run for president again, Janja has traveled with him often, including to other countries.

She was one of the stars of his campaign kickoff on May 7, playing a new version of the song that was his signature tune during his first presidential campaign in 1989.

And she is helping to organize a campaign event on Monday bringing together celebrities, intellectuals, social activists and top Brazilian musicians.

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International

WHO worker killed as Israeli forces fire on Gaza medical convoy

An employee of the World Health Organization (WHO) was killed on Monday in Gaza Strip after Israeli forces opened fire on a medical convoy transporting patients for evacuation, according to witnesses and official accounts.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the vehicle approached troops in a “threatening manner,” alleging that the driver accelerated toward soldiers despite warning shots. “The troops fired warning shots. The vehicle continued advancing, and additional fire was directed at it,” the military said in a statement.

The army also claimed the vehicle lacked clear markings and was therefore treated as a potential threat.

However, survivors disputed that account. Raed Aslan, a passenger in the convoy, told reporters in Khan Younis that the vehicles were clearly marked with WHO insignia. “The vehicle was clearly identified as belonging to the WHO,” he said, adding that an Israeli tank blocked the road and fired at the driver despite the route being empty.

The convoy was transporting patients to the Rafah crossing, the only exit point available for medical evacuations abroad, as Israel does not permit transfers to Jerusalem or the West Bank.

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The incident adds to a series of controversial cases involving Israeli military actions against humanitarian convoys. In April 2024, seven workers from World Central Kitchen were killed in an Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah. The military initially cited a “misidentification,” despite the vehicles being clearly marked.

Similarly, in March 2025, 15 paramedics, rescuers, and a UN worker were killed near Rafah. Israeli authorities first claimed emergency lights were off, but video evidence later contradicted that assertion.

A subsequent investigation by organizations including Forensic Architecture found that Israeli forces fired hundreds of rounds at the convoy, and that the vehicles were later destroyed and buried along with the bodies before being recovered days later.

The latest incident is likely to intensify scrutiny over the conduct of military operations in Gaza, particularly regarding the safety of humanitarian personnel and medical evacuations.

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International

NASA’s Orion sets record as farthest crewed mission from Earth

NASA’s Orion spacecraft set a new milestone on Monday, becoming the crewed space mission to travel the farthest distance from Earth, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13, which reached 400,171 kilometers from the planet.

The Orion capsule, part of the Artemis II mission, achieved the record at 12:57 p.m. Eastern Time as it continued its journey toward the gravitational sphere of influence of the Moon.

The milestone came less than an hour before the crew was scheduled to begin observation activities during its planned lunar flyby.

“From here, in the ‘Integrity Cabin,’ as we surpass the greatest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth, we do so honoring the extraordinary efforts and achievements of those who came before us in human space exploration,” said Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

The mission, which launched last Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, is designed to orbit the Moon and return to Earth within ten days. According to the schedule, the spacecraft is expected to begin its lunar flyby at 2:45 p.m. ET, concluding around 9:20 p.m.

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International

Petro accuses top guerrilla leader of bribing officers to evade military strikes

Colombian President defends his government's social reforms

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said Saturday that the country’s most wanted guerrilla leader is bribing members of the security forces to obtain advance information and evade military operations.

According to the government, Iván Mordisco, a dissident leader of the now-defunct FARC, is currently on the run in the जंगल following an الجيش bombardment last week that killed six of his closest collaborators in the department of Vaupés.

Authorities believe the guerrilla commander had been at the site shortly before the operation. “He buys off the commanders who are supposed to capture him; that’s how he escapes the bombings, but leaves his own people to die. He is warned before every strike,” Petro wrote on social media platform X.

The six individuals killed in the strike were part of Mordisco’s security ring, according to Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Local media reported that one of those killed was a woman known as “alias Lorena,” who was allegedly Mordisco’s partner and the mother of his child.

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After failed attempts to negotiate peace, Petro’s administration has shifted to a more aggressive military strategy against the guerrilla leader. In recent months, three of Mordisco’s brothers have been captured and now face charges including homicide, kidnapping, and arms trafficking.