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Petrobras notches $5.9 bn profit in Q3

AFP

Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras reported a hefty net profit of $5.9 billion for the third quarter Thursday, beating analysts’ expectations as oil prices continued to climb.

It was the fourth straight quarterly profit for the company, up from a loss of $236 million for the same period in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic had sent crude prices crashing.

Since then, Petrobras has rebounded on the back of soaring prices — so much so that far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said earlier on Thursday it was making too much profit.

“Petrobras needs to be a company that doesn’t post excessively high profits, as it has been doing,” he said in his weekly live address on social media.

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“It has to play a social role, in the good sense of the term.”

Bolsonaro made the remarks just before the company announced its profit for the July-September period, which followed a profit of $8.1 billion for April-June.

Petrobras said the boost had come largely from the rebound of Brent crude prices to an average of $73.47 a barrel in the third quarter, up 70.9 percent in a year.

The company has largely passed that increase on to customers at the pump, drawing the ire of consumers — and Bolsonaro — as fuel prices soar.

The president had also criticized Petrobras on Wednesday, saying, “It’s a state-run company that, with all due respect, is just giving me headaches.”

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He said he was looking at putting the company “on the radar” to be privatized as part of his government’s massive sell-off of state-run firms.

Bolsonaro has not shied away from shaking things up at Petrobras in the past.

In February, he appointed army reserve general Joaquim Silva e Luna as chief executive of Petrobras, replacing respected CEO Roberto Castello Branco shortly after saying the firm should not be constantly “surprising people” with price increases.

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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