International
Lula visits Shanghai on first stop of China trip
April 13 |
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was visiting the financial hub of Shanghai, China, on Thursday, on a trip to strengthen ties with the South American giant’s largest trading partner and rally political support for his efforts to mediate the conflict in Ukraine.
Lula arrived in China on Wednesday night and is scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Friday before concluding his visit on Saturday.
The Brazilian government said the two sides were expected to sign at least 20 bilateral agreements during Lula’s trip, a reflection of improving relations after a bumpy period under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula would also attend in Shanghai the official ceremony in which his close advisor and former Brazilian President Dilma Roussef will be sworn in as head of the New Development Bank, a Chinese-backed institution.
The organization is presented as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, controlled mainly by the United States and its Western allies. The bank focuses on the group of developing countries known as BRICS, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The institution, established more than seven years ago, has approved 99 loan projects worth more than $34 billion, mainly for infrastructure projects, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Much of that credit has gone to Brazil for projects such as a subway system in the country’s financial capital, Sao Paulo.
During his meeting with Xi, Lula is expected to discuss trade, investment, reindustrialization, energy transition, climate change and peace agreements, according to the Brazilian government.
China is Brazil’s largest export market, buying tens of billions of dollars worth of soybeans, beef, iron ore, poultry, pulp, sugar cane, cotton and oil every year.
Brazil is the largest recipient of Chinese investment in Latin America, according to Chinese state media, although Lula has taken a position against Chinese organizations buying Brazilian companies.
One of the agreements Lula will sign in China will be for the production of the sixth satellite built in a bi-national program, a device that will monitor biomes such as the Amazon rainforest.
Beijing recently lifted restrictions on Brazilian beef, imposed in February after the discovery of an unusual case of mad cow disease.
Politically, the visit by leftist Lula symbolizes Brazil’s return to international relations after succeeding Bolsonaro in January.
The often brusque conservative populist leader and members of his family provoked tensions with Chinese authorities on several occasions by talking about the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic or telecommunications firm Huawei. Bolsonaro admired conservative nationalists and showed little interest in international affairs or traveling abroad.
Lula, who will visit a Huawei research center in Shanghai on Thursday, traveled to Argentina and Uruguay in January and the United States in February, a sign of the importance he places on international affairs, experts say. He toured the world during his first presidency, especially in his second term, when he passed through dozens of countries, and has been to China on two previous occasions.
A key piece of Lula’s strategy abroad is his proposal that Brazil and other developing countries, including China, mediate to achieve peace in Ukraine. However, his proposal that Ukraine give up Crimea to facilitate peace has upset Kiev and its staunchest supporters.
China has also tried to play a role in ending the conflict, albeit in a very close way to Moscow. It has refused to condemn the invasion, criticized economic sanctions on Russia and accused the United States and NATO of provoking the conflict.
International
Pope Francis meets former Gaza hostages
Pope Francis met on Thursday at the Vatican with 16 Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza for months by the Islamist group Hamas, according to the official Vatican news website.
The group consisted of ten women, four men, and two children, as reported by the same source. Several of the former hostages showed the Argentine pontiff banners or photos of their loved ones who remain in captivity.
Francis had previously met with the families of hostages in April this year and November 2023, but this was the first time he had met with individuals who had personally endured captivity.
Since the conflict between Israel and Hamas began, the pope has repeatedly called for the immediate release of Israeli hostages, while also condemning the suffering of the Palestinian population.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Islamist militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,206 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages who died in captivity.
Of the kidnapped, 97 are still being held in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that 34 of them have died.
The military offensive launched by Israel in response has killed at least 43,736 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health in the Hamas-governed territory.
International
Israeli airstrikes on Damascus kill 15 and injure 16, including women and children
Israeli forces carried out airstrikes on residential buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and its surroundings on Thursday, resulting in at least 15 deaths and 16 injuries, according to Syria’s Ministry of Defense and state television.
The ministry stated that around 3:20 p.m. local time (12:20 GMT), the Israeli military launched an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights, targeting several residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood in western Damascus and the Qudsaya suburb to the northwest of the capital.
The airstrikes “resulted in the death of 15 people and injuries to 16 others, including women and children,” based on initial estimates, in addition to significant damage to private property and civilian buildings, the ministry added.
Meanwhile, state television reported Israeli airstrikes on three buildings in Mazzeh and another on a building in an educational complex located in a residential area of Qudsaya.
Following the strikes, loud explosions were heard throughout the city, and thick plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the targeted locations. Ambulances and emergency services rushed to the scene to attend to the victims.
International
Drug trafficker dies after boat collision with Guardia Civil Vessel in Sanlúca
Three people were on the boat that collided with a Guardia Civil vessel around midnight at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, near the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a spokesperson for the Civil Guard reported.
Two officers sustained “contusions,” the spokesperson explained.
The drug traffickers managed to bring the boat to shore, where one of them was “abandoned” severely injured. The other two fled.
The Civil Guard officers attempted to resuscitate the victim before transporting him to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, but he ultimately died early in the morning.
The other two suspects took advantage of the officers’ absence while they were taking the victim and returned to set their boat on fire.
The collision occurred very close to the site of another accident on September 1, where a drug trafficker died following a Guardia Civil pursuit.
The suspects’ boat traveled “400 meters” before crashing head-on and “at full speed” into the riverbank, where a hundred bundles of hashish were found.
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