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BRASILIA, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Brazil's government is taking a fresh tack in its effort to crack down on illegal gold mining in the Amazon, preparing legislation that would require electronic tax receipts for the buying and selling of the precious metal, four sources with knowledge of the plans said. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants to end years of environmental backsliding under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, and crack down on illegal mining in the Amazon. The central bank said the goal was to implement "a new inspection system that allows the traceability of the gold extracted, as well as the adoption of electronic invoices." The situation is so bad, Ibram says, that even the central bank does not know if the gold it buys is legal or illegal. The mining lobby has been calling for the adoption of electronic invoices to end the illegal gold trade, Ibram President Raul Jungmann told Reuters.

☆ Bolsonaro Says He Will Return to Brazil in March to Lead Opposition
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Luciana Magalhaes | Samantha Pearson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ORLANDO, Fla.—Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he plans to return to Brazil in March to lead the political opposition to leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and defend himself against accusations he incited attacks by protesters on government buildings last month. “The right-wing movement is not dead and will live on,” Mr. Bolsonaro said in his first interview since leaving Brazil for Florida late last year after a narrow election loss to Mr. da Silva. He said he would work with backers in Congress and state governments to push what he called pro-business policies and to fight abortion, gun control and other policies he says run counter to family values.

☆ Bolsonaro mulls return to Brazil in coming weeks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MEXICO CITY, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said on Saturday he plans to return to Brazil "in the coming weeks," after having spent more than a month in the United States. "There is no place like home ... We know Brazil is a fantastic country," Bolsonaro told a gathering of Brazilians in Boca Raton, a video posted online by broadcaster CNN showed. I intend to return to Brazil in the coming weeks." A swift return to Brazil could pose risks for Bolsonaro, who is accused of instigating a violent election denial movement in his home country. Still, a U.S. official with knowledge of the situation told Reuters this week that officials believe Bolsonaro will return to Brazil after the carnival festival, which ends on Feb 22.

President Biden will meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the White House Friday, a month after supporters of Mr. da Silva’s predecessor ransacked government buildings and demanded the results of the election be overturned. Mr. da Silva, a leftist former president, narrowly won against Jair Bolsonaro , a right-wing populist and ally of former President Donald Trump who has been hunkered down in Florida since late December and has applied for a six-month tourist visa to prolong his stay in the U.S.

☆ Biden and Lula project unity on democratic values and climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Brazil "self-marginalized itself for four years" under the former president, Lula said at the White House, without mentioning Bolsonaro by name. His world, Lula said, had "started and ended with fake news in the morning, afternoon, at night," prompting Biden to laugh and interject, "sounds familiar." Lula said the two leaders could also work together to combat inequality and climate change. Lula's visit to the White House followed a meeting with Senator Bernie Sanders and other lawmakers from Biden's Democratic Party. At the White House, Lula said the Amazon rainforest had been "invaded" under the previous administration, adding that he was committed to reaching zero deforestation by 2030.

☆ Brazil's Lula calls Bolsonaro a Trump 'copycat' in CNN interview
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro looks on during "Power of The People" event hosted by Turning Point USA at Trump National Doral Miami Resort in Doral, Florida, U.S., February 3, 2023. REUTERS/Marco BelloWASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro a "faithful copycat" of Donald Trump and said there was no chance Bolsonaro would return to the presidency. The leftist leader told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Friday that Brazil's judiciary is investigating Bolsonaro for attacks on democracy. But Lula said he hopes the former president will be convicted of genocide by an international court for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that killed 698,000 Brazilians. Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia on Jan. 8, calling for a military coup to oust Lula, in an echo of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol.

☆ Morning Bid: Volatility stirs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

World markets end a rough week of confusing and competing narratives in distinctly edgy form, with peculiarly subdued volatility gauges flickering back to life. Both 10 and 30-year yields hit their highest levels in over a month early on Friday. Job shedding in the digital sector continued, with Yahoo's plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce. That said, the year-on-year oil price trend continues to be negative, as it's been all year and base effects from last year's price spike around the Ukraine invasion will only deepen that and weigh on headline inflation further. Goldman Sachs lowered its oil price forecasts for this year and next, cutting its Brent 2023 price forecast by $6 to $92 per barrel - still above current levels around $86.

☆ Biden to meet Brazil's Lula for talks on climate, democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Andrea Shalal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Days later a violent movement of election-denying Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil’s presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court. Biden and Lula are not expected to agree on the war in Ukraine given Brazil's neutrality. On CNN, Lula defended his decision not to provided German-made artillery ammunition sought for the West's support of Ukrainian defense. Brazil's foreign ministry said support for democracy, human rights and the environment will be at the center of Lula's agenda in Washington. Lula traveled to Washington with Environment Minister Marina Silva, who is expected to meet with Biden's climate envoy John Kerry.

☆ Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon falls in first month under Lula
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoSAO PAULO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon rainforest fell in January from a year earlier, satellite data showed on Friday, in the first monthly figures under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In mid-January, Brazilian environmental agents launched their first anti-logging raids under Lula, who has pledged to end surging destruction under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro. The fresh figures come after Reuters reported exclusively on Thursday that the United States was considering its first contribution to a multilateral fund aimed at fighting Amazon deforestation, with a possible announcement during President Joe Biden's meeting with Lula at the White House on Friday. The Brazilian-administered Amazon Fund, supported mainly by Norway and Germany, was reactivated by Environment Minister Marina Silva the day she took office last month, after being frozen since 2019 under Bolsonaro. The Brazilian government is also fighting wildcat mining on Yanomami land in the Amazon, its largest indigenous reservation, amid a humanitarian crisis blamed on illegal gold miners.

That window has been scrapped, with the ships now authorized to dock between Feb. 26 and March 3, the Brazil's foreign ministry said. A Brazilian military source confirmed that the federal government, via the foreign ministry, had shifted the dates and blocked the Iranian ships from docking. "The Iranian ships could not come during this period." A spokesperson for Brazil's foreign ministry said it was a "wrong assumption" to say Washington had pressured Brazil. Lula recoiled at U.S. sanctions on Iran and has declined to choose sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, saying Brazil is neutral and wants dialogue to reach peace.

☆ Brazil minister denies knowledge of plan to raise inflation target
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

His role involves presenting the government's agenda to Congress and other bodies including the central bank. Brazilian news website Metropoles and Bloomberg cited unidentified sources as saying an early review of the inflation target and an increase were under discussion. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized the 13.75% benchmark interest rate, set by the central bank, as too high. Supporters of this move argue that raising the inflation target would require less monetary tightening and sustain economic activity. Critics said that a higher target could stoke expectations for even greater inflation and hinder the central bank's achieving the new objectives.

☆ Yanomami health crisis in Brazil can only be solved by expelling miners, official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BRASILIA, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The medical emergency the Yanomami people of Brazil are suffering can only be overcome if illegal gold miners that invaded their reservation are evicted, an indigenous health official said on Tuesday. We believe the reopening of medical units can only be done when the miners are all removed," Indigenous Health Secretary Ricardo Weibe Tapeba told a news conference. About 20,000 wildcat miners on the Yanomami reservation in the state of Roraima in northern Brazil have brought malaria and severe food shortages that caused the death of starving Yanomami children, he said. Some 700 patients have been airlifted to the state capital of Boa Vista and are being treated at the CASAI indigenous health center hospital and a field hospital set up there, Weibe added. Their mineral-rich lands attracted wildcat miners for decades, especially after a military government built a road through the Amazon rainforest in the 1970s.

☆ Brazil police conduct new raids as part of probe into Brasilia riots
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAO PAULO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Brazil's federal police on Tuesday carried out fresh raids as part of an investigation into the Jan. 8 insurrection, when supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in Brasilia. Police said in a statement they were serving three temporary detention warrants, one preventive arrest warrant and six search and seizure warrants in the federal district, where Brasilia is located, under Supreme Court orders. The new raids represent the fifth phase of an operation launched last month aimed at identifying people who participated in, funded or fostered the riots, in which a mob invaded and ransacked the Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court. They were protesting against Bolsonaro's defeat by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in an October election and calling for a military coup to oust Lula and restore the far-right leader. Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Steven Grattan, Robert BirselOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Biden Prepares for State of the Union Speech as China Tensions, Job Gains Take Center Stage
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Alex Leary | Ken Thomas | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—President Biden will give the State of the Union address before a newly divided Congress on Tuesday, hoping to build off positive economic signs but facing fresh tensions with China and the lingering war in Ukraine. Following the speech, Mr. Biden will travel on Wednesday to Wisconsin, a 2024 presidential battleground, and tout union jobs during a visit to Madison. On Thursday he is scheduled to visit Florida—the home of two potential 2024 GOP rivals, former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis —to highlight plans to strengthen Social Security and Medicare and reduce healthcare costs, the White House said. On Friday he will discuss his economic agenda with the nation’s governors and meet with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva .

☆ Lula says 'no explanation' for Brazil's current interest rate levels
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday there was "no explanation" for the country's high interest rates, with the benchmark rate at a six-year high, adding that development bank BNDES could help bring down lending costs. Lula, who last week criticised the central bank's formal autonomy and suggested a review of its status, said Brazil's problem was a "culture of high rates" rather than the newfound independence of the central bank. Lula called on business leaders to speak out against current interest rate levels, while dubbing the monetary policy committee's explanation for keeping rates at the current 13.75%, in place since August, "shameful". "There is no justification for the interest rate levels. The committee, known as Copom, said last week it was considering holding interest rates high for longer than markets expect due to fiscal risks under Lula.

☆ Illegal miners in Yanomami reservation seek Brazil government help to leave
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Illegal gold miners blamed for causing a humanitarian crisis on Brazil's largest indigenous reservation are asking authorities to help them leave, one of their leaders and a Brazilian senator said on Monday. In a video he posted on social media, Mesquita asked the government to unblock rivers for 10-15 days for the miners to leave the reservation in the northern state of Roraima. "What matters is that the miners leave peacefully and protected," he said. Some of the miners that are beginning to leave the Yanomami reservation are expected to head across the border into neighboring French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana. Their mineral-rich lands have attracted wildcat miners for decades, especially after a military government built a road through the Amazon rainforest in the 1970s.

☆ Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro addressed right-wing activists at Trump resort in Miami amid calls for him to be ejected from the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro addressed right-wing activists at a Trump resort on Friday. Bolsonaro did not address how long he plans to extend his stay in Florida. Instead of going back, however, the right-wing politician has sought to extend his stay in the United States, to the chagrin of Democrats and others who want him ejected. On Friday, Bolsonaro beamed as supporters cheered him at a campaign-style event organized by Turning Point USA, a youth-oriented conservative activist group, and hosted by the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami. "Liberty is like a great love, we must care for it every day," Bolsonaro said, addressing the crowd through a translator.

☆ Brazilian justice confirms senator told him about election conspiracy meeting with Bolsonaro
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LISBON/SAO PAULO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes confirmed on Friday that Senator Marcos do Val told him about an election conspiracy meeting he allegedly attended with former President Jair Bolsonaro and former lawmaker Daniel Silveira last year. Moraes said during an event held in Lisbon that Do Val approached him to talk about the meeting. The justice said he then asked the senator to testify formalizing the allegations, but Do Val declined to do so. Do Val told reporters on Thursday that Bolsonaro, narrowly defeated by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in an October vote, "sat in silence" while Silveira laid out the plot against Moraes at the meeting. Silveira was arrested by police on Thursday on a warrant issued by Moraes, who accused him of disobeying court rulings.

☆ Brazil's police carry out fresh raids as part of Jan. 8 riots probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Brazil's federal police on Friday carried out fresh raids as part of a probe into the Jan. 8 insurrection, when supporters of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in Brasilia. Police said in a statement they were serving three preventive arrest warrants and 14 search and seizure warrants ordered by the Supreme Court in five states and the federal district, where Brasilia is located. The new efforts represent the fourth phase of an operation launched last month aimed at identifying people who participated in, funded or fostered the riots, in which a mob invaded and ransacked the Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court. The Brasilia demonstrators were protesting Bolsonaro's defeat by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in an October election and calling for a military coup to oust Lula and restore the far-right leader. Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Editing by Steven GrattanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lula's latest attack on Brazil's central bank weighs on markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Marcela Ayres | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Lula resumed an offensive agains the central bank in a Thursday TV interview in which he suggested a review of the institution's formal autonomy by the time bank chief Roberto Campos Neto ends his term in December 2024. Those remarks came a day after the central bank signaled it could hold interest rates at a six-year high for longer than markets expect due to fiscal risks under Lula. Brazil's interest rate futures also rose more than 1% in both short and long maturities. Analysts said Lula's comments were weighing on asset prices, with no truce in sight since the leftist president reiterated that "the interest rate issue" is on the agenda. Vitoria acknowledged Brazil has the highest real interest rate in the world.

☆ Brazil senator says he attended election conspiracy meeting with Bolsonaro
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Ricardo Brito | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BRASILIA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - A Brazilian senator said on Thursday that a close ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro tried to persuade the senator to join a conspiracy to overturn the far-right leader's electoral loss last year. Senator Marcos do Val told a news conference that he had been invited to a meeting on Dec. 9 with then-President Bolsonaro by his associate, former lawmaker Daniel Silveira. At the meeting, Silveira asked the senator to try to get the head of the electoral court to make compromising comments in a taped conversation that could lead to the judge's arrest, Val said. The senator told reporters that Bolsonaro "sat in silence" while Silveira laid out the plot against Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court judge running Brazil's top electoral authority (TSE). Silveira told the former president that Val, a Bolsonaro supporter, could be trusted and asked Bolsonaro to present "the idea that would save Brazil" to him, according to the Veja report.

The sharp contrast with Bolsonaro, who criticized environmental agents, was a relief to some scientists concerned that the retreating Amazon rainforest may be near a point of no return. Ibama's staffing and resources expanded in Lula's 2003-2010 presidency, when he managed to reduce Amazon deforestation by 72%. Rodrigo Agostinho, whom Lula tapped to run Ibama, told Reuters in an interview that the agency now has about 350 active field agents for all of Brazil. That is less than half what it had at the start of Bolsonaro's term and well below the 2,000 field agents at the peak of its powers, he added. Sidelining Ibama, Bolsonaro deployed the military to protect the Amazon, but their inexperience in conservation failed to lower deforestation while running up a massive bill.

☆ Brazil volleyball star faces Olympic complaint after post threatening Lula
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAO PAULO, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The Brazilian Olympic Committee said it had filed a complaint against volleyball player Wallace de Souza after the former Olympic champion wrote a post on social media that appeared to back violence against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. An Instagram follower of the athlete asked him on the social media platform if he would "shoot Lula in the face with a 12 (caliber gun)." He later deleted the post and uploaded a video apologizing, saying he would never suggest violence or hatred towards anyone and calling the post a mistake. Wallace was part of Brazil's gold medal-winning volleyball team in the 2016 Summer Olympics, and a silver medalist in 2012. Earlier in January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters vandalized the Supreme Court, Congress and presidential palace, seeking to provoke chaos and a military coup that would oust Lula and restore Bolsonaro to power.

☆ Brazil readies task force to expel miners from Yanomami lands, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Anthony Boadle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A village of indigenous Yanomami is seen during Brazil's environmental agency operation against illegal gold mining on indigenous land, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in Roraima state, Brazil April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File PhotoBRASILIA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Brazil is preparing a task force of armed forces, police and government agencies to expel illegal gold miners who invaded the Yanomami indigenous reservation, officials said on Tuesday. Defense Minister Jose Mucio said the military is needed to drive out the miners, who are well armed and have helicopters. Wapichana said the task force, as in past offensives against illegal miners, will involve the Federal Police, environmental protection agency Ibama, Funai and several ministries, as well as the military. Wapichana said the government will move against the organized crime and financial groups that supply and fund the illegal mining, and launder the gold.

☆ Brazil's Lula cold-shoulders Germany's Scholz on Ukraine support
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hold a joint news conference at the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil January 30, 2023. It was the third time on his South American tour that Scholz failed to rally strong support for the Ukrainian war effort. "I think Russia made the classic mistake of invading another country's territory, so Russia is wrong," Lula told reporters. Lula said Brazil would not provide ammunition to Ukraine for German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns, as reportedly requested by Germany. Lula said Brazil will work with other countries to help achieve peace in Ukraine, as his country has not taken sides.

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