• Sincere dialogue needed to ease Cuba’s ‘grave humanitarian crisis’, say Mexico, Spain and Brazil

    In joint statement, the three countries call for lasting solution to crisis, without explicitly mentioning the US and its oil blockade Mexico, Spain and Brazil have voiced concern about the “dramatic situation” in Cuba, which has faced months of pressure from US president Donald Trump, with the trio urging “sincere and respectful dialogue”.Without explicitly mentioning the US, the three leftist-led countries expressed on Saturday “deep concern regarding the grave hu
  • Swindled British tourist pays £1,500 for kebab on Rio beach

    Scammer arrested after manipulating payment terminal to overcharge 1,000-fold in latest in spate of seaside consA scammer has been arrested in Rio de Janeiro for selling a kebab to an unsuspecting British tourist for nearly £1,500 – the latest in a spate of brazen beachside swindles.The man was detained on Tuesday on Copacabana beach, just over the road from two of the region’s top hotels. He and an accomplice allegedly manipulated a payment terminal to dramatically overcharge
  • ‘We took clothes, a blanket and a dog’: the people displaced by a dam 50 years ago, but still fighting for justice

    The Avá-Guarani community have received little recognition of the destruction of their land by the Itaipu dam on the Paraguay-Brazil borderWhen the Indigenous leader Teodoro Alves was a young child in his community of Ocoy-Jacutinga, on the border between Paraguay and Brazil, a river ran through it. The Paraná River, which rises in Brazil and flows south through Paraguay to the Río de la Plata between Argentina and Uruguay, once structured the lives of Avá-Guarani peo
  • Tax Day is a reminder of America’s unequal tax system. But we can fix it | Zohran Mamdani, Gabriel Zucman and Joseph Stiglitz

    There is no justification for a regressive system in which the super-rich contribute less than the rest of usToday, we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. New York City’s average household income is $131,000. Without extreme inequality, residents could live reasonably well. Instead, a few people at the top of the income ladder capture enormous wealth, while millions of others struggle just to get by. Some simply can’t make it. For them, New York has become fundam
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  • The Blue Trail review – hypnotic tale of older-people rebellion in the Amazon in chilling dystopian fable

    A cross between road movie and sci-fi, this is a subversive and bittersweet story about a 77-year-old who refuses to be shipped off to a ‘colony’Gabriel Mascaro’s wayward, intriguing feature is a kind of road movie, or maybe river movie – the Amazon, in fact, in Brazil’s remote north-west. It is a film that follows its nose, meandering across land and water, wonderfully shot with fascinating visual compositions. There are occasional weird resemblances to Fitzcarrald
  • Brazil’s former spy chief who fled country arrested by ICE agents in US

    Alexandre Ramagem fled country after he was sentenced to 16 years for his role in plotting military coup in BrazilWhen Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for an attempted coup, six other members of his cabinet were also found guilty and all began serving their sentences – except for one.Days before the verdict, Alexandre Ramagem, Bolsonaro’s former spy chief, fled by car to Guyana and boarded a flight to the United States, where
  • Jorginho calls Chappell Roan security incident a ‘misunderstanding’

    Flamengo footballer previously accused pop star’s security of aggressive behavior to his 11-year-old stepdaughterThe Chappell Roan security incident raises a bigger question: what do celebrities owe their fans?The Flamengo footballer Jorginho has clarified his comments on last month’s incident between his 11-year-old stepdaughter and a security guard in Brazil, calling his previous claims against Chappell Roan “a misunderstanding”.“I made my initial statement in the
  • Brazil’s Lula, 80, livestreams workouts before election against rival half his age

    President contrasts his health with challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, who fainted during a TV debateThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is seeking to lunge and leg press his way to a historic fourth term, as the octogenarian politician uses a flurry of workout videos to convince voters he is fighting fit ahead of October’s crunch election.Lula looks set to face off against a senator almost half his age in what will be the leftist’s seventh presidential campai
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  • ‘A dream come true’: Brazil’s blue-and-yellow macaws return to Rio after 200 years

    An ambitious ‘refaunation’ project is bringing the much-loved birds and other lost species back to the city’s national parkImages of the iconic blue-and-yellow macaw can be spotted all over Rio de Janeiro. Yet the real thing has been seen so rarely in the Brazilian city that some wondered if it ever really existed there at all.The French explorer Jean de Léry first described an abundance of the giant, colourful parrots around Indigenous tribes in the 16th century, and th
  • Massive blaze tears through Rio's Olympic velodrome – video

    A huge fire ripped through the roof of the velodrome in Rio de Janeiro's Olympic Park, built for the 2016 Olympics, on Wednesday. Officials confirmed that the blaze had been brought under control, with no risk of it spreading to other parts of the complex and no injuries reported Continue reading...
  • ‘If they pollute our rivers, what will become of us?’: the town divided between hope and fear in Brazil’s Amazon oil rush

    As a state-controlled company explores for oil in the fragile Equatorial Margin the government struggles to balance its ecological promises with fossil fuel expansion. In Oiapoque, the stakes could not be higherCovering a densely forested area larger than Wales, the municipality and city of Oiapoque, in the state of Amapá, is an isolated yet renowned part of Brazil, thanks to a popular national saying. “From Oiapoque to Chuí” highlights the country’s northernmost
  • ‘It’s not just Flávio’: is surname-dropping son downplaying Bolsonaro connection?

    Many Brazilians believe there is a ploy to free the younger Bolsonaro from baggage of his father’s name to return the family to powerHe possesses one of the most famous family names in Latin American politics. But when the Brazilian senator took to the stage at a conservative conference in Grapevine, Texas, last weekend it was only his forename that was on people’s lips.“Flávio! Flávio! Flávio!” the audience shouted as the 44-year-old politician annou
  • ‘It’s the year of gay Brazilian cruising!’ The makers of Night Stage on public sex and their ‘deranged erotic thriller’

    Writer-directors Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher talk about the ‘assimilation myth’, why Wim Wenders is wrong and how they’re developing queer western and horror moviesYou wait for ever for a visually electrifying Brazilian film featuring scenes in a gay cruising ground, then two come along at once. First, the Oscar-nominated The Secret Agent showed nocturnal trysts in Recife being violently interrupted by a rampaging disembodied leg. Now hedonists in the queer thriller N
  • ‘The US is no longer the go-to place’: How Korean culture is taking Latin America by storm

    Everything Korean – from K-pop and skincare to food and clothing – is booming in popularity in Chile, Mexico and BrazilOn the polished flagstones of a Santiago cultural centre’s forecourt, four Chilean girls dance in energetic union, counting their steps aloud in Korean.In front of them, a YouTube video with 1.3bn views plays atop a speaker throbbing to the beat of How You Like That, by the K-pop megastars Blackpink. Continue reading...
  • Night Stage review – public sex enthusiasm the key to extravagant and subversive erotic thriller

    In this fantasy drama from Brazil, a gay actor and a closeted politician discover a mutual passion for the same fetishHere is an erotic thriller from Brazil that finally suspends realism and plausibility to keep its eroticism in play right up to the startling final moments; there is an unexpected strain of the bizarre and soap-operatic.Matias (Gabriel Faryas) is a handsome young actor in a stage company specialising in dance and physical theatre. Jealous of his friend and fellow cast member, Fab
  • The security council has allowed unchecked power and brutality. To protect peace, we must reform the UN | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

    A world without rules is an insecure world. It’s time for multilateralism that truly reflects the global orderEvery violation of international law invites the next. From Afghanistan to Iran, and across Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, Gaza and Venezuela, the line between what is permitted and what is prohibited has been steadily blurred by the complicit inaction of the UN security council. Wielding the veto as both a shield and a weapon, its permanent members too often act without grounding in
  • Dodging the ‘wrinkle wagon’: why a Brazilian film about ageing is inspiring older women

    The Blue Trail, about a rebellious 77-year old woman who escapes forced exile for elderly people, has struck a nerve in a country where ageism is widespreadWhen 80-year-old Gilda Olinto was given a prize at work recently, she felt as if she was being told “nothing more is expected of you”. It reminded her of The Blue Trail (O Último Azul in Portuguese), a film set in a near-future Brazil where an authoritarian government honours elderly people with golden laurels before stripp
  • How weaving, glamping and kayak tours are helping to tackle deforestation in Argentina’s Gran Chaco

    Small farmers and community-led conservation groups are trying to protect one of the biggest semi-arid forests in the world – under threat from expanding agriculture, wildfires and the ‘logging mafia’Jorge Luna stands in a piece of Argentina’s Gran Chaco forest that he calls his own. Birds sing as he surveys skyscraping molle trees, known as pepper trees, palo santo and algarrobo, or carob trees. “It’s good wood,” says Luna, 55. “I was about to cut
  • Jailed Bolsonaro granted ‘humanitarian house arrest’ amid failing health

    Former Brazil president, serving 27 years over attempted coup, given initial 90-day period that could be extendedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been granted permission to serve his 27-year sentence for a coup attempt at home instead of in prison because of his failing health.The decision by supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes followed Bolsonaro’s hospitalization since 13 March for pneumon
  • ‘Sport gave me new dreams’: the emergence of Brazil women’s blind team

    Only existing since 2024, the team, who came fourth at the world championship, has changed its players’ lives“We are the first, but we will not be the last.” The rallying cry came from Eliane Gonçalves, a 39-year-old midfielder of the Brazilian women’s blind football national team during one of their training camps. The team’s psychologist had suggested the team come up with something to shout before matches. Gonçalves offered that line – and it
  • Brazilian influencer who defended US immigration crackdown arrested by ICE

    Trump supporter Júnior Pena falsely claimed migrants being rounded up, including Brazilians, were ‘all crooks’A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey.Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands of social media foll
  • ‘Pure apocalypse’: a photographer’s journey through the Pantanal wildfires

    Ahead of a major exhibition in London documenting the South American wetland as it faces unprecedented threat, Lalo de Almeida recounts the stories behind his award-winning images Lalo de Almeida is a documentary photographer based in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2021 his photo essay Pantanal Ablaze was awarded first place in the environment stories category at the World Press Photo contest. In 2022, he won the Eugene Smith grant in humanistic photography and World Press Photo’s long-term
  • Why a T-shirt in a hit movie is trending with Brazilian progressives: ‘Almost every day they sell out’

    Even Brazil’spresident, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has received one, after Wagner Moura wore it in The Secret AgentIt is glimpsed in just a few scenes in The Secret Agent, the Brazilian film nominated for four Oscars and two Baftas, but that has been enough exposure for a vintage yellow T-shirt to become the latest object of desire among Brazilian progressives.The garment, worn on screen by Wagner Moura, was first produced in 1978 by Pitombeira dos Quatro Cantos, a carnival group in
  • UK supermarkets push for Amazon soy safeguards after traders abandon ban

    European retailers urge traders to adhere to commitments after Brazilian lawmakers wreck forest protection pactLeading British and European retailers are trying to salvage the core elements of the Amazon soy moratorium after the world’s most successful forest protection agreement was wrecked by Brazilian lawmakers and abandoned by international traders.In an open letter, high street brands including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda say the breakdown this month of the 20-year-old agreement
  • Nearly 200 arrested in cross-border crackdown on gold mining in Amazon

    Cash, gold, mercury and firearms seized in operations in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and SurinamePolice and prosecutors from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname have arrested nearly 200 people in their first joint cross-border operation targeting illegal gold mining in the Amazon region, authorities said.The operation was backed by Interpol, the EU and Dutch police specialising in environmental crime. It involved more than 24,500 checks on vehicles and people across remote border areas
  • The Guardian view on food security: Britain can no longer trust markets alone | Editorial

    As climate and geopolitics shocks bite, countries are rebuilding food buffers. The UK clings to neoliberal ideas while households pay the priceFood policy across much of the world is changing. But not in Britain. That may be a costly mistake as the prices of essentials rise because of the climate emergency, geopolitical tensions and the fragility of just-in-time supply chains. Many capitals are now reviving their strategic food reserves. European nations such as Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germa
  • Brazil’s Bolsonaro finds novel way to reduce 27-year sentence: reading books

    Former president convicted for coup plot to take advantage of law that knocks four days off jail term for each book readJair Bolsonaro’s lawyers appear to have been reading up on the country’s penal code and have found a way to help their client reduce the 27-year prison sentence he received last year for plotting a coup: by reading books.There is only one problem: the former far-right Brazilian president has never been known as a bibliophile. “Sorry, I don’t have time to
  • Brutal, vibrant and creative: capturing the soul of Latin America in 100 photographs

    The journalist Paulo Antonio Paranaguá uses images from the turbulent continent to weave a history of the region, covering colonisation, slavery and dictatorshipIts tumultuous past, marked by massacres, slavery, violent domination, coups d’état, revolutions and uprisings, often overshadows another narrative of Latin America: that of a vibrant, culturally rich region where art, creativity and solidarity hold a central place in society.Throughout its post-Columbian history &nda
  • EU states back controversial Mercosur deal with Latin American countries

    Agreement after 25 years of negotiations prompts farmers to block roads in Paris, Brussels and WarsawEuropean Union member states have backed the biggest ever free trade agreement with a group of Latin American countries, ending 25 years of negotiations but stoking further tensions with farmers and environmentalists around the bloc.The contentious Mercosur deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay prompted immediate protests in Poland, France, Greece and Belgium, with farmers blocking ke
  • Brazilian president vetoes bill reducing Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence

    Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rejects bill passed by congress as he marks anniversary of 2023 Brasília riotsBrazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vetoed a bill that would dramatically reduce the prison sentence of the country’s far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last year of plotting a coup.Lula vetoed the bill, which was passed by congress in December, on the third anniversary of riots by Bolsonaro supporters in the capital, Bras&
  • US attack on Venezuela will decide direction of South America’s vast mineral wealth

    Outcome of aggression will determine whether rare earths and other resources drive energy transition – or strengthen US military power and oil interestsThe US’s first overt attack on an Amazon nation last weekend is a new phase in its extractivist rivalry with China. The outcome will decide whether the vast mineral wealth of South America is directed towards a 21st-century energy transition or a buildup of military power to defend 20th-century fossil fuel interests.Although this onsl
  • ‘Naked imperialism’: how Trump intervention in Venezuela is a return to form for the US

    Most of the Americas have suffered from interference from their powerful northern neighbour – and are usually the worse off for itUS attacks Venezuela – live updatesThe US bombardment of Venezuela and the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, follow a long history of interventions in South and Central America and the Caribbean over the past two centuries. But they also mark an unprecedented moment as the first direct US military attack on a South American country.At a pres
  • Five tech trends we’ll be watching in 2026

    From datacenters to AI, we’ll be keeping our eye on the technology that will be shaping your life in the coming yearHello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, wishing you a happy New Year’s Eve filled with cheer, champagne and Mariah Carey’s comically awful rendition of Auld Lang Syne.Today, we’re looking forward to the next year in technology news. I am watching five trends I think will define the year: datacenters will see rapid proliferatio
  • Jair Bolsonaro undergoes second procedure to treat persistent hiccups

    Former Brazilian president underwent a phrenic nerve block while temporarily released from prison for surgeryJair Bolsonaro underwent a second “phrenic nerve block procedure” on Monday to treat persistent hiccups.The treatment went well and the former Brazilian president’s condition is stable, according to his medical team. Continue reading...
  • Brazilian ex-president Bolsonaro treated for persistent hiccups

    Doctors say they blocked his right phrenic nerve in procedure that took place after jailed former president was hospitalised last week for hernia operationBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro underwent “a phrenic nerve block procedure” on Saturday to treat his persistent hiccups, his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, said on social media.The doctors treating Bolsonaro said later that they blocked the right phrenic nerve and scheduled a new procedure in 48 hours to block the left on
  • ‘When you plant something, it dies’: Brazil’s first arid zone is a stark warning for the whole country

    The Caatinga in the north-east has been transformed by the heating climate in just a generation and could become the country’s first desertEvery Tuesday at dawn, Raildon Suplício Maia goes to the market in Macururé, in Brazil’s Bahia state, to sell goats. He haggles with buyers to get a good price for the animals, which are reared in the open and roam freely.Goats are the main – and sometimes only – source of income for the people of Macururé, a small
  • We can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part two

    From the ‘warrior’ midwife saving lives in Senegal to the outed Kenyan pop star speaking up against prejudice, these are some of the people who gave us hopeWe can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part oneIn the thick of the monsoon this June, I found myself squinting at the smallest of orchids and rarest of impatiens (a flowering plant) inside an enclave of lush rainforest in Kerala, southern India. With Laly Joseph, 56, at the helm, dozens of w
  • We can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part one

    From the Indigenous doctor balancing traditional and western medicine to a father risking death to provide for his family in Gaza, these are some of the people whose determination and bravery stood outIn 2012, Adana Omágua Kambeba travelled 4,000km (2,500 miles) from her home in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, to take up a coveted place to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil. She became the first among her people, the Kambeba, or Omágua, t
  • Bolsonaro supporters ‘cancel’ Havaianas flip-flop brand over television ad

    Son of jailed former Brazilian president says spokesperson for ‘national symbol’ sandals is ‘openly left wing’Leaderless since its figurehead was jailed for attempting a coup, Brazil’s far right has found a new nemesis: the flip-flop brand Havaianas, which has been “cancelled” by Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters over a television advert.The controversy stems from the actor Fernanda Torres – the star of I’m Still Here, the Brazilian film that
  • Brazilian president vows to veto bill cutting Jair Bolsonaro’s prison term

    Lula acknowledges his decision to uphold 27-year sentence could be overridden by conservative lawmakers Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has promised to veto a bill passed by congress to reduce the prison term of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president who was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for masterminding an attempted coup to overturn the 2022 elections.Lawmakers passed the bill late on Wednesday after it was approved last week by the lower house. On Thursda
  • Moment Statue of Liberty replica collapses due to wind in Brazil – video

    A replica of the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of Brazilian retailer Havan, collapsed after strong winds struck the city of Guaíba. According to Brazilian local media, there were no injuries Continue reading...
  • How a Brazilian meat tycoon accused of bribery and deforestation became a key player in regional diplomacy

    Joesley Batista is credited as a major force behind the reconciliation between Trump and Luiz Inácio Lula da SilvaSix international airlines had suspended flights to Venezuela over the risk of possible US military strikes when an ultra-long-haul executive jet from São Paulo, Brazil, landed calmly in Caracas.On board that flight on 23 November was the Brazilian meat tycoon Joesley Batista – twice jailed for corruption and whose companies have a long record of environmental vio
  • Weather tracker: Bushfires ravage Western Australia as temperatures soar

    Extreme heat follows blazes in New South Wales, while winds plunge Brazil’s largest city into darknessExtreme heat and bushfires have ravaged the parched landscape of Western Australia. With temperatures expected to continue soaring above 40C (104F) over the coming days, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe heatwave warning across much of the south-west.The conditions follow bushfires in New South Wales this month, which resulted in the destruction of homes and loss of life. Sever
  • US treasury lifts sanctions on Brazilian judge who presided over Bolsonaro case

    Justice Alexandre de Moraes and his wife had been under Global Magnitsky sanctions after conviction of ex-presidentThe US Department of the Treasury has lifted sanctions imposed on the Brazilian supreme court justice who oversaw the conviction of the former president Jair Bolsonaro.Justice Alexandre de Moraes had been under Global Magnitsky sanctions, which target individuals accused of human rights abuses, since July. His wife Viviane Barci de Moraes – who was added the sanctions list in
  • Jim Caviezel to play Jair Bolsonaro in ‘heroic’ biopic

    Actor, who starred in The Passion of the Christ, will play the disgraced ex-Brazilian president in film written by his one-time secretary of cultureJair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president now in prison for plotting a coup, is getting the biopic treatment.Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, is reportedly filming a “heroic” portrait of the rightwing ex-politician in secret. Dark Horse, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh and written
  • US attack on Venezuela risks ‘Vietnam-style’ regional conflict, warns Lula adviser

    Brazil aide says Trump’s closure of Venezuelan airspace amounts to an ‘act of war’ that could escalateMaduro says the real reason for Trump’s Venezuela fixation is oil – is he right?A US invasion or attack on Venezuela could plunge South America into a Vietnam-style conflict, the chief foreign policy adviser to Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has warned.In an interview with the Guardian, Celso Amorim called Donald Trump’s recent dec
  • Baby review – an astute portrait of queer Brazilian hustlers lost in the system

    Abandoned by his parents and fresh out of juvenile prison, the wide-eyed Wellington meets a charismatic hustler on the restless streets of São PauloChannelling the urban restlessness and vibrancy of São Paulo, Marcelo Caetano’s bracing drama centres on those who live on the fringes of an ever-changing metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) finds himself at a crossroads; abandoned by his parents, the wide-eyed young man fin
  • The loggers and ranchers are closing in but still Brazil’s Kawahiva people wait for protection

    Bureaucratic delays and funding shortages stall plans to carve out a forest reserve for the uncontacted Indigenous group on the southern fringe of the Brazilian AmazonIn 2024, agents of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) walked more than 60 miles through rainforest on the southern fringe of the Brazilian Amazon on a mission to monitor and help protect a group of Indigenous people who had no contact with the modern world.What they found was a small basket freshly woven from le
  • ‘We’re true guardians of the forest’: quilombola community near Belém demand land rights and recognition

    Short boat ride from Cop30 host, Afro-descendant residents of Menino Jesus say their voices are not being heardWalk through the conference centre where the recent UN climate talks were held and representations of Indigenous people and culture were everywhere, from the spear-carrying, fiery-headed Cop30 mascot Curupira to huge mural-sized photos of people navigating the Amazon in dugout canoes and the many protests demanding dialogue outside.Yet a short boat ride down the river from Belém,
  • Brain damage, blindness and death: the global trail of trauma left by methanol-laced alcohol

    Methanol, a cheap relative of ethanol, is entering the supply chain, causing thousands of deaths around the worldFor Bethany Clarke, poison tasted like nothing. There was no bitter aftertaste, no astringent sting at the back of the tongue. If anything, she thought in passing, the free shots she and her friends were drinking at a hostel bar in Laos had probably been watered down – she wasn’t detecting a strong vodka flavour through the veil of Sprite she had mixed it with.All in all,
19 Jun 2026

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