Brics Was Created as a Tool of Attack: Lula

August 31, 2019, Strategic Culture Foundation (Russia) https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/08/31/brics-was-created-as-a-tool-of-attack-lula/

Former Brazilian leader Lula speaks from a room in a prison in southern Brazil. Photo: Editora Brasil 247

Pepe ESCOBAR

Former Brazilian leader wishes emerging economies were closer, recalls Obama ‘crashing’ Copenhagen climate meet

In a wide-ranging, two-hour-plus, exclusive interview from a prison room in Curitiba in southern Brazil, former Brazilian president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva re-emerged for the first time, after more than 500 days in jail, and sent a clear message to the world.

Amid the 24/7 media frenzy of scripted sound bites and “fake news”, it’s virtually impossible to find a present or former head of state anywhere, in a conversation with journalists, willing to speak deep from his soul, to comment on all current political developments and relish telling stories about the corridors of power. And all that while still in prison.

The first part of this mini-series focused on the Amazon. Here, we will focus on Brazil’s relationship with BRICS and Beijing. BRICS is the grouping of major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – that formed

Brazil/The Ravaging of Amazonia

Updated Aug. 25, 2019, The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/opinion/sunday/amazon-fire.html

By Vanessa Barbara*

A global treasure lies at the mercy of the smallest, dullest, pettiest of men.

São Paulo, Brazil — When I first set foot in the Amazon rain forest, in the Anavilhanas Archipelago, northwest of the city of Manaus, I experienced something that can only be described as awe: an overwhelming sense of connection with the universe. Cheesy, I know. But this is something that we rarely feel — only upon seeing a clear tropical night sky, or the ghostly flickering of the northern lights or even the vastness of a French Gothic cathedral.

Image

A protestor against the deforestation of the Amazon outside the Brazilian embassy 

in Mumbai on Friday.CreditIndranil Mukherjee/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

From the outside, the Amazon is a massive, undistinguished canopy of trees, but once you’re inside it, it is indeed a “monumental universe,” in the words of the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. It has a strikingly layered structure: The soil lies beneath an entanglement of roots, mosses and decomposing leaves; pale trunks appear and disappear as they climb up into the lush foliage. The tallest trees can reach up to 200 feet, almost the height of the towers of Notre-Dame. And now it is their turn to burn.

The first sign that the Amazon would not have a good year came this month, when the government sacked the head of the National Institute for Space Research, the physicist Ricardo Galvão, who was unpatriotic enough to release data showing a 278 percent jump in deforestation in July compared with the same month the

Mercosul, Brazil/‘Tropical Trump’ sparks unprecedented crisis for Brazilian science

01 August 2019, Update 02 August 2019, Nature (UK) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02353-6#correction-0

Jeff Tollefson

FOTO DESMATAMENTO A dispute over the rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon (pictured) is the latest sign of tension between the country's researchers and its president.Credit: Nacho Doce/Reuters

Tensions are rising as Jair Bolsonaro’s administration questions the work of government scientists and institutes debilitating cuts to research funding. 

A dispute over the rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon (pictured) is the latest sign of tension between the country's researchers and its president.Credit: Nacho Doce/Reuters

When neuroscientist Sidarta Ribeiro presented a preview of a report on the dire state of research in Brazil at a meeting of a major scientific society on 23 July, several government soldiers entered the room and began filming. Some in the audience took the soldiers’ actions as a show of intimidation.

“Maybe these guys were just soldiers who want to learn about science,” says Ribeiro, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal. He coordinated the analysis on behalf of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC), which hosted the meeting and commissioned the report. But it didn’t look like they were there out of curiosity, Ribeiro says.

The incident is the latest example of the rising tensions between the country's scientists and President Jair Bolsonaro's administration. Since Bolsonaro took office in January, Brazil’s researchers have faced funding cuts and repeated attempts by the administration to roll back protections for

Brasil/Deforestation in Brazil has rocketed since Bolsonaro became president

22 July 2019, New Scientist Environment https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210621-deforestation-in-brazil-has-rocketed-since-bolsonaro-became-president/

Recently exposed soil (orange) and cattle ranches (light green) around the Juruena River in Brazil

Oton Barros/DSR/OBT/INPE

By Adam Vaughan

Satellite images suggest that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has shot up since Jair Bolsonaro became president in January, despite his claim on Friday that the data “lies”.

More than 3700 square kilometres of forest has been deforested this year, an area about a fifth the size of Wales, preliminary satellite data indicates. Even before figures for the whole of July are in, the losses for the first seven months of the year are up 16 per cent on the recent high of 3183 square kilometres in 2016.

The world’s greatest rainforest is not only home to a rich diversity of species and around 400 indigenous groups, but is also a vast store of carbon that is vital for tackling climate

Brazil and the US – a Neoliberal Alliance Under Bolsonaro and Trump

July 19, 2019, Strategic Culture Foundation http://www.strategic-culture.org (Russia) https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/07/19/brazil-and-us-neoliberal-alliance-under-bolsonaro-trump/

Ramona Wadi*

Brazil’s shift to the right-wing has been lauded by the US, which is still not over its penchant for foreign meddling in Latin America. Jair Bolsonaro, who has made news headlines for all the wrong reasons, notably disregard for climate change, indigenous rights and education, has altered the previous diplomacy by prioritising global investment over regional ties, thus facilitating the country’s exploitation.

For the US, of course, this is welcome news. An unnamed US official declared, “Even the friendliest of Brazilian governments was never really that friendly. Here we have now a government in Brazil we truly consider an ally.”

The tactics may have changed – there is enough history of US-backed dictatorships in Latin America to have fomented fractured societies, to the point than a shift to the right-wing through elections was only a matter of time. Brazil was no

Brasil/Where Do You Turn When the Anti-Corruption Crusaders Are Dirty?

July 5, 2019, The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/opinion/lula-moro-brazil.html

By Vanessa Barbara

Contributing Opinion Writer

Brazil’s Operation Car Wash was supposed to overthrow the country’s culture of graft. Instead, it’s brought corruption into the heart of the state.

São Paulo, Brazil — On the surface, “Operation Car Wash” has been a virtuous crusade against political corruption in this country.

Over the last five years, this federal investigation has uncovered vast kickback schemes involving Brazil’s most important executives and politicians. The operation has led to the criminal prosecution of 429 individuals and the conviction of 159 of them. News outlets have eagerly covered each step of the investigation, pushing for and praising the overthrow of a culture of graft in Brazilian politics. The investigation should, in theory, be a source of pride for our young democracy — only this is not the whole story.

From the beginning, Operation Car Wash resorted to questionable procedures, such as using pretrial detentions to force confessions and relying too heavily on generous plea-bargain deals. But these didn’t seem enough to dismiss its efforts against wide-scale corruption, at least in the public’s eye.

Then, on June 9, the news site The Intercept Brasil published the first in a series of reports casting doubts on the integrity of the main actors within the investigation. The journalists obtained,

Brazil, Colombia, Now Venezuela: US Pursues Right-Wing Hegemony in South America

April 04th, 2019, MintPress News https://www.mintpressnews.com (USA) https://www.mintpressnews.com/brazil-colombia-now-venezuela-us-pursues-right-wing-hegemony-south-america/256934/ 

By Kei Pritsker*

World domination: it’s a funny concept. We can imagine old dudes with messy hair and thick glasses taking over the world or the caricature of a humanoid villain that wears a skull and crossbones, but what about applying it to the real world? Who’s closest to taking over the world we live in? Do I even need to say it?

When it comes to Iran, North Korea or, as of late, Venezuela, it’s impossible to FULLY understand the goals behind a U.S. regime-change operation if we don’t understand the U.S.’ regional aims, and by extension, global aims. We have to understand the United States for the totality of its existence. With dozens if not hundreds of military bases on every continent, the United States is the only empire in the world right now; its goals and ambitions can’t be anything but global. We can’t remove America’s behavior from this context.

So how does Venezuela fit into

USA/Bernie Sanders Calls for Brazil’s Judiciary to Release Lula in Wake of Corruption Exposure

June 11 2019, 8:18 p.m., The Intercept  (Brasil) https://theintercept.com/2019/06/11/brazil-lula-ro-khanna-operation-car-wash/

Aída Chávez, Akela Lacy

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva should be released from prison and his conviction should be annulled, said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, on Tuesday. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., meanwhile, is calling on the Trump administration to investigate the case that imprisoned the former president on corruption charges, following The Intercept’s exposé that showed Judge Sérgio Moro plotted with prosecutors to convict Lula and prevent the Workers’ Party from returning to power.

“This reporting confirms what we knew all along — that Moro was a bad actor and part of a larger conspiracy to send Lula to jail,” Khanna told The Intercept in an emailed statement. “While [it’s] not for America to make a factual judgement on Lula’s innocence, this reporting shows Moro was not impartial and coordinated with the prosecutors. This violates all judicial norms and ethics. I hope

Brazil/Secret Archive Operation Car Wash (Parts 1, 2, 3)

BREACH OF ETHICS

Exclusive: Leaked Chats Between Brazilian Judge and Prosecutor Who Imprisoned Lula Reveal Prohibited Collaboration and Doubts Over Evidence

June 9 2019, 10:57 p.m., The Intercept https://theintercept.com (Brasil) https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-lula-operation-car-wash-sergio-moro/

Andrew Fishman, Rafael Moro Martins, Leandro Demori, Alexandre de Santi, Glenn Greenwald

Secret Brazil Archive Part 1

How and Why The Intercept Is Reporting on a Vast Trove of Materials About Brazil’s Operation Car Wash and Justice Minister Sergio Moro

Leia em português

The Intercept Brasil today published three explosive exposés showing highly controversial, politicized, and legally dubious internal discussions and secret actions by the Operation Car Wash anti-corruption task force of prosecutors, led by the chief prosecutor Deltan Dallagnol, along with then-Judge Sergio Moro, now the powerful and internationally celebrated justice minister for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

These stories are based on a massive archive of previously undisclosed materials — including private chats, audio recordings, videos, photos, court proceedings, and other documentation — provided to us by an anonymous source. They reveal serious wrongdoing, unethical behavior, and systematic deceit about which the public, both in Brazil and internationally, has the right to know.

These three articles were published today in The Intercept Brasil in Portuguese, and

Brazil: US Special Services Behind the Turmoil/Спецслужбы США в эпицентре бразильских событий

17.05.2016, Strategic Culture Foundation http://www.strategic-culture.org (Russia)

Nil NIKANDROV

No doubt, US special services are behind the crisis in Brazil. Now they continue to control the events. Compromising evidence against the leadership of the Workers’ Party, the top officials of Petrobras, a state-owned oil company, and the inner circles of President Dilma Rousseff and former President Lula da Silva has been leaked as part of an operation to undermine the «hostile regime».

In the eyes of President Barack Obama and his administration, the largest Latin American country is a hostile state because it dares to implement independent policies. The US goal is to subjugate the ruling elite of Brazil and make it dance to the US tune.

This turn of events has been predicted by a number of Latin American presidents, including Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay among others. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro put it bluntly saying the events in Brazil are nothing else but

'Any time US official visits Ukraine, some attack happens afterward'

A civilian has reportedly been killed in a shelling attack in Donetsk in an apparent violation of the ceasefire. RT talked to Daniel McAdams, executive direc...

YOUTUBE.COM

Frente Brasileira de Solidariedade com a Ucrânia

14 h · 

Entrevista da RT sobre a sincronia entre visitas de funcionários de governo dos EUA à Ucrânia e ataques militares da Junta contra a Nova Rússia.

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Скандал националистов и «Правым Сектором» в Львове 02.05.15
Frente Brasileira de Solidariedade com a Ucrânia

14 h · 

"Setor Direito" e "Resistência Autônoma", um movimento nacionalista ucraniano anti-Junta, entraram em confronto no início de maio em Lviv.

★.Подписывайтесь на Канал ★.Всегда новые ВИДЕО с Украины, и не только. ★.Связь со Мной...

YOUTUBE.COM

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Donbas Dispatch #12: Q&A with Team Vikernes

Rafael Lusvarghi (Brazil), Guillaume Lenormand (France) and Dima (Brazil) sit down and answer some of the most commonly asked questions from the internet. Di...

Frente Brasileira de Solidariedade com a Ucrânia

16 h · 

Unidade Vikernes, composta por voluntários franceses e pelos nossos voluntários brasileiros, respondem a várias dúvidas das pessoas que acompanham sua luta. Vídeo bastante importante.

Donbas Dispatch #12: Q&A with Team Vikernes

From Gaza to Brazil: STOP FINANCING DRONES THAT KILL OUR CHILDREN

August 14, 2014, The Palestine Chronicle http://www.palestinechronicle.com

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/from-gaza-to-brazil-stop-financing-drones-that-kill-our-children/#.U_bo_MVdXT9

Nota: Este artigo foi apagado no portal da Folha de São Paulo. Toda tentativa de acesso recebe a seguinte mensagem:  Erro 404 Desculpe, página não encontrada. A página que você procura não existe nos servidores da Folha de S.Paulo. (Mercosul & CPLP)

By Haidar Eid, Gaza

 Tear gas in Bil’in. (Supplied)

As I write this, bombs are falling around us. Electricity is severely restricted and water is hardly available. The loud and frightening sounds of missiles, drones, constant shelling are everywhere. Awake at night, fearfully waiting for the bombing; awake during the day, assisting the injured and searching the ruins of what were once family homes.gave refuge from this harsh world). Awake during the day to search for food and medicine, to bury our dead, and to wait for the night when they will destroy it all again. The death toll has reached 1813 killed (398 children, 207 women, 74 elderly) and 9370 injured (2744 children, 1750 women, 343 elderly). 0.1 percent of the total population of Gaza has already been killed.. During the month-long Israeli assault, a child was both born and later killed.

An entire generation of children in the Gaza Strip have grown up experiencing repeated massacres and

BRICS Blasts Western Pressures on Iran, Calls for Talks

1.      17  Jumada Al-Awwal  1434 /  Friday 29 Mar 2013 / 09 Farvardin 1392, Fars News Agency http://english.farsnews.com (Iran) 2.        Tehran (FNA)- The fifth summit of the Group of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries lashed out at the US-led West for its hostile and unilateral policies against Iran, and called on the western powers to try talks with Tehran over the latter's nuclear program. The fifth BRICS summit opened in Durban, South Africa on Tuesday. "We are concerned about threats of military action as well as unilateral sanctions, and hope that all outstanding issues relating to Iran's nuclear program will be resolved through discussions and diplomatic means," BRICS leaders said in a declaration issued at the end of their two-day summit in Durban on Wednesday. "We believe there is no alternative to a negotiated solution to the Iranian nuclear issue, and recognize Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy consistent with its international obligations," they added. Iran has repeatedly expressed its strong opposition to any production, possession or use of nuclear weapons, saying such arms have no place in the Islamic Republic's nuclear doctrine. On February 22, 2012, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said Iran considers the pursuit and possession of nuclear weapons "a grave sin" from every logical, religious and theoretical standpoint. Earlier this month, a senior Iranian diplomat underlined that Iran has serious and full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since its nuclear activities are all transparent and it has nothing to hide. "We are after nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and that is completely within the framework of our legal and legitimate rights and that is why we are insisting on this legitimate right, because our people should be able to use this technology for energy and medical purposes," Iran's Envoy to Paris Ali Ahani said. "We have shown our good intention and the necessary transparency to the public opinion in a bid to substantiate that our program has no military dimension," Ahani told Voice of Russia. He pointed to Iran's serious cooperation with the IAEA, and added that the UN nuclear watchdog has had an unprecedented number of inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, including 100 snap inspections. "We are fully transparent and have nothing to hide," the Iranian diplomat said. The latest report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency chief on Iran acknowledges that Tehran is conducting its uranium enrichment activities successfully and under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog's inspectors. Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path. The Islamic Republic says that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA's questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities. Political observers believe that the United States has remained at loggerheads with Iran mainly over the independent and home-grown nature of Tehran's nuclear technology, which gives the Islamic Republic the potential to turn into a world power and a role model for the other third-world countries. Washington has laid much pressure on Iran to make it give up the most sensitive and advanced part of the technology, which is uranium enrichment, a process used for producing nuclear fuel for power plants.