Category World News

President Lula stated in an interview with CNN on Thursday that the tariffs have no “logic,” but that he does not believe there is currently a “crisis” between his nation and the US.

It surprised me, Lula said, “not just the value of that tariff, but also the manner in which it was announced.” “We cannot let President Trump forget that he was elected to rule the US and not to be the world’s emperor.”

Foreign leaders like Lula have expressed anger over the US president’s overt stance on economic relations with other nations, which he sees as Trump’s attempts to impose on Brazil on matters of trade and domestic judicial proceedings.

Former Brazilian president Bolsonaro, who has ties to Trump and his family, is currently facing a trial for allegedly trying to oust Lula’s victory over him in the 2022 election.

Trump called the trial a “witch hunt” and demanded that it end. He also faced legal issues as a result of his efforts to stay in office after losing an election. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and other right-wingers have recently done the same.

Brazil’s judiciary branch is self-governing, according to the statement. Bolsonaro, the president of the republic, is not being judged personally, but rather by what actions he attempted to organize a coup d’etat, according to Lula, who claimed that Bolsonaro “is not being judged personally.”

Brazil will face higher tariffs if it continues to participate in the BRICS, a group of developing nations that has been promoting alternatives to the US-backed global financial system.

Trump has threatened to impose higher tariffs on any member nations who are associated with the bloc and attacked the organization for “anti-Western priorities.”

Trump’s threats and direct use of US economic leverage have sparked outrage in Latin America, where the US has a long history of heavily involving itself in various nations’ domestic affairs.

Lula remarked that Brazil should take care of Brazil and the Brazilian people, as well as not to take care of other people’s interests.

President Donald Trump was immediately fired from her position as a federal prosecutor in the United States, according to Maurene Comey, the daughter of James Comey, the former FBI director.

Comey stated in a memo to coworkers that “fear may permeate the decisions of those who remain” if a “career prosecutor can be fired without reason.”

She urged people to “do not allow that to occur.” Fear is a tyrant’s tool for preventing independent thought, according to the saying.

The Department of Justice’s assistant US attorney position in New York was terminated one day after Comey was given the memo.

Comey’s firing is not yet being explained by the Trump administration. However, her association with her father, who oversaw an investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election, had long been seen as vulnerable.

Trump quickly removed the elder Comey from his first term, but the former FBI director has remained the subject of the president’s concern.

James Comey has criticised Trump’s “unethical” and mafia-like leadership in both congressional testimony and a 2018 book. Additionally, he claimed that Trump’s decision to fire him was an attempt to derail the Russia investigation.

Trump and his allies have urged the Department of Justice to remove all employees who had been tasked with handling matters he disagreed with since taking office for a second term.

Prosecutors who assisted special counsel Jack Smith in the prosecution of Trump’s two federal criminal indictments, one for withholding confidential information while he was in office, and the other for trying to sabotage the election of 2020, are included.

When Trump won the re-election in November 2024, both cases were dropped. The Justice Department’s policies prohibit the prosecution of a sitting president.

More career prosecutors and support staff members who were involved in Smith’s indictment were terminated, according to a report from The Associated Press earlier this month.

The Justice Department’s independence has been undermined by the Trump administration’s decision to fire these employees, claim critics. Many people also point out that career civil servants, regardless of political party, do not pick their cases and instead serve under whatever presidential administration is in power.

Maurene Comey urged her fellow prosecutors to use their current situation to further their cause by utilizing the rule of law’s fair and impartial approach in her message to colleagues.

Let this moment fuel the fire that is already burning in this location, she wrote, “instead of fear.”

“A fire of righteous disgust at power abuses.” of commitment to bring the victims’ justice. “Truth is the foundation of all belief.”

a seasoned attorney

Prior to her dismissal, Maurene Comey had worked for the Southern District of New York, which was frequently regarded as one of the nation’s top prosecution offices.

Most recently, she had prosecuted Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was found guilty of transporting marijuana for the purposes of prostitution but later found innocent of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.

Prior to now, she had participated in Ghislaine Maxwell’s successful prosecution of sex-trafficking allegations involving Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls.

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s firing comes as a result of the base of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign’s criticism of her for disclosing more information about Epstein, including a detailed account of his alleged “client list.”

In a 2019 Manhattan detention center, Epstein committed suicide.

Laura Loomer and other prominent right-wing internet figures have voiced their opposition to Bondi and demanded that Comey be fired.

Additionally, according to US media reports, James Comey and John Brennan, a former CIA director, are being investigated by the Trump administration for their investigation into Russian election interference.

The US intelligence community came to the conclusion that Russia had a role in the election, but there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that the Trump campaign had a collusion with Russian agents.

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, both of the far-right members of the Israeli government, are prohibited from entering Slovenia.

Tanja Fajon, the foreign minister, declared the pair’s personae non-gratae on Thursday, citing a first for a member state of the European Union.

She said, “We are innovating.”

The Slovenian government accused Israel’s Ben-Gvir and Smotrich of using “their genocidal statements” to incite “extreme violence and serious violations of Palestinian human rights.”

Both cabinet ministers “publicly support the forced eviction of Palestinians, the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the call for violence against the civilian Palestinian population,” the statement continued.

The Israeli government didn’t immediately respond.

For their hard-line stance on the occupied West Bank and the expansion of illegal settlements, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, two key coalition partners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration, have received international criticism.

Smotrich, who resides in a settlement in the West Bank, has urged the territory’s annexation and support for the expansion of settlements.

International law prohibits settlements. Israel has disputed the International Court of Justice’s ruling from July that Israel’s continued presence in occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful.

Smotrich has previously called for “total annihilation” in Gaza and recommended the destruction of a Palestinian town in the West Bank. Ben-Gvir had a sincere rebuke of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli who killed 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994. Israeli courts have found him guilty of “incitement to racism” numerous times.

Netanyahu depends heavily on the two and their political parties’ support to keep his government together, despite the ministers’ positions.

Natasa Pirc Musar, Slovenia’s president, stated to the European Parliament on May 21 that Israel must “demonize the genocide” in Gaza.

After EU and foreign ministers did not agree on a joint action against Israel over allegations of human rights violations, Fajon stated that Slovenia and Slovenia had decided to take the action at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

Without going into specifics, she claimed that other measures were being developed.

The two Israeli ministers were accused of inciting violence against Palestinians by the governments of Norway, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada in June.

At least 63 people have been killed and nearly 300 have been injured in Pakistan’s Punjab province over the past 24 hours, according to provincial officials, adding at least 159 have died nationwide as a result of the rains since late June.

The rains on Thursday caused building collapses and flooding, with the majority of deaths coming from faulty roofs in older homes. Faisalabad, the eastern provincial capital, reported 15 fatalities, and Okara, Sahiwal, and Pakpattan, two more, in addition to Faisalabad.

In the morning, rescue teams used boats to evacuate families from villages further south’s riversides, but by afternoon the water had started to recede.

Women pleaded for help on rooftops, waving their shawls, and begging to be saved, according to Tariq Mehbood Bhatti, a 51-year-old farmer from a Ladian village.

After a sharp rise in the water level, residents of low-lying areas close to the Nullah Lai River, which flows through Rawalpindi city, which is a suburb of Islamabad, were ordered to leave.

A disaster agency spokeswoman stated that “rescue teams are on standby for more evacuations.”

To keep people at home, the Rawalpindi government made Thursday a public holiday.

According to Kamal Hyder, a reporter for Al Jazeera from Punjab’s Chakwal district, “heavy rains]are]causing extensive damage and also loss of life” throughout the Punjab region.

He claimed that the military is using helicopters to evacuate people who are now surrounded by water because “rains have swept away small dams that have burst at banks.”

Over the past few years, Pakistan has experienced devastating floods. Hyder continued, “This monsoon season is not different.” According to him, experts have warned that the nation may experience extreme weather in the near future.

According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), 103 people have died and 393 have been injured in Punjab alone as a result of the monsoon rains that started in late June. Six livestock animals were killed, and more than 120 homes had been damaged.

More than 1, 000 homes have been damaged, according to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which has reported the death toll of at least 159 people nationwide since June 25.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has issued a high flood alert for the northern town of Mangla, where high water inflows were anticipated to be expected to be high. Authorities warned that nearby communities could be in danger if adjacent streams overflow in the next 24 hours.

In response to growing threats to Europe, the UK and Germany have signed their first bilateral agreement since World War II, promising to intensify cooperation in the field of defense.

The UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signed the treaty on Thursday that includes provisions for “joint export campaigns” and “mutual assistance” in the event of an attack to sway international orders for military hardware like fighter jets produced jointly by the nations.

Following the signing ceremony at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Merz was quoted by the BBC as saying that the UK’s exit from the EU in 2020 is “really on the way to a new chapter.”

At the press conference, Starmer stated, “We see the magnitude of the challenges our continent faces today, and we intend to take them on head on.”

Given that both NATO members and bound by the alliance’s mutual defense pact, it was unclear what practical effect the promise in the treaty would have.

As uncertainty surround the US’s continued support for the continent as Russia’s ongoing offensive in Ukraine looms large, Merz’s visit to London came after French President Emmanuel Macron visited France and the UK to coordinate their nuclear deterrents.

Germany does not possess nuclear weapons, but according to the treaty, the nations will “maintain a close dialogue on defense issues of mutual interest,” including nuclear issues.

Following Donald Trump’s announcement that he would sell US weapons to NATO allies, who would in turn send arms to Kyiv, Merz and Starmer discussed ways to increase European support for Ukraine.

According to Starmer, a plan was in place should there be a ceasefire in Ukraine, and the BBC would need to first agree to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin “to the table for an unconditional ceasefire.”

The so-called “coalition of the willing,” a group of nations led by France, the UK, and Germany, has been discussing the potential deployment of peacekeeping forces to Ukraine to veer off any upcoming peace agreements with Russia.

In light of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s resumption of power, which has long been sceptical of US intervention on behalf of its historical allies, Western European powers are more focused on how to defend their own continent, especially in light of the perception that the US may no longer be the transatlantic partner it once was.

In addition to protecting itself, the treaty also includes a partnership to combat irregular immigration, which is a part of Starmer’s campaign to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering the UK in an effort to stop the hard-right Reform UK party from rising.

Starmer praised Merz for a new law giving security forces authority to look into storage facilities used by smugglers when they cross the English Channel, and pointed out that the treaty showed the two countries “mean business” when it comes to preventing the arrival of refugees and migrants.