Brazilian president Lula’s proposals have the backing of the World Bank. Now we need action

All things considered, the world’s richest countries have emerged from the global pandemic in better shape than they could have imagined when Covid-19 first appeared just over four years ago.

To be sure, the impact of lockdown and its aftermath has been painful, but the effects on poor countries have been far more severe.

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Through the G20, Brazil’s president is challenging the dominance of the richest countries. This year will be a huge test of his strategy

The world stage often seems sepia-toned, dominated by the dusty international structures of the post-second world war era, favouring the world’s richest countries. However, it is increasingly clear that this setup isn’t sufficient to respond to the interests of the global south, including combating climate breakdown and expanding economic development.

Recognising this mismatch, Brazil under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has positioned itself as an international leader, focused on the agenda of emerging economic powers who prize stability, and in fact have much to lose from conflict and power struggles between rich countries.

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Brazil’s president has nixed commemorations of the 1964 coup, possibly to avoid irking the military as senior officers facing jail for allegedly conspiring to stop Lula taking power after 2022 election

Relatives of the victims of Brazil’s brutal two-decade dictatorship have voiced anger and dismay over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ’s reported decision to block official remembrance events marking the 60th anniversary of the 1964 military coup d’état.

Activists had hoped the leftist’s government would mark the 31 March 2024 anniversary of that power-grab with a series of memorials honouring the thousands who were killed, disappeared or tortured by the 1964-85 regime.

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Photos of French president’s three-day trip to Brazil to reaffirm countries’ partnership delight internet observers

If the official photos are anything to go by, Emmanuel Macron’s three-day trip to Brazil has been more romantic getaway than international diplomacy.

The French president, who ended his tour of the South American country on Thursday with a state visit to the capital, Brasília, prompted online hilarity after the publication of photos showing him being particularly chummy with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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French president tells Brazil forum both parties need to be ‘much stronger’ on biodiversity and climate

Emmanuel Macron has called a proposed trade agreement between the EU and South America’s Mercosur bloc a “very bad deal” that lacks proper climate considerations.

“As it is negotiated today, it is a very bad deal, for you and for us,” the French president told Brazilian businessmen in São Paulo on Wednesday while on a three-day trip to Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy.

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This supposedly intangible, romantic thing is in fact rooted in something concrete and quantifiable: our material conditions

• In a series of short essays , writers consider what happiness means to them now, after the reckoning of the past few years

On 30 December last year, Jair Bolsonaro lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil’s presidential election , making Bolsonaro the first incumbent to fail to be re-elected in Brazil since redemocratisation. Just over a week later, Brazil’s congress, presidential palace and supreme court were invaded by thousands of supporters of Bolsonaro. They proceeded to smash the windows, artworks and computers of the buildings that symbolise Brazilian democracy. I mention this not because the invasion of Brasília made me happy (it did not), or because Lula’s election made me happy (it did), but because Lula’s campaign slogan was sem medo de ser feliz , which translates literally as “without fear of being happy”, or, put more succinctly, “unafraid of happiness”.

In his first speech as president , Lula began by promising every Brazilian three meals a day, a job, and access to healthcare and education. He went on to promise zero deforestation, indigenous land rights and the recreation of the ministries for racial equality, women and culture. Lula’s slogan acknowledges something we can be loth to admit. That happiness – this supposedly intangible, romantic thing – is directly linked to the most quantifiable and decidedly unethereal aspects of lives: our material conditions.

Yara Rodrigues Fowler is the author of there are more things

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