
The European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc signed their long-negotiated association and free trade agreement on Saturday in Paraguay, with Argentina’s President Javier Milei attending the ceremony and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva absent, represented instead by his foreign minister.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed on Friday that the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU), due to be signed Saturday in Asunción, will benefit global trade, democracy and multilateralism, EFE reported.

Brazil has enacted two laws formalizing the transfer of military aircraft and equipment to Uruguay and Paraguay, as part of an initiative to upgrade operational capabilities of neighboring countries and enhance regional security, Agência Brasil reported.

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that any nation conducting business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on all trade with Washington, thus crushing earlier celebrations by Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose government proudly announced a substantial trade surplus with Tehran, totaling US$2.8 billion in 2025, driven by corn and soybeans.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pulled his country's diplomats from the building that was once Argentina's Embassy in Caracas, but which had been placed under Brasilia's care when Javier Milei severed all ties with the Nicolás Maduro totalitarian regime.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held separate telephone conferences on Thursday to discuss the ongoing events in Venezuela with his Mexican colleague Claudia Scheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Brazil is commemorating Thursday the third anniversary of the Jan. 8, 2023, attempted coup d'état, for which most notably former President Jair Bolsonaro and some of his closest aides have been convicted, in addition to some 810 other defendants.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's sons Eduardo and Flávio foresee the latter's victory in this year's elections after the ties between deposed Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are exposed in the trial underway in New York.

The Brazilian government announced on Sunday that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reached US$84.1 billion between January and November 2025, marking the highest volume of capital inflow since 2014.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed his traditional Christmas pardon decree, granting clemency to thousands of inmates. However, for the second consecutive year, the president has explicitly excluded those convicted of attempting to overthrow the democratic order during the January 8, 2023, attacks in Brasília.