São Paulo, Brazil – Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump met yesterday at the White House. 

The meeting lasted about three hours and was attended by Brazilian ministers, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and trade representatives.

While the two leaders have disagreed on a range of issues – from tariffs to extraditions – since Trump took office last year, they reported that the meeting was productive.

“Just concluded my meeting with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the very dynamic President of Brazil,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs. The meeting went very well.”

The representatives from both countries still have meetings scheduled to discuss other topics that have not been publicly disclosed. Other meetings will be scheduled in the coming months as needed, the Republican president noted. 

For his part, Lula provided more details in a press conference after the meeting, which was broadcast online.

According to the South American president, he proposed creating a working group for representatives of both countries to discuss trade differences over the next 30 days.

As was the case with many countries, Brazil was in the crosshairs of Trump’s aggressive trade policy for much of last year.

In July 2025, the U.S. imposed a 40% tariff on Brazilian imports. After months of negotiating, the White House withdrew the tariffs in November, keeping just a 10% tax. 

The Brazilian government aims to remove the remaining tariffs and, in addition, discuss the investigation opened by the Americans regarding Pix (an instant payment method created by the Central Bank of Brazil). The investigation arose because of Section 301, a provision of the United States Trade Act of 1974 that allows the American government to investigate and retaliate against countries that adopt trade practices considered unfair.

Also on social media, Lula commented on the meeting between the two. The Brazilian said that he left the meeting with the perception of having taken an important step between the two countries, and that Brazil is prepared to discuss, in addition to tariffs, critical minerals, the fight against organized crime and drug and arms trafficking.

“We have no veto or forbidden subject. The only thing we will not give up is our democracy and our sovereignty,” Lula concluded.

Featured image: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the White House on May 6, 2026.

Image credit: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva via X.

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São Paulo, Brazil — Jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro will today begin serving the rest of his sentence on house arrest after a weeklong hospital stay.

Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year and three-month prison sentence for an attempted coup d’état after losing his re-election bid in 2022, was hospitalized at DF Star hospital in Brasília, the capital, for more than a week due to health complications.

A medical bulletin indicated that the 71-year-old ally of U.S. President Donald Trump has a case of bacterial pneumonia.

“Former President Jair Messias Bolsonaro remains hospitalized at the DF Star hospital, after being diagnosed with bilateral bacterial pneumonia resulting from an episode of bronchoaspiration. He currently shows no signs of acute infection and is showing good clinical progress. He will remain under clinical observation for the next 24 hours, with a projected hospital discharge on March 27,” wrote the medical team responsible for the former president in their latest press release.

The decision to send the right-wing firebrand to house arrest was signed by Alexandre de Moraes, a minister of the Supreme Federal Court, on March 24. Moraes was the judge responsible for Bolsonaro’s case in the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The authorization came after the former president’s wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, visited Moraes in his office in Brasília, as reported by the Brazilian press, and after the Attorney General’s Office received the request from the former president’s defense and expressed its support for house arrest.

Jair Bolsonaro had already been relocated from the Federal Police Superintendency, where he initially was serving his sentence, to the Papudinha penitentiary complex. 

The state prison had a larger room for the former president, with a television and space for exercise. It is also where two of Bolsonaro’s former ministers, convicted in the same attempted coup case, are serving their sentences: Anderson Torres, former Minister of Justice, and Silvinei Vasques, former director of the Federal Highway Police.

The expectation is that Bolsonaro will be discharged from the hospital later today and return to his residence in the federal capital.

Featured image: Jair Bolsonaro

Image credit: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom via Agência Brasil

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