U.S. warns air traffic controllers could be dismissed as shutdown delays mount
The U.S. government has warned that air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to report for duty during the shutdown could be fired, amid rising fli...
As U.S. tariffs on Brazilian goods jumped to 50% on Wednesday, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters that he saw no room for direct talks now with U.S. President Donald Trump that would likely be a "humiliation."
Brazil is not about to announce reciprocal tariffs, he said. Nor will his government give up on cabinet-level talks. But Lula himself is in no rush to ring the White House.
"The day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won't hesitate to call him," Lula said in an interview from his presidential residence in Brasilia.
"But today my intuition says he doesn't want to talk. And I won't humiliate myself."
In interviews with Reuters, Lula outlined plans to engage fellow BRICS leaders—including India’s Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping—to coordinate a unified response to the escalating U.S. trade measures.
Lula criticised Trump’s approach as an attempt to dismantle the established multilateral system of collective agreements, replacing it with unilateral, one-on-one negotiations that disadvantage smaller countries.
“What bargaining power does a small Latin American country have against the United States? None,” he remarked.
Under Lula’s leadership as the current BRICS chair, Brazil aims to convene discussions among member states—including Russia and South Africa—to assess the implications of U.S. tariffs and formulate a collective strategy.
Highlighting the group’s significance, he noted that BRICS countries account for ten members of the G20, the forum of the world’s largest economies.
The tariffs have already impacted BRICS members significantly. Last month, the U.S. imposed a 50% tariff on many Brazilian exports amid political disputes linked to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump has also threatened additional tariffs on Indian imports due to the country’s reliance on Russian oil, alongside existing steep tariffs on Chinese and South African goods.
National Council for New Mineral Materials
Separately, Lula has announced a new national policy to treat strategic minerals as a matter of “national sovereignty,” signalling Brazil’s intent to shift away from exporting raw minerals towards adding value domestically. He unveiled plans to establish a National Council for New Mineral Materials, which will oversee resources such as rare earths and report directly to the presidency. This move aims to prevent Brazil from falling into a resource vacuum while other nations benefit from mineral wealth, and to encourage investment by streamlining engagement with businesses.
Acknowledging Brazil’s technological challenges, Lula stressed the importance of international partnerships with countries such as the U.S., China, and Germany to bolster the nation’s role in the global energy transition. The new policy also includes comprehensive mapping of Brazil’s mineral resources, laying the groundwork for the country to become a global leader in sustainable energy development.
Lula’s dual approach—defending multilateralism on the international stage while advancing strategic economic sovereignty at home—reflects Brazil’s ambition to assert greater influence amid shifting geopolitical and economic landscapes.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
The U.S. government has warned that air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to report for duty during the shutdown could be fired, amid rising flight delays across the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump credits himself with ending "seven wars in seven months" since he returned to the White House in January. With just a few hours to the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize, could he win the prestigious international award?
The United States will deploy 200 troops as part of a joint task force aimed at stabilising Gaza, though no U.S. personnel will be stationed within the Strip, according to two senior U.S. officials on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb finalised an agreement on Thursday, for the U.S. Coast Guard to acquire up to 11 icebreaker ships, enhancing U.S. national security in the Arctic.
A large-scale Russian attack on Friday morning caused a fire in a high-rise apartment building in central Kyiv and targeted energy infrastructure, officials reported.
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