TV News LIES

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup.

Rubio moves to strip US visas from eight Brazilian judges in Bolsonaro battle

Move by Marco Rubio is latest attempt by Trump administration to help former president avoid justice over alleged coup
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Sat 19 Jul 2025 11.03 EDT

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country’s former president Jair Bolsonaro avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup.

Bolsonaro, a far-right populist with ties to Donald Trump’s Maga movement, is on trial for allegedly masterminding a murderous plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 election to his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is expected to be convicted by the supreme court in the coming weeks and faces a jail sentence of up to 43 years.

As the day of judgment nears, Trump has been increasing pressure on the court and President Lula’s administration. On 9 July, the US president announced he would impose 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports as of 1 August, partly as a result of the supposed persecution of his ally. The move triggered an outpouring of nationalist anger in the South American country, with Lula describing it as “unacceptable blackmail”.

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A boat carrying tourists capsized during a sudden thunderstorm in Vietnam on Saturday afternoon during a sightseeing excursion, killing 34 people, state media reported. Eight others remain missing.

The Wonder Sea boat was carrying 48 passengers and five crew members — all of them Vietnamese — during the tour of Ha Long Bay, a popular destination for visitors, according to the reports.

Rescue workers saved 11 people, and recovered the dead near the site of the capsizing, VNExpress newspaper said. Authorities had earlier reported that 12 people had been rescued, but later revised the figure to 11.

The boat turned upside down because of strong winds, the newspaper said. A 14-year-old boy was among the survivors, and he was rescued four hours after being trapped in the overturned hull.

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The director of Israel's Mossad spy agency visited Washington this week seeking U.S. help in convincing countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, two sources with knowledge of issue tell Axios.

The spy chief, David Barnea, told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been speaking in particular with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.

Why it matters: The Israeli government's goal of removing much of Gaza's population is hugely controversial. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government claims such a "relocation" would be "voluntary," U.S. and Israeli legal experts have labeled it a war crime.

Behind the scenes: In their meeting earlier this week, Barnea told Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya had expressed openness to receiving large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza, the two source say.

-Barnea suggested that the U.S. offer incentives to those countries and help Israel convince them.

-Witkoff was non-committal, and it's not clear if the U.S. will actively weigh in on this issue, one source said.

-The White House, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, and the foreign ministries of Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.

Flashback: In February, President Trump proposed the removal of all two million Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild the enclave.

TVNL Comment: The land grab is almost complete.

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The European Union and Britain on Friday sought to ramp up economic pressure on Russia to halt the war in Ukraine by slashing a price cap meant to choke off revenues from key oil exports.

The move from the EU was part of a sweeping new package of sanctions -- the bloc's 18th since the start of Russia's 2022 invasion -- that also took aim at Moscow's banking sector and military capabilities.

The measures come as allies closely watch whether US President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to punish Moscow over Russian President Vladimir Putin's failure to move forward on a truce.

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Venezuela has freed 10 Americans in exchange for Venezuelans whom the United States had sent to a prison in El Salvador, the U.S. and Salvadoran governments said Friday.

Venezuela also released an unspecified number of Venezuelan political prisoners as part of the deal.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed the exchange in a message on X, saying his government handed over Venezuelans accused of being part of a gang in exchange for "a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners" as well as Americans.

A social media account belonging to the State Department's hostage affairs office posted a photo of the men it said were released from detention in Venezuela on a plane.

In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States welcomed the release of 10 Americans and of Venezuelan political prisoners.

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The Trump administration has decided to destroy $9.7m worth of contraceptives rather than send them abroad to women in need.

A state department spokesperson confirmed that the decision had been made – a move that will cost US taxpayers $167,000. The contraceptives are primarily long-acting, such as IUDs and birth control implants, and were almost certainly intended for women in Africa, according to two senior congressional aides, one of whom visited a warehouse in Belgium that housed the contraceptives. It is not clear to the aides whether the destruction has already been carried out, but said they had been told that it was set to occur by the end of July.

“It is unacceptable that the State Department would move forward with the destruction of more than $9m in taxpayer-funded family planning commodities purchased to support women in crisis settings, including war zones and refugee camps,” Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic senator from New Hampshire, said in a statement. Shaheen and Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii, have introduced legislation to stop the destruction.

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