Brazil's Lula Criticizes US Dollar and IMF during China Visit

Brazilian President Lula da Silva speaks during the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as the head of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, on April 13, 2023. Ricardo Stuckert, Reuters
Brazilian President Lula da Silva speaks during the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as the head of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, on April 13, 2023. Ricardo Stuckert, Reuters
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Brazil's Lula Criticizes US Dollar and IMF during China Visit

Brazilian President Lula da Silva speaks during the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as the head of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, on April 13, 2023. Ricardo Stuckert, Reuters
Brazilian President Lula da Silva speaks during the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff as the head of the New Development Bank in Shanghai, on April 13, 2023. Ricardo Stuckert, Reuters

The two countries have recently announced a deal to trade in their own currencies, dropping the dollar as an intermediary. Lula also criticized the IMF, accusing it of 'asphyxiating' the economy of certain countries.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticized the outsize role of the US dollar in the world economy and lashed out at the IMF on Thursday during an official visit to China, AFP said.

The veteran leftist, whose government recently announced a deal with Beijing to trade in their own currencies – ditching the dollar as an intermediary – is in China to boost ties with his country's top trading partner and spread his message that "Brazil is back" as a key player on the global stage.

"Why should every country have to be tied to the dollar for trade?... Who decided the dollar would be the (world's) currency?" Lula said in Shanghai at a ceremony to inaugurate his political ally Dilma Rousseff as president of the development bank set up by the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

"Why can't a bank like the BRICS bank have a currency to finance trade between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other BRICS countries?... Today, countries have to chase after dollars to export, when they could be exporting in their own currencies."

Lula also had strong words for the International Monetary Fund, alluding to accusations the IMF forces overly harsh spending cuts on cash-strapped countries like Brazil's neighbor Argentina in exchange for bailout loans.

"No bank should be asphyxiating countries' economies the way the IMF is doing now with Argentina, or the way they did with Brazil for a long time and every third-world country," he said. "No leader can work with a knife to their throat because (their country) owes money."

'Brazil is back!'
Lula, who took office in January, is looking to reposition Brazil as a global go-between and deal broker, seeking friendly ties across the board after four years of relative isolation under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

He is due to meet with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, and also visited US President Joe Biden in February.

"Brazil is back!" Lula promised in Shanghai, where he arrived on Wednesday night. "The time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is in the past. We are back on the international stage, after an inexplicable absence."

One of the main topics on the agenda, when Lula and Xi meet on Friday, is expected to be the Ukraine war. Both China and Brazil have positioned themselves as mediators in the conflict, despite Western concerns that they are overly cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both countries have refused to join Western nations in imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion.

Trade ties
The Shanghai leg of Lula's trip highlighted another key goal of the visit –- deepening trade ties between the Asian giant and Latin America's biggest economy. China is Brazil's biggest export market, buying tens of billions of dollars' worth of soybeans, beef and iron ore.

Under the currency deal announced in March, Brazil and China have named two banks – one in each country – to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions by directly exchanging yuan for reais and vice versa, instead of going through the dollar. China has similar deals with Russia, Pakistan and several other countries.

After Rousseff's inauguration, Lula visited a research center run by Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Huawei's chair walked him through an exhibition showcasing the company's extensive presence in Brazil – a contrast with the United States, where companies are effectively barred from doing business with the firm.

Lula also met the head of China's biggest electric carmaker, BYD, which said in October that it planned to set up a vehicle manufacturing plant in northern Brazil's Bahia after Ford Motors closed its factory there. The company is already making electric buses and cars in Brazil for the Latin American market.

Lula, who previously led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, is seeking to smooth relations with China, after ties deteriorated under Bolsonaro.

The 77-year-old president was initially scheduled to make the trip in late March, but had to postpone it after coming down with pneumonia.

He is travelling with a large delegation of about 40 high-level officials, including cabinet ministers, governors and members of Congress.



Iran Weighs Retaliation for US Strikes as Trump Raises Idea of Regime Change

A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex, after the US struck the underground nuclear facility, near Qom, Iran June 22, 2025. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/Handout via REUTERS
A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex, after the US struck the underground nuclear facility, near Qom, Iran June 22, 2025. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/Handout via REUTERS
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Iran Weighs Retaliation for US Strikes as Trump Raises Idea of Regime Change

A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex, after the US struck the underground nuclear facility, near Qom, Iran June 22, 2025. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/Handout via REUTERS
A satellite view shows an overview of Fordow underground complex, after the US struck the underground nuclear facility, near Qom, Iran June 22, 2025. MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/Handout via REUTERS

Iran and Israel traded air and missile strikes as the world braced on Monday for Tehran's response to the US attack on its nuclear sites and US President Donald Trump raised the idea of regime change in Iran. Iran vowed to defend itself on Sunday, a day after the US joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the country since its 1979 Iranian Revolution, despite calls for restraint and a return to diplomacy from around the world. Commercial satellite imagery indicated the US attack on Saturday on Iran’s subterranean Fordow nuclear plant severely damaged or destroyed the deeply buried site and the uranium-enriching centrifuges it housed, but the status of the site remained unconfirmed, experts said.

In his latest social media comments on the US strikes, Trump said "Monumental Damage was done to all Nuclear sites in Iran."

"The biggest damage took place far below ground level. Bullseye!!!" he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump earlier called on Iran to forgo any retaliation and said the government "must now make peace" or "future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier."

The US launched 75 precision-guided munitions including bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk missiles against three Iranian nuclear sites, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, told reporters.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said no increases in off-site radiation levels had been reported after the US strikes. Rafael Grossi, the agency's director general, told CNN that it was not yet possible to assess the damage done underground.

A senior Iranian source told Reuters that most of the highly enriched uranium at Fordow had been moved elsewhere before the attack. Reuters could not immediately corroborate the claim.

Tehran, which denies its nuclear program is for anything other than peaceful purposes, sent a volley of missiles at Israel in the aftermath of the US attack, wounding scores of people and destroying buildings in Tel Aviv. But it had not acted on its main threats of retaliation, to target US bases or choke off the global oil shipments that pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Attempting to strangle the strait could send global oil prices skyrocketing, derail the world economy and invite conflict with the US Navy's massive Fifth Fleet based in the Gulf. Oil prices jumped on Monday to their highest since January. Brent crude futures were up $1.52 or 1.97% to $78.53 a barrel as of 0503 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude advanced $1.51 or 2.04% to $75.35.

Iran's parliament has approved a move to close the strait, which Iran shares with Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Iran's Press TV said any such move would require approval from the Supreme National Security Council, a body led by an appointee of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Caine said the US military had increased protection of troops in the region, including in Iraq and Syria. The US State Department issued a security alert for all US citizens abroad, calling on them to "exercise increased caution."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to encourage Iran to not shut down the strait, telling Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" show it would be a "terrible mistake."

"It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries' economies a lot worse than ours," he said.

The Israeli military said on Monday about 20 jets had conducted a wave of strikes against military targets in western Iran and Tehran overnight. ⁠In Kermanshah, in western Iran, missile and radar infrastructure was targeted, and in Tehran a surface-to-air missile launcher was struck, it said.

A missile launched from Iran in the early hours of Monday was intercepted by Israeli defenses, it said. Air raid sirens blared overnight in Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.

Iranian news agencies reported air defenses were activated in central Tehran districts to counter "enemy targets", and that Israeli air strikes hit Parchin, the location of a military complex southeast of the capital.

Israel's state broadcaster reported that an Israeli Hermes drone was shot down in Iranian territory, the fourth to be shot down in the area since the start of the campaign.

REGIME CHANGE

In a post to the Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump raised the idea of regime change in Iran.

"It’s not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!" he wrote.

Trump's post came after officials in his administration, including US Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, stressed they were not working to overthrow Iran's government.

Israeli officials, who began the hostilities with a surprise attack on Iran on June 13, have increasingly spoken of their ambition to topple the hardline Shi'ite clerical establishment.

As Tehran weighed its options, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday. The Kremlin has a strategic partnership with Iran, but also close links with Israel.

Speaking in Istanbul on Sunday, Araghchi said his country would consider all possible responses and there would be no return to diplomacy until it had retaliated.

Russia's foreign ministry condemned the US attacks which it said had undermined the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and warned of conflict spreading in the Middle East. The UN Security Council met on Sunday to discuss the US strikes as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council the US bombings in Iran marked a perilous turn in the region and urged a return to negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Commercial airlines were weighing how long to suspend Middle East flights after the US struck Iran. The Middle East route has become more important for flights between Europe and Asia but flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed empty space on Sunday over Iran, Iraq, Syria and Israel.