In a statement published Friday (Dec. 12), the US government removed the name of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes from the list of persons under the Magnitsky Act.

The name of his wife, lawyer Viviane Barci de Moraes, and the Lex Institute, linked to the justice’s family, were also scrapped.

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The decision was made by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury.

The Magnitsky Act sanctions were imposed on Justice Alexandre de Moraes by the Donald Trump administration in late July. In September, his wife’s name was also added to the list.

The act

The Magnitsky Act is a tool in US law used to unilaterally punish alleged human rights violators abroad. Among other things, the measure blocks the assets and companies of those targeted by the sanctions in the US.

Among the penalties are the freezing of bank accounts, assets, and holdings within US jurisdiction, as well as a ban on entry into the country.

In applying the sanction to Moraes, the US Department of the Treasury accused Justice Alexandre de Moraes of violating freedom of expression and authorizing “arbitrary arrests,” citing the trial of the attempted coup by Brazilian former President Bolsonaro as well as court decisions against US social media companies.

According to Treasury Secretary Scot Besset, Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions, “including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday (24) received an honorary doctorate in political science, development, and international cooperation from the Pedagogical University of Maputo. Lula is visiting Mozambique’s capital to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The honor recognizes Lula’s career and Brazil’s contribution to advancing education and science in Mozambique.

According to the university’s rector, Jorge Ferrão, more than 30 percent of Mozambique’s senior scientific staff - including holders of master’s and doctoral degrees - graduated from Brazilian higher education institutions through cooperation agreements signed during President Lula’s administrations.

“The Pedagogical University of Maputo opens its doors with a full heart because our gratitude is supreme and never-ending,” said the rector, noting that the title was also awarded on behalf of other Mozambican institutions.

The rector emphasized that academic cooperation is a two-way street and noted that, in 2024, the Pedagogical University of Maputo welcomed about 600 young people from Brazilian indigenous communities.

In a project with the Federal University of Maranhão, the Mozambican institution also committed to participating in the formulation and teaching of Afro-Brazilian history and culture in the Brazilian curriculum.

Best investment

Upon receiving the honor, President Lula cited several educational and anti-inequality policies developed in Brazil and reaffirmed that resources invested in education are not expenses, but “the best investment” a government can make.

“I know how much abuse we suffer for not having had the opportunity [to study]. That is why education, for me, is an obligation,” Lula emphasized, to loud applause from the audience.

Lula also pointed out that Brazil owes a great deal to the African continent, which helped “forge the country’s soul” during its 300 years of slavery, and stated that the undergraduate cooperation program for foreign students has been operating in Brazil for 60 years.

“International cooperation is only fair when it is based on solidarity and respect for the dignity and sovereignty of each country. This is the model that Brazil believes in,” Lula said.

On Monday (Nov. 24), Brazil and Mozambique signed nine cooperation agreements to strengthen the latter’s institutional capacity in development, health care, education, diplomacy, entrepreneurship, trade, civil aviation, legal assistance, and agroforestry.

In Maputo, the capital of the African country, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he intends to restore the capacity of Brazil’s development bank BNDES to finance Brazilian companies abroad, benefiting both Brazil and partner nations like Mozambique.

“Mozambique is a developing country that still has infrastructure gaps to fill. Its growth depends on ports, roads, power plants, and transmission lines. Brazil has dynamic companies capable of making a contribution,” he said in a statement to the press alongside Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo.

In order to export these services, Lula believes that Brazil must offer credit options to finance the internationalization of the country’s businesses, which has already been done via BNDES.

The Brazilian delegation arrived in Maputo on Sunday (24) from Johannesburg, South Africa, where Lula participated in the G20 Leaders’ Summit.

The trip to Mozambique is part of the celebrations of 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which are also partners in the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP).

The Ministry of Foreign Relations has also noted that, upon assuming his third term in 2023, the president made it clear that he would resume relations with African countries as a foreign policy priority.

“Brazil has lost its way down dark paths and, in the process, forgotten its ties with Africa. Many of the seeds we had sown did not have time to take root. But it is time to regain our conscience,” Lula declared.

In 2023, he visited South Africa, Angola, and São Tomé and Príncipe. In 2024, he visited Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as receiving the president of Benin on an official visit. In 2025, he welcomed the presidents of Angola and Nigeria. In May this year, Brazil also hosted a meeting of agriculture ministers.

Trade

Mozambique is the largest beneficiary of Brazilian cooperation with resources from the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) in Africa, covering a wide range of areas – health care, agriculture, education, professional training, among others. Since 2015, 67 initiatives have been formed.

The two countries also plan to expand trade and investment. To this end, a forum was organized with Brazilian and Mozambican executives featuring panels on agribusiness, industry and innovation, and health care. Lula should participate in the closing ceremony of the event on Monday.

Trade between Brazil and Mozambique totaled USD 40.5 million in 2024, with Brazilian exports totaling USD 37.8 million and imports totaling USD 2.7 million.

The products exported consist mainly of fresh, frozen, or chilled poultry meat (41%), perfumery or toilet articles (4.7%), and furniture and parts thereof (5%). Imports consist mainly of ungraded or stemmed tobacco (95%).

The government understands that, despite limited trade flows, Brazil’s commercial and institutional relations with African countries are part of a political project to combine cooperation for the development and education of these nations.

Today, Lula cited, for example, the strengthening of the Brazilian health industrial complex, which will once again enable the production of pharmaceuticals and medicines in Mozambique.

The president also revealed that, in 2026, the Ministry of Education and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency will offer up to 80 places for training courses in agricultural sciences and up to 400 places for technical courses in agriculture to Mozambican employees. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) will reinforce this initiative by training technicians from the African country.

“No one is better than Brazil to contribute to food security in Mozambique. With the right technology, we can increase productivity in the African savanna without compromising the environment,” he pointed out.

“With the same sense of priority, we are working to include Mozambique among the countries covered by the accelerated implementation phase of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty,” he added.

The Brazilian president also mentioned potential partnerships for forest conservation, energy transition, audiovisual and literary production, and efforts to against organized crime.

“The Brazilian government has been working intelligently to dismantle criminal networks and strangle their sources of financing. The Brazilian Federal Police is internationally recognized for its ability to track illicit assets and combat money laundering. It is available to share its experience and expand its collaboration with Mozambique,” Lula added.

In addition to the working meeting with President Daniel Chapo and the meeting with business leaders, Lula will receive an honorary doctorate from the Pedagogical University of Maputo.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued a warning this Sunday (Nov. 23) about the need to discuss countries’ sovereignty over the knowledge and added value of critical minerals. Lula spoke during the final thematic session of the G20 Leaders’ Summit – a gathering of the world’s largest economies in Johannesburg, South Africa.

On the agenda were critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and decent work - topics that were also discussed at the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), which concluded this weekend in Belém, northern Brazil.

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“The way we integrate these three vectors of development will define not only our present but also the future of the next generations,” said the Brazilian president.

Critical minerals are essential resources for strategic sectors such as technology, defense, and the energy transition, with their supply subject to risks of scarcity or dependence on a limited number of suppliers.

These minerals include lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements, which are fundamental for electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, and semiconductors.

This G20 Summit, under the South African presidency, will issue a document on critical minerals that emphasizes processing these resources in their countries of origin and outlines the principles to be observed in their extraction and processing.

For Lula, the energy transition offers opportunities to expand technological frontiers and redefine the role of natural resource exploitation.

“Countries with a large concentration of mineral reserves cannot be seen as mere suppliers while remaining on the sidelines of technological innovation. What is at stake is not only who holds these resources, but who controls the knowledge and added value derived from them,” the president told the leaders.

“Talking about critical minerals is also talking about sovereignty. Sovereignty is not measured by the quantity of natural deposits, but by the ability to transform resources through policies that benefit the population. We need environmentally and socially responsible investments that help strengthen the industrial and technological base of countries that possess these resources,” said Lula.

Brazil, for example, holds about 10 percent of the world’s reserves of these elements, according to the Brazilian Mining Institute (Ibram), an organization representing the private sector.

In the country, research indicates that the pursuit of minerals needed for energy transition projects is already causing conflicts in new exploratory areas. Another study shows that this pursuit accelerates the climate crisis.

Lula recalled that Brazil created the National Council for Critical and Strategic Minerals to plan mineral exploration policies and stated that the country will not only be an exporter but also a partner in the global value chain for these elements.

AI and decent work

Similarly, the president argued that artificial intelligence (AI) represents a “unique opportunity” to promote equitable development for nations. He advocates establishing global and representative governance on the subject to ensure its benefits are shared.

“[AI] promotes innovation, increases productivity, encourages sustainable practices, and can improve people’s lives in a concrete way. The great challenge is not only to master the tool, but also to ensure that everyone can use it safely, securely, and reliably,” he said.

“When a few control the algorithms, the data, and the infrastructures linked to economic processes, innovation begins to generate exclusion. It is essential to prevent a new form of colonialism: the digital kind. It is urgent that the world’s largest economies deepen the debate on AI governance, with the United Nations at the center of this discussion,” the president added.

Lula also recalled that 2.6 billion people lack access to the digital world. According to him, 93 percent of the population in high-income countries has Internet access, compared with only 27 percent in low-income countries.

Finally, the president argued that technological development should be linked to job opportunities and worker protection, noting that 40 percent of the world’s workforce is in roles highly exposed to AI, at risk of automation or technological augmentation.

“Every solar panel, every chip, every line of code must carry the mark of social inclusion,” he noted. “We must build bridges between traditional and emerging sectors. Technology must strengthen - not weaken - human and labor rights,” Lula told the G20 leaders.

Agenda

The G20 is the main forum for international economic cooperation, created in 1999 following the Asian financial crisis. In 2008, it also became a political body, with summits of heads of state and government.

In 2025, South Africa will chair the G20 under the motto “Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability,” focusing on four priorities: strengthening resilience and disaster response capacity; ensuring the sustainability of public debt in low-income countries; financing a just energy transition; and promoting critical minerals as drivers of development and economic growth.

The South African presidency concludes a cycle in which every member country will have held the group’s leadership at least once.

On the sidelines of the summit this Sunday, Lula also met with the leaders of the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA). The trilateral initiative was launched in 2003 to promote cooperation among countries of the Global South.

Lula landed in Johannesburg on Friday (21) and spoke on Saturday (22) at the first two thematic sessions of the G20, covering sustainable and inclusive economic growth as well as climate change and disaster risk reduction.

He also held bilateral meetings with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Later today, the president will travel to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, for a working visit on Monday (24). The trip is part of the celebrations marking 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Lula is expected to return to Brazil later the same day.