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Ursula von der Leyen re-elected to a second 5-year term as European Commission president

Ursula von der Leyen reacts after being chosen President of the European Commission for a second term, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 18, 2024. (Reuters)
Ursula von der Leyen reacts after being chosen President of the European Commission for a second term, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 18, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 18 July 2024
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Ursula von der Leyen re-elected to a second 5-year term as European Commission president

Ursula von der Leyen reacts after being chosen President of the European Commission for a second term, at European Parliament.
Updated 18 July 2024
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STRASBOURG, France: Lawmakers at the European Parliament on Thursday re-elected Ursula von der Leyen to a second 5-year term as president of the European Union’s executive commission, giving her a comfortable majority and heading off a possible leadership vacuum.
Von der Leyen raised both fists in victory as the Parliament President Roberta Metsola read out the result at the legislature.
“5 more years. I can’t begin to express how grateful I am for the trust of all MEPs that voted for me,” she said on the social media platform X.
The re-election ensures leadership continuity for the 27-nation bloc as it wrestles with crises ranging from the war in Ukraine to climate change, migration and housing shortages.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was quick to send his congratulations on X, calling von der Leyen’s re-election “a clear sign of our ability to act in the European Union, especially in difficult times. Europeans expect us to take Europe forward. Let’s do it!”
A majority in the 720-seat legislature voted for the German Christian Democrat after a speech in which she pledged to be a strong leader for Europe in a time of crisis and polarization.
Von der Leyen gained 401 of the 707 votes cast. There were 284 votes against her candidacy, 15 abstentions and seven void ballots.
The secret ballot came hot on the heels of strong gains by the far right in last month’s election for the European Parliament.
“I will never let the extreme polarization of our societies become accepted. I will never accept that demagogues and extremists destroy our European way of life. And I stand here today ready to lead the fight with all the Democratic forces in this house,” von der Leyen said in her final pitch.
If lawmakers had rejected her candidacy, it would leave leaders of the 27-nation bloc scrambling to find a replacement as Europe grapples with crises ranging from the war in Ukraine to climate change. Instead, the continent now has an experienced pair of hands at the helm.
In a speech that sought to shore up support from across the political spectrum, von der Leyen pledged to strengthen the EU economy, its police and border agencies, tackle migration and pursue policies tackling climate change while also helping farmers who have staged protests against what they call stifling EU bureaucracy and environmental rules.
She also vowed to tackle housing shortages across Europe and said she would appoint a commissioner for the Mediterranean region due to the multiple challenges it faces.
She also took a swipe at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his recent visit to Russia shortly after his country took over the rotating six-month EU presidency.
“This so-called peace mission was nothing but an appeasement mission,” von der Leyen said as she vowed that Europe would remain shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine.
One radical right lawmaker, Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca of Romania, was escorted out of the parliament’s chamber for heckling a speaker during the debate following von der Leyen’s speech. Iovanovici-Sosoaca briefly wore what appeared to be a muzzle and held up religious icons before being led out of the room.
Over the past five years, von der Leyen has steered the bloc through a series of crises, including Britain’s exit from the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She has also pushed a Green Deal aiming to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050.
Von der Leyen’s election came as newly elected UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was welcoming some 45 heads of government to discuss migration, energy security and the threat from Russia as he seeks to restore relations between the UK and its European neighbors.
EU leaders signed off on the conservative German von der Leyen at a summit meeting late last month. The 65-year-old von der Leyen’s bid was boosted when the European People’s Party, which includes von der Leyen’s Christian Democratic Union, remained the largest group at the EU Parliament after the elections.
The German politician has been praised for her leading role during the coronavirus crisis, when the EU bought vaccines collectively for its citizens. But she also found herself receiving sharp criticism for the opacity of the negotiations with vaccine makers.
The EU general court ruled Wednesday that the commission did not allow the public enough access to information about COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreements it secured with pharmaceutical companies during the pandemic.
Before voting got underway, a majority of lawmakers rejected a motion from a leftist bloc in parliament calling for the election to be delayed until September in light of the court ruling.
Following the elections for EU Parliament, European Union leaders agreed on the officials who will hold the key positions in the world’s biggest trading bloc in the coming years for issues ranging from antitrust investigations to foreign policy. At the side of von der Leyen will be two new faces: Antonio Costa of Portugal as European Council president and Estonia’s Kaja Kallas as the top diplomat of the world’s largest trading bloc.
While Costa’s nomination only needed the leaders’ approval, Kallas will also need to be approved by European lawmakers later this year. The Estonian prime minister is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and a fierce critic of Russia within the European Union and NATO.

Topics: EU European Commission Ursula von der Leyen

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China pushes rivals’ limits in regional disputes

China pushes rivals’ limits in regional disputes
Updated 01 September 2024
AFP
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China pushes rivals’ limits in regional disputes

China pushes rivals’ limits in regional disputes
  • China has in recent months deployed military and coast guard vessels in a bid to eject the Philippines from a trio of strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea
  • China has for years sought to expand its power in the South China Sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis
Updated 01 September 2024
AFP

BEIJING: China’s campaign of confrontation, from remote reefs in Southeast Asia to Taiwan and far-flung Japanese islands, is designed to wear down regional rivals competing with it for contested territories, analysts say.
Beijing in recent years has asserted its claims in the long-running disputes far more boldly as its military strength has grown.
The escalating actions — over islands in the East China Sea claimed by Japan, the self-ruled territory of Taiwan and the South China Sea — have also come as Beijing’s rivals have drawn closer to the United States.
“(China) believes its strong-arm tactics are paying dividends,” Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, told AFP.
China has in recent months deployed military and coast guard vessels in a bid to eject the Philippines from a trio of strategically important reefs and islands in the South China Sea.
“The number of fronts where an accident could spiral suddenly is very real,” Dylan Loh, an assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, told AFP.
The latest flashpoint is Sabina Shoal, just 140 kilometers (86 miles) west of the Philippine island of Palawan and roughly 1,200 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass, the island of Hainan.
On Monday, Beijing said it took “control measures” against two Philippine Coast Guard ships that “illegally” entered the waters near Sabina Shoal.
Manila countered that Chinese vessels had stopped Philippine ships from resupplying their own coast guard vessels in the area — slamming Beijing as the “biggest disruptor” to regional peace.

China has for years sought to expand its power in the South China Sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
It has built artificial islands armed with missile systems and runways for fighter jets, and deployed vessels that the Philippines says harass its ships and block its fishers.
In 2012, Beijing seized control of Scarborough Shoal, another contested area close to the Philippines.
And in June, Chinese coast guard personnel brandishing weapons boarded Philippine vessels near the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, a confrontation in which Manila said one of its sailors lost a thumb.
The recent incidents have come as the Philippines has strengthened ties with traditional ally the United States, with which it has a mutual defense treaty.
Duan said the pact might “deter outright war,” but Beijing still saw a chance to tighten the screws on Manila while Washington was distracted by the ongoing Middle East conflict and the uncertainties around its own presidential election in November.
However the Philippines on Thursday flagged the possibility of US escorts for its resupply missions.
Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told AFP China was trying to “wear down” Filipino resolve.
Beijing is posing a “direct challenge to the Philippines’ ability to administer and make use of its exclusive economic zone,” he said.
They are “trying to push the envelope (but stay) below the threshold of aggression,” he explained.
“They don’t want to lose control of the escalation.”

China’s recent assertiveness has extended far beyond the South China Sea.
Around Taiwan, it has sent increasing numbers of fighter jets, drones and naval vessels as part of a strategy that analysts say is designed to keep the democratic island exhaustingly vigilant against a possible invasion.
Beijing says Taiwan is part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to unify with it.
China has also in recent years ratcheted up pressure over a disputed island group controlled by Japan in the East China Sea.
Tokyo in June protested after four Chinese vessels that were believed to be armed approached the islands, known as the Diaoyu in China and the Senkaku in Japan.
And this week Japan said a Chinese military plane flew into its airspace for the first time, a “serious violation” of its sovereignty.
Beijing has not admitted the incursion near the uninhabited Danjo Islands — uncontestedly Japanese territory — but has said it would have been unintentional.
However, analysts said it may have deliberately aimed to probe Japan’s air defense network and collect electronic intelligence.
“People sometimes look at the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait and the East China Sea... as isolated,” said Chong, of NUS.
“They are not. These are all areas where (China) hopes to be able to establish more control,” he said.
“They’re trying to see how far they can push.”

Topics: South China Sea dispute China Philippines

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With men at the front lines, women watch over Ukraine’s night sky for Russian drones

With men at the front lines, women watch over Ukraine’s night sky for Russian drones
Updated 01 September 2024
AP
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With men at the front lines, women watch over Ukraine’s night sky for Russian drones

With men at the front lines, women watch over Ukraine’s night sky for Russian drones
  • The women come from all walks of life — stay-at-home moms to doctors like Angelina — and call themselves the “Witches of Bucha,” a nod to their role of keeping watch over the night skies for Russian drones
Updated 01 September 2024
AP

KYIV, Ukraine: When the air raid siren bellows in the dead of night, the women in arms rush to duty.
Barely two months since joining the mobile air-defense unit, 27-year-old Angelina has perfected the drill to a tee: Combat gear fitted, anti-aircraft machine gun in place, she cruised behind the wheel of a pickup, singing along to a Ukrainian song about rebellion.
The rest unfolded in seconds: Under a tree-lined position near Kyiv’s Bucha suburb, she and her five-woman unit mounted the gun, checked the salvo and waited. The chirp of crickets filled the silence until the Russian-launched Shahed drone was shot down — on this August night, by a nearby unit — another menace to near daily life in Ukraine eliminated.
To shoot down a drone brings her joy. “It’s just a rush of adrenaline,” said Angelina, who like other women in the unit spoke to The Associated Press on condition only their first names or call signs be used, in keeping with military policy.
Women are increasingly joining volunteer mobile units responsible for shooting down Russian drones that terrorize Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure as more men are sent east to the front line.
While women make up only a tiny fraction of the country’s armed forces, their service is vital. With tens of thousands of men reportedly recruited every month, women have stepped up as crucial operations from coal mines to territorial defense forces accept them to fulfill traditionally male roles.
At least 70 women have been recruited into the Bucha defense forces in recent months for anti-drone operations, said the area’s territorial defense commander, Col. Andrii Velarty. It’s part of a nationwide drive to attract part-time female volunteers to fill the ranks of local defense units.
The women come from all walks of life — stay-at-home moms to doctors like Angelina — and call themselves the “Witches of Bucha,” a nod to their role of keeping watch over the night skies for Russian drones.
Some were motivated to volunteer by the Russian massacre of hundreds of Bucha residents during the monthlong occupation of the Kyiv suburb by Russian troops soon after the February 2022 invasion. Bodies of men, women and children were left on the streets, in homes and in mass graves.
“We were here, saw these horrors,” said Angelina, who treated wounded residents, including children, during the Russian occupation.
So when she spotted a sign calling for female recruits on a highway while driving in June with her friend, Olena, also a doctor, “we didn’t hesitate,” she said.
“We called and were immediately told ‘Yes, come tomorrow,’” she said. “There is work that we can do here.”
A grueling training
At a training session deep inside Bucha’s forest this month, female recruits ranging in age from 27 to 51 were being tested on how quickly they could assemble and disassemble rifles. “I have eighth graders who can do this better,” their instructor shouted.
The recruits were taught about a variety of weapons and mines, tactics and how to detect Russian infiltrators — their skills adapted to a war in which their enemy’s methods are always changing.
“We train no less than men,” said Lidiia, who joined a month ago.
A 34-year-old sales clerk with four children, Lidiia said her main motivation was to do her part to protect her family. Her children have looked at her differently since she began wearing army fatigues, she said.
“My younger son always asks, ‘Mom, do you carry a gun?’ I say, ‘Yes.’ He asks, ‘Do you shoot?’ I say, ‘Of course I do.’”
“I’ve always been the best for them, but now I’m the best in a slightly different way,” she said.
On July 31, she was on duty when Russia launched 89 Shahed drones, all of which were destroyed. Lidiia was an assistant machine-gunner that night.
“We got ready, we went to the call, we found that there were a lot of targets all over Ukraine,” she said. “We had night-vision devices so it was easy to spot the target.”
What did she feel as her unit shot down three of the drones? “Joy and some foul language,” Olena said.
After shooting down drones, the day job begins
When the sun rose, Angelina and Olena removed their heavy combat gear and went home to slip on surgical scrubs. Another shift, this time at the intensive care unit at the hospital where they work, was about to start.
By midnight, they would be back near the tree line, waiting for incoming Russian drones. “Today I slept for two hours and forty minutes,” Olena said.
There is no escape from the war for both women.
Their boyfriends are soldiers, and Angelina, an anesthesiologist, met hers at the hospital where he was recovering from a combat wound to his foot.
Seeing the numbers of wounded Ukrainian soldiers was one reason she decided to volunteer.
“To bring our victory closer. If we can do something to help, why not?” she said.
Angelina’s boyfriend worries every time she is on duty and the air raid alarm sounds. He texts her, “be careful” and when it ends, “write to me” — despite it being much scarier on the front lines, she said.
‘We are no longer women, we are soldiers’
The Russian drone attacks are typically more intense at night, but daytime attacks are just as deadly. The drone unit spends entire nights driving back and forth from their base in the forest to the position. Sometimes they stand there for hours waiting to shoot.
“There is nothing easy about it. In order to shoot it down, you have to train constantly,” Angelina said. “I have to train all the time, including on simulators.”
Their platoon commander, a confident woman with long braided hair who goes by the call sign Calypso, leads training in shooting, assault skills and combat medicine every Sunday.
There’s no difference between the male and female volunteers, she said.
“From the moment we come to serve, sign a contract, we are no longer women, we are soldiers,” she said. “We have to do our job, and men also understand this. We don’t come here to sit around and cook borscht or anything.”
“I have a feeling the girls and I would shoot down these Shaheds with our bare hands, with a stick, if we had to — anything to stop them from landing on our children, friends and family.”
The women in the mobile-fire units are on duty every two or three days. They work in groups of five, with a machine gunner, assistant, fire support, a driver and commander.
“Of course, war is war, but no one has canceled femininity,” Calypso said. “It doesn’t matter whether you hit a Shahed with painted eyes or not, the work is still going on. And not everyone has a manicure.”
As more women are trained to join the ranks of the territorial defense forces, the safer Ukraine’s skies will be, Angelina said.
“This means that I can make at least some small contribution to the fact that my mother sleeps peacefully, that my brothers and sisters go to school peacefully and they can meet their friends peacefully,” she said.
“So that my godsons can also grow under a relatively peaceful sky.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russian drones Ukraine

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Raphinha bags hat-trick as Barca trounce Valladolid in La Liga

Raphinha bags hat-trick as Barca trounce Valladolid in La Liga
Updated 01 September 2024
AFP
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Raphinha bags hat-trick as Barca trounce Valladolid in La Liga

Raphinha bags hat-trick as Barca trounce Valladolid in La Liga
  • Raphinha opened the scoring for Barcelona at the Olympic Stadium on 20 minutes as he chested down a pass from Pau Cubarsi and flicked elegantly into the far corner with the outside of his left boot
Updated 01 September 2024
AFP

BARCELONA: Brazil winger Raphinha scored a hat-trick as Barcelona thrashed Real Valladolid 7-0 on Saturday to make it four wins from four in La Liga under new coach Hansi Flick.
While bitter rivals Real Madrid have stumbled early following the much-trumpeted arrival of Kylian Mbappe, Barcelona are off to a flying start despite their continued financial difficulties.
They are also missing Frenkie de Jong, Gavi and Ronald Araujo but have a maximum 12 points heading into the international break, leaving them seven clear of Madrid who face Real Betis on Sunday.
“We’re growing as a team. I think it’s a very good start to the season,” said Barcelona captain Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
“I’m proud of how things are going... hopefully we can continue like that in the next weeks.”
Barcelona’s best start to a La Liga campaign came in 2013-14 when they started the season with eight straight wins, although they were pipped to the title that year by Atletico Madrid.
Raphinha opened the scoring for Barcelona at the Olympic Stadium on 20 minutes as he chested down a pass from Pau Cubarsi and flicked elegantly into the far corner with the outside of his left boot.
Robert Lewandowski soon doubled the lead when he latched onto a ball through from Lamine Yamal and squeezed a shot past Valladolid goalkeeper Karl Hein, on loan from Arsenal.
Jules Kounde made it three before half-time when a corner dropped to the France defender inside the area and he stabbed into the top corner while off-balance.
Raphinha had a simple tap-in from close range just past the hour, with Lewandowski and Yamal involved before the ball broke kindly for the Brazilian.
He completed his treble on 72 minutes following a brilliant burst forward from Yamal, who then slid through a delightful pass for Raphinha to stroke home.
Dani Olmo, who got the winner midweek at Rayo Vallecano, on his debut, struck with his final touch after twice hitting the post and having a goal disallowed for offside.
The Spain international danced past a series of defenders and rolled in Barcelona’s sixth. He missed Barcelona’s first two games this term with the club unable to register him as they struggled to meet La Liga’s strict financial rules.
Raphinha rounded off a glittering performance with the assist for Ferran Torres as Barcelona hit a seventh, fizzing in a cross from the left for the substitute to steer home in clinical fashion.
Atletico snatched a 1-0 victory away to Athletic Bilbao as Angel Correa scored in stoppage time to send Diego Simeone’s side up to second, four points adrift of Barcelona.
Espanyol came from behind to win 2-1 at home to Rayo Vallecano with Tottenham loanee Alejo Veliz striking in the sixth minute of added time.
Ayoze Perez’s equalizer ensured Villarreal remained unbeaten, but they had to settle for a 1-1 draw against a Valencia side that had lost each of their first three games.
Mallorca picked up their first win of the season by beating Leganes 1-0.

Topics: La Liga Raphinha Valladolid Barca

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Trump ‘disrespected sacred ground’ at US military cemetery, VP Harris says

Trump ‘disrespected sacred ground’ at US military cemetery, VP Harris says
Updated 01 September 2024
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Trump ‘disrespected sacred ground’ at US military cemetery, VP Harris says

Trump ‘disrespected sacred ground’ at US military cemetery, VP Harris says
  • “Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” Harris said.
  • In one image, Trump is standing with family members of a fallen Marine, posing among headstones while grinning broadly and giving a thumbs-up
Updated 01 September 2024
AP

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Saturday that her Republican rival Donald Trump “disrespected sacred ground” at a US military cemetery during a contentious pre-election visit.
Trump’s presence at the hallowed Arlington National Cemetery — intended to provide a campaign boost ahead of the November 5 vote — has instead mushroomed into a public dispute consuming the candidates and the military.
In Monday’s incident at the cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, Trump broke rules barring photography for political purposes, posing with relatives of US service members killed in Afghanistan in content that was later shared by his campaign on social media.
“Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt,” Harris said.
In one image, he is standing with family members of a fallen Marine, posing among headstones while grinning broadly and giving a thumbs-up.
“If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude,” Harris wrote on X.

On Thursday, the US Army issued a rare statement confirming that a cemetery staff member had been “abruptly pushed aside” after asking Trump’s team to stop filming in a burial section for those killed in recent wars, where photography for political purposes is banned.
Trump’s campaign team has gone on the offensive by describing the employee as a “despicable individual” and claiming she was suffering a mental health episode.
But the military said the staff member had “acted with professionalism” and it condemned the incident as “unfortunate.”
Trump spoke at length at a rally Friday night about the cemetery incident and Afghanistan and said it was families of fallen troops who asked to have their picture taken with him.
“I said ‘Absolutely.’ I wasn’t doing it for — I don’t need publicity, I get a lot of publicity. I would like to get a lot less publicity,” Trump said in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Trump blamed the White House for the criticism he is drawing.
“Joe Biden killed those young people because he was incompetent. And then they tell me that I used their graves for public relations purposes. And I didn’t. And I’ll tell you what, it was a disgrace,” Trump said.
Trump has made criticism of the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the US retreat from Afghanistan a keynote of his campaign, arguing that he would have managed it better.
He visited the cemetery with families of some of the 13 service members killed in a 2021 bombing in Kabul during the last, chaotic hours of the US withdrawal.
Trump’s relationship with the military has long spawned controversy.
While often touting his support for the armed forces, he privately mocked the war dead while he was president and did not want to be seen near military amputees, according to his former chief of staff.

Harris’s blunt response Saturday appeared to underline her determination to take the fight directly to Trump in what is shaping up to be a bruising presidential election.
Trump has repeatedly mocked Harris’s name, intelligence, appearance and racial identity, while the Harris campaign has replied that the former president is “weird,” an aspiring dictator, and “out of his mind.”
Harris earlier faced withering criticism over the cemetery incident from Trump’s running mate, Senator J.D. Vance.
Apparently responding to a mistaken report that Harris had already reacted to the visit, Vance accused her of feigning outrage and said, “She can go to hell.”
“Don’t focus on Donald Trump showing up to grieve with some people who lost their children. Focus on your own job. Don’t do this fake outrage thing,” he later told the Washington Post.
At that point Harris had not publicly mentioned the cemetery visit.
Kevin Carroll, who served as a senior aide to Trump’s homeland security chief John Kelly, voiced scathing criticism of Trump’s behavior in an opinion piece published Friday in The Guardian newspaper.
“The photo of a grinning Trump giving a jaunty thumbs-up over these patriots’ graves is an indelible image of narcissism risen to the point of sociopathy,” Carroll wrote.

 

 

 

 


 

Topics: US Election 2024 Arlington National Cemetery

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On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world

On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world
Updated 01 September 2024
AP
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On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world

On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world
  • Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, with tens of millions of users
Updated 01 September 2024
AP

SAO PAULO: The blocking of social media platform X in Brazil divided users and politicians over the legitimacy of the ban, and many Brazilians on Saturday had difficulty and doubts over navigating other social media in its absence.
The shutdown of Elon Musk’s platform started early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and through mobile apps after the billionaire refused to name a legal representative to the country, missing a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The blockade marks an escalation in a monthslong feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.
Brazil is one of the biggest markets for X, with tens of millions of users.
“I’ve got the feeling that I have no idea what’s happening in the world right now. Bizarre,” entertainment writer and heavy X user Chico Barney wrote on Threads. Threads is a text-based app developed by Instagram that Barney was using as an alternative. “This Threads algorithm is like an all-you-can-eat restaurant where the waiter keeps serving things I would never order.”
Bluesky, a social media platform that was launched last year as an alternative to X and other more established sites, has seen a large influx of Brazilians in the past couple of days. The company said Friday it has seen about 200,000 new users from Brazil sign up during that time, and the number “continues to grow by the minute.” Brazilian users are also setting records for activities such as follows and likes, Bluesky said.
Previous users of other platforms welcomed Brazilians to their ranks. “Hello literally everyone in Brazil,” a user wrote on Threads. “We’re a lot nicer than Twitter here,” said another.
Platform migration isn’t new for Brazilians. They were huge adopters of Orkut and, when Orkut went kaput, they very gladly moved to other platforms.
X is not as popular in Brazil as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. However, it remains an important platform on which Brazilians engage in political debates and is highly influential among politicians, journalists and other opinion makers.
It’s also where they share their sense of humor. Many of the country’s most famous memes originate from posts on X before spreading to other social networks. Last week, for instance, Brazilians collaboratively crafted an absurd storyline for a fictional telenovela, complete with a theme song created using artificial intelligence tools.
Pop stars and their fanbases were also hit by Brazilians being left off the platform.
“Wait a lot of my fan pages are Brazilian!!! Come back hold up!!,” Cardi B said Friday on X. A fan page dedicated to Timothée Chalamet, known by the handle TimotheeUpdates, said it would temporarily cease updating as all of its administrators are Brazilian.
De Moraes said X will stay suspended until it complies with his orders, and he also set a daily fine of 50,000 reais ($8,900) for people or companies using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access it. Some legal experts questioned the grounds for that decision and how it would be enforced. Others suggested the move was authoritarian.
The Brazilian Bar Association said Friday in a statement that it would request the Supreme Court review the fines imposed on all citizens using VPNs or other means to access X without due process. Brazil’s bar association argued that sanctions should never be imposed summarily before ensuring an adversarial process and the right to full defense.
“I’ve used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social networks,” Maurício Santoro, a political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, said on the platform before its shutdown. “It never occurred to me that this type of tool would be banned in Brazil. It’s dystopian.”
A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they are logging on from outside the country.
“Tyrants want to turn Brazil into another commie dictatorship but we won’t back down. I repeat: do not vote on those who don’t respect free speech. Orwell was right,” right-wing congressman Nikolas Ferreira, one of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s closest allies, published before X went off. Musk replied with an emoji suggesting agreement: “100”.
Ferreira is a 28-year-old YouTuber who received the most votes of the 513 elected federal lawmakers in the 2022 election. De Moraes ordered the block of his social media accounts after a mob of Bolsonaro supporters attacked Brazil’s Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court in January 2023 seeking to overturn the election.
Lawmaker Bia Kicis said “the consequences of Alexandre de Moraes’ attacks to Elon Musk, X and Starlink will be regrettable for Brazilians.” She also urged Rodrigo Pacheco, the president of the country’s Senate, to act. Kicis has repeatedly urged Pacheco to open impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court justice.
“We need to leave this state of apathy and stop the worst from happening,” the pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker, whose profiles were temporarily blocked by de Moraes in 2022, also said.
The former president said Saturday on Instagram that X’s departure from Brazil was “another blow to our freedom and legal security.”
“It not only affects our freedom of expression, but also undermines the confidence of international companies in operating on Brazilian soil, with impacts ranging from national security to the quality of the information that reaches our citizens,” Bolsonaro said.
On Friday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva backed de Moraes’ decision and took aim at Musk for positioning himself as though he was above the law during an interview with Radio MaisPB.
“Any citizen, from anywhere in the world, who has investments in Brazil, is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian laws. Therefore, if the Supreme Court has made a decision for citizens to comply with certain things, they either have to comply or take another course of action,” Lula said. “It’s not because the guy has a lot of money that he can disrespect it.”
Ana Júlia Alves de Oliveira, an 18-year-old student, shared that many young people like her no longer watch newscasts or read newspapers, relying solely on social media platforms like X for their news. Without this platform, she felt disconnected.
“I kind of lost touch with what’s going on around the world,” she said. “I saw a lot of entertainment there too, so this is a new reality for me.”

Topics: Brazil X Elon Musk Brazilians

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Tesla and SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk (L) and Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes. (Agencies)
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