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Brasilia, June 16 (Prensa Latina) Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) will begin today the trial against former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, accused of promoting actions from the United States to pressure national authorities and influence processes on the coup plot.

The case will be analyzed by the First Chamber of the highest court, made up of judges Alexandre de Moraes, Flávio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Cármen Lúcia.

Eduardo, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, faces criminal charges brought by the Attorney General's Office (PGR), which accuses him of arranging contacts and negotiations in the United States with the aim of promoting sanctions against Supreme Federal Court (STF) ministers and economic measures that would affect Brazil.

The investigation into the matter was opened in May 2025, when Eduardo Bolsonaro was already residing in the United States.

According to the indictment, the former congressman acted alongside journalist Paulo Figueiredo to mobilize political support among authorities and allies of the US government in order to punish members of the Brazilian judiciary and increase pressure on national institutions.

Prosecutors believe that such movements were intended to influence the development of the legal proceedings involving former President Jair Bolsonaro and others accused of participating in maneuvers to reverse the 2022 election results.

This complaint attributes to the former deputy the crimes of coercion during the process, obstruction of the investigation of a criminal organization, attempted abolition of the Democratic State of Law and attack against national sovereignty, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper detailed.

Yesterday, STF Minister Alexandre de Moraes rejected a request from the Public Defender's Office of the Union (DPU) to postpone today's session.

In that request, the defense argued that the First Chamber currently operates with only four members and questioned De Moraes' participation, as he is among the alleged victims of the sanctions promoted by the accused.

However, the magistrate stated that the STF's internal regulations allow the courts to function with a minimum of three judges and ruled out any procedural irregularity.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lost his parliamentary mandate due to repeated absences from the sessions of the Chamber of Deputies, will not be present at the hearing and will be represented by the DPU.

The defense maintains that its actions are protected by parliamentary immunity and freedom of expression, and argues that any measure adopted by the United States responds to sovereign decisions of that country.

A potential conviction could result in prison sentences and also disqualify the former legislator from competing in future elections under the Clean Slate Law.

Istanbul, June 16 (Prensa Latina) The first Iranian ships sailed without incident through the area where the United States maintained a naval blockade, following the agreement reached between Washington and Tehran to end hostilities, the Iranian Fars news agency reported today.

According to the semi-official media outlet, the maritime transit occurred after US President Donald Trump ordered the lifting of naval restrictions as part of the understanding reached between the two nations.

The agency specified that an Iranian VLCC supertanker and a livestock carrier sailed from international waters bound for Iranian ports, while another tanker crossed the Sea of ​​Oman heading to its assigned export terminal.

Fars did not offer additional details about the final destination of the vessels or the cargo carried by the tankers.

The passage of the ships comes two days after the United States and Iran, with Pakistan mediating, announced a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the conflict triggered by the military offensive launched by Washington and Tel Aviv against Iranian territory on February 28.

While the US president asserted that the agreement had already been signed and that the Strait of Hormuz would be fully open starting Friday, Iranian authorities indicated that the official signing of the memorandum would take place in Geneva, Switzerland, on that same date.

According to analysts cited by regional media, the measures adopted so far represent a preliminary application of the ceasefire and the temporary lifting of the maritime blockade imposed on Iran, while preparations are underway for the public signing of the agreement and the start of a 60-day period of technical negotiations on various bilateral issues.

The United States had imposed restrictions on maritime traffic linked to Iranian ports, including those located in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, since April 13, a move that affected one of the main routes for global trade and energy supply.

The driver stopped by the police identified himself as an employee of the GSI (Institutional Security Office). Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Federal Court (STF), determined this Tuesday (16) that the defense of former president Jair Messias Bolsonaro must provide clarifications, within 24 hours, about a firearm owned by Bolsonaro seized in a blitz by the Military Police of the Federal District (PMDF) last night (15) .

The former president has been under house arrest since March 24 , when he left the DF Star Hospital in Brasília after being hospitalized to treat bacterial pneumonia.

According to Moraes' decision, the weapon was seized at 11:30 pm last Monday (15), when a Honda Civic was stopped at a checkpoint on Pistão Norte, in Taguatinga. During the approach, the driver identified himself as an employee of the Institutional Security Office of the Presidency of the Republic (GSI) and said that the weapon belonged to the former president.

During the raid, a spare magazine for the 9mm Glock pistol was also found. The driver was taken to a police station, where he stated that the weapon had been given to him due to a malfunction. In his statement, he further reported that he had taken the pistol on the 15th itself in order to carry out the repair and that the weapon would be returned the following day.

In his decision, Moraes asks Bolsonaro's defense to clarify why the former president kept a firearm at home, with a spare magazine, and why, on the eve of the end of the 90-day period granted as humanitarian house arrest, the convicted man requested repairs to the weapon.

The minister also requests that Lieutenant Colonel Allenson Nascimento Lopes, commander of the 19th Battalion of the PMDF (Military Police of the Federal District) and responsible for security measures under the humanitarian house arrest regime, clarify whether the court order to search cars leaving Bolsonaro's residence – including official vehicles providing security for the former president – ​​is being fully complied with.

Before the decision authorizing house arrest, Bolsonaro was serving his sentence at the 19th Military Police Battalion, in the Papuda Penitentiary Complex, in Brasília. The place is known as Papudinha. Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison in the criminal case related to the coup plot .

The Lula administration’s concern over the Trump administration’s decision to designate the PCC and Comando Vermelho as terrorist organizations is shared not only by progressive voters. The majority of independent voters also agree with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s assessment.

This is shown by a Nexus poll, which reveals that most respondents viewed the U.S. government’s decision as a threat to national sovereignty.

The result indicates that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won the narrative battle he had been waging on this issue with the PL’s presidential hopeful, Flávio Bolsonaro, who defended and worked to advance Trump’s initiative.

According to the Nexus survey, 37% of voters believe the measure will threaten the safety of Brazilians, serving as a justification for interference or sanctions against the government and the people. Another 30% believe the initiative will improve security by focusing exclusively on combating criminal groups, while 23% state that the decision will not lead to interference, but is merely bureaucracy or political posturing. The percentage of those who did not know or did not respond was 9%.

When political affiliation is taken into account, the survey found that 56% of staunch Bolsonaro supporters say the measure will improve public safety, while 59% of voters loyal to Lula view the U.S. decision as a threat to sovereignty and national security.

Furthermore, the study shows that independent voters tend to agree with the stance of the pro-government electorate on this issue. In this group, 44% view the measure as a threat to the country’s security, compared to 21% who expect improvements and 25% who are indifferent to the measure.

Damascus, June 16 (Prensa Latina) Thousands of members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have joined the security and defense structures of the Syrian state, while another 8,000 fighters remain in the process of negotiation for their integration, an official from that organization reported today.

According to statements given on condition of anonymity to Rudaw TV, most SDF members are now part of state institutions, whose Ministries of Defense and Interior have taken over the payment of salaries and social benefits, including assistance to the families of the dead and wounded.

The official detailed that some four thousand fighters were incorporated into the Syrian Internal Security Forces, while another five thousand joined newly created brigades in the northeast of the country.

He added that around 1,000 members returned to the Afrin region to join the new local formations and that another 2,000 troops are expected to return for the same purpose.

However, he indicated that talks are continuing on the integration of another 8,000 fighters, because the number of SDF troops exceeds the figures initially contemplated in the agreements reached with the Syrian government.

The deputy governor of Hasakeh, Ahmed Al-Hilali, announced on June 2 that the authorities are preparing to incorporate more than nine thousand members of the Asayish security forces into the Internal Security Directorate of that governorate, which is under the Syrian Ministry of the Interior.

According to Al-Hilali, the process will include approximately 1,000 women and will begin with individual interviews and assessments as a preliminary step to their integration into the official security institution. The official explained that these measures are part of the implementation of the agreement signed on January 29 between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, aimed at strengthening institutional and administrative integration in the northeast of the country.

He also noted that the pact has allowed progress in areas such as education, the organization of future parliamentary elections, the management of wheat production, and the administration of border crossings.

America’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) watchdog has warned that the US may struggle to sustain a long-term conflict with China should hostilities break out. The issue is not about technical capability (the US military is arguably the world’s most powerful), but rather a matter of logistics. For combat operations thousands of miles from home, as would be the case in the Indo-Pacific, the GAO argues that the US may struggle to refuel and resupply assets, notably its considerable aircraft fleet.

The issue mainly centers around aging refueling aircraft and issues with spare parts. If tensions over Taiwan were to go hot, these could both conspire to make American efforts in the region trickier than expected. “The percentage of aerial refuelling tankers that are available and mission capable has remained persistently below the standards that the [US] Air Force established for the fleet,” the report said. To give you some idea of the problem, imagine an F-35 running a sortie from Hawaii to Taiwan, say. These aircraft have a combat radius of around 700 miles (1,127 km), and the distance between these two islands is about 5,000 miles.

tbf, not having to fly such large distances are what carriers are for, plus bases closer to China - except, as we've seen in the Iran war, the US can barely keep like 2-3 carriers active at a time, and all those closer bases are going to get the Gulf base treatment but to an even greater extent - and, indeed, having to fly from further-away bases and rely on more refueling is exactly what happened to the US campaign against Iran

An army marches on its stomach

The fighter wouldn’t be able to make it on its own and would need several midair refueling operations to safely get there and back. After the mission, it may also need repairs, which require a sufficient stock of spare parts lying around. If enough tankers aren’t available, the fighters couldn’t arrive in meaningful numbers. A bit of a quandary. Of course, travel distances for fighters can be dramatically reduced by deploying carrier groups closer to Taiwan, but that puts them at risk of being attacked by long-range missiles (including hypersonics), submarines, or Chinese aircraft. The main weakness, the report argues, is the US reliance on aging aircraft like Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers. Many of the current airframes entered service in the 1950s and 1960s, and are still going strong. The airframes have been upgraded repeatedly, but old aircraft require more maintenance and suffer more breakdowns. And that leads to the second main issue: a lack of spare parts. The US military increasingly struggles to obtain parts for older systems. Some suppliers no longer exist, and some components must be specially manufactured. Any break in supply means that assets, like aircraft, can sit grounded while waiting for parts.

Not how much you make, it’s how much you keep

So, even if you have 400 tankers on paper, perhaps only 250 are actually flyable on a given day. Other issues cited include a shortage of skilled personnel and delays in replacement hardware for older tech, like the planned Boeing KC-46 Pegasus. But the KC-46 program has experienced years of technical problems and delays. The Air Force expected newer tankers to reduce pressure on older aircraft. When factoring in the fact that China reportedly possesses long-range missiles specifically designed to target US bases and support aircraft, any direct conflict could prove very expensive for the US. China’s military planners, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports, understand that destroying tankers may be more effective than trying to shoot down stealth fighters. So, would such a conflict mean China could win? Not necessarily, since China has its own issues (like a lack of combat experience), but a “home advantage” would certainly tip the odds in its favor unless the US can cure its growing logistical bottlenecks.

In response to the community’s demands, officials announced a plan to establish a Miner’s Assistance Office in the town, which will serve as a direct point of contact to provide timely, effective responses to the realities of the sector. The meeting followed a recent major military operation carried out in the region by Venezuelan forces using armed helicopters. The operation displaced numerous illegal miners and resulted in the neutralization of the leader of the Tren de Aragua gang, Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” with US assistance. Minister Silva, accompanied by Vice Minister of Gold Luis Pérez and Vice Minister of Strategic Non-Gold Minerals Jesús Mieres, highlighted the State’s efforts to organize the sector. For over two decades, the region has been under the partial control of illegal mining groups, which has progressively eroded State territorial control. “We are here to serve our people firsthand, to listen to them, and to provide every man and woman involved in mining with the necessary training tools to boost their academic and technical growth,” Silva stated.

Government outreach and socioproductive pillars

During the meeting, officials outlined three fundamental pillars for the socioproductive development of the area: maximizing production to strengthen the local economy by optimizing extraction processes; responsible mining through environmentally friendly practices that safeguard natural resources; and ensuring comprehensive safeguards by protecting the health, safety, and labor rights of all workers. As part of the government’s outreach, Silva and his technical team toured the Las Claritas Type II Community Medical Clinic to inspect medical facilities and assess logistics and medical supply requirements.

Tensions and security deployments

The government also conducted inspections at mining processing plants in El Callao and executed preventive actions in El Dorado. Meanwhile, it denied rumors of massive ground deployments in the areas affected by the operations. Last week, local outlets reported that although tactical bombings of strategic points by military Cougar helicopters had ceased, law enforcement patrols remained active. On June 10, residents described the situation in Las Claritas and Kilometer 88 as tense, with roads leading to the nearby towns of El Dorado and Santa Elena de Uairén blocked. Efforts to regulate mining activities in the region date back to 2008, when the area—previously controlled by multinational mining corporations with histories of environmental mismanagement—was integrated into a state project aimed at curbing illegal mining. However, the initiative was stalled by resistance from non-governmental organizations, the death of President Hugo Chávez, and the subsequent illegal US blockade, which severely impacted the Venezuelan economy and its capacity to attract foreign investment. Some analysts claim that the recent deployment of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) in the area reflects a growing US interest in the mining sector, suggesting that the underlying objective is to quantify resources and pave the way for transnational corporations to regain control of the region.