Bolsonaro lands in US days after election defeat: Sources
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Former Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has landed in the U.S., according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier Tuesday, amid reports Bolsonaro had left Brazil just two days after he lost his presidential bid, a senior State Department official told ABC News the department would allow Bolsonaro and his family to enter the U.S. and issue them visas.
Earlier Tuesday, Brazilian authorities said they were unaware of Flávio Bolsonaro’s whereabouts and were investigating whether he fled to the U.S., according to authorities familiar with the investigation.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated Bolsonaro in a runoff election Sunday.
Bolsonaro is under investigation over a sports betting case and for probe into the production of a movie about his father Jair Bolsonaro, according to Brazilian authorities.
The Trump administration had been tracking Flavio Bolsonaro’s plans and was expecting he would attempt to exit Brazil and head for the U.S., according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
President Donald Trump said Monday without evidence that Brazil’s election, “looked like another rigged election, frankly.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This graphic shows destruction along the path of a landslide and subsequent flash flood along the Nepal-Tibet border. (Felt Maps/ABC News)
LONDON — The death toll from last week’s flash flooding disaster in the Nepal-Tibet border region rose to at least 955 people as of Monday, according to the latest updates from Nepali and Chinese officials, with more than 4,400 people reported missing.
At least 939 bodies had been recovered in Nepal as of Monday, the Nepal National Disaster Management Authority said in a post to X. At least 3,925 people were listed missing, the authority said, marking a significant jump on Sunday’s figure.
China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, meanwhile, said that at least 16 people had been confirmed killed on the Tibetan side of the border. Xinhua reported that another 546 people were still missing.
The missing count declined from initial reports on Monday morning local time due to a combination of finding more bodies, rescuing more people and families reporting they had found missing relatives, an official with Nepal’s National Disaster Management Authority told ABC News.
At least 85 Americans were still among the missing as of Sunday, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on “This Week.” Nine Americans had been evacuated, Pigott said, up from five on Friday.
“Our priority is the safety and security of the American people. As you mentioned, the remoteness of this location makes getting reliable information difficult. But our dedication remains,” Pigott added.
“We have activated from the State Department $3.6 million in emergency humanitarian assistance that includes up to three months of emergency food for up to 10,000 flood-affected households,” he said.
The flooding occurred in the northern Rasuwa district along the border with Tibet at around 8:40 a.m. local time Wednesday, authorities said. The flooding inundated areas along the Trishuli River, burying buildings and damaging bridges and roadways.
The wall of ice, water and debris that descended from the mountains on the frontier between Nepal and Tibet caused destruction at least 62 miles downriver into Nepal, an ABC News analysis of verified video and satellite images shows.
The flood was reportedly triggered by a landslide about 12 miles northeast of the Rasuwagadhi border post along the frontier, according to Nepali officials.
A 5.2-magnitude landslide was registered in Nepal on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The initial location of the glacier was a cliff about 16,000 feet high. The debris avalanche, or landslide, slid down 6,000 feet on the slope, the USGS said.
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu warned Americans against all travel to the affected region, noting “flood damage, disrupted transportation and communications, search-and-rescue and recovery operations, and the risk of additional flooding and landslides.”
The embassy also urged Americans to “exercise increased caution in Nepal due to civil unrest. Some areas have increased risk.”
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for bilateral talks at Bestepe Presidential Compound during the NATO Summit on July 8, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. (Win Mcnamee/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy left last week’s NATO summit armed with a valuable commitment from President Donald Trump — that Kyiv would get approval to produce vital interceptor missiles for the Patriot air defense system, which since 2023 has helped defend Ukraine’s skies against Russian aircraft, drones and ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy and his top officials have long warned that Ukraine needs more air defense systems and far more ammunition to blunt Russia’s daily long-range strikes. In recent weeks and with interceptor missile stocks reportedly running low, those warnings have become more dire.
Trump’s approval for Kyiv to get a production license to produce Patriot interceptors on home soil is “really good news for Ukraine,” Chrystia Freeland, previously Canada’s deputy prime minister and now an economic adviser to Zelenskyy, told ABC News on the sidelines of the Chatham House think tank’s conference in London last week.
“It would be even better if they were getting Patriots right now, because they’re being hammered,” Freeland added. “It’s great to get the licenses. But between getting the licenses and actually being able to make the Patriot [missiles] to defend themselves, it’s going to take time. And during that time, lots of people are going to die.”
As civilian casualties in Ukraine rise, securing more air defense systems and ammunition are a priority for Kyiv, Zelenskyy has said repeatedly. Russian strikes killed at least 265 civilians in Ukraine and injured 1,816 in June, senior United Nations official Rosemary DiCarlo told the body’s Security Council earlier this month.
The combined casualty total for June is the highest recorded since the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion, DiCarlo said. Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, a top U.N. official told the Security Council on Thursday.
In a post to X on Monday, Zelenskyy said that he and Trump “have reached an important deal on licenses to produce Patriot systems. Our teams are now working to implement this truly historic political agreement. We worked toward this for a very long time.”
Trump said during his warm meeting with Zelenskyy in the Turkish capital Ankara that the two leaders had developed a “good relationship.” The friendly exchange was a far cry from the infamous bilateral meeting at the White House last year which devolved into a heated public argument, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance openly admonishing Zelenskyy.
Freeland said that while Trump’s backing was welcome in Kyiv, Ukrainian leaders were focused on the bigger strategic picture. “They’re playing 100% to necessity. Ukrainians aren’t fighting to put on a show for Trump. They’re fighting because otherwise they will die,” she said.
“Trump does like a winner. He is not averse to flip flops. And I do think the stronger Ukrainians are the more likely they are to get his support,” Freeland added.
The Ankara declaration — NATO allies traditionally issue a joint communique to mark the end of each summit — said that Ukraine “contributes to transatlantic security” and is in line to receive some $80 billion in allied funding across 2026, with 2027 funding to be “at least equivalent.”
“Allies stand united in our unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its freedom, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” the statement read.
The outcome was a positive one for Ukraine, Freeland said. “I would emphasize that the Ukrainians are making their own luck. I think the better they do, the more enthusiasm there is for supporting them. I think the Ukrainians recognize,” she said.
European allies, in particular, Freeland said, had shown they “are prepared to hang in there.” She added, “I think neither the Russians nor the Americans thought that Europe could do it.”
Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor is now in its fifth year, the latest round of conflict having followed a lower-intensity conflict which began in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its fomentation of separatist rebellion in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
A campaign that was designed to deliver a rapid Russian victory has now lasted longer than World War One, with Kyiv claiming to have inflicted nearly 1.5 million casualties on the invading forces while Russia’s ongoing offensives in the east of the country remain at a glacial pace.
Ukrainian long-range strikes into Russia, meanwhile, have increased exponentially in scale and intensity, putting particular pressure on the country’s lucrative oil production, refining and export sectors. Ukrainian drones are also increasingly targeting the supply routes into Crimea, seeking to effectively blockade the occupied peninsula from afar.
Ukraine’s foreign partners have been lauding the country’s reported successes. Even Trump, who famously suggested last year that Ukraine did not “have the cards” to play, said last month that Zelenskyy was “doing pretty well” in the showdown with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Both the Trump administration and former President Joe Biden’s administration had put pressure on Kyiv to refrain from attacking certain targets, with Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil facilities reportedly a particularly sensitive subject under both administrations.
But Ukraine’s ongoing success on that front, Freeland said, showed it had been “a mistake to ask the Ukrainians to tie one hand behind their back.”
“One of the things that has changed is Ukrainians are now using their own weapons and they’re making their own weapons, and that means they don’t need to ask anyone’s permission for where they strike. And I do think that’s made a big difference,” she added.
Though the wartime narrative appears to be swinging somewhat in Ukraine’s favor, the country’s cities remain under near-constant fire and Kyiv’s forces do not appear able to liberate significant territory still occupied by Russian troops. In his latest casualty update in February, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had lost at least 55,000 soldiers killed since 2022.
Ukraine also still appears to be frozen out of NATO membership in the short term, despite Zelenskyy’s repeated and recent appeals for the alliance to set out a clear roadmap for Ukraine’s accession, which allies have repeatedly said they support in principle.
“I have actually heard, behind closed doors and also in public, more and more European leaders saying Russia shouldn’t have a veto on who is in NATO, and Ukraine now has the strongest army in Europe, we should have them on our team,” Freeland said.
Moscow and Kyiv still appear far apart on the key issues in any future settlement. Though Putin has claimed a willingness to negotiate, he is still refusing to engage directly with Zelenskyy and is still demanding a raft of major Ukrainian concessions in exchange for peace.
“I think it’s impossible to foresee what will happen next,” Freeland said when asked about the war’s outlook. “Where are we right now? We know that the Ukrainians are doing well … We know that Russia is suffering more than it has since the beginning of the war.”
“I think that the view that Ukraine was about to collapse was always overdone. And I think that was a line that Russia pushed in order to get Western allies, particularly the United States, to push Ukraine to surrender. And they were effective, for a while,” she added.
“What I think is important for us to recognize and what is absolutely true, is Ukraine’s success right now is showing us that if we give them the tools, they will finish the job,” Freeland said.
The capital of the oil state and surrounding areas offer a stark contrast between Venezuela’s oil wealth and the daily reality of communities living near the country’s energy infrastructure. (Photo by Jose Isaac Bula/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that the U.S. and Venezuela have reached a “historic” oil deal that he said would give the U.S. a majority control of billions of barrels of oil reserves in the Caribbean country and lower gas prices for Americans.
In a social media post, Trump called it “THE BIGGEST OIL DEAL IN WORLD HISTORY” and said it would provide majority U.S. control of more than 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in Venezuela.
The president claimed that the deal will serve to “substantially lower” gas prices for Americans “long into the future.”
The announcement comes as oil and gas prices continue to surge amid the Iran war, which reached the six-month mark on Friday.
“At my direction, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, working closely with Highly Respected Interim President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguez, and, through a partnership with private business, have secured majority U.S. control of more than 65 BILLION BARRELS of proven Oil Reserves in Venezuela, at no cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump said in the post.
A U.S. official with knowledge of the deal told ABC News that the U.S. will have a 55% share in a joint venture with a private Venezuelan company, which will be split between equity ownership and production.
This creates the “second-largest private oil company by reserves in the world,” the official added.
The interim Venezuelan president granted the private company a 100-year lease for oil fields totaling 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, the official said.
In a statement in English posted on social media, Rodriguez hailed the agreement with the U.S. and said it would “have a significant impact on our nation’s revival.”
The U.S. official said the supply of at-cost oil produced from this company will help fill the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve and also benefit the U.S. military.
The deal was negotiated by the Defense Department and State Department, according to the official.
Venezuela has been beset by economic crises for years and suffered two powerful back-to-back earthquakes in June that left more than 6,000 people dead.
Rodriguez thanked Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and said the agreement represents a “historic milestone” in relations between the two countries.
“The agreement will allow for a significant increase in oil production with the participation of private operators,” Rodriguez said in the statement, saying the deal calls for the development of 17 strategic fields, with a proven potential of 65 billion barrels of oil, and an investment of more than $100 billion, and more than $209 billion in tax revenue.
“Venezuela is thus ushering in a new era of recovery, growth, production, security, and prosperity for our people,” she said in the post.
Venezuela is recognized as holding the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
Chevron, the only U.S. oil company currently operating in Venezuela, declined to comment on the president’s post.
Trump also said the deal would “greatly strengthen” the relationship between the U.S. and Venezuela.
In January, the U.S. carried out a military operation in Venezuela to capture then-President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and bring them to the U.S. to face charges including narco-terrorism and drug trafficking.
Maduro and his wife, who have pleaded not guilty, are set to go on trial in New York City, in 2027.
In a social media post, Rubio called the deal a “huge win” for both the U.S. and Venezuela.
“It demonstrates how President Trump’s bold foreign policy is driving America First wins: securing stable reserves and low-cost oil in our Hemisphere and lowering gas prices here at home,” Rubio said in the post. “For the Venezuelan people, this deal will bring nearly $100 billion in private investment, support thousands of high-paying jobs, and drive the reconstruction of Venezuela’s economy.”
