WASHINGTON — As the United States Treasury Department sanctioned Brazil&#8217;s infamous Supreme Court justice, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday slapping an additional 40% tariff on the country in response to the &#8220;unusual and extraordinary threat&#8221; that Brazil poses to U.S. national security.
The president&#8217;s order uses the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to declare a new national emergency, saying that Brazil has engaged in practices and policies harming United States companies, United States foreign policy and economy, and the free speech rights of American citizens. The new 40% tariff is on top of the baseline 10% tariff already in place on Brazil, meaning that there is now a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports to the U.S.
&#8220;I find that the unprecedented actions taken by the Government of Brazil have violated the free expression rights of United States persons, interfered with the economy of the United States&#8230;.subverted the interest of the United States in protecting its citizens and companies, undermined the rule of law in Brazil, and jeopardized the orderly development of Brazil&#8216;s political, administrative, and economic institutions,&#8221; <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/addressing-threats-to-the-us/">the order states</a>.
A White House fact sheet shared with The Daily Wire specifically points to the prosecution of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters, denouncing the persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of these people, and calling the treatment &#8220;serious human rights abuses&#8221; that have &#8220;undermined the rule of law in Brazil.&#8221;
The move is another example of the president leveraging tariffs to protect American interests both at home and abroad, particularly when it comes to freedom of speech. The United States has serious concerns about the government of Brazil forcing U.S. companies to censor political speech, de-platforming users, demanding sensitive U.S. user data, or punishing U.S. companies for failure to change content moderation policies.
<div id="attachment_954707" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/extraordinary-threat-trump-unleashes-on-brazil-with-massive-tariff-sanctions-on-extremist-judge/topshot-brazil-politics-justice-trial-coup-bolsonaro" rel="attachment wp-att-954707"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-954707" class="wp-image-954707 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2218944579-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2218944579-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2218944579-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2218944579-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2218944579.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>EVARISTO SA/AFP via Getty Images</div>
And it comes the same day that the U.S. sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of serious human rights abuses, including &#8220;arbitrary detention involving flagrant denials of fair trial guarantees and violations of the freedom of expression.&#8221;
&#8220;Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has abused his judicial authority to target political opponents, shield corrupt allies, and suppress dissent, often in coordination with other Brazilian officials,&#8221; the order states. &#8220;Justice de Moraes has authorized politically motivated police raids, arrests, and bank account freezes.&#8221;
It continues: &#8220;He has also authorized the confiscation of passports, jailed individuals without trial for social media posts, opened unprecedented criminal investigations, including into United States citizens for their constitutionally protected speech in the United States, and issued secret orders to United States social media companies to censor thousands of posts and de-platform dozens of political critics, including United States persons, for lawful speech on United States soil.&#8221;
The State Department said Wednesday that de Moraes abused his authority when he engaged in &#8220;a targeted and politically motivated effort designed to silence political critics through the issuance of secret orders compelling online platforms, including U.S. social media companies, to ban the accounts of individuals for posting protected speech.&#8221;
In particular, de Moraes has headed the prosecution of Paulo Figueiredo, a Brazilian journalist and economist based in the United States, for speech that Figueiredo made in the United States. The White House accuses de Moraes of issuing hundreds of orders to secretly censor his political critics, and when U.S. companies refuse to comply with his orders, he imposes substantial fines upon them, threatens executives with criminal prosecution, and orders their exclusion from Brazil&#8217;s social media market.
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<div>The Treasury Department&#8217;s sanctions on de Moraes freeze any assets he might have in the United States and bars anyone in the United States from engaging in transactions with him.</div>
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“De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement. “Today’s action makes clear that Treasury will continue to hold accountable those who threaten U.S. interests and the freedoms of our citizens.”
The Trump administration says that by imposing tariffs on Brazil for its &#8220;reckless actions,&#8221; Trump is protecting not only the national security of the United States from a foreign threat, but also the foreign policy and the economy of the U.S.
&#8220;The policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil,&#8221; the order states, &#8220;are repugnant to the moral and political values of democratic and free societies and conflict with the policy of the United States to promote democratic governments throughout the world, the principle of free expression and free and fair elections, the rule of law, and respect for human rights.&#8221;
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President Trump Holds Joint Press Conference With Brazilian President Bolsonaro

‘Extraordinary Threat’: Trump Unleashes On Brazil With Massive Tariff, Sanctions On Extremist Judge

Brazil

Donald Trump

Jair Bolsonaro

United States

The Brazilian Supreme Court ordered that police raid former President Jair Bolsonaro&#8217;s home and place an ankle monitor on him on Friday, escalating its targeting of the conservative leader as President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-rips-brazil-over-censorship-bolsonaro-witch-hunt-then-says-country-will-face-50-tariff?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Rips+Brazil+Over+Censorship%2C+Bolsonaro+%E2%80%98Witch+Hunt%E2%80%99+%E2%80%94+Then+Says+Country+Will+Face+50%25+Tariff">defends</a> him.
After the Brazilian Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders on Bolsonaro, federal police raided his home, and the former president was banned from contacting foreign officials, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-court-orders-raids-restraints-bolsonaro-trump-collusion-2025-07-18/">reported</a>. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes cited a &#8220;concrete possibility&#8221; of Bolsonaro fleeing the country when he issued the order.
Brazil&#8217;s increased pressure on Bolsonaro comes shortly after President Trump defended his political ally and blasted the Brazilian Supreme Court for its &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; targeting Bolsonaro. Trump also imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil last week, citing the country&#8217;s &#8220;insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.&#8221;
&#8220;The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,&#8221; Trump said in a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. &#8220;This trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
Moraes specifically called out Trump&#8217;s tariff on Brazil in his Friday order, arguing that it is intended to create an economic crisis in Brazil and interfere with the country&#8217;s judicial system.
On Thursday, Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114870788445875372">posted</a> a letter on Truth Social that he sent to Bolsonaro, which read in part, &#8220;I have seen the terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you. This trial should end immediately! I am not surprised to see you leading in the polls; you were a highly respected and strong leader who served your country well.&#8221;
Bolsonaro told Reuters that he believes the Supreme Court&#8217;s move on Friday is in response to Trump&#8217;s recent comments. The former Brazilian president called Moraes a &#8220;dictator&#8221; and denied that he had any plans to flee the country.
&#8220;I feel supreme humiliation,&#8221; he added when asked about the ankle monitor. &#8220;I am 70 years old, I was president of the republic for four years.&#8221;
Bolsonaro is being tried over charges that he took part in an alleged coup against President Lula after his 2022 election loss. He has denied the allegations and argued that the charges against him are politically motivated. He has also maintained the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/09/23/brazilians-views-of-lula-and-bolsonaro/">support</a> of millions of Brazilians as he faces the indictment brought against him by Lula’s leftist government.

Brazil Raids Bolsonaro’s Home, Orders Him To Wear Ankle Monitor After Trump Blasts Leftist Country

Global Politics

World

President Donald Trump took a sledgehammer to Brazil on Wednesday, calling out the leftist government for its censorship of U.S. social media and its &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; targeting former conservative president Jair Bolsonaro.
In a <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1943043154946457812">letter</a> to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — one of the many letters Trump has sent to countries around the world this week — the U.S. president deviated from his typical message announcing tariff rates to blast &#8220;Brazil&#8217;s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.&#8221;
&#8220;Dear Mr. President,&#8221; Trump began the letter. &#8220;I knew and dealt with former President Jair Bolsonaro, and respected him greatly, as did most other Leaders of Countries. The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace. This trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!&#8221;
Last year, Bolsonaro was <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/21/americas/brazilian-ex-president-jair-bolsonaro-indicted-over-attempted-coup-plot/index.html">charged</a> alongside 36 other people for taking part in an alleged coup to overthrow the government after he lost the 2022 election to Lula. Brazilian prosecutors claim the plot included plans to commit political assassinations, but Bolsonaro has denied the allegations and argued that the charges against him are politically motivated. Bolsonaro has maintained the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/09/23/brazilians-views-of-lula-and-bolsonaro/">support</a> of millions of Brazilians as he faces the indictment brought against him by Lula&#8217;s leftist government.
Trump has also defended Bolsonaro on numerous occasions, saying earlier this week that he will &#8220;be watching the WITCH HUNT of Jair Bolsonaro, his family, and thousands of his supporters, very closely.&#8221;
&#8220;The only Trial that should be happening is a Trial by the Voters of Brazil — It’s called an Election. LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!” he <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114812490799920916">added</a>.
In his letter to Lula on Wednesday, Trump also slammed the government for going after American social media companies. Last year, the Brazilian Supreme Court upheld a nationwide <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brazilian-judge-orders-suspension-of-x-social-media-platform-responds">ban</a> on Elon Musk&#8217;s social media platform, X. The country&#8217;s Supreme Court took further action on the issue last month, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/4a5235c5-acd0-4e81-9d44-2362a25c8eb3">ruling</a> that social media platforms can be held liable for their users&#8217; posts.
Trump wrote in the letter, &#8220;Due in part to Brazil&#8217;s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans (as lately illustrated by the Brazilian Supreme Court, which has issued hundreds of SECRET AND UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders to U.S. Social Media platforms, threatening them with Millions of Dollars in Fines and Eviction from the Brazilian Social Media market), starting on August 1, 2025, we will charge Brazil a Tariff of 50% on any and all Brazilian products sent into the United States, seperate from all Sectoral Tariffs.&#8221;
Trump has sent numerous letters to countries around the world this week, informing them of the tariffs they will pay come August 1. The 50% tariff rate on Brazil is the highest one that Trump has unveiled this week, a rate that Trump said &#8220;is necessary &#8230; to rectify the grave injustices of the current regime.&#8221;

Donald Trump/Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Trump Rips Brazil Over Censorship, Bolsonaro ‘Witch Hunt’ — Then Says Country Will Face 50% Tariff

Free Speech

Social Media

Tariffs

U.S.

A hot air balloon accident in Brazil has claimed the lives of at least eight people.
Twenty-one people boarded the balloon on Saturday morning in the city of Praia Grande, according to the governor of Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello.
&#8220;21 people on board &#8211; 8 fatalities, 13 survivors,&#8221; Mello posted to X on Saturday. &#8220;Our teams continue to provide all necessary support to families and victims.&#8221;
&#8220;We are all shocked by the accident,&#8221; the governor said. &#8220;We continue to monitor the situation.&#8221;
Praia Grande is in southern Santa Catarina, which is a popular tourist destination, the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17w04wxwpxo">noted</a>.
Video of the tragic accident was posted by an aviation news account, showing a fiery crash to the ground.
It&#8217;s unclear what caused the accident.
WATCH:
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At least eight people have died in a hot air balloon accident in Brazil, a state governor has said.
There were 21 people on board the balloon in the city of Praia Grande on Saturday morning, Governor of Santa Catarina Jorginho Mello said in a post on X.
Mello said 13 people… <a href="https://t.co/NwHWQImBvI">pic.twitter.com/NwHWQImBvI</a>
— Breaking Aviation News &amp; Videos (@aviationbrk) <a href="https://twitter.com/aviationbrk/status/1936428260365128019?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2025</a></blockquote>

Preparing Hot Air Balloons To Fly over Cappadocia

Horrifying Video Shows Hot Air Balloon Accident That Left 8 Dead

Death

General

Tragedy

Pop singer Lady Gaga set the record for biggest attendance for a female performer during a free performance in Rio de Janeiro over the weekend.
The 39-year-old singer attracted a crowd estimated to be 2.5 million people strong for her Saturday night show at Copacabana Beach. The concert was sponsored by the local government in an effort to help stimulate the local economy.
During her performance, Gaga told the crowd, “Your spirit may be heard around the world tonight. Two and a half million people,” per <a href="https://variety.com/2025/music/news/lady-gaga-free-concert-rio-copacabana-beach-draws-record-breaking-2-5-million-people-1236386386/">Variety</a>. “Tonight, we’re making history,” she added. “Thank you for making history with me… The people of Brazil are the reason why I can shine.”
The outlet noted that the “Bad Romance” singer last performed in Rio 12 years ago. Fans stood in line for hours hoping to get a good spot.
During Saturday’s show, Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, performed older songs like “Poker Face,” “Bloody Mary,” and “Alejandro” along with songs from her newly released album, “Mayhem.”
The record for most concert attendees for a single female performer was previously held by Madonna, who played for a crowd of 1.6 million at the same location in May 2024, also during a free concert.
While free concert attendance is only based on estimates and is therefore impossible to determine for sure, it’s believed that the <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/73085-largest-free-rock-concert-attendance">most attended concerts</a> overall were those of French composer Jean-Michel Jarre in Moscow 1997 and Rod Stewart&#8217;s concert in Copacabana in 1994, which are both believed to have attracted audiences of about 3.5 million people.
Lady Gaga’s latest show is also making headlines due to two suspected terror attacks, which were never carried out. Per <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/04/americas/brazil-lady-gaga-bomb-plot-rio-intl-latam">CNN</a>, two people were arrested for attempting to “recruit” people to deploy explosives and Molotov cocktails on the crowd. Per the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro, these individuals were targeting LGBT revelers and wanted to “[gain] notoriety on social media.”
Another person planning to perform a “satanist ritual by killing a child or a baby” during the show was arrested and charged with terrorism offenses, the outlet noted.
In a post on Instagram, Lady Gaga thanked fans, saying, “nothing could prepare me for the feeling I had during last night’s show – the absolute pride and joy I felt singing for the people of Brazil.”
The singer wrote that “the sight of the crowd during my opening songs took my breath away. Your heart shines so bright, your culture is so vibrant and special, I hope you know how grateful I am to have shared this historical moment with you.”

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga Breaks Crowd Size Record With Massive Brazil Show

concert

Music

Rio de Janeiro

President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> name-dropped a movie featuring Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage while defending the use of handcuffs to restrain illegal aliens aboard deportation flights out of the United States.
Trump referenced Cage&#8217;s 1997 action-movie &#8220;Con-Air&#8221; — in which a handful of convicts take over control of a plane that was supposed to be used to transport them to a new facility — and then argued that by keeping detainees handcuffed, federal immigration authorities were essentially attempting to prevent a similar scenario from playing out on their watch.
Responding to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brazil-slams-trump-admin-for-shipping-illegals-back-in-handcuffs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">complaints</a> from Brazilian officials about the fact that detainees had been handcuffed for their deportation flights — a practice that was also standard during former President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration — Trump made it clear that he was not planning to make any changes.
&#8220;We were being scolded because we had them in shackles in an airplane,&#8221; Trump said of the Brazilian official. &#8220;And he said, ‘This is no way to treat people.’ Now, you gotta understand these are murderers, drug lords, gang members, just the toughest people you’ve ever met or seen.&#8221;
WATCH:
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🚨 WATCH: <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> just compared to the Mass Deportation flights to Con Air 🤣 <a href="https://t.co/MYyZrrCZAl">pic.twitter.com/MYyZrrCZAl</a>
&mdash; Steak for Breakfast (@SteakforPodcast) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteakforPodcast/status/1884016972268200343?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;How would you like to be the pilot of a plane? You got two pilots up there and you got 300 people sitting in a plane — every one of them either a murderer, a drug lord, a kingpin of some kind, the head of the mob, or a gang member — and you’re flying that plane,&#8221; Trump continued, predicting, &#8220;It’s not gonna end well.&#8221;
&#8220;You ever see the movie &#8216;Con-Air&#8217;? That&#8217;s what — yeah &#8230; Except here’s the difference: the people in &#8216;Con-Air&#8217; were actors. They weren’t nearly as tough as these guys,&#8221; the president said. &#8220;I would say that that plane would be gone before it ever left. Those pilots would be gone before it ever left. So, they don’t want us to shackle them. I don’t want to be in that plane.&#8221;

Nicolas Cage In ‘Con Air’

Trump Name-Drops Nic Cage Movie To Defend Handcuffing Illegals During Deportation Flights

Celebrities

Deportations

Illegal Immigration

Nicolas Cage

The Brazilian government, led by its socialist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is demanding answers after 88 of its citizens were deported from the United States in handcuffs on Friday.
The U.S. representative in Brazil, Gabriel Escobar, was summoned by the Brazilian government on Monday to provide clarifications about the treatment of the illegal immigrants, <a href="https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2025/01/27/itamaraty-chama-encarregado-de-negocios-dos-eua-para-falar-sobre-deportados.ghtml?UTM_SOURCE=copiar-url&amp;UTM_MEDIUM=share-bar-app&amp;UTM_CAMPAIGN=materias">reported Brazilian media</a>. Escobar assumed his position as Charge d’Affaires following the inauguration of President Donald Trump and is likely to remain in his role until an Ambassador to Brazil is appointed.
Handcuffing illegal immigrants on deportation flights has been standard practice by the U.S. government, including under the Biden administration, in order to ensure the safety for pilots and agents on flights. According to Brazilian media, the practice usually includes the handcuffs removal prior to landing in Brazil.
Some Brazilian leaders described the handcuffing during the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight as “degrading.” The Brazilian government accused the U.S. of violating treaties by using handcuffs during the flight.
“The indiscriminate use of handcuffs and chains violates the terms of the agreement with the US, which provides for the dignified, respectful and humane treatment of repatriates,” said Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Brazilian Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said that “respect for the dignity of people and for fundamental human rights are values that must guide relations between civilized nations, especially in situations when vulnerable groups are involved.”
The flight reportedly had to make unscheduled landings in Panama and Manaus, Brazil, due to maintenance issues and was not given authorization to continue on its journey. Instead, the illegal immigrants boarded a Brazilian Air Force flight, which transported them to Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
The illegal immigrants also complained about a lack of air conditioning on the plane and allegedly harsh treatment. 
Carlos Vinicius de Jesus, 29, <a href="https://archive.is/o/TC5Ue/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2025/01/medo-de-morrer-tratado-igual-cachorro-o-que-dizem-os-brasileiros-deportados.shtml">alleged in an interview</a> with Folha de S.Paulo that he heard threats.
“They beat us, told us they’d crash the plane, that our government wasn’t worth a thing, that if we rebelled, we’d be killed,” Carlos Vinicius de Jesus, 29, said <a href="https://archive.is/o/TC5Ue/https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2025/01/medo-de-morrer-tratado-igual-cachorro-o-que-dizem-os-brasileiros-deportados.shtml">in an interview</a> with a Brazilian outlet. Vinicius’s claims have not been verified.
The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States plans to hold an emergency session over the deportations, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/01/27/brazil-migrants-deportations-trump-lula/">the Washington Post reported</a>.
The deportations come as the Trump administration delivers on a campaign promise to deport illegal immigrants. So far, ICE <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homan-ice-has-made-1300-arrests-including-pedophiles-gang-members-and-at-least-1-terrorist">has deported</a> thousands of illegal immigrants including pedophiles, gang members and terrorists.
On Monday, the White House shared that Brazilian citizen Vitor De Sousa-Lima, who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter, was arrested by ICE Boston. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN: Vitor De Sousa-Lima, a Brazilian national convicted of vehicular manslaughter, was arrested by ICE Boston on January 25, 2025. <a href="https://t.co/sqt8NZb8IP">pic.twitter.com/sqt8NZb8IP</a>
&mdash; The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1883594154133086483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Expectations for a warm relationship between Lula and Trump are low, given the Brazilian president’s <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/world/2024/11/possible-return-of-trump-to-the-white-house-leaves-brazil-apprehensive.shtml">aggressive statements towards</a> Trump. Lula has openly stated that he was rooting for Kamala Harris during the U.S. election and has pointed to Trump’s actions at the end of his first term as evidence of “fascism and Nazism coming back with a different face.”
Lula’s rival, former president Jair Bolsonaro, who has been nicknamed ‘Trump of the Tropics,’ was barred from attending Trump’s inauguration by the left-wing Brazilian Supreme Court that has been on a ruthless rampage to silence right-wing voices in Brazil.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/prominent-brazilian-conservative-imprisoned-by-left-wing-supreme-court-for-u-s-border-patrol-making-immigration-record-error">previously reported</a> on the persecution of a senior aide to Bolsonaro, Filipe Martins, who was imprisoned for six months without trial by Brazilian Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes. Although Martins has since been released and has not faced trial or been convicted, he remains under draconian restrictions that forbid him from social media and interviews and place him under house arrest.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Photo courtesy of The White House

Brazil Slams Trump Admin For Shipping Illegals Back In Handcuffs

Brazil Demands Answers Over Illegal Immigrants Being Handcuffed During Deportation Flight

In a world of mounting censorship, it’s never been more important to protect every person’s right to speak. Freedom of speech is indispensable to a free society—there’s little meaning to an electoral system if we can’t speak our mind to one another and to our representatives. It’s also a fundamental human right, guaranteed by the First Amendment and every major human rights treaty around the world.
Responding to this rising threat, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), where I serve as legal counsel, recently launched a new litigation team, the <a href="https://adflegal.org/article/introducing-the-adf-center-for-free-speech/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">Center for Free Speech</a>. ADF’s mission in creating this dedicated team of attorneys is to defend every person’s right to free speech and to hold the government and powerful corporations accountable when they unlawfully censor or punish speech.
This new era of censorship calls for innovative strategies. A complex international web of shadowy government actors, nonprofit groups, and for-profit corporations are colluding to stop speech they don’t like, invoking buzzwords like “misinformation” and “disinformation” as their pretext for viewpoint-based restrictions. We will stop unlawful censorship while preserving the fundamental rights of individuals and organizations.
My team’s efforts will include suing private-sector censors who are working with the government or abusing their power to suppress or deplatform disfavored speech. There must be consequences for governments and government proxies that participate in the corrupt Censorship Industrial Complex (CIC).
The coordinated push of government, universities, think tanks, NGOs, and private businesses bleeds into almost every major industry and part of life. When entities or people are deplatformed, debanked, blacklisted, or refused business for their speech because the government has enlisted private sector participation in engaging in unlawful censorship, that is government corruption and must be stopped.
In Brazil, a justice on the country’s Supreme Court <a href="https://adflegal.org/article/brazil-elon-musk-x-and-censorship-what-you-need-know/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suspended the social media platform X</a> across the country after the company declined to censor certain voices. The justice’s order spoke of the “real danger” posed by X of influencing the electorate with “massive misinformation.” Once a government begins using such vague criteria to censor messages, it opens the door to widespread suppression of speech.
But it’s not just happening in Brazil. The U.S. Department of Justice <a href="https://adflegal.org/press-release/adf-scotus-govt-cant-coerce-social-media-companies-act-speech-police/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pressured</a> Facebook, Twitter, and Google into silencing dissenting voices on a wide range of hot-button cultural issues, including climate change, abortion, economic policy, gender identity, and COVID-19 policies. Big tech companies collude with the government to censor viewpoints they don’t like.
We’ve already begun to litigate several cases under the umbrella of the Center for Free Speech including a pair of cases where we’re suing the state of California.
In <a href="https://adflegal.org/article/humor-trial-babylon-bee-challenges-california-laws-censoring-political-satire/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Babylon Bee v. Bonta</a> and <a href="https://adflegal.org/article/rumble-joins-the-babylon-bee-in-challenging-californias-censorship/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rumble v. Bonta</a>, ADF represents popular satire website The Babylon Bee, attorney and blogger Kelly Chang Rickert, and video platform Rumble. One of the laws our clients are challenging is AB 2655, passed by the California legislature earlier this year. The law requires large online platforms to become state censors by sometimes labeling and other times taking down posts with “materially deceptive content” about elections.
And in <a href="https://adflegal.org/case/studnicki-v-sage-publications/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studnicki v. Sage Publications</a>, we represent several doctors who published multiple papers in a peer-reviewed medical journal on the dangers of abortion drugs. After the publisher received complaints about the authors’ pro-life affiliations, Sage retracted these articles and even removed one of the authors from the journal’s board of directors.
Defending free speech is nothing new to ADF. We’ve won landmark free speech victories before the U.S. Supreme Court and have been especially prolific on public university campuses as its Center for Academic Freedom has <a href="https://adflegal.org/issues/free-speech/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secured</a> more than 400 victories protecting students’ free speech rights.
Government agencies and powerful private actors – or worse yet, a combination of the two – are using vague buzzwords as an excuse for censorship. The outgoing administration spent the past four years relentlessly attacking our constitutionally protected freedoms and unlawfully extending executive power.
But we cannot expect the entrenched censorship apparatus to unilaterally disarm. And we must insist that the new administration dismantle the CIC instead of trying to wield it for its own purposes.
That means calling balls and strikes, especially when President-elect Trump hangs a curve with a nominee like <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14154833/donald-trump-surgeon-general-dr-janette-nesheiwat-maga-fury-covid.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General</a>, who previously “commend[ed] Mark Zuckerberg for taking action” against so-called vaccine misinformation on Facebook.
It’s critical that the Republican party keeps its avowed commitment to free speech. The new administration has a great opportunity to lead the defense of our First Amendment rights. If the majority of current nominees do what they claim they want to do, there is reason to be hopeful.
Through pioneering legal strategy, ADF will tear down the Censorship Industrial Complex and preserve free speech in the new frontier of our digital age. We will ensure that ordinary people worldwide have full clarity on their free speech rights and are empowered, without fear, to expose any government or its agents attempting to undermine them.
* * *
Logan Spena serves as legal counsel at <a href="http://www.adflegal.org/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped">Alliance Defending Freedom</a> (<a href="https://twitter.com/ADFLegal">@ADFLegal</a>).
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Censorship vs Free speech

Combating The Rising Threat Of Censorship In 2025

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Censorship

Federal Government

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Misinformation

Opinion

Social Media Censorship

There was an attempt at a military dictatorship in South Korea in which the president of South Korea issued a command for martial law. It was reversed hours later, but what exactly was going on there? 
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is a member of a party that controls the presidency but is in the minority in the actual parliament of the country. He claimed the majority in the parliament (a party called the Democratic Party in South Korea) is basically a tool of the North Koreans, citing them to be crypto-communists preventing the functioning of the government. 
Essentially, the Democratic Party of South Korea, which represents a large majority in the National Assembly, has been threatening and attempting to impeach the state prosecutors who are looking into the Democratic Party leadership. The prosecutors were supposed to be looking into the family of the president of South Korea, and they had apparently decided to exonerate the president’s wife. Meanwhile, the same prosecutors were additionally looking into the leadership of the Democratic Party regarding corruption charges. In turn, the Democratic Party attempted to impeach these prosecutors. 
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So, the South Korean president looked at the opposition party (which controls the National Assembly) and contended they were attempting to clean out the prosecutorial part of the government in order to protect themselves or weaponize it against him. Therefore, he would declare martial law. 
The South Korean parliament voted unanimously to defy the country&#8217;s president and lift his martial law declaration.  
But there’s something deeper happening here. 
This sort of constitutional crisis is now taking place in a variety of countries. It’s happening in Israel, where there are fights between the prosecutorial wing of the government and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. It&#8217;s happening in Hungary, where they&#8217;ve been fighting over state prosecutors. It&#8217;s happening in Brazil, where Lula da Silva, the authoritarian Left-wing leader of the country, is now attempting to militarize the justice system against Jair Bolsonaro, his predecessor. And, of course, there are shades of this in the United States. 
Why, exactly, is all this happening right now? 
To understand that, we must understand the role of the prosecutorial system in democratic republics, because that has changed over time. And this has implications, by the way, for everything, up to and including the Hunter Biden pardon and the Biden DOJ weaponizing itself against Donald Trump.
Democratic republics typically rely on checks and balances to prevent the government from engaging in authoritarianism; that is the basis of the United States Constitution. The House and the Senate check one another. Both are checked by the presidency, and all three of those bodies are checked by the judiciary and vice versa. 
Traditionally, one of the checks and balances to avoid tyranny was impeachment. If you didn&#8217;t like members of the government or you suspected that members of the government were corrupt, a bipartisan majority would work to oust those corrupt officials. 
This is obviously problematic when it comes to getting rid of corrupt officials because if the corrupt official happens to be a member of your party, then you are very unlikely to vote for their impeachment. 
In Democratic republics, the question of how to police corruption is a very real question if there is a corrupt public official. The United States Constitution says that person is impeached in the House, and then there is a full trial in the Senate. 
When the Constitution was designed, Alexander Hamilton and the rest of the Founding Fathers believed the Senate would be the most objective body. United States senators were not appointed by party or by public approval. They were appointed by the state legislatures, and they served six-year terms. The goal was for them to be more independent of the public passions than the House.
The judiciary could not do it because the judiciary could be hijacked. But the Senate was sort of half political: answerable but also indirectly answerable to the public — and thus more insulated from public pressure.
Hamilton pointed out that setting up a separate impeachment court (which we might now call the DOJ) wouldn&#8217;t actually solve the problem because that, too, could be politicized.
The problem is that over time, in a wide variety of countries, as democratic republics and their checks and balances have transitioned into administrative bureaucracies in which enormous power is centralized in the executive branch, checks and balances have atrophied until Donald Trump was impeached twice. The impeachment power was almost never used by the Congress of the United States, for example.
We made a decision at the outset of the 20th century that was echoed in other burgeoning democracies that law enforcement checking corruption was not to be done by the elected bodies of government. Instead, it was outsourced to so-called independent branches of government.
In the United States, that is the Department of Justice; in South Korea, it is the state prosecutor&#8217;s office; in Brazil, the prosecutors, the police, the judiciary; in Israel, the attorney general, and so forth.
There is a problem that happens here, and this is a problem with the administrative state. The problem is that state prosecutors can also be corrupted by politics, as we have seen in the United States. And then the solution isn&#8217;t to change the people in government anymore, because these are independent branches, and they&#8217;re unelected. It&#8217;s not a matter of replacing some people with other people.
If you fire some people, that&#8217;s considered interference with the magical “objective branch.” If you leave people in place and they target your political opponents, it&#8217;s weaponization.
That&#8217;s what leads to constitutional crises. Once the job of policing corruption from the elected branches of government — like the Senate of the United States or the National Assembly in South Korea — is outsourced to state prosecutors, sooner or later, state prosecutors will attempt to go after the wrong people, the legislature after state prosecutors, or the president after state prosecutors, in order to prevent weaponization.
This is the problem with sending up fake “objective legal enforcement” bodies. It creates constitutional crises because the only solution to a politicized law enforcement branch is to either overthrow the government for interfering with the system, which is what the president of South Korea attempted to do, or to call for the overthrow of the government for weaponizing the system.
Constitutional crises are the result of supposedly untouchable, nonpartisan institutions that can either be weaponized or interfered with.
This is happening across the West. It&#8217;s a major, major problem. It&#8217;s the problem with administrative governments. It&#8217;s a major problem in regards to the idea that it is the job of impartial legal bodies to police corruption.
So democracies are throwing themselves into crisis, specifically over this.
Let&#8217;s say that you are in the United States and you are really, really angry that Donald Trump became president in 2016. What do you do? You could try to impeach him, but it will probably fail if you don&#8217;t have the votes because it&#8217;ll break down along strictly partisan lines. 
What do you do instead? You rely on the DOJ; you rely on the FBI. You weaponize those institutions against Trump. And that prompts Trump, if he becomes president, to clean out those institutions, in which case he will be accused of weaponizing those institutions. And so the constitutional crisis just continues to roll on, all because this sort of bipartisan consensus around impeaching presidents who are guilty of crimes has gone away in the United States. 
You could say it died during the Clinton era. And the United States is now feeling the aftereffects. 
The same is true in Israel. In Israel, the attorney general&#8217;s office has put Benjamin Netanyahu under three separate prosecutions; all of them appear to be somewhat specious. The goal is obviously political. Netanyahu has been in power for some 14 of the last 15 years in Israel. He&#8217;s a masterful Machiavellian politician, just in pure, raw talent terms. And so the attorney general&#8217;s office has been weaponized against him, as claims Netanyahu, which I think is largely correct in a wide variety of cases. 
But every time he tries to mess with the prosecution, he&#8217;s accused of tampering with democracy.
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Once these institutions are set up as the final arbiter of guilt and innocence, then anyone who tampers with them on either side is then considered a threat to democracy, even if the person who is actually militarizing law enforcement is the person who is in power.
In Brazil, the law enforcement mechanisms have been weaponized by Lula da Silva against Jair Bolsonaro. That means as Lula is cleaning out the judiciary institutions, he&#8217;s being lauded as someone upholding the norms of democracy while he, at the same time, engages in widespread censorship. Instead of corruption being seen as a political issue to be answered by the political branches and eventually the people, because it&#8217;s been outsourced to law enforcement, the law enforcement branch can be routinely corrupted.
Not all that long ago Lula himself had been banned from running because of his own corruption convictions. Then, in 2021, a Left-wing Supreme Court judge annulled his corruption convictions and allowed him to run again. After he ran and won, the Brazilian police formally accused former President Bolsonaro and his aides of an alleged 2022 coup attempt. That happened just last week.
Bolsonaro has said he would fight the case. Meanwhile, Lula is openly consolidating power in the executive branch in wildly anti-democratic ways. But he has been praised by many members of the media as an anti-authoritarian politician. Yet the reality is that Lula has been a close ally of Venezuela&#8217;s Nicolas Maduro, who&#8217;s been a close ally of the Cuban regime. In fact, it&#8217;s rare to find some sort of authoritarian regime that Lula doesn&#8217;t like. From China to Nicaragua, from Iran to Russia, he has cozied up to authoritarians everywhere. But because he&#8217;s a Left-wing authoritarian, the perception is that he&#8217;s not really an authoritarian, even if he engages in widespread censorship.
This is what happens when democratic republics delegate the power to check political opposition to a supposedly objective, nonpartisan branch of government. It&#8217;s not real. It doesn&#8217;t work. Administrative states do not work for precisely this reason because they&#8217;re never dispassionate, ever.
It&#8217;s true in a wide variety of countries, from South Korea to Israel to Hungary to Brazil.
It&#8217;s always a problem.
Again, all of this breakdown is happening because so many people across so many Westernized countries have decided they no longer trust the mechanisms of checks and balances of the democratic republic and, instead, are going to delegate all power to these impartial institutions.
Then, those institutions break down.
And then, the entire country starts to break down.

South Korean Lawmakers Overturn President’s Declaration Of Martial Law

WTF Just Happened In South Korea?

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Now that our government is being run by a faceless, unelected cabal of credentialed socialist elites who are so intellectually brilliant they have passed beyond the golden realm of genius into an ethereal dumpster of complete stupidity, there is not much left for our dementia-riddled president to do except lie in his lawn chair, eat Jello and start a nuclear war with Russia.
The end of the world began as national leaders gathered at the G-20 summit in Rio de Janeiro this week, where President Biden was disappointed to learn that Peking Lame Duck did not mean that dinner was Chinese take-out but just that he had to stand behind Xi Jinping in the group photo. So as important world leaders — like whoever the president of Indonesia is — rose to give speeches promoting world peace, the dejected Biden wandered off to finish coloring the Winnie-the-Pooh-Gets-Stuck-in-a-Knothole page of his briefing book, and then give Ukraine permission to fire American-made long range missiles into a country run by a power hungry lunatic with a nuclear arsenal large enough to reduce the ruins of Great Britain to the ruins of Great Britain.
In a speech delivered to a potted plant he mistook for a little girl with great-smelling hair, Biden explained why he changed his strategy from letting the war drag on forever through maundering incompetence to getting everyone on earth killed through maundering incompetence.
The president told the adorable little plant, “Given the inexcusable aggression of Vladimir Putin’s reckless attempt to rebuild the Russian empire by invading a perfectly innocent cesspit of corruption like Ukraine, I just wanted to see the pretty streaks of light that missiles make when you fire them across the night sky. And by the way, your hair smells terrific, but I don’t think you should have dyed it green like that.”
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was ecstatic at being set free to recklessly provoke a nuclear power, and celebrated by adding yet another inexplicable ‘y’ to his last name, then goose-stepping back and forth through the rubble of a children’s hospital while spouting double-talk in a French accent in the hopes someone might mistake him for Napoleon.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, responded to the attacks by lowering the Russian standard for nuclear retaliation. Whereas before, the Putin doctrine declared that a Russian nuclear attack could only be triggered as a self-defensive response to a ground invasion of the motherland, it now permits the launch of world-destroying total war as a gesture of annoyance at the crappy finale of Gilmore Girls or any other equivalently frothy-but-delightful streaming concoction. The doctrine is mitigated by the fact that nuclear launch cannot begin without the final approval of President Putin or anyone else wearing a spiked helmet and beating his bared chest while proclaiming his right to world domination.
Among political conservatives, the sudden launch of American-made missiles from Ukraine into Russia set off a round of wild speculation as to Biden’s motives. Some claimed that the president had set World War III in motion as a reaction to the recent election results, because he felt a series of bright explosions that turned the sky into a sparkling wonderland of irradiated human ash would be an appropriately spectacular way for him to celebrate the defeat of Kamala Harris after she humiliated him by forcing him to abandon a presidential campaign that he would absolutely have won had he still been alive in any meaningful sense of the word. Such theories were dismissed as implausible, however, because they depended on Biden thinking clearly enough to have a discernible motive.
As for President-elect Donald Trump, he spent the day at the Florida headquarters of Space X, where he watched Elon Musk launch a 400-foot-tall starship that would travel halfway around the globe, land gently on Vladimir Putin’s desk in his office at the Kremlin, and open to release a miniature robot Trump who would march out, slap Putin in the face, tell him to stop invading other people’s countries, then march back into the starship, which would return safely to Florida after stopping at McDonald’s to pick up a Happy Meal.
So the transition continues.
* * *
This excerpt is taken from the opening satirical monologue of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-andrew-klavan-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Andrew Klavan Show</a>.”
Andrew Klavan is the host of “The Andrew Klavan Show” at The Daily Wire. He is the bestselling author of the Cameron Winter Mystery series. The fourth installment, “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613165536?ref_=dbs_m_mng_rwt_calw_thcv_3&amp;storeType=ebooks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A WOMAN UNDERGROUND</a>,” is now available. Follow him on X: @andrewklavan
The views expressed in this satirical article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

G20 Summit Rio de Janeiro 2024 – Day One

Confused Biden Wanders Off And Starts World War III

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When a group of world leaders gathered for a &#8220;Family Picture&#8221; with Rio de Janeiro&#8217;s Sugarloaf Mountain in the background at the G-20 summit in Brazil on Monday, President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> was nowhere to be found.
Video <a href="https://x.com/cspan/status/1858587430485434702" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> to X by C-SPAN showed the world leaders posing for a photo on a platform for the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. As the leaders began to depart, someone could be heard in the video noting how there were shouts for them to wait for Biden, but they kept walking away.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President Biden and other world leaders miss the &#8220;Family Picture&#8221; at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/G20Summit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#G20Summit</a>. <a href="https://t.co/wqA0zaLuC3">pic.twitter.com/wqA0zaLuC3</a>
— CSPAN (@cspan) <a href="https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1858587430485434702?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mockery on social media ensued as clips of Biden missing the photo went viral.
&#8220;His entire term in a post,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/DLoesch/status/1858598469742850056" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quipped</a> radio host Dana Loesch. &#8220;He walked off into the Amazon yesterday and never returned,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/redsteeze/status/1858599004147196143" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> political commentator Stephen L. Miller, who was referencing how Biden <a href="https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1858236747571765745" target="_blank" rel="noopener">departed</a> into the Amazon rainforest after delivering remarks on Sunday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Biden, who just authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, takes no questions and retreats back into the Amazon rainforest <a href="https://t.co/xy7xr6qYPZ">pic.twitter.com/xy7xr6qYPZ</a>
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1858236747571765745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Those who did pose for the picture included Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was there instead of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🌎 Today (18), after the launch of the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty and the G20 Leaders&#8217;Summit first session in Rio de Janeiro, G20 representatives gather for the official Global Alliance photo. <a href="https://t.co/CTFzFtEVD4">pic.twitter.com/CTFzFtEVD4</a>
— G20 Brasil (@g20org) <a href="https://twitter.com/g20org/status/1858604328271155244?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
USA Today correspondent Francesca Chambers, who was doing the White House press pool report for the event, reported that Biden had arrived late and that he was chatting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as the other leaders were departing.
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&#8220;Due to logistical issues, they took the photo early before all the leaders arrived,&#8221; a senior official said, according to Chambers. She also reported that this official, who was not identified, claimed Biden&#8217;s absence was not about avoiding a photo with Lavrov.
Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-18/where-was-biden-the-g-20-photo-shows-him-out-of-the-picture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Trudeau and Meloni missed the photo in addition to Biden. The outlet also noted that a U.S. official &#8220;blamed&#8221; logistics and said the photo was taken early while Brazilian organizers insisted the absent leaders were late.
The 81-year-old Biden is wrapping up his time in the White House after his vice president, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kamala-harris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamala Harris</a>, lost to President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 election earlier this month. Biden had been running for a second term but dropped out in July after a fumbling debate performance against Trump while facing pressure from allies who raised concerns about his age, mental acuity, and electability.

President Joe Biden

‘His Entire Term In A Post’: Biden Misses G-20 Picture With Other World Leaders

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A group of high-profile free speech advocates including government officials, journalists, and academics have signed a letter to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/brazil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brazil</a> condemning the government&#8217;s censorship of X, formerly Twitter.
Last month, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brazilian-judge-orders-suspension-of-x-social-media-platform-responds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> that X be suspended in Brazil after the social media platform resisted demands to censor certain political accounts.
The judge&#8217;s decision banned Brazilians from using the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
X responded to the judge&#8217;s decision in a statement, accusing the judge of illegally ordering the social media platform to &#8220;censor his political opponents,&#8221; including &#8220;a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl.&#8221;
&#8220;Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders,&#8221; X Global Government Affairs <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1829296715989414281" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Brazilians using a VPN to access X can be fined nearly $9,000 a day.
In their letter, which was spearheaded by Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent free speech law firm, the free speech advocates condemned Brazil for &#8220;judicial overreach&#8221; and &#8220;stifling free discourse and violating Brazil’s own constitution, which prohibits &#8216;[a]ny and all censorship of a political, ideological, and artistic nature.'&#8221;
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The open letter to Brazil&#8217;s Parliament was <a href="https://adfinternational.org/news/brazil-open-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> by five U.S. Attorneys General, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, Princeton academic Dr. Robert George, author Rod Dreher, and Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon.
Also signing the letter were podcaster Tammy Peterson, who is psychologist Jordan Peterson&#8217;s wife, “Twitter Files” journalist Michael Shellenberger, and former Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, among dozens of conservative influencers and other international advocates for free speech.
&#8220;If this censorship in Brazil is allowed to persist, it could set a dangerous precedent that quickly spreads,&#8221; the letter reads. &#8220;Recently, other world leaders have expressed pro-censorship sentiments, and there is no quicker path to the demise of democracy than the erosion of free speech.&#8221;
The letter urges the Brazilian government to &#8220;restore the free flow of information, and respect the rights of its citizens to express their views without fear of retribution.&#8221;
&#8220;The courts should immediately lift the ban on the use of X within Brazil,&#8221; Jeremy Tedesco, Alliance Defending Freedom&#8217;s senior vice president of corporate engagement, said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
&#8220;This is unlawful and deprives Brazil’s citizens of their freedoms under their own Constitution,&#8221; Tedesco said. &#8220;This letter shows that prominent leaders are taking this issue seriously, as this is a dangerous global precedent to set. Freedom of expression is not negotiable, nor is it a privilege — it is the cornerstone of every democratic society. We must defend it whenever it is under threat, whether in Brazil or anywhere else in the world.&#8221;
The letter is now <a href="https://adfinternational.org/our-focus/end-global-censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open</a> to the public for signing and had more than 1,600 signatures as of Thursday while rapidly gaining more.

UK Daily Life 2023

Free Speech Advocates Sign Letter Condemning Brazil Government’s Censorship Of X

Free Speech Advocates Sign Letter Condemning Brazil Government's Censorship Of X

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