Trending 
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticised the United Nations (UN) and other international bodies, saying they have “stopped working” and failed to prevent what he described as a “genocide” in Gaza.
Speaking in Malaysia on Saturday after meeting Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Lula said multilateral organisations like the UN Security Council were no longer effective in dealing with global crises.
“Who can accept the genocide that has been going on in the Gaza Strip for so long?” he asked reporters. “The multilateral institutions that were created to try to prevent these things from happening have stopped working. Today, the UN Security Council and the UN no longer function.”
The Brazilian leader’s comments came ahead of a major regional summit, where he is expected to meet US President Donald Trump.
Lula also appeared to take a subtle jab at Trump, saying, “For a leader, walking with their head held high is more important than a Nobel Prize.”
The remark followed reports that Trump was upset after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded this year’s peace prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, overlooking his claims of having helped broker multiple peace agreements.
Trump, who left Washington on Friday for his Asia tour, is scheduled to attend the signing of a peace accord between Thailand and Cambodia on Sunday — a deal the White House says he helped to facilitate.
Since returning to the White House for a second term in January, Trump has repeatedly argued that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomatic efforts, a claim widely dismissed by international observers.
Relations between Trump and Lula have been tense for months, mainly over the conviction of Trump’s ally and Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced in September to 27 years in prison for his role in an attempted coup following his 2022 election loss.
Trump retaliated by imposing 50 per cent tariffs on many Brazilian exports and sanctioning several senior officials, including a Supreme Court judge, accusing Brazil of conducting a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro.
However, the two leaders have recently sought to mend ties.
They held a brief meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September and later spoke by phone on October 6, where they discussed the possibility of meeting again at the upcoming ASEAN summit.
