Brazil's Lula, ill with pneumonia, postpones China trip

Brazil's leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was due to head to China for key talks with President Xi Jinping, has indefinitely postponed his trip to recover from pneumonia, the government said Saturday.

Lula, who succeeded the far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro at the start of the year, had hoped to use the trip to reclaim his country's role in global diplomacy, with discussions in Beijing expected to focus on reinforcing trade and the war in Ukraine.

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No new date was given for the 77-year-old Lula's trip, which had already been put back by a day due to what his office called a case of "mild pneumonia."