RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro has pneumonia and is receiving treatment in an intensive care unit, a hospital in the capital, Brasilia, said Friday.
One of his doctors, Brasil Caiado, told journalists that the 70-year-old's medical situation was serious.
“Pneumonia in patients over 70 is always serious because it can progress to septicemia, since the bacteria can normally enter the bloodstream and cause an even more severe condition,” Caiado said.
Earlier in the day, Bolsonaro’s eldest son Flávio said on X that his father was being transferred from prison to a hospital after waking up with chills and vomiting.
“I ask for prayers that it not be anything serious,” Flávio wrote. Flávio Bolsonaro has said he will run for president this year, and recent polls show him and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva almost tied.
Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after he was convicted last year by a panel of Supreme Court justices.
He was admitted to the hospital after experiencing high fever, low oxygen, sweating and chills, DF Star Hospital said in a statement. Exams confirmed bronchopneumonia, a type of pneumonia, likely caused by aspiration.
“He is currently hospitalized in the intensive care unit, receiving IV antibiotics and non-invasive clinical support,” the hospital said.
Caiado, a cardiologist, said that it was unlikely that Bolsonaro would return to prison in the next few days because the treatment is intravenous and has to be done in a hospital setting.
The embattled ex-leader was transferred to a larger cell in January, but his relatives have repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to allow Bolsonaro to carry out his sentence under house arrest. They allege he is being mistreated and receiving insufficient medical attention.
On Friday, Carlos Bolsonaro — one of the former president’s sons — said on X “the system, literally and insistently, (is) trying to kill” his father.
The Court has refuted those claims and refused to allow Bolsonaro to serve his sentence at home.
Bolsonaro has been hospitalized multiple times since being stabbed at a campaign event before the 2018 presidential election.
In January, police escorted him to the same hospital for brain tests after he fell from his bed.
Bolsonaro and several of his allies were convicted in September of attempting to overthrow Brazil’s democratic system following his 2022 election defeat. The plot included plans to kill Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. There was also a plan to encourage an insurrection in early 2023.
Bolsonaro was also convicted on charges that include leading an armed criminal organization and attempting the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He has denied any wrongdoing.
His trial received renewed international attention after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Brazil, citing the judicial proceedings against his ally, which Trump called a “witch hunt.” Many of those taxes have since been removed.
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FILE - Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, temporarily allowed out of house arrest for medical treatment, departs a hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will withdraw about 5,000 troops from Germany in the next six to 12 months, the Pentagon said Friday, fulfilling President Donald Trump's threat as he clashes with the German leader over the U.S. war with Iran.
Trump had threatened to withdraw some troops from the NATO ally earlier this week after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized Washington’s lack of strategy in the war.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that the “decision follows a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe and is in recognition of theater requirements and conditions on the ground.”
Germany hosts several U.S. military facilities, including the headquarters of its European and Africa commands, Ramstein Air Base and a medical center in Landstuhl, where casualties from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were treated. U.S. nuclear missiles are also stationed in the country.
The number of troops leaving Germany would be 14% of the 36,000 American service members stationed there.
Nico Lange from the Center of European Policy Analysis told The Associated Press earlier this week that they primarily serve U.S. interests, including “the projection of American power globally,” rather than helping with the defense of Germany.
Trump ignored questions from reporters about the withdrawal on Friday as he boarded Air Force One in Ocala, Florida, following a rally to tout his economic agenda.
Trump made a similar threat in his first term, saying he would pull about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops who were then stationed in Germany, but he didn’t start the process and Democratic President Joe Biden formally stopped the planned withdrawal soon after taking office in 2021.
The mercurial U.S. leader has mused for years about reducing the American military presence in Germany, and has railed against NATO for its refusal to assist Washington in the war, which began on Feb. 28 with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Trump wrote Wednesday on social media that the U.S. was reviewing possible troop reductions in Germany, with a “determination” to be made soon. On Thursday, he was still thinking about Merz, posting that the German leader should “spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine” and “fixing his broken Country” than concerning himself with Iran.
American allies in NATO have braced for a U.S. troop withdrawal since Trump took office, with Washington warning that Europe would have to look after its own security, including that of Ukraine, in the future.
Depending on operations, exercises and troop rotations, around 80,000-100,000 U.S. personnel are usually stationed in Europe. NATO allies have expected for more than a year that the U.S. troops deployed after Russia launched its all-out war on Ukraine in February 2022 would be first to leave.
Ed Arnold, an expert in European security at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, in London, said Europe is more concerned about issues like a U.S. redeployment of Patriot missile systems and ammunition from Germany to the Middle East.
In October, the U.S. confirmed that it would reduce its troop presence on NATO’s borders with Ukraine. The move to cut 1,500-3,000 troops came on short notice and unsettled NATO ally Romania, where the military organization runs an air base.
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a charter school in The Villages, Fla., Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
