RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva warned U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday not to meddle in Brazil's October presidential election after Trump made his latest criticism of Brazil over judicial moves against Lula's political rivals.
The remarks show the escalating tensions between Brazil and the U.S. after the Trump administration proposed further tariffs against the South American country and recently classified two drug-trafficking groups as foreign terrorist organizations — moves that Lula opposes.
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Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva walks toward the podium prior to a group photo of G7 leaders and invited nations during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Justice Flavio Dino attends the trial of former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro at Brazil's Supreme Court in Brasilia, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
FILE - Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, gestures while giving a speech during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the G7 summit, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, gestures as he speaks with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, ahead of a working session at the G7 summit, in Evian-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)
Lula has frequently defended Brazil's sovereignty since Trump imposed tariffs on the country last year citing a “ witch-hunt trial ” against his ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula also has complained about U.S. sanctions imposed on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over what the Trump administration called his politically motivated role in prosecuting Bolsonaro, who was convicted of attempting a coup to try to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to Lula.
Trump said Wednesday that Brazil had become “dangerous politically” and that the government wanted to arrest “Bolsonaro junior,” who was “doing well in the polls.”
Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday convicted one of Bolsonaro's sons, former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, of coercion related to his father’s coup trial and sentenced him to four years and two months in prison.
However the reference to doing well in the polls suggested Trump may have been talking about — or was also talking about — Bolsonaro's eldest son, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who is running against Lula in the presidential election. Flávio Bolsonaro has not faced arrest.
Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted after the court found that he illegally interfered in his father's coup trial by lobbying the U.S. government to threaten Brazilian officials to stop the trial.
A journalist read out Trump’s remarks to Lula during a news conference following the G7 summit of world leaders in France's Evian-les-Bains, which Lula attended. The Brazilian leader said they demonstrated that Trump “doesn't know Brazil well.”
“If he knows Brazil through his relations with the Bolsonaro family, he doesn't know Brazil," Lula said. “He can go on liking Bolsonaro — the father, the son, the grandson — that’s not my problem, it’s his. (...) But don’t interfere in Brazil’s elections, because Brazil’s elections are Brazil’s business.”
Eduardo and Flávio Bolsonaro recently visited U.S. officials in Washington, including Trump. Shortly afterwards, the Trump administration classified Brazil's biggest drug-trafficking groups — First Command Capital and Red Command — as foreign terrorist organizations. Lula criticized that decision Wednesday, arguing that while the groups terrorize local populations they are not terrorist organizations because they seek profit rather than political change.
The U.S. government also had proposed a new 25% tariff on imports from Brazil, claiming the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in unreasonable trade practices. That move came despite a trip by Lula to Washington to try to persuade Trump not to apply further tariffs.
Lula has expressed his grievance over that tariff, and did so again on Wednesday. “I think what he did was disrespectful toward Brazil. He knows that. That’s why I said he still behaves like an emperor. We were negotiating an agreement.”
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Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva walks toward the podium prior to a group photo of G7 leaders and invited nations during the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Justice Flavio Dino attends the trial of former Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro at Brazil's Supreme Court in Brasilia, Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
FILE - Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, gestures while giving a speech during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the G7 summit, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Evian-les-Bains, France. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center, gestures as he speaks with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, ahead of a working session at the G7 summit, in Evian-les-Bains, France, Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — After decades waiting for justice, relatives of women murdered by New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer laid into him Wednesday before he was sentenced to life in prison. He told them: “I am responsible” for the crimes.
“There are no words I can say," said Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect who lived a secret life of violence for years before admitting he killed eight women. “The words I would say would have no meaning.”
The sentencing capped an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York’s most perplexing mysteries. The seemingly unconnected and largely overlooked disappearances of young women became the focus of true-crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began discovering the victims’ skeletal remains in the sandy scrub along a coastal parkway.
Heuermann, 62, will have no possibility of parole.
“A million years isn’t enough,” Violet Swager, a cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, said. “Nothing will ever make this right.”
As a series of victims' kin spoke, Heuermann sat with his hands on the defense table, looking straight ahead and lightly tapping his fingers.
Then Amanda Funderburg, victim Melissa Barthelemy's sister, commanded Heuermann to look at her. He glanced in her direction, but his eyes were slightly downcast.
“I hope you suffer,” Funderburg said as she recounted a taunting phone call she received from him days after Barthelemy disappeared. Funderburg was 15 years old.
JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack, told the killer that her daughter “had dreams, and you took them all away from her.”
“Justice has been done, but it can’t replace what has been taken,” Mack said.
Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he murdered seven women: Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Sandra Costilla.
Heuermann also admitted in court to killing an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, though he was never charged in her death. He said he strangled his victims, many of them sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies.
“Are you at least a little bit sorry for that?” Judge Timothy Mazzei asked Wednesday in an indignant voice.
Heuermann nodded and said “Yes, I am.”
“You are disgusting — a despicable man, if you are a man at all,” the judge said, his voice rising. “And you are a coward.”
As Heuermann was led away in handcuffs, spectators in the packed courtroom jeered.
Liliana Waterman, who was 3 when her mom vanished, said she has been waiting her entire life to confront her mother’s killer.
“She can finally rest in peace,” Waterman said outside the courthouse. “He can’t hurt anybody else.”
Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010 and their remains were all found on Long Island. Most were along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Costilla’s remains were found in 1993 in the Hamptons, while Vergata’s remains were found in 1996 on Fire Island.
Brainard-Barnes’ two children, who were 7 and 1 when she disappeared in 2007, underscored Wednesday how her absence shaped their lives and how she never got to know the adults they became.
Her sister, Melissa Cann, sobbed deeply as she described wondering for decades if she could have done more to protect Brainard-Barnes. But, she said, that guilt is “not mine to carry. It is for Rex and Rex alone.”
Heuermann’s ex-wife and two adult children said they did not attend the sentencing out of respect for the victim’s families.
The case spilled into view in 2010, when investigators started to find remains along Ocean Parkway while looking into the disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, whose death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.
The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.
Eventually, they matched DNA from a pizza crust Heuermann discarded in a Manhattan trash can to genetic material extracted from highly degraded hair fragments found on the women’s remains.
Investigators amassed other evidence, including cellphone and tracking data showing Heuermann arranged meetings with some victims shortly before their disappearances.
After Heuermann's 2023 arrest, prosecutors recovered what they described as a “blueprint” for the killings from his computer files. Among the documents was a series of checklists with reminders to limit noise, clean the bodies and destroy evidence.
Heuermann will soon be transferred to a state prison after having spent the past three years alone in a segregated cell at the Suffolk County jail, reading crime novels and striking up a brief correspondence with the infamous “Happy Face Killer.”
Calling him “a monster,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declared there was nothing Heuermann could say to mitigate his deeds.
“There is no doubt this defendant is sorry,” Tierney said. “He is sorry he got caught.”
Defense lawyer Michael Brown said Heuermann has shed tears, and there may be “some sincerity in his expressions of remorse.” His client appeared “as normal as they come” during their interactions, Brown said, in stark contrast with his crimes.
“He’s somewhat of a charismatic figure when you talk to him,” Brown said.
As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann has agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.
Peltz reported from New York.
This story has been corrected to show that the cousin of victim Jessica Taylor who is quoted in the story was Violet Swager, not Jasmine Robinson, who spoke after her.
Judge Tim Mazzei becomes emotional as Jasmine Robinson, cousin of Jessica Taylor, speaks during a victim impact statement during sentencing of Gilgo serial killer Rex Heuermann at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Wednesday, June. 17, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)
Melissa Cann, sister of Maureen Brainard Barnes, speaks prior to sentencing of Gilgo serial killer Rex Heuermann by Judge Tim Mazzei at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)
Gilgo Serial Killer Rex Heuermann is escorted away after being sentenced by Judge Timothy Mazzei at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)
Gilgo Serial Killer Rex Heuermann is sentenced before Judge Timothy Mazzei at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Wednesday, June 17, 2026. (James Carbone /Newsday via AP, Pool)
Defense Attorney for convicted murderer Rex Heuermann, Michael J. Brown, arrives to the the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex ahead Heuermann's court sentencing Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Suffolk County, New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Natile Dilea, a member of a sex-workers rights group, stands in line to enter the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex ahead of a court sentencing for convicted murderer, Rex Heuermann, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Suffolk County, New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Members of a sex-workers rights group, hug each other while waiting in line to enter the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex ahead of a court sentencing for convicted murderer, Rex Heuermann, Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Suffolk County, New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
