ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that the Trump administration did not facilitate defeated presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro’s departure to the U.S. after he left Brazil following his election defeat to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro arrived in Miami on Wednesday, a day after the State Department said that Bolsonaro and his family will be granted U.S. visas after his weekend loss in a hotly contested race that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in Latin America.
“We didn’t facilitate anything,” Rubio told reporters in Atlanta, where top diplomats from the Group of 20 largest world economies were gathered.
“We had word that he had arrived in the United States. He had previously held a visa, and the president made a decision to allow him to enter the country,” Rubio said, adding that the U.S. government was not “involved directly in any of the moves that were made.”
Rubio also said that he had seen Brazil’s foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, in Atlanta both on Friday and Saturday, and that he expected to see Brazilian officials again in France in November, when France is hosting a foreign ministers’ meeting.
Bolsonaro refused to concede and has called the elections fraudulent, without providing evidence. His father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, also refused to acknowledge his 2022 loss to Lula and is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup.
Bolsonaro, who had President Donald Trump’s tacit support in the election, is under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and had been ordered to surrender his passport after police deemed him a flight risk.
The senator from Rio de Janeiro, who will lose his seat when Brazil’s new legislature begins on Feb. 1, repeated his claim that he is a victim of persecution in a livestream on Instagram Friday.
In a letter on Wednesday, the 45-year-old Bolsonaro declared himself the “true president-elect of Brazil” — a term he later softened to “leader." He compared himself — among other figures — to Charles de Gaulle, who led the French resistance to the Nazi occupation of France from London during World War II.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a news conference, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
ROME (AP) — They’ve been blessed by the pope. And now it’s finally time for some hoops.
The Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams are meeting in a doubleheader in Rome on Sunday to open the college basketball season.
The event, dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off, was created to honor the first American pope.
Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV received all four teams in an audience at the Vatican on Saturday.
Leo told the teams from his alma mater Villanova and fellow Catholic university Notre Dame that in matters of sport, the pontiff is neutral.
Then the pope, who was born Robert Prevost, said his former self might disagree.
“Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now,” he said to laughs during a whooping, cheering audience of 7,000 people from both schools — players, coaches, fans and their families — in the Vatican audience hall.
The games are being played at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport, which is located about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.
While Leo, who underwent lung cancer surgery last month, was not expected to attend the games, a contingent of cardinals and other Vatican officials was expected at the arena.
The schools also brought their team chaplains to Rome.
The men’s game starts at 3:30 p.m. local (9:30 a.m. ET) and is being shown on Fox with Bill Raftery as the analyst. The women’s game, which features the only ranked team of the day in No. 13 Notre Dame, is slated for 6 p.m. (noon ET) on FS1.
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Pope Leo XIV examines a basketball he received as a gift in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
The Villanova men's basketball team takes part in a training session in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
From left, Villanova's guards Elijah Crawford, and Brady Muller present Pope Leo XIV with a personalized Villanova's jersey as they meet in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
From left, Notre Dame's guards Braeden Smith and Logan Imes, and from right, guards Hanna Hidalgo and Kelly Ratigan present Pope Leo XIV with a personalized Notre Dame's jersey and basketball as they meet in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men’s and women’s college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
This combination of three images shows Pope Leo XIV as he examines a basketball he received in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
