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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — With Brazil preparing to host the Group of 20 summit, it appears unlikely the leading rich and developing nations will sign on to a meaningful declaration regarding geopolitics: The meeting Monday and Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro is overshadowed by two major wars and Donald Trump’s recent election victory.

Heightened global tensions and uncertainty about an incoming Trump administration have tempered any expectations for a strongly worded statement addressing the conflicts in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine. Experts instead anticipate a final document focused on social issues like the eradication of hunger — one of Brazil’s priorities — even if it aims to include at least a mention of the ongoing wars.

“Brazilian diplomacy has been strongly engaged in this task, but to expect a substantively strong and consensual declaration in a year like 2024 with two serious international conflicts is to set the bar very high,” said Cristiane Lucena Carneiro, an international relations professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

After Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvathwarted far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro ‘s reelection bid in 2022, there was some excitement in the international community at the prospect of the leftist leader and savvy diplomat — who Barack Obama once called “the most popular politician on Earth” — hosting the G20. Bolsonaro had little personal interest in international summits, let foreign policy be guided by ideology and clashed with several leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron. Lula took office and often quoted a catchphrase: “Brazil is back.”

Brazil under Lula has reverted to its decades-old principle of non-alignment to carve out a policy that best safeguards its interests in an increasingly multipolar world. That involves talking to all parties, which experts say gave Brazil a privileged position to host a summit such as the G20.

But his administration’s foreign policy has at times raised eyebrows. A Brazil-China peace plan for Russia and Ukraine doesn’t call for Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine and has been slammed by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And Lula sparked a diplomatic incident with Israel after comparing its actions in Gaza to the Holocaust.

Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election earlier this month and the imminent return of an America First doctrine may also hamper the diplomatic spirit needed for broad agreement on divisive issues.

“If we have one certainty, it is regarding Donald Trump’s skepticism towards multilateralism,” Carneiro said.

Two officials from Brazil and one from another G20 nation say Argentine negotiators are standing in the way of a joint declaration. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Two of them said Argentina’s negotiators have raised several objections to the draft. They most vehemently oppose a clause calling for a global tax on the super-rich — which they had previously accepted, in July — and another promoting gender equality.

Ambassador Mauricio Lyrio, Brazil’s key negotiator at G20, told journalists on Nov. 8 that the leaders’ final declaration should address the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, but that diplomats were still discussing how to reach universally acceptable language.

“The main message, naturally, is that we need to achieve peace not only regarding these conflicts but all conflicts,” he said in the capital Brasilia, adding that Lula’s launch of a global alliance against hunger and poverty on Monday is just as important as the final statement.

“The leaders’ declaration will be the crowning achievement. But, at the same time, as instructed by the president himself, we have a G20 focused on concrete actions, such as the launch of a Global Alliance Against Hunger, with a package of very concrete social programs and innovative mechanisms to meet the resources needed for implementing them.”

Lula, a former trade unionist who hails from a humble background, made the fight against hunger a priority during his first two terms as president (2003-2010) both at home and abroad. The number of undernourished Brazilians fell by more than 80% in 10 years, according to a 2014 U.N. report.

Lula’s hunger alliance is the only one of Brazil’s primary aims for a G20 declaration that will be obtained, according to Thomas Traumann, a former government minister and a political consultant based in Rio.

“Brazil wanted a global deal to fight poverty, a project to finance green transition and some consensus over a global tax for the super rich. Only the first one has survived,” Traumann said.

President Joe Biden will attend the summit after a stop in Lima for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and then travel on to Manaus, a city in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. It will be the first time a sitting American president sets foot in the Amazon, and the trip’s objective is to highlight “commitment to environmental protection and respect for local cultures,” according to a Nov. 12 statement from the U.S. Embassy in Brazil.

White House officials insist that Biden’s visits to APEC and the G20 will be substantive, with talks on climate issues, global infrastructure, counternarcotic efforts and one-on-one meetings with global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Those officials say Biden also will use the summits to press allies to keep up support for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia’s invasion and not lose sight of finding an end to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

Any commitments Biden makes may be overturned by the next White House administration, according to Danielle Ayres, an international relations professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina.

“It would mean Trump would have to be proactive and say the U.S. is not going to do something to which it signed up for internationally,” Ayres said. “That has a cost. It generates insecurity, a bad perception on behalf of the international community towards Trump.”

Trump’s election may also cause other countries to look toward China as a more reliable partner. Xi Jinping’s inauguration of the Chancay megaport in Peru on Thursday was perhaps the clearest sign of Latin America’s reorientation.

A notable absentee at the G20 will be Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, against whom the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant that obliges member states to arrest him, and Russia’s delegation will be led by Sergey Lavrov. Israel is not a G20 member.

“The latest G20 meetings were somewhat depleted and became just another moment for bilateral meetings of heads of government. As Putin is out, Lula managed Ukraine not to be a topic, just as much as Israel. But Trump’s election takes from Lula the chance of being the star on the stage,” Traumann said.

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Associated Press writer Gabriela Sá Pessoa contributed from Sao Paulo.

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — A criminal network stretching from India to Canada made money smuggling families seeking better lives in the United States, including a man who died holding his 3-year-old son in gusting snow and bone-chilling temperatures two years ago, federal prosecutors plan to argue at a trial starting Monday in Minnesota.

Prosecutors have accused Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, of running the scheme and Steve Shand, 50, of Florida of waiting in a truck for 11 migrants, including the couple and two children who died after they tried to walk across the border to the U.S.

Prosecutors say Patel recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida, just north of Orlando.

Jagdish Patel, 39, died along with his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, and with their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi and their 3-year-old son Dharmik. Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel, who has pleaded not guilty, as has Shand.

The family, from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state, is believed to have spent hours wandering fields in blizzard conditions as the wind chill reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius). Canadian authorities found the Patels’ frozen bodies on the morning of Jan. 19, 2022. Jagdish Patel was holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket.

Federal prosecutors say Patel and Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the U.S., mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.

The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30. By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates there were more than 725,000 Indians living illegally in the U.S., behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.

Harshkumar Patel’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press that his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life for himself and now “stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime. He has faith in the justice system of his adopted country and believes that the truth will come out at the trial.” Attorneys for Shand did not return messages.

Court documents filed by prosecutors show Patel was in the U.S. illegally after being refused a U.S. visa at least five times.

Over a five-week period, court documents say, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of border. One night in December 2021, Shand messaged Patel that it was “cold as hell” while waiting to pick up one group, the documents say.

“They going to be alive when they get here?” he allegedly wrote.

During the last trip in January, Shand had messaged Patel, saying: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please,” according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.

Jagdish Patel grew up in Dingucha. He and family lived with his parents. The couple were schoolteachers, according to local news reports.

Satveer Chaudhary is a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney who has helped migrants exploited by motel owners, many of them Gujaratis. He said smugglers and shady business interests promised many migrants an American dream that doesn’t exist when they arrive.

“The promises of the almighty dollar lead many people to take unwarranted risks with their own dignity, and as we’re finding out here, their own lives,” Chaudary said.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday that could determine whether the swing state’s top elections official, who has been the target of disproven Republican election conspiracy theories, will remain in her post.

Republicans who control the state Senate tried to fire Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe last year, leading the commission to sue in an effort to keep Wolfe on the job.

The commission argues that the state Supreme Court should uphold a lower court’s ruling in Wolfe’s favor, which would allow her to remain in her position and not face a confirmation vote by the Senate.

But Republican lawmakers argue that the commission must appoint a commissioner, either Wolfe or someone else, so the Senate can vote on confirming that person. Wolfe can’t be allowed to remain in the position as a holdover, they contend.

Wolfe was first appointed for the nonpartisan position in 2018 and confirmed to a four-year term by the GOP-controlled state Senate in 2019. The commission is overseen by a bipartisan board that is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and Wolfe is head of the nonpartisan staff.

Wolfe was targeted for removal by Republican lawmakers who were unhappy with the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden. President-elect Donald Trump won Wisconsin this year, just as he did in 2016. Unlike after his loss in 2020, Trump backers are not alleging widespread fraud in this year’s election.

Wolfe was the subject of conspiracy theories and targeted by threats from election skeptics who falsely claim she was part of a plot to rig the 2020 vote in favor of Biden. Biden’s win by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin withstood two partial recounts, a nonpartisan audit, a conservative law firm’s review, and multiple state and federal lawsuits.

When Wolfe was up for reappointment in 2023, all six members of the commission voiced support for her. Three Republicans voted to reappoint, but the three Democrats abstained, resulting in a deadlocked vote. Had she gotten a fourth vote in support, her appointment would have been sent to the Senate, which then could have voted to fire her.

Even though her appointment was not forwarded to the Senate, Republican senators voted in September 2023 to fire Wolfe over objections from Democrats and the Legislature’s nonpartisan attorneys. They argued that the Senate didn’t have the authority to vote at that time because Wolfe was a holdover in her position and had not been reappointed.

The commission sued to challenge that Senate vote. Republican legislative leaders changed course and claimed in court filings that their vote to fire Wolfe was merely “symbolic” and had no legal effect.

Republicans asked the judge to order the elections commission to appoint an administrator for the Senate to vote on.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Ann Peacock, in a 2023 ruling, said Wolfe is legally serving as administrator of the elections commission as a holdover given that the commission did not have a majority vote to appoint her. The Senate’s vote to remove her had no legal effect and the commission has no duty to appoint a new leader while Wolfe is serving as a holdover, Peacock ruled.

Republican leaders of the Legislature appealed and the state Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday. It will issue a decision weeks or months from now.

Wolfe was asked about the case during a news conference the day after this month’s election and whether she was committed to remaining in her position “for the long haul.” She made no promises.

“I’m completely committed to seeing through this election and making sure that this election is certified,” Wolfe said.

The state Senate is charged with voting on approving appointees such as Wolfe. However, the GOP majority starting in January will shrink from 22-11 to 18-15 as a result of this month’s election. That means Republicans can only lose one vote on their side and still have a majority.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.