Hello and welcome to the intelligence from the economist. I'm your host, Auré Ogambi.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Despite progress across much of the world, protections for LGBT rights in Ukraine have

lagged for years. But since the invasion, there's been a much more open embrace of gay

soldiers on the front lines. And pulling a sickie is the oldest trick in the book. A few

sniffs here and a croak there used to be all you needed to convince your boss that you deserve

to day off. Now, thanks to a new algorithm, it looks like the jig is up.

First up though.

Brazil's president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, has been on a well-winned diplomatic tour.

Earlier this month, Lula, as he's widely known, left Beijing with a pledge to boost economic ties with China.

This week, he's in Portugal and Spain trying to spur new investments between the EU and Brazil.

But his diplomatic efforts have not been without controversy. On a stop in the United Arab Emirates,

Lula sparked a diplomatic rower with America over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Lula told reporters that neither president Putin nor Zelensky were trying to stop the conflict,

and suggested that rather than promoting peace, America and the EU were encouraging war

by providing weapons to Ukrainian forces.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, welcomed the comments. But Washington was much less enthusiastic.

Of course, we want this war to end. Of course, we do. And we support President Zelensky's call for

just end to Russia's war of choice. And again, what we heard, the tone, was not neutral,

and it is not true. And so we'll continue to speak out against that.

Despite American criticism, Lula has not backed down. His attempts to take on the trickiest

international challenges of the day are part of his wider plans to make Brazil a powerful player

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