Brazil's Bolsonaro open to G7 aid if Macron 'withdraws insults'

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said Tuesday he was open to discussing G7 aid for fighting fires in the Amazon if his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron "withdraws insults" made against him.

Bolsonaro's remarks come amid an escalating war of words with Macron over the worst fires in years that have sparked a global outcry and threatened to torpedo a huge trade deal between the European Union and South American countries.

Hours earlier, a top Brazilian official had rejected the G7 countries' offer of USD 20 million to combat the fires devastating the forest in Brazil and Bolivia, saying Macron should take care of "his home and his colonies."
Bolsonaro hit back, accusing Macron of treating Brazil like "a colony or no-man's land."
In the hard-hit northwestern state of Rondonia, thick smoke has choked the capital Porto Velho in recent days as fires blacken swaths of the rainforest. Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva on Monday claimed that the fires were "under control."
"It has been exaggerated a little that the situation was out of control - it wasn't," he said. "The situation isn't simple but it is under control."