Brazil's Lula invites Tebet to be his planning minister

Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has invited centrist Senator Simone Tebet to be his planning minister, a close Lula aide said on Tuesday, and she is expected to accept.

Future Institutional Affairs Minister Alexandre Padilha said in a press conference Tebet had not yet formally accepted, but noted her party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement, had given a "positive signal." Tebet backed Lula over far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro after ditching her presidential bid when she failed to make the Oct. 30 run-off.