Brazil entered a new era Monday after electing its next president, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right congressman who vowed a fundamental change in direction for the giant Latin American country.

A huge fire engulfed Brazil's 200-year-old National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, lighting up the night sky with towering flames as firefighters and museum workers raced to save historical relics from the blaze.

The esteemed museum, which houses artifacts from Egypt, Greco-Roman art and some of the first fossils found in Brazil, was closed to the public at the time of the fire, which broke out at 7:30 p.m. Sunday local time, it said in a statement.

Brazil's fiery leftist former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his right-wing rival planned dueling presidential campaign rallies Wednesday, hours after Lula's party said shots were fired at his bus convoy.

Lula's 10-day campaign tour through southern Brazil has already been targeted by opponents throwing stones and raw eggs at the buses -- and at the two-term former president while he spoke on stage.

Brazil's President Michel Temer, already fighting a huge graft scandal, faces a court hearing Tuesday that could see him forced from office, plunging Latin America's biggest country into untested political waters.

Several hundred people attended a concert by top Brazilian musicians in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday in the latest protest demanding the resignation of President Michel Temer and calling for new elections.

Brazil's leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called the corruption trial threatening to end his storied career a "farce" during almost five hours of testimony Wednesday.

Brazil's former leftist president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, backed by hundreds of red-shirted supporters, was due in court Wednesday for a corruption trial that could end his storied career.

The Brazilian judge planning to question former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva this week in the vast Petrobras corruption scandal urged protesters to stay away from the courthouse where the two are due to meet.

Brazil's corruption crisis struck the heart of President Michel Temer's government Tuesday with the opening of probes into up to nine ministers and scores of lawmakers.

What Brazilian media called "the bomb" and even "the atomic bomb" landed when the Supreme Court authorized probes against 108 politicians in the already giant "Car Wash" investigation.

Brazil has sternly criticized Israel's approval for renewed large-scale settlement building in the occupied West Bank.