Pressure back on Dilma as protests again sweep Brazil

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is under renewed pressure after protesters returned to the streets demanding her removal from office.

The AP reports that some 135,000 people turned out in 16 towns and cities – and while the anger over a stalled economy and an ongoing corruption scandal is real, they were “relatively modest crowds, likely giving the president some breathing room. Huge numbers had come out for two earlier rounds of demonstrations this year.”

Agence France-Presse writes:

Less than a year into her second term, Rousseff is all but a lame duck, with the opposition considering controversial impeachment proceedings, and the country’s elite caught in a vast embezzlement scandal centered on state-oil company Petrobras.

“We can’t take this corruption any longer,” said Rogerio Chequer, leader of the Vem Pra Rua (Go on the Streets) group, which helped organize the protests.

“If Congress has even a minimum of sense, it will decide on impeachment,” he said at the Sao Paulo march, where many in the crowd wore the national football team’s famous yellow shirt.

But the FT says the President “should stay in office despite calls for her impeachment.”

A downgrade of Brazilian debt to junk status remains a real possibility. If that happened, even more investment would leave the country, and the economy would get worse still. In the meantime, there are no obvious ways to break the gridlock. Furthermore, even if Ms Rousseff is removed, it would likely only see another mediocre politician replace her — and then try to implement the same economic stabilisation that she is trying to do.

Some perspective is required. Brazil is far from being in the kind of mess that exists in Argentina or Venezuela, even if its fall from grace has been remarkable.

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WORLD

Sri Lankans  vote on Monday in national parliamentary elections.

Monday is the formal deadline for a peace deal in South Sudan, with the two sides attempting to negotiate an agreement before international sanctions are imposed.

In Greece, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras continues to face opposition over the bailout agreement from his own party and others in the Athens parliament.

Meanwhile the country’s migrant crisis continues to worsen.

http://twitter.com/callysally/status/633027884794384384

The recovery mission gets fully under way for the Indonesian commuter plane with 54 people on board which went missing in Papua on Sunday.

AFP reports that

Trigana Air is a small airline established in 1991 that operates domestic services to around 40 destinations in Indonesia. It has suffered 14 serious incidents since it began operations, according to the Aviation Safety Network, which monitors air accidents.

The airline is on a blacklist of carriers banned from European Union airspace.

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BUSINESS

A piece in the New York Times created something of a stir this weekend, looking at work practices at Amazon and how the company is “conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.”

“..workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others. (The tool offers sample texts, including this: “I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks.”)”

http://twitter.com/phogan/status/633066494365184000

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POLITICS

Civil rights leader Julian Bond died aged 75.

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SPORTS

Australian Jason Day won the PGA championship – his first major – with a history-making score.

Jordan Speith was second, a finish that was enough to take him above Rory McIlroy to #1 in the world rankings.

Defending Premier League champions Chelsea have had a rocky start to this year’s campaign. An emphatic defeat to Manchester City on Sunday meant the Blues are the second reigning Premiership champions to fail to win either of their first two games the next season.

The other, though, was a Manchester United side that in 2007 went on to retain the title and win the Champions League, so all might not be lost for Jose Mourinho just yet, although you’d be forgiven for thinking so from Monday’s papers.

chelsea

(montage – Tomorrow’s Papers Today)

 

 

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