Protesters on Sunday massed in Brazil’s largest city to call for the president to be removed from office and express outrage at a host of his policies, while the embattled leader tried to head off some of their criticism.
Brazilian President Michel Temer has seen a continual drip of scandal and high-level resignations since he took office six months ago, but on Friday a scandal touched him directly for the first time amid allegations he abused his power to do a favor for one of his Cabinet ministers.
He denied the allegation.
Photo: EPA
The scandal could scuttle Temer’s ability to pass a series of austerity policies that he says are necessary to pull Latin America’s largest economy out of a deep recession.
Opposition politicians have promised to introduce measures in the Brazilian Congress calling for Temer’s impeachment.
On Sunday, of people gathered on a main avenue in Sao Paulo to call for just that.
Representatives from political parties and social movements also protested against the government’s proposal to cap spending to rein in the deficit, which many fear will result in deep cuts to education and healthcare.
Others were protesting rampant corruption in politics, criticizing not just the current administration, while some complained about the lack of suitable housing.
One group held up a banner with a drawing of Fidel Castro, paying homage to the Cuban leader who died on Friday night.
Dozens of business executives and senior politicians have been charged and arrested this year in a spiraling corruption investigation that has shocked Brazilians with the scale of graft it has revealed.
Congress is considering anti-corruption legislation, but many Brazilians worry that one measure meant to crack down on off-the-books campaign slush funds might be used to pardon politicians who engaged in the practice in the past.
The controversy has reached such a pitch that Temer held a rare Sunday news conference to say he would not allow any amnesty for such practices.
“It was necessary to listen to the voice of the street,” he told reporters.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion