The five major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - are developing a joint new payment system called BRICS Pay, the Russian media has reported.
BRICS countries want to create a special online wallet to integrate the payment systems of its five member states, Izvestia said on Friday citing the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Russia's wealth fund is reportedly working on the project alongside its partners from China and India, who have the necessary technologies to launch the system.
The service will be similar to existing Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, allowing users to pay with a smartphone app no matter what currency the customer's account is linked to. A special cloud platform is to be created to link BRICS countries' national payment systems.
As Brazil's left-wing president, Dilma Rousseff, has been suspended from
office to face trial for disregarding budget laws, details have emerged
on key figures involved in what Rousseff supporters are calling a coup,
hinting at a covert plot involving Washington.
Following last week's vote in the Brazilian Senate that led to the
suspension of the country's first female president, the left-wing
politician herself noted that she "never imagined that it would be
necessary to fight a coup in this country."
While Latin America's modern history is riddled with well-documented
examples of US operations aimed at overthrowing regimes, some would
argue the situation in Brazil is tied to a popular protest movement that
has sprang up due to the corruption scandal and slumping economy.
However, profiles of those at the center of current events offer clues
as to why Washington's hand might be at play. Read more
"My government has been the target of intense and incessant sabotage."
Transcript
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, journalists.
Good morning, here’s Congressmen, Ministers,
Good morning everyone here.
I will make a statement to the press, so it’s not an interview, it is a statement.
I wanted first to tell you, and say also, to all Brazilians, that the impeachment process was opened by the Senate, and ordered the suspension of my term of office for a maximum period of 180 days.
I was elected president by 54 million Brazilian citizens, and it is in this condition, the condition of a President elected by 54 million, that I address you at this decisive moment for Brazilian democracy and our future as a nation.
What is at stake in the impeachment process is not only my mandate, what is at stake is the respect to the polls, the sovereign will of the Brazilian people and the Constitution.
What is at stake are the achievements of the last thirteen years, the gains of the poorest people, as well as the gains of the middle class. The protection of children, young people access to Universities and to Technical Schools.
The value of the minimum wage, doctors attending to the population. The realization of the dream of home ownership with “Minha Casa, Minha Vida”.
What is at stake is also the great finding of Brazil, the pre-salt.
What is at stake is the future of the country, the opportunity and hope to move forward forever more.
Before the Senate decision, I want once again to clarify the facts and report the risks to the country of a fraudulent impeachment: a real coup.
Since I was elected, the opposition, dissatisfied, called recount, tried to nullify the elections and then went on to openly conspiring for my impeachment.
They plunged the country in a permanent state of political instability, preventing the recovery of the economy, with the sole purpose of taking by force what they did not win at the polls.
My government has been the target of intense and incessant sabotage.
The clear objective has been preventing me to rule and thus forge the environment conducive to the coup.
When an elected president is revoked on charges of a crime he did not commit, the name given to it in the democratic world is not impeachment: it is a coup.
I have not committed a crime of responsibility, there is no reason for impeachment proceedings, I do not have accounts abroad, I never received bribes, I never condoned corruption.
This process is a fragile process, legally inconsistent, an unfair process, initiated against an honest and innocent person.
It is the largest of the brutalities that can be committed to any human being: to punish him for a crime he did not commit.
There is no more devastating injustice than to condemn the innocent.
Injustice is irreparable evil.
This legal farce, that I am facing, is due to the fact that, as president, I never accepted blackmail of any kind.
I may have made mistakes but have not committed crimes. I am being judged unfairly by having done all that the law authorizes me to do.
The acts I practiced were legal acts, correct, necessary acts, acts of government.
Similar acts were performed by the previous Brazilian presidents, before me.
It was not a crime in their time, and also is not a crime now.
They accuse me of having published six supplementation Decrees, six additional credit Decrees and, in so doing, have committed crime against the Budget Law – LOA.
It is false because the Decrees followed authorizations provided by law.
They treat as a crime an everyday management act.
They accuse me of delaying payments of “Plano Safra”, it is false.
I have not determined anything about it. The law does not require my participation in the implementation of this Plan (“Plano Safra”).
My accusers can not even say which unlawful act I have practiced.
What act? Which act?
Moreover, nothing was left to be paid, or any debt remained.
Never in a democracy, the legitimate mandate of an elected president can be stopped because of legitimate acts of budget management.
Brazil can not be the first to do this.
I would also like to address the entire population of my country saying that the coup aims not only to revoke me, to remove a president elected by the vote of millions of Brazilians – direct vote in a fair election.
To dismiss my government, they want actually prevent the execution of the program that was chosen by the majoritarian votes of the 54 million Brazilians.
The coup d’état threatens to ravage not only democracy, but also the achievements that the population reached in recent decades.
All this time, I have been also a zealous guarantor of the democratic rule of law.
My government has not committed any repressive act against social movements, against collective protests, against protesters of any political position.
The risk, the greatest risk to the country at this time is to be directed by a government without any votes.
A government that was not elected by direct vote of the population, a government that will have the legitimacy to propose and implement solutions to the challenges of Brazil.
A government may be tempted to crack down on protesting against him.
A government that is born of a coup.
A fraudulent impeachment.
Born of a kind of indirect election.
A government that is, himself, a big reason for the continuing political crisis in our country.
So, I tell you, all of you, I’m proud to be the first woman elected president of Brazil.
I am proud to be the first woman elected president of Brazil.
In those years, I have exercised my mandate in a dignified and honest way, honoring the votes I received.
On behalf of those votes, and on behalf of all the people of my country, I will fight with all legal instruments available to me to exercise my mandate until the end of my presidencial term, 31st December, 2018.
Destiny always got me many challenges, many great challenges, some appeared to me insuperable, but I managed to overcome them.
I have suffered the unspeakable pain of torture.
The agonizing pain of the disease.
And now I suffer again, the equally unspeakable pain of injustice.
What hurts the most right now is injustice.
What hurts most is to realize that I am the victim of a legal farce and politics.
But I do not subside, I look back and see everything we did.
I look forward and see everything we still need and can do.
The most important is that I can look at myself and see the face of someone who, even marked by time, have the strength to defend ideas and rights.
I fought my whole life for democracy.
I learned to trust the capacity of struggle of our people. I have lived many defeats, and lived big wins.
I confess that I never imagined it would be necessary to fight back against a coup in my country.
Our young democracy, made of struggles, made of sacrifices, even deaths, does not deserve it.
In recent months, our people took to the streets. It took to the streets in defense of more rights, more advances. That’s why I’m sure that people will know to say no to the coup.
Our people are wise, and has historical experience.
Brazilians who are contrary to the coup, regardless of party positions, to all of them I make a call: remain mobilized, united and at peace.
The struggle for democracy has no end date.
It is permanent struggle, which requires us constant dedication.
The fight for democracy, I repeat, has no end date.
The fight against the coup is long, it is a fight that can be won, and we will win.
This victory depends on us all.
Let’s show the world that there are millions of supporters of democracy in our country.
I know, and many here know, especially our people know that history is made through fighting.
And it is always worth fighting for democracy.
Democracy is the right side of history.
We will never give up, I will never give up fighting.
Thank you all very much.
Brazil’s new interim president, Michel Temer, was an embassy informant for US intelligence, WikiLeaks has revealed.
According to the whistleblowing website, Temer communicated with
the US embassy in Brazil via telegram, and such content would be
classified as ”sensitive” and ”for official use only.”
Two cables were released, dated January 11, 2006 and June 21, 2006.
One shows a document sent from Sao Paolo, Brazil, to – among other
recipients – the US Southern Command in Miami. In it, Temer discusses
the political situation in Brazil during the presidency of Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva.
Brazil's Ministry of External Affairs, the Itamaraty, issued a note
Wednesday evening saying it viewed the "escalation of violence between
Israel and Palestine" as "unacceptable," and that Brazil "strongly
condemns the disproportionate use of force by Israel in the Gaza Strip."
The note said Brazil's ambassador in Tel Aviv, Henrique Pinto, had been recalled, a move that Brazil's Globo News
website labelled "exceptional," adding that such a tactic was "taken
when the government wants to show its discontent and believes that the
situation in [the] other country is extremely grave."
Brazil has also summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Brazil, Rafael Eldad, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported Thursday.
Israel lambasted Brazil over the decision to recall
its ambassador in protest at Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
Read more
Brazilian riot police have used tear gas against
protesters in Sao Paulo, three days before the World Cup opening game
in the city's main stadium.
The BBC's Katy Watson at the scene says about 300 demonstrators are there and helicopters are circling overhead.
The protest was called by Sao Paulo metro workers who are striking in support of a 12.2% salary increase.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said she would not allow violent demonstrations to mar the World Cup.
Sao Paulo metro workers have been on strike since Thursday, creating traffic chaos in one of the world's most congested cities.
On Sunday, union members voted to continue to strike
indefinitely despite a court order for them to return to work and a
threat of dismissal by the state governor.
If the strike runs on until Thursday, it could affect the opening match between hosts Brazil and Croatia.
Arena Corinthians stadium is on the outskirts of Sao Paulo
and access to the venue without public transport could be a huge
challenge for fans.
Natural News In today's globally connected economic environment, entire governments
can be infiltrated by industry insiders who seek to further their
business agenda. It's easy for government safety boards and commissions
to be coerced into supporting a corporation's high-dollar demands. It's
now very easy for corporations to conspire globally to take advantage of
expanding markets in agriculture. Follow the money.
Genetically manipulated crops aren't the answer for feeding the world
Supporters
of big GMO agribusiness are often deluded by the thought that they are
feeding growing populations around the world. Realistically, genetically
altered seeds have been changed at the molecular level, sometimes
spliced with bacteria genes. This kind of DNA designer crop doesn't
always interact well with the human body. Chemicals like glyphosate,
mass applied in this agricultural system, disrupt the shikimate pathway
of the good bacteria in the gut. Even worse, GM "Terminator" seeds are
actually designed to make the seeds die in their second year, which
definitely doesn't help farmers feed the world. The world's hunger
slowly becomes more dependent on the GMO design, limiting food security.
Countries becoming guinea pigs at the mercy of those who think they knows what's best
As
genetically altered seeds are peddled to governments for approval,
entire populations of people may be at the mercy of a select few
commissioners and board safety connoisseurs who are easily influenced by
securing positions of power and influence. While experimental seeds
are approved into a country's agriculture, people inadvertently become
guinea pigs for lab-developed food. At the same time, farmers are
trapped into being seasonally dependent on genetically altered
Terminator seeds.
Terminator seeds transform hard-working farmers into dependent slaves
Highly
controversial genetically altered Terminator seeds are lab-designed to
die at their first harvest, making crops unable to reproduce in their
second year. This immediately makes farmers dependent on corporate seed
each growing season.
This inevitably consolidates all the power
and control into the hands of the corporations who lab-engineer new
seeds every year. This disturbing agricultural practice is anti-life,
anti-independence and anti-health. Terminator seeds
are really about control. Instead of working with nature and allowing
nature to take its course in breeding heritage seeds each year, farmers
are forced to buy experimental seeds and their chemical companions. Some
GM seeds are designed to perform tasks like creating their own
insecticide. While corporations take over and control the seed market,
farmers are made to be their slaves.
Independent organic farmers are being silently robbed by Terminator seed cross-contamination
Independent
farmers who refuse genetically altered seeds are also at risk. Organic
farmers who use heritage seeds could face the harsh reality of
cross-contamination as their real seed is contaminated by varieties of Terminator
seeds. Completely organic crops are at risk of being infected, so to
speak, as they are cross-contaminated by Terminator varieties. This may
create a line of dying "suicide" crops within an organic farmer's field.
Within one growing season, an honest, independent farmer could be robbed of the fruits of his own labor, silently. Terminator
seeds could literally cut his prosperity quietly each year, subjecting
his freedom to the controlling hands of GMO seed plotters.
Brazil activists seek to stop Terminator seeds with your help
In
the country of Brazil, Congress is proposing a bill, (PL) No. 268/2007,
that would allow exemptions to the ban on genetic use restriction
technologies, as Terminator seeds are formally known. This bill would
basically allow Terminator seeds to freely flow into Brazil's
agriculture, cross-contaminating real seeds and putting farmers at the
mercy of biotech firms. Filed by Rep. Eduardo Sciarra, this bill allows
for marketing and production of "suicide" seeds that are engineered to
become sterile in their second generation. A commission is set to vote
on the matter soon; if a quorum is reached, the bill would appear for a
final vote in the Brazilian Congress.
GMO Terminator seed
activists have launched a petition to be directed to the newly elected
President of the Judiciary Commission. The petition states clearly that
Terminator seeds threaten farmers and food sovereignty in Brazil.
The Brazilian city of Recife is known for its majestic bridges, but in
November a newspaper photo highlighted one of the metropolis’s uglier
aspects. Published in the Jornal do Commercio, the picture showed
a nine-year-old kid named Paulo Henrique submerged in a garbage-filled
canal beneath one of those famous bridges, picking cans out of the
filthy water so he could sell them.
According to government estimates, some 6,500 children live in the
slums in the Arruda and Campina Barreto neighborhoods on Recife’s north
side. Many of them wade through garbage to eke out a living just as
Paulo does, but it was only after his image appeared in the press that
the local government and international authorities took notice of their
plight. In response to the photo and the accompanying article, the
government promised to place Paulo, his mother, and his five siblings on
welfare.
Unfortunately, this publicity hasn’t yet resulted in the other children of the slums getting more money or services.
“We try to keep them busy, give them education and proper food, but
with the money we get, we can only assist 120 of these young kids [at a
time],” said Anatilde Costa, a social worker at the Asylum Home of
Divine Providence, a local NGO that provides food, clothing, and
education to the children. “Many others live in a pitiful situation...
Like they are animals.” Her organization receives a small amount of
money from the federal government, but it subsists mostly on donations.
Larissa Silva, a ten-year-old who has chronic ringworm covering 80
percent of her body, lives a few miles away from the Asylum’s
headquarters. When I met her at the cardboard house she shares with her
family she asked me, “Do you think I like living here?” I said no, and
she responded, “But I do. It’s the only life I know.”
Fabiana, Larissa’s mother, told me, “We spend two months collecting all
kinds of aluminum material and then we sell it to a company that pays
us 130 reals [around $55] for recycling. I raise my three kids like
this.”
On my way out of the slum I ran into Jeferson, Larissa’s brother. He
told me he hopes it rains soon so that he can take a bath and play on
the garbage rivers at high tide.
The worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to reveal the extent of the fallout from the Federal Reserve’s tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability.
The Turkish lira plunged to a record and South Africa’s rand fell
yesterday to a level weaker than 11 per dollar for the first time since
2008. Argentine policy makers devalued the peso by reducing support in
the foreign-exchange market, allowing the currency to drop the most in
12 years to an unprecedented low. Investors are losing confidence in some of the biggest developing
nations, extending the currency-market rout triggered last year when the
Fed first signaled it would scale back stimulus. While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the engines of global growth following the financial crisis in 2008, emerging markets now pose a threat to world financial stability.
The iconic statue of Christ overlooking Rio de Janeiro has been struck by lightning during a violent storm.
Officials confirmed on Friday the right thumb suffered damaged from
the storm. Incredible pictures captured the moment lightning hit the 125
ft (38 metre) statue on Thursday evening.
The powerful lightning and rain storm swept across the city, flooding streets and knocking out power in some neighbourhoods.
The
middle finger of the right hand had also been chipped during a storm
last month. The statue sits atop a steep mountain and is often hit by
strikes.
It underwent a $4 million (£243, 600) renovation in 2010 to repair badly eroded parts of its face and hands.
For decades, the lush Amazon rainforest in Brazil has served as the
backdrop to escalating tensions between an indigenous population which
calls the region home, and illegal loggers dead-set on exploiting its
natural wealth -- though the worst of the resulting atrocities may be at
hand. According to a representative from the Guajajara community in
northeastern Brazil, a group of illegal loggers recently captured a
young indian girl from a neighboring uncontacted tribe and burned her to
death.
A local indigenous leader in the Brazilian state of Maranhão recently spoke with Terra
regarding the incident which has yet to be confirmed by authorities,
though video of the young girl's murder is said to exist. The
representative said that the loggers who frequent his tribe's
reservation area to arrange the illegal clearing of timber are often
abusive, but that recently the outsiders inexplicably murdered a child
they found belonging to another indigenous community.
"The loggers were buying wood in the hands of the [Guajajara] Indians
and found a little girl [from the tribe Gwajá]. And they burned the
child. It was just pure evilness. She is from another tribe, they live
in the woods, and have no contact with white people," said the Guajajara
leader.
He went on to add that indians are frequently beaten by loggers
encroaching upon their reservations and that so far local police and
government officials have turned a blind eye to the abuses.
Authorities from Brazil's indian affairs bureau, FUNAI, say that
they've been made aware of the murder and are seeking more information,
yet the incident is hardly an isolated case. The same agency
acknowledges that from 2003 to 2010, 452 indigenous people were murdered
in Brazil, though the actual number could be much higher given the
intimidation often faced by isolated indian communities from outside
threats.
