A former Brazilian congressman linked to President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of using firearms and throwing grenades at police officers before being arrested on Sunday.
Roberto Jefferson had broken the terms of his house arrest when he called Supreme Court Justice Carmen Lucia a “witch” and a “prostitute” in an online attack.
The Federal Supreme Court (STF) had ordered Mr Jefferson to be taken back into custody before the former legislator reportedly barricaded himself in his home in Rio de Janeiro state for eight hours.
Federal Police said Mr Jefferson had resisted arrest using “firearms and explosives”. Two officers were “wounded by shrapnel from a grenade”. They received medical attention and are doing well, police said.
Mr Jefferson was taken into custody in the evening after “an intense negotiation”.
He said in a video posted on social media that he had fired a gun, but that he had not intended to injure the officers.
Mr Bolsonaro immediately condemned the alleged attack by Roberto Jefferson and distanced himself from the former legislator, calling him a “bandit”.
The president, who had earlier sent his justice minister to the scene, renounced the “armed action” and expressed his solidarity with the wounded.
“Whoever shoots at the Federal Police is a bandit,” he said during a television interview on Sunday night, while insisting he had no ties with Mr Jefferson, who in 2020 said the president was his “personal friend.”
Mr Bolsonaro had claimed on social media that he had not taken photos with Mr Jefferson, but several images were later published showing the two together since he became president in 2019.
Mr Bolsonaro condemned the statements made by Mr Jefferson against the Supreme Court justice, but also rejected the STF investigations of Mr Jefferson, which he believes are being carried out “without any support in the Constitution.”
It comes only a week before the presidential election's second round, which pits Mr Bolsonaro against leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“The offences against Carmen Lucia cannot be accepted by anyone who respects democracy. They have created a violent faction in society. A machine to destroy democratic values. This generates behaviour like the one we saw today,” Mr Lula wrote on Twitter.
Brazil elections in pictures
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
6 UNDERGROUND
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Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Adria Arjona, Dave Franco
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Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
