Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

The Macri effect

Financial markets are usually a step ahead of political developments. It's their job to anticipate political events. However, Greece has so far left investors cold. The past few months saw Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras allow a big opportunity to slip through his fingers.

Brazil after Dilma

Former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff left the presidential palace in Brasilia last week and boarded a plane for her adopted home city of Porto Alegre. She leaves behind a successor who risks indictment for far worse offences than the ones that brought her down, and a country that has lost its right to a place among the BRICS.

Brazil police detain ex-president Lula in corruption probe: Spokesman

Police searched the home of Brazil's powerful ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and detained him for questioning on March 4 in a probe into a huge corruption scheme.

Agents searched his house in Sao Paulo, the offices of the Lula Institute, and houses of family members, Jose Chrispiniano, a spokesman for Lula and his institute, told AFP.

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