World in Focus: Sputnik’s Daily Current Affairs Program | 06/12/16

Rehan Calheiros has been removed from his position as Senate President by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court — but just how precarious a position does that now put the Temer administration in — intent as they are on implementing a raft of deeply unpopular austerity measures? We speak to Francisco Panizza, Professor in Latin American and Comparative Politics in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Theresa May becomes the first woman to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council of regional monarchies, and the British Prime Minister has been urged to raise the human rights records of UK allies Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. We speak to Marc Owen Jones from the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies

It has been widely reported that the Libyan coastal city of Sirte was liberated yesterday from Da’esh control after a six month campaign to vanquish the Jihadist group. We ask what the future may hold for Libya.

For months now, the free market leaning countries making up the bulk of South America’s trading bloc Mercosur have been threatening Venezuela’s seat at the table.  But the country was officially expelled on Friday amidst claims that it had violated the bloc’s “democratic principles” — but what exactly are those principles?  And is that really the reason behind the decision?

There have been celebrations in North Dakota as members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe received the news that the Dakota access pipeline construction has been halted, and an alternative route will be sought. But we’ll be asking if the celebrations should perhaps be cautious given the upcoming changes to the white house administration.

You can find previous editions of World in Focus here.

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