Brazil moves to remove its own president, put her on trial

The extraordinary political turmoil in Brazil reached a watershed on Wednesday as members of the Senate neared a final vote to suspend President Dilma Rousseff from office for up to six months and put her on trial for alleged misdeeds in economic policy.

Even as the nation watched agog as a full day of mostly sober debate was broadcast on live television before a final vote expected later in the evening, it appeared all but certain that a simple majority in the upper chamber would be mustered to take the movement to remove Ms Rousseff to the next step.

“There is no path for us but opposition,” the most senior Senator of the President’s ruling Workers Party, Senator Humberto Costa told reporters, essentially acknowledging that a loss for the president and himself was nigh.