An intense day in Brazil. “Suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed on Thursday she would fight to prove her innocence after the Senate voted to put her on trial for breaking budget laws, its historic decision fueled by deep recession and a sprawling corruption scandal. In a dramatic changing of the guard that signaled a political shift in Brazil, Rousseff, a leftist who has been in office since 2011, departed Brasilia’s Planalto presidential palace just hours after the vote. Centrist Vice President Michel Temer took over as interim president for the duration of a Senate trial that could take up to six months. Temer, a constitutional scholar who spent decades in Brazil’s Congress and who had a bitter falling out with Rousseff last year, faces the daunting task of hauling the world’s No. 9 economy out of its worst downturn since the Great Depression and cutting bloated public spending.” (Reuters http://reut.rs/1TAmwYO)
US Stages Walkout at Museveni Inauguration… The U.S. delegation to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s inauguration walked out of Thursday’s ceremony in protest against his disparaging comments about an international war crimes tribunal and the presence of Sudan’s leader, whom the court has indicted, the State Department said. Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac and a visiting Washington-based official, along with several European and Canadian diplomats, abruptly left the inauguration after Museveni made negative remarks about the International Criminal Court in his inaugural address. She added that the U.S. also objected to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir’s participation in the inauguration.” (WaPo http://wapo.st/1sibDVS)
A Preview of the World Humanitarian Summit…The big UN-backed confab kicks off in Istanbul on Monday. Shannon Scribner of Oxfam America offers a useful curtain raiser of the big debates ahead and what this conference can actually accomplish. If you have twenty minutes and want a useful background on the broken state of international humanitarian relief and what this one conference can do to mend it, have a listen. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/1TRzST7)
Quote of the Day… “If it is not halted, it could lead to a genocide,” Adama Dieng, a special advisor to the UN secretary general on the prevention of genocide, referring to ongoing persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar. (Daily Sabah http://bit.ly/1T9kqQe)
Africa
New data from the International Monetary Fund shows that Egypt is now Africa’s second largest economy after Nigeria, pushing South Africa into third place. (QZ http://bit.ly/1sicg1G)
Rwandan president Paul Kagame has said that development assistance and aid programmes should allow for ownership of solutions by citizens in order to have a longer term impact in development. (New Times http://bit.ly/1Wt9lj9)
Somalia protested on Thursday against Kenyan plans to close Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp packed with hundreds of thousands of Somali citizens. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WtaDL6)
A South African court will decide on Friday whether to allow class action suits seeking damages from the gold mining sector on behalf of thousands of miners who contracted tuberculosis and silicosis. (Reuters http://bit.ly/1WtaMy1)
MENA
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei said Thursday he felt compelled to visit Gaza to understand its part in the global refugee crisis for a documentary he is filming. (Yahoo! http://yhoo.it/1WtbuLJ)
After the year’s deadliest attack in the Iraqi capital, protesters took to the streets of Baghdad to denounce the government for failing to protect them, escalating political confrontation that could doom the ruling coalition. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Wtaibs)
More than 20 percent of Syria’s Palestinian refugees have fled the country and its five-year war, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Thursday. (AFP http://bit.ly/1WtbH1q)
A joint aid convoy of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) and the United Nations (UN) was refused entry to Daraya today. (ReliefWeb http://bit.ly/1Wt9vqN)
Asia
South Asian nations will set up a toll-free helpline and online platform to fight human trafficking and trace the thousands of children who go missing in the region annually. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1WtbP0Z)
Lesbian, gay and transgender people in Kyrgyzstan say a proposed law preventing discussion of LGBT issues that has led to an increase in homophobia and hate crimes. (GlobalPost http://bit.ly/222ncMF)
Aid-dependent Nepal needs $7.86 billion over five years, $1.17 billion more than earlier estimates, to rebuild homes and infrastructure destroyed by the deadly earthquake in 2015. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1WtbM5q)
Vietnam would welcome the US “accelerating” the lifting of a lethal arms embargo, which would reflect trust between the two countries and recognition of its needs to defend itself, its foreign ministry said on Thursday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1Wtc8ZS)
The Americas
A newly released report highlights the central role crime plays in driving displacement and migration in Latin America. (Insight Crime http://bit.ly/1sicoy8)
Inflation in the Buenos Aires reached 6.5 percent in April, the biggest monthly price jump since Argentina’s worst economic crisis 14 years ago. (http://yhoo.it/1Wt9TFJ)
Cuban opposition leaders said Thursday they plan to present a slate of candidates for next year’s legislative and local elections, in an act of political defiance. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Wt9JhB)
Authorities in Mexico say they’ve arrested one of the suspects in an alleged sexual assault that has become a symbol of efforts to challenge the frequent impunity of the wealthy. (AP http://yhoo.it/1Wt9XWd)
…and the rest
Almost everyone in large cities in poor and middle-income countries faces excessively high air pollution, a growing problem that is killing more than 3 million people prematurely each year. (AP http://yhoo.it/1WtbYBI)
A new drug regime that shortens the treatment for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis has been recommended for use by the World Health Organisation. (Guardian http://bit.ly/222nBig)
Opinion
10 things to know: Gender equality and achieving climate goals (ODI http://bit.ly/1T9jXgW)
Don’t blur the lines between development and humanitarian work (Guardian http://bit.ly/222nFOY)
FAO’s Peace-Building Efforts Through Food Security (IPS http://bit.ly/1Wtc78c)
Why Kenya’s threat to close refugee camps is even worse than you think. (WaPo http://wapo.st/1T9kPlx)
Playing Russian roulette with the Zika virus in Rio (AP http://yhoo.it/1Wt9Mdv)
A Women’s Jirga (IPS http://bit.ly/1WtbUlu)
Philanthropists can’t eradicate global poverty, but we can make a start (Guardian http://bit.ly/222nNya)