Dilma Rousseff One Step Closer to Impeachment; Oil Prices Fall As OPEC Fail To Reach Deal
ANDERSON: Right. You're back with us on CNN and Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. Welcome back. And following breaking news for you right now out of Jerusalem. The Israeli Red Cross says 10 to 20 people were injured in an explosion on a bus in the city. Now the cause is not yet known and we are continuing to follow the story throughout the hour. And we will get you more updates and we will get you live to Jerusalem as soon as we can. Brazil's president is now one big step closer to being removed from office, it was by an overwhelming majority that lawmakers voted Sunday to impeach Dilma Rousseff on allegations that she fiddled government accounts to hide budget shortfalls. Well, next it's the Senate's turn to consider the matter. Meanwhile, Sunday's vote is a cause for celebration for those blaming the president for the poor state of the economy, but right alongside them, Miss Rousseff's supporters are demonstrating as well against what they are calling a coup. CNN's Shasta Darlington is monitoring all of this from the Brazilian capital Brasilia. Shasta, really is the day after the night before, in Brazil. Is there a sense this vote has broken the tension at least to kind of feeling amongst people at least that this has gone too far or perhaps far enough they've made their point?</s>SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not really, Becky. I would say that this is just the beginning of what's going to be a long and ugly fight. You know, what we saw right here on the lawn in front of congress last night is likely going to continue. So those who are in favor of impeachment treating this like a big football party. We were doing lives from that side. They were jumping around, cheering. Then on the other side when we did lives there for them, this is a very serious political matter. They feel that their president is being -- being impeached unjustly, that she's being removed from power when she was just re-elected to a second term. So, I expect that these political tensions will continue to flare up as this heads on to the Senate where they will be voting. And that we could continue to see protests in the street, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: And Shasta, it's important to point out that people who are really driving this impeachment to the end they're not exactly untarnished themselves, are they? They've also had some pretty serious allegations thrown their way in their time, right?</s>DARLINGTON: That's a big part of the problem here, Becky. President Dilma Rousseff is being impeached for allegedly breaking budget laws. She is unpopular because of the recession and because so many members of her Workers Party have been embroiled in this pretty nasty corruption and bribery scandal. The problem is the congressman right behind me leading this impeachment drive, a lot have been embroiled in that same scandal. So, her supporters say you will kick her for out for playing with the budget numbers and those guys get to stay in congress and that's part of the reason they're calling this a coup d'etat. In fact, the man who would likely step in and replace her if this impeachment goes through and if she faces trial is her vice president, Michel Tamer, he is from the PMDB Party, which again is also very caught up in this corruption investigation. So what we saw, we saw poll numbers today that show Brazilians think they should both be impeached, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Shasta Darlington in Brasilia for you this evening. Shasta, thank you. Right, oil prices are plunging after crude producers failed to agree to freeze supply levels. You can see a sharp drop in the price of Brent crude after a meeting if Doha on Sunday ended with no deal. This was because of a rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two major members of OPEC, the cartel, of course, of oil producing countries. Well, let's go to CNN Money's emerging markets editor John Defterios who can give us more detail joining us from Doha this evening. And John, in the end a lot of discussion in Doha, but no agreement. What happened?</s>JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN MONEY: Well, it's amazing, Becky, from the time we spoke last night, it went from bad to worse, literally. We had 12 hours of talks described as marathon talks, but the group did not get to the finish line and the reason is abundantly clear, the Saudi Arabian position changed. The deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia who is now the chair of the Supreme Petroleum Council insisted that Iran sign on to an agreement to freeze production. Let's not, I think it's worth going back to last week where the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to a freeze and that it would not include iran going forward. So, this change of position rattled the cage here in Doha. The senior Iranian officials I've spoken to in the last 12 hours, Becky, suggest they have their sights set on 4 million barrels a day. And this could be the wiggle room if Iran hit 4 million barrels a day, would they freeze after? Would this be okay with Saudi Arabia and can they find common ground? Now, the next target, Becky, is the June meeting, the first week of June in Vienna when the OPEC meeting would take place. Russia says they're on board to go. But to be very candid when I saw the faces of the Azeri, the Omani, the Mexican oil ministers coming out of the meeting, they thought what happened here in the last 12 hours, that we could not find a deal, I think it's becoming abundantly clear that Saudi Arabia, the deputy crown prince perhaps don't want to see prices go higher right now, Becky. I think they're trying to smoke out the higher cost producers. We know that production is supposed to drop 700,000 barrels a day, perhaps they don't think that job is done and they want to apply more pressure. I think that's what most of the ministers and their delegates were thinking about when they left Doha last night.</s>ANDERSON: Meantime, the rest of us are wondering whether OPEC is still relevant, of course, when we get a discussions like this or non- discussions like this. Look, John, we often look at the economic fallout from the falling price of crude, but certainly there is a human cost, particularly in a wealthy state like Qatar. What do you see there?</s>DEFTERIOS: Well, as you know, Becky, Qatar is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, just a few short years ago, growing better than 10 percent. It couldn't control the growth because of the boom in oil and gas that helped build the skyline behind me. They're preparing for the world cup in 2022. But move from $115 down to $40 has completely changed the game. And we even see the mini crisis that's playing out reaching into the middle class and even the expat community. I found one American who describes his position right now sitting in no man's land.</s>DEFTERIOS: As a trained paramedic, Ken Patton is used to life- threatening situations. But today, he's having to face his own emergency.</s>PATTON: Well here's all the ambulances to the right.</s>DEFTERIOS: The 35-year-old American is one of the latest victims of the great plunge in oil prices. In January, Patton was laid off by Qatar's largest national health care provider in Doha.</s>PATTON: And for me it was a huge surprise and coming to work for a strange meeting summons, and given my layoff paperwork, my -- wow. What just happened here?</s>DEFTERSIO: With debts back home Patton took out a loan of $80,000 with a local bank two years ago. He still owes half of that amount and he can't leave the country because according to Qatari law all debts need to be settled before one can secure an exit permit. With no job, no income and no exit permit Patton has found himself in no man's land. PATTON; All right, John, this is my place, basically. So, sparse now.</s>DEFTERIOS: To survive, he's selling household goods one at a time. So, this is how you're earning money these days.</s>PATTON: so, basically this is how I'm eating, this is how I'm paying for my telephone and surviving is selling off all my objects. This couch is leaving in about an week.</s>DEFTERIOS: And he's saving money the old-fashioned way.</s>PATTON: It really does take me back to kind of the era of our forefathers and the Great Depression where they talk about not trusting the banks and yeah, stuffing money in their mattresses or in their dressers or cookie jars. I think like that's how I've lived for the past four months.</s>DEFTERIOS: A new reality has set in for the Gulf oil producing countries. Qatar will post its first budget deficit in 15 years. Petrol and utility prices have increased and taxes will be introduced in the Gulf states by 2018. After spending billions of dollars on new skylines, governments are scrambling to slash their budgets.</s>PATTON: What I think is they kind of overreacted to a situation they weren't prepared for. They're trying to kind make up lost ground, they spent so much time spending all that they could on everything they could, building up their country and making it fabulous and then all of a sudden gas prices dropped to bare minimum and they're almost losing money at that point in time and it took them by complete surprise.</s>DEFTERIOS: The same shock that Patton felt when he was handed his pink slip.</s>PATTON: I'm (inaudible) to a very rich country who has -- who is blowing money left and right on different things to think that your job would ever be in jeopardy for a layoff is the farthest thing from your mind.</s>DEFTERIOS: Ken Patton sharing his story here in Qatar. Becky, he was planning to be here for six years and only lasted two when he got that pink slip. It's amazing, this is a country of about 2 million people. It's a small state as you know, Becky. And only 3,000 layoffs so far. But the layoffs have really sent a shiver right through society and those who came from the outside thinking they would be here for a long, long time. Back to you.</s>ANDERRSON: Yeah. It's a familiar story across the region. All right, John, thank you for that. There is a lot more of our oil coverage on the CNN Money website. You can take a look back to see the volatility in crude markets over time. The site, that's CNNmoney.com. We are taking a very short break. More on the breaking news out of Jerusalem. The Israeli Red Cross says 10 to 20 people were injured in an explosion on a bus in the city. We'll get you what we can on that after this very short break. Don't go away.