06/06/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock and Ben Thompson.

Could Brazil get a third president in a year?

Amid claims of corruption, bribery and illegal funding

we'll look at what next for the ailing economy.

Live from London, that's our top story on Tuesday the 6th of June

With ongoing protests, the stakes are huge

for Latin America's biggest economy - which is just recovering from two

We will talk you through what is at stake.

Also in the programme, one of the world's biggest

coal mines gets the go ahead in Australia.

India's Adani group says protests won't stop the $12 billion project.

And markets are in wait and see mode, with the UK election looming

large and central bankers getting ready for key meetings.

And forget Wi-Fi, forget Bluetooth - how about sending data with sound?

We'll get the inside track on how the technology could revolutionise

And staying with tech, Apple has launched its new smart speaker,

It's called the HomePod but it's more expensive than rivals

Get in touch with your views on the HomePod or anything else.

It doesn't seem like all that long ago we were talking about Brazil's

meteoric rise to economic stardom as one of the so called BRICs.

But all that has come crashing down thanks to a string of corruption

allegations involving top politicians and companies.

And it could all come to a head again later today as Brazil's top

electoral court resumes the case against the country's former

President - Dilma Roussef- and her successor Michel Temer.

They're accused of illegally funding their 2014 election win.

This is how the economy has fared over the last five years.

Since Rousseff was voted into office, there have been two

years of recession - ending last week when growth

of 1% was reported for the beginning of this year.

She was impeached 10 months ago and succeeded by Michel Temer

who has focused on economic reforms but could now be out

Government policy and stability is important because non-financial

companies owned by the state account for nearly 18% of the economy.

The two biggest are Eletrobras and Petrobras.

The latter is the state owned oil giant at the heart of the corruption

allegations and was once the biggest company in Latin America.

With me is Edwin Gutierrez, head of emerging-market sovereign

debt at Aberdeen Asset Management in London.

Nice to see you. Sally, talking through the issues at stake.

What happens next, where are we in terms of these proceedings? We will

hear more later today, but could we get to the stage where the last

elections are in old and that Michel Temer has to leave office? It is a

possibility. We now have this case up the electoral court, and we could

conceivably get a judgment this week against Michel Temer. We would get

new elections. One of the prospects is that one of the seven justices of

the Supreme Court could request more time, which would delay a judgment.

I wanted to get onto that. Anybody hoping for a swift resolution will

be disappointed, it could be a protracted hearing. As you

mentioned, the judge could ask for more time? There is a lot happening

behind the scenes, most politicians and members of the judiciary. Many

see this as the negotiation process. The request for more time, it could

be discussions about if Michel Temer Falls, who is the successor? And

then it would not happen until the major parties had agreed. What are

the obligations of -- what are the implications of Brazil? It was one

of the big players, but it hasn't played out how many people thought.

The economy has been in recession and it is a difficult place to be?

Absolutely, we finally had a quarter of growth after two years of

recession, but it is quite reasoned and quite challenged. There is a lot

of debt, especially in a household sector. Consumption is going to

remain subdued. This latest episode affects the economy. It only further

undermines recovery in investor sentiment, which is really key.

Investment of GDP is a mere 16% and you cannot grow if you only

investing 16%. Whoever becomes all remains the President, what is their

top priority? The top priority is the ongoing process, we need to see

either the Kelton met or a successor push pension reform across the line.

That is the most critical reform investors are looking for. Also,

businessmen in Brazil, to boost investor sentiment. Thanks for

explaining that. Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news. Investors will keep a nervous eye

on Qatar's stock market today after the index slumped 7.3%

yesterday after five Gulf nations cut financial and diplomatic

ties with the country. It has risen in early trading today.

Qatar is calling for talks to resolve the crisis.

Qatar Airways has cancelled flights to Saudi Arabia, the UAE,

Bahrain and Egypt after Etihad, EgyptAir, FlyDubai, Gulf Air

and Emirates cut flights to and from the Qatari capital Doha.

Apple and Amazon could join forces with Foxconn to bid for Toshiba's

Toshiba needs to sell it to cover billions of dollars of cost overruns

in its bankrupt nuclear US unit. US President Trump has said he plans

to privatize America's air traffic control system,

in what he called an air Mr Trump says the reform

would deliver cheaper, faster, and safer travel

as well as an economic boost that could be worth

$25 billion to the economy. It's currently part

of the government's Federal Aviation Administration

employing 30,000 staff. Let's talk about a huge deal in

Australia. A huge and controversial mine

in North East Australia finally The $12 billion Adani project

in Queensland will cover an area a quarter of the size of London

but critics fear it will cause The Indian company behind it says

those protests won't stop them. It is understandable why this is so

controversial? Well, that is right. It is a controversial deal,

investment, rather. It has been in the making for a while. Even Adani,

after a lot of hurdles, has decided they will go ahead with the deal.

They have given clearance to the investment plan and they plan to

start the construction of the coal mine by the end of the year. Why is

it controversial? Because there are two sides. It has deeply polarised

Australians. On one hand, you have the Queensland communities, where it

will be built, who feel it is a good investment because it will create

jobs. Queensland has been lagging behind when it comes to development

and jobs creation. Then you have climate scientists,

environmentalists and activists that have been opposing it because they

think it will really harm the already ailing Great Barrier Reef,

and exasperate global warming, which is a big issue over there. They

claim the amount of carbon dioxide it will emit will be much more than

what countries like Kuwait and Chile do in a whole year. Clearly, it has

divided the country. But Adani have said they are going ahead with it.

An interesting story to highlight. Let's look at the markets and how

the day is shaping up. This is how things went overnight in Asia. That

is the United States... Shall I keep talking? That way! You can see them

there. America had a rough ride, Japan followed suit. Japan, down by

1%, with the yen strengthening. Let's look at Europe, while I sit

down, because that is seemingly where the cameras are. Europe and

France are down. Quite interesting, with the polls looking like the

races tightening in the run-up to the election on Thursday, markets

are a little bit more nervous than they were some weeks ago, with the

outcome not as obvious. Let's chat about this with James Quinn. He is

the business editor at the Telegraph. This is where the party

is at. I should never have gone over there in the first place.

Let's talk about Qatar. I know we'd talked about it in the news

round-up, I think it is a fascinating story. Diplomatic,

political, economic ties severed. What does it mean for Qatar? I think

it means isolation, certainly in the Middle East. There has been no

suggestion there is any isolation from the West, as it were. The UK is

a big partner. Qatar is investing in a lot of things in the UK, it owns

90% of the Shard, it owns Harrods, it owns the Olympic Village, it

could be good for the UK in an odd way. Not cutting diplomatic ties

with the West, but it is quite hard to get to if you think about things

like air space and shipping routes. This is where energy intensive

industries, things like aluminium, is struggling to get stuck in and

out on a logistical basis? Yes, Qatar Airways are having to divert

planes around the region. It has made most of its wealth on natural

gas, and those pipelines are being stopped. The only intervention is

from President Trump, saying he will calm the rift. He was recently

there. I wanted to get your take on the run-up to the election in terms

of how markets are digesting it. The pound is super-sensitive at the

moment. Super volatile. As the polls narrow, the Tories have anything

between a 12 point lead or a 1-point lead. Traders are not knowing what

is priced in. At the moment, a close Tory win, Conservative Party win for

Theresa May, that looks likely. Anything other than that will lead

to volatility. It is so funny, we shouldn't read too much into the

polls, of course, the last election told us that, and the EU referendum,

and yet we have really wildly differing polls. There really is all

to play for? The referendum last year, in the run-up, it seemed a

likely Remain vote. The pound when surging. It was almost $1.50. And

then as the result became clear, it fell away. We will keep a very close

eye on that. We will talk more about some stories later in the papers.

Still to come, sent at the speed of sound.

We meet the firm that's come up with an alternative to sending

digital data via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi by using sound.

You're with Business Live from BBC News.

Home appliance retailer AO has warned of tough trading conditions

despite posting a 40% increase in UK profits The online retailer

faced rising losses in their European business -

partly down to the cost of expanding the business into Europe.

Theo Leggett has been going through the numbers.

Talk us through what they show. It's a really interesting business. It is

the sort of thing you used to buy an High Street, now we do it online and

it is done very well. But the cost of Europe is quite significant?

Absolutely. AO, it initially stood for Appliances Online. It has been

around for 15 years but has had large expansion over the last few.

Floated on the stock market on 2014, shares shooting up on a wave of

enthusiasm. Recently they had been at a much lower level. They have

been trying to expand a lot, particularly in Germany and the

Netherlands. That accounts for a large proportion of the operating

loss which they posted. They posted an operating loss of ?12 million

compared to ?10 million last year. In the UK, things have been rather

better. Both revenues and sales are up, revenues up 17%. This is a

business that is not yet profitable. It is trying to grow its business.

Revenues and sales are very important. The problem is, things

like washing machines, dishwashers and the like, most of them are

imported. With the pound sterling falling to levels it is that now

since the EU referendum, importing those things has been more

expensive. The company says it has created a mixed trading environment

and it expects things to get tougher as we go forward over the next few

months. What the chief executive has been saying is that circumstances

have become more challenging due to the impact of dampening consumer

confidence following the vote to leave the EU, subsequent price

inflation and a slowdown in the housing market. So, a mixed picture.

The business is still growing. It expects that growth to slow over the

next few months. It is not making money yet, but it is building for

the future. It will come out in the wash! Thanks for your analysis.

You've been waiting all morning for that. Don't get in a spin about the

results! Splenic... EasyJet telling us a 9.5% rise on

last year and it's load factor. How full the planes are.

It's steady 91.5%. You're watching Business Live.

Our top story: Latin America's biggest

economy could get a third One of the Brazil's top courts

could annul the 2014 election over claims of corruption

and illegal funding. We have been across that story.

Further details throughout the day on the BBC.

A quick look at how markets are faring.

They are headed lower. Markets treading water with bigger events

later in the week like a general election in the UK.

With the internet of things, more and more everyday objects

But what about devices which don't have wi-fi or a way

Well, Chirp is an app which encodes data into sound waves and can be

used by almost anything with a speaker and microphone.

In fact you could already be using the technology.

It's running on hundreds of millions of devices around the world.

But it does have big constraints, most "chirps" last for

a couple of seconds and can only transmit a very

limited amount of data, enough to send a web address.

With us now is Moran Lerner, chief executive of Chirp.

Nice to see you. Welcome to the programme. We tried there to explain

it, but you better do it because I think it's fascinating as a

technology. We're reliant on Bluetooth and wi-fi to transmit all

sorts of things. How does Chirp work? It is limited in what it can

send? It is limited in the data packets we send. We used to be an

app. And it is fair to say we are now a business to business company

where we've developed a suite of software development kits and our

clients around the world are able to embed our technology quite simply in

many cases in under three minutes. So they can take that technology and

put it in their own platforms? Correct. Because we work across all

platforms, we have gone beyond the smartphone, you can embed it into

smart devices and some advanced robotics companies are using our

technology. Apps, every day apps that are used, gaming, it is used in

the latest Skylanders game and we are about to announce a

revolutionary new interactive toy with a company called High Jinx. So

the idea this toy will be in the lounge with a toddler and when a

certain programme is on the TV the toy will interact with the TV

because the sound is activating the toy? Absolutely. The beauty of sound

is that it's portable and it's everywhere. So you can have a device

and I can show you how it works simply, both the device is off line

so you don't need any connectivity of any kind to use Chirp. So this

one will speak to this one? That's right.

It has appeared there. I can move to a different area on the screen and I

will know the location of the other device. Unlike Bluetooth and wi-fi

is I can have one million devices around me with our software.

I suppose that relies on the sound wave being unique because it has to

identify a specific thing. We're surrounded by sound every day, it

has to pick up that one precise sound that will only play for a

split second. Our standard chirps are that one split second or 1.7

seconds, but we are able to customise it, if we want to send

longer data packets it can be longer. It depends on the device and

what our customers want to use it for. Give us some applications.

Sally mentioned toys, you mentioned being able to send web addresses.

What would you like it to be used for? We would like it to be the next

protocol, but we're not trying to compete with Bluetooth and wi-fi.

We're trying to complement what they do. You were explaining to me

earlier that it's used in the nuclear industry? Yes. If you take

the nuclear industry and a lot of other industries in manufacturing

and industrial settings where you have radio frequency restrictions.

Whether it be from the manufacturing site itself, whether it be from

electromagnetic fields that are created during manufacture, sound

though isn't interfered with and therefore, it's not dangerous and

won't cause explosions. How you make money is simple - the licence? Our

clients have unlimited use of our technology to do with it what they

want. It's so interesting to hear about this. This is why I love this

slot on the programme. A toy in my lounge would drive me mad. Too much

noise already! Thank you very much for coming in

and explaining that. The Chief Executive of the Chirp. Come back

and see us soon. I will do. Apple is joining the market

for voice activated speakers, Yes, the device was launched

at Apple's annual developers It's called the HomePod and can

respond to questions and control devices such as lights

and central heating. It's their new smart speaker

which they're billing primarily as a music device rather

than a smart assistant like They're saying it has spatial

awareness so it should fill the room with sound in the way

that those competitors don't. And I'm not allowed to touch it

and nor can I hear it so I can't actually tell you how good this

thing is just yet, but what I can tell you it will be coming

out later this year. First released in the US,

in the UK and also Australia. Other countries coming

in the New Year, but one of the potential down sides is that

you need an Apple music subscription in order to get

the full integration. So if you prefer to use Spotify

or Pandora, maybe not quite the device for you,

but Apple are pretty confident that this is going to give them

a good part of the market in this The name has to grow on me.

It just does not. It makes a lot of sense,

right and it really speaks to where I think Apple wants

to position this device Is the fact that Apple seem to be

focussing on the fact it's a music device,

is it a kind of a cover-up for Sire not being a very good assistant

compared to Google Home, I take your point and yes,

the criticism you know as far as how Sire is not as smart

as Google Assistant, I think that's a fair criticism to make,

but I do think it is a different approach and not driven

by necessity, but driven Dave Lee there finding out what the

Homepod smart speaker is about. James Quinn is joining

us again to discuss. We know it is a tough market

already? It is crowded. Amazon has got Alexa. It is a crowded market.

Apple invented Sire and came late to the market with a device that allows

you to talk to Sire. Others are cheaper. Sorry, the viewers picked

up on that. Hugh says says it is an overpriced Bluetooth speaker, stick

the logo on it and inflate the price. Patrick says, "Why would I

want to change my Bowes system?" It ties you in because maybe you have

an iPhone and think to talk to it, I'll use an iPad and you maybe have

a McBook and this is the latest in that suite of things. It is a great

way of galvanising the fan guys and fan girls into spending more money

withalle. None of you have got one of these devices. I've got one and I

unplugged it. You have got one? It was a gift! The children were

ordering it to do all sorts, order pizzas and all sorts of things.

Enough is enough to quote someone else! Let's talk about gin and

tonic. The gin craze is seeing the Government make more money on taxes

on gin than they have done on beer for the first time? The average

percentage is 76% of bottle a ging goes on VAT and on duty which is

high compared to 60% for a pint of beer. But it has resulted in a large

intake... A large intake of gin, you're right! You can't move for gin

this country. In your world, maybe, Ben, in my world, I'm trying to

fend-off pizzas! LAUGHTER

It's a huge boom. It is a craze. Tonics and people making gin, gin,

some people loved it and some people didn't like the taste. They are

making it more palatable. What is a gin toll gist? Someone who makes

cocktails. We're off for a gin! , hot, dark tea!

Very strong coffee, I meant to say. I need. I have been here too long.

I'm going to bed. We're here tomorrow. Thanks for watching.

Hello. Heavy rain and strong winds are not things we