06/06/2017 World Business Report

convicted, he could spend up to a decade in prison.

Now it's time for World Business Report with Sally.

Another Brazilian President on trial for corruption -

we tell you what's at stake as Michel Temer faces removal

Apple unveils its HomePod - so will this revolutionise your

experience in the home or is this a poor attempt to catch up

In a minute we'll cross over to our Asia business hub to hear

about Toshiba's efforts to sell it's microchip business.

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 it's trial against the country's former

president - Dilma Roussef - and her successor Michel Temer.

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 ten months ago and succeeded by Michel Temer

who has focused on economic reforms but could now be out

Government policy 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 Jimena Blanco, Head of Americas Politics Research

Always good to see you. You are just back from Brazil. Just explain where

Michel Temer sits in this corruption allegation story. If we take this

back to 2014 Wenbo corruption case, -- when it is the first case came

about. When Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer used corruption money

to finance their corruption campaign. It began right after the

election in 2014 that it is only just now that the court will set to

try those allegations. And what's going to happen? Chanters are,

everybody is expecting the court to make a radical move -- chances are.

It could be that the government and mayor is accused of corruption in

low earth jurisdictions. There is an high probability that the court

could scrap this. He is also facing other court cases and he is also

facing 14 impeachment requests in Congress. And this is seemingly

endemic. It is Dilma Rousseff, it is Michel Temer, it is the former

president and other politicians and leaders. It would seem the judiciary

in Brazil after a clean sweep. They took about this as the World

Heritage case. They say this shows our democratic institutions are at

work on that they are in pendant and they will continue investigating. --

independent. Is out of office because of this, what will happen

next? There is no direct election after the turn. They will be an

indirect election and Congress will get to choose the interim president

until 2018. In the meantime, the economy has just got its head above

water in the first time in two years. Economic outlook? Think it is

positive because the economy, at this stage, is starting to recover,

regardless of what happens politically. Investors are now used

to this rollercoaster. The right -- the markets have priced this in and

will continue to operate regardless of what happens on the political

side. I know we will talk again as this story unfolds.

Let's talk about a company that we all know well.

Apple has held its annual developers conference in Silicon Valley.

The tech giant has announced a voice-activated loudspeaker

powered by its virtual assistant Siri.

Apple's "HomePod" speaker can respond to questions and control

other devices such as lights and central heating.

Our North America Technology correspondent Dave Lee

This is Apple's a new HomePod. Then use part speaker that they are

billing as a music device unlike Amazon's device. They say it has

spatial awareness so it can fill the room with sale -- sound. I can't

touch it or hear it so I can't you have good it is but it will come out

later this year and will cost $349. First released in the US, the UK and

Australia. Other countries coming in the New Year. One of the potential

downside is that you need an Apple musics of scripture and in order to

get the full integration so if you prefer to use spotted by Pandora,

not the device review. Apple are pretty confident this will give them

a good part of the market in this home space. It speaks to where Apple

wants to position this device as a speaker first. It is about music. Is

that the fact they are focusing on it being a music device, is it a

cover-up for theory not being a very good system compared to a lecture

and Google home? I take your point. Yes, there is criticism in terms of

our series not as smart as are the things. It is a fair criticism. I

think there is a different approach here. It is not driven by necessity

but driven by their play in the home. What you think about the home

pot? Do you have a virtual reality friend or home assistant? --

HomePod. Get in touch on Twitter. Foxconn could receive some backing

from Apple and Amazon in its bid for Toshiba's

semi-conductor business. Japanese media quoted

the chairman of Foxconn- Terry Gou-as saying that the two US

tech giants are set to contribute Let's get more on this

with Rico Hizon in Singapore. This is my assistance. This piece of

paper is my assistance. Big hitters in the technology industry want a

piece of this very profitable chip business of Toshiba. He mentioned

Apple, Amazon, Taiwan's Foxconn. Western Digital, all very

interested. There are reports that Foxconn may be the highest bidder

because the pricetag is quite pricey. More than 20 billion US

dollars. The talk is then -- they may offer a lot. There have been

concerns expressed about Foxconn's bid. Apple and Amazon might join

forces with Foxconn for a four this semi- conductor arm of the Japanese

conglomerate. The Japanese is a bit to US giants plan to ship in the

fund was a bit could be a triumphant effort that could buy the triumphant

business of Toshiba. The Japanese industrial group is grappling with

huge losses arising from its US nuclear business. The demand for

flash memory chips used for long-time datastorage, smartphones

and other devices is expected to increase on the back of a boom in

data centres or technology companies, Amazon, Google and Apple,

in the age of artificial intelligence and the Internet of

things. That is what makes Toshiba's chip business indeed very attractive

to the big hitters in the industry so we will have to wait and see if a

deal will be done by the end of June.

A note of caution for most of the main markets. We have had seven

weeks in a row for markets having a good time so caution ahead of the

Federal reserve meeting next week and a UK election. I will see you