Brazil Senate votes to impeach President Rousseff, suspending her from office

Early Thursday, after more than 20 hours of debate, Brazil's Senate voted 55-22 to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, paving the way for a trial into whether Brazil's first female president illegally hid a budget deficit during her re-election campaign. The trial will last up to six months, and Rousseff will have to step down during that time, while Vice President Michel Temer steps up as acting president. If Rousseff is convicted, Temer will serve the remainder of Rousseff's term, until December 2018. A simple majority of 41 votes was needed to impeach Rousseff.

Temer inherits, at least temporarily, a looming Olympic Games struggling with dangerous levels of pollution, a huge Zika outbreak, and a growing bribery and corruption scandal that has engulfed many of the lawmakers that voted to impeach Rousseff (though not Rousseff herself), among other problems.

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