World Cup Jesus Sparks Outrage

As the World Cup prepares to start in Rio De Janeiro, an Australian betting site is floating a massive hot air balloon in the shape of the iconic Christ The Redeemer statue in the skies of Melbourne. Local Christian groups are outraged:

"This is extraordinary, if they knew anything about Jesus they'd know he'd be overturning tables in the gaming halls, because they're highly addictive and destroy lives," the Chair of Australian Churches Gambling Taskforce told ABC. "Is betting to absolutely dominate not just casino and gamble areas and TV rooms, but now literally the sky?" he asked. Rev Costello has since called on the Football Federation Australia (FFA) to call out the controversial campaign. "One of the great statues in Rio is Jesus, and Brazil is a Catholic nation that takes its faith seriously and its football fanatically," he said.

Australia's top news site reacts:

Christ! That was unexpected. If you woke up in Melbourne this morning and noticed a 12-story inflatable Christ the Redeemer balloon floating over your house, you weren’t hallucinating. You were, however, witnessing one of the most audacious public relations stunts we’ve seen in ages. Predictably, this stunt has incurred great indignation from religious groups and assorted members of the professionally outraged. The link between gambling and religion is being labelled offensive and disrespectful by politicians and church spokespeople. Never mind that gambling is rammed down society’s throat every day on the footy field and just about everywhere else. Associate Jesus with it, courtesy of a giant novelty balloon flying by the window, and it’s apparently much worse.

At 150 feet high, the balloon is bigger than the statue.

BRAZIL: 130 Couples Participate In Mass Wedding As Rio Legalizes Gay Marriage

Yesterday Rio De Janeiro became the 14th Brazilian state to legalize same-sex marriage. Over 130 couples married in a mass wedding at the state's Superior Court of Justice.

In mid-May, Brazilian courts determined that public offices that oversee marriages cannot reject gay couples, even though Brazil's national congress has passed no law on the matter. Some public offices had already been accepting marriage applications from homosexual couples, while others denied them. An emotional Viviane Soares Lessa de Faria, 38, smiled at her partner and told news site G1 "I've dreamed of marrying her since I met her." Her wife's 29-year-old son was the couple's best man. For Giuseppe Laricchia, 21, marrying his boyfriend was about guaranteeing rights. "We need to have equality compared with heterosexual couples," he said.

(Via Towleroad)

BRAZIL: Protests And Riots Rock Major Cities Over Government Spending

Massive protests took place across Brazil last night, partially in reaction to government spending plans for the World Cup and the Rio Olympics. Rioters in Rio De Janeiro set fire to the state legislature building. Protesters claim that social services and aid to the poor are being cut in order promote sports and tourism to Brazil. The New York Times reports:

Sharing a parallel with the antigovernment protests in Turkey, the demonstrations in Brazil intensified after a harsh police crackdown last week stunned many citizens. In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst.

“The violence has come from the government,” said Mariana Toledo, 27, a graduate student at the University of São Paulo who was among the protesters on Monday. “Such violent acts by the police instill fear, and at the same time the need to keep protesting.”

While the demonstration in São Paulo was not marred by the widespread repression that marked a protest here last week, riot police officers in Belo Horizonte dispersed protesters with pepper spray and tear gas. In Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, police officers also used tear gas against protesters.

In Rio de Janeiro, where an independent estimate put the number of protesters around 100,000, televised images showed masked demonstrators trying to storm public buildings including the state legislature, a part of which was set on fire. In Brasilía, the police seemed to be caught off-guard by protesters who danced and chanted on the roof of Congress, a modernist building designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Click the below Vine clip to see last night's protest in Rio.

BRAZIL: 100,000 Evangelicals Rally Against Same-Sex Marriage In Rio

An estimated 100,000 evangelicals staged an anti-gay march in Rio de Janeiro yesterday in protest of the recent ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Via On Top Magazine:

According to the AFP, the demonstrators ended their march at the Cinelandia square, where pastors spoke out against such unions and the faithful prayed. Gospel singers such as Marcelo Aguiar and Bruna Karla and the rap group Ao Cubo were among those who performed at the annual March for Jesus (Marcha para Jesus). Several elected officials appeared at the event, including Mayor Eduardo Paes. “We say no to sin, no to corruption, no to homosexuality,” a participant was quoted as saying. “We say yes to Jesus.” The ruling, handed down earlier this month by the National Council of Justice, says notary publics cannot deny a gay couple's request for a marriage license.

Brazil's Social Christian Party has filed a legal challenge to the ruling.

Rio De Janeiro State Legalizes Marriage

The Brazilian state of Rio De Janeiro has become the tenth in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. Marriages conducted in any of these ten states are recognized nationwide. Same-sex marriage is also legal in the national capital of Brasilia. (Tipped by JMG reader Afonso)

One Million Attend Rio Pride 2012

Via Pink News:

More than a million people took part in Rio’s annual gay pride celebrations over the weekend. On Sunday, mothers of gay men and lesbians opened the parade, which this year aimed to highlight homophobia in Brazilian society. Rio’s 17th gay pride event was backed by the local government, with the mayor’s office distributing around 400,000 condoms.

Massive Blackout Rocks Brazil

An estimated 50 million people in the southern half of Brazil are without electricity tonight as the massive blackout has triggered crime alerts in several states.

The country's largest cities, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro among others, were left with no illumination or traffic lights due to the outage late Tuesday, which the energy ministry said was caused by an undetermined problem at the country's biggest hydroelectric plant, Itaipu, on the border with Paraguay. One radio station, Bandnews, said an estimated 50 million people -- one quarter of Brazil's population -- were affected. The blackout hit at 10:15 pm (0015 GMT Wednesday). The southern states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul and parts of the central state of Goias and the federal district of Brasilia were plunged into night. Police in Sao Paulo and Rio called on the cities' residents to not go out into the darkened streets to avoid the risk of accidents and an upsurge in already prolific street crime. Off-duty and vacationing officers were told to report to their posts. In Sao Paulo and its suburbs, an agglomeration of 20 million inhabitants, streets were illuminated only by the lights of cars and from a few buildings -- including hospitals -- that had their own generators.

Just three days ago, CBS' 60 Minutes reported that a similar blackout in 2007 was created by computer hackers, a claim hotly denied by Brazilian investigators.

BELOW: Twitter user RodrigoBNO sends out this shot of Rio's Copacabana beach.