The protesters many feared would wreck Brazil’s World Cup party failed to show up. While the national team fell short of claiming the championship, the country at least can say the tournament that wrapped up on Sunday night has gone off with only scattered demonstrations.
Brazil avoided a repeat of last year’s Confederations Cup, when more than a million people took to the streets to demand the government spend on education and public services instead of football. But the absence of conflict during the World Cup came less from dissipated anger than attention being glued to the games and police cracking down on even small demonstrations.
Paulo Cavalcantes, a 50-year-old public servant, shouted himself hoarse during last year’s protests, even bringing his teenage daughter along on the marches. During the World Cup, he chose to stay home.
“The police had orders to break the demonstrators,” he said, referring to when officers turned tear gas and stun guns on protesters. “I couldn’t put my family in harm’s way.”
Sunday night’s final in Rio de Janeiro featured the deployment of more than 25,000 officers and soldiers, the largest security detail in Brazil’s history.
During the Confederations Cup, small demonstrations over a 10-cent rise in bus and subway fares in Sao Paulo quickly escalated. A police clampdown on the mostly young demonstrators provoked anger nationwide, fuelling the country’s largest protests in a generation. But during the World Cup, aside from an early clash outside Rio’s Maracana stadium, anarchists were nowhere to be seen.
It was hard not to put anger aside during the World Cup party.
“I know why the World Cup is bad for Brazil, bad for people like us,” said Maria Cavalcantes, Paolo’s daughter. “But I still went out and bought a Brazil jersey. I couldn’t help myself.”
sports@thenational.ae
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Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The specs
Price: From Dh180,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 320hp @ 5,700rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 2,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.7L / 100km
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
