大象传媒

Brazil's economy goes into recession ahead of next month's general election. Output shrank by 0.6% in the three months to June and revised figures for the first quarter of the year also showed a fall of 0.2%. The World Cup, held in June and July, was not regarded as good for business as a whole because employees took more days off and many traditional tourists stayed away.

Also on the programme, 6,000 jobs are to go at Malaysia Airlines as part of the $1.9bn turnaround plan for the troubled firm. The airline will become completely state owned and the number of long-haul routes will be reduced. The hunt for flight MH370, the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight which went missing in March, is continuing. The MH17 air crash in eastern Ukraine is also under investigation. The plane was shot down on 17 July, with the loss of all 298 people on board.

On Monday new rules take effect which ban vacuum cleaners with a wattage of more than 1600 from being made in, or imported into, the European Union. Then from September 2017 the power limit of vacuum cleaners will be reduced to 900 watts across the EU. The clampdown is part of the European Commission's attempt to tackle climate change. The 大象传媒's Marie Keyworth asks whether this change will really help save the planet, or just make housework more difficult.