The Latest: Top newspaper calls on Brazil leader to quit

RIO DE JANEIRO – The Latest on Brazil's political crisis (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

The newspaper of Brazil's biggest media group is calling for President Michel Temer to resign after the country's top court authorized investigations on the embattled leader for alleged corruption and obstruction of justice.

The daily O Globo published its call in an editorial Friday afternoon shortly after Brazil's supreme court revealed several accusations against Temer made by a business mogul.

JBS company owner Joesley Batista said he paid bribes to Temer from 2010 to this year, among other accusations. Attorney General Rodrigo Janot has accused the president of corruption.

O Globo has backed Temer's pledge for austerity measures and reforms, but now says the president lacks the moral, ethical, political and administrative tools to remain.

Temer has denied any wrongdoing and on Thursday he promised not to resign.

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3:55 p.m.

The owner of a major meatpacker has told Brazilian authorities that he transferred $150 million to offshore accounts for campaigns of former Brazilian Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.

JBS company owner Joesley Batista says in a plea bargain testimony released Friday that former Finance Minister Guido Mantega was the middleman in the operation to channel illegal funds for both politicians.

Batista also said both former presidents were aware of the transfers, but did not name where those accounts were based. Batista also didn't state for which campaigns the money was transferred.

Rousseff denied the accusations in a statement and said she never had offshore bank accounts. Silva's spokesman said Batista's accusations are hearsay that was never investigated.

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2:55 p.m.

Brazil's top prosecutor is accusing President Michel Temer of corruption and obstruction of justice.

That's according to an investigation released by the country's Supreme Court on Friday. Attorney General Rodrigo Janot's charges against the president represent an extraordinary escalation of a corruption probe that is upending politics and just about everything else in Latin America's largest nation.

The formal accusations are the latest revelations related to a secretly recorded audio that purportedly captured Temer endorsing the paying of hush money to an ex-lawmaker.

The audio first reported by Globo newspaper Wednesday night, and has been rocking the country since.