World, in brief

Losers fighting the count

Flavio Bolsonaro lost Brazil's presidential runoff by 4.4 million votes and asked for the result to be annulled. [14] The US Justice Department has sued over Alaska's Senate race before any vote is cast, and critics say it is preparing to block a Democratic win. [80] In India, the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi says votes are being stolen by deleting names from voter lists. [82]

Young people protesting in the streets

More than 1,300 people were arrested in France on Saturday in protests that began with high-school students. [33][29] In Barcelona, 128 people were arrested after a gathering copying the French students turned into a night of looting. [36] Police in Portugal tore down housing protest camps in Lisbon and Porto and arrested 31 people. [37]

War around Iran and the Gulf

Donald Trump said he must decide whether to finish off Iran or make a deal, and a third US aircraft carrier group has moved toward the Gulf. [55] The Houthis, an armed group in Yemen backed by Iran, fired at Riyadh's airport hours after it reopened. [54][51] A barrel of Brent oil cost about $114.50 on Sunday, against $72.48 the day before the war began. [59]

Governments tightening control of news

Czech lawmakers voted at 4:36am to pay for public radio and television from the state budget, with about 15% less money. [40] Instagram hid an Indian cartoonist's whole account inside India twice in three weeks under government rules. [83] Gabon lifted its eight-month social media ban, but users must now show formal ID. [74]

2 pressures seen across the day run through World too.

• Dearer fuel from the Iran warHigh → · seen in 4 beats→
• Votes changing who rules, and moving moneyHigh ↑ · seen in 4 beats→

1. 1Serbia's Vucic concedes after 12 years as a student-led movement wins a majority in parliament
2. 2Lula wins Brazil, and his rival will not concede
3. 3Voters turned away in Brazil's late extension
4. 4Trump weighs strikes or a deal with Iran
5. 5Israel votes on Tuesday amid talk of war

Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia's most powerful politician for 12 years, conceded defeat on Sunday night to the Student List, a movement that grew out of two years of student protests. [1][2]

Serbia's official count is due from Monday, and the next tests are whether the Student List names a prime minister and who runs for president within months. [12][3][10]

Also seen in Finance, Food and Climate.

A vote changes who rules only when the loser accepts it, and Serbia's loser did within 90 minutes while Brazil's has not.

No candidate who came second in a first round had won the runoff since democracy returned in the 1980s. [14]

Bolsonaro said it was impossible to concede and that his lawyers would seek to annul the vote. [15][17]

He objected to a two-hour extension ordered by a Supreme Court judge, although his own campaign had also asked for more time. [16][18]

His father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, refused to accept his 2022 defeat by Lula and is serving 27 years for plotting a coup. [14]

Analysts expect Brazilian shares and the real, Brazil's currency, to fall on Monday after rising on bets of a right-wing win. [15]

Justice Cristiano Zanin of Brazil's Supreme Court ordered polls to stay open two extra hours, to 7pm, at around the scheduled 5pm close. [16][15][18]

Lula's campaign had said buses were cut in cities that favour him, and Bolsonaro's had asked for time in rain-hit areas. [18]

Some stations had already shut their voting machines, and some voters were turned away. [16][18][20]

Federal Police are investigating transport cuts in five states, and a court ordered the arrest of Salvador's transport chief. [16]

Bolsonaro's case for annulment rests on this confusion, and he points out that Zanin was once Lula's lawyer. [15] Donald Trump Jr, the US president's son, also attacked the extension. [19]

Donald Trump said on Sunday he must decide whether to finish off Iran or make a deal, then said there would be no strike that day. [55][56]

He has said he will not strike before the US midterm elections on 3 November. [55]

Central Command, the US military's Middle East headquarters, has plans ready for new strikes, the website The Hill reported. [57]

Qatari mediators reached Iran the same day, and Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said a new war would not change Iran's policies. [56][58]

The US and Israel began bombing Iran on 28 February, and an April ceasefire has held only loosely. [58]

US officials warn that the weeks between the midterms and the new Congress could be the most dangerous. [55]

Israel holds a general election on Tuesday, and the last polls on Friday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's camp and the opposition almost level. [41]

Netanyahu warned Iran not to disrupt the vote, saying "Don't test us". [42] Donald Trump again urged Israelis to re-elect him. [43][44]

Israel's army chiefs fear Netanyahu may order an attack on Iran before polling day, Haaretz reported. [44]

His main rival, Gadi Eisenkot, a former army chief, promised an inquiry into the failures before the 7 October 2023 attack. [43]

About 70,000 Israelis are reported to be flying home to vote, and half a million will vote for the first time. [41]

Israel's top court has banned polling-station staff from passing turnout figures to parties on the day. [44]

Hebron's municipality said on Sunday that more than 2,600 people had been forced from their homes. [47]

The city's mayor, Yousef al-Jabari, said all entrances were sealed and no one could enter or leave its 200,000 people. [48][45]

Israel's army began the operation after two Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers at a checkpoint on Friday. [45]

It said it had searched more than 400 places and arrested 40 people it linked to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. [47]

Hebron is the biggest city in the occupied West Bank, and the mayor says the operation is driven by Israel's election. [45]

The army says no civilians were forced to leave and that the buildings it demolished posed a threat. [46]

Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport reopened on Sunday after a two-week closure, and Yemen's Houthis said they attacked it hours later. [52][54]

The Saudi-led coalition said it shot down a missile aimed at Riyadh and 10 more fired at the south, and destroyed two missile launchers in Sanaa, Yemen's capital. [51][53]

Debris hurt two people and damaged three homes. [53] An attack on the airport this month killed 13 people and injured more than 300. [51]

The closure forced Saudi Arabia to postpone its flagship investment conference to 2027. [51] Greece agreed to keep its Patriot air-defence battery in Saudi Arabia. [51]

Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's opposition leader, returned home on Sunday after more than 10 months in exile. [21][23]

She left in December 2025 to collect the Nobel Peace Prize, weeks before US forces seized President Nicolas Maduro. [23]

Her movement is widely believed to have beaten Maduro in the 2024 election, but he refused to hand over power. [22]

She had tried to return seven times in three months, and was greeted by crowds at a church in Lara state. [23][21]

Venezuela is now run by Maduro's former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, who was meant to serve 90 days and has called no election. [24]

Machado has demanded a date, while the US has backed Rodriguez and won access to up to 65 billion barrels of oil. [23][25]

A count names the winner, but the losing side's voters believe their own leader, so his words decide whether they accept it.

On Sunday Serbia's voters heard it within 90 minutes.

Brazil's voters did not hear it at all, and nobody in either country knew beforehand which kind of loser they would get.

Russian drones and bombs killed four people and injured 22 in Ukraine's Dnipro region on Saturday night, local authorities said. [64]

Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said a double strike in Kharkiv hit a hardware store and then the rescuers who arrived. [64]

He also confirmed three-way talks with Russia and the US in November, after Russia agreed to resume after 10 November. [65]

Zelensky said Ukraine will not discuss limits on its army or forced neutrality, and that land can only be discussed by leaders. [66] Russia occupies nearly a fifth of Ukraine. [66]

Zelensky said US warnings of incoming Russian ballistic missiles, which Ukraine's air defences rely on, have been fully restored. [66]

He said Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet, has worked at full speed since Saturday after being slowed earlier in October. [66]

Musk said SpaceX had restricted Starlink because Ukraine used it for attack drones. [67] Serhii Beskrestnov, a defence adviser to Zelensky, said limits already in place made that impossible. [67]

Zelensky credited his meeting with the US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oslo for both changes. [66] Who ordered the slowdown is still unclear: Musk says the US government controls Starshield. [67]

Marine Le Pen, leader of France's far-right National Rally, launched her campaign before about 8,500 supporters in Orleans on Sunday. [29][30]

She promised to restore order and said vandals would pay for damage for their whole lives if needed. [34][31]

She vowed to scrap a 2017 law that bans new permits to search for oil in France. [32]

A poll of polls puts her on 34%, against 16% for the centre-right's Edouard Philippe. [30]

The election is in April 2027, and France's borrowing costs rose above 5% last week for the first time since 2002. [30]

She is appealing a conviction for misusing European Parliament funds. [34]

More than 1,300 people were arrested in France on Saturday as about 410,000 people marched, by the interior ministry's count; unions said 800,000. [33]

Police used tear gas and water cannon in Paris, and barricades burned in Marseille. [33]

France's Senate debates a bill this week that could make a protester pay up to EUR 10,000 for damage done by others in the same group. [34]

Trade unions say it threatens the right to protest. [34]

The protests began with high-school students angry about teacher absences and crumbling schools. [34] The Yellow Vests have called for more marches on 31 October. [35]

Bulgaria's president, Iliana Yotova, won about 35-36.5% in Sunday's first round, according to exit polls. [26][28]

She faces Andrey Gyurov, a former caretaker prime minister on about 32%, in a runoff on 1 November. [28]

Turnout was below 40%, short of the 50% needed to win in one round. [27]

Yotova favours talks with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine, while Gyurov signed a security pact with Ukraine. [28]

The presidency is mostly ceremonial, but it commands the army and can veto laws. [26] Drone attacks on ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast dominated the campaign. [26]

About 300 members of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee began a four-day meeting in Beijing on Monday, called the fifth plenum. [70][72]

Xi Jinping presented a plan to tighten discipline in the party. [70] Eight seats are empty and 15 members are under investigation after Xi's 14-year campaign against corruption. [70]

Last year party investigators opened cases against more than a million people. [71]

It is likely the last big meeting before a party congress next year where Xi, 73, is expected to win a fourth term. [70]

Only two of 44 military members named to the committee in 2022 have not been purged or vanished, the Asia Society Policy Institute says. [70]

A US appeals court heard the Justice Department's case on Sunday to set aside mail-in ballots in California that it says went to likely non-citizens. [79]

Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, said states, not the US federal government, run elections under the US Constitution. [79] The department sent California a list of 20,000 names. [79]

Separately, Attorney General Todd Blanche defended a suit over Alaska's Senate race, which Trump said he ordered. [80]

Both cases come before the midterm elections on 3 November. [79] Critics from both parties say the Alaska suit lays groundwork to block a Democratic win. [80]

Donald Trump called Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, a jihadist at a rally in Port Huron on Sunday. [81]

He falsely said El-Sayed wants Islamic law in the US, and said Christmas could be cancelled if he won. [81]

El-Sayed is a US-born doctor and former public health official, and there is no evidence he belongs to any foreign group. [81] Republicans hold 53 of the US Senate's 100 seats. [81]

Michigan is one of about seven close Senate races. [81] Petrol there costs $4.83 a gallon, up from $2.91 before the war on Iran. [81]

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's opposition Congress party, called a Save the Vote march in New Delhi on 1 November. [82]

He accuses the ruling BJP of stealing votes by removing names from voter lists. [82]

A review by India's Election Commission has so far removed more than 130 million names from draft voter rolls. [82] Hundreds formed a human chain in Hyderabad against the review. [82]

The Election Commission runs India's elections, and its review decides who can vote. [82] A cartoonist's post criticising the same review was restricted on Instagram. [83]

US Central Command said on Sunday it has helped Gulf states export more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil since June through the Strait of Hormuz. [59]

It said more than 3,000 ships crossed with its support, and over 95% sailed safely. [59]

The tracking firm Kpler says 16.5 million barrels a day left the region in September, the pre-war average. [59]

Brent oil still cost about $114.50 a barrel, against $72.48 before the war. [59]

Iran claims control of the strait and attacks ships that cross without its permission. [58] The figures came as Trump weighed new strikes. [55]

Also seen in Finance, Money and Climate.

The war has pushed the world price of oil up by more than half, and oil companies earn more on every barrel they sell at that price.

North Korea wrote to the UN Security Council accusing South Korea of faking a landmine blast in the border zone on 21 September, state media said. [68]

South Korea and the UN Command say a North Korean mine caused the blast, which seriously hurt two South Korean soldiers. [68]

The letter warned that breaches of North Korea's land could bring self-defence. [69] South Korea proposed military talks again on Friday. [68]

North Korean troops have been building roads and fences and laying mines near the line between the two Koreas. [68]

South Korea's unification ministry said the letter tries to justify that work. [69]

Thousands of people filled Prague's Old Town Square on Sunday against a plan to fund public radio and TV from the state budget instead of licence fees. [40][39]

The lower house fast-tracked the bill in a vote at 4:36am on Saturday. [39] The broadcasters would get about 15% less money. [40]

Public media staff plan a strike on 3 November. [39]

The coalition of Prime Minister Andrej Babis, a billionaire, says it is about clear funding, and critics say it would let Babis's government control the media. [39]

The bill must still pass the upper house. [39]

Police with dogs and batons cleared housing protest camps in Lisbon and Porto in the early hours of Sunday. [37]

They arrested 31 people and removed 171 structures, and said 11 people were hurt. [37]

The campaign group Casa Para Viver said more than 20 were hurt and that police fired rubber bullets. [37]

Protesters had camped in central squares against housing costs that have outrun incomes. [37][38]

The campers want a cap on rents and a new tenancy law, and have called more protests for Wednesday. [38][37] Similar camps began in Spain. [37]

Police arrested 128 people, about a quarter of them under 18, after clashes and looting in central Barcelona on Saturday night. [36]

The gathering was promoted online to copy France's high-school protest movement and drew about 600 people. [36] About 14 shops were looted and 15 police officers were hurt. [36]

Barcelona's mayor said parents of the minors could face consequences. [36]

Catalan leaders said the violence had nothing to do with the housing camp in the same square. [36]

Catalonia's leader, Salvador Illa, said protest is a right but violence cannot be justified. [36]

An Israeli drone strike on the Islamic University in Gaza City killed three staff and wounded eight students on Sunday, the university and Al Shifa hospital said. [49][50]

Israel's army said it was aiming at a Hamas fighter and the incident is under review. [49] Gaza's civil defence said four more people were killed elsewhere. [50]

More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire began over a year ago, health officials say. [50]

Gaza's education ministry says 95% of university buildings have been damaged in the war. [49] It says 10 students and teachers were killed in six days. [49]

Jordanian security forces arrested three suspects in the attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Hamoud, a village in Karak province, the state news agency said on Monday. [62]

The three were found in an abandoned house and wounded in a gunfight. [62] The attack on a funeral killed nine people and wounded 40. [62]

It was the biggest attack on Jordan's Christians since the 1950s. [63]

No group has claimed it, and the suspects' links have not been named. [62] Queen Rania attended the funeral on Sunday. [63]

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, questioned the agenda of Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's candidate to lead the UN. [60] Anwar Gargash, a senior UAE adviser, said his remarks lacked objectivity. [60]

Nusseibeh replied that she would engage with Iran if chosen. [60] Latin American and Caribbean states also objected to her late entry, saying a consensus was forming behind their region. [61]

The UN Security Council has held six rounds of votes without a clear leader to replace Antonio Guterres. [61]

Critics also point to the UAE's alleged arming of a militia in Sudan, which it denies. [61]

Gabon's media regulator restored access to Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram on Saturday after an eight-month ban. [74][73]

The ban began on 17 February, when President Brice Oligui Nguema faced strikes by teachers and civil servants. [73] Users must now show formal ID, which ends anonymity online. [74]

The regulator said it is working with Meta, TikTok and YouTube on moderation. [74]

About 2.5 million people live in Gabon, and many young people use these apps to sell things and keep in touch. [73]

Downloads of one VPN, a tool to get around blocks, rose 60,000% the day after the ban. [74]