Day: October 4, 2026

Lula, 80, is seeking a record fourth term as president and could bring his total time in office to 16 years if re-elected. His main challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is seeking to succeed his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, and continue the political movement built by the former leader, Bloomberg reported.

The election is taking place in a deeply polarized Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, with neither candidate expected by most polls to secure the majority needed to win the presidency outright in the first round.

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Lula closed his campaign Saturday with a march through São Paulo, where his campaign said a large crowd gathered for his final rally.

“Tomorrow, we’re going to win the elections in the first round,” Lula told supporters, framing the contest as a choice between “democracy and barbarism” and promising to defeat the far right.

He has also made national sovereignty a central theme of his campaign, warning against what he described as potential interference from Washington.

Flávio Bolsonaro ended his campaign with a motorcycle caravan through towns in São Paulo state before holding a rally in Rio de Janeiro. The event echoed the campaign style of his father, who remains an influential figure among Brazil’s right-wing voters.

“I am convinced that everything is in place for us to win this election in the first round,” Bolsonaro said.

His father, Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year prison sentence after being convicted over efforts to overturn his defeat by Lula in the 2022 presidential election.

US President Donald Trump has not formally endorsed Flávio Bolsonaro but has said he is watching the election “very closely.” His interest has become a contentious issue in the campaign, with Lula’s supporters accusing Washington of attempting to influence Brazil’s political process.

The Bolsonaro campaign has also faced scrutiny over a film-financing controversy involving Dark Horse, a planned biopic about Jair Bolsonaro. Flávio Bolsonaro is under investigation in connection with the financing of the project, which was reportedly backed by a jailed banker linked to one of Brazil’s major financial scandals.

Brazil’s Supreme Court authorised federal police in April to investigate whether Flávio Bolsonaro made defamatory statements about Lula.

The senator has pledged to seek his father’s release if elected. He has also echoed his father’s unsubstantiated claims questioning the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system, raising concerns among analysts that such arguments could be used to challenge the result if he loses.

The presidential contest is only part of Sunday’s vote. Brazilians will also elect governors in all 26 states and the Federal District, 54 of the Senate’s 81 members, all 513 members of the lower house and hundreds of state and district lawmakers.

The congressional results will be crucial for the next president’s ability to pass legislation and advance an agenda, while gubernatorial races will help determine the distribution of political power across Brazil.

The Senate election is particularly significant because the upper chamber has constitutional authority to conduct impeachment trials of Supreme Court justices. That role has gained additional importance amid tensions surrounding the court and scrutiny of some justices’ alleged ties to Daniel Vorcaro, owner of Banco Master, a midsized lender at the center of a major corruption investigation.

Polls indicate that Lula remains ahead but that his advantage over Bolsonaro has narrowed. If neither candidate wins a majority of valid votes, the two leading candidates will advance to a runoff scheduled for October 25.

The race is considerably tighter than Lula’s 2022 victory, when he defeated Jair Bolsonaro by less than two percentage points.

The outcome will determine not only who leads Brazil for the next four years but also the balance of power in Congress and across the country’s states, making Sunday’s election one of the most consequential political contests in Brazil in years.

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Police confirmed that both people aboard the aircraft died in the crash, Anadolu Agency reported.

A fire broke out following the crash, but emergency services brought it under control at the scene.

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Authorities have launched an investigation into the cause of the crash.

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President Rashad al-Alimi said in a televised address that the operation would aim to restore government authority across the country, Reuters reported.

“Today, I announce the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory,” al-Alimi said.

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Regional and Western officials had previously said that Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies were preparing an offensive against the Houthis, with Saudi forces expected to provide air support while Yemeni forces conduct ground operations.

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 at the head of an Arab coalition supporting the internationally recognized government after the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa.

A truce agreed between the warring sides in 2022 largely held until this year, when the Houthis launched missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi shipping and oil infrastructure amid the wider conflict involving Iran.

The announcement comes as Houthi forces continue to hold the initiative on several fronts. The group seized control of the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait weeks ago in an offensive along Yemen’s western coast that forced government forces to retreat.

Bab el-Mandeb is the southern gateway to the Red Sea and a major international shipping route linking the Mediterranean with Asia. Its strategic importance has increased as the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed amid the Iran conflict.

Military sources said the Houthis had made further advances over the past 48 hours near Taiz, capturing strategic hilltops and moving toward the last road connecting the city with Aden, where the Saudi-backed government is based.

Control of the Taiz-Aden road could effectively isolate Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, where hundreds of thousands of civilians live alongside thousands of government forces.

The Houthis’ control of the area could also strengthen their position around Bab el-Mandeb by giving them access to mountain positions overlooking the coastal region, according to Yemeni journalist and political analyst Mohammed Al-Qadhi.

“This will help them protect their back in case of any operation against the coastline, and make recapturing those areas much more difficult,” he said.

The fighting has also worsened Yemen’s humanitarian crisis. The World Food Programme said last week that three in four families in some parts of the country were going hungry as renewed fighting displaced tens of thousands of people and disrupted supplies to millions.

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In Mumbai, opposition leaders Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray led a demonstration calling for the voter-roll revisions to be scrapped and for Kumar to step down, Reuters reported.

In New Delhi, protesters gathered in the evening as police detained some demonstrators . Police have detained dozens of people over the past three days and transported some away by bus after preventing protesters from assembling.

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Several demonstrators were later released, while police registered cases against some for allegedly violating orders restricting mass gatherings in the capital. Delhi Police have not provided details on the number or identities of those detained.

The protests center on a nationwide voter-roll revision exercise launched last year. Demonstrators allege that millions of eligible voters have been removed from electoral registers and claim the changes could benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Election Commission and the BJP have rejected those allegations. The commission says the exercise is intended to remove duplicate, deceased and otherwise ineligible entries while protecting the integrity of the electoral system.

“The people of this country should decide who sits in power and who sits in opposition, not the Election Commission,” Raj Thackeray said during the Mumbai protest.

Opposition parties are expected to expand the demonstrations in the coming days. An alliance of opposition groups plans to hold a march to the Election Commission’s office in New Delhi on Monday under the slogan “save democracy.”

The Gen Z Cockroach Janta Party has also announced plans for a major rally in the capital on Oct. 10.

The demonstrations are the latest in a series of youth-led protests challenging Modi’s government. In July, student protests following the leak of question papers for a national medical entrance examination led to the removal of the federal education minister.

Kumar has not publicly responded to calls for his resignation or commented on the demonstrations.

On Friday, the Election Commission directed officials to register eligible voters who had been inadvertently left off electoral rolls.

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The co-pilot of flydubai Flight 1073, which was traveling from Dubai to Israel, allegedly attacked the pilot with an emergency crash axe, according to the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general, who described the incident as a “terrorist attack,” Reuters reported.

Two sources familiar with the investigation identified the co-pilot as Hammam al-Hammami, an Omani national. UAE authorities have not publicly confirmed his identity, while Reuters was unable to independently contact him for comment. Omani authorities have not commented.

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Flydubai said a full investigation into the incident was underway.

Two sources briefed on the investigation said al-Hammami had studied at a university in Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria. Australian media reported that he attended RMIT University, which declined to comment to Reuters.

“The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (VIC JCTT), comprising the AFP, Victoria Police and ASIO, can confirm it is investigating the man’s links to Australia,” an Australian Federal Police spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said further information would be provided at an appropriate time.

The Financial Times reported Sunday that al-Hammami had allegedly visited radical mosques and extremist websites while in Australia, citing two people familiar with the investigation. The report also said Australian intelligence services had previously held a file on him.

Reuters could not independently verify those claims. The Australian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

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