Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential election with 51.79% of the vote, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro after trailing in the first round. Bolsonaro refused to concede, leaving the result politically tense.
Key Facts
Lula received 51.79% of the vote, compared with Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.21%.
The margin was about 4.3 million votes.
In the first round, Bolsonaro received 47.03% and Lula received 45.16%.
The article says no first-round runner-up had won the runoff since Brazil returned to democracy in 1985.
Bolsonaro cited an extension of voting hours when refusing to accept the result; the article says both sides had called for the extension.
Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio’s father and a former president, is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election.
Lula described the result as “a defeat for denialism.”
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Australian opposition leader Angus Taylor rejected calls to change parliamentary debate practices after an alleged attack left independent MP Helen Haines without both legs. Independent MPs Monique Ryan and Zali Steggall criticised Taylor’s response, saying political language can affect actions and urging a more respectful debate.
Key Facts
A 43-year-old man has been charged over the alleged attack outside Haines’s electorate office in northern Victoria; the incident remains under investigation.
Parliament returned to Canberra a week after the alleged attack.
Taylor said robust parliamentary debate does not cause political violence and argued that violence and intimidation must be rejected.
Taylor called for judges to impose tougher penalties on people found guilty of intimidation or violence.
Barnaby Joyce said changes to parliamentary question time would not solve the broader problem.
Steggall said politicians, the media, election advertising and social media users should consider the impact of their words.
Ryan described Taylor’s response as “tone deaf” and said political leaders’ words matter.
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A High Court ruled that Bern Rogers is entitled to £127,500 for caring for her mother, Sheila, at home for 850 days. Rogers said she and her mother had agreed she would be paid; the executor of Sheila’s estate plans to appeal the award.
Key Facts
Rogers cared for her mother, who had dementia and other health problems, for about two and a half years in Bristol.
Sheila moved into Rogers’s home in September 2017 and died in April 2020.
A High Court judge ruled in 2025 that Rogers had an informal agreement with her mother to receive reasonable payment for her care.
A judge set the payment at £127,500 in August 2026.
Rogers transferred £100,000 from her mother’s estate after her death and was charged with fraud and theft.
A jury found Rogers not guilty at a 2022 trial.
The estate’s executor, Rogers’s brother Andrew, said it was willing to pay genuine expenses and an additional amount for her efforts, but plans to appeal the judgment.
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Voice actor Eric Bauza, known for voicing Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Looney Tunes characters, has died at age 46. His family said he died suddenly; Variety reported that the cause was hypertensive cardiovascular disease and that he died at home on Sunday.
Key Facts
Bauza voiced Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and other Looney Tunes characters.
He voiced several characters in the animated film Coyote vs. Acme and appeared in Forgotten Island.
He played Toad General in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Bauza won three Emmy awards for outstanding voice performance between 2022 and 2025.
He was born in Ontario and was of Filipino descent.
His family announced his death in a statement posted on Instagram.
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More than 2,000 UK salon owners have urged Chancellor John Healey to cut VAT on hair and beauty services from 20% to 10% in the Budget. They say rising wage, pension and National Insurance costs are making it harder to employ staff, train apprentices and keep salons open.
Key Facts
The open letter is backed by the British Hair Consortium, which says traditional salon employers face rising costs.
Salon owner Marcus Perkins said he had spent about £2,000 this year on courses and travel to support a young stylist’s training.
Perkins said he had trained more than a dozen young people over two decades at his salon near Brierley Hill.
Salon workers say more stylists are renting chairs as self-employed workers instead of being directly employed by salons.
The British Hair Consortium says apprenticeship numbers have fallen sharply and warns financial pressures could worsen the trend.
Ministers have defended changes to employers’ National Insurance contributions and minimum wage increases as measures to improve pay, support public services and promote economic growth.
A Treasury spokesperson said the hair and beauty sector supports jobs, apprenticeships and high streets, and has benefited from business-rates reforms.
The British Beauty Council says hair and beauty businesses support local high streets, spending and social connection.
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Voice actor Eric Bauza, known for voicing Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, died Sunday at age 46, his manager said. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner listed hypertensive cardiovascular disease as the cause of death.
Key Facts
Bauza was born in Canada and had more than 400 acting credits listed on IMDb.
He voiced many Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Tweety Bird.
His other voice work included roles in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Puss in Boots, Bob’s Burgers and Teen Titans Go!.
Bauza voiced characters in the most recent Space Jam film alongside LeBron James.
He won Children’s and Family Emmy Awards in 2022, 2023 and 2025, and was nominated in 2026.
He received five Daytime Emmy nominations between 2016 and 2021.
Bauza said Mel Blanc, the original voice actor for many Looney Tunes characters, served as his model for those roles.
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UK employers have urged ministers to reconsider a proposed change that would make it more expensive for businesses to train workers over 25 through England’s apprenticeship funding system. The plan aims to shift support toward young people amid high youth unemployment, but business groups say it could move training opportunities rather than create more.
Key Facts
Ministers are considering increasing the cost to employers of training workers over 25 in England by 25%.
Under the proposal, levy funds could cover the full cost of apprentices under 25, while employers would pay 25% of training costs for older apprentices separately.
The proposal has not been finalised and is expected to form part of the government’s response to a review of youth unemployment.
About 1 million people aged 16 to 24 in the UK are not in education, employment or training.
People over 25 account for more than half of new apprenticeship enrolments.
Make UK policy executive Robert Halfon said the change could shift existing training opportunities instead of creating new ones.
The CBI said adult training helps people enter work and update their skills as the workplace changes, including through the impact of AI.
The growth and skills levy raises about £4 billion a year to fund England’s apprenticeship system.
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The article argues that French officials have focused on violent unrest to justify a security crackdown while drawing attention away from the causes of student protests. It describes injuries and arrests, and points to poverty, deteriorating school conditions, and missed teaching hours as sources of public anger.
Key Facts
The article says protests began in September and that unrest included looting, damaged property, and fires.
It reports injuries to three teenagers: one suffered a fractured jaw and lost teeth, one lost sight in an eye, and one had a hand blown off.
By October 14, 7,950 people had been placed in police custody since the protests began; the article says 85 percent were minors.
The article reports that 2,700 people were taken into custody after October 17 protests and that police made another 1,000 arrests the following day.
The article cites an estimate of 9.8 million people living below France’s official poverty line and says 53 billionaires hold as much wealth as nearly half the population, citing Oxfam.
It describes overcrowding and poor facilities at schools in Mayotte and Paris suburbs, including water problems, mould, and unusable toilets.
The article cites education ministry figures that 20.2 million teaching hours were missed in state secondary schools in 2024–25, excluding Mayotte; 15 million were lost because absent teachers were not replaced.
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China’s Communist Party Central Committee has begun a four-day, closed-door meeting on strengthening party discipline and tackling corruption. The talks come as President Xi Jinping seeks greater compliance from officials and as China faces economic challenges and strained ties with the United States.
Key Facts
About 300 Central Committee members are attending the fifth plenum.
The committee is discussing a draft policy on advancing “full and rigorous party self-governance,” according to Xinhua.
Xi’s anticorruption campaign has removed thousands of officials over 14 years, including dozens of Central Committee members.
Eight Central Committee seats are vacant, and 15 members are under investigation, according to the article.
The meeting is expected to have the lowest turnout since Mao Zedong died in 1976.
The campaign has also affected the military, with five of the seven members of the Central Military Commission toppled.
The plenum could appoint new members to the military commission or change how the party controls the military.
China is also grappling with weak domestic spending, a prolonged property-sector crisis, and difficult political and economic ties with the United States.
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A Brisbane Supreme Court jury heard prosecutors allege that former RAAF pilot Robert John Crawford killed his wife, Frances, and staged her death to look accidental. Crawford has pleaded not guilty; the trial is expected to hear from up to 47 witnesses over three weeks.
Key Facts
Frances Crawford’s body was found near a ride-on lawnmower at the bottom of a retaining wall on the couple’s rural property near Toowoomba.
Prosecutor Chris Cook said the alleged murder occurred amid a relationship breakdown and that Crawford stood to lose financially in a divorce.
The prosecution alleges Crawford caused his wife’s death by strangulation or blunt-force trauma.
The court was told the couple were close to divorce and that Frances had set boundaries concerning infidelity and other behavior.
Four women with whom Crawford allegedly had affairs are expected to testify.
The jury is due to visit the alleged crime scene on Wednesday.
Crawford’s defence barrister had not yet made an opening statement.
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Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat in Serbia’s snap parliamentary election after vote estimates showed the student-led Student List ahead of his Serbian Progressive Party. The movement grew out of protests after a deadly Novi Sad train station collapse and campaigned on fighting corruption, reducing political control over public institutions and restoring citizens’ rights.
Key Facts
Vote estimates projected 135 to 140 seats for the Student List in Serbia’s 250-seat parliament, compared with 105 for the Serbian Progressive Party.
Voter turnout reached its highest level in more than 30 years, according to the article.
The student-led protests began after 16 people died when a canopy at Novi Sad’s train station collapsed on November 1, 2024.
The protests expanded into broader social unrest and developed into the Student List political platform.
Ilija Srdanovic, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad, led the movement during the election campaign.
Vucic called demonstrators “blockaders” and accused them of trying to destabilise Serbia.
Vucic entered politics in 1993 with the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party and later co-founded the Serbian Progressive Party in 2008.
The Serbian Progressive Party came to power in 2012, pledging to fight corruption and organised crime.
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Muhammed Krubally became The Gambia’s first visually impaired magistrate in 2016. He uses a screen reader, AI-enabled smart glasses, sound and help from his clerk to handle court work, and says he has presided over more than 1,000 cases. His experience highlights the gap between disability rights set out in law and the barriers people with disabilities still face in practice.
Key Facts
Krubally is 41 and works at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court.
The Gambia Organisation of the Visually Impaired identifies Krubally as the country’s first person with a visual impairment to become a magistrate.
He uses JAWS, a screen reader that reads computer content aloud, to access documents and judgments.
He also uses AI-enabled smart glasses to access information and carry out tasks independently.
Krubally says he has presided over more than 1,000 civil and criminal cases since joining the bench.
He says he pursued the judiciary to help make the system more inclusive.
The Gambia’s Persons with Disabilities Act, passed in 2021, sets out rights including accessibility, equal opportunity and access to justice.
The National Human Rights Commission has identified discrimination and difficulties accessing services, education and employment as barriers for people with disabilities.
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Israelis are due to vote in legislative elections, the first since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023. Polls cited in the article show neither the pro-Netanyahu bloc nor the opposition projected to win a majority, leaving coalition talks likely to shape the next government.
Key Facts
The Knesset has 120 seats, and parties must win at least 3.25 percent of the vote to enter it.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud leads a bloc that includes far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
The opposition includes four Jewish-led movements led by Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Golan, Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett; Yair Lapid is also part of the Together alliance.
A KAN poll projected 52 seats for the opposition alliance and 50 for Netanyahu’s bloc, with the remaining seats going to unaffiliated parties.
The two main blocs have ruled out joining forces with the Arab-led Ra’am and Joint List parties, according to the article.
The article identifies security accountability, ultra-Orthodox military exemptions and proposed judicial reforms as domestic election issues.
Voters are also weighing Israel’s military conflicts and concerns about security and economic stability.
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Videos recorded by supporters of the candidates captured reactions as Brazil’s presidential runoff results shifted in favor of incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula’s supporters celebrated while the mood among rival Flavio Bolsonaro’s supporters turned somber.
Key Facts
The videos came from supporters of the candidates in Brazil’s presidential runoff.
The results began shifting in favor of incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula’s supporters celebrated as the results changed.
The mood among Flavio Bolsonaro’s supporters soured.
The article focuses on reactions captured in social videos.
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A Center for Global Development analysis estimates that the UK could fall short of its 2027 target for international aid spending by £410 million, leaving aid at 0.29% of national income. The researchers urged ministers to consider adding funds in the upcoming budget; the government’s published aid allocations cover the next three financial years.
Key Facts
The UK’s 2027 aid target is 0.3% of national income, below Labour’s election pledge of 0.7%.
The CGD’s central forecast estimates a £410 million shortfall; other scenarios put it at £250 million or £580 million.
The CGD attributed the projected gap to higher-than-expected inflation and a 2025 policy change involving the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office budget.
The UK’s official development assistance fell to 0.44% of gross national income in 2025, from 0.5% in 2024, a decrease of £987 million.
FCDO data showed aid to least-developed and low-income countries fell by 6.7%, or £118 million.
The government has prioritised aid through multilateral organisations, including the World Bank’s development arm and Gavi, and continued humanitarian support.
Fleur Anderson, a former minister and member of Parliament’s foreign affairs select committee, called for the government to meet its reduced target and eventually reverse the cuts.
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The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum drew strong ticket demand, especially from younger buyers, according to spending data from Monzo. Tickets for the exhibition sold out within three hours, and almost half of the buyers were based outside London.
Key Facts
Monzo cardholders spent £14,100 on British Museum tickets during the first hour of the second ticket release.
Buyers under 35 made up 55% of the purchases tracked by Monzo.
The first-hour spending was 48 times the amount recorded on a normal Wednesday morning.
Adult tickets cost £33 at peak times and £27 off-peak.
Average checkout spending for Bayeux Tapestry tickets was £97, compared with £19 during Spider-Man: Brand New Day's opening morning.
Monzo customers had spent £30,500 on tickets within two hours of the release.
Tickets sold out within three hours, faster than the first release, which took 24 hours to sell out.
Almost half of buyers lived outside London, with the farthest reported purchases coming from Glasgow.
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Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro called for the presidential election result to be annulled after he lost to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He cited the extension of voting by two hours and described the circumstances as unprecedented.
Key Facts
Flavio Bolsonaro is a Brazilian senator.
He called for the presidential election result to be annulled.
He lost the election to incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Voting was extended by two hours.
Flavio Bolsonaro described the circumstances as unprecedented.
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A federal appeals court panel expressed doubt about the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to set aside California mail-in ballots linked to people it says may not be citizens. The panel heard arguments during a rare weekend session, and Judge Mark Bennett said it would rule as soon as possible.
Key Facts
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit on October 15, asking courts to set aside thousands of California mail-in ballots.
The administration sent California officials a list of 20,000 people it believes may not be eligible to vote because they are not citizens.
Judge Mark Bennett questioned whether the requested order would conflict with state authority to administer elections under the Constitution’s Elections Clause.
California says it has safeguards against non-citizen voting and argues that the federal government relied on questionable data.
Voting rights advocates say the administration has not explained publicly how it compiled its list, and whistleblower reports have raised doubts about its accuracy.
The lawsuit comes ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress and other offices.
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A Victorian coroner’s inquest heard that birthkeeper Emily Lal could be referred to prosecutors for consideration of criminal charges after phone evidence raised questions about her role in Stacey Warnecke’s home birth. Counsel assisting the coroner said messages and a recorded call suggested Lal advised Warnecke and encouraged her to avoid hospitals, contrary to Lal’s account that she acted mainly as a supportive friend.
Key Facts
Stacey Warnecke died in September 2025 at a Melbourne hospital after giving birth at home and suffering a postpartum haemorrhage.
Warnecke had paid Lal $6,000 for support during her pregnancy.
Lal had no clinical training and previously told the inquest she was not responsible for making the birth safer or calling an ambulance unless asked.
A forensic analysis of Warnecke’s phone revealed messages and a recorded call between her and Lal.
In the call, Warnecke said she was afraid of hospitals, and Lal replied that she should be scared of them.
Counsel assisting the coroner said the phone evidence appeared inconsistent with Lal’s claim that she mainly served as a supportive friend.
The inquest heard that Lal may be referred to prosecutors to consider potential criminal charges.
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A nurse was killed and another health worker was severely injured in an attack while responding to an Ebola alert in Bafwasende, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization said. The attack comes as distrust and violence against responders hinder efforts to contain an outbreak that has spread to four countries.
Key Facts
The attack occurred on Saturday in Bafwasende, Tshopo province, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Local authorities had not publicly commented on the attack or identified suspects at the time of the report.
DRC Ministry of Health data showed more than 9,800 cases and 4,700 deaths since the outbreak began in May.
The article describes this as the deadliest Ebola outbreak in DRC history and the outbreak with the widest geographic spread in Africa.
The outbreak has been reported in four countries across eastern, central and western Africa.
Uganda announced a 21-day quarantine for citizens returning from DRC who have a history of travel there.
The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
WHO urged stronger cross-border monitoring and cooperation, while advising against travel or trade restrictions on affected countries.
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