Brazil’s presidential election is heading to a runoff between current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and far-right candidate, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Millions of Brazilians took to the polls Sunday, with Bolsonaro receiving 47% of the vote. Lula trailed behind with 45%. The two will face off again on October 25. Flávio Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, is the son of former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted of plotting a military coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula. This is one of Lula’s supporters.

Renata Manzzo: “There is a great deal of apprehension. I suppose I didn’t expect this. I had high hopes that the election would be decided in the first round in Lula’s favor, so it’s very hard to see us heading into a runoff trailing someone who is beholden to the United States, someone who, in our view, has bad plans for Brazil. It’s too much hopelessness.”

After headlines, we’ll go to Rio de Janeiro for the latest.

The U.S. rushed over the weekend to pull all 12 of its B-1 bombers out of RAF Fairford in southern England after commanders reportedly received new warnings of an Iran-backed plot targeting the base. American bombers have flown from the base during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The evacuation was so urgent that some bombers and their crews took off before refueling tankers had the chance to support their flights home. At least three planes had landed at their base in South Dakota by Sunday. It comes one week after British police arrested five men who were driving white vans near RAF Fairford. The men were released on bail the next day after authorities found no explosives in the vans.

Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the U.S. meets conditions from the interim agreement the two countries reached in Islamabad back in June. During the U.N. General Assembly, Tehran offered to restore normal shipping through the strait within seven days if its demands are met. Iran says it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz only if the U.S. ends the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, lifts its naval blockade and sanctions, releases frozen Iranian assets, pays war compensation, recognizes Iran’s right to enrich uranium and accepts Iran’s role in governing the strait. Iran’s Foreign Ministry denied reports that Iran had offered U.N. nuclear inspections in exchange for sanctions relief, saying Tehran’s focus right now is the strait, not nuclear talks. This is Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Abbas Araghchi: “We hope the United States chooses the path of wisdom and reason. But if it once again turns to military options, we are better prepared than before, and we will take whatever measures are necessary to defend ourselves. If it chooses the path of diplomacy, we remain ready. The United States has lost in both war and diplomacy in the past.”

Yemen’s Saudi-backed armed forces announced Sunday the beginning of a major military operation to recapture regions seized by the Iran-backed Houthis, including the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. This is Rashad al-Alimi, president of Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

President Rashad al-Alimi: “Today, I announced the start of military operations to retake the remaining territory of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across all national soil. We have issued directives to the armed and security forces and all military formations to begin executing their assigned tasks according to the approved plan until the country is liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.”

This came as the Houthis claimed responsibility for launching a series of ballistic missile and drone attacks on Saudi Aramco sites in Riyadh and the Khurais region of Saudi Arabia over the weekend. They said the attacks were in response to dozens of Saudi-led air and missile strikes on Yemen that lasted for 12 hours.

In Gaza, an ​Israeli airstrike killed at least five Palestinians, including four women, in an apartment building in Gaza City early on Saturday. Since last October’s so-called ceasefire, 1,400 Palestinians have been ​killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza. This is Fouad al-Najjar, who lost his mother and grandmother in Israeli strikes.

Fouad al-Najjar: “The occupation doesn’t differentiate between a Christian and a Muslim. It targets Christians before Muslims in Gaza. All of us have lost martyrs, and we have wounded people. In almost every home, you will find someone who was either martyred or injured.”

In the U.K., the Green Party has voted to classify Zionism as a form of racism, calling it “an ethnonationalist political project.” The motion also renews the Green Party’s call for Britain’s Labour government to end all arms trade with Israel and backs a single democratic state throughout historic Palestine. Israel’s government condemned the motion as antisemitic and accused the Greens of legitimizing terrorism. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he would bar party leader Zack Polanski from entering Israel. Polanski did not cast a vote.

Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff says he welcomes an independent investigation over the school’s failure to properly respond to reports by a 20-year-old undergraduate student who said she was drugged and gang raped by seven fellow Cornell students and members of the Chi Phi fraternity in 2024. Kotlikoff posted this video message Saturday.

Michael Kotlikoff: “In conjunction with our Board of Trustees, I welcome the independent review by an outside law firm into all aspects of Cornell’s handling of the 2024 matter, which the board will announce next week. We also support the governor’s decision to turn the criminal investigation over to the New York attorney general.”

Kotlikoff is facing mounting calls to resign.

Meanwhile, Jane Doe’s attorney, Thomas Giuffra, told CNN’s “State of the Union” she’s been the target of multiple threats and harassment.

Thomas Giuffra: “It seems that if you have a complaining witness saying, ’I’m 100% certain I was raped,’ that should make it into a report. You had the group chat inviting people to participate in a rape. You had a complaining witness. You had evidence of a crime. And they didn’t follow up on it. They didn’t include it. And that’s very concerning to me. And I’m not a person who believes in cover-ups, but in this case I feel like there really was a cover-up.”

Tennessee’s prison chief, Frank Strada, is stepping down from his position later this month as he faces national backlash after overseeing Christa Pike’s botched attempted execution. Pike remains hospitalized in critical condition and on a ventilator unconscious, with burns and blisters on both her arms, after surviving two doses of pentobarbital.

Strada’s resignation comes ahead of an independent investigation into what went wrong. Pike’s botched execution was reportedly at least the fifth Strada had supervised across two states since 2022. In Strada’s previous role as a prison official in Arizona, CNN reports, he oversaw three executions that observers and administrators say may have violated state protocols.

In Texas, a federal judge in El Paso on Friday blocked further border wall construction inside Big Bend National Park, in a decision that was hailed by environmentalists. Judge Kathleen Cardone said her preliminary injunction will remain in place until a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and others is resolved, and signaled the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims against the border wall expansion are likely to succeed in court. Click here to see our coverage of this story.

President Trump named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton as the White House’s new AI czar. Clayton will lead a new “Super Intelligence Force” that Trump says will coordinate the government’s work on artificial intelligence.
This comes as David Robinson, a senior OpenAI safety staffer, has resigned and says the company’s culture is broken. Writing in The Atlantic magazine, Robinson said, “I agree with other recently departed staff that the companies building this technology aren’t being nearly careful enough. But I believe that we need to look deeper than specific rules or new laws. We need to talk about culture. As the company sprints from one launch to the next, it is failing to achieve the level of care that I believe is needed.” Recently OpenAI called off the launch of a new AI model after its own researchers flagged safety problems during internal testing. The company has also halted training on its most powerful models.

In Spain, tens of thousands of people marched in Madrid and other Spanish cities over the weekend as protests continue demanding government action on the country’s worsening housing crisis. Authorities estimated the crowds at 70,000, while organizers said 500,000 people took part. The protests came a day after opposition lawmakers voted down a housing reform package meant to address public outrage over the eviction of an 87-year-old woman, Maricarmen, from her lifelong home in Madrid. This is a protester.

Emilio: “The far-right group Núcleo Nacional threatened on social media, and there was a counterprotest. Everyone was very nervous and alert, so we set up a security perimeter around the whole camp, on top of setting control checks on all accesses to avoid any attack. … I think the camp will stay this next week. Let’s see next weekend. I think there is a will to resist. Everything is very well organized. I think we’ll stay.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez earlier today announced a snap election after right-wing parties in Spain’s parliament torpedoed the housing measures. The election is scheduled for November 29.

In France, about 500 high schools are partly or fully closed today after a week of student protests were met by riot police. Thousands of students have taken to the streets across France, including in Paris, Marseille, Nantes and Montpellier, to protest teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and crumbling school buildings. French authorities have arrested more than 5,000 people since the movement began, about 85% of them minors, according to AFP. Student organizers say the government has offered no concrete measures and are calling for more protests on Tuesday. This is 17-year-old student Madeleine Landry.

Madeleine Landry: “It was really difficult to concentrate in the heat, especially when you are in a small classroom with 35 people in it. So, it’s true that you can very quickly lose concentration. Also, we don’t always have fans in every classroom, so it can get really, really hot. And in some classrooms, we’re not really allowed to drink water, so that makes things difficult, as well.”

In India, the youth-led Cockroach movement has launched a new wave of nationwide protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Critics say a process under his oversight stripped tens of millions of people from India’s voter rolls, in a move that benefits Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling BJP party. Thousands rallied in Mumbai Friday after authorities denied them a permit, while in Delhi police detained at least 700 people, including opposition politicians, and imposed an internet shutdown. This is a protester in New Delhi.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: “If you are going to stifle freedom of expression in this country, you are stifling democracy. And I don’t think the youth of our country will allow this.”