Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Luca da Silva won re-election Sunday.
•Will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prevail? Israel’s legislative elections are Tuesday, October 27. President Trump has endorsed Netanyahu.
Trump’s Pre-Midterm Defeat – Voters in Brazil handed leftist leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva victory in the country’s second round of voting to defeat the President Trump-endorsed son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving 27 years in prison for trying to overturn Lula’s previous victory in an attempted 2022 election coup. Lula turns 81 Tuesday,
Lula had lost the first round to Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, by two points earlier in October, but came back strong for the second round, with 51.8% of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 48.2%. Lula’s surprise win comes after seven straight wins by right-wing leaders in elections in the region the last 18 months, according to The New York Times.
“I would like to thank the Brazilian people for the generosity they have shown me for a long time,” Lula said.
Not unexpectedly for the defeated son of the former right-wing leader convicted of attempting a coup in 2022, Flávio Bolsonaro has asked for the results to be annulled, after a Brazil’s judiciary ruled polls remain open Sunday for an extra two hours for an overflow of voters. Both the Bolsonaro campaign and the Lula campaign requested the voting extension, NPR’s Morning Editionreports, but the court’s ruling was directed at the Lula campaign request only.
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Trump Says Alaska Must Elect Dan S. Sullivan – In maybe the most baldfaced effort by the president to control the outcome of the November 3 midterms, Donald J. Trump confirmed Friday he directed the Justice Department to sue the state of Alaska over the US Senate race between two Dan Sullivans.
“I’m the one that said, ‘do it,’” Trump told reporters in Florida Friday (per Newsweek).
The DOJ lawsuit demands that Alaska turn over election results unless Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan wins the ranked choice election. If Democratic challenger Mary Petola beats him next week, the election results must overturn the results, according to the suit.
An independent named Dan J. Sullivan is running against Sen. Dan Sullivan and Mary Petola. The Republican Party alleges the independent Sullivan is a Democratic plant to drain votes from Republican Sullivan, a charge that independent Sullivan denies.
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Cost of Gas and Diesel – AAA reports the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular costs consumers $4.2858 Monday, 0.68-cent less than Friday and $1.31984 higher than on February 27. Diesel prices continue to rise, meanwhile, to $6.3492 Monday, up 3.2 cents over Friday and $2.6358 higher than on March 5, AAA reports. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa