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Oct 27, 2026 - World

A mystery is unfolding around a close ally of President Donald Trump who is reportedly headed to the United States after suffering a stunning election defeat in Brazil.Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who unexpectedly lost the presidential election to incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is traveling to the U.S. after failing to surrender his passports as ordered by Brazil’s Supreme Court, two sources told CNN.CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak described the development as a “strange story,” noting that Bolsonaro’s whereabouts had remained “a mystery” for several days.“He has been under investigation by the Supreme Court,” Liptak reported Tuesday. “The Supreme Court had asked him to turn in his passports by yesterday, so by Monday. He didn't do that.”Bolsonaro, who denies wrongdoing, reportedly feared arrest amid an investigation into alleged corruption, money laundering and currency evasion.Liptak raised questions about whether Trump, who has suggested Brazil’s election may have been rigged, could offer his political ally protection. “The real question now is whether Bolsonaro will be seeking some kind of asylum from the Trump administration,” Liptak said, also questioning whether the White House might have helped facilitate his departure. The reporter pointed to a striking family precedent involving Bolsonaro’s father, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who also traveled to the United States after losing an election to Lula.“Actually, while he was in the U.S., he was a guest at various points at Mar-a-Lago,” Liptak noted Tuesday.The elder Bolsonaro later returned to Brazil, where he was sentenced to 27 years in prison.“What happens next, I think, is a little unclear,” Liptak said.

Oct 27, 2026 - World

A recent “political earthquake” just shattered the hopes of those seeking to make a quiet fortune with Donald Trump’s help — and yes, they include the president’s family, political experts contend. The official ouster of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić by a group of politicized students foretells dark times ahead for developers in Trump’s orbit, Professor Vesko Garčević, a former ambassador from Montenegro in the Balkans, told Raw Story. “An autocratic leader is toppled,” Garčević, who wrote a book called Montenegro and Serbia: A Velvet Divorce?, said. “This is a blow for people who wanted to make a profit.”Vučić, the increasingly authoritarian leader of the Serbian Progressive Party, has been fighting for control of his country since 2024, when protests erupted over the deaths of 16 people in a concrete canopy collapse at the Novi Sad railway station.The government’s violent attacks on protesters only fueled the flames of resistance from Serbians who demanded accountability and an end to political corruption. Finally, on Oct. 25, The Student List, a progressive movement of academics and public figures that led the charge, won an electoral victory that saw them claim 141 of the 250 seats in the Serbian parliament. Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party won just 103. It remains unclear who will step forward to lead the party. Potential candidates include Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist; Dejan Šoškić, a former central bank governor; and Radomir Saičić, a Belgrade University chemistry professor. But Garčević, now a Boston University professor of international relations, predicts a positive shift for the people of Serbia, the Balkans, and the European Union. “The political earthquake in Serbia will reshape political dynamics among Serbs across the region,” Garčević wrote in a private social media post shared with Raw Story. “It could weaken hard-core nationalists and might create space for more moderate voices and ideas to gain ground.” In conversation with Raw Story, Garčević initially contended the election results were good news “for everyone,” then adjusted his comment to make an exclusion: Jared Kushner. Without Vučić’s support, the future looks dark for the $500 million hotel Kushner hoped to build on the site of Belgrade’s historic General Staff building, Garčević argued. Recent reporting from The Guardian revealed Vučić himself — as he appeared on podcasts with Donald Trump Jr. and made offerings of suckling pig — pressured his government in February 2024 to break the law for Ivanka’s husband and strip the General Staff building of its landmark protections. Protests erupted once again when details leaked to the public, and abuse of power charges against Serbian officials involved were brought last December. Vučić denied wrongdoing and Kushner’s company announced the project would not proceed “at this time,” according to The Guardian. Garčević said Tuesday the odds are now very slim that the Student List will ever allow Kushner's time to come. “Given what got them to power, an agenda that is very tough on murky projects like that one, it would be against their own interests,” Garčević said. “It is highly unlikely the project will be continued.”But the General Staff building does not represent the Trump family's lone investment in the Balkans by a long shot, Garčević noted.Those investments include plans to pump American fuel in pipelines that once carried Russian energy, the subject of an international scandal that contributed to former Greece Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle — and Trump Jr.’s ex-fiancée — stepping down, as recent Wall Street Journal reporting has revealed. “Using a pretext to diversify energy supply to the region, which by itself is a good [thing], this administration promotes the interests of particular people,” Garčević said. “Those are billion-dollar projects — you can imagine how much one might profit out of it.”They also include Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s plans to build luxury developments on protected grounds in Albania, where protesters in the Flamingo Revolution are now demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama resign. Now, with Vučić’s fall, Balkan power brokers will be left wondering if selling off swaths of territory to Trumps is worth the political price, according to Walter Russell Meade, the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal. “Vucic stood out in Europe for his interest in using economic incentives to build ties with the Trump inner circle,” Meade wrote. “Like [Hungary's former Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán last spring, Mr. Vucic, who conceded Sunday, learned that warm relations with Mr. Trump’s White House don’t always impress the voters at home.”Garčević told Raw Story such leaders' gambits fail for a simple reason, and noted that before the Novi Sad railway collapse riots spurred the collapse of Vučić’s government, Serbians had united in protests against lithium mining in Serbia's Jadar Valley.“For them it was their home,” Garčević said. “They didn’t want their home to get spoiled for somebody’s profit.”

Oct 27, 2026 - World

A new book on Jared Kushner’s dealings with Middle Eastern leaders alleges that the United Arab Emirates paid Donald Trump’s son-in-law millions for helping oust a secretary of state the Emiratis found troublesome.The New Republic’s Edith Olmsted reported the allegation Tuesday. It comes from author Matthew Cole’s book “Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East,” excerpts of which have already drawn fire over claims that Kushner had access to Gulf money while serving in the White House.According to the book, the UAE paid Kushner to help push out then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who, in Olmsted’s words, “had allegedly become extremely cozy with the Qataris.”Tillerson had publicly opposed the Saudi- and Emirati-led blockade of Qatar during his 2017–2018 tenure, and both Gulf nations lobbied for his removal, according to The New Republic. Trump announced his firing on Twitter in March 2018. Cole writes that Kushner had quietly pushed for Tillerson’s exit for months.“In Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Tillerson’s removal proved once again Kushner’s influence with his father-in-law,” Cole wrote.A source familiar with the arrangement told Cole that Kushner urged Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as MBZ, “to speed up their agreed-upon payment,” The New Republic reported. MBZ was then Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and is now the UAE’s president. According to the book, $50 million was routed through Azerbaijan to a Cyprus bank account for Kushner a month later.The book’s financial allegations rely on unnamed sources, and Kushner’s attorney has denied that he sought or accepted money from MBZ or held a Cyprus account. Kushner has called the book’s earlier claims “completely insane, categorically false,” and his lawyers have called an excerpt “defamatory per se.”In a 2018 interview with The New Yorker, Tillerson said he knew who was leaking damaging stories about him. Sources told the magazine he meant Kushner.Cole also writes that Tillerson’s ouster caused a panic in Qatar. In late March or early April 2018, according to the book, Qatari officials quietly told Kushner they would help him secure his struggling property at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Trump later appeared to soften his stance on Qatar, though it’s unclear what, if anything, he knew about the deal, The New Republic noted.

Oct 27, 2026 - World

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a top ally of President Donald Trump, is embroiled in an “unprecedented confrontation” with Israel’s top military commander over an undisclosed military operation that officials feared could ignite a clash with Iran just days before elections in which he trails his chief rival, Channel 12’s Yaron Avraham reported.Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir feared the political leadership could steer Israel into a “miscalculation” with Iran on the eve of Tuesday’s elections, according to the report. Zamir refused to act until there was a thorough discussion of the order and the political leadership put its legal authorization in writing. Avraham noted that his report had been cleared by Israel’s military censor.Citing sources familiar with the details, Avraham reported that Zamir stood largely alone. The heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet reportedly backed carrying out the operation before the vote.Recent polls show the party of Netanyahu’s main rival, former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, leading Netanyahu’s party.“This guy was seen as a ‘yes man’ for Netanyahu, so for him to pull the fire alarm is really something,” Breaking Points co-host Krystal Ball, a former Democratic congressional candidate, said. “Really quite extraordinary when Netanyahu is getting too wild for his own hand-picked IDF chief of staff.”Netanyahu’s office dismissed the report as “fake news,” and political figures told Channel 12 the military’s concerns were an outright lie. Defense Minister Israel Katz called reports of a rift between political and military leaders “completely baseless and false,” insisting Israel had no intention of attacking Iran before the election but would respond forcefully if Iran struck first.Still, the report has fueled scrutiny. Avigdor Liberman, a former finance and defense minister who now leads the opposition Yisrael Beytenu party, asked Israel’s attorney general to open a criminal investigation of Netanyahu for treason, accusing him of “pressuring the heads of the security establishment to take steps that could create a miscalculation vis-à-vis Iran.”

Oct 27, 2026 - World

A stunning electoral upset just lost President Donald Trump the "biggest prize" — as his allies abroad topple, a political expert told Raw Story on Monday. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's runoff victory Sunday against Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right son of a former president imprisoned for staging a coup, delivered a stinging blow to Trump's plans, Berea College Professor Carlos G. Poggio told Raw Story. "Lula’s victory represents a significant defeat for Donald Trump and [Secretary of State] Marco Rubio," Poggio, a Brazilian political scientist, said in an email. "Brazil was the biggest prize in the conservative tide sweeping Latin America." The defeats for Trump are numerous and multifaceted — they span from the U.S. to Latin America and China and hit his power, and his wallet, Poggio argued. Bolsonaro, 45, had aligned himself with Trump by pledging to mine the Amazon rainforest for critical mineral deposits, which would ease U.S. dependence on Chinese rare earth exports, limited in 2025 in response to Trump's tariffs. Trump would also have had the support of Latin America's largest economy with a GDP of $2.65 trillion, according to data collected by independent statisticians at Worldometer, and the power such money can access. "A Flávio Bolsonaro government would likely have become Trump’s most important regional ally, supporting the Trump administration’s security agenda and closer U.S. access to Brazil’s critical minerals," Poggio said. That may be why the Bolsonaro family have had help from two officials from within Trump's State department since 2025, as a Reuters report revealed earlier this month. The officials, Darren Beattie and Ricardo Pita, first tried to reinstate former President Jair Bolsonaro, ousted in 2022 and charged after attempting a coup that reportedly involved plans to assassinate Lula. Then in September 2025, when Jair Bolsonaro received a 27-year sentence for leading the coup attempt, the pair pivoted to his son, according to the report. Both men advocated for punitive measures to weaken Lula, including the designation of Brazilian gangs as terrorist groups and the imposition of sanctions against the Brazilian Supreme Court Justice who led investigations into Jair Bolsonaro, Reuters reported.Meanwhile, Flávio Bolsonaro promised to seek amnesty for his father and the rioters who supported him, as well as impeachments for the Supreme Court justices who jailed them, according to the New York Times.But Lula stood up to Trump, refusing to drop coup charges against the elder Bolsonaro. While this act of resistance garnered Lula some support, it was not strong enough to win his initial contest against Bolsonaro earlier this month. The Brazilian incumbent won only 45 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro's 47 percent, triggering a runoff as neither met the nation's 50 percent requirement for victory. Poggio believes this initial defeat worked in the favor of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT)or Workers Party, and Lula, who won on Sunday by 4 million votes."Flávio Bolsonaro’s lead encouraged some complacency among supporters who believed the election was largely won," Poggio said. "Lula’s defeat instead generated urgency: the PT reactivated its grassroots organization, while unions, social movements, artists, intellectuals and civil-society figures turned the runoff into a broader mobilization against the return of bolsonarismo."That grassroots organization moved fast to deliver what Poggio described as "a concrete economic message" from Lula.Brazilians were promised a "pacote de bondades” or “goodies package” that included a 15 percent increase in Bolsa Família, a financial aid program for Brazil's lower income citizens, as well as fuel-tax reductions, debt relief and education and transportation initiatives, Poggio said.All the while, Bolsonaro struggled to present an equally strong counterpoint, said Poggio."He promised to maintain or expand Bolsa Família and other popular programs associated with Lula, while retreating from some unpopular positions," said Poggio. "This allowed Lula to argue that voters could preserve social protections without accepting the political and institutional risks associated with the Bolsonaro family’s return."Brazilian voters were not alone last week in rejecting the risks involved with a Trump ally's leadership. In Serbia, President Aleksandar Vučić lost control of his government to a group of academics, professionals and public figures who call themselves the Student List and protested their government's increasingly authoritarian measures. And in April, Hungary's leader Viktor Orbán — an autocrat and staunch Trump supporter — was thrown from power in a popular vote.On Tuesday, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu faces the possibility of joining Bolsonaro, Vučić and Orban's ranks as he bids for reelection amid wars in Gaza and Iran that Trump is also involved in.Left-leaning leaders across the world were celebrating Lula's victory Monday.Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum called it a win for democracy and the people of Brazil. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez replied to the news, "The global progressive resurgence has just begun."Poggio concurs the Brazilian vote will serve as a vital check. "Lula’s victory interrupts that rightward momentum and preserves Brazil as a counterweight to Washington," he said, "committed to multilateralism, regional autonomy and relations with the Global South."