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Oct 3, 2026 - World

Fears mounted Saturday that the Trump administration was “gearing up for something” ahead of Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday, in which incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off against far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally to the White House.“They are absolutely gearing up for something and they won’t try to hide it because they assume nobody will do anything to stop it,” argued Vesper Jordan, an independent filmmaker and video essayist.In what some critics called an “unprecedented move,” the Trump administration suspended all U.S. consular services in Brazil on Friday, just two days before Brazil’s first-round presidential election. The U.S. State Department said the suspension was due to unspecified “security concerns,” though critics feared the move was part of an effort to “interfere in the country’s democratic elections.”Critics also expressed outrage over the apparent lack of media attention that the Trump administration’s actions in Brazil had received. Foreign affairs journalist Ishaan Tharoor argued that “the U.S. role in Brazil’s election” was “criminally under-discussed in the U.S.,” and journalist Noah Kulwin issued a similar but far more blunt assessment.“If we had a real news media instead of smug a------- who do video podcasts and video podcasts that are now broadcast on TV, this is the kind of thing that would be breaking through,” Kulwin wrote in a social media post on X.Bolsonaro is a lawyer, politician and son of Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president who’s currently serving a 27-year sentence on charges related to an attempted coup after his election loss in 2022.Last year, Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil in response to Jair Bolsonaro’s prosecution, calling it a “Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY.”“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote in a July 2025 letter to Lula. “This Trial should not be taking place.”The US role in Brazil's election is criminally under-discussed in the US, though obviously front and center of the conversation in Brazil. https://t.co/qqnagh3LX0— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) October 2, 2026

Oct 3, 2026 - World

Jared Kushner's questionable ties to a deal he helped negotiate are again in the spotlight a day after he spoke out to defend himself.On Saturday, The New York Times reported that Kushner's business partners stand to profit from a Russian oil deal he helped broker. A day earlier, Kushner took to X to blast a CNN report scrutinizing his business dealings in Israel.Talks between the Trump administration and Russia over ending the war in Ukraine have widened to include a multibillion-dollar sale of international assets owned by Lukoil, one of Russia's largest oil companies, the Times reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the deal during a September 5 Kremlin meeting with Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, according to the report.The leading group bidding for Lukoil's assets includes Trump megadonor Todd Boehly, a federal agency and two Middle Eastern investment groups with business ties to Kushner or Witkoff's family. One is a Qatar-based conglomerate run by brothers Moutaz and Ramez Al-Khayyat, who have partnered with Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, on a luxury resort in Albania.Another member of the group is a fund controlled by Emirati national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whose separate fund Lunate ranks among the biggest backers of Kushner's private equity firm.The Times found no sign that Kushner or Witkoff would personally profit. But a senior administration official confirmed both men had a direct hand in shaping the federal government's financial stake, pushing for a "substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States."Hui Chen, a former Justice Department prosecutor and ethics adviser, raised red flags about the arrangement."This is an alarming and very concerning set of entanglements," Chen told the Times. "And it means you have to question how the Trump administration is evaluating the different bidders involved here. Are the personal interests involved going to wrongly influence the outcome?"The revelations land one day after Kushner went on the offensive against CNN, which reported Thursday that his firm Affinity Partners is the top shareholder in an Israeli financial company invested in suppliers to Israel's military. CNN noted it found no evidence his diplomacy affected those holdings."For the last 10 years, I have ignored false and misleading stories about me and focused on the work," Kushner posted on X Friday. He called CNN's story "deeply misleading" and vowed to start publicly rebutting coverage he views as inaccurate.

Oct 3, 2026 - World

Western Libya’s GNU say working with Saddam Haftar ‘impossible’ as US-backed merger plan breaks downAllegations that the son of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar oversaw a “terror cell” that launched drone attacks on fuel storage facilities and power stations in western Libya have upended plans for the Tripoli-based government of national unity (GNU) to continue cooperating with Haftar on a plan to unify the country.Saddam Haftar, the deputy commander of the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), has increasingly been seen by the US as an important figure in its plans to unify Libyan security, judicial and political institutions. Continue reading...

Oct 3, 2026 - World

Pyongyang fires towards sea a day after Kim Jong-un sister denounces South Korea for claiming North’s mines wounded South’s soldiers in DMZNorth Korea fired a ballistic missile towards the sea on Saturday, South Korea and Japan said, ⁠a day ​after it rejected Seoul’s accusation of its mines wounding soldiers.The missile was launched from the Wonsan area at about 6.30am towards the East Sea – also known as the Sea of Japan – and flew more than 700km (434 miles), the South Korean military said. Seoul and Washington were analysing the test for details, it added. Continue reading...

Oct 3, 2026 - World

With 40 dead and a disaster declared across all 50 city districts, experts warn extreme flooding will only worsen across south-east AsiaBangkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that inundate the city during the rainy season. Even streets in many central high-rise districts can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches racing out of sewers and taking temporary refuge on trees and buildings as the subterranean world is flushed out.But every city has a breaking point, and this year rain fell so fast and so hard that whole neighbourhoods of the Thai capital have been transformed, not into rivers, but stagnant lakes. In parts of the city, roughly 300mm of rain – the equivalent of half a year of average rainfall in London – fell in about two days. Continue reading...