Brazil’s final polling stations closed at 7 p.m. local time Sunday, ending a two-hour Supreme Court extension and clearing the way for the vote count to resume in the presidential runoff.

The official cutoff had been set for 5 P.M. local time but the Supreme Federal Court pushed it back two hours as the original deadline arrived. Under the decision, only precincts where balloting had not ended by 5 P.M. Brasilia time could keep receiving voters.

RELATED: Brazilian Expats in Asia and Oceania Back Lula in Majority of Nations

The last polling stations in Brazil shut their doors at 7 P.M. Brasilia time on Sunday, marking the end of an extraordinary two-hour window that the Supreme Court had ordered only minutes before the original deadline.

Once the extended voting period concluded, election officials formally closed the polls and resumed the nationwide vote count.

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The Court’s notification arrived shortly after 5 P.M., when voting was already due to close. By that point, hundreds of polling stations had finished the day’s work, printed their ballot bulletins and even begun shipping equipment to the regional electoral courts.

The definitive shutdown shifted attention to the Superior Electoral Court, which prepared to restart the count. Officials had frozen it six minutes after it began, when only 0.25% of ballots had been processed.

With counting now underway once again, millions of Brazilians are awaiting the official results that will determine the country’s next President who will govern Brazil from 2027 to 2031. The outcome is expected to shape Brazil’s political direction, economic priorities, and international relations over the coming years.

For now, the process rests on the resumed tally. The coming hours will show whether the early lead holds as ballot bulletins arrive from across the South American country.

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Brazil’s electoral authority said Sunday that voting in the presidential runoff will continue only at polling places still open past 5 p.m., with ballot records, counting and results resuming after 7 p.m. under a court order.

The Brazilian Superior Electoral Court (TSE) announced the measure on its official account, describing it as a response to a ruling by Supreme Federal Court justice Cristiano Zanin.

Under the decision, only precincts where balloting had not ended by 5 P.M. Brasilia time could keep receiving voters.

RELATED: Brazil Court Extends Runoff Voting Deadline by 2 Hours Nationwide

Election officials suspended the receipt of printed ballot records, the tally of votes and the release of results, and said all three would resume after 7 P.M. local time.

Voting in Brazil closes nationwide at 5 p.m. in every election. The order by Zanin gives electoral authorities room to let voters cast ballots where local conditions kept lines moving past the cutoff.

Almost all Superior Electoral Court ministers had gathered in the office of the court’s presidency to await the end of balloting, the statement added.

Count After 7 P.M.

The electoral authorities will resume the receipt of the ballot-box bulletins (known as BUs), the totalization of votes and the release of results after 7 P.M. local time. These bulletins are the printed summaries of each electronic voting machine’s tally, and they feed the national count.

Brazil conducts its elections entirely on electronic voting machines managed by the Superior Electoral Court and the regional electoral courts. The system has drawn criticism over transparency, although no case of fraud has ever been confirmed.

The Superior Electoral Court heads the country’s Electoral Justice, which handles voter registration, biometric identification, vote collection, tabulation and the final certification of results.

Sunday’s vote settles the presidency after the October 4 first round produced no outright winner. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro led with 47.03% of valid votes, ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at 45.16%, forcing the runoff held on the last Sunday of October.

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Brazil’s two round model requires a candidate to win more than half (50+1) of valid votes in the first round. Otherwise the top two finishers meet again three weeks later. Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) is the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was barred from office and later endorsed him. Lula da Silva (Worker’s Party -PT) returned to the presidency in 2023 after courts restored his political rights.

Results are expected later Sunday night once tabulation resumes after 7 P.M. The Court has not indicated when it will publish the first partial totals, a schedule that now depends on the pace of the last polling places to close.

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court ordered polling stations to remain open nationwide until 7:00 P.M. Brasilia time on Sunday, extending the runoff vote after both candidates asked for more time.

Federal Supreme Court Minister Justice Cristiano Zanin issued the ruling, which pushed the deadline back from the original schedule set for the second round between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro. The change applied across all of Brazil.

The precautionary measure, with immediate effect, extends by two hours the closing of the polling stations, which was set for 5:00 P.M. Brasilia time., and applies to all electoral sections in Brazil. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is responsible for executing it.

RELATED: Brazilian Expats in Asia and Oceania Back Lula in Majority of Nations

“Considering the gravity of the facts presented, which reached the Supreme Federal Court at 4:32:49 P.M. today, and given the evident urgency of the measure, I order a two-hour extension, until 7:00 p.m. Brasilia time, of the closing of vote reception at all polling stations in Brazil,” Zanin detailed.

The decision came after the campaigns of Lula and Bolsonaro had requested to extend the schedule due to transportation problems in some cities and difficulties due to rains in other areas of Brazil.

The request had spanned three states, reflecting concern that severe weather could depress turnout across a wide stretch of southern and southeastern Brazil. However, Zanin’s ruling went beyond the listed municipalities, extending the schedule across the entire country rather than only in the rain-affected locations.

The extension added two hours to the voting day. Polling stations that would have closed in the late afternoon remained open into the evening, giving voters in affected regions more time to reach their designated locations.

The Supreme Court’s nationwide extension acknowledged that voters beyond those municipalities could also face obstacles reaching polling places before the original deadline. The ruling treated the request as grounds for a broader safeguard covering the whole electorate.

With the later cutoff in place, authorities reminded citizens that anyone already in line at 7:00 P.M, local time would still be allowed to cast a ballot.

Officials have described the unified national schedule as a way to reduce confusion in a country of continental scale. The legal maneuvering unfolded on a day already marked by isolated logistical incidents. The extension gave electoral authorities additional time to process voters in the states most exposed to severe weather, while keeping the process unified from north to south.

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Calm Vote, Low Irregularities

Brazil’s top electoral authority reported a generally calm second-round vote on October 25, as more than 158.7 million registered citizens chose the country’s next head of State and renewed regional executives across the nation.

The preliminary report had confirmed the preventive replacement of 900 ballot boxes that presented technical failures, a figure representing only 0.18% of the equipment installed nationwide. The electoral body also maintains more than 48,000 contingency devices ready for deployment in the event of any operational problem.

The public security balance described a day characterized by widespread calm and a low rate of irregularities at voting centers. Security forces counted 138 isolated events, including attempts to violate the secrecy of the ballot and three cases of alleged vote buying.

The second round follows the first-round vote held earlier in October. In the first round, on October 4, far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) got 47.03% of the valid vote, while President Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party-PT), received 45.16%, in a process marked by extreme polarization. Brazil’s electoral system requires a runoff when no candidate secures an outright majority in the opening round, concentrating the contest between the two leading contenders.

The court highlighted that Brazil’s electronic ballot box system marked 30 years of uninterrupted operation. Following this, the court has emphasized that the electronic voting platform delivers preliminary results within hours of polls closing, a feature officials point to as evidence of the system’s efficiency.

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The Justice Department sent threatening letters to California election officials on Friday demanding local registrars immediately sequester ballots from voters the Trump administration alleges are noncitizens.

The letters were hand-delivered to counties across the state in a move that some clerks viewed as an attempt to intimidate state election officials despite ongoing litigation.

In the letter to Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder Kristin Connelly, a copy of which was obtained by MS NOW, U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian warned Connelly that she will face prosecution if she fails to “segregate” ballots from the suspected noncitizens on the department’s list.

“It’s an unenforceable 48-hour deadline delivered late on a Friday,” Connelly told MS NOW. “There’s nothing about this that is actionable for me at this moment, because I need to follow the state and federal laws.”

The move by the Justice Department marks the latest escalation by the administration as President Donald Trump repeats false claims of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens. Voting by noncitizens is extremely rare, and data from nonpartisan organizations and state audits have shown that those isolated incidents have not changed the outcome of an election.

The Justice Department sent Connelly a list of 407 suspected noncitizens registered to vote in Contra Costa County. That number is a subset of the 20,000 alleged noncitizens the department sent to California’s secretary of state and Los Angeles County last week.

“I write to make unmistakably clear the legal implications of continuing to send vote-by- mail ballots to those people on the list or tabulating ballots cast by them until citizenship can be verified,” DOJ attorney Missakian wrote to Connelly. The DOJ told Connelly to “temporarily set aside” but “not cancel” the mail ballots until “citizenship status can be determined.”

They gave Connelly and other clerks “48 hours” to work with the DOJ and DHS “to identify who on the accompanying list is a citizen and who is not.” The counties must provide social security numbers, a copy of state IDs, a copy of voter registration applications for people on its list, the DOJ ordered in the letter.

“The legal consequences for either facilitating or ignoring federal crimes are significant,” the letter to Connelly and other clerks state.

Asked if she’d afraid of prosecution, Connelly said “no.”

“Because I’m not doing anything wrong. I protect our voter rolls, we’re very meticulous about it,” Connelly said. “We follow the law. Do I want a target on my back? No, I do not. Do I want to get prosecuted? No, I do not.”

The Justice Department directly contacted every county in California, DOJ spokesperson, Kiersten Pels, told MS NOW.

“We are asking each county election official to commit to working with us by providing the necessary information for DHS to quickly verify citizenship status,” Pels said. “With their help, we can ensure the most secure election in California history.”

The latest threats to election officials come after the Justice Department sent similar orders to LA County and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber on Oct. 13, after counties had already begun to mail ballots to voters across the state.

In a message to fellow California clerks and election officials Friday, LA County Registrar Dean Logan said the new letter from the DOJ “misrepresents the facts of their own actions” and “threatens local election officials twelve days before the election.”

“To have them threaten me with prosecution at this hour is not what’s helpful for democracy,” Connelly told MS NOW. “I want to make sure that the voters know that we have safe and secure elections.”

The escalation comes after the Justice Department sued California, asking a judge to block the state from counting roughly 20,000 ballots from people the administration claims are “likely noncitizens.” A hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled for next week, but the DOJ is asking an appeals court to make a decision this weekend.

In Los Angeles County, a preliminary sampling of the suspected noncitizen names sent by the Justice Department found that “approximately 43% had canceled voter registrations, and more than 70% had no voting history,” Logan said in a prior statement. And in a court filing, LA County said some 25.8 percent of the sampled voters listed a “place of birth in the United States, a strong indicator of citizenship status.”

Those findings fit a pattern. In Nevada, state officials reviewed suspected noncitizen lists provided by the Trump administration, only to find zero were noncitizens, according to email exchanges between state and federal officials obtained by MS NOW. And in other states, local officials have told MS NOW that the lists of alleged noncitizens are unreliable and risk disenfranchising eligible voters.

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Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla on Friday rejected a new threat from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said U.S. ships would make a “small stop” off the island on their return from Iran.

President Donald Trump has issued a new threat against Cuba as U.S. officials reportedly press ahead with military planning for the Caribbean country, an escalation that coincides with an intensified oil blockade and UN vote scheduled for October 28.

At a campaign rally in Fort Myers, the Republican President laid out his plan in vivid terms. “What we are going to do with Cuba is we are going to come back from Iran. Those beautiful ships, we will pass by Cuba, we will have one of them stop about 50 yards (45 meters) from the coast. They will raise their hands and then we will send Marco Rubio to close the deal,” he said.

RELATED: Cuba Denounces U.S. Pressure Ahead of the UN Assembly Vote On Economic Blockade

The U.S. President closed the scene with a concrete promise: “We will take care of Cuba on our return from Iran. We will make a small stop.”

Cuba answered on X. “We reject all threats related to the ambitions of United States toward Cuba,“ wrote the Caribbean nation’s FM Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla.

He added a description of the coastline that carried an unmistakable warning. “Our coastline is full of beautiful beaches, but there ara also razor-sharp limestone spikes,” he said, referring to the karst rock formations along the shore. “Inhospitable to those who arrive with hostile intentions and dreams of domination,” he warned. The jagged coastal limestone, sharp and cutting, gave the response its edge.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio used the same platform to urge those pushing for “change” on the island to engage in “discreet collaboration with the CIA.” In August, The New York Times reported that the intelligence agency had secretly set up a task force focused on Cuba.

The threat came amid a heated campaign in a state that is home to the largest Cuban community in United States. Its lawmakers and an influential segment of that community shape Washington’s decisions on Cuba.

Rodriguez Parrilla’s post also echoes another phrase from the current U.S. President. In March, speaking at the White House, Trump said he would have “the honor of taking Cuba” and that he “could do whatever he wanted with it.” He described Cuba then as a beautiful place, with “good land, landscapes, wonderful weather and great potential for tourism centers.”

On that occasion his unfamiliarity with the territory was on display. He argued that taking control would be good because the country is “not in the path of hurricanes.” “They won’t ask us for money for hurricanes every week,” he said in that time.

Passing by the island after Iran is not a new idea. In early May, while signing the Executive Order that launched an unprecedented wave of unilateral and illegal penalties against Cuba, Trump had already spoken of “taking control” once his military objectives in Iran were met. Following that, he has promised the war will end “immediately” after the November 3 elections, without explaining how.

The new threat coincides with the campaign Rubio himself is leading to sway the votes of UN member states on the resolution against the blockade against Cuba. In a recent press conference, Rodriguez Parrilla denounced the pressures and threats against governments to make them change their position.

In recent weeks the U.S. administration has seized fuel shipments bound for Cuba as part of an oil blockade. The campaign against Cuba’s international medical cooperation has intensified in parallel.

Elections Add Pressure

The escalation arrives at a difficult political moment for the U.S. President. Midterm elections take place on November 3, and the Republican Party could lose control of Congress. Trump’s approval has sagged, and a majority of voters now reject his management of the country’s main fronts, a rejection that cuts across every issue.

The domestic scenario is complicated further by the conflict with Iran. Tehran retains control of the Strait of Hormuz and has inflicted significant destruction on U.S. military bases in West Asia.

Fuel prices keep climbing in the meantime. The increase strikes U.S. households directly, and every rise deepens the damage to the President’s public standing at a moment when he can least afford it.

The pattern toward Cuba has hardened even as those pressures mount at home. The fuel seizures, the diplomatic campaign and the military planning all point in the same direction, toward an increasingly explicit posture of confrontation against the island.

With the United Nations vote set for October 28 and the U.S. midterm elections following days later on November 3, the coming weeks will reveal whether the planning described in U.S. media translates into further concrete action against Cuba, or whether it remains a lever of pressure in a campaign that already weighs heavily on the island.

A Honduras’ court issued arrest warrants with international alerts against former Congress president Luis Redondo and former state printing manager Edis Moncada over a parliamentary order for a vote-by-vote recount of the 2025 general election.

A Honduran court ordered the international capture of former National Congress president Luis Redondo and Edis Moncada, former manager of the National Graphic Arts Company, attaching international alerts to both warrants.

The measure took effect after the deadline expired for their voluntary appearance before charges filed by the Public Ministry.

RELATED: Honduras Congress Approves Funds for Maximum-Security Prison

The prosecutorial request names 14 former members of the now-defunct Permanent Commission of the legislative power. The criminal case brought by the Prosecutor’s Office contains 21 charges against the former leadership of that parliamentary body, alleging disturbance of institutional functioning, usurpation of functions and violation of officials’ duties.

14 Ex-Members Face Charges

The charges target two central decisions adopted by the legislature. One was the installation and institutionalization of the commission itself. The other was the promulgation of a sovereign decree ordering a vote-by-vote recount of the 2025 general election.

Opposition sectors describe the prosecution as part of a campaign to criminalize officials and mechanisms that flagged irregularities in those elections. The parliamentary order to audit the ballot count challenged the authority of the National Electoral Council and drew the reaction of power groups opposed to democratic control of the vote.

The activation of international alerts and the prosecution of numerous former legislative officials shows, in the view of critics, the use of the punitive apparatus to intimidate state institutions. The case sets a precedent against the power of elected representatives to safeguard the legitimacy and transparency of electoral processes, they argue.

The 2025 elections remain at the center of the dispute. The legislative power had demanded verification of the tally sheets after the vote, a step that conservative sectors rejected. The recount order sought to audit what those lawmakers considered irregularities in the results.

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Text reads: “Statement / LIBRE party: Requiring votes to be counted is not a crime! Defending democracy is not a crime! We denounce the political persecution against the deputies of LIBRE Party for demanding that the electoral count be completed and the popular will be respected. The defense of democracy cannot become a reason for persecution. Political persecution will not silence LIBRE or the Honduran people!”

Opposition Denounces Political Persecution

In September, former presidential candidate Rixi Moncada of the Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), publicly denounced what she called “systematic political persecution and the establishment of a judicial dictatorship” in Honduras.

Moncada questioned decisions by the National Congress and the judiciary that led to the abrupt dismissal of senior constitutional officials. Among those removed were the Attorney General, the President of the Supreme Court, a councilor of the National Electoral Council and a magistrate of the Electoral Justice Tribunal.

She also warned about regulations aimed at mass dismissals of public employees and an energy counter-reform designed to hand over the management of the National Electric Energy Company (ENEE, in Spanish), to banking corporations and private generators.

In her analysis, Moncada linked the parliamentary offensive to impunity rulings handed down by the courts. She highlighted the acquittal of former President Juan Orlando Hernández in the so-called Pandora Case, which investigated the diversion of 282 million lempiras (about 14,252,618 dollars) to parties of the traditional oligarchy of the country.

The international arrest warrants extend the reach of the judicial process beyond Honduran borders. The alerts would allow authorities in other countries to detain the former officials if they travel or are located abroad.

For now, the courts move forward with the charges while the opposition frames the case as retaliation against those who pushed to audit the 2025 vote. The next phase will determine whether the former officials appear before the court, are detained, or contest the prosecution as politically motivated.

Venezuela’s Acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, inspected progress Friday on a package of 17 oil agreements signed with the United States, as the state of Zulia reported record output of 115,000 barrels per day.

The inspection covered joint projects aimed at extracting crude from national reserves. Eight of the 17 agreements involve the development of so-called green fields, new areas set aside for exploration and exploitation.

“We want to show the country the progress, to make clear that we do not leave things unfinished, that we go further: to action and to production. Once again, Zulia state broke its production record, reaching 115,000 barrels per day today,” Acting President Delcy Rodriguez said.

RELATED: U.S. Removes Venezuela From List of Countries Subject to Investment Restrictions

Rodriguez added that projections call for closing December at 120,000 barrels. The Acting President framed the tour as proof that the partnership has moved beyond paperwork into concrete output.

The cooperation framework was signed in August through North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP). The 17 strategic agreements target the extraction of 65 million barrels of crude from Venezuela’s reserves.

On maritime infrastructure and logistics, Rodriguez said activity in Zulia will jump from 100 to 900 vessels, an increase of 800% in mobilized capacity. The figure signals a major expansion of port and transport operations tied to the oil sector.

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The Acting President also outlined a plan for the progressive creation of jobs driven by industrial activity. Employment will begin in the food sector, continue in ironworks and industrial areas, and later extend to public accounts with the goal of raising working-class incomes.

Rodríguez said the central objective of the alliance is to develop the hydrocarbon industry and consolidate the country’s sovereign position. She stressed that Venezuela seeks to affirm itself as the nation with the largest oil reserves on the planet and to rank among the world’s leading producers and exporters. “We want to show the country the progress of these agreements,” she said.

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Benefits For People

Acting President Delcy Rodriguez insisted that rising production must translate directly into the welfare of the population. Following this, she pointed to concrete areas where the gains should appear: “In the daily life of Venezuelan men and women: in pay for workers, in health, public hospitals, schools, food, roads, water and public services. That is where Venezuela’s development goes,” she said.

The comments link oil revenue to social spending at a time when the government has promised greater transparency over hydrocarbon and mining income. The Acting President’s emphasis on hospitals, schools and food echoes longstanding official messaging that resource wealth should fund public services.

The Zulia figures mark a significant benchmark for the country’s oil industry, which has sought to recover output after years of decline. The jump from 100 to 900 vessels suggests broader commercial activity around the crude operations, beyond the wells themselves.

Eight green-field projects form part of the package, indicating that the partnership extends into undeveloped territory rather than relying solely on existing infrastructure. Rodríguez described the agreements as a path toward consolidating Venezuela’s position in global energy markets.

The inspection tour took place as the government pushes to showcase tangible results from the August accords. The Acting President’s visit to the field operations was intended to demonstrate that the agreements are generating activity on the ground, not only on paper.

The production target of 120,000 barrels by December would extend the record reported Friday. If achieved, it would reinforce the government’s narrative of recovery built around the US partnership and the state of Zulia’s role as the engine of national output.

Rodríguez closed her remarks by linking the oil gains to broader national development, arguing that the industry’s expansion must reach Venezuelans through wages and public services rather than remaining confined to export statistics.

An 18-story building under construction collapsed Friday in Nairobi, Kenya, triggering an emergency operation as authorities feared workers and passersby were trapped beneath the rubble.

The structure gave way on Friday, October 23, near Yusuf Haji Avenue, inside the busy Eastleigh commercial district on the eastern side of the Kenyan capital. Security forces and the Kenya Red Cross deployed rescue brigades to the scene immediately.

RELATED: Kenya Confirms Second Ebola Case, Rules Out Community Spread

Two people were pulled from the wreckage and rushed to Kenyatta National Hospital for specialized care, according to the latest report from relief agencies. The Kenya Red Cross confirmed that search and rescue operations continued without interruption at the collapse site.

The humanitarian organization located 26 people who had initially been reported missing. Tracking teams deployed across the sector found them safe and sound.

Given the heavy foot traffic in the commercial area, county security forces used tear gas to disperse crowds. The measure sought to protect nearby businesses from looting and to clear access routes for emergency vehicles.

Authorities asked residents to keep the perimeter clear so Red Cross teams and partner agencies could work safely. “Kenya Red Cross teams are working with partners from various agencies to support search and rescue operations,” the organization said in a statement.

Governor Deploys Machinery

Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said relief agencies kept heavy machinery and specialized personnel on Yusuf Haji Avenue to remove debris and investigate possible failures in the construction project.

Sakaja also announced the installation of a guidance and information center at the site of the disaster. The facility aims to serve the families of workers and area residents directly, providing updated reports on the removal of materials and the status of the investigation into the responsible construction company.

The governor’s office described the operation as ongoing, with no timetable for when the rubble would be fully cleared or the cause determined.

The collapse added to concerns about construction safety standards in Nairobi, where rapid urban growth has pushed a wave of high-rise building across the city. The structure was still under construction when it fell, leaving questions about the materials, the design and the permits behind the project.

Rescue crews continued combing through the debris for any remaining victims. The Red Cross reiterated its call for the public to stay away from the area. “Clear the area to allow rescuers to work safely,” the organization urged.

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Authorities have not yet confirmed whether anyone remains unaccounted for. The two injured patients were receiving treatment while investigators began examining the site for signs of structural failure.

The Eastleigh neighborhood, known for its dense commercial activity and large Somali community, sits in the eastern part of Nairobi. The collapse disrupted business operations across the district as authorities cordoned off streets around the disaster zone.

The investigation will look at the construction firm’s permits, the quality of materials used and whether the building met the standards required for an 18-story structure. Governor Sakaja said those findings would be shared with the families awaiting answers.

Venezuela’s National Assembly installed a Judicial Nominations Committee on Friday to evaluate and select new Supreme Court justices, a step lawmakers described as central to consolidating institutional stability.

The committee was formally established on October 23, at the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas, one day after being sworn in during a legislative session.

Giuseppe Alessandrello, who presides over the body, announced that its immediate task is to draw up a work schedule under the Law of the Supreme Court of Justice.

RELATED: Venezuela’s Acting Pres. Delcy Rodríguez Meets 2015 Assembly Delegations

Alessandrello said the law opened the selection process to ordinary citizens. Writing on social media, he stated that the legislation brought people into the work of “evaluating and selecting the leadership, in this case of the Supreme Court of Justice, to seek plurality.”

Text reads: “From the Federal Legislative Palace is carried out the installation of the Judicial Applications Committee.”

The committee operates within a broader national dialogue that authorities describe as “building a new Venezuela.” Officials have repeatedly framed the judiciary as the institution responsible for guaranteeing what they call true and just peace among citizens. “The judicial branch is the institution that will guarantee peace among us,” Alessandrello said.

The work schedule will set specific periods for the call for nominations, the evaluation of candidates, and the handling of challenges and responses.

The final goal is to present a definitive list of eligible candidates to the National Assembly.

Alessandrello stressed the weight of the assigned tasks, linking them directly to institutional stability. The committee’s operational work and the eventual delivery of the list will follow the terms and periods established by current law.

The process is governed by the Organic Law of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. It covers the selection of both principal and alternate justices of the Supreme Court of Justice.

Text reads: “The President of the committee, Giuseppe Alessandrello, highlighted the group’s harmony: “Everything we produce is decided unanimously and the auspices with the work of the committee are positive.” He also emphasized the importance of plurality in this process. He stressed the key role of citizenship: “The law incorporated citizens of society in this work of evaluating and selecting directives, in this case from the Supreme Court of Justice, to seek plurality.”

Selecting Court Leadership

The mandate extends beyond the high court itself. It also includes related judicial positions, among them the directorship of the National School of Magistrates.

The committee emerged from a process announced earlier this month. The National Assembly opened the nomination period between October 2 and October 9, allowing interested citizens and institutions to take part in the selection of the court’s leadership.

Once the schedule is finalized, the committee will move through successive phases, receiving nominations, reviewing candidates, and addressing any challenges filed against applicants. Each challenge will carry its own opportunity for a formal response before the list reaches the legislature.

The final list of selected candidates will be delivered to the National Assembly for consideration. The body’s work therefore functions as a preliminary filter within a process whose ultimate decisions rest with the legislature.

A new trial in the unified Hotesur and Los Sauces money laundering cases opened Friday in Buenos Aires against Argentine former President Cristina Kirchner, her son, Deputy Máximo Kirchner, and 17 other defendants.

Federal Oral Tribunal 5 allowed the former President and the deputy to attend the opening session virtually, with the favorable vote of judges José Michilini and Fernando Machado Pelloni. The ruling sought to coordinate the deputy’s parliamentary schedule and simplify transfer logistics from the home where the former president is serving a sentence.

The remote format was granted exceptionally, only for the formal reading of the indictment and the order sending the case to trial. The tribunal said later hearings will be in person for all defendants.

RELATED: Cristina Kirchner’s Defense Seeks UN Help to Lift Public Office Ban

The case covers 19 people, including businessmen Lázaro Báez, Cristóbal López and Fabián de Sousa. Hearings are set for Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, including the January 2027 judicial recess, when the defense lawyers must attend in person every day.

With over 300 witnesses initially slated to testify, the dynamics of witness credibility and testimonies would play a crucial role in shaping the outcome, but it was reduced by agreement between the parties.

Billing Under Scrutiny

The prosecution alleges that Kirchner’s family bought hotels and apartments, rented them to businessmen, mainly Báez, and laundered illegal money from public works.

The defense’s argument about the legitimacy of the funds is crucial. The defense, led by Carlos Beraldi and Ary Llernovoy, says the properties were bought with declared funds, including assets the family owned before Néstor Kirchner became Mayor of Río Gallegos, and that rentals were invoiced, banked and at market prices. The defense says similar claims were dismissed in three illicit enrichment cases. None of these claims has been tested at trial, and the defendants are presumed innocent.

Lawyer Carlos Beraldi maintained from the start that the hotels operated, collected and paid taxes like any other business. In September 2023, Chamber I of the Federal Chamber of Cassation revoked a previous dismissal and ordered that the trial go ahead.

The merged file brings together two fronts. Hotesur concerns the family’s hotel operation, while Los Sauces covers the real estate company at the center of the billing accusation.

The Cassation court removed the two judges who had dismissed the case and left only Palliotti, the magistrate who had voted to convict Cristina and Máximo Kirchner.

The same account recalls that in November 2021 judges Adrián Grünberg and Daniel Obligado dismissed the case against all defendants, with Adriana Palliotti dissenting, relying on an accounting expert report that found no harm. In September 2023, the Cassation Chamber overturned that decision and ordered a trial.

The opening of the process was preceded by an episode described as embarrassing. The Cassation court ordered the Federal Oral Tribunal 5 to merge the Hotesur and Los Sauces cases into a single proceeding and to begin it this Friday.

It is the first time in the country’s history that the Cassation court has dictated how a trial must be conducted, a power that normally belongs to each oral tribunal. Political pressure mounted after a Supreme Court resolution, and the judges had only 72 hours to unify the files. The order left the tribunal with no margin to set its own calendar.

The core of the Los Sauces case is the billing of the family’s real estate firm. According to the accusation, 88% of everything the company collected between 2009 and 2016 came from businesses controlled by Báez and from the Indalo Group.

The Hotesur portion of the merged case has not yet been read in court. The next hearings, set for October 26 and October 30, will determine how the combined process advances.

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Text reads: “When there is political persecution, the times in the judiciary are always electoral.”

• My husband and I have different approaches to investing.
• He's risk-tolerant, and I'm a bit more risk-averse.
• Still, we've managed to talk through financial decisions and find a common ground.

The conversation started because of a windfall: it was the first month that we didn't have the preschool tuition payment because my son was starting kindergarten. "I'd love for this money not to just disappear into the monthly budget," I said to my husband.

He nodded, and immediately had a suggestion. "What if we used it to start up a brokerage account? It'd be good to have some investments that are accessible without penalty before retirement."

Our approaches to investing differ

I knew, deep down, that this was a reasonable response to my point: we both already were on board with the idea of paying ourselves first, where we commit to an amount ahead of time for savings and retirement investments and then live on whatever we earn above that. This strategy served us well, and I wasn't opposed… exactly.

"I was actually hoping to use some of it to add to our emergency fund," I told him slowly. "And maybe getting some additional solar panels I've been looking at."

We have recently lived through instability that made me really appreciate the kinds of standard comforts that are currently easily accessible. Our family experienced the impact of a major hurricane only two years ago (Hurricane Helene), and when water, electricity, and telecommunications were interrupted for days and then weeks, I realized that a relatively modest amount of money and supplies would have made weathering a period of instability easier.

This is the place where my husband and I diverge: I tend to see things somewhat pessimistically, believing there's a good chance supply chains will be interrupted more than a few times during our lifetimes due to a variety of factors.

My husband has a generally optimistic, risk-tolerant approach to life. He knows we've made a solid plan for retirement, so he sees that a brokerage account offers promising returns (not guaranteed, but based on historical data) on funds that we've worked hard to earn. I'm sometimes fearful of the possibility of losing everything in a stock market crash.

I don't think either of us is truly at odds with the other person: my husband witnessed Helene and set to work setting up a battery backup system for our solar panels, an impressive feat and investment that falls more in line with my own risk-averse nature.

And I've never squashed his goals of investing for both short and long-term stability, even if, deep down, I want all our savings in high-yield savings accounts with FDIC protection.

We've learned how to figure out what's right for us

In order to make these conversations civil and positive, we tend to follow three steps.

First, we each get to make the case for why this investment, and why right now.

I think some of the way that we both get over our anxieties about spending or saving well is that we want to be heard, so he hears me out when I want to construct an expensive greenhouse on our property to grow more food, and I hear him out when he identifies that our current ages merit a somewhat risk-tolerant strategy so that we can reap the benefits when the market jumps higher.

Frequently, this process of hearing each other out helps us find an in-between pretty organically, and finding an in-between is the second step. Sometimes, we realize that, for instance, we are too busy to take full advantage of a greenhouse right now and should table it for a year or two. However, maybe this is a good year to invest in a higher-speed home charger for our electric car. Because many of his goals are "invest as much as possible," it's usually possible to buy some portion of the physical items I want while still contributing to our investments.

When I'm advocating for a deeper emergency fund, housed in a high-yield savings account rather than a market-invested brokerage account, I typically ask that we contribute in a percentage-based way. If I ask, for instance, for a windfall to be split 30/70, he gets to invest 70% of the money toward higher yields, and I get 30% in a very secure account. It's not exactly what either of us would like, but it ultimately gives us some benefits of both risk-averse and risk-tolerant strategies.

Finally, any time we find a split that really feels aligned for us, we see if we can make it a rule for the future, the third step. No one loves having to reinvent the wheel every time new money conversations come up. When that 70/30 split worked well for us once, I've returned to it for later money decisions, and while it sometimes needs to be adapted, it lets us balance each of our needs without a long discussion. My husband, famously of few words, likes when we can keep the conversations a little shorter and get back to playing a board game or watching a silly TV show to relax.

When we hear each other out, find a useful middle ground, and operationalize the result for future use, we find ways to invest in both a more secure and a more growth-focused future, favoring methods that work well for both our risk tolerance levels.

Severe flooding caused by heavy rainfall and the rising Parana River has forced the evacuation of some 4,200 families in eastern Paraguay, with local authorities monitoring vulnerable areas to move residents into temporary shelters.

More than 1,000 severely damaged homes are concentrated in the municipality of Ciudad del Este, where the rising waters have swallowed entire parcels of land. Remansito neighborhood was hit hardest. Around 35 families who work in recycling had to abandon houses submerged under the floodwater.

The emergency extends beyond that city. In the department of Ñeembucú, severe flooding has been reported in the towns of Ayolas and Cerrito. Local authorities and rescue teams continue to watch the most exposed areas as they coordinate the transfer of affected residents to temporary shelters.

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The scale of the crisis has grown quickly. Just days earlier, official figures put the number of affected households at 3,000, a count that has now risen above 4,200 as the river keeps climbing.

Residents along the riverbank say the situation worsens considerably each time the gates of the Itaipu Binacional hydroelectric dam open. They argue that releasing the reservoir’s excess water has an immediate and direct impact on homes built along the coastal strip.

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Dam Blamed, Rain Persists

Representatives of the hydroelectric facility defended the maneuver. The gate openings, they said, respond strictly to technical safety protocols established for operational contingencies. The dam’s administration rejected the claim that these operations are the main cause of the river overflowing in the region.

The dispute places technical necessity against lived experience. For the communities watching water pour into their streets, the relationship between the releases and the flooding feels direct. For the dam operators, the gates are simply doing what they were designed to do under extreme conditions.

The national weather agency has offered little relief. Projections from the Directorate of Meteorology and Hydrology warn that rain will continue falling through the weekend across the country’s eastern zone. The agency urged the public and protection agencies to maintain precautionary measures amid the risk of new landslides.

Solidarity has also moved through the affected areas. Neighbors in working-class sectors have organized to supply community kitchens and distribute donations of basic goods. That support network has become essential for families who left their homes with little more than what they could carry.

The flooding follows a pattern familiar to the region. The Paraná River, one of South America’s largest waterways, regularly swells after sustained rains, but the current emergency has outpaced local capacity to respond.

With the forecast showing no break in the weather, the number of displaced families could continue to rise. Shelters are filling, and the most vulnerable households, including those who earn their living from recycling along the riverbank, face an uncertain wait before the waters recede enough to return.