Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, the company said on Monday, roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the tech giant seeks to cut costs while pouring money into artificial intelligence.

Staff on select teams in the United States, Canada, India and Britain at vice president level and below will be eligible, a Microsoft spokesperson said, while some groups of employees, including some working on data centres, sales and marketing, are excluded.

“The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we’re evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter,” Amy Coleman, an executive vice president and chief people officer, told employees in a memo.

It’s the second voluntary buyout offer that Microsoft has offered employees this year.

In April, the company reportedly offered around seven per cent of its US workforce the option to retire early.

Around 30pc of those eligible took the voluntary retirement plan, according to CNBC.

Microsoft had 223,000 employees globally at the end of June, down from 228,000 at the end of 2025, according to regulatory filings.

Around 27pc of Microsoft’s workforce is eligible for the new buyout offer.

The company is expected to report quarterly earnings later this week.

Tech layoffs

As major tech giants continue to spend heavily on AI-related investments, concerns persist about the impact of the technology on jobs.

Even industry insiders, such as Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei, have warned of mass job losses.

Netflix will reportedly cut around 6pc of its workforce, or 1,000 jobs, US media reported last week.

Auction site eBay laid off 1,000 employees earlier this month, adding to a previous round earlier this year which impacted 800 jobs.

In May, Meta laid off around 10pc of its global workforce, impacting around 8,000 employees.

In April, Meta also said it would cancel plans to hire an additional 6,000 people and also shift 7,000 other employees into AI workflow-related roles.

Ride-hailing giant Uber said in September that it would lay off around 10pc of its staff, impacting an estimated 3,000 or more employees.

And e-commerce giant Amazon announced 16,000 global job cuts in January.

Microsoft previously cut nearly 5,000 jobs in July that heavily targeted its Xbox gaming division.

Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta are collectively on track to pour roughly $700 billion into AI data centres, chips and computing infrastructure this year alone.

In July, Microsoft said it spent $41bn overall between April and June and expected to increase its spending to $50bn between July and September.

However, the company also adjusted its forecast for total spending in the 2026 calendar year to $175bn, down from $190bn previously.

Around two-thirds of its spending goes towards “short-lived assets,” specifically chips, due to customer demand for “both AI and non-AI infrastructure”, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood said during a call with analysts.

Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank’s Hebron city, launched after a deadly attack by Palestinian gunmen, raises serious concerns of “ethnic cleansing”, the United Nations (UN) warned Monday.

The municipality in Hebron, the Palestinian territory’s largest city, said in a statement that 3,189 people had been forced from their homes by the ongoing operation.

It followed Friday’s attack in which two Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers at a checkpoint near the city, just days before Tuesday’s Israeli elections. The gunmen were killed in a shootout.

Israeli troops entered the Hebron neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha, where the two assailants lived, and ordered residents to pack up and leave.

Israel’s “aggressive operation” has already resulted in the forcible displacement of thousands of Palestinians, “demolished homes and commercial property, and deprived residents of the ability to move freely”, UN rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement.

“The sweeping steps taken raise grave concerns of unnecessary and disproportionate use of force — which must end.”

He said the lockdown was confining many to their homes and immediate neighbourhoods.

“Declarations by senior Israeli government officials indicate that the measures implemented are punitive in nature and designed to instil fear. This is unacceptable,” said Turk.

“Those who have been displaced must be allowed to return home. Israel must ensure compensation and reparation for unlawful evictions and demolitions, and associated displacement.

“Collective punishment is a grave violation of international law. Threats to empty and erase entire neighbourhoods also raise serious concerns of ethnic cleansing.”

Speaking earlier in Cairo, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply alarmed by Israeli actions in the West Bank.

“Evictions are unrelenting, with Palestinians driven from their lands. Settler violence is surging,” he said.

“We are seeing an increasingly coercive environment, with the spectre of ethnic cleansing looming ever larger. This must end.”

Guterres said there could be no durable peace in the Middle East “without the realisation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.

Serbia’s long-running student protest movement celebrated a historic win in the country’s election, ending 14 years of rule by the country’s right-wing populist leader Aleksandar Vucic.

Born out of nearly two years of anti-corruption protests sparked by a deadly railway station canopy collapse, the Students’ List is now eyeing a majority.

Here some key points about Serbia’s student-led movement as its candidates prepare to form government.

How did Serbia’s student movement start?

On Nov 1, 2024, a concrete awning at the entrance to Novi Sad train station collapsed, killing 16 people and sparking outcry over the tragedy at the newly renovated station.

Demanding a swift investigation, peaceful protests grew over months into some of the largest demonstrations recorded since the fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.

From the start, university students led the protests, blockading faculties and organising nationwide rallies.

The movement is deliberately leaderless and built around collective decision-making.

Just over a month before the second anniversary of the disaster, Vucic announced early elections, and the students assembled an electoral list drawn largely from academia and professional circles.

They are all deliberately outside any major political party.

How did it win?

The movement built its campaign around opposing Vucic, setting aside issues that could divide its supporters.

“In order to win an election, the students needed the support of both groups of voters: those who are pro-European and those who are Eurosceptic,” political analyst Dusan Vucicevic told AFP.

Its campaign focused on corruption, the rule of law and attacks on press freedom.

Its collective decision-making, developed during the protests, continued into the campaign.

Who will lead?

The movement has repeatedly called for an end to the “cult of personality” that has dominated the country’s political system for decades.

The movement has not said who would be prime minister, leaving open who will lead the government, Vucicevic said.

Leading figures include Ilija Srdanovic, a cardiologist who headed the electoral list, and Radomir Saicic, a chemistry professor prominent in the campaign.

But Vucicevic stressed that Serbia’s prime minister does not have to be a member of parliament.

“So they have other people available whom they could bring into the government. We will have to wait and see.”

What are the key policies?

The candidates will need to adapt quickly to deliver on their broad reform platform, with the fight against corruption at its centre.

On foreign policy, the movement has offered fewer details. It previously said it would maintain Serbia’s refusal to impose sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

In a country still heavily dependent on cheap Russian gas but also supported by large European Union (EU) loans, the students will likely inherit Vucic’s political balancing act.

For now, the students’ focus will remain largely domestic, as they continue with their electoral strategy of uniting an “anti-regime electorate” and setting aside differences, Vucicevic said.

But he said the movement’s proposed reforms would likely bring Serbia closer to the EU.

“If the students do what they have announced, they will take much more significant steps towards EU membership for Serbian society than they would by simply draping themselves in European flags.”

What will happen to Vucic?

A deputy prime minister from 2012, then prime minister and finally president, Vucic is “politically dead”, according to Vucicevic.

He resigned ahead of the elections to run as prime minister, while his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won over 100 seats in the country’s parliament.

Presidential elections are due soon, but Vucic is ineligible to run, and the SNS has no obvious candidate.

The question of possible prosecutions remains and will depend on the students’ ability to restore the rule of law.

Parliament authorised Egypt’s military on Monday to provide support to help defend Saudi Arabia, parliamentarians said, and local media reported, a move that could push Cairo directly into the regional conflict that has expanded with intensified attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on the Gulf kingdom.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had asked parliament last week to approve defending its Gulf Arab ally and the world’s biggest oil exporter if Riyadh requests help against the Houthis, whose advances also threaten the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, a gateway to Egypt’s Suez Canal.

The House of Representatives “approved authorising President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to take the necessary measures to support the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, state newspaper Al-Ahram reported.

Egypt has frequently condemned Iranian attacks on Gulf countries but has not publicly engaged in direct combat or joined the Makkah mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkiye that was signed in August.

Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said this month that Egyptian membership in the pact remains “under serious consideration”.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous state with one of the region’s largest militaries, joined the Saudi-led coalition in an earlier phase of Yemen’s war in March 2015 mainly as a naval partner, sending warships to secure Red Sea shipping lanes while pledging air support. It also deployed around 800 ground troops but played only a limited combat role.

Egypt was involved in a costly military intervention in Yemen in the 1960s and has not undertaken a large-scale foreign ground deployment since the 1991 Gulf War.

Saudi Arabia is a major political and financial partner of Cairo, providing billions of dollars in aid, deposits at the central bank and energy supplies under Sisi.

Fighting between the Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Houthi militia, which controls the capital Sanaa, has escalated in recent weeks, becoming a volatile front in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Houthis have attacked Riyadh’s international airport and the state oil giant Saudi Aramco, disrupting flights and oil exports, while aid agencies have warned of worsening conditions in Yemen, already suffering one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

FM Abdelatty and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad travelled to Riyadh on Wednesday to deliver a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from Sisi, who said Egypt’s support would be limited to defending Saudi territory and borders rather than attacking Yemen.

Abdelatty said after that visit that Cairo advocates exploring “every opportunity” to resolve the Yemen conflict diplomatically.

The Saudi crown prince visited Sisi in Cairo on Sept 15 to discuss security and navigation in the Red Sea after the fighting in Yemen reignited.

Jordanian security forces on Monday arrested three suspects over an attack on a church last week that killed nine people, with the trio wounded in a dawn raid and shootout, authorities said.

The kingdom’s Public Security Directorate said the group were apprehended at an abandoned house where they had barricaded themselves inside and opened fire on security forces.

One of the suspects was taken to hospital in critical condition, while the other two were stable, Jordan’s state broadcaster Al-Mamlaka reported.

There were no casualties among security forces, it added.

On Friday, gunmen stormed the compound of the Greek Orthodox St George’s Church in the village of Hammoud in Karak governorate during a funeral procession, authorities said.

Karak is home to a significant Christian community in Muslim-majority Jordan, where Christians make up between two and three per cent of the population.

“Specialised investigation and raid teams apprehended the three terrorists responsible for the cowardly terrorist attack,” Al-Mamlaka said on X on Monday.

The Public Security Directorate said the three suspects had “refused to surrender and opened fire on the security forces”.

‘We will show them’

Jordan’s King Abdullah II said in a post on X that security forces “chased them to the very end”.

“We vowed the terrorists would not escape punishment, and no proponent of dark ideologies that divide Jordanians will be tolerated,” he wrote.

Earlier, the king visited the injured victims of the church attack in hospital, dressed in military fatigues and carrying a pistol on his hip.

“We will show them,” he vowed.

Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told Al-Mamlaka on Monday that the attackers were all Jordanians and “had been holed up in a building in one of the villages near the site of the attack”.

“There is no indication of any external contacts or collaboration with foreign parties,” he said.

Government communications minister Mohammad al-Momani said “we stand ready and will strike with an iron fist, without mercy or leniency, against anyone who attempts to undermine Jordan’s security”.

Under Jordanian law, murder is punishable by death by hanging.

On Friday, Prime Minister Jafar Hassan ordered a three-day period of national mourning for the victims of the church attack, with flags to be flown at half-mast over government and public institutions.

Eight of the nine victims were laid to rest on Sunday next to the church in a funeral that drew a huge crowd amid a large security presence, AFP images showed.

The ninth person, Mohammed al-Qasous, will be buried on Monday, his family said.

On Saturday, officials at the church were digging a mass grave that was set to become a memorial.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will have to wrestle with a divided Brazil, an unfriendly Congress, feeble public finances and a Donald Trump-shaped menace during his unprecedented fourth term.

Days before his 81st birthday, the former union leader won Sunday’s runoff with 51.7 per cent of the vote over 48.2pc for his right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro.

The narrow result confirms the political divide that has split Brazil for a decade and shows that Bolsonarism remains strong, despite its far-right leader’s 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup.

Here are the main challenges awaiting Lula in his next mandate.

Governability

As in his current term, Lula will not have a majority in Congress.

Legislative elections earlier this month bolstered the right, making Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party the leading force with 121 out of 513 deputies and 28 out of 81 senators.

To get his proposals through, Lula will depend heavily on the so-called “Centrao,” a bloc of centre-right parties that usually backs whoever is in power in exchange for benefits.

But negotiating with them is becoming increasingly difficult, according to political scientist Mayra Goulart of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Lawmakers now decide the fate of an ever larger share of the federal budget, she told AFP, giving them “more independence from the executive.”

Money

Economically, “Brazil’s three big problems are the fiscal problem, the fiscal problem, and the fiscal problem,” economist Mauro Rochlin of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) told AFP.

The state spends more than it collects, public debt exceeds 80 percent of GDP, and Brazil’s central bank maintains one of the world’s highest interest rates to contain inflation.

The situation “could very quickly turn into an economic crisis,” said Rochlin.

Adjustment is inevitable but difficult since it involves “unpopular measures” and confronting “very powerful lobbies within Congress,” he said.

The challenge is likely going to clash with Lula’s flagship welfare programs, which have lifted millions out of poverty, and which he expanded during the campaign to win voters —drawing fierce criticism from the opposition.

Insecurity

The election campaign was dominated by security concerns, with violence a huge worry for many Brazilians.

Accused by the opposition of having a soft touch, Lula will be under pressure to show results, particularly by tackling criminal groups and militias that control territory in several cities.

On the campaign trail, he said he would support lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 for heinous crimes, while the political right wants to reduce it to 14 years.

Trump

Lula campaigned on a pledge to protect Brazilian sovereignty as concerns grow about the broadening interventions of the United States across Latin America.

Trump slapped tariffs on Brazil last year in retaliation for legal proceedings against his ally Jair Bolsonaro, followed by another 25pc tariff on some products this year.

Brazil’s president will have to manage relations with Washington without relaxing his anti-imperialist tone, all while the Trump administration increasingly asserts itself in the region.

Right-wing leaders across Latin America have meanwhile aligned with Trump in a trend dubbed the “Orange Wave,” in reference to the US leader’s complexion.

Although ideology “matters for symbolic encounters,” it is “not that relevant” in practice, according to Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at the FGV.

He points to Brazil-Argentina relations as an example.

“Deep down, the substance of the relationship hasn’t changed that much” despite Argentine leader Javier Milei’s insults toward Lula, Stuenkel told AFP.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday called for “regional unity” at a meeting in Tehran with representatives of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, which recently signed the Makkah defence pact.

“I hope that the presence of representatives of important and influential Islamic countries at this meeting will help further consolidate regional unity and cohesion,” Pezeshkian said, according to a statement shared on the presidential website, urging Islamic countries to “stand together and adopt a coordinated position”.

“Muslims are brothers to one another and must stand together as a united front against threats and actions targeting Muslim nations,” he stressed.

Condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza and other regional countries, he said: “We must not allow the Israeli regime to assassinate and aggress against any individual or country whenever it desires. I am confident that if Islamic countries stand alongside each other and adopt a coordinated stance, the possibility of such actions repeating will not exist.”

The Iranian president also criticised the United States for claiming “readiness for negotiation and dialogue simultaneously with attacking Iran” during the war.

Pezeshkian stressed the need for translating political understandings into practical actions, stating: “We are determined to tread this path, but achieving this goal requires Islamic countries to reach a common understanding of their objectives, draw a clear vision, and pursue the implementation of agreements with mutual commitment until results are achieved.”

He cautioned against policies of the United States and Israel that were aimed at “creating a rift among Muslim nations”, and called for heightened vigilance.

The Iranian president also called for increased cooperation among regional countries in various fields.

Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster earlier shared a video of the meeting, saying the quadrilateral meeting on “regional security and stability” had begun. The video showed Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi sitting with Iran’s president, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and security chief Mohsen Rezaei.

Earlier in the day, Inter-Services Public Relations had confirmed that CDF Munir was visiting Tehran, but did not share any further details.

The talks also included Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Turkiye’s intelligence chief, Ibrahim Kalin.

At the start of the meeting, Iran’s state broadcaster reported the meeting was bringing together Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye to discuss “regional cooperation, the US-Israeli aggression against Iran and its consequences”, among other topics.

State-run PressTV also shared pictures of the meeting.

Following the meeting, Rezaei, head of Supreme National Security Council, told state television, “Very good discussions took place between us.”

“I feel that a new atmosphere is emerging in the region … I sensed a very positive atmosphere in the discussions among the gentlemen.”

Iranian state television reported that the four countries agreed to continue talks after a “first” meeting in Tehran. It said they “agreed to continue discussions to strengthen cooperation… including on regional peace and security”.

‘Endogenous security’

Earlier, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted the deputy secretary of Iran’s top security body, Ali Bagheri Kani, as saying that the visit was part of efforts to implement the idea of endogenous security in West Asia.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baqaei, said during a media briefing that the meeting with officials from the three countries would cover “most pressing issues threatening our region”, which included Israel’s expansionist policies, developments in Palestine and Lebanon.

He added that the topic of “top priority on the agenda would be consequences of the US-Israeli aggression against Iran and its ramifications for the entire region”.

IRNA further quoted him as saying that this meeting could be a prelude to further steps towards shaping “endogenous security — an issue that we have been insisting on for decades”.

“We emphasise that regional security will not be ensured except by relying on the … security considerations of the countries of the region,” he said, adding that events of the last two years, especially the past eight months, had shown that sustainable and reliable security would only be made possible by “building trust and cooperation among the countries in the region”.

Saudi Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly had also confirmed the visit in a post on X. Krimly described the visit as “part of the continued efforts by the Makkah Defence Alliance members for de-escalation between parties involved in the ongoing crisis, and promoting dialogue and diplomatic solutions, in support of the mediation efforts carried out by Qatar and Pakistan”.

“The visit underscores the pivotal role of Makkah Defence Alliance members in reinforcing regional security and stability, and working with all countries in the region to achieve that goal,” he added.

The visit comes as attacks by Houthis have spiralled over recent weeks and rhetoric between Washington and Tehran has grown more heated.

Monday’s planned talks would be the first high-level contact between Iran and all members of the Makkah Defence Alliance since Saudi Arabia was drawn deeper into the conflict. Under the Makkah pact, signed in August, an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

CDF Munir had visited Iran last week. During the visit, Iranian leaders had conveyed that the US must take the first steps to rebuild trust, and that the acceptance of Tehran’s seven-point proposal could provide a starting point for renewed negotiations.

According to Iran’s ISNA news agency, Baqaei said during the media briefing that the suggestion for the meeting was made during CDF Munir’s visit to Tehran last week. Tehran reviewed the proposal “favourably … and it is scheduled to be held today”, he added.

War has engulfed the Middle East since late February when the US and Israel launched a wave of surprise attacks on Iran, just as Washington and Tehran were in the middle of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.

An April ceasefire brought an end to the initial phase of intense bombardment but the two sides have continued to vie for control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas used to travel.

Iran claims control over the strait and regularly targets vessels that attempt to cross without its authorisation, while the United States has imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis remain stalled, especially since the collapse of a June deal which laid out a pathway to a permanent settlement.

The war has since spread across the region to include fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday denied reports of a clash with Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir over a proposed military operation that could trigger fighting with Iran ahead of Israel’s election.

Channel 12 reported on Sunday that Zamir requested a detailed discussion and signed legal authorisation from political leaders before carrying out their instructions. The broadcaster did not disclose the nature of the operation.

The report cited military concerns that the political leadership could exploit tensions with Iran for electoral gain before the Oct 27 parliamentary vote.

A security official warned that the operation could rapidly escalate into a confrontation with Iran and lead to a miscalculation at a particularly sensitive time.

Netanyahu denied any dispute with Zamir during an interview with Israel’s Channel 14 later on Sunday.

“There is no confrontation,” he said.

Political officials also rejected the claim that the Iranian issue was being used for electoral purposes, according to Channel 12.

In the same interview, Netanyahu said he had instructed the Mossad intelligence agency and the military to work toward toppling Iran’s government.

Channel 12 did not establish whether the undisclosed operation was connected to those instructions.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that reports of a rift between Israel’s army and its civilian leaders over fresh action in the war with Iran were “entirely baseless”.

“The reports about gaps between the political echelon and the IDF (army) on the Iran issue are entirely baseless and false,” Katz said on X, insisting there was “complete” coordination between the two.

Katz stated “unequivocally that there was no intention on Israel’s part to initiate an attack on Iran before the elections”.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid referenced the report in a post on X on Sunday, accusing Netanyahu of seeking to put off the vote.

“Tonight it was published that he wants to set off an escalation and a confrontation with Iran, just to postpone the elections,” he said.

“This man has lost his grip. We absolutely must send him home.”

Netanyahu also claimed Iran had resumed its nuclear programme and portrayed the election as a matter of Israel’s survival.

On Sunday, he posted an AI-generated image of a nuclear explosion over Tel Aviv alongside a warning about Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Opposition party leaders Gadi Eisenkot and Yair Golan accused him of spreading fear and panic before the vote.

Brazil’s leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pulled off a dramatic comeback on Sunday as he clinched a re-election victory, but his rival Flavio Bolsonaro refused to accept the loss and said he would seek to annul the vote.

With Lula’s victory, Brazil staved off a conservative wave that has seen numerous countries — such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru — all shift right, backed by US President Donald Trump.

The leftist icon, who turns 81 on Tuesday, defied projections to win an unprecedented fourth term.

According to official results, he won 51.8 per cent of the votes to 48.2pc for Flavio Bolsonaro, with Lula pulling around 4.4 million more votes.

The senator is the son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year jail term for attempting a coup after his loss to Lula in the country’s last election in 2022.

Sunday’s vote was marked by confusion after a Supreme Court ruling extended voting by two hours as some polling stations had already closed.

The move came at the request of Lula who complained that buses had been pulled from circulation in various cities, barring citizens from voting.

Flavio Bolsonaro also requested an extension in some regions due to heavy rains, but he described the decision as “unacceptable” and a “dirty trick”.

“It is impossible to recognise the results. I am going to request the annulment of these elections,” he said, stone-faced, in a brief speech in Brasilia.

No candidate who lost the first round has gone on to win the second in Brazil since 1989, the first direct election after the end of the country’s military dictatorship.

“People went to vote because we managed to convince them that voting was very important for ensuring democracy in the country,” Lula said in his first comments after the win.

Fireworks and vuvuzelas rang out in Rio de Janeiro, while thousands of people dressed in red, the color of Lula’s Workers’ Party, streamed into the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate.

Lula’s fight back

After the first-round defeat, the left swung into action with massive rallies, declaring “Never Again Bolsonaro” and revamped their social media strategy.

The abstention rate decreased from the first round, falling from 21pc to 19pc.

Julio Canelo, 42, a lawyer celebrating in Rio de Janeiro hailed a victory for “the entire democratic spectrum.”

“It was the result of the people mobilising, in the streets and online,” he told AFP.

A fierce social media battle drew in Meta, parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, which Lula’s campaign accused of favouring his opponent with “algorithmic manipulation”.

Meta denied this but acknowledged that some of Lula’s campaign ads had been mistakenly deactivated due to technical errors.

“We are going to have to regulate them,” Lula said of social media companies after his win.

A bitter campaign marred by scandals and mudslinging laid bare the deep divisions that have plagued Brazil over the past decade.

A country split in two

Lula heads into a fourth term with almost half of the nation having rejected him, desperate for change.

He rose from poverty to become president in 2003 and was re-elected in 2006.

Lula made a dramatic return to office in 2022 elections after a corruption scandal saw him jailed for over 18 months.

The charges were annulled on procedural grounds.

In his third term, Lula oversaw a drop in inflation and unemployment, and lifted millions out of hunger, but many voters felt gloomy about the high cost of living and crime.

Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, pitched himself as more moderate and jovial than his father and managed to galvanise conservatives as well as less ideological voters wanting something new.

“We’re in a deep hole, things are dire. People can barely afford to eat — buying meat is out of the question,” said Tereza Cristina Ramos, a 68-year-old retiree, who voted in Rio de Janeiro.

Already one of the world’s oldest leaders, Lula will be 85 by the end of his new term in 2030.

He is also facing a hostile Congress dominated by the right.

Lula’s campaign leaned heavily on the theme of sovereignty in the face of commercial and diplomatic pressure from Trump’s United States.

“This country will not accept being anyone’s backyard,” he said on Sunday.

Lula received congratulations from Chile’s far-right president, Jose Antonio Kast, and Ecuador’s right-wing Daniel Noboa — both close Trump allies.

President Asif Ali Zardari also congratulated Lula on his “historic re-election”.

He “expressed confidence that the longstanding friendly relations between Pakistan and Brazil would continue to grow, with enhanced cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture and multilateral forums for the mutual benefit of both countries and their peoples”, a statement issued by the Presidency said.

Brazil held its breath on Sunday as voters went to the polls to decide between leftist leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva or his right-wing challenger Flavio Bolsonaro.

It is the final electoral battle for Lula, who turns 81 on Tuesday and is hoping to pull off a dramatic turnaround after coming in second to the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro in the first round of voting.

Final polls showed the two candidates neck-and-neck.

Sunday’s runoff will determine whether Brazil remains one of Latin America’s few leftist nations or joins a regional swing to the right championed by US President Donald Trump, an ally of the Bolsonaro family, though he has not openly endorsed Flavio.

Lula, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, has pitched himself as a bulwark against US interference and democratic backsliding and promised to expand social protections.

The right “wants to govern with the American flag”, he said after casting his ballot in the state of Sao Paulo.

Flavio Bolsonaro, 45, has vowed to crack down on crime and slash government spending, while handing Brazil to “the Lord Jesus Christ”.

“The time has come for real change,” he declared after voting in Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil can’t stand another four years like this.”

“This is about renewal, enough of the same old thing,” 67-year-old retiree Eduardo Viana told AFP, adding that Lula “says he governs for the poor… just look, people can’t even go to the supermarket.”

Bolsonaro presents himself as more moderate than his firebrand father, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after his 2022 election loss.

After its first-round defeat, the left swung into action with massive rallies declaring “Never Again Bolsonaro”, where protesters recalled the former president’s chaotic handling of the Covid pandemic, devastation of the Amazon rainforest and cuts to public programs.

Deforestation of the world’s largest rainforest has hit its lowest level in four decades under Lula.

Yet, as the El Nino weather phenomenon fueled fires that choked Amazonian cities with smoke in recent weeks, climate change barely featured in the campaign.

Rain bucketed down across Brazil on Sunday, which may affect voter turnout following a record abstention rate during the first round earlier this month.

Polling stations will close at 5pm local time (1am PKT), and results are expected within hours.

Fed up with crime

Lula, revered for social welfare programs that lifted millions out of poverty, made a dramatic comeback to office in 2022 elections after a corruption scandal saw him jailed for over 18 months.

The charges, annulled on procedural grounds, have continued to haunt him.

In his third term he has overseen a drop in inflation and unemployment, and lifted millions out of hunger, but voters complain about the cost of living and a sense of insecurity.

Lula’s social policies became a point of tension as he expanded welfare programmes during the campaign. Critics want the government to rein in spending.

“Even if people call it handouts, for us, they were an enormous help.

Because anyone who has ever gone hungry knows not to take these programs for granted,” said Walter dos Santos, 56, who lives in Lula’s native northeastern Brazil, a bastion of support for the president.

The day after

After his first-round blow, Lula revamped his social media strategy and even bought his first cellphone.

A fierce social media battle drew in Meta, parent company of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, which Lula’s campaign accused of favoring his opponent with “algorithmic manipulation”. Meta denied this but acknowledged that some of Lula’s campaign ads had been mistakenly deactivated due to technical errors.

Whoever wins, Brazil faces a bruising election aftermath.

“If the left wins, it faces four years with a hostile Congress and threats of impeachment,” said political analyst Thomas Traumann, referring to sweeping right-wing legislative gains.

“If the far right wins, it will be a government of retribution, directed at the Supreme Court,” hated by the right after its conviction of Jair Bolsonaro over the attempted coup.

Flavio Bolsonaro has said he will liberate his father and seek the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who led the case against the ex-leader.

An Israeli strike on a university in Gaza City killed three people on Sunday, staff and a local hospital said, while the civil defence agency reported four others killed elsewhere in the territory.

Reached for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

Al Shifa Hospital said it received three bodies and treated eight people who were wounded in the Gaza City drone strike, with two sources at the Islamic University saying those killed were administrative staff and the injured were students.

Gaza’s education ministry said in a statement that the students had been present for classes.

It went on to condemn the strike and said: “The global silence regarding attacks on students and universities serves as encouragement for the continuation of these crimes.”

“This strike occurs at a time when the higher education sector is facing total annihilation, with 95 per cent of the buildings belonging to academic institutions having been damaged as a result of the war,” it continued.

“This heinous assault is part of a continuous series of attacks on education; over the past six days, 10 students and educators have been killed by the occupation’s fire.”

Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said four other people were killed on Sunday, two in an airstrike in the southern city of Khan Younis, one in central Deir al Balah and one in the north of the Strip.

Earlier this week, Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least four people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

A truce has been in effect in Gaza for over a year, but has failed to completely halt Israeli attacks in the territory. At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes since the ceasefire, according to the territory’s health officials, while Israel says four soldiers have been killed.

Palestinian authorities say more than 74,000 people have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Flights resumed at Riyadh’s international airport on Sunday following a series of deadly attacks on the facility that saw it closed for two weeks, even as Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeted the country with strikes.

King Khalid International Airport’s website showed several domestic and international flights scheduled on Sunday, including arrivals to the kingdom from Dubai, Paris and Cairo.

The renewed operations at the airport came as explosions rattled Riyadh early Sunday, after a text message was sent to residents warning of a hostile threat targeting the city.

Alerts warning of possible attacks were activated across the kingdom’s south throughout the day, with the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis saying at least 10 ballistic missiles were intercepted.

Saudi officials did not provide additional information when asked by AFP about the scope of the renewed operations at the airport.

But the tracking website Flightradar24 showed a small number of flights had departed, though the vast majority were cancelled.

Saudi Arabia, which leads a military coalition fighting the Houthis, has faced a barrage of strikes from the group in recent weeks.

The fighting erupted after a years-long truce between the Houthis and Yemen’s government fell apart.

The Houthi fighters have carried out waves of strikes on the airport, including an attack this month that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.

The group has also targeted oil infrastructure and other sites.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree earlier warned that Riyadh airport was still “unsafe” and a “military target”.

“The Yemeni Armed Forces warn all international, regional and local airlines — as well as staff and travellers — against using King Khalid Airport in Riyadh, as it is unsafe and serves as a military target for our forces,” he said.

“The Saudi regime shall bear the consequences of any operations at the airport.”

Later on Sunday, Saree said Saudi Arabia had struck Yemen dozens of times over the previous 24 hours.

“During the past 24 hours, Saudi warplanes launched 56 airstrikes and missiles targeting civilian objects in the governorates of Hajjah, Lahj, Amran, Saada, Al-Jawf, Taiz and Ibb using F-15 and “Typhoon” planes that took off from the bases of Khamis Mushait and Taif, and missiles from Najran,” he said on X.

Attack warning

As the airport prepared to open, AFP journalists in Riyadh heard three explosions in the early hours of Sunday, with residents receiving alert messages for a “hostile aerial threat” urging them to stay in a safe place.

The warning came as the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said it had downed a ballistic missile launched by the group towards the capital, as well as two drones in the capital area.

“Air defences intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia toward Riyadh,” the coalition posted on X.

Later on Sunday morning, the coalition said its forces intercepted a cruise missile fired by the Houthis at the kingdom’s southern city of Khamis Mushait.

Attacks appeared to target areas across the south, with warnings also issued for Abha city along with areas in Taif, Namas and Jazan.

“The bombardment has been very heavy since this morning — may God keep us safe. Everything is shaking because of the explosions,” one resident in Khamis Mushait told AFP on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

The attacks came after the Houthi fighters said that — in the space of 24 hours — they targeted three Saudi airports, including in Riyadh, energy installations, a pipeline and an air base.

The Saudi civil defence agency said it had also responded to falling debris in the Makkah and Madina regions on Saturday after intercepting two Houthi missiles.

The Houthis denied targeting the cities, the two holiest in Islam, calling the Saudi claim a “huge lie”.

The Houthis also fired at the southern Yemeni city of Aden, the interim seat of the government, saying they targeted a naval base and military camp overseen by Saudi forces.

The flare-up in Yemen, with the Houthis taking control of the entire Red Sea coast in a lightning offensive last month, has further destabilised the region and disrupted oil markets.

The Houthi attacks have impacted Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of crude, disrupting businesses, airlines and residents.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Sunday that a potential resumption of war with Israel and the United States would not change his country’s positions.

The remarks come amid mounting US and Israeli threats of renewed attacks on Iran, as President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “may do another little Epic Fury,” referring to the US-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28.

“Recently, there has been talk of a new war, but I am already thinking about the post-war period. Whether there is war or not, our policies remain the same,” said Araghchi during a televised event in Tehran.

“They have already done so twice and have seen the results. If they want to try again, they know they will achieve no different outcome from those of the past.”

An April 8 ceasefire between Iran and the United States put an end to the most intense fighting, apart from sporadic exchanges of fire in and around the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global energy supplies.

These military flare-ups have lulled in recent weeks.

Iran has claimed control over the strait since the outbreak of the war and has regularly targeted vessels that attempt crossing without its authorisation — moves strongly opposed by Washington and countries in the region.

In response, the US has been maintaining a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.

In June, Iran agreed with the United States to the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, laying out a pathway to a permanent settlement of the conflict, only for the deal to later unravel as each side accused the other of violating it.

Tehran has since called for a return to the accord to end the conflict.

“The current war has changed everything. We must accept that new realities are taking hold. Shipping routes through the Strait of Hormuz will no longer be the same, and the management of the strait will no longer be the same,” said Araghchi.

“To achieve peace and stability, our region must move towards the complete absence of foreign forces.”

Indian protesters angry over a proposed Himalayan mega-dam, intended to counter an upstream Chinese hydropower project, have clashed with police and torched buildings, officials said.

The violence in Arunachal Pradesh state erupted late on Friday during protests against the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project of state-run hydropower company NHPC, Chief Minister Pema Khandu told reporters on Saturday.

“The mob destroyed a lot of properties, police station, the NHPC office was vandalised, several elected representatives’ homes were ransacked,” Khandu told reporters.

Around 40 police personnel were injured by stones thrown by protesters, who also vandalised the NHPC’s offices. Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.

Khandu urged opponents of the project to engage with the government.

“Question us, have dialogue with us, instead of violence,” Khandu said.

India says the proposed dam is needed to counter China’s $167-billion Yaxia project, a likely record-breaking hydropower scheme upstream in Tibet.

New Delhi fears the Chinese project could affect water flows downstream, and says the proposed Indian dam would create a vast reservoir to store water and help maintain flows into the Brahmaputra river.

Beijing has said its project will have no “negative impact” downstream.

China says Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls Zangnan, is a part of South Tibet — a claim India has repeatedly dismissed.

India’s proposed dam, which would be by far its largest hydropower project, has drawn fierce opposition from local communities who fear the loss of their homes and land.

The project underscores tensions between the two most populous countries, which share a disputed Himalayan border patrolled by tens of thousands of troops.

India’s foreign ministry said on Friday the two sides remained in regular contact to manage border tensions, after a top Indian border police official Shatrujeet Kapur reported “face offs” between Indian and Chinese forces.

US President Donald Trump hit back at his Democrat predecessor, Barack Obama, on Sunday, calling him “incompetent” after the former president delivered scathing criticisms of the current leader at rallies in Ohio and Michigan ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.

“Obama was a grossly incompetent President! He paid off Iran with $Billions, and gave them a road to a Nuclear Weapon. He said that Crooked Hillary Clinton was going to WIN, he campaigned hard for her, and she lost in all directions and ways. He then campaigned full out for Kamala, and likewise, she lost,” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The US president also slammed Obama for supporting US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed — whom Republican candidate Mike Rogers and allies including Trump are trying to tie to the Muslim Brotherhood and are falsely branding a “jihadist.”

Trump called El-Sayed a “Fake Doctor, who runs what is considered to be the WORST CLINIC IN AMERICA”.

“I won Michigan, BIG, have brought back the Car Industry, the Air Force Base, and everything else. Also, more jobs than ever before,” he claimed, adding: “Michigan doesn’t want an arrogant, Open Borders, Fake Doctor, Jihadist, whose reputation will only get worse as more information is revealed — And there’s plenty. VOTE FOR MIKE ROGERS! He will never let you down!”

Trump has been telling voters to view the midterm elections as if he were on the ballot, and on Saturday, Obama did just that.

Ten days out from the elections that will determine control of the closely divided Congress, Barack Obama took to the campaign trail to accuse the Republican president of corruption, deride his strategy for Iran and skewer the gilded aesthetic he has applied to White House renovations.

Obama stumped for Democratic candidates at rallies in Cleveland and Detroit, lampooning the Trump administration. Campaigning in Michigan for El-Sayed, Obama framed the November 3 vote as a “circuit breaker” to “at least rein in some of the foolishness” of Trump’s presidency.

“We got to flip that circuit breaker, bring some accountability to this government,” Obama said.

Obama, president from 2009 until Trump began his first term in 2017, remains one of the most popular figures among Democrats. They hope that bringing him into the race can fire up their supporters for a tight US Senate race in which El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former US representative.

The former president obliged the Michigan crowd by playing to Democrats’ frequently repeated criticisms of Trump and of Republicans’ willingness to go along with him.

“We have never seen a president excel in straight-up grifting, on your dime, like this,” Obama said. “Never seen a president so intent on selling favours like this … Now the party seems to stand for corrupt government, or inept government, or no government.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll in August found that 63 per cent of Americans think the president and his family have inappropriately profited from cryptocurrency since he returned to the White House last year and that 69pc believe his policy decisions are influenced by his private business dealings.

Obama also ridiculed the administration’s claims of victory against Iran. He argued that the war has given Iran more economic leverage because its threats to attack shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have unsettled oil exporters.

“Iran now has veto power over the Strait of Hormuz, where oil goes through to get to the world,” Obama said.

The former president also accused the Trump administration of emphasising unimportant matters, sarcastically calling Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth someone “laser-focused on important matters like the jawline and testosterone levels of our troops” and ridiculing White House renovations as tacky.

“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” Obama said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un returned home on Saturday after a day-long trip to the Chinese border city of Dandong, Beijing’s state media reported, though the purpose of the unannounced visit was not immediately clear.

Kim is thought to have crossed into China via a major border bridge that officially opened last week — 12 years after its completion — deepening economic ties between China and diplomatically isolated North Korea.

Neither North Korea nor China disclosed Kim’s visit in advance. South Korean lawmaker Youn Kun-young said Kim was “understood” to have met Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Saturday.

A readout from China’s Xinhua news agency did not mention talks between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping or Li. Instead, it said Wang Huning, Beijing’s top political adviser, accompanied Kim in Dandong and “saw him off” at the bridge at the end of the trip.

The aims and outcomes of Kim’s visit were murky, but China is North Korea’s largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for Pyongyang.

Xinhua quoted Wang as saying the visit was significant for “consolidating public goodwill towards the friendship (and) deepening political mutual trust and jointly pursuing cooperation and development”.

Wang conveyed Xi’s “cordial greetings and best wishes” to the North Korean leader.

The trip fell near the date both countries use to mark the entry of Chinese troops into the Korean War. Kim attended a memorial ceremony to fallen soldiers and visited an automobile factory, Xinhua said.

China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, also participated in the events, it added.

Youn, the South Korean lawmaker, said he had been briefed on Friday that a visit was likely.

In Dandong late on Saturday, the bridge stood empty and the surrounding neighbourhood was quiet.

Resident Zhao told AFP it was “quite good” that Kim visited, saying he feels that a closer relationship between the two countries could ultimately benefit his city.

“When the two countries engage with each other, it will naturally benefit border cities in China economically,” the 50-year-old driver said.

“We have high hopes for that. May our friendship last forever.”

Bridging a divide

The New Yalu River Bridge was completed in 2014, but its opening was delayed due to a lack of connecting roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side, according to South Korean news reports.

Its opening came just over a month after North Korea and Russia opened their first road bridge.

Kim may have sought to “press China to move more quickly” on commitments agreed during Xi’s visit to North Korea this year, Yang Moo-jin, former president of the South’s University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

“He may also have sought Beijing’s active support and cooperation ahead of a possible summit with [US President Donald] Trump in Shenzhen.”

Hours before South Korea’s Yonhap news agency first reported Saturday’s visit, North Korean state media said Kim had urged his military at a major meeting in Pyongyang to train to become the strongest in the world.

Kim’s call for what he dubbed a “Korean-style military revolution” came soon after Seoul’s military proposed talks to clarify the shared border with the North, following an explosion inside the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone.

Seoul’s military proposed the talks on Friday after it blamed the blast, which injured South Korean soldiers and severely strained bilateral relations, on North Korean landmines. Pyongyang strongly rejects the claim.

North Korea has not responded to the proposal and previously rejected the South’s demand for an apology over the explosion.

The countries remain technically at war as their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Implicit acceptance

Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law, with its regime routinely declaring its atomic arsenal permanent and irreversible.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung — who has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks without preconditions — suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of North Korea’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Critics say such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal.

Analysts say China has also appeared to move towards implicit acceptance.

Kim hosted Xi in Pyongyang in June, soon after Xi held back-to-back summits in Beijing with Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Neither Pyongyang nor Beijing mentioned North Korean denuclearisation in their official statements after the June meeting — an omission experts saw as a sign of China’s tacit consent.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has said he has the backing of the “vast, vast majority” of member associations in his bid for re-election despite criticism of his aborted World Cup sell-off plan.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) rallied behind Infantino on Friday in a significant boost to the 56-year-old’s hopes of winning a fourth term in charge.

Infantino’s future in the role was in doubt two months ago when he faced a furious backlash to his plan to sell off a portion of the commercial rights of competitions run by football’s world governing body to private investors.

The heads of European football’s governing body UEFA, the AFC and CONCACAF, which runs the game in North and Central America, signed a letter saying football “belongs to no individual”.

But Infantino, who apologised last week for the failed private investment project, is now in a strong position to secure re-election in March.

“I think what is important is that in an organisation like FIFA, there can be different views, different points of view,” Infantino told the BBC on Saturday.

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“But if we are serious about democracy, about the democratic process, about believing that everyone has the same vote and the same voice all over the world, that football belongs to everyone, if we are serious about that, then we need to respect as well the views of the vast, vast majority.

“I’m just coming back off Tokyo where the Asian Football Confederation has fully endorsed me. I was in Cape Verde where all African countries have endorsed me. I’m speaking to all associations everywhere in the world.”

No other candidate has yet come forward to oppose Infantino with the deadline to do so less than a month away on Nov 18.

He added: “There are different points of view it’s not always easy to bring them all under one roof but we need to respect and I do respect all opinions all views and then it will be up to the FIFA member associations to decide who they want as a president and how they want FIFA to be run.”

A powerful storm swept towards China on Saturday after battering Taiwan and Japan’s southernmost islands, knocking out power to thousands of households and forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Typhoon Champi was downgraded to a tropical storm as its wind speed dropped to 102 kilometres (63 miles) per hour, according to the latest update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Centre.

Taiwanese authorities evacuated more than 5,000 people from their homes ahead of the storm, which toppled trees, brought down power lines and triggered brief flooding.

One person was killed and more than 600 injured since Thursday, when the government began issuing warnings about the typhoon.

Power has been restored to more than 90 per cent of over 340,000 affected households, after the storm unleashed fierce winds and heavy rain over swathes of Taiwan.

Most shops across northern and central Taiwan were closed for a second day, as the typhoon moved away from the island’s northeast and headed north towards China.

“Although the typhoon is gradually departing, we would like to remind the public that coastal areas will still experience swells and strong wind gusts,” the Central Weather Administration’s Wuu Woan-hwa said at a briefing.

Champi is the latest in a busy Pacific storm season turbocharged by the El Nino weather phenomenon that has caused unprecedented warming in the equatorial Pacific.

The storm was briefly a super typhoon as it crossed the ocean in recent days, with reported maximum sustained wind speeds of nearly 300kph.

Its intensity weakened overnight as it made a loop off Taiwan’s northeastern county of Yilan, where it has dumped at least 65 cm (26 inches) of rain since Thursday, the forecaster said.

Martha Wang said she was afraid of being “blown away” by the wind as she rode her scooter across a bridge in New Taipei City on Saturday morning.

“I was really scared because I was on the bridge. My scooter was shaking,” the 55-year-old secretary told AFP.

William Yu, however, was unfazed by the storm, saying it “wasn’t any stronger than other typhoons.”

“I went to the convenience store to eat yesterday (evening), and everything was fine,” the 55-year-old librarian said.

Heading for China

Authorities in China warned of “strong winds and heavy rain” as Champi approaches the country’s east coast, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Some train services have been suspended and tens of thousands evacuated from their homes in Shanghai.

“Some areas of Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and other regions are expected to experience heavy to torrential rainfall,” it said.

Hundreds of flights have been cancelled in the region, including in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa, where the government said two people were injured in the typhoon.

Tourists on Ishigaki island waited for flights to resume so they could return home.

“We hope it’s our last day,” Eva Malek, 49, from Poland told AFP.

“It’s not easy to have information. We were not aware of the situation and didn’t expect something like this to happen. When the typhoon arrived, we didn’t think it would be that strong.”

The United Nations said Wednesday that the El Nino system gripping the planet is heading off the charts and that countries should take urgent action to prepare for the worst.

El Nino is expected to peak in December, but the human impact is set to last into 2027 and beyond.

The warming phase of a natural climate cycle, El Nino temporarily raises sea temperatures in the tropical Pacific, triggering changes in weather that can increase the risk of drought and flooding and exacerbate human-caused global warming.

An Emirati official with Palestinian roots, Lana Nusseibeh has emerged as a late frontrunner in the race to lead the United Nations, campaigning on a reformist agenda and vowing to work for peace.

Since her official nomination on Wednesday, she has already garnered the backing of Gulf states but also faced scrutiny over her country’s normalisation with Israel and Abu Dhabi’s alleged role in Sudan’s war.

If she succeeds, she would be the first woman and the second Arab to snatch the job in what would be a tour de force for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Middle East power that was under Iranian attack earlier this year.

In a campaign video, she vows if elected to “bring greater urgency to the work for peace” and “defend human rights”, speaking in perfect English with a slight British accent.

The long-haired brunette, 48, sporting a red suit, projects the image of a modern Arab woman, one that her country has long sought to portray.

“Lana Nusseibeh has a thick CV,” said Emirati political science academic Abdulkhaleq Abdulla. “She brings in the best of the UAE’s diplomacy.” She stepped down from her post as state minister at the foreign ministry and as envoy to the UN and EU to campaign for the top UN job.

A seasoned diplomat, she has also served as the UAE’s permanent representative to the UN, from 2013 to 2024, the first woman to hold the post.

Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under a US-backed “Board of Peace”, said Nusseibeh “does not give up when the room gets difficult”.

“She is relentless, but never in a way that overwhelms people,” he said.

Palestinian roots

Nusseibeh comes from a prominent Palestinian family of statesmen, uprooted by the creation of Israel in 1948.

Her family traditionally held the keys to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the walled Old City of Jerusalem.

Yet she has defended the Abraham Accords, under which the UAE normalised ties with Israel in 2020, drawing criticism from pro-Palestinian activists and commentators on social media.

Her grandfather was defence minister in Jordan in the 1950s and one of the first Palestinians to be in contact with the Israelis, while her father Zaki Nusseibeh was an adviser and interpreter to the UAE’s late founding president Sheikh Zayed.

He currently serves as cultural adviser to the UAE president and was also a state minister.

Nusseibeh has two sons. She holds two master’s degrees, including one in Israeli and Jewish diaspora studies from the University of London.

‘No candidate short of criticism’

Nusseibeh’s nomination has sparked some backlash over her country’s involvement in the Sudan war, where the UAE is accused of backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — accusations it denies.

Since April 2023, Sudan has been engulfed in a war between the army and the RSF, triggering what the United Nations has described as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

“There is no candidate that is short of criticism… We’ll just have to deal with it, especially the Sudan file,” Abdulla told AFP.

“The UAE has already stated time and again that all of these are media allegations, and we have already made it clear that… we deny all of them, and we do not send any arms or finance the RSF,” he added.

It is tradition that the UN’s top job rotates between different regions.

Under that premise, the role should go to a candidate from Latin America this time. But US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz recently said the focus should be on picking the “best candidate” instead of the region or gender.

In the latest informal straw poll held last week to gauge which candidates have a shot of becoming the next UN secretary general, every contender received an effective veto.

Five of the 15 members of the UN Security Council wield veto power and can shut down any candidate unacceptable to them, which happened Friday when all seven candidates received at least two vetoes.

Israeli forces pushed into the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday and displaced around 250 families, some in the middle of the night, vowing to exact a heavy price for a deadly attack on soldiers.

The Palestinian Authority called for international pressure on Israel to protect residents, who said soldiers announced the evacuations over loudspeakers late at night as they packed what they could and left.

Days before tight elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was planning an operation on a scale not seen since Israel first occupied the West Bank in 1967, after Palestinian fighters killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday at a checkpoint.

In the Hebron neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha, nestled between two hills, vacated buildings were marked by X’s and the streets were deserted, save a pair of Israeli military vehicles. Israeli flags were draped on a house on the slope apparently taken over by troops.

Higazi Shawer al-Tamimi, 70, a shopkeeper who sells live chickens and feed and plays a leadership role in the neighbourhood, said he was awakened at 1:00am by soldiers and a senior officer who said he had to leave.

“I asked them how long the evacuation would last. They said: ‘Until further notice.’”

He told AFP he had only a short time to pack, adding that for some residents, getting out of the neighbourhood was an ordeal.

“For example, my wife’s mother, who is 90 years old and lives in the area, had to be carried out because she is ill,” he said.

Visiting Hebron, Netanyahu said he and Defence Minister Israel Katz were “considering a very extensive IDF operation in Judea and Samaria, such as has not been carried out since” the 1967 war.

The first step would see Israeli forces “enter the neighbourhood from which the terrorists came, evacuate the residents, go from house to house, and destroy the terrorist infrastructure”, he claimed.

The Palestinian Authority said it was mobilising its diplomats to seek “urgent international action that goes beyond condemnation” to prevent forced displacement.

Hamas, while not claiming credit, hailed Friday’s attack on soldiers and called on supporters to carry out more.

‘Why should I be displaced?’

To Tamimi, this is only happening because Netanyahu wants to win the election on “the blood of the Palestinian people”.

He said people were not going anywhere. “I have lived through all the stages of the occupation, and I will die here.”

Israeli forces have already demolished some buildings in the immediate vicinity of where the attack took place, and the Tamimis said they did not know if their homes would meet the same fate.

Tamimi’s brother, Khaled Shawer al-Tamimi, 68, was staying with his son after the evacuation order.

“The army was announcing through loudspeakers: ‘Leave the area.’ So we left.”

He told AFP he was surprised to hear Friday’s assailants came from the neighbourhood, which he described as middle-class and law-abiding.

“We have never seen or even heard a single gunshot being fired,” he said from his son’s sitting room as children flitted about.

“Why should I be displaced from my house?” he continued. The attackers “are the ones who carried out the act, and if the Israeli government wants to punish them, it can punish them.”

Hebron governor Khaled Dudin told AFP the army started in the attackers’ neighbourhood, “but there is no guarantee that the operation will not expand”, calling it a form of “collective punishment”.

The governor said 150 families had been affected, while Hebron mayor Youssef al-Jaabari and local activist Issa Amro put the figure at 250.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem called for urgent international pressure to prevent Israel from pursuing “plans for collective punishment and acts that could constitute war crimes”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through a spokesman, voiced concern over Israeli closures that affect Palestinian livelihoods and called for a halt to violence on all sides.

Netanyahu promises PA ‘surprise’

The Israeli military said it was “conducting precise, targeted and thorough searches” focused on the area of the two gunmen, who were both killed in a firefight. It added that the operation would last several days.

But Netanyahu suggested that bigger action was coming.

Asked if he agreed with the idea of dismantling the Palestinian Authority, as has been suggested by his far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Netanyahu referred to Israeli military operations in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

“We transformed the Middle East,” he said, repeating a common campaign refrain, in an interview with i24News.

“There is a very big surprise for the Palestinian Authority as well.”

There is no evidence that the Palestinian Authority had any involvement in Friday’s attack.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position within the defence ministry, called for a large-scale military offensive in the West Bank “exactly like in Gaza”.

Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich are especially vocal supporters of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which have proliferated under Netanyahu’s government but are illegal under international law.

Netanyahu has linked the assailants to Hamas, the resistance group in Gaza that carried out the Oct 7, 2023 attack, the deadliest in Israel’s history.

The attack came amid rising tensions in the West Bank as Israeli settlers, who enjoy strong support from Netanyahu’s far-right allies, ramp up seizures of Palestinian land and attacks.

Rights group Yesh Din reported 672 incidents of settler violence over the past 26 days, nearly half related to the annual olive harvest.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces and settlers have killed 1,117 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.

Israeli figures show that at least 51 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.

Polls show Netanyahu is neck and neck with an opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, a centre-right former military chief who also opposes a Palestinian state but has promised to crack down on settler violence.