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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday at about 3.9% despite stubbornly high inflation, as Chairman Kevin Warsh suggested its policies are already showing signs of having an impact.

“Inflation remains elevated,” the Fed said in a statement released after its two-day policy meeting. Holding off on an increase will allow “the accumulation of more information” that will help determine what policy the Fed should pursue “to ensure a timely return of inflation” to the central bank’s 2% inflation target, the statement said.

The Fed raised its benchmark rate last month for the first time in three years, defying President Donald Trump’s demands for rate cuts, in an effort to get inflation back to its 2% target in a “timelier” manner. The Fed is tasked by Congress to combat inflation, and it does so by lifting rates to slow borrowing and spending and cool price increases.

Wall Street investors and many economists continue to expect a quarter-point rate hike at the central bank’s next meeting Dec. 8-9.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq index all dropped after the Fed announcement but regained much of their losses by closing bell.

The Fed’s decision comes just six days before a midterm election that has focused heavily on concerns around the cost of living and affordability. Consumers have generally soured on an economy weighed down by more expensive gas, groceries, and clothing, among other items. Warsh denied the election played a part in the Fed’s staying pat.

“Politics played no role in the decision,” he said at a news conference after the announcement. “I just spent two days with my colleagues upstairs. I didn’t hear an utterance about politics.”

Warsh faces plenty of challenges in getting inflation back to target. Some of the forces pushing up prices — specifically the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure and higher energy prices — may not be easily tamed by higher interest rates.

Still, Warsh said the “overwhelming consensus” among Fed officials is that what they’ve done “is starting to work some,” noting that credit conditions “tightened for some businesses and households.”

He said specifically that as large tech firms ramp up their borrowing to build data centers, higher rates will have a greater ability to cool that investment.

“Do interest rates matter?” Warsh asked. “I believe they do, and I don’t think they’re divorced from the rest of the economy.”

Two Fed officials dissented from Wednesday’s decision, with Fed governor Lisa Cook and Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack voting in favor of hiking rates by a quarter point. This is Cook’s first dissent since she was appointed to the board by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Cook has been targeted by the Trump administration, which tried to fire her last year, though the Supreme Court in June ruled she could keep her job while litigation played out. No president has fired a Fed governor before, a sign of the Fed’s longstanding independence from day-to-day politics. Trump renewed his attempt to remove Cook last month by setting up a committee to look into allegations Cook committed mortgage fraud, which she has denied.

Trump has also slammed the Fed for raising its key rate last month, though he largely blamed the central bank’s rate-setting committee, rather than Warsh, whom he appointed.

Parts of the economy are already being hit by higher rates, which were lifted by market forces, even before the Fed hiked last month. The average 30-year mortgage rate reached a three-year high of 7.4% earlier this month, though it has since slipped a bit. Higher mortgage rates have made buying a home unaffordable for 5 million more Americans since the beginning of the year, according to Oxford Economics, a consulting firm. Over time, Fed rate hikes can make mortgages, auto loans and credit card borrowing more expensive, adding to Americans’ sense that things like homes and cars are getting pricier.

Inflation picked up in September, when consumer prices rose 3.7% compared with a year earlier. The increase was much bigger than the 2.4% rate in February, just before the Iran war.

And on a monthly basis, the consumer price index — the most widely followed inflation gauge — rose 0.3% in both August and September. At that pace over a full year, inflation would rise much more quickly than the Fed’s 2% target.

A separate inflation measure more closely followed by the Fed, the personal consumption expenditures price index, comes out Thursday and is forecast to have jumped 3.6% in September from a year earlier, up from 3.4% in August. Core prices, which exclude the food and energy categories, are forecast to have risen 3.1%, up from 3% the previous month.

The Fed’s policy meeting is part of a busy week for central banks around the world. The Bank of Canada will also meet Wednesday and is forecast to lift its key rate a quarter point, to 2.5%. Policymakers at the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are both scheduled to meet Thursday and are expected to keep their key rates unchanged.

For Warsh and the Fed, another key consideration is that the U.S. economy is growing at a healthy pace and unemployment remains low, at 4.2%, even if hiring is also sluggish. The government will report Thursday on growth for the July-September quarter, which is expected to reach 3%, according to a forecast by data provider FactSet. That would be up from 2.2% in the April-June quarter.

Many economists argue that solid growth is evidence that interest rates aren’t particularly high and the economy could withstand higher rates to combat inflation.

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Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers and coined the rallying cry “Sí, se puede!” died of cancer Wednesday at her California home. She was 96. Her decades of organizing inspired generations of activists and public servants.

LONDON (AP) — Russell Brand acknowledged in a London court on Wednesday that he had been obsessed with sex as a younger man, but denied multiple charges of rape and sexual assault, saying the claims have had a “devastating” impact on his life.

The British actor-comedian entered Southwark Crown Court alongside his wife, Laura Gallacher, to testify in his own defense, telling reporters that “today is the day for truth and justice.”

Brand, 51, stood in the witness box and took the oath, then gave his full name: Russell Edward Brand. He answered “no” to each charge as his lawyer, Ian Winter, asked whether he was guilty of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand denied forcing any of the six alleged victims to do anything against their will.

“Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary, and indeed in many ways more important than sex itself,” Brand said.

Brand said the allegations had had a “devastating” impact, with friends and colleagues abandoning him. He said no one with relevant evidence had been willing to testify in court on his behalf.

“My entire life has been consumed by these events, these allegations, these accusations,” he said, adding later that dealing with the “traumatic” allegations had come “at the expense of my marriage, my children and health.”

Brand said he was even barred from staying with his baby son in hospital after anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him in a newspaper and a TV documentary in 2023.

“The reason given by Great Ormond Street Hospital when my son was receiving open-heart surgery and subsequent treatment was due to the material published,” he said.

Six women accuse Brand of misconduct

Over the past two weeks of the trial, prosecutors set out their case, and the jury heard from six women who accuse Brand of sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2009.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors that Brand was “ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative. And, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator.”

Known for risqué stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.

In recent years, he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida, and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories, and discussions of his religious devotion.

The allegations cover a decade when Brand went from rising stand-up comedian to major celebrity in the U.K.

The first victim alleges that Brand raped her in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in the seaside town of Bournemouth in 1999. Another woman alleges that in 2001 Brand tried to drag her into the men’s bathroom at the London office of music channel MTV, where she worked.

A third woman alleges that Brand orally raped her in 2004 in the toilet of a London bar, and a fourth says Brand kissed and groped her at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005.

Another complainant says Brand anally raped her at his home after she met him at one of his shows in 2009, while the sixth says the comedian demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.

Prosecutors say the women don’t know one another and separately went to police after the TV documentary was broadcast in 2023. The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.

Brand says all encounters were consensual

Under cross-examination by Karmy-Jones, Brand acknowledged he had dedicated a lot of his earlier life to “beyond reckless philandering.”

“As I became more successful and famous I was very comfortable allowing that to facilitate sexual access, which I agree with you was wrong,” he said.

He said “yes” when asked if he had been obsessed with sex when he was younger, but “no” when the prosecutor asked: “Do you accept that you were desperate for it and sometimes couldn’t function without it?”

As he completed a day on the stand, Brand was asked again whether he had committed the crimes he is accused of.

“Not guilty is my plea in every single case,” he said.

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URDA, Spain (AP) — One high-speed Spanish train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks Wednesday, killing at least 68 people and shredding carriages in the country’s second deadly rail collision this year.

The regional government for Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll and said another 58 people needed medical treatment in hospital. It said 397 passengers were in the moving train and 147 passengers in the stopped train.

Rescue workers continued to search for survivors and bodies.

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that the crash was caused by what he called the “inexplicable” order from a central command center for Spain’s trains after a security system had failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame.

The accident comes with memories still fresh of another crash between high-speed trains in southern Spain in January involving trains from the same two companies.

Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred in the province of Toledo, involving two high-speed trains heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain.

One train, run by the state-owned RENFE company, ran into the tail of the other train owned by private company IRYO that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track in a rural area between two villages.

Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

Until this year, there had been no fatal crash on Spain’s dedicated high-speed lines since the network opened in 1992.

Puente said that at 8:30 a.m. local time the security system on a stretch of 39 miles stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop. But the central command told the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it collided with the stopped IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.

Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since there was still a “stop signal” active that line. And if it had, it should have been told to go at reduced speed.

Puente said they were working to determine how fast the train was going, but it could have been 124 mph for that stretch of the track.

“I am not attributing responsibility to anyone, I am just stating the facts,” Puente said.

The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, left one car torn into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to hospitals in the area.

“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García said.

Passenger Ignacio Relaño was traveling on the RENFE train. He told state broadcaster TVE that the train had stopped momentarily on the line before it started again and then crashed into the IRYO.

“We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact,” he said. “The car leaned to one side like it was about to tip over. I hit my nose, everything went flying, luggage, cellphones. Everything shook.”

Another passenger recounted to Cadena Ser radio how she felt the train slam on the brakes and was thrown forward in her seat, breaking the small table in front of her. She said she saw body parts and trapped people covered in blood.

IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”

The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, said civil protection authorities had asked his officials to prepare a sports pavilion to receive injured passengers.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”

“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” wrote Sánchez, who faces a national election next month. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

Spain’s King Felipe VI visited the crash site. He and Queen Letizia said in a short statement on X that they were following news of the accident.

“We are deeply saddened and concerned by the train accident in Urda (Toledo),” the royal couple said. “We share in the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and we send our heartfelt support to the injured and all those affected.”

Spain’s soccer federation postponed all 24 Copa del Rey games scheduled on Wednesday.

The wreckage of Wednesday’s crash reminded many of the aftermath of another train collision in January, when 46 people died in southern Spain when a IRYO train jumped the track and hit an oncoming RENFE train. That sent the first two cars of the impacted train plummeting down a 13-foot slope.

That crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people.

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Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation's fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase "Sí, se puede!" that became a widespread rallying cry.

(Image credit: Court Mast)

Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers union to improve working conditions in the nation's fruit and vegetable fields and coined the phrase "Sí, se puede!" that became a widespread rallying cry.

(Image credit: Court Mast)

MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami on Wednesday after fleeing Brazil.

The stunning move came after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then threatened to attempt to annul the election result.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later. On Monday, the U.S. said that it would grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family. Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, visited the White House in May.

Bolsonaro first fled from Brazil to Argentina and then Ecuador alongside his wife and two daughters, Argentina’s migration authority said Wednesday — a day after the 45-year-old senator and his family were granted United States visas by the Trump administration.

Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. The court had ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday — two days after he lost the vote to Lula. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.

Argentina’s migration authority said Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday. They entered via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a primary border checkpoint linking Brazil to Argentina’s northeastern province of Misiones.

“Those who did so possessed valid travel documentation and faced no legal impediments to entering the country,” the Argentine migration authority said on X.

The authority said that at 11:30 p.m. local time, shortly after clearing immigration control, the four boarded a private charter flight operated by aviation company Baires Fly S.A. According to the filed flight plan, the aircraft departed for Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The move is almost certain to cause a big diplomatic rift between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to take part in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Bolsonaro lands in Miami

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed that a plane fitting the description of Bolsonaro’s landed in Guayaquil at about 4 a.m. local time, before taking off minutes later for Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport. The plane carrying Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami at around 9:30 a.m. ET.

Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, told several dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia before the plane landed that he didn’t have precise information about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally who lives in the U.S., said in a short statement that he can’t confirm information from foreign authorities, but added “Flávio Bolsonaro is well, in security and resting with his family.” Figueiredo also said there would be a press conference Thursday in Miami to discuss the case.

Representatives of Brazil’s government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

U.S. President Donald Trump said early Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the U.S., calling him and his family “fine people.”

“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from campaigning in Texas on Tuesday. He did not elaborate, but stressed that he didn’t endorse the election results.

Leaders all over the world and the Organization of American States, or OAS, endorsed the result and congratulated Lula, who was reelected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round.

On Tuesday, Milei’s administration spokesman Adrián Ravier said “there is no asylum request (from Bolsonaro) and there is nothing more to add.”

Bolsonaro visited his father, who is under house arrest, before leaving Brazil

The defeated candidate was served with a Supreme Court order to surrender his Brazilian passports Monday. In a video, he said he received it outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.

After that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned three months later.

Flávio Bolsonaro said on Monday in a video that he was attempting to organize opposition among his congressional colleagues to the election results. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027, which will also cause him to lose special jurisdiction at the country’s Supreme Court.

Brazil’s Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In a separate case, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.

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The toll is rising after a high-speed train between slammed into the rear of another train that had stopped south of Madrid, derailing two cars. It was Spain's second major train accident this year.

(Image credit: Juanma Jiménez)

The toll is rising after a high-speed train between slammed into the rear of another train that had stopped south of Madrid, derailing two cars. It was Spain's second major train accident this year.

(Image credit: Juanma Jiménez)

The Odyssey set sail two years ago on a three-year voyage to the seven continents marketed as combining long-term living at sea with global travel.

(Image credit: Heng Sinith)

The Odyssey set sail two years ago on a three-year voyage to the seven continents marketed as combining long-term living at sea with global travel.

(Image credit: Heng Sinith)

President Donald Trump said that his administration is "terminating" a Biden-era rule that aimed to cut planet-warming emissions of methane from oil and gas drilling.

(Image credit: Annie Rice)

President Donald Trump said that his administration is "terminating" a Biden-era rule that aimed to cut planet-warming emissions of methane from oil and gas drilling.

(Image credit: Annie Rice)

Tampa Bay became the fourth team in World Series history to avoid elimination with an extra-inning comeback. Game 5 in the best-of-seven matchup is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.

(Image credit: Morry Gash)

Tampa Bay became the fourth team in World Series history to avoid elimination with an extra-inning comeback. Game 5 in the best-of-seven matchup is Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.

(Image credit: Morry Gash)

Cornell University faculty will meet Wednesday to conclude debate and begin voting on a proposed no-confidence resolution in the university’s administration following widespread frustration over its response to a woman who reported she was gang raped at a campus fraternity house in 2024.

The meeting comes after an Oct. 14 Faculty Senate meeting at which angry faculty members confronted Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff about the university’s handling of the allegations.

The meeting was closed to the media, but in an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press, Kotlikoff acknowledged some missteps, defended his leadership and asked for more time to implement reforms and push for cultural changes in student social life. He urged faculty to have confidence in his leadership, pointing to an independent investigation into the university’s handling of the case that he said could lead to meaningful reforms.

A woman identified in court documents by the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month alleging that seven Chi Phi fraternity members sexually assaulted or exploited her in October 2024 and that Cornell mishandled her complaints. All seven men have denied her allegations.

The criminal investigation by Cornell’s police department stalled after the local district attorney declined to pursue charges. But in an interview with The New York Times, Kotlikoff said he never followed up to learn what had happened to the woman or the criminal investigation.

Asked by a faculty member whether he read the Cornell Police Department’s report on the rape allegations, Kotlikoff acknowledged that he had not, but said that was because the police investigation was confidential and university policy is that top administrators shouldn’t have a role in criminal investigations.

“I really reject the idea that I had no interest in it or was not concerned about it,” Kotlikoff said.

He insisted experienced leadership was necessary to confront problems. Replacing a president would harm Cornell’s reputation, Kotlikoff said.

Faculty also questioned Cornell’s handling of a disciplined student’s return to campus, including his assignment to a shared dorm room with a roommate unaware of his disciplinary history.

After Kotlikoff departed, a string of faculty speakers said they had lost confidence in the administration’s ability to combat sexual assault on campus. Some Faculty Senate members warned that a hasty no-confidence vote would do little to address the underlying problems.

Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. and will be closed to the public and media. Electronic voting will open afterward and remain open through Nov. 6. Individual votes will be anonymous.

A no-confidence vote by the faculty would be largely symbolic, but could send a message to the university’s trustees, who ultimately decide who leads it.

Kotlikoff became the university’s interim president in July 2024 and took the job permanently last year.

He’s faced challenges including a dining and custodial workers strike, ire over his decision last year to pay $60 million to settle Trump administration civil rights investigations, and accusations from activists that his administration stifled campus protests.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted U.S. visas after his weekend loss to incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hotly contested race that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in Latin America.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws, said “the State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States.”

Bolsonaro, who had President Donald Trump’s tacit support, had been under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and had been ordered to surrender his passport.

The State Department official did not say if Bolsonaro had already left Brazil or if he and his family were en route to the U.S.

Bolsonaro’s campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, said he hadn’t spoken to the defeated candidate since early Tuesday morning.

“We had no news from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened,” Marinho said. “I received a text message from him, he said he wanted to take a break and then he would talk to us. That’s the only message I had from him.”

Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.

Bolsonaro has touted his relationship with Trump and visited the White House in May. The family connections go deeper: Brother Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. A warrant was recently issued for his arrest.

Trump did not offer a full-throated endorsement of Bolsonaro in the runoff against Lula, as he has with some other right-of-center candidates in Latin America. But he suggested on Monday, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s election was “rigged.”

Bolsonaro’s decision to leave Brazil came as a deadline for him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired at noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied.

Bolsonaro was served with the order to surrender his passports Monday, a day after his stunning loss. Bolsonaro said he received it outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula. After that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned three months later.

The sealed Supreme Court order, viewed by The Associated Press, was issued Sunday. Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.

Bolsonaro raises questions about election he lost

Bolsonaro initially asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that prompted authorities to extend voting by two hours.

On Monday, he urged the electoral court to investigate alleged election fraud and nullify Lula’s and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin’s candidacies, which the electoral court has never done before.

“I never thought about leaving the country,” Bolsonaro said in a video published on his social media channels. “I will hand over my passports and I will defend myself from this aberration. It is a clear attempt to intimidate me. But I will not be silenced.”

To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would have to present evidence of fraud affecting Lula’s 4.4 million-vote margin and convince the eight-member electoral court before the results are certified on Dec. 18.

Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, received more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4%.

A Brazilian diplomat who was not authorized to speak on the matter said his country’s government was aware that Bolsonaro had left the country.

Outside the presidential residence in Brasilia, Lula told a few dozen supporters he did not have precise information of Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.

Brazil is “the second country” of the Bolsonaro family, Lula added.

“The first is licking American boots,” the reelected president said. “Those who are not liable do not fear. A fellow that secretly leaves his country, that’s because he is liable for something.”

Bolsonaro said in a video posted Monday on his social media channels that he was attempting to organize opposition among his congressional colleagues to the election results. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027, which will also cause him to lose special jurisdiction at the country’s Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. In one, he’s accused of using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In the other, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.

He has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, and has claimed Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is heading one of the investigations, is a Lula ally. Prosecutors suspect the funds from the banker were used to pay his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro’s, expenses and to promote Flávio Bolsonaro’s political agenda with the Trump administration, documents show.

Mauricio Marcon, a lawmaker of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, also questioned de Moraes’ objectivity on Tuesday. “Seven minutes after the election, Alexandre de Moraes ordered his passports to be seized,” Marcon said. Bolsonaro “will represent us in a free country. He will continue to be our leader.”

Brazilians had earlier taken to social media to ask where Bolsonaro was. Reporters gathered outside his home in the capital, Brasilia, but he did not appear.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Security of Argentina denied reports the Brazilian senator had entered the country. Brazilian media outlets reported that many Bolsonaro allies had been unable to reach him.

Paulo Figueiredo, a close ally of Bolsonaro’s who lives in the United States, was asked about the senator’s whereabouts and did not answer directly.

“At this moment — following months of intense work that were unfairly thwarted — I have no desire to speak with the press. I kindly ask that you do not persist. Should I have a statement to make on any matter, I will reach out,” Figueiredo said.

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