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.