The Trump administration does not plan to back Flavio Bolsonaro’s claim to be Brazil’s rightful leader, despite helping the defeated candidate reach the US after years of supporting him and his father, a US official and another person familiar with the matter said.

President Donald Trump has said Brazil’s election on Sunday looked “rigged” but has pointed out that he offered no endorsement in the hotly contested race. Trump has also said he gets along well with incumbent leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the 81-year-old former union leader who beat the odds to clinch reelection by 3.5 percentage points.

The US official and the person familiar with the matter, who both spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Trump has no current plans to support Bolsonaro’s political ambitions even as the administration allowed him into the country, though they said the president could change his mind.

The Trump administration’s posture suggests the president may be reluctant to cause a fresh crisis in relations with Brazil, which have gone through ups and downs in recent months.

LAST-SECOND DEPARTURE AFTER COURT RULING ON PASSPORT

A third US official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Bolsonaro’s political capital had fallen now that he is in self-exile. Many conservatives in Brazil who had expected him to lead the opposition in the coming years have criticized his flight.

The White House referred a request for comment to the State Department, which did not reply. The Brazilian government and a representative for Bolsonaro did not respond to requests for comment.

Flavio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is imprisoned in Brazil for attempting a self-coup to stay in power after losing his reelection bid in 2022.

Some Brazilian officials, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Bolsonaro’s departure helps Lula by weakening the conservative opposition in Brazil’s Congress.

Bolsonaro’s flight was a last-second decision that came after a Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered him to turn in his passport, granting a request by federal police who are investigating him over two alleged money-laundering schemes, US officials and others familiar with the matter said.

The police request came in just minutes after the election was called for Lula, according to Brazilian media reports, a timeline that some conservatives have pointed to as evidence of political motivation.

Supporters of Lula’s government point out that, days before the election, Flavio’s brother, Eduardo, suggested publicly that Flavio should leave Brazil if he lost. Eduardo, a former congressman who himself lives in the US, was convicted in Brazil in June of courting interference from the ​Trump administration in his father’s trial.

Argentine authorities said that Flavio Bolsonaro, his wife and two daughters crossed a bridge into northern Argentina at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday before boarding a chartered aircraft at 11:30 p.m. Bolsonaro and his family then flew to Miami via Ecuador.

It is unclear how Bolsonaro traveled from his home in Brasilia to the bridge crossing 750 miles (1,300 km) away or exited Brazil without the knowledge of Brazilian customs officials. But during that journey, Bolsonaro contacted multiple US officials regarding his departure, according to one of the US officials.

Jason Miller, a Trump adviser who is close to the Bolsonaro family, helped arrange the flight from Argentina, the person familiar with the matter said. During Bolsonaro’s journey, Secretary of State Marco Rubio recommended to Trump that Bolsonaro be admitted, a recommendation the president signed off on, according to the US official.

During Bolsonaro’s two-leg flight, State Department officials scrambled to determine the best legal route for admitting him and his family, discussing the matter with Department of Homeland Security personnel, the official said. Ultimately, US authorities granted them humanitarian parole at the border, a temporary status given to individuals when urgent humanitarian concerns or a significant public interest are at play, the official added.

In an ​open letter posted on X on Wednesday, Bolsonaro declared himself “the elected president.” He then deleted that version and updated it with another letter in which he said he ​was Brazil’s rightful “leader.”

BRAZILIAN POLITICS WORTHY OF A TELENOVELA

The Bolsonaro departure was the latest chapter in a tumultuous period in Brazilian politics and in US-Brazil relations.

Bolsonaro’s father was president from 2019 to 2023, then lost reelection to Lula and was jailed last year for his self-coup attempt. Lula himself spent 17 months in jail in 2018 and 2019 on corruption charges that were later annulled.

The US last year slapped sanctions on the judge overseeing the trial of the elder Bolsonaro and other Brazilian officials. Washington lifted the sanctions after Trump and Lula had a notably cordial interaction at the UN General Assembly.

During the campaign, Brazil objected to what it called attempts by some US officials to boost the Bolsonaro campaign, and the government has refused to seat the incoming US ambassador to Brazil, a close Rubio ally, in part due to those objections.

Reuters reported last week that two conservative State Department officials successfully pushed for the Brazil sanctions as well as terrorist designations of two Brazilian organized crime groups, measures aimed at tilting the election in Bolsonaro’s favor.

Still, even as Trump has attacked the way Brazil conducted the election, he has refrained from criticizing Lula.

“I like Lula, I get along with him very well,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “I just think it had a very bad look, the election.”

US President Donald Trump, speaking ahead of November 3 midterm congressional elections, said on Friday he believed the war with Iran will end soon, but did not say how that would happen.

“It’s going to get wrapped up soon,” Trump said in an interview with Kansas City radio station KCMO. “We need a guarantee there’ll never be a nuclear weapon.”

Trump has said the US would not strike Iran before the elections.

Written by Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions

Security tensions between Japan and China are escalating while the former strengthens its long-range strike capabilities with American support.

Washington and Tokyo’s latest moves to reinforce their military presence along the so-called first island chain also mark another step in the broader US-China strategic rivalry across the Indo-Pacific region.

Originally conceived as a Cold War US defensive perimeter (stretching from Japan through Taiwan to the Philippines), the first island chain is increasingly becoming the centerpiece of an elaborate American-led military architecture designed to constrain Beijing’s growing maritime power.

The recent agreement between Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to implement an “effective denial defense” along that chain illustrates the shift. They also pledged continued cooperation on ammunition production for a potentially prolonged conflict.

During the Keen Sword 2027 exercises now underway, US and Japanese forces plan to deploy mobile missile systems, including American system NMESIS, on Yonaguni Island near Taiwan. Tokyo has already deployed domestically developed long-range (anti-ship) missiles capable of reaching China’s coastal areas.

The wider context is hard to miss. In November 2025 Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi  made a statement linking a Taiwan contingency to Japan’s own survival, which triggered sharp Chinese protests and a cascade of diplomatic, economic, and maritime frictions.

Beijing then restricted dual-use exports to Japan, while coast guard vessels and radar incidents added to the pressure.

As commentator Oliver Griffin puts it, Beijing views Japan’s buildup as a drift toward neo-militarism.

From Tokyo’s perspective, China’s expanding naval reach makes these steps necessary. This is therefore a classic security dilemma. Measures one side takes to feel “safer” make the other feel less secure, prompting further responses.

The first island chain is both a barrier and a gateway. As expert Simone Chiusa  notes, Chinese vessels seeking access to the open Western Pacific must navigate strategic chokepoints through its straits.

The strategic importance of these chokepoints illustrates Alfred Thayer Mahan’s classic sea-power theory: control over key maritime routes and positions remains central to great-power rivalry.

American and Japanese planners see distributed missiles and interdiction systems as deterrence by denial. Beijing sees preparations to restrict its access.

The paradox is clear enough: the more Washington and Tokyo seek to reinforce deterrence, the more Beijing may perceive “encirclement” and accelerate its own capabilities.

Japan’s southwestern islands are thereby becoming an operational frontier of sorts rather than a mere defensive perimeter. An alliance designed primarily to protect Japanese territory then gradually becomes an instrument for projecting power into a Taiwan-related contingency.

As I wrote in May 2026, regarding US missile deployments in the Philippines, Washington’s actions near Taiwan fuel Chinese fears of a containment architecture involving Japan, the Philippines, and Australia. The pattern continues.

China’s maritime-industrial growth has become central to allied planning. As I’ve noted elsewhere, Chinese shipbuilding capacity (measured by gross tonnage) exceeds that of the United States – by a factor of over 200, according to a 2023 US naval intelligence estimate.

Joint Sino-Russian submarine patrols further signal a new maritime era of coordination that certainly complicates American assumptions of uncontested sea control.

Yet the contest is no longer confined to the first island chain. A Japanese Self-Defense Force colonel has proposed a second-island-chain air bridge linking Japan and Australia (with US participation) for logistics and reinforcement – the reasoning being that China’s lengthening maritime strike reach now threatens operations farther into the Pacific.

Some American analysts warn that “pulling back to the second chain” would be strategic folly, while advocates of strategic restraint see a forward approach as intensifying insecurity.

For Japan, the predicament is particularly delicate. Tokyo is becoming more indispensable to Washington’s regional planning at the very moment when Japanese strategists worry about possible US-China accommodation under President Trump’s “transactional” approach.

The alliance security dilemma is real enough: fear of “abandonment” coexists with fear of entrapment in a Taiwan conflict. Japanese policymakers are of course not passive instruments. They act on their own threat perceptions while navigating uncertainty about long-term American commitments.

Gray-zone pressures add another layer. Coast guard patrols and incremental assertions of jurisdiction challenge the utility of high-end missile deployments – designed mainly for conventional scenarios.

Ultimately, efforts to preserve the existing “balance” in the Indo-Pacific may contribute to the very competition that makes that balance harder to sustain.

The American response to China’s rise has largely been to reinforce military alliances and expand forward deployments, risking an increasingly self-perpetuating cycle of militarization rather than fostering regional stability.

Washington is transforming Japan into a more central component of its forward maritime architecture – even as Beijing’s growing capabilities render that very architecture more contested. The risk here is that the cycle of reinforcement and reaction leaves all parties less secure than before.

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The post Japan’s Militarization: Washington Fueling Chinese-Japanese Crisis appeared first on South Front.

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O palco hoje não é o Parlamento, mas o anfiteatro. São 9h00 do dia 30 de Outubro. À sua frente, Fernando Alexandre tem perto de duas centenas e meia de estudantes do Ensino Secundário, na Escola Secundária Dr. José Macedo Fragateiro, em Ovar.

Diante de olhos espevitados pela curiosidade, o homem que gere os destinos da Educação, Ciência e Inovação do país reencontra-se com a sua vocação mais pura: professor. Vai dar uma aula de Literacia Financeira, com o foco no tema da Poupança.

De acordo com as metas de aprendizagem estipuladas para o Secundário, os alunos que Fernando Alexandre tem diante de si deverão ser capazes de comparar diferentes produtos financeiros e o risco que lhes está associado. É com base nesta meta que se preparou.

Cláudia Sarrico, secretária de Estado do Ensino Superior, também estudou a lição. Não menos exigente. Os alunos do 3º Ciclo devem reconhecer que a aplicação de poupanças em instrumentos financeiros diversificados pode diminuir o risco associado ao investimento e manifestar comportamentos de proteção em relação a situações de fraude financeira e digital (abordada parcialmente). E a professora universitária emprestada ao Governo tem à sua frente cerca de 100 alunos do 3. Ciclo do Ensino Básico da  Escola Secundária Miguel Torga, em Queluz.

A iniciativa “Educar para a Cidadania: Poupar, um Compromisso com o Futuro” foi criada em 2025 pelo Ministério da Educação, Ciência e Inovação, em parceria com o Banco de Portugal, a Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM) e a Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e de Fundos de Pensões (ASF). Hoje volta a mobilizar centenas de estudantes e docentes do ensino superior das áreas de Economia, Gestão, Finanças e Contabilidade, governantes e representantes das entidades de supervisão financeira.

As aulas são em todos os ciclo de estudo e todos eles têm naturalmente metas de aprendizagem. No 1º Ciclo trata-se de compreender a importância da poupança e os seus objetivos; reconhecer a importância da tomada de decisão e a necessidade de fazer escolhas que impliquem ganhos ou perdas (abordada parcialmente) e distinguir necessidades de desejos e rendimentos de despesas (abordada parcialmente).

No 2º Ciclo, as metas apontam ao seguinte: Compreender formas de aplicação e de remuneração da poupança e reconhecer a importância do planeamento, a médio e a longo prazo, da poupança e dos investimentos. (abordada parcialmente).

Foi com base nas metas estabelecidas que os governantes e os administradores do Banco de Portugal, CMVM e ASF prepararam as aulas que dão neste momento ou logo à tarde.  

José Maria Brandão de Brito, secretário de Estado Adjunto e do Orçamento, está esta manhã na Escola Secundária da Cidadela, em Cascais, e Cláudia Reis, dos Assuntos Fiscais, na Escola Secundária de Montemor o Novo.

Álvaro Santos Pereira, que durante anos ensinou as disciplinas de Desenvolvimento Económico e Política Económica na Simon Fraser University em Vancouver, no Canadá, regressa à profissão e aos bancos da escola, viajando, de tarde, do Banco de Portugal até à Escola Secundária Diogo de Gouveia, em Beja.

Na Escola Secundária Rainha D. Leonor, em Lisboa, o professor de Literacia Financeira chama-se Rui Baleiras e é vice-presidente da Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões (ASF) e o presidente, Gabriel Bernardino vai à Escola Básica e Secundária do Cadaval.

Também o presidente e a vice-presidente da Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM) vestem a pele de professor por um dia. Luís Laginha de Sousa na Escola Secundária da Baixa da Banheira, na Moita, e Inês Drumond na Escola EB 2,3 de Alcanede, em Santarém.

Elevar os níveis de literacia financeira dos alunos é uma prioridade dos atuais inquilinos do Ministério da Educação, Ciência e Inovação, que tornou esta dimensão obrigatória em todos os anos de escolaridade da disciplina de Cidadania e Desenvolvimento.

O trabalho iniciado no Dia Mundial da Poupança de 2025 continuou pelo ano letivo, sendo alargado a outras áreas da Literacia Financeira e Empreendedorismo.

Segundo o MECI, além dos conteúdos dedicados à poupança, foram preparados e validados recursos sobre Orçamento Familiar e Fiscalidade, em parceria com a Autoridade Tributária e sobre Sistemas e Produtos Financeiros assim como Ser Empreendedor, em parceria com a associação Junior Achievement.

The post U.S. Strikes on Iranian Missile Sites Reported Amid Fighter Jet Confrontation (Photos) appeared first on South Front.

Embora muitos pais inscrevam os seus filhos em aulas de natação por questões de segurança, um estudo sugere que os participantes obtêm vantagens mensuráveis no desenvolvimento cognitivo, nas competências linguísticas e na regulação emocional.

President Donald Trump’s administration filed a revised lawsuit on Thursday seeking to block Alaska’s election results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan narrowly loses and, according to a person familiar with the matter, issued more than 40 subpoenas and document requests in its probe.

The revised complaint by the US Justice Department cited a New York Times report that Democratic operatives recruited another candidate named Sullivan who could siphon votes from the incumbent. The Justice Department said the effort was intended to mislead voters and help elect Democratic candidate Mary Peltola.

The suit raises the prospect of a messy fight over a contest that could determine US Senate control in next Tuesday’s midterm elections. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, while Democrats need a net gain of four seats.

“They orchestrated his sham campaign for the purpose of misleading Alaskan voters and getting Peltola elected,” lawyers for the Justice Department wrote in their amended complaint, referring to a retired teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who is on the ballot without a party affiliation.

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy also called for a state investigation into the allegation and said in an interview with News Nation that any finding of illegality “may in fact impact whether someone is seated in the US Senate.”

Peltola’s campaign did not immediately respond to the amended complaint but has previously said it had “no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.”

Dispute over candidates sharing Sullivan surname

The Times reported on Wednesday that Peltola aides worked with campaign lawyers and staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to recruit two candidates who could siphon votes from the incumbent Republican Sullivan, including Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.

Peltola’s former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, who was fired in August, told the Times that Peltola was aware of the effort.

The DSCC has denied involvement and accused Republicans of propping up candidates of their own in other races. Reuters was unable to independently verify the Times report.

Daniel J. Sullivan has previously denied in interviews with US news outlets that his aim is to cause confusion or divert votes from Dan S. Sullivan.

Trump presses legal challenge ahead of vote

Trump, who for years has sowed doubts about the fairness of US elections, had pushed the Justice Department to bring the Alaska case even before the Times report, seeking to preemptively block Alaska from certifying Peltola, a former congresswoman, if she were to win the election.

Trump told reporters earlier on Thursday: “It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run. Frankly, I don’t know how you can allow somebody like that to run. It’s so unfair.”

Jessica Levinson, a professor who specializes in election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that as long as Daniel J. Sullivan, the challenger to the incumbent, didn’t conceal financial support, his campaign likely didn’t break any laws and political parties are allowed to mislead the public.

Policing such behavior would open the door to the government investigating why candidates choose to run and why voters support them, she said. “To the extent that people are uncomfortable with two Sullivans, I would offer you’re probably going to be uncomfortable with a really high level of government intrusion into our elections as well.”

Justice Department also investigates California voting

The Department of Justice has also escalated another legal campaign in California, where it has been investigating alleged voting by noncitizens.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s office received grand jury subpoenas as part of the probe, according to copies of subpoenas seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The subpoenas, dated last week, seek records related to the county’s response to prior letters from the Trump administration warning of evidence that noncitizens are on the state’s voter roll. They also seek documents about the county’s efforts to prevent noncitizens from voting.

California has previously said the state’s safeguards against noncitizen voting are robust.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.

Trump and Democrats intensify final campaign push

As campaigning enters its final few days, the White House has shelved plans for Trump to appear on Saturday in Kansas, the site of an unexpectedly competitive Senate campaign, a Republican campaign official said.

“I don’t feel like I have to go to Kansas,” Trump told reporters.

Instead, the president will participate in more than 20 virtual campaign appearances before Tuesday, a White House official said.

Trump held a rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on Thursday, his second visit in two weeks to a state where opinion polls show an unexpectedly close Senate race between Republican Darline Graham and Democrat Annie Andrews.

Speaking about the hotly contested Michigan Senate race, where progressive Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed holds a small lead in most polls over Republican Mike Rogers, Trump continued his identity-based attacks on El-Sayed, a Muslim, by saying at the rally that “if you’re Black or if you’re Jewish, and if you vote for Abdul, you’re crazy.”

With control of the Senate at stake, both parties are deploying their biggest names in the closing days of the campaign, with Trump stumping for Republicans and former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigning for Democrats in competitive races.

Harris stumped in Macon, Georgia, at a get-out-the-vote effort. Democrats are aiming to reelect Senator Jon Ossoff, who leads in polling, and hope that Keisha Lance Bottoms, locked in a tight race, can become the first woman elected as governor in the state.

Trump’s approval rating stood at 32% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday, near a record low, as Americans sour on the high cost of living and the war with Iran.

More than 44 million Americans had already voted as of Thursday evening, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. A total of 45.9 million voted early in the 2022 midterms.