Colombia’s Congress approved the 2027 national budget of 200 billion dollars on October 20, igniting a backlash from opposition lawmakers who say the plan favors debt payments and financial interests over education, peace and regional development.
The approval of the General Budget of Colombia for 2027 capped a tense legislative session.
President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government secured passage of the law, worth 634.9 trillion Colombian pesos (about $200 billion), over the objections of the opposition, which was led mainly by the Historic Pact party.
Representative María Fernanda Carrascal described the debate as a “disaster” and faulted the national government for refusing to accept any of the 700 proposals submitted by her party. The initiatives sought to channel more resources into public education, support for victims of violence and the regions, she detailed. Faced with the lack of agreement, the opposition walked out of the debate, stating it would not back a measure it considers harmful to the country.
The Historic Pact also questioned the law’s orientation, arguing that the government chose to protect financial entities, oligopolies and the most favored sectors. They further denounced that the project promotes over-indebtedness, which they say will end up shifting heavier tax burdens onto Colombian citizens.
🇨🇴 ¡Colombia tiene Presupuesto para 2027! El Congreso de la República aprobó por $634,9 billones el Presupuesto de la Verdad, el primer paso para volver a encaminar la economía del país hacia el crecimiento, la responsabilidad fiscal y la atención de las necesidades del país. pic.twitter.com/pHiLhYzVTU
Text reads: “Colombia has budget for 2027! The Congress of the Republic approved the Truth Budget for $634.9 trillion, the first step to reorient the country’s economy toward growth, fiscal responsibility, and meeting the country’s needs.”
Other voices in the legislature added their objections. Senator Jennifer Pedraza of the Dignity and Commitment party (Dignidad y Compromiso, in Spanish) criticized the absence of a fixed allocation to address the consequences of the earthquakethat struck on August 10. She questioned the fact that assistance to hard-hit departments such as Risaralda, Chocó and Valle del Cauca depends solely on leftover budget balances.
Senator Ariel Ávila, in turn, lamented the underfunding of resources earmarked for electric infrastructure and energization in non-interconnected zones such as Vichada, Guainía, Arauca, Putumayo and Vaupés. He also pointed to a lack of concern for victims of the armed conflict and what he called a budgetary strangling of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).
After the law’s validation, Congress gave the Executive 90 days to draft a fiscal adjustment plan, which the national administration has called the Rescue Law. The Ministry of Finance and the cabinet are already holding talks with the International Monetary Fund, a signal that new credit instruments and the conditions attached to them may be on the negotiating table.
Mobilization Set for November
The Historic Pact called on citizens to join a national mobilization on November 24 to reject the budget. The party maintains that the project raises debt service by 46% while cutting investment in the Special Jurisdiction for Peace by 82% and stripping 500 billion Colombian pesos (about $157 million) from the National Learning Service (SENA).
Lawmakers also warned that 14 departments will see their real investment shrink. They denounced that the norm prioritizes debt repayment over the financing of peace, education and regional development. “The complaint is clear: more resources for debt and less for peace, education and the regions,” the party stated on social media.
The mobilization announced for late November now stands as the opposition’s next test of strength. In the meantime, the government’s 90-day clock to deliver its fiscal adjustment plan is running, and the talks with the International Monetary Fund could define the conditions under which Colombia finances its 2027 spending. The opposition has vowed to keep the pressure on, both in the streets and in the legislature.
📢 ¡24 DE NOVIEMBRE: MOVILIZACIÓN NACIONAL!
La bancada del Pacto Histórico llama a la movilización frente al Presupuesto 2027 del Gobierno de Abelardo de la Espriella, por $634,9 billones.
Según la bancada, el servicio de la deuda aumenta un 46%, la inversión de la JEP cae un… pic.twitter.com/F5IYf2YDVb
Text reads: “November 24: National Mobilization! The Historic Pact bench calls for mobilization against the 2027 budget of the government of Abelardo de la Espriella, for $634.9 billion. According to the bank, debt service increases by 46%, Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) investment falls by 82%, National Learning Service (SENA) loses $500 billion, and 14 departments will receive less real investment. The denunciation is clear: more resources for debt and less for peace, education, and regions.”
A sus 25 años, es uno de las principales exponentes de la nueva oleada de cineastas españoles. Realizadora, actriz, profesora y bailarina, ahora ultima el guion de su segundo filme Leer
A sus 25 años, es uno de las principales exponentes de la nueva oleada de cineastas españoles. Realizadora, actriz, profesora y bailarina, ahora ultima el guion de su segundo filme
Wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon region have driven air pollution to dangerous levels in cities such as Santarém and Manaus, prompting the federal government to deploy a joint armed forces command, more water-bombing aircraft and emergency funds.
A wave of forest fires is consuming the western zone of Brazil’s Pará state, where authorities have counted 922 active outbreaks. The dense smoke has left the city of Santarém under air pollution levels described as very unhealthy for the local population.
Figures released by the Queimadas platform, which operates under the National Institute for Space Research, place Pará at the top of the national registry of environmental disasters.
The neighboring state of Amazonas reports 90 active fire points after having surpassed one thousand outbreaks in recent weeks.
Conditions grew especially dire in Santarém, where the air quality index climbed to 260 points, according to measurements from the international monitoring platform IQAir. Scientific stations detected concentrations of fine particles reaching 185 micrograms per cubic meter.
That reading exceeds the limit allowed by Brazilian environmental law by an enormous margin. The permitted daily average stands at 32 micrograms per cubic meter. Experts note that these microscopic particles penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and pose a severe threat to public health.
In Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, the picture remains critical as well. The persistent dispersion of toxic gases pushed the air quality index to 153 units during the early hours of the day, consolidating a harmful atmosphere across the urban centers of the rainforest.
The fires arrive during the dry season, when large stretches of forest are cleared by intentional burns. The flames spread through drought-stricken vegetation, and the resulting smoke drifts over populated areas with no immediate relief in sight.
Manaus respira 12 vezes mais veneno que o limite da OMS — e o pior horário ainda está por virhttps://t.co/9Gd6YlfkL3
Text reads: “Manaus breathes 12 times more poison than the W.H.O. limit – and worst time is yet to com.”
Military Response Activated
Faced with the environmental collapse, Brazil’s federal government ordered an extraordinary operational deployment. Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro confirmed the activation of a Joint General Staff of the Armed Forces based in Manaus to coordinate ground and air containment efforts.
The response added five aircraft, raising the military fleet fighting the flames in the northern region to 16 water-bombing planes. The Ministry of Integration and Regional Development transferred 14 million reais, about 2.8 million dollars, to the Amazonas state government to mitigate the emergency.
Health authorities announced the installation of a base of the National Force of the Unified Health System. Its main task will be to provide direct medical care to the thousands of residents affected by respiratory illnesses caused by the pollution.
Environmental organizations warn that the scale of the fires exposes the structural vulnerability of the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The combination of prolonged drought, deforestation and insufficient fire control threatens the ecological stability of the Amazonia and the integrity of native communities.
The local government has declared a state of emergency in Autazes as suspected arson fires, aggravated by El Niño, rip through the Brazilian Amazon and trigger health alerts in Manaus🇧🇷🔥 #Amazonas#BrazilFirespic.twitter.com/u9I1i0Ocpd
The crisis reflects the devastating consequences of climate change and agricultural pressure on the biome. During the dry season, extensive areas of jungle are razed by intentional burns meant to open land for cattle ranching and large-scale farming.
With 922 active outbreaks in Pará and the fires still spreading, the emergency response faces a race against deteriorating air quality. The health base and the expanded air fleet mark the government’s immediate answer to a crisis that shows no sign of easing.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez led a meeting on Monday with Venezuela’s main business federations and national union confederations to consolidate agreements on wage restoration, salary scales and worker’s protections.
The meeting brought together the Federation of Chambers and Associations of Commerce and Production of Venezuela (Fedecámaras), the Federation of Chambers and Companies of Venezuela (Fedeindustria) and the country’s various union confederations.
The dialogue table evaluated the progress made in the days of debate focused on restoring workers’ purchasing power.
Three core areas shaped the agenda. The first was the progressive conversion of workers’ income into formal salary, a shift the government describes as progressive salary restructuring.
The second involved adjusting salary scales and tables. The third centered on designing guarantees of stability for Venezuelan workers. In this sense, the working group also reviewed draft laws and regulatory instruments meant to shield the framework of social and economic protection for workers.
Venezuelan Acting President Rodríguez reiterated the government’s unwavering commitment to protecting the inalienable rights conquered by the people. She insisted on preserving the workday, end of year bonuses, additional bonuses, vacations, seniority premiums and social benefits in the face of external economic aggression. Following this, the authorities said the three-way dialogue strengthens the model of social justice and lays the groundwork for sovereign economic growth.
The government’s participants included Economy Minister and sector Vice-president Anabel Pereira, Sectoral Vice President for Social and Territorial Socialism Héctor Rodríguez, Planning Minister Ricardo Menéndez and Economy Sectoral Vice-President Calixto Ortega. Labor Minister Carlos Alexis Castillo, University Education Minister Ana María San Juan and Presidential Commissioner for the Constituent Assembly and Labor Consensus Eduardo Piñate also attended.
The labor meeting follows Rodríguez’s announcement days earlier before the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that the executive will submit a draft Law for the Local Economy to the National Assembly.
Rodríguez explained that the legal text has as its strategic objective the dynamization of the domestic productive apparatus through the effective linkage of the different economic sectors of the country. Before the multilateral delegations, the Venezuelan Acting President detailed the guiding principles of the norm, designed to strengthen the food sovereignty and security of the Venezuelan people against the blockade of foreign powers.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been handed a 30-day suspension and a €255 fine by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) for leaving Portugal’s training camp after a dispute with coach Jorge Jesus, a punishment that will expire in time for him to be available for the national team’s November matches.
The disciplinary council of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) imposed the punishment on Monday and confirmed that Ronaldo admitted the accusation in full.
Ronaldo walked out of the squad’s camp in Copenhagen on September 30, the day Portugal faced Denmark in the UEFA Nations League.
Ronaldo’s stated reason was that coach Jorge Jesus had twice broken his word about his role in the team, after he did not come on in the match against Norway, where he was a substitute. Jesus denied having reached an agreement with Ronaldo but left the door open to his return after Portugal’s 2-1 victory on September 27.
The rules allow a suspension of one to six months, but the ceiling drops to three when a player accepts responsibility. Ronaldo did, and his 30-day ban reflects that admission. Alongside the ban, the council ordered him to pay 255 euros, a sum worth about 285 dollars.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been fined €255 (£215; $286) and given a 30-day suspension after exiting the Portugal national team camp early.
The disciplinary body determined that Ronaldo intentionally committed an infringement under article 160, paragraph 1, of the federation’s regulations. The procedure opened on October 9, based on facts reported two days earlier. His suspension was counted from September 30, the day he left, so he has already served 19 days and has 11 remaining. In practice, he was sidelined from the moment he abandoned the camp, well before Monday’s formal ruling.
In its statement, the disciplinary committee said Ronaldo “did not previously communicate or justify, before the person responsible for the FPF or the national team, his intention to abandon” the concentration on September 30. The former Real Madrid striker later told Federation President Pedro Proença that he was not “in emotional conditions to continue.”
A few days after leaving, Ronaldo posted a lengthy statement on his official Instagram account explaining his reasons and asking fans to believe him: “Believe me, this is the pure truth.”
“Despite the absolute lack of trust in the coach’s word, as anyone who witnessed these conversations can attest, I should not have done it. The responsibility is exclusively mine,” he said.
Ronaldo received the minimum penalty provided by the FPF’s rules. For abandoning national team activity, the regulations call for a penalty of between one and six months, although the maximum in this case would be reduced to three months because the player admitted guilt.
Return Possible in November
The timing of the ban means Ronaldo will be eligible for Portugal’s next Nations League fixtures against Denmark and Wales on November 14 and 17. Both the captain and the coach have left the door open for his inclusion in that squad. With only 11 days of the suspension left, the 41-year-old could rejoin the group before those matches.
The sanction resolves a dispute that had hung over the national team since the September window. Portugal beat Norway 2-1 in that period, with Ronaldo watching from the bench. He departed before the following match against Denmark and played no part in either fixture. His absence, however, did not settle the questions about his relationship with the coach, which the federation has now addressed through its ruling.
For Ronaldo, the outcome is a light one. The 255-euro fine is a small sum for a player of his profile, and the suspension expires before his country’s next competitive matches. The federation acted at the lowest end of its disciplinary scale, allowing the captain to return without missing further competitive action. Portugal’s November fixtures will now show whether the dispute is truly closed or merely paused.
Argentina’s Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM, in Spanish) filed a criminal complaint Monday against national government officials over the police operation that left more than 550 people injured during the fifth federal university march in Buenos Aires.
The complaint, submitted to the Federal Court led by Judge Sebastián Ramos, calls for an investigation into both the officers who took part in the operation and the political authorities who ordered the security deployment during the day of protest.
A report prepared by the autonomous body found that the police intervention stretched on for more than three hours.
Security forces fired rubber bullets horizontally at the bodies of demonstrators, deployed water cannons at high pressure and launched more than 120 tear gas grenades in what the report described as a disproportionate use of force.
The formal filing also stated that the attacks reached medical assistance teams, press workers and human rights observers. At the same time, the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture monitored the street actions and warned of an abusive use of force that led to the detention of four adults and two teenagers.
The figure of more than 550 people affected or injured gives the operation a scale recorded in Argentine protests. The Argentine Provincial Commission for Memory report documented the trajectory of the rubber bullets, the intensity of the water cannons and the volume of chemical agents deployed against a crowd that included students, teachers and ordinary citizens.
The fifth federal university march brought thousands of people into the streets across the country to demand that President Javier Milei enforce the University Financing Law. The legislation, approved by the National Congress and reaffirmed after being vetoed by the executive branch, has the backing of the judiciary to guarantee the budget of the public education system.
Human rights organizations demanded the urgent delimitation of criminal and institutional responsibilities in the face of the reported escalation of violence. Torture prevention bodies stressed that the use of less lethal weapons requires strict protocols to protect the integrity of those exercising their constitutional right to protest.
The advance of the legal actions keeps the conduct of the Ministry of Security and the management of social conflict in the Argentine capital at the center of national debate. The complaint before Judge Ramos seeks to establish who ordered the deployment and who allowed the operation to continue for hours despite the growing number of injuries.
University communities announced that they will maintain institutional and street actions to demand the budget allocation that the law grants to higher education institutions. The protest movement shows no sign of retreat, even as the judicial process begins to examine the events of the march.
The Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM, in Spanish), an autonomous body with a long record of documenting state violence, placed the operation within a broader pattern of concern. Its report argues that the use of force crossed the line separating legitimate public order maintenance from punishment aimed at those who dissent.
The case now rests with the Federal Court, which must decide whether to summon the security agents and the political officials identified in the filing. The outcome will shape how Argentina addresses the use of force against social protest, a question that has divided the country since the march left its toll of injured demonstrators on the streets of the capital.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy warned Monday it will take firm measures, including sanctions, against any vessel sailing through the Strait of Hormuz with its identification systems deliberately switched off, after an oil tanker struck a naval mine and caught fire.
The naval force reported that the tanker sustained a powerful explosion and fire in its engine room, according to a communiqué released October 19. The blast occurred in the southern sector of the strait as the ship tried to leave the area while keeping its positioning and navigation equipment turned off from the very start of its journey.
Iranian authorities said the vessel was attempting to cross an unauthorized maritime route without observing the international transit regulations in force along the corridor. The military institution stressed that severe and firm measures will be applied against any ship or supertanker navigating the Strait of Hormuz or the Persian Gulf with electronic identification gear intentionally deactivated.
Ships commonly use automatic identification systems, known as AIS, to broadcast their position, and switching them off is a practice often associated with efforts to avoid detection.
The Strait of Hormuz links the Persian Gulf with the open sea and ranks among the world’s most critical corridors for energy shipments. Disruptions along this route echo quickly through global oil markets, which explains the attention the mine blast drew from the naval command and from traders tracking the waterway.
BREAKING: Iran announces an oil tanker has hit a naval mine while exiting the Strait of Hormuz through the US-backed southern Omani corridor, with a massive fire in the engine room. pic.twitter.com/kzMnoJr4Q0
The explosion and the fire that followed inflicted serious damage on the tanker. Naval rescue teams remain deployed near the site of the incident to prevent further risks to navigation and to guard against possible spills that could harm the marine ecosystem.
In recent weeks, several other vessels have recorded considerable damage while attempting to cross through passages that are not authorized south of the strategic corridor controlled by Iranian forces. Officials tied the pattern of incidents to deliberate breaches of transit protocols by ships seeking to move without being detected.
The warning issued Monday signals that Tehran intends to enforce those rules with greater severity. The IRGC’s statement made clear that no vessel, whatever its size or flag, will be permitted to traverse the waterway with identification systems switched off.
Closure and Oil Markets
The escalation unfolds against the backdrop of Tehran’s decision to restore the closure of the strait, a measure presented as a response to the sanctions and maritime blockades imposed on Iranian ports by the U.S. government.
The shutdown of this vital artery pushed international prices of crude and refined energy products sharply higher, disrupting supply across Western markets. Washington, confronting the resulting instability in commercial transit, has resorted to continuous releases from its strategic petroleum reserves in an effort to contain global economic volatility. The continuous drawdowns from emergency reserves underscore how heavily the closure weighs on the global supply balance.
Tehran had previously arranged the reopening of the corridor after the signing of the Islamabad memorandum of understanding. The Iranian Armed Forces, however, reimposed the restrictive controls after denouncing aggressions and violations of the peace accords, a reversal that left the waterway under tight military supervision once again.
Control over commercial navigation in the Persian Gulf remains a central point of geopolitical confrontation in the region. Iranian authorities reiterated that full compliance with transit regulations is indispensable to guarantee the operational safety of merchant vessels moving through the strategic passage. The naval command said the area remains under close observation.
Two weeks before the midterm elections, Trump’s approval rating has hit a two-term low. The war with Iran has driven up the cost of a tank of gas and a cart of groceries, millennials have turned away from him faster than the rest of the country, and part of his base plans to stay home.
Donald Trump’s name is not on any ballot on Nov. 3, yet much of the U.S. electorate will head to the polls with him in mind.
A national poll released Sunday, Oct. 18, and conducted Oct. 9-13, puts his approval rating at 33%, the lowest the series has recorded in either of his terms. Two in three adults disapprove of his performance, 52% strongly, and the same survey had him at 37% in both April and July.
The poll also asked whether the next Congress should act as a check on the president or support his agenda. Fifty-eight percent preferred a Democratic-controlled Congress as a check on him, compared with 39% who want a Republican Congress aligned with the White House, a gap nearly twice as wide as a year ago. Neither party is calling this election a referendum, but the answer brings it close to one.
Almost six out of ten U.S. citizens want the next Congress to counterbalance Trump, a gap that has nearly doubled in one year. Graph: teleSUR
In the race for the House of Representatives, Democrats lead Republicans 52% to 44% among likely voters. Among registered voters the gap holds at eight points; in July it was three.
Between the first bombings on Iran and the election, gasoline soared above 4 dollars and Trump’s approval rating plummeted. Graph: teleSUR
From Hormuz to the Gas Tank
The United States and Israel began bombing Iran in February, when a gallon of regular gasoline cost an average of $2.98, according to AAA. By late March it had topped $4 for the first time since 2022, and each new round of strikes pushed it back up. On Oct. 1, the national average hit $4.41.
At those prices, filling a 15-gallon tank costs about $21 more than before the war.
With Ormuz declared closed by Iran and no oil pipelines capable of replacing it, the gallon rose 48% in the US even with record crude production. Graph: teleSUR
In February, 7 in 10 U.S. citizens considered gasoline affordable. Eight months later, the same share says the opposite.
About a fifth of the oil the world consumes passes through the Strait of Hormuz. According to the official price index for September, consumer prices rose 3.7% over the year, energy 20.4% and gasoline 34.2%, while inflation excluding food and energy stood at 2.6%. Today, 65% of U.S. citizens believe attacking Iran was a mistake.
Tehran declared the strait closed in March and has reaffirmed that stance several times since. In October, Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, chief of staff of Iran’s army, told the official IRNA news agency that the waterway remains closed and that all transit must be coordinated with the armed forces, and he blamed the closure for the rise in U.S. gasoline prices.
Washington says otherwise. On Oct. 7, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that “the Straits of Hormuz are open,” that as much oil is flowing out now “as there was before this conflict began” and that Iran has “lost complete control of the straits.” Overland routes cannot replace the strait either. Before the war, the EIA estimated that the Saudi and Emirati pipelines that bypass Hormuz had only about 2.6 million barrels a day of spare capacity to divert crude, compared with the 20 million barrels a day that moved through the strait.
Ten days later, Vice President JD Vance revealed another side of the same administration. “I recognize that gas prices are too high right now,” he said Saturday night at a televised town hall. Asked why the war had not ended in a clear victory, he said that “in some ways we have won decisively,” though “the enemy gets a vote.” And he repeated that Iran, “the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world,” cannot have a nuclear weapon.
On the campaign trail, the fix being sold in Washington points elsewhere. In a poll of 1,000 likely voters taken in early October, four in five agreed that increasing U.S. energy production “can help make everyday life more affordable,” and 67% backed a proposal whose wording already promised the result, “updating federal permitting laws to reduce delays and lower costs.” It is the same reform the oil industry pitches as the key to affordability.
The government’s own energy agency supplies the missing piece. The United States has been the world’s largest crude oil producer since 2018 and is on track for a record of about 13.7 million barrels a day this year, while 84% of the crude that crossed Hormuz was bound for Asia. With output at record highs, gasoline has risen 48% since the bombing began. Crude is priced on a global market, and this year’s price spikes followed the calendar of the war, not the permitting calendar.
The price shock reached much of the world, and Latin American economies that import refined fuels absorbed it without having had any say in the decision to go to war. For those countries, the permitting fight in Washington is a distant concern; the price of their diesel depends on what happens in Hormuz. How much room Washington has to keep waging the war without congressional oversight will also be decided on Nov. 3.
For Latin American families living in the United States, the most visible face of the second term is immigration policy. At the start, half the country approved of it; now about 60% disapprove, and 56% say deportations have gone too far, eight points more than in April 2025. At the same town hall, Vance acknowledged that his rhetoric about immigrants had been “imperfect” and took the blame. “That’s on me,” he said. His goal, he insisted, is not “to dehumanize any immigrant.” “In fact, I love a number of immigrants,” he added.
An Economy Judged by Team Colors
The president’s approval on the economy has fallen to 28%, its lowest mark across his two presidencies. Forty-eight percent feel worse off than when Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the highest share in a series dating back to 1986, and for the first time in more than a decade, registered voters trust Democrats more to handle the economy, 40% to 33%. Before the 2022 midterms, the same series gave Republicans a double-digit edge on the issue.
That year, with Joe Biden in the White House, each party’s verdict on the economy was the mirror image of today’s, almost point for point, and independents stood at 16% in both surveys.
Democrats and Republicans reversed their judgment of the economy by changing government, meanwhile only independents stayed where they were. Graph: teleSUR
Voters who wear no team colors are moved by their wallets. In the October survey of likely voters, 37% said a candidate’s stance on affordability will decide their vote for Congress, more than double the 15% who put immigration first, an issue central to Trump’s 2024 campaign. That priority is shared by 43% of Democrats, 36% of independents and 32% of Republicans.
Among those who say they are worse off than in 2025, 78% lean toward Democrats, as do 71% of independents in that group.
The Generation that Turned Away Fastest
Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, are now 30 to 45 years old and make up the largest adult generation in the country. In 2024 they split almost evenly on Trump; exit polls showed voters ages 30 to 44 backing Kamala Harris over him 51% to 47%.
A YouGov poll conducted Aug. 28-31 found 27% approval and 70% disapproval in that age group, the group’s worst showing in the series. Its net rating went from minus 1 in January 2025 to minus 43 in August, a 42-point drop, compared with 30 points nationally.
The Economist makes the opposite case. It argues that millennials have turned their fortunes around and now earn more than any recent generation did at the same age, while narrowing the gap in homeownership. The magazine credits the recovery to markets rather than to a state-funded rescue. October’s polls show what that narrative leaves out.
In the House race, the Pew Research Center found voters ages 30 to 49 favoring the Democratic candidate 43% to 31%, with one in five still undecided.
October’s affordability survey, broken down by age, points in the same direction. Affordability will decide the vote of 45% of voters in their 30s and 44% of those in their 40s, above the 37% average. This is the cohort that entered the job market in the 2008 crisis, pays rent or a mortgage, raises children and fills the tank every day to get to work, and the tank is precisely where prices have climbed the most this year.
The cost of living defines the vote of almost half of voters aged 30-49, above the national average of 37%. Graph: teleSUR
The figures come from surveys with different age brackets and do not prove a single cause. Read together, though, they show the country’s largest generation turning away from Trump faster than everyone else, with the cost of living at the top of its priorities.
Among those who voted for Trump in 2024, 23% now disapprove of his performance and 38% reject his handling of inflation. Most of them still prefer Republicans for Congress, so the erosion does not take the form of a switch to the other party. What they have lost is the certainty that they will vote.
Seventy-five percent of registered Democrats say they are certain to vote, compared with 67% of Republicans. Within the Republican Party, certainty reaches 75% among supporters of the MAGA movement and falls to 57% among those who do not identify with it, and more than a quarter of the latter want Democrats to control the next Congress.
Only 39% of Republicans strongly approve of the president, down from 63% in February 2025.
How many of the 77 million people who voted for Trump in 2024 will return to the polls without his name on the ballot is a question no one can answer yet. Turnout models based on 2022 and 2024 favor Republicans; votes already cast or locked in, by contrast, favor Democrats.
The risk for Republicans is at home. Their MAGA-unaffiliated voters are the least confident of going to the polls. Graph: teleSUR
What is at Stake in the Senate
With the slim House majority Republicans are defending, losing a handful of seats would be enough to hand over control, and presidential approval is among the best predictors of midterm results. Even so, 58% of likely voters who “somewhat” disapprove of Trump still prefer the Republican in their district.
The Senate is split 53-47 in Republicans’ favor, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win back the majority. Of the 35 seats on the ballot, seven are rated toss-ups, and six of them — in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas — are held by Republicans. North Carolina, a Republican seat, is already rated as likely to go Democratic.
The seven states that decided the last presidential election — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — offer an early clue about 2028. Trump carried all seven in 2024, and today his net approval is negative in every one of them, between 15 and 25 points underwater among registered voters, according to the Civiqs tracker. He cannot run in 2028, and those numbers measure a president, not his successor, but they map the terrain his party will inherit.
Six of the seven open Senate races are played in Republican seats, while their approval is now negative in the seven states that gave the White House to Trump in 2024. Graph: teleSUR
On Nov. 3, Trump’s name will still be missing from the ballot. The outcome will depend less on votes that switch parties than on the votes that are never cast, among them those of a generation that split almost evenly on him two years ago and in August disapproved of him by more than two to one.
The Arch and the Gas Pump
On Wednesday, Oct. 14, 20 days before the election, the new Air Force One flew low over the airport in Bullhead City, in the Arizona desert. It is the Boeing 747 that Qatar’s royal family gave Trump, now painted red, white, blue and gold. “When they give you a 747, you say two words, thank you,” he told supporters.
Arizona is one of the swing states that change hands from one presidential election to the next. Joe Biden won it in 2020 by about 10,500 votes, Trump took it back in 2024, and today his approval there is 18 points underwater. The state has no Senate race this year, but it does elect a governor and all nine of its House members. The president chose Mohave County, where he won more than 77% of the vote two years ago, with early voting already a week underway. He went looking for his base, the voters he needs at the polls, not at home.
From the plane he moved on to people who leak military information. “In my opinion, leakers should be shot,” he said, and he called the journalists covering him “almost as bad as a leaker.” He touted the ballroom he is building at the White House and the triumphal arch he plans for the capital. On Iran, whose leaders, he said, “are gone,” he let slip a confession. “I might have gone too far. I don’t know who the hell to deal with.” And he promised that once the war ends,“your gasoline is going to go down to even lower than it was before it started.”
He was addressing a country that fills its tank at wartime prices and pays rents 2.8% higher than a year ago, according to the official price index. Three days later, his vice president admitted on television what the gas pump was already saying. Trump, in Arizona, had preferred to talk about monuments.
The planned arch would stand 76 meters (250 feet) tall, about 26 meters (85 feet) taller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and would rise at the foot of the bridge leading to Arlington National Cemetery, as part of the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence.
Napoleon commissioned the Paris arch in 1806, after his victory at Austerlitz, to honor his armies. Construction dragged on for three decades. When it was inaugurated in 1836, the emperor had been dead in exile for 15 years, and he passed beneath the arch only once, in 1840, inside the coffin that brought his remains back to France.
Hurricane Trudy weakened to Category 1 on Friday off Mexico’s Pacific coast, after data gathered by a hurricane-hunter aircraft, but the country’s National Meteorological Service (SMN) kept its alert for intense rain in the south and west of the country.
The downgrade came hours after the storm reached Category 3 in the early morning hours and registered Category 2 around midday, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) said in an update.
At noon local time, the center of the cyclone was located about 370 kilometers southwest of Acapulco, in Guerrero state, and 515 kilometers south-southeast of Manzanillo, in Colima state, but it was moving north-northwest at seven kilometers per hour.
The adjustment followed a warning earlier in the day from National Meteorological Service’s coordinator Fabián Vázquez Romaña, who told the presidential news conference about the storm’s rapid intensification and a forecast that it could reach Category 4 before approaching the coasts of Colima and Jalisco on Sunday.
Hurricane #Trudy is nearing the coast of #Mexico, which is expected to see MAJOR IMPACTS in the form of flooding as over 400mm of rain could fall! A #Hurricane Warning is in effect. Will have a stream up tonight to answer your questions! pic.twitter.com/GY9V47IK5O
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged residents of the regions under alert to follow official civil protection notices and to go to temporary shelters if they are in risk zones or near riverbeds.
The National Meteorological Service said the storm’s circulation will bring intense rainfall to the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Colima and Michoacán. Mexican authorities, working with the U.S. National Hurricane Center, maintain a hurricane-wind watch zone from Manzanillo, Colima, to Playa Pérula, Jalisco.
The agency warned that the rain could cause landslides, rising rivers and streams, overflows and flooding in low-lying areas of the affected states, and urged the public to follow civil protection recommendations.
Double trouble in the eastern Pacific! 🌀🌀 Tropical Storm Simon is threatening Mexico's west-central coast with ongoing torrential rain and dangerous seas, while nearby Hurricane Trudy could rapidly intensify into a major hurricane in the coming days. https://t.co/DepkchVHhZpic.twitter.com/NjcysAgoDU
A second system is also churning in the Pacific. Tropical Storm Simon was located 220 kilometers south of Cabo San Lucas in Baja California Sur and 445 kilometers west of Cabo Corrientes in Jalisco.
Simon carries winds of 65 kilometers per hour and drifts northwest at 15 kilometers per hour. It will generate very heavy rains, wind gusts reaching 50 kilometers per hour and swells of two to three meters along the southern portion of Baja California Sur.
The presence of two active systems on the same coastline complicates the response. Emergency planners must track the slow-moving Trudy as it threatens Guerrero, Colima and Jalisco while Simon feeds moisture into Baja California Sur hundreds of kilometers to the north.
Trudy’s sudden weakening does not remove the danger. Forecasters stress that the downgrade reflects current wind speeds, not the rainfall threat, which remains substantial and stretches well beyond the storm’s center.
The storm’s seven-kilometer-per-hour drift means it will linger over the region longer, unloading rain on the same watersheds hour after hour. That pattern, rather than wind alone, drives the risk of flash floods and mudslides in mountainous terrain.
Mexico has strengthened its early warning systems in recent years, and the morning presidential briefing reflected an effort to keep the public informed before the storm’s most dangerous phase arrives. President Sheinbaum’s appeal to use temporary shelters framed the government’s priority as protecting lives ahead of property.
The coming days will test that preparation. Trudy may regain strength if conditions over the Pacific shift, and the projected approach to Colima and Jalisco on Sunday keeps coastal communities on edge.
For now, the alerts remain in place and the message from authorities is consistent: the storm has weakened, but the rain has not, and the hours of greatest risk still lie ahead.
Argentina’s delegation at the United Nations abstained from a resolution aimed at eradicating modern forms of colonialism, siding with the Trump administration and undercutting President Javier Milei’s recent demands over the British-occupied Malvinas Islands.
The vote took place in the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly. The measure, presented by the Russian Federation, sought to ratify and reinforce the goals of Resolution 1514, the landmark text approved in 1960 that declared colonialism incompatible with the UN Charter and fundamental human rights.
Argentina’s diplomatic delegation chose to stand aside rather than endorse the initiative. The move placed the Milei government in line with the position promoted by the White House, which pressed allied governments to abstain.
The resolution passed anyway. Delegates recorded 85 votes in favor, 49 against and 23 abstentions, sending the text to the full General Assembly for consideration.
The alignment extended beyond Buenos Aires and Washington. Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Paraguay joined the abstention, a bloc of right-leaning regional governments that followed the U.S. lead.
On the other side, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India voted in favor. Their support reaffirmed the global backing for territorial integrity and decolonization processes, and set up a sharp divide within Latin America itself.
The Russian draft went further than the 1960 declaration. It extended the concept of colonialism to cover unilateral coercive measures and the economic and financial sanctions promoted by Washington around the world, a provision that made the vote a direct test of alignment.
The UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee approved the draft resolution “Addressing contemporary forms of colonialism” by 85 votes in favour, 49 against, with 23 abstentions. Sponsored by Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Palestine and others, it recognizes colonialism in… pic.twitter.com/MqgQfoMhME
The abstention collides with the rhetoric Milei has used on Malvinas, the archipelago occupied by Britain since 1833. His government has campaigned publicly for the defense of sovereignty and demanded sanctions against oil companies operating on that Argentine soil.
The contrast sharpened in September, when the Argentine President addressed the General Assembly. There he read extended passages demanding the eradication of colonialism and stated plainly that the principle of self-determination “exists to liberate colonized peoples, not to enshrine situations derived from colonization.”
Those words sit uneasily with the vote his own diplomats just cast, or chose not to cast. The abstention, in effect, withheld support from a document that echoes the very argument Milei delivered from the rostrum.
The domestic reaction was immediate. Carlos Bianco, the government minister for Buenos Aires province, called the abstention an irresponsible act against a historic national cause. “The Malvinas question deserves a diplomacy that does not kneel. Abstaining in the face of colonialism is not just an embarrassment, it constitutes an act of irresponsibility. The Malvinas question must once again be defined by Argentines. And it will be,” Bianco wrote on social media.
The episode exposes a tension running through the Milei administration’s foreign policy. It has embraced Washington as its principal ally while maintaining, at least in public speeches, a sovereignty claim that Washington’s abstention strategy directly undercuts.
Milei dice que quiere recuperar Malvinas. En la ONU, la Argentina se abstuvo de votar contra el colonialismo. Hace dos semanas, esa misma delegación decía que Malvinas es una situación colonial. Sobran las contradicciones. No tienen política exterior propia y desprecian al país… pic.twitter.com/I5cYaXCbvp
Text reads: “Milei says he wants to take back Malvinas. At the UN, Argentina abstained from voting against colonialism. Two weeks ago, that same delegation said that Malvinas are a colonial situation. The contradictions abound. They have no foreign policy of their own and despise the country they govern.”
Argentina’s historic position on Malvinas has long drawn broad support across Latin America and the developing world, precisely the coalition that voted in favor of the resolution Buenos Aires declined to endorse.
The measure now moves to the plenary, where the same fault lines are likely to reappear. What Argentina does there will reveal whether the abstention was an isolated calculation or a settled posture. For now, the vote leaves a record that is hard to reconcile: a government that speaks of liberating colonized peoples, yet declines to vote for a resolution doing exactly that.
Uruguayan football introduced a new technology on Thursday night when referees replaced the traditional paper cards with an electronic device to show cautions and expulsions during a local match, although early tests have shown problems with visibility, according to local media reports.
Uruguayan football experienced a historic day on Thursday night with the appearance of virtual cards in the match that Nacional won 3-0 to Rentistas for the eighths final of the Uruguayan Cup, at the Gran Parque Central stadium.
During the game, the officiating team used the electronic device instead of the physical cards to signal bookings and sending-offs on the pitch.
The tool is designed to look like a mobile phone and has dedicated buttons to display yellow or red lights. Its main selling point is the automation of administrative work and allows referees to record every disciplinary sanction, substitution or incident in real time directly in the COMET sports management system.
That removes the need to take handwritten notes during the action and speeds up the digitization of the official post-match report.
La AUF (Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol) presentó las tarjetas virtuales, un método que debutó en un duelo de Copa.
Text reads: “The Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) introduced virtual cards, a method that debuted in a Cup duel. This technological advance allows the automated and digital recording of the player who has been reprimanded.”
Despite the logistical benefits, the virtual cards face technical obstacles in their first trial stages. The debut was initially scheduled for the match between Defensor Sporting and Plaza Colonia, but sunlight made it impossible to see the colors properly. Under the artificial lighting of Thursday’s night match, local media reports said the signal was still not completely clear from a distance.
What Comes Next
At present, the device’s fundamental value lies in its ability to streamline the collection and transmission of statistical data during the ninety minutes of a match. Authorities will keep evaluating its performance to try to correct the faults related to brightness and contrast.
If the required visual improvements are achieved, the technology could be adopted on a regular basis in the main categories of South American football, according to the source. No timeline for that decision has been announced.
Technology in refereeing has expanded steadily in recent years, with video review and semi-automated systems now common in major competitions. Most of those tools help officials make decisions, while this device focuses on communicating and recording them. The key test for the Uruguayan trial will be whether the cards are as easy for players and spectators to see as the paper ones they replace, since visible signals are central to how the game communicates discipline.
The technology carries obvious logistical benefits, because referees no longer depend on cardboards that can be dropped, lost or misread, and data flows directly into the official system while the ninety minutes are still running.
For the Uruguayan Football Association, the real value of the tool lies in how it optimizes the collection and transmission of statistics. Every booking, substitution and incident becomes part of a digital record the moment it happens, a change that could improve accuracy in reports that have long depended on memory and hurried notes.
Venezuela holds its Second National Popular Consultation this Sunday with 5,418 communal circuits choosing among over 37,000 locally proposed projects in water, roads, lighting, health and education.
Venezuela will hold its second National Popular Consultation of the year on October 18, in which communes across the country will vote directly on 37,205 budget proposals, with each winning project set to receive an initial $10,000 administered by the community itself.
The vote covers 48,086 communal councils grouped into 5,418 territorial circuits, which the source describes as guaranteeing self-government at the neighborhood level.
To facilitate participation, authorities have set up 11,495 voting centers and 12,769 polling tables nationwide. The process will be guarded by 13,000 members of the Republic Plan security deployment, with operational support from more than 36,000 communal members advised by the National Electoral Council (CNE).
The proposals are tied to the government’s Concrete Action Agenda. The City and Services sector has the largest share, with 19,028 projects focused on water, electricity, roads and hospital infrastructure. The social area has 9,217 initiatives, and the economic sector has 4,887 proposals to boost local production.
Each project chosen by popular vote will receive an initial allocation of $10,000, to be managed and carried out directly by the commune. Institutional spokespeople said earlier editions closed with more than 80% successful executions, thanks to what they called the rigorous application of preventive social oversight.
Venezuelans will vote this Sunday on another National Popular Consultation. Each organized community will choose a project, according to local needs, that will receive 10k in state funding. Alongside communes, over 400 condominium boards are also participating pic.twitter.com/ecihlXWs8U
One structural change stands out this year. More than 89 condominiums and horizontal property movements from Aragua, Miranda and the Capital District have joined the process formally. It is the first time these residential boards can put forward priority projects of their own, from elevator repairs to improvements in basic services inside buildings.
In the days before the vote, communes carried out house-to-house outreach to promote the proposals now heading to the ballot. That door-knocking campaign carried each initiative into homes and opened neighbor-to-neighbor debate over territorial priorities.
The Sunday vote will also promote the active participation of young people aged 15 and older, which authorities say favors generational renewal in local public management.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, speaking in at the Villa Zoila commune, emphasized that “the people are exercising a protagonistic and participatory form of democracy.”
“We are going to democracy, to participation and to the emotion that always comes with going to an election,” she said.
Rodríguez connected the vote to the delivery of the National Budget before the National Assembly. That spending plan, she explained, is built “from the communes.” Communes and community organizations take part in deciding where resources will be invested, an advance she said Venezuela must preserve.
The second edition of the year confirms the National Popular Consultation has moved beyond an isolated event. It now functions as a recurring mechanism of popular decision, with organized communes as the leading actors in local public spending, as a pillar of participatory democracy in Venezuela.
Gaza’s Health Ministry reported Friday that hunger and malnutrition have killed 466 people since 2024, as famine grips the enclave and pushes more than 1.4 million residents toward a critical food crisis.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza confirmed Friday that malnutrition and hunger rates have reached catastrophic levels across the territory.
The toll stands at 466 starvation deaths since 2024, a figure the ministry released on World Food Day, observed October 16.
The health authority issued a grim report exposing the consequences of the prolonged Israeli siege. Official projections show that more than 1.4 million people, equivalent to 67% of the population, will face a critical or worse food crisis by the end of 2026. Famine was formally declared in Gaza governorate in August 2025.
“Malnutrition and famine rates in the Gaza Strip have reached catastrophic levels, seriously affecting children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups,” the Ministry said in its statement.
Statement by the Gaza Ministry of Health on World Food Day:
▪️ "Malnutrition and starvation rates in the Gaza Strip have reached catastrophic levels, ravaging children, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups."
▪️ "A total of 466 deaths due to malnutrition and starvation have…
Children carry a heavy share of the toll. Since 2024, 157 children have died from malnutrition, roughly one third of all starvation deaths. Between 2024 and August 2026, health workers documented 158,001 cases of acute malnutrition in children under five, including 28,716 severe cases that directly threaten life.
The mortality rate among children under five more than doubled, climbing from 13.6 to 33.4 deaths per 1,000 live births between 2022 and 2025. Stunting now affects 12.2% of the child population. Officials estimate that another 74,200 children will require specialized treatment through 2027.
Maternal health has deteriorated sharply as well. Anemia prevalence rose to 61% in 2026, compared with 41% before the conflict. Nearly 4,000 miscarriages were recorded in the first half of the year, more than triple the previous six months. One in every three pregnancies is now classified as high risk.
🇵🇸 466 Palestinians, including 157 children, have died from malnutrition and starvation in Gaza since 2024, Health Ministry says
⚠️ More than 1.4 million people are expected to face crisis-level food insecurity or worse through the end of 2026
Elderly adults account for the largest share of deaths linked to food shortages. The Gazan Ministry registered 189 fatalities among the elderly, or 40.5% of the national total.
The vulnerability among seniors is stark: 11% go entire days without eating anything at all, meanwhile 48% deliberately reduce their own portions to feed their families. 68% of them have interrupted or cut back on medication doses because of widespread shortages.
Three years of war have collapsed the food system. The Ministry’s warning lands as winter approaches and as aid deliveries remain insufficient to meet the scale of need across the territory.
The figures mark the deepest point yet in a hunger emergency that has built steadily since the conflict began. A formal famine declaration, once a rare event, now defines daily reality for hundreds of thousands of people trapped in the enclave.
The projected rise in food insecurity through late 2026, combined with 74,200 children awaiting specialized care, points to a crisis that will persist even if aid access improves.
Facing this emergency, the Health Ministry recalled that the right to food is fundamental. It urged the United Nations and the international community to establish urgent mechanisms that guarantee the safe, sustainable and unrestricted entry of humanitarian aid, therapeutic supplements and medicines into the enclave.
Nepal’s government reported that the August 26 flood destroyed 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, with damages and losses exceeding $2.7 billion, as Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle sought international funding to rebuild.
Nepal’s government said that the August 26 flood, dubbed the “Himalayan tsunami,”caused physical damage worth $1.8 billion and additional economic losses of more than $900 million, equivalent to about 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as it seeks international financing for reconstruction.
Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle presented the estimates on Thursday at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok, on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Wagle is seeking international funding for rebuilding and for measures to “avoid or mitigate the impact of future disasters.”
Nearly seven weeks passed between the disaster and Thursday’s accounting. The flood struck on August 26, and the assessment Wagle presented in Bangkok represents the government’s formal reckoning of the economic damage it must now confront.The floods left more than 1,500 people dead and 6,000 missing, causing severe destruction of essential infrastructure, hydropower projects, farmland, fish ponds, food stocks and agricultural infrastructure across the country.
Flash floods along Nepal’s Budhi Gandaki River swept away homes and bridges, forcing residents to flee to higher ground.
Wagle said Nepal does not intend merely to “replace what was destroyed, but to build better,” with more resilient infrastructure. He said that approach will raise the cost of reconstruction to $5 billion.
The Minister also said Nepal, which he described as “the poorest country in Asia after Afghanistan,” has contributed very little to global warming because of its limited industrialization and low emissions, but “is bearing the worst consequences of climate change.”
Wagle appealed to the “ethical and moral responsibility of countries with greater resources” to support the most vulnerable and called for a model of “global solidarity and cooperation.” “It is not about blaming rich countries, but about making a joint call to action,” he said.
Gorkha, #Nepal Damaged houses lie partially submerged in sludge along the banks of the Budhi Gandaki River after a flash #flood caused by a #landslide. Four bridges and dozens of houses were swept away, as well as a construction camp for a hydropower project pic.twitter.com/vui6RyJocr
The disaster originated high in the Himalayas. A glacial and rocky mass covering two square kilometers broke away from Langtang Lirung mountain at an altitude of 5,200 meters. The ensuing flood also swept into the Chinese region of Tibet.
The scale of the threat extends beyond a single event. A recent study in Scientific Reports warns that roughly 300,000 people in Nepal live in river channels susceptible to flooding. Construction in those vulnerable zones grew by almost 50 percent between 2016 and 2023, a pattern that multiplies the risk to communities as extreme weather becomes more frequent.
Nepal’s appeal arrives as climate-linked disasters mount across South Asia, a region where economies least responsible for global emissions face some of the steepest recovery costs. For a country that contributes a negligible share of greenhouse gases, the $5 billion reconstruction bill amounts to a burden imposed largely by forces beyond its control.
Federal forces in Argentina fired tear gas and turned water cannons on thousands of peaceful demonstrators in Buenos Aires on Thursday, detaining at least 34 people during the fifth Federal University March.
The march demanded implementation of the University Financing Law and denounced a sustained squeeze on public university budgets.
The demonstrations were replicated in dozens of Argentine cities, with students, teachers and university staff joined by unions, social organizations and environmental groups demanding the full implementation of the University Financing Law.
Protesters also denounced a sustained budget squeeze on public universities and rejected the ninth consecutive appeal filed by Javier Milei’s administration against court rulings that order the transfer of funds to the country’s higher education institutions.
The funding dispute has dragged on for months. Courts have repeatedly instructed the government to hand over the money set aside under the University Financing Law, and each ruling has been met with a new appeal from the national government. Thursday’s march was the fifth federal mobilization in a campaign that has grown beyond campuses to include unions, social organizations and environmental groups.
Beyond the university budget, the crowd voiced opposition to Decree 70/23 and defended the Land Law. Speakers also called for salary increases, relief measures for indebted families and more resources for public institutions.
Arrests and Attacks on Press
According to local media, the police began repression outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires as a response to an incident of a group of about eight people, who started breaking street furniture and throwing objects against the fence surrounding Parliament. Despite being an isolated incident, the gassing affected those who marched peacefully. Witnesses warned of possible infiltrators.
At least 34 people were arrested and one woman was injured. Cameras captured a gas canister hitting her head. “The gas thing fell on my head, I don’t know how I am, I have to go to the hospital,” the woman, who gave her name as Andrea, told reporters covering the march.
For its part, the Buenos Aires City Police said in an official statement that its own force detained six people: two minors, aged 14 and 17, and four adults, three men and one woman, charged with assault and resistance to authority.
Press workers also was targeted. Photographer Guido Piotrkowski, who was covering the march, captured the moment when a Federal Police officer stepped out from behind the fence, aimed and fired at him. “They came out from behind the fences and started shooting; I was taking photos and they fired at us,” he said. “They hit me in the chest, another colleague in the leg, but they aimed directly. They were rubber pellets.”
According to the reports, another worker from a community media outlet had to be treated at a hospital after being hit by at least seven rubber bullets. Cameras from the C5N channel also recorded a man with his face covered handling a backpack in the middle of the square. When the reporter approached to speak with him, the man reacted violently and struck the cameraman.
The fifth Federal University March ended under a cloud of gas. The political dispute over who unleashed the violence now moves to Congress, where opposition lawmakers are pressing the security minister to account for the operation.
No Quorum in Congress
Meanwhile, the Chamber of Deputies failed in its attempt to debate the rejection of the Decree of Necessity and Urgency 70/23, promoted by the government of Javier Milei to support its program, by failing to reach the necessary quorum at the special session convened by opposing parties.Only 121 legislators attended the legislative day, eight fewer than the 129 required to enable treatment in the compound, with a total of 136 absences.
The opposition call gained momentum following an initial ruling by the Supreme Court of Justice that deregulated the sale of land to foreigners under the Decree 70/23, although a subsequent decision by the court itself temporarily restored the rule, argument that they used allied sectors to avoid attending the session. In parallel, the Government negotiated to include a cap on land sales to foreigners in the Inviolability of Private Property project, which was scheduled for debate on October 21.
President Donald Trump reversed course Thursday and canceled the live broadcast of Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution, days after the Pentagon announced a plan that drew bipartisan rebuke and international condemnation.
Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people in 2009 at Fort Hood, the Army base in Texas. The Pentagon had announced last week that his execution would be shown live, a decision Trump said he supported “absolutely.”
Now the plan is gone. Had it gone forward, the public execution would have been the first in the United States since 1936.
Trump offered a mixed explanation for the retreat. “Broadcasting the execution for everyone to see could have been a strong deterrent,” he said, “for the world to witness how the United States treats terrorists and scum like Hasan.”
The execution itself remains on the calendar. The Pentagon set the date for December 3, and Trump clarified that the immediate families of the victims may attend in person “if they so wish.”
Deterrent Argument Fades
The reversal came quickly. In early October, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that Hasan’s execution would be public. Soon after, the Pentagon said it would be broadcast live. “We’ll make sure people can see it, that it’s public,” Hegseth told the conservative network Real America’s Voice News on October 7.
Trump said at the time that Hasan “deserved” to have his execution by firing squad shown in public because he “killed a lot of people.” Vice President JD Vance kept his distance and said he had no intention of watching the execution.
The announcement triggered an immediate reaction across the political spectrum. Republicans and Democrats alike warned that the images could be used to fuel radicalization.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, who leads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemned the administration’s plan and called it a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death that must be reconsidered.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, also leveled criticism at the proposal.
The historical stakes were high. The U.S. military has not executed a service member by firing squad since the Second World War. The last military execution took place on April 13, 1961, when Private John Bennett was hanged. Three other men sit on military death row at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas alongside Hasan. In 2008, President George W. Bush approved the execution of soldier Ronald Gray, but a judge suspended it and Gray remains at Leavenworth.
The prospect of transmitting the execution to millions of viewers drew sharp rejection abroad as well. Pope Leo XIV declared that capital punishment is “inadmissible” and said “effective penitentiary systems have been developed that protect citizens while not entirely depriving the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
Torture Ban Breached
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued the warning after officials floated the idea of staging public executions. The practices singled out include executions broadcast live, a format that transforms a judicial sentence into a public spectacle.
“Any move toward public executions constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” the office said. It also breaches the absolute prohibition of torture under international law. Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture, the ban is absolute. No war, no emergency and no domestic law can suspend it.
The warning carries direct weight in the case of Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist who held the rank of major and now lives with partial paralysis. Hasan was shot by a civilian police officer at Fort Hood during the 2009 attack that left 13 people dead. He has remained partially paralyzed ever since.
At his military trial, Hasan admitted responsibility. He said he acted to prevent soldiers from deploying to Afghanistan to kill fellow Muslims. Hasan himself was about to be sent to that country. The admission was deliberate, not defensive. He framed the attack as an act of conscience, and he never disputed the facts. In 2013, a military court convicted him of premeditated murder and attempted murder. The panel sentenced him to death.
The reasoning reaches beyond a single prisoner. It protects the dignity of all people, even those convicted of the most serious crimes.
Trump abandoned the broadcast, but his framing never shifted. He still called Hasan a “terrorist” and “scum.” What collapsed was the spectacle, not the sentence. The execution still waits on the December 3 calendar, and the families of 13 victims still decide whether to watch it happen in person.
What began as a deterrent argument ended as a quiet retreat under pressure from his own party and from a world watching whether the United States would turn a state killing into a televised event for the first time in nine decades.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino apologized to the governing body’s Council in Zurich over the mishandling of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) project and confirmed the proposal to sell competition stakes to outside investors has been withdrawn permanently.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered the apology this Thursday during the first Council meeting held in Zurich after the World Cup. He acknowledged errors in both the management and the communication of the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative, a plan that would have handed private investors a share of FIFA competitions.
Addressing the council members directly, the Swiss-Italian executive sought to close the episode with a call for unity. The investment scheme, he confirmed, would not be revived.
The administration then presented an alternative designed to soften the blow: a proposal named the Surplus Solidarity Program channels 6.35 billion dollars for the period between 2027 and 2030, drawing on commercial revenue generated by the World Cup. According to Infantino, the funds would raise the amounts distributed among all 211 member associations and the confederations.
That financial package will be evaluated at the December meeting in Doha and put to a vote at the Congress scheduled for March 18, 2027.
FIFA plans to allocate $6.35 billion to its member associations for football development from 2027 to 2030, including an increased funding package of $25 million for each national association. #3Sportspic.twitter.com/ogP4oEb3g8
Despite the financial announcement, the most critical European federations, including England and Germany, maintained their opposition to Infantino remaining in office. The English federation said it has not received clear answers about the legal background of the FFE project, while the German side called for a change in the organization’s leadership.
Support for the president came from Africa. Ahmed Yahya, president of Mauritania’s football federation, defended the current leadership, saying it promotes equality and an equal weight for each vote in the Congress. He said a majority backs Infantino staying at the head of the institution.
The competing messages reflect a familiar divide in world football’s governance. Larger, wealthier federations tend to push for tighter scrutiny of FIFA’s leadership, while many smaller associations benefit directly from FIFA’s development funds. Because each of the 211 members has a vote at the Congress, a spending increase aimed at all of them is likely to be closely watched.
🗣️ Gianni Infantino has apologised "for the mistakes… in relation to the communication and consultation" for FIFA Forward Enterprise.
He adds that the FIFA Peace Prize will be "analysed" along with a change to the FIFA Disciplinary Code to stop automatic one-game bans being… pic.twitter.com/lBrraQNjkk
The Council also agreed to create a working group to review FIFA’s governance framework. It tasked an evaluation of the FIFA Peace Prize and asked the Legal Commission for a report on disciplinary procedures, to be presented at the December session.
The apology and the withdrawal mark a significant concession from a president who has dominated world football’s finances for a decade. By scrapping the FFE plan outright, Infantino acknowledged that the backlash within the game had grown too costly to ignore.
Supporters of the solidarity plan may argue that it directs World Cup profits toward the wider football community. Critics may counter that a funding increase does not answer questions about how the FFE project was handled, which is the point the European federations are pressing. Yet the European federations made clear that closing the project alone would not settle the matter. For them, the questions about how the initiative was conceived and who approved it remain open, and the December gathering in Doha now looms as the next test of whether the unity Infantino called for can actually be rebuilt.
Venezuela has dispatched this Tuesday a humanitarian air cargo to Panama to support the emergency response after a severe earthquake, with local teams preparing to move the supplies immediately toward operational centers serving damaged residential areas.
Venezuela’s government dispatched a plane carrying 40 tons of humanitarian aid to Panama on Thursday to help people affected by the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck the country on October 9 and caused severe damage to road infrastructure, essential services and thousands of homes in both urban and rural areas.
The cargo includes basic medical supplies, non-perishable food, drinking water, personal hygiene kits and logistical material, intended to support temporary camps set up by Panamanian authorities in regions declared in emergency.
The shipment landed on Panamanian soil and was received by personnel from the National Aeronaval Service. From there, the cargo will begin an immediate overland transfer to the local operational centers where responders are coordinating relief efforts in the wake of the seismic crisis.
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, announced the aid shipment, which was described as part of the protocols of solidarity and Central American integration that guide the country’s response to regional emergencies. In this sense, the Venezuelan authorities stressed that “support operations are carried out in direct coordination with civil protection agencies and state security bodies of Panama”.
Tras el reciente terremoto ocurrido en Panamá, Venezuela envió un cargamento de ayuda humanitaria.
Reafirmando su compromiso de solidaridad con los pueblos hermanos.
— Ministerio de Comunicación e Información (@mippci_ven) October 15, 2026
Text reads: “After the recent earthquake in Panama, Venezuela sent a shipment of humanitarian aid, reaffirming their commitment to solidarity with brotherly people. Panama is not alone!”
The cooperation between Caracas and Panama City is designed to accelerate the immediate contingency phase. It also aims to open a clear path toward the physical reconstruction and economic recovery of the residential zones hit hardest by the earthquake.
Specialists Join Relief Effort
The shipment complements an earlier deployment of a specialized technical team of more than 50 risk-management and rescue professionals, a delegation that includes experts in assessing critical infrastructure, inspecting damaged buildings, removing debris and restoring basic electricity and water services.
The Venezuelan delegation working on the ground includes experts in evaluating critical infrastructure, inspecting compromised buildings, removing debris and restoring basic energy and water services. Their task is to help stabilize the communities most affected by the quake.
Cabello said the operational experience acquired by Venezuelan brigades during recent seismic events in Venezuelan territory allows them to contribute methodological solutions and strategic interventions in the hardest-hit municipalities.
The Minister framed the effort as part of a permanent bilateral cooperation framework established between the two nations for disaster mitigation across Latin America. Under that framework, the support operations are carried out in direct coordination with Panama’s civil protection agencies and security forces. International organizations are operating in the affected area, and Venezuela has signaled that it will continue working alongside them.
The distribution plan prioritizes the transfer of supplies to rural and island communities whose land routes were cut off by the earthquake. The aim is to guarantee equitable access to medical care and food for vulnerable families.
National Aeronaval Service teams took charge of the cargo upon arrival. The supplies then move by land to the operational centers closest to the communities that suffered the heaviest damage, where distribution can begin without delay, a decision that shortens the distance between the arrival of aid and its delivery to affected families.
Thousands of families in urban and rural communities remain in temporary camps while authorities assess the full extent of the damage. The emergency has tested Panama’s response capacity, and the arrival of additional aid and technical personnel has become a central element of the recovery effort.
Venezuelan authorities said its collection centers and technical monitoring systems remain active to evaluate additional requirements. If Panamanian authorities request more operational support, the response can be scaled up quickly.
For now, the 40 tons of aid and the specialized personnel on the ground represent Venezuela’s immediate contribution to a recovery that is only beginning in the regions hit hardest by the tremor.
Torrential rains that delivered 80 percent of Honduras’ projected annual rainfall in just 23 days have triggered landslides that destroyed homes and left dozens of families without shelter in Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela.
In just 23 days, the area received 80% of the rainfall projected for all of 2026, causing more than 250 severe incidents, according to the Honduran Centre for Atmospheric, Oceanographic and Seismic Studies (CENAOS) reports.
The collapses hit vulnerable areas hard. Residents said they lost houses that were under construction and complained of a lack of assistance from municipal authorities.
The Villa Unión neighborhood suffered some of the heaviest losses. Landslides there destroyed 13 homes completely. Several of the houses were still under construction when the ground gave way, burying years of savings in a matter of minutes.
Families said the destruction arrived without warning. They also reported that municipal authorities provided no assistance in the immediate aftermath, leaving them to dig through the rubble on their own and count their losses with no outside help.
In the nearby La Mololoa sector, the emergency unfolded with equal speed. Residents evacuated urgently across rooftops to get children away from advancing mud and water. Neighbors described moments of panic as the earth shifted beneath their feet.
#HonduredNoticias | Varias comunidades de Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortés, han tenido que abandonar sus hogares por las fuertes inundaciones ocurridas por la crecida del Lago de Yojoa. ® pic.twitter.com/vgDdiDuYCM
Text reads: “Several communities of Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortés, have had to leave their homes because of the severe flooding caused by the flood of Lake Yojoa.”
The risk is not confined to the sectors already buried. More than 700 neighborhoods and colonies across the Central District remain exposed to floods and geological failures, leaving whole hillside communities one storm away from the same fate. Residents of the hardest-hit areas said unfinished road works and inadequate drainage diverted torrents of water directly toward residential zones, causing damage for the second consecutive time.
En Tegucigalpa, Honduras, las lluvias provocaron derrumbes e inundaciones, dejando viviendas destruidas y personas albergadas.
Los cuerpos de socorro mantienen el monitoreo y las labores en los lugares de mayor vulnerabilidad.
Text reads: “In Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the rains caused landslides and floods, leaving homes destroyed and people sheltered. The relief corps maintain monitoring and work in places of greatest vulnerability.”
Families Demand Relocation
The scale of the losses triggered citizen protests over what residents described as an insufficient delivery of basic supplies. In response, the Municipal Mayor’s Office of the Central District announced a temporary rental subsidy for displaced families.
Affected residents dismissed the subsidy as a stopgap measure that does not address the root of the problem. They demanded that the contractors responsible for the infrastructure works pay full compensation for the material losses suffered by the community.
Despite warnings of further landslides, dozens of evacuees are refusing to permanently leave the ruins of their homes for fear of looting. Civilians are calling for urgent intervention by the central government through permanent relocation projects that guarantee safety and the right to decent housing.
The central government had not publicly responded to those demands at the time of writing, according to the information available. Heavy rainfall on steep, densely settled hillsides is a recurring cause of landslides in Honduras’ capital, and families living in the most exposed areas are often the poorest. Whether the municipal subsidy and any future relocation plans reach those families will determine how long the emergency lasts.
Brazil’s Senate on Wednesday approved a historic constitutional amendment that cuts the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours and guarantees two days of rest without a reduction in pay, ending the six-days-on, one-day-off model known as the 6×1 schedule.
The Brazilian Senate approved Wednesday the end of the 6×1 work schedule, a constitutional reform that shortens the workweek from 44 to 40 hours and adds a second weekly rest day without cutting wages.
The amendment cleared the Senate five months after the Chamber of Deputies passed it in a historic vote.
The measure, Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 221/2019, received 75 votes in favor and one against in both rounds, well above the 49 votes required among the Senate’s 81 members. The only vote against, in both rounds, came from Senator Hamilton Mourão of the Republican party. Senators Rogério Marinho, Sergio Moro, Márcio Bittar and Ciro Nogueira were absent from the first round.
The vote was made possible after senators approved a special calendar to speed up the process, at the request of government leader in the chamber Teresa Leitão, of the Workers’ Party (PT), with the backing of Senate President Davi Alcolumbre.
The proposal had already cleared the Deputy chamber in a landmark session five months earlier. Its path through the Senate took longer than government allies wanted, and labor leaders kept up public pressure for a vote before the campaign’s final stretch.
The approval is seen as a political victory for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, coming 11 days before the October 25 presidential runoff, in which he faces Senator Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party.
✊🇧🇷 O FIM DA 6X1 AGORA É REALIDADE!
Lutamos, discutimos e pressionamos para garantir que o Congresso votasse ainda este ano o fim da 6×1!
Mas a voz do povo foi a voz que me conduziu para que, juntos, garantíssemos mais tempo para descansar, acompanhar os filhos e estar com… pic.twitter.com/52RZBsxVvu
Text reads: “The end of 6×7 is now reality! We fought, argued and pushed to ensure that Congress voted this year for the end of 6×1. But it was the voice of the people that guided me so that, together, we would ensure more time to rest, accompany our children and be with those we love. More dignity and quality of life for the Brazilian people!…”
Gradual Transition Planned
The amendment provides for a phased implementation. Two months after it is promulgated, the maximum workweek will fall to 42 hours and workers will receive two paid rest days. After another 12 months, the limit will drop to 40 hours a week, with one of the two rest days preferably on Sunday.
The text states that the reduction in working time will not lower salaries and preserves the possibility of collective agreements to regulate specific situations. Unions estimate that about 22 million workers will be benefit.
Ending the 6×1 schedule is one of the main demands of Brazilian workers and unions, who argue that shorter hours improve quality of life, expand rest time, favor family life and help prevent physical and mental exhaustion.
The debate was marked by differences between the governing coalition and the opposition, in an electoral context in which the measure has broad public support.
Flávio Bolsonaro changed his position this week and announced he would vote in favor of the initiative, after consistently opposing it. He had previously called the discussion opportunistic and defended an alternative proposal based on pay per hour worked. The report does not include any comment from Bolsonaro on the final vote.
“We fought, debated and pressed to make sure Congress voted this year to end 6×1. But the voice of the people was the voice that guided me so that, together, we could get more time to rest, spend with our children and be with those we love,” Presiden Lula said in his first reaction on X.
After the vote, members of the progressive bloc were seen chanting Lula’s name in recognition of his leadership on the issue. The approval allows Lula’s government to showcase a commitment to more rest time and better working conditions in a campaign marked by a dispute over social rights and the future of Brazil’s labor market.
The amendment still needs to be promulgated to be effective. Once promulgated, the law will set a 40-hour limit spread across five days, with two days off and no loss of salary. Companies will get a gradual transition, giving employers time to reorganize shifts without cutting staff pay.
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