The day’s ten most prominent stories, reduced to what the reporting verifies. Every claim is attributed to whoever made it. Anything a source could not verify is flagged below the story — never published as fact. New editions are published twice daily, at 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Each edition also includes a separate Finance & Tech top ten.
Monday, October 26, 2026Facts checked as of 4:01 a.m. ET
No. 1Brazil · Election
Lula wins Brazil runoff as Bolsonaro says he will seek annulment
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday, and Flávio Bolsonaro said he would not accept the result and would seek to have it annulled.
Brazil’s electoral authority said on Sunday that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the presidential runoff, defeating Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, to secure a fourth non-consecutive term, Reuters reported.
With 100 percent of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced Lula had 51.8 percent of the vote and a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over Bolsonaro, the Associated Press reported.
Bolsonaro said late on Sunday that it was impossible to recognize the result and that his team would take legal action to ask for the election to be annulled, Reuters reported.
Bolsonaro objected to a Supreme Court decision extending voting by two hours; both Bolsonaro’s and Lula’s campaigns had sought an extension, and the electoral court president said the extension had no impact on the result, the Associated Press reported.
Investors expect a sharp market reaction on Monday, Reuters reported, with November futures for the Brazilian real down 10 percent in Asian hours and a Tokyo-listed Brazilian stock fund down 15 percent.
Attribution note
The annulment request is Bolsonaro’s stated plan, not a court ruling; analysts cited by Reuters said the scale of the loss makes annulment unlikely, and the market figures are expectations and early Asian trading, not Monday’s closing prices in Brazil.
Vučić says Student List won Serbia parliamentary election
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat on Sunday, saying the student-backed Student List had won the snap parliamentary election.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat to the student-led protest movement in parliamentary elections on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Vučić said, on the basis of a sample, that the Student List had won, with between 135 and 140 seats, while his camp would have 105 seats and no one else had entered parliament, Reuters reported.
The snap elections were called by Vučić in September, after almost two years of student-led demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism, Reuters reported.
The demonstrations were triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad in 2024, Reuters reported.
Attribution note
Vučić said final results were not yet available; the seat figures are his sample-based estimate, not a final official count.
Bulgaria heads to November 1 runoff after Iotova leads Gyurov
Bulgaria will hold a presidential runoff on November 1 after neither leading candidate passed 50 percent in Sunday’s first round.
Bulgaria will head to a runoff vote on November 1 after a tight race between the two leading presidential candidates failed to produce an outright winner in Sunday’s elections, Reuters reported.
With 95 percent of the votes counted, incumbent Iliana Iotova, 61, attracted 34.6 percent against 32 percent for former caretaker prime minister Andrey Gyurov, 50, Reuters reported.
Only about 22 percent of eligible voters took part, according to polling agencies, Reuters reported.
The vote took on added significance after a series of drone attacks on merchant ships off Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast that likely killed some two dozen international seafarers, Reuters reported.
Both leading candidates condemned the strikes, but they differ over the broader war, Reuters reported.
Attribution note
The figures are with 95 percent counted, not a final official result; the turnout figure is from polling agencies.
Machado travels toward Caracas as Trump says US will back Rodriguez
Opposition leader María Corina Machado traveled by road toward Caracas on Sunday after returning to Venezuela, while President Donald Trump said the United States would continue to back interim President Delcy Rodríguez.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returned home on Sunday after nearly a year away, Reuters reported.
Throughout the day on Sunday, she traveled toward Caracas by road as supporters gathered along her route to cheer her on, Reuters reported.
Her return was coordinated with the US, Panamanian and Colombian governments, according to a person briefed directly on Machado’s movements, who added that Trump approved her return and was kept informed, Reuters reported.
At the White House on Sunday, Trump said he did not know anything about Machado’s return and suggested the US would continue to back interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Reuters reported.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that the conditions allowing Machado’s safe return were the direct result of US-supported reconciliation talks, Reuters reported.
Attribution note
The coordination claim comes from an unnamed person briefed on Machado’s movements; Trump said he did not know about the return. The two accounts are reported side by side and are not reconciled here.
Trump says no strike on Iran today as Iran says messages still pass via intermediaries
President Donald Trump said on Sunday there would be no US strike on Iran that day, while Iran said messages were still being passed to the United States through intermediaries.
Iran said messages were still being passed to the US via intermediaries and Tehran remained open to diplomacy, the Associated Press reported.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said Tehran had not closed the window of diplomacy and that negotiations over the war had appeared to stall for weeks, the Associated Press reported.
Asked if he planned to launch an attack on Iran, Trump first suggested he would be foolish to telegraph that, then added: No. There will not be a strike today, the Associated Press reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his warning that Iran or its proxies could attack ahead of Tuesday’s elections to disrupt the vote, citing intelligence, the Associated Press reported.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has begun receiving lists again of Palestinian detainees from the West Bank and Gaza after the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to resume sharing them, the Associated Press reported.
Attribution note
Trump’s statement ruled out a strike on Sunday only; it did not announce a decision for later days. A Channel 12 report of a Netanyahu confrontation over Iran was described by Netanyahu as nonsense, and the report did not say what the directive was.
Houthis say they attacked Saudi oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport
Yemen’s Houthis said on Monday they had attacked Saudi oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, while the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted a missile toward Riyadh.
The Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen said on Monday it had attacked Saudi Arabia’s East-West crude oil pumping stations and Riyadh airport, Reuters reported.
There was no immediate Saudi confirmation of the Houthi claims, Reuters reported.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said earlier it had destroyed two ballistic missile launchers in the capital Sanaa, including one used to fire a missile towards Riyadh that the coalition said it had intercepted, Reuters reported.
The Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi airports, ports and oil installations, Reuters reported.
King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh said it opened terminals 1 and 2 for domestic and international flights, but the Houthis again fired drones and missiles toward the Saudi capital, the Associated Press reported.
Attribution note
The Houthi attack claims are the group’s own statements and have no Saudi confirmation in the reporting; no damage or casualty figure for these attacks is confirmed in the sources.
Six injured in Russian strikes on Ukraine, officials say
Six people were injured in overnight Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia and the Chernihiv region, Ukrainian officials said on Monday.
A Russian strike on Ukraine’s southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia injured four people overnight, regional governor Mykhailo Semikin said on Telegram on Monday, Reuters reported.
Two more were injured in Russian strikes on the Chernihiv region, Ukraine’s emergency service said on Telegram, Reuters reported.
The Russian defence ministry said on Telegram it hit a power station in Kharkiv, a warehouse in the surrounding region and another power station in the Khmelnitskiy region, Reuters reported.
The ministry also said it targeted port infrastructure in Chornomorsk and a cargo vessel en route to Odesa used for military purposes, Reuters reported.
In an interview aired on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that in order for Kyiv to halt strikes on Russian refineries, Moscow must stop hitting power infrastructure, Reuters reported.
Attribution note
The Russian defence ministry’s target claims and the Ukrainian officials’ injury figures are each attributed to their own Telegram statements; neither is independently confirmed in the reporting.
Trump says Canada tariff war will end soon at Port Huron rally
President Donald Trump rallied Republicans in Port Huron on Sunday ahead of the November 3 midterms, urging supporters to vote and predicting an end to the tariff war with Canada.
President Donald Trump fired up a Republican crowd in Port Huron on Sunday, telling about 3,000 people in the McMorran Place arena that they must get out and vote, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Trump spent much of his one hour and 45 minute speech attacking Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Michigan, the Free Press reported.
Trump repeated an earlier pledge to send $5,000 checks to all American adults, but only if Republicans retain control of the US House and Senate, the Free Press reported.
Trump told the border city crowd he expects the US trade and tariff war with Canada to soon come to an end that will be favorable to the US, the Free Press reported.
Port Huron City Manager James Freed said in an email on Sunday evening that about 20,000 people showed up and that there had been no arrests, the Port Huron Times Herald reported.
Attribution note
Trump’s claims about El-Sayed were described by the Free Press as made without evidence; El-Sayed has denied affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, and his campaign responded that he remains focused on bringing down costs.
Two killed as Storm Boelo leaves 90,000 without power in UK
Two men were killed by falling trees during Storm Boelo in the UK, and about 90,000 customers were still without power on Sunday evening.
Two men were killed by falling trees as Storm Boelo hit the UK, with winds of up to 84 mph, Sky News reported.
A 60-year-old man was hit by a falling tree near Castle Douglas in Dumfries, Scotland, and a man in his 20s died in north London after a tree fell on his car, authorities said, Sky News reported.
Two women were also taken to hospital after they were struck by another falling tree in Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross, Sky News reported.
By 7 p.m. on Sunday, about 90,000 customers were still without power, according to the Energy Networks Association, Sky News reported.
The Met Office issued a yellow warning for strong winds from 3 a.m. Tuesday to midnight for the far north of England, Scotland, and the far northeast of Northern Ireland, Sky News reported.
Attribution note
Power-cut totals differ by time of day: the Energy Networks Association figure was 161,400 properties at 3 p.m. GMT on Sunday, falling to about 90,000 by 7 p.m. on Sunday.
India prepares evacuations as Cyclone Arnab nears eastern coast
India’s Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states prepared on Monday to evacuate thousands of people ahead of Cyclone Arnab, expected to make landfall on Wednesday.
Two states along India’s eastern coast were preparing to evacuate thousands of people ahead of Cyclone Arnab, which is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Arnab, which formed over the Bay of Bengal before intensifying into a cyclonic storm, is expected to make landfall in Andhra Pradesh state by Wednesday morning, with gusts of as much as 140 kph (87 mph), India’s weather office said, Reuters reported.
A senior Andhra Pradesh disaster management official told Reuters on Monday the state government had identified 570,000 people as vulnerable and evacuations would start on Monday evening, Reuters reported.
Odisha’s government announced the closure of schools and colleges in five districts for Tuesday and Wednesday, and said it was preparing to move residents of low-lying areas to cyclone shelters, Reuters reported.
The weather system is expected to bring heavy to extremely heavy rainfall to Andhra Pradesh’s northern and central coastal districts, and southern regions of neighbouring Odisha, Reuters reported.
Attribution note
The landfall time and wind speeds are the weather office’s forecast, not an observed outcome; the cyclone will probably intensify further, the weather office said.
