International
Lula enters the municipal campaign at the last minute in the face of a divided bolsonarism in São Paulo
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva entered at the last minute in the campaign for this Sunday’s municipal elections in support of his candidate in São Paulo, a key city and in which the far-right of former president Jair Bolsonaro is completely divided.
Lula, who had been almost absent from the campaign for the municipal elections, participated this Saturday in an act in favor of Guilherme Boulos, candidate for mayor of São Paulo, who with 9.3 million voters constitutes the largest electoral college in the country.
Both walked along the central Paulista Avenue, in an act without speakers due to the electoral ban and accompanied by several thousand followers of Lula, the great reference of Brazilian progressivism.
Boulos is a deputy of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) and is in coalition with the Workers’ Party (PT), of Lula, which has lost municipal weight and in these elections only has its own candidates for mayor in 1,379 of the 5,569 municipalities.
The Liberal Party (PL), which is led by Bolsonaro and had almost no national presence until 2018, when the far right broke out, has nominated 1,477 candidates for mayor, but in São Paulo it has been divided after the appearance of Pablo Marçal, a newcomer to politics even more extreme than the former president himself.
Provocation as the norm of the dissident ultra-right
During the campaign, Marçal has insulted his opponents in every way, provoked to the power and spread lies in bulk, which have earned him sanctions from the electoral authorities and that one of his adversaries lost patience and attacked him with a chair in a debate broadcast on television.
However, with a style that borders on the patanería, it has slipped among the favorites and the polls attribute about 20% support, as well as to Boulos and the current São Paulo mayor and candidate for re-election, Ricardo Nunes, supported by Bolsonaro, who like Lula has remained distant from the campaign in São Paulo.
Marçal caused his last scandal this Friday, when he disclosed an alleged medical document according to which Boulos was a cocaine user, which was immediately denied by the socialist, who intends to bring the matter to criminal justice.
According to the polls, the election in São Paulo will go to a second round on October 27, as will happen in the 103 cities with more than 200,000 voters, if no candidate exceeds 50% of the votes.
Put in this way, it is not ruled out that that instance will be disputed in the strategic São Paulo by two references of the far right, which could put Bolsonaro himself in a brete.
Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte, the other jewels of the crown
The trilogy of municipal power, which can be important in the 2026 presidential elections for its influence from the local, is completed by Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte.
In Rio de Janeiro, the second polling station in the country, with five million voters, everything favors the centrist Eduardo Paes, who aspires to re-election supported by Lula and has a voting intention ranging from 50 to 55%.
In Rio, Bolsonaro supports Alexandre Ramagem, of the PL, whom he accompanied this Saturday in an event in the populous northern area of the city and does not exceed 20% in the polls.
They are the centrist Fuad Noman, who aspires to re-election, his adversary in that same field Mauro Tramonte, and the bolsonarista Bruno Engler. Lula’s PT presents Deputy Rogério Correia, whose intention to vote does not reach 10%.
In the rest of the country, the panorama distances itself from the polarized dispute between Bolsonaro and progressism that prevails at the national level and favors center parties, which are the true faithful of the political balance and tend to lean, depending on the situation of the moment, towards one or the other extreme.
International
María Corina Machado says Venezuela’s political transition “must take place”
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said this Thursday, during a virtual appearance at an event hosted by the Venezuelan-American Association of the U.S. (VAAUS) in New York, that Venezuela’s political transition “must take place” and that the opposition is now “more organized than ever.”
Machado, who is set to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10 in Oslo, Norway — although it is not yet known whether she will attend — stressed that the opposition is currently focused on defining “what comes next” to ensure that the transition is “orderly and effective.”
“We have legitimate leadership and a clear mandate from the people,” she said, adding that the international community supports this position.
Her remarks come amid a hardening of U.S. policy toward the government of Nicolás Maduro, with new economic sanctions and what has been described as the “full closure” of airspace over and around Venezuela — a measure aimed at airlines, pilots, and alleged traffickers — increasing pressure on Caracas and further complicating both air mobility and international commercial operations.
During her speech, Machado highlighted the resilience of the Venezuelan people, who “have suffered, but refuse to surrender,” and said the opposition is facing repression with “dignity and moral strength,” including “exiles and political prisoners who have been separated from their families and have given everything for the democratic cause.”
She also thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for recognizing that Venezuela’s transition is “a priority” and for his role as a “key figure in international pressure against the Maduro regime.”
“Is change coming? Absolutely yes,” Machado said, before concluding that “Venezuela will be free.”
International
Catalonia’s president calls for greater ambition in defending democracy
The President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, on Thursday called for being “more ambitious” in defending democracy, which he warned is being threatened “from within” by inequality, extremism, and hate speech driven by what he described as a “politics of intimidation,” on the final day of his visit to Mexico.
“The greatest threat to democracies is born within themselves. It is inequality and the winds of extremism. Both need each other and feed off one another,” Illa said during a speech at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City.
In his address, Illa stated that in the face of extremism, society can adopt “two attitudes: hope or fear,” and warned that hate-driven rhetoric seeks to weaken citizens’ resolve. “We must be aware that hate speech, the politics of intimidation, and threats in the form of tariffs, the persecution of migrants, drones flying over Europe, or even war like the invasion of Ukraine, or walls at the border, all pursue the same goal: to make citizens give up and renounce who they want to be,” he added.
Despite these challenges, he urged people “not to lose hope,” emphasizing that there is a “better alternative,” which he summarized as “dialogue, institutional cooperation, peace, and human values.”
“I sincerely believe that we must be more ambitious in our defense of democracy, and that we must remember, demonstrate, and put into practice everything we are capable of doing. Never before has humanity accumulated so much knowledge, so much capacity, and so much power to shape the future,” Illa stressed.
For that reason, he called for a daily defense of the democratic system “at all levels and by each person according to their responsibility,” warning that democracy is currently facing an “existential threat.”
International
WMO predicts 55% chance of weakened La Niña impacting global weather this winter
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported on Thursday that there is a 55% chance that the La Niña phenomenon, typically associated with cooler temperatures, will affect global weather between December and February, though in a weakened form.
In its update released Thursday, the WMO clarified that while La Niña is usually linked to a temporary drop in average global temperatures, some regions could still experience warmer-than-normal conditions.
As 2026 progresses, the WMO expects the planet to shift toward neutral conditions, neither influenced by La Niña nor by its opposite, El Niño, which is associated with increased temperatures. The likelihood of neutral conditions is expected to rise to 75% between February and April, according to the agency’s regular bulletin on these phenomena.
La Niña occurs due to cooling of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean waters and is also linked to changes in tropical atmospheric circulation, including wind and rainfall patterns. The opposite phenomenon, El Niño, has not been observed by experts since 2024, which currently remains the warmest year on record.
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