29/10/2026

THURSDAY | OCT 29, 2026

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Bolsonaro, family flee Brazil o US State Dept ready to issue visas power, and Reuters reported ahead of Sunday’s election on a US State Department campaign to restore them to office. ordering his passports seized. Bolsonaro, who loses

Putin-Zelensky meeting very soon: Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said yesterday that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky would be set up “very soon”. The announcement came as Trump’s administration ramps up diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war. “There’ll be a meeting set up very soon and I think a lot of progress could be made,”Trump told reporters. Zelensky said on Sunday that a trilateral meeting between Kyiv, Washington and Moscow would take place in November. The Kremlin had previously said that a meeting between the three countries was planned to take place in the United Arab Emirates in November. Putin, who ordered the February 2022 Ukraine military offensive, has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelensky and insisted Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine. Trump came to power in January 2025 promising to end the war in 24 hours but over a year of US-led talks have failed to produce a breakthrough. In recent days Trump has once again pivoted away from Ukraine and back to Putin, trumpeting what he said was a deal for Russia to sell diesel and reduce prices sent soaring by his Iran war. – AFP Netanyahu’s bloc leads vote count TEL AVIV: Benjamin Netanyahu won the support of an unexpectedly clear majority of Israeli Jews in an election billed as a major turning point in his nation’s history, apparently ensuring he will survive as prime minister at least in a caretaker role. With around 70.7% of votes tallied yesterday morning, Israeli media forecast Netanyahu’s bloc of right wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties winning 54 seats in parliament, far surpassing 47 for the opposition bloc of rival Gadi Eisenkot. Parties representing Israelis of Arab descent would win 19. The results could still change as counting continued, but a victory for Eisenkot appeared increasingly out of reach, as his bloc of anti-Netanyahu parties from centre-left to hard-right underperformed pre-election polls that forecast a tight race. While Netanyahu lost his bloc’s majority in the 120-seat Knesset, as expected, opponents were left with no hope of unseating him without some form of backing of Arab parties, which many have ruled out. Even then, he would remain as caretaker during any coalition negotiations, or until a new election next year. Netanyahu called for the formation of “a strong, right-wing national government”. Eisenkot acknowledged that Netanyahu was still in office as a caretaker but said the prime minister had lost public support and urged him to retire. He also issued a warning that Netanyahu might use security for political ends. – Reuters

his immunity from prosecution when his Senate term ends in February, had said on Monday he had no plans to flee. “I have never thought about leaving the country,” he said. “I will hand over my passports and defend myself against this travesty, which is a clear attempt to intimidate me.” His departure appeared to have caught his campaign manager off guard. “We are surprised because, just yesterday, we discussed the need for Flavio, given the 60 million votes he received, to take on this role as opposition leader,” said Senator Rogerio Marinho. Although Bolsonaro has yet to officially concede defeat, saying on Sunday he would seek the annulment of the result over alleged voter irregularities, his Liberal Party said it acknowledged Lula’s victory. Eduardo Bolsonaro, Bolsonaro’s younger brother who lives in the United States, said ahead of the vote that an election loss would require a move. “If my brother does not win, I’m in favour that he would leave the country,” he told podcaster Steven Crowder this month. – Reuters

Trump told reporters yesterday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the United States. Trump has previously alleged Flavio’s father, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was a victim of judicial persecution in Brazil. The elder Bolsonaro also went to the United States after refusing to concede to Lula in 2022, when former US President Joe Biden was in office. He eventually returned but was later given a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after his supporters stormed government buildings in Brasilia. On Monday, Trump had said the Brazilian vote “looked like another rigged election”. Lula, speaking in Brasilia, said he had just heard that Flavio had left the country, and called it shameful, saying he should have stayed in Brazil and proved his innocence. On Monday, he was given 24 hours to surrender his passports, which were cancelled after the deadline lapsed, two sources said. In a court ruling seen by Reuters, the Supreme Court cited the risk of Bolsonaro fleeing Brazil and his “significant financial resources” in

SAO PAULO: Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election, three sources said, with the US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas. Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports. The ruling relates to a money laundering probe. Argentina’s Migration Department said yesterday that Bolsonaro and his family had briefly entered the country’s Misiones province on Tuesday night through a road crossing, with valid travel documents, before boarding a private plane bound for Guayaquil, Ecuador late at night. Argentina cited the flight plan, for the plane operated by air charter company Baires Fly, as the source for the aircraft’s destination. Speaking to reporters late on

Bolsonaro yet to concede defeat

Tuesday, US President Donald Trump had said that he had heard Bolsonaro was in Argentina. “The State Department will issue visas to Flavio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States,” a senior State Department official said. Bolsonaro’s departure threatens to deepen a rift between the two most populous nations in the Americas. Lula has accused Washington of colluding with the Bolsonaros to put them back in

Vehicles belonging to Bolsonaro leaving his condominium in Brasilia on

Tuesday. – AFPPIC

High-speed trains collide in Spain MADRID: Two high-speed trains have collided in Spain on the line connecting Madrid to southern Andalusia, rail operator Adif said yesterday, killing at least 10 people. The collision comes nine months after an accident between high speed trains belonging to the same operators on the same line that killed 46 people. triggered a debate about the level of investment in railway maintenance. “Traffic on the Madrid-Andalusia high-speed rail line has been suspended following a rear-end collision between two trains,” Adif said in a message on X yestersday. A Renfe and an Iryo train crashed just after 9am (4pm in Malaysia), causing two Iryo wagons to derail, a government spokesperson for the Castilla La Mancha region said, adding that the cause and number of injuries were still being determined. That crash in January, which occurred after a train derailed and smashed into an oncoming train near Adamuz, in Cordoba province,

Manuel Galan, mayor of the nearby town of Urda, told Cadena SER that emergency services had asked the town council to prepare emergency facilities, including a sports hall, to accommodate passengers and the injured. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s agenda, published on the Spanish government’s website, had been cleared for the day. The opposition People’s Party also cancelled all campaign events, a spokesperson said. – Reuters

At least 10 people died in the collision, a regional government source said. Footage by regional Castilla La Mancha Television showed a derailed train with at least one carriage remaining on an elevated section of track while twisted metal, broken panels and wreckage could be seen strewn across an embankment beneath the line. Rail operator Adif said the incident occurred on the line from Madrid to Seville.