Brazil's presidential race will go to a second round after Flávio Bolsonaro, the 45-year-old son of disgraced former president Jair Bolsonaro, beat incumbent leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round but fell short of the outright majority needed to avoid a runoff. The second round is set for 25 October, and Bolsonaro enters it as the strong favourite, positioned to absorb votes from other rightwing candidates including Ronaldo Caiado (2.1%) and Renan Santos (2.2%). The Bolsonaro family's grip on Brazilian politics now extends well beyond the presidency. In a stronger-than-expected showing for the far right, Jair Bolsonaro's second son Carlos Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle Bolsonaro both won senate seats. His youngest son, Jair Renan Bolsonaro, was elected to the lower house of congress. This is not a single candidacy — it is a family franchise occupying multiple branches of government simultaneously. Elsewhere in the digest, the woman who alleged she was drugged and raped by Cornell University students has been targeted with threats, according to her lawyer Thomas Giuffra. He told CNN that people had threatened to silence or harm her if she did not withdraw her civil lawsuit against members of a Cornell fraternity. Cornell president Michael Kotlikoff responded with a video message announcing a 'serious look at the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life.' The White House defended the appointment of Beni Rae Harmony as assistant press secretary, days after she had been covering Trump as a correspondent for Real America's Voice. Photographs emerged of Harmony posing in 2021 wearing a 'Fuck Joe Biden' T-shirt and holding a rifle. Deputy press secretary Anna Kelly called her 'a trusted voice for the Maga movement.' The US air force pulled at least 10 of 12 B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in England following an alleged planned terrorist attack on the base. Five British nationals were initially detained on suspicion of explosives offences and terrorism after three vans were found near the base; they were later released on bail. The hasty withdrawal included bombers that had arrived on rotation less than a week earlier. In a cascade of global developments: Yemen's Saudi-backed government announced a new military operation to retake Houthi-held territory after the Houthis cut a supply route between Taiz and Aden. Spain's Pedro Sánchez called a snap election after rightwing parties torpedoed his housing crisis legislation. Donald Trump named intelligence director Jay Clayton as the new White House AI czar, leading what Trump called the 'Super Intelligence Force.' More than 400 schools in France face closures amid student protests, with 24 schools burnt or ransacked and 78 education staff injured. And Prince Andrew launched legal action against British police over Epstein-related raids — the first royal legal challenge to criminal proceedings since Charles I's trial in 1649.
