Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 15, 2026 — Evening Edition

Transcript

The Rest of the World Report | October 15, 2026 — Evening Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening from Paris.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Thursday evening, October 15th.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Brazil's Senate voted 75-1 on Wednesday to end the 6-by-1 work schedule,
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: under which employees would work six days and get one day off.
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  SPEAKER_00: The constitutional amendment needed 49 of 81 votes in each of the two rounds,
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  SPEAKER_00: and it got 75 in both.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senator Hamilton Morao was the only one to vote no.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Chamber of Deputies approved the text in May.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Senate left it unchanged so it does not go back to the chamber.
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  SPEAKER_00: It now goes to promulgation, the formal step that puts an amendment into force.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senate President Davi Alcolumbre has said that that could happen as soon as next week.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: No date has been set.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sixty days after promulgation,
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  SPEAKER_00: companies must adopt a five-day schedule with two days off,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the maximum work week falls from 44 hours to 42.
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  SPEAKER_00: Twelve months after that, it falls to 40.
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  SPEAKER_00: Workers get two paid rest days a week,
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  SPEAKER_00: one of them preferably on a Sunday, and pay cannot go down.
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  SPEAKER_00: Daily work is capped at eight hours,
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  SPEAKER_00: and rules for specific sectors still have to be written by Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: Demonstrations for the change intensified from 2025,
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  SPEAKER_00: and more than two million signatures were collected in support that year.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Wednesday, unions held a vigil at the Senate annex from 2 p.m. while the vote was pending.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: In a video posted after the vote,
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  SPEAKER_00: Lula said the change came from the street and thanked the people who marched.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said it would never be revoked.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brazil's National Confederation of Industry asked Congress to reconsider.
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  SPEAKER_00: Its survey projects that the change could raise production costs
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  SPEAKER_00: by 267.2 billion rios,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Confederation said the change would cause economic losses,
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  SPEAKER_00: layoffs, higher prices for consumers, and inflation across the country.
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  SPEAKER_00: The National Confederation of Commerce,
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  SPEAKER_00: Services,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Tourism criticized holding the vote in the middle of the election campaign.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senator Vanderlyn Cardoso,
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  SPEAKER_00: a business owner, said he had already ended his 6x1 schedule at his own companies.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senator Marcos Pontes voted yes but warned that the change must not end up harming
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  SPEAKER_00: the workers it is meant to protect.
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  SPEAKER_00: The vote came 11 days before the October 25th runoff
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  SPEAKER_00: between President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Senator Flavio Bolsonaro.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ending 6x1 was a central promise of Lula's campaign.
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  SPEAKER_00: Flavio Bolsonaro said,
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  SPEAKER_00: On October 13th,
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  SPEAKER_00: that he would vote for the change,
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  SPEAKER_00: though he still favors more flexibility such as hourly arrangements.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Senate's voting panel recorded him as voting yes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both candidates now say they support ending the schedule.
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  SPEAKER_00: A quest poll of 2,154 voters taken October 10th through 13th put Flavio Bolsonaro
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  SPEAKER_00: at 46% and Lula at 44%.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's within its margin of error of two percentage points.
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  SPEAKER_00: A data Fulha poll of 2,520 people,
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  SPEAKER_00: taken on October 6th to 8th,
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  SPEAKER_00: put Bolsonaro at 49 and Lula at 45, with the same margin of error.
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  SPEAKER_00: On October 7th,
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  SPEAKER_00: thousands of students marched through downtown Rio de Janeiro against
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  SPEAKER_00: a Bolsonaro presidency, chanting, Never Again Bolsonaro.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translator's Notes Portuguese language coverage reads the vote as an election story
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  SPEAKER_00: before it is a labor story.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Portuguese report calls the amendment one of Lula's main weapons for reversing
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  SPEAKER_00: the rejection of his administration.
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  SPEAKER_00: It says Flavio Bolsonaro and his party reversed course to avoid electoral damage.
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  SPEAKER_00: Business wanted the opposite timing.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Industry Confederation had asked that the text be analyzed after the elections.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brazil's Senate voted 75 to 1 to end the six-day workweek.
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  SPEAKER_00: Sixty days after promulgation,
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  SPEAKER_00: the maximum week falls to 42 hours,
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  SPEAKER_00: and a year later to 40 hours, with two paid rest days and no pay cut.
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  SPEAKER_00: Industry groups oppose it.
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  SPEAKER_00: The vote came 11 days before the October 25th runoff,
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  SPEAKER_00: and both candidates say they support ending the six-day schedule.
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  SPEAKER_00: Houthi missiles and drones hit near the presidential palace in Aden on Thursday,
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  SPEAKER_00: killing five people.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yemen's health minister reported five killed and 16 wounded.
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  SPEAKER_00: An early estimate from an official who asked not to be named had put the toll
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  SPEAKER_00: at two dead and six wounded.
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  SPEAKER_00: Witnesses said at least six explosions struck near the palace in Aden, Yemen's interim capital.
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  SPEAKER_00: A security official said at least two took place on the hill near al-Mashik palace
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  SPEAKER_00: and two others near the security gate.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yemen's information minister,
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  SPEAKER_00: Muammar al-Aryani, said the Houthis fired five missiles at the palace.
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  SPEAKER_00: The palace is the seat of power for the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government.
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  SPEAKER_00: The government said the prime minister and other officials were safe.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Houthis claimed responsibility.
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  SPEAKER_00: They said they attacked a military operations headquarters where the Saudi enemy was located.
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  SPEAKER_00: Houthi-affiliated media also claimed strikes on weapons depots.
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  SPEAKER_00: Earlier Thursday,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a cruise missile
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  SPEAKER_00: over Saudi Arabia's Medina province.
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  SPEAKER_00: That statement did not assign blame.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Houthi's military spokesman, Yahya Asari, denied involvement.
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  SPEAKER_00: The coalition said Houthi attacks have killed 17 people and wounded more than 300.
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  SPEAKER_00: Its spokesperson,
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  SPEAKER_00: Major General Turkey al-Maliki,
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  SPEAKER_00: accused the Houthis of obtaining ballistic missiles from other countries in
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  SPEAKER_00: the region.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: The reporting treats the Aden strike as a new phase of the Saudi-Houthi war,
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  SPEAKER_00: not an isolated attack.
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  SPEAKER_00: It ties that war to the one that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran in February.
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  SPEAKER_00: The fighting reignited after a years-long truce collapsed and the Houthis followed
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  SPEAKER_00: with an offensive in September.
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  SPEAKER_00: Correspondent in Sana'a calls the attacks on the government's headquarters the first
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  SPEAKER_00: of its kind.
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  SPEAKER_00: He reads it as a sign the escalation will intensify with fears of an all-out civil war.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Saudi side draws its own line to Tehran with foreign ministry officials saying
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  SPEAKER_00: the escalation is encouraged by Iran.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Houthi missiles and drones hit near the presidential palace in Aden.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Houthis
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  SPEAKER_00: claimed responsibility and said they targeted
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  SPEAKER_00: a Saudi-led military operations headquarters.
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  SPEAKER_00: The strike comes as Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia continue.
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  SPEAKER_00: Russia's foreign minister called Ukraine's strikes on oil facilities a direct
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  SPEAKER_00: and crude challenge to President Trump.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Ukraine never stops striking refineries.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ukrainian drones hit the Ryazin refinery early Thursday after Trump announced
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  SPEAKER_00: an energy ceasefire on Sunday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Russia's defense ministry said a fire broke out at the Ryazin refinery in Russia
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  SPEAKER_00: when drone debris fell on the site.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said the air defense downed 166 Ukrainian drones overnight.
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  SPEAKER_00: The refinery is owned by the oil company Rosneft and handles almost 5% of Russia's refining.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mikhailo Fedorov,
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  SPEAKER_00: a former Ukrainian defense minister,
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  SPEAKER_00: wrote on X that Starlink connectivity at speeds of up
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  SPEAKER_00: to 160 kilometers per hour is being restored.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said removing the speed limit on Starshield,
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  SPEAKER_00: the SpaceX-designed system Ukraine uses for battlefield communications entirely,
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  SPEAKER_00: is now critical for Ukraine's defense.
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  SPEAKER_00: He thanked Elon Musk for his support.
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  SPEAKER_00: A senior Kiev official confirmed that the United States had
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  SPEAKER_00: in recent days threatened to stop providing intelligence
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  SPEAKER_00: on Russian missile launches.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump denied doing so on Tuesday.
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  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky described the American position in an interview as,
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  SPEAKER_00: If you will not stop the energy strikes, we will block intelligence.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said the Starlink slowdown was not a technical problem, but a decision.
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  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky was in Brussels on Thursday for talks with European Union leaders at a two-day summit.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: The European report on the Starlink dispute sets it against
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  SPEAKER_00: the American political calendar.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump faces midterms next month with fuel prices a major issue,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he has blamed Ukraine's refinery strikes for higher prices at the pump.
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  SPEAKER_00: Kiev accuses Washington of slowing its connections and threatening its intelligence.
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  SPEAKER_00: Congressional Democrats have condemned the administration over
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  SPEAKER_00: the reported interrupted connections.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Russia's foreign minister called Ukraine's refinery strikes a challenge to Trump,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Kremlin says Ukraine never stopped them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Ukraine's former defense minister says Starlink speeds are being partly restored.
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  SPEAKER_00: A senior Kiev official says the U.S.
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  SPEAKER_00: threatened to cut intelligence on Russian missile launches and Trump denied it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Zelensky is at an EU summit in Brussels.
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  SPEAKER_00: At least 45 devices at Al Jazeera were targeted with spyware delivered
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  SPEAKER_00: through online ads in 2024 and 2025, researchers said Thursday.
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  SPEAKER_00: A Canadian research group and a New York advertising security firm said
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  SPEAKER_00: an Israeli digital advertising agency called Discover Tech spied on internet users
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  SPEAKER_00: through a sprawling network of online ads.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Canadian group named the technique Adfection.
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  SPEAKER_00: It works without a click.
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  SPEAKER_00: The ads directed devices to spyware made by Cantoroo,
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  SPEAKER_00: an Israeli company the United States blacklisted in 2021.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Canadian group said the ads reached more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps.
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  SPEAKER_00: The New York firm estimated that Discover Tech served at least 10 million ads a day.
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  SPEAKER_00: The New York firm said the ads reached networks used by the Pentagon,
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  SPEAKER_00: the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Criminal Court.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pentagon is part of the United States, Israel's closest ally.
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  SPEAKER_00: Duh.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Canadian group found ad impressions on the networks of NATO,
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  SPEAKER_00: the United Nations,
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  SPEAKER_00: the European Commission,
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  SPEAKER_00: and more than a dozen national governments, including Israel's and Russia's.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said an ad appearing on a network does not by itself confirm that
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  SPEAKER_00: a device was targeted or infected.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Canadian group said it found with high confidence that devices
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  SPEAKER_00: at Al Jazeera were targeted and infected.
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  SPEAKER_00: Al Jazeera Media Network condemned the attacks on its staff.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Google removed Discover Tech from its ad platform,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote, for systematically violating our policies, close quote.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: IAB Europe suspended the firm from its list of globally approved vendors last week.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Comcast's ad technology unit, Beeswax, also removed it.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: DiscoverTech, founded in 2020, did not return messages left through its contact form.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators notes,
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: reports carried in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan treated this less
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: as one company's scandal than as a flaw in how internet is paid for.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: They lead with a private Israeli agency,
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  SPEAKER_00: but they describe advertising-driven surveillance as increasingly seen as
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: a national security threat.
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  SPEAKER_00: They also record a remark from a co-founder of the New York firm,
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  SPEAKER_00: What
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  SPEAKER_00: American readers need to know.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Researchers say an Israeli advertising company used the online ad system
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  SPEAKER_00: to deliver spyware, with no click required.
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  SPEAKER_00: Its ads appeared on networks used by the Pentagon,
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  SPEAKER_00: NATO, and the UN, though that alone does not confirm any device was infected.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Canadian Research Group says devices at Al Jazeera were targeted and infected.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Google and other ad companies have cut the firm off.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hospitals in Tirana, Albania's capital, treated 89 people on Wednesday after riots.
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  SPEAKER_00: 61 of them were police officers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Police said they arrested 65 people on suspicion of attacking police,
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  SPEAKER_00: institutions, and property.
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  SPEAKER_00: Four officers and two protesters were still in the hospital on Thursday.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Wednesday's riots included attacks on government buildings, banks, and businesses.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Thursday, student-led crowds clashed with police for another day.
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  SPEAKER_00: Youths threw rocks at a police cordon outside the education ministry,
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  SPEAKER_00: and riot police used tear gas and water cannon.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Protests spread to smaller cities as students joined university boycotts.
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  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Idi Rama refused to resign.
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  SPEAKER_00: He visited cleanup crews and a burned college building
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  SPEAKER_00: and accused political opponents of inciting violence.
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  SPEAKER_00: No one can grab Albania by the throat, he said.
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  SPEAKER_00: He said attacks on institutions have nothing to do with the students' legitimate demands.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Protest organizer Matteo Scolari said the response to any attempt to silence
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  SPEAKER_00: the movement would be to expand it.
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  SPEAKER_00: The students cite corruption, the high cost of education, and poor job prospects.
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  SPEAKER_00: The wider movement also opposes a luxury resort development
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: on Albania's southern coast linked to Jared Kushner,
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: President Donald Trump's son-in-law.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Rama has been Prime Minister since 2013 and won a fourth term last May.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: He denies the corruption allegations.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Albanian commentators read the unrest as a boiling point, not a sudden outbreak.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: A professor
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  SPEAKER_00: at Toronto Political Studies Institute says students protested peacefully
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  SPEAKER_00: for nearly three months and that their demands were largely ignored.
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  SPEAKER_00: A lecturer at the University of New York,
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  SPEAKER_00: Toronto,
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  SPEAKER_00: compares the movement with the December 2018 student protests
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  SPEAKER_00: and doubts it will match their effects.
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  SPEAKER_00: Those protests forced Rama to dismiss eight ministers.
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  SPEAKER_00: A U.S. headline on the same clashes names a Kushner-linked project as a spark.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Riots in Toronto on Wednesday left 89 people injured,
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  SPEAKER_00: 61 of them police officers, and police arrested 65.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: Students are demanding Prime Minister Idi Rama's resignation, and Rama refuses.
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  SPEAKER_00: The movement also opposes a resort development linked to Jared Kushner.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: A couple of quick briefs.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nadal Hassan.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: President Trump said in a Truth Social post that the firing squad execution
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: of Nadal Hassan will not be streamed.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: He wrote that Hassan will die as scheduled and that victims' families may attend
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  SPEAKER_00: in person if they choose.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump also wrote that streaming it might have been a strong deterrent,
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  SPEAKER_00: but that many good people would rather not watch.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Pentagon had earlier said the December 3rd execution would be live-streamed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and John Curtis
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: and Representative Austin Scott had criticized the plan.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Iran Execution Iran executed Ali Sinna Mustafavi,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: a 38-year-old mountaineer from Kerman,
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  SPEAKER_00: on Wednesday, the Judiciary News Agency reported.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Judiciary News Said he carried out armed attacks in Kerman,
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: including shootings that wounded civilians in support
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi and Israel.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Iranian authorities have not released evidence that he acted under Pahlavi's directions.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Reich groups had warned a day earlier that his execution could be imminent.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this edition of The Rest of the World Report.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez, and I will see you all again tomorrow morning.
• 14:49
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