Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 27, 2026 — Morning Edition

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The Rest of the World Report | October 27, 2026 — Morning Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

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  [music]
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  SPEAKER_00: Good morning from Paris.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Tuesday morning, October 27th.
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  SPEAKER_00: First up, the Israeli election.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israelis are voting on Tuesday in their first general election since
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  SPEAKER_00: the Hamas attack of October 7th, 2023.
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  SPEAKER_00: Polls point to a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
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  SPEAKER_00: and Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief.
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  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu is on trial for corruption.
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  SPEAKER_00: Eisenkot has pledged an independent state commission of inquiry into
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  SPEAKER_00: the security failures that led to October 7th,
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  SPEAKER_00: which Netanyahu's government has resisted.
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  SPEAKER_00: By 10 a.m.
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  SPEAKER_00: local time,
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  SPEAKER_00: the turnout stood at about 16.7 percent,
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  SPEAKER_00: up from 15.9 percent at the same hour in 2022, the Central Elections Committee said.
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  SPEAKER_00: With 1.2 million votes cast, it was the highest turnout at that hour since at least 1996.
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  SPEAKER_00: The committee's hour-by-hour records began that year.
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  SPEAKER_00: No party has ever won a majority outright in the 120-seat Knesset, and 61 seats are needed.
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  SPEAKER_00: Final results could take days, and a close race could mean weeks of coalition talks.
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  SPEAKER_00: Arab-led parties represent about 21% of Israel's population and could decide the outcome.
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  SPEAKER_00: Neither Netanyahu nor Eisenkot has said publicly that he would partner with them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Several parties made complaints on Election Day.
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  SPEAKER_00: Eisenkot's party, Yashar, reported stolen or damaged ballot slips.
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  SPEAKER_00: It also recorded extremely long lines in areas that favor Eisenkot,
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  SPEAKER_00: raising concerns that access was being deliberately blocked.
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  SPEAKER_00: The People of Israel Party reported its slips missing at some polling stations
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  SPEAKER_00: and turned over at others.
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  SPEAKER_00: Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's party,
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  SPEAKER_00: B. Yashad, accused Likud of using a phone app to track voters.
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  SPEAKER_00: The committee said it had received no reports of such activity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Police said three men were arrested overnight on suspicion of a scheme
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  SPEAKER_00: to bribe people to vote for the Arab party Ra'am.
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  SPEAKER_00: They said officers found envelopes holding tens of thousands of shekels in cash.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translator's note.
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  SPEAKER_00: Abroad, this election is read as a vote on Netanyahu,
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  SPEAKER_00: but the arithmetic points to a different question.
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  SPEAKER_00: If neither bloc reaches 61 seats,
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  SPEAKER_00: the next government depends on who is willing to work with the Arab-led parties,
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  SPEAKER_00: and neither leader has said he is.
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  SPEAKER_00: The voters in Ofra,
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  SPEAKER_00: who told reporters they were voting to keep these parties out of any coalition,
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  SPEAKER_00: show why.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whatever the count on election night, the contest that decides the government starts after it.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Israel is holding a general election today, its first since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
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  SPEAKER_00: Polls show a tight race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot.
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  SPEAKER_00: No party has ever won a majority outright,
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  SPEAKER_00: so the winner may not be known for days and a government could take weeks to form.
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  SPEAKER_00: Syria Disputes Jordan's Strikes Jordan said on Tuesday that its airstrikes
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  SPEAKER_00: in southern Syria killed more than 20 Islamic State militants.
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  SPEAKER_00: Syria says the strikes killed seven people,
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  SPEAKER_00: including three children and a woman, and that it was given no warning.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jordan's government spokesperson,
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  SPEAKER_00: Mohammed al-Mamani, gave the figure on X and called it an estimate.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jordan avoided sites where it had information that civilians were present, he said.
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  SPEAKER_00: He expressed regret over the civilian deaths and Jordan is following up with
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  SPEAKER_00: the Syrian authorities.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jordan's armed forces said on Monday night that the strikes were retaliation
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  SPEAKER_00: for Friday's attack on a funeral at a church in Karak,
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  SPEAKER_00: which killed at least nine people.
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  SPEAKER_00: The military described the strikes as coordinated with the Syrian government
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  SPEAKER_00: and said they killed and wounded many members of the groups targeted.
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  SPEAKER_00: They gave no number.
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  SPEAKER_00: Syria rejects the claim of coordination.
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  SPEAKER_00: Its government said the operation was carried out without prior coordination
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  SPEAKER_00: or notification and that it has opened an investigation.
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  SPEAKER_00: A Syrian foreign ministry official called the strikes treacherous.
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  SPEAKER_00: Syria's civil defense said at least four sites in rural Daraa
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  SPEAKER_00: and Soweda provinces were hit on Monday evening.
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  SPEAKER_00: Crews recovered seven bodies, three men, a young woman, and three children.
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  SPEAKER_00: Five of them, a man,
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  SPEAKER_00: woman, and three children, were one family killed in a tent in the village of Altai.
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  SPEAKER_00: Syrian officials had reported five children deaths earlier on Monday.
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  SPEAKER_00: After the strikes, Syria closed the Nasib crossing.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is the only crossing for passengers and goods between the two countries.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jordan bombed targets in southern Syria on Monday after Friday's attack on
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  SPEAKER_00: a church funeral in Karak.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jordan says the strikes killed more than 20 Islamic State militants
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  SPEAKER_00: and were coordinated with Syria.
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  SPEAKER_00: Syria says seven people died,
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  SPEAKER_00: denies it was told in advance, and has closed its main border crossing with Jordan.
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  SPEAKER_00: Midterms are one week away, guys.
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  SPEAKER_00: Americans vote on Tuesday,
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  SPEAKER_00: November 3rd in midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are on the ballot, along with 36 governorships.
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  SPEAKER_00: Republicans hold the House 218 to 214 with one independent who sits with them and two vacancies.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats need to gain three seats there.
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  SPEAKER_00: Republicans hold 53 Senate seats and Democrats 45 with two independents who sit with
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  SPEAKER_00: the Democrats.
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  SPEAKER_00: Democrats need a net gain of four.
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  SPEAKER_00: A 50-50 split would leave Republicans in control because Vice President J.D.
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  SPEAKER_00: Vance can cast tie-breaking votes.
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  SPEAKER_00: Losing either chamber would give Democrats the power to block legislation
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  SPEAKER_00: and open investigations of the administration.
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  SPEAKER_00: Todd Belt,
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  SPEAKER_00: a political management professor at George Washington University,
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  SPEAKER_00: estimates that about 35 House races could decide the majority.
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  SPEAKER_00: He predicts Democrats could gain about 15 seats,
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  SPEAKER_00: even though Republican redistricting has given that party an advantage
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  SPEAKER_00: in nine more districts.
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  SPEAKER_00: Polls show Democrats pulling ahead.
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  SPEAKER_00: President Donald Trump made several offers and legal moves in the final stretch.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Monday,
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  SPEAKER_00: he posted that anyone reporting voter fraud in past elections
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  SPEAKER_00: or these midterms would be paid $1 million on the arrest and conviction
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  SPEAKER_00: of those responsible.
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  SPEAKER_00: He gave no details on how the reward would be funded or administered.
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  SPEAKER_00: He also offered every adult American citizen $5,000 if Republicans keep both chambers.
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  SPEAKER_00: The plan would cost more than $1 trillion and need approval from Congress.
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  SPEAKER_00: He has tied compensation for veterans sickened by contaminated water at
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  SPEAKER_00: a North Carolina military base to a Republican victory.
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  SPEAKER_00: The Justice Department is sued to stop Alaska from certifying its Senate result if
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  SPEAKER_00: the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, loses.
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  SPEAKER_00: It cites possible voter confusion over another candidate with the same name.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump acknowledged personally ordering the suit,
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  SPEAKER_00: and his attorney general has denied seeking to overturn the result.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know is that midterm elections are on Tuesday, November 3rd.
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  SPEAKER_00: Republicans control both chambers,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Democrats need to gain three House seats or four Senate seats to take one.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump has offered a $1 million reward for voter fraud information and sued
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  SPEAKER_00: to stop Alaska, certifying its Senate result if a Republican loses.
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  SPEAKER_00: Bolsonaro's party accepts the results.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brazil's Liberal Party has accepted Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's election win,
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  SPEAKER_00: a day after its candidate,
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  SPEAKER_00: Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, said he would ask for the election to be annulled.
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  SPEAKER_00: Party leader Valdemar Costaneto said on Monday that the party recognized the result.
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  SPEAKER_00: He added that the issues Bolsonaro raised still need to be clarified.
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  SPEAKER_00: Bolsonaro has not conceded.
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  SPEAKER_00: Reporting from Brazil says his legal advisors
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  SPEAKER_00: and political allies have convinced him to abandon his bid to have
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  SPEAKER_00: the vote annulled.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whether he will continue the legal challenge is not yet known.
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  SPEAKER_00: On Monday,
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  SPEAKER_00: he announced that federal police had asked for his passports and that
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  SPEAKER_00: a Supreme Court justice had barred him from leaving the country.
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  SPEAKER_00: The order is an attempt at intimidation, he said, but he will comply and has no plans to leave.
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  SPEAKER_00: Bolsonaro linked it to a remark by his brother, Eduardo, who lives in the United States.
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  SPEAKER_00: Two days before the vote,
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  SPEAKER_00: Eduardo told a U.S. podcast that he favored Flavio leaving the country if he lost.
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  SPEAKER_00: The president of Brazil's electoral court,
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  SPEAKER_00: Casio Nunes Marques,
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  SPEAKER_00: said on Monday that the extension of voting hours changed nothing in the result.
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  SPEAKER_00: Flavio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2020.
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  SPEAKER_00: An analysis of electoral court data by the researcher Pedro Burgos found
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  SPEAKER_00: that 34,330 votes,
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  SPEAKER_00: three one-hundredths of a percent of the total,
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  SPEAKER_00: were cast after 5 p.m. Lula won by 4,430,000 votes.
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  SPEAKER_00: As of Monday, there was no record of the Bolsonaro campaign filing a formal challenge.
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  SPEAKER_00: President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday that the vote looked like,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote, another rigged election, close quote, and that he took no side in the race.
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  SPEAKER_00: He also compared it to the 2020 election and offered no evidence of irregularities.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translators note,
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  SPEAKER_00: in Latin America,
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  SPEAKER_00: the question is who still stands behind the claim that the vote was flawed
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  SPEAKER_00: and outside Brazil, almost no government does.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right-wing leaders, including allies of the Bolsonaros, congratulated Lula.
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  SPEAKER_00: Merco Press ties this to Brazil's weight as the region's largest economy and
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  SPEAKER_00: a main trading partner of its neighbors.
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  SPEAKER_00: That reads as interest outranking ideology.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump's doubts and Argentina's missing congratulations are the exceptions.
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  SPEAKER_00: By Fulha's account, the State Department drafted its own congratulations and held it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Flavio Bolsonaro's bid has little foreign backing to lean on,
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  SPEAKER_00: and now his own party has accepted the result.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know, Bolsonaro's party has accepted Lula's win.
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  SPEAKER_00: Though Bolsonaro has not conceded.
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  SPEAKER_00: A Supreme Court justice has barred him from leaving the country and he says he will comply.
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  SPEAKER_00: Brazil's Electoral Court president says the extended voting hours changed nothing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Trump called the vote another rigged election.
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  SPEAKER_00: And of course, he gave no evidence.
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  SPEAKER_00: Algeria sends troops to Niger.
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  SPEAKER_00: Algeria's president has ordered troops to Niger.
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  SPEAKER_00: If carried out,
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  SPEAKER_00: it would be Algeria's first military deployment abroad since
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  SPEAKER_00: the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
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  SPEAKER_00: Approved the deployment on Sunday in an emergency session,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the presidency announced the order on Monday.
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  SPEAKER_00: The upper house voted for it with all 148 members in attendance.
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  SPEAKER_00: The soldiers will protect energy and economic interests that Algeria and Niger share.
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  SPEAKER_00: And the presidency said Niger had asked for them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Algeria has not said how many soldiers will go or when.
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  SPEAKER_00: Senator Belkasem Bolgidi said Algeria was not sending our soldiers to wage war
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  SPEAKER_00: in Niger and that the troops would protect Algerian oil facilities there.
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  SPEAKER_00: Algeria's state energy company,
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  SPEAKER_00: Sonatrak, is working with Niger on the proposed trans-Saharan gas pipeline.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would carry gas from Nigeria through Niger to Algeria for export to Europe.
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  SPEAKER_00: Algeria sent fighter jets and support aircraft to Niger in August
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  SPEAKER_00: after what Algerian officials described as an attempt
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  SPEAKER_00: to destabilize Niger's military government.
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  SPEAKER_00: On October 3rd, President Abdelmajid Tabon said Algeria would protect Niger no matter what.
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  SPEAKER_00: Niger faces persistent attacks by armed groups, including near its border with Algeria.
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  SPEAKER_00: Separately,
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  SPEAKER_00: Niger's military government accused Chad on Monday of a drone strike on Saturday
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  SPEAKER_00: that killed two civilians.
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  SPEAKER_00: It said the strikes hit the Salvador Pass in the Emelulu area of northern Niger,
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  SPEAKER_00: a remote mining region near the borders with Algeria and Libya.
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  SPEAKER_00: Niger called it an act of aggression carried out with France's support.
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  SPEAKER_00: It summoned the Chadian ambassador and demanded compensation and plans to take
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  SPEAKER_00: the matter to the UN Security Council and the African Union's Peace
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  SPEAKER_00: and Security Council.
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  SPEAKER_00: In September, Niger accused Chad of involvement in a foiled mutiny and alleged French backing.
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  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Algeria's parliament approved sending troops to neighboring Niger.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would be Algeria's first overseas deployment since 1973.
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  SPEAKER_00: The mission is to protect energy facilities and Algeria has not said how many soldiers will go.
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  SPEAKER_00: Niger separately accuses Chad of a drone strike backed by France
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  SPEAKER_00: that killed two civilians on Saturday.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cyclone Arnab.
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  SPEAKER_00: India's weather department expects the very severe cyclonic storm to cross
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  SPEAKER_00: the coast near Yanem by Wednesday morning,
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  SPEAKER_00: with winds of 120 to 135 kilometers an hour gusting to 150.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nearly 89,000 people on the Kakanata coast are being moved to relief camps,
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  SPEAKER_00: and Odisha plans to move 48,000.
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  SPEAKER_00: At least 61 trains are canceled.
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  SPEAKER_00: Andhra Pradesh's Disaster Management Authority says more
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  SPEAKER_00: than 12 million people live along the projected path.
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  SPEAKER_00: Nepal has put the country on high alert from Thursday to Saturday,
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  SPEAKER_00: with heavy rain, snow, and avalanches possible in the Himalayas.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this edition of The Rest of the World Report.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez.
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  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
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  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you all again this evening.
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