Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 27, 2026 — Evening Edition
Transcript
- 0:00[music]
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: Good evening from Paris,
- 0:10SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Tuesday evening,
- 0:14SPEAKER_00: October 27th.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: Israel election leaves no majority.
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: Exit polls show neither Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc nor Gadi Eisenkotz winning
- 0:23SPEAKER_00: the 61 seats needed for a majority in Israel's 120-seat Knesset.
- 0:28SPEAKER_00: So, Israelis vote for national lists of candidates offered by parties,
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: and the 120 seats are divided in proportion to each list's vote.
- 0:37SPEAKER_00: It's difficult for one party to win a majority, so governments are built as a coalition.
- 0:41SPEAKER_00: Each leader's bloc is a group of allied parties.
- 0:44SPEAKER_00: The two Arab lists,
- 0:46SPEAKER_00: Rahm and the Joint List, are projected to win between 17 and 18 seats between them.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: That's up from 10 in 2022.
- 0:53SPEAKER_00: They belong to neither bloc, though they have said they are open to supporting Eisenkots.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: The projections are a little different.
- 1:00SPEAKER_00: One has Netanyahu's block at 50 seats, Eisenkotts at 52 or 53, and the Arab parties at 18.
- 1:05SPEAKER_00: And then another one has Netanyahu's block at about 50,
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: and Eisenkotts at anywhere from 52 to 54.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: And Netanyahu's Likud party is the largest single party, up to 25 seats.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: Polls close tonight at 10 p.m. local time.
- 1:19SPEAKER_00: Turnout reached 74.3% by 8 p.m. against 70.63% in the 2022 election.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: Preliminary results are expected tomorrow.
- 1:29SPEAKER_00: And official results are due by November 4th.
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: The stillmate could let Netanyahu stay on as caretaker prime minister.
- 1:36SPEAKER_00: Eisenkot has said exit polls show voters have no confidence left in Netanyahu.
- 1:41SPEAKER_00: On election day,
- 1:42SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu posted on X that, quote,
- 1:44SPEAKER_00: Muslim Brotherhood supporters are raiding the polling stations and stealing
- 1:47SPEAKER_00: the elections, close quote.
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: Here's right-wing voters to turn out.
- 1:51SPEAKER_00: He warned that long lines in Arab towns could bring a government
- 1:54SPEAKER_00: that includes Arab lawmaker Mansour Abbas and Ahmed Tibi.
- 1:58SPEAKER_00: Abbas called the Post a scare tactic to mobilize right-wing voters.
- 2:03SPEAKER_00: Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel,
- 2:06SPEAKER_00: said it had received reports of attempts to discourage Arab voters.
- 2:10SPEAKER_00: It also reported queues in Arab-majority towns moving slowly or stopping and a lack
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: of ballot slips printed in Arabic.
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: Eisencott made allegations of his own on Acts,
- 2:19SPEAKER_00: warning that the purity of the election was being harmed.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: The Central Elections Committee rejected a Likud request to extend voting hours.
- 2:27SPEAKER_00: Eisenkot has ruled out working with Arab parties, citing a lack of shared values.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu claims Eisenkot cannot govern without their support.
- 2:36SPEAKER_00: Translators note, the surge in Arab seats reads as a result of the campaign against them.
- 2:42SPEAKER_00: Before the vote,
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: the pollster Dahlia Scheinland said the Arab people she knows described
- 2:47SPEAKER_00: a huge fear factor about Itmar Ben-Gvir,
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: the minister in charge of the police, joining the next government.
- 2:53SPEAKER_00: One Arab voter said he would vote because a low turnout would embolden the far right.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: In 2022, turnout among Arab and Druze voters was about 53% against about 70% overall.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: The seats that grew now have no partner.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: Eisencott's block is projected at 52 to 54 and cannot reach 61 without them.
- 3:12SPEAKER_00: The next government will depend on seats that one leader attacked and the other has ruled out.
- 3:18SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
- 3:20SPEAKER_00: Israel's election ended in apparent deadlock, according to exit polls.
- 3:24SPEAKER_00: Neither Netanyahu's bloc nor Eisenkot's reaches a 61-seat majority,
- 3:28SPEAKER_00: and Arab parties are projected to win 17 or 18 seats, up from 10.
- 3:33SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu has said Arab voters are stealing the election,
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: and Eisenkot has ruled out working with the Arab parties.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: Preliminary results are due tomorrow.
- 3:43SPEAKER_00: Bolsonaro has left Brazil.
- 3:46SPEAKER_00: Flavio Bolsonaro,
- 3:47SPEAKER_00: the defeated candidate in Brazil's presidential election,
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: has left the country for the United States,
- 3:51SPEAKER_00: according to U.S. officials and two sources.
- 3:54SPEAKER_00: The sources told reporters he left after losing Sunday's runoff
- 3:57SPEAKER_00: to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: and despite a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports.
- 4:03SPEAKER_00: Justice Alexandre de Mores gave that order on Monday with a 24-hour deadline.
- 4:09SPEAKER_00: Bolsonaro had agreed with his legal team to deliver the documents
- 4:11SPEAKER_00: on Tuesday morning, but he had not done so by Tuesday afternoon.
- 4:16SPEAKER_00: Brazil's federal police canceled his passport and are looking for him.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: The senior federal official said he had not left through any regular migration point.
- 4:23SPEAKER_00: The police source told reporters there is no formal record of his departure.
- 4:28SPEAKER_00: His destination is not confirmed,
- 4:29SPEAKER_00: and a U.S.
- 4:30SPEAKER_00: official first said he was heading to Florida,
- 4:32SPEAKER_00: then said the exact destination was not clear.
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: Brazilian outlets named Miami, and one says Miami or Dallas.
- 4:39SPEAKER_00: A report in Argentina said he crossed into that country,
- 4:42SPEAKER_00: and Argentina's government says it has no record of his entry.
- 4:46SPEAKER_00: A Brazilian newspaper reports citing sources close to the family that
- 4:49SPEAKER_00: the Trump administration knows of his departure and will grant him asylum.
- 4:53SPEAKER_00: It's not clear whether he would actually ask for asylum,
- 4:56SPEAKER_00: but his campaign coordinator, Rogério Marino, denies that he has left Brazil.
- 5:00SPEAKER_00: His brother Eduardo, who lives in Texas, called the rumors a lie.
- 5:04SPEAKER_00: In a video on Instagram, Bolsonaro had denied that he intended to flee.
- 5:07SPEAKER_00: The source close to him told reporters he feared arrest.
- 5:10SPEAKER_00: He is under investigation by the Supreme Court on suspicion of corruption,
- 5:14SPEAKER_00: money laundering, and currency evasion, and denies any wrongdoing.
- 5:18SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
- 5:20SPEAKER_00: Flavio Bolsonaro lost Sunday's presidential runoff to Lula.
- 5:24SPEAKER_00: U.S. officials say he has left Brazil for the United States despite a court order
- 5:27SPEAKER_00: to surrender his passports.
- 5:29SPEAKER_00: His campaign and his brother deny it.
- 5:32SPEAKER_00: Brazilian police are looking for him.
- 5:35SPEAKER_00: Qatar's Amir Meets Iran's President Qatar's Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid al-Fani met
- 5:42SPEAKER_00: Iran's President Masoud Pazeshkin in Moscow on Tuesday.
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: They met on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum Summit.
- 5:49SPEAKER_00: Iranian state television said they reviewed relations between Tehran and Doha
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: and discussed expanding cooperation, including on energy.
- 5:56SPEAKER_00: The reported account of the meeting did not mention the war in
- 5:59SPEAKER_00: which Iran has struck targets across the region, including in Qatar.
- 6:03SPEAKER_00: Qatar is among the mediators trying to end it.
- 6:06SPEAKER_00: A Qatari foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday
- 6:08SPEAKER_00: that Iran should stop threatening Gulf states so
- 6:10SPEAKER_00: that diplomacy can help defuse tension.
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: He said a Qatari delegation had visited Tehran.
- 6:16SPEAKER_00: Iran's foreign ministry said the delegation went on Sunday.
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: Iran's security chief,
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: Mohsen Razai,
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: said last week that Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz
- 6:23SPEAKER_00: and begin peace talks only after the United States takes concrete steps.
- 6:27SPEAKER_00: He listed suspending sanctions,
- 6:29SPEAKER_00: unfreezing Iranian assets,
- 6:30SPEAKER_00: lifting the U.S.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: naval blockade of Iranian ports,
- 6:33SPEAKER_00: and giving assurances that it will not strike again.
- 6:37SPEAKER_00: The United States wants more concessions first, including on Iran's nuclear program.
- 6:42SPEAKER_00: President Donald Trump said on Sunday,
- 6:43SPEAKER_00: quote, Do I make a deal with them or do I finish them off?
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: Close quote.
- 6:48SPEAKER_00: He had earlier said attacks on Iran would not happen until after the U.S.
- 6:51SPEAKER_00: midterms on November 3rd.
- 6:53SPEAKER_00: On Friday,
- 6:53SPEAKER_00: he said Washington may do another little epic fury,
- 6:56SPEAKER_00: a reference to the U.S.-Israeli campaign that began on February 28th.
- 7:00SPEAKER_00: Egypt's parliament has approved a request from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
- 7:04SPEAKER_00: to give defensive military support to Saudi Arabia if it is asked.
- 7:07SPEAKER_00: Riyadh has suffered weeks of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
- 7:12SPEAKER_00: Translator's note.
- 7:14SPEAKER_00: Outside the United States,
- 7:15SPEAKER_00: the days before November 3rd are read as a window that
- 7:17SPEAKER_00: the regional governments are trying to hold open.
- 7:20SPEAKER_00: Trump has said there will be no attacks before the vote,
- 7:22SPEAKER_00: and each side is asking the other to move first,
- 7:25SPEAKER_00: so there is no settlement on offer to close.
- 7:27SPEAKER_00: The mediators are working to lengthen the pause instead.
- 7:30SPEAKER_00: Qatar is asking Tehran for restraint before anything has been offered in return.
- 7:34SPEAKER_00: Saudi Arabia, under fire from the Houthis, has the most reason to want that pause to last.
- 7:39SPEAKER_00: The diplomacy has no deadline of its own, and it runs to the date of the vote.
- 7:44SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
- 7:46SPEAKER_00: Qatar's Amir met Iran's president in Moscow on Tuesday.
- 7:50SPEAKER_00: Trump says he is deciding between a deal and an attack,
- 7:52SPEAKER_00: and has previously said no strike will come before the November 3rd midterms.
- 7:56SPEAKER_00: Iran says it will reopen the Strait of Hormuz only after the U.S. meets its conditions.
- 8:04SPEAKER_00: A ceasefire around the Russian-occupied city of Oleski took effect at 3 a.m.
- 8:10SPEAKER_00: Kiev time on Tuesday, and it now covers the whole Kursan region.
- 8:14SPEAKER_00: Dmitry Lubinets,
- 8:16SPEAKER_00: Ukraine's human rights ombudsman,
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: said both sides were adhering to it by late Tuesday afternoon.
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: Russia's human rights commissioner,
- 8:22SPEAKER_00: Yana Lantratova, said no violations had been recorded on either side.
- 8:27SPEAKER_00: Russia's defense ministry said it stopped shelling in the direction of Kherson
- 8:30SPEAKER_00: from 4 a.m. Moscow time.
- 8:32SPEAKER_00: The Ukrainian negotiator and member of parliament,
- 8:34SPEAKER_00: Davida Rakhamiya, said the ceasefire is expected to last until November 1.
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: He called it the largest de-escalation effort since 2022.
- 8:42SPEAKER_00: It is meant to let elderly residents leave Oleschke and aid to reach the town,
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: where Ukrainian authorities say about 1,700 people remain.
- 8:50SPEAKER_00: Fighting continued elsewhere.
- 8:52SPEAKER_00: An attack on Kiev killed a 46-year-old woman and injured more than a dozen people,
- 8:55SPEAKER_00: Ukraine's emergency services said.
- 8:58SPEAKER_00: It also damaged a bridge,
- 8:59SPEAKER_00: and Russia said it carried out a massive strike on Ukrainian military facilities,
- 9:03SPEAKER_00: a logistics center in Kharkiv, and transport infrastructure in Kiev.
- 9:07SPEAKER_00: The White House says First Lady Melania Trump mediated the ceasefire.
- 9:11SPEAKER_00: Lubinets said,
- 9:12SPEAKER_00: Humanitarian mission is under her mediation and coordination,
- 9:15SPEAKER_00: working with Lantratova,
- 9:17SPEAKER_00: and that the U.S. side is monitoring how each party meets its commitments.
- 9:21SPEAKER_00: Lantratova confirmed on Friday that Melania Trump had brokered an agreement on,
- 9:25SPEAKER_00: quote, organizing a humanitarian mission, close quote.
- 9:29SPEAKER_00: The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Moscow was grateful to her.
- 9:33SPEAKER_00: Pope Leo spoke by phone to Putin on October 16th and Zelensky on October 19th,
- 9:38SPEAKER_00: urging a humanitarian truce in Oleski, the Vatican says.
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: Zelensky has confirmed that delegations from Ukraine, Russia,
- 9:44SPEAKER_00: and the United States will meet in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November
- 9:48SPEAKER_00: for working-level talks.
- 9:50SPEAKER_00: Translators note, The dispute over who brokered the truce is a dispute about two different jobs.
- 9:57SPEAKER_00: The Pope's calls were appeals to both presidents to agree to a pause.
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: The terms were negotiated by the two countries' ombudsmen,
- 10:05SPEAKER_00: who both credit Melania Trump, and the Kremlin spokesman has thanked her.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: The statements quoted here do not mention the Pope.
- 10:12SPEAKER_00: The Vatican does not speak with one voice on it.
- 10:15SPEAKER_00: The front page of its newspaper, Leservator Romano, credited his calls according to Al Jazeera.
- 10:20SPEAKER_00: Vatican News wrote on October 23rd that U.S. mediation involving her proved instrumental.
- 10:26SPEAKER_00: Al Jazeera ties the argument to the midterms.
- 10:29SPEAKER_00: It cites a Pew survey in which Trump's approval among U.S.
- 10:32SPEAKER_00: Catholics fell to 30% in October from 47% in January 2025.
- 10:38SPEAKER_00: The ceasefire's test comes on November 1st when it is expected to end.
- 10:44SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
- 10:47SPEAKER_00: A ceasefire around the occupied Ukrainian city of Oleski took effect on Tuesday
- 10:51SPEAKER_00: and now covers the Kherson region until November 1st.
- 10:54SPEAKER_00: Officials in Kyiv and Moscow credit First Lady Melania Trump with brokering it,
- 10:58SPEAKER_00: and the Vatican says Pope Leo's calls to both presidents urged a truce.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: Fighting continues elsewhere, including an attack on Kyiv.
- 11:07SPEAKER_00: Ukraine, Russia, and the United States will hold talks in Abu Dhabi in early November.
- 11:14SPEAKER_00: Signatories warn of Sudan famine.
- 11:17SPEAKER_00: 32 signatories have warned that Sudan is experiencing an alarming deterioration
- 11:21SPEAKER_00: of its food security.
- 11:23SPEAKER_00: They include the United States,
- 11:24SPEAKER_00: Britain,
- 11:25SPEAKER_00: Canada, Australia, France, and the European Commission for Crisis Management.
- 11:30SPEAKER_00: An estimated 19.5 million people,
- 11:34SPEAKER_00: 41% of Sudan's population, face high levels of acute food insecurity.
- 11:38SPEAKER_00: Five million of them are already at emergency levels.
- 11:41SPEAKER_00: The number of children with severe acute malnutrition could exceed the projected 825,000.
- 11:47SPEAKER_00: The number of food insecure areas first assessed at 14 is expected to double.
- 11:53SPEAKER_00: The statement names conflict as the main driver,
- 11:56SPEAKER_00: along with systematic obstruction of aid and drought linked to El Nino across more
- 12:00SPEAKER_00: than half the country.
- 12:01SPEAKER_00: It asked Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces to open all routes for aid
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: across front lines and borders, including air access to Darfur.
- 12:09SPEAKER_00: It also asks them to stop striking civilian infrastructure, including farms and food systems.
- 12:15SPEAKER_00: It calls on the international community to increase funding.
- 12:18SPEAKER_00: The statement was published by the UK and Spanish governments on October 23rd.
- 12:23SPEAKER_00: The U.S. State Department released it on Monday.
- 12:25SPEAKER_00: The war between the Army and the Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023
- 12:30SPEAKER_00: and has displaced more than 13 million people.
- 12:33SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: The United States and 31 signatories have warned that Sudan faces a risk of famine.
- 12:40SPEAKER_00: About 19.5 million people face high levels of acute hunger,
- 12:44SPEAKER_00: and the signatories ask the Army and the Rapid Support Forces to let aid through
- 12:48SPEAKER_00: and stop striking food systems.
- 12:52SPEAKER_00: Today in racism, U.S.
- 12:54SPEAKER_00: Health Secretary Robert F.
- 12:56SPEAKER_00: Kennedy Jr.
- 12:57SPEAKER_00: said at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids,
- 12:59SPEAKER_00: Michigan on Monday,
- 13:00SPEAKER_00: quote, There are 500 million Arabs in the world, and yet they don't produce science.
- 13:06SPEAKER_00: Close quote.
- 13:07SPEAKER_00: He added that Arabs do not win the Nobel Prize,
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: Fields or Wolf Prizes, and do not produce literature.
- 13:13SPEAKER_00: He made the remarks while discussing the Muslim Brotherhood.
- 13:16SPEAKER_00: He had referred to Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers,
- 13:19SPEAKER_00: who has raised the organization in his campaign against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: Dr.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: El-Sayed has denied ties to the Brotherhood and has disavowed it.
- 13:28SPEAKER_00: The Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Kennedy to be removed from office.
- 13:33SPEAKER_00: Let's take a look at the Nobel records.
- 13:34SPEAKER_00: What do they say?
- 13:35SPEAKER_00: Oh, look at that.
- 13:36SPEAKER_00: They contradict his claim about that particular prize.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: Ahmed Zawel,
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: born in Damanhur, Egypt,
- 13:41SPEAKER_00: won the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of the transition states
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy.
- 13:50SPEAKER_00: Omar Yagi,
- 13:51SPEAKER_00: born in Amant, Jordan,
- 13:52SPEAKER_00: won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development
- 13:56SPEAKER_00: of metal-organic frameworks.
- 13:58SPEAKER_00: He also won the 2018 Wolf Prize in Chemistry shared with Makato Fujita at
- 14:02SPEAKER_00: the University of Tokyo for pioneering work on metal-organic
- 14:06SPEAKER_00: and covalent-organic frameworks.
- 14:08SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what that means.
- 14:11SPEAKER_00: Nagui Mahfouz, born in Cairo, won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- 14:16SPEAKER_00: The Nobel records list his language as Arabic.
- 14:20SPEAKER_00: Michael Atia,
- 14:21SPEAKER_00: born in London to a Lebanese father and a Scottish mother,
- 14:23SPEAKER_00: won the Fields Medal in 1966.
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: He attended Victoria College in Egypt.
- 14:29SPEAKER_00: The history is even older.
- 14:32SPEAKER_00: Ibn al-Haytham was born around 965 in Basra, Iraq.
- 14:35SPEAKER_00: His book of optics offered a correct model of vision as the passive reception
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: of light by the eyes.
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: He championed the use of scientific experiments.
- 14:45SPEAKER_00: Al-Khwarizmi,
- 14:46SPEAKER_00: Was a Muslim mathematician who lived from around 780 to about 850 and worked at
- 14:50SPEAKER_00: the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
- 14:53SPEAKER_00: His works introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals and algebra into European mathematics.
- 14:59SPEAKER_00: The words algebra and algorithm come from his book.
- 15:05SPEAKER_00: So suck on that, Kennedy.
- 15:08SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
- 15:09SPEAKER_00: Health Secretary Kennedy...
- 15:11SPEAKER_00: Said some racist shit at a Michigan rally on Monday
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: that Arabs do not produce science, win major prizes, or produce literature.
- 15:18SPEAKER_00: The Nobel Prize records show that Ahmed Zoel, born in Egypt, won the 1999 Chemistry Prize.
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: Omar Yagi, born in Jordan, won the 2025 Chemistry Prize.
- 15:28SPEAKER_00: And Naguib Mahfouz, born in Egypt, won the 1988 Literature Prize.
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: That's it for this edition of The Rest of the World Report.
- 15:36SPEAKER_00: Look, I apologize for my flowery language in that Robert F.
- 15:39SPEAKER_00: Kennedy story, but I cannot stand a racist.
- 15:43SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez, and I will see you all again tomorrow morning.
- 15:47[music]