theSIGNAL NEWS
26 October 2026
"Democracy is not a finish line but a habit practised every day."
NEWSBUSINESSTECHNOLOGYWORLDSCIENCECULTUREENVIRONMENTSPORT
World

Lula, 80, Wins Fourth Term in Brazil

Brazil's president comes back from a first-round defeat to beat Flávio Bolsonaro, but his rival refuses to accept the result.

Lula has done it again. Brazil's 80-year-old president won a fourth term on Sunday, defeating senator Flávio Bolsonaro with 51.7% of the vote against 48.2%.

The margin is about four million ballots. No candidate in Brazilian history had ever won the presidency after losing the first round. Only Emperor Pedro II and Getúlio Vargas have governed the country for longer. Bolsonaro, 45, the political heir of the far-right family, moved fast.

While Lula was still addressing the nation, he appeared in Brasília and called for the election to be annulled. "It is impossible to recognise the result," he said. Lula, speaking from a hotel in São Paulo, called the win a defeat for "denialism and lies". He also thanked young people who "took to the streets to defend democracy", and he said the vote showed Brazil is "nobody's backyard".

The count was tense. A judge extended voting by two hours, shortly before polls were due to close, after complaints about public transport problems and restrictions in some cities.

Photo: David Todd McCarty / Unsplash
Supporters of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrate his fourth presidential victory in Brazil's divided election.
🗳️
51.7%
Lula's vote share against Bolsonaro's 48.2%
Discuss
  • Why might a candidate who loses the first round still win the runoff in a polarised country?
  • Flávio Bolsonaro asked for the vote to be annulled. How should democracies respond to such demands?
World

Machado Returns to Venezuela After Months in Exile

María Corina Machado is back in Venezuela. "I'm here. With you," the Nobel laureate wrote on Sunday. She appeared in Barquisimeto, then needed eight hours to reach Caracas because crowds blocked the roads. Tens of thousands cheered her convoy. Washington reportedly opposed her return, fearing it would disrupt its ties with interim president Delcy Rodríguez, Machado's rival.…
  • Can Machado's return reshape Venezuelan politics while Washington favors working with her rival Delcy Rodríguez?
❝
This election shows that we are nobody's backyard.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of Brazil
World

Musk Restricts Ukraine's Starlink, Citing Military Use

Elon Musk has restricted Ukraine's Starlink service. Hours earlier, Kyiv believed its week-long connectivity problems had been solved. Musk says Ukraine's military broke the terms of service by using the civilian network for offensive drone strikes. He denies any role in a parallel Starshield outage. Presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov called the claim "very strange". Starlink drones, he said, are speed-limited and cannot operate over Russia.…
  • Should a private company be able to switch off a country's wartime communications?
AMERICAS · World
U.S., Israel may attack Iran post-elections. And, SpaceX and Tesla consider merging
ASIA · World
Is Iran ready for another major US attack after midterm elections?
EUROPE · World
Aleksandar Vucic, the Serbian leader brought down by students
ASIA · World
Trump says US may launch ‘another little Epic Fury’ attack on Iran
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
IVOCABULARY
annulledunscrupulous
feed doubtsdenialismdivided
convoydisrupt
IIGRAMMAR FOCUS
Gerunds and infinitives — complex patterns (stop to do vs stop doing)
Some verbs change meaning depending on whether a gerund or an infinitive follows: 'stop doing' means to end an action, while 'stop to do' means to pause in order to do something else; 'remember/forget doing' refers to the past, whereas 'remember/forget to do' refers to a task still ahead. Others, like 'admit', 'deny' and 'risk', take a gerund, while 'fail', 'refuse' and 'manage' take an infinitive.
to concede · conceding · to claim · claiming · to recognise · recognising · to sign
  1. Flávio Bolsonaro refused defeat and instead demanded that the election be annulled.
  2. He said it was impossible the result, even though the margin was about four million votes.
  3. Some analysts warned that Bolsonaro risked the election had been stolen without any real evidence.
  4. Lula's critics say he cannot avoid that half of the country will never accept his victory.
  5. The president's camp tried that the extended voting hours had been requested only to protect voters.
  6. Lula would never admit that the digital platforms had played any neutral role in the campaign.
IIICOLLOCATIONS
Match the verb on the left with the noun phrase it best collocates with on the right.
  1. win
  2. call for
  3. feed
  4. slip
  5. break
IVCRITICAL THINKING
Across these three stories, a leader, an opposition figure and a tech billionaire each claim to act on principle, yet critics suspect other motives. Choose one of the three and consider whose account is easiest to verify and whose is hardest. What evidence would you need before deciding who is telling the truth?
VCREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
VIWRITING
Lula said Brazil is "nobody's backyard" and Machado wrote "I'm here. With you." Write a short paragraph (80-100 words) explaining how a single short sentence can carry political weight, using one of these quotations as your example.
VIIDEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong.
  • tense→→
  • confusing→→
  • divided→→
  • strange→→
  • doubt→→
  • unpopular→→
VIIISPEAKING
  1. Is turning eighty too old to lead a country? Where would you draw the line?
  2. Lula called his win a defeat for lies. Does a campaign's tone leave lasting damage?
  3. Machado needed eight hours to cross Venezuela. What makes crowds gather around one person?
  4. Musk says Ukraine broke the terms of service. Should wartime be exempt from commercial rules?