Iran’s top security official says the Islamic Republic has dealt US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party another blow by contributing to their major defeat in the 2026 midterm elections.

Major General Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Ian’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said in a Wednesday post on X that the election results amounted to a political defeat for Washington.

“Anyone who takes on Iran will pay the price—from the battlefield to their own doorstep,” Rezaei said.

The SNSC chief said the political defeat adds to the list of US failures in its illegal war of aggression on Iran, which began in February and led to restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz, while imposing huge costs on American taxpayers.

“The Iranian nation handed Trump a strategic defeat on the battlefield and in the Hormuz—and a POLITICAL DEFEAT in Washington. Meanwhile, Americans got stuck with the bill for his war.”

The post came hours after initial results of the US midterm elections showed that Republicans had lost control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to the Democrats.

Trump admitted that the war on Iran, which caused a major rise in fuel prices in the United States, had played a role in the election defeat.

Several critics of Trump’s warmongering policies managed to win midterm races in states that had remained loyal to the Republican Party for decades.

Political analysts expect Trump will have to reconsider his policies toward Iran to avoid Democratic-led legislation that could seriously disrupt the remainder of his presidency, which ends in January 2029.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, nearly 81 years old, clinched a fourth term in a tight runoff against Flavio Bolsonaro on Sunday. The leftist leader won 51.7% of the vote, compared to 48.2% for the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, official results showed. Bolsonaro has refused to accept the loss and said he would seek to annul the vote.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won an unprecedented fourth term on Sunday, the country’s electoral court said, in a shock result that defied polls, precedent and global anti-incumbent sentiment to put the brakes on a wave of right-wing election victories across Latin America.

Lula, an icon of the global left and the most dominant force in Brazilian politics this century, defeated Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The senator had finished first in the election’s first round and hoped to revive his father’s far-right movement. Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year jail term for attempting a coup after his loss to Lula in the country’s last election in 2022.

Sunday’s vote was marked by confusion after a Supreme Court ruling extended voting by two hours as some polling stations had already closed. The move came at the request of Lula who complained that buses had been pulled from circulation in various cities, barring citizens from voting.

Flavio Bolsonaro also requested an extension in some regions due to heavy rains, but he described the decision as “unacceptable” and a “dirty trick”.

“It is impossible to recognise the results. I am going to request the annulment of these elections,” he said, stone-faced, in a brief speech in Brasilia.

No candidate who lost the first round has gone on to win the second in Brazil since 1989, the first direct election after the end of the country’s military dictatorship. “People went to vote because we managed to convince them that voting was very important for ensuring democracy in the country,” Lula said in his first comments after the win.

Fireworks and vuvuzelas rang out in Rio de Janeiro, while thousands of people dressed in red, the color of Lula’s Workers’ Party, streamed into the streets of Sao Paulo to celebrate.

At times, Lula’s re-election looked like a long shot, as voters soured on him and his Workers’ Party after years of corruption scandals and rising prices, while sweeping societal changes left the former metalworker and union leader looking out of touch with an increasingly app-based economy and its growing ranks of informal workers.

Lula’s victory marks another comeback in a career full of them. The 80-year-old was jailed from 2018 to 2019 on corruption charges that were later overturned, paving the way for him to beat Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 election.

“He is a statesman, a giant,” leftist federal lawmaker Erika Hilton, who was with Lula in Sao Paulo during the vote count, told Reuters.

Source: France 24

Liran Naaman said he spent 800 euros (nearly $900) to fly from Amsterdam, where he has lived for the past 11 years, to his native Israel, all to vote in the October 27 election.

He has returned to vote in every election except during the Covid-19 pandemic, and believes this time his participation matters more than ever. “The way that our government is conducting itself is harming me personally and the rest of the Israelis abroad,” the project manager told AFP.

The election is widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-right government after nearly three years of war in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Polls show a tight race.

Israel is one of a handful of democracies that does not allow citizens to vote if they are abroad. The influx of overseas voters has alarmed Netanyahu’s bloc, mindful of how tens of thousands of Israelis, disgruntled during his latest tenure, have left the country.

More than 50,000 Israelis are expected to travel home to cast their ballots, according to the Aid Coalition, a US-based NGO that advocates for Israeli democracy.

For Sylvie Lidgi, a dual French-Israeli national, the country stands at a crossroads between “two opposing visions of the world: either the Torah (Bible) as a constitution, or a liberal democracy”.

“That’s why I’m going to vote,” the Parisian pensioner told AFP, noting that the last time she cast a ballot in Israel was in 1973.

Since then, she had felt it inappropriate to vote while living abroad. “But this year, it’s really different,” she said. “It’s about values.”

‘Crucial time’ for Israel

The relationship between religion and state is also a decisive factor for Tami Giniger, a startup consultant who will fly home from Bangkok to vote.

“This is a crucial time… for defining what is Israeli, what is Judaism, how these things work together,” she said.

“I do love that (Israel) is a Jewish state. But I don’t think that it needs to be fanatic,” she added.

The Aid Coalition has launched a non-partisan initiative, called Fly & Vote, to assist Israelis abroad who want to return for the election. The programme provides information on the location of polling stations and identification requirements.

It also helps arrange travel by purchasing seats on commercial flights and reselling them, and in some cases has chartered aircraft.

Likud, Netanyahu’s party, filed a petition with Israel’s Central Elections Committee in early September, accusing the initiative of electoral bribery.

Aid Coalition president Jonathan Barsade told AFP the accusation had “no foundation whatsoever” and that the NGO does not provide financial incentives.

A settlement reached last week requires the NGO to stop selling additional flights as part of the programme, while allowing previously purchased tickets to remain valid.

‘You need to suffer with us’

While some Israelis abroad argue they should be allowed to vote at embassies, Naaman says he appreciates the requirement to return home and experience the country’s reality before deciding how to vote.

“Being in Israel gives a very different perspective than being abroad,” he said.

“When my family and friends come to visit (in Amsterdam), they’re always afraid that Europe has fallen and that everything has become horrible in Europe,” he said.

“And when I’m talking to them, I feel like (they) have Iranian missiles every Tuesday and Wednesday!” he said.

Relatives have criticised him for remaining abroad during the war while returning to vote for the country’s future.

“You need to be here and suffer with us in order to gain that privilege,” he said, describing their message to him.

Yet interviewees said Israeli politics continues to affect them deeply, despite the distance.

Giniger said she felt a “responsibility” to influence through her vote how “Jews and Israelis are perceived in the world today” at a time of rising antisemitism.

National elections, she argued, will shape Israel’s relations with the rest of the world.

“Those alliances and the way that the world sees us are crucial to us.”

Ariella Hanker, 44, a cancer research scientist in Dallas, was born in Israel to American parents. An observant Jew, she grew up in the United States but has always felt strong ties to her country of birth.

After Netanyahu returned to power in 2022 and his government sought to advance a widely criticised judicial overhaul, she resolved to return for the next election.

“I don’t know that my vote really will affect anything,” she said. “But it’s more a personal thing. I don’t want to be complacent.”

“I’m just really worried about the future of a strong, democratic Israel. And I don’t want to blame myself for its downfall. I want to tell myself I did what I could to prevent it.”

Source: AFP

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei has made new appointments to six top military posts, including the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

In six separate decrees issued on Monday, Major General Ali Abdollahi was appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, with Brigadier General Kioumars Heidari as his deputy. Major General Ahmad Vahidi, promoted to the rank of Major General, was appointed commander-in-chief of the IRGC, with Major General Mostafa Izadi as his deputy.

Rear Admiral Ali Ozamaei was appointed IRGC Navy commander, and Hojjatoleslam Hossein Taeb was named head of the Basij Organization.

Gen. Abdollahi appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces

In another decree, the Leader appointed Major General Ali Abdollahi as Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, following the martyrdom of his predecessor, Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, in a US-Israeli airstrike.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the appointment was made in view of Mousavi’s “glorious and honorable martyrdom” at the hands of the Zionist-American enemy and in appreciation of Abdollahi’s worthy services and valuable experience.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 80, said Sunday he was “in great shape” as he launched his candidacy for October elections, with pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration looming over the campaign.

Lula, a leftist titan of Latin American politics who is loved and despised in near-equal measure in Brazil, highlighted what he called his stamina and good health as he addressed a convention of his Worker’s Party (PT) in Sao Paulo attended by around 3,000 people.

“I want to fight against old age. I don’t want to be shuffling along. That’s why I work out my legs. That’s why I work out my arms. That’s why I walk for an hour,” said the veteran leftist, adding he was far fitter than when he was first elected in 2002.

The former metalworker and union leader made a dramatic comeback when he returned to power three years ago after a stint in jail on corruption charges that were later annulled.

He is seeking a fourth and final term in office.

Brazil’s constitution allows presidents to serve two consecutive terms. After sitting out at least one term, they can run again, with no lifetime limit on the number of terms.

In his speech to a crowd awash in red, the colour of the PT, Lula compared himself to World Cup icons like Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

“What people don’t realise is that this World Cup of mine is the seventh,” he said, referring to the number of times he has run for the top job in the past four decades.

Standing next to his wife, Rosangela da Silva, 59, he said he would not run again, because “after we hand Brazil back to the Brazilian people in perfect shape – we’re going on vacation to focus on romance for another 20 years.”

Lula’s main election rival is Flavio Bolsonaro, eldest son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro.

The 45-year-old senator stepped into the role after his father was convicted of plotting a coup to prevent Lula from taking power in 2023.

Source: France 24

As Israel heads into a fiercely contested general election on October 27, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as the principal challenger to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Eisenkot’s rise comes at a pivotal moment in Israeli politics, with the election widely viewed as a referendum on the long-serving premier’s leadership in the violent aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

A recent Channel 12 poll put Eisenkot’s new party, Yashar (Hebrew for “Straight” or “Upright”), ahead of Netanyahu’s Likud, projecting 23 seats to Likud’s 22 in the 120-member Knesset.

The same survey found that 43 percent of respondents considered Eisenkot, 66, the most suitable candidate for prime minister, compared with 34 percent for Netanyahu.

Eisenkot – who has dismissed calls for a future Palestinian state as irrelevant after the October 7 attacks and pioneered Israel’s strategy of disproportionate military responses in Lebanon – has built his campaign around a 10-point platform that he says will restore Israel’s security, unity and democratic institutions.

Chief of staff of the Israeli military between 2015 and 2019, Eisenkot was among those credited with developing the “Dahiya Doctrine”, named after a Beirut suburb that is a Hezbollah stronghold.

Advanced on the premise that Hezbollah conceals fighters and weapons among civilian homes and infrastructure, the doctrine calls for a devastating Israeli response against enemy population centres when Israeli communities come under long-range attack.

At the top of his civilian manifesto is a pledge to establish a state commission of inquiry into Hamas’s bloody 2023 cross-border attack, which triggered the Gaza war and quickly expanded into a broader regional conflict, and which led to Netanyahu’s government being accused of overseeing an intelligence failure.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have repeatedly demonstrated in support of such an inquiry, but Netanyahu’s coalition has instead proposed a commission whose members would be chosen by politicians.

Eisenkot also promises a “new long-term national security doctrine” aimed at strengthening the military and reinforcing Israel’s borders.

A central plank of this is a “universal national service law” that would extend compulsory service to ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arab citizens.

He has also pledged to “protect judicial independence, the rule of law, minority rights and a free press”.

“Through these steps, we will ensure that Israel is a Jewish, democratic, powerful, advanced and secure state,” Eisenkot’s campaign says.

His overall position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, however, remains less clearly defined.

“The only signal that he sent was that Israel should be a state of law,” said Tal Elovits, a researcher at Israeli think tank Molad. “Therefore, illegal settlements and settlers’ violence will be dealt with.”

Relatively new to politics, Eisenkot has attracted widespread public sympathy after his son, Gal, and two nephews were killed fighting in Gaza.

Eisenkot’s call for universal military service has become a defining issue of his campaign, putting him at the forefront of opposition to Netanyahu’s alliance with ultra-Orthodox parties.

Eisenkot has repeatedly attacked Netanyahu’s agreement with his coalition partners to advance legislation exempting many Haredi men from military service.

“This is a government that chooses to weaken the army in the midst of a brutal war, while the finest sons and daughters of this nation are deployed across all fronts,” he wrote, in a social media post.

‘Different generation’

Unlike Netanyahu, who comes from one of Israel’s elite families, Eisenkot is the son of Moroccan immigrants and grew up on the country’s geographic periphery.

“In a political universe full of Netanyahu wannabes … Eisenkot reads as a man of a different generation, far more connected to the traditional security narratives of Zionism,” columnist Nadav Eyal wrote in a recent blog.

Eisenkot’s understated style could prove to be one of his strongest political assets, said Elovits.

“The middle class and upper middle class… look for someone that will look responsible, boring, and I think that Eisenkot has that appeal,” he said.

Although opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett remain in contention, current polling suggests neither is as well positioned as Eisenkot to defeat Netanyahu.

Lapid and Bennett governed together between 2021 and 2022 in a coalition that included an Arab party.

Strategic option

According to Elovits, many disillusioned right-wing voters still see that alliance as a “betrayal”, making them unlikely to return to Bennett.

“Many voters of the right wing who do not like what Netanyahu is doing… are looking for a home. And a reasonable house for them today is Gadi Eisenkot,” said Gayil Talshir, a political science professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

For liberal centrist voters, Eisenkot increasingly represents the opposition candidate with the strongest chance of unseating Netanyahu.

“Once Eisenkot began to rise above Bennett in the polls, the strategic voters of the liberal camp went with Eisenkot,” Talshir said.

Source: AFP

Iran’s top negotiator in talks with the United States has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s latest worthless threats, saying the armed forces are ready to respond “in another way” to any American aggression.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who is leading Iran’s delegation at the Switzerland talks, took to his X account to deliver a fierce rebuke of Trump’s recent rhetoric.

“Don’t they think that if their threats had any effect, they wouldn’t have reached today’s state of desperation?” he said.

He added that Iran counts American threats for nothing.

He cautioned American officials to watch what they are saying as Iranian armed forces are “ready to respond to them in another way.”

“Whatever they say, we are the ones who take action,” Qalibaf emphasized.

Qalibaf was responding to the US president who on Sunday threatened to restart war with Iran, warning Tehran to rein in its allies in Lebanon or face renewed and more powerful US military strikes.

“Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform, referring to US war against the Islamic Republic, which started late February.

According to Fox News, Trump also warned that if Iran keeps the Strait of Hormuz closed, “you won’t have a country.”

“We may take over the Strait, if we have to,” Trump said.

A source told Press TV that the Iranian delegation to Swiss talks raised objections directly with the American side over Trump’s latest threat of further military strikes, and is now weighing its next steps.

“The Iranian delegation has raised its objections to the American side and is currently assessing the conditions to give a proper response to Trump’s verbal threats,” the source said on Sunday.

On Saturday, Iran’s central military command officially declared the Strait of Hormuz closed to all maritime traffic, citing US and Israeli violations of the recently-signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Tehran and Washington.

Iranian negotiating teams leaves Swiss talks in protest

Meanwhile, a source close to the negotiating team told Tasnim news agency that the Iranian negotiating delegation left the talks in Switzerland site in protest over Trump’s threats.

The source said that following Trump’s threat, the negotiations in Switzerland were halted, and their final outcome remains unclear.

Source: Presstv