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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Workers’ Party got the most votes in Brazil’s presidential election Sunday, but not enough to avoid a runoff vote against his far-right rival, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. With 97% of the votes tallied, da Silva had 47.9% support and Bolsonaro 43.6%. Since neither candidate received more than 50% of the valid votes, which exclude spoiled and blank ballots, a second round vote between them will be scheduled for Oct. 30. Brazil's election authority announced late Sunday that a second round was a mathematical certainty. The highly polarized election will determine whether the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right leader in office for another four years. ...

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a member of Republican leadership in the upper chamber, said Sunday that he does not "condone violence" after Donald Trump lashed out at Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and suggested McConnell had a "death wish"-- but Scott stopped short of condemning the former president. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social website last week, wrote that McConnell must have a "death wish" after supporting a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. Trump went on to criticize McConnell's wife in racist terms, writing that he should "seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!" Trump was referring to Elaine Chao, who is Taiwanese. Chao served as Trump's transportation secretary until she resigned after Jan. 6 Scott, who leads the Senate GOP's c...

MEXICO CITY -- Hurricane Orlene lost some punch, but remained a dangerous Category 3 storm on Sunday as it headed toward Mexico's northwest Pacific coast between the tourist towns of Mazatlan and San Blas. After growing into a hurricane Saturday, Orlene quickly added power, peaking as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) early Sunday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. But winds slipped back to 115 mph (185 kph) by midday. The storm was moving over or near the Islas Marias, a former prison colony being developed as a tourist draw. The island is sparsely populated by government employees and buildings there are made of brick or concrete. Orlene was forecast to hit Mexico's Pacific coast sometime Monday along a sparsely populated, lagoon-d...

A key Russian gas pipeline to Europe has been closed indefinitely because of leaks, meaning gas supplies to the continent will remain tight heading into winter. Nord Stream 1, an underwater pipeline running across the Baltic Sea to Germany, had been supplying EU states with 35% of all the gas they imported from Russia. EU leaders suspect the leaks were created deliberately, but have stopped short of blaming Russia for them. How did the leaks occur? Operators noticed leaks in Nord Stream 1 in a stretch of pipe near the Island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. There were also leaks in a parallel pipeline called Nord Stream 2, which is not yet in use. Seismologists in Denmark said there had been explosions under the sea in the same are...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned Hurricane Ian will leave historic devastation, as the storm batters the state with catastrophic wind and rain. Ian, which has left people trapped in their homes, is expected to set flood records and may be one of the worst storms ever to strike the state. It continued to wreak havoc as it moved east over Florida on Thursday. One person is confirmed to have died in the state and some 2.7 million people are without power. President Joe Biden has declared the storm a major disaster - triggering access to federal funds and disaster relief. "This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida's history," he said on Thursday afternoon. "The numbers are still unclear, but we're hearing early reports of wh...

Prime Minister Liz Truss has agreed to meet other European leaders at a new political "club of nations" next week. The inaugural summit of the European Political Community (EPC), proposed by French president Emmanuel Macron, will meet in Prague next Thursday. Although the UK voted in 2016 to leave the EU, is among more than a dozen non-EU nations invited to join EU members to discuss security and energy issues. Ms Truss has only just indicated she could attend the first meeting. She is said to want the group to focus on "delivery" rather than becoming a "talking shop". Mr Macron proposed the EPC in May, as a "new space" for co-operation. The broad intention is to establish a forum that goes beyond the immediate EU memb...