Evening Update: Trump says no Iran strike 'today'; Brazil's runoff extended two hours; Machado returns to Venezuela
Plus 1,300+ arrests in France as Trump blasts Macron, Musk's Starlink 'loophole,' a skeptical 9th Circuit on California ballots, Trump in Port Huron with Nicki Minaj, DOJ's Alaska lawsuit, and a 5th Circuit immigration ruling ahead of a Supreme Court case.
5 PM CT video brief · 1:26Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your 5 PM World Brief for Sunday, October 25. Trump: "There will not be a strike today." Finish the job, or make a deal. Brazil: runoff voting extended two hours; count paused at 0.25%. María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after nearly a year abroad. France: more than 1,300 arrests. Trump to Macron: "You are destroying France." 9th Circuit panel appears skeptical of DOJ bid on California ballots. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: A Slight Risk of excessive rainfall across the southern High Plains through tonight, lowering to a marginal risk by Monday morning. Heavy rain threat persists along the east coast of Florida with a Slight Risk of excessive rainfall over parts of southeastern Florida through tonight. Our opinion. Keep Tehran guessing; only lawful ballots; free elections for Venezuela. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale. Thanks for watching.
Asked by reporters Sunday whether a U.S. attack on Iran could come that day, President Trump said, "The answer is no. There will not be a strike today," without ruling out later action, The Jerusalem Post and Al Jazeera reported. Trump told Fox News his choice is whether to "finish it off, which would be very easy to do," or make a deal, and said there "isn't much activity" at Iran's Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran against attacking on Tuesday's Israeli Election Day, saying "Don't test us," the Washington Examiner reported.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin ordered voting in Sunday's presidential runoff extended by two hours, to 7 p.m. Brasília time, after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's campaign said bus service was cut in cities run by allies of challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, The Guardian reported. Bolsonaro had separately asked for extra hours in parts of three southern states because of heavy rain. The electoral court suspended its count with 0.25% of votes tallied, Lula at 57.66% to Bolsonaro's 42.34%, a sliver of the vote that is not a projection; Bolsonaro won the first round 47% to 45%.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado returned home Sunday for the first time since December, writing "I'm here. With you all," as acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally backed by the Trump administration, remains in power with no presidential election scheduled, Fox News reported. Asked about it in Port Huron, Michigan, President Trump said he didn't know about it but called her "a very nice woman" and said "I hope she's safe." Machado's return comes nearly 10 months after U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro.
French authorities deployed 70,000 police Saturday as clashes broke out in Paris, Lyon, Lille, Toulouse and Nantes, and the Interior Ministry reported more than 1,300 arrests, Fox News reported, while Italy sent 500 more soldiers to Milan and Barcelona police arrested 128 people. On Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures," President Trump said he told French President Emmanuel Macron, "You are destroying France. You're letting people come in that hate your country." Macron has called foreign leaders' comments "unacceptable and even stupid."
SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the company closed a "loophole" in its Starlink system that he said allowed Ukraine to carry out lethal drone attacks on civilians, use he said breaks the service's terms, the Washington Examiner reported. Musk posted on X on Saturday in reply to a user who said Starlink is not meant to be a weapons system. Our Saturday edition reported Ukraine's president saying Starlink speeds had been restored after a week of front-line disruption.
At a rare Sunday hearing, two of three judges on a 9th Circuit panel sharply questioned a Justice Department lawyer about the lawsuit seeking to force California to set aside mail-in ballots allegedly sent to noncitizens, Reuters reported. DOJ says roughly 20,000 potential noncitizen voters are on the state's rolls; California says the list is unverified, and Los Angeles officials said nearly 40% of 200 names they checked indicate U.S. birth, ABC News reported. DOJ has charged roughly 28 people from the list with voting and immigration-related crimes, ABC reported.
President Trump rallied Sunday at McMorran Place in Port Huron, Michigan, for Senate nominee Mike Rogers and governor nominee John James, spending much of the speech attacking Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and calling Rogers "as American as apple pie," the Michigan Advance reported. Rapper Nicki Minaj flew in with Trump on Air Force One, and White House Communications Director Steven Cheung joked online, "I think we may have found the next White House Press Secretary!" the New York Post reported. The rally followed a Saturday Detroit event where former President Barack Obama campaigned for El-Sayed.
Attorney General Todd Blanche declined Sunday to detail how the Justice Department came to file a lawsuit over Alaska's Senate race, where incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan and former Forest Service employee Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. are both on the ranked-choice ballot, the Washington Examiner reported. President Trump has said he directed DOJ to pursue a legal challenge if the race is affected by "voter confusion" over the shared name.
The full Fifth Circuit ruled Friday in Rodriguez v. Ortega that three immigrant men held under the mandatory-detention law are not entitled to bond hearings under the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause, writing, "The Constitution does not entitle them to a bond hearing," Fox News reported. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, on whether that law applies to longtime immigrants arrested inside the country, amid a 9-2 split among the appeals courts; arguments have not been scheduled.
The Supreme Court's orders page still lists nothing after a miscellaneous order on Oct. 21, and the docket in City of Baltimore v. Texas (No. 26A500) shows briefing completed with the applicants' Oct. 23 reply and no ruling yet. The justices hear Maxwell v. Dinis and Younge v. Fulton Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office on Monday, Nov. 2, and St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy on Nov. 3, SCOTUSblog's calendar shows.
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