Evening Update: Gulf powers meet Iran's president as U.S. forces stand ready; Bessent tells Iranians 'don't pay your taxes'; Brazil's annulment fight
Plus Israel's election eve, a ceasefire to evacuate Ukraine's Oleshky, Trump in Corinth, ICE weekend arrests, the White House press room, and the Supreme Court's border cases.
5 PM CT video brief · 1:31Presenter voice and image generated with AI tools.Read transcript
I'm Nora Vale with your 5 PM World Brief for Monday, October 26. Saudi, Pakistani, Turkish chiefs meet Iran's president. Report: U.S. forces ready within 96 hours of an order. Bessent to Iranians: "don't pay your taxes." Predicts 25%+ contraction. Brazil: Flávio Bolsonaro seeks annulment; election chief says extension didn't change the result. Israel votes Tuesday. Eisenkot leads Netanyahu by 8 to 10 points in most polls. DHS: ICE arrested convicted murderers and child sex offenders over the weekend. In national weather, from the National Weather Service: Rain and high-elevation snow expected across portions of the Northwest and northern Rockies through Wednesday. Additional showers and thunderstorms may bring excessive rainfall threats across east-central and southeast Florida into Wednesday. Our opinion. Squeeze Iran's regime, not its people. Set election rules in advance. Deport convicted predators. Full stories and sources at WorldBriefNow.com. I'm Nora Vale. Thanks for watching.
Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir and Turkish intelligence chief İbrahim Kalın met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on Monday, the first high-level meeting between Iran and the three signers of August's Mecca defense pact; Saudi Arabia said the aim was to "prevent the return of military escalation," Fox News reported, citing Reuters. Pezeshkian then landed in Moscow ahead of a gas exporters' summit and an expected meeting with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. CNN reported, citing U.S. officials, that American forces in the region could launch major operations within 96 hours of an order; a White House official told Fox News that "President Trump keeps all options on the table to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon."
Brazil's electoral court announced Lula da Silva the winner with 100% of the vote counted and a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes, but Flávio Bolsonaro refused to concede, saying "It's impossible to recognize the results" after Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin, Lula's former lawyer, extended voting by two hours three minutes before polls closed, the Associated Press reported. Electoral court president Kassio Nunes Marques, appointed by Jair Bolsonaro, said the extension did not affect the results, and a Brazilian law professor told AP there "isn't much legal basis" for annulment. Lula is set to begin his fourth term on Jan. 5, 2027.
Former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party leads Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by 8 to 10 points in most pre-election polls, Axios reported Monday; Eisenkot backed the war on Iran but opposes a Palestinian state under current conditions and wrote that President Trump "will work in full cooperation with any leader that will be elected by the Israeli people." Netanyahu called reports that he would fire military chief Eyal Zamir "fake news" and said he intends "to permanently remove the Iranian nuclear threat" together with President Trump, Fox News reported. Trump has endorsed Netanyahu.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a very limited ceasefire for Oleshky, a Russian-occupied town on the Dnipro River where about 2,000 remaining residents have been trapped by minefields and drones, and Russia says it will open a humanitarian corridor, NPR reported Monday. A resident told her daughter that people were informed they would be loaded onto buses starting Tuesday morning and taken to a closed children's camp. Pope Leo had urged Vladimir Putin to open a corridor, and first lady Melania Trump also joined the effort, NPR reported.
In an interview with Iran International on Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent predicted Iran's economy would contract "more than 25 percent" from March 2026 to March 2027, "more than the Soviet Union contracted after its collapse." He told Iranians, "don't pay your taxes because you're not going to get anything back from the government," urged them to stock up on heating fuel and gasoline, and said there have been "no loadings at Kharg Island" under the U.S. blockade, which he said will get "even more intense" over the next eight weeks. Bessent said food and medicine channels stay open and that Washington remains ready to negotiate if Iran gives up any nuclear weapon and stops financing armed groups.
Air Force One landed in Memphis shortly before 4:30 p.m., and President Trump is flying by helicopter to the Crossroads Arena in Corinth, where he is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. CT, WTVA reported. The rally aims to push Republicans, including Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, to victory on Election Day, Nov. 3; Democrat Scott Colom held a press conference in Corinth Monday morning criticizing her and Trump.
The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that ICE arrested illegal immigrants convicted of murder, sexual assault of children under 14 and other crimes over the weekend, including Rafael Godinez Mancilla of Mexico, convicted of murder in Los Angeles, and Mario Garcia of Guatemala, convicted on 12 counts of sexual assault of minors under 14 in Las Vegas. "If you are here illegally, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you," Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.
President Trump wrote on Truth Social that he is "not building a swimming pool in the White House Briefing Room" but is "thinking about moving the Press, and putting them in a different location" to use the space for "very badly needed space," Fox News reported Monday. The posts followed an Oct. 20 New York Times report that he had discussed replacing the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room with an indoor pool; the White House referred Fox News to his post.
Responses to the Trump administration's Oct. 21 request to resume border-wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas are due by 4 p.m. EDT Thursday, SCOTUSblog reported Monday. The docket in City of Baltimore v. Texas (No. 26A500), over a Texas-Justice Department agreement on deportation proceedings, shows briefing completed with the applicants' Oct. 23 reply, and the Court's orders page lists nothing after Oct. 21. The November sitting begins Monday, Nov. 2.
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Every source linked. Wire services, national news outlets, and primary documents such as whitehouse.gov releases, Supreme Court opinions and court filings.
Analysis labeled. Our point of view appears only in the Our Opinion box under each story, never mixed into the facts.
Corrections in the open. Mistakes are fixed quickly and noted publicly.
