The Guardian News

Far-right challenger and son of disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro will now face leftwing president in runoff vote

Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.

With more than 99% of votes counted, the 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro, had won 47.1%, meaning he will now face a 25 October showdown with his 80-year-old rival. Lula received 45%.

Beni Rae Harmony, 24, has been ‘a trusted voice for the MAGA movement as a White House correspondent’, White House says

The White House has defended a newly hired press aide who posed for a holiday photograph in 2021 wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” T-shirt and holding a rifle.

Beni Rae Harmony, the new assistant White House press secretary, revealed on Friday that she was going to work for Donald Trump just days after covering him as a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a partisan rightwing outlet originally created as a video podcast platform for the president’s former adviser Steve Bannon.

Alejandro G Iñárritu’s critically panned satire took just $20m globally in its opening weekend, against a reported $150m production budget and $100m marketing spend

Digger has flopped in its opening weekend with a $20m global box office, handing Tom Cruise one of the worst debuts of his career and serving as a bitter final note for Warner Bros as a standalone studio.

Alejandro G Iñárritu’s critically panned satire grossed a paltry $8m at the North American box office. Cruise is typically a big draw overseas, but international sales – $12m from 74 markets – were also weak.

Union says staff left with no choice but industrial action after breakdown in pay talks with Texas oil firm Apache

A looming strike by oil workers in the North Sea could “severely disrupt” UK fuel supplies, the Unite union has said, adding that staff were left with no choice after a breakdown in pay talks with the Texas oil company Apache.

The union said Apache workers had “emphatically” backed strike action after being given what it said was an unacceptable pay offer that amounted to a real-terms pay cut for many employees, at a time when the company was “raking in eye-watering profits”.

Many cases involve criminals using other people’s identities to sell fake event tickets to friends and family

The total amount stolen by criminals who hack into people’s emails and social media accounts and then pretend to be them has risen by more than 400% in a year, official UK data shows.

In many cases, the scammers are hijacking people’s accounts in order to use their identity to sell fake event tickets – such as to sold-out gigs – to unsuspecting friends and family.

Only 150 of 2,189 titles published in UK for young children last year focused on minority ethnic, disabled or neurodivergent characters

The number of children’s books featuring Black main characters fell by almost 8% last year, according to research into diversity in UK publishing.

Just 47 – or 2.1% – of the 2,189 books published for under-10s in 2025 featured a Black main character, a 7.8% fall from the previous year, according to Inclusive Books for Children. Black children make up about 8.5% of that age bracket in England and Wales.

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• Taylor lifts Colts to victory in London

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TOUCHDOWN! Chargers 3-7 Seahawks 9:55, 1st quarter

S Darnold to E Wilson for 23 yards

K Cousins to I Thomas for 27 yards

Aircraft seen leaving Gloucestershire base following arrest of dual British-Iranian national in central London

The US Air Force has pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the base.

The bombers were redeployed back to their home bases in the US, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorised to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

The Republic of Ireland’s manager Heimir Hallgrímsson has called on Uefa to keep his side away from Israel in future draws after a pair of fixtures he admitted “has been tough on us all”. Ireland were pegged back to a draw in another tetchy encounter, this time played without fans at TSC Arena in Backa Topola, Serbia.

Hallgrímsson did not want to comment on a half-time confrontation, after which it is understood a member of his backroom staff alleged he was spat at by an Israeli player – something the Icelandic manager said was better left to a disciplinary committee.

Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth

The Conservatives will announce a bonfire of regulations including abolishing affordable homes and community funding rules as well as scrapping Natural England and the Environment Agency.

The shadow chancellor, Andrew Griffith, will say the party intends to “streamline regulations” that protect nature and oblige developers to include affordable homes and community services such as GP surgeries, to speed up infrastructure and housebuilding.

Coming third in the World Cup was really not a disaster, and Saturday’s rout of Croatia and building the team around Jude Bellingham are good signs

Move fast and fix things. It has been a fine week so far for Thomas Tuchel as he attempts the cyclical task of soldering together not just an England team, but a way of looking like one, all the while being battered by the to-and-fro conflicting winds of England managerdom.

There is nothing new here. This is a job that involves not just picking the right players and making high-stakes calculations over your second-half substitutions, but carrying out these basic duties while wrestling with aggrieved members of the Thuggee cult on a collapsing rope bridge outside the Temple of Doom, and simultaneously having your heart ripped out.

Only a few days ago Craig Bellamy suggested Wales had blown Nations League A4 wide open with a hand grenade but here Danny Ward detonated it to gift Denmark a penalty and Rasmus Højlund the chance to earn a slender victory from the spot.

Until that moment of madness, after 73 minutes, Ward had kept Wales in the game, his best stop a sublime right-hand save to prevent Gustav Isaksen a headed opener. But after keeping Denmark at bay, he scored an own goal of sorts by taking out Isaksen in the box after a miskick. Bellamy covered his face, using his right hand as a temporary visor while the video assistant referee, Ivan Bebek, reviewed the incident. Then came the unwanted confirmation from the referee and Højlund rippled a pocket of the Wales net with a flawless penalty. A first clean sheet since beating Liechtenstein last November also went out of the window. The life of a goalkeeper, eh?

Staunchly pro-Russia politician has dominated campaign and inflamed divisions despite not appearing on ballot

Bosnian Serb nationalist politician Milorad Dodik has declared victory for his party in an election in Bosnia shaped by economic pressures, the prospect of the Balkan nation joining the European Union and ethnic tensions that have divided the country since its brutal 1992-95 war.

Dodik is a staunchly pro-Russia politician who, despite not appearing on the ballot, has dominated the campaign and inflamed divisions with separatist rhetoric that has sparked fears of renewed instability in Bosnia.

• Indianapolis 30-13 Washington

• Treylon Burks scores 47-yard TD for Washington

“Welcome to the NFL’s home away from home,” was the rallying cry from former running back and current in-stadium hype man Ronde Barber before the league’s 19th year holidaying in the UK began. And welcome Washington’s injury bug which must have stowed away on the flight to London. The mighty Commanders defense that overwhelmed the Colts at times could not overcome having another quarterback knocked out of commission. Indianapolis capitalised on the misfortune with crafty running back Jonathan Taylor carrying them to a 30-13 victory.

The Commanders were already missing starting quarterback Jayden Daniels with an elbow injury and their pesky interloper wasn’t satisfied that Washington had endured enough torment. The game-defining moment came early as a knee injury forced backup passer Marcus Mariota out of the contest after a strong start. Rookie third-stringer Athan Kaliakmanis replaced him and though he delivered the play of the game with an incredible showcase of vision and accuracy on a 47-yard touchdown throw, it was too much, too soon for the 23-year-old.

• Elfyn Evans becomes first British winner since 2001

• Oliver Solberg’s hopes shattered by tumble down bank

⁠Elfyn Evans ended years of heartache, and a quarter-of-a-century wait for Britain, by winning the World Rally Championship title with Toyota after a dramatic season ⁠finale in Sardinia on Sunday.

The ⁠Welshman had been ​championship runner-up five times in the last six years but emerged triumphant after a final Powerstage duel with teammate Oliver Solberg ended with the charging Swede crashing ⁠out two corners from the finish while on course to take the crown.

This gag-packed adaptation of Eric Morecambe’s children’s books – by the writing team behind Alan Partridge – is full of stunning comic talent. Bill Bailey, Ross Noble, Tom Davies, Sian Clifford and Asim Chaudhry are all brilliant

Oh my goodness; how long has it been since we all had a lovely teatime treat? Too long, that’s how long! But now joy is at hand, courtesy of Neil and Rob Gibbons (the pair behind the most recent incarnations of Alan Partridge) and The Reluctant Vampire. It is their adaptation of Eric Morecambe’s 1982 children’s book of the same name and its 1983 sequel, The Vampire’s Revenge. They have kept the books’ warmth and daftness and added their own talents to the six-part series for youngsters. There are jokes for parents in there too, but the brothers have wisely kept the exquisite cruelty with which they craft Alan’s misadventures safely stowed away.

Here is the tale of an undead royal-ish family (temporarily usurped a few generations back when the paterfamilias choked on a scab), living a traditional vampiric life in their traditionally gothic castle. There is proud patriarch Victor (Tom Davis), who revels in the hunting and draining of the humans he despises (“I see,” he says, looking round the overdecorated bedroom of his latest about-to-be-victim, “you have a keen eye for tat”). He is married to Valeeta (Sian Clifford) – they share a hot-to-trot vibe with Gomez and Morticia of The Addams Family films – and they have two children. Vernon (an absolutely wonderful turn from Gabriel Nagy in his first major screen role) is a chip off the old block, loving the vampire life and able to identify blood vintages with a single sip (“Poor circulation … lavender … the neck of a Flemish merchant?”).

Arsenal’s under-pressure head coach Renée Slegers still believes they will turn their form around, despite falling 10 points behind Manchester City with Sunday’s defeat in an absorbing six-goal thriller against the defending champions.

Arsenal were last season’s runners-up in the Women’s Super League and had high hopes of mounting a strong challenge this term but their chances of lifting a first WSL title since 2019 now appear to be hanging by a thread after five rounds of fixtures, while City maintained their 100% start by coming from behind twice to beat Slegers’ struggling side.

Home secretary warns people traffickers will exploit asylum seekers because they decide who comes to the UK

Nearly all women who try to reach the UK in small boats from northern France have been raped on their journey, Shabana Mahmood has claimed.

In an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast, the home secretary said far-right, balaclava-wearing activists would “kill” or “kick me out of my own country” if they took power.

The Tory leader says the party’s plans to cut people’s benefits are no more than ‘common sense’

It’s a thought. A bold one. Possibly a career-ending one. But a thought nonetheless. When Theresa May told the Tory conference in 2002 that under Iain Duncan Smith the Conservatives had become “the Nasty party”, many members took that to mean they had become undesirable. Within a few years, David Cameron had moved the Tories closer to the “hug a husky” centre and by 2010 he was prime minister.

Kemi Badenoch takes a rather different view. For her, being the Nasty party is a badge of honour. An aspiration. People had had it far too good with austerity, Brexit, Covid and the Liz Truss mini-budget. The country needed a reality check; a return to old-fashioned unpleasantness. A taste of genuine hardship. People had got far too used to getting something for nothing. Especially the physically and mentally ill. What they needed was a short sharp shock of intense labour from 8am to 8pm. That would make them feel better. And anyone found skiving would be banged up for a short time in prison. Say 10 years.