AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT

Lula’s win in Brazil bucks a regional shift to the right and denies Trump a powerful ally

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Brazilian voters have denied Latin America’s resurgent right its ultimate prize, snapping a streak of seven straight conservative presidential victories in 18 months.

The stunning triumph of leftist incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over Flávio Bolsonaro on Sunday, with 51.8% of the vote to 48.2%, limits U.S. President Donald Trump’s drive to tighten his grip on the Western Hemisphere and cements Latin America’s most populous country and largest economy as a counterweight to Washington. A Bolsonaro victory would have left Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum as the only progressive president among the region’s powerhouses.

For the Trump administration, which has wielded punishing tariffs, severe sanctions and military force to reassert its dominance in the region, Lula’s victory complicates its campaign to enlist Brazil in its military coalition against cartels and to gain preferential access to the country’s critical minerals, analysts say.

Yet both sides see reasons to cooperate. Washington wants access to Brazil’s vast trove of rare earths to reduce its defense industry’s reliance on China. Lula wants foreign investment and tariff relief for Brazilian exporters.

“Lula is pragmatic enough to work out some kind of modus operandi with the Trump administration,” said Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that the Bolsonaros’ allies in Washington would likely lose sway after the family’s second electoral defeat. Flávio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, lost to Lula in 2022.

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Netanyahu might be finished but his policies toward the Palestinians will largely endure

JALUD, West Bank (AP) — Israel’s elections Tuesday could mark the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decades-long political career.

But his legacy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — of massive settlement expansion, the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians and the empowerment of armed settler extremists — will likely endure, even if his opponents seek to rein it in.

Israelis are deeply divided over Netanyahu’s leadership and moral character, but they largely support settlement expansion and are opposed to a Palestinian state. So while Netanyahu’s opponents have vowed to crack down on settler violence and remove the most contentious outposts, they are mostly against a two-state solution, seen internationally as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.

“There shouldn’t be any illusions,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior Israel analyst at the International Crisis Group.

“At best, (a new government) would be able to slow down the extremely crazy acceleration that we’ve seen in the last four years of every aspect of Israel’s aggression in the occupied territories and inside Israel itself.”

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Trump escalates anti-Muslim attacks against El-Sayed in Michigan, drawing Arab American rebuke

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.

Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.

El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country “shameful” and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president’s remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.

“The president’s statements are out of line,” he said in a phone interview. “They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”

With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, the president has been trying to generate turnout by claiming that El-Sayed and other Democrats are existential threats to America, instead of electoral rivals. Michigan’s Senate race between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers is among a handful of contests that could determine control of the chamber.

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Blanche says Trump isn’t trying to meddle with Alaska election results by suing over Senate race

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Trump administration’s lawsuit to block certification of Alaska’s Senate results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses the race and argued that the legal challenge was a necessary step to avoid confusing voters in the closely watched midterm race.

President Donald Trump, who said Friday that he was “the one that said do it,” is not trying to overturn state election results “in any way, shape or form” on the cusp of the Nov. 3 election, Blanche told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We wish that we didn’t have to do this. We hope for a resolution that works,” Blanche said.

Republicans fear that a second candidate on the ballot who is named Dan Sullivan — a retired teacher and school administrator from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg — could siphon away votes from the senator and tip the outcome in favor of Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman.

A day after the lawsuit was filed on Thursday, Peltola called it “just flagrant, flagrant corruption in my opinion” and a diversion tactic by Republicans. Alaska’s other Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, also criticized the lawsuit in a social media post.

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Venezuela’s opposition leader Machado returns after months in exile, as doubts over democracy deepen

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opposition leader and Nobel laureate María Corina Machado reappeared in Venezuela Sunday for the first time since December, returning from exile at a time when doubts about the country’s democratic future — and the role of the U.S. — are growing.

It was her first appearance since the U.S. military deposed the country’s then-President Nicolás Maduro in January, replacing him with an interim president who has exceeded the time she was authorized to serve, with no election scheduled.

Machado announced her arrival on social media, writing, “I am here. With you.”

Another leading figure in the Venezuelan opposition, Edmundo González, wrote on X that he would be at her side “very soon.”

“Today is a very important day for Venezuelans,” he wrote. “Our sovereign voice returns with her to lead and guide this process!”

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Delegations meet in Iran with Mideast region on edge over potential for renewed fighting

CAIRO (AP) — High-level delegations from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey were in Tehran on Monday for meetings with Iranian authorities to try to avert renewed fighting between Iran and Israel and the United States, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.

The talks come as many in Iran are anxious about a possible return to all-out war. Israeli and American leaders have been sharpening their threats ahead of elections in both countries, while Iranian leaders have remained defiant.

Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Ibrahim Kalin, the head of Turkey’s intelligence service, were to meet with Iran’s top security officials and negotiators to push for a deal between Tehran and Washington.

The war in Yemen and strikes by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia were also topics of the talks, according to two regional officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in the Iranian capital that the agenda for the meeting was not set, but the talks would “undoubtedly address the most pressing threats to regional security.”

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What to know about China’s plenum as Xi seeks stronger Communist Party discipline

HONG KONG (AP) — China’s political leaders and elites began a four-day meeting Monday to discuss strengthening the ruling Communist Party’s discipline, as Chinese President Xi Jinping pushes for greater loyalty and reliability from officials while deepening his yearslong campaign against corruption.

This week’s closed-door gathering, known as the fifth plenum of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, comes roughly a year before Xi is widely expected to secure his fourth five-year term as the party’s leader and personnel changes to key leadership bodies.

Xi began the meeting by delivering a work report and speaking about a draft policy decision on advancing “full and rigorous party self-governance,” according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The policy aims to make cadres more disciplined, effective and less corrupt.

While Xi has consolidated his grip on power, analysts say the plenum will offer him an opportunity to further align what Chinese officials do with what Beijing wants.

“The plenum is a chance to ensure the new generations rising the ranks share Xi’s assessment of the opportunities and risks China faces,” said Ruby Osman, a senior policy adviser at London’s Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

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Jordanian security forces arrest 3 men over last week’s deadly church attack

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordanian security forces arrested three men on Monday for an attack on a Greek Orthodox Church that killed nine people and wounded more than two dozen last week. The arrest involved a shootout and all three men were wounded, officials said.

The Public Security Directorate said no member of the Jordanian forces was wounded in the dawn shootout in Karak, south of Jordan’s capital, Amman.

The attack on Friday in Karak, which is home to a minority Christian population, struck the Greek Orthodox Church during a funeral. Three men were reported to have taken part in the attack.

There has been no claim of responsibility, and no armed group has been accused of the attack.

Jordanian Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya identified the three men as those responsible for the attack.

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Baby orangutans in India expose illegal wildlife trade as experts question a billionaire’s zoo

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The villagers who first spotted the five baby orangutans in a casuarina forest in India in early September were puzzled by their reddish hair and unfamiliar faces.

The three males and two females, aged 6 to 8 months — were left on a plantation in eastern India’s Odisha, over 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) from their native rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra, evidence of a growing illicit trade of apes being trafficked into India.

They’re now at an Indian zoo, where keepers reportedly have been playing classical music to soothe them.

Wild orangutans are native only to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, where they sustain rainforests by spreading seeds across vast areas, allowing trees to regenerate and store carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming. The species is critically endangered, threatened by severe habitat loss. There are about 119,500 orangutans left in the wild, according to conservation organization World Wildlife Fund.

The global illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth $34 billion annually, according to a 2026 study by National University of Singapore researchers, and India is emerging as an important market. Experts say seizures reflect a fraction of a booming trade in exotic or non-native animals sold to wealthy Indian collectors.

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Singer Chris Brown to be sentenced over bottle attack at a London nightclub

LONDON (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Chris Brown is to be sentenced Monday over brawling at a London nightclub three years ago.

Brown, 37, pleaded guilty to a count of affray at London’s Southwark Crown Court in July for attacking a music producer with a bottle on the head.

Brown had denied attacking Abraham Diaw with a bottle at the Tape nightclub in the swanky Mayfair neighborhood in February 2023. But prosecutors said the fight was caught on surveillance camera in front of a club full of people.

In return for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped charges of assault, attempting to cause grievous bodily harm and having an offensive weapon, a bottle.

Brown’s friend and vocal coach Omololu Akinlolu also pleaded guilty to affray. He will be sentenced too.