Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva voted Sunday morning in São Bernardo do Campo, the factory town where he started in politics nearly fifty years ago, and told Brazilians the choice was "between strengthening democracy and barbarism." Flávio Bolsonaro voted in Rio's north zone and asked the rest of the right to switch to him in a "protest vote." Nearly 159 million Brazilians are eligible. If nobody clears 50 percent plus one, the two meet again on 25 October.
Both men voted in a country where the American embassy and every US consulate sat closed. The State Department suspended consular services on Friday "due to security concerns," gave no date for reopening and drew no link to the vote. Australia's ambassador shut her embassy the same day, citing the American alert. Brazil's federal police then ran search warrants in São Paulo and the capital, with foreign intelligence help, and reported they found no evidence for the threat and no suspects.
Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth term and has spent the final weeks accusing Trump of interfering in the race for Bolsonaro. The head of his Workers' Party called the closures "one of Trump's ways of trying to influence Brazilian public opinion."
Then on Saturday, in Colorado Springs, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told reporters where the Pentagon's weight is heading. What did he say is moving south, and which candidate has already promised to meet it?
