Guadalupe Taddei resigns from INE and Lula prevails over Flávio in a vote manipulated by the court; annulment is sought.

Guadalupe Taddei resigns from INE. I asked the United States for this a month ago.

What happened: On Sunday, October 25, Guadalupe Taddei announced she will hand her resignation as INE council president to the Chamber of Deputies this Monday. She said she does it to "protect the Institute" and that her departure does not exempt anyone from clearing up the allegations.

What I say: I reported it to the United States and a month later she resigns.

What I asked the United States for: A sanctions review under Executive Order 13818 for corruption in government contracts, and visa ineligibility under section 7031(c). Naming Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, Claudia Arlett Espino, Jesús Octavio García González and the companies Cajas Graf, Corporativo Zeg and TOL Producciones.

What came next: The driver’s payroll, the Financial Intelligence Unit investigation into the supplier network, the Federal Audit Office’s own investigation and, on Saturday, Morena deputies and senators calling for her resignation.

What comes next: The councilors choose a provisional president among themselves. Only the Chamber of Deputies can appoint the permanent one. That appointment is the one to watch.

The document I filed with OFAC

Submission recommending review for sanctions under Executive Order 13818 and 22 U.S.C. § 10102, and for visa ineligibility under Section 7031(c)

Filed with: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Department of State. Submitted September 23, 2026, with 100 pages including exhibits.

What I ask: That OFAC, with the State Department, open a review under Section 1(a)(ii)(B) of Executive Order 13818, corruption in government contracts, and Section 1(a)(iii), material assistance. That the State Department review visa ineligibility under Section 7031(c). And that the submission be treated as credible information under 22 U.S.C. § 10102(c)(2).

Who: Guadalupe Taddei Zavala, Claudia Arlett Espino, Jesús Octavio García González, and the companies Cajas Graf, Corporativo Zeg and TOL Producciones.

What it already said about the UIF: "The Financial Intelligence Unit froze Zeg and Cajas Graf in 2023 on suspicion of money laundering. The companies and their owners obtained injunctions on procedural grounds in mid-2024. No court ruled on the lawfulness of the funds."

Read the English original →Read the Spanish translation →

Lula won the presidency. The right won Congress. The left will govern with its hands tied.

What I say: Many celebrated or mourned Lula’s presidential victory, but the real battle was decided in Congress, and the numbers do not lie: the left will govern with its hands tied.

In the first round, the opposition and the center-right won a crushing victory, taking control of both chambers from the left.

Senate, 81 seats, majority of 41: Right, 48 seats, 59.3 percent. An absolute majority, consolidated. Others, 33 seats, 40.7 percent.

Chamber of Deputies, 513 seats, majority of 257: Right, 303 seats, 59.1 percent. Center, 86 seats, 16.8 percent. Left, only 124 seats, 24.2 percent, far from being able to sway anything on its own.

What it means: Any reform, budget or law will have to get past a giant opposition wall. The new government faces a historic Congress that will give it no truce.

Party by party: Bolsonaro’s PL will have the largest caucus in both chambers: 121 deputies, up from 97 elected in 2022, and 28 senators. The PT will have 70 deputies and 9 senators.

The calculation no one made: The entire left, PT, PCdoB, PV, PSB, PSOL, PDT and Rede, adds up to 15 of 81 senators. Amending the Constitution takes three fifths: 308 deputies and 49 senators. The right alone is 5 deputies and one senator short. With the center, it has plenty.

Impeachment: Opening it takes two thirds of the Chamber, 342 deputies. Right and center add up to 389.

The question: Is this counterweight what Brazil needs to avoid polarization, or will it paralyze the country?

Lula prevails over Flávio in a vote extended by the court. Flávio seeks annulment and lawmakers want his passport.

The official result: With 100 percent of tally sheets, the Superior Electoral Court gives Lula 64,256,232 votes, 51.79 percent, and Flávio Bolsonaro 59,826,041, 48.21 percent. The gap is 4,430,191 votes.

What the court did: On Sunday, Supreme Federal Court justice Cristiano Zanin extended voting until 7:00 pm Brasília time nationwide. Lula’s campaign asked for it, citing voter transport problems in Bahia. Zanin was Lula’s personal lawyer and Lula appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2023.

Over the electoral court’s head: The decision bypassed the Superior Electoral Court, which runs the election. The Electoral Prosecutor’s Office had opposed changing the hours. In the end it was limited to polling stations still open. Court technicians began measuring the impact this Monday and have not published how many votes came in after 5:00 pm.

The law: Article 220 of the Electoral Code says voting held on a day, time or place other than those designated is void. The annulment request rests on that.

What I say: Lula prevails over Flávio in a vote manipulated by the court; annulment is sought.

Flávio: On Sunday night he said he will ask to annul the runoff and called the result "unacceptable."

The passport: Deputy Duda Salabert asked the courts to hold Flávio’s passport. Deputy Otôni de Paula asked the Prosecutor General for a travel ban and surrender of the passport. Rogério Correia, of the PT, said he will go to the Supreme Court this Monday with the same request. None presented evidence that he plans to flee.

The keys to Flávio’s defeat. Bahia, where voting was extended, gave Lula 87 percent of his lead.

1. Bahia: Lula took 71.3 percent and beat Flávio by 3,876,497 votes. That is 87.5 percent of Lula’s national lead. It is the state where transport problems were the reason to extend voting.

2. The Northeast: Nine states, 69.4 percent for Lula and a 13.65 million vote lead. That is three times the national margin. Piauí 75.9, Maranhão 69.5, Sergipe 69.5, Pernambuco 69.2, Ceará 68.9.

3. What Flávio did win: The South by 4.58 million, the Southeast by 2.81 million and the Center-West by 1.87 million. That adds up to 9.25 million. Not enough.

4. The new votes: From the first round to the runoff Lula added 10.46 million votes and Flávio 3.73 million. Almost three of every four votes that moved went to Lula.

5. Minas Gerais: The state that decides Brazil went to Lula by 109,313 votes, 50.4 to 49.6.

6. São Paulo: Flávio won with 53.9 percent, but by only 2.02 million. To offset the Northeast he needed almost triple.

7. The overseas vote flipped: Early tallies from Japan gave Flávio 69 percent; with all stations counted, Lula won the overseas vote with 53.9 percent.

The 210 cities that flipped to Lula. The number is real: it was 211, and only 4 went the other way.

What is circulating: "210 cities that voted for Flavio 2 weeks ago are said to have changed their votes and voted for Lula today. Truly unprecedented in the history of modern elections... or fantasy."

What the data says: In 211 Brazilian municipalities Flávio beat Lula in the October 4 first round, three weeks ago, and Lula won the runoff. In the opposite direction, from Lula to Flávio, only 4 flipped.

Where: 76 in Minas Gerais, the state that decided the election. 32 in São Paulo, 20 in Paraná, 19 in Rio Grande do Sul, 14 in Goiás, 11 in Tocantins and 9 in Rio de Janeiro.

The city of Rio de Janeiro: In the first round Flávio got 1,662,354 votes and Lula 1,524,517. In the runoff, Lula 1,898,391 and Flávio 1,785,198. Lula added 373,874 votes and Flávio 122,844. The other first-round candidates had received 285,003.

Across the 211: Flávio led by 282,545 votes in the first round. In the runoff Lula finished ahead by 264,438. Lula added 811,259 new votes and Flávio 264,276. In 78 of those municipalities the final gap was under 100 votes.

Outside Brazil too: Brazilians voting in Mexico City, New York, La Paz, Mendoza, New Delhi, Cayenne and Paso de los Libres also went from Flávio to Lula.

What it explains and what it does not: In a runoff the votes of eliminated candidates are redistributed and people who skipped the first round turn out. That explains why some municipalities change. What it does not explain on its own is the asymmetry: 211 one way and 4 the other. That is the question the Superior Electoral Court must be able to answer polling station by polling station.

María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela. "I am here. With you."

What happened: On Sunday, October 25, María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela after about ten months in exile. She was received at the Divina Pastora Sanctuary in Barquisimeto. She wrote: "I am here. With you."

The country she returns to: Nicolás Maduro was captured in Caracas in January in a U.S. military operation and faces drug trafficking charges in New York, which he denies. Since then Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro ally, has governed as interim president.

Washington: The Trump administration restored relations with Rodríguez’s government and in August signed an oil deal giving it access to about a quarter of Venezuela’s crude reserves. Marco Rubio said Machado has "every right" to return.

What is missing: There is no election date. Machado and her allies are demanding one. Rubio has said the economy must first be stabilized and the supreme court and electoral council rebuilt.

The history: Machado won the 2023 opposition primary and was barred from running. Edmundo González replaced her and, according to opposition tally sheets, defeated Maduro in 2024. In 2025 she received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Students bring change to Serbia. Vučić, Maduro’s friend in Europe, falls.

What happened: Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat on Sunday night: "It is clear that we have lost." By his own count, the Student List wins 135 to 140 of 250 seats and his Progressive Party about 105. Governing takes 126.

The votes: 2.2 million for the students against 1.72 million for Vučić’s party, by his figures. Turnout reached 64.9 percent by 6 pm, the highest since Yugoslavia broke up in 1992.

How it began: In November 2024 the canopy of the Novi Sad train station collapsed and 16 people died. Students took to the streets against corruption and never left. Vučić resigned the presidency in September to run for prime minister. He lost.

Maduro’s friend: Vučić called Maduro a "great friend" of Serbia in August 2025. After Maduro’s capture in January, he said the world order had broken down and that "whoever is stronger, oppresses."

What I say: The students bring change to Serbia and Maduro’s ally is defeated.

The United States deports 20,000 foreigners to Mexico. Eight of every ten it sends to a country not their own.

The numbers: The United States has sent at least 25,447 people to countries not their own, through agreements with 35 governments. About 20,000 were sent to Mexico. That is the figure as of August 31 documented by the Forbidden Stories journalism consortium.

Mexico’s figure: The National Migration Institute recorded 19,000 foreigners deported to Mexico between January 20 and August 13, 2026, in addition to 211,000 Mexicans.

Who runs it: The State Department’s Office of Remigration, created in May 2025. Of 410 million dollars set aside for the program, about 81 million went to the signatory governments.

What is not known: How much Mexico received, what it signed and who signed it. Lawyers describe deportees in a "legal limbo" in countries they have no ties to.

How to request it: The text of the agreement with Mexico can be requested through FOIA from the State Department and through transparency requests to Mexico’s Foreign Ministry and National Migration Institute.

Mexico charges with treason the prosecutor who let two Americans in. Both died, and Mexico holds the file.

The problem in plain words. A state prosecutor let two foreigners into an operation against a drug lab. Both foreigners died. Six months later the prosecutor is in the Altiplano maximum security prison charged with treason against the nation. Both of the dead men were Americans.

The thread, step by step.

A. Between April 17 and 18, 2026, an operation was carried out at El Pinal, in the municipality of Morelos, Chihuahua, against a clandestine lab. The State Investigation Agency took part, along with soldiers and two United States citizens.

B. In the early hours of April 19 the vehicle carrying four people back from the site fell roughly 180 meters into a ravine. Two state agents and the two Americans died: Richard Leiter Johnston III, 35, a retired U.S. Army captain who later served in Special Forces, and John Dudley Black, listed as 43 in the body of the Infobae report and 44 in its photo caption, aide-de-camp to the commanding general of the 1st Marine Division in Afghanistan in 2013. U.S. media have linked both men to the CIA. Neither the Embassy nor the CIA has confirmed it.

C. On April 20 the Chihuahua prosecutor's office, through César Jáuregui Moreno, presented them as Embassy staff doing training work. Jáuregui resigned on April 27.

D. On October 16 a control judge issued an arrest warrant for Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo, former head of Strategic Operations, for aggravated false statements, illegal exercise of public office and coalition of public servants. As of October 25 he was still at large.

E. On October 17 the federal Attorney General's Office arrested Jáuregui, criminal case 3055/2026, and took him to the Altiplano. On Saturday, October 24, Judge Ricardo Alfonso Santos Dorantes, of the Federal Criminal Justice Center at the Altiplano, bound him over for trial on treason against the nation in a national security matter and upheld justified pretrial detention. Prosecutors presented more than 150 items of evidence.

The data point nobody put on the table. According to reporting published on October 20, one of the two Americans entered Mexico as a tourist and the other on a diplomatic passport. A diplomatic passport does not enter on its own: it leaves a record at the Foreign Ministry and at the National Migration Institute. The Security Cabinet and the Foreign Ministry said they had no knowledge of foreign agents operating in Mexico. Both things cannot be true at once.

Our own calculation. From the April 17 operation to the October 17 arrest, 183 days. To the October 24 binding over, 190 days. Today marks 190 days since the four deaths.

The same law, running the other way. Mexico's federal government has used its own National Security Law three times to expel fugitives to the United States without extradition: 29 people in February 2025, 26 in August 2025 and 37 on the night of January 20, 2026. That is 92 people in eleven months. The sum is ours; the three numbers are the U.S. Department of Justice's, which thanked the government of Mexico in writing for standing with it. The same subject matter, national security, opens the door northward and locks it inward.

The Senate votes tomorrow on 1.7 trillion pesos of new debt. That is one peso in every six of the budget.

In plain words. Tomorrow the Senate debates and votes on how much Mexico may borrow next year. The number in dispute is 1.7 trillion pesos.

The package numbers. Projected 2027 revenue: 10.6 trillion pesos, of which 6.2 trillion is tax. Proposed borrowing ceiling: 1.7 trillion pesos. Committee reports were approved on Wednesday and given a first reading in the floor session immediately after.

Our own calculation. 1.7 trillion over 10.6 trillion in revenue is 16.0 percent. In kitchen table language: of every six pesos the government plans to spend next year, nearly one is new debt. The division is ours; both numbers come from the committee report.

The charge that does fall on a foreigner. The fee for foreign visitors without permission for paid activities rises 17.8 percent to 1,158 pesos. At the Banxico reference rate of October 23, 18.6601 pesos per dollar, that is 62.06 dollars per visitor. That conversion is ours.

What did not make the official note. The package also carries anti tax evasion measures and a program to regularize delinquent taxpayers. The opposition announced it will vote against the borrowing ceiling.

From 869 to 3,101 Cuban doctors across 23 states. Chapter 23 of the USMCA was written for exactly this.

In plain words. Mexico has more than three thousand contracted Cuban doctors. In the United States there is now a formal letter asking that the scheme be reviewed at the USMCA table, under the labor chapter.

The numbers. According to what was presented at the presidential morning briefing, the first agreement began on July 22, 2022, and the figure went from 869 to 3,101 doctors by the end of the previous administration, spread across 23 states where IMSS-Bienestar operates.

Our own calculation. From 869 to 3,101 is 2,232 more doctors, growth of 257 percent. The subtraction and the percentage are ours; both figures are official.

What happened this week. On October 22, U.S. Representative María Elvira Salazar signed a letter asking that the labor conditions of Cuban doctors be reviewed inside the USMCA review, under chapter 23, the labor chapter, which covers forced labor. On October 25, Alejandro Moreno and the PRI asked the government to cancel the agreements and warned that if the scheme damages the treaty, the responsibility would be the government's.

The government position. President Claudia Sheinbaum has said the doctors are contracted directly, with no intermediary company, and paid salaries equivalent to those of Mexican doctors. There is no U.S. determination to date of any treaty breach.

Mexico lost a semiconductor plant and an AI server farm. The server farm went to Brazil.

In plain words. Today the head of Mexico's Business Coordinating Council said the country lost two large foreign investments because it could not supply the electricity they required. One went to Thailand. The other went to Brazil.

The two projects. José Medina Mora Icaza said a semiconductor project coming from Taiwan ended up in Thailand because twenty-year energy availability projections did not give it room to grow. And that a project for AI server farms went to Brazil, which did offer the available power the company needed.

The date matters. That was published today, October 26. The same day Brazil woke up with a reelected president and the whole country watching the election. The investment decision was made earlier and for a reason that appears in no speech: there was power.

Where the bottleneck is. Medina Mora flagged the Yucatán peninsula as the most critical area: the southern region consumes around 2,400 and generates between 1,400 and 1,800, and depends on a single transmission line, so one failure hits the whole area. In Baja California and Baja California Sur the problem is distribution, not generation: neither state is part of the National Interconnected System.

Our own calculation, with its warning. Between southern consumption and local generation there is a gap of 600 to 1,000 units. The subtraction is ours. So is the warning: the source reports the unit as "MW/h", which is ambiguous, so this paper publishes the range and publishes the ambiguity instead of inventing a precision the data does not have.

The scale of the problem. To serve data center and AI demand, according to the Council, the country would have to raise current generation by 100 percent. Medina Mora said doubling supply is not going to happen. The 2026-2030 Investment Plan assigns 3.03 trillion pesos to the energy sector, 54.15 percent of 5.6 trillion, and the government expects around 100 generation projects authorized over the next year.

A human trial now measures biological age from proteins. And zero clocks are FDA approved.

In plain words. There is a new idea in the labs: measure a person's biological age from the proteins in their blood, and use that measurement to tell whether a drug is slowing aging. It has now been tested inside a real clinical trial, in humans. It is worth understanding exactly what it proved and what it did not.

The news and its date. On September 7, 2026, publication in Nature Biotechnology was announced of work by Zhavoronkov and colleagues applying six proteomic aging clocks to data from a completed phase IIa clinical trial, registered as NCT05938920. This is not news from the last twenty-four hours: it is the most recent peer-reviewed publication in this line, and it is stated with its date.

What was measured. Longitudinal proteomic data from 42 participants at twelve weeks were analyzed, across 2,841 proteins, with six different clocks. The drug, rentosertib, is a small molecule inhibitor designed with artificial intelligence, and the original trial was run for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, not for aging.

Level 1, what is proven in humans in a clinical trial. All six clocks showed a trend toward lower biological age in the treated group versus placebo. The maximum effect was seen at week 4 in the 30 mg twice daily group, a reduction of roughly 3 to 4 years, and up to 6 years on one particular clock. On lung function, the 60 mg once daily group had a mean increase of 98.4 mL versus −20.3 mL on placebo.

Level 2, what still cannot be separated. Nobel laureate Michael Levitt cautioned that the trial cannot yet separate slower aging from a treated lung. And there is a detail worth not skipping: the dose with the greatest lung improvement is not the dose with the strongest age reversal signal. Forty-two people is a small sample and twelve weeks is a short window.

Level 3, what has no approval. Rentosertib has no FDA approval for any indication, let alone for aging. Proteomic clocks are not a qualified biomarker: the authors propose a path toward the FDA Biomarker Qualification Program and the FDA-NIH BEST framework, but that path has not been walked. No biological age clock sold to the public today is FDA approved as a measure of aging.

What you can actually do today. None of the above changes the basics. The biomarkers that are validated and measurable in any lab are the familiar ones. Lipids, glucose and A1c, blood pressure, kidney and liver function, inflammation markers. Those get interpreted, tracked over time and corrected with your doctor.

Google teaches you to use artificial intelligence. I teach you to make money with it.

What you will be able to do: Pull a decree, read the transitory articles, count the business days and publish the result before anyone else. That is what we did today with the Digital Economy Law and it is what the courses teach step by step.

Who it is for: For the founder who wants to stop paying for information they can produce, and for the professional who wants to get paid to produce it. No programming required.