The current world record holder in the 400-meter hurdles, Brazilian Alison dos Santos, was nominated Tuesday (Oct. 6) for the World Athletics Athlete of the Year award.

Piu, as he is known in Brazil, had a memorable season, including a record-breaking performance at the Diamond League in Zurich, Switzerland, and his third career victory in the Diamond League, the world’s premier track and field circuit. And there’s more – Alison lifted the trophy at the inaugural Ultimate World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, which brought together the world’s best athletes.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Alison dos Santos wins 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
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• Alison dos Santos breaks 400m hurdles world record.

Nine other male athletes are competing with Piu, including Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, world record holder in the pole vault, and Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe, who this year set the fastest time in the history of the London Marathon with a time of 1:59:30. No Brazilian athletes appear on the list of 10 nominated female runners.

The finalists for the Athlete of the Year award will be determined by a vote that closes at midnight on October 17, Central European Time. Four groups are eligible to vote, each with a 25 percent weighting: World Athletics fans (click here to vote), athletes who have competed in the 2026 World Athletics Series, members of the media, and members of the World Athletics Family – such as council and committee members, competition organizers, and athlete representatives.

The three finalists in each gender will be announced on November 10 and 11. The Best Athlete of the Year award will be presented in Monaco on November 29.

A two-time Olympic medalist (bronze in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), Piu set a new world record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 45.80 seconds at the Diamond League meet in Zurich, Switzerland, surpassing the previous record (45.94 seconds) set by Norway’s Karsten Warholm at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

The São Paulo native also became a three-time Diamond League champion by winning all six Diamond League meets he competed in: Shaoxing, China; Xiamen, China; Oslo, Norway; Stockholm, Sweden; Silesia, Poland; Zurich, Switzerland; and Brussels, Belgium. Piu had already clinched the Diamond League title in both 2022 and 2024.

In September, Alison dos Santos also won the first edition of the Ultimate World Athletics Championships in Budapest, which brought together the world’s best athletes, including American Rai Benjamin and Norwegian Warholm.

Candidates Flávio Bolsonaro (Liberal Party – PL) and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party – PT) will face off in Brazil’s presidential runoff. Voters will return to the polls on Sunday, October 25, 2026.

Flávio Bolsonaro finished the first round in first place, with 47.03 percent of the valid votes, or 56,103,033 in total. Lula came in second, with 45.16 percent, or 53,870,724.

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• Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula head for runoff in Brazil’s presidential race.

The presidential election goes to a runoff when no candidate secures more than half of the valid votes in the first round.

In seven states, the gubernatorial election went to a runoff, which will also be held on October 25.

Brazil’s Finance Minister Dario Durigan said Thursday (Sep. 24) that Antônio Carlos Freixo Júnior, known as “Mineiro,” the owner of Entre Investimentos, received money from organized crime. The company has a stake in the financing of Dark Horse, a film that chronicles the life of former President Jair Bolsonaro and which received funding from Banco Master, owned by Daniel Vorcaro.

Today’s operation, the third phase of Operation Carbono Oculto, was launched by São Paulo prosecutors and the Federal Revenue Service.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Candidate Flávio Bolsonaro targeted by probe into “Dark Horse” film.

“We’re talking about the management company of a business group – the Entre Group – which received money from both Baco Master and organized crime, all into the same pool. Everything indicates that the funds providing liquidity for these operations come from the same entity, from the same pool,” the minister stated in an interview in Brasília.

According to Durigan, the money received by Entre was used for money laundering and bribery.

“We’re talking about the same fund, where money from different sources ended up – whether from Master, organized crime, or individuals who have already entered into plea bargain agreements with the São Paulo Prosecution Service or the Federal Prosecution Service.”

Antônio Carlos Freixo Junior entered into a plea bargain agreement with the Prosecutor-General’s Office regarding the investigations into the Banco Master scandal.

A new species of feline, named Leopardus tilcayo, has been identified in the mountain forests of Bolivia, in a region known as Nor Yungas.

The discovery was made by researchers led by Eduardo Eizirik, a professor at the School of Health and Life Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS).

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The scientific description of a new feline species is the first in over a century. The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, was based on the genomic analysis of an animal known by the nickname “Tigrino.”

The male was found as a cub in 2016 by a resident of the Nor Yungas region in Bolivia. The specimen was later taken to the La Senda Verde animal sanctuary, where he has remained ever since.

Genomic results were published on September 17 and show that the animal did not belong to the species previously imagined (Leopardus tigrinus), but was part of an evolutionarily distinct lineage that had not yet been recognized by science.

“This study highlights just how much there is still to discover about the planet’s biodiversity. Even among charismatic and well-known animals such as felines, species can remain unknown for centuries. Discovering and understanding these species is vital so that we also know how to protect them,” Eizirik noted.

According to the university, the article Phylogenomics and Museomics Reveal Five Distinct Species of Tiger Cats in South America also provided new insights into the diversity of wildcats known as “tiger cats.”

The research found that the group, which until recently was considered a single species, is in fact composed of five distinct species.

This conclusion was reached thanks to the sequencing and analysis of complete genomes from 38 individuals from different regions of South America. Among the samples analyzed were eight historical specimens housed in museums in Europe and the US.

The wild cats analyzed, Eizirik said, can be classified as cryptic species – animals that look very similar but exhibit genetic differences and independent evolutionary trajectories.

“This visual similarity led to different species being confused and classified as a single species for a long time,” he says.

The research brought together scientists from PUCRS and partner institutions in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Belgium, Colombia, the US, and the UK.