Thousands of people gathered on Wednesday for a march in Rio de Janeiro to protest against election frontrunner Flávio Bolsonaro and the prospect of the far-right returning to power in Brazil as the runoff campaign kicked off.

Under the slogans "Bolsonaro never again" and "No to the father, no to the son," young and old joined the student demonstration after the conservative senator finished first in Sunday's initial round of the Brazilian presidential election.

Flávio Bolsonaro will face off against veteran leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round on October 25.

"I am here because I believe in democracy, because I am afraid," Alice Carneiro, a 25-year-old administrator, told AFP while tearfully expressing fears that a victory by the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro could harm her transgender wife.

Demonstrators sharply criticized the government of Jair Bolsonaro, who governed from 2019 to 2022 and is remembered for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic—a crisis he downplayed as a "little flu" that ultimately claimed more than 700,000 lives in Brazil.

"I remember my family's life being at risk during the pandemic... I remember the denial of vaccines," Carneiro said.

Amid drumming and fireworks, protesters waved flags reading "Out with Bolsonaro," while others voiced concern over Flávio Bolsonaro's plans to grant amnesty to his father, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup against Lula following his 2022 electoral loss.

"Dictatorship never again," read one banner.

Fear of Cuts 

Flávio Bolsonaro has promised to execute drastic budget cuts, brandishing scissors to emulate the chainsaw approach of Argentine President Javier Milei, whose economic reforms he has praised.

Brazil is currently grappling with mounting public debt, exacerbated by high interest rates.

Nevertheless, the first-round election results triggered a rally on the São Paulo stock market, pushing it to historic highs on Monday.

Amid the uncertainty, protesters recalled the spending cuts imposed by Jair Bolsonaro on federal universities, research grants, and the government's Farmacia Popular program, which provides free or discounted medications.

"I find this rise of the far right and the surge of Bolsonarism in Brazil very, very sad," said 19-year-old Emmanuel Araujo, who is currently preparing for university entrance exams.

Iara Pinheiro, who cast her ballot for the first time at age 16, also expressed panic: "I am a Black woman, and I believe we will lose our rights if things continue as they are and we elect a Bolsonaro again. I think we will end up losing our democracy."

New Campaigns 

Even while serving house arrest, Jair Bolsonaro remains a central figure in the election.

"Granting amnesty to coups gives a green light to new coups," read another banner. Several additional demonstrations against the family are scheduled for the coming days.

Both Flávio Bolsonaro and Lula are recalibrating their campaigns ahead of the runoff.

The conservative candidate has focused on building coalitions and doubling down on his platform to shrink the state and modernize the tax system.

He also promised to leverage the right's newfound dominance in Congress to push through constitutional reforms.

Lula, who is seeking a fourth term as he approaches his 81st birthday, is resetting his strategy with an intense focus on social media, where the right has long maintained an advantage.

On Wednesday, the president—who famously does not carry a cell phone—posted a video selfie for the first time.

"Let's go, people, into the streets, let me talk to the people," he urged in the video shared across Instagram and TikTok.

With his usual boldness, Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler proposes building "bridges" between people through music, especially in a world that is "more insensitive" and crumbling, as he asserts in his latest album.

Drexler is in the midst of an international tour to present "Taracá," an album for which he is nominated for eight Latin Grammys, including Best Album, Recording, and Song for "¿Cómo se ama?".

The "songwriter," as he likes to present himself, unpacks the themes of his new album and discusses the ills of our times in an interview with AFP days before his concert on Friday in Paris at the prestigious Grand Rex.

"The world has become a more polarized, more extreme, harsher, more insensitive, and more unconscious place," since Donald Trump came to the U.S. presidency, the 62-year-old musician recalls during the video call.

The song "Nuestro trabajo/Los puentes" was written precisely one day before Trump first came to power in January 2017.

"I had a fit of fear, a fear that turned out to be justified afterward," he says.

Back to Uruguay

Faced with this world that is going "to hell," as the song says, Drexler proposes that "we all learn to put ourselves in the other's place, even if we think the other is wrong."

"It is the basic act to dismantle a conflict," he insists.

And that can be done through music.

"Music in itself is a bridge between people, which puts you in phase with the other person," comments the singer-songwriter, with his red-framed glasses and a black T-shirt with yellow designs.

"Taracá," his fifteenth studio album, represents his return to his native Uruguay, where he had not recorded in two decades.

"Uruguayan music is living a very special, very fruitful moment, especially around an Afro-Uruguayan rhythm that is candombe," he explains. "It is the rhythm that somehow gives structure to the album."

Tracks such as "Toco madera," "El tambor chico," and "¿Qué será que es?" are directly related to this traditional Uruguayan rhythm.

"A Good Concept"

The album is nominated for eight Latin Grammys, which, if they become awards on November 12, could add to the fifteen gramophones he already has and the Oscar he won in 2005 for "Al otro lado del río," from the soundtrack of "The Motorcycle Diaries."

"I have the same number of nominations as Rosalía, who has made a historic album. That makes me very happy," comments Drexler, surprised by the feat.

"It seems my colleagues have a good concept of me, because otherwise I can't explain it," jokes the author of "Todo se transforma."

Although throughout his career he has been nominated on some fifty occasions, Drexler never ceases to be amazed at rubbing shoulders in this edition with Spanish singer Rosalía or Colombian Karol G.

"My project does not go on the highways of the mainstream but rather on the regional roads," says the physician by training.

"I have always been a bad record salesman," he concludes.

"Little Stream"

Regarding the success that Spanish-language music is experiencing, with planetary phenomena such as Bad Bunny or Rosalía, the Uruguayan singer-songwriter is more than satisfied.

"It is a very good moment for music, for Spanish-language culture in general, for the Spanish language," he says.

"The places where Spanish music is arriving today include sites that Cervantes did not reach in his time," he states.

Asked how he views this cultural tide of which he is also a part, he comments, modestly, that his is "a little stream."

Could he one day collaborate with Puerto Rican Bad Bunny, of whom he is a great fan? What would he propose?

"I don't think he would be interested, but if he is [...] the first thing I would say to Bad Bunny is: 'if you like what I do, let's work. If not, I will keep listening to your music with admiration.'"

Frenchman Henri Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai received this Wednesday the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for having solved one of the mysteries of life: why, in nature, some molecules appear in only one form, a fundamental finding for the development of medicines.

"Their discoveries have played a decisive role for chemists who design reactions intended for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products," the Nobel committee said in a statement.

Like hands, some molecules, called chiral, can have "right" or "left" versions, depending on the way they reflect light. With identical physical properties but very different biological ones.

Almost all amino acids exist in two mirror-image variants, but only one of them is found in the proteins of the body's cells.

The other appears very rarely in nature, a phenomenon known as "homochirality," explained the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Scientists have long wondered how that process occurs, and the discoveries of the two Nobel laureates have made it possible to "trigger chemical reactions that lead to homochirality," the jury noted.

Asymmetry can have enormous consequences, as in the case of thalidomide, a drug against nausea prescribed starting in 1956, which was effective when manufactured in its left form and toxic in the right.

It was widely used throughout the world, with terrible effects on the embryo, before being withdrawn from the market in 1961.

Henri Kagan has studied chirality since the 1980s.

The Frenchman discovered how to manipulate chemical reactions to, for example, create an "excess" of the "right" or "left" version of molecules.

His discovery was revolutionary for chemists who develop reactions used in the manufacture of medicines, aromas, perfumes and new materials.

Kenso Soai developed the first chemical reaction in which only one of the two forms was formed.

A Solution to a Mystery

"Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery dating back more than a century: how homochirality can arise spontaneously. The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular," said Heiner Linke, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Studies related to this concept were already awarded the Nobel in 2001.

But Professor Kagan did not receive it, considered, both in France and in the rest of the world, as the "father" of this technique. This provoked protests at the time from the French Ministry of Research.

Henri Kagan, 95, is a professor emeritus at the University of Paris-Saclay and, for the moment, the Nobel committee has not been able to contact him.

"A great pride for the country!" applauded French President Emmanuel Macron on the social network X.

Kenso Soai, 76, teaches at the Tokyo University of Science. He was doing his shopping, near his home, when he was informed of the good news.

"The Most Incredible Day"

"It is the most incredible day of my life," declared the laureate, contacted by telephone by the Nobel Foundation.

"I think our prize should lead people to recognize the importance of the chirality of molecules. I am particularly happy in that sense," he added.

The Nobel consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a check worth 12 million Swedish crowns, equivalent to a little more than one million dollars.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is the third prize after those in Medicine and Physics, which were awarded on Monday and Tuesday.

On Thursday it is the turn of literature.

Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai was awarded last year and several experts consulted by AFP expect that, on this occasion, the prize will go to a non-European woman writer.

Perhaps American of Antiguan and Barbudan origin Jamaica Kincaid, known above all for her novel "Lucy," China's Can Xue, Argentina's Samanta Schweblin or Mexico's Cristina Rivera Garza.

The big day will be Friday, when the Nobel Peace Prize is announced.

The chances of Donald Trump receiving it are practically nil, but the U.S. president will once again be on everyone's lips because of the unprecedented campaign he carried out in favor of his candidacy last year.

For another year, the committee knows it is in the spotlight after the controversy sparked by last year's winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who gave Trump her medal.

The Economics prize will close the Nobel season on October 12.

Authorities in the state of Pennsylvania, in the eastern United States, confirmed Wednesday a fifth death related to measles, the most recent in an outbreak that has reached a level never seen in the country in 35 years.

The deceased person was not vaccinated against this serious and contagious disease and lived in Lancaster County, the local Department of Health indicated, without giving further details.

This county is especially known for housing a large Amish population, whose vaccination rates are lower than those of the rest of the population.

Measles had been eradicated from the United States in 2000 thanks to vaccination, but for several years it has experienced a strong resurgence in the country.

In recent times, vaccination rates have declined and distrust toward health authorities has been increasing, something for which Donald Trump's Health Secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr., is blamed.

Known for his skeptical positions regarding immunization, the official has repeatedly spread false information about the measles vaccine and has minimized the risk of the disease. He has also questioned the attribution of some recent deaths to the disease.

Pennsylvania health authorities have reported four deaths associated with measles since August: two of babies too young to be vaccinated, another of an 18-year-old person and the most recent of a 40-year-old woman, according to information from local forensic doctors.

Since the beginning of 2026, more than 3,650 confirmed cases of this disease have been recorded in the United States, of which more than 900 correspond to Pennsylvania, a level never seen since 1991.

Measles causes fever, respiratory symptoms and skin rashes, and in some cases more serious complications, such as pneumonia and inflammation of the brain, which can cause serious aftereffects and even death.

Before the development of the vaccine in the early 1960s, measles killed hundreds of children in the United States annually.

The movement began last week in the Paris region and spread rapidly nationwide among high school students, the final stage of secondary education before university.

In their protests, students blocked access to their schools and at times engaged in clashes with police that produced images of burning barricades and charred vehicles.

The demonstrators complain of excessively long schedules, inadequate classroom conditions (too hot in summer, for example), and excessive absences of teaching staff.

The government of center-right President Emmanuel Macron maintains that the movement's grievances are legitimate, but the violence is not.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray stated that "the high school movement is being hijacked by ultra-violent marginal groups."

According to him, the government expects about 400 of the country's 3,700 high schools to remain closed this Friday.

Many schools will hold classes remotely, especially in the southern city of Marseille, France's second most populous, where protests on Thursday caused the interruption of bus, tram, and coach services.

At least 65 staff members have been injured by the protests, including 40 high school principals, since the movement began, the minister told BFMTV.

"Parents must step forward and clearly tell their children not to go" to the demonstrations, he demanded.

"What matters now is making sure our children are no longer in the street, because they are in danger," he insisted.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin stated that he has asked prosecutors to hold parents responsible for the damage caused by their children during the demonstrations and to "pay for the repairs."

"Since the start of the movement, some 2,000 people have been detained by police," of whom "90% were minors," he told RTL radio.

A Venezuelan citizen wounded by gunfire from an immigration agent in Texas was charged by the federal government with assault and other criminal counts, which could carry up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice reported Tuesday.

The incident adds to other recent cases recorded during immigration operations promoted by Republican President Donald Trump, criticized by Democratic legislators and humanitarian organizations for the use of force.

Wilber Garcés, 28, who remains detained and still has a bullet lodged near his spine, appeared Tuesday before a federal court in Texas, where he was charged with assault, resisting, obstructing and hindering an authority.

According to court documents, on September 20, agents of the Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Garcés after an immigration judge issued a final deportation order against him.

Garcés was driving his vehicle while working as a delivery driver. According to the complaint, during the detention he handed his driver's license to the agents, who asked him to park and get out of the vehicle, orders he allegedly ignored.

According to his accusers, Garcés resumed driving and hit one of the agents with his rearview mirror. The agents caught up with him and one of them, identified by the initials L.G., claimed that Garcés tried to run him over with his vehicle, so he fired his weapon.

ICE and the Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are investigating the case.

Local authorities, humanitarian organizations and Democratic Party congressmembers have called for an independent investigation.

"If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in federal prison," the Department of Justice detailed.

Garcés remains held in a migrant center in Texas. In a telephone communication with the press, he stated that he asked the ICE agents to allow him to park his car in a safe place before surrendering. According to his account, he tried to move to do so, but the agents prevented him, hit his vehicle and then he was shot.

"He still has the bullet lodged in his body, a fractured collarbone and reduced mobility. We are worried that he could develop sepsis and suffer permanent damage if he is not operated on soon," his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said Sunday.

Garcés's defense has filed a habeas corpus petition and is asking that he be released and taken to a hospital.

A Mexican man, Lorenzo Salgado, died in July after an ICE agent shot him in Houston, Texas, where he had lived for more than 30 years and had three American children.

A loosely structured movement of ultranationalist Israeli settlers, mostly young and also made up of school dropouts from outside the West Bank, known as the "Hilltop Youth," is behind the rise in violence against Palestinians.

Inspired by a religious-nationalist ideology, the movement seeks to expand the Jewish presence in Palestinian territory through the creation of unauthorized outposts, generally tents or mobile homes installed on hills located outside already established settlements.

Although groups of Israelis living outside the settlement network in the West Bank have existed since the 1990s, the new generation has an agenda to seize Palestinian land through violence, said Dvir Warshavsky, of Children of Abraham, an organization of practicing Jews that supports the rights of Palestinians.

In the early hours of Tuesday, more than 100 Israeli settlers attacked the village of Jalud and wounded three members of the Israeli security forces, who were escorting a Palestinian family back to their home after having been displaced by settler attacks.

The worsening violence, including attacks against mosques and churches, had already led countries such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to impose sanctions on products from the settlements, which provoked Israel's outrage.

"A Handful of Juvenile Delinquents"

A post recently circulated on a WhatsApp channel linked to the movement and consulted by AFP stated that, in the last 12 months, the Hilltop Youth carried out 635 attacks in 158 Palestinian villages, leaving 409 Palestinians wounded and 436 vehicles burned. AFP was unable to independently verify those figures.

Those responsible for this type of violence are rarely prosecuted by the Israeli authorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking last week before the UN General Assembly, downplayed settler attacks and attributed them to "a handful of juvenile delinquents, about 150 in total," while accusing the rest of the world of ignoring violence committed by Palestinians.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 settlers live in that territory, where some three million Palestinians reside.

Around 140 settlements are recognized by the Israeli government, although international law considers them illegal.

However, farms and outposts that are also illegal under Israeli law now number around 400, according to the organization Peace Now.

A Well-Defined Strategy

Israeli human rights experts who have followed the Hilltop Youth for years say the movement gained momentum after Israel dismantled 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip and four others in the West Bank as part of its unilateral withdrawal in 2005.

The inability of the old guard of the settler movement to prevent thousands of Israelis from losing their homes during those forced evacuations, combined with resentment toward the central government, opened a new stage.

Thus emerged more ideologized settlers, who questioned "the traditional strategy of the settler movement, whose logic consisted of building more and more settlements with more and more population," according to Warshavsky.

The "new generation" focused on creating small illegal outposts and agricultural projects without permits from the Israeli authorities, a strategy known as "minimum population in maximum territory."

Herding flocks of sheep and goats has allowed them to significantly expand control over rural areas that are under Israeli military authority.

With the rise of politicians who represent their ideology, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, these communities have received growing legitimization and financial support, part of which has been channeled toward illegal farms and outposts, according to experts.

The government cannot make direct transfers due to their illegal status, explained Hagit Ofran, of Peace Now. But "it finances everything else": roads, surveillance vehicles, security cameras, solar panels and drones, in addition to Israeli army protection, she added.

Some settler leaders, however, have tried to distance themselves from the movement.

Late last year, the heads of three Israeli local councils in the West Bank issued a joint statement calling on law enforcement to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy toward the Hilltop Youth and stated that these groups "do not represent" the settler movement as a whole.