SÃO PAULO — Political scientists and institutional-development researchers reported deepening bewilderment on Sunday after Brazil’s first-round presidential election produced yet another setback for the regional left. Right-wing senator Flávio Bolsonaro finished ahead of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, securing roughly 47 percent of the valid vote to Lula’s 45 percent and forcing a runoff on October 25. The Brazilian outcome continues a multi-country pattern that specialists say has accelerated since the quiet termination of certain USAID channels long understood, in academic circles, to have served as a convenient conduit for CIA political-action funding. “Our longitudinal models predicted stable left performance even after the formal program cuts,” said Dr. Helena Voss of the Institute for Transnational Preference Studies. “The observed decline is statistically robust and theoretically awkward.” Voss’s team had anticipated that residual organizational capacity, media infrastructure, and civil-society networks previously supported through USAID vehicles would sustain progressive and communist-aligned candidates. Instead, successive electoral cycles across South America have registered measurable left underperformance once those external flows ceased. In Brazil’s concurrent congressional races, right-leaning parties also expanded their Senate and lower-house footprints, compounding the analytical difficulty. “We controlled for inflation, crime perception, and social-media dynamics,” Voss noted. “The residual electoral shortfall tracks with striking precision to the period after specialized external financing was withdrawn. Correlation remains imperfect, yet the temporal alignment is difficult to ignore.” Working hypotheses under review include the possibility that local voters began applying more conventional cost-benefit assessments once outside resources no longer underwrote campaign machinery, voter-outreach operations, and narrative amplification. A minority position within the research consortium has suggested that earlier CIA-facilitated funding streams routed through USAID had, in fact, played a material role in elevating left and communist-aligned candidates to office. This interpretation has been classified as outside consensus and reserved for further scrutiny. In a late-Sunday statement, the International Association for Inclusive Development characterized the regional pattern as “a transitional data artifact” and urged restoration of flexible, multi-vector democratic-support mechanisms. “Electoral results are lagging indicators,” the association observed. “With appropriately redesigned delivery systems, the underlying progressive trajectory can still be reasserted.” No updated regional forecast has been issued. Researchers stressed that the repeated left defeats should not be construed as evidence against the inherent viability of the political project under examination, but rather as confirmation that more discreet and resilient external engagement architectures remain indispensable. The post Scientists Baffled as to Why the Left Keeps Losing in South America Since the CIA Stopped Funding Their Campaigns Through USAID appeared first on Genesius Times.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron declared war Sunday on the rioters burning and blockading its lycées, then surrendered to them before the communiqué had finished printing. The declaration, issued from the Élysée at 8:14 p.m., described the siege of secondary schools — bins alight, staff injured, two dozen buildings burned or ransacked, several thousand arrested since the start of the week — as “an armed attack on the Republic, conducted partly during third period.” At 8:19 p.m. the same office announced that the Republic had accepted the attackers’ terms, which had not yet been offered. A spokesman called the interval “a full prosecution of the conflict.” President Emmanuel Macron said the decision honored both France’s ancient martial tradition and its more recent tradition in surrendering. “We do not run from a fight,” he said. “We schedule it, arrive early, and hand over the keys shortly thereafter.” The keys in question were to a high school already on fire. Officials said this saved the trouble of unlocking it. The unrest began in the Paris suburbs and spread to Marseille, Lyon, Lille and beyond, with pupils blockading the same institutions they say cannot educate them. Education officials counted hundreds of schools closed or disrupted and 78 staff injured. The Interior Ministry counted nearly 5,000 arrests. The Élysée counted one war, lasting five minutes, with no French military casualties and a ceasefire already in effect. Units still outside the lycées were advised that batons were again “contextually inappropriate,” particularly when the opposing force is of school age and the state has just capitulated. Opposition deputies called the sequence cowardly. The government called it efficient. “Other nations drag these things out for years,” a minister said. “We have compressed declaration, resistance, and capitulation into a single news cycle. The students, meanwhile, have compressed the school day.” By morning the rioters had not formally accepted the surrender, on the ground that they had not known they were an army. The Élysée said recognition was unnecessary. Reconstruction will be discussed once the remaining fuel is gone, and once anyone can agree whether the grievance is the missing teachers or the country that hired them. Macron is expected to address the nation from a balcony. The nearest open school is not. The post BREAKING: Macron declares war on rioters so he can immediately surrender to them 5 minutes later appeared first on Genesius Times.

A.F. Branco Cartoon – A new analysis from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network shows Minnesota had the highest number of subjects per capita identified in bank reports tied to suspected healthcare fraud. BRANCO TOON STORE REPORT: Minnesota ranks No. 1 per capita in subjects tied to reports of suspected healthcare fraud By Jenna Gloeb – AlphaNews.org – Sept. 28, 2026 A new federal report puts Minnesota at the top of a list no state wants to be on: the number of subjects per capita identified in suspected healthcare fraud reports. A new analysis from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, shows Minnesota had the highest number of subjects per capita identified in bank reports tied to suspected healthcare fraud. Nationwide, the report identified approximately $17.5 billion in suspicious activity potentially connected to healthcare fraud. California had the most subjects identified overall, followed by Florida and New York… READ MORE DONATE to A.F. Branco Cartoons – $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, 50.00 – It all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also, Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU! A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions (art and politics) and translated them into cartoons that have been popular all over the country in various news outlets, including NewsMax, Fox News, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Rep. Devin Nunes, Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Chris Salcedo, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, Elon Musk, and President Trump.