RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) – Brazil’s polarizing presidential campaign wrapped up Saturday as incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held rival rallies within spitting distance of each other.  In Sunday’s election, Bolsonaro, the 67-year-old far-right president known for his gloves-off style, is planning to lead one of his trademark motorcycle rallies from the north side of Sao Paulo to the city’s Ibirapuera park. Around five kilometers from there, Lula, the 76-year-old leftist who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, holds his own final rally on the economic capital’s main avenue, Avenida Paulista. With the country deeply divided, tension is running high heading into the election, which Lula is gunning to win outright, without the need for a runoff on October 30. A poll from the Datafolha institute released Thursday put the charismatic but tarnished leftist on the cusp of a first-round win, with 50 percent of valid votes, to 36 percent for Bolsonaro. To win outright, he would need 50 percent plus one vote. The margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points. Bolsonaro has repeatedly signaled he could challenge the result if he loses, saying “only God” can remove him from office and alleging, without evidence, rampant fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting system. Lula said Friday he feared the incumbent would create “turmoil” if he lost.

 

***

BEIJING (Xinhua) – A Chinese mainland spokesperson has urged the United States to handle affairs related to Taiwan cautiously and stop supporting Taiwan in a bid to contain China. Zhu Fenglian, the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson, made the statement in response to the remarks made by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in her recent visits to Japan and the Republic of Korea, Xinhua news agency reported. “There is only one China, and Taiwan is part of it. Since the Taiwan question is China’s domestic affair, foreign interference will not be tolerated,” Zhu said. She urged the United States to uphold the one-China principle and abide by the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiqués. She warned Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party authority that its attempts to look for U.S. support for their “independence” agenda would not succeed.

 

***

MOSCWO (Sputnik) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping on China’s National Day, saying Beijing and Moscow will develop all-round partnership despite the complicated international situation in different areas, the Kremlin said on Saturday.  “Russian-Chinese relations are developing dynamically in the spirit of all-round partnership and strategic interaction. Despite the complicated international situation, we are cooperating successfully in the most diverse areas, pooling our efforts to build a more democratic and equitable world order and to counter modern threats and challenges,” the statement read. Putin reaffirmed Moscow’s readiness to continue the bilateral dialogue and close joint work with Beijing for the benefit of the friendly nations of Russia and China, the statement also said. The Russian president wished good health, prosperity and success in holding the upcoming 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Earlier, Putin held talks with Xi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

 

  ***

JAKARTA (AFP) – A strong and shallow earthquake shook Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Saturday, killing a resident, injuring 11 and damaging more than a dozen houses and buildings, police said. The magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck about 40 kilometers (24.8 miles) northeast of Sibolga, a coastal city in North Sumatra province, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was 13 kilometers (8 miles) deep. The pre-dawn earthquake was followed by two 5.0 magnitude aftershocks. A 62-year-old man died of a heart attack while fleeing to safety in Tarutung village, which is closest to the epicenter, said local police chief Johanson Sianturi. Eleven people have been injured and at least 15 houses and buildings damaged in the village, he said. Authorities were still investigating the full extent of the damage.

 

***

NEW YORK (Al Jazeera) – The ruptures on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system under the Baltic Sea have led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said. A huge plume of highly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, was detected in an analysis this week of satellite imagery by researchers associated with the UNEP’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, or IMEO, the organization said. “This is really bad, most likely the largest emission event ever detected,” Manfredi Caltagirone, head of the IMEO for UNEP, told Reuters. “This is not helpful in a moment when we absolutely need to reduce emissions.” Researchers at GHGSat, which uses satellites to monitor methane emissions, estimated the leak rate from one of four rupture points was 22,920kg (around 50,000 lbs) per hour. That is equivalent to burning about 630,000 pounds (around 286,000kg) of coal every hour, GHGSat said in a statement. “This rate is very high, especially considering it’s four days following the initial breach,” the company said. The IMEO tweeted on Saturday that new data appears to indicate that the leakage of methane appears to be diminishing. “New analysis of data provided by the satellite Sentinel2 today indicates a significant reduction in the estimated diameter of the methane plume – from 520m to 290m. A similar reduction is also observed in the estimated concentration of methane leaked in the pipeline rupture,” the IMEO said.