The November 30 election remains a toss-up, with polls showing a virtual tie among the top three candidates

International News via Reuters:

Hondurans will go to the polls on Sunday to vote in a tightly fought presidential election beset by heated accusations of fraud in one of Latin America’s poorest countries. 

The November 30 election remains a toss-up, with polls showing a virtual tie among the top three candidates: former defense minister Rixi Moncada of the ruling leftist LIBRE party; former Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura of the conservative National Party; and television host Salvador Nasralla of the centrist Liberal Party. 

The Organization of American States and the U.S. State Department have both raised concerns about the electoral process and said they are monitoring it closely.

Moncada often refers to Nasralla and Asfura as “puppets of the oligarchy” while they have labeled her a “communist” and criticized her close ties with Cuba and Venezuela, two countries mired in deep economic and human rights crises.   

Whichever candidate wins a simple majority will govern the country between 2026 and 2030. But with the polls showing the candidates neck and neck, political analysts fear more than one could claim victory.

“(That) could provoke disturbances in the streets, and the institutions that should be calling for certainty, sanity, and prudence aren’t helping with that,” said political analyst Henry Salinas, based in the capital Tegucigalpa.

The presidential candidates have offered few concrete plans to solve the main problems plaguing the country, drug trafficking, corruption and poverty, which affects six out of every 10 Hondurans.

Both Asfura and Nasralla have said they could resume diplomatic relations with Taiwan, which the government severed in March 2023. The move would represent the biggest diplomatic setback in the region for China in decades. 

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Honduras said in a statement on X last week that Taiwan is an “inalienable part” of China’s territory. He urged Honduran politicians to act “prudently” on the Taiwan issue and “not to infringe upon China’s sovereignty in any way.”

INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION

Honduras, with a population of 11 million people, has a long history of corruption and election-related disputes.

In 2009, then-president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup. Zelaya is the husband of Honduras’ current president, Xiomara Castro, whose rise to power in 2022 marked the end of more than a hundred years of two-party dominance in Honduras.

Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez of the National Party, who served two consecutive terms from 2014 to 2022, is currently imprisoned in the U.S. on a drug trafficking conviction. 

Tensions have risen in Honduras in recent weeks, matched by growing international scrutiny of the election. 

In addition to the president, voters will elect all 128 members of Congress and thousands of local officials. 

On November 11, the OAS expressed concern about the electoral process, stating that it is the responsibility of Honduran authorities to guarantee the autonomy and independence of election officials. 

A day later, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau warned on X that the U.S. is “closely monitoring the situation” and called on “electoral authorities and the military to adhere scrupulously and faithfully to the laws and Constitution of Honduras.” 

Landau said the U.S. would “respond swiftly and decisively to anyone who undermines the integrity of the democratic process.” 

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been explicit about its desire to exert greater influence in the Western Hemisphere, including threatening military action in Venezuela and Mexico.

VOLATILITY AT HOME   

The declarations about Honduras come amid weeks of volatility in the Central American country.

Honduras’ Attorney General’s Office, aligned with the ruling LIBRE party, has accused the opposition parties of planning to commit voter fraud, a claim they deny. They counter that LIBRE is trying to manipulate the popular will. 

Prosecutors also opened an investigation into audio recordings that allegedly show a high-ranking National Party politician discussing plans with an unidentified military officer to influence the election. The alleged recordings, which the National Party says were created using artificial intelligence, have become central to Moncada’s campaign.      

“If they try to touch us or commit fraud, they will see us erupt like the biggest volcano in history,” the leftist candidate said during a campaign event in mid-November.

Deepening the electoral crisis, the Armed Forces asked Honduras’ National Election Council to give them copies of the tally sheets on election day, which violates Honduran law. 

Reporting by Diego Oré in Mexico City and Laura García in Tegucigalpa; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Ana Isabel Martínez and Bill Berkrot

He said there was still time, but urged opposition lawmakers not to obstruct the legislation

International News via Reuters:

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu put pressure on lawmakers on Monday to pass the 2026 budget by the end of the year after the deeply divided lower house of parliament rejected the tax side of the legislation.

He said there was still time, but urged opposition lawmakers not to obstruct the legislation, which is due to head to the Senate on Monday after the lower house rejected parts of it on Saturday.

Lecornu’s appeal was the latest chapter in efforts by President Emmanuel Macron’s minority government to pass a budget in a fragmented parliament – where the far right and hard left keenly await any missteps they could use to trigger a vote of no confidence and topple the prime minister.

‘YES WE CAN DO IT’, LECORNU SAYS

“This is an alert for the future… but yes we can do it,” Lecornu said in a televised statement, adding there was still a majority of support in the lower house to pass a budget bill.

Since both chambers must agree for the budget to pass, once the Senate completes its review, a joint committee will attempt to broker a compromise between the two houses before a final vote in the lower house.

Lecornu said he would hold talks with political parties in the coming days and insisted that next year’s budget deficit should be kept to less than 5% of gross domestic product, a looser target than the 4.7% in the draft bill.

The government’s draft budget aimed to rein in the deficit with a fiscal squeeze worth over 30 billion euros, mostly through savings measures but also tax hikes, although Lecornu said from the start that it was clear legislation would be heavily rewritten in parliament because he did not have a majority.

He urged lawmakers to nail down budget savings, which the lower house did not even debate because time ran out before they got to the spending side of the legislation.

The government’s original budget bill is due to go to the Senate on Monday, which means that amendments already passed by the lower house, which include a range of tax hikes, would have to be re-introduced or they will be dropped.

Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Leigh ThomasEditing by Inti Landauro and Frances Kerry

Floodwater waist-high in some areas has impacted 10 provinces in southern Thailand and eight states in  Malaysia

International News via Reuters:

Flooding from days of intense rain has killed at least eight people in southern Thailand and forced thousands into evacuation centres in neighbouring Malaysia, officials said on Monday, as authorities ramped up efforts to provide shelter and aid.      

Floodwater waist-high in some areas has impacted 10 provinces in southern Thailand and eight states in  Malaysia, regions spanning hundreds of kilometres that were last year also hard hit by flooding from a seasonal monsoon that killed at least 12 people.

Thailand’s southern trading hub Hat Yai on Friday suffered its heaviest single-day rainfall in more than 300 years, according to the irrigation department, with weekend television footage showing people wading through brown water in the teeming rain in commercial areas where shops and parked motorcycles were engulfed by water.

Some residents were seen pulling children along in plastic boxes turned into makeshift boats, while in the city’s outskirts, parked trucks and buses formed long lines along the few dry roads available as other vehicles inched slowly through water. 

HUNDREDS OF VEHICLES AND BOATS DEPLOYED 

The eight deaths in Thailand were caused mainly by electrocution and other flood-related accidents, according to authorities. 

Thailand has mobilised hundreds of boats and high-clearance vehicles to deliver aid, the disaster agency said, with at least 700,000 households impacted since last week.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered more water pumping machines to be deployed and said assistance must be adequate, comprehensive, and timely, according to a government statement.    

In neighbouring Malaysia, more than 15,000 people were in shelters, according to Social Welfare Department data, among 90 evacuation centres set up. No deaths have been reported so far in Malaysia.

Its Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said civil defence teams were on standby and more than 90 land and water assets mobilised, including lorries, four-wheeled-drive vehicles and water-rescue equipment.   

“I pray and hope that this incident will not cause extensive damage and that all victims remain strong and patient,” he said in an X post. 

CENTRAL VIETNAM FLOODS EASE AFTER KILLING 91

Water levels have started to recede in central Vietnam after weeklong flooding and landslides that killed 91 people and caused infrastructure damage that left 1.1 million households and businesses without power, the government said on Monday.

Initial property damage was estimated at 13 trillion dong ($493 million), it said, adding that it has disbursed cash aid and 4,000 tons of rice to flood victims.  

More than 200,000 houses, 200,000 hectares (494,211 acres) of crops, and 1,157 hectares of fish farms were inundated in Vietnam.

The floods submerged several coffee farms in the central highlands – an area highly prone to storms and flooding – hampering the harvest in the region.  

($1 = 26,369.0000 dong)

Reporting by Danial Azhar in Kuala Lumpur, Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bangkok and Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Editing by David Stanway, Martin Petty

From December 10, Australia will become the world’s first country to bar people aged 16 years and under from using social media

International News via Reuters:

Australia’s internet watchdog on Friday said it would include Amazon.com-owned live streaming service Twitch in its upcoming teen social media ban, but will not add image-sharing platform Pinterest to the list.

From December 10, Australia will become the world’s first country to bar people aged 16 years and under from using social media, with penalties up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply.* The eSafety Commissioner said Twitch qualifies as a socialmedia service because it is primarily used for livestreaming andposting interactive content that allows users – includingchildren – to communicate with others. * Twitch plans to deactivate all user accounts for peopleaged 16 and under from January 9, and will bar new under-ageusers from creating accounts once the ban comes into force nextmonth. * Pinterest, however, will not be added to the list. TheeSafety Commissioner said that while it allows some onlinesocial interaction, that is not its main purpose, noting that itis used for collecting images and curating ideas. * Earlier this month, the commissioner expanded the ban toadd Reddit and video live streaming platform Kick. Major firmsalready covered include Meta Platforms’ Facebook and Instagram,Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, and Alphabet-owned YouTube. * No further assessments will be conducted before the rulestake effect on December 10, the commissioner said.

($1 = 1.5494 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus