BRAZIL - Far-right lawmaker Jair Bolsonaro won Brazil's presidential election on Sunday, riding a wave of frustration over corruption and crime that brought a dramatic swing to the right in the world's fourth-largest democracy. With 94 percent of ballots counted, Bolsonaro had 56 percent of the votes in the run-off election against left-wing hopeful Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT), who had 44 percent, according to the electoral authority TSE. "We cannot continue flirting with communism ... We are going to change the destiny of Brazil," Bolsonaro said in an acceptance address in which he vowed to carry out his campaign promises to stamp out corruption after years of leftist rule. The 63-year-old seven-term congressman has vowed to crack down on crime in Brazil's cities and farm belt by granting police more autonomy to shoot at criminals. He also wants to let more Brazilians buy weapons to fight crime.

USA - Stocks around the globe rose in the wake of the election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announcing she would step down as leader of her party. Brazilian stocks soared on Monday morning, pushing its benchmark Bovespa stock index up 3.1 percent to a record high. Stocks retreated later in the day, as investors booked profits from the run up in stocks that seen the iShares MSCI Brazil ETF rise more than 18 percent this month. Germany’s DAX 30 had its best daily gain in nearly two months, rising 1.2 percent. Italy’s FTSE MIB Italy index rose 1.95%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 1.3 percent. Political change is sweeping the globe and stock investors appear to like what they see.

VATICAN - Pope Francis said Saturday that recent accusations leveled against him for allegedly mishandling the case of serial homosexual abuser Cardinal Theodore McCarrick are really an attack against the Church itself. In his final address to the synod of bishops — which he delivered off the cuff — the pope said that while the sons and daughters of the Church are all sinners, the Church herself is holy. “Because of our sins, the great accuser takes advantage and roams about seeking someone to accuse, as we read in the first chapter of Job,” Francis said, apparently referring to the devil as well as those who play into his hands. “Right now, he is accusing us forcefully, and this accusation becomes persecution as well,” he said

GERMANY - Germany has been trying to bring the navies of NATO and EU countries on the Baltic closer together since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, starting with regular meetings of fleet commanders the following year. It is also building a new naval command center in Rostock designed to house a permanent staff of international officers. In times of crisis, this will be able to lead NATO or EU operations in the Baltic from 2023. Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said last month that as the biggest NATO and EU country on the Baltic, Germany must “take more responsibility for the region” - a sign it is slowly shedding its post-World War Two reluctance to take the military lead. Other Western countries welcome the German initiative. “We are very happy that Germany has taken the lead in that sense,” Finnish navy chief Admiral Veijo Taipalus said.

GERMANY - The Eurosceptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has gained seats in Hesse and now holds parliamentary seats in every single German state, according to exit polls. Meanwhile, Merkel's CDU has seen party support plummet. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered an electoral shock, winning only 28 percent. The results were quite a disappointment for the CDU candidate and Minister-President of Hesse, Volker Bouffier, a Merkel man who has stuck with her through thick and thin.

EUROPE - Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz are doing their best to distance themselves from the row over Italy’s debt. Ms Merkel recently pointed out that it was up to the European Commission to handle the matter because it was responsible for monitoring Italy’s budget plans. And Mr Scholz stressed that no one could relieve Italy of its debt burden and one shouldn’t pretend this was a European problem. But that’s precisely what this willful breach of the rules by the coalition of League and Five Star Movement amounts to: an inherently European problem. Rome’s populists are seeking a confrontation with the weakened EU which has nothing to gain from the row. The Italian government’s conduct is weakening an already weak EU. Worse, it’s thwarting every attempt to strengthen the bloc.

USA - US President Donald Trump said he will travel to Pittsburgh, where a gunman with an AR-15 rifle went on a rampage inside a synagogue on Saturday. Trump has denied any link to the attack, saying the man was not his supporter. Speaking to reporters ahead his scheduled rally in Illinois, the president confirmed that at least 11 people were killed as 46-year-old Robert Bowers opened fire on worshipers inside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh during a Saturday service. Three or four police officers were injured in a stand-off with the attacker. At the rally, Trump called the carnage "a monstrous killing" and thanked the officers for apprehending the suspect. "When you have crimes like this, we'll have to bring back the death penalty. They have to pay the ultimate price," he said.

EUROPE - The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that an Austrian lecturer is guilty of disparaging Islam, after the woman likened the Prophet Mohammed to a pedophile for marrying a six-year-old girl. The lecturer known only as Mrs E S had already been convicted by an Austrian judge and fined €480 ($548) for her lecture. And now the ECtHR has upheld the ruling. The Strasbourg-based seven-judge panel stated on Thursday that her comparing Prophet Mohammed to a pedophile goes “beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate,” and that the Austrian court was right in “classifying them as an abusive attack which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace.”

MIDDLE EAST - An armed conflict between Riyadh and Tehran would have a major impact on oil markets and the global economy. RT asked experts what a war between the two Middle East superpowers would mean for crude prices. If a conflict happens, oil prices could increase 500 percent. “Energy prices will seriously depend on the severity of the conflict. Let's remember the unrecognized Iraqi Kurdistan, which in a state of continuous war exported about 550,000 barrels per day through Turkey. In this connection, we can expect a panic rise in oil price to $150-$200 on the first day of the conflict… If Saudis and Iran attack each other's oil facilities, crude prices can skyrocket to $300,” Mikhail Mashchenko, an analyst at the eToro social network for investors told RT.

TURKEY - Leaders of Russia, Turkey, Germany and France have gathered in Istanbul to discuss the Syrian peace process. While the outcome of such tricky talks is hard to predict, the new format appears to be, at least, quite refreshing. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Istanbul on Saturday to talk Syrian reconciliation. The host, Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has put high expectations on the gathering. “The whole world is watching this meeting. I hope, that the hopes will be met,” Erdogan said, while opening the summit. The four leaders are also expected to be joined by UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. The four-way summit is an entirely new format of talks on the war-torn country, which has endured years-long conflict.

ISRAEL - Solving the Jerusalem problem, the key to Israeli-Palestinian peace, is not impossible. The answer is two cities, two new names. Despite current tensions in Gaza, first son-in-law Jared Kushner insists that the Deal of the Century — an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement — is on the way. A number of thorny disagreements would need to be resolved if that’s to happen; first and foremost, the status of Jerusalem.

USA - Trump said in September he wants to release his peace plan for the Middle East within the next two to four months. The White House's "peace team," led by Jared Kushner, is in the pre-launch phase of the peace plan. The team is spending a lot of time reaching out to different groups in the USand abroad that are relevant to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Israeli officials said Jason Greenblatt, President Trump's special envoy for Middle East peace, will stay in Israel for almost a week and meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials and politicians. Greenblatt's talks in Israel are expected to deal with not only the upcoming peace plan but also with the situation in Gaza and the ongoing Egyptian- and UN-led efforts to reach a stabilization deal between Israel and Hamas.

USA - President Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron last month that he's ready to put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept his upcoming Middle East peace plan, four Western diplomats briefed on the meeting tell me. Trump specifically mentioned the fact the US gives Israel billions of dollars in aid every year. Why it matters: We haven’t previously heard Trump say anything about his willingness to put pressure on Netanyahu, perhaps his staunchest ally around the world. Three days after the meeting with Macron, which happened on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Trump met with Netanyahu in New York and announced for the first time his support for the two state solution. In the same meeting, Trump said he was planning to present his peace plan in two to four months.

GERMANY - Months of drought have left Germany’s Rhine river at a record low, dealing a blow to the economy… hundreds of containers (are) piled up and awaiting their journey north on one of Europe’s busiest commercial arteries. Months of scarce rainfall and hot sunny weather drove water levels on the Rhine to a record low, forcing ship operators to suspend services to keep vessels from running aground. The few barges still chugging along the river have had to drastically reduce their cargo to stay afloat. “This is the lowest level ever measured here,” said Jan Boehme, a hydrologist with the Water and Shipping Authority. Torrid temperatures throughout the summer and only rare rainfall have transformed Germany’s waterways and created a crisis unseen since the start of record keeping in 1881.

GERMANY - Germany's far right is trying to rehabilitate the German Empire and its role in World War I, resuming a decades-old debate ahead of the centenary of the armistice. The magazine Compact, which is close to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), is publishing a special November issue dedicated to the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which held the Reich responsible for the Great War and compelled the country to make colossal reparations. The title recalls the rhetoric used in the 1920s by those nostalgic for Imperial Germany and the Nazis: "The shame of Versailles: how the victorious powers enslaved Germany". Its online story is headlined "Germany in chains". The aim is to reevaluate the German Empire (1871-1918) which for decades has been seen in the collective consciousness as the first of the destructive powers of the 20th century.