The Field is an independent accountability-journalism site covering every region of the world. Pieces under this byline are news reports and status updates compiled from published reporting and official statements, checked and edited by The Field's editor, Ismail Abukar.
Bougainvilleans voted 97.7 percent for independence in 2019. Papua New Guinea's parliament is now deciding what to do with the result, under a three-quarters majority rule that Bougainville says was never agreed. Sources in both capitals expect a no, and the real question is what happens next.
Lula finished second in the first round, trailed in most runoff polls and governs an economy many voters call worse. He still won with about 51.8 percent, and Flávio Bolsonaro refused to concede, citing a two-hour extension of voting. The vote counts show about 4.7 million more valid votes than in round one, and Lula gained almost three times as many votes as Flávio, which makes the win larger than the polls and more fragile than the margin.
A federal appeals panel looked sceptical on Sunday of the Justice Department's demand that California stop counting ballots from 20,000 people it calls likely noncitizens. The government may well lose. The risk is in what the effort does to officials, voters and public trust before it does.
On October 3 Al-Shabaab announced a pact with Hawadle elders at Mahaas. No Hawadle signatory has been named, the federal government has not answered, and on October 8 residents and Al-Shabaab fighters were shooting at each other in Tardo. Part 1 of 2: what was announced, what the text says, and what no one has confirmed.
The land was already Al-Shabaab's before October 3. What the pact buys is the stand-down of the clan militia that helped drive it out of Hiiraan in 2022, and a template for other clans. Part 2 of 2: why the Hawadle would sign, what Al-Shabaab gains, what Mogadishu loses, and what would settle it.
The ruling party's candidate won the state presidency on October 24, as in Galmudug. The Supreme Court had certified the House results, and no challenge was filed. The Hawadle grievances that dominated the buildup are unresolved.
Weeks before Israel votes, the Supreme Court kept two Arab lists on the ballot after parties from both camps moved to bar them. Polls give neither side 61 seats without them, so the real question is whether the winner admits the need before the count or after.
Italy and Spain agreed this week to end the border checks that followed the mass crossing into Ceuta. The ministry's own numbers for the first month show checks on hundreds of thousands of passengers and reported nothing connected to the event that justified them. Brussels is now building an emergency framework without, as far as we found, saying how such measures should be judged.
A town hall burned in Limoges on October 17. A week later the state had 70,000 officers out and far fewer incidents. The reasons people marched, prices and a budget of cuts, are still before an Assembly that rejected one budget 115 to 1 on Friday and votes on the next on November 3.
A man who, the health ministry says, had lived in Congo for seven years landed in Nairobi on October 3 and was dead by Monday night. Nine people in Kenya have now been infected, two have died, and all belong to a cluster around him. Nobody has explained how he got through screening.
The military said security conditions were not in place for the ousted president to fly home on October 4. A five-year residency rule and a postponed election do the same work by other means, and none of the three has been tested in a court.
A Massachusetts judge ended Clancy's murder trial after a jury reportedly split 11 to 1, then refused to acquit her and refused to look into the holdout juror. On November 2 he hears her claim that a retrial is barred. The law makes that unlikely. The harder question is what a second jury would decide about her mental state.
Tennessee says it followed every step when it gave Christa Pike two doses of pentobarbital and she survived. The protocol it followed has no answer for a failed IV line, allows the commissioner to deviate, and was used a second time by the same physician after the Carruthers attempt in May. A review led by Ed Stanton has no reported deadline.
Kiir ended the power-sharing deal on September 22, then sacked a minister who had survived it. His main rival is on trial in a court that adjourned for lack of generator fuel, the travel of officials is restricted, and the vote is set for December 22.
Of three state presidents Villa Somalia pressed, one fled, one stepped aside after talks, and one agreed to run on the ruling party's ticket. On October 24 that president was re-elected, 81 votes to 13, while his own vice president said the vote did not bind Hiiraan. Galmudug's court case is a checklist, and Hirshabelle's record against it is mixed.
