Hurricane Rachel strengthens to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast

Speculation that Flávio Bolsonaro will try to strip Our Lady of Aparecida of position could become deciding factor in run-up to Sunday A row of Biblical proportions has erupted in the run-up to Brazil’s presidential election, with the country’s patron saint, Our Lady of Aparecida, emerging as an unlikely kingmaker in the deadlocked race. Ahead of Sunday’s vote, the two frontrunners – the leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his far-right challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro – are level in the polls.

President Lee Jae Myung also accused Kyiv of "attempting to provoke a war on the Korean Peninsula".

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis struck an electricity distribution station supplying the Prophet’s Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Medina, the Saudi-led coalition said Thursday, drawing condemnation across the Muslim world. The Houthis denied involvement in the drone attack, which came as fighting intensified between government forces and rebels in Yemen.

Saleem Alzaq, a 45-year-old Gaza man who prosecutors allege is a longtime Hamas member, was charged with helping operate the fundraising campaign claiming to provide humanitarian aid, according to an indictment.