Monday’s issue of The Cross Check Daily puts six lead stories side by side across Fox News, Al Jazeera, Breitbart and other outlets. Each story shows what everyone agrees on and where the framing differs, followed by a markets snapshot, a research-backed health tip and a trivia question.
Lula narrowly beats Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential runoff for a fourth term
Agree: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva narrowly beat Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday, winning a fourth term after a Supreme Court justice ordered a last-minute, nationwide two-hour extension of voting. (Fox News)
Spin check: The Statesman gives the electoral court tally as 51.78% for Lula and 48.22% for Bolsonaro with nearly all votes counted, a 3.56-point margin, and notes Lula is the first candidate since 1989 to win a runoff after trailing in round one (47.03% to 45.16%). The Jerusalem Post, carrying Reuters, leads with Bolsonaro saying he will not accept the defeat and will seek to annul the runoff, citing Justice Cristiano Zanin’s voting extension, which he called “unacceptable”; the report offers no evidence for annulment. Fox News says Lula asked for the extension because buses were not running, and that the Bolsonaro camp could challenge it in court. Framing difference: Fox News, citing AP, frames the result as a roadblock to a conservative wave in Latin America, The Statesman as a personal comeback, and the Reuters report as a story about a refusal to concede.
Trump says he must decide whether to “finish it off” with Iran or make a deal
Agree: Trump told Fox News on Sunday, “I have a decision to make: Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal?” on Iran; he later said there would be no strike that day, and he has said he will not strike before the Nov. 3 midterms. (The National)
Spin check: Breitbart, citing The Hill and The New York Times, says Central Command has prepared strike options that could extend to energy infrastructure and the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear complex, none yet approved, and relays a DNI memo warning Iranian plots against Americans are in “advanced stages.” It also reports Iran’s parliament speaker vowed a response “beyond the enemy’s imagination.” Bloomberg via The Spokesman-Review reports a third US carrier group is heading to the Gulf and staffing is being cut in parts of the region, and its report contains no statement from Iranian officials. The National adds that CENTCOM’s Adm. Brad Cooper visited the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. Framing difference: Breitbart’s headline casts the choice as a binary (“finish them off”), while The National and Bloomberg stress that a negotiated deal is seen as the most likely way the conflict ends.
The Justice Department sues to keep Alaska from certifying a Senate result if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses narrowly
Agree: The Justice Department sued in federal court to ask that Alaska not certify its US Senate result if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses by fewer votes than a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., receives, arguing the similar names could confuse voters; Democrat Mary Peltola is his challenger, and Trump has acknowledged directing the filing. (Al Jazeera)
Spin check: Al Jazeera quotes Notre Dame election law professor Derek Muller calling the legal argument “so absurdly thin” it has “essentially no likelihood of success,” while Alaska political scientist Forrest Nabors says federal intervention is “not unreasonable in principle.” It adds that the DOJ cannot itself halt certification, that no federal court has suspended it, and that state courts let the second Sullivan stay on the ballot with no party label. The Fox News live blog describes the suit as seeking to block certification “if Sullivan loses” and notes Alaska courts previously rejected removing him from the ballot; it does not carry the legal experts’ criticism as we read it. The administration says the aim is preventing voter confusion. Framing difference: Al Jazeera foregrounds experts who doubt the suit has legal merit; the Fox live blog presents the DOJ’s confusion rationale and the ballot history.
Saudi Arabia says it intercepted Houthi missiles as Brent crude settles at $116.72
Agree: Saudi Arabia says it intercepted a Houthi ballistic missile fired at Riyadh on Sunday, plus 10 more ballistic missiles aimed at the south; debris from two missiles over Khamis Mushait and Ahad Rafidah injured two people, and Brent crude settled Friday at $116.72, its highest settlement since April. (Al Jazeera)
Spin check: Al Jazeera reports Saudi Civil Defence responded to falling debris in the Mecca and Medina regions after intercepting two missiles on Saturday, while the Houthis deny targeting either city and call the Saudi claim a “huge lie.” It also says Riyadh’s King Khalid airport reopened two terminals after the Oct. 10 attack that killed 13 and wounded more than 300. Reuters via Euronext ties Friday’s $3.55 (3.14%) jump in Brent to the Houthi attacks, an oil spill off the UAE, tanker attacks near Hormuz and a Libyan pipeline outage, and says Brent rose 6% on the week. The National reports US government employees in Saudi Arabia now need special authorization to use any airport in the country. Factual disagreement: Mecca and Medina: Saudi Civil Defence says it handled debris in both regions after intercepting two Houthi missiles, while the Houthis deny targeting either city. We report both statements and have not confirmed either.
Trump rallies in Michigan, and fact-checks push back on his claims about Abdul El-Sayed
Agree: Trump held a Sunday rally in Port Huron, Michigan, for Senate candidate Mike Rogers and governor candidate John James, and repeated a pledge to send every American $5,000 if Republicans keep both chambers; Obama campaigned in Detroit on Saturday for Democrats Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson. (Fox News)
Spin check: Bridge Michigan fact-checks the speech: the $5,000 checks would cost over $1 trillion and face skepticism from some congressional Republicans, Michigan gas averages about $4.83 a gallon against a $4.28 national average, and Trump’s claim of fraud by Benson has no evidence behind it. Al Jazeera reports Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist” and a Muslim Brotherhood member, and says there is no evidence he was ever part of any foreign organization. Fox’s live blog relays the “jihadist” remark and Rogers’ attacks on El-Sayed, and, as we read it, carries no rebuttal. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in each chamber to flip control (Republicans hold the Senate 53-47 and the House 218-214, per Reuters). Factual disagreement: Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist” tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Bridge Michigan and Al Jazeera say there is no evidence of that, and Bridge notes El-Sayed has disavowed the group. We treat the claim as unsupported by evidence in what we read.
Israel votes Tuesday with final polls pointing to deadlock
Agree: Israel votes Tuesday for all 120 Knesset seats, the first election since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, with recent polls pointing to deadlock and a majority needing 61 seats. (Al Jazeera)
Spin check: Al Jazeera reports recent polls put the opposition bloc at 52 seats and Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist alliance at 50, with the Joint List and Ra’am at about 13 combined, and lists eight possible outcomes, including a unity government or a fresh election. i24NEWS reports two final polls: Direct Polls gives Netanyahu’s bloc 59, Eisenkot’s 47 and the Arab parties 14, while Kan gives 50, 52 and 14. Neither bloc reaches 61 in either poll, and Kan found 36% of voters undecided. Factual disagreement: The polls disagree on how close Netanyahu’s bloc is to a majority: 59 seats in the Direct Polls survey for i24NEWS versus 50 in Kan’s. We report both and treat the race as too close to call.
Markets snapshot: stocks slip as Brent crude climbs to $116.72
- S&P 500: 7,623.68 (-0.52%)
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 52,215.16 (-1.23%)
- Nasdaq Composite: 25,955.34 (-0.21%)
- Brent crude oil: $116.72 (+3.14%)
Index figures are Friday, October 23 closes from an AP market report (AP via Yahoo Finance); AP rounds the changes to -0.5%, -1.2% and -0.2%, and the two-decimal changes shown here are from the same closing levels as reported by Reuters via Central Oregon Daily. Brent’s $116.72 settle, up $3.55, is from Reuters via Euronext. Stocks fell as AI-financing worries lingered after Thursday’s big Nasdaq drop (its worst day since June): AT&T and T-Mobile each fell nearly 8% on a report that SpaceX is seeking cell sites for a fourth carrier, American Express fell 3.7% despite a raised profit forecast, and consumer staples, discretionary and financial stocks each lost more than 1%, while energy rose about 2.5% to a record. For the week the S&P 500 fell 0.5%, the Nasdaq 0.7% and the Dow rose 0.4%. AP puts the Russell 2000 at 2,775.90, down 0.3%. Consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan edged down near a record low. This week brings Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon earnings and a Fed policy statement on Wednesday.
Health & Longevity: Regular sleep schedule and mortality risk
The finding: In about 61,000 UK adults who wore a wrist accelerometer for a week, people with the most regular sleep schedules had a lower risk of death over up to 7.8 years than the least regular fifth: 20% to 48% lower for all-cause mortality, 16% to 39% lower for cancer, and 22% to 57% lower for cardiometabolic causes. Sleep regularity predicted all-cause mortality more strongly than sleep duration did.
The source: Windred et al., Sleep, 2023: a prospective cohort study of 60,977 UK Biobank participants (mean age 62.8) with 1,859 deaths.
Do this today: Pick a wake-up time you can keep, and aim to go to bed and get up within a narrow window of the same times every day, weekends included.
Worth knowing: This is an observational study, so it cannot show that a steady schedule causes longer life; people in poor health or with irregular work or caregiving hours may sleep less regularly for those reasons. Sleep was measured for one week in middle-aged and older adults, and the risk ranges compare each of the four more regular groups with the least regular group, not a single cutoff. This newsletter isn’t written by a medical professional and isn’t a substitute for advice from your doctor, so talk to your doctor if you work night shifts or have a sleep problem.
World Trivia
Brent crude, the oil benchmark in today’s markets, takes its name from a North Sea oilfield that Shell discovered in 1971. What is that field named after: a Scottish river, a seabird, or a Shell executive?
Reveal the answer
A seabird, the brent goose. According to Wikipedia, Shell named its UK North Sea fields after seabirds, and others include Auk, Cormorant, Dunlin and Eider.
Edited and published by Randy Wardle. Get The Cross Check Daily free every morning, or follow @GetCrossCheck on X. See the full archive of past issues and our corrections policy.
