It is clear that the 🇷🇸Serbian leader of 14 years Aleksandar Vučić and his populist political forces lost the election. But who did win? The “Student List” (Students’ List), a grassroots student-led protest movement, will form the new government of Serbia after securing an absolute majority in the 25 October 2026 snap parliamentary election. The Student List (SL) has reportedly won 140 seats in the 250-seat National Assembly (52.6% of the vote), well clear of the 126-seat requirement for a majority. The Vučić Bloc (SNS) is projected to have won up to 105 seats (39.22% of the vote). Student-backed figures likely for a Prime Minister role include a physician Ilija Srdanović and economics professor Dejan Šoškić. The presidency is temporarily held by Ana Brnabić. An extraordinary presidential election must be called to replace him. A chemistry professor Radomir Saičić is the frontrunner. What is going to be the new Serbian government’s agenda remains a big question, as the students’ generic grievances against the corruption or lack of economic growth are not constructive policy directions. So far, the more specific policy trends - already articulated publicly by SL - appear to consolidate a rather pronounced left-wing platform, such as: • focus on more stringent employer restrictions and labour rights; • promotion of public employment; • control of food prices; • afordable housing initiatives. At the same time, some glipmses of competitition-based / market-economy policy suggestions can also be seen in SL public statements, such as: • moving away from large state-backed infrastructure projects that are feeding the nepotism and corruption; • breaking monopolies in retail and some other sectors of the economy. On foreign relations, the SL platform appears either ambiguous, or consistent with the old Vučić policies: • holding referendum on 🇪🇺EU membership; • no sanctions on 🇷🇺Russia; • no military support or arms exports to 🇺🇦Ukraine; • no military cooperation with 🇮🇱Israel. What is the most endemic trait of the Serbian political culture, which the new leadership could try fixing: A) Anti-🇺🇸Americanism / anti-Western stance; B) Relentless political focus on the past, especially on the animosities or nostalgia of the WWII or Yugoslavian era; C) Continuing ideological search for the “3rd way” between capitalism and socialism; D) Inherent animosity towards the neighbours; E) Other?

Amazon Zoox robotaxi, a Google Waymo car, and a Tesla Cybercab became trapped in a viral face-to-face standoff on a narrow city street in 🇺🇸Austin, Texas, showcasing a classic real-world artificial intelligence deadlock. The vehicles met head-on on a narrow side street constricted by cars parked on both sides. Because each company programs its vehicles with proprietary decision-making algorithms, the vehicles struggled to establish right-of-way protocol without a human driver to initiate a courtesy gesture or negotiate positioning. Eyewitnesses noted that the Waymo continued to creep aggressively forward instead of yielding. Meanwhile, the Tesla Cybercab - which runs entirely unsupervised on vision-based software without a steering wheel or pedals - was seen reversing to clear space for the others. Observers also pointed out that Zoox’s unique bidirectional carriage design makes native reversing straightforward, though both it and the Waymo remained locked in position for several minutes before traffic could clear. This event highlights a prominent operational barrier for autonomous fleets: multi-platform coordination. While current robotaxis excel at perception and safety when interacting with fixed obstacles or rule-following humans, they struggle when they encounter another AI entity governed by a completely different set of non-standardized routing protocols. Similar standoffs between Zoox and Waymo vehicles have previously been documented in San Francisco, indicating that “algorithm clashes” are becoming a frequent consequence of multi-fleet urban deployments. Can the robotaxi companies program “courtesy gestures” as part of their algorithms?

🇧🇷President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil surged to a remarkable re-election on Sunday, according to official preliminary results, but his opponent, Flávio Bolsonaro, said he would not accept the results after a chaotic Election Day. Mr. Lula’s victory, which ended a string of conservative wins in Latin America cheered on by 🇺🇸US President Trump, came after a judge ordered polls to remain open an additional 2 hours — a move requested by both campaigns after transportation delays and bad weather disrupted voting. At a news conference, Bolsonaro called for the election to be annulled, saying the decision to keep the polls open “changed the rules in the middle of the game.” Flávio Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party has 2 possible paths to challenge the result: 1) it could seek a technical audit to determine whether unequal voting conditions affected the outcome, potentially leading to the election’s annulment; or 2) it could pursue an abuse-of-power case through the Superior Electoral Court’s Inspector General, which could disqualify the Lula-Alckmin ticket even after it takes office. Lula’s Workers’ Party could bring its own challenge over restrictions on public bus services on Election Day. If those restrictions were found to be an abuse of power, Flávio, his running mate and others involved could be barred from running for office for 8 years. More legal and political trouble ahead for Brazil?

Massive anti-government protests and riots in 🇷🇸Serbia have culminated in parallel with a high-stakes snap parliamentary election today, posing the greatest threat to Aleksandar Vučić’s 14-year grip on power. Rather than traditional political parties leading the charge, the face of the Serbian opposition is “Student List” (Students Win), a youth-backed movement that has deployed thousands of volunteers using modern grassroots techniques to campaign nationwide. Vučić, who has dominated Serbian politics since 2012, recently resigned from the presidency to front the campaign as the prime ministerial candidate for the ruling SNS party. Mainstream media, heavily aligned with the government, continues to paint Vučić as a stabilising figure. However, independent reports indicate the race between SNS and the Student List is tightly contested. Reliable polling and betting odds are virtually non-existent due to reported state pressure on independent firms. Long lines have been reported across Serbia today. Observers and locals have expressed significant fear that if the ruling party loses, the regime may not accept defeat, sparking even more volatile street clashes and riots after the ballots are counted. Is this going to be the end of the Vučić reign: A) Yes; B) No?

157 companies worldwide are currently actively developing flying cars and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles / aircraft. 🇺🇸The United States leads the sector with 64 companies, followed by India with 16, and Germany with 13. Around 59 of these companies are funded, having collectively raised nearly $7 billion in venture capital and private equity. Notable Players: • Alef Aeronautics (US) is developing a dual-use vehicle designed to drive on regular roads and take off vertically; its Model A has captured immense industry attention by demonstrating vertical takeoff directly over ground obstacles; Model A uses a unique mesh body that hides internal electric rotors, allowing it to take off vertically like a drone while maintaining the footprint of a traditional car that fits in a standard garage; it has received special FAA airworthiness authorization for limited flight testing; • Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation (US) focus primarily on electric air taxi services; • EHang (🇨🇳China) has achieved milestone certifications and pilotless test flights for its autonomous passenger drones; • Xpeng Aeroht Land Aircraft Carrier (China) features a six-wheeled, off-road intelligent mother vehicle that houses and deploys a separate, fully electric two-seat eVTOL aircraft from its rear cargo bay, effectively bypassing the engineering compromises of combining road driving and flight dynamics into a single chassis; • PAL-V Liberty (🇳🇱Netherlands) claims to have the world’s first “fully certified flying car”, having achieved official road-use certification in Europe; it operates as a three-wheeled car on the road and transforms into a gyrocopter for flight, using a fold-away unpowered top rotor and a rear propeller to achieve a flying range of 500 km at speeds up to 180 km/h; • Klein Vision AirCar (🇸🇰Slovakia) is a sports-car/airplane hybrid that successfully completed actual inter-city flights and earned official airworthiness certification in Europe; It transforms from a sleek car into a fixed-wing aircraft in just 3 minutes by deploying retractable wings and a tail section, reaching air speeds of 200 km/h and requires a traditional runway to operate; • Jetson ONE & Astro (🇸🇪Sweden) is an ultralight carbon-fiber personal multicopter operated by a simple joystick; it has achieved significant real-world traction, notably with the unveiling of “Astro” - a specialised police variant, which reaches speeds of over 100 km/h with a 20-minute flight time; • SkyDrive (🇯🇵Japan) is compact, multi-rotor aircraft designed to act as clean, quiet urban air taxis capable of taking off from rooftops and existing heliports; • Doroni Aerospace H1X (US) is a two-seat personal eVTOL which features 8 enclosed lift fans and two rear thrusters; for a 100-mile (160 km) range, the project uses an automated digital piloting system designed to make flying safe and intuitive for non-seasoned pilots. Who will succeed in this increasingly competitive market?

A rather critical “Musk” documentary was pulled from 🇺🇸US theatres after just 2 weeks. The film concludes its theatrical run with a $571,902 box-office performance in US. It is already considered a box office flop, despite a stellar 97% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. Apart from festival showings in 🇮🇹Italy and the 🇳🇱Netherlands, the film has not yet been screened in theaters internationally. Universal still reserves the rights for an international screening at some point early next year - it will then be also available for streaming. Bad luck? xitter.cf/dovydas44444/status/20…