Monday Briefing | October 29

Stories to Follow

Brazilians Elect Far-Right Candidate in National Vote: Voters in Brazil elected far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff presidential election that took place on October 28, though Workers’ Party candidate Fernando Haddad narrowed his opponent’s lead. The anti-establishment candidate’s rise comes on the heels of a high-profile corruption scandal and in the midst of Brazil’s worst recession in its history. Bolsonaro is the first far-right Brazilian leader since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, signaling a historic shift in the country’s national politics.

Mass Shooting at Pittsburgh Synagogue Kills 11: An armed Pittsburgh resident named Robert Bowers stormed into a local synagogue on Oct. 27, killing 11 in a targeted attack on the Jewish community. After exchanging gunfire with police, the assailant surrendered and was taken into police custody. Bowers has been charged by the FBI with 29 counts of federal crimes of violence, some of which carry a penalty of death in the state of Pennsylvania.

Trump Supporter Executes Bomb Plot Against Prominent Democrats: More than a dozen Democratic party leaders and other critics of President Donald Trump over the course of a week received pipe bombs in the mail from Florida resident Cesar Sayoc, a part-time pizza delivery man and grocery worker. A criminal complaint filed in Manhattan federal court mentioned 13 devices were sent by Sayoc to 11 individuals. Police arrested Sayoc after a four-day manhunt, aided by DNA found on one or more of the devices, but the investigation is ongoing. All of the packages were intercepted by police and did not detonate.

Japan Ends Foreign Aid to China: On Oct. 26, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that the country will end its foreign aid to China. Though China has been the economically dominant of the two countries for eight years, Japan has continued to send annual developmental aid to China, which has the world’s second-largest economy. “From competition to cooperation, the Japan-China relationship is shifting to a new phase now,” said Abe in a press conference where he also announced new cooperation agreements. “We are neighbors; we’re partners who will cooperate with each other, rather than be a threat to each other.”

This Week in JPI

No Post-Conflict Decontamination Obligations Set Before UN First Committee Vote: The United Nations General Assembly is preparing to vote on a resolution to curb uranium weaponry, a munition type that is considered to be harmful to people and the environment. “Should member states acknowledge recent outcomes from the U.N. Environmental Assembly and the Human Rights Commission,” writes Hannah Beckler, a graduate student in the Journalism and European & Mediterranean Studies programs at NYU. “Measures could be taken to improve transparency of weapon use, provide technical and financial assistance for the assessment and clearance of contaminated areas, and mandate compensations for victim health assistance and exposure monitoring.”

Happening this Week

Posing Modernity: The Black Model from Manet and Matisse to Today

Oct. 24, 2018 – Feb. 10, 2019

Wallach Art Gallery, Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University 615 West 129th Street

Denise Murrell’s Wallach exhibit, expanded from her doctoral dissertation, traces the evolution of Edouard Manet’s”Laure, tres belle negresse” (Portrait of Laure) through the work of Manet’s acolytes and peers, up to the present. The radical project seeks to position the evolution of representation of the female black figure as a central component of modern art. The exhibition will be expanded to the Musée d’Orsay on March 26, 2019.

For more information, visit here.

 In Your Free Time:

From podcasts to television, however you prefer to digest smart content, we’ve got you covered (curated by me!):

Bonus read: “The Morality Wars” by Wesley Morris

On Broadway: The Lifespan of a Fact | Broadway director Leigh Silverman crafts a convincing meditation on the nature of truth and fact with ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’, a play which she adapted from a book of the same name. —Alyssa Sims

In your earbuds: Slow Burn (S2) | “With its focus on the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Slate podcast’s second season explores how attitudes and perspectives about sex, power, privacy, and character have changed.”—Sarah Larson for the New Yorker

On the small screen: Bojack Horseman (S5) | “It not only features Hollywood struggling to acknowledge its rotten, sexist practices, but confronts the fact that the show’s main character — BoJack himself — has very often abused his power in exactly the way that inspired the #MeToo movement in the first place.”—Caroline Framke for Variety

This week’s Monday Briefing is brought to you by Alyssa G Sims.