What happened
Leftist Brazilian President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and right-wing Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro yesterday advanced to a runoff election after neither candidate got 50% of the vote. With almost all votes counted, Lula had 45% and Bolsonaro, the son of jailed former President Jair Bolsonaro, had a better-than-forecast 47%. 

Who said what
Bolsonaro, 45, is “widely considered to be a less magnetic stand-in for his father,” who lost to Lula in 2022 and was sentenced to 27 years in prison for conspiring to violently overturn that defeat, Politico said. Recent polls missed the “strength of right-wing sentiment” in Brazil, The Wall Street Journal said, “fueled by anger over violent street crime, the growing political clout of evangelical Christians and frustration” among higher-income Brazilians over taxes and the economy.

Lula, 80, is “popular with women, Catholics and lower-income voters who credit him with reducing poverty and inequality,” The New York Times said. But to “turn the race around” in the second round, he will have to win over the millions of voters who “stayed home or spoiled their ballots.”

What next?
Brazilian voters yesterday “elected an overwhelmingly right-wing Congress,” Politico said, so the result of the Oct. 25 runoff “might turn out to be less consequential than it first appears,” whoever wins.

What happened
Japanese officials yesterday said a U.S. Marine has been arrested on the southern island of Okinawa on suspicion of murdering and robbing a woman in a hotel room. Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, denied killing Anna Yagi, 39, and taking her wallet and backpack, Okinawa police said. Security camera footage captured a man they believe to be Ballard entering the hotel with Yagi on Saturday and leaving alone with her belongings. 

Who said what
The killing “reignites long-standing tensions over the U.S. military’s presence” on Okinawa, which “hosts over half of the more than 50,000 U.S. military personnel stationed in Japan,” The Washington Post said. The island, about 60 miles from Taiwan, is “viewed by Tokyo and Washington as key ​in deterring potential military aggression from China,” Reuters said.

“Okinawans have long complained about noise, pollution and crime related to U.S. bases,” especially the “repeated occurrence of sexual crimes,” The Associated Press said. This latest case is “complicating ties between Japan’s central government” and the local prefecture as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pushes to “further fortify” the Japanese military presence on Okinawa “and work more closely with the U.S. military.”

What next?
Takaichi said the “heinous crime is extremely regrettable,” and her government had “lodged a strong protest with the U.S. side, while firmly demanding maximum cooperation with the investigation.”

With climate change making natural disasters more frequent and severe, some consumers are turning to smaller off-grid electric networks to generate power in the event of a catastrophe. These “microgrids” are becoming popular in numerous vulnerable areas of the U.S.

A microgrid is a small power network that “generates, stores and consumes electricity in one relatively confined space,” often comprising solar panels connected to on-site battery storage, said National Geographic. They are being embraced by homeowners and small businesses, and many “connect to their local utility and draw power from that grid if they don’t produce enough on a given day.”

These electrical systems are appearing in stormy areas like North Carolina, where solar versions are helping “prepare for disasters like Hurricane Helene, which devastated the region two years ago,” said NPR. Microgrids are also “popping up in public spaces” where people “often gather after storms.” Currently, the U.S. has more than 5,000 microgrids in operation, according to the research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Some lawmakers have made efforts to increase microgrid use. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced a bill to “boost the adoption of microgrids across the country as the nation’s transmission system becomes increasingly strained by growing energy demand and extreme weather events,” said Politico’s E&E News.

Welch’s bill would provide $700 million for microgrid development. It would also encourage regulators to “streamline the interconnection process for localized, independent grids,” said E&E, while “providing technical assistance to utilities and governments working on grid resilience projects.”