RoozCast

As widely predicted, Brazil’s far-right firebrand Jair Bolsonaro won the country’s presidential runoff in a landslide this past Sunday. His dramatic and unlikely rise to power has invited comparisons to US President Donald Trump, whom he openly admires and praises.

Speaking of populism, here are three new stories from Italy, a country at the center of many European controversies. One centers on domestic policy, the second on disputes with the populists next door, and the third on a coming showdown with the European Union

It has been a crazy week in global geopolitics, however, let's shift our attention back to Brazil where voters in the country will elect Jair Bolsonaro president on Sunday. Media attention will focus on his charm, impressive style, and an apparent ideological bond with, if not duplicate of, Donald Trump.

Afghans head to the polls today for long-delayed elections in which over 2,500 candidates are contending for 249 seats in the Afghanistan parliament, the country is struggling with a range of challenges – I'll try to break them down for you.

As of the release of this episode, Saudi Arabia was reportedly preparing to release a report that confirms the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Istanbul consulate about two weeks ago. What's the twist? It was an accident, Saudis claim, which happened during an “unauthorized” attempt to interrogate and repatriate - I should say kidnap - Mr. Khashoggi, who was living in exile as a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - also known as MBS.

The past few months have been brutal for French President Emmanuel Macron. Let's take a look at the list, Staff scandals, high-profile cabinet departures, and a recent selfie-fail in the Caribbean have all combined together to push his approval rating down from a post-election high of 65 percent to just 29 percent today. French Political Opposition parties already smell blood. In a bid to set things right, Mr. Macron is expected to reshuffle his cabinet this week. Macron hopes that by bringing in some fresh faces he can stop the slide and boost his chances of pulling off a new round of critical and difficult economic reforms.

It’s not every day that a company leaves $10 billion of lucrative and potential government business on the table. But that’s what Google just did this week when it announced that it no longer plans to compete for a massive Pentagon (I'm talking about US Department of Defence) cloud computing contract ahead of a Friday - Today - bid deadline.

Italy and the EU are on a crash course. After suddenly and frankly surprisingly sweeping to power in elections earlier this year, Rome’s populist-led coalition government has committed to drastically expand government spending in 2019, in part to deliver on frankly outsized promises made during the campaign.

We had a busy weekend and as expected, Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Haddad have advanced to the second round of Brazil’s presidential election, which will be held on October 28 almost a week from now.

In recent weeks and months, an increasingly energetic debate about online privacy has taken hold in a very unexpected place - China, yes China. We are talking, the same China that has huge aspirations for a so-called a “social credit system” that would reward and discipline Chinese citizens based on what their online and offline behavior tells the government about their - if you will - civic values.