World News

Bolivia 

Bolivia is seeing mounting anger in the light of a recent election. Under the Bolivian electoral system, if the winner is ahead by 10 points under a quick vote count, they automatically win. If the margin is less than 10 points, there is a run-off election in December, where only the first and second place candidates compete. In this election, the incumbent President Evo Morales, who has been in power for 13 years, was ahead by 0.2% 24 hours after the quick count started. This prompted outrage amongst the supporters of his biggest rival Carlos Mesa. Mesa decried the results and his supporters have been burning ballot boxes in protest of the results. At the time this article was written, a total count of the votes was underway with Mesa only about seven points behind. (BBC)

Australia 

Qantas Airways recently tested what may become the world’s longest nonstop commercial flight. Clocking in at 19 hours and 16 minutes, it took 49 passengers from Sydney to New York. This is just one of several tests Qantas is conducting, with one later this year set to go from Sydney to London. While record breaking, there are still some difficulties to overcome. For example, the cargo and baggage load was considerably lighter because when fully weighted, the aircraft does not have enough fuel to make the enormous distances. Qantas is set to decide if they will schedule this type of route by the end of the year, with actual flights to start taking place in 2022 or 2023. (BBC)

United Kingdom 

The UK is still struggling to deal with the Brexit deal. After initially agreeing on the Withdrawal Agreement Bill that Prime Minister Boris Johnson put forward, the House of Commons decided to take another look at it in three days, placing continual uncertainty on the state of the Brexit deal as a whole. Johnson agreed to put a “pause” on the deal in order to speak with other EU leaders. However, he says he remains firm in his plan to leave the European Union by the end of October, with or without a deal. (BBC)

Northern Ireland

Abortion was legalized in Northern Ireland overnight. The region had previously had some of the strictest abortion laws in all of Europe. Any woman who got an abortion, as well as the doctor that administered it, could receive life in prison. This all changed at the stroke of midnight, when abortion was decriminalized and the UK became prepared to pay for any woman who can’t get one locally to fly to Britain and receive one there. In addition to abortion, same-sex marriage was legalized at the same time — a historic moment for what has been an extremely socially conservative part of Europe. (CBS)

Chile

The death toll of recent protests in Chile has risen to 15. The protests started last week after a 4% increase in subway fares, when students began to jump turnstiles. However, this escalated into burning of buses and subways. Police have turned to using tear gas and water cannons to break up protestors.Currently, all 16 of Chile’s regions are now under a form of martial law, not seen since the last dictator fell out of power in 1990. While directly sparked by the price hike, the protests have far more to do with the country’s dramatic wealth inequality, one of the worst in the region, with some families getting by on less than $700 per month. (ABC)