The world at a glance
Washington DC
“Revenge porn” claim: A rising star of the Democratic party resigned as a congresswoman this week over claims that she had a three-way relationship with her husband and a female campaign staffer, and an affair with a male aide. Katie Hill, 32, who is openly bisexual, denied the latter claim, which would have been a breach of House rules. But she admitted having a relationship with a subordinate during the “final years of my abusive marriage”, after a right-wing website published intimate pictures of her with the 24-year-old woman in question. She has described the publication of the photos as a violation of her privacy, and vowed to fight “revenge porn”.
Los Angeles, California
Wildfire chaos: A state of emergency was declared in California this week, following days of wildfires, whipped up by fierce winds, that have forced more than 185,000 people to evacuate their homes. The fires damaged power cables and led to precautionary shutdowns that left about two million people without electricity, making them the largest planned blackouts in state history. The most devastating fire, the Kincade Fire, ravaged a vast area of Sonoma County, while another major fire raged close to the Getty Centre in northwestern Los Angeles, threatening some of the city’s most affluent neighbourhoods.
Bogotá
Mayoral breakthrough: The Colombian capital, Bogotá, has elected its first female mayor, in what is being hailed as an important advancement for both women and LGBT rights in a country long dominated by male elites. Claudia López, 49, a centre-left lesbian ex-journalist, is an anticorruption campaigner who was briefly forced to leave Colombia six years ago, after exposing the links between politicians and right-wing paramilitaries. Her partner is Angélica Lozano Correa, a fellow Green Alliance politician.
La Paz, Bolivia
Morales edges it: Evo Morales has claimed victory in last week’s Bolivian election, and a fourth term as president, despite the poll being marred by allegations of fraud. According to official results, Morales took 47% of the vote, and the runner-up 36.5% – giving him the ten-point lead he needed to avoid a second-round run-off. However, the 24-hour suspension of the publication of the electronic count on polling day, at a point when it looked as though Morales was heading for a run-off against his opponent, has raised suspicions that the final result was rigged, leading to violent protests. Morales and the electoral authorities insist his win was legitimate, but the Organisation of American States and the EU have backed calls for a second round of voting.
Santiago
President sacks cabinet as protests continue: Chile’s President Piñera has sacked his cabinet and announced a range of reforms, in an attempt to defuse violent mass protests about income inequality and the high cost of living. Last Friday, at least a million people marched through the capital Santiago in Chile’s biggest demonstration for decades; and protests, some of them violent, were ongoing this week in several cities. Piñera initially adopted a belligerent response to the protests, saying Chile was “at war” with organised criminals, declaring a state of emergency, and sending troops onto the streets. But he then backtracked rapidly, apologising for his government’s “lack of vision”, and announcing a boost to social spending paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy.
Washington DC
“Lock him up”: The crowd at a baseball game in Washington DC jeered and booed this week when a video screen broadcast footage of Donald Trump and his wife in attendance at the World Series game. A number of fans then stood up and, turning towards his seat, started chanting, “Lock him up!” – a deliberate echo of the “Lock her up!” chants that Trump encouraged at his rallies when he was fighting Hillary Clinton for the presidency. Some of the demonstrators held up “Veterans for Impeachment” banners, in reference to the Congressional hearings into whether Trump put political pressure on the Ukrainian president to investigate his Democrat rivals. This week, the US National Security Council’s Ukraine expert, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, is reported to have told the hearings that key phrases had been cut out of the transcript of a call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart.
Buenos Aires
Peronists return to power:
Argentina’s leftist-populist
Justicialist Party, the Peronist party that has governed the country for all but six of the past 30 years, has swept back to power after four years out of office, with a convincing win in last weekend’s presidential election. Alberto Fernández, 60, took 48.1% of the vote, compared to 40.4% for the incumbent, Mauricio Macri, following a campaign dominated by economic concerns. Fernández will be sworn in to office on 10 December, with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was president from 2007 to 2015, as his deputy. Macri came to power four years ago on a promise to achieve “zero poverty”; but the country’s economic crisis only worsened during his administration.