Culture

Chileans Vote To Rewrite Constitution & More in Today’s News

Lead Photo: Electoral officers count the ballots at Amunategui High School during Constitutional Referendum on October 25, 2020 in Santiago, Chile. Photo by Claudio Santana/Getty Images
Electoral officers count the ballots at Amunategui High School during Constitutional Referendum on October 25, 2020 in Santiago, Chile. Photo by Claudio Santana/Getty Images

Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other goings-on in the United States, Latin America, and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.

Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:

    • Amy Coney Barrett is expected to be confirmed by Senate Republicans Monday night, just days before the Nov. 3 election. Her confirmation will be seen as a major victory for the Trump administration and for Republicans, despite criticism that the process to move her nomination was rushed and ignored comments Republicans themselves made about waiting until after an election to vote for Supreme Court justices. [CNN]
    • After protests that encompassed everything from inequality and fare hikes, Chileans celebrated a majority vote supporting a rewrite of the country’s constitution, which previously dated to the military rule of Augusto Pinochet. A referendum had been scheduled for April but was moved because of the pandemic. [BBC]
    • A draft report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General obtained by BuzzFeed News has exposed problems with two controversial pilot programs designed to quickly deport Mexican and Central American asylum-seekers at the border. The issues include migrant families forced in custody longer than what was appropriate, juvenile girls put in the same detention space with unrelated adult men, and toilets in facilities with limited privacy. [Buzzfeed]
    • In a new string of operations launched by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency is going to work to find and deport undocumented immigrants who failed to voluntarily depart the United States after having committed to do so. The ICE is using the guise of “public safety amid the coronavirus pandemic” for the operation. [CNN]
    • Aurelio Jose Barrera, a longtime L.A. Times photographer who was part of a Pulitzer-winning series capturing Los Angeles’ overlooked communities, passed away last week. He was 60 years old. In retirement, he had launched a one-man effort to help deliver food to the homeless in the same communities he had covered as a photographer. [LA Times]