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Oct. 21 (UPI) — Bolivian President-elect Rodrigo Paz Pereira’s win heralds a time of change in the South American nation that was a leading socialist state, the leaders of nine nations said on Tuesday.

Paz, 58, prevailed over challenger and former President Jorge Quiroga on Sunday in Bolivia’s first runoff election to determine its next president, and the U.S. State Department released the joint statement.

“The undersigned countries congratulate President-electRodrigo Paz Pereira on his election as president of Bolivia,” the joint statement said.

“We also commend the Bolivian people for their unwavering commitment to democracy, as demonstrated through their active participation in this electoral process.”

The statement said the “Bolivian people made their voices heard in a decisive manner.”

The outcome “reflects the will of the Bolivian people to embrace change and chart a new course for their nation and our region, signaling departure from the economic mismanagement of the past two decades.”

Paz is a centrist, while Quiroga is more conservative, and both campaigned on the platform of ending the 20-year reign of socialist presidents and government and returning Bolivia to a market-based capitalist economy.

He secured 54.6% of the 6.5 million votes cast to Quiroga’s 45.4% in the first Bolivian presidential election that did not involve a socialist candidate for the first time in two decades, according to The Guardian.

Paz was the Christian Democratic Party’s candidate, while Quiroga, 67, ran on the Free Alliance ticket. Both ran on a pro-capitalism platform.

The Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Towards Socialism) Party candidate Eduardo del Castillo obtained 3% of the vote during an initial election and did not qualify for Sunday’s runoff election.

The MAS Party has controlled both houses of the Bolivian Legislature and the presidential office for the past 20 years.

Paz said he intends to end the nation’s gas shortages and wants to encourage international investment to boost growth of the Bolivia’s private sector, the BBC reported.

His win effectively ends the MAS Party’s rule in Bolivia.

“The undersigned countries stand ready to support the incoming administration’s efforts to stabilize Bolivia’s economy and open it to the world, reinforce its democratic institutions, boost international trade and investment, and deepen its engagement with regional and global partners on a wide range of issues,” the nine nations said in the joint statement.

“We are committed to working closely with President-elect Rodrigo Paz Pereira and his government to advance shared goals of regional and global security, economic prosperity and growth that benefit all of our nations,” they added.

“We encourage Bolivia’s renewed proactive participation in addressing regional and global challenges.”

In addition to the United States, the governments undersigning the statement are Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Paz is a Bolivian senator and the son of former Bolivian President Jaime Pax Zamora, who served in that role from 1989 to 1993.

Strictly Come Dancing have released the first look images of the 2025 cast as the 15 celebrities prepare to take to the dance floor for the first live show in just two weeks time

It’s almost time for the 2025 cast of Strictly Come Dancing to take to the dancefloor, as the BBC has released a first look picture of the cast in their glitzy ballroom outfits.

The cast certainly look the part – but will they be able to dance the part? Viewers will find out when the launch show airs next Saturday, with the live shows kicking off the week after.

The 15 new contestants, who will be joined alongside hosts Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly, dressed to the nines for their first looks, with pink being the colour of choice for most…

READ MORE: Strictly Come Dancing pro says ‘we can all tell’ who will make the final from week oneREAD MORE: Strictly Come Dancing’s Toyah Willcox turned down partners over ‘inappropriate’ fears

In the glitzy image, Love Island winner Dani Dyer wore a tassled pink number with a plunging V-neck to her waist, while ER actress Alex Kingston and model and actress Ellie Goldstein also joined in with the pink tassled theme.

They weren’t the only ones, as former England footballer Karen Carney wore a hot pink dress, with Olympian and Gladiator Harry Aikines-Aryeete opted for bright pink trousers.

Drag Race finalist La Voix stood out in a bright red number, with an eye-catching thigh slit. .

Vicky Pattinson and Balvinder Sopal stunned in bright colours, with the former Geordie Shore star wearing bright yellow, while the EastEnders star opted for a a turquoise dress.

Former footballer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Emmerdale actor Lewis Cope matched in electric blue, with Cope showing off his arms with a sheer sleeveless top and tailored trousers.

Stefan Dennis, broadcaster Ross King and former England rugby captain Chris Robshaw stood out in patterned suits, whereas Thomas Skinner wore a pale blue suit.

The first look picture comes after a huge win for Strictly at the NTAs, picking up the National Television Award for Talent Show after the last scandal-filled 18 months.

Last year’s celebrity cast took to the stage to accept the award, with Pete Wicks and JB Gill giving a speech. The current cast were unfortunately able to attend the award ceremony as they were off filming the launch show which will air next Saturday.

“It gives me a little bit of PTSD that theme tune,” Pete said while accepting the award. “But look, Strictly is one of the best things that I have done and as much as us guys are the ones dancing, it’s all about the crew and the people who work behind it.”

JB Gill then went onto thank the judges as well as Chris McCausland and Diane Buswell who “made history” as last year’s winners. “Last but not least, thank you to all the viewers, all the people who voted for this incredible award. We absolutely love you.”

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Pete Hegseth, widely considered the least qualified Defense secretary in American history, is hardly anyone’s version of the ideal Christian husband and father.

Only 45 years old, he’s been married three times.

His first marriage — to his high school sweetheart — lasted a mere four years, deteriorating after Hegseth admitted to multiple extramarital affairs.

A couple of years later, he married his second wife, with whom he had three children. During that marriage, he fathered a child with a Fox News producer who eventually became his third wife.

He paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault (he denies the assault). He routinely passed out drunk at family gatherings and misbehaved in public when inebriated, according to numerous witnesses. His own mother once accused him of being “an abuser of women,” though she later retracted her claims when Hegseth was facing Senate confirmation.

Still, the Senate’s Republican majority, cowed by President Trump, confirmed his appointment. Hegseth has two qualities that Trump prizes above all others. He is blindly loyal to the president, and he looks good on TV.

After his installation, Hegseth proceeded to fire top military brass who happened to be Black or women or both. He has restored the names of Confederate generals to Army bases (Bragg and Benning). His petty “anti-woke” crusade led him to strip the name of the assassinated gay rights leader Harvey Milk, a former Naval officer who served honorably, from a Navy ship. And he has considered doing the same to a ship named in honor of the abolitionist and Civil War hero Harriet Tubman. He has said that women do not belong in combat roles, and has kicked out transgender soldiers, cruelly stripping them of the pensions they earned for their service.

In March, he shared classified information about an impending American airstrike in Yemen on an unsecured Signal group chat that included his wife, on purpose, and the editor of the Atlantic, by accident.

He is, in short, the least serious man ever to lead this nation’s armed forces.

As if all that weren’t dispiriting enough, Hegseth is now in bed (metaphorically) with a crusading Christian nationalist.

Earlier this month, Hegseth made waves when he reposted on social media a CNN interview with Douglas Wilson, the pastor and theocrat who is working hard to turn the clock back on the rights of every American who is not white, Christian and male.

In the interview, Wilson expounded on his patriarchal, misogynistic, authoritarian and homophobic views.

Women, he said, should serve as “chief executive of the home” and should not have the right to vote. (Their men can do that for them.) Gay marriage and gay sex should be outlawed once again. “We know that sodomy is worse than slavery by how God responds to it,” he told CNN’s Pamela Brown. (Slavery is “unbiblical,” he avowed, though he did bizarrely defend it once, writing in 1990 a pamphlet that “slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since.”)

When a new outpost of his church opened in Washington, D.C ., in July, Hegseth and his family were among the worshippers. CNN described Hegseth’s presence as “a major achievement” for Wilson.

“All of Christ for All of Life,” wrote Hegseth as he endorsed and reposted the interview. That is the motto of Wilson’s expanding universe, which includes his Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, the center of his Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network of more than 100 churches on four continents, parochial schools, a college, a publishing house and media platforms. “All of Christ for All of Life” is a shorthand for the belief that Christian doctrines should shape every part of life — including government, culture and education.

Wilson is a prolific author of books with titles such as “Her Hand in Marriage,” “Federal Husband,” and “Reforming Marriage.” His book “Fidelity” teaches “what it means to be a one-woman man.” Doubtful it has crossed Hegseth’s desk.

“God hates divorce,” writes Wilson in one of his books.

Given the way sexual pleasure is celebrated in the Old and New Testaments, Wilson has a peculiarly dim view of sex. I mean, how many weddings have been graced with recitations from the Song of Solomon, with its thinly disguised allusions to pleasurable sexual intimacy? (“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine.”)

Wilson’s world is considerably less sensual.

“A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants,” he writes in “Fidelity.” “A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” Mutual sexual pleasure seems out of the question: “The sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian pleasuring party.” Ugh.

There is nothing particularly new here; Wilson’s ideology is just another version of patriarchal figures using religion to fight back against the equality movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries. They are basically the hatemongers of the Westboro Baptist Church dressed up in respectable clothing.

“Some people may conflate Christian nationalism and Christianity because they both use the symbols and language of Christianity, such as a Bible, a cross and worship songs,” says the group Christians Against Christian Nationalism on its website. “But Christian nationalism uses the veneer of Christianity to advance its own aims — to point to a political figure, party or ideology instead of Jesus.”

What you have in people like Hegseth and Wilson are authoritarian men who hide behind their religion to execute the most unchristian of agendas.

God may hate divorce, but from my reading of the Bible, God hates hypocrisy even more.

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Shakira Austin didn’t realize how important fashion would become when she entered the WNBA in 2022.

Her introduction to game-day tunnel fashion began at the University of Mississippi in 2020.

“My school started doing their own tunnel fits,” she said. “It was cute, but I definitely didn’t know [the WNBA tunnel walk was] as popping and as big as it is now.”

During the last few years, college and WNBA social media teams have photographed players walking into arenas and to their locker rooms on game day. Tunnel walk fashion now quickly spreads on social media on game days.

The Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese poses on the orange carpet during WNBA All Star Game week in Indianapolis.

(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

What started as a social media trend that fans enjoyed has become a high-profile chance for WNBA players to show off their personal style and potentially land endorsement deals. A Vogue article published last season declared that “The WNBA Tunnel Is Officially a Fashion Destination.”

Austin has adapted to the spotlight and says she enjoys expressing herself through clothing.

“It gives a little bit of a model essence,” Austin said. “You go through, you pick out your fit for the day, and all cameras are on you, so it’s definitely a nice little highlight off the court before you start to lock in for the game.”

Now in her fourth year with the Washington Mystics, Austin’s sense of style is fully her own.

Without much styling advice from teammates as a rookie, she leaned on her passion for creativity and beauty to guide her looks.

“I’ve just always liked to express myself through beauty — from either masculine or feminine looks,” she said.

At 6 foot 5, Austin has had to work with limited clothing options.

“Being that I am a tall girl, it’s kind of hard to find clothes, so repeating stuff is a big deal for me,” she said. “Also, just making [the outfit] a different vibe each time.”

The Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers poses on the orange carpet during a WNBA All-Star Game event in Indianapolis.

(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

Connecticut Sun center Olivia Nelson-Ododa didn’t get comfortable until she partnered with stylist Kristine Anigwe, a former WNBA player and owner of KA Creative Consulting.

“Figuring out, ‘OK, this is my style, this is what I actually like and enjoy wearing. How can I put it together in something that is comfortable and makes me feel confident?’” Nelson-Ododa said.

She describes being a “serial pieces repeater,” choosing to mix and match rather than follow trends.

“Honestly, it’s fashion, there’s like no rules to it.”

Off the court, fashion is now a way for her to show different sides of herself beyond her basketball identity.

“We already have an amazing job like this, and being able to add on by showing ourselves in a different light is super fun,” she said.

Although she doesn’t have the biggest interest in fashion, Sparks center Azura Stevens has seen tunnel fashion evolve into something much bigger.

The Sparks’ Rickea Jackson poses on the orange carpet during a WNBA All-Star Game event in Indianapolis.

(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

“It’s cool to put together different fits, kind of show your personality through style,” she said. “I am kind of used to it now — it’s just a part of the game-day routine.”

During her time in the league, fashion has become a natural part of the culture.

“It has become a really big thing for it to be like runways almost before the game. It’s a part of the culture now of the [league],” she said.

Stevens’ teammate, veteran forward Dearica Hamby, has had a career full of fashion transitions since she entered the league in 2015 when fashion wasn’t a major part of the WNBA culture.

“Mine has changed over the course of the years,” she said. “For me, I’m sometimes business-like, but overall just really well put together.”

Hamby credits her time with the Las Vegas Aces as the moment she saw the shift.

“I kind of feel like my time in Vegas is when it really took off. We had a really talented photographer who was able to capture our fits,” she said.

Hamby is still learning what works best for her style. One thing she’s noticed: how an outfit looks in a photo matters.

“Sometimes things don’t photograph well, and that’s what I am starting to learn,” she said. “It could look good in person, but it doesn’t necessarily photograph well, so you wanna wear things that are cut and crisp.”

As tunnel walk content grows on social media, so can critiques of players and their outfit choices.

“I’ve definitely gotten flamed before for certain outfits,” Nelson-Ododa said. “Some people are not fans and some people are fans. I really don’t care, as long as it feels good on me, I’m fine.”

“You definitely know that eyes are going to see, and you’re going to be talked about — whether it’s a positive view or negative view,” Hamby said.

What matters most to Hamby is the feeling behind the fit: “Just remind yourself that if you feel good and you feel like you look good in it, that’s all that matters.”