Today’s newsletter covers Brazil’s national high school exam, Indian farm laws, and more.
Bolsonaro tried to revisit Brazil’s history in high school exam
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro tried to change Brazil’s history about the military dictatorship in the national high school exam. Several employees also resigned days before the test, denouncing censorship during its elaboration.
India will repeal contentious farm laws voted 14 months ago
The three contentious farm laws that led to farmer protests for a year will be repealed, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced. They were supposed to liberalize India’s agriculture letting farmers sell their products to retailers and private companies directly.
Also elsewhere in the world…
- The head of Kedah, one of the 13 states of Malaysia and home to 2 million people, decided not to renew the licenses of betting shops in order to stop gambling.
- The United Nations claims that more than 1,000 people, most of them Tigrayans, have been detained in Ethiopia since the start of the state of emergency on November 2. The state of emergency is valid for 6 months and allows house searches without a warrant.
- The United States put Russia on a blacklist regarding freedom of religion. Nigeria, which was included in the list in 2020, was removed.
- In Sudan, 15 people were killed on November 17 during a protest against the military putsch. The deadliest day since the coup.
- The Netherlands bans the sale of fireworks ahead of New Year’s Eve for the second consecutive year. It’s meant to reduce injuries and alleviate healthcare staff workload during the pandemic.
- A U.S. Republican leader made the longest speech in the history of the House of Representatives in a failed attempt to delay the vote on Biden’s spending bill to the middle of the night. 8 hours and 32 minutes. At the end of a floor debate, the “magic minute” allows majority and minority leaders to speak indefinitely. The previous record was detained by Democrat Nancy Pelosi in 2018 with 8 hours.
- Mikheïl Saakachvili passed out during a meeting with his lawyer and his life is at risk his doctor said. The former president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013 started a hunger strike on October 1 to protest against his incarceration. Considered as the opposition leader, he came back from an 8‑year exile and was immediately arrested, aggravating a political crisis after the legislative elections in 2020 denounced as fraudulent by the opposition.
