Fearing ‘cultural invasion,’ Iran to ban English in schools

IRAN: Fearing “cultural invasion,” authorities banned the teaching of English in primary schools, as they continue to blame widespread protests in 80 cities on Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States. President Hassan Rouhani is calling for a lifting of the ban on social media, but Voice of America spokeswoman Anna Morris told me over the weekend all VOA broadcasts, including social media, remain blocked. Unofficially, Amad News and others continue to use the Telegram app to post protest footage, and many Iranians seem wired via virtual private networks.

SYRIA: Government forces are focusing attacks on rebel-held Idlib province, where a car bombing Sunday killed at least 23 people. Widespread aerial bombardments and fighting in Idlib could force nearly half a million Syrians to seek refuge in neighboring Turkey.

MEXICO: Republican lawmakers in the United States are warning that how President Donald Trump handles NAFTA and plans to build a border wall could hand Mexico’s next election to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a socialist making his third bid for the presidency in elections scheduled for July of this year.

SUDAN: The government has raised the price of flour, doubling the cost of a loaf of bread and fueling further unrest. The resulting protests could become a tipping point in Sudan’s ongoing political and economic crisis, writes analyst Eric Reeves.

AUSTRALIA: Never mind the arctic blast, Down Under it’s been hot enough to melt asphalt.

ZIMBABWE: White farmers who’ve been allowed to return to their land under President Emmerson Mnangagwa are holding cleansing ceremonies before starting over. This story from a year ago about the destruction of the country’s largest mango farm shows dramatically the agricultural base lost under President Robert Mugabe.

UNITED STATES: The flu season is proving more severe than usual, with about twice the number of people reporting flu-like illness to their doctors compared with the same time last year.

GLOBAL: Bill Gates says we don’t talk enough about how the world is getting better.

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