Asia Syria Hundreds of Kurdish students in Hassakeh and Kobani refused to enter their classrooms as the 2026–27 school year began, protesting a decision that reduces Kurdish-language instruction to three periods per week, demanding the decision be reversed
Europe Lithuania Palanga Airport opens today after 45 days of reconstruction and modernization works; capacity is expecting to go from 300.000 to half a million passengers per year
Africa Guinea-Bissau Cases of leprosy have been reported among wild chimpanzees: the first confirmed case of leprosy in non-human animals on the African continent
Europe France National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has vowed to stop subsidies for solar and wind energy and dismantle wind farms if she wins the French presidential election in April
Asia Singapore The current zero growth rate per year will be maintained for cars and motorbikes until January 2025, due to both land constraints and the increasing availability of alternatives such as public transport; growth rates were frozen in 2018 to reduce cars
Africa Eritrea United Nations General Assembly has chosen Eritrea, often criticised for alleged rights abuses, to take a seat on the UN Human Rights Council as of 1 January
America Bahamas The prime minister and his cabinet will discuss what to do with the Columbus statue that was damaged by a man with a sledgehammer, saying he empathises with those who want to erase memories of the colonial past, not condoning violence and destruction
America Guyana The government finalised discussions to build a 220-kilometer subsea gas pipeline in order to depend solely on national energy to deliver goods and services, therefore attracting more foreign direct investment
Europe Spain Two generations of botanists have completed a titanic task, describing the 6.120 plants of Spain and Portugal; after 39 years and 255 authors, it has been discovered that 22% of the species on the Iberian Peninsula do not grow anywhere else in the world
Europe Poland Polish expert Jacek Bartosiak, founder of the think tank Strategy and Future, has joined forces with Hungarian-born US geopolitical forecaster George Friedman to write a book on geopolitics in space
America Nicaragua The Council of the European Union announced that the already imposed sanctions against the country will be prolonged due to the increasing sociopolitical retrogression that is overtaking the state
Asia Thailand A new, rare plant species - Sirindhorniana - has been discovered on the bark of large trees in mountainous areas in Ratchaburi; there is concern that they would sold as cheap ornament for their colorful leafs losing a treasure of biodiversity
America Honduras The government formally declared that prioritized groups will have to receive the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine
America Belize The country received a donation of US$125 million from The Global Fund for Coral Reefs, since the Belizean Coral Reef is part of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites Under Threat; the aim of this donation is to prevent the rapid deterioration of marine life