The last day before our fall break, this year’s winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were announced. This year, the prize was shared between human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties. As we can see, the trend of focusing on human rights and specifically freedom of expression continues. According to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, “They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human right abuses and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.” The actual prize will be given out in Oslo Rådhus on December 10. Check out more on this year’s winners here: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2022/summary/

In the USA, the campaigns for the Midterm Elections are well under way. This congressional election is on November 8 and all members of the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate are on election. Read more about this here: https://www.usa.gov/midterm-state-and-local-elections#item-213861

Also use this learning resource from the New York Times to find out more about what’s at stake in these elections: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/learning/lesson-plans/lesson-plan-understanding-the-issues-of-the-2022-midterm-elections.html?campaign_id=55&emc=edit_ln_20221014&instance_id=74539&nl=the-learning-network&regi_id=107537668&segment_id=109934&te=1&user_id=ff262e6e32a4f841d3b1fb1e2dbc7be0