Redcuban1959
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Brazil to Provide Aid to Poor Students to Finish High School
President Lula da Silva stated that investment in education will prevent many young people from ending up in organized crime.
On Friday, President Lula da Silva announced a program through which the Brazilian government will provide assistance of up to US$1,880 to low-income students completing the three years of high school.
The Brazilian leader stated that this investment in education would prevent many young people from ending up in organized crime, leading to a reduction in prison spending.
"What we are trying to do is to prevent the money we are currently allocating to education from being invested in prisons in the future to rehabilitate young people who lacked opportunities and fell into crime," Lula said.
The scholarship will benefit around 2.5 million youths aged 15 to 17 who, due to a lack of opportunities, "fall into drugs and become zombies in the streets, walking without any respect for society and without prospects."
The program involves opening a savings account for the students, with the government initially depositing US$41 when the student enrolls in each of the three years of high school.
Each year, the recipient will receive nine installments of US$41, provided they demonstrate an 80 percent attendance rate in classes. At the end of the cycle, they will receive US$203 for completing their studies and an additional US$41 if they take the university entrance exam.
Savings can only be withdrawn when the student completes each year of high school and fulfills all requirements. The government's goal is to encourage young people to stay in school and take the exam that could open doors to university.
Currently, 9 out of 100 students enrolled in the first year of high school drop out before completion. This means that there are approximately 480,000 Brazilians of high school age who left school, largely because they need to work to support their families.
"What we want is education that everyone has access to and that everyone stays in," said Education Minister Camilo Santana, who estimates that the program will require an annual investment of US$1.4 billion.
“Decisions endangering the existence of the State of Israel should not be heard,” National Security Minister Ben-Gvirsaid.
On Friday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir downplayed the decisions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and called it "anti-Semitic."
"The decision of the anti-Semitic Hague Court demonstrates what was already known: this court does not seek justice but the persecution of the Jewish people," he said.
“Decisions that endanger the existence of the State of Israel should not be heard,” the far-right politician said.
"We must continue crushing the enemy until a total victory," Ben-Gvir stated after the ICJ ordered Israel to "take all measures to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza."
His statements come as the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 25,900 since Oct. 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, in a video statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel "will continue to defend itself against Hamas," thus denying once again that the Israeli occupation forces' deadly offensive in Gaza is against Palestinian civilians.
The Zionist leader also rejected the charge of "genocide" leveled by South Africa as "not only false, it's outrageous."
Peru: Tourist activity at Machu Picchu was affected after several social organizations in the city of Cusco called for an indefinite general strike to exert more pressure on the decision to sell tickets to the cultural heritage site.
The Brazilian vice-president is posting memes on twitter portraying people who don't like Lula's government as soyjaks. 
I may be wrong, but Ecuador, under the leftist Rafael Correa, did the same thing. He jailed practically all the country's top criminals, but after that he immediately started supporting social policies and gave the prisons a better budget to deal with it and rehabilitated some of the criminals.
During Correa's government, Ecuador was the safest country in South America. Then came the comprador Lenin Moreno, who destroyed these policies and cut police salaries and the prison budget.
At least Ortega got his party democratically elected to carry out his reforms. Bukele practically used the police and army as his personal henchmen to intimidate the legislative and judiciary into approving his reforms.
Also, Bukele's idea of putting a bunch of people in a mega-prison can't last forever. It will be like Ecuador, but much worse, if there is a big enough riot there.
In Mexico, there is a term limit of 6 years per president. Iirc, during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s/1920s, they came to an agreement that this was a way to stop people committing electoral fraud and to discourage dictators from taking power. This didn't stop the PRI from ruling Mexico for around 60 years. Furthermore, AMLO has said that he will retire from public life after his presidency ends.
The Venezuelan Supreme Court has confirmed the disqualification of Maria Corina Machado, chosen by the opposition, from being a candidate in this year's elections.
The Court's decision casts doubt on the continuity of sanctions relief by the United States.
It's Guaido's Time 
El Salvador Presidential Elections polls:
Nayib Bukele | Nuevas Ideias: 90,0%
Joel Sanchez | ARENA: 5,0%
Juan Manuel Flores | FMNL: 4,0%
Others: 1,0%
Mexican Presidential Election polls:
Cláudia Sheinbaum (AMLO's party) | MORENA-PT-PVEM - 59.0%
Xóchitl Gálvez | PAN-PRI-PRD - 22.1%
Jorge Alvarez | MC - 3.8%
Ancap Update:
Argentina's Economy Minister, Luis Caputo, announced that the government has decided to remove the chapter dealing with the tax reform from the draft General Framework Law in order to facilitate its approval.
In Caputo's announcement, where he said that the government would remove the chapters dealing with tax reform from the General Framework Law, he also said that pension reform and retirement formulas would also be removed from the text.
Guillermo Ferraro, Argentina's Infrastructure Minister, will leave his post for "personal" reasons, and the country's Economy Ministry, headed by Luis Caputo, will take over the functions of this ministry.
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