New York Democrats prepare for governor contest

Significance The mayoral election starts a busy and uncertain year for Democrats in the city and state of New York. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as governor in August, was widely expected to run for a fourth term in November 2022 and his departure has opened the governor’s race while loosening party discipline. Impacts Hochul’s conservative positions, rooted in her upstate Buffalo base, mean she needs to win some support from the left. New York state’s moratorium on evictions due to the pandemic may be extended beyond its current expiry in January. After legalising the recreational use of marijuana in April, state Democrats must now decide how to regulate the market.

Grammatical Errors on EFL Students’ Conversation Practice: Surface Strategy Taxonomy

The purpose of this study was to analyze grammatical errors on EFL students’ conversation practice. The participants of this study were the fourth term students of Indonesia Institute of Technology and Business, 2020/2021 academic year. The participants taken as the object of this study because after observation in the students’ class found that there were some mistakes on the students’ speech when doing the conversation in English. The population of this study was from English Training class consisted of four parallel classes Semester IV with the total number of the students was 95 students. Purposive sampling technique was used in this study. This study was conducted by using descriptive qualitative research. The data was words, phrases, and sentences which uttered by the students and writing all non-verbal linguistic that students do on their conversation practice. The data was analyzed based on a classification of errors proposed by Dulay, Burt, and Krashen (1982 in Ellis and Barkhuizen, 2005) called Surface Strategy Taxonomy is applied. The errors in students’ speech were classified by using surface structure taxonomy namely misformation, misorder, addition, and omission. The findings of this study show that omission is the most dominant error produced by participants with the percentage 41.30%. It is followed by misformation with total cases 28.26%, addition with total cases 21.73%, and the last followed by misordering with total cases 8.69%.

Congo’s president will secure contested fourth term

Significance Several of the main opposition figures are not participating or have decided to boycott, citing an unlevel playing field. The 2016 election runner-up, Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, is running, although the greatest potential threat to Sassou Nguesso, General Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko, is languishing in jail, serving a 20-year prison sentence for "undermining internal state security". Impacts Genuine political reform that will lead to the separation of powers is highly unlikely under Sassou Nguesso. Despite recent scandals and allegations, the president’s son, Denis-Christel, remains the clear frontrunner to succeed his father. The opposition will likely decry electoral fraud, while unrest in the Pool region is probable, but regional condemnation will be muted.

Belize’s Barrow looks set for re-election in 2020

Subject Belize election outlook. Significance Belize will hold national elections this year, with Prime Minister Dean Barrow set to run for a fourth term in office. The opposition will seek to attack him on issues of crime, migration and weak economic growth. However, his ruling United Democratic Party (UDP) is popular, especially following its victorious campaign in a May 2019 referendum on the country’s territorial dispute with Guatemala. Impacts Increased police funding should bring more officers onto the force in 2020. Migration trends across Central America will impact Belize, as both a destination and transit country. Taiwan will look to increase funding for Belize following the loss of diplomatic support from several other countries in the region.

Fourth term will be tough for Bolivia’s Morales

Headline BOLIVIA: Fourth term will be tough for Morales