The Sunday Subject – October 9, 2022
President Biden pardoned all Americans convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, impacting more than 6,500 people.
Biden also ordered a review of whether marijuana should remain in the same class of drugs as heroin and LSD for sentencing purposes. Recreational marijuana use is legal in 19 states and Washington, DC.
The only bridge linking the occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia was hit by an explosion on Saturday.
The bridge, built by Putin in 2018, was a symbol of Russian occupation and a critical supply line for Russian forces in southern Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, stated, “Everything illegal must be destroyed….everything that is stolen must be returned.” Ukrainians are now bracing for retaliation from Russia.
Young women protestors chanted in opposition to Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, when he visited a university in Tehran.
The protestors told him to “get lost” as he has continued to criticize demonstrations across the country following the death of Masha Amini in the custody of the country’s religious police.
Brazil’s presidential election will go to a run-off after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president, won the first round on Sunday but failed to secure a majority.
Lula, as he is known in Brazil, took 48% of the vote, while Jair Bolsonaro, the populist right-wing incumbent, took 43%. The next round will take place on October 30th.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time since 2017.
Kishida Fumio, Japan’s prime minister, described the move as “barbaric,” while South Korea accused North Korea of “reckless provocations.” In a speech to parliament on Saturday, Kim Jong Un reiterated that his country would never give up its nuclear arsenal as long as “nuclear weapons exist on earth and imperialism remains.”
