UNITED STATES: A group of Hispanic legislators in Connecticut has proposed that the state bans the term “Latinx” from official government documents, calling it offensive to Spanish speakers.

The word is used as a gender-neutral alternative to “Latino” and “Latina” and is helpful in supporting people who do not identify as either male or female, according to the word’s supporters.

Last month, Arkansas banned government officials from using Latinx on formal documents as part of several orders issued by right-wing Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

PERU: Congress has voted down another bid to bring forward elections from April 2024 to this year, a change sought by President Dina Boluarte to calm anti-government protests that have left dozens of people dead since they began seven weeks ago.

After five hours of debate on Wednesday, legislators rejected a Bill that would have rescheduled the elections to December by 68 votes to 54, with two abstentions.

TURKEY: Ankara won’t allow Sweden to join the Nato military alliance as long as the country permits protests desecrating Islam’s holy book to take place, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reaffirmed on Wednesday.

Turkey has been infuriated by a series of demonstrations in Stockholm.

In one case, a single anti-Islam activist burned the Koran outside the Turkish embassy. 

EGYPT:  A fire at a hospital in Cairo has killed at least three people and injured at least 32 others.

The Health Ministry said that Wednesday’s blaze broke out at the charity-run Noor Mohammadi hospital in the Matariya district in the east of the Egyptian capital.