WORLD AGENDA NOVEMBER 2019 ------------------------------ Nov 3, U.S.: The year-long countdown to the election for the presidency and control of both houses of Congress begins, with pressure mounting on Republican incumbent Donald Trump ------------------------------ Nov 10, Spain: The second election this year and fourth in four years takes place after Socialist acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez failed to get the necessary support to form a government in April. Unrest in Catalonia is expected to dominate the debate in the lead-up ------------------------------ Nov 20, Japan: Shinzo Abe becomes the country’s longest-serving prime minister but his LDP coalition lost its supermajority in the Upper House election in July – a setback to Abe’s long-held quest to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution ------------------------------ Nov 8, Mexico: Hernán Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire 500 years ago, winning Mexico for Spain at the cost of vast numbers of indigenous lives. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants an apology from Spain and the Vatican ------------------------------ Nov 10, Russia: The centenary of the birth of Mikhail Kalashnikov offers Russians a new opportunity to honour the inventor of the AK-47 ------------------------------ Nov 9, Germany: Berlin celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the Iron Curtain between the communist east and the capitalist west during the Cold War ------------------------------ Nov 11-12, Space: Earthlings with a good telescope will be able to observe one of the rarest astronomical events – a transit of Mercury across the face of the sun ------------------------------ Nov 28, Thailand: The Cave, the first of several films about the perilous 2018 mission to find and extract 12 boys and their soccer coach from deep underground, is released ------------------------------ Sources: NewsAhead, Julie Mullins Pictures: Getty Images, NASA, De Warrenne Pictures © GRAPHIC NEWS 282 words