Teachers strike shuts down Minneapolis schools

Public educators in Minneapolis enter their third week on strike; Japan's sanctions on Russia halt WWII peace talks

Tonight's Sentences was written by Natasha Ishak.

Minneapolis schools stay closed on 11th strike day

Kerem Yucel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

• The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) entered the third week of its worker strike on Monday. The protests have closed schools, keeping 30,000 students at home for an 11th day. [CNN / Joe Sutton and Susannah Cullinane]

• Thousands of educators involved in the strike are demanding better wages, smaller class sizes, mental health support, and safer Covid-19 protocols. [The Hill/ Shirin Ali]

• The union and the school district are negotiating two separate contracts: one for teachers and another for educational support professionals, whose starting salary is about $24,000 annually. [MPR/ Elizabeth Shockman]

• According to union data, Minneapolis Public Schools have lost over 640 educators in the last 18 months; the union believes that’s due to low pay and a grueling workload that often involves matters outside classroom lessons. [Prism / Cirien Saadeh]

• The Minneapolis school district says it made its “last, best, and final offer” to the union on Sunday, a proposal that officials say would force the district to slash $10 million from its school budget next year. [Sahan Journal/ Becky Z. Dernbach]

Russia halts peace treaty talks with Japan after Ukraine sanctions

• On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it would halt WWII peace treaty negotiations with Japan regarding disputed islands, following severe sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. [South China Morning Post]

• Japan, like the US and Europe, imposed severe sanctions on Russian officials and banks, due to the invasion. [The Japan Times]

• Japan’s vice foreign minister, Takeo Mori, defended its sanctions, calling Russia’s dismissal of peace treaty talks “extremely unreasonable.” [Kyodo News]

• Technically, Russia and Japan never formally ended World War II hostilities because of an ongoing territorial dispute over four islands known as the Kurils in Russia and as the Northern Territories in Japan. [Bloomberg / Isabel Reynolds and Greg Sullivan]

• Reconciliation efforts began under former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in part to give Japan a potential ally against China; any alliance between Japan and Russia now seems unlikely. [CNN / Emiko Jozuka and Blake Essig]

Florida’s Miami Beach declared a state of emergency following multiple shootings over the weekend and will impose a midnight curfew starting Thursday. [NBC News / Doha Madani]

• The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are facing protests and demands for reparations on their tour of former British colonies in the Caribbean. [Yahoo News / Katie Kindelan]

• Former President Donald Trump’s ex-assistant appeared virtually before the House’s Jan 6 investigation committee. [ABC News / Benjamin Siegel and Katherine Faulders]

• Chile entered the UN Escazu Agreement, a landmark environmental treaty, under its new left-wing president, Gabriel Boric. [Al Jazeera]

"We think of them as superheroes now, but like, if they were still recharged and they felt like they knew what was happening and that they weren't taking on too much work, I think it would be a different school. I think it would be a different district."

[Minneapolis high schooler Chris McCracken, whose mom is a school nurse, on the importance of mental health support for teachers]

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