April 13, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Germans and a Thin-Skinned Dictator President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s critics say he has undermined Turkey’s democracy since he rose to power 13 years ago. He has cracked down on civil society,...
Read full story →April 12, 2016 NEED TO KNOW A Reversal of Fortunes A few years ago, Brazil was looking forward to the 2014 World Cup and the Summer Olympics this year. It was the first country in the...
Read full story →April 11, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Crumbling from Within Ukraine became the victim in a war two years ago that made clear Moscow’s new aggressiveness outside its borders. Now, the country is falling apart. After Russia annexed the...
Read full story →April 8, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Vietnam: No Bold Reforms For New PM Sometimes you need a steady hand on the tiller. Or that’s what Vietnam’s politburo is thinking. With the confirmation of Nguyen Xuan Phuc as...
Read full story →April 7, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Tragedy, Overlooked South Sudan deserves better. The plight of the world’s newest country – South Sudan gained independence in 2011 – is easy to overlook amid the fallout from the Panama...
Read full story →April 6, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Panama Papers: One Down… And so it begins. It was only a matter of time before a leader fell due to the revelations contained in the 11.5 million documents leaked from...
Read full story →April 5, 2016 NEED TO KNOW The Bad Joke: Panama Edition It almost sounds like the start of a bad joke: What do Vladimir Putin, David Cameron's late father and the world's most famous soccer player...
Read full story →April 4, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Europe's Language of Failure What does “irregular migrant” really mean? To European Union officials, it describes an individual who has arrived from outside the bloc without authorization, a person who,...
Read full story →April 1, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Nuclear Future – a Mixed Bag The more than 50 world leaders who met in Washington on Thursday for President Barack Obama’s fourth and final two-day Nuclear Security Summit faced a...
Read full story →March 31, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Myanmar: Turning the Corner If you are of a certain age, it's easy to recall once-unthinkable transformations: The collapse of the Soviet Union; the reunification of Germany; the demise of...
Read full story →March 30, 2016 NEED TO KNOW EgyptAir Hijacking: Time for Jokes An airplane was hijacked and the craziest thing happened – people made jokes. After EgyptAir was forced to land in Cyprus Tuesday – instead of Cairo...
Read full story →March 29, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Pakistan: Selective Targets When did it so specifically become a war on children? Two decades ago, Pakistanis didn't travel on modern highways. Few had telephones or clean drinking water, and many,...
Read full story →March 28, 2016 WANT TO KNOW Does Brussels smell different? Almost a week after the terror attack, a local resident of the Belgian capital noted how everything felt different in the city -- even its smell. Fear,...
Read full story →March 25, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Fighting Terror: Glass Half Full Sometimes, it's just easier to look at the positive side first. That's because in the fight against Islamic State (IS), there’s both good news and bad. For...
Read full story →March 24, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Argentina: Leftover Dinner Call it “dancing with the pols.” In their version of ping-pong diplomacy, America’s hottest reality TV couple – Barack and Michelle to fans – danced the tango at...
Read full story →March 23, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Terror: Europe’s New Normal Beating the Islamic State (IS) – at least in the ground war for the so-called caliphate – may not be such a great thing. Here’s why: Over the...
Read full story →March 22, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Obama in Cuba: Not US and Them OK, so it was awkward. The first visit by a US president to Cuba in 88 years culminated in a sort of high-five-hand-shake-limp-wrist-grab-thing Monday...
Read full story →March 21, 2016 NEED TO KNOW US and Cuba – Playing Ball Imagine this: Welcome signs with the faces of presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro lining the streets of America's Communist Cold War enemy's capital. It's...
Read full story →March 18, 2016 NEED TO KNOW Brazil: Lula Or Bust For Brazil’s beleaguered president, it’s Lula or bust. Supporters of President Dilma Rousseff and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, plan to throng the streets across...
Read full story →March 17, 2016 NEED TO KNOW European Refugees – Passing the Buck European officials desperate for a pat solution to the refugee problem were offered a sweet deal last week – Turkey will take them back. The...
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