Archive

September 29, 2023

Fickle Friend

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Fickle Friend SLOVAKIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/def5a447-d17d-4b18-8656-a0934b7c83eb.png"] Since the invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has become diplomatically isolated from the West – but not everywhere in Europe. Russophobes, in fact, are sounding alarms about the candidacy of Roberto Fico in Slovakia’s general election on Sept. 30. “We are...

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September 28, 2023

An Absolute Problem

NEED TO KNOW An Absolute Problem ESWATINI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e564c03c-87c1-b4d7-d7d9-39a3e0290133.png"] Late last year, pro-democracy activists, political dissidents, and others gathered in South Africa to discuss how they might compel King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of the tiny, independent landlocked nation of Eswatini, to resign. Soon after, in January 2023, gunmen...

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September 27, 2023

Despair in the Black Garden

NEED TO KNOW Despair in the Black Garden ARMENIA/ AZERBAIJAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a090b285-d5d2-89d8-d770-d40b6cc60381.png"] Another nightmare appears to be unfolding on the far edge of Europe. Thousands of ethnic Armenians over the past week have fled the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijani forces seized the territory, seeking refuge in the nearby republic...

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September 26, 2023

Bricks and Blood

NEED TO KNOW Bricks and Blood MOROCCO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7407425-5e72-f4fb-9024-3d6b302b6efd.png"] Mohammed Ounasser lost his wife and two daughters when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco on Sept. 8 and leveled their village of Tnirte in the High Atlas Mountains. “This once-idyllic hamlet, nestled in apple and apricot groves, is now...

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September 25, 2023

Halal Cash

NEED TO KNOW Halal Cash RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Russia launched a pilot program this month for Islamic banks in the Muslim-majority regions of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chechnya, and Dagestan. Islamic law holds that banks can’t charge interest. But they can share in the client’s profits and risks. Additionally, Islamic banks don’t...

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September 22, 2023

The Micro and the Macro

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Micro and the Macro ANDORRA/ MONACO/ SAN MARINO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ed203f80-5d84-716a-32c3-40df727bbfb9.png"] Three microstates with a combined population of only 150,000 people could pose macroeconomic threats to Europe. Andorra, a principality that sits on the border between France and Spain; Monaco, a city-state within France near the Italian...

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September 21, 2023

Scattered and Scarred

NEED TO KNOW Scattered and Scarred ERITREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a90fd977-7674-18bb-a4c1-4c046edb3465.png"] Recently, the Israeli government appropriated $7.85 million to “encourage the voluntary repatriation of infiltrators” and repair any damage they may have caused. “The distress of the residents of the neighborhoods that are saturated with infiltrators is a problem for all of...

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September 20, 2023

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

NEED TO KNOW R.E.S.P.E.C.T. SOUTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96aac4ab-2540-4b79-8f3f-2a21e22e27fe.png"] South Korean teachers say they have it tough. Their complaints include pupils assaulting them in the classroom, lawsuits from unhappy parents, and stress that turns their hair gray, the Telegraph reported. The salaries of teachers early in their careers, furthermore, are among the...

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September 19, 2023

The Black Gold Rush

NEED TO KNOW The Black Gold Rush GUYANA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f8be526f-1a25-4582-b3e1-262a3f003cd5.png"] A remarkable economic experiment is occurring now in Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Oil giants like ExxonMobil, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and TotalEnergies are now bidding on the rights to drill for black...

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September 18, 2023

The Power in Numbers

NEED TO KNOW The Power in Numbers WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] An economist from Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICS in 2001 as an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. As the Library of Congress described it, these developing countries were becoming more important to the global...

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September 15, 2023

A Worn Out Welcome

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW A Worn Out Welcome GABON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8b6af594-29cd-4ef9-63c5-84ef31e981ea.png"] The leaders of the Aug. 30 coup that ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon from office recently appointed one of his opponents, economist Raymond Ndong Sima, as interim prime minister. Sima served as prime minister under Bongo from 2012...

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September 14, 2023

Breaking Through the Sky

NEED TO KNOW Breaking Through the Sky INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] The Vikram Moon lander recently hopped across the lunar surface, using its thrusters to float up almost 16 inches above the surface, and then moving another 16 inches laterally. It was the latest inspiring turn in India’s new participation...

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September 13, 2023

Club Fed

NEED TO KNOW Club Fed PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] The special prison that Peruvian officials have established on the outskirts of Lima for presidents convicted of corruption is full. Attorney and pundit Rosa Maria Palacios told National Public Radio that the presence of three former heads of state in the...

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September 12, 2023

Where the Truth Goes to Die

NEED TO KNOW Where the Truth Goes to Die SRI LANKA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d469a690-58fa-4bcb-9cd4-16e56a24386f.png"] On Easter Sunday in 2019, a series of bomb blasts at churches and luxury hotels rocked Sri Lanka, killing 269 people. Authorities blamed members of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath, a local Islamic State-affiliated terrorist group. A few...

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September 11, 2023

Looking for Endings

NEED TO KNOW Looking for Endings UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently praised Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces that invaded its territory last year. “The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground,” Stoltenberg told lawmakers of the European Parliament, according to Reuters. “They have been able to breach the defensive...

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September 08, 2023

Resetting the Rudder

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Resetting the Rudder MALDIVES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e808e12a-9c97-7e3a-2d92-f3b344e1fae9.png"] In early August, the supreme court of the Maldives, the archipelago nation off India’s southwest coast, ruled that ex-President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom could not take up his former job again because of his conviction on corruption and money laundering...

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September 07, 2023

The Dismantling

NEED TO KNOW The Dismantling ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] For generations, Argentina’s economy has struggled with debt, inflation, and other economic challenges. Today, the South American country is printing money to pay its bills while also withdrawing $7.5 billion from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program, adding to the...

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September 06, 2023

Cracks in the Tent Pole

NEED TO KNOW Cracks in the Tent Pole CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] For the past 25 years, pundits in the West have been issuing dire warnings about China’s economy surpassing that of the United States, a shift that they feared would herald a new China-led global geopolitical system. Today, however, China’s...

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September 05, 2023

Stumbling To the Starting Line

NEED TO KNOW Stumbling To the Starting Line LIBYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbf539f5-8945-4e8b-9453-35a595c0de45.png"] Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush fled to Turkey last week after the oil-rich country’s prime minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, sacked her amid protests stemming from news that she had met with the Israeli foreign minister in Rome. Israel’s Foreign...

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September 04, 2023

Next Steps

NEED TO KNOW Next Steps RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] DNA tests prove that the leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a plane crash last month, Russian officials said recently. As Reuters wrote, the tests could put to rest speculation that Prigozhin was not on the plane...

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