Archive

September 01, 2023

Old Story, New Horrors

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Old Story, New Horrors SUDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/224b0e8f-5be6-4e44-b799-a1b865717c98.png"] Sudan’s military-led central government and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force formerly allied with the government, have been waging a civil war for almost five months. Around 4,000 people have died in the fighting, but neither side...

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August 31, 2023

Europe’s Growing Force

Technical issues affected the formatting of the DailyChatter newsletter you received this morning. We are sending you a corrected version and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. The Editors NEED TO KNOW Europe’s Growing Force SPAIN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9867eeee-5129-4a23-af3d-b9c85aeb55a9.png"] The conservative People’s Party (PP) won the most seats in...

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August 30, 2023

A Toxic Mystery

NEED TO KNOW A Toxic Mystery IRAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/aa73e799-3df4-4d8a-8ec5-35a9feeb2bb4.png"] Someone has been poisoning girls in schools in Iran since November last year. “Victims described smelling peculiar odors, such as citrus, rotting fish, or chlorine, before experiencing symptoms that included vomiting, dizziness, shortness of breath, and fatigue,” wrote the New Yorker...

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August 29, 2023

Mopping Up

NEED TO KNOW Mopping Up GUATEMALA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db73a011-021f-466b-9b89-77add155facc.png"] Anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo won Guatemala’s presidential election on Aug. 20, garnering a clear mandate with nearly 60 percent of the vote. He defeated Sandra Torres, a former first lady, who was a leader in the Central American country’s conservative elite. It...

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August 28, 2023

Walking Out

NEED TO KNOW Walking Out NORTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/081c0373-fb17-4e7d-af63-346faaef42b7.png"] The mother of an American serviceman who sprinted across the border to North Korea last month recently said her 23-year-old son, Travis King, would never seek refuge in the totalitarian country known as the Hermit Kingdom, reported the Army Times. North...

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August 25, 2023

All the Spoils

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW All the Spoils GABON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8b6af594-29cd-4ef9-63c5-84ef31e981ea.png"] Gabon and the Bank of America recently finalized a “debt-for-nature swap,” the first on the African continent, to reduce its debt payments in exchange for promises to invest in conservation measures. Specifically, Gabon will expand a marine park and reform...

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August 24, 2023

The Fraying Chains

NEED TO KNOW The Fraying Chains IRAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/aa73e799-3df4-4d8a-8ec5-35a9feeb2bb4.png"] Almost a year ago, a 22-year-old woman named Mahsa Amini died while in the custody of Iran’s so-called morality police. Her offense was refusing to wear her hijab – a headscarf – contrary to the Islamic Republic’s harsh laws. Amini’s death...

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August 23, 2023

Lose, Lose

NEED TO KNOW Lose, Lose ZIMBABWE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/32d2805e-affb-4474-9ba4-8fc5eae44e98.png"] Police in Zimbabwe arrested 40 leaders of the opposition Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC) party on charges of blocking traffic about a week before the southern African country’s voters go to the polls to choose a new president, parliament, and local...

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August 22, 2023

A Playing Field

NEED TO KNOW A Playing Field PAPUA NEW GUINEA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dbe527fc-305d-4a67-99b3-558321dd4d0f.png"] The world is wooing Papua New Guinea, a poor country to the north of Australia that shares an island with Indonesia. As the Economist wrote, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, American...

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August 21, 2023

Bregret

NEED TO KNOW Bregret UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] Seven years ago, a majority of British voters opted to remove their country from the European Union. Now many are having second thoughts – or “Bregret,” as the New Statesman termed it. The United Kingdom’s exit from the EU is estimated to...

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August 18, 2023

Promises, Betrayed

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Promises, Betrayed AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] This week, the Taliban marked two years since it returned to power following the US-led troop withdrawal. Men and boys waved Taliban flags from armored vehicles, played Taliban songs and spoke about how “happy” they were to finally have freedom, NBC News...

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August 17, 2023

Taming Through Terror

NEED TO KNOW Taming Through Terror ECUADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7dbfcec9-d17b-43ce-97b7-0ce48bb12d1f.png"] Just a few years ago, Ecuador, sandwiched between narco-states Peru and Colombia, then grappling with their own civil conflicts, was an oasis of relative prosperity and peace in the region. Now, as voters go to the polls on Aug. 20 to...

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August 16, 2023

An Unholy Temperature

NEED TO KNOW An Unholy Temperature SWEDEN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3c7156af-17ce-455f-85b2-83980fe2f678.png"] Parents with children throwing tantrums in public to get attention often just try to move to the side, avoid eye contact with bystanders and pray the outbursts will pass quickly without too much notice. That approach hasn’t been working out too...

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August 15, 2023

Squeaky No More

NEED TO KNOW Squeaky No More SINGAPORE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7975032b-ee5e-4c38-bc1f-27c01a1778c5.png"] There’s a tacit agreement between Singapore’s rulers and the population: We the People will settle for less freedom in exchange for safety and prosperity, all overseen by a squeaky-clean government with unquestionable moral rectitude. That pact means that Singaporeans can be...

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August 14, 2023

The War on Culture

NEED TO KNOW The War on Culture UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] As Ukrainian soldiers dig in to make advances on the battlefield in what many say is a stalled offensive, another front in the war has been more successful: the war on Russia’s cultural legacy. It’s an offensive years in the...

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August 11, 2023

Opaque Waters

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Opaque Waters JAPAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ab764327-df98-4918-badd-17c2c79d5685.png"] Chef Kazuyuki Tanioka owns a sushi restaurant called Toya in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Life hasn’t been easy for him in the past few years. China’s coronavirus restrictions nearly ruined him. Now he’s worried about another existential threat to his...

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August 10, 2023

On the Side of Life

NEED TO KNOW On the Side of Life COLOMBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/80e582e1-1ef0-4fb5-a86a-699a8cf7cddf.png"] Pablo Beltran recently visited Bogota, the capital of his native country Colombia, for the first time in 31 years. Beltran is a leader in the National Liberation Army – known by its Spanish acronym ELN – a Marxist...

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August 09, 2023

There, and Back Again

NEED TO KNOW There, and Back Again EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Tunisia recovered more than 900 bodies of migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea from the beginning of the year through July 20, according to Interior Minister Kamel Feki. The North African country this year has been handling a...

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August 08, 2023

Wobbly Stools

NEED TO KNOW Wobbly Stools WEST BANK & GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7446631-e728-4689-8f2d-ebddc1f4962c.png"] Late last month, globetrotting New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman announced that American officials were considering a new security pact with Saudi Arabia. The pact would function like a three-legged stool: The US would give iron-clad security guarantees to...

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August 07, 2023

Watch Your Step

NEED TO KNOW Watch Your Step UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] Some say the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russia appears to be failing. “I think that the Ukrainians expected the counteroffensive to gather sufficient momentum to allow them to continue to push south at a much faster rate,” military intelligence expert Konrad Muzyka...

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