Archive

November 07, 2023

Pick Your King

NEED TO KNOW Pick Your King MALAYSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/053b35ef-03dc-4aeb-b916-fe602f4772eb.jpg"] Malaysia has a unique form of constitutional monarchy. Every five years, nine sultans convene at the Conference of Rulers – each sultan is also the sovereign of a state in the Southeast Asian country – to elect a new king...

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November 06, 2023

The Calamity Next Door

NEED TO KNOW The Calamity Next Door EGYPT [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/180d3d63-0093-422e-a6d2-b3d9896f0053.png"] Most Egyptians are sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians as Israeli forces devastate the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian government, meanwhile, is no friend of Hamas, which massacred Israelis on Oct. 7 and has launched missile attacks on Israel...

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November 03, 2023

Bracing for the Storm

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Bracing for the Storm LEBANON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0326e424-e014-0b21-f1eb-761dce1d14a3.png"] Israel Defense Forces (IDF) recently deployed drones to strike at Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia that also wields significant political power in Lebanon, Reuters reported. The rocket fire and missile exchanges between the IDF and Hezbollah and its allies have...

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November 02, 2023

Books and Bombs

NEED TO KNOW Books and Bombs SOMALIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/15cd6f05-9c0c-4887-86f7-20dad73138cf.png"] A locally filmed, 10-part television series about Mogadishu high school students called “Arday” hit the Somali airwaves earlier this year, the Washington Post reported. A book fair, newly opened theaters, and art exhibitions have also cultivated a new Somali culture...

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November 01, 2023

Operation Dismantlement

NEED TO KNOW Operation Dismantlement POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/31d830f6-377a-4afc-861b-7fbf94dce490.png"] The results of the Oct. 15 parliamentary elections in Poland are echoing throughout Europe. Women and young voters helped swing the election to the Civic Coalition and other parties opposing the ruling Law and Justice party, a populist political group that espouses...

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October 31, 2023

Oversight Versus Insight

NEED TO KNOW Oversight Versus Insight ISRAEL/ GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a7853464-ef94-4b48-96b9-d7badbef5e55.png"] On Sept. 11, Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, told members of the military at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, that Israel must be on its guard, now more than...

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October 30, 2023

Something Old, Something New

NEED TO KNOW Something Old, Something New NAGORNO-KARABAKH [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a090b285-d5d2-89d8-d770-d40b6cc60381.png"] Simon Maghakyan, a visiting scholar at Tufts University who studies heritage crime, recently warned in Time magazine that Azerbaijan intends to invade Armenia. This attack would come on the heels of Azerbaijan’s September invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh, a historically Armenian...

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October 27, 2023

Bittersweet Chocolate

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Bittersweet Chocolate IVORY COAST [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a564b077-08a4-45ea-b17f-6979ff1e43c2.png"] Half of the dark chocolate in the world comes from cocoa that originates from Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). As the Hindu explained, the West African country wants to leverage its key location in this massive and lucrative supply chain to...

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October 26, 2023

‘The Champagne Fascist’

NEED TO KNOW ‘The Champagne Fascist’ ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an icon of the far-right in Europe, recently announced that she would separate from her longtime partner Andrea Giambruno, a television journalist. The split came two days after recordings of Giambruno’s “foul remarks and suggestive comments...

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October 25, 2023

Failing a State

NEED TO KNOW Failing a State HAITI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/49e3c059-ec02-49d2-b8d4-2a7e10c83ff3.png"] Kenyan lawmakers are considering a plan to deploy 1,000 police to Haiti. This unique effort – an African democracy sending peacekeeping forces to aid a former French colony where ethnic Africans staged a groundbreaking slave revolt more than two centuries ago...

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October 24, 2023

No Quarter

NEED TO KNOW No Quarter ISRAEL/ GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a7853464-ef94-4b48-96b9-d7badbef5e55.png"] When Israel gave the order to evacuate northern Gaza in advance of military strikes, Lubna and her four children had already left their home there to flee south to her friend’s house, knowing that safety was going to become ever...

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October 23, 2023

Walking the Plank

NEED TO KNOW Walking the Plank PAKISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/eaf17bc7-6468-493e-bfe1-86954ffb120a.png"] Around 700,000 Afghan refugees fled to neighboring Pakistan since 2021 when the Taliban assumed power after the exit of the US military and its allies. They brought the total of Afghans in the country to 3.7 million, according to Human...

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October 20, 2023

Down in the Valleys

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Down in the Valleys SWITZERLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2b943183-27c5-4545-a4cd-06237a4dff08.png"] Polls show that Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party will garner the most votes in parliamentary elections on Oct. 22 on vows to address immigration fears, climate activism and “woke” excesses, reported Bloomberg. That’s though Switzerland avoided the worst economic impacts of...

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October 19, 2023

Twirl, Dip and Turn

NEED TO KNOW Twirl, Dip and Turn ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] Argentina’s financial markets reeled in August after presidential candidate Javier Milei won the largest share in the primary election – 30 percent – on a platform of radically cutting spending and using the American currency in place of the...

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October 18, 2023

Bloody Franchise

NEED TO KNOW Bloody Franchise UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] Ukrainians are fighting to defend their country’s sovereignty and, ostensibly at least, democracy. That’s why the US and Europe are supporting Ukrainians’ efforts to defeat Russia. From the Western point of view, it would make sense, then, for Ukraine to hold elections...

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October 17, 2023

The Before and the After

NEED TO KNOW The Before and the After ISRAEL/ GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a7853464-ef94-4b48-96b9-d7badbef5e55.png"] No matter what one thinks of the plight of the Palestinians who have suffered mightily for years under Israeli occupation, the atrocities that have come to light in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct....

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October 16, 2023

Down and Out, Down Under

NEED TO KNOW Down and Out, Down Under AUSTRALIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/81d62805-bef8-41fd-9c0c-ed93ea461226.png"] Australians over the weekend shot down a constitutional amendment to provide the country’s Indigenous peoples with a “Voice,” an advisory body to the national parliament, serving their interests in the country, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. Two-thirds of Australians...

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October 13, 2023

Sovereign Hearts

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Sovereign Hearts POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/31d830f6-377a-4afc-861b-7fbf94dce490.png"] Senior European Union officials are demanding an explanation from Poland over allegations that Polish diplomats sold temporary work visas to African and Asian migrants for thousands of dollars apiece. Polish media outlets have alleged that officials allowed more than 130,000 migrants into...

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October 12, 2023

Plus ça Change

NEED TO KNOW Plus ça Change NEW ZEALAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/35e498e9-3807-40bd-bf6c-8c9506c3b2cf.png"] The former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who served from 2017 through early this year, became a global celebrity after she called for tough firearms laws following a terrorist attack on two mosques in the city of...

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October 11, 2023

Goodbye, Status Quo

NEED TO KNOW Goodbye, Status Quo ISRAEL/ GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a7853464-ef94-4b48-96b9-d7badbef5e55.png"] Thousands of young people were dancing at an outdoor music festival near the Gaza border in southern Israel on Friday when rockets started flying overhead and gunshots sounded, bringing the party – and a threadbare peace – to an...

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