Archive

August 01, 2024

Carrying On

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Carrying On UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1145e69e-0993-82c7-7183-cecfc2a2ac34.png"] Tatiana Putria is a nurse in the Kherson region of Ukraine. “I am not a hero, I am a medic,” Putria told the United Nations Population Fund. “Often we are afraid to drive to certain areas. Sometimes, the residents say to us,...

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August 01, 2024

Baby Onboarding

NEED TO KNOW Baby Onboarding ASIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/07abf1df-0286-1628-c001-b2b23952f483.png"] In Japan, a diapers company recently announced that it would be switching its focus from babies to adults – it’s been years since the sales of its products for seniors vastly outpaced those for infants. Across East Asia and elsewhere on the...

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July 31, 2024

Growing Back Limbs

NEED TO KNOW Growing Back Limbs IRAQ/ SYRIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/26810b8b-421c-70eb-c736-3fda34a28a4e.png"] The terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) no longer makes headlines like the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East do. Ten years ago, however, it was a different story. Then, amid...

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July 30, 2024

Mirror Image

NEED TO KNOW Mirror Image WEST AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/01d49cdb-61dd-cd7c-a674-0b4da8c2471a.png"] Earlier this month, a triumvirate of military leaders who oversee military juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger signed a pact to establish the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a new confederation that they said would combat jihadism and foster...

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July 29, 2024

Port of Call

NEED TO KNOW Port of Call LATIN AMERICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4e55dce7-9684-6d7d-8212-42e469c7fa1f.png"] American Gen. Laura Richardson, who oversees US military operations in Latin America, recently told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that the US needs a new approach to counter Russian and Chinese – especially Chinese – influence in the...

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July 26, 2024

The Three-legged Stool

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Three-legged Stool VENEZUELA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d79e9c71-a431-5182-dcdd-2f3c65026880.png"] Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is running for reelection for a third term on July 28. His strategy includes appearing on the ballot 13 times as the endorsed candidate of different political parties. His main rival, Edmundo González Urrutia, meanwhile, appears...

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July 25, 2024

So Far, So Close

NEED TO KNOW So Far, So Close POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0056703f-d4b7-c8a4-3260-3657af178440.png"] From the mid-16th Century to the late 18th Century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a European power that dominated Central and Northeastern Europe while pioneering democratic models of government. Poland has been at odds with Russia ever since. In 1610, for...

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July 24, 2024

The Practical Prince

NEED TO KNOW The Practical Prince SAUDI ARABIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/41fc0990-4945-0edc-6ee1-a971e46ec742.png"] Chinese solar panel companies TCL Zhonghuan and Jinko Solar reached a $3-billion deal with Saudi Arabian leaders recently to build new solar farms. The agreement highlights how Saudi Arabia has been investing heavily in renewable energy – including billions...

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July 23, 2024

When the Waters Come

NEED TO KNOW When the Waters Come LATIN AMERICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4e55dce7-9684-6d7d-8212-42e469c7fa1f.png"] Climate change allegedly has claimed many victims. Temperatures as high as 117 degrees Fahrenheit were recently causing fatal heat strokes in Pakistan. The South Asian country is on track to warm by almost nine degrees Fahrenheit by the 2090s...

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July 22, 2024

The Blood Minerals

NEED TO KNOW The Blood Minerals RWANDA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c5b845af-ddad-875c-b7f5-fe4838a6ba93.png"] Rwandan President Paul Kagame recently won reelection in a landslide, adding five more years to his 24-year rule. At the point that election officials had counted almost 80 percent of the ballots, he had garnered more than 99 percent of...

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July 19, 2024

The Pot Bubbles Over

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Pot Bubbles Over WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] The recent assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, who is running again for the country’s top leadership post, is just the latest example of how the stew of political violence simmering throughout the world for years is...

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July 18, 2024

Big Pockets

NEED TO KNOW Big Pockets CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] China could be outpacing the US and Europe in the race to realize fusion, a potentially clean energy source that has attracted massive investment in recent years. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese crews work 24 hours a day on...

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July 17, 2024

The Battles and the War

NEED TO KNOW The Battles and the War UNITED KINGDOM/ FRANCE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e8e29128-01ba-0e46-6f25-9ee1467659cc.png"] Right-wing politicians opposed to immigration, the concentration of power in Brussels, and the erosion of traditional Christian culture were expected to sweep into power during a few big elections in Europe after their recent success in...

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July 16, 2024

A Moderate’s Tale

NEED TO KNOW A Moderate’s Tale IRAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/aa73e799-3df4-4d8a-8ec5-35a9feeb2bb4.png"] A moderate candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, shockingly and decisively won the Iranian election earlier this month after his hardline conservative predecessor died in a helicopter crash in May. The cardiac surgeon’s victory over his conservative rivals, despite the purported wishes...

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July 15, 2024

Prosperity, by Fiat

NEED TO KNOW Prosperity, by Fiat RWANDA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ae24d297-b902-4996-a757-c6a84ab9a136.png"] A notable international exchange occurred recently when Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour prime minister of the United Kingdom, announced that he would scrap his Conservative predecessor’s plan to fly migrants to the southern African country of Rwanda. Starmer said the...

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July 12, 2024

The Endgame That Wasn’t

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Endgame That Wasn’t SYRIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e4901088-a8f1-4f67-bb93-075f2af0bff8.png"] Syrian voters will elect their members of parliament on July 15 – or at least some of them will. That’s because polls are only open to those voters who live in territory under the control of President Bashar Assad, which...

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July 11, 2024

Succession

NEED TO KNOW Succession BOLIVIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8ed01a1e-5cea-4b63-b4c0-c3727f7de51c.png"] Bolivian President Luis Arce recently told the Associated Press that his mountainous South American country is not struggling in an economic crisis. Many Bolivians and most economists would disagree. Commercial activity in the capital of La Paz ground to a halt recently, for...

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July 10, 2024

Lost in the Desert

NEED TO KNOW Lost in the Desert AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b8aca45b-1687-4d5b-b62c-09186470d8a2.png"] Bella, 27, from a small village in northern Guinea, decided to try her luck getting to Europe. However, the boat she was on, sailing from Mauritania to Spain, was intercepted by Mauritanian security officials. Soon after, she and about...

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July 09, 2024

Near Abroad Politics

NEED TO KNOW Near Abroad Politics GEORGIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e341329d-b90e-4b8e-8e3b-6429d9366897.png"] Earlier this year, Georgian civilians clashed with riot police in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic in the Caucasus, after the pro-Russian government revived the so-called “foreign agents” law designed to crack down on nonprofits, journalists and other...

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July 08, 2024

Little Dirty Gem

NEED TO KNOW Little Dirty Gem SINGAPORE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7975032b-ee5e-4c38-bc1f-27c01a1778c5.png"] Holders of Singaporean passports are among the luckiest in the world. They can travel to 195 countries without a visa, wrote the South China Morning Post, more than almost any other nationality in the world, including Americans. They have fortune at...

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