Archive

October 28, 2022

Blood and Soil

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Blood and Soil TANZANIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7819ef2-af28-4877-8ca5-9689142b709a.png"] The Tanzanian government describes the transfer of ethnic Maasai people from their traditional homelands as “voluntary relocation.” The Maasai call it “eviction,” Le Monde reported. The truth is far more complicated, especially after the regional East African Court of Justice recently...

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October 27, 2022

Heroes and Villains

NEED TO KNOW Heroes and Villains NORWAY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/65102137-137a-414d-a10e-0cd0d00c7aa4.png"] Norwegian authorities recently detained a Russian carrying two drones, photos and videos as he tried to return home via the far northern border, CBS News reported. The arrest followed sightings of drones flying off the Norwegian coast near oil and...

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October 26, 2022

Turning to the World

NEED TO KNOW Turning to the World ALGERIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/afd743d3-28d8-42d3-ad85-cbd124324f7b.png"] Algeria’s authoritarian rulers have a mixed relationship with globalization. After winning independence from France in a bloody war that ran from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, Algeria championed decolonization and the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War. After a...

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October 25, 2022

Soft Upper Lip

NEED TO KNOW Soft Upper Lip UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Liz Truss declared that she was not a quitter. The next day, she quit. And four days later, a new prime minister was announced. Truss is leaving after only 45 days in office, the shortest tenure...

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October 24, 2022

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

NEED TO KNOW R-E-S-P-E-C-T CENTRAL ASIA/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2e2ef13c-a42d-db72-25cb-edaa084a6043.png"] Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are clashing on their border. Kazakhstan is poised for a “color revolution”. Uzbekistan is welcoming Russians fleeing conscription while its neighbors are wondering how to cope with the sheer numbers of these new arrivals. For years, Russia was...

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October 21, 2022

The Boogeyman

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW The Boogeyman SLOVENIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/91af5831-13d6-a440-6055-3beb55c4774a.png"] In April, Slovenian voters tapped Robert Golob, leader of the Freedom Movement party, to replace as prime minister right-wing populist Janez Jansa, a longtime figure in Slovenian politics and an ally of Hungary’s illiberal nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. But Jansa remains...

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October 20, 2022

The Quiet Bienvenue

NEED TO KNOW The Quiet Bienvenue CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] Politicians in Quebec usually use secession from the federal union of Canada as a wedge issue when seeking votes. Incumbent Québécois Premier Francois Legault, however, opted to forgo talk of breaking from the rest of the country for the provincial...

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October 19, 2022

All Aboard

NEED TO KNOW All Aboard MIDDLE EAST /NORTH AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7000f0bb-c02b-4438-87c6-002be2c0dfc6.png"] France’s national railroad company, SNCF, hoped to build a high-speed train in California in the early 2000s. But the company left the Golden State in 2011, citing its dysfunctional politics, reported the New York Times. Instead, the French...

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October 18, 2022

A Moment to Exhale

NEED TO KNOW A Moment to Exhale GUINEA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/963d6fc3-90db-4090-ad9a-da882d906f12.png"] Djenabou Bah was nine years old in 2009 when she attended a protest against former president Moussa Dadis Camara’s junta in a soccer stadium in the Guinean capital of Conakry. Protesters were singing and dancing when, suddenly, security forces began...

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October 17, 2022

With Friends Like These

NEED TO KNOW With Friends Like These RUSSIA/ CAUCASUS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/462de142-36fd-4c9d-12d5-2bb0dcbcfea0.png"] Armenians have a unique perspective on Russian power. On the farthest-most edge of Europe, the former Soviet republic in the Caucasus hosts a Russian army base and belongs to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance...

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October 14, 2022

Redefining the Mainstream

[featurecontent] Editor’s Note: Dear readers, due to a technical issue, we were unable to deliver the newsletter at our normally scheduled time. We apologize for this inconvenience. NEED TO KNOW Redefining the Mainstream EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] A decade ago, right-wing populism in Europe was still viewed as an outlier, a political...

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October 13, 2022

Try, Try Again

NEED TO KNOW Try, Try Again BURKINA FASO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0c0197a8-9ef4-4935-9656-24fbfbb32b2e.png"] Protesters took to the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, recently to wave Russian flags and condemn alleged meddling by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the impoverished, landlocked West African country’s former colonial...

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October 12, 2022

No Joy in Mudville

NEED TO KNOW No Joy in Mudville BRAZIL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b4df2610-e790-44f6-bec1-f859c705ae8b.png"] Supporters of left-wing Brazilian politician and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or simply “Lula,” suffered a rude awakening recently when, rather than easily winning his country’s presidential race, he now must face the incumbent right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro...

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October 11, 2022

Pushing and Pulling

NEED TO KNOW Pushing and Pulling NORTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/081c0373-fb17-4e7d-af63-346faaef42b7.png"] North Korea recently fired an intercontinental ballistic missile over Japan, one of five such launches in the region over a week-long period despite the crippling sanctions against the autocratic Asian country. The missile fell harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean,...

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October 10, 2022

Great Russia

NEED TO KNOW Great Russia RUSSIA/ UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2aaf5c8d-a4e6-42cf-9dd9-f761d6bfed83.png"] When Ukrainian forces recently retook the city of Lyman from Russian occupiers, resident Elena Kharkovska was surprised to learn that Russian President Vladimir Putin had considered her to be one of his constituents for one day. Lacking electricity or communications...

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October 07, 2022

The Alpine Tremors

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW The Alpine Tremors AUSTRIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f03ece7b-c1d7-408a-bbc9-9e81273af469.png"] The president of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, recently suffered a concussion after falling while hiking in the Alps. As the Daily Beast reported, the 78-year-old Van der Bellen was briefly out of commission, a situation that likely made some...

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October 06, 2022

The Kingdom and the Chaos

NEED TO KNOW The Kingdom and the Chaos LESOTHO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0126ef0b-9a22-c2a5-427c-0e29e9a16add.png"] Born in Shanghai in China, Zhenyu Shao moved to Lesotho 25 years ago and became a citizen in 2006. Now he’s running for parliament in his adopted country when voters go to the polls for a general election...

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October 05, 2022

Little Islands, Big Games

NEED TO KNOW Little Islands, Big Games SOLOMON ISLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3c7e70b3-a24d-4f3a-95d2-795b0355ebe6.png"] Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands distributed almost $2.5 million to 39 out of 50 lawmakers last year. Sogavare arguably wasn’t spending taxpayers’ money, however. He was doling out cash that China gave him specifically to...

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October 04, 2022

Rinse, Repeat

NEED TO KNOW Rinse, Repeat PUERTO RICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/20e7440e-baf0-4e4c-8dd8-699b2e71c3b0.png"] Five years after Hurricane Maria knocked out Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, it’s déjà vu. Hundreds of thousands of residents of the US territory are without power because of Hurricane Fiona, reviving memories of when Maria killed thousands, turned off the...

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October 03, 2022

The Bear’s Market

NEED TO KNOW The Bear’s Market RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Global economic growth will reach only three percent this year due to the lingering effects of Covid-19 and the economic ructions of the Russo-Ukraine War – think higher energy, food prices and other goods. Next year, for the same reasons,...

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