Archive

August 05, 2022

Same Old, Same Old

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Same Old, Same Old IRAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/aa73e799-3df4-4d8a-8ec5-35a9feeb2bb4.png"] Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative former judge, won office a year ago promising change. But the same old problems continue to bedevil the country. The collapse of a luxury building in the southwest city of Abadan in May, a...

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August 04, 2022

Il Duce’s Smile

NEED TO KNOW Il Duce’s Smile ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] Europe’s first fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, once said that “Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice, it is a fallacy.” Democracy might be bringing fascism back to Italy again, however, almost 80 years after Il Duce was executed. That’s because when...

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August 03, 2022

The Bidding War

NEED TO KNOW The Bidding War CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] American and Chinese ships and planes are more frequently encountering each other in the western Pacific Ocean, according to General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff during a recent visit to Indonesia. “The message is the...

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August 02, 2022

Floating On

NEED TO KNOW Floating On EGYPT [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/180d3d63-0093-422e-a6d2-b3d9896f0053.png"] The houseboats of the Nile River in Egypt have a storied past. Many believe the pharaohs used them thousands of years ago for long river voyages, the BBC explained, while in the 19th and 20th centuries Ottoman and British military leaders used...

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August 01, 2022

The Revanchist’s Folly

NEED TO KNOW ­ The Revanchist’s Folly UKRAINE/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2aaf5c8d-a4e6-42cf-9dd9-f761d6bfed83.png"] Russia plans to hold elections in the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and others as early as September, paving the way for Russian President Vladimir Putin to annex those regions in the same way he seized...

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July 29, 2022

A Grand Companion

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW A Grand Companion HONDURAS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5e2a67ee-c113-425a-b7dc-9cb08a72f95e.png"] A judge in Honduras recently sentenced Roberto David Castillo, a top business executive and graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, to 22.5 years in prison for his role in the 2016 murder of Berta Caceres, an indigenous...

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July 28, 2022

The Great War, Redux

NEED TO KNOW The Great War, Redux DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ed507180-9c5f-4223-b88c-6f054c876a9f.png"] The Great African War, or the African World War, took place in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. As many as six million people...

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July 27, 2022

Huffing and Puffing

NEED TO KNOW Huffing and Puffing THAILAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9aed0fb0-f5eb-4eda-ae64-69e423143eb5.png"] Thailand recently decriminalized marijuana, becoming the first country in Asia to embrace a new attitude toward the plant that the locals refer to as ganja. The Southeast Asian country will likely not become a pot-focused tourist haven anytime soon, however, the...

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July 26, 2022

Cycles of Despair

NEED TO KNOW Cycles of Despair HAITI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/49e3c059-ec02-49d2-b8d4-2a7e10c83ff3.png"] The gang warfare that has claimed more than 230 lives in Haiti recently has also threatened to cut off energy imports vital to transportation and electricity generation. As Agence France-Presse reported, the black market in gasoline in the Caribbean nation...

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July 25, 2022

Neighbor Versus Neighbor

NEED TO KNOW Neighbor Versus Neighbor UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/25f6c507-5013-1f57-bcbe-a295d2d6dac9.png"] For months, rumors have spread in Ukraine about locals collaborating with the Russians. As the Washington Post reported, patriotic Ukrainians believe only a treasonous neighbor would give Russian troops information about where residents might store their guns or who among...

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July 22, 2022

The Trains To Nowhere

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW The Trains To Nowhere LAOS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2c88ac81-3523-4a3b-b94d-88479d0a30a0.png"] When Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt in May, as the BBC reported, the resulting loss in confidence in the government led a mob to occupy the presidential palace and mansion. Photos in National Public Radio captured Sri Lankans...

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July 21, 2022

Do Not Pass Go

NEED TO KNOW Do Not Pass Go SUDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/224b0e8f-5be6-4e44-b799-a1b865717c98.png"] A court in Sudan recently sentenced a woman to death by stoning on adultery charges. The cruel decision, the first in a decade, is bad enough, the Guardian reported. But some Sudanese worry that it heralds a new era...

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July 20, 2022

After the Party

NEED TO KNOW After the Party UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] It’s as if Britons are girding for the hangover that is sure to follow the end of the heady, chaotic government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Everyone is wondering what will happen to Britain and the ruling Conservative Party after...

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July 19, 2022

The Widening Sinkhole

NEED TO KNOW The Widening Sinkhole SRI LANKA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d469a690-58fa-4bcb-9cd4-16e56a24386f.png"] Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was once a war hero, known for crushing the Tamil Tigers and putting an end to a brutal 26-year civil war and setting a course to make the country another Asian Tiger. But last week,...

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July 18, 2022

Mirror Image

NEED TO KNOW Mirror Image CHECHNYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/675d9955-4c1c-aa9a-399d-43cd447db84d.png"] The Russian republic of Chechnya is intimately intertwined with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Having battled Russian forces in an unsuccessful bid for independence in the 1990s, Chechens know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of Moscow’s military might. But...

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July 15, 2022

Crimes, Public and Domestic

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Crimes, Public and Domestic PAPUA NEW GUINEA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dbe527fc-305d-4a67-99b3-558321dd4d0f.png"] Police in Papua New Guinea recently detained the son of the country’s prime minister and some construction company executives as they were traveling to a province where parliamentary elections were about to start. The executives were carrying...

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July 14, 2022

Oozing Wounds

NEED TO KNOW Oozing Wounds SYRIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e4901088-a8f1-4f67-bb93-075f2af0bff8.png"] Recently, some British tourists in Aleppo marveled at how rebel snipers a few years ago fired on Syrian government troops from the very same positions where archers nearly a millennia ago defended the ancient Citadel of Aleppo from Christian Crusaders. European tourists...

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July 13, 2022

Still They Come

NEED TO KNOW Still They Come CENTRAL AMERICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/60d6d301-be5e-f358-1b91-da2b679671d6.png"] Fernando José Redondo Caballero, 19, and Alejandro Miguel Andino Caballero, 22, could “barely contain their excitement” about migrating from Honduras to the United States, the Daily News wrote. One had almost completed his degree in business. The other had...

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July 12, 2022

An Exclave’s Tale

NEED TO KNOW An Exclave’s Tale KALININGRAD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/00202c3b-0617-6588-2d5c-ea134119139e.png"] Happenings today surrounding Kaliningrad echo a bygone era when European statesmen standing around an enormous map on a table negotiated borders over cigars and sherry. Kaliningrad was born in that era. As the Guardian explained, Teutonic knights founded the region in...

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July 11, 2022

The To-Do List

NEED TO KNOW The To-Do List JAPAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ab764327-df98-4918-badd-17c2c79d5685.png"] On Friday, a gunman murdered former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, a towering figure in Japan. The seismic impact of that killing will linger for years to come, a Bloomberg opinion piece noted. This is a country where violence is so rare...

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