Archive

October 06, 2023

Speak, Calliope

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Speak, Calliope LIBYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbf539f5-8945-4e8b-9453-35a595c0de45.png"] Poet Mustafa al-Trabelsi penned eerily prescient lines in the days before he would die in a flood in the city of Derna, on eastern Libya’s Mediterranean coast. “The rain /Exposes the drenched streets, /the cheating contractor, /and the failed state,” he wrote...

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October 05, 2023

A Family Affair

NEED TO KNOW A Family Affair INDONESIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ec0c6f24-24ad-434b-bf1d-56e472da6e67.png"] Kaesang Pangarep, a 28-year-old YouTube influencer and entrepreneur who is also the youngest son of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, recently became the head of the youth-oriented political organization, the Indonesian Solidarity Party. His rise to power is now raising questions...

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October 04, 2023

Looking Outward

NEED TO KNOW Looking Outward CANADA/ INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8412b56a-7633-de79-e4b2-da6875292028.png"] Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently said that his government was open to investigating any information that Canadian officials might produce in relation to the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver in June. Jaishankar’s announcement came more than...

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October 03, 2023

Roots and Branches

NEED TO KNOW Roots and Branches UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov resigned in early September. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that, while Reznikov had succeeded in obtaining sophisticated weaponry from the West for Ukraine’s war against Russia, he had presided over “chaos and disorder” in the Ministry of...

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October 02, 2023

Disappearing the Disappeared

NEED TO KNOW Disappearing the Disappeared MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recently announced that prosecutors had sought to arrest 16 more members of the Mexican military in relation to the disappearance of 43 students in 2014. The announcement came after a Mexican judge...

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September 29, 2023

Fickle Friend

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Fickle Friend SLOVAKIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/def5a447-d17d-4b18-8656-a0934b7c83eb.png"] Since the invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has become diplomatically isolated from the West – but not everywhere in Europe. Russophobes, in fact, are sounding alarms about the candidacy of Roberto Fico in Slovakia’s general election on Sept. 30. “We are...

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September 28, 2023

An Absolute Problem

NEED TO KNOW An Absolute Problem ESWATINI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e564c03c-87c1-b4d7-d7d9-39a3e0290133.png"] Late last year, pro-democracy activists, political dissidents, and others gathered in South Africa to discuss how they might compel King Mswati III, the absolute monarch of the tiny, independent landlocked nation of Eswatini, to resign. Soon after, in January 2023, gunmen...

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September 27, 2023

Despair in the Black Garden

NEED TO KNOW Despair in the Black Garden ARMENIA/ AZERBAIJAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a090b285-d5d2-89d8-d770-d40b6cc60381.png"] Another nightmare appears to be unfolding on the far edge of Europe. Thousands of ethnic Armenians over the past week have fled the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijani forces seized the territory, seeking refuge in the nearby republic...

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September 26, 2023

Bricks and Blood

NEED TO KNOW Bricks and Blood MOROCCO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7407425-5e72-f4fb-9024-3d6b302b6efd.png"] Mohammed Ounasser lost his wife and two daughters when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco on Sept. 8 and leveled their village of Tnirte in the High Atlas Mountains. “This once-idyllic hamlet, nestled in apple and apricot groves, is now...

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September 25, 2023

Halal Cash

NEED TO KNOW Halal Cash RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Russia launched a pilot program this month for Islamic banks in the Muslim-majority regions of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chechnya, and Dagestan. Islamic law holds that banks can’t charge interest. But they can share in the client’s profits and risks. Additionally, Islamic banks don’t...

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September 22, 2023

The Micro and the Macro

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Micro and the Macro ANDORRA/ MONACO/ SAN MARINO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ed203f80-5d84-716a-32c3-40df727bbfb9.png"] Three microstates with a combined population of only 150,000 people could pose macroeconomic threats to Europe. Andorra, a principality that sits on the border between France and Spain; Monaco, a city-state within France near the Italian...

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September 21, 2023

Scattered and Scarred

NEED TO KNOW Scattered and Scarred ERITREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a90fd977-7674-18bb-a4c1-4c046edb3465.png"] Recently, the Israeli government appropriated $7.85 million to “encourage the voluntary repatriation of infiltrators” and repair any damage they may have caused. “The distress of the residents of the neighborhoods that are saturated with infiltrators is a problem for all of...

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September 20, 2023

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

NEED TO KNOW R.E.S.P.E.C.T. SOUTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96aac4ab-2540-4b79-8f3f-2a21e22e27fe.png"] South Korean teachers say they have it tough. Their complaints include pupils assaulting them in the classroom, lawsuits from unhappy parents, and stress that turns their hair gray, the Telegraph reported. The salaries of teachers early in their careers, furthermore, are among the...

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September 19, 2023

The Black Gold Rush

NEED TO KNOW The Black Gold Rush GUYANA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f8be526f-1a25-4582-b3e1-262a3f003cd5.png"] A remarkable economic experiment is occurring now in Guyana, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Oil giants like ExxonMobil, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, and TotalEnergies are now bidding on the rights to drill for black...

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September 18, 2023

The Power in Numbers

NEED TO KNOW The Power in Numbers WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] An economist from Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICS in 2001 as an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. As the Library of Congress described it, these developing countries were becoming more important to the global...

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September 15, 2023

A Worn Out Welcome

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW A Worn Out Welcome GABON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8b6af594-29cd-4ef9-63c5-84ef31e981ea.png"] The leaders of the Aug. 30 coup that ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon from office recently appointed one of his opponents, economist Raymond Ndong Sima, as interim prime minister. Sima served as prime minister under Bongo from 2012...

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September 14, 2023

Breaking Through the Sky

NEED TO KNOW Breaking Through the Sky INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] The Vikram Moon lander recently hopped across the lunar surface, using its thrusters to float up almost 16 inches above the surface, and then moving another 16 inches laterally. It was the latest inspiring turn in India’s new participation...

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September 13, 2023

Club Fed

NEED TO KNOW Club Fed PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] The special prison that Peruvian officials have established on the outskirts of Lima for presidents convicted of corruption is full. Attorney and pundit Rosa Maria Palacios told National Public Radio that the presence of three former heads of state in the...

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September 12, 2023

Where the Truth Goes to Die

NEED TO KNOW Where the Truth Goes to Die SRI LANKA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d469a690-58fa-4bcb-9cd4-16e56a24386f.png"] On Easter Sunday in 2019, a series of bomb blasts at churches and luxury hotels rocked Sri Lanka, killing 269 people. Authorities blamed members of the National Thowheeth Jama’ath, a local Islamic State-affiliated terrorist group. A few...

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September 11, 2023

Looking for Endings

NEED TO KNOW Looking for Endings UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently praised Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces that invaded its territory last year. “The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground,” Stoltenberg told lawmakers of the European Parliament, according to Reuters. “They have been able to breach the defensive...

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