Archive

March 18, 2022

When Dreams Become Nightmares

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW When Dreams Become Nightmares UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dce492ba-22fe-b9ad-f692-6f5eeb441d37.png"] When Russia recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine shortly before it invaded the country in late February, some locals were thrilled. They thought eight years of war would finally come to an end. "The recognition...

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March 17, 2022

Stifled Spring

NEED TO KNOW Stifled Spring TUNISIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f262cf6-0ed8-4367-aeca-5f0f2b6684d0.png"] Tunisian President Kais Saied recently extended his North African country’s state of emergency through the end of the year. The emergency order has been in effect since 2015 following a terrorist attack that resulted in the deaths of several presidential guards....

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March 16, 2022

A Wobbly Fence

NEED TO KNOW A Wobbly Fence INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/77bfa5a5-e30b-cebc-e08e-ada1a8fb7f63.png"] Most United Nations members rallied to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine last month. India, the world’s largest democracy, however, chose to sit on the fence, abstaining from the two votes. The reason was longstanding ties with Russia that some...

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March 15, 2022

Different Strokes, Different Folks

NEED TO KNOW Different Strokes, Different Folks WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Danish officials don’t think children need Covid-19 vaccinations. They don’t think citizens who are at a high risk of a severe reaction to infection should receive a fourth booster shot. They’ve lifted mask mandates, eliminated vaccine passports and other...

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March 14, 2022

Master and Servant

NEED TO KNOW Master and Servant WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] At least two storylines have formed around Russia, Ukraine and world energy supplies and prices. The first warns of the potential consequences of countries taking a principled stand on the war and violence in Ukraine and rejecting Russian oil outright without...

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March 11, 2022

Awkward Alliances

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Awkward Alliances CHINA/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/21f9e324-4daf-4230-9a72-9b7adfd30562.png"] Chinese President Xi Jinping once described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “my closest foreign colleague and my best confidant.” Their affinity makes sense. The two men are the world’s most powerful autocrats, the New Yorker magazine noted. Now, however, Putin’s invasion...

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March 10, 2022

Dictatorship 2.0

NEED TO KNOW Dictatorship 2.0 TURKMENISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b168b666-d25a-47b3-9e9e-747b1b8c92c8.png"] The 40-year old son of Turkmenistan's president, Serdar Berdymukhamedov, recently hit the campaign trail. Some wonder why he bothered. He's the shoo-in for March 12 elections – a dauphin with a long list of titles including deputy prime minister. The eight other...

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March 09, 2022

War Games

NEED TO KNOW War Games UKRAINE/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2aaf5c8d-a4e6-42cf-9dd9-f761d6bfed83.png"] Ukrainian forces recently attacked Russian vehicles after they received a tip through the encrypted, unmoderated social media app Telegram. As NBC News wrote, Telegram has become an essential tool for Ukrainians in the real world and a battleground in the...

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March 08, 2022

Of Handicapped Wins

NEED TO KNOW Of Handicapped Wins SOUTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96aac4ab-2540-4b79-8f3f-2a21e22e27fe.png"] More than 70 percent of South Koreans favor their country deploying nuclear weapons. They believe that the weapons of mass destruction might be their best defense against Chinese or North Korean aggression, according to a Chicago Council on Global...

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March 07, 2022

The Great Awakening

NEED TO KNOW The Great Awakening EUROPE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f9c83d42-7d43-4e2f-a6d6-f7bf04744b7d.png"] When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded the former Soviet republic of Ukraine late last month, he claimed he was pushing back against aggressive Western powers that were impinging on Russian interests. If that was Putin’s strategy, it arguably backfired. A...

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March 04, 2022

Welcoming the Stranger

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Welcoming the Stranger UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/83250f40-48a8-4200-5d03-072df5389153.png"] Apartment-sharing app Airbnb is offering free temporary housing to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees who have scrambled across their neighbors’ borders in cars, buses, trains and on foot to flee Russian bombs and bullets. The Silicon Valley company and hosts were underwriting...

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March 03, 2022

The End, the Beginning

NEED TO KNOW The End, the Beginning UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/83250f40-48a8-4200-5d03-072df5389153.png"] A week ago, Russia began bombing Ukraine. Seven days later, it's a different world. That's because in that week, as massively outgunned Ukrainians put up fierce resistance, nations around the world have moved to express outrage in ways big and...

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March 02, 2022

The Kitchen Sink

NEED TO KNOW The Kitchen Sink RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Before the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the communist Soviet Union was largely cut off from free markets in the West. The result was an economy that, while powerful, failed to evolve as digital technology, high...

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March 01, 2022

Profiles in Courage

NEED TO KNOW Profiles in Courage UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a38e4a90-b87b-9e52-9b4f-f6cd33e8942c.png"] On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece from a Ukrainian journalist arguing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a 44-year-old former comedian and actor, was in over his head. A week later, it’s an understatement...

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February 28, 2022

Meanwhile, On the Home Front

Editor’s Note: Some subscribers reported problems with Friday’s edition of DailyChatter including the size of the newsletter text. We have resolved the technical issue causing the problem. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. NEED TO KNOW Meanwhile, On the Home Front RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of...

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February 25, 2022

Bully, Unmasked

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Bully, Unmasked UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a38e4a90-b87b-9e52-9b4f-f6cd33e8942c.png"] Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv Thursday as the Ukrainian government warned of bombs following Russia's morning attack on dozens of targets across Ukraine. Streets were clogged with locals trying to withdraw money or stock up on supplies – some also...

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February 24, 2022

A Long, Crooked Road

NEED TO KNOW A Long, Crooked Road SOMALIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/15cd6f05-9c0c-4887-86f7-20dad73138cf.png"] Al-Shabab terrorists recently killed five people, including two children, in an attack in the Darussalam neighborhood in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, a newly developed district that has received much investment in recent years. The violence came on the...

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February 23, 2022

The Borderland

NEED TO KNOW The Borderland RUSSIA/UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2aaf5c8d-a4e6-42cf-9dd9-f761d6bfed83.png"] Ukraine means “borderland” in Slavic languages. Today, the fate of the country could determine a new frontier between Eastern and Western Europe. That's because when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to roll into two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine on...

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February 22, 2022

Greasing the Wheels

NEED TO KNOW Greasing the Wheels ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] The Italian judicial system took almost 20 years to determine whether a couple living near Genoa could compel their neighbors to stop flushing their toilet at night. Recently, the southern European country’s top court ruled in the couple’s favor, determining...

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February 21, 2022

It’s Good to Be King

NEED TO KNOW It’s Good to Be King JORDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8e349f45-1adc-4062-b298-9fdf38aa8f40.png"] Jordan is technically a constitutional monarchy. However, King Abdullah II of Jordan wields the ultimate power in the strategically located Middle Eastern kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria. It’s...

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