Archive

February 18, 2022

A Race to the Bottom

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW A Race to the Bottom FRANCE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d78d9fd2-f0df-4e59-9bd4-334bffdc4974.png"] Right-wing French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour recently described Roubaix, a town in northern France that is home to a large Muslim community, as "Afghanistan two hours from Paris." A pundit and author, Zemmour was clearly playing to voters...

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February 17, 2022

Guns and Butter

NEED TO KNOW Guns and Butter UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7c972cb-39f7-4c1c-a7c9-c1ed67fdc38d.png"] Last week, an explosion rocked Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Many in the financial and tourism hub immediately jumped to the conclusion that the blast was a rocket fired from Yemen, where the...

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February 16, 2022

Her Majesty’s Prerogative

NEED TO KNOW Her Majesty's Prerogative UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] Queen Elizabeth recently announced plans for a weekend in June to celebrate her platinum jubilee, or 70 years on the throne, the longest reign in British history. As the queen’s website detailed, festivities include a tree-planting initiative called the...

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February 15, 2022

Frustration, Fear and Baby Shark

NEED TO KNOW Frustration, Fear and Baby Shark CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] The 5,525-mile border between Canada and the US has long been described as the most peaceful frontiers in the world. Now, however, the boundary is the origin of an ideological war that threatens to take the world by...

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February 14, 2022

All in the Family

NEED TO KNOW All in the Family PHILIPPINES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76f74898-7b3b-4fc1-b7d7-88cadfea2fdf.png"] America produced the Adams, Bush, Clinton and other political dynasties. Now leaders in Asia are seeking to do the same. “The prevalence of dynasties reflects the great power that individual families wield in a fast-growing region of the world that...

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February 11, 2022

A Revanchist Reset

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW A Revanchist Reset UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a38e4a90-b87b-9e52-9b4f-f6cd33e8942c.png"] Despite the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, Russian President Vladimir Putin probably doesn’t really want to launch a full-scale war that might drag in the United States and European powers, argued Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev recently...

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February 10, 2022

Battlegrounds

NEED TO KNOW Battlegrounds INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] With live political rallies banned due to the coronavirus, LED screens are going up throughout India in anticipation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding virtual campaign speeches in the run-up to local elections in five states that start on Feb. 10. As...

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February 09, 2022

The Sentiments of Coups

NEED TO KNOW The Sentiments of Coups BURKINA FASO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0c0197a8-9ef4-4935-9656-24fbfbb32b2e.png"] A series of coups have rocked West Africa in recent weeks. The latest, Burkina Faso, provides a picture as to how unstable governments in the region are falling as military leaders come to believe nobody else can take...

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February 08, 2022

Chocolate, Beer and Sovereignty

NEED TO KNOW Chocolate, Beer and Sovereignty TAIWAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dab1143a-8514-4f63-8098-bd36050d9680.png"] Lala Sin has shied away from speaking Mandarin Chinese around her three children. Instead, the resident of Taiwan has been speaking Taiwanese Hokkien, or Taigi, a division of a language that is common in southeastern China and among the...

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February 07, 2022

Keeping the Lights On

NEED TO KNOW Keeping the Lights On MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Proposed reforms to Mexico’s energy sector are causing ripples throughout North America. Leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to divert more of the country’s energy market to the public Federal Electricity Commission, canceling contracts with private providers, Agence France-Presse...

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February 04, 2022

Holding the Nose

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Holding the Nose COSTA RICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1680456f-646a-4ee8-9ddf-e349708a0ee2.png"] Costa Rican leaders face hard choices. Their constituents, meanwhile, feel as if they are being left with none. Costa Rican tourism this year is expected to reach 40 percent of 2019 levels, before the coronavirus pandemic, the Costa Rica News...

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February 03, 2022

The Gates of Hell

NEED TO KNOW The Gates of Hell TURKMENISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b168b666-d25a-47b3-9e9e-747b1b8c92c8.png"] Turkmenistan’s autocratic President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov recently went on state television to demonstrate his awesome power. The leader of the Central Asian former Soviet republic wants to shut the gates of hell. Given how Turkmen leaders have a history of bizarre...

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February 02, 2022

Of Chickens and Eggs

NEED TO KNOW Of Chickens and Eggs MYANMAR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9ef34308-9cd1-4a8e-a2b3-e7a7ab6846ed.png"] Aung San Suu Kyi won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her pro-democracy activism in Myanmar, where she spent years in and out of house arrest for opposing her country’s brutal dictatorship. Yet she persisted in opposing the...

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February 01, 2022

The Toady’s Dilemma

NEED TO KNOW The Toady’s Dilemma BELARUS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3dffa11e-ac63-436f-a4ed-735a6dabc4a6.png"] Totalitarian President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus recently issued a message to opposition figures who have left the former Soviet republic in Eastern Europe. “My advice to you: come home, repent and kneel,” Lukashenko said during his annual state of the...

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January 31, 2022

Easy Come, Easy Go

NEED TO KNOW Easy Come, Easy Go MALI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f6bfc52-cbc4-4acf-9a51-d98604de3d93.png"] Leaders in Mali recently ordered Danish troops out of the country, saying they never received permission to operate there with a French-led counterterrorism force. Danish officials said they had a “clear invitation” to deploy to the West African country,...

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January 28, 2022

A Contraption Called Democracy

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW A Contraption Called Democracy PORTUGAL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9920e0b-df86-4240-9933-aed7de687bff.png"] In late 2019, the Atlantic magazine portrayed the government of Prime Minister António Costa in Portugal as a rare champion for the European left during a period when the far-right appeared ascendant throughout the continent. In Portuguese, people called...

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January 27, 2022

Class is Sort Of in Session

NEED TO KNOW Class is Sort Of in Session UGANDA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/eae01c28-7782-4a11-9e2b-886217499c6a.png"] More than half of Ugandan students stopped attending school at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Only recently did schools reopen, ending the longest school shutdown in the world. But few experts believe the...

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January 26, 2022

The Covid Orphans

NEED TO KNOW The Covid Orphans PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] More than 204,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Peru, the highest rate per capita on Earth. Tragically, many of those lost were parents. More tragically, the virus in the South American country often claimed both parents or all...

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January 25, 2022

Dissing Information

NEED TO KNOW Dissing Information WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Late last year, a bank executive from Monaco seemingly tweeted about the white birch forests, tasty noodles and hard-working cotton farmers of Xinjiang, ignoring highly credible claims that Chinese officials are committing genocide against the Uyghur Muslim community in the province....

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January 24, 2022

The Technocrat and the Tycoon

NEED TO KNOW The Technocrat and the Tycoon ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 85, was recently admitted to the hospital after dropping out of the running to become president of his country. A billionaire media magnate, Berlusconi endured numerous sex and corruption scandals during his three...

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