Archive

October 29, 2021

Blah, Blah, Blah

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Blah, Blah, Blah WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Recently, Larry Fink, the chief executive of Black Rock, one of the world’s biggest asset managers, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times with a surprising call to arms. To curb climate change, he wrote, the richest countries in...

Read full story →

October 28, 2021

Justice’s Clock

NEED TO KNOW Justice's Clock GERMANY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96d66e57-2644-40b9-aed7-fc66370c3077.png"] Seventy-five years ago, the victorious allies of World War II concluded the trials in Nuremberg that resulted in 12 Nazis receiving death sentences for war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the Holocaust, or the extermination of six million Jews...

Read full story →

October 27, 2021

Headwinds

NEED TO KNOW Headwinds WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] The coronavirus pandemic disrupted global energy supplies. Now it’s not clear if world leaders can fix the problem. In China, where officials curbed coal mining to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets, President Xi Jinping is asking coal companies to dig more and faster...

Read full story →

October 26, 2021

A Place Called Rock Bottom

NEED TO KNOW A Place Called Rock Bottom LEBANON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a353fadd-2d2a-41b3-b0c1-951b96702e16.png"] As befits a widow who follows local Muslim traditions in Lebanon, 32-year-old Ammouneh Haydar remained inside for 40 days following the death of her husband in a fuel tank explosion. As she mourned, however, her thoughts were less focused...

Read full story →

October 25, 2021

On a High Wire

NEED TO KNOW On a High Wire INDONESIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ec0c6f24-24ad-434b-bf1d-56e472da6e67.png"] Indonesian President Joko Widodo – known as Jokowi – is urging the world’s rich countries to give his Southeast Asian nation a hand in reaching its climate goals. The fourth most populous country in the world, with the largest Muslim...

Read full story →

October 22, 2021

Fait Accompli

NEED TO KNOW Fait Accompli UZBEKISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/28e3dab6-1896-a95a-90a8-7dc88946c0c3.png"] When voters in Uzbekistan head to the polls to elect a new president on Oct. 24, they will almost certainly pick incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In office since the death of his predecessor in...

Read full story →

October 21, 2021

Revolution Redux

NEED TO KNOW Revolution Redux TUNISIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f262cf6-0ed8-4367-aeca-5f0f2b6684d0.png"] Tunisian Najla Bouden Ramadhane recently became the Arab world’s first female prime minister. That’s a historic feat in the region and the greater Arab world, National Public Radio noted. But the path Ramadhane, a professor and ministry of higher education official, took...

Read full story →

October 20, 2021

Life and Death

NEED TO KNOW Life and Death COLOMBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/80e582e1-1ef0-4fb5-a86a-699a8cf7cddf.png"] Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Martha Sepúlveda opted to die. She scheduled the procedure that would kill her known as euthanasia for Oct. 10 at the Colombian Pain Institute. A few days before, however,  the Institute canceled the procedure,...

Read full story →

October 19, 2021

Of Flyovers and Squid

NEED TO KNOW Of Flyovers and Squid TAIWAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dab1143a-8514-4f63-8098-bd36050d9680.png"] Chinese President Xi Jinping recently called for the peaceful unification of his country with Taiwan, a country that China has viewed as a breakaway province since nationalist forces lost a civil war to the communists and fled to the...

Read full story →

October 18, 2021

Tiny Enclave, Loud Roar

NEED TO KNOW Tiny Enclave, Loud Roar SAN MARINO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f4cb4597-3f1d-1ab4-a09c-641d5d88eafe.png"] One of the smallest countries in the world – its population is around 33,000 – San Marino is a relic of a time when city-states dominated the Italian peninsula. As an enclave within Italy, the republic can be isolated....

Read full story →

October 15, 2021

A Working Democracy

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW A Working Democracy CAPE VERDE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8420c90a-021d-4851-a9cc-4c15d49f1083.png"] The people of Cape Verde work hard to improve their country. Some have formed citizens groups to document illegal fishing and preserve the legacy of the sea for their children, as the Guardian wrote. Others have set up boxing programs...

Read full story →

October 14, 2021

Pop Goes the Bubble

NEED TO KNOW Pop Goes the Bubble CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] China’s real estate bubble is bursting. As Reuters explained, Evergrande has acquired $300 billion in debt but missed more than $130 million in payments since late September. The 30-day grace period for nonpayment is set to expire soon. The company,...

Read full story →

October 13, 2021

Box Opened

NEED TO KNOW Box Opened WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Svetlana Krivonogikh grew up working odd jobs in St. Petersburg, Russia. Today, however, she lives in Monaco near a Monte Carlo casino with a view of the Mediterranean that one might expect in a James Bond movie, reported the Washington Post....

Read full story →

October 12, 2021

Going Nowhere Fast

NEED TO KNOW Going Nowhere Fast SOUTH SUDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/63f3bf8f-63ac-093e-e3bd-bc4bfa78b55b.png"] Recent fighting over cattle rustling, kidnappings and revenge killings has claimed scores of lives and injured many more in South Sudan’s central Warrap State over the past few months. Such violence has surged throughout South Sudan in the past two...

Read full story →

October 11, 2021

The Iberian Model

NEED TO KNOW The Iberian Model SPAIN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9867eeee-5129-4a23-af3d-b9c85aeb55a9.png"] Spain has decided to give third doses of coronavirus vaccines to seniors and others who might be vulnerable to the deadly virus. The move specifically targets folks living in nursing homes as well as Spaniards undergoing cancer treatment and others...

Read full story →

October 08, 2021

Cold Shoulders

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Cold Shoulders IRAQ [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7f5678d9-eac3-49b9-9755-dcad8927e883.png"] Still stabilizing after years of occupation and civil war following the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq faces momentous challenges. At the center of a combustible region, wedged between Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, facing low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic,...

Read full story →

October 07, 2021

Dissonance and Dreadlocks

NEED TO KNOW Dissonance and Dreadlocks CZECH REPUBLIC [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4e23e22d-26c3-4ed5-88d4-a441c2b9d079.png"] The dreadlock-sporting leader of the Pirate Party in the Czech Republic, former software engineer Ivan Bartos, was once a frontrunner in his Central European country’s parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 8 and 9. “Given the Czech electorate’s deep cynicism toward...

Read full story →

October 06, 2021

Me, too!

NEED TO KNOW Me, too! AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar recently told Western leaders that he and his forces will treat women with dignity in the wake of his group taking control of Afghanistan after the recent exit of US forces. "Women will be given rights in...

Read full story →

October 05, 2021

Hostage Diplomacy

NEED TO KNOW Hostage Diplomacy CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] Recently a plane from China carrying Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor arrived in Calgary. At the same time, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou landed in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. As the Guardian reported, the two Canadians had been held in...

Read full story →

October 04, 2021

Death of a Salesman

NEED TO KNOW Death of a Salesman PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] Peru will cremate the remains of Abimael Guzmán, the founder of the Shining Path rebel group that caused tens of thousands of deaths in the South American country in the 1980s and 1990s. Guzmán died in prison on Sept.11...

Read full story →