Archive

October 01, 2021

Baby Steps

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Baby Steps QATAR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/eb313eb2-840e-4e71-8167-30beddab851f.png"] For the first time in history, Qatari voters will go to the polls to pick two-thirds of the Shura Council, the legislative body that advises the Persian Gulf nation’s leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The emir will appoint...

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September 30, 2021

When Faith is All That’s Left

NEED TO KNOW When Faith is All That’s Left VENEZUELA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f52c66cd-9299-42e6-acd8-f970f62c524b.png"] As public services crumble in their authoritarian, socialist country, desperate Venezuelans are praying to José Gregorio Hernández, known as the “Doctor of the Poor” for their healthcare needs. Recently beatified by the Vatican, Hernández gives hope to people...

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September 29, 2021

The Unwelcome

NEED TO KNOW The Unwelcome GREECE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/29c83f8b-bf10-474d-8514-5af3443c9a4a.png"] Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is vowing to “break and smash” the smuggling networks that are bringing migrants to the country via Turkey. He especially wants to block Afghan refugees seeking safety in Europe, the Associated Press wrote. Critics say Mitsotakis is...

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September 28, 2021

Move Over, Ivory

NEED TO KNOW Move Over, Ivory SOUTH AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5516b8d6-0af4-46a7-8454-a3339ff1009f.png"] South Africa extradited a South Korean citizen to the US last year for trafficking in unlikely contraband: the fascinating, fleshy and sometimes flowery plants known as succulents. The criminal recently pled guilty to illegally harvesting $600,000 worth of Dudleya...

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September 27, 2021

Divided We Stand

NEED TO KNOW Divided We Stand LIBYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbf539f5-8945-4e8b-9453-35a595c0de45.png"] Libya has remained divided since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi following an uprising a decade ago. Recently, lawmakers based in the eastern part of the country passed a no-confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah based...

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September 24, 2021

Succession

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW GERMANY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96d66e57-2644-40b9-aed7-fc66370c3077.png"] Succession When German Chancellor Angela Merkel steps down from office after parliamentary elections on Sunday, she will leave behind an impressive legacy. Germany is the fourth-largest economy in the world. It is the European Union’s most powerful member. The country has weathered economic crises,...

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September 23, 2021

The Absolute

NEED TO KNOW ESWATINI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e564c03c-87c1-b4d7-d7d9-39a3e0290133.png"] The Absolute In southern Eswatini – a small, landlocked country bordering Mozambique and South Africa formerly known as Swaziland – grandmothers depend on the illegal marijuana farming industry. They call the weed “Swazi gold.” As the Guardian reported, elderly women resort to growing the...

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September 22, 2021

Not Yet Convinced

NEED TO KNOW POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/31d830f6-377a-4afc-861b-7fbf94dce490.png"] Not Yet Convinced Around half of the people in Poland are fully vaccinated. The other half are leery of heeding the pleas of public health authorities and getting their shots. “We get all the information from the internet, from the TV here, and nothing...

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September 21, 2021

Capybaras at the Gate

NEED TO KNOW ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] Capybaras at the Gate Giant rodents called capybaras have invaded an affluent gated community to the north of Buenos Aires in Argentina, where they call the cute, dog-like animals carpinchos. As residents of the well-known Nordelta community complained about the pests in the...

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September 20, 2021

King of the Mountain

NEED TO KNOW CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] King of the Mountain When Canadians go to the polls on September 20, they will have had a mere 36 days to decide who should be their next prime minister. The current holder of that esteemed office, Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party, called...

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September 17, 2021

How to Win Big

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] How to Win Big Boris Vishnevsky was shocked when he saw the names and faces of his two opponents in the upcoming elections to the Russian lower house of parliament, the Duma. His rivals were both named Boris Vishnevsky. Both were around his age...

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September 16, 2021

The Forever Insurgency

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] The Forever Insurgency The Taliban claimed victory after the recent end of the US-led NATO occupation of Afghanistan. Now, while they face serious challenges governing their traumatized nation, as Deutsche Welle explained, they at least won’t have to deal with the terrorism that...

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September 15, 2021

Demography, Meet Destiny

NEED TO KNOW INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] Demography, Meet Destiny India is slated to surpass China and become the most populous country in the world before the end of the decade. By 2050, according to the United Nations, as reported in the Hindu, India will have 1.64 billion residents while...

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September 14, 2021

The Price of Democracy

NEED TO KNOW GUINEA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/963d6fc3-90db-4090-ad9a-da882d906f12.png"] The Price of Democracy The lives of Guineans and the wallets of industries everywhere were thrown into disarray after a recent coup in the small Western African country of Guinea. After gunfire erupted in the capital of Conakry, Guinean Army Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who...

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September 13, 2021

Eco Election

NEED TO KNOW NORWAY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/65102137-137a-414d-a10e-0cd0d00c7aa4.png"] Eco Election Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg might become the first top politician to be ousted due to climate change. Polls forecast that Solberg and her Conservative Party will lose the Sept. 13 general election in the Scandinavian country to Labor Party leader Jonas...

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September 10, 2021

Too Big To Succeed

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] Too Big To Succeed Chinese President Xi Jinping recently announced the creation of a new stock exchange for small and medium-sized enterprises in Beijing. The announcement might have surprised some observers. As Reuters explained, the world’s most populous country and second-largest economy already...

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September 09, 2021

Remember the Children

NEED TO KNOW NIGERIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6c258edc-b123-4d47-98e3-f42e226ea64f.png"] Remember the Children Gunmen in Nigeria freed nearly a hundred kidnapped school children recently. Families in Nigeria's north-central Niger State raised $140,000 and handed over motorbikes to pay the gunmen’s ransom. A relieved Hauwa'u Isa reclaimed her seven children upon their release. "I cannot...

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September 08, 2021

Human Weapons

NEED TO KNOW LITHUANIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7852ed7-2760-4e7e-a300-0fc715ec1ca8.png"] Human Weapons Lithuania is building a 315-mile-long fence on its southern border. The structure has two functions: keeping refugees and asylum seekers out and snubbing Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom Lithuanian leaders say is trying to foist the unfortunate migrants on them in...

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September 07, 2021

Testing the Scales

NEED TO KNOW BOLIVIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8ed01a1e-5cea-4b63-b4c0-c3727f7de51c.png"] Testing the Scales A lot is capturing Bolivians' attention these days. Wildfires are raging through the forests. Cases of Covid-19 are rising again. Its national soccer team is playing the World Cup qualifiers. But what really has the country mesmerized – and polarized...

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September 06, 2021

Sweaty Palms

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] Sweaty Palms Indian envoys recently spoke to Taliban officials who now run Afghanistan after the American withdrawal from the Central Asian country last month. “Discussions focused on safety, security and (the) return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan,” the Indian Ministry of External Affairs...

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