Archive

August 06, 2021

It’s Getting Hot in Here

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7000f0bb-c02b-4438-87c6-002be2c0dfc6.png"] It’s Getting Hot in Here As Americans and Turks worry about hazy skies from fires in the western US, Turkey and southern Europe, and deadly floods strike northern Europe and China, the Middle East is facing one of its...

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August 05, 2021

The Invasion of the Nurdle

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW SRI LANKA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d469a690-58fa-4bcb-9cd4-16e56a24386f.png"] The Invasion of the Nurdle First, smoke from the burning container ship X-Press Pearl polluted the skies off Sri Lanka’s west coast. Now, Sri Lankans are watching as the vessel’s cargo pollutes the sea around their island nation to the south of...

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August 04, 2021

Little Brother

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Little Brother Azerbaijani authorities filmed journalist Khadija Ismayilova in intimate situations in her home in Baku, alleged that she drove a colleague to suicide and charged her with tax fraud. Sentenced to seven years in prison, she was released on bail after 18...

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August 03, 2021

Hats, White and Black

NEED TO KNOW PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] Hats, White and Black Peruvians living in the Andean town of Niño Jesús de Huarapite feel as if nobody in the capital of Lima is in their corner. Many remember how Peruvian troops and US-trained counterterrorism forces perpetrated a massacre in the town...

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August 02, 2021

Papers, Please

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Papers, Please Imagine a lamp-lit cobblestone street on a dark, foggy night in Paris. As an innocent civilian walks down the street with the intent of boarding a bus out of the city, a uniformed man approaches from the shadows. “Your papers,...

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July 30, 2021

A Land of No Yield

Test your global knowledge with our new weekly quiz. Just scroll down past Discoveries and you'll find it. NEED TO KNOW MADAGASCAR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/cf906d99-8f50-4493-b06f-8a929a73ebeb.png"] A Land of No Yield Hungry people in Madagascar are eating raw cactus fruit, leaves and locusts to survive the country's worst famine since the early...

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July 29, 2021

Pandemic+’Coup’/geopolitics=Crisis

NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f262cf6-0ed8-4367-aeca-5f0f2b6684d0.png"] Pandemic+'Coup'/geopolitics=Crisis For some, the coronavirus pandemic feels like it’s ending. For Tunisians, it’s as if it has just begun. Hospital beds, oxygen and other medical supplies are running low in the North African country that managed to avoid the worst of the first wave...

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July 28, 2021

Sparking Tinder

NEED TO KNOW SOUTH AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5516b8d6-0af4-46a7-8454-a3339ff1009f.png"] Sparking Tinder The BBC video of a woman throwing her baby out of a burning building illustrates the violence and suffering that has racked South Africa in recent weeks. The baby and mother survived the fire, which looters lit amid widespread civil...

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July 27, 2021

Pride Goeth…

NEED TO KNOW CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] Pride Goeth… China is building more than 100 new nuclear missile silos in its northwestern desert, according to the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Reported in the Washington Post, the facilities represent a significant increase in the country’s nuclear capabilities. The...

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July 26, 2021

Patria y vida

NEED TO KNOW CUBA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/934b8716-56c1-487d-ba72-11a855fa10c6.png"] Patria y vida Food shortages and price spikes were the initial motivations for the anti-government demonstrations now rocking Cuba. Gross national product declined a whopping 11 percent in the past year as the tourism industry plunged due to the coronavirus pandemic. But now many...

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July 23, 2021

Laurels in Silence

NEED TO KNOW JAPAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ab764327-df98-4918-badd-17c2c79d5685.png"] Laurels in Silence Victorious Olympic athletes will put on their own medals at the Tokyo games this summer. "The medals will not be given around the neck," International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said in an announcement covered by Newsweek. "They will be...

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July 22, 2021

Offshoring Humans

NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] Offshoring Humans Nigel Farage, the former British member of the European Parliament who masterminded his country’s exit from the European Union, recently called the Royal National Lifeboat Institution a “taxi service for illegal immigration” when it picks up migrants in danger at...

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July 21, 2021

The Heat’s On

NEED TO KNOW CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] The Heat's On Cherries roasting on trees, crops baking in fields, mussels being boiled alive in the ocean – these are some of the casualties – alongside humans and their villages – of a record-setting wildfire season in the wake of a record-setting...

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July 20, 2021

Holding On Tight

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9f003e4-763f-45aa-8bd2-dd52c7067104.png"] Holding On Tight Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a far-right leader who cobbled together opposition parties from across his country’s broad political spectrum, including an Islamist party, in order to replace Benjamin Netanyahu. The deal could bring an end to Israel’s incredibly unstable...

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July 19, 2021

The Plot to Nowhere

NEED TO KNOW HAITI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/49e3c059-ec02-49d2-b8d4-2a7e10c83ff3.png"] The Plot to Nowhere The alleged conspirators who plotted the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse met repeatedly in Florida and the Dominican Republic in the months before the July 7 killing. Haitian authorities have specifically targeted Haitian-American doctor and pastor Christian Emmanuel Sanon,...

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July 16, 2021

Falling Down

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Falling Down The tragic collapse of the Surfside condominium in Florida last month highlighted how such accidents are unfortunately common around the world, often due to larger systematic reasons that are beyond any building manager or even local official. Take the photo of a...

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July 15, 2021

No Borders

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] No Borders Leaders at Volvo, ArcelorMittal, BASF, Daimler, Iberdrola, Orsted, Thyssenkrupp, Titan Cement, Siemens, Shell and other storied and gigantic European companies recently issued a public letter in the run-up to the European Union unveiling new measures for the bloc to reach...

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July 14, 2021

Alphabet Pandemic

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Alphabet Pandemic Just when the world thought it was safe to go inside without a mask again, the delta variant of the coronavirus showed up. Luckily, many vaccines protect against the delta, which CNBC predicted would cause high infection rates in the US in...

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July 13, 2021

Atonement

NEED TO KNOW SUDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/224b0e8f-5be6-4e44-b799-a1b865717c98.png"] Atonement Around 18 years ago, the Sudanese region of Darfur was synonymous with violence and tragedy. Not much has changed. Violence continues to mar the region today. “The expression ‘forgotten crisis’ is a problematic one – no crisis is forgotten by the people living through...

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July 12, 2021

Time Off

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Time Off A stereotype of Japanese culture would depict it as workaholic. In reality, Japanese officials are pushing companies to offer an optional four-day workweek for employees who want to devote their free time to “further their education, take care of family members or...

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