Archive

March 19, 2021

Vaccine Games

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Vaccine Games British leaders recently summoned a European Union diplomat to complain about EU officials’ allegation that Britain refuses to export vaccines to the continent. The United Kingdom has administered vaccines to more than a third of its population, far more than its former...

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March 18, 2021

To Whom Go The Spoils

NEED TO KNOW SENEGAL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3676cf10-2f23-4295-b085-c86147830390.png"] To Whom Go The Spoils Security forces killed at least five men in Senegal recently. Demonstrators were protesting the arrest of Ousmane Sonko, a politician charged with raping a masseuse as well as disturbing public order, explained Al Jazeera. The charges, the demonstrators argued,...

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March 17, 2021

The Ties That Bind

NEED TO KNOW CURAÇAO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dc6af378-cf5a-40a1-afd0-6965908c1d12.png"] The Ties That Bind The Dutch islands of the Caribbean are working hard to make it easier for tourists to vacation on their sunny shores. As CNN wrote, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten – former Dutch colonies that are now “constituent countries” of the...

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March 16, 2021

The Emperor’s Old Clothes

NEED TO KNOW REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9976eb8a-e303-45f2-8b62-5fba423e2b40.png"] The Emperor's Old Clothes President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, sometimes called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, recently purchased an arsenal of weapons from Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic. The president’s critics fear...

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March 15, 2021

Wanted: Change

NEED TO KNOW THE NETHERLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/50b9b3d5-1234-443a-9402-f9f624fae487.png"] Wanted: Change The Netherlands will be one of the first countries to hold general elections this year during a Covid-19 lockdown. As Politico explained, other countries such as France and Poland delayed their votes or switched to mail-in ballots to prevent the franchise...

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March 12, 2021

Suffer the Children

NEED TO KNOW NIGERIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6c258edc-b123-4d47-98e3-f42e226ea64f.png"] Suffer the Children Bandits recently released 279 Nigerian girls kidnapped recently from their school in Zamfara, a state in the country’s northwest. The kidnappers had forced the girls to march in the forest, beating them and threatening to shoot them if they stopped,...

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March 11, 2021

Need a Ride?

NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] Need a Ride? In November, voters in California passed Proposition 22 by a landslide. The referendum measure exempted gig workers from rules that would compel their employers to treat them as if they were full-time employees. As the Guardian reported, ride-hailing companies...

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March 10, 2021

Muscle Memory

NEED TO KNOW GUINEA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/963d6fc3-90db-4090-ad9a-da882d906f12.png"] Muscle Memory Officials in Guinea are quickly vaccinating citizens to stop a dangerous virus from killing people. Covid-19 isn’t the big problem in the small, poor West African nation, however. It’s a potentially far deadlier threat – Ebola. “Our collective, quick action is crucial...

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March 09, 2021

‘Disappearance’: The Noun, The Weapon

NEED TO KNOW MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] 'Disappearance': The Noun, The Weapon Mexicans uncover on average two clandestine graves a day. They often belong to some of the 79,000 people who have disappeared in Mexico since 2006. “It’s the worst crisis of the disappeared in Latin America since the Cold...

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March 08, 2021

A Prince, a Reformer, a Murderer

NEED TO KNOW SAUDI ARABIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/cb30405d-bd4c-40bf-a603-50857b6bc532.png"] A Prince, a Reformer, a Murderer A recent American intelligence report has thrust Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman back into the limelight. The de facto ruler of the Middle Eastern kingdom, MBS as he is known, directly approved of the...

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March 05, 2021

Dress Codes

NEED TO KNOW SWITZERLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2b943183-27c5-4545-a4cd-06237a4dff08.png"] Dress Codes Anila Noor and Maria Khoshy are asylum seekers who came to Europe after fleeing their religiously oppressive home countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan. They describe themselves as feminists and women’s rights activists. And they are bitterly opposed to a March 7...

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March 04, 2021

A Free Press Isn’t Free

NEED TO KNOW AUSTRALIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/81d62805-bef8-41fd-9c0c-ed93ea461226.png"] A Free Press Isn't Free Australia has picked battles with Facebook and other American tech giants. Some experts think the country Down Under lost. The fighting is not over yet, however. Recently Facebook agreed to restore news links on Facebook feeds in Australia. That...

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March 03, 2021

A Dream No More

NEED TO KNOW GEORGIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e341329d-b90e-4b8e-8e3b-6429d9366897.png"] A Dream No More Police in Georgia, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus, recently arrested Nika Melia, an opposition politician who claims that the ruling Georgian Dream party stole the parliamentary elections late last year. Officers used tear gas on Melia’s supporters...

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March 02, 2021

The Color of Pride

NEED TO KNOW BRAZIL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b4df2610-e790-44f6-bec1-f859c705ae8b.png"] The Color of Pride Brazilians of African descent became the majority racial group in their country almost a decade ago. Today, many refer to Brazil as a “post-racial” society. There is a tradition of elites encouraging folks of different skin tones to intermarry, for...

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March 01, 2021

Lost in Space

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Lost in Space Last year, the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab state to send a probe to Mars. It was called Hope, wrote National Geographic. The US and China also sent rovers to the Red Planet, taking advantage of the optimum alignment...

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February 26, 2021

Returning History

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Returning History Go to any of the grand museums of Europe and invariably, you will see magnificent sculptures or artifacts that decidedly don’t look European. They usually aren't. Instead, many of these treasures were taken from African or Asian countries during wars centuries ago, or...

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February 25, 2021

A New Kind of Ugly

NEED TO KNOW EL SALVADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9d16e98f-6fe6-4329-b9c8-47184d56b2ce.png"] A New Kind of Ugly It's possible that El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele came to Washington, DC recently to meet with the new American president. If true, then President Joe Biden snubbed him. So far, it's just speculation. As the story goes, Biden refused...

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February 24, 2021

Divided We Teeter

NEED TO KNOW MICRONESIA & OCEANIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0d8889f6-c1a7-41d1-93b5-609f448c9fbb.png"] Divided We Teeter The island nations in the Pacific Ocean are facing a double whammy: A short-term economic threat from a drop-off in tourism due to the coronavirus pandemic and a medium-term existential threat from rising seas and increasingly violent storms...

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February 23, 2021

Division, Disease and Doubts

NEED TO KNOW SOUTH AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5516b8d6-0af4-46a7-8454-a3339ff1009f.png"] Division, Disease and Doubts South Africa was going to launch a massive campaign to inject its citizens with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. But researchers discovered that the vaccine wouldn’t prevent the spread of the country’s variant of the coronavirus. So, as the Associated...

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February 22, 2021

No Exits

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] No Exits President Joe Biden has a few months to decide whether to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. His two predecessors pledged to pull out of the Central Asian country where al Qaeda terrorists plotted the Sept. 11 attacks, prompting an American invasion...

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