Archive

January 22, 2021

Tough Times and Potential Energy

NEED TO KNOW PORTUGAL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9920e0b-df86-4240-9933-aed7de687bff.png"] Tough Times and Potential Energy Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will be running for reelection on January 24 from quarantine. The veteran politician tested positive for the coronavirus recently although he has displayed no symptoms, the Associated Press reported. The virus is raging...

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January 21, 2021

Bearded Wisdom

NEED TO KNOW CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] Bearded Wisdom Where the US and Canada meet has long been celebrated as the longest unguarded border in the world. Lately, it is the longest closed unguarded border in the world. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently announced that Canada would keep the border closed...

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January 20, 2021

Trouble Spots

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7bf1dfdd-1448-4216-ab8f-a4c7bd3b6e0e.png"] Trouble Spots Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is putting together a team of defense officials, security experts and diplomats in anticipation of his first talks with President Joseph Biden about Iran’s nuclear program, according to the Times of Israel. President Donald Trump pulled the US...

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January 19, 2021

Alliance Mending

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Alliance Mending For more than 50 years, the Transatlantic alliance has arguably been the most powerful force on Earth, preventing bloodshed in Europe during the Cold War and solidifying the world’s major democracies through military and economic ties. President Donald Trump wasn’t a...

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January 18, 2021

New Guard, Old Challenges

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] New Guard, Old Challenges Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev recently wrote that President Donald Trump has made a “laughingstock” of the US. “Nobody could blame Russian, Chinese or Iranian leaders for thoroughly enjoying what they saw on Jan. 6 as a mob incited...

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January 15, 2021

Separate But Not Equal

NEED TO KNOW JAMMU & KASHMIR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/90dd5b26-68ab-4da8-9ee5-e4e856464e0d.png"] Separate But Not Equal Heavy snowfall recently inundated the Kashmir Valley, bringing life to a standstill as residents of the politically charged region between India and Pakistan dug themselves out, the Hindu reported. Roads in and out of the region were...

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January 14, 2021

Fighting Past Sunset

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c9615f9b-97ee-49de-9ca8-aa4ef1df8326.png"] Fighting Past Sunset President Donald Trump ordered most American troops out of Somalia in early December. But that didn’t mean the troops would be coming back home. Many would be redeployed to Djibouti or Kenya. “To be clear, the US is not withdrawing or...

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January 13, 2021

Self-Help

NEED TO KNOW MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Self-Help President-Elect Joe Biden wants to step up anti-corruption efforts in Mexico. It’s not clear that Mexican officials will accept the help, however. Feelings between the two countries were at a nadir after Mexico pressured the US to drop trafficking charges against general and former...

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January 12, 2021

A Riot Felt ‘Round the World

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] A Riot Felt 'Round the World German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted a comparison between the assault on the US Capitol last week and the rise of fascism in his country before World War II. “The enemies of democracy will be thrilled to see these...

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January 11, 2021

Isolated Yet Impacted

NEED TO KNOW MARSHALL ISLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9f508d01-33bf-4d23-9d94-4e9368a01a70.png"] Isolated Yet Impacted The Marshall Islands are an isolated outpost of American influence in the vast Pacific Ocean. Ghost ships and the flotsam and jetsam of global trade ply sea lanes around the country, a group of 29 coral atolls spread across more...

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January 08, 2021

A Prerequisite for Trust

NEED TO KNOW IRAQ [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7f5678d9-eac3-49b9-9755-dcad8927e883.png"] A Prerequisite for Trust Few people outside the White House defended President Donald Trump’s pardon of four Blackwater mercenaries who massacred 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007. Especially tragically, one of those victims was a 9-year-old boy profiled in Democracy Now! “Shock and dismay” followed...

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January 07, 2021

The Fix Is In

NEED TO KNOW KYRGYZSTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/766aa12d-4910-4bb3-a204-adba72f724f9.png"] The Fix Is In Kyrgyzstan’s recent political turbulence began after protests erupted in the wake of the parliamentary election in early October. Angry over how election officials blocked opposition political parties from running for office, opposition supporters stormed government buildings, compelling then-President Sooronbai Jeenbekov to...

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January 06, 2021

Against All Odds

NEED TO KNOW UGANDA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/eae01c28-7782-4a11-9e2b-886217499c6a.png"] Against All Odds Ugandan presidential candidate Bob Wine, a reggae star-cum-opposition leader, recently accused the driver of a military police truck of deliberately running over and killing Wine’s security guard. It wouldn’t be the first time Wine has been targeted since he decided to...

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January 05, 2021

Not Sitting Down

NEED TO KNOW KAZAKHSTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d52e63cf-06bb-47d0-b573-377bff5ae37c.png"] Not Sitting Down Kazakhstan didn’t take too kindly to Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." The country’s government took out a newspaper ad to improve its public image, the Washington Post reported....

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January 04, 2021

Now What?

NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] Now What? British Prime Minister­ Boris Johnson was a key leader in the campaign for Britain to exit the European Union. Last month, however, when Johnson of the tussled blonde crop of hair announced that Brexit had been completed, he made a...

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January 01, 2021

Here’s to Hope

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Here's to Hope Well, it was quite a year. It's safe to say the big international story was the novel coronavirus. Now, as the world enters 2021 with high hopes for vaccines, trepidation over the virus' continued impacts and fears of a devastating economic...

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December 31, 2020

Badge of Dishonor

NEED TO KNOW PHILIPPINES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76f74898-7b3b-4fc1-b7d7-88cadfea2fdf.png"] Badge of Dishonor The Philippines is having its George Floyd moment. An off-duty police officer in the East Asian archipelago shot and killed Sonya Gregorio, 52, and her son Frank Gregorio, 25, on Dec. 20 over an argument about illegal fireworks and noise in...

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December 30, 2020

A War on Children

NEED TO KNOW NIGERIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6c258edc-b123-4d47-98e3-f42e226ea64f.png"] A War on Children Chibok became a black mark on Nigeria’s history. That’s where Boko Haram fighters kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls in 2014, a particularly notorious incident in the early years of the Islamic State-affiliated group running rampant in northeastern Nigeria. The school...

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December 29, 2020

A Special Kind of War

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] A Special Kind of War Much ado has been made of the alleged Russian hacking of US government agencies – the perpetrators infiltrated the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, State and the Treasury, as well as major companies like Cisco and...

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December 28, 2020

Anti-Fragility

NEED TO KNOW SOUTH AMERICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76b0ec79-f39a-4956-9115-393ce42fc212.png"] Anti-Fragility Gustavo Delgado visits a food pantry every day in his hometown of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Otherwise, his family doesn’t eat. Delgado, 52, had been an office cleaner until earlier this year, Reuters reported. But his employer closed down due to the...

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