Archive

October 02, 2020

East and West in the East and West

NEED TO KNOW CZECH REPUBLIC [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4e23e22d-26c3-4ed5-88d4-a441c2b9d079.png"] East and West in the East and West The president of the Czech senate kicked a hornet’s nest early this month when he delivered a speech in Taiwan that harked back to President John Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in Germany...

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October 01, 2020

A Sort of Dignity

NEED TO KNOW NEW CALEDONIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0b159188-f92e-4960-9cfd-19bcbc628d0f.png"] A Sort of Dignity The French overseas territory of New Caledonia has been called the Paris of the Tropics. The online magazine Yachting World showcased the blue waters, vibrant sea life and French charm in the archipelago between the Coral Sea and...

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September 30, 2020

Dying for Justice

NEED TO KNOW KYRGYZSTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/766aa12d-4910-4bb3-a204-adba72f724f9.png"] Dying for Justice Journalist and human rights activist Azimjon Askarov was an ethnic Uzbek from southern Kyrgyzstan. He exposed injustices within the Kyrgyz police and prosecutor’s office. He revealed how they fabricated criminal cases against innocents, then abused those whom they imprisoned. Askarov, 69,...

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September 29, 2020

Down and Out in Paris, Milan and Prague

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Down and Out in Paris, Milan and Prague In the 1920s, American writers like Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway fled their boring homeland to live in bohemian Paris. They were called the Lost Generation. Now the term is being applied to young Europeans...

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September 28, 2020

Evil, and Shame

NEED TO KNOW MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Evil, and Shame Lucía vowed to never give up, determined to find the remains of her son, who disappeared in 2013 in Veracruz, Mexico, vanishing like so many Mexicans over the past six years. This mother, however, is now a founding member of Colectivo...

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September 25, 2020

Now Comes Swixit 

NEED TO KNOW SWITZERLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2b943183-27c5-4545-a4cd-06237a4dff08.png"] Now Comes Swixit The Swiss go to the polls on Sept. 27 to decide five referendums that illustrate how direct democracy functions in the small, multilingual European country. As the Local explained, the referendums are on purchasing $6 billion in fighter jets, limiting immigration...

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September 24, 2020

Out There

NEED TO KNOW FALKLAND ISLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9b4ece37-5299-4ae1-b568-ca8dde45abc5.png"] Out There The 10-week-long war over the Falkland Island, which Argentines refer to as the Malvinas Islands, claimed around 900 casualties. Argentina’s junta collapsed after they lost the war. Some say conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had proved her grace under pressure. Dreams...

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September 23, 2020

Soldiers of Misfortune

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Soldiers of Misfortune Russian jets recently ran sorties over Libya in support of a rebel commander and mercenaries who, coincidentally, had close ties to officials within the Kremlin. The United Nations arms embargo bans such weapons of war in Libya. But, as the New...

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September 22, 2020

Lingering Bits of Glass

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96d66e57-2644-40b9-aed7-fc66370c3077.png"] Lingering Bits of Glass A German court recently convicted a 93-year-old former SS guard of Nazi war crimes. Bruno Dey was a guard at a concentration camp at Stutthof, near Gdansk in Poland, for almost a year through April 1945. He was found guilty...

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September 21, 2020

Shrink the Swamp

NEED TO KNOW ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] Shrink the Swamp Americans have an extremely low opinion of Congress. Italians share their disdain. Now they appear poised to do something about it. Shrink it. On Monday, voters go to the polls in the last day of a two-day referendum that could alter the...

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September 18, 2020

Let Chaos Reign

We experienced a technical issue this morning resulting in a delivery delay. We apologize for this inconvenience. NEED TO KNOW PHILIPPINES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76f74898-7b3b-4fc1-b7d7-88cadfea2fdf.png"] Let Chaos Reign Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte recently pardoned a US Marine who was convicted of killing a transgender woman. Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton admitted to killing...

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September 17, 2020

Highs and Lies

NEED TO KNOW GUATEMALA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db73a011-021f-466b-9b89-77add155facc.png"] Highs and Lies In the dead of night, small planes fly low over the tropical jungles, Mayan ruins, ranches and villages of Central America. Landing and taking off from makeshift airstrips, they can carry $100 million worth of cocaine. For many years, they stuck...

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September 16, 2020

A Tale of Two Emirates

NEED TO KNOW UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7c972cb-39f7-4c1c-a7c9-c1ed67fdc38d.png"] A Tale of Two Emirates Dubai reopened after a coronavirus lockdown in July, relatively early. The other major emirate in the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, remained closed until more recently. Even now, Abu Dhabi only allows those who test negative...

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September 15, 2020

The Magic Bullet

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/97627ae9-28af-4953-8b2d-b63f97cce5bc.png"] The Magic Bullet Americans aren’t the only ones debating how to put an end to police brutality. Folks in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have taken to the streets recently to protests against police violence, extrajudicial killings and the unfair application of the law,...

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September 14, 2020

From Peril to Peril

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] From Peril to Peril Boubacar Wann Diallo has been giving proper burials to migrants who wash up, dead, on the shores of his community in Morocco. “It’s a joy for me to bury them,” Wann Diallo, a devout Muslim, told the New...

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September 11, 2020

A New Emperor

NEED TO KNOW JAPAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ab764327-df98-4918-badd-17c2c79d5685.png"] A New Emperor Shinzo Abe’s decision to step down as prime minister of Japan due to health concerns triggered worldwide speculation about the future of one of the world’s largest economies and an important American ally in Asia. Abe, 65, has been Japan’s longest-serving...

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September 10, 2020

Plagues of Fire and Pestilence

NEED TO KNOW BRAZIL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b4df2610-e790-44f6-bec1-f859c705ae8b.png"] Plagues of Fire and Pestilence The Amazon is burning again. For the second year in a row, the Guardian reported, massive fires have swept through the rainforest often called the lungs of the Earth. Critics say populist President Jair Bolsonaro is to blame. They...

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September 09, 2020

Time’s A-Tickin’

NEED TO KNOW CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] Time’s A-Tickin’ Minnesota State Senator Matt Little has more than 140,000 followers on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app, giving him a unique appeal to Generation Z voters. But Little and his followers’ passion for short videos would be taboo in Washington, where President...

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September 08, 2020

Endless End

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] Endless End The government of Afghanistan recently freed almost 200 Taliban prisoners to help build goodwill as negotiators went to Qatar’s capital to resume peace talks. That was around half of a group of “hardcore” jihadists whose incarceration had delayed ongoing talks between the...

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September 07, 2020

Speaking, and Dying

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Speaking, and Dying Russian blogger and dissident Yegor Zhukov, 22, had just finished a live interview on YouTube. It was around 10 p.m. He was outside, near his apartment building in Moscow when two men mugged him. He said the men focused on...

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