Archive

September 04, 2020

Woman, Lost

NEED TO KNOW SYRIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e4901088-a8f1-4f67-bb93-075f2af0bff8.png"] Woman, Lost Syrian officials recently began counting and registering thousands of women in camps for detainees connected to Islamic State, the Washington Post reported. Many are Iraqis or other foreigners who came to live under the group's harsh Islamic codes when they seized...

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September 03, 2020

Making Europe Great Again

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Making Europe Great Again The European Union is sending $3.25 billion in economic aid to Greece to help the country remain afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic, reported Ekathimerini.com, an English-language newspaper based in Athens. The aid was part of a recovery package...

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September 02, 2020

Not Over

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/97627ae9-28af-4953-8b2d-b63f97cce5bc.png"] Not Over If US Democratic nominee Joe Biden becomes president in January, he probably will have priorities that supersede the trade wars President Donald Trump initiated while in office, reported Politico. Since the European Union and China have launched responses in those conflicts,...

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September 01, 2020

Sunset on a Shining City

NEED TO KNOW HONG KONG [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ed89ce6f-df7c-493b-809a-681d51fa4904.png"] Sunset on a Shining City In late July, Chinese authorities postponed Hong Kong’s election set for Sept. 6 by a year. They cited worries over the spread of the coronavirus. But the decision occurred at the same time that Chinese leaders are...

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August 31, 2020

Oil and Water

NEED TO KNOW MAURITIUS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02f1626a-7dbd-471b-9d90-d7085cc67146.png"] Oil and Water The government of Mauritius recently ordered the scuttling of the front section of the MV Wakashio, a Japanese oil tanker that ran aground on the string of islands in the Indian Ocean. The back section is still stuck in the...

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August 28, 2020

Let’s Fly the White, Red and White

NEED TO KNOW BELARUS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3dffa11e-ac63-436f-a4ed-735a6dabc4a6.png"] Let’s Fly the White, Red and White Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is not backing down. The leader of the opposition in the former Soviet republic of Belarus fled to Lithuania after she lost an election to President Alexander Lukashenko on August 9. She feared for her...

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August 27, 2020

Breaking Away

NEED TO KNOW MONTENEGRO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4b30f1e1-b1f1-4c0b-8877-a8d9773d57e4.png"] Breaking Away The small Balkan country on the Adriatic Sea, Montenegro, holds parliamentary elections at the end of the month. The vote on August 30 will be held against a backdrop of culture, religion and foreign influence. Elected officials are in a conflict with...

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August 26, 2020

Two Samoas

NEED TO KNOW SAMOAN ISLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7f6fea3b-e85a-43be-a6cb-736dfe726b1a.png"] Two Samoas American Samoa is one of the few places in the US where the coronavirus has not claimed a life, according to Johns Hopkins University. Residents of the so-called “unincorporated” territory of the US have confronted epidemics before: Zika in 2016, dengue...

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August 25, 2020

About the Lowliest

NEED TO KNOW INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] About the Lowliest Jyoti Kumari bicycled 745 miles from New Delhi to her village in eastern India with her disabled father on her back. The fifteen-year-old girl had little choice. With little warning in March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered a lockdown...

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August 24, 2020

Progress and Gridlock

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9f003e4-763f-45aa-8bd2-dd52c7067104.png"] Progress and Gridlock Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan recently reaffirmed his country’s diplomatic stance of not recognizing Israel. King Salman and his son, the desert kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a ruthless leader according to this BBC...

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August 21, 2020

Dam Politics

NEED TO KNOW ETHIOPIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bf55b5d2-7db8-404a-b87b-c88a42597d29.png"] Dam Politics Scholars of geopolitics have long predicted that water would replace oil as the world’s most precious resource, becoming a new bone of contention that might fuel the so-called water wars. Now, tensions over water are about to bubble over along the Nile...

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August 20, 2020

Ying and Yang

NEED TO KNOW SOUTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9999d29e-7510-4378-96d0-1b97cf004ad3.png"] Ying and Yang Yet another scandal is rocking scandal-ridden South Korea. A South Korean court recently gave Son Jong-woo, the founder of a notorious child pornography website, the world's largest, only 18 months in jail. Judges in the East Asian country have also...

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August 19, 2020

Of Cooks and Crooks

NEED TO KNOW IRAQ [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7f5678d9-eac3-49b9-9755-dcad8927e883.png"] Of Cooks and Crooks It’s not uncommon for Iraqi businessmen to receive visits from militia leaders who insist on taking a cut of their profits and have the power in and outside of government to enforce their demands. The country has become a kleptocracy,...

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August 18, 2020

Pageantry and Plague

NEED TO KNOW NICARAGUA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b1f74445-4296-4463-949d-e92d66c3e3b1.png"] Pageantry and Plague Nicaragua recently held its national beauty pageant online. “We had trials and classes through Zoom, supervised by me from home,” Karen Celebertti, who has run the event for years, told the Associated Press in an interview. “The girls had a speech...

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August 17, 2020

An Arranged Marriage

NEED TO KNOW CHINA & IRAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/224639ef-34f3-41a0-9b7c-4e2e5a549012.png"] An Arranged Marriage China and Iran are moving closer to one another diplomatically as their relations with the US deteriorate. The two powers recently signed a 25-year cultural, economic and security pact that Foreign Policy magazine described as bad news for the...

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August 14, 2020

The Smell of Desperation

NEED TO KNOW TURKEY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c729e5f1-8c42-44f8-a040-a59baad60df0.png"] The Smell of Desperation Boston Celtics basketball player Enes Kanter recently said that “goons” associated with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have been sending him death threats, including calls for his decapitation. The 28-year-old Turkish center is an outspoken critic of Erdogan’s alleged...

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August 13, 2020

The Silence in the Absence

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/97627ae9-28af-4953-8b2d-b63f97cce5bc.png"] The Silence in the Absence Romans love to complain about loud, crass, un-stylish American tourists who crowd their ancient city’s cobblestone streets in normal times. But dwellers of the Eternal City are finding themselves yearning for those visitors now that their economy is...

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August 12, 2020

When the Waters Come

NEED TO KNOW BANGLADESH [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/46a3120a-34a1-40f2-8221-240a899a0fd0.png"] When the Waters Come The Ganges Delta, the largest in the world at 41,000 square miles, empties into the Bay of Bengal. The worst flood in 20 years recently inundated it, displacing millions in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on the planet. NASA...

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August 11, 2020

A Game of Risk

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] A Game of Risk American troops arrived in what would become the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II. They have become the backbone of the NATO alliance that helped win the Cold War and remained after West Germany reunited with...

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August 10, 2020

Waves Ahead

Dear Readers, For those of you interested in accessing the Covid-19 update, you can find it at the end of this edition of DailyChatter. The DailyChatter Team NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/97627ae9-28af-4953-8b2d-b63f97cce5bc.png"] Waves Ahead White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx recently told CNN that the US was...

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