NEED TO KNOW PERU [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0cb92226-f5a5-4594-bdc4-dd591eeff850.png"] The Big Cleanup Peruvian police recently arrested six tourists for vandalizing Machu Picchu, the former Incan citadel that is one of the most breathtaking manmade structures in the world. One alleged vandal will go on trial while authorities expelled the other five, wrote...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/590fa22c-cb98-46d1-92e0-b6539b2a1173.png"] An Easy Puzzle Winston Churchill famously described Russia as a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” The New York Times recently alluded to that quip in a review of books that aim to explain modern Russia to Western readers. Observers had little...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDONESIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/26b68ea6-a202-483a-8e3e-f776f4ca7c3b.png"] Hard Rise The leader of the fourth-most-populous country in the world, Indonesia, has big plans. President Joko Widodo recently tapped former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, billionaire SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to lead...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SYRIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a0fb995d-af7e-4394-ad02-ecc76a056a44.png"] Annals of Reconstruction Russian President Vladimir Putin recently floated the possibility of a meeting between Syrian President Bashar Assad and US President Donald Trump in Damascus. The suggestion might have been a joke, Fox News reported. But jokes contain grains of truth. Putin was...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CHINA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/cb644eae-40f4-4c10-a54b-4ccc5f9ad21f.png"] Changing Partners As American politicians disparage international free trade deals, Asian leaders are moving forward with them. Late last year, 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region – including China, Japan, Indonesia and South Korea – concluded negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP),...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW TANZANIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fb98f556-a59e-4b27-aa3b-2955230a318d.png"] Costly Speech In December, Tito Magoti was shopping for a new phone in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania, when five men grabbed him, stuffed him into a car and drove off. His family called the police to report a kidnapping. But...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRAQ [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/33937638-6eed-4550-afae-cdf6ed1357a6.png"] Taking Advantage of a Crisis The Islamic State was sinking. Now, maybe not so much. A coalition of forces, including US troops, nearly wiped out the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate in the Middle East in 2018, four years after the militants seized Mosul, then...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CHINA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/cb644eae-40f4-4c10-a54b-4ccc5f9ad21f.png"] Bursting at the Seams China is on track to double its gross domestic product, compared to ten years ago. The communist country began opening its markets in the late 1970s. Since then, aggressive government control has pushed growth further. Cheap labor, currency devaluations and...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW POLAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7b585fc6-d6c4-4f4e-a14a-33fe8d729c1c.png"] History Today Polish President Andrzej Duda might skip the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem on January 23. Duda’s pique stems from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent comments about Poles collaborating with Nazi Germany, the Jerusalem Post reported, specifically Putin’s description of Poland’s ambassador in Berlin...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW YEMEN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bae900cf-351d-4712-98f0-bfd668d7484e.png"] The Setting for Peace Predictions had been optimistic for Yemen. “Violence in Yemen will likely subside in 2020, amid signs the warring factions want to find a resolution,” wrote Al Jazeera in December, citing United Nations officials. Houthi rebels, with the help of Iran, ousted...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW TAIWAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/488c805b-b031-4b64-95a3-8a18bc3d71d1.png"] Amid Chaos, a Shoo-in Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is almost sure to win re-election on January 11. That’s one of the few certainties she can depend on. The political stars aligned for Tsai. At the same time she and her Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW THE GAMBIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1a78bf6f-07bc-42a6-a036-71cce54fee2a.png"] No Time for Promises Gambian President Adama Barrow made a pledge when he ended the 22-year rule of ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh in 2016. After winning a tense race, Barrow said he would lead a provisional government for three years, then call elections. Now...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW FRANCE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/058f2f5f-34dd-4386-a154-c3f09ac353e9.png"] Giving and Taking French President Emmanuel Macron’s move in late 2018 to increase fuel taxes to fight climate change sparked unrest among the so-called “yellow vests,” who staged demonstrations against the tax and high living costs in general. Macron responded with a crackdown that...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRAQ [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/33937638-6eed-4550-afae-cdf6ed1357a6.png"] Hostages The killing of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani triggered a cascade of events that is upending the Middle East. An American drone killed Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, at Baghdad International Airport on January 3. The fallout has been...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NORTH KOREA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/63a7ed44-03d2-4dcc-9832-c468313046db.png"] False Alarms An American military base near the North Korean border mistakenly sounded air raid sirens rather than Taps, the traditional bugle call that marks the end of the day, in late December. Someone pushed the wrong button, VICE reported. The snafu occurred...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/63dbd3ab-8c9f-403c-b1d4-f10b4c9a44c2.png"] The Fog of War Americans recently learned that their military has been less-than-truthful about Afghanistan. “U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LIBYA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/955e87c2-1f99-445c-91e0-aacf1bcfd70f.png"] Indirect Diplomacy A new proxy war is escalating in Libya. Turkey is planning on sending troops to the North African country on the Mediterranean to counter the forces of Khalifa Hifter, the rebel commander who has laid siege to the capital of Tripoli since...
Read full story →PAST AND FUTURE WORLD [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dce47e18-e5d0-45e9-b34c-579ae97d703b.png"] Unfinished Stories As 2019 comes to a close, and with it, a decade, we at DailyChatter are taking a look back at a few select issues and events – by no means exhaustive – that made headlines over the past decade and will...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dce47e18-e5d0-45e9-b34c-579ae97d703b.png"] The Desperate Ones The specter of despair appears to be haunting the world’s democracies. Electorates and politicians are polarized. Economic growth is steady, but many feel as if they are working hard and not getting ahead. The free flow of people, goods and ideas...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MYANMAR [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a46df425-7717-49ee-9253-a41403c49a61.png"] About Face, About Grace Ye Thein went to Rakhine state in western Myanmar around Christmas to show support for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the Southeast Asian country’s ruling National League for Democracy. Thein died after being captured by the Arakan...
Read full story →