Archive

November 29, 2019

Friends, but not Besties

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA & CHINA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9cacf785-f6c7-46b5-8dc0-d08d0cf6f12b.png"] Friends, but not Besties An alliance between China and Russia has long worried American strategists. But those fears have been based on hypothetical scenarios because leaders in Beijing and Moscow historically have been suspicious of each other while they grapple with divergent...

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November 28, 2019

Justice, and Forgiveness

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/18ca6ce9-4a8f-46d8-b0b3-84a7601584cd.png"] Justice, and Forgiveness Bruno Dey joined the SS when he was a teenager in Nazi Germany, landing a job as a guard in the Stutthof concentration camp between 1944 and 1945. Today, the 93-year-old is on trial in a Hamburg court, facing 5,230 counts...

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November 27, 2019

Something Fishy Going On

NEED TO KNOW NAMIBIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcfd160a-408d-4f0e-9086-d10b98310e57.png"] Something Fishy Going On What does an Icelandic fisherman have to do with Namibia’s presidential election? Plenty, it turns out. Namibians go to the polls Wednesday, and usually Namibian elections are predictable, explained African Arguments. The South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), a political party...

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November 26, 2019

Springing Anew

NEED TO KNOW IRAQ [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/33937638-6eed-4550-afae-cdf6ed1357a6.png"] Springing Anew In the years after the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, critics said the US had achieved the opposite of its goals, plunging the Middle Eastern country into chaos and providing an opportunity for neighboring Iran to expand its power. Now the...

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November 25, 2019

Who’s In Charge?

NEED TO KNOW GUINEA-BISSAU [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9ee0d0dd-e1d8-43cb-8daa-69f39711d5c1.png"] Who's In Charge? Guinea-Bissau is arguably a “narco state,” a country where drug money has corrupted every nook and cranny of the government, the economy and society. Police recently seized 1.8 tons of cocaine from smugglers, for example. It was the second time in six...

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November 22, 2019

Chipping Away

NEED TO KNOW TANZANIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fb98f556-a59e-4b27-aa3b-2955230a318d.png"] Chipping Away Local elections on Nov. 24 are quickly becoming a test of whether Tanzania can become a real democracy or not. As African Arguments explained, the long-ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi political party stands accused of election fraud, suppression of political dissent, media control...

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November 21, 2019

Whack-a-Mole

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dce47e18-e5d0-45e9-b34c-579ae97d703b.png"] Whack-a-Mole The Islamic State was thought to be at a low. The death last month of the extremist group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in northwestern Syria was a turning point for the militant group, many said. “Their recovery has been very slow, their organization is fragile...

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November 20, 2019

Darling Tyrant

NEED TO KNOW RWANDA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ffde1c02-96b3-4eb7-9f4c-c0ae3aec4398.png"] Darling Tyrant Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in office for almost 20 years, delivered a blunt statement to his enemies during a recent swearing-in ceremony for cabinet members and military brass. "I want to warn some people among us who hide behind different things. They...

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November 19, 2019

A Tsunami of Disenfranchisement

NEED TO KNOW MARSHALL ISLANDS [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fa4eeead-ecd6-4486-a0a9-47e0c34565ca.png"] A Tsunami of Disenfranchisement In the 1940s and 1950s, the United States exploded 67 nuclear bombs, conducted biological weapon tests and dumped 130 tons of soil from Nevada atomic sites in a concrete bunker in the Marshall Islands. Columbia University researchers recently found...

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November 18, 2019

The Wizard’s Feint

NEED TO KNOW BELARUS [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e245c80f-c7d2-453f-bbf8-339abfef08c7.png"] The Wizard's Feint It’s hard to know whether the Nov. 17 elections to the lower house of parliament in Belarus were free and fair. Most doubt it. Still, as the New York Times recently reminded everyone, democracy is on the ropes in Eastern Europe and...

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November 15, 2019

The Politics of Greed

NEED TO KNOW SRI LANKA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a9f4f274-eeb2-4ab4-aabd-2ea652149d29.png"] The Politics of Greed Gotabaya Rajapaksa helped crush a nearly 30-year-long insurgency in Sri Lanka in 2009 when he was defense secretary under his brother, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Under the two brothers, Sri Lankan forces allegedly committed numerous human rights violations during...

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November 14, 2019

Government by Hydra

NEED TO KNOW BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f04f413c-3d85-4071-b786-7412ed1f1b1d.png"] Government by Hydra Bosnia and Herzegovina has three presidents but no government. As Agence France-Presse explained, the three leaders of the Muslim Bosniaks, ethnic Croats and ethnic Serbs serve simultaneously as heads of state in the former Yugoslav republic. But since they...

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November 13, 2019

Where Bombs and Bullets Could Not Go

NEED TO KNOW BOUGAINVILLE, PAPUA NEW GUINEA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6204c30b-6807-4a21-a5af-7ba1bc31ad1d.png"] Where Bombs and Bullets Could Not Go The civil war between Papua New Guinea’s central government and the rebels of Bougainville claimed as many as 20,000 lives between 1989 and 1998. Stemming from disputes over how to share copper revenues, the...

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November 12, 2019

Sighing All The Way To The Polls

NEED TO KNOW SPAIN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a2934fc1-ecec-43c4-971e-42408b48ae64.png"] Sighing All The Way To The Polls The weather was so cold on election day Sunday in Spain that one voting official who also happened to be an animal rights activist wore a polar bear outfit. Some voters, meanwhile, showed up in Star...

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November 11, 2019

Rearview Mirror Politics

NEED TO KNOW ROMANIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/818453c3-155c-40f8-b71f-ad77b6c279cd.png"] Rearview Mirror Politics Has Romania finally achieved a semblance of stability? Protests over political corruption have wracked Romania for the past two years. Most recently, for example, the BBC reported on activists who took to the streets to call for a crackdown on illegal...

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November 08, 2019

Of Falling Walls and Soaring Rage

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a98d39b0-0658-4e98-9681-df0fd44630d4.png"] Of Falling Walls and Soaring Rage Americans view the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago as an unequivocal triumph, a victory of democracy over totalitarianism. German journalist Sabine Rennefanz is more ambivalent. The daughter of an East German metal worker who lost...

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November 07, 2019

Glittering Skylines, Hedging Bets

NEED TO KNOW UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/62965c62-fd12-4e62-b5d9-596edf60314d.png"] Glittering Skylines, Hedging Bets The glittering skylines of Dubai and Abu Dhabi highlight how the United Arab Emirates, or UAE, has been at the vanguard of the new Middle East. In a region where oil revenues have enabled many Arab countries to...

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November 06, 2019

No Good Deed…

NEED TO KNOW ETHIOPIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ebcf7d57-2cd4-4a70-a30c-6c92b9a1b48a.png"] No Good Deed… Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize recently for his efforts to end a 20-year-long war with neighboring Eritrea. But less than two weeks after the announcement, protesters were burning the 43-year-old politician’s book in demonstrations in support...

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November 05, 2019

The Other Side of Scandal

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA & UKRAINE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/379cac1a-a8c8-4a3c-a72a-ecfbb043e9d7.png"] The Other Side of Scandal Some Americans might have noticed that Ukraine has been in the news a lot lately. The sparring between US lawmakers and the White House over impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump put a spotlight on the corner...

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November 04, 2019

Back to the Future

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dce47e18-e5d0-45e9-b34c-579ae97d703b.png"] Back to the Future Lately it’s been feeling a lot like 1968. Fifty-one years ago, Americans took to the streets demanding civil rights and an end to the Vietnam War. French students set up barricades in Paris calling for university reforms. Czechoslovak protesters took...

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