NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dce47e18-e5d0-45e9-b34c-579ae97d703b.png"] You Go, Girl These young women are superheroes, but they’re not the Powerpuff Girls. They’re fighters for human rights. This summer, more than 1,000 young women between the ages 13 and 22 from 34 countries contributed their thoughts in a survey that led to...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW THAILAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a4498c85-8923-491f-b73f-18aa26c5b68d.png"] The Price of Righteousness Fewer tourists these days are reserving hotel rooms, enjoying the nightlife, riding elephants and scuba diving in Phuket, the seaside resort in Thailand. “I’ve never seen anything as bad as what it is at the moment,” Paul Scott, an Australian...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8c238c0e-e370-4880-bc53-0ac24ba71887.png"] Should I Stay or Should I Go… Brexit was supposed to happen on Oct. 31. It won’t. Britain’s finance chief, Chancellor Sajid Javid, admitted the deadline couldn't be met, the BBC reported. Javid’s boss, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, grudgingly requested an extension – he was...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CHILE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3d56051e-ec6e-4ba2-992e-95cf1329a7fa.png"] Enough! Truckers recently joined protests in Chile, calling for an end to highway tolls. Hundreds of trucks drove slowly down a highway near Santiago, the capital, where protesters have clashed with riot police for weeks. At least 20 people have died in the civil...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW TURKEY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7690ac2f-dd96-41b5-a42f-055b31e06d65.png"] A Genie Is Out Russian troops in Syria recently moved to the country’s northeastern border with Turkey, occupying territory that American troops left on orders from US President Donald Trump. The Russian moves were part of a deal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CATALONIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7b3c4484-6c61-42ec-869f-4fb69f335033.png"] Powder Keg Politics Separatism made Catalonia into a powder keg. Spanish authorities lit the fuse. Activists in the region of northeastern Spain have long demanded independence from the central government in Madrid, citing their unique language and culture. In 2017, tensions over the issue came...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BOTSWANA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/15cba0b9-3d17-4f25-b35e-21cc9789d865.png"] Growing Pains Botswana has long been viewed as one of the most stable democracies in Africa. That view is now being put to the test. For the first time since the southern African country gained independence 53 years ago, the Botswana Democratic Party could lose...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW HAITI [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/534c9ac4-a47f-4279-a234-044a550ac18b.png"] A Perfect Storm Protests in Haiti have taken a heavy toll on the impoverished Caribbean nation in recent weeks. At least 18 people have died. Businesses have closed. Humanitarian aid workers who provide a key role in Haiti’s economy and civil society can’t do...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW URUGUAY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1a7a2fb8-b6b7-42b9-be23-8f5a08738584.png"] 30 Years of Solitude More than the presidency is at stake in Uruguay on Oct. 27. In addition to choosing between presidential candidates Daniel Martinez and upstart challenger Luis Lacalle Pou, voters will also cast ballots on a draconian set of criminal reforms. The mayor...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CANADA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/86dd83b3-dfbf-4c11-8b78-5721c606d3f8.png"] Flaws and Options Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cavorted in blackface or brownface at least three times. He once sang the Jamaican folk song “Day-O” while wearing the offensive makeup. Trudeau admitted he made a mistake. But the revelations left his progressive bona...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ECUADOR [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/03f19965-6736-4ba3-b162-f7c0e7cf0afe.png"] Street Power Ecuadorian protesters recently seized six police officers in the capital of Quito, paraded them on a stage as a throng cried “murderers, murderers,” and forced the officers to carry a coffin bearing the body of an activist whom they allegedly shot...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SYRIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a0fb995d-af7e-4394-ad02-ecc76a056a44.png"] Letting the Genie Out The Turkish-Syrian border is on fire, according to Kurdish officials who spoke to Reuters recently. Everyone from Capitol Hill to the Middle East and beyond knows why. Last week, US President Donald Trump pulled the small contingent of American soldiers from...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BOLIVIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a9c8ea39-bdb2-43ce-ae0a-f9b246fc2c42.png"] Overstaying His Welcome Rain finally extinguished the massive wildfires that burned through almost 10 million acres of the Bolivian rainforest since August, the BBC reported recently. President Evo Morales isn’t likely to receive a similar respite. Latin America’s longest-serving head of state – he...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MOZAMBIQUE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fb8fea04-ee68-464c-bb00-be636cb6a3c9.png"] Ruling Over Nothing Police officers allegedly killed an election observer in Mozambique a week before the presidential vote on Oct. 15. Reported by Human Rights Watch, the incident was just one flare-up of recent violence in the southeastern African country. The elections were supposed...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDONESIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/26b68ea6-a202-483a-8e3e-f776f4ca7c3b.png"] Reformers 0, Radicals 1 Indonesia’s security minister was stabbed recently in an attack that authorities blamed on Islamic State “radicalism.” Police arrested a man and woman in the wake of the non-fatal attack on Wiranto, who only uses one name, the BBC reported. The...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW POLAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7b585fc6-d6c4-4f4e-a14a-33fe8d729c1c.png"] Fertilizing with Fear Police clashed with anti-LGBTQ protesters last month in Lublin, Poland, before a gay pride march. “We’ve had death threats,” march organizer Bartosz Staszewski told Reuters. “[This violence] was about forcing us not to have this march.” The unrest reflects the “increased social...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PAKISTAN & INDIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbfb3316-ea59-4b14-83cb-4a728bd5744e.png"] Coming Last Most of the focus on Kashmir lately spotlights India’s crackdown in the disputed region along the Pakistani border that it controls. But trouble has been brewing in Pakistan’s zone of control, too. Recently Pakistani police arrested 22 demonstrators in Azad Jammu...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW EGYPT [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b3bfa138-2a35-4b2f-a606-17aecd7c09ce.png"] Of Pharaohs and Tin Ears Egyptians are furious about corruption. Their rage stems from viral videos posted by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Ali, who alleged that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi forced him to build luxury hotels and palaces for Sissi and his cronies in the military...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BELARUS [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e245c80f-c7d2-453f-bbf8-339abfef08c7.png"] A Tight Bear Hug Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently described the refusal of Belarus to host a Russian air base as an “unpleasant episode.” But, Reuters noted, Lavrov was quick to add that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was a “100 percent ally” of...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9fcb8edf-e081-4318-ab32-04abb3d5c1e6.png"] Reset in Tunis If Nabil Karoui wins Tunisia’s runoff presidential election on Oct. 13, he might deliver his victory speech from a jail cell. Imprisoned in August on charges of money laundering and tax evasion, the media mogul claims he is the victim of...
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