NEED TO KNOW NORTH MACEDONIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ec96c360-1d6e-4200-89b5-21200688c7e6.png"] Moving On North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras took a selfie when they met in Skopje earlier this month. As the Washington Post reported, the photo commemorated the successful deal the two men struck last year that...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ALGERIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/954056b5-eefa-4934-9ebe-c7818ba081e5.png"] The Battle for Algeria Widespread demonstrations, followed by the loss of military support, forced former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who’s 82 and seriously ailing, to resign earlier this month after 20 years in power. Interim President Abdelkader Bensalah has scheduled a new election for July 4, reported Al Jazeera....
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDONESIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/af855bf7-d70a-4989-a437-6c5b836d5e66.png"] Presidents and Generals The new and old are battling it out in Indonesia. But, ultimately, they might bring the country to the same place. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, a 57-year-old ex-businessman, is ahead in the polls as 193 million voters prepare for the Southeast Asian country’s April 17...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KASHMIR [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d5affbce-8a64-44ee-adf0-ac550cca9f1f.png"] Paradise, Divided Before he decided to join an uprising against India in the disputed region of Kashmir, Owais Malik, 22, was an art student and apple picker. “He was a responsible kid who cared about his studies,” his father, Yusuf, 49, told Reuters. Now Owais is among...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MEXICO [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f356be79-e542-449d-b5af-3db13df342fd.png"] Unclean Wounds Masked gunmen stormed a bus in northern Mexico in early March. Carrying a list of names, they abducted 19 passengers and disappeared. Mexican investigators still don’t know who the gunmen were, where they took the abductees or why they might have wanted passengers who appeared...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW FINLAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e8d98a0c-482c-4039-bb59-c3ed0e363f7c.png"] Drama Ahead An experiment giving Finns a universal basic income suggested the practice would reduce stress and strengthen community cohesion. “Respondents who received a basic income had more trust in other people and in societal institutions – politicians, political parties, police and the courts –...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d10ca9e0-a38f-4fef-91cb-454e046a7fe1.png"] A Colorful, Complex Festival More than 900 million voters are slated to elect 543 lawmakers to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, between April 11 and late May. It is the world's largest democratic festival, complex, colorful and chaotic....
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BELIZE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b7b6c3ad-5702-4092-8d86-79d253bc2c43.png"] A Neighborly Referendum The world's first “overwater bungalow coworking space” will be available to globetrotters who enjoy working vacations on tropical islands off the coast of Belize. Travel and Leisure magazine featured the bungalow in a recent issue. It’s a sign of how the...
Read full story →Today we are introducing a new feature we hope will increase your enjoyment of DailyChatter – a daily map to position the country in our lead feature, Need to Know. NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4eb1114d-3a8f-4e5d-a79b-a29d71e260fc.png"] Judges Versus Voters Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin...
Read full story →Today we are introducing a new feature we hope will increase your enjoyment of DailyChatter – a daily map to position the country in our lead feature, Need to Know. NEED TO KNOW ETHIOPIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ebcf7d57-2cd4-4a70-a30c-6c92b9a1b48a.png"] African Glasnost Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s first year in office ended with an...
Read full story →Today we are introducing a new feature we hope will increase your enjoyment of DailyChatter – a daily map to position the country in our lead feature, Need to Know. NEED TO KNOW BANGLADESH [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/32f3148b-6567-49a5-9084-40138070370d.png"] Of Bribes and Fire's Fury The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City...
Read full story →Today we are introducing a new feature we hope will increase your enjoyment of DailyChatter – a daily map to position the country in our lead feature, Need to Know. NEED TO KNOW ITALY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d1f5e652-8ba9-4650-8185-37353156716c.png"] Taking the Silk Road For decades, China’s influence on the world stage has waxed...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SOLOMON ISLANDS Devil's Night A Chinese oil tanker ran aground in the Solomon Islands in early February. More than 80 tons of fuel have leaked from the wreck, threatening a UNESCO World Heritage site described as the "largest raised coral atoll in the world,” National Public...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MALI [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/244231b0-61bf-4955-aac5-bd3cc3d9bba3.png"] Herders and Hunters Mali’s ethnic Dogon hunters and semi-nomadic Fulani herders have long clashed over land and water. The recent massacre of more than 150 Fulani villagers – a third of whom were children – was a turning point, however. Wielding guns and machetes...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NEW ZEALAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/48e935db-aced-4236-9191-e27c19bb83b1.png"] Sympathy, Not Revenge Americans know too well the toll of mass shootings. So some of the talk after a white nationalist attacked two mosques in New Zealand on March 15, killing 50 worshippers, was familiar to US citizens. “Why did New Zealand intelligence fail...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW UKRAINE The People’s Servant Ukraine is perhaps the most unfortunate country in Europe. Five years ago, amid a fraying economy and a political crisis that forced its former president to flee to Moscow, Russia effectively cleaved off half the country, annexing the Crimean peninsula in 2014...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM Tick Tock The United Kingdom was supposed to quit the European Union tomorrow. But nobody could agree on how. So British and European leaders postponed it. “The cliff-edge date will be delayed,” said European Council President Donald Tusk. At issue is whether Britain leaves without...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KAZAKHSTAN For Once, a Graceful Exit Soon after he took the oath of office on March 20, the new acting president of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, announced that the name of the country’s capital would change from Astana to Nursultan. The move was to honor Nursultan Nazarbayev,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA/PAKISTAN A 'Negative Peace' India’s cricket team recently courted controversy by wearing military caps on the playing field. The camouflage hats were meant to honor 40 paramilitary officers killed last month in a terror attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which is under Indian control but Pakistan claims...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ALGERIA Has Spring Arrived? Call them hooligans. Call them activists. Either way, young soccer fans are raising their voices and calling for change in Algeria. “A marginalized class will always find a way to carve out its own territory and, in Algeria, that space exists in...
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