NEED TO KNOW PALESTINE Blurred Lines To some, she's a modern-day Joan of Arc. To others, she's as an instigator of violence against the Israeli state. Conflicting narratives notwithstanding, 16-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi is intensifying the debate over rule-of-law in Israel. On Jan. 1, Israeli military prosecutors indicted Tamimi...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MEXICO Welcome to the Badlands A recent tweet from the Oval Office notwithstanding, Mexico is not the most dangerous or most violent country in the world. But as a presidential election approaches, the country logged a record high number of murders last year, and the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SWEDEN Breaking the Rules Conventional wisdom has it that low taxes spur businesses to invest and grow, and that social-welfare programs breed lazy people looking for handouts. Sweden’s booming startup scene – call it Silicon Valley North – suggests otherwise. Known for multibillion-dollar firms like Spotify...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW UNITED ARAB EMIRATES The New Mercenaries A little more than a decade after a deadly Baghdad shootout sparked concerns that private military contractors had spiraled out of control, the United Arab Emirates is hiring former CIA agents and special forces operators to build its own...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA Close Encounters Close encounters and near misses with Russia’s navy and air force have grown common since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and intervention in Syria – raising fears of an accidental escalation in what increasingly looks like a modern-day Cold War. On Christmas Day, Britain’s...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PAKISTAN On the Other Foot The most well-known cause of tensions between India and Pakistan is their dispute over territory in Kashmir – where New Delhi accuses Islamabad of helping insurgents sneak across the border to attack the Indian army and carry out terrorist attacks. This...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PARAGUAY One and Done In any other country, Paraguay’s president, Horacio Cartes, would probably be basking in popularity and skating toward re-election. But that’s not the case in this booming country, whose seven million people suffered under a brutal dictatorship from 1954 to 1989. Cartes delivered...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW UNITED STATES Home and Away The US Department of Homeland Security has generated occasional controversy since its creation in 2002. But the latest debate focuses on a new area: The domestic anti-terrorism agency’s rapid expansion of its operations on foreign soil. Around 2,000 Homeland Security employees are...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LIBERIA Transfer Striker The only African to be named FIFA World Player of the Year, in 1995, incoming Liberian President George Weah, now 51, is used to winning. But his inauguration on Monday was not so much a celebration of victory as the opening whistle...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LAOS In the Shadows Two years ago, the Voice of America hailed former President Barack Obama’s visit to Laos as a signal the Southeast Asian country was stepping out of the shadow of its influential neighbors, China and Vietnam. That was an overstatement. Laos is booming...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ANGOLA Out with the Old When longtime strongman José Eduardo dos Santos announced he was stepping down as president of Angola after 38 years late last year, few expected that much would change under his handpicked successor. But President João Lourenço has proven to be...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NIGER Armed Response When an ambush killed five Nigerien troops and four US soldiers last October, Americans weren’t the only ones surprised to learn of the US military presence in the poverty-stricken country on the edge of the Sahara. People in Niger were stunned, too, reported Buzzfeed...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CUBA Will He Stay or Will He Go? Just before Christmas, the Cuban government postponed a historic presidential election in which longtime leader Raúl Castro was expected to step down. Initially slated for February, the vote was delayed until April, prompting speculation about the country’s future,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW AUSTRALIA Battery Power Australian rockers AC/DC lost guitarist Malcolm Young in 2017. But DC – or direct current – is rocking harder than ever down under in the form of Tesla’s world record-sized 100-megawatt/129-megawatt-hour lithium ion battery. Just before Christmas, the battery reacted within milliseconds when...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CATALONIA Virtual Leadership Former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont won’t be on hand when the Catalan regional parliament reconvenes Wednesday to begin choosing a new government. But he will nevertheless likely be the biggest factor in what happens next in Catalonia – where the two separatist...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PERU Splitting Heirs Peru President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was never going to have an easy time in office. He squeaked past a tough rival in the June 2016 election, only to face a legislature where that same opponent enjoyed a clear majority and was set...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA All My Rowdy Friends In December, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in elections for the legislative assembly in his home state of Gujarat. But the rhetoric he employed raised concerns about his waning popularity and the fast-decaying...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PORTUGAL Do Do That Voodoo As recently as August 2016, pundits warned Portugal might become “Europe’s next economic disaster,” thanks to its Socialist government’s decision to ignore the European Union’s austerity diktats. Instead, the finance minister who flouted the conventional wisdom is shining brighter than...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CANADA Trade Off For much of 2017, Canada’s dynamic prime minister was feted as a champion of the globalized world – in large part due to America’s drift toward isolationism under President Donald Trump. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faces a dilemma when it comes to...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LIBYA A Desperate Choice Since the demise of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya, the country the flamboyant leader once held together through a combination of charisma and military might, has descended into seemingly unending chaos. Now, the people may well face a choice between democracy and...
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