NEED TO KNOW The Road to Nowhere Since the 2009 military coup d’état that ousted then-President Manuel Zelaya, Honduras has become one of the most dangerous and unjust countries in the world. "The beneficiaries of corruption are the political and business elite who use criminal means to take...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Chutes and Ladders War on the Russian-Ukrainian border has arguably been NATO's biggest concern in Europe since 2014. On Tuesday, after fighting in the pro-Russian separatist republics in Eastern Ukraine flared up once again last week, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Tug of War With the world focused on the plight of millions of refugees displaced by the Syrian Civil War, it's easy to forget the ongoing power struggle in Afghanistan. That’s a mistake. On Monday, the United Nations claimed that nearly 3,500 Afghan civilians died and...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW A Wave of Civic Creativity Democracy still works, at least in Romania. On Sunday, Romanian protesters remained on the streets of Bucharest and elsewhere despite their apparent victory the day before, when the government scrapped a controversial decree that would have weakened corruption laws in...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW The Trump Doctrine Last week, when US President Donald Trump issued his order banning refugees, he kicked a hornet’s nest with the stroke of his pen. Now he’s causing chaos with his phone, quipped Politico on Thursday, a busy day for the leader of...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW In the Shadows The countries of Central Asia – think Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – rarely, if ever, make headlines around the world. The international press briefly alighted in Kazakhstan last month. But that was because it hosted a two-day conference...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Friends and Foes After months of fighting, the Iraqi government declared it had finally retaken control of eastern Mosul from the Islamic State last week. The Atlantic ran a photo essay of the destruction wrought by the violence on Tuesday. Now the Iraqi army is prepping...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW R.I.P. TPP With the flick of a pen, US President Donald Trump last week made good on his campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP. A landmark free-trade proposal between 12 countries across three continents, the TPP...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW An Order Heard Round the World As protesters swarmed airports in the United States and foreign permanent residents and visa holders found themselves rebuffed as they attempted to board US-bound airplanes, world leaders were also for the most part dismayed over the weekend...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Muddling Along Given the chaos engulfing the Arab world, Morocco is remarkably stable. But now the North African kingdom is struggling to overcome political turbulence. The Islamist but moderate Justice and Development Party (PJD) won elections in October but has yet to form a government – a...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW What's Normal? Russia wants to normalize relations with the United States and Europe. But what’s normal? "We need to work in a businesslike way," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told his country's lawmakers on Wednesday. Among other issues, Lavrov's proposed normalization referred to the US and European...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Don't Walk Away Some believe climate change is a Chinese-invented "hoax." But the country where citizens sometimes can’t see past the smog in their sprawling cities is working hard to combat Beijing’s supposed fictional creation. Indeed, as climate change skeptics continue to deny that carbon emissions...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW The Mother of Necessity Ethiopians are anxiously watching the price of qat. The mild, green-leaf stimulant is now the second-largest cash crop in Ethiopia after coffee, the Economist recently reported. Folks throughout the Horn of Africa chew it regularly. But Ethiopians fear what might happen to...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Talking or Not The new peace talks to end the Syrian Civil War that began on Monday in the capital of Kazakhstan highlight big shifts in geopolitics. Most importantly, the United States isn't involved. Moscow, Ankara and Tehran are sponsoring the negotiations. The US, on...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Get Ready Today’s inauguration of President Donald Trump is shaping up as the start to a peculiar era in world affairs. The United States is potentially going to be the cause of, rather than the solution to, global instability in the next few years...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Gambian Standoff The political crisis in The Gambia has been heralded as a face-off between the forces currently at odds throughout the continent. On one side stand the forces of democracy – civil and human rights activists, opposition leaders and others who want the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Bumps and Curves Brazilian politics was a rollercoaster ride for much of last year, culminating in the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff’s successor, Michel Temer, is now determined to address Brazil's big challenge in 2017: its crumbling economy. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW The Last Domino After a tumultuous year that saw voters lash out at Western elites, many believe German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the last remaining defender of transatlantic liberal values. On Monday, for example, Merkel lived up to her reputation as the Iron Chancellor in...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW The Global Imbalance Thoughtful folks should keep in mind a stunning statistic as the world prepares for what is promising to be a year of political controversies and backbiting. On Sunday, the British charity Oxfam released a report claiming that eight men own the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW From the Frying Pan As Cuba draws closer to the United States – President Barack Obama on Thursday ended visa-free travel for Cubans fleeing to the US, a long-sought goal of Havana – the other once-great socialist hope of the Western Hemisphere, Venezuela, is...
Read full story →You don't have credit card details available. You will be redirected to update payment method page. Click OK to continue.