NEED TO KNOW Concentrating Power Kyrgyzstan became the latest country to upend its internal politics by holding a referendum over the weekend on a range of constitutional issues. Citizens in the mostly Muslim country voted on 26 proposed amendments that required a simple yes or no answer on...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Italian Baggage New Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni is already facing a gauntlet of political obstacles to his hastily assembled government's success – and he hasn't even received a vote of support in parliament yet. Gentiloni, 62, was foreign minister before he took over the prime...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW China Under Trump Could President-elect Donald Trump be rehearsing to perform "Nixon in China" backwards? Whereas Nixon reached out to China during the Cold War to undermine the Soviet Union, Trump appears to be improving relations with Moscow but letting the American relationship with Beijing...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW A Growing Mire An Irish High Court will be considering an important question next year: whether Britain can reverse its decision to leave the European Union once Prime Minister Theresa May invokes the infamous Article 50 of the EU treaty that allows members to...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Smiling Kim Amid the ongoing world conflict between democratically elected leaders who appear fated for humiliation and emboldened authoritarian strongmen who just won’t go away, North Korean Great Leader Kim Jong-un is likely smiling at the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in South Korea. The Hermit...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Of Diseases and Cures India is now one month into a unique experiment: radical demonetization. On Nov. 8, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi abruptly announced that the country's 500 and 1,000 rupee notes – roughly 86 percent of its cash in circulation – would cease...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Game Almost Over The end may be nearing for disgraced South Korean President Park-Geun-hye. In the latest twist, technology giant Samsung recently admitted to gifting a horse to Park's down-and-out confidant, Choi Soon-sil – who also happens to be the daughter of the late South...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Dangerous Spin It took a couple days for China’s propaganda machine to respond to President-elect Donald Trump’s supposed slights. The Hill on Tuesday cited a sharp-elbowed opinion piece slamming Trump in the People’s Daily: “Provoking friction and messing up China-US relations won’t help ‘make America...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Biting the Dust Gambians took to the streets Monday. This time the excuse was to celebrate the freedom of Ousainou Darboe and 18 other political prisoners, the BBC reported. But the real cause for merriment was days old but still sweet for many Gambians. The...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Zig and Zag The defeat of far-right Austrian presidential candidate Norbert Hofer could become the high-water mark of the populist gains in Europe and the United States. “We are all, equally, Austrians, no matter how we voted at the ballot box,” wrote Norbert Hofer, the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Too Big To Fail Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is the next world leader going into battle with anti-establishment voters – and the results could be grim for the eurozone. On Sunday, Italy will hold a public referendum on constitutional reforms designed by Renzi and...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Wobbly Dominoes Austrians will take to the polls for the third time on Sunday to elect their next head of state. The largely figurehead presidency of a Central European nation of 8.7 million people may seem inconsequential. But in a politically cacophonous year defined by Brexit...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Dignity and Tedium Diplomats are rarely blunt in public. But on Tuesday German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier didn’t mince words after he and his colleagues from France, Russia and Ukraine admitted they had failed to end the insurgency in eastern Ukraine. "It was very tedious again...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW A Low Peak Not too long ago, everyone was talking about peak oil – the tipping point where rapacious humans would finally run out of carbon-based fuels to operate their polluting cars and power plants unless they embarked on a wholesale shift to solar,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW A Seismic Moment Fidel Castro’s death is likely to usher forth a slow, simmering political revolution that stands in stark contrast to the tectonic shift that his passing symbolizes. But that won't happen anytime soon. Remember that his 85-year-old brother, Raul, has been running the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Pax Redux Colombians will get another chance at peace – though justice is another matter. The Colombian government signed a second peace agreement with leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Thursday, revising a previous peace deal that was rejected by...
Read full story →Dear Readers, Today is Thanksgiving Day in America, a time of gatherings, feasting and gratitude across this vast nation and among our compatriots across the world. To celebrate, we are taking a respite from the world's troubles and, instead, offering a special essay to mark the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Down But Not Out The Islamic State is on the ropes in Iraq, Syria and Libya. It's conceivable that the group might hold little or no significant territory in the Middle East and North Africa in the next year or two, a remarkable turnabout...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Democracy and Restraint An offhand remark is threatening to destabilize one of the biggest countries in the world. In the process, the ongoing crisis in Indonesia is providing yet another example of how democratic institutions around the world are increasingly struggling to prevent sectarian tensions...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Decency, Dullness and Déjà Vu Maybe France will be different. After Americans elected Donald Trump president and Britons opted to quit the European Union, the French appear to be gearing up to make a stand against the populist and often-xenophobic surge against globalization. On Sunday, members...
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