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 →NEED TO KNOW Name of the Game President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines came up during Secretary of State Designate Rex Tillerson’s grilling on Capitol Hill Wednesday. When Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio asked Tillerson whether Duterte has committed human rights abuses, the ex-chief executive of Exxon...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW The Countdown With the Islamic State (IS) effectively driven out of their North-African stronghold in Libya, the Mosul operation well underway and the group incurring tens of thousands of casualties, it looks like the so-called caliphate's days are numbered. But 2017 will present challenges in...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Facing Up Kosovo’s leaders are calling on a French court to release Ramush Haradinaj, an ex-prime minister and former guerrilla fighter who allegedly kidnapped, tortured and killed Serbian civilians during the tiny Balkan country’s war of independence against Serbia in the late 1990s. His nickname was...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Reaping and Sowing Britain is preparing to reap the harvest of seeds sowed in 2016. On Sunday, the potentially dire consequences of Brexit became clearer as Prime Minister Theresa May discussed her plan to officially begin Britain’s departure from the European Union. Referring to the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Fighting For Scraps Zimbabwe appears headed for its second major public health crisis in eight years. On Thursday, Voice of America said that 126 cases of typhoid had been confirmed in Harare, the capital, and more than 1,000 were suspected nationwide. Government public health officials...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Win-wins and Losses Amid the American presidential election, Brexit, the Syrian Civil War, terrorism in Europe and other big news this year, many folks have been too busy to focus on a slow-moving but major development that would be garnering headlines in the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Sideshows and Backfires When Arab ambassadors recently asked about America’s plans for the Middle East, one of President-elect Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisors said ending the bloody Syrian civil war would be the White House’s top priority this year. The first step to reaching that...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Tourism and Tyranny The communist-style military parade that Reuters covered in Havana on Monday was a fitting symbol of the anachronism of Cuba. It was a heady show, but it wasn’t clear what lessons an observer might take from it. Even as the United...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW Disasters Ending and Beginning The fall of Aleppo was a humanitarian disaster that will likely go down in history as a shameful failure of the international community to prevent mass carnage and the destruction of an ancient city. Now the escape from Aleppo is prolonging...
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 →
Thank you for visiting, DailyChatter, the only daily newsletter focused exclusively on world events. We hope you enjoy reading (or listening to) this edition.
Want to receive DailyChatter directly to your inbox each morning?
Your paid subscription supports independent, non-partisan, and fair journalism.
Friends of paid subscribers get 20% off for the first year on their paid subscription!
Our Global Education Initiative helps university and high school students know the world better.
University students or faculty with valid .edu email addresses can sign up for a FREE subscription.
High school students and teachers can also subscribe for FREE with valid school email addresses.
We understand that some school districts and individual schools do not use .edu email addresses. We will work with you to verify your email.
Questions?
Email us at [email protected]