From the Rubble

NEED TO KNOW SYRIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a0fb995d-af7e-4394-ad02-ecc76a056a44.png"] From the Rubble The Syrian Civil War was hard on Aleppo. “In the Old City’s labyrinthine markets, where government troops and rebel groups fought it out, shuttered shops are riddled with bullet-holes,” reported the New Humanitarian, a news agency that reports on crises. “The...

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Revisionist Politics

NEED TO KNOW POLAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7b585fc6-d6c4-4f4e-a14a-33fe8d729c1c.png"] Revisionist Politics Founded by freedom fighter, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former president of Poland, Lech Walesa, Solidarity has long been viewed as playing a key role in the fall of the Berlin Wall in the late 1980s. But as the end of communism...

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Lights Out

NEED TO KNOW ARGENTINA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0fa8b6fd-0f1b-4593-a49c-c234f14a68af.png"] Lights Out A blackout struck Argentina in early June. Almost 50 million people in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay lost power in an area four times as large as Texas. A month later, officials told the Associated Press that “improper reprogramming” in a major transmission line...

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No Help, Please

NEED TO KNOW INDIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6c1e91bd-d64f-473f-b468-ad3e35a0f829.png"] No Help, Please Prosecutors in India recently ordered a local legal aid and human rights organization to shut down for six months as punishment for violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) as well as conspiracy and other alleged crimes. Leaders of the Lawyer’s...

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A Golden Union

NEED TO KNOW AFRICA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7689c12-2326-4a2a-a072-842db5132f55.png"] A Golden Union Africa’s 1.3 billion people live and work in a $3.4 trillion economy, compared with China’s 1.4 billion people and $13.6 trillion 2018 gross domestic product. That $3.4 trillion is only a portion of the continent’s potential, however. Intra-regional trade accounted for only...

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Careful What You Wish For

NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c9165995-fdc4-4263-b05a-d1c174afcb39.png"] Careful What You Wish For A power-sharing agreement recently enacted between the Sudanese military and protesters has instilled hope among Arab democracy advocates. The agreement comes after the military ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in April after 30 years in...

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Begging for Peace

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/63dbd3ab-8c9f-403c-b1d4-f10b4c9a44c2.png"] Begging for Peace Taliban fighters recently attacked the Afghan Ministry of Defense, sparking an eight-hour gun battle that resulted in as many as 40 people dead and more than 100 injured. That attack happened as government forces killed almost 70 insurgents in one day...

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Bound Together

NEED TO KNOW MEXICO [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f356be79-e542-449d-b5af-3db13df342fd.png"] Bound Together Mexican officials recently sold luxury houses, including one with an escape tunnel, in an auction of property formerly owned by drug barons. The sales were part of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s push to generate extra revenue as he cuts...

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On the Crossroads

NEED TO KNOW ESTONIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/45ad73e9-63df-4bf3-95e3-0b12e10a89ea.png"] On the Crossroads The far-right Conservative People’s Party in the tiny Baltic republic of Estonia has long espoused views opposing the European Union, immigration, same-sex partnerships and feminism. After parliamentary elections in March, the party joined a new three-party coalition government led by...

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A Killer Loose

NEED TO KNOW UGANDA & CONGO [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/17fd0d0f-f16e-4569-a41d-29ee862e14ae.png"] A Killer Loose At Ihandiro primary school in western Uganda, teachers have been stressing a different lesson from reading and math: Wash your hands. That's because of a deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus in the nearby Democratic Republic of Congo that...

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Radio Free Sudan

NEED TO KNOW SUDAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7ff13e19-e031-4ed8-b29a-3f9f5eaaae60.png"] Radio Free Sudan Capital FM is going silent in Khartoum. The pop music radio station was part of a cultural revolution in Sudan this spring. "It was just so beautiful, and we were just so proud that we're soulful," Ahmad Hikmat, the station’s content director,...

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Paradise, Lost

NEED TO KNOW DOMINICAN REPUBLIC [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ad966f80-19dc-4544-b116-f2348e83ec0a.png"] Paradise, Lost Four Americans died in the Dominican Republic last year, according to CBS News. At least 10 more have died this year. Others have suffered injuries during violent attacks. Bizarre sicknesses that cause heart attacks, septic shock and pneumonia have been involved...

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What You See…

NEED TO KNOW SAUDI ARABIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6d96543a-ef9b-4c9c-8184-bf756542bee6.png"] What You See… Saudi Arabia is selling permanent residency status for $213,000. A one-year residency option costs around $27,000. The fees are designed to break down barriers to foreign investment. The idea came from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who estimated it would...

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Same Old Song

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/18ca6ce9-4a8f-46d8-b0b3-84a7601584cd.png"] Same Old Song Bodo Ramelow, premier of the eastern German state of Thuringia, wants his country to adopt a new national anthem to replace the Deutschlandlied (Song of Germany). “Many East Germans don’t sing it,” Ramelow told Reuters. “I would like to have a...

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Islands in the Stream

NEED TO KNOW INDONESIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/26b68ea6-a202-483a-8e3e-f776f4ca7c3b.png"] Islands in the Stream When the longtime dictator of Indonesia, Suharto, lost power in 1998 after three decades in office, he was estimated to have embezzled $35 billion. Following Suharto’s example, the Atlantic reported, nearly every government official or bureaucrat was once on the...

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Money, Money, Money

NEED TO KNOW ZIMBABWE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b64e0c19-eefc-4daa-92c7-139646417589.png"] Money, Money, Money Zimbabwean businesses are operating at night when they’re more likely to have electricity. Over the past week, there were blackouts that lasted at least two days. Officials blame low water levels for hydropower plants, antiquated coal-fired plants and decades of corruption...

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Frenzy and Fatigue

NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8c238c0e-e370-4880-bc53-0ac24ba71887.png"] Frenzy and Fatigue Members of the Conservative Party are voting to decide who next becomes prime minister of Britain. The next prime minister, in turn, is almost certainly going to preside over Brexit, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. Already...

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Across the South China Sea

NEED TO KNOW TAIWAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/488c805b-b031-4b64-95a3-8a18bc3d71d1.png"] Across the South China Sea The Taiwanese are closely watching Hong Kong as pro-democracy activists and Chinese security forces clash. They are wondering if they are seeing their future. Taiwan and Hong Kong share a common history of resisting and accommodating Chinese influence. Nationalists...

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What Money Can’t Buy

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL AND PALESTINE [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02b379cb-8cb1-4b6b-bef1-f28d0671f09c.png"] What Money Can’t Buy US President Donald Trump is “very fond” of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, reported the Jerusalem Post recently, quoting senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. The affinity between the two leaders could help Kushner convince Abbas to reconsider...

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Blame and Responsibility

NEED TO KNOW EL SALVADOR [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bcd23df8-1409-4584-8cf3-b9450e0f287e.png"] Blame and Responsibility The new president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, took an extraordinary step recently. Upon his inauguration in late June, he immediately took the blame for the ills in his impoverished, corruption-ridden Central American country that have led so many...

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