May 19, 2022

Guns and Crypto

NEED TO KNOW Guns and Crypto EL SALVADOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9d16e98f-6fe6-4329-b9c8-47184d56b2ce.png"] Crime and Bitcoin are the two most powerful forces in El Salvador. The question is whether those forces will be centripetal and bring people together or whether they will be centrifugal and pull the country apart. In March, a record...

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May 18, 2022

The Forever-war

NEED TO KNOW The Forever-war WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Some Ukrainian women in Poland, refugees from their country’s war against Russia, want to have abortions. But Poland has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Poland’s rules fall short...

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April 29, 2022

The War Without a Name

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW The War Without a Name MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] A Mexican drug gang recently left six severed heads on a car roof in order to intimidate rival dealers who might try to infringe on claimed turf in the southern Mexican town of Chilapa de Alvarez. "In Chilapa selling...

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February 15, 2022

Frustration, Fear and Baby Shark

NEED TO KNOW Frustration, Fear and Baby Shark CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] The 5,525-mile border between Canada and the US has long been described as the most peaceful frontiers in the world. Now, however, the boundary is the origin of an ideological war that threatens to take the world by...

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February 07, 2022

Keeping the Lights On

NEED TO KNOW Keeping the Lights On MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Proposed reforms to Mexico’s energy sector are causing ripples throughout North America. Leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to divert more of the country’s energy market to the public Federal Electricity Commission, canceling contracts with private providers, Agence France-Presse...

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February 04, 2022

Holding the Nose

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Holding the Nose COSTA RICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1680456f-646a-4ee8-9ddf-e349708a0ee2.png"] Costa Rican leaders face hard choices. Their constituents, meanwhile, feel as if they are being left with none. Costa Rican tourism this year is expected to reach 40 percent of 2019 levels, before the coronavirus pandemic, the Costa Rica News...

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January 26, 2022

The Covid Orphans

NEED TO KNOW The Covid Orphans PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] More than 204,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Peru, the highest rate per capita on Earth. Tragically, many of those lost were parents. More tragically, the virus in the South American country often claimed both parents or all...

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January 19, 2022

Standing Tall

NEED TO KNOW Standing Tall BARBADOS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f789b0d4-d2ad-44af-8a47-5201502a16bd.png"] When the BBC asked Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley about climate change last year, the interviewer learned a lesson about international perspective. As the Scotland-based National newspaper explained, the BBC correspondent wondered why Barbados was receiving so much Chinese foreign investment...

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January 12, 2022

Justice Delayed But Not Daunted

NEED TO KNOW Justice Delayed But Not Daunted LATIN AMERICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/59fbe6be-49eb-3207-4c89-ea2ca4043f2a.png"] The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a Costa Rica-based panel affiliated with the Organization of American States, recently rendered guilty verdicts against two past rightwing governments in Latin America and one from the left. The court found that...

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December 31, 2021

A Frightful Old Year

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW A Frightful Old Year WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Fear was the watchword of 2021. People feared the coronavirus. In Africa, where the Omicron variant first appeared, United Nations officials continued to sound alarm bells about the lack of a coordinated international effort to vaccinate people and stop the...

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December 30, 2021

Much Ado About Something

NEED TO KNOW Much Ado About Something CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] School officials forced third-grade teacher Fatemeh Anvari out of her classroom at Chelsea Elementary School in Quebec because she wore a hijab. Anvari didn’t lose her job, per se. She was reassigned to an inclusion-and-diversity literacy program. Her students were,...

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December 28, 2021

Upstaging Ghosts

NEED TO KNOW Upstaging Ghosts CHILE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/baed026e-8c02-42fc-8c27-383b8bf87a6c.png"] If the legacy of General Augusto Pinochet’s cruel rule haunted Chile for years, the ghost of his predecessor, the late leftwing Chilean President Salvador Allende, is now getting its chance to do the same. Pinochet seized power in a coup that unseated...

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December 01, 2021

Promoting Parenthood

NEED TO KNOW Promoting Parenthood WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Most wealthy countries offer nationwide paid parental leave. Estonia, for example, mandates 82 weeks for new parents, reported the Washington Post, citing World Policy Analysis Center data. British citizens receive 39 weeks. The Japanese enjoy 52 weeks or more. Often, policymakers...

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November 30, 2021

Standing Tall

NEED TO KNOW Standing Tall BARBADOS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f789b0d4-d2ad-44af-8a47-5201502a16bd.png"] It’s often forgotten that Queen Elizabeth is the head of state of many former British colonies that have become full-fledged independent countries, including Australia and Canada, where she serves as a “nonpartisan symbol of the nation, constitutional continuity, and moral authority,”...

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November 26, 2021

Stacking Decks

Editor's Note: Due to technical issues, we are unable to post the quiz this week. The quiz will resume next week. We thank you for your understanding. NEED TO KNOW Stacking Decks HONDURAS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5e2a67ee-c113-425a-b7dc-9cb08a72f95e.png"] When voters in Honduras go to the polls to elect a new president on Nov....

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November 19, 2021

Eyes Wide Open

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW Eyes Wide Open CHILE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/baed026e-8c02-42fc-8c27-383b8bf87a6c.png"] Fabiola Campillai was walking to work in 2019 when Chilean security forces fired a tear gas canister at her, striking her face, blinding her permanently and damaging her brain. At the time, civil unrest was rising in Chile over social...

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November 11, 2021

Voting With Feet

NEED TO KNOW Voting With Feet ARGENTINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76e4f41e-d963-4fc8-b435-ba5bf19812a5.png"] Argentine President Alberto Fernández unveiled big spending plans on social welfare programs and other benefits in order to convince voters that they should reelect his Peronist allies in the Justicialist Party during legislative elections on Nov. 14, wrote El Pais,...

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November 05, 2021

When Might Is Right

[featurecontent] NEED TO KNOW When Might Is Right NICARAGUA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b1f74445-4296-4463-949d-e92d66c3e3b1.png"] Nicaraguan law enforcement recently arrested two prominent businessmen on charges of “money laundering, acts that diminish the country’s independence and inciting foreign interference,” according to the Associated Press. Similar charges have been levied against scores of others for similar crimes...

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October 20, 2021

Life and Death

NEED TO KNOW Life and Death COLOMBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/80e582e1-1ef0-4fb5-a86a-699a8cf7cddf.png"] Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Martha Sepúlveda opted to die. She scheduled the procedure that would kill her known as euthanasia for Oct. 10 at the Colombian Pain Institute. A few days before, however,  the Institute canceled the procedure,...

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October 05, 2021

Hostage Diplomacy

NEED TO KNOW Hostage Diplomacy CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] Recently a plane from China carrying Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor arrived in Calgary. At the same time, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou landed in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. As the Guardian reported, the two Canadians had been held in...

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