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August 11, 2023

Opaque Waters

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Opaque Waters JAPAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ab764327-df98-4918-badd-17c2c79d5685.png"] Chef Kazuyuki Tanioka owns a sushi restaurant called Toya in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Life hasn’t been easy for him in the past few years. China’s coronavirus restrictions nearly ruined him. Now he’s worried about another existential threat to his...

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August 03, 2023

Dimming Star

NEED TO KNOW Dimming Star BANGLADESH [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/46a3120a-34a1-40f2-8221-240a899a0fd0.png"] The foreign minister of Bangladesh recently called ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, and 10 other Western countries together in Dhaka to complain about their condemnation of an attack on a political candidate running against the country’s ruling Awami League...

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July 27, 2023

A Worrying Popularity

NEED TO KNOW A Worrying Popularity THAILAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9aed0fb0-f5eb-4eda-ae64-69e423143eb5.png"] When Thai voters cast their ballots for a new parliament in May, they roundly rejected allies of the military that had ruled the Southeast Asian country for nine years, opting instead for the progressive Move Forward and populist Pheu Thai...

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July 21, 2023

Null and Void

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Null and Void CAMBODIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7961b85-6c8d-4728-b55b-cbaa2e866255.png"] Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s chances of winning reelection on July 23 are very good. It’s not a stretch, in fact, to say he is essentially running unopposed. Hun Sen’s government banned the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in 2017...

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July 05, 2023

Come Visit

NEED TO KNOW Come Visit HONG KONG [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ed89ce6f-df7c-493b-809a-681d51fa4904.png"] Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, is giving out 700,000 plane tickets to folks who would like to visit the former British colony on the South China Sea. Would-be visitors must apply to receive the tickets, Time Out...

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June 28, 2023

A Voice, a Divide

NEED TO KNOW A Voice, a Divide AUSTRALIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/81d62805-bef8-41fd-9c0c-ed93ea461226.png"] After a recent historic parliamentary vote, Australians will vote on a constitutional amendment to dramatically expand the protections of their Indigenous communities. As a government website showed, the question will ask voters whether to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait...

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June 26, 2023

Backroom Chats

NEED TO KNOW Backroom Chats CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] American diplomats claimed that the autocratic president of China, Xi Jinping, had no clue that one of his spy balloons had been shot down over the US in February. As CNN noted, Xi’s potential ignorance of a major international story illustrated...

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June 16, 2023

Pride and Pressure

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Pride and Pressure KYRGYZSTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/766aa12d-4910-4bb3-a204-adba72f724f9.png"] D Billions is a quartet of Kyrgyz singers whose performances for kids on YouTube have received 31 billion viewings, more than pop star Taylor Swift or South Korean sensation, BTS. As Global Voices explained, D Billions could be Kyrgyzstan’s biggest...

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June 09, 2023

Mission Wealth

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Mission Wealth LAOS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2c88ac81-3523-4a3b-b94d-88479d0a30a0.png"] Anousa “Jack” Luangsuphom is a prominent activist and critic of the authoritarian, communist government of Laos. He ran a Facebook page where members could share their grievances about corruption and air their dissent about the government’s failure to respect freedom of...

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May 31, 2023

Villains

NEED TO KNOW Villains CAMBODIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7961b85-6c8d-4728-b55b-cbaa2e866255.png"] In a final decision, Cambodia’s Constitutional Council recently rejected the claims of opposition politicians with the Candlelight Party who said they should be allowed to stand for election in July. They had been disqualified because of incorrectly submitted registration papers, officials said. The council’s...

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May 24, 2023

Terrorist Vs. Terrorist

NEED TO KNOW Terrorist Vs. Terrorist AFGHANISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2beac6fe-a680-4765-a2ff-d329629a897c.png"] Since the US exited Afghanistan nearly two years ago, the leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has embraced the titles of “commander of the faithful” and “scholar of the Quran and the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.”...

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May 23, 2023

Full Court Press

NEED TO KNOW Full Court Press CHINA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/198e41ed-dcee-4398-8f9e-af928160f105.png"] American and Chinese officials held more than eight hours of “candid” and “constructive” talks in Vienna two weeks ago. Among the breakthroughs, the Associated Press reported, was when White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told senior Chinese foreign policy...

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May 18, 2023

East of Eden

NEED TO KNOW East of Eden EAST TIMOR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7c0ecda-eb4d-d008-87a9-a6a47986a6da.png"] Timor-Leste, or East Timor, depends on an oil-funded sovereign wealth fund to finance 80 percent of its public spending. Now officials forecast they will deplete the fund in the next decade, raising serious questions about how the Southeast Asian...

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May 11, 2023

Family Business

NEED TO KNOW Family Business THAILAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9aed0fb0-f5eb-4eda-ae64-69e423143eb5.png"] Thai political candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, who is the frontrunner in upcoming national elections, recently gave birth to a son, Pluenkthasinsuksawat, known by his nickname, Thasin. The baby might have brought her luck. Paetongtarn, the scion of a family of prime ministers...

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May 03, 2023

Demography and Destiny

NEED TO KNOW Demography and Destiny INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] The world’s largest democracy, India, is now the world’s most populous country. The distinction is important because it represents a shift in the world order that has developed in recent decades as China, which has had the largest population, has...

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April 27, 2023

More for Everyone

NEED TO KNOW More for Everyone UZBEKISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/28e3dab6-1896-a95a-90a8-7dc88946c0c3.png"] President Shavkat Mirziyoyev feels like staying around for a while. That’s why voters in Uzbekistan have started marking their ballots in a referendum that would let him remain in office until 2040. If voters approve the new constitution, the document would...

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April 26, 2023

Shiny, Happy People

NEED TO KNOW Shiny, Happy People BHUTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/95cb74f9-3e10-4c29-ab01-000d0e49a2f4.png"] In Bhutan, the law states that “if the government cannot create happiness for its people, there is no purpose for the government to exist.” The small, constitutional monarchy in the Himalayan mountains, taking the constitutionally enshrined “Gross National Happiness” principle...

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April 19, 2023

Peace and Sabers

NEED TO KNOW Peace and Sabers TAIWAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dab1143a-8514-4f63-8098-bd36050d9680.png"] After the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California – an event echoing former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year – the Chinese military staged a massive drill...

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March 22, 2023

Rubber Duck Politics

NEED TO KNOW Rubber Duck Politics THAILAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9aed0fb0-f5eb-4eda-ae64-69e423143eb5.png"] Thai authorities sentenced a man to jail for two years for peddling calendars featuring rubber ducks in monarchic regalia because insulting the Thai king is illegal in the southeast Asian country. As the BBC noted, the rubber duck happens to...

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March 17, 2023

The Democracy Two-Step

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Democracy Two-Step KAZAKHSTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d52e63cf-06bb-47d0-b573-377bff5ae37c.png"] Campaign signs festooned the streets of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, in anticipation of parliamentary elections on March 19. The signs feature candidates pledging to reduce housing density in the Central Asian country’s cities, reduce prices amid worldwide inflation,...

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