December 01, 2023

Faltering Resolve

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Faltering Resolve UKRAINE/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1fcd4036-786d-9ce0-309a-14f74105b898.png"] The admission shocked Ukrainians who have shown little but resolute courage as they tried to fend off the Russian forces that invaded their country in February last year. In an interview with the Economist, the commander of Ukraine’s forces, General...

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November 29, 2023

Germany Divided

NEED TO KNOW Germany Divided GERMANY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96d66e57-2644-40b9-aed7-fc66370c3077.png"] The far-right, xenophobic Alternative for Germany political party has long concerned observers who fear a resurgence of the fascistic spirit in Europe’s largest, wealthiest country. Now, not to be outdone, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht is launching a new political party that is...

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November 22, 2023

New Beginning

NEED TO KNOW New Beginning NETHERLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/50b9b3d5-1234-443a-9402-f9f624fae487.png"] In a surprise announcement in July, after 13 years in office, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he would retire from politics, after disputes with his leftist allies in government over migration to the Netherlands caused the government to collapse, triggering...

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November 21, 2023

Prelude and Epilogue to War

NEED TO KNOW Prelude and Epilogue to War GEORGIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e341329d-b90e-4b8e-8e3b-6429d9366897.png"] Russian soldiers, currently occupying some 20 percent of the former Soviet republic of Georgia’s territory on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, recently killed Tamaz Ginturi, a Georgian citizen, as he visited a cemetery and a church...

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November 17, 2023

Pardoning Politics

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Pardoning Politics SPAIN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9867eeee-5129-4a23-af3d-b9c85aeb55a9.png"] Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party achieved a political masterstroke to remain in power, but also probably sowed the seeds to reap bitter enmity from his conservative rivals for the rest of his life. In July, when Spanish...

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November 15, 2023

Shattering Glass, Splintering Peace

NEED TO KNOW Shattering Glass, Splintering Peace EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Eighty-five years ago, the Jewish cemetery in Vienna was one of the main targets of Kristallnacht – a Nazi pogrom against Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues in Germany and Austria. And so it was again, reported CNN. On Nov. 1,...

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November 08, 2023

Importing a War

NEED TO KNOW Importing a War EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Police in Europe recently arrested alleged terrorists for supposedly planning attacks in connection with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany recently, police nabbed folks who had been previously...

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November 01, 2023

Operation Dismantlement

NEED TO KNOW Operation Dismantlement POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/31d830f6-377a-4afc-861b-7fbf94dce490.png"] The results of the Oct. 15 parliamentary elections in Poland are echoing throughout Europe. Women and young voters helped swing the election to the Civic Coalition and other parties opposing the ruling Law and Justice party, a populist political group that espouses...

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October 30, 2023

Something Old, Something New

NEED TO KNOW Something Old, Something New NAGORNO-KARABAKH [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a090b285-d5d2-89d8-d770-d40b6cc60381.png"] Simon Maghakyan, a visiting scholar at Tufts University who studies heritage crime, recently warned in Time magazine that Azerbaijan intends to invade Armenia. This attack would come on the heels of Azerbaijan’s September invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh, a historically Armenian...

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October 26, 2023

‘The Champagne Fascist’

NEED TO KNOW ‘The Champagne Fascist’ ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an icon of the far-right in Europe, recently announced that she would separate from her longtime partner Andrea Giambruno, a television journalist. The split came two days after recordings of Giambruno’s “foul remarks and suggestive comments...

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October 20, 2023

Down in the Valleys

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Down in the Valleys SWITZERLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2b943183-27c5-4545-a4cd-06237a4dff08.png"] Polls show that Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party will garner the most votes in parliamentary elections on Oct. 22 on vows to address immigration fears, climate activism and “woke” excesses, reported Bloomberg. That’s though Switzerland avoided the worst economic impacts of...

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October 18, 2023

Bloody Franchise

NEED TO KNOW Bloody Franchise UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] Ukrainians are fighting to defend their country’s sovereignty and, ostensibly at least, democracy. That’s why the US and Europe are supporting Ukrainians’ efforts to defeat Russia. From the Western point of view, it would make sense, then, for Ukraine to hold elections...

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October 13, 2023

Sovereign Hearts

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Sovereign Hearts POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/31d830f6-377a-4afc-861b-7fbf94dce490.png"] Senior European Union officials are demanding an explanation from Poland over allegations that Polish diplomats sold temporary work visas to African and Asian migrants for thousands of dollars apiece. Polish media outlets have alleged that officials allowed more than 130,000 migrants into...

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October 03, 2023

Roots and Branches

NEED TO KNOW Roots and Branches UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov resigned in early September. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that, while Reznikov had succeeded in obtaining sophisticated weaponry from the West for Ukraine’s war against Russia, he had presided over “chaos and disorder” in the Ministry of...

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September 29, 2023

Fickle Friend

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW Fickle Friend SLOVAKIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/def5a447-d17d-4b18-8656-a0934b7c83eb.png"] Since the invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has become diplomatically isolated from the West – but not everywhere in Europe. Russophobes, in fact, are sounding alarms about the candidacy of Roberto Fico in Slovakia’s general election on Sept. 30. “We are...

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September 25, 2023

Halal Cash

NEED TO KNOW Halal Cash RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Russia launched a pilot program this month for Islamic banks in the Muslim-majority regions of Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, Chechnya, and Dagestan. Islamic law holds that banks can’t charge interest. But they can share in the client’s profits and risks. Additionally, Islamic banks don’t...

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September 22, 2023

The Micro and the Macro

[announcement] NEED TO KNOW The Micro and the Macro ANDORRA/ MONACO/ SAN MARINO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ed203f80-5d84-716a-32c3-40df727bbfb9.png"] Three microstates with a combined population of only 150,000 people could pose macroeconomic threats to Europe. Andorra, a principality that sits on the border between France and Spain; Monaco, a city-state within France near the Italian...

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September 11, 2023

Looking for Endings

NEED TO KNOW Looking for Endings UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/02995f03-84bd-afba-0f89-00fc09873ecb.png"] NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently praised Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces that invaded its territory last year. “The Ukrainians are gradually gaining ground,” Stoltenberg told lawmakers of the European Parliament, according to Reuters. “They have been able to breach the defensive...

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September 04, 2023

Next Steps

NEED TO KNOW Next Steps RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] DNA tests prove that the leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a plane crash last month, Russian officials said recently. As Reuters wrote, the tests could put to rest speculation that Prigozhin was not on the plane...

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August 31, 2023

Europe’s Growing Force

Technical issues affected the formatting of the DailyChatter newsletter you received this morning. We are sending you a corrected version and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. The Editors NEED TO KNOW Europe’s Growing Force SPAIN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9867eeee-5129-4a23-af3d-b9c85aeb55a9.png"] The conservative People’s Party (PP) won the most seats in...

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