NEED TO KNOW MEXICO For We're Bound for the Rio Grande President Donald Trump was expected to send troops to the Mexican border to help stop a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants from entering the US. “If the troops carry arms, it will be solely for self-defense,”...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM Fool in the Rain Lifespans in the United Kingdom rose for almost 130 years as improvements in medicine and hygiene eliminated common fatal diseases, technological and labor advances put an end to many dangerous, back-breaking jobs, and widespread economic growth improved quality of...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ECUADOR The World's Worst Guest The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is a heroic activist-whistleblower to some and a Russian-backed provocateur to others. He’s also “one of the world’s worst houseguests,” according to Vox. An Australian computer engineer, Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRELAND A Poet, A Mood The office of the president of Ireland is largely ceremonial. “But as the country’s first citizen, the president is often looked upon to capture and reflect the national mood, and as a diplomat, represents the country and the Irish diaspora...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ITALY Garbage, Potholes and Exploding Buses Italian leaders are squeezed from above, below and within. Their constituents are angry over their inaction. The European Union is chastising them over their recently announced budget. And some partners in the Mediterranean country’s governing coalition are arguing over whether...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN The Enemy of My Enemy...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BHUTAN Ballots, and Shangri-La Bhutan could be the greenest country in the world. The forests that cover 70 percent of the Maryland-sized kingdom between China and India absorb around three times more carbon dioxide than the country of around 750,000 people emits, CNN reported. Bhutan charges...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW THE CAUCASUS A New Great Game US National Security Adviser John Bolton is visiting Russia and three Caucasus nations this month. His trip comes at an important time, Radio Free Europe reported. Russo-American relations are poor due to allegations of Russia’s interfering in the 2016 US presidential...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NIGERIA Magic Snakes and Rag Pickers When $100,000 in state exam fees disappeared from a Nigerian government office, the clerk accused of embezzling it came up with a creative excuse. "She claimed that a magical snake had slithered into the safe and eaten the money," Matthew...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LUXEMBOURG Bread and Circuses The Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg held elections Sunday. Whoop dee doo, right? Wealthy Luxembourg is slightly smaller than Rhode Island, so such an event understandably doesn’t generate big headlines globally. Even so, at stake are issues that reflect the enormous divides among many voters...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BAVARIA The Iron Chancellor The Christian Social Union is the Bavarian counterpart of the Christian Democratic Union, the political party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. When the latter is in power, so too is the former. The Christian Social Union (CSU) has run the Bavarian state...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CHINA Ploughshares, Swords and Chips Vice President Mike Pence delivered what some saw as a rather incendiary speech recently on Sino-American relations. In part, the speech echoed a popular talking point on the American political right and left that challenges moderates who have argued for decades...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LAKE CHAD Canaries and Bullhorns One of the largest lakes in Africa, Lake Chad is the economic engine of the border region between Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Humans have lived there for as long as humans have inhabited western and central Africa. Its wildlife and ecology...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SYRIA Hot Deserts, Cold Wars The fighting in the Syrian civil war has cooled down but it’s far from over. In fact, it might continue for years. US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recently said American troops would remain in Syria to fight the Islamic State, Politico...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NICARAGUA Truth, Lies and Death Squads Around 200 killers, thieves and prostitutes holed up in a church in Nicaragua recently until brave citizens banded together to bring them to justice. Or at least that’s what police loyal to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega wanted 20-year-old Dania Valeska...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BRAZIL The Murky Years To Come In political campaigns, as in warfare, there’s a lot of posturing, skirmishing and distracting before the real fighting starts. In Brazil, the real fighting has started. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 72, has pulled out of the country’s Oct. 7...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA War and Peace Bosnia was one of the most dangerous places in the world in the 1990s, when 100,000 people died in the fighting that followed the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. Some believe it could become so again. Unemployment, corruption, an exodus of...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ROMANIA The Soul of a Nation The Constitutional Court of Romania recently decided that same-sex couples deserved the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. “The court says a same-sex family is worth as much as a heterosexual family,” gay-rights activist Teodora Ion-Rotaru told the Associated Press. Ion-Rotaru...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MAURITANIA Where Shackles Are the Norm Things are a little mixed up in Mauritania. Rape victims don’t report their abuse in this West African country because officials might jail them for having sex outside of marriage, Reuters reported. Police recently visited a would-be opposition political candidate, Biram...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW GUATEMALA Heads in the Sand New laser maps of Guatemala show a lost, ancient civilization sprawling yet hidden under the jungle canopy. But indigenous peoples and cultures have disappeared more recently, too. A tribunal of judges ruled last week that during Guatemala’s brutal civil war, which...
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