NEED TO KNOW SLOVAKIA Deadly Revelations The shocking killing of a young Slovakian journalist investigating ties between an Italian organized crime network and the political establishment has transfixed the nation – and destabilized the country. On Thursday, the Prime Minister Robert Fico resigned. The Slovakian leader had been able to...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW LIBYA The Curse of Black Gold Earlier this month, Libya's massive El Sharara oil field, which supplies about a quarter of national output, halted production for a little over 24 hours. It was a crippling blow to a nation where oil accounts for 95 percent of...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BOLIVIA The Shoe is on the Other Foot In what could be the first case of its kind, a US federal court in Fort Lauderdale is hearing allegations of human-rights abuses brought against a former foreign head of state. Bolivian ex-President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada stands...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CHINA For Better or For Worse After seven decades of strained relations, the Vatican and China are nearing a rapprochement deal to allow Beijing’s communist leadership to appoint bishops for official recognition by the Holy See. It's a move critics say sells out China's estimated 12...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SIERRA LEONE After the Plague A few years ago, Sierra Leone was in the headlines as a terrifying outbreak of the Ebola virus struck the tiny West African country. Today, as Sierra Leoneans await the results of their March 7 presidential election, it’s worth taking stock...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SOUTH KOREA Us Too The global reaction to #MeToo has been mixed. The French have been decidedly skeptical of women calling out men for sexual harassment, USA Today reported. In Pakistan, the rape and murder of 7-year-old Zainab Ansari in January triggered a wave of “#MeToo-style declarations,”...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MACEDONIA What's in a Name Since Macedonia declared independence from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the tiny Balkan country has struggled to overcome Greek objections to an aspect of its national character that’s hard to change: its name. Technically, the country’s name is the Former Yugoslav...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NATO Smoke, Mirrors, Bombs The German Press Agency recently ran a story with a headline that translates as “The German military lacks winter clothing for NATO’s eastern front.” The article described how German troops in NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force – a unit established...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SINAI Secrets and Lies In early February, the New York Times reported that a secret alliance between Egypt and Israel was underway to eradicate Islamic militants from their stronghold in Egypt's loosely governed North Sinai region. But as Egypt steps up its assaults against the militants...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN Open Letters and Bloodshed Barnett Rubin, a former American diplomat and veteran scholar of Afghanistan, recently wrote an open letter in the New Yorker to the Taliban asking them to "begin the long-delayed peace talks that Afghans deserve." But what unfolded as the week continued showed...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ITALY A Tattered Playbook When Italians go to the polls March 4, the elections are not going to be about bunga-bunga politicians or even clowns. They are going to be about Italy's next government – and especially whether it wants to play ball with the European...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SYRIA High-Stakes Game Islamic State may be all but eradicated from its strongholds in Syria, but that doesn't mean tensions have subsided between outside players in the Syrian conflict. In fact, quite the opposite has happened, CNBC reported. It's been seven years since pro-democracy protests in Syria...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA Riding Coattails India recently released its 2018 Economic Survey outlining the success of the economic liberalization strategies that have effectively quadrupled the nation’s economy since 1991, making it the world's third-largest economy behind China and the United States, the Washington Post reported. But as...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BRAZIL He’s Back The Brazilian army has taken over security in the crime-ridden favelas of Rio de Janeiro. “Police are unable to handle the situation,” Felicya Oliveira, a 31-year-old restaurant worker who often misses shifts because of gunfights outside her door, told Bloomberg. “So let’s see...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KENYA Chain Reaction It's been a tough few weeks for Miguna Miguna – and for Kenya. The 55-year-old Kenyan lawyer has always been a staunch critic of President Uhuru Kenyatta. Even so, his visibility was heightened after last summer's presidential elections were declared illegitimate by the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PHILIPPINES The Corner Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is no stranger to incendiary language or controversial policies. Since taking office in June 2016, he's called former President Barack Obama a "son of a whore," trivialized the rape of an Australian missionary during a prison riot, and launched...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL/PALESTINE Couscous and Quagmires An argument recently erupted on social media after Virgin Airlines offered a “Palestinian couscous salad” on a flight menu. The BBC reported that pro-Israel activists called for a boycott of the British carrier for pandering to Palestinian sympathizers. “I thought this was an...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PERU The Odebrecht Web Construction projects have ground to a halt in Peru, where a scandal involving the Brazilian contracting giant Odebrecht threatens to cause an economic and political crisis. The name Odebrecht should ring bells for anyone who has been following the string of corruption...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW POLAND Airbrushing History Soviet censors famously erased people out of photos to suit the political winds of the day – cutting out former comrades of Joseph Stalin over the years as they lost favor, for example, until he was the only person in a picture...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ETHIOPIA The Road Less Traveled Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn resigned out of the blue last week in an attempt to ease the nation into political reforms demanded by parts of the electorate after years of unrest. The move is unprecedented in Ethiopia. Political transitions in...
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