NEED TO KNOW SYRIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a0fb995d-af7e-4394-ad02-ecc76a056a44.png"] Set in Stone New statues of the Assad family are going up around Syria. Rebels tore them down when the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime began in 2011. Now, with the help of Russia and Iran, Assad has largely defeated the insurgency....
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/590fa22c-cb98-46d1-92e0-b6539b2a1173.png"] Falling Upwards Russian President Vladimir Putin regularly cultivates a tough guy persona. But last month as he skated a victory lap after a hockey game, he faceplanted on the ice on national television. “In the footage, Mr. Putin’s teammates look nervous as he goes...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KAZAKHSTAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c2809517-484b-45d3-ae43-9766d8cdda51.png"] Emperors and Old Clothes Foreigners dumped $24 billion into oil-rich Kazakhstan last year – more than 90 percent of all direct foreign investment in Central Asia in 2018, according to the Astana Times. Folks like Steve Bannon visit the former Soviet republic, extolling the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BOTSWANA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/15cba0b9-3d17-4f25-b35e-21cc9789d865.png"] Politics & Pachyderms Approximately 450,000 elephants roam Africa. Poachers kill around 30,000 annually. Do the math. At that rate of illegal hunting, the days of the world’s largest land animal are numbered. So one might question the optics of Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi giving footstools made...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW DENMARK [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/836af55b-364e-4605-90cf-047e656ac8ba.png"] Fighting for Hyggeligt Some things are truly Danish: Lagkage (layer cake) and Wienerbrød (pastries), a prized feeling of coziness and warmth called Hyggeligt, and a deep acceptance of paying high taxes. 'I don't mind paying taxes as long as everyone is okay,' is a...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRAQI KURDISTAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0c38a7d3-e4bd-4693-833c-aeff4232f230.png"] The Kurdish Question Two Turkish soldiers died in northern Iraq recently. They were fighting in Turkey’s "Claw Operation" against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a militant group fighting for an independent Kurdish state in the region, or at least equal rights and political autonomy...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e5b071a0-f819-400f-82ba-dc62c31b3637.png"] Green Wave For all the talk of right-wing populism in Europe, the real winners of recent elections for the European Parliament were the Greens. In the US, the Green Party is relatively weak in a system where two parties dominate, though Ralph Nader’s...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MALI [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/08b7c772-6d56-42c5-afc1-d54feb1fb860.png"] Race to the Bottom Gunmen on motorcycles recently shot and killed seven people in the remote Malian town of Koury near the border with Burkina Faso. A similar motorcycle attack occurred at the same time in Boura, 34 miles away, but nobody died. That,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDONESIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b09de5b3-a0c2-45fe-9ffc-da3cf31ac3de.png"] Making Space for Hope Filipinos, Cambodians and other Asians have expressed their confidence in strongmen in recent years. Indonesia, however, did not – bucking a trend. President Joko Widodo recently won re-election, beating out Prabowo Subianto, a former army general and former husband of the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6c1e91bd-d64f-473f-b468-ad3e35a0f829.png"] Toilets, Hoes and Hammer Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a disruptor in his first five years in office. He divided Indians, alienating religious minorities especially with his appeals to Hindu nationalism, even though technically his government is secular. He stirred controversy with...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW GERMANY [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/18ca6ce9-4a8f-46d8-b0b3-84a7601584cd.png"] Sturm und Drang Solomon Michalski became the target of bullies in his school in Berlin when he innocently revealed that he was Jewish. “Solomon was walking home and stopped into a bakery. When he emerged, he found one of his tormentors pointing what looked...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MADAGASCAR [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dd33a598-1b74-4e18-bcf8-06d96a5f10cd.png"] Rolling Up the Shirt Sleeves The East African island of Madagascar has the dubious distinction of suffering the worst deforestation on the planet. So it’s heartening that some Malagasy teenagers are working with environmentalists to practice sustainable farming that feeds people while preserving forests...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRELAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/837de6c4-b5ea-4e00-b61f-328197110d67.png"] The Ties That Break Voters in the Republic of Ireland recently amended their constitution to permit abortion and legalize same-sex marriage. Now they are poised to streamline divorce in a May 24 referendum, another move that, if successful, could reflect the changing character of...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRAN [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f1b959a6-57f4-43ee-90de-703ff3b3eb72.png"] The Third Gulf War War could have broken out between Iran and the United States two years ago. The conflict would have begun when American jets killed militants associated with Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, as they approached a US military base in Syria. War...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e5b071a0-f819-400f-82ba-dc62c31b3637.png"] Redefining Local The European Parliament doesn’t get much respect. As CNN reported, many Europeans don’t know its functions, even though it affects their lives directly as the European Union’s legislative branch. But this year, as voters go to the polls between May 23 and...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MALAWI [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7f32af3b-ebe9-45e5-a711-2f112bceaf8d.png"] Magical Thinking Bon Kalindo, a parliamentary candidate in Malawi, listed the ways albino body parts might be used to gain favor and fortune. As the Economist explained, he and other Malawians believe the “magnetic liquid” inside humans lacking pigmentation has magical properties. Kalindo is...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BELGIUM [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6ec199f2-e2a6-479a-ae48-ef04fc481a29.png"] Wanted: Bold Solutions Riven with divisions that mirror the country’s French and Flemish-speaking regions, Belgian politics have long been contentious. In 2010, for example, the separatist New Flemish Alliance won an upset victory in parliamentary elections, triggering a political crisis that prevented a government...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/6c1e91bd-d64f-473f-b468-ad3e35a0f829.png"] Beware All Ye Populists Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ascent to power in India in 2014 was an international milestone. Riding a popular wave, Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to make the world’s largest democracy finally realize its potential. Business would be...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW AUSTRALIA [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/82c68faa-ff3d-46ed-9ba6-ee472c0f4612.png"] Agreeing to Agree Down Under is showing the rest of the world how climate change can dominate an election without eclipsing other important issues. In Australia, recent devastating fires and floods and record droughts and high temperatures – in January, during their summer, asphalt...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NORTHERN IRELAND [map url="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/226d2dbb-1710-45ca-9b83-dc0f231f2891.png"] Time of the Banshees In Irish folklore, the mournful wailing, or “keening,” of the banshee heralds the arrival of death. One might argue that much keening has been heard in Northern Ireland lately. Police recently nabbed four men in connection with the fatal...
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