NEED TO KNOW SINGAPORE [heading4]Democracy, or Something Like It[/heading4] The city-state of Singapore is slated to hold presidential elections on Sept. 23 – that is, if more than one candidate is allowed to run. Per a constitutional change adopted by parliament last year, the presidency is reserved for one...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SUDAN [heading4]Of Zebras and Stripes[/heading4] In January, during his last month in office, former President Barack Obama temporarily lifted the economic sanctions on Sudan that had been in place for 20 years. Obama's rapprochement with the delinquent and violent regime of longtime President Omar al-Bashir was...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KAZAKHSTAN [heading4]The Land of the Wanderers[/heading4] Kazakhstan is vying for a seat at the table with global power brokers. To get it, Central Asia's largest economy faces a decision, the Economist notes: Open its markets and modernize, or stagnate. That's not the easiest choice for the "land...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW PHILIPPINES [heading4]Tomorrow’s Test[/heading4] When Rodrigo Duterte won office as president of the Philippines last year, many in and outside the country worried that his mix of hotheadedness, disregard for the rule of law and tough stance toward drugs would lead to trouble. Now those fears are...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NORTH AMERICA [heading4]Costly Posturing[/heading4] A funny thing happened on the way to negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). During an Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix, President Donald Trump was pessimistic. “I don't think we can make a deal,” he said, according to CNN....
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW INDIA [heading4]Cinderella's Slipper[/heading4] When India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in 2014, observers wondered whether the seasoned politician would be the economic reformer India has waited for, or the fiery Hindu nationalist many dreaded. Three years later, there's a clear answer to that question,...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW GEORGIA [heading4]A Strengthening Undertow[/heading4] Georgia is hailed as a success story of the post-Soviet era. The peaceful Rose Revolution at the turn of the millennium saw the ouster of Soviet-era leaders, and ushered in a period of modernization and economic growth. It also ushered in President Mikheil...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ANGOLA [heading4]Follow the Leader[/heading4] Angolans go to the polls Wednesday to elect their next president and parliament. But what they are actually doing is writing a new chapter in the history of their young country. Here's the obvious change: Africa's second-longest-serving leader, President Jose Eduardo dos...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST [heading4]Too Tired to Fight[/heading4] Recent meetings between Saudi Arabian leaders and Iraqi Shiite Muslim cleric and powerbroker Muqtada al-Sadr could spell a shift in the Saudi-Iranian cold war that has long bedeviled the Middle East. A leader of the insurrection against American troops after the 2003...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SPAIN [heading4]The Killers Inside[/heading4] Spanish security officials underwent a period of soul-searching and reform after al Qaeda’s deadly bombings of Madrid commuter trains in 2004. The resulting tactics worked well for more than a decade, as the New York Times reported. Spanish authorities foiled a number...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BANGLADESH [heading4]A Richness in Poverty[/heading4] Bangladesh is marking its 70th birthday this week, if one recalls that it became East Pakistan immediately after the partition of the subcontinent with the end of the British Raj in 1947. But that anniversary is less important to Bangladeshis than...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW EUROPE [heading4]The Badlands[/heading4] Tectonic shifts are happening in Europe. While governments in Hungary, Poland and elsewhere still espouse nationalist agendas, pro-European Union candidates won dramatic elections in France and Austria in the past year, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to make a strong showing...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW GAZA [heading4]The Wasteland[/heading4] In a region scarred by conflict and crises, the Gaza Strip remains a case of extraordinary hardship. Life has never been easy for Gaza's 2 million residents. They live wedged between Israel, the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt – but isolated from fellow Palestinians...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NIGERIA [heading4]The Grimmest of Ironies[/heading4] Oil once fueled a boom in Africa's most populous country, Nigeria. But plummeting oil prices, persistent terror threats and drought have caused economic turmoil in this West African nation of 170 million people. Petroleum exports comprise some 70 percent of the Nigerian...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BHUTAN [heading4]Three-dimensional Chess at the Top of the World[/heading4] Only around 300 feet separate angry Chinese and Indian soldiers on the Doklam plateau, where the border of Bhutan, China and India meet. The two sides have hunkered down into a dangerous stalemate after the Indian army...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ALGERIA [heading4]Ghosts of the Past[/heading4] With almost 1,000 miles of Mediterranean coastline and fertile land in the country's north, Algeria served as the Roman Empire's breadbasket – and a regional jewel for subsequent empires including the Ottomans and the French. And after decades of turmoil in...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ALBANIA [heading4]Needed: Miracles[/heading4] A few months ago, Albanians reelected sitting prime minister, Socialist Party leader Edi Rama, in what some celebrated as a free election. That's the good news. That's because in spite of real progress since shaking off its communist mantle in the late 1990s, political...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SYRIA [heading4]The Ties That Bind[/heading4] Disagreements between Russia and Iran over the role of Hezbollah in Syria are providing glimpses of potential future conflicts when the country’s bloody civil war finally ends. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to fight on behalf their fellow...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NORTH KOREA [heading4]Yes, No, Maybe[/heading4] Over the past six months, North Korea has tested a series of long-range ballistic missiles. In fact, the Hermit Kingdom is now inching ever closer to developing sophisticated intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of striking the United States – a threshold...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KENYA [heading4]The Ballot and the Machete[/heading4] Kenyan anti-corruption activist Boniface Mwangi once loosed pigs in front of parliament to draw attention to the greed of his country’s leader. Now he’s running in Kenya’s general elections under the banner of his new Ukweli Party on Tuesday to...
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