NEED TO KNOW BENIN The Wild, Wild West Nigeria and Benin recently opened a nearly $21 million border crossing to deal with the crime that proliferates around the lawless frontier between the two West African countries. “Travelers and traders battle corrupt officials, hawkers and buzzing moto-taxis just to get...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CZECH REPUBLIC The Angry Street Twenty-nine years ago, Czechs overturned their communist government, inaugurating the Velvet Revolution. Last week, the BBC reported, tens of thousands of citizens were back in Prague’s Wenceslas Square chanting "shame!" and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Andrej Babis. Juxtaposing the...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BAHRAIN A Kingdom for a Megaphone Members of Congress recently sought to block American arms shipments to Bahrain, which has allied with Saudi Arabia and other countries in a brutal war against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. The effort fizzled in large part because Bahrain hosts an...
Read full story →Giving Thanks – Around the World Thanksgiving is arguably the most American of holidays. Originating in the devout Christian culture of early 17th century New England, Thanksgiving is secular. It's also diverse and open – following in the spirit of Pilgrims breaking bread with the Native Americans:...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW TAIWAN For Better Or Worse The United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 as a right under the Constitution. In Taiwan, the issue is being put to the voters. “Anger and anxiety” are the result, according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "I am disappointed," said...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW IRAN Fingers in Ears The United States reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil and shipping in early November. The sanctions had been suspended under the nuclear disarmament agreement that President Barack Obama struck with Iranian leaders in 2015. President Donald Trump pulled out of that deal, saying he...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW BRAZIL Brace, Brace Jair Bolsonaro, the populist president-elect of Brazil, has been repeatedly compared to US President Donald Trump. The Intercept’s Glen Greenwald thought those comparisons weren’t fair – to Trump. Greenwald is no fan of Trump. But Bolsonaro, he argued, is a dangerous extremist who...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION Snores, Conspiracies and Reform Mention the World Trade Organization and most Americans will either start snoring (think: Japan suing South Korea over shipbuilding subsidies) or cite conspiracy theories about a totalitarian New World Order. US President Donald Trump has called the WTO a...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CUBA Cuba Libre, on Ice Originating in Cuba in the early 20th century, the Cuba Libre (Rum and Coke) is considered a mediocre drink, almost an insult to the aged dark liquor that – if one is lucky – sometimes infuses it. Still, the sweet...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW KOREAS Kimchi Diplomacy Around 17,000 schoolchildren in North Korea recently held a gymnastics show called “Glorious Country.” The show didn’t include the usual militarism that marks such celebrations in the Hermit Kingdom, wrote the New York Times. Instead, the spectacle alluded to talks between US President...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW ORTHODOX CHURCH Holy Politics A battle for the soul of the Eastern Orthodox Church is underway. The result might rival the Great Schism that sundered the ties between the Catholic and Eastern Churches in 1054, because it could split the Orthodox church itself. As the Financial Times...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SRI LANKA A Bloodless Coup The turmoil in Sri Lanka has been called a “coup without guns.” In late October, President Maithripala Sirisena fired Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and replaced him with former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, Reuters explained. Action was necessary, Sirisena insisted, because Wickremesinghe had been...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW SYRIA Mission Impossible Geir Pedersen helped orchestrate the famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the White House in 2000. Now the Norwegian diplomat is the new United Nations envoy to Syria. In working to achieve a sustainable peace to...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW EASTERN EUROPE The New Geopolitics “Fort Trump” became a punchline in September after President Andrzej Duda of Poland suggested the name for a permanent US military base his country has proposed on its soil. The New York Times described how Polish commentators panned Duda’s suggestion. But more important...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW MADAGASCAR The 36-Way Race Madagascar is in the height of campaign season, with 36 candidates, including four ex-heads of state, running for the presidency. “Hidden from the world’s view or interest a Titanic battle for democracy and human rights over greed and self-interest is being waged...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW HONDURAS No Place Like Home Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez recently tweeted that he wanted to send officials to Guatemala to help Hondurans seeking to come home. The irony was that Hernandez was arguably the reason the thousands of Hondurans in the migrant caravan now heading toward...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW CONGO Kleptocrats, Militias and Ebola The Democratic Republic of Congo might change if the country can get out of its own way. Leaders of the nation’s diverse opposition political parties recently met in South Africa and agreed to choose a single candidate to confront Emmanuel Ramazani...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Exit State Right In bowing out, German Chancellor Angela Merkel demonstrated yet again that she’s one of the world’s most masterful politicians. On Monday, after her Christian Democratic Union party and its allies suffered a major setback in regional elections in Hesse – and, a...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW NEW CALEDONIA Liberty or Croissants Most Americans don’t know much about the history of the vast French empire or the extent to which France projects its power through its remaining overseas territories. That power is under scrutiny these days in New Caledonia, an archipelago some 900...
Read full story →NEED TO KNOW GUINEA-BISSAU By the Numbers Thousands demonstrated in the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau recently. At issue was the slow pace of a national census to register voters before the Nov. 18 legislative elections. “Thousands of people have not yet been registered, it’s too crazy,” a protester...
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