August 27, 2024

The Price of Stardom

NEED TO KNOW The Price of Stardom ALBANIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/800ce11d-fb5a-8818-b885-cf149c9e5025.png"] “Impossibly blue skies, a wild and dramatic coast, and warm Mediterranean waters lapping at your feet – welcome to Albania,” gushed Condé Nast Traveler this month. Come, experience the Maldives for £25 ($32) and get that “Bora Bora feeling” enticed...

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August 20, 2024

Blinis in Buenos Aires

NEED TO KNOW Blinis in Buenos Aires RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/989f50dc-b625-45fc-b227-955fe993f545.png"] Russian émigrés are buying apartments, beauty salons, restaurants, and other assets in Argentina and Brazil. They’ve brought popular Russian pastimes with them, too, noted the Wall Street Journal, like smoking tobacco from hookahs and eating beef shish kabobs rather...

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August 15, 2024

Flipping the Script

NEED TO KNOW Flipping the Script RUSSIA-UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/58cb2c25-272d-3084-4995-06c00b6e444c.png"] Top Ukrainian commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi boasted this week that his troops now control almost 400 square miles of Russian territory in the Kursk border region, capturing 28 villages and forcing more than 100,000 Russians to flee. “Russia brought war to...

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August 13, 2024

‘Mother’ of Change

NEED TO KNOW ‘Mother’ of Change ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1d0451b2-7f9a-d2e0-7330-2b957ccfbb51.png"] Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni calls her plan to change the structure of governance in the country the “mother of all reforms.” Her critics call it a naked bid to seize power for the prime minister’s office and government, and...

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August 09, 2024

Human Shields

NEED TO KNOW Human Shields RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/989f50dc-b625-45fc-b227-955fe993f545.png"] The return of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and other foreign prisoners in Russian custody in the biggest prisoner swap since the Cold War ended the latest round of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s so-called “hostage...

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August 05, 2024

Pull Harder

NEED TO KNOW Pull Harder GREECE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1af41250-c849-a5ef-523d-c57cb452726c.png"] Greece recently adopted a six-day working week to maintain its workforce as its population ages, but also to clamp down on tax evasion stemming from undeclared work. Under the new law – which only applies to industries that operate 24 hours a...

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August 01, 2024

Carrying On

NEED TO KNOW Carrying On UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1145e69e-0993-82c7-7183-cecfc2a2ac34.png"] Tatiana Putria is a nurse in the Kherson region of Ukraine. “I am not a hero, I am a medic,” Putria told the United Nations Population Fund. “Often we are afraid to drive to certain areas. Sometimes, the residents say to us,...

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July 25, 2024

So Far, So Close

NEED TO KNOW So Far, So Close POLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0056703f-d4b7-c8a4-3260-3657af178440.png"] From the mid-16th Century to the late 18th Century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a European power that dominated Central and Northeastern Europe while pioneering democratic models of government. Poland has been at odds with Russia ever since. In 1610, for...

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July 23, 2024

When the Waters Come

NEED TO KNOW When the Waters Come LATIN AMERICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/4e55dce7-9684-6d7d-8212-42e469c7fa1f.png"] Climate change allegedly has claimed many victims. Temperatures as high as 117 degrees Fahrenheit were recently causing fatal heat strokes in Pakistan. The South Asian country is on track to warm by almost nine degrees Fahrenheit by the 2090s...

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July 17, 2024

The Battles and the War

NEED TO KNOW The Battles and the War UNITED KINGDOM/ FRANCE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e8e29128-01ba-0e46-6f25-9ee1467659cc.png"] Right-wing politicians opposed to immigration, the concentration of power in Brussels, and the erosion of traditional Christian culture were expected to sweep into power during a few big elections in Europe after their recent success in...

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July 09, 2024

Near Abroad Politics

NEED TO KNOW Near Abroad Politics GEORGIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e341329d-b90e-4b8e-8e3b-6429d9366897.png"] Earlier this year, Georgian civilians clashed with riot police in Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic in the Caucasus, after the pro-Russian government revived the so-called “foreign agents” law designed to crack down on nonprofits, journalists and other...

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July 04, 2024

‘A Radical Reset’

NEED TO KNOW ‘A Radical Reset’ UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] In late May, just six weeks before the election, British Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that he would introduce a National Service plan to allow young people to “gain valuable skills, make our country more secure and build...

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June 28, 2024

Match Point

NEED TO KNOW Match Point FRANCE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d78d9fd2-f0df-4e59-9bd4-334bffdc4974.png"] French authorities recently charged two boys aged 12 and 13 with raping a 12-year-old girl in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie in what they believe was an anti-Semitic attack. The boys mentioned Palestine during the incident, according to a lawyer and...

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June 21, 2024

New and Shiny

NEED TO KNOW New and Shiny NETHERLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/50b9b3d5-1234-443a-9402-f9f624fae487.png"] King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands recently visited Albany, Atlanta, and New York City in a state visit that highlighted the cultural and economic ties – including semiconductor research and development – between the US and the small,...

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June 14, 2024

Let the Games Begin

NEED TO KNOW Let the Games Begin FRANCE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d78d9fd2-f0df-4e59-9bd4-334bffdc4974.png"] French officials are only fairly sure that the opening ceremony for the upcoming summer Olympics starting in late July will occur on the River Seine that winds through the City of Light. At present, the plan is for the athletes...

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June 12, 2024

Eye of the Beholder

NEED TO KNOW Eye of the Beholder RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Russian-American historian Yuri Felshtinsky recently told Times Radio that Russian elites are in a “state of panic” over Russia’s massive losses in the war against Ukraine. In order to maintain their control over the country, however, Felshtinsky said, Russian...

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June 07, 2024

The Misery of Zugzwang

NEED TO KNOW The Misery of Zugzwang ARMENIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/291ba8a2-3105-41e3-a793-e28cc6a9282e.png"] Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has protected the former Soviet republic of Armenia from Azerbaijan, Turkey and other regional powers. Now, however, as Russian President Vladimir Putin pours more resources into the war in Ukraine, his...

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June 06, 2024

Rightward Ho

NEED TO KNOW Rightward Ho EUROPEAN UNION [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/597ff6f5-aa2a-4913-81c8-7a38f364a41b.png"] Expect right-wing parties to win big when 400 million voters in 27 countries elect new members of the European Parliament from June 6 through June 9, the Guardian said. After a tough five years since the last election thanks to Brexit,...

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June 05, 2024

Irreconcilable Differences

NEED TO KNOW Irreconcilable Differences BELGIUM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/46999ca2-dabf-15d8-3505-820844e95828.png"] A few years ago, Belgium famously had no elected government for more than 600 days, as politicians negotiated a coalition agreement. Now, reflecting that history of instability, Belgians are seriously discussing splitting the country into Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking...

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June 04, 2024

Hands Off

NEED TO KNOW Hands Off SWITZERLAND [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2b943183-27c5-4545-a4cd-06237a4dff08.png"] Around 60 years ago, when rabies was widespread in Europe’s fox population, Switzerland invented an innovative way to stop the disease. Officials in the wealthy Central European country stuffed chicken heads with vaccines and dropped them from helicopters. The vulpine scavengers gobbled...

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