December 15, 2023

Political Whiplash

NEED TO KNOW Political Whiplash CHILE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/baed026e-8c02-42fc-8c27-383b8bf87a6c.png"] In September 2022, the new left-wing president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, and his progressive allies asked voters to ditch the business-friendly constitution written under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and opt for a new document that would uphold social and indigenous rights,...

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December 14, 2023

The Stuntmen

NEED TO KNOW The Stuntmen SERBIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fd16e594-c67c-41ff-beb7-977236001063.png"] Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, a 73-year-old American born in California, recently became a Serbian citizen. “Now we can boast that the computer genius is Serbian, who will live most of his life in America but will also come to his Serbia,” said...

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December 13, 2023

Like Father, Like Son

NEED TO KNOW Like Father, Like Son CHAD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b08925fb-4623-40c3-9563-de5bd3009fa5.png"] Opposition and civil society leaders in Chad recently asked the military junta running the Central African country to ask French troops to leave. The opposition leaders want France, which formerly ruled Chad as a colony, to stop meddling in the...

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December 12, 2023

A Heater in a Fridge in a Desert

NEED TO KNOW A Heater in a Fridge in a Desert UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7c972cb-39f7-4c1c-a7c9-c1ed67fdc38d.png"] An oil man oversaw the United Nations summit on climate change, which ended Tuesday. Sultan al-Jaber was recently both the president of the 28th UN Conference of Parties (COP28) as well as the chief...

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December 11, 2023

Burying the Lede

NEED TO KNOW Burying the Lede ISRAEL/ GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a7853464-ef94-4b48-96b9-d7badbef5e55.png"] Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi recently gained the power to halt foreign media broadcasts and confiscate foreign media equipment on the grounds of national security. The new regulations, approved Oct. 20, mainly targeted Al Jazeera, the state-owned, Qatar-based news organization...

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December 08, 2023

Empty Victories

NEED TO KNOW Empty Victories EGYPT [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/180d3d63-0093-422e-a6d2-b3d9896f0053.png"] Egypt’s economy is in shambles. Inflation is running at a record 38 percent. Youth unemployment is 17 percent. The country’s human rights record is dismal. Police routinely arrest government critics on charges of misinformation, according to Amnesty International. Freedom of expression, the...

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December 07, 2023

Help Wanted

NEED TO KNOW Help Wanted PORTUGAL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9920e0b-df86-4240-9933-aed7de687bff.png"] The Portuguese government is cracking down on so-called “digital nomads,” the remote workers who moved to foreign countries, especially during the pandemic, to take advantage of the joys of new locales, as well as liberal visa rules, favorable exchange rates, lower...

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December 06, 2023

Countdown

NEED TO KNOW Countdown MYANMAR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9ef34308-9cd1-4a8e-a2b3-e7a7ab6846ed.png"] Ye Htut is a 64-year-old retired lieutenant colonel in the Myanmarese army, who also served as a spokesperson and information minister in the military-backed government of President Thein Sein from 2013 to 2016. Recently, he was arrested on charges of corruption and...

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December 05, 2023

Treasure Islands

NEED TO KNOW Treasure Islands CARIBBEAN The Council of the European Union recently deemed the Caribbean countries of Antigua, Barbuda, and Belize as “non-cooperative” on requests for tax information, governance inquiries, and transparency. They joined Panama and Anguilla, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos...

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December 04, 2023

And the Winner Is …

NEED TO KNOW And the Winner Is … MIDDLE EAST [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7000f0bb-c02b-4438-87c6-002be2c0dfc6.png"] On Sunday, the warship USS Carney, based in the Red Sea, shot down two drones fired at it and the merchant ship it was assisting, CNN reported. Yemen-based Houthi rebels, who have been battling Saudi Arabian forces...

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December 01, 2023

Faltering Resolve

NEED TO KNOW Faltering Resolve UKRAINE/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1fcd4036-786d-9ce0-309a-14f74105b898.png"] The admission shocked Ukrainians who have shown little but resolute courage as they tried to fend off the Russian forces that invaded their country in February last year. In an interview with the Economist, the commander of Ukraine’s forces, General...

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November 30, 2023

Tragedy Redux

NEED TO KNOW Tragedy Redux SUDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/224b0e8f-5be6-4e44-b799-a1b865717c98.png"] In 2003, rebels in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, took up arms against the central government in the capital of Khartoum because they felt officials were mistreating non-Arab citizens. In response, as the Encyclopedia Britannica recounted, the Sudanese government armed...

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November 29, 2023

Germany Divided

NEED TO KNOW Germany Divided GERMANY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96d66e57-2644-40b9-aed7-fc66370c3077.png"] The far-right, xenophobic Alternative for Germany political party has long concerned observers who fear a resurgence of the fascistic spirit in Europe’s largest, wealthiest country. Now, not to be outdone, German politician Sahra Wagenknecht is launching a new political party that is...

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November 28, 2023

Hitting Pause

NEED TO KNOW Hitting Pause ISRAEL/ GAZA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a7853464-ef94-4b48-96b9-d7badbef5e55.png"] Diplomats worked overtime into Tuesday morning to extend the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas by 48 hours beyond the four-day deadline to Thursday morning , the BBC reported. Both sides said that they wanted to prolong...

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November 27, 2023

Rapprochement

NEED TO KNOW Rapprochement VENEZUELA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f52c66cd-9299-42e6-acd8-f970f62c524b.png"] As post-pandemic inflation gripped the global economy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused energy costs to spike, the United States sought to expand the oil available on world markets by easing sanctions on oil-rich Venezuela. The sanctions date from 2005, when the US...

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November 24, 2023

Hot Top of the World

NEED TO KNOW Hot Top of the World NEPAL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a519ab91-7b87-4ef0-a6df-573c03bc0303.png"] United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently journeyed to the foot of Mount Everest in Nepal to issue a warning. He and his colleagues want to prevent Earth’s temperature from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial...

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November 23, 2023

Old Money

NEED TO KNOW Old Money BRAZIL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f7cee1e0-dcb8-68eb-6ed9-13e370771cbb.png"] Slave trader Jose Bernardino de Sá was one of Brazil’s wealthiest people in the mid-1800s. He trafficked nearly 20,000 Africans to the South American country, using his proceeds to build roads and farms, and to finance the Banco do Brasil, which...

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November 22, 2023

New Beginning

NEED TO KNOW New Beginning NETHERLANDS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/50b9b3d5-1234-443a-9402-f9f624fae487.png"] In a surprise announcement in July, after 13 years in office, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he would retire from politics, after disputes with his leftist allies in government over migration to the Netherlands caused the government to collapse, triggering...

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November 21, 2023

Prelude and Epilogue to War

NEED TO KNOW Prelude and Epilogue to War GEORGIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e341329d-b90e-4b8e-8e3b-6429d9366897.png"] Russian soldiers, currently occupying some 20 percent of the former Soviet republic of Georgia’s territory on the eastern shores of the Black Sea, recently killed Tamaz Ginturi, a Georgian citizen, as he visited a cemetery and a church...

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November 20, 2023

Mirror Image

NEED TO KNOW Mirror Image WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] In the West, there has been staunch support for Israel since the attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas and its affiliates that killed about 1,400 people. It was no different in Africa, Asia or Latin America initially, with leaders expressing sympathy. That was...

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