March 09, 2022

War Games

NEED TO KNOW War Games UKRAINE/ RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2aaf5c8d-a4e6-42cf-9dd9-f761d6bfed83.png"] Ukrainian forces recently attacked Russian vehicles after they received a tip through the encrypted, unmoderated social media app Telegram. As NBC News wrote, Telegram has become an essential tool for Ukrainians in the real world and a battleground in the...

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March 08, 2022

Of Handicapped Wins

NEED TO KNOW Of Handicapped Wins SOUTH KOREA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/96aac4ab-2540-4b79-8f3f-2a21e22e27fe.png"] More than 70 percent of South Koreans favor their country deploying nuclear weapons. They believe that the weapons of mass destruction might be their best defense against Chinese or North Korean aggression, according to a Chicago Council on Global...

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March 07, 2022

The Great Awakening

NEED TO KNOW The Great Awakening EUROPE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f9c83d42-7d43-4e2f-a6d6-f7bf04744b7d.png"] When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded the former Soviet republic of Ukraine late last month, he claimed he was pushing back against aggressive Western powers that were impinging on Russian interests. If that was Putin’s strategy, it arguably backfired. A...

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March 04, 2022

Welcoming the Stranger

NEED TO KNOW Welcoming the Stranger UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/83250f40-48a8-4200-5d03-072df5389153.png"] Apartment-sharing app Airbnb is offering free temporary housing to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees who have scrambled across their neighbors’ borders in cars, buses, trains and on foot to flee Russian bombs and bullets. The Silicon Valley company and hosts were underwriting...

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March 03, 2022

The End, the Beginning

NEED TO KNOW The End, the Beginning UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/83250f40-48a8-4200-5d03-072df5389153.png"] A week ago, Russia began bombing Ukraine. Seven days later, it's a different world. That's because in that week, as massively outgunned Ukrainians put up fierce resistance, nations around the world have moved to express outrage in ways big and...

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March 02, 2022

The Kitchen Sink

NEED TO KNOW The Kitchen Sink RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Before the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the communist Soviet Union was largely cut off from free markets in the West. The result was an economy that, while powerful, failed to evolve as digital technology, high...

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March 01, 2022

Profiles in Courage

NEED TO KNOW Profiles in Courage UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a38e4a90-b87b-9e52-9b4f-f6cd33e8942c.png"] On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, the New York Times ran an op-ed piece from a Ukrainian journalist arguing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a 44-year-old former comedian and actor, was in over his head. A week later, it’s an understatement...

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February 28, 2022

Meanwhile, On the Home Front

NEED TO KNOW Meanwhile, On the Home Front RUSSIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db8acf88-8b4f-4b1c-bf9a-1e71d4eee94b.png"] Elizaveta Peskova, the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, recently posted a “No to war!” message on Instagram.  As the Independent explained, 24-year-old Peskova was not the only child of a powerful Russian figure who...

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February 25, 2022

Bully, Unmasked

NEED TO KNOW Bully, Unmasked UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a38e4a90-b87b-9e52-9b4f-f6cd33e8942c.png"] Air raid sirens sounded in Kyiv Thursday as the Ukrainian government warned of bombs following Russia's morning attack on dozens of targets across Ukraine. Streets were clogged with locals trying to withdraw money or stock up on supplies – some also...

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February 24, 2022

A Long, Crooked Road

NEED TO KNOW A Long, Crooked Road SOMALIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/15cd6f05-9c0c-4887-86f7-20dad73138cf.png"] Al-Shabab terrorists recently killed five people, including two children, in an attack in the Darussalam neighborhood in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, a newly developed district that has received much investment in recent years. The violence came on the...

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February 23, 2022

The Borderland

NEED TO KNOW The Borderland RUSSIA/UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/2aaf5c8d-a4e6-42cf-9dd9-f761d6bfed83.png"] Ukraine means “borderland” in Slavic languages. Today, the fate of the country could determine a new frontier between Eastern and Western Europe. That's because when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to roll into two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine on...

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February 22, 2022

Greasing the Wheels

NEED TO KNOW Greasing the Wheels ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] The Italian judicial system took almost 20 years to determine whether a couple living near Genoa could compel their neighbors to stop flushing their toilet at night. Recently, the southern European country’s top court ruled in the couple’s favor, determining...

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February 21, 2022

It’s Good to Be King

NEED TO KNOW It’s Good to Be King JORDAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/8e349f45-1adc-4062-b298-9fdf38aa8f40.png"] Jordan is technically a constitutional monarchy. However, King Abdullah II of Jordan wields the ultimate power in the strategically located Middle Eastern kingdom bordering Iraq, Israel, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Saudi Arabia and Syria. It’s...

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February 18, 2022

A Race to the Bottom

NEED TO KNOW A Race to the Bottom FRANCE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d78d9fd2-f0df-4e59-9bd4-334bffdc4974.png"] Right-wing French presidential candidate Eric Zemmour recently described Roubaix, a town in northern France that is home to a large Muslim community, as "Afghanistan two hours from Paris." A pundit and author, Zemmour was clearly playing to voters...

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February 17, 2022

Guns and Butter

NEED TO KNOW Guns and Butter UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7c972cb-39f7-4c1c-a7c9-c1ed67fdc38d.png"] Last week, an explosion rocked Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Many in the financial and tourism hub immediately jumped to the conclusion that the blast was a rocket fired from Yemen, where the...

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February 16, 2022

Her Majesty’s Prerogative

NEED TO KNOW Her Majesty's Prerogative UNITED KINGDOM [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/db250264-45f9-48fa-be6e-ab4d2ef0d6a5.png"] Queen Elizabeth recently announced plans for a weekend in June to celebrate her platinum jubilee, or 70 years on the throne, the longest reign in British history. As the queen’s website detailed, festivities include a tree-planting initiative called the...

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February 15, 2022

Frustration, Fear and Baby Shark

NEED TO KNOW Frustration, Fear and Baby Shark CANADA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/c7ee49a6-d768-4bd1-93d6-b44b086c3c21.png"] The 5,525-mile border between Canada and the US has long been described as the most peaceful frontiers in the world. Now, however, the boundary is the origin of an ideological war that threatens to take the world by...

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February 14, 2022

All in the Family

NEED TO KNOW All in the Family PHILIPPINES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/76f74898-7b3b-4fc1-b7d7-88cadfea2fdf.png"] America produced the Adams, Bush, Clinton and other political dynasties. Now leaders in Asia are seeking to do the same. “The prevalence of dynasties reflects the great power that individual families wield in a fast-growing region of the world that...

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February 11, 2022

A Revanchist Reset

NEED TO KNOW A Revanchist Reset UKRAINE [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a38e4a90-b87b-9e52-9b4f-f6cd33e8942c.png"] Despite the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, Russian President Vladimir Putin probably doesn’t really want to launch a full-scale war that might drag in the United States and European powers, argued Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev recently...

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February 10, 2022

Battlegrounds

NEED TO KNOW Battlegrounds INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1ac703d1-8192-40be-95ea-427a8f7ed9ee.png"] With live political rallies banned due to the coronavirus, LED screens are going up throughout India in anticipation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding virtual campaign speeches in the run-up to local elections in five states that start on Feb. 10. As...

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