February 09, 2022

The Sentiments of Coups

NEED TO KNOW The Sentiments of Coups BURKINA FASO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0c0197a8-9ef4-4935-9656-24fbfbb32b2e.png"] A series of coups have rocked West Africa in recent weeks. The latest, Burkina Faso, provides a picture as to how unstable governments in the region are falling as military leaders come to believe nobody else can take...

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February 08, 2022

Chocolate, Beer and Sovereignty

NEED TO KNOW Chocolate, Beer and Sovereignty TAIWAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/dab1143a-8514-4f63-8098-bd36050d9680.png"] Lala Sin has shied away from speaking Mandarin Chinese around her three children. Instead, the resident of Taiwan has been speaking Taiwanese Hokkien, or Taigi, a division of a language that is common in southeastern China and among the...

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February 07, 2022

Keeping the Lights On

NEED TO KNOW Keeping the Lights On MEXICO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/fcd100e2-d1bb-4cd7-b9f4-53a07a70e41c.png"] Proposed reforms to Mexico’s energy sector are causing ripples throughout North America. Leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador wants to divert more of the country’s energy market to the public Federal Electricity Commission, canceling contracts with private providers, Agence France-Presse...

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February 04, 2022

Holding the Nose

NEED TO KNOW Holding the Nose COSTA RICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1680456f-646a-4ee8-9ddf-e349708a0ee2.png"] Costa Rican leaders face hard choices. Their constituents, meanwhile, feel as if they are being left with none. Costa Rican tourism this year is expected to reach 40 percent of 2019 levels, before the coronavirus pandemic, the Costa Rica News...

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February 03, 2022

The Gates of Hell

NEED TO KNOW The Gates of Hell TURKMENISTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/b168b666-d25a-47b3-9e9e-747b1b8c92c8.png"] Turkmenistan’s autocratic President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov recently went on state television to demonstrate his awesome power. The leader of the Central Asian former Soviet republic wants to shut the gates of hell. Given how Turkmen leaders have a history of bizarre...

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February 02, 2022

Of Chickens and Eggs

NEED TO KNOW Of Chickens and Eggs MYANMAR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/9ef34308-9cd1-4a8e-a2b3-e7a7ab6846ed.png"] Aung San Suu Kyi won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her pro-democracy activism in Myanmar, where she spent years in and out of house arrest for opposing her country’s brutal dictatorship. Yet she persisted in opposing the...

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February 01, 2022

The Toady’s Dilemma

NEED TO KNOW The Toady’s Dilemma BELARUS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/3dffa11e-ac63-436f-a4ed-735a6dabc4a6.png"] Totalitarian President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus recently issued a message to opposition figures who have left the former Soviet republic in Eastern Europe. “My advice to you: come home, repent and kneel,” Lukashenko said during his annual state of the...

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January 31, 2022

Easy Come, Easy Go

NEED TO KNOW Easy Come, Easy Go MALI [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f6bfc52-cbc4-4acf-9a51-d98604de3d93.png"] Leaders in Mali recently ordered Danish troops out of the country, saying they never received permission to operate there with a French-led counterterrorism force. Danish officials said they had a “clear invitation” to deploy to the West African country,...

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January 28, 2022

A Contraption Called Democracy

NEED TO KNOW A Contraption Called Democracy PORTUGAL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9920e0b-df86-4240-9933-aed7de687bff.png"] In late 2019, the Atlantic magazine portrayed the government of Prime Minister António Costa in Portugal as a rare champion for the European left during a period when the far-right appeared ascendant throughout the continent. In Portuguese, people called...

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January 27, 2022

Class is Sort Of in Session

NEED TO KNOW Class is Sort Of in Session UGANDA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/eae01c28-7782-4a11-9e2b-886217499c6a.png"] More than half of Ugandan students stopped attending school at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Only recently did schools reopen, ending the longest school shutdown in the world. But few experts believe the...

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January 26, 2022

The Covid Orphans

NEED TO KNOW The Covid Orphans PERU [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7d13971f-19d8-4bc2-ac9e-119d2f349be4.png"] More than 204,000 people have died from the coronavirus in Peru, the highest rate per capita on Earth. Tragically, many of those lost were parents. More tragically, the virus in the South American country often claimed both parents or all...

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January 25, 2022

Dissing Information

NEED TO KNOW Dissing Information WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Late last year, a bank executive from Monaco seemingly tweeted about the white birch forests, tasty noodles and hard-working cotton farmers of Xinjiang, ignoring highly credible claims that Chinese officials are committing genocide against the Uyghur Muslim community in the province....

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January 24, 2022

The Technocrat and the Tycoon

NEED TO KNOW The Technocrat and the Tycoon ITALY [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/13ef7d88-e231-4aaa-9970-c3480223c0d5.png"] Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, 85, was recently admitted to the hospital after dropping out of the running to become president of his country. A billionaire media magnate, Berlusconi endured numerous sex and corruption scandals during his three...

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January 21, 2022

Divided They Stay

NEED TO KNOW Divided They Stay NORTHERN CYPRUS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/0f41b89c-d225-563a-f204-63defe2e1841.png"] Turkish Cypriots for years have been reluctant to reunify with the Greek side of their island. The interethnic conflicts – specifically ethnic Greeks massacring ethnic Turks – and other issues that triggered the Turkish military to invade and partition the...

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January 20, 2022

Worst Crisis Today

NEED TO KNOW Worst Crisis Today YEMEN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/ee4609f2-2073-461b-ae67-50c2f07e3c6e.png"] Houthi rebels in Yemen recently launched a drone and missile strike against the United Arab Emirates, blowing up fuel tankers and killing three people. The origins of the drones weren’t clear. But, as the Jerusalem Post suggested, the Iranians, who...

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January 19, 2022

Standing Tall

NEED TO KNOW Standing Tall BARBADOS [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f789b0d4-d2ad-44af-8a47-5201502a16bd.png"] When the BBC asked Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley about climate change last year, the interviewer learned a lesson about international perspective. As the Scotland-based National newspaper explained, the BBC correspondent wondered why Barbados was receiving so much Chinese foreign investment...

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January 18, 2022

Unbending Science

NEED TO KNOW Unbending Science WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Australia deported Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic after federal court judges upheld the immigration minister’s decision to override an earlier court decision to allow him to play in the Australian Open. As the Associated Press wrote, officials kicked him out because...

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January 17, 2022

Fed Up, Pushed Down

NEED TO KNOW Fed Up, Pushed Down KAZAKHSTAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/d52e63cf-06bb-47d0-b573-377bff5ae37c.png"] Officials in Kazakhstan recently announced that, with the help of Russian troops, stability had returned to the Central Asian country. Their definition of stability raised eyebrows around the world. More than 200 people died and more than 5,000 people were...

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January 14, 2022

What’s In a Name

NEED TO KNOW What’s In a Name CHINA / INDIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/f955c982-4d44-2ccd-ca8b-843ad6eab684.png"] Indian leaders recently blasted Chinese officials for moves that appear to ramp up pressure in their disputes over territory along their border. According to Indian critics, China has been renaming locations that India claims are part of the...

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January 13, 2022

No More Mr. Nice Guy

NEED TO KNOW No More Mr. Nice Guy ETHIOPIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bf55b5d2-7db8-404a-b87b-c88a42597d29.png"] Air strikes have become a routine part of life in northern Ethiopia. The strikes are part of the ongoing 14-month-long civil war between Ethiopian central government forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, a group that once held power...

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