December 24, 2021

Through the Past, Darkly

NEED TO KNOW Through the Past, Darkly LIBYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbf539f5-8945-4e8b-9453-35a595c0de45.png"] Muammar Gaddafi was a brutal dictator who ruled Libya for four decades. After rebels killed him in 2011 during the Arab Spring, his death left a power vacuum that resulted in a bloody civil war that continues to this...

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December 21, 2021

Just Business

NEED TO KNOW Just Business UNITED ARAB EMIRATES [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e7c972cb-39f7-4c1c-a7c9-c1ed67fdc38d.png"] The United Arab Emirates recently made Sunday a day off, putting the Persian Gulf kingdom in step with the Western world’s workweek. In most Arab countries, the workweek runs from Sunday to Thursday, as Friday is a Muslim holy...

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December 15, 2021

Moving On

NEED TO KNOW Moving On SYRIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e4901088-a8f1-4f67-bb93-075f2af0bff8.png"] Syrian President Bashar Assad’s friends and relatives are making billions selling an illegal amphetamine called captagon in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East, a New York Times investigation found. Overseeing the operation is Assad’s younger brother, Maher, who runs...

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October 26, 2021

A Place Called Rock Bottom

NEED TO KNOW A Place Called Rock Bottom LEBANON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a353fadd-2d2a-41b3-b0c1-951b96702e16.png"] As befits a widow who follows local Muslim traditions in Lebanon, 32-year-old Ammouneh Haydar remained inside for 40 days following the death of her husband in a fuel tank explosion. As she mourned, however, her thoughts were less focused...

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October 21, 2021

Revolution Redux

NEED TO KNOW Revolution Redux TUNISIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f262cf6-0ed8-4367-aeca-5f0f2b6684d0.png"] Tunisian Najla Bouden Ramadhane recently became the Arab world’s first female prime minister. That’s a historic feat in the region and the greater Arab world, National Public Radio noted. But the path Ramadhane, a professor and ministry of higher education official, took...

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October 08, 2021

Cold Shoulders

NEED TO KNOW Cold Shoulders IRAQ [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7f5678d9-eac3-49b9-9755-dcad8927e883.png"] Still stabilizing after years of occupation and civil war following the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq faces momentous challenges. At the center of a combustible region, wedged between Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria, facing low oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic,...

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October 01, 2021

Baby Steps

NEED TO KNOW Baby Steps QATAR [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/eb313eb2-840e-4e71-8167-30beddab851f.png"] For the first time in history, Qatari voters will go to the polls to pick two-thirds of the Shura Council, the legislative body that advises the Persian Gulf nation’s leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The emir will appoint...

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September 27, 2021

Divided We Stand

NEED TO KNOW Divided We Stand LIBYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbf539f5-8945-4e8b-9453-35a595c0de45.png"] Libya has remained divided since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi following an uprising a decade ago. Recently, lawmakers based in the eastern part of the country passed a no-confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah based...

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September 02, 2021

Avoiding Sinkholes

NEED TO KNOW MOROCCO [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/5456929d-d2a4-4505-94be-29745678ea3d.png"] Avoiding Sinkholes Moroccan King Mohammed VI recently denounced “methodical attacks” on his country, alluding to critics abroad who have raised questions about the kingdom’s policies in the disputed territory of the Western Sahara, the alleged use of Israeli spy software in civil rights...

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August 06, 2021

It’s Getting Hot in Here

NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/7000f0bb-c02b-4438-87c6-002be2c0dfc6.png"] It’s Getting Hot in Here As Americans and Turks worry about hazy skies from fires in the western US, Turkey and southern Europe, and deadly floods strike northern Europe and China, the Middle East is facing one of its...

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August 04, 2021

Little Brother

NEED TO KNOW WORLD [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/486ddb7e-3777-4543-ab44-3536360a3ce9.png"] Little Brother Azerbaijani authorities filmed journalist Khadija Ismayilova in intimate situations in her home in Baku, alleged that she drove a colleague to suicide and charged her with tax fraud. Sentenced to seven years in prison, she was released on bail after 18...

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July 29, 2021

Pandemic+’Coup’/geopolitics=Crisis

NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/1f262cf6-0ed8-4367-aeca-5f0f2b6684d0.png"] Pandemic+'Coup'/geopolitics=Crisis For some, the coronavirus pandemic feels like it’s ending. For Tunisians, it’s as if it has just begun. Hospital beds, oxygen and other medical supplies are running low in the North African country that managed to avoid the worst of the first wave...

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July 20, 2021

Holding On Tight

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/e9f003e4-763f-45aa-8bd2-dd52c7067104.png"] Holding On Tight Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a far-right leader who cobbled together opposition parties from across his country’s broad political spectrum, including an Islamist party, in order to replace Benjamin Netanyahu. The deal could bring an end to Israel’s incredibly unstable...

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July 01, 2021

Ever Collapsing

NEED TO KNOW LEBANON [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/a353fadd-2d2a-41b3-b0c1-951b96702e16.png"] Ever Collapsing Lebanon keeps lurching from crisis to crisis. The currency amid the coronavirus pandemic shrunk 90 percent. Last summer, a massive blast in Beirut harbor killed more than 200 people, destroying much of the city center. Today, fuel shortages are the emergency. The diverse...

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June 28, 2021

All the King’s Horses

NEED TO KNOW LIBYA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/bbf539f5-8945-4e8b-9453-35a595c0de45.png"] All the King's Horses Literally and figuratively, Libya is a minefield. Russian mercenaries fighting in Libya’s civil wars left behind booby-trapped teddy bears and soda cans as they fled when warlord Khalifa Haftar failed to conquer the capital of Tripoli. Children who “playfully” crush...

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June 24, 2021

Bitter Win

NEED TO KNOW ALGERIA [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/afd743d3-28d8-42d3-ad85-cbd124324f7b.png"] Bitter Win Algeria’s traditional ruling political party, the National Liberation Front, garnered the most votes in parliamentary elections held on June 12, the first since mass protests forced longtime authoritarian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign two years ago. But it would be inaccurate to...

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June 17, 2021

Exorcising Enemies

NEED TO KNOW IRAN [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/aa73e799-3df4-4d8a-8ec5-35a9feeb2bb4.png"] Exorcising Enemies Iran and world leaders hope to revive the 2015 nuclear accords before Iranian voters elect a new president on June 18. The accord would impose limits on Iran’s nuclear program while lifting international sanctions that have battered the Iranian economy where inflation...

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June 11, 2021

Writing Its Story

NEED TO KNOW EGYPT [map url="https://mcusercontent.com/a2e22d7f24f6d1e3464d05be4/images/180d3d63-0093-422e-a6d2-b3d9896f0053.png"] Writing Its Story The coronavirus pandemic devastated Egypt’s most important industry, tourism. In 2019, more than 13 million tourists visited the North African country, earning it $13 billion. It was a return to pre-2011 numbers – afterward, the street protests of the Arab Spring...

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