Need to Know

October 21, 2022

The Boogeyman

Slovenia

In April, Slovenian voters tapped Robert Golob, leader of the Freedom Movement party, to replace as prime minister right-wing populist Janez Jansa, a longtime figure in Slovenian politics and an ally of Hungary’s illiberal nationalist Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. But Jansa remains a boogeyman. And as the...

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October 20, 2022

The Quiet Bienvenue

Canada

Politicians in Quebec usually use secession from the federal union of Canada as a wedge issue when seeking votes. Incumbent Québécois Premier Francois Legault, however, opted to forgo talk of breaking from the rest of the country for the provincial elections on Oct. 3. Instead,...

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October 19, 2022

All Aboard

Middle EastNorth Africa

France’s national railroad company, SNCF, hoped to build a high-speed train in California in the early 2000s. But the company left the Golden State in 2011, citing its dysfunctional politics, reported the New York Times. Instead, the French rail experts went to Morocco to work...

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October 18, 2022

A Moment to Exhale

Guinea

Djenabou Bah was nine years old in 2009 when she attended a protest against former president Moussa Dadis Camara’s junta in a soccer stadium in the Guinean capital of Conakry. Protesters were singing and dancing when, suddenly, security forces began firing into the crowd. Soldiers seized...

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October 17, 2022

With Friends Like These

CaucasusRussia

Armenians have a unique perspective on Russian power. On the farthest-most edge of Europe, the former Soviet republic in the Caucasus hosts a Russian army base and belongs to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance centered on Russia. But they also abut...

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October 14, 2022

Redefining the Mainstream

European Union

A decade ago, right-wing populism in Europe was still viewed as an outlier, a political philosophy that might take root in Eastern Europe or Russia because of their histories, but not wealthy Western European powers where the free market and robust social safety nets were...

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October 13, 2022

Try, Try Again

Burkina Faso

Protesters took to the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, recently to wave Russian flags and condemn alleged meddling by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the impoverished, landlocked West African country’s former colonial overseer, France. The demonstration occurred a few...

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October 12, 2022

No Joy in Mudville

Brazil

Supporters of left-wing Brazilian politician and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, or simply “Lula,” suffered a rude awakening recently when, rather than easily winning his country’s presidential race, he now must face the incumbent right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff on Oct. 30. As...

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October 11, 2022

Pushing and Pulling

North Korea

North Korea recently fired an intercontinental ballistic missile over Japan, one of five such launches in the region over a week-long period despite the crippling sanctions against the autocratic Asian country. The missile fell harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean, the Japan Times reported. But Japanese...

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October 10, 2022

Great Russia

RussiaUkraine

When Ukrainian forces recently retook the city of Lyman from Russian occupiers, resident Elena Kharkovska was surprised to learn that Russian President Vladimir Putin had considered her to be one of his constituents for one day. Lacking electricity or communications while the bullets and bombs...

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October 07, 2022

The Alpine Tremors

Austria

The president of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, recently suffered a concussion after falling while hiking in the Alps. As the Daily Beast reported, the 78-year-old Van der Bellen was briefly out of commission, a situation that likely made some Austrians nervous given how unstable...

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October 06, 2022

The Kingdom and the Chaos

Lesotho

Born in Shanghai in China, Zhenyu Shao moved to Lesotho 25 years ago and became a citizen in 2006. Now he’s running for parliament in his adopted country when voters go to the polls for a general election on Oct. 7. However, some Basothos, as...

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October 05, 2022

Little Islands, Big Games

Solomon Islands

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of the Solomon Islands distributed almost $2.5 million to 39 out of 50 lawmakers last year. Sogavare arguably wasn’t spending taxpayers’ money, however. He was doling out cash that China gave him specifically to appropriate at his discretion. Unsurprisingly, some observers in...

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October 04, 2022

Rinse, Repeat

Puerto Rico

Five years after Hurricane Maria knocked out Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, it’s déjà vu. Hundreds of thousands of residents of the US territory are without power because of Hurricane Fiona, reviving memories of when Maria killed thousands, turned off the lights for months for three...

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October 03, 2022

The Bear’s Market

Russia

Global economic growth will reach only three percent this year due to the lingering effects of Covid-19 and the economic ructions of the Russo-Ukraine War – think higher energy, food prices and other goods. Next year, for the same reasons, growth is expected to slow...

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September 30, 2022

Splitting the Chimera

Bosnia Herzegovina

The leader of Republika Srpska, an enclave of ethnic Serbs seeking to break off from Bosnia and Herzegovina and become an independent state or unify with neighboring Serbia, recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. As the Associated Press wrote, Milorad Dodik is...

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September 29, 2022

Take It Off

Iran

Big protests over little scarves are threatening to destabilize the Islamic Republic of Iran. In mid-September, Iran’s morality police arrested Mahsa Amini, 22, for allowing a few strands of hair to escape her scarf, violating laws Iranian officials say are necessary under their orthodox Islamic views....

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September 28, 2022

A Good Day

China

While Russian President Vladimir Putin suffers international condemnation and internal dissent, US President Joe Biden faces a test in the upcoming midterm elections, and major European leaders are either new or lack significant power globally, Chinese President Xi Jinping, 69, is firmly ensconced, and appears...

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September 27, 2022

The Best Man for the Job

Uganda

An Ebola outbreak is occurring in Uganda, raising fears that the country will not be able to contain and control the deadly disease in the East African nation, reported CNN. Public health officers are scrambling to trace contacts between potentially infected people and everyone else,...

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September 26, 2022

The Dangers of Desperation

RussiaUkraine

The once-vaunted, now-demoralized Russian military could be on the brink of collapse – a retired British Air Marshal put the odds at 35 percent in a recent interview with Sky News. By now, seven months after the invasion of Ukraine, this mighty military was to have...

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