Isthmus, Jammed
NEED TO KNOW Isthmus, Jammed PANAMA Officials operating the Panama Canal recently capped the number of ships passing through the commercial waterway […]
Speak, Calliope
NEED TO KNOW Speak, Calliope LIBYA Poet Mustafa al-Trabelsi penned eerily prescient lines in the days before he would die in a […]
A Family Affair
NEED TO KNOW A Family Affair INDONESIA Kaesang Pangarep, a 28-year-old YouTube influencer and entrepreneur who is also the youngest son of […]
Looking Outward
NEED TO KNOW Looking Outward CANADA/ INDIA Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently said that his government was open to investigating any […]
Roots and Branches
NEED TO KNOW Roots and Branches UKRAINE Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov resigned in early September. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that, while […]
Disappearing the Disappeared
NEED TO KNOW Disappearing the Disappeared MEXICO The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recently announced that prosecutors had sought to […]
Fickle Friend
NEED TO KNOW Fickle Friend SLOVAKIA Since the invasion of Ukraine last year, Russia has become diplomatically isolated from the West – […]
An Absolute Problem
NEED TO KNOW An Absolute Problem ESWATINI Late last year, pro-democracy activists, political dissidents, and others gathered in South Africa to discuss […]
Despair in the Black Garden
NEED TO KNOW Despair in the Black Garden ARMENIA/ AZERBAIJAN Another nightmare appears to be unfolding on the far edge of Europe. […]
Bricks and Blood
NEED TO KNOW Bricks and Blood MOROCCO Mohammed Ounasser lost his wife and two daughters when a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco […]
Halal Cash
NEED TO KNOW Halal Cash RUSSIA Russia launched a pilot program this month for Islamic banks in the Muslim-majority regions of Tatarstan, […]
The Micro and the Macro
NEED TO KNOW The Micro and the Macro ANDORRA/ MONACO/ SAN MARINO Three microstates with a combined population of only 150,000 people […]
Scattered and Scarred
NEED TO KNOW Scattered and Scarred ERITREA Recently, the Israeli government appropriated $7.85 million to “encourage the voluntary repatriation of infiltrators” and […]
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
NEED TO KNOW R.E.S.P.E.C.T. SOUTH KOREA South Korean teachers say they have it tough. Their complaints include pupils assaulting them in the […]
The Black Gold Rush
NEED TO KNOW The Black Gold Rush GUYANA A remarkable economic experiment is occurring now in Guyana, one of the poorest countries […]
The Power in Numbers
NEED TO KNOW The Power in Numbers WORLD An economist from Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICS in 2001 as an acronym […]
A Worn Out Welcome
NEED TO KNOW A Worn Out Welcome GABON The leaders of the Aug. 30 coup that ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba of […]
Breaking Through the Sky
NEED TO KNOW Breaking Through the Sky INDIA The Vikram Moon lander recently hopped across the lunar surface, using its thrusters to […]
Where the Truth Goes to Die
NEED TO KNOW Where the Truth Goes to Die SRI LANKA On Easter Sunday in 2019, a series of bomb blasts at […]
Looking for Endings
NEED TO KNOW Looking for Endings UKRAINE NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently praised Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces that invaded its territory […]
Resetting the Rudder
NEED TO KNOW Resetting the Rudder MALDIVES In early August, the supreme court of the Maldives, the archipelago nation off India’s southwest […]
The Dismantling
NEED TO KNOW The Dismantling ARGENTINA For generations, Argentina’s economy has struggled with debt, inflation, and other economic challenges. Today, the South […]
Cracks in the Tent Pole
NEED TO KNOW Cracks in the Tent Pole CHINA For the past 25 years, pundits in the West have been issuing dire […]