NEED TO KNOW LEBANON A Child Left Behind In the opening of the 2018 Lebanese film “Capernaum,” a little boy who lives […]

NEED TO KNOW THE GAMBIA Cooling Fires After 22 years, Yahya Jammeh’s victims of sexual violence, torture, forced disappearances and other crimes […]

NEED TO KNOW GUNS Shots Heard Round the World Brazil leads the world in homicides. Newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro believes making it […]

NEED TO KNOW THE EUROPEAN UNION Losing A Limb Brits who fancy fresh tulips can now pop over to the corner shop […]

NEED TO KNOW CANADA Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses… Rahaf Mohammed recently shared photos of her breakfast of […]

NEED TO KNOW IRAQ NIMBY Geopolitics After President Donald Trump’s surprise visit to Iraq on the day after Christmas last year, Iraqi […]

NEED TO KNOW CHINA Population Bust Remarkably, the world’s most populous nation might suffer from a personnel shortage in the coming years. […]

NEED TO KNOW URUGUAY Exit Right The Left has achieved many of its goals in Uruguay. The country obtains around 95 percent […]

NEED TO KNOW GABON Clinging On Citizens of Gabon tuning into the national radio station early in the morning on January 7 […]

NEED TO KNOW SYRIA Dreaming of Nightmares The United States will withdraw its 2,200 troops from Syria soon. Or maybe not, as […]

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Atlas Might Shrug In her recent New Year’s address, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would proudly lead as […]

NEED TO KNOW MALDIVES Hope in Paradise A fire recently destroyed much of Gili Lankanfushi, a secluded resort in the Maldives that […]

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN Ending the Forever War President Donald Trump could face off against Senator Elizabeth Warren, a liberal Massachusetts Democrat, […]

NEED TO KNOW FRANCE Power Politics If imminent, catastrophic climate change is a serious problem, then more people are probably going to […]

NEED TO KNOW SUDAN Springtime Again The Arab Spring appears to have come belatedly to Sudan. Protests flared in the Northeast African […]

NEED TO KNOW BOLIVIA Backsliding When, at 16 years old, Brisa De Angulo pressed charges against a relative who she claimed raped […]

NEED TO KNOW GAZA Unpredictable Democracy Fatah, the Palestinian faction that controls the West Bank, split with Hamas, the faction that controls […]

NEED TO KNOW BELARUS Toward a More Perfect Union Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula in the Black Sea that was formerly Ukrainian […]

NEED TO KNOW SOUTH AFRICA The Fugitives and the Reformer The Guptas own coal and uranium mines, steel mills and other enterprises […]

NEED TO KNOW WORLD Rights in Context Seven years ago, Rosaura Almonte Hernández faced a Catch-22. The 16-year-old, known as “Esperancita,” or […]

NEED TO KNOW WORLD Looking Both Ways Business as usual was upended around the world in 2018. US President Donald Trump sat […]

NEED TO KNOW CONGO A Dream Deferred Last week, election officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo delayed elections until Dec. 30. […]

NEED TO KNOW VENEZUELA Take the Help! Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is ready for an American invasion. “We will arm the Bolivarian militia […]

NEED TO KNOW SINGAPORE Rich and Crazy in Asia The romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” has been a boon for Singapore’s tourism […]