NEED TO KNOW SERBIA & KOSOVO Moving the Line It was supposed to be a meeting poised to defuse once and for […]

NEED TO KNOW TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO Rhetorical Questions Late last month, the dual-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago celebrated its 56th anniversary […]

NEED TO KNOW VATICAN The Spiritual and the Mundane The Catholic Church is scheduled to hold a synod devoted to young people […]

NEED TO KNOW UGANDA A Pop Star, and Relative Morality Morality has always been relative. What one person considers profane, another might […]

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA What Is Irony in Russian? What a coincidence. Russian authorities jailed Alexei Navalny for 30 days in late […]

NEED TO KNOW INDIA Whose Fault Indian authorities recently arrested five activists on charges of inciting “caste-based” violence. The activists, who included […]

NEED TO KNOW SWEDEN Winter is Coming Sweden, the superpower of Scandinavia, with its wealth, high standard of living and generous welfare […]

NEED TO KNOW JORDAN Home, and Away Large refugee camps in regions like the Middle East and Africa become like cities, with […]

NEED TO KNOW NIGERIA Ready to Blow During British Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to the Nigerian capital of Abuja last month, […]

NEED TO KNOW CENTRAL AMERICA No Right to Grow Old Migrants have many reasons for making the long trek to the United […]

NEED TO KNOW RWANDA The Price of Progress Campaign season is in full swing in Rwanda as the nation’s more than 7 […]

NEED TO KNOW ARGENTINA Kirchner’s Revenge A recent police raid on former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s properties is a reminder […]

NEED TO KNOW MOROCCO A Will, A Way Cross the southwestern border of Morocco – it’s a dotted line on most maps […]

NEED TO KNOW SPAIN Over the Fence Spain has a wall, or at least a fence. And still they come. Recently, around […]

NEED TO KNOW AUSTRALIA Staying Tuned Australian broadcasting giant Nine Entertainment recently reported rosy earnings that included a 27 percent jump in […]

NEED TO KNOW CAMEROON A War In Any Language… Doctors, nurses and other staff are deserting their posts in Cameroon’s northern English-speaking […]

NEED TO KNOW COLUMBIA No Time For Snoozing Newly elected Colombian President Ivan Duque, sworn in earlier this month, is unlikely to […]

NEED TO KNOW AZERBAIJAN Smoke and Mirrors An appeals court’s recent release of opposition politician Ilgar Mammadov from prison in Azerbaijan is […]

NEED TO KNOW ­­­­­­­­­­­MALAYSIA New Faces, Old Faces Everyone was shocked when a coalition of political parties called the Pakatan Harapan swept […]

NEED TO KNOW WORLD The Politics of Pipelines From the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz to Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sands, control over […]

NEED TO KNOW BANGLADESH Road Rage The protests that erupted recently in Bangladesh started over unsafe roads. Now they have shut down […]

NEED TO KNOW CHILE Lemons to Lemonade Americans rarely think of South America as a destination for immigrants and refugees. But Chile […]

NEED TO KNOW YEMEN Peace and Prejudice This month, the United Nations’ special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, convinced both sides fighting […]

NEED TO KNOW ROMANIA Protest Fatigue In late 2017 and into the new year, tens of thousands of Romanians marched on Bucharest […]