NEED TO KNOW GUATEMALA One Comedian, Zero Laughs In 2015, actor and comedian Jimmy Morales won the Guatemalan presidency in a landslide […]

NEED TO KNOW TOGO Of Witchcraft, Protests and WhatsApp The killing of a cow in Kparatao, Togo, explains a lot about the […]

NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST Pulling the Tightrope An alliance between Iraq and Iran has long worried American officials. Now the US’s […]

NEED TO KNOW NORTH KOREA You Wanna Start Something? The foreign minister of North Korea, Ri Yong Ho, recently told the United […]

NEED TO KNOW PORTUGAL No Time To Relax A few years ago, many young Portuguese tried to get out of the country, […]

NEED TO KNOW AFGHANISTAN Faltering Spirits There’s grumbling that Afghanistan is becoming America’s second Vietnam – a comparison the Concord Monitor recently […]

NEED TO KNOW YEMEN Going Nowhere Fast On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last week, officials painted a grim […]

NEED TO KNOW SPAIN Breaking Up Is Hard To Do With its own language, a history of independence dating back to the […]

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Sturm und Drang There were no surprises in German elections Sunday. The earth didn’t tremble. The world order […]

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Breaking the Silence The expected lack of a surprise is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of German elections […]

NEED TO KNOW NEW ZEALAND Rock Stars and Maniacs With fewer than 5 million citizens and an isolated location in the southwestern […]

NEED TO KNOW INDIA Dispel the Darkness Last week, thousands of Indians joined a Nobel-winning advocate of children’s rights for the first […]

NEED TO KNOW CAMBODIA The Corner, the Bogeyman Authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia has been ratcheting up his anti-American rhetoric […]

NEED TO KNOW KURDISTAN Waiting for a Country Many warned years ago that Iraq could split apart in the wake of the […]

NEED TO KNOW MYANMAR Empty Promises After decades of living under the rule of repressive military dictatorship, the southeast Asian nation of […]

NEED TO KNOW EUROPE Running on Fumes It’s been over a year since German automaker Volkswagen had to cough up over $20 […]

NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA The Second Battle The Arab Spring of 2011 saw entrenched authoritarian regimes across North Africa buckle under the […]

NEED TO KNOW PUERTO RICO Puerto de Dolor Angry Puerto Ricans have been marching against their government’s plans to hike taxes and […]

NEED TO KNOW NORWAY Both Sides Now Norwegian elections are usually sleepy affairs. Oil makes the country rich. Its generous social welfare […]

NEED TO KNOW FRANCE Forward March Security services were swarming Athens in expectation of French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent visit to Greece, […]

NEED TO KNOW HONG KONG The Writing on the Wall It’s been 20 years since the United Kingdom handed over its island […]

NEED TO KNOW OMAN Desert Bloom During monsoon season in Oman, the nation’s normally arid desert terrain transforms into a lush oasis […]

NEED TO KNOW GUATEMALA Comedians, Corruption and Rainbows Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales had a problem – namely one pesky anti-corruption official. He […]

NEED TO KNOW KENYA The Stunning Do Over Kenya’s supreme court Friday annulled presidential election results and ordered a repeat poll within […]