NEED TO KNOW Down and Out, Down Under AUSTRALIA Australians over the weekend shot down a constitutional amendment to provide the country’s […]

NEED TO KNOW Plus ça Change NEW ZEALAND The former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who served from 2017 through […]

NEED TO KNOW A Family Affair INDONESIA Kaesang Pangarep, a 28-year-old YouTube influencer and entrepreneur who is also the youngest son of […]

NEED TO KNOW Despair in the Black Garden ARMENIA/ AZERBAIJAN Another nightmare appears to be unfolding on the far edge of Europe. […]

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 […]

NEED TO KNOW Breaking Through the Sky INDIA The Vikram Moon lander recently hopped across the lunar surface, using its thrusters to […]

NEED TO KNOW Where the Truth Goes to Die SRI LANKA On Easter Sunday in 2019, a series of bomb blasts at […]

NEED TO KNOW Resetting the Rudder MALDIVES In early August, the supreme court of the Maldives, the archipelago nation off India’s southwest […]

NEED TO KNOW Cracks in the Tent Pole CHINA For the past 25 years, pundits in the West have been issuing dire […]

NEED TO KNOW Walking Out NORTH KOREA The mother of an American serviceman who sprinted across the border to North Korea last […]

NEED TO KNOW A Playing Field PAPUA NEW GUINEA The world is wooing Papua New Guinea, a poor country to the north […]

NEED TO KNOW Promises, Betrayed AFGHANISTAN This week, the Taliban marked two years since it returned to power following the US-led troop […]

NEED TO KNOW Squeaky No More SINGAPORE There’s a tacit agreement between Singapore’s rulers and the population: We the People will settle […]

NEED TO KNOW Opaque Waters JAPAN Chef Kazuyuki Tanioka owns a sushi restaurant called Toya in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Life […]

NEED TO KNOW Dimming Star BANGLADESH The foreign minister of Bangladesh recently called ambassadors from the United States, Britain, France, and 10 […]

NEED TO KNOW A Worrying Popularity THAILAND When Thai voters cast their ballots for a new parliament in May, they roundly rejected […]

NEED TO KNOW Null and Void CAMBODIA Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s chances of winning reelection on July 23 are very good. […]

NEED TO KNOW Come Visit HONG KONG Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, is giving out 700,000 plane tickets to […]

NEED TO KNOW A Voice, a Divide AUSTRALIA After a recent historic parliamentary vote, Australians will vote on a constitutional amendment to […]

NEED TO KNOW Backroom Chats CHINA American diplomats claimed that the autocratic president of China, Xi Jinping, had no clue that one […]

NEED TO KNOW Pride and Pressure KYRGYZSTAN D Billions is a quartet of Kyrgyz singers whose performances for kids on YouTube have […]

NEED TO KNOW Mission Wealth LAOS Anousa “Jack” Luangsuphom is a prominent activist and critic of the authoritarian, communist government of Laos. […]

NEED TO KNOW Villains CAMBODIA In a final decision, Cambodia’s Constitutional Council recently rejected the claims of opposition politicians with the Candlelight […]

NEED TO KNOW Terrorist Vs. Terrorist AFGHANISTAN Since the US exited Afghanistan nearly two years ago, the leader of the Islamic Emirate […]