NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Justice, and Forgiveness Bruno Dey joined the SS when he was a teenager in Nazi Germany, landing a […]

NEED TO KNOW BELARUS The Wizard’s Feint It’s hard to know whether the Nov. 17 elections to the lower house of parliament […]

NEED TO KNOW BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA Government by Hydra Bosnia and Herzegovina has three presidents but no government. As Agence France-Presse explained, […]

NEED TO KNOW SPAIN Sighing All The Way To The Polls The weather was so cold on election day Sunday in Spain […]

NEED TO KNOW ROMANIA Rearview Mirror Politics Has Romania finally achieved a semblance of stability? Protests over political corruption have wracked Romania […]

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Of Falling Walls and Soaring Rage Americans view the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago as […]

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA & UKRAINE The Other Side of Scandal Some Americans might have noticed that Ukraine has been in the […]

NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM Should I Stay or Should I Go… Brexit was supposed to happen on Oct. 31. It won’t. […]

NEED TO KNOW CATALONIA Powder Keg Politics Separatism made Catalonia into a powder keg. Spanish authorities lit the fuse. Activists in the […]

NEED TO KNOW POLAND Fertilizing with Fear Police clashed with anti-LGBTQ protesters last month in Lublin, Poland, before a gay pride march. […]

NEED TO KNOW BELARUS A Tight Bear Hug Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently described the refusal of Belarus to host a […]

NEED TO KNOW KOSOVO Getting the House in Order Voters in Kosovo are preparing to elect a new parliament for the fifth […]

NEED TO KNOW PORTUGAL Sunshine, and Rainy Days Voters on the tiny Portuguese island of Madeira recently handed a victory to their […]

NEED TO KNOW CHECHNYA A Warrior Culture On a recent visit to Chechnya, a region of southwestern Russia in the Caucasus Mountains, […]

NEED TO KNOW AUSTRIA Return of Realpolitik Austrian hoteliers recently sued a former guest who complained in online reviews about the photograph […]

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA Over a Shoulder, Over a Barrel Funny thing happened after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies lost a third […]

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Riding the Tailwinds The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been racking up electoral gains lately, and many expect […]

NEED TO KNOW EASTERN EUROPE Dueling Memories Europeans last month celebrated two anniversaries dating from the modern era. Aug. 19 marked the […]

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION Waiting Rooms of History American actor Richard Gere recently delivered humanitarian supplies to a boat of migrants […]

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA ‘Chernobyl on Ice’ Chernobyl has been a real tourist draw lately. “The Ukrainian government is promoting the Exclusion […]

NEED TO KNOW ITALY Possibilities The 134 migrants were at the “breaking point” as their rescue ship, dubbed the Open Arms, remained […]

NEED TO KNOW IRELAND Gimme Shelter An Irish university student became famous after he tweeted a photo of a long, winding queue […]

NEED TO KNOW UNITED KINGDOM Reason and Faith Pizzamaker Domino’s has been stockpiling tomato sauce, frozen chicken, pineapple and tuna in the UK […]

NEED TO KNOW RUSSIA Strange Brews Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny recently came down with a bizarre sickness. His face and eyes […]