NEED TO KNOW Carrying On UKRAINE Tatiana Putria is a nurse in the Kherson region of Ukraine. “I am not a hero, […]

NEED TO KNOW So Far, So Close POLAND From the mid-16th Century to the late 18th Century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a […]

NEED TO KNOW The Battles and the War UNITED KINGDOM/ FRANCE Right-wing politicians opposed to immigration, the concentration of power in Brussels, […]

NEED TO KNOW Near Abroad Politics GEORGIA Earlier this year, Georgian civilians clashed with riot police in Tbilisi, the capital of the […]

NEED TO KNOW ‘A Radical Reset’ UNITED KINGDOM In late May, just six weeks before the election, British Conservative Prime Minister Rishi […]

NEED TO KNOW ‘Meat-grinder’ Recruitment RUSSIA The Russian army is recruiting female convicts to ship to the frontlines in Ukraine. In exchange […]

NEED TO KNOW Match Point FRANCE French authorities recently charged two boys aged 12 and 13 with raping a 12-year-old girl in […]

NEED TO KNOW New and Shiny NETHERLANDS King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands recently visited Albany, Atlanta, and New York […]

NEED TO KNOW Let the Games Begin FRANCE French officials are only fairly sure that the opening ceremony for the upcoming summer […]

NEED TO KNOW Eye of the Beholder RUSSIA Russian-American historian Yuri Felshtinsky recently told Times Radio that Russian elites are in a […]

NEED TO KNOW Rightward Ho EUROPEAN UNION Expect right-wing parties to win big when 400 million voters in 27 countries elect new […]

NEED TO KNOW Irreconcilable Differences BELGIUM A few years ago, Belgium famously had no elected government for more than 600 days, as […]

NEED TO KNOW Hands Off SWITZERLAND Around 60 years ago, when rabies was widespread in Europe’s fox population, Switzerland invented an innovative […]

NEED TO KNOW An Open Race ICELAND A 700,000-year-old glacier called Snæfellsjökull almost appeared on Iceland’s presidential ballot for June 1. “It’s […]

NEED TO KNOW Fronts and Faults MOLDOVA A few months ago, photos surfaced of Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko standing next to a […]

NEED TO KNOW Proximity Politics LITHUANIA Few countries have supported Ukraine’s fight against Russia more than Lithuania, a former Soviet republic on […]

NEED TO KNOW Wish You Weren’t Here EUROPE International tourism is arguably the fundamental building block of globalization. Visiting a foreign country, […]

NEED TO KNOW Staying in the Ring UKRAINE More than two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops to invade his […]

NEED TO KNOW Silent Treatment KOSOVO Responding to a request from Serbia for a boycott, only around 1 percent of the ethnic […]

NEED TO KNOW Goodbye, Utopia DENMARK In 1971, hippies began squatting on an abandoned naval base in Copenhagen, Denmark, creating a community […]

NEED TO KNOW Finding a Foothold NORTH MACEDONIA A symbol of international solidarity, University Hall, recently burned down in the North Macedonian […]

NEED TO KNOW Gangland Elections CROATIA Zoran Milanović caused a stir last month when he announced his candidacy for Croatia’s parliament as […]

NEED TO KNOW The Return SPAIN A plan to forgive Catalan separatists in Spain might have seemed like a political masterstroke when […]

NEED TO KNOW Up for Grabs SLOVAKIA Thousands of Slovaks took to the streets of their capital of Bratislava recently to protest […]