Murder, and Other Disasters
NEED TO KNOW Murder, and Other Disasters ECUADOR Under the conservative government of President Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador’s economy grew 3.2 percent last […]
Playing Charades
NEED TO KNOW Playing Charades MYANMAR Two years ago, Myanmar’s generals staged a coup that ousted the Southeast Asian country’s civilian leaders, […]
Silent Gestures
NEED TO KNOW Silent Gestures RUSSIA Muscovites recently have been laying wreaths of flowers, stuffed animals, photographs and other mementos at the […]
Sharp Elbows
NEED TO KNOW Sharp Elbows MOROCCO Moroccan lawmakers recently voted to “reconsider” their North African country’s relationship with the European Union. The […]
Interior Thoughts
NEED TO KNOW Interior Thoughts AUSTRALIA Almost everyone ranks the Amazon, the Sahara and Siberia as among the world’s greatest, most gigantic […]
The Morning After
NEED TO KNOW The Morning After ETHIOPIA The war between Ukraine and Russia has understandably garnered much attention over the past year. […]
The Virtual Front
NEED TO KNOW The Virtual Front RUSSIA/ UKRAINE In the 1990s, many world leaders failed to understand the threat that cyberattacks posed […]
Twixt the Bear and the Dragon
NEED TO KNOW Twixt the Bear and the Dragon MONGOLIA In Mongolia, Dulamsuren Demberel worries about her family’s budget. The price of […]
The Celtic Conundrum
NEED TO KNOW The Celtic Conundrum IRELAND Three years after the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, officials in […]
Rags to Riches
NEED TO KNOW Rags to Riches BOTSWANA Sprawling, landlocked, relatively lightly populated Botswana enjoys a higher gross domestic product per capita than […]
A Reformer’s Fumble
NEED TO KNOW A Reformer’s Fumble SLOVAKIA Thirty years ago, the former communist country of Czechoslovakia split in two. The event was […]
Oiling the Hinges
NEED TO KNOW Oiling the Hinges MIDDLE EAST Natural gas is changing the Eastern Mediterranean. It could also shake up the Israeli-Palestinian […]
The Exile and the Mob
NEED TO KNOW The Exile and the Mob BRAZIL The former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, might finally be planning to return […]
The Forever Pandemic
NEED TO KNOW The Forever Pandemic CHINA China recently lifted mandatory quarantining for visitors, ending three years of travel restrictions designed to […]
Power, Corruption and Fireworks
NEED TO KNOW Power, Corruption and Fireworks CZECH REPUBLIC Andrej Babis is a billionaire agricultural magnate and former Czech prime minister who […]
Breathing Politics
NEED TO KNOW Breathing Politics BRAZIL On Jan. 1, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as the new president of […]
Buying Power
NEED TO KNOW Buying Power EUROPEAN UNION Belgian authorities have arrested a vice president of the European Parliament and jailed her, detained […]
A Difficult Hand
NEED TO KNOW A Difficult Hand PHILIPPINES Controversially tough-on-crime Rodrigo Duterte is no longer president of the Philippines. But, in an echo […]
Theme Park Politics
NEED TO KNOW Theme Park Politics BENIN Al Qaeda and Islamic State extremists are gaining a foothold in Africa as the Russian-Ukrainian […]
The Prodigal Leader
NEED TO KNOW The Prodigal Leader ISRAEL Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister of Israel again in late December, his sixth time in […]
Cry For Me
NEED TO KNOW Cry For Me ARGENTINA The throngs that crowded Buenos Aires and other Argentine cities after the South American country’s […]
Won’t Back Down
NEED TO KNOW Won’t Back Down IRAN The Iranian government’s crackdown on free speech and the free flow of information has led […]
A News Year
NEED TO KNOW A News Year WORLD The New Year will begin with two pressing crises that could upend the international order: […]
What a Year
NEED TO KNOW What a Year WORLD It was hard to watch Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent address to the US Congress […]