NEED TO KNOW Second Spring TUNISIA Commerce and public services ground to a halt in Tunisia recently as the country’s massive Tunisian […]

NEED TO KNOW But First, Trust IRAN An Iranian engineer recently died and another employee was wounded in an “unexplained incident” at […]

NEED TO KNOW Shattered LEBANON Lebanese expatriates took to the polls recently before parliamentary elections in their homeland on May 15. Their […]

NEED TO KNOW Guns & Butter MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA Observers in Tunisia are wondering how much higher food prices can […]

NEED TO KNOW Stifled Spring TUNISIA Tunisian President Kais Saied recently extended his North African country’s state of emergency through the end […]

NEED TO KNOW It’s Good to Be King JORDAN Jordan is technically a constitutional monarchy. However, King Abdullah II of Jordan wields […]

NEED TO KNOW Guns and Butter UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Last week, an explosion rocked Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab […]

NEED TO KNOW Worst Crisis Today YEMEN Houthi rebels in Yemen recently launched a drone and missile strike against the United Arab […]

NEED TO KNOW Perception is Key EGYPT French automaker Citroën recently apologized for airing a television commercial in Egypt that featured the […]

NEED TO KNOW Through the Past, Darkly LIBYA Muammar Gaddafi was a brutal dictator who ruled Libya for four decades. After rebels […]

NEED TO KNOW Just Business UNITED ARAB EMIRATES The United Arab Emirates recently made Sunday a day off, putting the Persian Gulf […]

NEED TO KNOW Moving On SYRIA Syrian President Bashar Assad’s friends and relatives are making billions selling an illegal amphetamine called captagon […]

NEED TO KNOW A Place Called Rock Bottom LEBANON As befits a widow who follows local Muslim traditions in Lebanon, 32-year-old Ammouneh […]

NEED TO KNOW Revolution Redux TUNISIA Tunisian Najla Bouden Ramadhane recently became the Arab world’s first female prime minister. That’s a historic […]

NEED TO KNOW Cold Shoulders IRAQ Still stabilizing after years of occupation and civil war following the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq […]

NEED TO KNOW Baby Steps QATAR For the first time in history, Qatari voters will go to the polls to pick two-thirds […]

NEED TO KNOW Divided We Stand LIBYA Libya has remained divided since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi following an uprising a […]

NEED TO KNOW MOROCCO Avoiding Sinkholes Moroccan King Mohammed VI recently denounced “methodical attacks” on his country, alluding to critics abroad who […]

NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA It’s Getting Hot in Here As Americans and Turks worry about hazy skies from […]

NEED TO KNOW WORLD Little Brother Azerbaijani authorities filmed journalist Khadija Ismayilova in intimate situations in her home in Baku, alleged that […]

NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA Pandemic+’Coup’/geopolitics=Crisis For some, the coronavirus pandemic feels like it’s ending. For Tunisians, it’s as if it has just […]

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL Holding On Tight Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a far-right leader who cobbled together opposition parties from […]

NEED TO KNOW LEBANON Ever Collapsing Lebanon keeps lurching from crisis to crisis. The currency amid the coronavirus pandemic shrunk 90 percent. […]

NEED TO KNOW LIBYA All the King’s Horses Literally and figuratively, Libya is a minefield. Russian mercenaries fighting in Libya’s civil wars […]