NEED TO KNOW WORLD Whack-a-Mole The Islamic State was thought to be at a low. The death last month of the extremist […]

NEED TO KNOW UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Glittering Skylines, Hedging Bets The glittering skylines of Dubai and Abu Dhabi highlight how the United […]

NEED TO KNOW TURKEY A Genie Is Out Russian troops in Syria recently moved to the country’s northeastern border with Turkey, occupying […]

NEED TO KNOW SYRIA Letting the Genie Out The Turkish-Syrian border is on fire, according to Kurdish officials who spoke to Reuters […]

NEED TO KNOW EGYPT Of Pharaohs and Tin Ears Egyptians are furious about corruption. Their rage stems from viral videos posted by […]

NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA Reset in Tunis If Nabil Karoui wins Tunisia’s runoff presidential election on Oct. 13, he might deliver his […]

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL Counterclockwise Carousels It seemed like Benjamin Netanyahu was in trouble. The results of the Sept. 17 election in […]

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL A Messy Do-Over Israeli President Reuven Rivlin delivered a rare rebuke of Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu in […]

NEED TO KNOW TUNISIA The Art of Listening The Tunisian presidential election is heating up. That’s important because voters are deciding more […]

NEED TO KNOW LEBANON Where to Start? The Daily Star, an English-language newspaper in Lebanon, recently ran an edition that contained no […]

NEED TO KNOW IRAQ & SYRIA Exponential Radicalization Thousands of displaced wives and children of the vanquished Islamic State now live in […]

NEED TO KNOW TURKEY Missile Diplomacy US-backed Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria are in retreat. As the BBC explained, the troops pulled […]

NEED TO KNOW IRAQ Bombs and Potholes Sangar Khaleel was a Mosul resident who became a fixer – a journalistic term referring […]

NEED TO KNOW SYRIA From the Rubble The Syrian Civil War was hard on Aleppo. “In the Old City’s labyrinthine markets, where […]

NEED TO KNOW MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA Careful What You Wish For A power-sharing agreement recently enacted between the Sudanese military […]

NEED TO KNOW SAUDI ARABIA What You See… Saudi Arabia is selling permanent residency status for $213,000. A one-year residency option costs […]

NEED TO KNOW ISRAEL AND PALESTINE What Money Can’t Buy US President Donald Trump is “very fond” of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud […]