NEED TO KNOW DENMARK Fighting for Hyggeligt Some things are truly Danish: Lagkage (layer cake) and Wienerbrød (pastries), a prized feeling of […]

NEED TO KNOW IRAQI KURDISTAN The Kurdish Question Two Turkish soldiers died in northern Iraq recently. They were fighting in Turkey’s “Claw […]

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION Green Wave For all the talk of right-wing populism in Europe, the real winners of recent elections […]

NEED TO KNOW MALI Race to the Bottom Gunmen on motorcycles recently shot and killed seven people in the remote Malian town […]

NEED TO KNOW INDONESIA Making Space for Hope Filipinos, Cambodians and other Asians have expressed their confidence in strongmen in recent years. […]

NEED TO KNOW INDIA Toilets, Hoes and Hammer Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a disruptor in his first five years […]

NEED TO KNOW GERMANY Sturm und Drang Solomon Michalski became the target of bullies in his school in Berlin when he innocently […]

NEED TO KNOW MADAGASCAR Rolling Up the Shirt Sleeves The East African island of Madagascar has the dubious distinction of suffering the […]

NEED TO KNOW IRELAND The Ties That Break Voters in the Republic of Ireland recently amended their constitution to permit abortion and […]

NEED TO KNOW IRAN The Third Gulf War War could have broken out between Iran and the United States two years ago. […]

NEED TO KNOW EUROPEAN UNION Redefining Local The European Parliament doesn’t get much respect. As CNN reported, many Europeans don’t know its […]

NEED TO KNOW MALAWI Magical Thinking Bon Kalindo, a parliamentary candidate in Malawi, listed the ways albino body parts might be used […]

NEED TO KNOW BELGIUM Wanted: Bold Solutions Riven with divisions that mirror the country’s French and Flemish-speaking regions, Belgian politics have long […]

NEED TO KNOW INDIA Beware All Ye Populists Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ascent to power in India in 2014 was an international […]

NEED TO KNOW AUSTRALIA Agreeing to Agree Down Under is showing the rest of the world how climate change can dominate an […]

NEED TO KNOW NORTHERN IRELAND Time of the Banshees In Irish folklore, the mournful wailing, or “keening,” of the banshee heralds the […]

NEED TO KNOW UKRAINE When Life Imitates Art Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a 41-year-old comedian who played a president on television, beat incumbent President […]

NEED TO KNOW PHILIPPINES Pyrrhus’ Dilemma He’s blamed beautiful women for cases of rape and suggested he should have been the first […]

NEED TO KNOW LITHUANIA The Lingering Shadow Fifteen years ago this month, Lithuania and seven other countries formerly under Soviet control joined […]

NEED TO KNOW LIBYA Game of Zeroes Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar got a shot in the arm when he received US President […]

NEED TO KNOW SOUTH AFRICA The Color of Land Twenty-five years after white-only rule ended in South Africa, race is expected to […]

NEED TO KNOW IRAN Suffer the People Iranian drivers recently lined up at gas stations as rumors flew that fuel rationing would […]

NEED TO KNOW SUDAN Curtain Call In Sudan, it’s the people versus the generals. Since the military overthrew Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir […]

NEED TO KNOW PANAMA The Swamp Along the Canal Laurentino Cortizo is the current front-runner in Panama’s presidential election, set for May […]