NEED TO KNOW From Oil to Starbucks While countries in North Africa and the Levant have seen much turmoil since the Arab […]

NEED TO KNOW The Hemorrhage of Souls One year into Europe’s refugee crisis, the continent has come to grips with this immense […]

NEED TO KNOW The Kingdom of Crackdowns The tiny island kingdom of Bahrain has remained relatively stable in a region upended by […]

NEED TO KNOW A Dishonorable Practice Drugged and murdered by her brother for behavior her killer claimed was dishonoring the family and […]

NEED TO KNOW A Sense of Gloom Once a regional power, Egypt is now a shell of its former self. “A sense […]

NEED TO KNOW Of Swimsuits and Terror Want to prevent terrorism? Ban the burkini swimsuit. Or so goes the prevailing wisdom in […]

NEED TO KNOW Gunboat Justice Relations between the United States and Latin America have been rocky for years. Lately, however, they’ve taken […]

NEED TO KNOW The Vision Thing British voters’ decision to leave the European Union in June didn’t technically trigger the formal process […]

NEED TO KNOW The Saddest Microcosm For the past five months, the Yemeni capital of Sana’a has been mostly quiet. Quiet for […]

NEED TO KNOW Venezuela’s Oil Troubles Oil prices may finally be set to rise. But desperate Venezuela won’t gain much from the […]

NEED TO KNOW Israel’s African Handshake Egypt’s Islam El Shehaby was escorted from the mat by loud boos in Rio de Janeiro […]

NEED TO KNOW Terror Bogey Russian President Vladimir Putin’s negotiating style bears some similarity to the old American cliché “Shoot first and […]

NEED TO KNOW Desert Quicksand Since the ouster and later killing of former dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011, Libya has been reeling […]

NEED TO KNOW Thai-style Democracy Thailand looks to be destined for more political violence. After some two years of authoritarian-style order, a […]

NEED TO KNOW Bashir’s Bargain Once upon a time, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was an international pariah – accused of genocide and […]

NEED TO KNOW Poking the Dragon U.S. President Barack Obama’s efforts to prevent conflict in the Far East seem to be ramping […]

NEED TO KNOW Going Missing Malaysia has become notorious for losing things. First, it was Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777 […]

NEED TO KNOW Going Missing Malaysia has become notorious for losing things. First, it was Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, a Boeing 777 […]

NEED TO KNOW Russian Roulette Negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin must feel a bit like Russian roulette. You know there’s a […]

NEED TO KNOW Winter is Coming To paraphrase Game of Thrones, winter may be coming for the country that sparked the Arab […]

NEED TO KNOW Two Steps Back India’s most popular prime minister in decades just pushed through the country’s biggest economic reform since […]

NEED TO KNOW Desperate Times Desperate times call for desperate measures, the saying goes. In Venezuela, those measures provide as good a […]

NEED TO KNOW Losing Faith For the past 22 years, South Africa has been running on faith. Steeped in the lore of […]

NEED TO KNOW A Spectacle of Catastrophe? Rattled by impeachment and corruption scandals, a vicious recession and a public health emergency thanks […]