• Mon-02-2025
Experts encourage efforts to build museum infrastructure within low and middle-income countries (January 31, 2025, Phys.org)

The paper explores the issue in Mongolia where UNM's Museum of Southwestern Biology has been working for 3 decades to help develop science infrastructure that would increase understanding of how environmental change is impacting natural environments and cultural resources.

  • Mon-02-2025
Inside Bhutan’s Plan to Boost Its Economy With ‘Mindful Capitalism’ (January 16, 2025, Time)

Such a transformative influx of foreign cash risks seeding new power centers and patronage networks that could drastically shift the political equilibrium in one of the world’s youngest democracies—not least given that Bhutan sits sandwiched between Asian super-powers India and China. Will large multi-nationals and their employees want to move to a patch of the Himalayan foothills with scant regional connections?

  • Mon-02-2025
Trouble brewing in Tajikistan (November 19, 2024, GIS Reports Online)

Perched high in Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains between Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China and Afghanistan, the Republic of Tajikistan is a place that few people from outside the region have ever visited and many might not even be able to find on a map. Yet, recent events have highlighted significant geopolitical reasons to pay attention to developments within the country.

  • Mon-02-2025
Why Do Housing Prices in Kuwait Keep Going Up? Unveiling the Drivers Behind the Crisis (October 3, 2024, The London School of Economics and Political Science)

In the early 1970s in Kuwait, a Mercedes S-Class would cost KD 5,000, while a 750 sqm plot in Nuzha was slightly higher at KD 8,000 (so 1.6 Mercedes per land). Today, that same plot would cost the equivalent of more than 22 Mercedes. Housing affordability has become a major concern for many families.

  • Mon-02-2025
Meet the woman bringing AI to Mongolia’s nomadic herders (January 24, 2025, CNN)

“I come from a herder community, I still own 300 sheep.” It was a fitting introduction to explain to the audience why she’s so passionate about her work on digital inclusion in Mongolia, a democratic country sandwiched between Russia and China, where about 30% of the 3.5 million inhabitants are nomadic herders.

  • Mon-02-2025
Kim Jong Un’s Emphasis on Chongryon (February 3, 2025, The Diplomat) (Subscription required)

The North Korean leader extends a warm welcome to a visiting group of Korean nationals resident in Japan. The sight of the young boys and girls shedding tears while singing songs of loyalty in front of Kim was widely reported by North Korean media.

  • Mon-02-2025
Alternative wonders: why Yemen’s ancient terraces are a supreme human creation (January 24, 2025, The Guardian)

The soil, treasured for centuries, turns steep Yemini slopes into fertile and productive land. Coffee grown here was served at London’s first coffee house in 1652.

  • Mon-02-2025
Who are the Palestinian Prisoners Freed in the Hostage Agreement (January 30, 2025, American Jewish Committee)

During the first phase of a hostage release agreement with the Hamas terror group, Israel will exchange more than 1,900 Palestinian security prisoners for 33 of the remaining hostages in Gaza over 42 days. Among those released are 737 detainees and security prisoners, some of whom are serving life sentences for murder.

  • Mon-02-2025
When disaster strikes, the world opens WhatsApp (December 11, 2024, Rest of World)

Messaging apps have become indispensable tools for civilians in conflict and disaster zones. The app’s compression algorithm, which in part allows it to function in areas with poor connectivity, makes it particularly useful. Humanitarian organizations use it to coordinate emergency responses; refugees turn to it as a lifeline; and journalists use it to relay reporting from conflict zones.

  • Mon-02-2025
Afghan church grows as humanitarian needs persist (January 30, 2025, Mission Network News)

To be a Christian in Afghanistan is to daily risk your life. Everything faith-related must remain hidden from Taliban hunters, and the cost of discovery is imprisonment or death. Despite this, the church in Afghanistan is one of the fastest growing in the world.