What You Need Know Today

Restarting of Osprey flights triggers protest from residents in Okinawa

(Mainichi Japan)

GINOWAN, Okinawa -- The U.S. military controversially resumed flights of its transport aircraft Osprey on Dec. 19 -- just six days after an Osprey crash-landed just off the coast of Okinawa on Dec. 13. The move has been met with anger from local residents, who have demanded that the causes of the Osprey crash be determined before Osprey aircraft are allowed to fly again.

WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA SHOULD HAVE SAID AT HIS LAST PRESS CONFERENCE

Mattathias Schwartz

OBAMA: Good afternoon, everybody. What a year, right? Just last night, I tried to sign on to Twitter to wish everyone a happy holiday, but Michelle wouldn’t give me my password. She said it embarrassed her when no one retweets my jokes. I guess I’m just too boring.

How North Korean magazines accidentally subverted the USSR

Former readers recall how blatant propaganda in publications available across the Soviet Union contributed to the backlash against communism, NK News reports

Benjamin Young for NK News, part of the North Korea network ​

In the dying decade of the USSR, people became increasingly frustrated with the inefficiency of the Soviet system and their inability to get their hands on much-coveted western goods.

A 12-year-old in Germany tried to bomb a Christmas market. How do we talk about that?

Police said the boy acted on instructions from a member of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. But some say invocations of national-security threats may play into problems behind the incident.

DECEMBER 16, 2016 —A 12-year-old boy from the German town of Rhineland-Palatinate is suspected of trying to detonate a homemade combustible on two separate occasions at the behest of an Islamic State member, as investigators told German media.

Rohingya abuse may be crimes against humanity: Amnesty

Rights group says Myanmar army targets civilians in "systematic campaign of violence" as ASEAN discusses the issue.

Military actions against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority may amount to crimes against humanity, Amnesty International said, as the government called a meeting of regional leaders to discuss the issue.


The winning of the Nobel Peace Prize by Aung San Suu Kyi hasn't meant much to the Rohingya Muslims living in western Myanmar who've been persecuted for decades by the government