PLEASE NOTE: Daily posting and “Answers” emails have ended and will resume September 6. We hope you have an enjoyable summer!
(For previous posts, go to the Tuesday’s World Events archives page.)

1. For each of the 3 countries, give the following information:

1. capital
2. location/the countries that share its borders
3. the religious breakdown of the population
4. the type of government
5. the chief of state (and head of government if different) If monarch or dictator, since what date has he/she ruled? – include name of heir apparent for monarch
6. the population

Find the answers at the CIA World FactBook website. For each country, answers can be found under the “Geography” “People” and “Government” headings.

NOTE to students: Before answering the questions below, read the information under “Background” and watch the videos under "Resources."

2. For JAPAN:
a) list the who, what, where and when of the news item
b) Who do the police believe are behind the thefts?
c) How did the thieves do it?
d) What steps are police now taking?

3. For VIETNAM:
a) list the who, what, where and when of the news item
b) Why are human rights advocates critical of President Obama’s announcement that he is ending the arms embargo against Vietnam?
c) President Obama insisted the end of the embargo was not tied to China's activities, which have included building military facilities on islands claimed by Vietnam.  Does this insistence make you more or less favorable to the President’s decision to lift the arms embargo? Explain your answer.
d) From the article:

Meanwhile, in the US, some relatives and campaigners want Mr. Obama to focus on another “unfinished business” from the war - the unknown fates of more than 1,600 military servicemen who never returned from the first lost war in the country’s history. They want the president to demand Vietnam’s help in accounting for missing personnel who may have been captured and killed after being shot down during air raids or died during captivity.

Does President Obama have a duty as the commander-in-chief to demand this as a requirement for “normalizing relations” with Vietnam?
e) Ask a parent to answer c) and d) and discuss your answers.

4. For ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN:
a) list the who, what, where and when of the news item
b) What is a ballistic missile?
c) Why should the Obama administration and the UN take strong action against Iran for its recent ballistic missile test?
d) CHALLENGE QUESTION: Why should the Obama administration and the UN take strong action against Iran for its threats to destroy Israel?
e) One of President Obama’s top national security advisers, Ben Rhodes, said in a recent New York Times interview:

• that he led journalists to believe a misleading timeline of U.S. negotiations with Iran over a nuclear agreement and relied on inexperienced reporters to create an “echo chamber” that helped sway public opinion to seal the deal with Iran.
• Rhodes bragged that the administration “largely manufactured” a dishonest narrative about the diplomacy surrounding the Iran nuclear deal—concluded in July 2015 and whose key provisions were implemented in January 2016—in order to win public support for the agreement.
• He said he helped promote a “narrative” that the administration started negotiations with Iran after the supposedly moderate Hassan Rouhani was elected president in 2013. In fact, the administration’s negotiations actually began earlier, with the country’s powerful Islamic faction, and the framework for an agreement was hammered out before Rouhani’s election.
• The distinction is important because of the perception that Rouhani was more favorably disposed toward American interests and more trustworthy than the hard-line faction that holds ultimate power in Iran.

Consider Iran’s actions against U.S. sailors who accidentally sailed into Iranian waters, their recent threats to our longtime ally Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and Ben Rhodes’ revelations about how the Obama administration conducted the nuclear deal negotiations.
What do you think: Is this all part of how foreign diplomacy and negotiations work, or was it wrong to drop economic sanctions against Iran in the hope that they will end their pursuit of nuclear weapons? Explain your answer.