Every region has events that will either negatively or positively affect any number of aspects within it, and News Reports provide a brief overview of the overall situation in any region with GEO agents. It is generally wise to look at them, they give summaries of why problem X is happening, congratulate you on doing something right, or give you a humorous view of how the "public" see your actions such as gene plagues or how the new election turned out with the green party winning by a landslide (regime change)