No, you cannot avoid triggering your opponent's event when playing their card for Operations points. According to the rules, when you play a card associated with your opponent's superpower, the event automatically occurs even if you're using the card for Operations points. The rules state in section 5.2 that there are special effects "for playing cards whose Events are associated with your opponent's superpower," indicating that opponent events will trigger regardless of how you choose to play the card.

According to the rules, when cards with an asterisk following their Event title are played as Events, they are removed permanently from the game. This means these cards do not go to the discard pile like regular cards - they are taken out of the game entirely and will not be reshuffled back into the deck later.

No, you cannot place influence in the United States or Soviet Union spaces on the map. According to the rules, these two spaces "are out of play for Influence Markers." However, they do provide the same benefits as "adjacent controlled countries" for the purposes of events and realignments.

To take control of a country from you, your opponent must meet both control requirements: 1. Have influence points greater than or equal to the country's Stability Number, AND 2. Have at least the Stability Number MORE influence points than you have in that country. So your opponent needs to beat your total influence by at least the Stability Number - simply matching the Stability Number is not enough. For example, if you have 5 influence in Israel (Stability 4), your opponent would need at least 9 influence (4 for the Stability Number + at least 4 more than your 5) to take control.

Yes, Scoring cards must be played during the turn they are drawn. According to the rules, Scoring cards "must be played sometime during the turn they are drawn" - you cannot hold them in your hand for future turns.

Yes, when events refer to 'Europe' or 'Asia', they include the associated sub-regions. According to rule 2.1.2, "Any event, rule, action, or card that refers to 'Europe' or 'Asia' includes the associated sub-regions." This means Europe includes both Eastern Europe and Western Europe, and Asia includes Southeast Asia.

According to the rules, brown lines represent connections within a region, while red dashed lines represent connections between countries in different regions. Both types of connections make countries adjacent to each other for game purposes, but brown lines connect countries that are in the same geographical region (like two countries both in Europe), whereas red dashed lines connect countries that are in different regions (like a connection between a European country and an Asian country).

Based on the rules, underlined event cards work differently from regular events in that they are displayed face-up on the side of the game board when played and remain there until they are cancelled (or the game ends). Regular events are simply resolved and then discarded. The rules also note that players may use numbered card reminder markers to help track these active underlined events on the board.