Inside Belarus, Europe’s Last Dictatorship
In October 2016, Alexander Lukashenko swept to his fifth term as the Belarusian president, marking 22 years in power. The autocratic regime still employs the use of internet surveillance, censorship, and intimidation to exert control over its people and press.
This Is What The Earth’s Climate Will Look Like In 2050
We know that Earth will continue to warm. We know that the adverse impacts of climate change are disproportionately larger as we go to higher temperatures and that the risk of irreversible and disastrous changes increases. We know that sea levels will continue to rise and that melting of ice caps will continue.
Iran’s Economy Could Be Huge, But They Don’t Care
What has prevented Iran, teeming with natural resources and a young, educated population, from becoming a world-leading economy? How did it go from rapid growth to economic failure, and why is it still unable to fulfil it’s potential?
The Economist With A Radical Plan To Solve Wealth Inequality
Thomas Piketty’s 753-page book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century”, published in 2013, sold 2.5 million copies worldwide and helped put inequality on the global agenda. But his latest, the even thicker “Capital and Ideology”, may prove still more influential.
The People’s NSA
Meet the hackers who are working with investigative journalists to expose organized crime and corruption by some of the world’s most sinister governments. Those governments are going to great lengths to shut down investigative reporting through cyber attacks and other intimidation tactics.
“The Paper Boy”, An Award-Winning Touching Short Film
The City of Joy is that melting pot where dreams are served everyday freshly cooked. This is a tale of a little boy whose world revolves around the by-lanes of old Calcutta where he delivers the latest headlines and then spends the rest of his day simmering dreams at a tiny tea stall.
How To Optimize Your Life
You’ve only got — on average — 78.53 years on this planet, total. And you’re likely already spending a precious 5 hours each day on email, not to mention the time spent waiting in line or stuck in transit. But what if there were ways to make more time out of time?
I Was a Chinese Helpline’s Number One Caller. I Had a Problem.
“Thank-you-for-calling-the-Shanghai-Call-Center-how-can-I-help-you?” The “magic number” helped foreigners like me get by without learning the language. But I didn’t feel at home in China until I finally hung up the phone.
The True Story Of The White Island Eruption
In December 2019, around 100 tourists set out for New Zealand’s Whakaari/White Island, where an active volcano has attracted hundreds of thousands of vacationers since the early 1990s. Then the volcano exploded. What happened next reveals troubling questions about the risks we’re willing to take when lives hang in the balance.
The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire
Michael Oswald’s film The Spider’s Web reveals how at the demise of empire, City of London financial interests created a web of secrecy jurisdictions that captured wealth from across the globe and hid it in a web of offshore islands. Today, up to half of global offshore wealth is hidden in British jurisdictions.
What’s It Like To Be Among The First To Motorbike In Jordan?
Riding along the Desert Highway, northwest of the famed Wadi Rum on a large-bore, high-powered motorcycle was a joy afforded only by Jordanian royalty for nearly four decades.
At War With The Thruth
A confidential trove of government documents obtained by The Washington Post reveals that senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan throughout the 18-year campaign, making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable.
They Tried To Save The Lives Of Immigrants Fleeing Danger. Now They’re Facing Prosecution.
On the afternoon of Jan. 17, 2018, immigration agents descended on a building on the outskirts of Ajo known to be a staging area for aid workers. The agents bundled Scott Warren, an aid worker, into a vehicle and drove to the Ajo Border Patrol station. The next day, he was driven two hours to Tucson, where he was charged with three felony counts.
We Are Living In A Failed State
When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly. Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms.
Lucie Rox’s New Zine Captures The Quiet, Soft Side Of Life In Japan
SIGNS, a new zine of pictures taken in Japan from Paris-born photographer Lucie Rox, is about the joy of exploring new places. It’s a series that encapsulates the feeling of traveling and “being taken by the novelty of the streets, objects and people living their everyday life in front you.”
“Balloonfest”, The Spectacle That Became A Tragedy
In September 1986, the city of Cleveland attempted to set a special record: the simultaneous launch of 1.5 million balloons. But fate intervened, and the result was both crazier and more tragic than anyone could have imagined.
Could Vertical Forests Improve Our Health?
A UN ‘World Cities’ report in 2016 predicted that two-thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2030. Could buildings like Bosco Verticale in Milan help tackle pollution and improve people’s health?
David Altrath Photographs The Spectacular Stockholm Metro
German photographer David Altrath unveils the majestic underground tunnels and their stunning architectural and artistic detail that feature in Stockholm’s underground in his latest series, simply titled Metro.
Thailand: Turning Straw Into Gold
Huge amounts of rice straw are left over after the harvest in Thailand. Farmers often burn it, which is terrible for the environment. A young entrepreneur has found a new use for the material. Turned into paper, it can replace plastic food packaging.
Why We Shouldn’t Bail Out The Airlines And Cruise Companies
Despite the obvious vulnerability of the sector, boards/CEOs of the six largest airlines have spent 96% of their free cash flow on share buybacks, bolstering the share price and compensation of management… who now want a bailout. They should be allowed to fail.
Timelapse Of The Future: A Journey To The End Of Time
How’s it all gonna end? This experience takes us on a journey to the end of time, trillions of years into the future, to discover what the fate of our planet and our universe may ultimately be.