What Happened When A Tiny Nation Got Filthy Rich Overnight
Nauru, an island in the South Pacific, is known for its high rate of poverty and unemployment. Only a few decades ago, the island was listed among world’s richest countries while it was a major phosphate exporter but as the resources exhausted, the national systems started to fail.
Behind The Walls Of Brazil’s Secretive Gated Communities
Photographer Giovana Schluter grew up uneasy in one of Brazil’s many private neighbourhoods – artificial worlds built for the middle classes. So years later, she returned to a manufactured enclave just like the one of her youth, hoping to get to the heart of their emptiness.
Hagia Sophia: Church Of Divine Wisdom And Subject Of Global Dispute
Hagia Sophia has been the ‘apple of discord’ between the Greeks and the Turks, the ‘east’ and the ‘west’ for 567 years, but as history likes to repeat itself we are now witnessing a revival of this old dispute. A museum has been converted to a mosque.
The Economy Of Italy, Has The Luck All Run Out?
Once the seat of the roman empire, it is now home to a surprisingly robust yet temperamental economy. The economy of Italy followed a path very similar to that of Germany’s all be it with a little more flamboyancy which has found them where they are today.
Why Are Millions Of Chinese Kids Parenting Themselves?
Generations of Wang Ying’s family farmed the misty mountains of Liangshan, one of China’s poorest regions. But now, the 14-year-old girl lives on her own as the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings. They are among an estimated 9 million “left-behind children” raising themselves in the Chinese countryside.
Is An Island Off Cuba The Last Surviving Piece Of East Germany?
The Unification Treaty signed in August 1990 re-Germanied the Germanies, and that West Germany (now known as “Germany”) inherited East Germany’s territories. But there may have been a tiny oversight. Turns out, there could still be a sliver of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik remaining in the Caribbean, just west of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs.
Banksy Crashes The Venice Art Biennale With Unlicensed Street Stall
A minute-long video documents a concealed man setting up a tableau of framed oil paintings on the streets of the Italian city. When assembled, the group of images depicts the ever-controversial cruise ships that dwarf Venice’s spectacular cityscape as they make their way past the grand canal.
Where Hollywood Shoots All Its Plane Scenes
Many of the most iconic plane and airport scenes were filmed in the same place — Air Hollywood, the LA production studio entirely dedicated to aviation. The studio has three full aircraft interiors and an airport terminal set that’s reconfigurable into any part of the air travel experience.
“Ten Meter Tower”, Award-Winning Doc About Fear
To jump or not to jump? The premise at the heart of Axel Danielson and Maximilien van Aertryck’s “Ten Meter Tower” might seem simple, but the award-winning documentary is a deceivingly smart portrait of human behavior in the face of fear.
When The Sahara Was Green
The climate of the Sahara was completely different thousands of years ago. And we’re not talking about just a few years of extra rain. We’re talking about a climate that was so wet for so long that animals and humans alike made themselves at home in the middle of the Sahara.
Blood And Soil In Narendra Modi’s India
The Prime Minister’s Hindu-nationalist government has cast two hundred million Muslims as internal enemies. The lack of journalistic scrutiny has given Modi immense freedom to control the narrative. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the months leading up to his reëlection.
Is Big Tech Good For Your Health?
Health care is in the midst of a digital revolution and it is generating an ocean of data. Tech giants including Google and Microsoft want to work with hospitals and health-care systems to improve lives. But should people trust them with their medical data?
Small Cities, Big Challenges
From building in a crowded capital threatened by rising sea levels to creating modern housing alongside historic landmarks, this is how small cities around the world are overcoming some remarkable challenges.
The Love Story That Shocked The World
When Seretse Khama, an African prince, and Ruth Williams, a white middle-class clerk from Lloyd’s underwriters, got married in 1948, it provoked shock in Britain and Africa. Khama was exiled from Great Britain and later became the first president of Botswana when it became an independent country.
How Rwanda Is Becoming The Singapore Of Africa
Rwanda is now the 15th fastest growing economy in the world as its government has set out a clearly defined mission—they want to become the Singapore of Africa. To understand what this means, though, you have to understand what Singapore is.
“The Jigsaw”, Award-Winning Horror Short Film
The purchase of a mystery Jigsaw Puzzle from a strange and unsettling vendor leads a man to an evening of frightening consequences. “The Jigsaw” is a short horror film that won over 30 awards worldwide.
How Earth Would Look If All The Ice Melted
As National Geographic showed us, sea levels would rise by 216 feet if all the land ice on the planet were to melt. This would dramatically reshape the continents and drown many of the world’s major cities.
Yemen’s Deadly Ghost Ship
Five miles off the coast of Yemen lies a floating bomb. An oil storage vessel called the FSO Safer has been sitting more or less unattended in the Red Sea for half a decade. The abandoned oil tanker with over a million barrels of oil on board is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen.
Photos Of Leningrad (St Petersburg) In The Early 1960s
St Petersburg is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is Russia’s second-largest city after Moscow. These fascinating color photos captured street scenes of Leningrad (St Petersburg) in 1961.
The Remote ‘Democratic’ Oasis Of Soviet Russia
The academic town of Akademgorodok in Siberia was created by Russian mathematician Mikhaïl Alekseïevitch Lavrentiev, who wanted to install a safe haven for scientists in the middle of Siberia. Such isolation from Moscow created a fertile scientific and cultural nest away from the influence of the State and its politics.
Japan’s Yakuza: Inside The Syndicate
With at least 50,000 members, Japan’s Yakuza gangs form one of the world’s largest criminal networks. Anton Kusters, a Belgian photographer, was allowed a rare glimpse inside a Yakuza family in early 2009. He documented the family for two years.