Best World Articles & Videos on the internet • Discoverology

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Read the best world and travel articles from around the internet, or watch the most insightful world videos from platforms like Youtube, Vimeo or leading world publishers like BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, Washington Post and many more.

The Last Days Of John Allen Chau

The Last Days Of John Allen Chau

Crime, Long Reads, Nature, World

In the fall of 2018, the 26-year-old American missionary traveled to a remote speck of sand and jungle in the Indian Ocean, attempting to convert one of the planet’s last uncontacted tribes to Christianity. The islanders killed him, and Chau was pilloried around the world as a deluded Christian supremacist who deserved to die.

The Bizarre Bank Robbery That Shook An Arctic Town

The Bizarre Bank Robbery That Shook An Arctic Town

Crime, Long Reads, World

As one of the northernmost settlements on earth, the Norwegian hamlet of Longyearbyen has become a magnet for adventurous souls looking to start a new life. But when an unsettling crime happened, it brought home a harsh reality: in the modern world, trouble always finds you.

The Brazilian Town Where The American Confederacy Lives On

The Brazilian Town Where The American Confederacy Lives On

Long Reads, World

Confederates who had rejected Reconstruction fled the United States in the wake of the Civil War—a voluntary exile that American history has more or less erased. The Confederados in Americana, Brazil, are one of the last remaining enclaves of the children of the unreconstructed South.

Chaos At The Top Of The World

Chaos At The Top Of The World

Long Reads, Nature, World

It was one of the most arresting viral photos of the year: a horde of climbers clogged atop Mount Everest. But it only begins to capture the deadly realities of what transpired that day at 29,000 feet. These are the untold accounts of the people who were there.

What Happened When A Tiny Nation Got Filthy Rich Overnight

What Happened When A Tiny Nation Got Filthy Rich Overnight

Videos, World

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.

Bashir Sultani

Inspiration
Bashir Sultani
Plane Stowaway: The Man Who Fell From The Sky

Plane Stowaway: The Man Who Fell From The Sky

Crime, Long Reads, World

It was sunny and warm on 30 June as residents in south London finished their lunch and unwound on a leisurely Sunday afternoon. But the peace was shattered in Offerton Road with a terrifying thump. A man occupied a crater in one of the back gardens after falling through the sky for a kilometer.

Why America Doesn’t Win Wars Anymore

Why America Doesn’t Win Wars Anymore

Explainers, Politics, World

Dominic Tierney believes the US can still successfully fight the wars of yesteryear — World War-style conflicts — but hasn’t yet mastered how to win wars against insurgents, which are smaller fights against groups within countries. The problem is the US continues to involve itself in those kinds of fights.

How Rwanda Is Becoming The Singapore Of Africa

How Rwanda Is Becoming The Singapore Of Africa

Economics, Videos, World

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 Expat English Teachers’ Murderous Triangle

The Expat English Teachers’ Murderous Triangle

Cities, Crime, World

His ease with people, his natural charisma — these things made him a vital piece of the underground foreigner scene in Taipei, a key component of the drug culture. But it was a dangerous game that Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan played, a game that can turn even the safest of places into the deadliest of traps. Once he fell into it, there was no charming his way out.

Murder And Manifest Destiny On The Mosquito Coast

Murder And Manifest Destiny On The Mosquito Coast

Long Reads, World

In 1999, a mysterious Greek entrepreneur bought and resold a series of tiny islands off the coast of Nicaragua, setting off a bizarre and tragic chain of events that included a reality-TV sensation and allegations of an insidious murder plot. The ensuing chaos brought to light a centuries-old question: Who does land really belong to?

The Jungle Prince Of Delhi

The Jungle Prince Of Delhi

Long Reads, Politics, World

For 40 years, journalists chronicled the eccentric royal family of Oudh, deposed aristocrats who lived in a ruined palace in the Indian capital. It was a tragic, astonishing story. But was it true?

Nikolay Schegolev

Inspiration
Nikolay Schegolev
The True Story Of The White Island Eruption

The True Story Of The White Island Eruption

Long Reads, World

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.

A Trip To The Cirque Of The Unclimbables

A Trip To The Cirque Of The Unclimbables

Long Reads, World

It’s among the most beautiful eyefuls of landscape I’ve ever seen — its rock walls more overpowering than Zion’s, in Utah, its evening light more perfect than Hawaii’s, its peaks more menacing than Denali, and its stillness more complete than the deep rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula.

Why The French Don’t Show Excitement

Why The French Don’t Show Excitement

World

Not only is ‘Je suis excité’ not the appropriate way to convey excitement, but there seems to be no real way to express it at all. “The French don’t appreciate in conversation a kind of positive, sunny exuberance that’s really typical of Americans”

Building Egypt's $58BN New City In The Sand

Building Egypt's $58BN New City In The Sand

Architecture, Crime, Videos, World

Following a period of political instability that affected the progression of infrastructure projects, the country’s government took the decision to construct an entirely new capital in 2015. Located 45 kilometers east of the original Cairo, the as-yet-unnamed city has been under construction ever since.

How Earth Would Look If All The Ice Melted

How Earth Would Look If All The Ice Melted

Nature, Videos, World

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.

Is The Hidden Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia Ready To Open To The World?

Is The Hidden Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia Ready To Open To The World?

Videos, World

The ‘hidden kingdom’ of Saudi Arabia has been mostly closed to journalists and travelers…until now. In a glitzy PR push, the country wants to promote itself as a tourist destination. Foreign Correspondent rides the magic carpet to extraordinary sites, thousands of years old, holding mysteries archaeologists are just beginning to uncover.

Michael Crichton

Inspiration
Michael Crichton
Kiribati: A Drowning Paradise In The South Pacific

Kiribati: A Drowning Paradise In The South Pacific

Nature, Videos, World

UN estimates indicate that Kiribati could disappear in just 30 or 40 years. That’s because the average elevation is less than two meters above sea level. And some of the knock-on effects of climate change have made the situation more difficult.

Africa’s Richest Man Makes A $17 Billion Bid For Immortality

Africa’s Richest Man Makes A $17 Billion Bid For Immortality

Business, World

Aliko Dangote’s plan to reduce Nigeria’s dependency on fuel imports will carve out an even bigger slice of the nation’s $376 billion economy for his empire. Dangote’s future—and, as he likes to say, that of the entire continent’s economy—lies to the south on the Nigerian coast: the construction of a vast oil refinery.

Donald Trump’s Worst Deal

Donald Trump’s Worst Deal

Long Reads, Politics, World

The President helped build a hotel in Azerbaijan that appears to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Trump Tower Baku never opened.

Wild Juxtapositions Of Saudi Arabia Modern And Ancient

Wild Juxtapositions Of Saudi Arabia Modern And Ancient

Architecture, Photos, World

Few countries in history have experienced as sudden a transformation as Saudi Arabia. The discovery and exploitation of oil brought an unprecedented influx of wealth. Photographer Peter Bogaczewicz captures the past and present of the oil-rich kingdom as it undergoes dramatic transformation.

Behind The Walls Of Brazil's Secretive Gated Communities

Behind The Walls Of Brazil's Secretive Gated Communities

Photos, World

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.

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