News & Features

Libya's Flood Displaced More Than 43,000 People

France 24

The official death toll stands at more than 3,300 – but the eventual count is expected to be far higher, with international aid groups giving estimates of up to 10,000 people missing. "An estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya," the IOM said, adding that a "lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna" to other areas.

Books Replacing Digital Devices in Sweden's Schools

Earle Gale

Lotta Edholm called for the return to traditional learning, with handwriting favored over keyboarding skills and the printed page prized above illuminated screens, after complaints snowballed of graduates who could barely function without devices in front of them. Since schools returned this month, teachers have downplayed the previous emphasis on independent learning and the use of online resources.

Defying Censors: Breaking Bad of the Chinese Language

Peter Chang

Today’s Chinese use vocabulary that are void of the language’s ancestral and intrinsic abstraction. The netizens talk like they have just graduated from a government-sponsored adult literacy night school. The phrases in high volume of circulation are deliberately unrefined. It follows the formula of saying as little as possible and understating it as much as possible but meaning as much as the listeners can conjure.

Are Libraries the Future of News?

Kate Harloe

The larger story here, and the one that these modest collaborative experiments point to, is about democracy — something that only becomes possible when people have access to the knowledge needed to make individual and collective decisions. Too often, the people writing about these topics obscure the true stakes, and ignore the potential offered by the existing cultural infrastructure of libraries, media organizations, schools, and communication systems.

The Global Power of Protest

Angelo Franco

Throughout human history, protest has always held a center-stage role, shaping the narrative with the timbre of collective voice and action. From the rugged cobblestone streets of colonial Boston to the sunbaked squares of Tahrir, the black soil of Selma to the neon-lit expanses of Hong Kong, the power of protest has reverberated through time and across continents, shifting paradigms and confronting the status quo.

After Maui Fires, Human Health Risks Linger

Andrew J. Whelton

Lahaina stretches along Maui’s west coast and has long been a popular site for seeing sea turtles and other marine life. That sea life may now be at risk from pollutants from burned coastal buildings and runoff. The fire burned to the shoreline, destroying boats, docks and other vehicles, some of which sank. Debris and sunken boats will need to be removed from the nearshore waters to protect corals.

The Coup in Niger: Why Resource-Rich Countries Are Poor

Antonio Graceffo

The reality, however, is that the country is now under military rule and the economy will get worse, not better. Supporters of the coup ask how a country, which is rich in uranium, coal, and gold, could be so poor. Many other resource-rich nations are also poor. Venezuela has oil; the Democratic Republic of the Congo has diamonds; and Angola has both oil and diamonds. And yet these countries are all poor.

How Opioids Made the Jump to Mainstream Use

Mark D. Sullivan and Jane C. Ballantyne

In no country other than the United States have prescription opioid misuse, abuse, and death rates reached epidemic proportions. These problems increased in parallel with increased prescribing for chronic pain. More and more pain conditions were being treated with opioids using higher and higher doses. Prescription opioid misuse was called out as an epidemic in 2012, but this was only the first wave of the current opioid epidemic in the United States.

AI Influencers and the Issue of Authenticity

Ariana Powell

Along with AII comes manufactured authenticity, which may deceive followers to invest time, thought, emotion and trust in them. This perception of human personality translates to a form of dependence and vulnerability shared by followers. This vulnerability, however, is not shared person-to-person, but person-to-team-of-tech-people.

I Am Not Alone; Aren’t I Somebody?

Walker Hardy

Trapped in my house in 2020 during the pandemic with everyone else, a reality so shocking I felt like I was forced to feel alone, yet living with family -- this feeling still lingered. I would sit lifeless in my room as my mind rambled into traffic, feeling desperate to have something else other than to wallow in my own thoughts. I started to think of ways I can make being alone easier and more enjoyable. 

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