Photography by Tianxiao Xu Presentation and writing by Linus Hoeller North Korea is closed off from the outside world like no other country. It consistently ranks at the very bottom of freedom indices – no free press, no free elections, no freedom of movement, assembly, speech. For three generations, the Kim dynasty has ruled the…
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¡Lea este artículo en Español aquí! Europe has become the epicenter for COVID-19, the respiratory disease sweeping the world and completely uprooting established ways of life in early 2020. In full panic mode and racing to contain the outbreak, most countries have imposed harsh restrictions on movement both within their borders and across them. The…
Few factors have as much of an influence on an incoming undergraduates’ decision of which university to attend as higher education rankings. For many prospective students, prestige and reputation play some of the biggest roles in their college decision. Applying to all Ivy League schools, or all “top 10” or “top 20” schools has become…
By Linus Hoeller Title Image: Documents taken from www.nytimes.com Over one million Uighurs have been placed in high-security re-education facilities by Chinese authorities, the United Nations estimate. A Muslim minority of around ten million people in western China’s Xinjiang province, the Uighurs are the target of a systematic campaign by the central government to re-shape…
650 people were murdered in Chicago alone in the year 2017. At a homicide rate of 24 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, that makes it the US’ 10th most deadly city. Cleveland, Ohio, has nearly 34 homicides over the same number of people, and the people of St. Louis, Missouri, are almost three times as likely…
Several European countries are heading to the polls in the weeks and months to come. With populism on an unprecedented level throughout the continent, these elections are well worth watching. Has Europe reached “peak populism” yet, or will voters cast their ballots in favor of extreme political views in even higher numbers than before? We…
US press freedom is now considered “problematic” according to a key index. Here’s why.
Opinionated essay Children are starving in Yemen. Poverty is skyrocketing in Venezuela. Violence in Afghanistan is showing no sign of stopping. Chances are good that you’ve recently been reminded about these happenings through your Facebook, Reddit, Twitter feeds. Social media is a powerful tool for making stories heard. However, it may be delaying us from…
Thomas Edison is well-known for having had the bright idea of inventing the incandescent light bulb. The year was 1879 when this revolutionary invention was patented, and though it was initially decried by some as solely being a fad of the time, we truly couldn’t live without it today. But while the light bulb gets…
A case study by Linus Höller In 2016, Lima’s population was first estimated to have exceeded 10 million, officially making Peru’s capital a “megacity” and putting it in the same league as cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai and Ciudad de México. However, Lima was never meant to become this big, and certainly wasn’t founded in a convenient place to support…