by Susan Ruel | 14 May 2025 | Health and Wellness
We seem to be leaping ahead in cancer prevention and treatment. But will that be only for those who can pay? A doctor prepares a cervical exam. (Illustration by News Decoder) Editor’s note: On 9 May, the company Teal Health announced it had gotten approval by...
by Susan Ruel | 18 Jul 2024 | Asia, History, Journalism, News Photography, United States
In 1962 reporters arriving in Vietnam found an increasing U.S. military presence that wasn’t supposed to exist. Reporting what was happening took courage. Associated Press correspondent Peter Arnett, left, marches in column with Vietnamese troops as he covers...
by Susan Ruel | 29 Aug 2023 | Health and Wellness, Science
Revolutionary new cancer treatments are being tested. But to help people everywhere we will need to also revolutionize health care access. A scientist introduces liquid into a test tube at a laboratory in Bilbao, Spain on 23 May 2022. The biopharmaceutical company...
by Susan Ruel | 13 Jul 2022 | Educators' Catalog, Journalism, Media Literacy, Personal Reflections
Marie Colvin started as a journalist writing for a New York trade union. She ended up a war correspondent who changed people’s lives. Medical staff examine Marie Colvin in Colombo’s eye hospital in Sri Lanka, 17 April 2001. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe) A...
Susan Ruel reflects on the life and career of Marie Colvin, an accomplished foreign correspondent killed in Syria in 2012. Colvin reported on major conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, believing someone has to go there and see what is happening. “She always told the stories of the ordinary men and women who bore the consequences of the power struggles and wars waged by political leaders,” Committee to Protect Journalists Executive Director Robert Mahoney said. With more journalists murdered or missing this year than in nearly all of 2021, the rights of journalists in war zones cannot be taken for granted.
Exercise: Ask students to discuss how media coverage of war and conflict zones has evolved and what they think accounts for the increased threat against journalists.
by Susan Ruel | 2 Aug 2021 | Asia, Personal Reflections, Politics, United States
New Yorkers will never forget the attack on our city of 20 years ago. But will Americans remember the lessons of 9/11 and of the war in Afghanistan? Survivors of the attacks in New York, 11 September 2001 (AP Photo/Gulnara Samoilova) Next month will mark 20 years...