Around the world, microbes are outsmarting drugs. If antibiotics against disease don’t work, bacteria could end up killing more people than COVID-19. A girl suspected of suffering from drug-resistant typhoid receives medical treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad,...
COVID-19 has upended the lives of billions of people, and for many, the end is not yet in sight. But in her thoroughly researched article, News Decoder correspondent Sarah Edmonds looks beyond the pandemic at an insidious epidemic that could, over time, kill many more people than COVID-19 ever will. The topic has a complicated name — antimicrobial resistance (AMR) — but Edmonds explains it in simple terms and demonstrates why all of us need to be concerned about AMR. Edmonds’s article, which is supported by interviews with top scientists, is not all gloom and doom. It makes the case that COVID-19 may make governments more prone to act in time to arrest AMR. Edmonds’s article is essential reading for anyone new to the important topic of AMR. Assign it and ask your students to identify lessons that can be drawn from COVID-19 to help the world in the future.
COVID-19 is not the world’s first pandemic, but the rush to develop vaccines for the disease is unusual for its speed and the big money for Big Pharma. A syringe in front of the logos of pharmaceutical companies that have developed COVID-19 vaccines, 29 January...
Does a battle over GameStop shares that has pitted defiant online investors against big Wall Street firms mean we’re in a stock market bubble? GameStop logo and stock market symbols, 29 January 2021 (AP/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2021) There’s been a lot of news lately...
They are far smaller than a human hair. But microplastics have been found in newborn babies and pose a growing threat to humans’ health. A researcher displays a piece of polystyrene foam found in a thick liquid made up of sea water, diatom phytoplankton and...
A military conflict has broken out in Ethiopia, raising fears of instability and a humanitarian crisis in the strategic Horn of Africa. Tigray refugees in eastern Sudan, 22 November 2020 (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) A military conflict in northern Ethiopia has raised...
Your students may have noticed news stories about Ethiopia of late. But most accounts skip the background and context that enable young people to understand why conflict there matters to them. Barry Moody, one of News Decoder’s most experienced correspondents, explains how fighting between federal forces and rebels is raising fears of a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s most strategic regions. Can your students think of other repressive regimes that, when overthrown, yielded chaos and conflict? Led by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ethiopia is a cautionary tale for those seeking quick, democratic reforms in ethnically diverse countries.
Once again, polls forecasting the outcome of a U.S. election were way off target. Why are pollsters so often wrong? Can polls be made more accurate? A 1947 survey for the Gallup Poll at the University of Iowa library in Iowa City, Iowa, 11 December 2012 (AP Photo/Ryan...
Without a push to protect nature, Earth faces the worst extinction crisis since dinosaurs were wiped out. A summit next year offers a dwindling chance. Birds fly past a smoking factory chimney in Ludwigshafen, Germany, 4 December 2018 (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Among...
Alister’s Doyle tour d’horizon of the state of biodiversity draws on years of study and probes a range of primary sources. His article is a lesson in how to pack a mass of material into a tidy, readable story that eschews jargon. Doyle’s article keeps its sight on the future: the challenges, the stakes and the calendar. This decoder is an invitation to take stock of our countries’ commitments to preserving our planet, and offers numerous entry points for classroom discussion of issues that will define students’ future.
On any day, the stock market can go up or down. But in the long run, a young person cannot afford to ignore the chance to invest in company shares. The effect of compound interest, with an initial investment of $1,000 and 20% annual interest, compounded at various...
Alan Wheatley’s article on stock markets touches on concepts of tremendous long-term importance to young people, such as compounded interest and interest rates. Wheatley has decades of experience covering international finance, and it shows as he connects investing fundamentals with economic growth and the current U.S. political situation. The article finishes with questions that can be taken up in a wide range of classrooms: Who would be better for stock markets — Trump or Biden? If you have $1,000, should you spend or save it? And why is Wall Street near a record high during the coronavirus pandemic? With Wheatley explaining matters, there’s no reason why economics should be “the dismal science”!
A candidate can win the U.S. presidency without winning the most votes. Americans don’t like the Electoral College, but it seems here to stay. Senate pages carry presidential electoral ballots to a joint session of Congress, Washington, DC, 6 January 2017....
To understand our world of today, students need to know where we came from. But history in a vacuum can be a turnoff if it’s not connected to current events. Bernd Debusmann’s decoder offers a historical look at the curious institution of the U.S. Electoral College, while connecting the dots to today’s political events in that country. The article links to documents that open the door to further study and poses three questions at the end that are fodder for classroom discussion.
They are the world’s two most powerful economies, deeply interlocked. But China and the U.S. are increasingly at odds — with vast implications. A Taiwanese Air Force fighter in the foreground flies on the flank of a Chinese bomber as they pass near Taiwan, 10...
The relationship between China and the United States will have a profound impact on the lives of today’s students. In his examination of the bilateral relationship, Jim Wolf reviews the fraught history between China and the West, and looks at the two nations’ current leaders and how their agendas are radically at odds. Wolf eschews the bias that can creep into reporting on China by Western correspondents. This tour d’horizon offers students a starting point for deeper examination of the forces — economic, military, geographic, political — that will shape the world they will inherit.
