Seven Nobel prize winners have worked in a laboratory on Long Island, where scientists from around the world examine the smallest particles. Russian scientist Petr Ilinsky shows an electronic microscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Ilinsky works on the X-Ray...
I recently returned to Kenya to see China’s hand in Africa’s economic development. But does China have the continent’s best interests at heart? A brand-new Chinese-backed cargo train heads from Mombasa to Nairobi, Kenya, 30 May 2017 (AP Photo/Khalil...
After genocide, Rwanda needed a judicial system that fit the violence committed. I discovered a unique court system fostered reconciliation. This is the mother of Olive, one of the Komera scholars now about to finish university. I took this photo during a visit to her...
The African man is in an impossible situation. He is neither the man before colonialism nor a true Westerner. He is lost in a chasm between two worlds. Hawkers sell patriotic merchandise ahead of Ghana’s 50th anniversary of independence, 2 March 2007. Ghana was the...
When former colonizers claim their due, they get repaid. But when Africans do the same, they’re told to forget about the past and look to the future. Supporters of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari celebrate his election win, 27 February 2019 (AP Photo/Sunday...
John Rogers, one of News-Decoder’s correspondents, was a young reporter for Reuters in 1979 when events in Iran changed the face of that country, the Middle East and the world. Rogers witnessed the collapse of the Shah’s royal regime, which crumbled when...
By Deborah Charles Twenty years ago I used to talk to Aung San Suu Kyi over a spotty telephone connection to Yangon from Bangkok, or in person when I managed to get into Myanmar and she was free to accept visitors in the house that served as her prison for 15 years....
With homeless people strewn across cities, young Americans might think the problem is inevitable. But it was not always so — and need not be. Panhandling at subway entrance on “Billionaires’ Row” (57th Street) (Photo by Susan Ruel) NEW YORK – Young people of...
Watching news from Nicaragua, where protests are challenging the authoritarian rule of President Daniel Ortega, I’m transported back exactly 40 years. Anti-government demonstrators take cover behind a barricade in Managua, Nicaragua, 30 May 2018 (AP Photo/Esteban...
It was the best of times and the worst of times. The 1960s stirred so many hopes — utopia was within reach! — only to see many crushed. The lessons? (Photos courtesy of the AP and Wikimedia Commons) This post script ends our series of articles by...