I joined protests against police brutality in my home country of Nigeria and saw them almost become a war, then a rude awakening for youth. Protesters in Umuahia, Nigeria, October 2020 (All photos courtesy of Eje Studios) This story was a runner-up in News...
Joy Chinaza takes us into the streets of Nigeria to join young people protesting against police brutality. Like youth elsewhere this year, she is driven by anger over rights abuses perpetrated by police charged with protecting civilians but who instead turn weapons against minorities. A shared sense of injustice motivates Chinaza and millions of others around the globe, making her story a metaphor for youthful outrage. But the personal details in the tale by the African Leadership Academy student, including the beating her own brother suffers, add poignancy that sets her account apart. Make sure students note how the first-person pronoun draws them into the story. And how her outrage — so common among youth — is tinged with ambiguity at the end.
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...
Joe Biden and I grew up in the same city. He was upright in school and on the playground. He’ll be a caring leader as U.S. president. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden visiting his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 23 October 2019 (Jason Farmer/The...
A lot of ink has been spilled about Joe Biden’s background, but how many authors played sandlot baseball with the U.S. President-elect? News Decoder correspondent Gene Gibbons covered six presidents while at Reuters, but he grew up with Biden, and his reminiscences of their upbringing in Pennsylvania capture key qualities of the next U.S. leader. It’s the details — the nicknames the schoolmarm gave her students, Biden’s phone call to the same teacher — that enliven the story. Without hyperbole or boasting, Gibbons tells a story that packs a punch and highlights Biden’s journey from a vacant lot — “mostly dirt and cinders” — to the White House.
In 2016, students from a U.S. school near Mexico worried about Donald Trump. Today, one of the youths and their ex-teacher find hope in Joe Biden. Gabriella Rivas and Charlotte Parker in 2016 Gabriella Rivas in 2020 In 2016, after Donald Trump was elected U.S....
What makes a global leader? What traits does a leader need to succeed? Does U.S. President-elect Joe Biden have what it takes? U.S. President-elect Joe Biden (R) and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in Wilmington, Delaware, 7 November 2020 (EPA-EFE/JIM LO SCALZO)...
Youth in Nigeria, angry over police brutality, have formed a movement that started with street protests and which some see as a potential political force. Youth protest against Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos, Nigeria, 9 October 2020....
Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election is cause for celebration. But it’s also time for America to heal its deep divisions. A Biden supporter hugs a Trump supporter after an impromptu debate between members of both political...
For years, Ivory Coast has been split politically and at times torn by outbursts of violence. Youth are working for peace in the West African nation. Voters at a polling station during the first round of Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election in Abidjan, 31...
Ivory Coast has a complex political story, but Adayé Sosthène Yvan N’guettia keeps it simple in his story about youth working for peace in the West African nation. Many young people are upset over the state of the world that they will inherit, but N’guettia shows initiative by interviewing three activists toiling for change in Côte d’Ivoire. He listens and offers telling quotes, using a deft hand to drive home his message. Growing up is about discovering the world, and some students — N’guettia among them — see the challenge as a learning adventure. Ask your class to read N’guettia’s story, interview three activists and, using the activists’ words, summarize what they’ve learned.
Two savvy Africans urge frustrated youth activists to drive political change by holding officials to their word and harnessing innovative ideas and words. Are you a young person yearning for change and a better world? Do you feel that global leaders are not listening...
There were huge hopes for democracy at the end of the Cold War. But the West has squandered its leadership, leaving the world rudderless. A Muscovite woman leaves a food store with empty shelves in downtown Moscow, 28 October 1991. (AP Photo/Yuri Romanov) Below are...