By Abi Simpson Surrounded by “Keep Calm” posters, tea drinkers and all things stereotypically British, you wouldn’t know you were in anything but a quaint little café with a great view, sipping Earl Grey tea. Unless you looked behind you. The crumbling...
(All photographs by Christoph von Toggenburg) By Christoph von Toggenburg I took these photographs on Easter Sunday in late March when I visited various refugee camps right on Lebanon’s border with Syria. The welcome was warm and open. Suddenly, the numbers I...
This story was runner-up in the high school category in News-Decoder’s inaugural essay contest. By Aisha Malhas The flag of Jordan includes a white star with seven points, one for each of the seven hills on which the capital Amman was built. Today those seven...
By Bernd Debusmann America’s millennials, the country’s biggest generation, are falling out of love with capitalism. That is one of the most remarkable findings by Harvard University researchers who recently interviewed more than 3,000 Americans between the ages of 18...
An American student visits the Middle East’s biggest refugee camp for Syrians in Jordan and discovers a restless and generous people. Zaatari Refugee Camp (Photo by Samantha Schmidt) This story, written and illustrated by Samantha Schmidt, was a runner-up in the...
Worries over student loan debt and healthcare costs are driving youth to call for change — and to back Bernie Sanders for the U.S. presidency. At a Bernie Sanders rally in New York, 13 April 2016 (Enrique Shore) Millennials in America do not like the...
This story, written and illustrated by John Cottrell from the Greek island of Lesvos, was a runner-up in the university category in News-Decoder’s inaugural reporting contest. Cottrell visited Lesvos in November 2015. By John Cottrell Travelling across the...
The terror attacks on Paris have prompted the media and nationalist movements to promote fear. To succumb to fear is to play into the hands of the terrorists. “Paix pour Paris,” by Ivy Turinsky, November 20, 2015 This story won first prize in the high school category...
As Hiroshima survivors age and die, the city’s desire to preserve architectural memories of the atomic bomb grows stronger. Fragment of the factory wall, Hiroshima, Japan (Photo by Sarah Neal-Estes) This story won first prize in the university category in...
By Nelson Graves Beware misconceptions about Islam that can mar Western accounts of society and politics in Muslim-majority nations. That was the advice of Jonathan Lyons, an expert on the Islamic world, in a mini-course for students in News-Decoder’s pilot...