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Decoder: How does the U.S. Electoral College work?

Decoder: How does the U.S. Electoral College work?

by | 14 Oct 2020 | Decoders, Government, Politics

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....

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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.

A political solution is the only option in war-torn Libya

A political solution is the only option in war-torn Libya

by | 12 Aug 2020 | Africa, African Leadership Academy, Educators' Catalog, Student Posts, Youth Voices

Once ruled with an iron fist by a dictator, oil-rich Libya is now ravaged by war. With foreign powers meddling, a political solution is badly...

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The author, Marouane El Bahraoui, is a Student Ambassador at the African Leadership Academy, a News Decoder partner school. He spent seven months researching Libya, working closely with News Decoder editors to sharpen his focus and add authority to his reporting. What started as an incipient interest in the North African country matured into a nuanced view of a highly complex geopolitical situation. El Bahraoui’s story caught the admiring eye of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, who contacted the young author to chat about Libya and Morocco, El Bahraoui’s home country. “Who thought that a U.S. ambassador would read my article?” El Bahraoui said. This story shows the kind of potent reporting that a determined and curious student in our network can produce for a global audience.

Lebanon explosion hits nation already on its knees

Lebanon explosion hits nation already on its knees

by | 6 Aug 2020 | Educators' Catalog, Middle East

Disaster was awaiting Lebanon, its finances in tatters. Now a huge chemical explosion has compounded the crushing challenges facing the tiny but...

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Students see headlines all day long and have a good sense of the big news events around the world. But when something happens far away, they don’t always understand why it matters to them, because they are young and also because harried real-time news outfits don’t always connect the dots. When a chemical explosion tore through Beirut in August, media organizations around the world flashed photographs, videos and headlines capturing the anguish and destruction. In 900 words, Alistair Lyon goes further, taking readers through Lebanon’s dire circumstances and explaining why it matters to all of us. No region of the world is more complex or more important than the Middle East, and Lyon — a former Middle East diplomatic correspondent for Reuters — offers an exemplary synthesis of the tangled forces at work in the volatile region.