At next month’s climate summit in Egypt, poorer nations coping with disasters will press wealthier states for a fund to help them ride out catastrophes. Women carry belongings from their flooded home in the Qambar Shahdadkot district of Sindh Province of...
For years, governments have engaged in marathon annual talks to try to end global warming. But they often fall frustratingly short. Egypt will host COP27 in November at the Red Sea coastal resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Rising sea levels caused by climate change are...
Russia’s president has raised the prospect of using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. That’s a frightful notion. But it might not violate international law. Russian RS-24 Yars ballistic missiles in Red Square during the Victory Day military parade in Moscow,...
Canada lives in the shadow of its superpower neighbor. But it’s the U.S.’s biggest trading partner and admits many immigrants. Canada matters. Canadian dollars are called “loonies.” (AP Photo/JONATHAN HAYWARD, Canadian Press) Polite, quick to...
Alternately revered and vilified, Mikhail Gorbachev shaped history as the last Soviet leader. Our correspondents recall his impact and legacy. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev waves during a military parade marking the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, Red...
At a time of sharp division between the West and Russia, News Decoder remembers an era when another intractable divide was bridged. At the height of the Cold War, two adversaries, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, forged an agreement to reduce nuclear arms. Alternately revered and vilified, Gorbachev shaped history as the last Soviet leader and the one whose decisions helped lift the Iron Curtain. To mark Gorbachev’s death, News Decoder correspondents who covered the collapse of the Soviet Union examine how the former Soviet leader’s legacy has evolved over time.
Exercise: Gorbachev left an ambiguous legacy. He is heralded in much of the West but viewed less favorably in Russia. Can your student’s identify other historical or contemporary figures who are viewed in a contradictory way? What’s at the root of such contradictory perspectives?