by Bernd Debusmann | 21 Jun 2021 | Decoders, Economy, Educators' Catalog, Immigration, World
The world’s population is aging. How are we to pay for the pensions and healthcare of a burgeoning number of elderly? Elderly exercise with wooden dumbbells in Tokyo, Japan, 16 September 2019. (EPA-EFE/FRANCK ROBICHON) Call it baby bust and oldster boom — two...
Population growth has long been seen as a threat to humanity, and government efforts to limit births have either failed (India) or led to imbalances and inequities (China). Bernd Debusmann takes a look at the problems that a slowing rate in population growth poses for societies — problems that younger generations will need to manage in coming decades. Global aging will require tough decisions so societies can support the elderly — decisions your students will be asked to make.
Exercise: Ask your students to examine their country’s demographic trends and to compare its policies with those pursued by nations with a similar demographic outlook.
by Paul Radford | 15 Jun 2021 | Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Eyewitness, Sport, World
Dogged by corruption and politics, the Olympic Games may seem outmoded. But their ideals survive, and the Games motivate athletes and excite fans. Greek actress Xanthi Georgiou lights the Olympic Torch, Athens, Greece, 19 March 2020. (EPA-EFE/ARIS MESSINIS / POOL)...
Paul Radford has covered 17 Olympic Games, and he displays his vast experience in this “decoder” that shows why the global sporting event still matters. Radford acknowledges the scandals and politics that have tarnished the image of the modern Games and made skeptics of many fans, while examining the high ideals that led to their creation. Like the Games, youth today are torn between idealism and skepticism born of frustration with their elders’ inability to resolve the world’s biggest problems. As Radford writes, it’s a tricky balance between idealism and skepticism.
Exercise: Organize a debate in class on the resolution, “The Olympic Games Should Be Abolished”.
by Tom Heneghan | 2 Jun 2021 | Decoders, World
Pope Francis is pushing a tricky reform drive, called “synodality,” that puts ordinary people at the core of the hierarchical Catholic Church. Pope Francis waves as he arrives at a vigil before World Youth Day in Panama City, Panama, 26 January 2019....
by Jeremy Solomons | 13 Apr 2021 | Decoders, Human Rights, Personal Reflections, World
I was taught that Modern Colonialism was a force for global good. Later I learned it was a system of exploitation, oppression and enslavement. World empires and colonies in 1914, just before World War One (Wikimedia Commons). As the leaders of the Commonwealth of...
by Ben Barber | 9 Apr 2021 | Asia, Conflict, Decoders, Human Rights, Joe Biden, Terrorism
The U.S. wants to end its longest war and withdraw from Afghanistan—called by some the graveyard of empires. But a May 1 deadline looks uncertain. U.S. military carry the casket of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, Dover, Delaware, 12 June 2017. (EPA-EFE/SCOTT SERIO)...
by Sarah Edmonds | 10 Mar 2021 | Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Health and Wellness, World
Around the world, microbes are outsmarting drugs. If antibiotics against disease don’t work, bacteria could end up killing more people than COVID-19. A girl suspected of suffering from drug-resistant typhoid receives medical treatment at a hospital in Hyderabad,...
COVID-19 has upended the lives of billions of people, and for many, the end is not yet in sight. But in her thoroughly researched article, News Decoder correspondent Sarah Edmonds looks beyond the pandemic at an insidious epidemic that could, over time, kill many more people than COVID-19 ever will. The topic has a complicated name — antimicrobial resistance (AMR) — but Edmonds explains it in simple terms and demonstrates why all of us need to be concerned about AMR. Edmonds’s article, which is supported by interviews with top scientists, is not all gloom and doom. It makes the case that COVID-19 may make governments more prone to act in time to arrest AMR. Edmonds’s article is essential reading for anyone new to the important topic of AMR. Assign it and ask your students to identify lessons that can be drawn from COVID-19 to help the world in the future.
by Colin McIntyre | 8 Mar 2021 | Decoders, Health and Wellness, World
COVID-19 is not the world’s first pandemic, but the rush to develop vaccines for the disease is unusual for its speed and the big money for Big Pharma. A syringe in front of the logos of pharmaceutical companies that have developed COVID-19 vaccines, 29 January...
by Betty Wong | 3 Mar 2021 | Decoders, Economy, World
Does a battle over GameStop shares that has pitted defiant online investors against big Wall Street firms mean we’re in a stock market bubble? GameStop logo and stock market symbols, 29 January 2021 (AP/STRF/STAR MAX/IPx 2021) There’s been a lot of news lately...
by Nazanin Meshkat | 12 Feb 2021 | Decoders, Environment, Health and Wellness, University of Toronto Journalism Fellows
They are far smaller than a human hair. But microplastics have been found in newborn babies and pose a growing threat to humans’ health. A researcher displays a piece of polystyrene foam found in a thick liquid made up of sea water, diatom phytoplankton and...
by Barry Moody | 1 Dec 2020 | Africa, Conflict, Decoders, Educators' Catalog
A military conflict has broken out in Ethiopia, raising fears of instability and a humanitarian crisis in the strategic Horn of Africa. Tigray refugees in eastern Sudan, 22 November 2020 (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty) A military conflict in northern Ethiopia has raised...
Your students may have noticed news stories about Ethiopia of late. But most accounts skip the background and context that enable young people to understand why conflict there matters to them. Barry Moody, one of News Decoder’s most experienced correspondents, explains how fighting between federal forces and rebels is raising fears of a humanitarian crisis in one of the world’s most strategic regions. Can your students think of other repressive regimes that, when overthrown, yielded chaos and conflict? Led by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ethiopia is a cautionary tale for those seeking quick, democratic reforms in ethnically diverse countries.
