Head slumped on his chest, General John Kelly looked visibly uncomfortable as he listened to President Donald Trump defend “fine people on both sides” of the white supremacist, neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville two months ago. Social media erupted, with many wondering how long Kelly could serve the administration before resigning. #Getoutwhileyoustillcan started trending. While Kelly … Read more
Daniel Allott (left) and Jordan Allott (right). Daniel and Jordan Allott are collaborators on “The Race to 2020,” a journalistic project documenting the political sentiment in nine counties across the United States. Daniel Allott was the Washington Examiner’s deputy commentary editor. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Politico, and other publications. Jordan Allott is a … Read more
By declaring the country’s opioid crisis a 90-day national public health emergency on Oct. 26, President Donald Trump set in motion his administration’s response to the country’s deadly overdose epidemic. While Trump’s October announcement did direct national attention toward the crisis and open temporary access to a small amount of federal funds, the president did … Read more
Silicon Valley has long been heralded as the world’s center of innovation. Yet every day, when some of the country’s smartest engineers commute to work, they do so on an aging train system. The Caltrain rail system, with a daily ridership of 60,000 people, breaks down more than 19 times a month. Its diesel … Read more
“There’s no Skype, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram. We use WeChat,” opens the viral hit “WeChat,” by the up-and-coming Chinese rap group Higher Brothers. The song goes on to poke fun at the dynamics of social media relationships: “Ayo, tell me your WeChat number.” The social media platform WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant … Read more
Freshman year of college, I was pulled into the undertow of social media further than I ever had been before. Aside from the green circle appearing next to my name in the chat window for more hours than I care to know, my appearance on social media was largely undetectable. I was not one to … Read more
In its race to beat its global competitors, China has quickly become the largest non-traditional contributor of aid to sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast to the West, which prioritizes public health and education when giving aid, China focuses on granting loans to fund physical infrastructure construction. In 2015, it provided around $14 billion in such loans … Read more
“There are a few lonely places in this world, and the wastes of the great Alaskan Interior are the loneliest of them all.” Isolation is omnipresent in the pages of Guy Salisbury’s The Cruelest Miles. The book describes the 1925 sled dog relay to deliver medicine to the Alaskan city of Nome, where a diphtheria … Read more
In October 2016, New York governor Andrew Cuomo made it illegal to rent New York City homes on Airbnb for stays of less than 30 days. In fact, the bill went so far as to make it illegal to advertise such homes for rent. Similarly, San Francisco lawmakers attempted to curb the usage of Airbnb … Read more
In prison, ingenuity becomes a way of life. A roll of toilet paper turns into a deck of playing cards. Headphones transform into television speakers. Bic pens replace tattoo guns, and cherry Dr. Pepper serves as the base for fried ramen noodles. In conversations with the HPR, incarcerated individuals described harsh restrictions on what they … Read more