Newsletter Archive

The prospect of what a post-Obamacare world will look like has some people worried in Independence, Kansas. Twenty million Americans have coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but some believe the plan’s limited provider reimbursements are partially to blame for the closure of dozens of rural hospitals. One man says Obamacare cost him his business, but he also depends on the ACA to cover his expensive monthly prescriptions.

Just the facts: President Donald Trump’s first major immigration action resulted in 680 arrests around the county. As a candidate, Trump vowed to crackdown on undocumented immigrants. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) called last week’s operation routine, but the arrests fueled a lot of fear, and raised many questions about what’s next. Here’s what we know.

You might not have heard of ‘big data’ but it probably plays a huge role in your life. Both the Donald Trump and Brexit campaigns used big data to winning effect. Big data includes the massive amounts of information gleaned from things like people’s social media pages, web behavior and even supermarket loyalty cards. It’s almost like having access to what’s going on inside people’s heads, with big data predicting what people are likely to do, before they do it.

Tuhin Das never expected to live a life in exile. But when he started writing about the rise of fundamental extremism in his native Bangladesh, the threats started pouring in. He’s taken refuge at a sanctuary for endangered writers in the United States, where he writes freely and dreams of home.

No trespassing. With its spectacular wildlife and majestic scenery set against the backdrop of Mount Kenya, central Kenya’s Laikipia area is a big draw for tourists. But they’re not the only people who are attracted to the area. Drought conditions are driving northern pastoralists to illegally bring tens of thousands of cattle to private and community lands in search of water and grazing lands, which isn’t sitting well with the local landowners.

‘Imams of unbelief.’ Islamic State’s latest target is religious scholars, who the terror group accuse of betrayal. IS launched an online campaign labeling Muslim clerics in the Arab world and the West as traitors for trying to delegitimize IS, especially in the eyes of younger Muslims. The campaign targets prominent clerics by name and urges supporters to ‘kill the evil scholars.’

Family-led criminal enterprise? On Thursday, Malaysian police arrested a second woman suspected in the poison spray murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s half brother. To some observers, the apparent assassination bolsters the argument that North Korea is a mafia state that operates outside the law.