Staying Alive in Chin State
More than two and a half years ago, the military in Myanmar ousted a democratically elected government. Attacks on civilians still continue. We hear from people in Chin state in western Myanmar.
Stories
Finding Love in a Myanmar Scam Center
Crime enclaves have grown along Myanmar's border since the coup in 2021. These new cities are hubs for online gambling, drugs and lately online cryptocurrency scams. It's big money for criminal syndicates and the Myanmar military's allies who control the territory. How are the scams playing out and how are they linked to human trafficking?
Myanmar's Young Pro-democracy Activists Fill Up Prisons
Thousands of political activists have been imprisoned in Myanmar over the years. The often overcrowded conditions and human rights abuses have now been documented by a museum in neighboring Thailand.
Authorities don't know who is shooting free-roaming horses in the Utah desert
On a remote patch of Utah desert bordering the Navajo Nation in Utah, hundreds of horses roam free on the shrubby desert that stretches across red rock canyons all the way to the forested slopes of Bears Ears National Monument. To some, they're majestic wildlife that symbolize the freedom of wide-open western landscapes. To others, they're an out of control population displacing cattle and damaging the ec
The “Psychonauts” Training to Explore Another Dimension
Kevin Thorbahn found himself in a hotel lobby without quite remembering how he got there. There were flashes of brilliant light, indescribable geometric patterns, and the feeling of being blasted through a gigantic stained glass window. And then he was standing in the lobby, as if checking in for a long-planned vacation. All he knew was that he was enamored with the woman behind the counter. Although “woman” wasn’t quite right—it was more like an outline of energy, a feminine purple hue.
Inside America’s ‘Bermuda Triangle for missing people’
On a still-cold April morning at her home in Farmington, New Mexico, Bernadine Beyale knelt next to two of her dogs – the German Shepherd Trigger and a Czech Shepherd named Gunny – and applied juniper ash above their eyes.
Her Frenchie dog thought Beyale was dispensing treats and bullishingly lined up. So Beyale blessed him too in the Navajo way, even though he would be staying behind today.
Trigger and Gunny, meanwhile, were heading to work.
Beyale is the founder of Four Corners K9 Search an
Her Frenchie dog thought Beyale was dispensing treats and bullishingly lined up. So Beyale blessed him too in the Navajo way, even though he would be staying behind today.
Trigger and Gunny, meanwhile, were heading to work.
Beyale is the founder of Four Corners K9 Search an
Dojo Wars
On the night of April 24, 1970, a historic karate brawl broke out in Chicago between senseis and students from rival dojos (karate centers). The fight was not for an audience or a trophy. No one had seen anything like it outside of the movies. One thing was certain: Not everyone was going to get out alive.
They were introduced as the Dragon Lady and Count Dante.
Christy Carter, a 22-year-old Playboy Club bunny, sat next to John Keehan, 29, one of the country’s best known martial artists, on th
They were introduced as the Dragon Lady and Count Dante.
Christy Carter, a 22-year-old Playboy Club bunny, sat next to John Keehan, 29, one of the country’s best known martial artists, on th
'They will destroy everything here': Turkish advance forces Syrians to flee homes as winter looms
Sleman Alshallah, 40, gathered his wife and five children outside his home with what little they owned — cooking pots, blankets and a rug — in the small northern Syrian farming village of Am Alkef last week. "We are ready to leave at any hour," said Alshallah.
It would be difficult to abandon his grandparents' farm and only source of income, he said. He looked north, in the direction of Turkey and dull thuds of fighting, where a mile away was the last defense against the adv
It would be difficult to abandon his grandparents' farm and only source of income, he said. He looked north, in the direction of Turkey and dull thuds of fighting, where a mile away was the last defense against the adv
After the Americans
The sharp cracks and dull rumbles of fighting make their way to us over dusty farmland; the shade protects us from the scorching mid-morning sun and omnipresent Turkish drones. Agir tells me how the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) can’t fight — at least, compared
How an Abandoned Modernist Cinema Became a Revolutionary Symbol in Lebanon
A few months ago, a trickle of protesters converged on downtown Beirut, spurred by a proposed tax on the text-messaging platform WhatsApp. Within a few days, the crowd had swelled, and so had its aims: Demonstrators spoke out against sectarian rule, unemployment, and development that had transformed the area where they were standing into a playground for the rich. Their efforts helped oust the prime minister, but the protests have continued, and they have faced violent crackdowns by security for
CIA Paranormal Program Finds New Life In Utah
Paul Smith’s psychic school is located in an industrial park on the outskirts of Cedar City. It could be an accountant's office except for a decal of a pyramid and an all-seeing eye on the door.
It’s called Remote Viewing Instructional Services, and inside half a dozen students hailing from Colorado to Canada are practicing before their first session.
Remote viewing is a form of extrasensory perception, or ESP, where practitioners learn to describe an object, which might be on the other side o
It’s called Remote Viewing Instructional Services, and inside half a dozen students hailing from Colorado to Canada are practicing before their first session.
Remote viewing is a form of extrasensory perception, or ESP, where practitioners learn to describe an object, which might be on the other side o
Even in Utah, Trump's Republicans Sour on Mitt Romney
A chorus of boos greeted Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) at a Republican Party state convention here in his adopted Utah last month — but for the former presidential hopeful and Mormon princeling, heckling from his party long ago lost the surprise factor.
Video of a detractor calling him a "traitor" at the Salt Lake City airport went viral online earlier in the year, and in February, he met President Joseph R. Biden in the Oval Office, prompting online vitriol.
As he entered the convention, he was w
Video of a detractor calling him a "traitor" at the Salt Lake City airport went viral online earlier in the year, and in February, he met President Joseph R. Biden in the Oval Office, prompting online vitriol.
As he entered the convention, he was w
Reform school survivors allege abuse of their personal files too
Ashley Astle left Spring Creek Lodge, a residential facility for troubled youths in Montana, over a decade ago. She has never been back. “I'm not sure how deeply you want me to go into my experience of the program, but I will give you the short version. Basically, it was terrible,” she said. Last winter she started to hear disturbing rumors that reopened old wounds. Spring Creek Lodge closed in 2009 after a wrongful death suit after a student hanged herself, and the school sat d
'It's a powder keg ready to explode': In Greek village, tensions simmer between refugees and locals
Those looking from the windows of the Drop Center, a popular school and cafe for refugees in the Greek village of Moria, could tell the mood had turned on a warm morning in early February. Afghan mothers pushing strollers were heading back to the refugee camp, while young men were rushing in the other direction. A morning protest by around 300 asylum seekers over their squalid living conditions had begun peacefully enough inside the camp, home to some 20,000 people from 64 diffe
Syria’s Qamishli a window onto Turkish-Kurdish conflict across border
On the top floor of an unfinished concrete building in the northern Syrian city of Qamishli last week, a group of journalists milled around a video camera trained a few hundred meters away across the Turkish border to the city of Nusaybin. With the steady dull thuds of shelling in the background, the reporters, who were camped out to document the bombing in Nusaybin, smoked, drank tea, talked quietly around the recording equipment and ducked out to the balcony to snap photograp
Four Years After a Murder, a Rural Utah Navajo Community Looks for Closure
In 2018 a murder shocked a small Navajo community near Bluff, UT. Federal agents arrested a suspect later that year. But since then the victim’s family has lived without closure — and in fear.
Intolerance Rising: Atheists at Risk in Malaysia
Earlier this month the Kuala Lumpur chapter of the non-profit Atheist Republic, an organization which “provides opportunities for non-believers around the world to gather with like-minded people,” posted a photo of a rare meetup of members.
The photo shows more than 20 men and women, mostly young, casually dressed, smiling, hands, cups or peace signs raised – all presumably non-believers.
The caption reads: “Atheists from all walks of life came to meet one another, some for the very first time
The photo shows more than 20 men and women, mostly young, casually dressed, smiling, hands, cups or peace signs raised – all presumably non-believers.
The caption reads: “Atheists from all walks of life came to meet one another, some for the very first time
A Natural Gas Operator Begins a Different Type of Extraction: Bitcoin
Operators at Wesco’s Blue Hills natural gas processing plant near Moab, Utah had a problem. After the Greentown pipeline was shut down by regulators who deemed it hazardous, Blue Hills’ gas was left stranded.
“And unfortunately, these oil wells are not like your kitchen faucet where you can turn it on and off at your pleasure,” said Steve Degenfelder, land manager and spokesman for Wesco Operating and Kirkwood Oil and Gas. “And so we had no other recourse than to flare the gas that would have o
“And unfortunately, these oil wells are not like your kitchen faucet where you can turn it on and off at your pleasure,” said Steve Degenfelder, land manager and spokesman for Wesco Operating and Kirkwood Oil and Gas. “And so we had no other recourse than to flare the gas that would have o
River Guides Organize After Anti-camping Law Hits Home
An anti-camping ordinance in Grand County was meant to stop homeowners from renting out their yards and parking lots to tourists. But so far it’s impacted some of the town’s most vulnerable and needed residents. The county is kicking river guides off private land long used as a workers’ camp.
The Life and Death of Esther Nakajjigo
In 2020 a horrible accident occurred in Arches National Park. One woman was left dead. A husband and family left grieving. And at the heart of a trial related to that incident — it’s not so much about that death, but about the life that was lost.
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