This article paints an imagined scene of what life could look like if North Koreans had unrestricted access to global pop culture. In a university classroom in Pyongyang, film students sit in rapt attention, watching the climax of The Shawshank Redemption. As Andy Dufresne stretches out his arms in the rain, embracing freedom, gasps of admiration ripple through the room. Kim Young-chul (21), a junior student, walks down the hallway with friends after class and says, “I wish N

1. A Flame That Sparked a Wave of Change In December 2010, in the small town of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, 26-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after repeated harassment by corrupt officials and an oppressive government. His tragic act was not simply a personal despair—it came to represent the cry of a generation of young people across the Middle East and North Africa who had lived under authoritarian rule for decades. But the flame he lit didn’t stop at the streets. I

Former Uruguayan President José Mujica has passed away at the age of 90. Born in 1935 in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, Mujica became active in the 1960s and 1970s as a member of the leftist guerrilla group Tupamaros. During that time, he was imprisoned multiple times, and under the military dictatorship, he endured nearly 15 years of severe torture and solitary confinement. After Uruguay transitioned to democracy in 1985, he was released and went on to establish the lef

Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has introduced a bill aimed at restricting the activities of independent media outlets and NGOs that receive foreign funding. The proposed legislation would impose heavy fines on these organizations, ban them from receiving donations, and potentially prohibit their operations altogether. While the government has named the bill the “Law on the Transparency of Public Life,” critics argue it is effectively a crackdown on progressive, independent med

The U.S. Air Force in South Korea will soon implement new security procedures by taking over management of the last gate at Osan Air Base that has been jointly operated with the South Korean military, officials confirmed Thursday. The adjustment follows a U.S. protest lodged earlier this year after a special counsel team entered the base in Pyeongtaek—about 65 kilometers south of Seoul—during a July raid tied to its investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol's unsucces

Trump: “Very Good Talks with Iran”… Hints at Progress in Nuclear Negotiations “We had very good talks with Iran, yesterday and today.” On...

The long-standing dictatorship in Syria has come to an end. As soon as the regime collapsed, a historic meeting between the presidents of...