Chinese citizens express both support and frustration toward smart city surveillance

Critics call WeChat a surveillance tool

This report from the Citizen Lab details evidence WeChat, with 1.4 billion users, is a powerful surveillance tool for the Chinese Communist Party. In particular, it finds the government uses non-China accounts to train censorship algorithms for use on domestic communications.

Average citizens may be the greatest liability to smart cities

Smart cities utilize massive datasets to enhance mobility, resource utilization, and public safety. However, this data can also be compromised if mishandled by residents, making citizen awareness of risks a key component of cybersecurity efforts.

Smart city systems can increase positive feelings toward local government

A 2018 study analyzed 50 global cities to determine whether smart city technologies enhance residents' quality of life. It found that these technologies can decrease the time spent interacting with healthcare and government by 45% to 65%, while also decreasing the disease burden by 8% to 15%.

Hong Kong: British colony turned Chinese police state

This 15-minute video explores how Hong Kong has changed since China reclaimed the territory from Britain in 1997. Hong Kong became a British colony after the First Opium War, a conflict arising from Britain's attempt to equalize trade with China through smuggled opium. Democratic rights assumed by Hong Kong residents, such as the right to protest, have been in peril since the 1997 shift, according to this video.

Spy balloons. UFOs. What else is up there?

The appearance and downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon brought the concept of high-altitude floating aircraft into the public consciousness. While sparking a diplomatic row, it also revealed how many objects—nefarious or benign—are...

How Taiwan residents view China and the US

There is widespread support in Taiwan for increased economic and political ties with the US, compared to China. This deep dive of data from the Pew Research Center breaks down how various segments of Taiwan's population perceive the US and China individually and among other Asia-Pacific countries.

China's relationship to the rules-based order is contested

In this piece, Paul Gewirtz, a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School, argues that China has been a beneficiary, a rule-bender, and an increasingly assertive challenger of the rules-based order, aiming to revise norms it sees as reflecting Western rather than universal values.

Sharp partisan divides shape how Americans view immigration enforcement

A January 2026 survey shows large party gaps: Both sides broadly support recording arrests, but Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to support sharing officer locations and to oppose profiling, masked officers, and neighborhood-based enforcement.

Can Shein escape its Chinese roots?

Many Chinese companies are currently facing issues as they spread into global markets today. Shein, a Chinese clothing retail company, now accounts for half of fast-fashion sales in America. But its parent country has created issues, causing concern for people abroad about data security and supply-chain ethics. While Shein has moved its headquarters to Singapore and avoids selling in China, they continue to face scrutiny from Americans.

China is making a deliberate push toward a cashless society

Riding widespread digital finance apps like Alipay and WeBank, physical cash circulating in China fell under 4% of total money in 2023. The trend reflects the country's drive to be a leader in the future of digital payments.

Non-Western performance art developed in its own political context

The medium’s emerging popularity in 1990s China is a perfect example of this. Many Chinese artists incorporated the practice of meditation into their works, combining the Buddhist tradition with various modes of endurance art to comment on divisions within Chinese society and the power of the government.

China has a ‘ghost town of abandoned mansions’

This video shows how China’s property bubble deflated as new-home sales collapsed and more than 50 developers defaulted. In Shenyang, an abandoned “ghost town” reveals the fallout of a boom built on debt and overbuilding that could no longer be sustained.

Google Search trends reveal truths about society that traditional surveys miss

Studies of human behavior show that survey respondents may lie to present themselves more favorably. By studying anonymous search data, researchers have uncovered hidden racism, mental health struggles, and interest in taboo or stigmatized topics.

How cigarettes took over China

In 2022, China had a fifth of the world's population and bought nearly half of the world's cigarettes. This investigation explores how China became plagued by tobacco consumption, something epidemiologists say will strain the country's health system...

Tokyo's transparent toilets use smart, automatic glass to make cleanliness visible

Dubbed the Tokyo Toilet project, this initiative installs restrooms whose walls are transparent when empty, so users can see whether they are clean and safe. When they lock, they turn opaque for privacy. Beyond addressing two key anxieties (hygiene and security), the project lends a distinct architectural prestige to typically banal (and reviled) toilets.

'The Chinatown Sting': Unraveling an international drug smuggling ring

In the late 1980s, a group of women connected through the mahjong parlors in Manhattan’s Chinatown were caught in a massive undercover drug bust. But this bust was just the beginning of an even bigger case.

In a 2024 survey, 93% of participants expressed concerns about self-driving cars

Safety was the leading consumer fear, with technological malfunctions coming in second. Nearly half of all consumers identified skepticism or concern as their primary descriptor for autonomous cars, but 20% cited enhanced mobility for the elderly and people with disabilities as a key benefit.

The identity of the Tank Man from the Tiananmen Square protests is still unknown

The lone figure standing before military tanks in Beijing is an essential component of this iconic photograph. The protests resulted in the deaths of hundreds of demonstrators, possibly including the man himself. There's also the chance he returned to normal life as a citizen and purposefully concealed his identity.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was America's first major immigration restriction

The act, signed in 1882, barred Chinese laborers from entering the United States, marking the first significant restriction on free immigration. This overview examines 19th-century Chinese immigration, rising anti-Chinese sentiment, and the diplomatic implications of exclusionary legislation.

Some tourist hotspots are shunning tourists

Locals in Barcelona sprayed tourists with water guns while protestors in Mexico City demanded politicians work against gentrification. Despite the economic boost tourism provides, protestors believe tourism has contributed to housing shortages and rising costs.

The Ancient Chinese harnessed solar power for heating and cooling 6,000 years ago

Neolithic Chinese homes faced south for winter sun warmth, while overhangs shielded them from high summer sun. These efforts also influenced urban planning, with cities aligning streets east-west for optimal solar exposure.

In 2025, more than 10 former Palantir employees published a letter condemning the company's partnerships

Thirteen so-called "ex-Palantirians," condemned a $30M deal that gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement near real-time insights on migrants. The letter, named "The Scouring of the Shire" in a nod to "The Lord of the Rings," alleges that the company is violating its code of conduct by supporting this application of its service.

'Dystopia,' explained

John Stuart Mill introduced the term "dystopia" in 1868 to critique harmful policies, calling it the opposite of utopia, or an ideal world. The concept grew as industrialization and totalitarian regimes exposed societal flaws, inspiring works like George Orwell's "1984" to warn against oppression and moral decay.

Firecrackers on Lunar New Year originated to ward off evil spirits

Many countries have attempted to ban firecrackers, though some rolled back those restrictions for the sake of the holiday. This tradition, along with numerous other practices, has evolved for decades since the origin of the festival.

Dorothea Lange's photos of US concentration camps were censored

Lange, who took some of the most iconic photos of the 20th century, was hired by the United States government in 1942 to document the "relocation" of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps. When military commanders saw her work, however, they censored it, even suggesting some of the images should be "Impounded."

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology