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China is building islands in the South China sea and its causing disputes among the other nations in the region; Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, and Indonesia. The US has many allies in the region and uses its massive Navy to patrol international waters, keeping shipping lanes open for trade.
Wars in South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen are threatening to starve 20 million people...
The Saudis and Iranians have never actually declared war on each other. Instead, they fight indirectly by supporting opposing sides in other countries and inciting conflicts. This is known as proxy warfare. And it’s had a devastating effect on the region. Countries, especially poor ones, can’t function if there are larger countries pulling strings within their borders. And that’s exactly what's happening in the Middle East. The Saudi-Iranian rivalry has become a fight over influence, and the whole region is a battlefield.
The US war in Afghanistan has raged for 16 years, since the US invaded after 9/11, in 2001. At the onset, a centerpiece of US strategy was to rebuild Afghanistan's crumbling infrastructure. This move expedited military logistics and maneuvers, while simultaneously reigniting travel between Afghanistan's major cities. But when the US started its war in Iraq, that diverted resources and manpower from the battlefield of Afghanistan. And the Taliban didn't miss the chance. To date, the most ambitious roadbuilding project, known as the Ring Road, has seen over $3 billion spent on its renewal. And it was never completed.
The present conflict in Ukraine started in 2014. Today, there are 100,000 fighters stationed in the country, making it one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world. In Ukraine's east, Ukrainian forces are engaged in a struggle with Russian-backed separatists. A ceasefire was called in 2015, with a security zone established that was meant to foster peace. However, today the security zone remains one of the most violent places in the Ukraine. With over 10,000 deaths to date, and over 1.5 million civilians displaced, the cost of ignoring the ceasefire continues to mount by the day. And both sides are still building up their forces.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war, Kurdish people in the North have carved out an autonomous region of their own — Rojava — by fighting the Islamic State. Their militias, which form the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have emerged as the most effective fighters against ISIS and won them a close partnership with the US. The ruling Kurdish Party, the PYD, has set up a democratic federation made of local governments. Their constitution claims to accept people of all ethnicities and religions and treat them as equals. One of its central tenets is equality of men and women. In fact, the all-female Women’s Protection Unit (YPJ) militia fights alongside the SDF, and they’re known to be especially good soldiers. But the more territory the Kurds take from ISIS, the more worried Turkey gets. Turkey has been at war with another closely linked Kurdish group, the PKK, for decades. In 2018, Turkey invaded the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin, putting the country in direct conflict with the Kurds of Rojava.
China's Belt and Road Initiative is the most ambitious infrastructure project in modern history. It spans over 60 countries and will cost over a trillion dollars. The plan is to make it easier for the world to trade with China, by funding roads, railways, pipelines, and other infrastructure projects in Asia and Africa. China is loaning trillions of dollars to any country that's willing to participate and it's been a big hit with the less democratic countries in the region. This makes the BRI a risky plan as well. But China is pushing forward because its goals are not strictly economic, they're also geopolitical.
Over the course of her 63-year reign, Queen Victoria strategically planned marriages to place her descendants in royal families all over Europe. In doing so, she created one of the most remarkable royal families in history. By the early 19th century, Europe had been at war for decades. After the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars killed millions, European leaders came together to restore peace by reshaping major states for a new balance of power. Great Britain went on to become one of the strongest states. And years later, Queen Victoria and her husband Albert came up with a plan to maintain that political power — they married their children to monarchs across Europe. By the 1880s Queen Victoria’s children were in several important branches of Europe’s monarchies. The royal unions didn't play out as Queen Victoria planned, but she continued to make more matches anyway. She had 42 grandchildren, and these 7 ended up on royal thrones. Her grandchildren would end up on the thrones of Britain, Russia, Germany, Romania, Norway, and Spain leading up to the most destructive war Europe had ever seen.
Islamist terrorist groups have found a new home and it's not in the Middle East -- it's in Africa. Specifically, the Sahel, a band of territory in West Africa between the Sahara desert and the savannah. Since the early 2000s, Islamist extremist groups have increasingly strengthened their base here -- training fighters, raising money, and launching a massive number of attacks. Some are linked to al-Qaeda and other Islamic State. This is throwing these already weak countries into crises and making the region one of the most dangerous in the world.
France has had the most native players and coaches in the last 4 World Cups… and their dominance has been on the rise. Players like Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba are the children of immigrants and the product of the French soccer academy system. French- born players have played for Togo, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Argentina, Portugal, and many more.
The Ring of Fire is a band of volcanoes and frequent earthquakes that runs from New Zealand, up through Eastern Asia, across the Bering Strait and all the way down to the Southern tip of Chile. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis appear around the boundaries of the several, fast moving, tectonic plates that make up the region. When the plates collide, they create areas of volatility. The Ring of Fire sees more natural disasters than anywhere else on Earth, but what makes it particularly dangerous is that few countries are prepared.
Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but because of a special power-sharing agreement, it has an open border with Republic of Ireland. This was designed as a compromise that ended 30 years of conflict and violence in Northern Ireland between Nationalist and Unionist paramilitaries. Today, Brexit means that the UK needs to close its borders and the issue of the Irish border is one of the hardest things to negotiate with the EU. Closing this border could undermine the compromise that kept the peace for 20 years.
Poland’s far-right party is subverting democracy, and setting the country on a collision course with the EU. Poland is changing. In 2015, the far-right Law and Justice party, or PiS, won both the presidential election and a slim parliamentary majority. Since then, they’ve been working to cement their power by firing judges, purging the military and civil service, and cracking down on protesters and the media. All of this has put the country on a collision course with the European Union that could threaten Europe’s hard-won peace and prosperity following centuries of conflict.
In 2014, the largest corruption scandal in Latin America’s history erupted in Brazil. It involved bribes between Petrobras, the largest state-owned oil company on the continent, and dozens of engineering firms. It also involved politicians, including three Brazilian presidents, Lula, Dilma Rousseff, and Michel Temer, as well as almost a third of Brazil’s congress. Politicians all over Latin America were found guilty of taking bribes and profiting immensely from infrastructure and energy projects all over the continent. The scandal hit places like Itaborai especially hard. The companies involved were fined billions of dollars and laid off hundreds of thousands of workers as their projects abruptly stopped. Four years later, Brazil is still dealing with the fallout.
Saudi Arabia and the US have a partnership that's been in the making for over seven decades. It started after World War II and survived the Iranian Revolution, the Cold War, the Gulf War, September 11, and the proliferation of conflicts across the Middle East. This whole time, the US has been selling weapons to Saudi Arabia -- now its number one customer. Saudis bought bombs, tanks, guns, and planes over the years to defend themselves from various threats. The US supplied those weapons because the Saudi’s threats have usually been a threat to the US as well. Today, there's a shift in the relationship. Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian disaster in the world - and thrown the Middle East into chaos. The problem is, the Saudis are using US bombs to do it.
Today, the US is facing a migration crisis on its southern border with Mexico. Thousands of people from Central America, especially Guatemala and Honduras, are fleeing their home countries, taking a dangerous journey north through Mexico, and claiming asylum in the US. How did this crisis begin? Much of it can be traced back to the 1970s cocaine trade. Cocaine, which is mostly produced in Colombia, used to be shipped by boat and plane across the Caribbean. But in the 80s and 90s, the US cracked down on this route, so traffickers started shipping their drugs through Central America and over land to Mexico. That created a violent and competitive turf war between gangs and organizations in Guatemala and Honduras, and after the governments cracked down, violence only increased, forcing people to flee, often to the US.
The dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is one of the longest running conflicts. Ever since Britain left India in 1947 and hastily drew borders demarcating a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan, Kashmir, located right between the two, has been fervently claimed by both nations. India and Pakistan’s first war was fought over Kashmir’s status as the the newly independent countries were being formed. After over a year of bloody conflict the UN stepped in and brokered a ceasefire that drew a line down the middle of Kashmir and gave a portion of the territory to India and the remainder to Pakistan. This arrangement was meant to be temporary. Once the violence settled a vote was to be held that would allow Kashmiris to decide their own future. But more than 70 years later, Kashmiris have yet to vote on their status. They remain stuck between two nuclear nations locked in a dangerous conflict with no end in sight.
Iraq gets almost all of its water from two rivers: The Tigris and the Euphrates. Both begin in Turkey and make their way down the entire length of the country, before emptying into the Persian Gulf. The problem is - they are drying up. There are two main reasons for this. The first is geographical: Since both rivers begin in Turkey, Iraq doesn’t have control of how much water it receives. In the last 30 years, Turkey, Syria, and Iran have been building hundreds of dams along both rivers. Now only a quarter of the Euphrates reaches Iraq. Secondly, Iraq has been stuck in conflict for the last 16 years. In each case, the delicate network of treatment plants, dams, canals, and pipes has been repeatedly destroyed and neglected. All of this has boiled over in the city of Basra - at Iraq’s southern tip. Last summer, after hundreds were poisoned by the water - riots erupted and were deeply destabilizing for the new Iraqi government. If Iraq is to rebuild, it needs to get fresh water to its people - a challenge that is getting harder every year.
The Tour de France is the most prominent cycling race in the world. It’s now in its 109th edition and it’s being called the ‘Highest in History’ because there are more climbs than ever before. This is important because the climbs are where the race is won and lost. The best riders rely on their teammates to get them through the long, flat, and hilly stages, before they take on the mountain stages on their own. These are the hardest and most brutal stages of the race - but they are exactly what makes the Tour de France famous.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway that lies between Iran and Oman. This 21 mile-wide passage supports 20% of the world’s oil supply. A closure of this waterway could send the global economy into a tailspin. In recent months, several oil tankers have been seized, attacked and harassed. These oil tankers — and this narrow water passage — are at the center of the conflict between the US and Iran. It's a conflict that spans decades and has the potential to escalate in one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints.
On Oct. 9, 2019, Turkey launched an attack in northeastern Syria. Turkey made the move shortly after the US announced it would remove some of its troops from the region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had his eyes on the region for years. Turkey, he argued, needed a “safe zone” to serve as a buffer against the Syrian War happening just across the border. Yet back home in Turkey, there were other factors at play that accelerated his calls for an invasion that involved Erdoğan’s own political survival. The move has recalibrated alliances in the Syrian War and added new uncertainty on the future of the region.
The 2019 fires were just the tip of the iceberg. Vox Atlas: The Amazon is a three-part series about the world's largest rainforest, why it's in jeopardy, and the people trying to save it. Watch all three parts right here on YouTube. The Amazon rainforest has been reduced by about 17% since the 1970s. Cattle ranchers, loggers, and farmers are mostly to blame for the deforestation, but the demand driving them comes from all around the world. Brazil's economy depends on agriculture, especially beef and soy, which is grown on cleared land in the Amazon. Today, president Jair Bolsonaro, is weakening the environmental protections there in order to give agriculture more power. This came to a head when, in summer 2019, more than 30,000 wildfires burned in the Amazon, sparking worldwide outrage.
Vox Atlas: The Amazon is a three-part series about the world's largest rainforest, why it's in jeopardy, and the people trying to save it. Watch all three parts right here on YouTube. The Amazon rainforest has faced encroachment and deforestation for a long time. But it wasn’t until Brazil’s military dictatorship came to power in the 1970s that deforestation spiked, becoming a big business in the Amazon. When that expansion reached the state of Acre, it met resistance. Chico Mendes, a rubber tapper from the region, took the fight to protect the Amazon from the depths of the rainforest to the global stage. In the process, he gave his life. But the fight he started lives on.
And the president is part of the problem. Vox Atlas: The Amazon is a three-part series about the world's largest rainforest, why it's in jeopardy, and the people trying to save it. Watch all three parts right here on YouTube. Brazil has over 900,000 indigenous people, most of whom live in the Amazon. After centuries of persecution, they were given extensive rights under a new Constitution in the 1980s, including the right to claim and win back their traditional lands. Since then, hundreds of indigenous lands have been demarcated and protected by the Brazilian government. But in the last few years, those lands have come under attack by landowners, ranchers, loggers, and farmers who want access to the resources inside these indigenous lands. And since Jair Bolsonaro became president, the number of invasions into indigenous lands has skyrocketed.
Before Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US air strike in Iraq, he was arguably Iran's second most important leader. He commanded the soldiers and spies of Iran's elite Quds Force, a group whose job was to forge partnerships with militias across the Middle East, through which Soleimani spread Iran's influence and his own. From Hezbollah in Lebanon to the many Shia militias in Iraq, these groups played a central role in the medley of wars that have roiled the Middle East for the last few decades. Soleimani didn't invent Iran's use of proxy militias; that dates back to at least 1979, when Iran's new regime looked around the region and found many enemies and few friends. But 40 years later, thanks in part to Soleimani's work, Iran has the advantage in the Middle East.
As of early March 2020, a new coronavirus, called COVID-19, is in more than 70 countries and has killed more than 3,100 people, the vast majority in China. That's where the virus emerged back in December 2019. This isn't a new phenomenon for China; in 2003, the SARS virus also emerged there, and under similar circumstances, before spreading around the world and killing nearly 800. Both SARS and COVID-19 are in the "coronavirus" family, and both appear to have emerged from animals in China's notorious wildlife markets. Experts had long predicted that these markets, known to be potential sources of disease, would create another virus. The markets, and the wildlife trade that supports them, are the underlying problem of these pandemics; until China solves that problem, more are likely to emerge.
Man-made climate change is warming the planet's atmosphere and oceans, and the effects are being felt the most at the poles. In Antarctica, home to the largest chunk of ice on earth, ice shelves and glaciers are beginning to collapse, and one in particular could spell disaster. The Thwaites Glacier, in West Antarctica, has retreated more than 14 kilometers in the last two decades as warm ocean water undermines it. The glacier is situated on a downward slope that falls deep into the center of Antarctica. It's why scientists are racing to find out how close it is to total collapse - and what that would mean for future sea levels.
Coffee is one of the most popular commodities on Earth. It's grown by nearly 125 million farmers, from Latin America to Africa to Asia. But as man-made climate change warms the atmosphere, the notoriously particular coffee plant is struggling. Places like Colombia, which once had the perfect climate to grow Arabica coffee, are changing. Now, experts estimate the amount of land that can sustain coffee will fall 50 percent by 2050. It's not just a crisis for consumers but for the millions who have made a livelihood out of growing coffee.
On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion rocked Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. The blast occurred when sparks in a warehouse hit a stockpile of ammonium nitrate — a highly explosive material — that was stored in the city's port. It was one of the largest accidental explosions in history and it couldn't have occurred at a worse time for Lebanon. For the past several years, the country has been sliding into an economic depression and a political crisis. The root causes began during the country's 20-year civil war and extend to the organization of the government, in which control is divided among the country's many religious sects. After years of corruption and negligence, Lebanon's people are now stuck picking up the pieces.
What is NATO? And why is it still around? For 150 years, the US avoided formal alliances. Then, after World War II, it abruptly changed course, and began to build a network of alliances unlike anything that had come before. Over the next few decades, the US used those alliances to keep countries around the world close, and to fight Soviet expansion, by making a promise that it would go to war if any of its allies were ever attacked. After the Soviet Union fell, the initial purpose of those alliances was gone, but the US recommitted to them, signaling again and again that the central promise of those relationships was still in effect. It kept doing so for the next 25 years. Then the US elected a leader who took America’s global relationships in a new direction. President Trump was skeptical that America’s network of alliances was still beneficial to the US. He began to distance the US from those alliances, raising doubts about whether America would actually follow through on the promise at the core of them if provoked. Some allies moved closer to Russia or China, both of whom had attempted to undermine America’s alliances. Today, the future of those alliances is on the ballot in the US. One of the major presidential candidates in the 2020 election wants to return the US to its former status with its allies; the other finds its decades-old alliances costly and cumbersome. The world is waiting to see which vision Americans prefer.
On September 27, 2020, explosions rocked the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It’s a small, mountainous piece of land in the Caucasus, between Europe and Asia. For more than 30 years it’s been the center of a conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both countries claim the territory and have dug their armies in along its borders. These explosions were the start of another round of fighting. Since 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh has been controlled by Armenians, but in just a few weeks in 2020, Azerbaijani soldiers captured most of the region. Outgunned by advanced drones, Armenian forces had no choice but to retreat and finally agree to a ceasefire in early November.
Monaco is the world’s second-smallest country, spanning only 2.2 square kilometers. Yet it's the capital of the wide world of car racing. For more than 70 years, the country has hosted the Monaco Grand Prix. It’s one of the world’s most unusual racecourses, running through the city streets of Monte Carlo. The course goes through a tunnel, up a cliff, and passes just feet from the harbor; it's earned the nickname “the race of a thousand corners.” Because of its design, the Monaco Grand Prix has produced some of the most memorable moments in car racing history. But that's not the only reason the race is so prestigious. Monaco is a tax haven, and for decades has been a favorite place for the rich and famous to stash their wealth. The Grand Prix weekend is the country's biggest weekend of the year, and the combination of a unique course and the world’s most famous people make the Grand Prix the world’s most prestigious car race.
The country’s leader won the Nobel Peace Prize. Then he went to war.
How they’ve taken over Afghanistan again.
And what it tells us about the EU.
Two decades of the world's most notorious prison.
Ukraine is under attack.
How Germany got stuck paying for Russia's war. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU has sanctioned much of Russia's economy, but Russia's natural gas trade remains untouched. The EU gets nearly a quarter of its energy from natural gas, and almost half of that comes from Russia, the world's largest gas exporter. As the EU's largest economy, Germany is Russia's biggest customer, paying Russia's state-owned gas company 200 million euros. So while Germany has even sent Ukraine weapons, in a historic shift of military policy, through its gas supply Germany is helping to pay for the war it's trying to stop. It's inherently hard to pivot away from piped gas Unlike oil and coal, which can be rerouted, gas pipelines cost billions, take years to build, and physically connect producer and buyer directly, making them long-term commitments. That was the origin of Germany's dependence on Russian gas.
...And why they were so hard to see. The Amazon has always been one of the most mysterious places on earth. When European colonizers arrived in the 16th century, they were captivated by rumors of a golden city, hidden somewhere in the rainforest. Their search for "El Dorado" lasted more than a century, but only resulted in disaster, death, and further conquest of the indigenous people there. Experts thereafter looked at the Amazon and saw only a desolate jungle; too harsh for extensive agriculture and therefore sparsely populated. They believed that it had alwavs been this way. Until recentlv.
Cairo isn't the problem. In 2017, Egypt's government announced it would build a new capital city 45 kilometers outside of Cairo, the current capital. It was a shocking announcement since Cairo, a city of more than 10,000,000 people, has been the capital of Egypt for decades. The government claims that Cairo has become too overcrowded and that moving the capital will give both Cairo's residents and government workers more space. But this excuse is not new. For decades, Egypt's rulers have been building brand new cities in the desert. None of them have solved Cairo's density issue. And based on how construction is going, this new capital won't be a solution either. So why does Egypt want a new capital? Well, it has a lot to do with the political revolution in 2011.
In the spring and summer of 2022, the war between Ukraine and Russia settled into a stalemate. The firstphase of the war had been a rapid invasion that drew new battle lines across Ukraine; this next phase saw those battle lines harden and change very little over a long period of fighting. But in September, that chapter came to an end. For the first time in several months, Ukraine scored a major victory and won back significant territory from Russia. Ukraine pulled this victory off by taking advantage of a surprising weakness in the Russian army: the difficulty it's had maintaining its ranks of skilled soldiers, especially compared to the training and resources that Ukraine's army has received from its allies.
On December 2, 2010, FIFA announced the 2022 World Cup would take place in a surprising country, Qatar. At that same meeting, they also announced that the 2018 World Cup would take place in Russia. These selections set off a new chapter in FIFA's history, one where the public would have a greater sense on how bribery and corruption have a huge role in who gets to host this international sporting event. The last 14 World Cup locations were decided by a group of 24 powerful men within FIFA called the executive committee. Their votes meant a lot to bidding nations and allegations on bidders bribing members of the committee lingered for decades. These allegations reached a new level when criminal investigations were launched nearly five years after that FIFA announcement. The fallout of these investigations nearly broke FIFA and tainted the World Cup.
And why the US and China are fighting over silicon in the first place. n October 2022, the Biden administration placed a large-scale ban on the sale of advanced semiconductor chips to China. They also implemented a series of other rules that prevents China from making these chips on their own. The chips are used in everyday technology, like our mobile phones and computers. But they’re also crucial to military and intelligence systems, which is one of the main reasons they’re at the center of a feud between the United States and China.
When Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, the US was hesitant to send more than supplies to the Ukrainian army. But when Russia launched a full-scale invasion in 2022, the US changed its tune President Joe Biden quickly began approving huge packages of weapons to help Ukraine stymie the Russian attack. And for the first couple of weeks, it worked. The Ukrainian army used weapons from the US and its Western allies to stop Russia from capturing Kiev. As the war progressed, so did US help. It sent heavy artillery in the spring, and then agreed to eventually send tanks in winter 2023. But each time, it deliberated over whether Ukraine can effectively use the weapons, and whether they'll provoke Russia to escalate the conflict. So far, that hasn't happened, and the US and its allies are now considering sending Ukraine very advanced long-range missiles and F-16 fighter jets. Both would be game-changers for Ukraine.
On December 19, 2018, protests posed the biggest challenge to Sudan’s longest-serving dictator, Omar al-Bashir. Throughout his regime, he did everything he could to remain in power, like relying on various security sectors to protect him from being overthrown. However, his plan ultimately failed, when the country’s army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, and a paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces, sided with the protesters and carried out a military coup The end of Bashir’s regime brought hope to the protesters, but they remained skeptical about the men who had overthrown him. SAF’s Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF’s Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (a.k.a. Hemedti) took control of the country after the coup. They made repeated promises to hand over power to civilians, which would put Sudan on a democratic path. But they continually delayed fulfilling their promises and instead turned against each other, vying for power. The two men have brutally interrupted the pro-democracy revolution.
Baseball has a long history in the United States, but it also has strong roots in the Caribbean and Latin America, particularly in the Dominican Republic. Cubans were the first to bring the game from the US to their country in the 19th century, and later, wealthy Cubans introduced it to the Dominican Republic. Over the following decades, the sport became deeply ingrained in Dominican culture, while in the United States, baseball evolved into a multi-million dollar industry. Eventually, the United States began to seek out Cuban baseball talent. But when diplomatic relations between the two countries deteriorated, the Dominican Republic emerged as the primary focus of Major League Baseball's talent pipeline.
We have a lot to gain - and a lot to lose - from deep-sea mining. This video explains the history and the debate over mining metals in the deep sea and why one Canadian company, The Metals Company, is leading the rush there.
Why Palestinians in Gaza have suffered for decades. On October 7, Hamas, a militant group based in the Gaza Strip, launched a deadly attack on Israel, killing over 1,400 Israelis and kidnapping over 200. In retaliation, Israeli airstrikes have killed, as of this video, over 6,400 Palestinians in Gaza, where Palestinians have lived for decades under an occupation and blockade.
How Xi Jinping became China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. Xi Jinping, president of China and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012, is one of the most powerful political figures in the world. By initiating an unprecedented third term as China's leader in October, 2022, Xi has signaled that he may plan to remain in power for life - making him the first Chinese leader since Mao Zedong to hold unchecked power over the People's Republic of China.
