Why Haiti is in crisis

How armed groups became embedded in Haitian politics

This six-minute video explores the relationship between Haitian politics and armed gangs. As recently as June 2023, Haiti did not have a single elected official left in office; The 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and the...

Enslaved and in debt: the French roots of Haiti's struggles

This investigative infographic details how Haiti was forced to pay for its freedom twice: once in blood and once in cash. In August 1791, Haiti's enslaved population launched a revolt against French colonists, successfully establishing Haiti as a...

Establishing an independent Haiti: a timeline

This map and timeline shows the history of the Caribbean Island nation of Haiti and its fight for independence. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and crashed one of his ships, the Santa Maria, along reefs near the island nation...

The colonial origins of Haiti/Dominican Republic divide

This 16-minute video explores the colonial origins of the modern-day split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Haiti previously was the French-Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue, which was torn off the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo in 1697....

Embargoes and economic mismanagement have pushed Cuba into its worst crisis in decades

For more than 60 years, Cuba has been pressured by two forces—the US economic embargo and its own government's repression and mismanagement. NPR's Throughline podcast explains how both contributed to today's blackouts, food shortages, and mass exodus.

Is North Korea fighting a food crisis?

North Korea is facing a food crisis placing it on the brink of famine. Read (or watch) Al Jazeera’s detailed take on the food crisis unfolding in North Korea. Since the 1950s, the country has relied on a collective agriculture system. But...

Why the US can’t end poverty

Despite being among the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of GDP, the US has a major poverty issue, with more than 37 million Americans living in poverty as of 2023. Part of the issue is that the standards by which the US measures poverty are outdated: The official poverty measure in the US today is based on calculations from the 1960s. Find out more in this video.

How America's cocaine habit fueled its migrant crisis

The United States has been facing a migration crisis along its southern border. Thousands of people have been fleeing their homes in Central America, traveling north through Mexico, and claiming asylum in the USA. Much of this crisis can be traced...

The rise and fall of a petrostate

Venezuela’s descent into economic and political chaos in recent years is a cautionary tale of the dangerous influence that resource wealth can have on developing countries.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis tested the limits of the rules-based order's financial architecture

When a currency crisis hit Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea, the IMF allocated $118B in emergency loans. However, the attached conditions were widely criticized for worsening the economic downturn and increasing distrust of Western-led institutions across the Global South.

1 in 4 people around the world don't have access to clean water

Poor water sanitation puts people at risk of acquiring this diarrheal infection. Cholera infections are on the rise due to extreme weather events and conflict. In recent years there have been cholera outbreaks in locations that hadn't seen the disease in many years, including Haiti.

Fiji's 'quiet' diabetes crisis

Across the Pacific archipelago of Fiji, diabetes often avoids diagnosis until amputation or death is imminent. Fiji's government has said nearly 30% of its population has diabetes, and, in 2019, related amputations accounted for 40% of the country's hospital operations. This "sugar disease" may have such a stronghold on the archipelago, which has a physically active culture that prizes locally sourced foods, due to cost, with processed foods being much cheaper than alternatives.

A podcast unpacking Pakistan’s political turmoil

Pakistan has been immersed in political crises for over 20 years. Despite being one of the world’s few nuclear powers, Pakistan’s internal instability has caused experts to question whether the country is, in fact, a failed state. Deep divisions...

Opioid prescription rates by states and counties

The origins of the US' ongoing opioid crisis are typically traced to the more than 1 billion prescription pain pills that flooded medicine cabinets between 2005 and 2019. This prescription opioid epidemic resulted in more than 210,000 fatal overdoses and set the stage for the ongoing crisis fueled by heroin and fentanyl.

How do hurricanes form?

Tropical cyclones, also called hurricanes and typhoons, cause catastrophic damage when they strike land. This four-minute video explores the life cycle of cyclones—how atmospheric conditions, ocean temperatures, and the Earth’s rotation combine to create them, and how they are driven by winds and eventually weaken after moving over land.

The UN’s 1990s peacekeeping mission in Rwanda failed to prevent a genocide

During a 100-day period in 1994, nearly 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutu civilians were murdered, a tragedy that exemplified the limitations of the UN’s ability to protect populations from mass killing.

The Rohingya refugee emergency at a glance

This interactive website provides an in-depth dive into the Rohingya refugee emergency. According to the UNHCR, the influx of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh is one of the largest and fastest-growing refugee crises in decades. Since 2017, an...

1970s New York was viewed by many as a city in decline

By 1975, the city owed $5B to $6B in short-term debt; over a million manufacturing jobs had left the city since the end of World War II. Meanwhile, the murder rate was more than double than 10 years earlier. Graffiti was seen as illegal vandalism perpetrated by unsupervised teenagers and was viewed by some as emblematic of the larger societal decline.

Hosting the World Cup requires massive investments in infrastructure

Since the 1990s, those costs have crept into the billions. Cities are able to sell the high price tag with promises of jobs and tourism dollars, but long-term studies showed the promises were often overstated.

Why Belgium is now the cocaine capital of Europe

Belgium has become Europe’s cocaine-trafficking capital. Recently, Belgian ports have seen record seizures of cocaine. In 2020, the port of Antwerp accounted for 40% of all cocaine seizures in the EU. And local authorities are struggling with the...

Even in nature reserves, climate change is driving rapid ecological collapse

Studies show a dramatic decline in insect populations, resulting in cascading global biodiversity losses across non-insect species. The balances in tropical ecosystems are the most affected by climate change.

US cities where inflation is rising the most

WalletHub compared 22 major metropolitan areas to see how inflation has risen in the last year using the Consumer Price Index, which describes the average cost of a basket of goods. As of April 2024, Honolulu, Hawaii, clocked in with the greatest year-over-year change in prices, with inflation close to 5%. See the full list here.

Switzerland's household debt totals 125% of its GDP

Switzerland, Australia, and Canada are among the countries with the highest household debt in the world. This debt typically includes mortgages, automotive loans, credit card debt, and personal loans.

The National Housing Act established the Federal Housing Administration

During the Great Depression, 1,000 homes were foreclosed on per day, and half of the mortgages across the country defaulted. To address this crisis, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Housing Act. It established the Federal Housing Administration, which is still around today and helps protect lenders and buyers.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

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.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

The power and influence of the American presidency have expanded significantly over time—far beyond what the founders envisioned.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

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

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Fear or disgust related to clusters of holes and cracks, called trypophobia, may stem from evolutionary processes to help us avoid pathogens.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

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

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Venture capital is a form of funding provided to early-stage companies with high growth potential, typically in exchange for an equity (or ownership) stake

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

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.