Syrians in their own words

A survey of armed conflict in the Middle East

The decade following the Arab Spring has been one of bloodshed and violence in the Middle East. In 2011, protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya led to infighting and political fragmentation. Civil wars, foreign interventions, and the rise of...

An interactive overview of the human toll of the Yemen conflict

The conflict in Yemen shows no signs of stopping. Civilians continue to suffer from military hostilities and human rights violations. More than 20,000 civilians have been killed and injured by the fighting since March 2015, according to the Office...

An interactive documentary exploring violence in the Central African Republic

This photographic and audio documentary explores a decade of violence in the Central African Republic. In March 2013, rebel groups in the north of the country united to form Seleka, which went on to take power of CAR’s capital. Waves of violence...

The story of Palestine through the eyes of its people

Issues of identity are crucial to understanding Israel-Palestine. This site weaves individual narratives with key historical moments and common Q&As around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ordinary people share personal stories about surviving massacres, displacement, and military occupation. And young Palestinians from across the world reflect on their identity, life under occupation, exile, and future aspirations. Explore what it means to be Palestinian through this interactive site by Al Jazeera.

Timeline: the Kurds’ quest for independence

The Kurds have a long history of fighting for rights and regional autonomy across the Middle East. After WWI, when the Middle East was reconfigured, the Kurds were dispersed across the new borders of previous Ottoman territories. The idea of an...

How the Turkish earthquake created a 100-mile rupture

A February 2023 earthquake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria destroying entire blocks, with more than 50,000 people killed. A scientific analysis revealed a fault line with a 100-mile-long rupture, where separate tectonic plates moved more than...

The rise of ISIS, explained in 6 minutes

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is incredibly powerful, and has seemingly done the impossible. The group has seized vast areas of the Middle East to form a mini-state it calls a reincarnation of the ancient Caliphate. Since forming, ISIS has waged war with all of its neighbors and has launched deadly terror attacks all over the world. This six-minute video, by Vox, outlines the history and rise of ISIS.

'20 Days in Mariupol' is a firsthand look at a siege from the war's front lines

The award-winning documentary "20  Days in  Mariupol" follows a Ukrainian AP team trapped in Mariupol during the first weeks of Russia's 2022 invasion—documenting the bombing of a hospital, mass graves, and civilians under siege. Note: graphic content.

Journal entries by a 10-year-old girl living through the Civil War

So much of war history is written by politicians, officers, and soldiers. Less often heard from are civilians who witnessed the effects and bigger events of a war. Carrie Mabry Berry was a 10-year-old girl who lived in Atlanta during the Civil War who kept a diary. In it she recorded events like General Sherman's shelling of Atlanta and more. This article provides a peek in Carrie's diary.

What is Captagon, the addictive drug mass-produced in Syria?

Diplomatic discussions among Arab countries have recently featured Captagon – the addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant mass-produced in Syria and smuggled to the Gulf states. Relatively unknown outside of the Middle East, Captagon was once the...

'Cold War Conversations' podcast shares voices from the conflict's frontlines

This award-winning podcast features gripping interviews with the people who lived through the Cold War—spies, soldiers, defectors, and civilians. Covering everything from the Berlin Wall to nuclear standoffs, it offers unfiltered, emotional accounts of Cold War life and conflict.

What 9/11 did to one family: the heartbreaking story of Bobby McIlvaine

Grief, conspiracy theories, and a family's search for meaning in the two decades since the attacks. On Sept. 11, 2001, Bobby McIlvaine was killed, along with nearly 3,000 other Americans. In the years since, his parents and brother have searched for...

What happened to the Vietnamese refugees who wanted to return home?

Not all who fled Vietnam at the end of the war wanted to be resettled in the US. But those who returned faced an unwelcoming government. This article follows one man's attempt to reunite with his family.

The worst cyberattacks of the last 10 years

It’s been a rough 10 years in cybersecurity—and it’s only getting worse. From the Stuxnet to the Sony Hack, learn about the worst cyberattacks over the last decade.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom monitors and reports on religious persecution

USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal commission that tracks religious freedom conditions worldwide and provides policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state, and Congress.

An interactive investigation into drugs and migration in San Francisco

This interactive article investigates the connection between the boom in US migration from Honduras and drug dealing in San Francisco. A high concentration of Hondurans are fleeing Siria Valley, where poverty and national murder rates run high...

About 1,200 'grandmothers' returned to their homes after the Chernobyl disaster

After the evacuation of the Exclusion Zone, about 1,200 mostly elderly women illegally went back to their ancestral villages and became known as the "babushkas of Chernobyl." Some have described the trauma of permanent relocation as less tolerable than potential radiation risks.

The world's largest restaurant is the size of 10 football fields

The Bawabet Dimashq Restaurant in Damascus, Syria, has held the Guinness World Record for largest restaurant since 2008. It can seat 6,014 guests and employs nearly 1,800 people, who serve up an eclectic menu of Middle Eastern Indian, Arab, Iranian, Syrian, and Chinese dishes.

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

The crew of the ISS creates unique memorials for deceased colleagues

The continued human occupancy of the International Space Station since 2000 has led to the development of social and cultural elements by crew members, which the ISS Archaeology Project has catalogued. Records of handmade cakes, decorations, and memorabilia highlight the human aspect of living in space.

Switzerland's glaciers have lost ice volume every year since 2001

The trajectory of global warming is projected to cause three-quarters of the country's glaciers to be lost by 2100. Accelerated glacial melting worldwide affects as many as 800 million people who rely on meltwater for agriculture and personal use.

The Greek island of Sfyria's dying whistling language

Sfyria is a whistled version of modern Greek native to a corner of Euboea, the second largest island of Greece, and is used for long-distance communication. Its name derives from the Greek word sfyrizo, meaning to whistle. The language's practitioners are fighting to preserve its use and legacy, as it is one of the world's most endangered. Learn more about their fight in this article.

Sophia Amoruso reflected on the girlboss movement 10 years later

It has been more than a decade since 2014, the year Sophia Amoruso published her book “#Girlboss,” which became a New York Times bestseller. Since then, Amoruso has more or less journeyed through the seven circles of the corporate underworld, and the "girlboss" has been declared dead. This podcast episode lets listeners hear her thoughts on the legacy of the girlboss phenomenon 10 years after she started it.

The Shah used torture and other human rights abuses to maintain power before the revolution

A declassified 1976 US Embassy telegram acknowledged that the Shah held 3,400-3,500 political prisoners, documented torture allegations against the SAVAK secret police, and confirmed press censorship, even as American diplomats sought to minimize human rights concerns for Congress.

A timeline of Russia-North Korea relations

North Korea and Russia have often had aligned interests, yet their relationship has experienced many highs and lows. Al Jazeera’s explainer outlines the key events defining Russia-North Korea relations. Russia and North Korea were allies during...

Multiple sclerosis means 'many scars'

That's a reference to the scarring or lesions that occur in the brain, spinal cord, and elsewhere whenever the immune system has a flare-up. The immune system attacks the myelin because it incorrectly responds as if it's a threat, damaging the body's ability to transmit electrical signals effectively from areas of the body to the brain.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

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.

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

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

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

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

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

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

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

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.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

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

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

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

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

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

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.