Google added an AI image generator to Google Earth, users faked collapsed landmarks and disasters on top of real satellite imagery, and Google pulled it in 24 hours. Why faked satellite images are uniquely dangerous, and how to spot one.

A US State Department slide at AIDS 2026 showed an OpenAI-generated map of Africa with Nigeria in the Sahara and every border wrong. As map makers who use AI tools daily, we redrew the errors on real geography and explain why image models structurally cannot do cartography.

Thousands crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in a single day, with at least nine deaths, and Spain is deploying the military. Maps of the enclave’s border fence, the swim routes at El Tarajal and Benzú, and the Mediterranean migration routes in 2026.

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck near Uto in Kumamoto Prefecture on 28 July 2026, killing at least 13 people, collapsing part of a shopping mall and damaging Kumamoto Castle. Maps of the epicenter, aftershocks and worst-hit sites.

Viral hepatitis now kills more people than HIV. Mapped: where hepatitis B kills the most, why deaths are rising, and the few countries on track to eliminate it.

A map of official gold reserves by country in 2026: who holds the most, who keeps the biggest share of reserves in gold, and why central banks kept buying even as the price fell.

A small group of countries collects most of the world’s $1.6 trillion in tourism receipts. We map the biggest earners, who profits most per visitor, and which economies depend on tourism most.

TikTok is used by more than a billion people, but a growing number of governments have decided it is a problem. Some block it outright. Some bar it for children.

The world is getting slightly less hungry, but not everywhere, and not fast enough. The UN’s flagship State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2026, published on

7-Eleven is the largest convenience-store chain on Earth, with roughly 85,000 stores worldwide. Yet for all that scale, you can only walk into one in 20 countries. There is no

A handful of narrow sea passages carry the weight of the entire global economy. If you funnel the world’s oil tankers, container ships and grain carriers through a map, they

Religious persecution is back near the top of the global agenda. In the space of a few weeks in mid-2026, three of the most watched trackers all landed at once:

A self-styled “network state” just learned how much it still depends on ordinary nation-states. In July 2026, Malaysian authorities revoked the operating licence of the Network School, a tech community

Look at a world map of shipping lanes and a handful of narrow passages carry a wildly outsized share of global trade. The Bab-al-Mandab Strait, the slim channel between Yemen

Every country’s sovereign credit rating, mapped. Only 11 nations still hold the top AAA grade after the US and France were downgraded, while Greece and India climb. S&P ratings for 2026.

StartupBlink’s 2026 index of 100 countries and 1,556 cities, mapped: the US extends its record lead, France drops out of the top 10, and Central Asia is the fastest-growing startup region on Earth.