A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on 10 August 2026, killing at least 111 people and shaking four countries. We map the epicenter in Chocó, the affected cities, and why a quake 110 km deep was felt so far.

More than 170 countries charge VAT, but the rate swings from 27% in Hungary to nothing in the United States. We map standard VAT and sales tax rates worldwide, and why Europe taxes consumption hardest.

About 476 million indigenous people live across 90 countries. We map them two ways: as a share of population, where Greenland, Bolivia and Guatemala lead, and by total numbers, where China and India dominate, plus why the figures carry real caveats.

On 12 August 2026 a total solar eclipse crosses Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain at sunset, the first over mainland Europe since 1999 and Spain’s first since 1905. We map the path of totality, the cities inside it, and when to look.

Critical minerals are mined all over the world but refined almost entirely in one country. We map the gap between mining and processing for rare earths, lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and copper, and why China’s refining chokepoint has become a geopolitical weapon.

Russia now carries about 26,655 sanctions designations, more than Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar and Cuba combined. We map the world’s sanctions by intensity and type, from comprehensive embargoes to targeted measures, as the EU’s 21st package phases in.

The synchronized 2024–25 easing cycle is over. We map every country’s central-bank policy rate in 2026, plus who’s hiking, holding and cutting, from the divided Fed’s 3.50–3.75% hold to Turkey’s 37%.

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the Campi Flegrei supervolcano near Naples on 31 July 2026, the strongest in 40 years, injuring 21 and cutting ferries to Ischia and Procida. Maps of the caldera, the epicentre, and the record-breaking rise in quakes.

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: