The eastern Pacific produced a monster this week. Hurricane Polo exploded from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane in roughly 24 hours, briefly peaking near 180 mph (285

The UN General Assembly has endorsed the Equal Earth projection by 164 votes to 1, backing Africa’s ‘Correct the Map’ campaign against Mercator’s distortions. We map the difference: Greenland vs reality, and the US, China, India and Europe fitting inside Africa.

112 countries ban cluster munitions, but the biggest militaries never joined and Lithuania just became the first state ever to quit. As the treaty’s review convenes in Laos, the most cluster-bombed nation in history, we map who’s in, who’s out, and where the weapon still kills.

The US has renamed Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ in its federal gazetteer, Canada refuses, and Google Maps now shows the same water three different ways depending on where you stand. We map the split, the 400-year-old name, and what it means for cartography.

Sweden votes on 13 September. The centre-left leads but the gap is halving, the Liberals may vanish below the 4% threshold, and the Sweden Democrats want cabinet seats. The race, the system and the county maps, explained.

A new PLOS Medicine study estimates at least 274,000 snakebite deaths a year, double the old benchmark, with Sub-Saharan Africa, not India, carrying the largest share. We map the study’s country-level rates and tolls.

31 countries run the world’s nuclear reactors, and Bangladesh is days from becoming the newest member. We map operating capacity, the newcomers (Rooppur, El Dabaa, Akkuyu), the five countries that left, and the restart wave led by AI demand.

An ice-rock avalanche dammed a river on the Nepal-Tibet border, then let go: at least 17 dead and nearly 400 travellers, mostly Mount Kailash pilgrims, out of contact. We map the Bhote Koshi gorge, the pilgrimage route, and why this river keeps flooding.

Since 1980 the UN has transmitted 61,626 enforced disappearance cases to governments; 48,619 remain unresolved across 100 countries. Ahead of the 30 August remembrance day, we map every docket, from Iraq’s 16,428 cases to the new files from Ukraine and Syria.

From nearly nine people per home in Mali and Senegal to fewer than two in Finland, we map the UN’s newly released 2026 household data: average household size in 189 countries, the solo-living inversion map, and why homes are shrinking everywhere.

Eight countries detonated 2,056 nuclear tests between 1945 and 2017, and two-thirds happened at just two sites. Ahead of the International Day against Nuclear Tests on 29 August, we map every country’s tally and the remote places that absorbed the blasts.

China and the US have won the most esports prize money all-time, but divide by population and the map flips: tiny Denmark leads the world at $11 per citizen. We map global esports winnings, per country and per person.

The US is having its worst West Nile virus season in 22 years, with 181 cases across 29 states and Arizona the clear epicenter. We map the 2026 outbreak by state, and why the peak weeks are still ahead.

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia on 10 August 2026, killing at least 224 people with thousands injured or missing. We map the epicenter in Chocó, the affected cities, and why a quake 110 km deep was felt across four countries.

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%.