YouTube’s Creator Partnership Program (YPP) ostensibly shares advertising income fairly with eligible creators – roughly 55% of ad revenue goes to the creator, 45% to YouTube. Under this system, creators who reach the YPP eligibility thresholds (typically 1,000 subscribers and…
When US authorities announced the seizure of a Pablo Picasso sketch in 2024 purchased at Christie’s New York in 2014, it made headlines. Investigators traced the…
Fashion weeks (pictured: runway scene at the bottom) are synonymous with glamour and creativity, but beneath the surface lies a harsh reality. Creative teams…
Grammy Award trophies on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum are the symbols of music’s highest honors. Beneath their shining façade, however, lies a…
Voice actors are the unseen lifeblood of blockbuster games, yet their industry is rife with exploitation and unfair practices. Major studios earn billions of dollars annually, but SAG-AFTRA…
Reality TV markets itself as an unscripted, authentic peek into contestants’ lives, but rising evidence shows the stage is often set with deception. Contestants in talent competitions, dating shows,…
Electric scooters have proliferated on streets worldwide, touted as a green and fun alternative to cars. However, emergency rooms and trauma centers report alarming spikes in scooter-related injuries.…
India’s film industry, churning out some 2,000 movies a year, relies on thousands of background dancers to “create a ‘movement’” behind the stars. These supporting artists bring glamour…
Behind many political documentaries lurk opaque funders and hidden agendas. “Dark money”, undisclosed, and untraceable funding has long swayed elections and public policy. Recent investigations about Dark Money…
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) DNA kits promise to tailor your workout or diet plans to your unique genetics, but an investigation reveals a storm of problems. Companies like 23andMe, DNAFit,…
The entertainment industry’s glossy facade often conceals a harsh reality for models on music video sets and industry insiders report that Exploitation of Fashion Models is brutal worldwide.…
The promise of fitness trackers and wearable algorithms is irresistible: real-time data on heart rate, sleep, calories, and more, all designed to help us train smarter and live…
Energy drinks are marketed worldwide as quick energy boosters for sport or work, but recent legal cases allege those promotions cross the line into deception. While sales have…
The wellness industry has exploded into a trillion-dollar global enterprise, promising rest, rejuvenation and even radical cures for mind and body. Yet behind lush marketing and Instagram-perfect images…
The recent boom in delivery‐only “ghost” or dark kitchens has rewritten how we eat, but at what cost? In these models, operators run one commercial kitchen that produces…
Money laundering is a global problem that can find its way into unexpected places. Experts warn that any system involving large cash prizes or sponsorships is vulnerable. Professional…
Investigative reports and insider testimonies paint a damning picture of how deep-rooted financial malpractices have infected the ownership of India’s cricket leagues. Over the last decade, news leaks…
India’s booming IT and outsourcing sector, a $200+ billion industry employing millions is a critical engine of the global economy. Yet recent investigations reveal a troubling underbelly: widespread…
In recent years U.S. officials have sounded the alarm that Chinese-owned mobile apps are siphoning sensitive data from government-issued devices. In December 2022 Congress banned TikTok on all…
The global tech boom has a grim underside: the dangerous, often deadly mining of cobalt in Africa. Cobal, a critical component in lithium-ion batteries is mined predominantly in…
European cities are rapidly rolling out “smart city” technologies like sensor networks, intelligent streetlights, automated license-plate readers and CCTV cameras under the promise of efficiency and safety. However,…
The rollout of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) carries enormous economic promise and, investigators warn, equally enormous risks of graft. 5G’s advanced capabilities (illustrated below)…
Silicon Valley’s gleaming tech campuses mask a darker history: decades of hidden toxic pollution from chip manufacturing. Once celebrated as the heart of “clean” high-tech industry, the region’s…
China dominates the global supply of rare earth elements i.e critical minerals used in every smartphone, laptop, and electric vehicle but a growing body of evidence suggests a…
Ireland’s status as a corporate tax haven for multinational technology firms has come under intense scrutiny. Once a peripheral player, Ireland’s low 12.5% corporate tax rate and generous…
AI writing Platforms and tools have exploded in popularity, offering content writers everything from draft generation to SEO optimization. But behind the convenience lurks a critical question: Which…
The boom in IT outsourcing has led most American companies to hire external developers, but at what cost? Recent data show 94% of businesses use some form of IT outsourcing,…
Latin American governments have embraced digital platforms for citizen services but an investigation reveals a stark pattern of privacy abuses. In multiple countries, sensitive personal data from online…
Project management and collaboration software like Asana, Trello, Monday.com, ClickUp, Jira, Basecamp, and Notion have become indispensable for businesses worldwide. Major corporations and small teams alike rely on…
In recent years, selling online has promised small retailers a chance to reach millions of customers. Yet the reality for many merchants is that platforms take a growing…
SEO professionals rely on audit platforms to assess website health and link authority. Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Moz promise simple scores like Domain Rating (DR), Authority Score,…
In recent years, the public relations industry has seen explosive growth in media-relations services, especially for tech startups and high-profile clients. Many PR agencies boast of landing their…
Leading social media scheduling services and platforms such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social, Later, Zoho Social and others have become indispensable for brands, influencers and small businesses worldwide.…
The past decade has seen a dramatic rise of “virtual” or delivery-only restaurants powered by celebrity names and social-media hype and social media chef franchise model. Global pop…
Global conferences have migrated online in recent years, with world leaders and experts connecting via high-resolution video calls. Yet with that transition, any platform outage carries immediate consequences.…
In a world where nearly every business relies on email to reach customers, the question of how marketing platforms handle subscriber data has never been more urgent. We…
The explosion of online “do-it-yourself” (DIY) home renovation content has created a generation of amateur builders and decorators. Social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok teem with glossy,…
Boutique fitness studio franchises as in think trendy spin, HIIT, boxing and yoga classes under brands like F45, Orangetheory, Barry’s, and SoulCycle promise a winning formula: passionate communities,…
Worldwide, youth unemployment has become a tinderbox for public anger. Governments routinely launch programs to train and employ young people, but mounting evidence reveals that many such schemes…
Global cybercrime has found new muscle in “hackers for hire” as often young coders lured by money or ideology into illicit hacking rings. Our investigation reveals a vast…
A growing gig economy promises flexibility and extra income, but a closer look shows a disturbing pattern: students and young people are being used as a source of…
In economies worldwide, so-called “internships” have become a common way for employers to obtain labor at little or no cost, often at the expense of new graduates. Our…
In recent years thousands of youth climate protests worldwide have flooded city streets demanding urgent climate action. Inspired by Swedish schoolgirl Greta Thunberg, students and youth activists organized…
Since the early 2010s Pakistan has gradually tightened control over non-governmental organizations. In 2015 the Interior Ministry seized Save the Children’s Islamabad office and later forced dozens of…
In villages across India, indebted farmers nurse fading hopes. Many recall political promises of debt relief, only to find the aid slow or patchy. For example, 67-year-old Kumarpal…
Since Pakistan’s founding and partition from India in 1947, political life especially in the provinces has been dominated by a handful of powerful families and political dynasties in…
Since 2014, India’s state governments have aggressively expanded and enforced Freedom of Religion Acts (often called anti-conversion laws) under the banner of protecting vulnerable populations. In practice, however,…
India’s deeply entrenched caste system has fueled generations of protest by Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalized communities demanding equality and justice. Yet in many of these anti-caste rallies,…
Banks worldwide have quietly raised standard consumer-account fees in tandem, prompting accusations of collusion or “banking cartels.” In a hard-hitting investigative report, we examine global trends in overdraft,…
Americans spend hundreds of billions on prescription drugs each year, yet life-saving medicines are often out of reach. In the United States, drug spending rose 330% over 20…
Experts warn that modern electric vehicles (EVs) are “crawling with computers, various radios, Lidar sensors and external cameras” and in short, rife with data that could be of…
Global fast‑fashion brands pride themselves on speed and style, but hidden behind their glossy storefronts is the grim reality of supply chain slavery. The clothes that fill shopping…
In India’s energy landscape, coal remains both a lifeline and a curse. The country has the world’s fourth‑largest coal reserves and has historically relied on the black fuel…
The forcible expropriation of Indigenous lands in Brazil has escalated into a full-blown crisis. Since at least 2020, powerful agribusiness, illegal miners and cattle ranchers have been invading…
Chile’s economy is built on copper. The Andean nation has become one of the world’s leading suppliers of copper, lithium and other minerals, and the profits have created…
Political repression has long been a feature of Venezuela’s ruling regimes. As one observer notes, “political repression has been a hallmark of the Chavista era,” with a sharp rise…
The oilfields of Ecuador’s Amazon have been called a curse by local leaders. The northern provinces of Sucumbíos, Orellana and Pastaza sit atop the country’s richest petroleum deposits,…
The 2024 local election campaign in Mexico was mired in violence. In late April 2024, two political candidates were murdered within hours of each other during campaign events…
Vote buying networks in Rural Bolivia has long been fertile ground for clientelist politics, where candidates and parties cultivate networks of influence through gifts, subsidies and informal ties.…
Gender-based violence in post-conflict Africa is a silent emergency that rarely makes headlines. In war-torn regions, women and girls face not only the immediate terror of warfare but…
The scramble for cheap labor in Africa’s construction and farming boom has created a crisis of exploitation. Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Africa, both internal (rural-to-urban) and from…
The colonial-era looting of African cultural treasures has spawned a modern multi billion-dollar black market. From Benin Bronzes felled by British troops in 1897 to Egyptian mummies smuggled…
Access to justice in Africa i.e the ability to seek and obtain legal remedies is a fundamental right enshrined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16 (“justice for…
Africa’s artisanal and informal mines from gold pits to cobalt fields are at the center of a hidden crisis. Multitudes of men, women and children toil under coercion…
Across Africa, reporters face mounting threats from governments and armed actors alike. Press freedom in Africa is rapidly declining as 80% of its countries saw deteriorating media conditions…
Youth are rising as a formidable force in Africa’s politics. The continent’s population skews overwhelmingly young where more than 60% are under 25 years old and many of these…
International companies operating across Africa have long been linked to a series of devastating oil, mining and agribusiness accidents. Yet survivors and advocates say justice is elusive. In…
Across Africa, governments have been selling or outsourcing formerly state-run services like electricity, water, healthcare, and more to private firms. Decades after bold promises of efficiency and investment,…
Across Africa, a silent coup is underway. Not through tanks rolling down capital city streets or midnight arrests, but through constitutional amendments passed in marble-floored parliament buildings. From…
The sanctuary of Christ Embassy Church in Lagos falls silent as Pastor Chris Oyakhilome steps to the pulpit on this humid Sunday morning in March 2024. Before him…
African nations have increasingly turned to home-grown solutions to violent conflict. Via the Regional Peacekeeping Forces In Africa, Since 2000, roughly 38 African-led peacekeeping missions have been launched…
Governments across Africa are increasingly using sophisticated spyware to monitor and intimidate political opposition. Independent investigations about government spyware surveillance in Africa by Amnesty International, Citizen Lab, Privacy…
Africa’s struggle with corruption and insecurity has deep roots in the collusion between political power and criminal networks. In nation after nation, from oil-rich Nigeria to resource-rich Congo,…
Foreign powers and private interests are intensifying campaigns of digital propaganda to influence African elections. In 2024, a record 80+ national votes involved half the global population. An…
Across volatile battlefields, governments and militias increasingly rely on private military contractors in Africa (PMCs) i.e ostensibly civilian mercenaries to tip the scales of conflict. From Moscow’s Wagner…
Over the past two decades, China has dramatically expanded its economic footprint in Africa financing highways, ports, dams and factories with billions of dollars of loans and investment.…
At dawn on March 15, 2024, government trucks surrounded the village of Soitsambu in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Armed officers ordered Maasai families to gather their belongings immediately.…
An Investigation into the $88.6 Billion Annual Drain That Keeps a Continent in Poverty While Enriching Global Financial Centers Every single day, approximately $242.7 million vanishes from Africa…
Despite two decades of international efforts to eliminate conflict diamonds, a sophisticated network of smugglers, corrupt officials, and criminal enterprises continues to funnel billions of dollars worth of…
The numbers are staggering and the methods barbaric. Every year, criminal syndicates operating across Africa slaughter more than 30,000 elephants, 400 rhinos, and millions of pangolins to feed…
The whistleblower’s hands trembled as she held the damning documents. Babita Deokaran, a financial manager at South Africa’s Tembisa Hospital, had uncovered what would become one of Africa’s…
The numbers are staggering and the evidence overwhelming: across Africa, billions of dollars in foreign aid intended to lift populations out of poverty are systematically diverted into the…
In a cramped internet café in Lagos, Nigeria, twenty-three-year-old Emmanuel Adebayo scrolls through his smartphone, executing what appears to be a routine peer-to-peer trade. While we research and…
Mining trucks navigate the scarred terrain of a massive copper pit in the Democratic Republic of Congo as we investigate and research about Africa Shell Companies Mining, their…
78 years of Indian independence and Hindi Imposition Controversy still lingers. India’s 1950 Constitution named Hindi (in Devanagari script) as the official language of the Union, with English…
While it’s become commonplace to use data and AI tools for investigations into financial or government wrongdoing or the environment, it’s perhaps less common for investigating the arts…
When Ghanaian journalist Noah Dameh was relentlessly harassed — targeted by police, dragged to court, and driven to failing health — for exposing a business magnate’s exploitative monopoly…
For more than two years, Amnesty International’s Algorithmic Accountability Lab (AAL) has led a sweeping probe into Udbetaling Danmark (UDK), Denmark’s welfare agency. The findings reveal troubling patterns…
The investigations that caught our eye this year display the diversity that exists in the world of Francophone watchdog reporting. We have seen stories in a wide variety…
It was no surprise to Jerry Mitchell to learn high-ranking law enforcement officials had been accused of behaving badly in parts of Mississippi where journalists had not kept a watchful…
The United Nations process for evaluating national human rights records is long and a little complex, but nevertheless offers valuable material for journalists to use when exploring human…
In July 1965, police officer Edward Nugent shot and killed John Wesley Wilder, a Black man outside a cafe in Ruston, Louisiana. The officer — who fired five…
Is reporting possible while living under persecution? When you don’t know from where you’ll be attacked, or if you will be discredited, threatened, intimidated, or forced into exile?…
When Republika Srpska’s National Assembly passed its controversial “foreign agent law” earlier this year, it did not just target civil society, it drew a direct line under the…
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is India’s largest Hindu nationalist volunteer organization, founded in 1925. It claims to be a cultural body, but its Hindutva ideology and disciplined…
The Reuters Institute recently released is annual deep dive into the state of global digital media, and its findings capture a landscape undergoing rapid shifts among the public’s…
US President Donald Trump marked the Fourth of July by signing into law a federal budget bill with far-reaching implications for redistributing wealth in the country, since its…
Last year, a seven-month-long collaborative investigation about migrant abuses on cargo truck smuggling routes exposed systemic and lethal abuses involved with the growing use of cargo trucks to…
In this story, Clark Merrefield interviews the Reuters team that exposed the use of migrant child labor by companies in the US South — an investigation that was…
Illicit drug money is only a fraction of what Latin America’s multibillion-dollar crime conglomerates deposit in tax havens around the world. Illegal gold mining, unsanctioned logging in the…
In a region plagued by poverty, inequality, and attacks on press freedom, Latin American journalists have ventured into nonprofit journalism to uphold democracy. Research by SembraMedia found that…
A reporting network that reaches hundreds of millions of people around the world, established with the aim of promoting democracy, and often providing the only alternatives to local,…
The South Asian region, which includes India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Pakistan only contains about 3% of the world’s landmass, but hosts 22% of…
To track how US President Donald Trump’s executive orders affecting transgender people are being enforced across the country, the Trans Journalists Association and the nonprofit, collaborative news site…
Journalist Elizabeth Salazar arrived at an isolated Indigenous community of the Kakataibo ethnic group in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon one night in 2024 to investigate how…
Just weeks before the start of India’s nationwide 2024 elections, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would shockingly underperform, the country’s Supreme Court issued…
A decade ago, India, the world’s largest democracy, proudly upheld its free press and the powerful institutions that kept the ruling class in check. Since then, though, the…
The last few weeks have been marked by escalating tensions, both across the Middle East, with direct attacks between Israel and Iran, and inside the United States, where…
New oligarchs are created all the time. As authoritarianism has grown around the world, so too have new corrupt relationships emerged between autocrats and unscrupulous businesspeople who seek…
When 54 years of Assad dynasty rule in Syria came to a somewhat abrupt end, after a series of armed rebel offensives culminated in the capture of Damascus…
Success—whether in business or in life—has long been measured by familiar yardsticks: GDP growth, quarterly profits, test scores, and productivity metrics. Yet many leaders, thinkers and even governments…
From São Paulo to Sydney, Lagos to London, artists have long interwoven creativity with protest. In every era, art has echoed the struggles of the people. “From the…
Education is universally recognized as transformative. As UNESCO notes, education “transforms lives” and is at the heart of efforts to eradicate poverty and advance sustainable development. Yet today’s…
Jacob Thomas, a Kansas farmer, put the problem in stark terms after federal cuts to a school lunch program: “For the first time in my life, I don’t…
India’s honour killing belt – spanning Haryana, Rajasthan and western Uttar Pradesh – has been the site of a horrifying surge in murders justified as protecting family “honour.” Over the…
India’s Aadhaar digital ID was sold as a tool to deliver faster, cleaner social welfare and yet it resulted in a digital welfare divide. By 2021, a staggering 1.4 billion residents…
Image: A child domestic worker washing dishes in India. Millions of women and girls toil as home helpers – often unseen and unprotected by law (Photo by Biswarup…
India’s booming cities are under siege not only from rapid development but also from a disturbing pattern of urban slum fire evictions. In recent years, a spate of sudden,…
For millions of Indian families, admission to a private school is a ticket to quality education and opportunity. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act…
Despite the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (PoA Act) in 1989 and its subsequent amendments, caste-based violence remains rampant in India.…
In the digital age, our personal information has become a valuable commodity. Data brokers, operating behind the scenes, are collecting, analyzing, and packaging vast amounts of consumer data,…
India’s Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016 aims to empower disabled individuals by expanding the list of recognized disabilities from seven to 21 and mandating a…
The Silent War on Tribal Land Evictions The Hasdeo Aranya forest, spanning 1,700 square kilometers across Chhattisgarh, India, is home to over 5,000 Gond and Oraon tribal people.…
Manual scavenging, the inhumane practice of manually cleaning, carrying, and disposing of human excreta, persists in India despite multiple legal bans and judicial directives. In 2025, the Supreme…
The quota system, also known as the reservation system in India, has been a significant policy aimed at addressing historical caste-based inequality and promoting social equity. However, over…
India’s “Digital India” revolution promised efficiency, inclusion, and transparency. It built a sprawling infrastructure: a unique biometric ID (Aadhaar) for over a billion people, digital document wallets (DigiLocker),…
Despite decades of high economic growth and numerous government schemes, child malnutrition rates in India remain among the world’s worst. The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019–21)…
In recent years, the NPA crisis in Indian public sector banks has dominated headlines and boardrooms alike. A century of public banking, once a pillar of India’s growth, now lies…
The promise of the Ujjwala LPG Scheme Yojana was simple yet powerful: free LPG connections and cylinders for poor rural women, ending the drudgery of wood stoves. But…
India’s vanishing forests are shrinking in real time, even as millions of dollars meant to replace them vanish into bureaucratic black holes. In theory, every hectare of forest…
The electoral bonds scheme – introduced in 2018 and scrapped by India’s Supreme Court in February 2024 – transformed political fundraising. Suddenly, individuals and companies could donate crores of rupees…
In the summer of 2019, Congress raced to finalize a bipartisan bill to end the scourge of “surprise” medical bills – unexpected, sky-high charges for hospital care that…
During the COVID-19 crisis, as hospitals filled and unemployment soared, a handful of well-connected corporations and insiders reaped staggering profits. Critics have dubbed these big winners “pandemic profiteers,”warning that…
The June 2023 Wagner Mutiny by Russia’s Wagner private army stunned the Kremlin and the world. Wagner fighters under Yevgeny Prigozhin seized Rostov-on-Don and rolled hundreds of kilometers…
Alexei Navalny emerged in the 2000s as an energetic crusader against corruption in Russia. A former lawyer and online blogger, he founded the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and used…
In a bid for independence, the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016, sparking years of political upheaval. But for many businesses the result has been steep Brexit…
This is the story of how Windrush scandals rocked Britain and why Windrush Reparations came into existence. June 22, 1948 – the arrival of the Empire Windrush at Tilbury…
In late 2023 and early 2024, China’s property giant Evergrande collapsed under the weight of $300+ billion in liabilities, triggering a crisis of unfinished homes, angry homeowners, and financial uncertainty…
In China’s far-western Xinjiang region, an entrenched security apparatus now envelopes the Uyghur and other Muslim minorities. Since around 2016, Chinese authorities have swept over a million people…
Roots of the Unrest: New Farm Laws and Economic Stakes In September 2020, India’s Parliament pushed through three sweeping farm bills with little public debate, triggering alarm among…
Pegasus Spyware India, a military-grade phone-hacking tool made by Israel’s NSO Group, has triggered a global scandal. In July 2021 a consortium of media outlets (“The Pegasus Project”)…
Almost three Years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (June 2022), the end of Roe v. Wade has shattered decades of abortion…
In the 2022 midterms, the U.S. campaign finances were flooded by an unprecedented series of outside spending. In This Dark Money News Series we analyze and reveal how…
“There are places in India where time moves slowly, where history is buried under the weight of oppression, where whispers of horror linger in the air long after…