The real reason ICE agents wear masks. Welcome to The Bigger Picture, a new show that makes sense of important news through clear visual explanations and analysis. Never in American history have we had a police force that routinely conceals agents’ names and identities – until now. We dug into government documents, court filings, and hundreds of on-the-ground videos to understand not only why ICE wears masks, but the deeper agenda behind the agency’s increasingly violent tactics.
Why China is on track for disaster in 2085 China is barreling toward a demographic disaster of the kind that no other country has ever experienced, one that could end the Chinese century just as it’s beginning. Beijing has an audacious plan to save its future – will it work?
Decoding the politics and ideas of one of the year's biggest movies. We decipher the hidden messages, coded ideas, and real-life inspirations that make One Battle After Another more than just a movie – it’s a big message about revolution, fascism, and the truth at the heart of America.
The messy truth of how wars start. There’s a big question the architects of this war won’t, or can’t, tell us: why is it being waged? We find the answer for ourselves by reconstructing how a few actors with very different agendas converged on a war that’s already coming apart.
The coming global oil crisis, mapped and explained The largest oil shock in history is just weeks away – what’s going to happen when it hits? We dig into futures markets, supply chains, and more to map out how the world economic order is about to be remade.
The economy is booming. So why are there no jobs? The US economy is booming, yet jobs are the scarcest they’ve been in many years. But what starts as a simple question – where did the jobs go? – leads to some big and surprising discoveries about the bizarre and upside-down nature of today’s economy.
What ending the Iran war would take. Iran and the US both want to make peace. It’s in their interests to make peace. So why are they struggling to do it? We investigate what that peace would look like, and what – or who – is standing in the way.
Who’s really deciding US elections. Most federal US elections are now so partisan that the outcome is foregone before voters ever show up to the polls. But it didn’t used to be that way – and the story of how our elections became fake, and of who’s really deciding the outcome if it’s not voters, reveals some uncomfortable truths about the state of American democracy.
Israel’s shrinking alliances, mapped The Western countries that have backed Israel for decades are starting to turn, little by little, step by step, against it. Each move is small on its own but you might be surprised by what you see when you put the pieces together.
The data behind why romance went from joyful to miserable. In the last few years, dating has gone from a source of joy to, for many of us, a source of stress and unhappiness. We use hard data to understand what changed and why – and how to fix it.
North Korea was supposed to be doomed. How did it pull this off? Thirty years ago, the CIA, in a secret memo, predicted its imminent collapse. And here’s the thing: they were right. How did this tiny, isolated country overcome the forces aligned against it? And why is it now declaring victory?
How 100 days of war in the Middle East upended American power and changed everything. We map out what the US, Iran, and Israel each won and lost the war, leading us to some big and startling conclusions about how this conflict has radically changed the world – maybe for good.