Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: A billion people without ID

Make us preferred on Google

1.5 million: China said it has "returned to society" some 1.5 million mainly Muslim Uighurs detained in internment camps in Xinjiang. The detainees were released after "graduating" from vocational training, according to Beijing, but increasing international criticism and a string of damning media exposes are believed to have pressured China to release them.


9: Lebanon's "confessional" system of government, which apportions top positions to people based on their religion, costs the country as much as 9% of GDP every year as a result of corruption and mismanagement, according to a World Bank study from 2016. The country is still struggling to form a new government six weeks after mass protests against the political system forced the prime minister's resignation.

1 billion: The next time you're in a panic after losing your driver's license, consider that roughly a billion people around the world lack any form of personal identification at all, including half the population of sub-Saharan Africa alone. Lack of ID deprives citizens of access to government services and can put people at risk of deportation, discrimination, and statelessness.

85,000: Last year, the number of Poles working abroad fell for the first time in almost a decade, as 85,000 decided to return home. Many of them left the UK because of Brexit uncertainty, and the Polish government is glad to welcome them back: Poland's population has been forecast to shrink 12 percent by 2050.

More For You

Washington’s controversial new approach to foreign aid
What do countries receiving US foreign aid owe Washington? Since returning to power in 2025, the Trump administration has drastically changed the answer to this question, pursuing an ‘America First’ philosophy that is dramatically more transactional: the US will give you money, but you must give the US something valuable in return.In the [...]
People wearing protective masks walk through the street as haze from wildfires shrouds the area in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, October 14, 2026.

People wearing protective masks walk through the street as haze from wildfires shrouds the area in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, October 14, 2026.

REUTERS/Arief Rahman Septian Prathama
Indonesia’s wildfires ignite regional tensionsIndonesia’s worst wildfires in a decade are quickly becoming a domestic and international headache for President Prabowo Subianto. He has so far refused to declare a national emergency, which would free up more resources to fight the blazes. Prabowo says the government has things under control without [...]
Senegal’s LGBTQ+ crackdown
Lottie Tellyn
Senegalese LGBTQ+ people have also faced forced HIV testing and challenges getting legal representation amid a wider crackdown. As a candidate in the 2024 election, now-president Bassirou Diomaye Faye pledged to strengthen existing laws that criminalized same-sex relations. In March the government doubled the maximum prison term for same-sex [...]
Refugees and migrants arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos, November 10, 2015. Since the start of the year, over 590,000 people have crossed into Greece, the frontline of a massive westward population shift from war-ravaged Syria and beyond.

Refugees and migrants arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos, November 10, 2015. Since the start of the year, over 590,000 people have crossed into Greece, the frontline of a massive westward population shift from war-ravaged Syria and beyond.

REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Anti-immigration political parties are making big gains across Europe these days. Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party just won two major state parliamentary elections, campaigning in part on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Spain’s far-right Vox party continues to grow in popularity, especially after a recent surge of [...]