Series from 2013
From Afghanistan to North Korea to Thailand and beyond, some of the most shocking, compelling and entertaining news stories go unreported by the mains…
In the Philippines, election season is more like hunting season as rivals simply rub out their opponents instead of defeating them at the polls. In Afghanistan, senior members of the Taliban are now manipulating children and teenagers into carrying out their suicide bombings.
'Escape from North Korea' - Thousands of North Koreans cross the border into China illegally every year. If arrested in communist Laos, they may be sent back to North Korea to face prison camp or worse. VICE joins a South Korean pastor who has developed a modern-day underground railroad to move defectors from China to freedom and eventual citizenship in South Korea. 'World's Most Dangerous Border' - The most dangerous place in the world is Kashmir's line of control, which partially occupies the Indian state and separates India from Pakistan. Observers in both India and Pakistan believe the decades-old conflict between the two nations could potentially lead to the end of the world as we know it. VICE travels across Pakistan to the contested line of control in Kashmir, pointing out how close a nuclear apocalypse is yet again.
'Gun School' (correspondent: Thomas Morton) - With an average of 83 people dying in gun-related violence every day in the U.S., the debate over firearms continues to heat up. VICE visits the New Life Baptist Church & Academy in Albuquerque, NM, where Pastor Larry Allen preaches guns and teaches guns. His school is fully armed with an ex-police security team, and his young students are taught gun drills and tactics to disarm attackers. 'Toxic Iraq' (correspondent: Shane Smith) - After ravaging Iraq over the past decade, the U.S. is finally exiting the country, leaving behind a toxic cesspool of military waste. Since the assaults on Fallujah in 2004, the city has seen an astronomical rise in birth defects and abnormalities, which some have linked to the American military's suspected use of depleted-uranium rounds munitions during the war. We go back to Iraq--but this time, with a Geiger counter in hand.
'Chinese Cockblock' (correspondent: Thomas Morton) - What happens when 50 million men can't get laid? China's one child policy, coupled with a longstanding cultural predilection for male babies, has created a market where marrying-age men outnumber women by the millions. The fabric of this social engineering has thrown old-fashioned courtship out the window and created a lucrative business catered to matchmaking. VICE travels across China to meet with bachelors searching for love, and talk to a professional matchmaker who explains the scope of the issue and tries to find a girlfriend for correspondent Thomas Morton.'European Meltdown' (correspondent: Shane Smith) - With their economy in the toilet and no jobs to be had, Europe's youth are taking to the streets to demand radical changes. There has been a rise in extremism on both ends of the spectrum, as people respond to economic precarity and political impotency. VICE heads to Greece and Spain, two of the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis, to see how the youth are responding.
'Mormon Lost Boys' (correspondent: Thomas Morton) - In today's Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) Church, many young men have been thrown out of their homes because of an edict allowing polygamist church elders to monopolize all the eligible young girls. These lost boys, few of whom have even an 8th-grade education, must adjust to a drastically different America than the one they grew up in. We travel to Colorado Springs to meet some of these young men and listen to their harrowing stories. 'The Fat Farms of Mauritania' (correspondent: Thomas Morton) - Ironically, in one of the world's poorest countries, obesity is a sign of beauty and wealth. In the West African country of Mauritania, parents send their daughters to rural fattening camps, where they are force-fed over 15,000 calories a day in camel milk, figs, oiled breadcrumbs and couscous. VICE sends its skinniest correspondent to one of these camps to examine the impact of force-feeding on young women in a society that loves them so plump. 'Mumbai Slumscraper' (correspondent: Shane Smith) - Nowhere in the world is the collision of caste and future more apparent than in Mumbai, where more than half its residents live in slums sprawled in the shadow of billion-dollar, single-family skyscrapers. VICE travels to Mumbai's Dharavi slum, where over a million people live in abject poverty while billion-dollar single-family skyscrapers are being built on top of them.
'China's Ghost Towns' - Fifteen years ago, China changed its policy so people could buy their own homes. Real-estate investments boomed, and new cities began popping up each year, many inspired by western design and mimicking iconic locales like Paris and lower Manhattan. The problem is: people don't live here. One ghost city in Inner Mongolia, built to house one million people, is now an empty shell of unoccupied skyscrapers and abandoned construction sites. 'Egypt on the Brink' - Over two years ago, Arab Spring climaxed in the overthrow of President Mubarek in Egypt. But for many Egyptians, the situation has actually gotten worse, as has the man who replaced Mubarek: Mohamed Morsi, elected under the radical Muslim Brotherhood banner. VICE visits the embattled streets of Cairo, where opposition to Morsi has resulted in renewed mass protests and violence in Tahrir Square.