VICE

Natashya Gutierrez travels to Southeast Asia to explore a dark new form of online scamming, known as “pig butchering”, that is involuntarily perpetuated by victims of human trafficking forced to steal for the Chinese mafia who run these manipulative scams. David Noriega investigates the deaths and disappearances of Moroccan migrants as they attempt to cross the Spanish border at Melilla and examines how outsourced European immigration policies may ultimately be responsible for these tragedies.

Paola Ramos travels to Texas to see how Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s border enforcement initiative, Operation Lone Star, is potentially circumventing the federal government’s authority over immigration. One year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an estimated 300,000 casualties, Ben C. Solomon treks to the war-torn frontlines to reveal the grim reality of the ongoing conflict.

Alyza Enriques unpacks the role of detransitioners, or formerly trans-identifying people who have stopped medical treatment, in legislative efforts across the country to ban gender-affirming care, as well as those who oppose these polarizing bans. Alzo Slade travels to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which sits on top of more than half the world’s known cobalt supply, to investigate the country’s dangerous, yet highly profitable mining industry.

Matthew Cassel covers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power by partnering with far-right political parties and their historic and controversial attempt to overhaul the Israeli supreme court. Paola Ramos travels from drug labs in Mexico to Oregon, the state with the highest percentage of meth addiction in the U.S., to understand how the cartels’ newest, cheapest and most potent form of meth, known as “Supermeth”, is fueling an overwhelming national mental health crisis.

Isobel Young meets with religious hardliners in Pakistan, where insulting The Prophet is constitutionally punishable by death, and reports on how they encourage the extrajudicial killing of blasphemers without mercy. Alzo Slade explores the systemic issues behind housing inequality, from landlord concerns over the safety of their renters to how an unregulated background check industry can complicate housing access for formerly incarcerated people.

Hind Hassan travels to northwest Syria to investigate a recent devastating earthquake and what prevented critical humanitarian aid from getting to survivors in the region who needed it the most. Krishna Andavolu reports on rapid developments in artificial intelligence and learns why many in the tech industry worry that time is running out to uncover how these new AI systems really work - before they become too powerful to control.