Smuggling

Despite the clear and growing dangers of crossing the Mediterranean Sea in search of refuge in Europe, the stream of migrants is only getting bigger. The people making the journey say it’s better to take a deadly chance than die slowly in civil wars or along the dangerous routes away from home.

This American millionaire set up the first privately-funded search and rescue operation in the waters off of North Africa.

Shukri Alassouli, a 33-year-old man from Gaza, was trying to find a better life for his young family in Europe. But their journey across the Mediterranean in smugglers’ boats turned into what the UN called the deadliest accident of its kind, killing hundreds and losing Shukri’s wife, daughter and young son at sea.

ISIS is funding its war by selling oil from the fields it controls in Iraq and Syria, to the tune of millions of dollars. Strangely enough, the enemies it is fighting are some of the main customers. That complicates the US goal of crippling the ISIS war machine.

One of the drivers behind the Venezuelan street protests is a lack of basic consumer goods, from toilet paper to food. Now the government thinks it has a partial answer — a sort of supermarket loyalty card that it hopes will cut down on hoarding and speculation. But some critics say the idea is just creepy.One of the drivers behind the Venezuelan street protests is a lack of basic consumer goods, from toilet paper to food. Now the government thinks it has a partial answer — a sort of supermarket loyalty card that it hopes will cut down on hoarding and speculation. But some critics say the idea is just creepy.