Episode list

Three years ago, an uprising against the Assad regime turned into what looked like a straightforward civil war between Syrian government forces and rebels. However, over time, what had started as a largely secular opposition movement began to take on more of a radical Islamist tone, with two al Qaeda offshoots -- the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra -- becoming the dominant forces on the ground across the rebel-held North.ISIS's policy of kidnapping journalists has made it almost impossible to report from within Syria. But one VICE filmmaker managed to secure unprecedented access to both al-Qaeda factions battling Syria's government forces, creating this remarkable portrait of the foreign volunteers and local Syrians willing to fight and die to establish a new caliphate on Europe's doorstep.

The Olympics are as much about money as they are about sports. Between merchandising, sponsorships, broadcasting rights, and construction of the Olympic venues themselves, there's a lot of money to be made. In the case of Russia's Winter Olympics in Sochi, there's more money to be made than ever before-especially if you're a friend of President Putin. The 2014 Winter Games have cost Russia about $50 billion, making them the most expensive in history. Corruption watchdogs say it's ordinary Russians who will end up footing the bill for this excess, not private investors as Putin has suggested. We went to Sochi to investigate the claims of corruption and kickbacks, tour the some of the most expensive Olympic venues ever built, and talk to Sochi residents who have been pushed aside to make room for Putin's man-made mountains of money.

In Japan, rap music continues to grow as new rappers and producers emerge almost every day. Japan has emulated this American subculture like a science - from fashion to slang, to the grills, blunts and hoes we see today. Representing one's turf, or 'projects' is also apparent as rappers are beginning to form crews in their danchi, or public housing projects all throughout Japan. Although danchi housing can often be occupied by middle-class residents, most of Japan's low-income households end up living there due to cheaper rent, thus they are generally known as slums. Up and coming rappers Kohh Yellow T20 and his partner-in-crime, Mony Horse are two rappers who fulfill the image of your average street rapper. They come from broken households, and were raised in Tokyo's housing projects, often surrounded by drugs and violence. VICE heads to the Tokyo suburb of Kita Ward and investigates the living conditions of these projects and how the pair are trying to succeed through rap music.

As Barack Obama considers ways to enforce immigration laws "more humanely," VICE News travels to Guatemala to meet a deportee named Ray Jesus, who lives apart from his American wife and 5 American children. When Ray lived in the U.S., he was the family's breadwinner. Now they rely on welfare to get by. It turns out that deporting parents costs much more than the price of a one-way ticket home.

For almost a decade, Thailand has been trapped in a bloody conflict between supporters and opponents of the tycoon-turned-politician, Thaksin Shinawatra. During his time as prime minister, Thaksin improved life for the poor and the working class, while his autocratic tendencies and crony capitalism led his opponents, mainly made up of royalists and the middle class, to rise up. Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 for alleged abuse of power and corruption. Since then Thaksin's opponents - widely known as the Yellow Shirts - and his avid supporters, the Red Shirts, have taken turns instigating mass protests to topple their opponents. While attempting to clear her brother's name of corruption charges in November 2013, Thaksin's sister and Thailand's current PM Yingluck Shinawatra triggered a new Yellow Shirt uprising that has so far killed a reported 23 people and injured hundreds. Yingluck Shinawatra tried to diffuse the protests by dissolving Thailand's parliament and calling for new elections. But the Yellows, determined to overthrow her, began a shutdown of Bangkok on January 13th, bringing the capital to a standstill. Since the election was annulled on March 31st, Red Shirts are mobilizing and intensifying their threats of starting a civil war.

Syrian rebels had a bad year in 2013. While the mainstream rebel groups struggled to defend their front lines from the resurgent Assad regime, a renegade al Qaeda offshoot, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), launched a series of assaults. ISIS' attacks on the formerly-dominant Free Syrian Army (FSA) brigades came from behind, and led to the capture of their strongholds in rebel-held northern Syria, and the execution of their commanders. But now the rebels are fighting back. In a campaign supported by both the Saudi and US governments, a coalition of former FSA brigades - rebranded as the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF) - launched a surprise offensive against ISIS in the spring of 2014. VICE News was the first western video crew to go into northern Syria for 6 months, embedding with the SRF as they re-imposed their rule over the country's northwestern Idlib province. What we witnessed was a brief window into a complex and morally ambiguous conflict.

Around midnight on May 3, Dana Seetahal, a prominent attorney and former senator in Trinidad and Tobago, had just left a casino in the capital of Port of Spain when her vehicle was stopped by another car blocking the road. A van pulled up alongside and let loose a burst of gunfire, killing her in a well orchestrated hit. Her murder was one of approximately 170 that have occurred in the Caribbean nation so far this year, putting it on course for one of the highest murder rates in the world. The country saw only 93 murders in 1999. Last year, there were 407. VICE News visited the slums of Port of Spain and spoke with police, activists, community leaders, and gangsters to understand the country's decade-plus spike in killings. Many of the murders are attributed to ruthless and politically connected street gangs who control territories that are sometimes no larger than a city block. The gangs fight over lucrative government contracts meant to provide social services and combat unemployment. But gang violence is merely a symptom of a bigger problem. Trinidad has become an important stop for drugs headed to West Africa and the United States. Many observers point to "the big fish" - the nameless political and business elites who are behind drug trafficking and the culture of endemic corruption and murder that come with it. They are accused of turning a country rich in oil and gas deposits into their own personal narco-state, fostering impunity through a web of bribes and murders. Unlike the profits from the energy industry, however, this phenomenon trickles all the way down to the street level.

Until the civil war reached it two years ago, Aleppo was Syria's largest city and the country's commercial and industrial hub. Now the ancient city lies in ruins, 70 percent of its population has fled, and those who remain live under siege. Rebel-held areas are under constant bombardment by barrel bombs - crudely improvised explosive devices that are dropped from government aircraft. As rebel and government forces struggle for total victory, VICE filmmaker Medyan Dairieh followed the volunteers of Aleppo's Civil Defense, a civilian rescue organization, who risk their lives daily as the first responders to government airstrikes in a city seemingly abandoned by the outside world.

February 2014, Ukraine's Euromaidan revolution against the government of Viktor Yanukovych had reached another stalemate after the violence in late January. But on the 18th, massive and fatal clashes broke out between police and protesters outside the Ukrainian parliament building, the Rada. After hours of fierce fighting, the protesters were pushed back onto their last lines of defense in Independence square and just about forced the police back after an attempt to clear the square. Once the dust had settled almost 30 police and protesters had been killed, on a day where firearms were used openly by both sides for the first time. Vice News arrived a day later to a city on lockdown and Independence square resembling a dystopian protest nightmare, fires burning, everything covered in black ash and the protesters themselves looked tired and desperate as a fragile truce held throughout the night. The next day however set of a chain of events that would leave dozens of protesters dead, Yanukovych fleeing the country and the protesters firmly in control of parliament. This film tracks the last days of the Euromaidan revolution, from the mass killings of protesters by the police on 20th February, to the day Yanukovych fled his private estate, leaving behind a wealth of incriminating documents linking him to fraud, corruption and possibly even attempted murder. Within days an interim government, made up of protest figures and opposition MPs was in power and presidential elections were set for the 25th May. However, since the end of the revolution the new government has had to face a nosediving economy, the Russian annexation of Crimea and now a violent bid for independence by pro-Russian separatists in the east. After a violent and chaotic 6 months, the election gives the country a chance to look towards a future of closer links to the EU and a chance to end the corruption that dominates Ukrainian society.

Ultra-nationalist political parties scored unprecedented victories at the European elections, making the rise of the far-right in Europe impossible to ignore. Many of these groups, some of which are openly neo-Nazi, are gaining strength everywhere. In Sweden, there's been a sharp rise in political violence in the country, with crimes carried out by radical groups making headlines. However, what's unusual is that one of the most violent extremist organizations in Sweden aligns itself not with Nazism and the far-right, but with anti-fascism and the far-left. Known as the Revolutionary Front, this group of militant socialists aim to crush fascism by any means necessary. VICE News set out to try and find the Revolutionary Front, and to understand the unlikely rise of the militant far-left in Sweden.

In recent years, a small amount of hackers and gamers have been anonymously reporting fake hostage situations, shootings, and other violent crimes designed to send elite police units, like SWAT teams, to unsuspecting people at their residences. Swatting is a dangerous and expensive prank, which is easy to pull off. Swatters are utilizing easily accessible technology to mask or even alter the ID during calls to 911 dispatchers. With SWAT teams and paramilitary gear becoming the norm across small town America, these calls have predictably chaotic results. Despite the hyper-vigilance of America's law enforcement, authorities still struggle to defend themselves from the unlikeliest of threats - tech-savvy teenagers. Police militarization meets hacker culture as VICE News investigates the dangerous crime of swatting.

Britain's young Muslims are taking the fight against President Bashir al-Assad from UK towns to the frontlines of Syria. VICE News headed to the civil war-torn country to follow Amer Deghayes, a 20-year-old former student from Brighton, who joined the "holy war" against his father's wishes after carrying out extensive research online. We joined Amer after the death of his 18-year-old brother Abdullah, who died in a fierce battle against Assad forces in northern Syria. Undeterred by the bloody and brutal conflict, Amer's 16-year-old brother Jaffer has since met up with him in Syria. The UK is now attempting to combat, block, and remove thousands of items of "jihadist propaganda" from the internet in an attempt to deter Britons from taking up arms abroad. For Amer, the power of jihadist social media - which promotes stories of jihadi legend, martyrdom, and paradise - opened his eyes to the suffering of Muslims in Syria. England is also now citing returning militants as "the biggest security threat to the United Kingdom." The government's position could leave Amer - and the possibly thousands of unknown British fighters - stranded in increasingly fierce and bloody conflicts, and within the grasp of extremist jihadist groups.

West Africa is being plagued by a new outbreak of Ebola - a terrifying disease that causes its victims to bleed to death from the inside out. Ebola has no cure, and the latest epidemic is spreading fast. VICE News visited Liberia, where many feel the new outbreak began, borne from the bushmeat markets of Lofa. Western scientists feel that the consumption and preparation of meat from monkeys, fruit bats, and other forest animals is behind the transmission of Ebola, and possibly a new supervirus, which if left uncontrolled could kill a third of the world's population.

Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba, Canada - and for 16 of the past 33 years, it has also been the country's murder capital. The prairie city is home to just under 800,000 people, about 10 percent of whom are Aboriginal, meaning Winnipeg boasts the largest urban Aboriginal population in Canada. Largely impoverished and facing continual discrimination, the community has given rise to violent Aboriginal street gangs. VICE News went to Winnipeg to spend time with gang members and find out why they're linked to the majority of the city's murders.

In Jamaica, attacks, murder, and rape are common occurrences against LGBTI people, with little to no retribution or justice brought against those responsible. After being forced from shacks, derelict buildings, and their own families, many homeless LGBTI Jamaicans have found refuge in the storm drainage systems of Kingston - known locally as the gully. For trans girls and gay men unable or unwilling to hide their sexuality, the sense of community and relative safety the gully provides acts as a welcome sanctuary, and for many, a hope of change to come. VICE News traveled to the New Kingston area to see what LGBTI life is like in Jamaica - where just being who you are can mean living a life underground.

In Colombia, the heirs to Pablo Escobar's drug empire are conducting business as usual - though with a somewhat lower profile. Today's Medellin drug cartels are highly structured and run much like multinational corporations. But violent gangs operating in the city's slums provide the muscle; known as combos, they've carved Medellin into fiefdoms, imposing invisible borders between gang territory - borders that, when ignored, often get people killed. VICE News travelled to Medellin to meet gang members - along with top cartel leaders and assassins - who revealed the inner workings of the city's modern-day cocaine industry.

Mexico's notoriously violent drug cartels are diversifying. Besides trafficking narcotics, extorting businesses, and brutally murdering their rivals, cartels are now at work exploiting their country's precious number one export: oil. Every day as many as 10,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen from Mexico's state-run oil company, Pemex, through precarious illegal taps, which are prone to deadly accidents. Pemex estimates that it loses $5 billion annually in stolen oil, some of which ends up being sold over the border in US gas stations. As police fight the thieves, and the cartels fight each other, the number of victims caught in the battle for the pipelines continues to climb. VICE founder Suroosh Alvi travels to Mexico to see the effects of cartel oil theft firsthand.

Earlier this year, Detroit's Water and Sewerage Department began turning off water utilities for overdue or delinquent accounts. Since April, the department has cut off the water for nearly 3,000 households per week - meaning roughly 100,000 Motor City residents are without water. Entrenched at the bottom of Detroit's current economic crisis, many of those without water are the city's poorest resident. The city's shut-off campaign has garnered international press attention, and has been called "an affront to human rights" by representatives of the United Nations. VICE News traveled to Detroit to see first-hand how residents are dealing with the water shut-offs, speak with local government representatives about the issue, and discuss possible resolutions with activist groups.

The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced its intention to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph. The lightning advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June shocked the world. But it's not just the group's military victories that have garnered attention - it's also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state. Flush with cash and US weapons seized during its advances in Iraq, the Islamic State's expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq, encroaching on Kurdish territory and sending Christians and other minorities fleeing as reports of massacres emerged.

An estimated 120,000 landmines still litter the Bosnian countryside since the end of the war there in 1995, making daily life a challenge for hundreds of thousands of people. In May, the worst floods in over a century dislodged countless mines and deposited them in new locations, from farm fields to the back yards of local residents. The flooding also unearthed previously undiscovered mass graves, making some citizens hopeful that they may finally be reunited with the remains of their lost loved ones. VICE News traveled to northern Bosnia to tag along with the team in charge of de-mining the countryside, and met residents still reeling from the horrors of war.

During the summer of 2014 Americans were stunned by images of children and families from Central America turning themselves in at the US-Mexico border. More migrants are now coming from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula and surrounding areas than anywhere else in Central America. The society there has yet to recover from a 2009 coup that crippled the economy and unleashed extreme levels of violence and inequality. In this episode of Immigrant America we traveled to San Pedro Sula - the most violent and second largest city in Honduras - to find out why so many families and young people are risking it all to migrate illegally to the US.

VICE News correspondent Thomas Morton investigates Asian carp - a slimy, ugly, and often gargantuan species of fish that has taken over many waterways in the United States. First introduced in the US in the 1960s to control weeds and parasites at aquatic farms in Arkansas, the bottom feeders eventually escaped and made their way through the Mississippi River system, eating almost everything in their path and severely damaging ecosystems across the Midwest. Today, government officials are concerned that the fish will invade the Great Lakes, destroy more ecosystems, wreak havoc on the region's multibillion dollar fishing industry, and spread to almost every major waterway in the Northeast. VICE News travels across Illinois to see how people are dealing with the Asian carp invasion, visiting the Redneck Fishing Tournament - where the sole mission is to catch as many carp as possible - touring a processing plant trying to monetize the fish, and then heading to Chicago, where we learned that Asian carp are a symptom of a much larger issue.