← 14 Dec Tuesday 15 December 2020 · to 23:59 UTC 16 Dec →
What the world's news said happened to people.
Counts of coverage, not of suffering
24,697 stories about harm· Trends· Every past day

We measure how the world's news covered people being harmed — and the help and hope within it.

How to read these numbers →

Violence in Kabul, abductions in Nigeria and people affected in Jamaica drew the news. Afghanistan's coverage was about 4 times as angry as the world's. Taken together, the world's news read much softer than usual.

Reports of abductions ran at about twice the usual rate, most often about Nigeria and the US → Help and hope: reports of vaccination ran at about one and a half times the usual rate →
Part of lifeHealth 63 in 100 of the stories about harm · more than usual Country that rose mostFiji 55 in 100 of its 84 stories, usually 26
RegionEvery region about as usual
Tone of the words Much softer than usual across the world's stories about harm

What the world's news was about today

how these are picked →
Conflict & violence

Afghanistan

130 of its 184 stories (71%) were about people being harmed, usually 60%. Kabul accounted for 102 of Afghanistan's 130 stories about harm, carried by 191 outlets. Reports of people injured ran at about twice the usual rate (75 stories). Its coverage was about 4 times as angry as the world's.

Rights & justice

Nigeria

574 of its 1,323 stories (43%) were about people being harmed, usually 35%. Reports of abductions ran at about 5 times the usual rate (220 stories). Its coverage was about one and a half times as angry as the world's.

6 more places the news pointed at
Conflict & violence

Niger

29 of its 31 stories (94%) were about people being harmed, usually 40%. Reports of people injured ran at more than ten times the usual rate (11 stories). Its coverage was about twice as angry as the world's.

Rights & justice

Iran

Tehran accounted for 63 of Iran's 107 stories about harm, carried by 100 outlets. Reports of abductions ran at about 7 times the usual rate (17 stories). Its coverage was about twice as angry as the world's.

Conflict & violence

Bahrain

25 of its 72 stories (35%) were about people being harmed, usually 15%. Its coverage was about twice as fearful as the world's.

Health

Jordan

30 of its 101 stories (30%) were about people being harmed, usually 19%. Reports of people affected ran at about three times the usual rate (7 stories).

Disasters & accidents

Puerto Rico

15 of its 36 stories (42%) were about people being harmed, usually 26%. Reports of people injured ran at more than ten times the usual rate (5 stories).

Health

Botswana

16 of its 42 stories (38%) were about people being harmed, usually 26%. Reports of people affected ran at about three times the usual rate (5 stories).

Also named far more than usual: volcanic eruption in Chile (10 of its stories, about three times its usual); helicopter crash in New Zealand (25 of its stories, more than ten times its usual); poisoning in Russia (28 of its stories, about three times its usual); plague in France (16 of its stories, about 10 times its usual); snowstorms in US (224 of its stories, about 8 times its usual).

25 in 100 stories were about harm

usually 26; 26 the day before
30 in 10024 in 10013 Nov23 Nov30 Nov7 Dec15 Dec13 Nov: 27 in 10015 Nov: 30 in 10018 Nov: 26 in 10019 Nov: 26 in 10020 Nov: 26 in 10021 Nov: 26 in 10022 Nov: 28 in 10023 Nov: 26 in 10024 Nov: 25 in 10025 Nov: 25 in 10026 Nov: 25 in 10027 Nov: 25 in 10028 Nov: 26 in 10029 Nov: 26 in 10030 Nov: 25 in 1001 Dec: 25 in 1002 Dec: 25 in 1003 Dec: 25 in 1004 Dec: 25 in 1005 Dec: 27 in 1006 Dec: 26 in 1007 Dec: 25 in 1008 Dec: 25 in 1009 Dec: 25 in 10010 Dec: 24 in 10011 Dec: 25 in 10012 Dec: 27 in 10013 Dec: 27 in 10014 Dec: 26 in 10015 Dec: 25 in 100 · this day

Stories about people being harmed, in every 100 stories, the 30 days to 15 Dec. The big dot is this day; the shaded band is a normal day (the 30 days before it). Click a day to open it. Based on 24,697 stories about harm among 98,338 counted on 15 Dec.

Read the day's briefing

Reports of vaccination, a sign of help, ran at about one and a half times the usual rate. 25 in every 100 of the day's 98,338 news stories were about people being harmed, as usual. Reports of abductions ran at about twice the usual rate, most often about Nigeria and the US. Chile's news mentioned volcanic eruption about three times as often as usual. A year earlier, on 16 December 2019, 17 in every 100 stories were about people being harmed, against 25 today.

Written by code from the day's numbers.

Where it happened

feelings in full →
Feelings Events Harm Warmth
Lancang, China -- accidents & disasters: 5 stories, carried by 8 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Beirut, Lebanon -- attacks & violence: 27 stories, carried by 25 outlets; harsh wording in 81 in 100Wellington, New Zealand -- accidents & disasters: 28 stories, carried by 25 outlets; harsh wording in 68 in 100Minsk, Belarus -- protests & strikes: 15 stories, carried by 18 outlets; harsh wording in 80 in 100Red Sea, Djibouti -- accidents & disasters: 7 stories, carried by 9 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Kekerengu, New Zealand -- accidents & disasters: 19 stories, carried by 12 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Havana, Cuba -- protests & strikes: 9 stories, carried by 17 outlets; harsh wording in 89 in 100Chibok, Nigeria -- attacks & violence: 15 stories, carried by 19 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Guiria, Venezuela -- accidents & disasters: 12 stories, carried by 15 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Shiv, India -- protests & strikes: 14 stories, carried by 15 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Villarrica, Chile -- accidents & disasters: 12 stories, carried by 21 outlets; harsh wording in 75 in 100Diffa, Niger -- attacks & violence: 12 stories, carried by 15 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Somaliland, Somalia -- attacks & violence: 5 stories, carried by 21 outlets; harsh wording in 60 in 100Khartoum, Sudan -- attacks & violence: 22 stories, carried by 21 outlets; harsh wording in 91 in 100Fraser Island, Australia -- accidents & disasters: 19 stories, carried by 24 outlets; harsh wording in 84 in 100Bashkortostan, Russia -- accidents & disasters: 12 stories, carried by 30 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Mogadishu, Somalia -- attacks & violence: 17 stories, carried by 27 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Jeddah, Saudi Arabia -- attacks & violence: 35 stories, carried by 51 outlets; harsh wording in 100 in 100Damascus, Syria -- protests & strikes: 16 stories, carried by 68 outlets; harsh wording in 81 in 100Xinjiang, China -- protests & strikes: 51 stories, carried by 69 outlets; harsh wording in 98 in 100Byron Bay, Australia -- accidents & disasters: 38 stories, carried by 46 outlets; harsh wording in 97 in 100Moscow, Russia -- disease & outbreaks: 98 stories, carried by 129 outlets; harsh wording in 87 in 100Katsina, Nigeria -- attacks & violence: 164 stories, carried by 214 outlets; harsh wording in 96 in 100Kabul, Afghanistan -- attacks & violence: 102 stories, carried by 191 outlets; harsh wording in 97 in 100
Attacks & violenceAccidents & disastersPeople displacedDeaths, cause not givenProtests & strikesDisease & outbreaks

The day's biggest events: attacks, accidents and disasters, people displaced, protests, outbreaks. Bigger dot: more stories. Ranked by the share of the day's outlets that reported it and how clearly it was about one thing, the same way for every place and year; the news data does not say who attacked whom, so both sides of a war appear where the news put them. Click a dot for its stories.

The day in three measures

How it felt 30 days →

harshwarm

The words in the day's stories were much softer than usual. Filled dot: today. Ring: usual.

● Angerabout as usual
● Warmthabout as usual
● Griefabout as usual
● Fearabout as usual

From the words reporters used across the whole day, never one story. Fear is the weakest of the four measures. How?

The weekly briefing · 19 Oct – 25 Oct

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How to read these numbers →

These are counts of stories, not counts of suffering. Most of what happens to people is never reported at all.