Supported projects

DEURNE - Between 2014 and 2024, Antwerp Airport received at least €116.1 million in Flemish and federal subsidies, on top of €70.3 million that the Flemish government invested in infrastructure. Yet Antwerp Airport has been operating at a loss for years.

NEW YORK CITY / GENEVA - The West may not have fully realised it, but the United Nations is undergoing a revival. Not that everything will remain the same, because Beijing seems to be finding enough allies to change the organisation from within. 

PANAMA CITY / BOGOTA / SAN JOSE  - While European leaders keep dragging their feet, some countries in Latin America—despite numerous obstacles and lack of funding—are hard at work to restore their natural environments. Tim Vernimmen visited three of them in the hope they might teach us how to do better at home.

BEIJING - China in 2025 has changed significantly. Under the new strongman Xi Jingping, the Communist Party's totalitarian control over the state is greater than ever. By developing the New Silk Road and increasing its high-tech expertise, it has also been able to expand its sphere of influence worldwide.

BELGRADE - Yugoslavia began as a dream. A noble ideal to unite the Slavic peoples of the south. What followed was a tortuous history: from kingdom to socialist republic, from tourist paradise to war zone.

VIENNA - The fact that Vienna was named the most liveable city in the world in 2024 for the third year in a row by The Economist is largely due to its generous social housing policy. The central question in this dossier is “what can Flanders learn from Vienna in terms of social, affordable housing”?

MINDAT - The protests are continuing and the army is firing with a vengeance. Especially in the far corners of the country, where ethnic groups have been resisting the army for years, a veritable guerrilla movement is appearing. But where does the resistance stand now? And how do young people view the past years of unrelenting struggle.

WASHINGTON D.C. - A chronicle of fascinating encounters with ordinary Americans combined with an in-depth analysis of the rise and growth of the far right and how the working class turned away from the Democratic Party en masse.

ANKARA / BATMAN - The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has announced its dissolution. But will this also bring an end to the controversial practice of replacing elected mayors with government-appointed officials in Kurdish-majority cities?

BEIROET / JERUSALEM / DAMASCUS - The ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 had huge consequences: dictators fell, wars followed, the refugee crisis came. Now the Middle East is in a new maelstrom, from Gaza and Lebanon to Syria. Do younger generations see hope alongside misery?

BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan is a country where Russian influence is still very strong. While other global players such as Europe and the West are increasingly vying for influence in the region, conflicting interests can be observed.

TANGIER - When fishmonger Mohsin Fikri is crushed in a rubbish truck, the Riffins have had enough. They demand that their region finally be developed after decades of backwardness: they want more jobs, better healthcare and, most importantly, recognition of their historic struggle against colonisation.

BAKU - In September last year, violence came to a head in Nagorno Karabakh, the disputed area between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Just about all 120,000 Armenians were expelled from the region then. But the conflict has been going on for much longer.

THE HAGUE - Since the war in Ukraine, dozens of Russian ‘research vessels’ have been making suspicious movements near critical infrastructure in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This has been revealed by research conducted by VRT NWS in collaboration with media outlets in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia.

BAHIR DAR - For the past 19 months, Ethiopia’s Amhara region has been devastated by a conflict between federal forces and the Fano militia, which seeks full control of Amhara territory. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Latinos voting for Trump in the US: they exist and there are far more of them than you might think. Alex Cordova travels to the United States in the run-up to the presidential election. He examines the role of the church, politics and identity in the context of the 4 November election.

KINSHASA / TERVUREN - After almost 70 years in the Africa Museum, the rare Kakungu mask is back in Congo. Despite the festive ceremony at the National Museum, the mask remains the property of Belgium, causing unrest among the Congolese people and the Suku community, where the mask originally came from.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is not so much a country with an army, but rather an army with a country. Like the black kite, a powerful bird of prey, the armed forces keep a close eye on the people of Pakistan.

NAYPYIDAW - When the Burmese Spring began more than a decade ago, and 50 years of dictatorship seemed to be coming to an end, trees were growing to the sky in Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi came to power and the country liberalized. After the Rohingya genocide, however, the honeymoon was over. And the new military coup in February 2021 turned back the clock decisively.

OSWIECIM - Journalist Evelien Rutten goes on a road trip to Auschwitz with her teenage daughter and two aunts in this narrative podcast and book of the same name. They visit all the important places that played a crucial role in their family history.

JERUSALEM / RAMALLAH - The war in Gaza has been going on for more than a year. Ethnic cleansing is taking place not only there, but also in the West Bank. It did not start after October 7, but has been going on for decades, stresses Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, among others. 

PUYUELO / GENEVILLA - Social movements in Spain are working harder than anywhere else in Europe to build a different model of society. Various communities, in both urban and rural areas, are occupying abandoned villages, entire neighbourhoods, and individual properties. A new paradigm is emerging within the grey area between legality and illegality that they are exploring.

GOMA - After 25 years of blue helmets' presence in eastern Congo, 2024 was supposed to be the year of departure. But as the UN peacekeeping mission deploys the retreat, M23 rebels keep advancing. 

MINSK - A totalitarian state has emerged in Belarus and Russia since the suppression of pro-democracy protests in Belarus and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Criticism and anti-war voices are suppressed with draconian punishments. Democratic Belarusians and Russians are building the alternative in the Baltics and the Caucasus. 

BRUSSELS/AMSTERDAM - In June 2020, following protests in the United States, colonial heritage in Belgium became fiercely debated.

MEXICO-CITY - Like in India or the United States, Mexicans will elect a new head of state in 2024. That must spend the next six years dealing with the dubious legacy of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. 'Whoever comes to power, the oppression of indigenous peoples will continue unabated.'

MARTISSANT - "This is where I realise my days are numbered" Joselia, an old lady, confides. In her neighbourhood, one of Port-au-Prince's slums, gangs are fighting for control of the few economic assets the city still has to offer. Haiti, the eternal worry child of the Caribbean, is now truly a "failed state".

MUMBAI - India is shaping the 21st century. What is driving this unstoppable nation forward?

BHOPAL - Rural regions in India suffer a high suicide rate among farmers.

CAÏRO - With the war in the Gaza Strip, negotiations on a billion-dollar deal between the European Union (EU) and Egypt gained momentum. In exchange for more financial support, the EU wants Egypt to keep its borders tightly guarded. The EU envisions a "golden age" of cooperation with Egypt.