Thailand is grappling with an unsettling trend: a rise in homegrown gun violence and mass shootings. Big Story’s senior correspondent Jason Motlagh talks to survivors and experts trying to make sense of horrific scenes that were once observed at a distance and are now closer and more frequent.

In Louisiana, a police chase ends with the death of an unarmed black man, Ronald Greene. In Mississippi, Rasheem Carter’s body is found in the woods one month after his disappearance under mysterious circumstances. Not far away from there, two men, also African American, are subjected to different types of torture and abuse by the “Goon Squad,” an infamous group of policemen who would eventually face justice for multiple hate crimes. In each case, the victims’ families quest for truth and justice proves instrumental to unearth clues as to what really happened, in stark contrast with the role of law enforcement officers.

‘Red Light – Racial Violence in the U.S. South’ sheds light into one of the country’s major fault lines. Correspondent Dan Williams combines detailed reporting from current events with historical precedents to deliver a hard hitting, important piece of journalism.

Portland, Oregon, is an epicenter of the deepening opioid crisis in the United States, where a life is lost to drug use every eleven minutes. Fentanyl, a cheap and highly potent synthetic opioid up to fifty times stronger than heroin, has been responsible for the majority of overdose deaths. In 2023, the overdose death rate topped 112,000 in twelve months for the first time, with more lives lost than in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined. ‘Dead End’ brings into focus the personal stories of the people battling addiction in the streets of Portland.

Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S. sprayed 20 million gallons of an herbicide known as Agent Orange over Vietnam. The purpose was to decimate the canopy of the native jungle and gain a military advantage over the Vietcong in the Vietnam War. After half a century, the consequences of this chemical war are still palpable to the Vietnamese. According to Red Cross estimates more than 3 million people have been affected by the chemical Dioxin present in Agent Orange.

“It was only after independence that we heard about Agent Orange,” recalls Tran Quoc Viet, a war photographer, “and learned how scary its effect was.” At the time, the pollutant contaminated water and food sources, and it is estimated that at least 150.000 children were born with severe congenital disabilities afterward. Thousands of U.S. veterans who came into contact with it during the war were also poisoned, along with children born to them after it ended. “It enters your bloodstream and then your DNA,” says UC Davis Professor Emeritus Larry Berman. “And it lives there as a time bomb.”

Tiny Laos has the sad distinction of being the most bombed country in history because of an overt military intervention by the U.S. During the Vietnam War, the Nixon administration dropped more than two million tons of ordnance on Laos, more than twelve times the amount dropped on Japan in World War II, or a ton of bombs for every person living in the country. Almost a third did not explode, and for decades, up until now, these bombs have killed and maimed scores of people in rural areas and paralyzed economic growth.

In this poor, little-known Southeast Asian country, we follow an all-women bomb disposal team working to clear the countryside of hidden dangers. Along the way, we meet with bomb victims struggling to survive and the organizations that are leading rehabilitation and land reclamation efforts. Drawing on rare archival footage, activists and security experts unpack the dark story behind America’s “Secret War” and the lack of accountability that endures to this day. For Laotians, the impact is anything but secret.

Dozens of children in western Venezuela begin their daily journey to school before 5 a.m. But this is no ordinary school – it is located across the border in Colombia.

Despite the adverse conditions, the ‘Children of the Border’ have not lost hope and show their enthusiasm for learning and playing at school every day.

Haiti is a broken state. Since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, street gangs armed with military grade weapons from the US have filled the power vacuum, taking control of 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and swathes of the countryside. Killing and kidnapping-for-ransom are at an all-time high, and tens of thousands are fleeing to escape violence the United Nations says is on par with countries at war.

Haitian officials have called for another foreign intervention to break the gangs’ stranglehold. In the meantime, vigilante groups have formed to defend their neighborhoods. As the pressure builds, CGTN America gains rare access to the two most powerful gang factions battling for supremacy, and tracks the plight of civilians trapped in the crossfire.

Since declaring the War on Drugs fifty years ago, the US has spent billions in Colombia to fight cocaine. The result: more cocaine than ever before, and a black market that fuels corruption, and weakening countries across most of Latin America. It also pushed Colombia into a decades-long armed conflict. Now the Colombian government is promising an end to the War on Drugs by trying new approaches like decriminalizing cocaine and giving incentives to farmers who are willing to move away from coca crops.

San Francisco: From the Gold Rush boom to the Silicon Valley era, California’s “city by the bay” has long symbolized the prosperity of the American West, and the promise of new beginnings. Today, this city at the heart of America’s largest economy is struggling to keep its population as it battles with homelessness and a drug epidemic.

The Endless Harvest is a compilation of stories from all over the world showing us that sustainable growth is not only possible but actually happening.

In Florida, an NGO is linking with several companies from the hospitality industry to guarantee that the unused soap and toiletries from their guests can be reused in a circular fashion. They are not only recycling the contents but also the packages, reducing waste and keeping plastic from ending up in the landfills, and making sure the resulting products end up in the hands of communities in need.

In Nigeria, we tag along with a local entrepreneur who’s figured out a way to introduce smart farming and technological solutions to the local farmers, giving them tools to better adapt to changing weather patterns.

Finally, we head north to the Arctic border, where we learn how the people from Greenland and Iceland are making sure their economies complete their green transformation in order to successfully address the enormous challenges posed by the climate emergency.