From ongoing civil conflicts to unprecedented political shifts, the world is experiencing significant events that deserve more attention. Join us as we explore these overlooked yet crucial developments that are reshaping our global landscape, from humanitarian crises to environmental challenges.
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00:00Country was once the murder capital of the world.
00:02For decades, rival gangs ruled the streets of El Salvador.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the events unfolding around the world
00:12that you may not have been aware of, but should definitely know about.
00:16Number 10. North Korea and Russia's first road bridge.
00:46As Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to demonstrate a lack of interest in ending the bloody Russo-Ukrainian war,
00:58his ties to Kim Jong-un and the authoritarian regime of North Korea only seem to grow stronger.
01:03The Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un
01:08for providing troops to help Russia fight Ukraine.
01:11Hours earlier, Pyongyang admitted for the first time it had deployed soldiers to the conflict.
01:17It said it helped, in its words, to liberate the Russian region of Kursk.
01:22Following North Korea's confirmation that it had sent troops to Russia to assist with the ongoing war effort,
01:27the two countries announced the construction of a road bridge between them in late April of 2025.
01:33Said Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin,
01:35The bridge, quote, symbolizes our common desire to strengthen friendly, good-neighborly relations
01:41and increase inter-regional cooperation, end quote.
01:44The bridge, which will span the Tumen River, is expected to be completed by the middle of 2026.
01:49And on the Russian side of the border, there's even a house of friendship
01:53built for the state's founder, Kim Il-sung, to commemorate his state visit to Moscow in 1949.
01:59Number 9. The Liberal Party of Canada's unprecedented political comeback.
02:04So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today.
02:12I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister,
02:17after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process.
02:252024 was not kind to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
02:30Amidst a sagging economy and dire approval ratings, Trudeau was dealt a fatal blow
02:35by the surprise resignation of Chrystia Freeland, his longtime Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
02:42Trudeau was ultimately left with no choice but to resign his post,
02:45while the Conservative Party surged in the polls and looked all but guaranteed to secure a majority government.
02:51What I'd like to see, Canada become our 51st state.
02:54We give them protection, military protection.
02:57We don't need them to build our cars.
03:00I'd rather see Detroit or South Carolina or any one of our, Tennessee, any one of our states build the cars.
03:07They can do it very easily.
03:08We don't need them for the cars.
03:09We don't need them for lumber.
03:11The second presidency of Donald Trump, however, flipped the situation on its head,
03:15with Trump's threats of tariffs and annexation dominating the Canadian political landscape.
03:20Economist Mark Carney was elected the leader of Trudeau's Liberal Party
03:24and in a stunning turnaround, secured the party its fourth consecutive mandate.
03:29You know, I chose to enter politics because I felt we needed big changes in this country.
03:35But big changes guided by strong Canadian values.
03:42Values that I learned at the dinner table from my parents, Bob and Verley, and from my siblings.
03:48Number eight, Myanmar Civil War.
03:50The UN estimates more than 18 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance,
03:56but aid agencies are struggling to get access to the country.
04:00There are more than 5,000 people living in this camp for internally displaced persons close to the Thai border.
04:09While the world has been gripped by seemingly unending conflicts in Europe and the Middle East,
04:13a no less disturbing struggle has gone tragically overlooked by the global community.
04:18Myanmar, a Southeast Asian country bordering India and China, among others,
04:22has experienced decades of internal conflict since gaining independence from Britain in 1948.
04:27There is a massive number of surrenders to the people's revolution side.
04:33We know that morale is very low, that they have introduced conscription
04:37and are literally kidnapping young men to fight in the military.
04:42Sending them to the front line, using as a human shield.
04:46This is the biggest crime going on in Germany.
04:48Following a military coup in 2021, the country has descended into one of its most severe crises yet,
04:54a full-scale civil war between the military junta, known as the State Administration Council,
05:00and the pro-democracy National Unity Government.
05:03With nearly 80,000 deaths reported and more than 3 million people displaced,
05:08Myanmar's humanitarian crisis continues to deepen,
05:11while the international community struggles to chart a path toward peace.
05:15Number seven, Haitian crisis.
05:42Afflicted by more than two centuries of political turbulence, foreign occupations,
05:57and repeated natural disasters, Haiti has also suffered deadly disease outbreaks such as cholera.
06:02In 2018, rising fuel prices and deepening economic hardship sparked mass protests
06:08and calls for President Jovenel MoĆÆse to resign.
06:11On Tuesday, MoĆÆse attempted to force out three judges
06:15who were proposed as potential interim national leaders to replace him.
06:19They included interim opposition leader Joseph Messin-Jean-Louis.
06:23MoĆÆse has been ruling my decree for a year because there's no parliament right now.
06:28Legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed.
06:31After years of mounting unrest and a reported coup attempt earlier in 2021,
06:36MoĆÆse was assassinated in July of that year.
06:39Since then, Haiti has had no elected officials,
06:42and much of the country has fallen into the grip of increasingly violent gang conflict,
06:46with no end in sight.
06:48Number six, Georgian political crisis.
07:05This is an attempt not to steal the results of one party's support,
07:13but this is an attempt to steal Georgia's European future.
07:16Georgian dream cannot remain in power in this country.
07:22These are stolen elections.
07:24Canada wasn't the only country facing a recent and very important election.
07:28However, the situation is far more complex
07:30in the Eastern European and West Asian country of Georgia.
07:34The former Soviet republic has been embroiled in a constitutional crisis
07:38since its October 2024 elections,
07:41which have been described by international watchdog groups
07:43as compromised and not free and fair.
07:46The right-wing Georgian dream party has been accused of undermining democracy,
07:51all while promoting ties to Russia and parroting Kremlin misinformation.
07:56More than a million of our citizens came to the polling stations
08:00and supported peace,
08:02our country's truly bright and European future.
08:05Georgian people are the main authors of this victory.
08:10Incumbent president Salome Zorabishvili continues to be acknowledged by the international community
08:16as Georgia's rightful head of state,
08:18while the current administration has gone unrecognized by the European Union.
08:22An independent Georgian election monitoring group reported cases of violence
08:26outside several polling stations.
08:29There was a video, we saw it in the report right now,
08:32on social media that showed a man stuffing several ballot papers into a ballot box.
08:36However, the Central Election Commission declared that the election was peaceful and free.
08:41Number five, the situation in Sahel.
08:43Between the vast Sahara Desert and the dense foliage of the African rainforest
08:48is a band of semi-arid grassland.
08:50Known as the Sahel, the landscape is one of Africa's most productive crop regions.
08:55But the crops in the Sahel are grown close to their limits of tolerance
08:59and rely on natural rainforest.
09:01There's a very real possibility that you've never heard of this African biogeographical region.
09:05Spanning the tropics of North Africa and countries like Senegal, Mali, Niger, Chad, and more,
09:12the Sahel has routinely been faced with fundamental issues
09:15that threaten its inhabitants' way of life.
09:17There are largely desert areas, lots of pastoralist communities,
09:21a lot of Berber communities.
09:23The southern parts of those countries tend to be much greener.
09:26They are considered to be the breadbaskets of that region.
09:28But for the most part, the Sahel is a dry, vast desert area
09:32that stretches from Mali all the way to Sudan.
09:35Described by the Norwegian Refugee Council as
09:38quote, the world's most neglected and conflict-ridden region,
09:41Sahel has been noted by The Economist
09:43for its disproportionate incidence of terrorist violence.
09:46That is, as much as 35% of the world's deaths from terrorism in 2021.
09:51The Sahel's location has also left it vulnerable to severe droughts and famines,
09:56which is only expected to be exacerbated by worsening climate change.
09:59The grain stores ran out in February,
10:01forcing Mamadou's family to eat the seeds they should be planting to harvest in September.
10:08But even that wasn't enough for his sister-in-law and her baby,
10:11who have already died.
10:13Our sheep are dying.
10:16Our goats and our cows are dying.
10:18Even we are dying here.
10:19Number 4. Rohingya Genocide
10:21We have seen the villages burning very, very clearly.
10:25All these places were totally covered with smoke.
10:28At the height of this crisis, how many people were crossing per day?
10:32In one wave, there will be 10,000 to 15,000.
10:35In a day?
10:36In a day.
10:37They had to cross this river, but there were too many persons in one boat.
10:41So there were capsizing of the boats.
10:44We have to recover lots of dead bodies.
10:46Although Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya people have faced decades of systemic persecution,
10:52a brutal military crackdown that began in late 2016,
10:56and escalated dramatically in August 2017,
10:59has resulted in mass killings and widespread displacement.
11:03The genocide perpetrated by the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's military,
11:07has led to the deaths of thousands,
11:09with some estimates placing the toll at over 10,000.
11:12Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for centuries,
11:14but they're not officially recognized as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups.
11:19The government denies them citizenship
11:21and claims they're illegal immigrants that have crossed over from Bangladesh,
11:24making them essentially a stateless people.
11:35Described by the United Nations and numerous human rights groups
11:38as a clear case of ethnic cleansing,
11:41the violence has forced over 740,000 Rohingya to flee,
11:46primarily to Bangladesh,
11:47with others escaping to India, Malaysia, and beyond.
11:51Myanmar's military regime has dismissed these allegations as exaggeration,
11:55even as it faces international condemnation.
11:58In recent years, the Tatmadaw has also been accused
12:01of forcibly conscripting civilians, including children, into its ranks.
12:05We have evidence, we have proof,
12:07that Myanmar Rohingya is committing genocide against Rohingya.
12:11The Myanmar government and ultra-nationalist Buddhist hate Rohingya people
12:17due to nationalism-fueled racism and Islam-phobia.
12:23Number three, Salvadoran gang crackdown.
12:26Thousands are now behind bars,
12:28and the country is transforming before people's eyes.
12:30But there is a dark underside that's hidden from view.
12:33Human rights groups are dismayed, as are relatives,
12:36as more than 65,000 people have been arrested over the past year.
12:42Upon taking office in 2019, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele made tackling his country's relentless wave of gang violence a top priority.
12:50His territorial control plan aims to deal a crushing blow to such criminal organizations
12:56as MS-13 and the 18th Street Gang, among others.
13:00While Bukele claims that this plan reduced homicides by as much as 50% in the first year,
13:05things really escalated in March of 2022,
13:08after a particularly deadly weekend in El Salvador.
13:11For days, the president touting the efforts on social media under the hashtag War on Gangs.
13:30In response, President Bukele approved a state of emergency,
13:34and as of March 2025, over 84,000 people with alleged ties to gangs have been arrested.
13:40This approach has drawn concern from international observers,
13:43who have cautioned the president to act with respect to due process and civil liberties.
13:48Human rights are meant to be there to help us.
13:50It's true that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
13:54But my son has been inside for a year,
13:56and to investigate someone you don't need a year should be two weeks at most,
14:01three months at the very maximum.
14:03But my son has been there for a whole year.
14:05Number two, water scarcity in Central Asia.
14:08As we mentioned a little earlier,
14:10world governments are increasingly drawing attention to the worsening problem of climate change.
14:15While it's worth pointing out that there is enough water for everyone on the planet,
14:19the issue lies in specific geopolitical contexts.
14:22Take the arid climate of Central Asia,
14:25where glaciers constitute an important part of the region's water supply.
14:29As those glaciers retreat,
14:30so too does the amount of water available to those who need it.
14:34As pointed out by the American think tank the Atlantic Council,
14:38quote,
14:38the Aral Sea has shrunk by more than 90% since the 1960s,
14:43due to the diversion of its tributaries, the Amu Darya and Seer Darya, for large-scale irrigation.
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15:031. The Famine in Madagascar
15:08This is what climate change looks like.
15:10The Manambova River in Madagascar, or what's left of it now.
15:15A brown ribbon on a parched landscape.
15:18After five years with barely any rain,
15:20more than a million people in the south are facing severe hunger or starvation.
15:25In case you hadn't already guessed it,
15:27climate change may be the single greatest issue that humanity faces in the 21st century.
15:32Case in point, the ongoing famine in the African island country of Madagascar.
15:37Precipitated by decades worth of natural disasters,
15:40including a locust plague of biblical proportions,
15:43the crisis was only made exponentially worse
15:45by the region's worst drought in an estimated 40 years.
15:49The famine is the first in human history to have been chalked up to climate change,
16:17rather than war or conflict.
16:18Although the country has made efforts to invest in critical infrastructure and end the famine,
16:23we should all take note of just what climate change can do.
16:43Which event on our list shocked you the most?
16:46Are there any that we missed?
16:47Be sure to let us know in the comments below.