Supported projects

BRUSSELS - In the three-part podcast If the roller shutter stays closed, we tell the story of Philippe and Peter. Two regulars at De Harmonie, a social restaurant for elderly local residents in Brussels' North Quarter. During the lockdown, however, the doors remained closed. What does this mean for ...

NIVELLES - State police commander Léon François starts using questionable investigative methods in the fight against drug traffickers in the 1970s, without legal regulation. Who are the gangsters and who is the police? The boundaries blur. Top cops and politicians, ex-premier Vanden Boeynants in the ...

BELGRADE - A lot of money and political interest is at stake in Serbia, where there are significant lithium reserves. Geologists from mining giant Rio Tinto found Europe's largest lithium deposits under the farmland of the Jadar valley — enough to produce at least one million electric car batteries ...

BRUSSELS - Suffering from Parkinson's disease or cancer, European farm workers experience inadequate recognition and failing compensation schemes, a cross-border research of media in ten European countries shows.

HSINCHU - Microchips are at the heart of our digital world. Without them, our smartphones and laptops do not work, our cars fall silent and the internet crashes. So it comes as no surprise that car factories are halting production due to a global chip shortage, China and the US are fighting a trade ...

HAMBURG - Europe’s dump yard and the system behind the international recycling business

BRUSSELS - Though they are right under our feet, soils do not receive much attention. Yet the many free services they provide for us are truly priceless, and they are under pressure. What can we do to prevent all this, and to repair damaged soils, Tim Vernimmen asked eight soil scientists in four ...

GOMA - Through the beautiful green hills of North Kivu, a 150-kilometre road winds from the capital Goma to the coltan and cassiterite mining area, road 529. Since 2002, efforts have been made to rehabilitate the road, which runs through one of the most dangerous areas in the world.

KYIV - From the time it regained its independence in 1991 until the start of the war in the east, Ukraine remained one of the world's top ten arms exporters. However, not all transactions were legal. Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens have repeatedly been accused of international arms smuggling. Is ...

PORTO - Research by journalists Eelco van Wieringen (Buro Publieke Werken, Holland), Micael Pereira (Expresso Portugal) and Twan Kroon (researcher, Holland) shows that the age of port wines is often incorrect. They commissioned scientific research into the actual age of 10 and 20 year old Tawny ...

BRUSSELS - The identities of eight Russian "undeclared intelligence officers" who Nato recently expelled from Brussels shed light on the Russian espionage threat in Belgium, which also hosts EU institutions.

EL FAOUAR - Despite being owned by one of France's richest families, the Perrodos, the Franco-British company Perenco has a long history of secrecy and discretion.

MAPUTO - The promise of transformative wealth from natural gas has seduced Mozambicans for more than a decade. But as the projects led by TotalEnergies and Eni have started construction, revenues to the country look likely to fall significantly short of expectations.

ANKARA - One image that will undoubtedly mark 2021 is that of the tens of thousands of desperate Afghans drumming outside the closed gates of Kabul airport to get away. The borders were sealed tight, yet hundreds of thousands of Afghans managed to flee. A number of them reached Turkey in the hope of ...

BRUSSELS - Climate change is causing extremes in weather, such as more frequent heat waves, periods of drought and intense rainfall. Our farmers notice the consequences of the climate crisis on their fields, in fluctuating yields and failing crops.

TRIPOLI - Before his death, Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi moved a giant fortune out of the country. It is gold, diamonds and cash worth billions of dollars – financed with revenues from the sale of oil. Although the international community has committed to returning assets stolen from autocrats ...

THE HAGUE- Argos investigated the investments of 1100 Dutch companies through subsidiaries or joint ventures in China. Together they are investing a total of 16 billion euros in China, which would make the Netherlands the second largest investor in China in Europe. 

ANTWERPEN - In 2017, Francis Njotea is rushed to hospital. He is in a coma for a week. When he wakes up, confused, he shares a secret with his son Raf. That contrary to what his children and ex-wife have always thought, he is not 63 but 73 years old. He later dismisses his claim as a hallucination ...

BRUSSELS - Overcrowding, striking staff, dilapidated infrastructure... With regularity our prisons are in the news in a way that leaves little to the imagination. What is less well known is that each prison has a Supervisory Committee that watches over the welfare of the inmates. About 450 ...

DAMASCUS - Every month, crimes committed in Syria since 2011 have repercussions on European soil and lead to new actions, thanks to the involvement of Syrian lawyers and human rights defenders. Mazen, Maryam, Anwar, and Hadi and many other defenders of justice and human rights track down suspected ...