The Global News Map

Over the years, there have been many attempts to map the news. With the advent of AI and its ability to automatically detect locations mentioned in news articles, we're now seeing a resurgence in News Maps.

The latest of these is Needle, which uses a large language model (LLM) to "best estimate general locations of stories posted in the past day, and pin them on the map." Using the map, you can zoom in on any location in the world to explore the latest news. According to Needle's 'About' page each story location is determined based on a hierarchy: if a specific place is mentioned, the story is pinned there; if only a city is named, the pin is placed randomly within city limits; and if only a country or region is referenced, it's placed somewhere within that broader area. However, as the creators note, AI isn't perfect - so a story’s location on the map doesn’t always mean it’s truly tied to that place.

One major drawback of Needle at the moment is its limited range of news sources. The creator notes that the map is currently "limited to mostly Canadian sources of news." This is especially apparent in places like London, where today's top stories include how King Charles misses Canada and how a Canadian female soccer player has signed with a London team.

However, there is a filter option to select news sources by the "United States" - so if you're American, you may be able to sidestep the map’s Canadian bias. Needle is also looking to expand its news source database and anyone can suggest new sources by emailing Needle.

Other filter options allow users to refine the stories shown on Needle by category, including Politics, Sports, Business & Economy, Technology, and Environment & Climate.

Creating Quick Maps for Free

This morning I was asked by an acquaintance if I could create a quick map of Mar-a-Lago featuring a number of red markers. The image above is the result. As no money was paid for this map feel free to reproduce it and share it on social media with no accreditation.

The budget for this project was zero.

To be honest there is nothing particularly exciting about the map - but I thought it might be worth explaining how I created a map at speed for a friend - and for no cost (except for 30 minutes of my time)! 

If you're looking to build an interactive map without relying on expensive APIs or proprietary platforms, MapLibre GL JS and OpenFreeMap offer a powerful, fully open-source solution. For this project, I created a full-screen, 3D-tilted map with custom markers and at no cost. Here is how:

🔧 Tools Used

MapLibre GL JS - A community-driven fork of Mapbox GL JS, free and open-source.

OpenFreeMap - A source for free vector tile styles, ideal for high-performance custom maps.

Bing AI Image Creator - Used to design a unique marker icon using generative AI, completely free.

🧭 The Map

Using MapLibre, I initialized a map with the following features:

• Full-screen display with no padding or scrollbars
• A camera tilt (pitch: 60) and rotation (bearing: 270) to give a dramatic 3D effect
• High zoom level (zoom: 19) for street-level detail
• Free Liberty-style vector tiles from OpenFreeMap

📍 Custom Marker with AI-Generated Image

Instead of using the default pin the client wanted a map marker that resembled markers used by certain crime maps. I created a custom marker using an AI-generated image from Bing Image Creator. 

🧪 Try It Yourself

All it takes is a single HTML file and a bit of CSS and JavaScript. Whether you're building a store locator, historical map, or data visualization, this stack gives you full control - without vendor lock-in or usage limits.

And feel free to share the Mar-a-Lago map above anywhere you want.

The Map of Nazi Camps & Ghettos

The USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos is an interactive map documenting camps, ghettos, and Nazi-run sites of persecution across Europe and North Africa. This powerful digital tool brings to life one of the most staggering realities of the Holocaust: the sheer number and geographic reach of sites where millions were imprisoned, enslaved, and murdered between 1933 and 1945.

Created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) as part of its Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, the map is more than a visual aid - it's an evolving historical archive. Each marker on the map represents a documented location: a forced-labor camp, concentration camp, Jewish ghetto, prisoner-of-war camp, brothel, transit site, or killing center. Collectively, they reveal a complex and extensive infrastructure of Nazi persecution, far beyond the most infamous locations like Auschwitz or Dachau. 

The map plots more than 44,000 sites of incarceration, oppression, and forced labor. Each entry is backed by meticulous archival research and, where available, includes: operational dates, controlling authorities, victim demographics, purpose and conditions, survivor testimonies or photographs, and references to related encyclopedia entries.

The density of locations throughout Europe underscores how visible and widespread the Nazi terror was.

A Clearer View of Darkness

Light pollution maps typically use satellite data from NOAA’s VIIRS to visualize levels of light pollution around the world. Some maps, like Light Pollution Map, also allow users to click on different locations to view detailed information - such as light pollution levels using the Bortle Dark Sky Scale.

My favorite dark sky map is actually the (identically named) Light Pollution Map. I like this map because it explains light pollution levels in clear, easily understood layman's terms. For example, where I live, the map tells me that the: “Entire sky is brightened. No Milky Way visible; only the brightest constellations can be recognized.” The Light Pollution Map not only displays the Bortle Scale for any location, but also does a great job of describing what you can realistically expect to see in the night sky.

Both maps use satellite data from NOAA’s VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite). VIIRS is a sensor aboard weather satellites that captures low-light imagery of the Earth at night. It’s one of the most reliable tools for measuring artificial light emissions globally and is widely used in scientific studies of light pollution.

I Traveled the World Through Trending Videos

If you’ve ever wondered what’s capturing the attention of YouTube viewers in Brazil, Japan, or South Africa at this very moment, Trending Videos is a great place to start. This new web tool uses a 3D globe interface to deliver a geographic window into YouTube’s trending content across the world.

The interactive globe allows users to spin, zoom, and click on any country to instantly access the top trending videos in that region. Once a country is selected, a curated list of YouTube's most popular current videos is displayed, with direct links for instant viewing. 

You can also refine your exploration by selecting from various categories, including Music, Sports, Gaming, and more - making it easy to see how different types of content resonate across different countries. Want to see what's hot in sports in Japan? Or perhaps the latest music sensations dominating the charts in Brazil? Maybe you're keen to explore the top gaming videos in Germany? Trending Videos has you covered!

The Death of Local News

One in three U.S. counties now has no full-time local journalist - a staggering 75% decline over the past 23 years. This collapse means communities across the country lack "even one full-time reporter to cover all of the schools, the town councils, the economic development projects, basketball games, environmental decisions, local businesses, and local events."

To document this crisis, Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack partnered to create the Local Journalist Index 2025, which maps journalist staffing in every U.S. county. The report analyzes data from over 100,000 journalists and 3.5 million daily articles tracked by Muck Rack’s platform, using a metric called "local journalist equivalents" (LJEs) to account for part-time and freelance work.

An interactive map in the report reveals the stark, nationwide scale of the decline. The erosion of local news isn’t confined to specific regions - it’s a universal crisis. As the report notes, the "evaporation of local news coverage has hit small towns and big cities, suburbs and rural areas alike."

You can explore which counties are most likely to become local news deserts on an interactive map developed by the Medill Local News Initiative. The Local News Barometer and Watch List maps the US counties which have a more than 40% chance of becoming news deserts within the next five years. 

These at-risk counties are not just underserved - they are, on average, poorer, older, and less educated than even existing news deserts. If you select a state from the map sidebar then the Watchlist will update to show all the counties in the selected state in the most danger of becoming news deserts. 

This map’s most sobering takeaway is that America is increasingly becoming two nations when it comes to local news: one with abundant access in affluent, urbanized regions, and another without. The consequences are profound. Research shows that communities without local news experience lower civic engagement, less voter participation, and weaker accountability in public institutions.

A Time Machine for Maps

World History Atlas is an impressively detailed, time-traveling cartographic project that lets users explore the ever-shifting borders of human civilization. Covering thousands of years of global history, this interactive map platform provides a deep spatial context to the rise and fall of empires, nations, and cultures.

Think of it as a Google Maps for world history - except instead of zooming into street view, you're diving through millennia. 

The core of the World History Atlas is its sweeping collection of political maps, spanning from prehistoric hunter-gatherer bands to the modern nation-state system. The site is organized chronologically, allowing you to select a time period (e.g., 3000 BC, 500 AD, 1500 AD) and instantly see who ruled what, where - and for how long. Each map offers a color-coded look at the political boundaries of the time, with tooltips and links that provide more information on historical states, tribes, and empires.

The World History Atlas echoes a number of other historical map projects that are dedicated to mapping the shifting political borders of countries through time - like Chronas, the OpenHistoricalMap, or TimeMap.

Institute for Men Says Women Are Underpaid

The American Institute for Boys and Men has released an interactive map highlighting the declining percentage of men in college enrollment and graduation. But the most striking revelation isn’t the gender gap in enrollment and graduation but the persistent earnings gap that follows. That's right - despite women being more likely to enroll in and graduate from college, they are far more likely to earn less than their male peers six years after starting college.

Men in higher education: A national data tool uses an interactive map to compare male and female metrics - including acceptance rates, enrollment, and graduation - across U.S. higher education institutions. As the Institute notes, “male college enrollment has stagnated, while the female share continues to rise.”

What is also shown by the map is that in 67.7% of the colleges in the dataset, men earned more than women six years after enrollment. There are exceptions, such as Adelphi University (where women earn $71,401 vs. men’s $60,751), Bentley University ($94,778 vs. $92,944), and Daemen University ($70,586 vs. $61,133). However, some disparities are staggering - like Cooper Union, where women earn $24,423 compared to men’s $64,824, or Brigham Young University, where women make $39,962 versus men’s $83,404.

These figures underscore a harsh reality: women are very likely to experience systemic pay inequity in the workplace after graduating from college.

How Big is it Really?

the outline of Central Park overlaid on San Francisco

GeoSize Compare Pro is a highly useful map utility for visualizing and comparing geographic areas by drawing custom shapes and overlaying them on different map views. For example, the map above shows the outline of New York's Central Park overlaid onto a map of San Francisco.

How It Works:

1. Select the "Measure distances" (📏) button and trace the outline of your area on the map.
2. After completing the shape click "Compare" to lock it in place.
3. In comparison mode, the shape stays centered as you pan the map, making it easy to compare sizes across locations.

Additional Features:

The "Measure distances" tool lets you calculate real-world distances between points - helpful for route planning (e.g., estimating walking or cycling distances).

Pro Tip:

When drawing shapes, ensure you close the polygon by clicking the first marker again and use at least 3 points for valid comparisons.

moving Alaska to the heartland of the US

If you prefer not to draw shapes manually, the ever popular The True Size Of ... offers a different approach. This map lets you select predefined country or state outlines and drag them onto other regions to compare their true sizes.

Unlike GeoSize Compare Pro, which focuses on custom shapes, The True Size Of... emphasizes preloaded geographic data, making it ideal for quick comparisons of well-known borders. For instance, you could overlay Alaska onto Brazil to see how they stack up without Mercator projection distortions. 

The Daily MapGame Challenge

It has been a while since Maps Mania featured a new daily map game (see The 12 Best Daily Map Games) - so may I introduce to you the MapGame!

MapGame is a daily brain teaser that challenges you to identify a mystery country on a map using the fewest number of clues. With each incorrect guess, you unlock a new hint — nudging you closer to the answer through geographical and directional clues.

The brilliance of MapGame lies in how it rewards not just accuracy, but strategy. You score points based on how quickly you solve the mystery, how few hints you need, and how well your guesses align with the clues. It's not enough to be right — you also have to be thoughtful.

Aside from the joy of solving each day's challenge, what keeps players coming back to MapGame are the detailed stats and the global leaderboard. The stats page records how many games you've played, how many countries you've solved, your current win streak, your best-ever streak, your average score, the average number of hints used, and your average time. The global leaderboard shows how your score ranks against all of today’s players and where you stand in the all-time rankings.