Read Our Best Stories of 2021

What. A. Year. To say that a lot happened in 2021 would be a massive understatement. 

Far-right Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, and Bernie Sanders burned down the internet when he wore mittens to Biden’s inauguration. Vaccines gave us some hope from COVID, only to have the world ravaged again by Delta and Omicron.

Despite our waning sanities, VICE News continued to bring you the most important and interesting stories in the only way we know how: fearlessly. 

We compiled some of our best reporting during this wild year below. At least try to relax and enjoy.

• ‘We Just Really Want Them Back’: Families of Americans Captured in Failed Venezuela Coup Say They Were Duped
• Unmasking ‘Dark Foreigner’: The Artist Who Fueled a Neo-Nazi Terror Movement
• QAnons Are Harassing People at the Whim of a Woman They Say Is Canada’s Queen
• How QAnon Is Tearing Families Apart
• I’m a Parkland Shooting Survivor. QAnon Convinced My Dad It Was All a Hoax.
• Trump Is Pushing QAnon Candidates Into the GOP Mainstream
• Evangelical Pastors Are Secretly Spreading the Gospel of QAnon on YouTube
• The Proud Boy Who Smashed a US Capitol Window Is a Former Marine
• Capitol Rioters In Jail's 'Patriot Wing' Have Wild Rituals and a Fanbase
• ‘So, So Angry’: Reporters Who Survived the Capitol Riot Are Still Struggling
• Meet the Obscure Think Tank Powering Trump’s Biggest LiesMAGA, the CIA, and Silvercorp: The Bizarre Backstory of the World’s Most Disastrous Coup

• Gun Church That Worships With AR-15s Bought a 40-Acre Compound in Texas for Its ‘Patriots’
• Meet 4chan’s ‘Kommandos,’ the Armed Meme Lords Driving Gun Culture
• I 3-D Printed a Ghost Glock to See How Far Ghost Guns Had Come

• Las Patronas: The Rise of Female Drug Bosses in Latin America
• On the Front Lines of Mexico’s Forever War Against the Cartels
• Drug Users Are Nostalgic for ‘Old-School Heroin’ as Fentanyl Takes Over
• Irreversible Overdoses, Robberies, and Sex Assaults: The ‘Terrifying’ Rise of Benzo Dope

• Why Black Cops Quit
• What If We Just Stopped Calling the Cops?
• The War on Urban Dirt Biking

• Here’s What It’s Like to Flee Texas and Drive 200 Miles for an Abortion
• New ‘Pro-Life Whistleblower’ Website Wants People to Snitch on Abortions

• Residential School Survivors Tell Us What Intergenerational Trauma Really Is
• Kids’ Graves Exposed the Horror of Canada’s Residential Schools. Outrage Isn’t Enough.
• Court Mistakenly Gave Potential Jurors Access to Ahmaud Arbery’s Mental Health History
• She Owes Over $12K for 911 Calls. Now She Could Lose Her Home.
• Trans Athletes Are Under Threat. Mack Beggs Knows What That’s Like.
• Sexual Assault Survivors in Journalism Are Waiting for Their Reckoning

• US Companies Are Helping Cartels Get Rich Kidnapping Migrants
• An Immigration Raid Sent Him to Guatemala. He Was Murdered at the Border Trying to Get Home.
• US Companies Are Helping Cartels Get Rich Kidnapping Migrants
• US-Trained Cops in Mexico Killed Migrants, Set Them on Fire, Say Prosecutors
• I Was Kidnapped at the US-Mexico Border

• Doctors Are Injecting Bleach to Treat COVID In Bolivia
• COVID Devastated Prisons. But Inmate and Guards Are Refusing the Vaccine.
• Is Hot Vax Summer Even Happening?
• How to Actually Get a Trump Voter Vaccinated