Syrian refugee crisis: news and updates

Why Angela Merkel is taking selfies with refugees

The German chancellor spent an afternoon with refugees. She took selfies. Lots of selfies.

Donald Trump wants the US to take in Syrian refugees. Wait, what?

Of course, his own immigration proposal would make that basically impossible.

We know how to solve the refugee crisis — but it will take more than money

We can prevent more children from drowning in the Mediterranean. But we can't do it by just writing a check.

9 questions about the refugee crisis you were too embarrassed to ask

Why is this happening now? Why won't Europe take more? How did things get so bad in Syria?

The shameful US response to the Syrian refugee crisis, by the numbers

The US likes to think of itself as a safe haven for people fleeing violent conflict, but Syrians have largely found a closed door.

The Syrian refugee crisis, in 4 maps and charts

These maps and charts explain how the situation in Syria got so bad — and why Syrians are fleeing to Europe.

Europe's refugee crisis, explained

This is a political crisis as well as a humanitarian one

Why people are fleeing Syria: a brief, simple explanation

What you need to know to understand Syria's civil war — and the refugee crisis it created.

When you see that drowned Syrian boy, you should see the United States’ shameful failure

America’s callous inaction is leaving refugees to drown in the Mediterranean.

The drowned Syrian boy photo is viral social media at its most hollow and hypocritical

Western anti-migrant sentiment is embedded in every inch of that photo, whether you see it or not.

Nothing captures Western hypocrisy on refugees like these British tabloid front pages

Outlets that have bashed refugees for years are now pretending to care about one child whose death produced a viral image.

Vox Sentences: The latest European migrant tragedies are worse than we thought

The death toll in two horrifying recent incidents is much higher than initially estimated.

Germany just did something huge for Syrian refugees — and for the future of Europe

Letting Syrian refugees stay in Germany to apply for asylum will help thousands of vulnerable people. It's also a step toward solving the European Union's biggest crisis.

Vox Sentences: Europe is facing the worst refugee crisis since World War II

Thousands of refugees keep coming into Europe — and hundreds more die en route; a big labor ruling is great news for unions and potentially terrible news for McDonald's; and fewer than half of psychology experiments produce consistent results.

1600 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean in 2015. Europe refuses to fix the crisis.

And it's only going to get worse this summer.

18,000 people are trapped in a Syrian "death camp" between ISIS and Assad

How Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp became "the deepest circle of hell."

Vox Sentences: The remarkable activism and tragic death of Kayla Mueller

That and more in our daily news roundup.

The best way to help refugees? Give them money, not random stuff

Even in the most desperate places on earth, giving cash can make a difference.

Syria's civil war created 2.5 million refugees last year — the US let in 36

Neighboring countries are struggling to house them in nightmarish refugee camps

This chart of skyrocketing refugee numbers shows how bad Syria's war is

130,000 refugees flooded into Turkey in just three days.

33 million people are internally displaced