As Orange County officials clear out homeless encampments along the Santa Ana River, they are making some unexpected discoveries. In one area, they found an underground bunker accessible from a wooden hatch camouflaged with dirt. In another, more than 1,000 bicycles tucked in a separate tunnel were found.

Bill Gates' charitable foundation is putting up $10 million to fund ideas aimed at improving education, eradicating poverty, and stopping climate change, among other causes. On Tuesday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced a partnership with the MiSK Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization established by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy has been held up as a guidebook for understanding the 2016 election, but his logic is rooted in an enduring and dangerous myth about race in Appalachia. By Elizabeth Catte.

Some people in poorer countries are compelled to sell their organs on the black market. Why not build a regulated system that compensates them fairly and ensures their safety? The donor gets health coverage for at least a year and reduced rates on health insurance for years after that. In 1988 a compensated and regulated living donor program was adopted in Iran. We review the backgrounds, characteristics, results, and ethical issues surrounding the Iranian model paid kidney donation program.

In a park in the middle of a leafy, bohemian neighborhood where homes list for close to $1 million, a tractor’s massive claw scooped up the refuse of the homeless - mattresses, tents, wooden frames, a wicker chair, an outdoor propane heater. Workers in masks and steel-shanked boots plucked used needles and mounds of waste from the underbrush.

“He seems to be possessed with a demon of restlessness,” Stanwix’s mother remarked. But his real demon was motionlessness. After eighteen months in California, Stanwix reports: “I am still stationary.” By Christopher Benfey.

The average living space for per person in the city is just 50 sq ft, the equivalent of just half a parking space. Poor residents in Hong Kong have less living space than prisoners in the city’s maximum security jails, according to a new study. The average living space per person was just 50 sq ft (4.6 sq metres), the equivalent of just half a parking space, a survey of 204 families in one neighbourhood by a local residents association found.

Last Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of the United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The date intentionally coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Call to Action, which saw the French anti-poverty campaigner Father Joseph Wresinski ask the international community, in front of 100,000 Parisians, to “strive to eradicate extreme poverty”.

In the poorest towns, where even Wal-Mart failed, the little-box player is turning a profit. By Mya Frazier.

In the world's tiniest apartments, there's hardly any room to think.

With the closing of the Jungle this week, a chapter ends in northern France for thousands of refugees who sought temporary shelter in a toxic landfill on the outskirts of Calais... By Shane Mitchell. (Oct. 2016)

“I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day.” By Daniel Duane. (Dec. 17, 2016)

Nikkie Edwards and her boyfriend make about $31,000 a year, a sum that leaves them below the poverty line as defined by Statistics Canada — and in the company of another 4.8 million people, according to the latest census numbers released Wednesday. Of those, 1.2 million Canadians are children under 18 — including their 10-month-old daughter, Isabelle.

Why being poor is expensive.

Vance’s sweeping stereotypes are shark bait for conservative policymakers.

The poorest families in Ontario are earning less than they were in 2000, while during the same period richer families have watched their income grow, according to a new economic report. The analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) describes an increasingly "polarized" Ontario labour market that is shifting away from stable manufacturing jobs to more precarious service sector work and rewarding higher-earning families while punishing poorer ones.

A farmer in Peepli Khera heads into a sugarcane field to defecate, carrying a container of water to rinse with. In his village, north of Delhi, only one family has a toilet. The others go in the fields—men on one side of the village, women on the other.

Majority of 450,000 Americans awaiting trial on any given day are imprisoned because they can’t afford bail, not because they’ve been deemed a risk. By Jamiles Lartey.

An unprecedented study in Bangladesh could reveal how malnutrition, poor sanitation and other challenges make their mark on child development.

“There just isn’t what you’d expect to have in America down here,” Dr. Karen Kinsell says. By Charles Bethea.