Surging topics

3 of 42 measurable topics are surging — coverage running at least two standard deviations above their own trailing month. A surge is a statistical tripwire: the world's press is suddenly writing much more about something than it usually does.

Data updated: August 20, 2026 · refreshed every 2 hours from GDELT

By z-score (surge intensity)

#	Name	z-score
1	Refugees & Displacement	11.3	0.054% of coverage
2	Korean Peninsula	5.4	0.057% of coverage
3	Sanctions	2.4	0.099% of coverage
4	Peacekeeping	1.9	0.006% of coverage
5	Elections Watch	1.7	0.025% of coverage
6	Myanmar Civil War	1.4	0.003% of coverage
7	Sudan Civil War	0.8	0.003% of coverage
8	DR Congo Conflict	0.7	0.001% of coverage
9	Trade War & Tariffs	0.2	0.099% of coverage
10	Iran War & Succession	0.1	0.13% of coverage
11	Ukraine War	0.0	0.031% of coverage
12	Nuclear Proliferation	-0.0	0.002% of coverage
13	Kashmir	-0.1	0.006% of coverage
14	Ethiopia Conflict	-0.2	0.001% of coverage
15	Critical Minerals	-0.2	0.014% of coverage

z = (latest daily volume − 28-day trailing mean) ÷ trailing standard deviation. Requires ≥ 8 days of history.

Recomputed every two hours. Methodology: how every number is computed. License: CC BY 4.0 — cite "Geotone / GDELT" with a link to this page.