Mappit.ai — every place has a story: the world's news on a live, interactive map

Mappit — every place has a story

The world's zeitgeist on a map. Mappit turns the world's news into a living, interactive map. An always-on news engine continuously reads what is happening in nearly two thousand places — its own crawler, which reads the world's publishers directly and supplies more than nine in ten new stories, working alongside frontier AI from Google, OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI in the jobs a crawler cannot do — and pins each story to the place it is about, on an interactive, time-aware map of the planet. Zoom into any city and you see what's happening there right now — grouped by topic, colored by mood, drawn only from publishers that clear a reliability bar and weighted toward the most trusted, marked with how many independent sources found it, and with every source link checked so the stories you read actually lead somewhere real. Scrub the calendar backwards and the map replays how the world looked on any past day, because each day's record is kept rather than replaced.

On top of that news layer, Mappit adds live views of the physical planet — earthquakes, wildfires, air quality, and weather — and a market layer that plots stock movements at companies' real headquarters. A built-in AI guide named Marco answers questions about any place and cites its sources — the news there and, from an atlas of open data, its population, borders and statistics, each figure with its year and source. Seven map apps show the numbers beside the news: they color the world's countries and America's states, counties and congressional districts by the economy, population, health, conflict and the 2026 US elections, from open data, and play them back through time. Anyone can browse for free; a subscription unlocks the ability to create and share your own places, collections, and data layers. And AI assistants can read Mappit directly: add https://mappit.ai/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT or another assistant, free and without an account.

The core idea is simple and durable: place + time is the most natural way to organize what is happening in the world, and the value compounds every day as the record grows. The map is the interface; the permanent, corroborated, geolocated corpus of world events beneath it is the substance.

Mappit requires JavaScript for the interactive map. Every public place, pin, collection and profile also has a crawlable page — see the sitemap.

Dhaka, Bangladesh

What's happening in Dhaka, Bangladesh — 594 local stories, 0 community pins, live on the Mappit map.

Mappit's analysis

Geography & Setting

Dhaka sprawls across the Ganges Delta in central Bangladesh, straddling the Buriganga River at coordinates 23.8100°N, 90.4100°E. The city's low-lying terrain—rarely more than a few meters above sea level—makes it vulnerable to monsoon flooding and waterlogging, challenges that dominate urban planning discussions year-round. The Buriganga, once the city's lifeline, now struggles with pollution and encroachment, though it remains central to Dhaka's identity and commerce. The surrounding delta landscape is among the world's most densely populated and ecologically complex regions.

History

Dhaka has been a major settlement for centuries, known historically as a center of fine muslin production and regional trade. It served as capital of Bengal under Mughal rule and later became a key city under British administration. Following Bangladesh's independence in 1971, Dhaka emerged as the young nation's capital and has since become one of South Asia's fastest-growing megacities. This rapid transformation—from colonial port city to modern capital—defines much of its current character and growing pains.

People & Demographics

With 23.2 million residents, Dhaka ranks among the world's largest cities by population. It's a densely packed urban center where neighborhoods range from sprawling informal settlements to planned districts like Gulshan and Banani. The city draws migrants from across Bangladesh seeking economic opportunity, creating a dynamic but often strained social fabric. Bengali is the primary language; Islam is the dominant religion, though the city has religious and cultural diversity.

Economy & Markets

Dhaka is Bangladesh's economic engine—a hub for garment manufacturing, banking, and trade. The textile and apparel industry particularly drives the metropolitan economy, supported by major financial institutions now expanding their footprint (like BRAC Bank's recent Tejgaon flagship branch). Markets range from sprawling informal street commerce to modern commercial zones. The city's economy is tightly bound to global supply chains, making it sensitive to international demand and shipping patterns.

Culture & Character

Dhaka pulses with cricket fever, literary tradition, and street-level entrepreneurship. The recent Dhaka Derby at Bangabandhu Stadium—drawing record crowds—reflects the city's passion for sport as social glue. Old Dhaka's narrow lanes buzz with activity; newer zones like Uttara showcase residential planning and community initiatives (like the Green Dhaka tree-planting drive). The city's character is one of relentless energy mixed with infrastructure strain—creative, crowded, and constantly negotiating its own growth.

Current Currents

Heavy monsoon rains in early July have exposed Dhaka's persistent waterlogging crisis, with neighborhoods from Old Dhaka to peripheral areas submerged. Engineers are publicly calling for science-based urban planning and better coordination to address these seasonal paralysis events. Meanwhile, authorities are cracking down on illegal encroachments and expanding services—extended metro hours, smart policing initiatives—to manage the pressure. These efforts reflect a city wrestling with its own scale.