The World: Latest Stories

Have you been keeping up on your Duolingo streak? New research suggests that learning a second language could play a role in keeping the mind younger and healthier for longer. A study published in the journal "Nature Aging" found that people who speak two or more languages were more likely to see delayed symptoms of dementia. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler learned more from Lucia Amoruso, one of the main authors of the research. She's a psychologist with The Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language based in San Sebastian, Spain.

Scientists have developed a new potato variety that is resilient to late blight, a disease that is increasingly threatening the potato crop in the Peruvian Andes. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Thiago Mendes, scientist at the International Potato Center, about the new variety.

This year, the genre-bending American band Deerhoof released its first single, "Immigrant Songs," off its new album. And it launched it, not on any of the usual platforms, but on Craigslist. Lead singer Satomi Matsuzaki joined Meklit Hadero on the podcast "Movement," telling stories of music and migration, to break down her band's commentary on immigration, how it connects to her personal experience and how she uses her voice to get her point across.

New Delhi and Islamabad were both hit with bombs, killing at least 20 people between them. Neither country's officials know the exact cause of the explosions or who was responsible. But unlike previous attacks, the long-term rivals aren't seriously blaming each other. We get the latest from Sushmita Pathak.

US foreign direct investment in Africa has surpassed China's for the first time since 2012. But for African countries, concerns are growing that this increase in investment could lead to a shifting picture of dependency. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke with professor Lina Benabdallah about this dynamic.

She was sitting on a pile of Bitcoin that British police say was worth more $7 billion, money that came from scamming thousands of Chinese pensioners. But on Tuesday, Qian Zhimin was handed a prison sentence of 11 years and eight months for money laundering. Judge Sally-Ann Hales told Qian that she was "the architect of this offending from its inception to its conclusion. ... Your motive was one of pure greed." The World's Matthew Bell reports.

More than 20 miles of gigantic wall, out in the ocean, are defending Southeast Asia's biggest mega-city from rising seawater. That's the idea anyway. Jakarta and its 30 million people are sinking, while climate change is causing ocean levels to rise. Indonesian officials have hired experts from the Netherlands, with their dyke-building expertise, to make the massive sea wall a reality. But the project has some serious downsides. Patrick Winn reports from Jakarta.

Today marks the start of COP30, the annual gathering where delegates from countries around the world meet to hash out global action on climate change. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Megan Rowling, editor at Climate Home News, about what to watch at this year's meeting.

The first snowfall of the season blanketed the Canadian Premier League's North Star Cup in Ottawa yesterday. Despite the weather, the game saw one of the most outstanding goals ever scored in the CPL, a bicycle kick from Atletico Ottawa's David Rodriguez. As Host Marco Werman tells us, Atletico beat Cavalry FC of Calgary 2-1 in extra time in a game that saw nearly five inches of snow.

Two years ago, the coastal fishing town of Grindavik was evacuated after hundreds of earthquakes shook southwest Iceland and sent fractures running through the ground in town. The World's Carolyn Beeler visited Grindivik, with a lifelong resident who still can't return, to see what the town looks like two years later.

At least eight people were killed on Monday in a car explosion near the historic Red Fort in a densely populated area of the Indian capital Delhi, a heavily guarded city of more than 30 million people. The exact cause of the blast is being investigated. Host Marco Werman has the latest.

Baker and writer Laurel Kratochvila tells us that when it comes to Polish baking, it's best when the food is "good, good, not too sweet." That phrase inspired the title of her new cookbook, "Dobre Dobre: Baking from Poland and Beyond." Kratochvila speaks to Host Carolyn Beeler.

An art auction later this month for a painting by Frida Kahlo is causing a stir. If predictions bare out, the painting could become the most expensive work by any female or Latin American artist. Estimates range from $40 million to $60 million, as Host Marco Werman explains.

This summer and fall have seen a sudden resurgence in violence in the Basque Country of Spain. The street fighting is eerily reminiscent of the campaign waged by the separatist group ETA, from the 1980s until it renounced its violent campaign for independence in 2011. The World's Gerry Hadden has the story.

Italy's Court of Auditors has rejected the government's ambitious plan to build one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. The long-debated, multi-billion dollar bridge project would connect Sicily to the mainland. The court didn't give a reason for its decision last week, but Italy's infrastructure minister has pledged to carry on fighting for its construction. Deutsche Welle, DW's Angelo van Schaik reports.

Guitarist and singer Amadou Bagayoko died earlier this year, just before the release of the final album he recorded with his wife Mariam Doumbia, "L'Amour a la Folie" (crazy love). Host Marco Werman takes a listen to the title track and then takes us back to perhaps a more relevant song for Mali these days as it faces a serious terrorist threat, their 2004 hit, "Politic Amagni 'La Politique, C'est Pas Bon'" (politics isn't good).

New research has found the Roman Empire's prolific network of roads is even bigger than previously thought. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke with Tom Brughmans, one of the researchers behind the project about just how expansive the network was.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that she is bringing a lawsuit against the man who groped her in public earlier this week. She says she hopes to call attention to a problem that women in the country experience every day. And she's calling on every state in Mexico to enact laws protecting women from gender-based violence. Host Marco Werman has the details.

In Mexico, a wave of bold political assassinations is putting new pressure on the country's fight against drug cartels. Last week, a mayor in the western state of Michoacan was gunned down during a public celebration. He had openly challenged the cartels. Days earlier, a lime grower who spoke out about extortion was also murdered. The back-to-back killings show how dangerous it remains to oppose organized crime. From Mexico City, The World's Tibisay Zea reports.

Playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson met with scores of diplomats and climate scientists who participated in crafting the 1997 United Nations agreement on greenhouse gas emissions known as the Kyoto Protocol. The drama of multilateral negotiations left a powerful impression. "How can we bottle this and put it on a stage?" Murphy remembers thinking. The result? "Kyoto," the play making its US debut at New York City's Lincoln Center. Reporter Jeff Lunden brings us the story.

In the United States, thousands of flights have been canceled due to a shortage of air traffic controllers. They're all domestic flights, but many passengers need them to make connections to international airports, and final destinations. The World's Jeremy Siegel caught up with travelers stuck in Boston.

Government employees in the US aren't the only ones enduring the longest shutdown in the country's history. At military bases across the world, locals employed by the US have seen their pay suspended. While governments like Germany have stepped in to pay some of their citizens working for the US, others are caught working without pay. That's the case for Portuguese citizens at Lajes air force base on the island of Terceira. Host Marco Werman learned more from Paula Terra, who is president of the Portuguese Workers' Representative Committee.

Fertility treatment can take a toll emotionally, physically and financially. In the UK, employees going through IVF or other fertility procedures currently have no legal right to paid time off. This week, a Labour MP proposed a new bill in Parliament that would make paid leave for fertility treatment a legal right in Britain. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry reports.

For the last 18 months, Russian and Ukrainian forces have been locked in battle in the front-line city of Pokrovsk. According to battle maps from an organization connected with the Ukrainian military, Russian forces are making gains in the city. The World's Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have more.

Typhoon Kalmaegi swept over the Philippines on Monday, killing more than 100 people, and leaving dozens more missing. That same storm has just made landfall over central Vietnam and is forecast to pass into southern Laos tomorrow. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have the details on one of Asia's fiercest storms this year.

Arms monitors, rights groups and the Sudanese government have repeatedly accused the United Arab Emirates of funneling arms and resources to the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. The US has accused them of committing genocide in Darfur. So, what's behind Abu Dhabi's alleged support for the RSF? The World's Shirin Jaafari reports.

Last week, Irish police received a call from a man who saw what he believed to be a lion roaming through the woodlands of County Clare. That prompted an investigation by police, who discovered that the "lion" was actually just a friendly dog with a fresh haircut. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have the story.

The UK's former top expert on bird flu, Ian Brown, is warning farmers to "prepare for the worst" as cases of the virus increase among the country's livestock, including chickens. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler learns more from Brown, who is now a virologist at the Pirbright Institute in Surrey.

The nexus of populism and extremist politics is a trend The World has reported on in many countries, but the connection is especially vivid in Germany with the rise of the far-right extremist party, the Alternative for Deutschland. The AfD's success over the past few years is told in the new documentary, "The Rise of Germany's New Right," from our GBH colleagues at FRONTLINE. Host Marco Werman talks with filmmaker Evan Williams.

US President Donald Trump has said that "nothing is going to jeopardize the truce" in Gaza. But both Israel and Hamas accuse each other of violating the terms of the US brokered cease-fire. And so far, there's no real progress on the next phase of Trump's 20-point peace plan. If you talk with Palestinians, the longer term goal of achieving statehood - which is mentioned in the Trump plan - seems as far off as ever. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

As plastic waste accumulates just about everywhere - in nature and in our bodies - a couple of research teams in Spain are working on breakthroughs aimed at reducing its impact. Some environmental groups are skeptical, though, cautioning that it's too early to think science can fix the world's plastics problem. The World's Gerry Hadden traveled to Valencia, Spain, to learn more.

Superstitions vary from culture to culture and can, at times, be puzzling. Steph Dalwin was fascinated by her mom's Vietnamese superstition of keeping a knife under her pillow at night to keep away ghosts. So, she started doing the same thing. Dalwin is a research analyst and stand-up comedian and shared the superstition with GBH's Stories From The Stage.

Vir Das is incredibly popular in India. Now, he's making a bigger and bigger name for himself outside the country, too. He has a memoir that came out this week, and he'll be doing a residency at the Lincoln Center in New York. Reporter Sushmita Pathak has the story.

Not very long ago, in the galaxy we live in, someone invented a sport that combines fencing with our fantasy pals from "Star Wars." All you need is one of those glow-in-the-dark swords every kid, and adult, secretly wanted as a birthday present from Obi-Wan Kenobi, and you're ready to rock. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona on the fun of this rising trend.

A glacier in Antarctica has broken a melt record. Last year, the Hektoria glacier lost five miles of ice in two months - more than 10 times the previous record. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with study author Ted Scambos about the finding.

Pope Leo XIV fielded questions from reporters outside the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo last night. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman share a few take-aways.

The surprising rise of Zohran Mamdani to become mayor-elect of New York City has captured global attention. Mamdani, a Muslim, was born in Uganda to parents of South Asian descent, and people from across both continents have been reacting to his win. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have more.

Every year, thousands risk the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, aiming for Italy and a chance at a new life in Europe. Many land off the island of Lampedusa, abandoning their boats offshore. Now, in a prison workshop in Milan, those boats are being given a second life. Inmates at Opera prison, one of Italy's largest jails, are turning the abandoned vessels into musical instruments, which have been played at the country's most famous opera house. The government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is not on board with the project though. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry reports from Milan.

Three Chinese astronauts are stuck on the Tiangong space station after it was damaged from space debris. They were supposed to return to Earth today, but will remain up in space indefinitely. The World's Host Marco Werman learns more about the threat of junk orbiting the planet from Nilton Renno. He's a professor of Climate and Space Engineering at the University of Michigan.

From the late 1990s through the early 2000s, US oil giant Exxon spent tens of thousands of dollars funding think tanks across Latin America to promote climate skepticism. That's according to a new investigation by the climate journalism organization DeSmog. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks to the author of the investigation, Geoff Dembicki. He's the global managing editor of DeSmog, which co-published the findings with The Guardian.

Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman survey global headlines flying just under the radar.

Thirty years ago today, a far-right Israeli extremist shot and killed Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with author Robert Malley about Rabin's legacy, and why the former general's hopes for peace in the region faltered. Malley's new book with co-author Hussein Agha is called, "Tomorrow Is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine."

Sir David Beckham was knighted by the UK's King Charles today. The ceremony took place at Windsor Castle and the former soccer pro knelt before the monarch, who touched his shoulders with a sword to make it official. But the honor acknowledges more than just the soccer player's work on the field. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have the details.

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney, who died on Monday at the age of 84, became an influential figure in Washington on matters of foreign policy starting in the 1970s. Cheney believed in the robust use of America power - including military force - to shape the world to serve US national security interests. He was a strong advocate for the first Gulf War, the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and a central player in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Cheney was also one of the architects of the so-called "War on Terror," which has had a profound impact on US influence around the globe. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

Paris has launched a lottery to restore some of the spectacular funerary monuments within the overcrowded cemeteries of Pere-Lachaise, Montparnasse and Montmartre. Gravestones and monuments in Parisian cemeteries are maintained by families, not the city, and some graves can become abandoned and decrepit over time. So, Paris officials would like residents to come in, fix up monuments and be buried alongside the likes of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler explain.

Turkey welcomed not one but two major European leaders to its capital last week. First, the UK's Keir Starmer, then Germany's Friedrich Merz. For more than a decade, Turkey's backsliding on democracy has lead to distance from Europe. But the growing threat from Russia, and Turkey's potential role in Europe's defense, seem to be ushering in a new era of cooperation, ironically, at the same time that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoan's crackdown on domestic opposition figures reaches a new peak. Deutsche Welle, DW's Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.

No longer just QR codes on doorways, China's surveillance of Uyghurs is now hidden in Cloud services and software updates. Dina Temple-Raston of the "Click Here" podcast looks at how digital tools meant to protect identity are being used to erase it. Her story focuses on a cyberattack against members of the World Uyghur Congress.

Today in a ceremony hidden from public view Tanzania swore in Samia Hassan for a second term as president. She won with a landslide 98% of the vote in an election that has sparked nationwide protests, and that many international observers are concerned was rigged. Host Marco Werman learns more from Daniel Paget, a specialist in Tanzania's elections and an assistant professor at the University of Sussex in the UK.

When Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, it tore through the country's agricultural center, demolishing crops and killing livestock. Now, as aid flows into the country, concerns are rising about the country's food security moving forward. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Linda Roth from World Central Kitchen about what she's hearing from farmers.

Game 7 of the World Series stretched past midnight into Sunday in Toronto, and has passed into baseball lore as one of the greatest endings of one of the greatest World Series ever.