The World: Latest Stories

The US has imposed visa restrictions on dozens of soccer players and other related personnel trying to get into the country for the World Cup. It includes referees, team staff members and soccer officials from different countries. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman explain.

When his mother was catfished on a dating app, journalist Carlos Barragan got curious about who was on the other side of the screen. In his new book, The Yahoo Boys: Real Life with the Love Scammers of Lagos," Barragan takes readers to Lagos, Nigeria, to meet face-to-face with the love scammers exploiting lonely victims and costing them thousands of dollars. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with the author.

Host Marco Werman offers us a calming track called "Ocean Blue" from Austin-based, Mumbai-born singer Nagavalli.This story originally aired on Feb. 7, 2023.

As the World Cup approaches, one tradition is taking over schoolyards and city plazas across Latin America: the Panini sticker album. The albums started in 1970, and now bring people from different walks of life together, while generating a profitable trade for street vendors, who will re-sell rare stickers of star players like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo for up to $200. From Bogota, Colombia, Manuel Rueda reports.

Women in Afghanistan are increasingly facing arrest and detention for leaving their homes without wearing a full face and body covering. Rights monitors say they have verified at least 16 arrests and detentions, including that of a pregnant woman, in the western city of Herat. Rina Amiri, the former US special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, tells The World's Host Marco Werman that Taliban forces have opened fire on civilians protesting the restrictions.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un played host to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping this week. It's the Chinese premier's first visit to North Korea in seven years and follows two high-profile meetings in Beijing between Xi and the leaders of the US and Russia. Host Marco Werman speaks with Isabel Hilton, the London-based founder of China Dialogue.

Pope Leo XlV will be in Barcelona this week, to offer blessings at two Catholic churches that couldn't be more different. First, he'll hold mass at the Sagrada Familia, the spectacular brain-child of Antonio Gaudi, and then at a humble church referred to as "The Cathedral of the Poor," in a densely packed, largely immigrant neighborhood. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona.

Germany has dozens of German American friendship clubs around the country. They came into being after WWII, and are part of a decades-long effort by the US and German governments to cement people-to-people ties between their citizens. But now, with US-German relations on the ropes and Germans' trust in the US at a historic low, does anyone still want to be a member? Valerie Hamilton takes a look from Munich.

Don Broussard grew up in Louisiana, moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, school to school. He struggled to make friends. On the GBH live television series Stories from the Stage, he remembered one person who made a difference, and unwittingly sent him down paths neither of them expected.

It has been six months since the 20,000 acre Collersola natural park was declared off limits to humans - so that authorities could cull it of wild boar infected with the African Swine Flu. But they keep finding sick boar, and extending the park's closure. The World's Gerry Hadden went to a protest where hundreds of hikers slipped around blockades to demand access again to their beloved green space.

The Strait of Hormuz has been closed for about three months as the US war in Iran has developed. With about 1,600 ships still stuck in the gulf, shipping organizations are issuing new safety guidance to vessels. The Word's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with John Stawpert, marine director for the International Chamber of Shipping, about those recommendations.

The humble trout is a big deal in Kashmir. Fish farmers there have seen their businesses boom. There's even a festival devoted to the fish, where village residents flock to a local spring each year to catch the them - old school style, with wicker baskets. Syed Shahriyar reports from Panzath village.

In Japanese, "minyo" refers to Japanese folk songs. The band Minyo Crusaders takes traditional Japanese songs and rearranges them using Caribbean, African and Latin styles. We take a listen to their latest, a traditional poignant tune titled "Shigesa Bushi" which was popularized by sailors during the Edo period (1600-1800s), which the band has effectively turned into a bouncy Ghanaian-style highlife melody.

The World Cup is becoming a stage for Mexico City's unresolved social issues. Teachers, mothers searching for disappeared children, anti-gentrification groups, sex workers - just about everything. These neighborhood activists may not all be protesting the same thing - but they are using the World Cup spotlight to say: "You're preparing the city for the world, but what about us?" The World's Tibisay Zea reports.

Armenia's pro-West prime minister secured an election victory on Monday, despite a Russia-backed disinformation campaign and economic pressure from Moscow. Journalist Francesca Ebel tells The World's Host Marco Werman why the former Soviet republic has drifted from Russia's orbit.

As Mexico prepares to host matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, concerns are growing that the tournament's economic boom could also expand illicit markets in host cities. There are indicators of a rise in narco-businesses" embedded in tourism sectors like nightlife, transportation and short-term rentals - raising questions about who will truly profit when millions of visitors arrive. The World's Tibisay Zea reports on the hidden economies already kicking off.

A sherpa who was missing for a week on Mount Everest has been found alive by a cleaning crew on the tallest mountain. The 52-year-old Hillary Dawa Sherpa was seen crawling his way towards the base camp. This miracle comes at the end of the busiest seasons in the mountain's history. Host Marco Werman talks with journalist Ben Ayers, who has been reporting from the base camp in Nepal all season.

For almost three decades, the T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo band was cranking out hit after hit in West Africa. Its members were so prolific that in their prime they were issuing hits every three weeks. Now, some of their more obscure "B-sides" have come out on the compilation, "West African Beat: Rare 7s and EPs from Benin and Niger."

Ellie Wilson is a classically trained violinist who has previously performed in rock and folk bands.

Voters in Peru head to the polls this weekend for a runoff presidential election. One key issue shaping their decisions is a wave of extortion that has surged in recent years. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Peruvian journalist Marco Sifuentes, based in Spain, about the dynamics heading into the vote.

There is a tradition in Germany called Aufguss." It combines the heat of a sauna with aromatherapy using essential oils. But the practice has evolved into something theatrical. Show Aufguss" mixes together that experience with music and choreographed towel movements, performed by so-called Aufguss masters." And it's getting quite competitive. The World dispatched reporter Joshua Coe in Denmark to sweat it out for the country's national championships.

The Pacific island nation of Fiji has rejected an idea to build an incinerator for Western fashion houses. A French fashion mogul and an Australian billionaire pitched an idea to send non-recyclable trash from all over the region to the island, and then burn it, as a source of energy. Host Marco Werman has the details.

Iran has conditioned a ceasefire with the US with an end to the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon. Tehran has long had a close relationship with the Lebanese militant group, and as The World's Shirin Jaafari reports, it is now using it as leverage in the talks with the US.

The Iranian author Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56. She was famous for her graphic novel "Persepolis," which blended memoir and political history in the story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with professor Nahid Siamdoust about Satrapi's literary impact and legacy.

Kenya is a powerhouse when it comes to geothermal energy. The country generates about half of its electricity by harnessing the Earth's heat. Its neighboring countries have the same underground resources, but almost no geothermal power. Now that is starting to change. For The Big Fix, Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Anderson Kehbila, an expert on climate and energy with the Stockholm Environment Institute's Africa Center, based in Nairobi.

The ongoing bloodshed between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon almost hit a pause, when the two sides announced a ceasefire yesterday. But today that deal is off. This latest attempt comes on the heels of a 10-day agreement in April and then a 45-day extension in May. Each agreement has been derailed by back-and-forth strikes. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have the details on the latest agreement and what factors are putting it at risk.

This Fourth of July marks 250 years since the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Although a defining moment for the US, life, liberty and happiness" were not strictly American pursuits - and indeed the Declaration explicitly addresses the larger world. As we approach US Independence Day, The World is taking a look at the American Revolution and its global reverberations. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, author of the 2024 book, The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It."

The US, Canada and Australia all have sports they call football, and they're not "the beautiful game" that's soon to get underway at the World Cup in North America. The World's Gerry Hadden takes a look at what people from different parts of the world think about the sport's name, and whether a common moniker can ever be agreed upon.

Today marks 37 years since Chinese troops opened fire on peaceful protestors in Tiananmen Square. For three decades after the 1989 massacre, Hong Kong was the only place on Chinese soil where large public commemorations honored those killed. Today, in Hong Kong, even symbolic acts caught police attention, as journalist Tom Grundy explains to The World's Host Marco Werman.

Otzi the Iceman, the mummified Copper Age man discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991, has been dead for more than 5,000 years. But a new study has found multiple types of microbes that survived the extreme cold of the glacier that preserved his body. Scientist Frank Maixner told The World's Host Carolyn Beeler that some of these microbes came from the environment, while others were part of his gut microbiome, which could offer new insights for future medical research.

It was the era of Charlie's Angels, and a young Palestinian American girl living in Maryland struggled to fit in among a group of girls she called "The Jennifers." As part of the GBH series Stories from the Stage, in Boston, Lena Rizkallah recalled an elaborate plan she hatched to become part of the group. The first step would be getting a popular toy, at the time, known as a Crissy doll. The plan didn't turn out quite the way Rizkallah expected.

Conflicts around the world impact people's daily lives, but wars also impact our understanding of the past. That's true in Sudan, where an ancient civilization known for millennia as the Kingdom of Kush once thrived. Research about that civilization is underway, but war is making it difficult. Geoff Emberling at the University of Michigan, is an archaeologist who is the co-director of the Jebel Barkal archeology site in northern Sudan. He speaks with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler.

The word "fintech" has come to mean many things - from apps like Venmo and Square that allow us to use a smartphone to pay for things, to crypto, blockchains and online banking. But there's another very important Fintech at play: games. As in, those coming out of Finland's booming gaming industry. From our partners at Deutsche Welle, DW, Lars Bevanger went to northern Finland, where they've been teaching gaming for around 20 years.

Over the weekend, Japan's crown prince and others released eight crested ibises in north-central Japan. It was the first time in decades that the birds have been seen in the wild. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have details.

There are around 415,000 African elephants left in the world. Their numbers have drastically decreased mostly due to poaching and habitat loss. In fact, what are believed to be the last three elephants still in a zoo, are currently in the middle of a court battle to determine their future. Reporter Elna Schutz visited them at the Johannesburg Zoo in South Africa.

The late Francis Bebey was a musical innovator from Cameroon who used the sounds of the natural world in his music, long before other artists were similarly inspired. Bebey's seminal album was "Tresor Magnetique." Now, that album has been remixed by a new generation of artists. Host Marco Werman speaks to Patrick Bebey, one of the musical pioneer's sons.This story originally aired on Sept. 10, 2025.

Kenyan protesters are demonstrating against plans to build a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans who may have been exposed to Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo. Critics of the planned facility say it exposes Kenyans to risk, without offering them the same protections provided for US citizens. Journalist Joy Kirigia in Nairobi discusses the implications with The World's Host Marco Werman.

Despite mass Russian assaults on Ukrainian cities, Moscow's progress on the battlefield has stalled. Mark Galeotti, a scholar of Russian security affairs at University College London tells The World's Host Carolyn Beeler that he's seeing an increasingly open campaign inside Russia to try to persuade President Vladimir Putin to wind down the war.

Ahead of the World Cup, Mexico City has turned the axolotl into a kind of unofficial mascot. The smiling salamander now appears on trains, murals, bridges and public art across the capital. Mexicans love the axolotl: It's local, iconic and deeply tied to the city's identity. But the real thing is disappearing from the wild. The World's Tibisay Zea looks into the debate over celebrating the animal while the ecosystem it depends on remains at risk.

Starting this month, the US will begin dismantling an extensive deep sea observation system used by scientists around the world to understand how climate change is impacting the Earth's oceans. While most of the 900 scientific instruments are positioned in the waters off US states, one particular array - in the waters south of Greenland - is crucial for studying the impact of climate change on the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler heard from Rene van Westen, an oceanographer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto instituted a free school lunch program a year ago. In that time, there has been increasing controversy after thousands of cases of food poisoning, students finding maggots in their meals and criticism that the financial costs of the program would be better spent on teacher training and pay. Dave Grunebaum reports from Jakarta.

They're supposed to be safe places, both for kids and for parents. But police in Paris have suspended dozens of school assistants in over 100 schools, preschools and nurseries for abusing youngsters. The assistants work in cafeterias or lead after-school activities - and they don't go through the same vetting process as teachers. The World's Gerry Hadden reports.

It began as a hit song in South Africa by pop star Nomcebo Zikode. She embraced "Jerusalema" as a way to encourage herself to persist in music, and listeners felt the redemption in her voice. Then came the dance challenge, which was followed by a more introspective take on the song by Angelique Kidjo at the rededication of Notre Dame. And now, Kidjo has included "Jerusalema" on her newest recording, "Hope." Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler take a listen.

Venezuela's opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has returned to Norway, six months after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize award there. Speaking at the Oslo Freedom Forum today, Machado said she is planning to return to Venezuela very soon" and expressed confidence that the country will emerge from authoritarian rule. She also renewed her call for free and fair elections in Venezuela in the near future. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry met with Machado in Oslo and spoke to Host Marco Werman.

Musicians often shift identities. Korean American Charley Yang is no exception. His fans first got to know him as BoyWithUke, now he's releasing music as Chandol. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman tell us what's behind the name change.

Vasilis Kostas' passion for music started early. He grew up in Epirus, in the northwestern region of Greece, and remembers how his grandfather would show up every night to sing local, traditional tunes. Those songs stayed with him, as he learned to play the laouto and began to write songs of his own. They appear in his new album "Lena."

Anyone around in the 1980s might recall the hand wringing over test tube" babies, conceived in IVF labs. Today, more than 1 in 50 US babies are conceived by IVF. But on the horizon are mind-blowing experiments in reproductive science that may cause much more controversy. Patrick Winn reports from Bangkok.This story originally aired on May 5, 2025.

A new, experimental drug for pancreatic cancer is giving doctors and patients hope. In a small trial, the once-a-day treatment doubled the survival rate for the deadliest form of cancer. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Dr. Robert Vonderheide from the American Association for Cancer Research about how this drug works, and what it tells us about the larger push for new treatments for cancers.

Martina Ptackova is an eight-time world champion in kickboxing and hand-to-hand combat. The 28-eight year old Czech champ has trained NATO troops in self-defense, but now she's on an altogether different mission: to tackle bullying in schools. From our partners at Deutsche Welle, DW, Inside Europe's Rob Cameron meets up with her in Prague.

It's being called Canada's "Brexit moment." Alberta's premier has just announced that a referendum will be held in October, asking voters in the province whether they wish to remain part of Canada, or begin the legal process of pursuing separation. UK-based environmental journalist Leana Hosea of Watershed Investigations is on a reporting trip in Alberta. She joins Host Marco Werman from Edmonton to discuss the origins of the movement, its legal status and why the possibility of secession puts the rights of First Nations communities in jeopardy.