The World: Latest Stories

Sahar Delijani - born to dissidents in a Tehran prison - has been returning, through her writing, to the stories of repression, imprisonment and resistance that have been reverberating through her family all her life. In a recent op-ed in Le Monde, she wrote about the timing of the current US and Israeli war on Iran, coming right on the heels of massive protests in Iran, met with violence from the Islamic Republic. Delijani joins The World's Carolyn Beeler to talk about the impact of the decades-long threats Iranians face, of both internal repression and foreign attacks.

If you're in a country with legal refugee status, that typically means you're entitled to benefits in your host country. But India makes no such guarantees, putting the country at odds with the United Nations Refugee Convention. It also creates an incredible challenge for more than 15,000 Afghans who seek refuge in India, where many have settled despite the barriers. In New Delhi, Priyanka Shankar explains.

Mexico City's iconic Estadio Azteca has reopened after a delayed and scaled-back renovation, marking a key test ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The stadium, set to make history as the first to host this tournament three times, welcomed fans for a high-profile Mexico-Portugal match. But behind the celebration, there are concerns about how World Cup preparations are affecting surrounding communities. The World's Tibisay Zea reports from Mexico City.

The US lifted sanctions against acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez yesterday. It's the latest in a series of changes that began when President Nicolas Maduro was captured and brought to the US to face criminal charges. The World's Marco Werman speaks with Professor David Smilde, chair of Tulane University's sociology department, about the latest in the country.

A positive update on a story we brought you more than a year ago about an ancient helmet from Romania stolen while on loan at a museum in the Netherlands. Private art investigator Arthur Brand spoke to us about it at the time. Every day they didn't catch the thieves, he told us, increased the chances that this treasure from Romania could be lost forever.

Celebrations continue in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the national football team has qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in over half a century. Axel Tuanzebe scored the only goal in extra time. Hospital administrator and super fan Adrien Makombo was watching in the capital, Kinshasa. He tells The World's Marco Werman this week's win on the soccer pitch has helped to unify the struggling nation.

The Republic of Georgia claims the oldest archeological evidence of grape wine-making in the world. National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has been traveling the world on foot for his project, Out of Eden Walk. He gives The World's Marco Werman a tour of the ancient origins of wine-making in the Caucasus, and the folkloric properties of palm wine in East Africa.

Security feeds and traffic cameras have become tools in some of the most high-level killings in recent wars. In Iran, for example, Israel was able to map out the behavior and movement of targets well in advance of attacks by hacking into these kinds of devices. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports.

The televised spectacle pitting country against country has - for 70 years - been anchored in Europe. This week, the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the international song competition, announced the launch of Eurovision in Asia. Bangkok is set to host the inaugural competition in November. The World's Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have more.

Tagliatelle, tortellini and lasagne - they all come from the Italian city of Bologna. Those pasta types, when authentic, are made from fresh egg pasta. It's known locally as la sfoglia and the people who make it are sfogline. To protect those traditions and the artisans who carry them out, Bologna has established a certification process to distinguish the real deal from imposters. Inside Europe's Dany Mitzman from Deutsche Welle, DW, has the story.

Ninety percent of the ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz are typically bound for Asia, making the continent particularly vulnerable to the disruption we're seeing in the energy market as a result of the war in Iran. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Bill Farren-Price, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, about how countries throughout the Asian continent are responding.

If you've ever struggled to enjoy a day at the beach while guarding your food from hungry seagulls, new scientific research might prove useful.

The vast majority of countries don't guarantee birthright citizenship. It's mostly limited to the Americas. Around the world, it's more common for nations to grant citizenship based on ancestry. Ming Hsu Chen, author of Pursuing Citizenship in the Enforcement Era, talks with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler about differing approaches, worldwide, as well as the repercussions of ending automatic citizenship where it has historically existed.

How do you design a city where everyone feels like they belong? Vienna has been trying to answer that question for more than 30 years. The Austrian capital was one of the first cities in Europe to put gender equality at the heart of how it's planned out. A dedicated department was set up to rethink everything from parks to housing to health care. But now, some say those ideas are facing growing resistance. From Vienna, The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry reports.

In the Indian city of Hyderabad, an inventor named Kanyaboyin Sudhakar Yadav creates vehicles in the shape of everyday objects. At Sudha Cars Museum you can see burger cars, a basketball car, even a huge toilet car. These quirky creations have earned Yadav fans across the world, but Yadav isn't just having fun; he's also trying to promote public health. Jamie Fullerton went to Hyderabad for a test drive.

Israeli settler violence, raids and home demolitions are forcing West Bank residents from their homes in unprecedented numbers. At the same time, a new Israeli law imposes the death penalty as the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in fatal attacks. Journalist Fouad Abu Ghosh in Jerusalem tells The World's Host Marco Werman that state-backed settler militias are disrupting life in the West Bank.

Global EV giant BYD is building a new factory in Hungary to bypass tariffs and pump thousands of cheap electric cars into the European market. Hungarian leaders have praised the project as a major investment. But as The World's Transportation Correspondent Jeremy Siegel learned, workers at the plant - many of whom are Chinese migrants flown in on temporary visas - are facing conditions investigators liken to forced labor.

In a press briefing this morning, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the upcoming days of combat would be "decisive," asserting that Iran does not have the military capabilities to do anything about it. To get a clear perspective on Iran's current ability to strike back at the US, The World's Host Carolyn Beeler spoke with Sina Azodi, director of Middle East Studies at George Washington University, who joined from Washington.

It might seem like a step down, but now that the NCAA lets student-athletes get paid for endorsements, the money is better at US universities than it is for most pros in Europe. Nineteen-year-old Dame Sarr came to Duke this year and has been a stand-out guard, even as his old club, FC Barcelona, would love to have him back one day. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona.

Montreal is home to a vibrant and diverse Jewish food scene, with plenty of room for experimentation alongside traditional fare. As Jews across the globe prepare for Passover, Host Marco Werman catches up with Kat Romanow - who teaches cooking classes and hosts events as The Wandering Chew. Romanow describes the global influences that shape Jewish cuisine in Montreal, and describes variations on seder staples, including instructions for making homemade matzo.

A Russian oil tanker has reached Cuba, offering brief relief after months of severe fuel shortages. But for many Cubans, the crisis runs much deeper. Through voices on the island and in exile, this story captures daily life shaped by blackouts, rising hardship and difficult choices about the future. The World's Tibisay Zea reports.

In a blunt Palm Sunday sermon, Pope Leo XIV implicitly criticized the world powers behind the war in Iran, arguing that God does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war but rejects them." Christopher White, the author of "Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy," talks with Host Carolyn Beeler about Pope Leo's comments and the Vatican's historical response to wars.

Russia now spends nearly half of its national budget on the war in Ukraine. A lot of that spending has boosted Russia's economy. But after four years of fighting, the war has created a country of winners and losers. On the winning side - Russia's military industrial complex. But for the many people outside that sphere, we asked reporter Levi Bridges to dig into how they survive

This weekend, the world's largest aircraft carrier arrived in the waters off of Split, Croatia. The USS Gerald R. Ford was pulled from combat operations in the Red Sea, where it was supporting the US war with Iran. It might be championed as the US Navy's most advanced carrier, but as The World's Joshua Coe reports, it's been dealing with some costly backed-up toilets - among other issues. He joined the show from Split and spoke with Host Marco Werman.

The CEO of Air Canada stepping down after last week's plane crash with a fire truck at La Guardia airport in New York, China resuming flights to Pyongyang and another major art heist are just some stories you may not have seen. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler catch you up on the latest.

Composer Sami Yusuf likes to keep listeners on their toes with his diverse style of music. Born to Azerbaijani parents in Tehran, Yusuf grew up in London and was trained in both Western and Middle Eastern classical music. But his musical knowledge doesn't end there. Flamenco, Native American and more can be heard on his latest release "Ecstasy: Voices of the Earth." Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler bring us the details.

Five months ago, Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica. Since then, the recovery has been a slow and ongoing process. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Jamaica Representative from the WHO/PAHO Ian Stein for an update.

Scientists in Greenland have installed an underwater microphone in Disko Bay. Recording the sounds will allow them to study how climate change is affecting the area, by tracking the presence of species and changes in noise. They have also made the microphone's transmission open to the public, on an online stream called DISKO LIVE. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Outi Tervo, the lead scientist behind the project.

It's a mystery that continues to baffle us to this day. Seventy-eight years ago this month, the body of Czechoslovakia's postwar foreign minister, Jan Masaryk, was found beneath his bathroom window, just two weeks after the Communists had seized power. Was the KGB or its Czechoslovak counterpart involved? As Deutsche Welle, DW, Inside Europe's Rob Cameron reports, police are now examining fresh evidence.

A new musical called "Mexodus" tells a lesser-known story of an "underground railroad" of sorts - from the US across the Rio Grande into Mexico. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 enslaved people found refuge in Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1829 (before the US Civil War). Jeff Lunden went to the show and has this report.

If you don't know the diamond company De Beers, you probably know its slogan: "A diamond is forever." The company - co-founded by British imperialist Cecil Rhodes - has, however, lost its luster in recent years. Now up for sale, former African colonies are looking to buy the company that long profited from their diamond mines - including Botswana, whose economy has long relied on the industry. The World's Host Marco Werman learns more from Joel Konopo, the co-founder of the INK Centre for Investigative Journalism, in Botswana's capital, Gaborone.

On the first day of US and Israeli attacks in Iran, a school bombing in the village of Minab that killed around 160 people, many of them children, triggered global outrage. But a similar attack that also resulted in the death of children, went mostly unnoticed. The World's Shirin Jaafari was reporting on the Minab school attack when she came across videos of an explosion at a sports complex in the southern Iranian city of Lamerd that killed some children who were playing volleyball and soccer. She joins Host Carolyn Beeler with details.

In Hong Kong this week, a new amendment to the national security law allows police to demand the password to a person's phone in order to search it. Now, authorities say, "activities endangering national security can be effectively prevented, suppressed and punished." Rights groups and activists warn the changes tighten the noose on free speech in the special administrative region. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Victoria Hui, an associate professor in political science at the University of Notre Dame, about what the new amendment signifies.

According to World Athletics - the global governing body for professional track and field - the presence or absence of the SRY gene is a reliable proxy for determining biological sex. A policy requiring that competitors in the female category undergo testing for the gene was implemented ahead of the World Athletic Championships in the fall. Supporters say the policy guarantees fairness. Critics say it's unethical and unscientific. As Bianca Hillier reported last fall, this is part of a long history of sex-testing in elite women's sports.This story originally aired on Sept. 12, 2025.

The Dutch town of Baarle-Nassau and the Belgian enclave of Baarle-Hertog share a wacky border. It twists and turns every which way and even cuts through some houses. Crossing back and forth between the Netherlands and Belgium is a part of daily life for residents there. A new swing set celebrates that part of the towns' identities by straddling the border between the two countries. Host Carolyn Beeler has more.

Hundreds of tons of oil have washed up along the coast of Mexico's Veracruz and Tabasco states over the past month. Mexican authorities have blamed a still unknown ship and two natural oil seeps in the Gulf. But multiple scientists told The World that the seeps cannot be responsible. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with scientist Oscar Garcia-Pineda about why.

There's been a shift in the rhetoric world leaders are using to describe and justify war and aggression. Especially in the United States, the language is becoming more bellicose, boastful and vengeful. George Soroka, a lecturer in the Department of Government at Harvard University, talks with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler about how and why the language of global conflict is evolving.

The International Olympic Committee has announced that transgender women will be banned from competing in women's events at the Olympic Games, under new rules coming into force from 2028. The decision will require all athletes seeking to compete in the female category to undergo a one-off genetic screening test, and is expected to intensify one of the most contentious debates in global sport. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry joins Host Carolyn Beeler to explain.

In Yemen, after more than a decade of war and economic collapse, thousands of women seeking financial independence thought they'd found a way out of poverty. Online trading platforms - often promoted by friends and family - promised hefty returns of 20%, even 50% on investments. But the companies were frauds. And in a single week, one particular company vanished with $12 million from some 40,000 investors. Hashed Mozaqer and Bassem al-Nawawi talked to victims in Sanaa about how these scams spread, and how they exploit people desperate for income.

As part of its attacks on Ukraine, Russia has targeted the country's energy system, taking out power plants and sub-stations. As a result, Ukraine has turned to cheaper, faster, decentralized alternatives: renewables. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Konstiantyn Krynytskyi, energy director at the NGO EcoAction, about how the war has accelerated Ukraine's energy transition.

The towering, stone statues on Easter Island continue to awe and inspire people since they were first built somewhere between the 13th and 16th centuries. This includes Philadelphia-based composer and trumpet player John Vanore. He recently spoke to The World about how these mysterious statues influenced his latest release, "Easter Island Suite."

The United Nations has voted to name the trans-Atlantic slave trade "the gravest crime against humanity." The landmark resolution, first proposed by Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, also calls for reparations as a concrete step toward remedying historical wrongs." Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have the details.

Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is in court today. He was abducted earlier this year in a US military raid and has been charged with drug trafficking and narcoterrorism. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Geoff Ramsey, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and an analyst specializing in threats in Latin America, about the trial.

K-pop megastars BTS are back. Their comeback album is "Arirang," a Korean folk tune that is considered an anthem of resilience and identity. The first-ever recording of "Arirang" was not made on the Korean peninsula, however, but at Howard University in 1896, the historically Black college in Washington DC. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Mai Anna Pressley, director of strategic partnerships and public programming at the National Association of Black Engagement with Asia, about the relationship between Black music and K-Pop.

Every year, there are as many 400 million cases of dengue fever globally, according to the World Health Organization. The Americas see the majority of these cases, and Brazil has among the highest rates. Two vaccines have recently been rolled out in the country to help combat the disease, and it's just one of the ways the nation has learned to fight it. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler spoke to Dr. Felipe Naveca at Fiocruz, a health research institute affiliated with Brazil's Ministry of Health, to find out if these could be game changers in the fight against dengue.

Arguably, the high water mark when US President Barack Obama began resetting relations with Cuba in 2015 occurred a year later when The Rolling Stones flew to Havana to give a free concert. That happened 10 years ago today at Havana's sports complex, with a crowd in attendance estimated to be around half a million people. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler take us back.

Four ambulances belonging to the Jewish community ambulance service have been set on fire in North London. Police said they were treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime." Earlier this month, four men were arrested in England, suspected of gathering information on synagogues and individual Jews. Around the same time a synagogue in Liege, Belgium, was targeted by a bomb. and a bomber struck a Jewish school in Amsterdam. A group that was completely unknown a month ago has claimed responsibility for these attacks. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry reports on the concerns around the growing rise in violence against Jews in Europe.

A self-taught baker is bringing flavors from her childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a small farm stand in Southern Vermont. From our archives, here's the story from when Reporter Bianca Hillier paid a visit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently said he had a "very bad feeling" about the impact of the Middle East conflict on the war in Ukraine. The Kremlin is reaping windfall profits as the price of oil rises, and the air defense weaponry Kyiv needs is in increasingly short supply. Wall Street Journal Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov discusses the implications with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler.

Israel says it might stay and continue to occupy a large area of southern Lebanon as its ground offensive in the region against Hezbollah continues. Nearly a million Lebanese are now reported to be displaced as Israel indiscriminately bombs the country. Meanwhile, life for Israeli families living on the Lebanese border has become more uncomfortable as Stephanie Freid reports.