The World: Latest Stories

"The Marching Band" is a French comedy-drama about two long lost brothers who are musicians from different social classes. They meet only when one of them finds out he has leukemia, and needs a donor for a bone marrow transfusion. A DNA test shows that his sister isn't his biological sister, and he has a brother living in a working-class town an hour from Paris. Reporter Adeline Sire has the story.

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is continuing to grow; while cases have plateaued in the original epicenter, transmission is shifting to new regions with limited healthcare infrastructure. At the same time, a clinical trial for an experimental vaccine for healthcare workers is underway; this particular strain of Ebola has no current treatment or vaccine. The World's Marco Werman speaks with John Johnson, vaccination and epidemic response expert at Doctors Without Borders, about the latest.

For the first time in over a century, researchers have named a new species of cat. The Tigrina cat was identified in Bolivia and sheds light on the evolution of small cats in Latin America. Carolyn Beeler has the story.

The United States, Denmark and Greenland are expected to sign a new agreement aimed at easing months of tensions over Greenland's security and strategic importance. While the full details have not yet been made public, the deal could expand U.S. military access and investment while placing tighter limits on adversary countries' influence on the island. The World's Joshua Coe reports from Denmark on what is known about the agreement and how people in Denmark and Greenland are reacting.

Music from Malawi is rarely heard or celebrated outside the country. But a new compilation hopes to change that. "Sounds of Malawi, Vol.1" features a diverse group of musicians and musical traditions from this south African nation. Musician and ethnomusicologist Waliko Makhala helped compile it. He recently spoke to host Marco Werman from the city of Blantyre.

Who was the first country to recognize the United States 250 years ago? The answer: Morocco. The U.S. was delighted. It was all about mutual self-interest. And the relationship has endured to this day. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Tangier, Morocco.

In recent weeks, Houthi rebels have launched repeated missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities, as well as its military sites and energy infrastructure. The Kingdom has also come under attack by Iran and Iran-backed Iraqi militias that have targeted its East-West pipeline. Princeton University's Bernard Haykel and The World's Carolyn Beeler discuss Riyadh's options given Washington's reluctance to back more direct attacks on Houthi militias.

Patricio Guzman, a giant of documentary filmmaking, has died. His masterwork, the Battle of Chile, was produced in exile and documented the violence of Pinochet's dictatorship. His later films kept their political center, but became more meditative and poetic in their execution. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Gustavo Furtado, a professor at Duke University, about Guzman's legacy and the place of memory in his work.

Many in Europe believe the Moroccan government played a role in the massive border crossing in July in which nearly 80,000 people entered Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta. Morocco denies it, and ordinary Moroccans believe their government. Their country, they say, has nothing to gain by upsetting relations with Europe today. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Fnideq, Morocco.

Syria was once home to one of the largest populations of bees in the Middle East. But only a fraction of its colonies survived the civil war that began in 2011. In this story from Deutsche Welle's Living Planet, Kathleen Schuster visits a traveling beekeeper. He recounts his fight to bring back the bees and, with them, his country's farming sector.

Turkey's prime minister has ordered crackdowns on Istanbul's LGBTQ+ communities, and there have been widespread raids and arrests under obscenity laws to protect families.' Long lines of police filed into bars, associations and people's homes - officers gathered evidence from hard drives to rainbow flags. Dozens of activists were arrested. Emily Withers reports from Istanbul.

A call-in program produced by three public radio stations heard from people on the ground about what Haitians can do to fight the Trump administration's revocation of TPS, or temporary protected status. Haitians were allowed to live and work in the US after the devastating earthquakes hit Haiti in 2010. Lawyers and advocates both concluded that options are limited outside the Supreme Court. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with GBH's Paris Alston, one of three hosts of last night's broadcast.

A firefighter's outerwear is exceptionally important; its quality and material keep the wearer safe. But the same attention hasn't been given to what a firefighter wears as underwear. That's a big problem, especially for women, because most sports bras are made of material that can melt and burn in high heat - even if the outerwear is not damaged. The World's Marco Werman speaks with Emily Pyke, an Australian Navy veteran and founder of UndaTech, which is developing fire-resistant bras and menstrual briefs.

Canada and the European Union want to further develop their alliance and wider trade relationships. This week, the president of the European Parliament proposed making Canada an "associate member" of the bloc. It's unclear exactly what that would mean, as "associate member" is not currently a legal category within the EU. But it could mark a significant shift in global alliances. The World's Carolyn Beeler speaks with Amy Verdun, a professor of political science at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, about what both Canada and the EU might gain from a closer relationship.

With the centennial of tenor saxophonist John Coltrane's birth on Sunday (9/20), we listen to a modern exponent of his sound: South African jazz pianist Nduduzo Makhathini. He counts Coltrane's iconic recording "A Love Supreme" as one of the most influential in his collection. Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have more.

Fuel prices jump again, sparking protests and blackouts

In Zambia, three native wild dogs - also known as "painted dogs" - were found to have traveled over 2,500 miles in eight months. It's the longest documented trip for any African land mammal. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have more.

The military junta in Mali has increasingly relied on drones to fight against separatists and an al-Qaida-backed insurgency. While state-run media have hailed these "surgical strikes" on "terrorists," a new investigative report by our partners at Bellingcat sheds more light on civilians killed by drones. The World's Marco Werman learned more from Bellingcat researcher Sebastian Vandermeersch.

Authorities have discovered the bodies of nine murdered women, all in their 20s or 30s, most with visible signs of sexual abuse, in an area on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Sabrina Walter is the founder of Women For Change, one of the groups rallying against gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. She tells The World's Host Carolyn Beeler that women there are demanding accountability for the crimes.

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has been sea kayaking his way down the Inside Passage, a network of straits, fjords and islands spanning much of the northwestern coastline of North America. It's the latest chapter in his global walking project, the Out of Eden Walk. Salopek joined Marco Werman to talk about the help he's received to make this sea trip possible, and how he had to change his approach to storytelling.

Mexican authorities are investigating a string of clandestine cryptocurrency mines after discovering more than 1,000 mining machines in a remote part of Puebla, apparently powered with stolen electricity. The case is raising questions about possible links to organized crime and money laundering. Experts say crypto mining can be highly profitable when power costs are eliminated - and warn that the farms uncovered so far may be only the tip of the iceberg. The World's Tibisay Zea reports.

The Israeli prime minister today announced he will propose a law to revoke the citizenship of anyone "smearing" the nation's army, the IDF. The prime minister cited several incidents, but the push has been spurred on now by the recent NAZA" documentary, by two Israeli directors, which alleges that IDF operations in Gaza have resulted in systematic mass civilian casualties. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Tomer Persico, Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and journalist Noga Tarnopolsky.

Today in Gaza, rescue workers are searching for dozens of people after a building damaged earlier in the conflict with Israel collapsed. At least 21 people have been confirmed dead, according to a Gaza Health Ministry official. Last month the UN reported that over 82% of structures in Gaza have been damaged and most were fully destroyed. To understand the how residents are coping, Host Marco Werman spoke to Shaimaa Ahmed, a former computer engineering student who lives in Gaza.

Lorena Leonard is from Colombia and spent much of her childhood in Medellin. It was during a time of some of the deadliest violence in the country, when the notorious Pablo Escobar - the King of Cocaine - led the Medellin Cartel. Years later, Lorena was transported back to that time of violence - after a bathroom remodeling project in her home in the US. Leonard shared this experience with GBH's Stories From The Stage.

Russian environmentalism has been given an unlooked-for boost by... of all things, Russia's war in Ukraine, and the European sanctions on fossil fuels that it has provoked. Reporter Levi Bridges has been focusing his attention on the Kuzbass - that's the region in Siberia where most Russian coal comes from.

After a natural disaster, people with disabilities are more vulnerable to death, injury, and an inability to access help. In Nepal, people with disabilities who have survived the floods are facing a lack of sign language interpreters, a lack of transportation - and a lack of information. The World's Hannah Chanatry has the story of a woman and her daughter from the small village of Syabrubesi, one of the first villages destroyed by the flood.

Cellist Diego Carneiro comes from Brazil's Amazon Delta, a place known more for mango trees and tropical birds than classical music. When he plays the cello, it seems to become part of him, like another limb or another pulse. His face and body animate with every note, and his hair sways as he plays. Reporter Caroline Feraday met with the musician as he prepared to set off on one of his tours of conflict zones.

Measles cases have increased by 8% globally compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to an estimate from the World Health Organization. That reverses the declining trend of the previous two decades. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Kathryn Jacobsen, an infectious disease epidemiologist with the University of Richmond, VA, about the causes of this spread.

Last month, the National University of Singapore unveiled the world's second-ever biological data center, combining living human neurons with silicon hardware to process information. The prototype is part of the emerging field of biological computing, which explores whether living neural networks can perform computational tasks more efficiently than conventional systems. Alysson R. Muotri, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Diego, joins us to explain how this technology works and what it could mean for the future of computing.

The 75th anniversary of the Berliner Festspiele, an annual art and culture festival, featured an opening-night opera which may just be one of the darkest, strangest oeuvres of the twentieth century: Hungarian contemporary composer Gyorgy Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre. From Berlin, DW's Breandain O'Shea reports on that selection and its meaning.

Leenachi is from South Korea, but their popularity doesn't make them K-Pop. Rather, they perform a centuries-old style known as Pansori, part song, part storytelling. But in Leenachi's hands, it's also part psychedelia. We get a taste from the band's summer performance at KEXP Seattle.

The Trump administration is changing how long international students can stay in the US before they have to reapply for a visa... or go home. The new four-year cap takes effect this Sept. 15. Higher education leaders say it could make it much harder for students to change majors or schools, or simply to finish their research. Supporters say it's just a minor inconvenience that adds important accountability to the student visa system. From Boston, GBH's Kirk Carapezza reports.

Frogs are known for their energetic leaps. But as reporter Bianca Hillier discovered a few summers ago, one frog found on mountaintops in Brazil is so small that it cannot jump. Instead, mid-air, it stops moving and crashes to the ground.This originally aired on June 23, 2022.

The Kremlin has a long track record of meddling in the elections of its adversaries. Now artificial intelligence is giving Russia new tools that could make interference easier and more sophisticated. Investigative reporter David Corn does a deep dive into Russia's election interference in his new book How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and the Fight for America." Corn and The World's Marco Werman discuss what role Russia might play in the US midterm vote.

Police in Germany apprehended a man last week suspected of planning and carrying out sabotage against the country's electricity network. Authorities say the 48-year-old suspect's apparent motive was to draw attention to fossil fuels and the climate crisis. The case is raising questions about a form of politically motivated violence that some are calling climate terrorism" or "climate extremism." The World's Marco Werman learned more from Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director at The Counter Extremism Project.

Lahore-born musician Ali Sethi released a song so popular that some claimed it could unite two warring countries. In this episode of the Movement podcast, about music and migration, which aired in April this year, host Meklit Hadero charts Sethi's artistic journey, starting with what inspired him to study traditional Pakistani singing in the first place.This story first aired on April 10, 2026

The Olympic torch arrived in Dakar, Senegal, this weekend. Senegal is hosting the Youth Games next month. It's the first time the Olympic Games have been held on the African continent.

In Yemen, the Houthis - a rebel group backed by Iran - have seized more strategic territory along the Red Sea. This now includes islands in the middle of the narrowest portion of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a geographic bottleneck through which more than a tenth of global trade flows. The World's Carolyn Beeler learned more from Ibrahim Jalal, an independent security analyst and political advisor from Yemen.

When Beijing and Washington talk about AI safety guardrails, they often mean very different things. While the debate in the US has revolved around existential threats to humanity, China is more focused on threats to its ruling party. The World's Marco Werman and Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at New America and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, discuss the different approaches and the common vulnerabilities the two countries share.

After her reporting trip to Nepal to cover the devastating floods, Host Carolyn Beeler spoke with Mingma David Sherpa. He's a world-record-setting mountaineer who has climbed and guided in the Himalayas since 2008. Which means he's had a front-row view of what warming temperatures are doing to the region.

Much of Norway came to a standstill last week as King Harald V was laid to rest after an elaborate state funeral attended by European royalty, global heads of state, and other leaders. To borrow a phrase from another late monarch, it truly has been an annus horribilis" or terrible year for the Norwegian crown. And yet, despite scandals that have dogged their family, a new King and Queen - Haakon VIII and Mette-Marit - are now in charge at the palace. And, if Lars Bevanger's instincts in Oslo are correct, they are likely to stay there.

Not far from the September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero is a statue of a modern US soldier on horseback. Officially, it's known as America's Response Monument." As rescue workers continued to work through the smoldering rubble at Ground Zero, Mark Nutsch spearheaded that response, leading a 12-man Green Beret unit that became famous as the "Horse Soldiers." Nutsch spoke to Host Marco Werman about how his vastly outnumbered team, together with Afghan allies, took the fight to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the early days of the War on Terror. He joined the show from Somerset, Kentucky.

There were ceremonies and events across the country today to remember the nearly 3,000 people who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, when 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked passenger jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, PA. Host Marco Werman reminds us of what happened on that day.

Host Marco Werman shares some personal recollections of 9/11 and also profiles two very different victims who died at Ground Zero, men from opposite sides of the globe: Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain at the time to the New York Fire Department, and Jupiter Yambem, the banquet manager at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Susan Meiselas has worked for the famed photo agency Magnum Photos for 50 years. Her work has documented upheavals and conflicts in South and Central America, among other places. On September 11, 2001, she did not expect that conflict would come to her doorstep in New York City. She talks to Host Marco Werman near Ground Zero, next to a sculpture she captured in one of her most iconic photos from that day.

For some Arab and Muslim musicians in the US and the Middle East, the events of September 11th influenced both their content and style. Many wanted to present their identity and culture in a positive way. Danny Hajjar is a music journalist and fan of the Arabic global rap scene. He recently stopped by our studio in Boston to talk about a few of the artists to emerge in the post-9/11 musical landscape.

Nazma Khan was a young Muslim woman in the Bronx, already accustomed to being bullied because she wore a hijab, or the Islamic head covering. But after the 9/11 attacks, she says, the harassment became more frightening and more personal. Her experience was painful, but it also inspired her to start World Hijab Day. Khan tells her story in her own words.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi was imprisoned without charge at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 15 years.

From it's impact on students' education to its growing use on the battlefield in choosing targets, artificial Intelligence has multifaceted impacts on human life. But a former employee at the AI company Anthropic has taken to social media to warn that the technology could kill us all" by 2030. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke to two experts on AI to get their perspectives. Rumman Chowdhury is an AI ethicist and founder of Humane Intelligence. Daniel Kokotajlo is executive director of the AI Futures Project. He previously worked at OpenAI as a governance researcher specializing in scenario planning.

Susan Retik joined forces with another woman whose husband was killed on 9/11 to create Beyond the 11th. It's a charity that helps widows in Afghanistan who have been afflicted by war, terrorism and oppression. Host Marco Werman speaks with Susan Retick about her feelings on the attack, about the program she created and the annual bike ride that kicked off today to raise money for her organization.