The World: Latest Stories

Several countries in Africa have moved toward protecting LGBTQ rights in recent years. But in about half of African nations, homosexuality is illegal. These legal codes make it difficult for many in LGBTQ communities to get the health services they need. Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman looks into the problem of LGBTQ access to health care in Malawi.

Friends and enemies alike spy on each other across the globe. But in the tense relationship between the US and China, spycraft takes on a more complicated and dangerous dimension. The World's Marco Werman talks espionage with journalist Jane Perlez, host of the podcast Face Off: The US versus China."

Pastor Khader Khalilia has spent the last decade educating his congregation at Redeemer-St John's Lutheran Church in Dyker Heights, New York. For starters, many of his congregants initially assumed that all Palestinians were Muslims. Khalilia speaks with The World's Marco Werman about challenges he's encountered as one of the few Palestinian faith leaders in the US to lead a Christian church.

Robert Menendez , a New Jersey senator, and former head of the Senate foreign relations committee, has been convicted of bribery, fraud and extortion. The jury in the Manhattan court found Menendez guilty of acting on behalf of Egyptian intelligence and steering financial aid and weapons to the country. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports.

Poppy seeds are a flavorful ingredient in Trader Joe's "Everything But the Bagel" seasoning blend, and in South Korea, they are classified as a narcotic - which has led to a ban on importation of the product. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler tell how poppy seeds, beloved in cakes, muffins and on bagels, are now increasingly under scrutiny by authorities around the globe.

Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was arrested as he was about to board a one-way flight back to Syria. Sheikh had been living in Los Angeles since 2020 and is accused of killing and torturing Syrian political dissidents. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Mouaz Mustafa of the Syrian Emergency Taskforce about the role his organization played in the case against Sheikh.

The legendary singing couple from Mali, Amadou and Mariam, are back with a new single titled "Mogolu," which means "the people" in their language Bambara. It's an embrace of the connections that can be made simply by traveling and making human connections. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have more on their story.

California is in the middle of an ambitious plan to offer transitional kindergarten (TK) to all 4-year-olds by the 2025-26 school year. It's poised to be the largest free preschool program in the country. A lot of the kids heading to TK are dual-language learners. KQED's Daisy Nguyen reports on the challenges California faces as it tries to add a new grade to its sprawling public school system.

It's summer and the US and other countries are seeing a rise in rates of COVID-19. Could certain aspects of summer life be contributing: like huddling indoors with air conditioning? Or is it new variants? Host Carolyn Beeler explores these questions with Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health.

Latinos make up a little more than 10% of North Carolina's population. But they're expected to play a key role in this November's election. The Biden campaign is using Spanish-language media to target Latino voters. Meanwhile, a conservative nonprofit called the LIBRE Initiative is playing a long game. It's not necessarily trying to get Latinos to vote for Donald Trump, but to embrace conservative ideas. WFAE's Steve Harrison reports from Chapel Hill.

The men's 1,500-meter race at the Paris Olympics is bound to entertain, with medal contenders from Kenya and the US. The reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and reigning World Champion Josh Kerr are getting a lot of attention, too. A fierce rivalry has formed between them in the past year. The World's Bianca Hillier reports.

Venezuela's authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro is under major pressure. The country will hold elections on July 28, and he's performing badly in the polls. Under his 11-year rule, Venezuela's economy collapsed, oppression increased, and about 20% of the country's population left. A diaspora of millions of people could have been crucial for the electoral outcome. But as The World's Tibisay Zea reports, most Venezuelans living abroad were not allowed to register to vote.

A court in Moscow handed Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen an eight-year prison term in absentia for criticizing the Russian military. The case stems from a YouTube interview Gessen conducted in 2022 with anti-war Russian blogger Yuri Dud. Gessen, who lives in the US and is a columnist for The New York Times, is unlikely to be imprisoned unless they travel to a country with an extradition treaty with Russia.

Britain's new Prime Minister Keir Starmer is promising to "smash the gangs" that traffic undocumented migrants across the English channel from France. He has also ditched the controversial Rwanda policy, which threatened to send migrants to the east African country to have their asylum claims processed there. Starmer says a new border security command unit will reduce the numbers crossing the channel to seek asylum in the UK. As The World's Europe correspondent Orla Barry reports, refugee rights campaigners say that's unlikely to work.

The new study says ice melt from the Earth's poles is slowing the planet's rotation. By the end of the century, days will be longer by a few milliseconds, but this is enough to disrupt the internet, GPS systems and more. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Benedikt Soja, a leading author of the study.

A few weeks ago, a scandal erupted in India following the results of a medical school entrance test. An abnormally high number of students received perfect scores on the fiercely competitive exam. It turns out that exam questions had been improperly shared before the test. As Sushmita Pathak reports from Delhi, the scandal is shining a light on India's toxic exam culture.

Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler offer a global roundup of news about animals that listeners might have missed.

Ri Il-kyu served as a North Korean diplomat in Cuba, up until he decided to defect to South Korea late last year. The details of his account appeared in South Korean newspapers on Tuesday. Ri's defection is the latest in a string of officials fleeing from North Korea over the last several years, and it will be embarrassing for dictator Kim Jong-un. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

There doesn't appear to be much doubt about who will win Monday's presidential election in Rwanda. The incumbent Paul Kagame has been in power for three decades, and the past three elections saw landslide victory after landslide victory. Critics have called him a strong man or dictator. To understand how his rule has shaped the country, host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Michela Wrong, who has covered eastern Africa as an author and journalist for Reuters and the Financial Times.

Anchored by volunteers and funded by donations, Istanbul's Open Radio is considered one of Turkey's last bastions of free speech. After a guest on a news program mentioned the 1915 Armenian genocide on air, Turkey's broadcast regulator issued the station a hefty fine, and told them to take the program off the air. They didn't. The World reports from Istanbul.

Dozens of people who had sought shelter in a makeshift camp were killed and many more injured in Israeli airstrikes on Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza. Al-Mawasi was previously designated a "safe zone" by Israel, which prompted thousands to seek shelter there. Israel's military leadership claim the strikes targeted members of Hamas' military leadership in Gaza. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Hassan Morajea, a regional access advisor with the Norwegian Refugee Council in Gaza, about the latest situation.

Political violence and increasing polarization in the United States have led much of the world to question what the country represents. Steven Levitsky, author of "Tyranny of the Minority," tells host Carolyn Beeler that violence frequently occurs in democracies. What matters most is whether political leaders rally in response, to ensure that democratic principles endure.

This weekend saw two of the biggest events in international soccer. The European Championship pit favorites Spain against underdogs England, who haven't ever won a Euro Cup. In the Copa America, South America's dominant team, Argentina, took on up-and-comers Colombia. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks about the competitions with The World's Gerry Hadden in Barcelona and Manuel Rueda in Bogota, Colombia.

The weekend's scene of a former American president, and current presidential candidate, being grazed by a bullet in broad daylight grabbed headlines around the globe. As the World's Matthew Bell reports, the reactions from international leaders came quickly.

Two days after winning Wimbledon, Czech tennis champion Barbora Krejcikova is back in the top-10 ranking of tennis players. Winning the women's singles title on Saturday catapulted her 22 places up the list, as host Carolyn Beeler explains.

During the past two weeks of nationwide anti-tax demonstrations, one institution has drawn the ire of many of the young Kenyans out on the street: The International Monetary Fund (IMF). They blame the IMF for encouraging Kenya's government to increase taxes in return for debt help and credit. It's not the first time the IMF has been criticized by Africans for giving loans that come with strict conditions. Now that Kenya's president has agreed not to sign the controversial bill, the question is how Kenya will address its debt problems. The World's Halima Gikandi reports from Nairobi.

For most of the world, silent films died out in the 1930s. But the one cinema in the world that still offers a regular schedule of silent films, with live piano accompaniment, is thriving. Theo Merz brought us the story from Brussels, Belgium, last summer.This story originally aired on July 5, 2023.

People in Tamaulipas State in northern Mexico are seeing a noticeable symptom of recent heavy rains: crocodiles showing up in towns, nearly 200 of them, since June. Hosts Carol Hills and Carolyn Beeler have more details.

It's been nearly three weeks since police deployed from Kenya arrived in Haiti to secure the capital, Port-au-Prince. But gangs continue to control much of the city. Host Carol Hill speaks with reporter Wildore Merancourt in Port-au-Prince about the situation on the ground there.

The US, Canada and Finland have just announced plans to work together to build icebreakers, a type of ship suited to the icy waters of the Arctic. The idea is to fend off growing Russian activity in the polar region, as climate change enables easier passage through once-frozen seas. The World's host Carolyn Beeler discusses the significance of this new effort with Katarzyna Zysk, a professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies.

The nuptials of Indian billionaire Anant Ambani and pharmaceutical heiress Radhika Merchant this weekend in Mumbai are already a global spectacle, attracting international attention, and local criticism. Hosts Carol Hills and Carolyn Beeler have the story.

Chile's government is considering 81 proposals for new lithium projects. Lithium is crucial for making a transition to clean energy and Chile has the largest reserves of lithium ore worldwide. Host Carolyn Beeler talks about the challenges Chile faces as it tries to boost production of lithium, with Patricia Garip, a reporter based in Chile who focuses on natural resources.

The world's top tennis stars are in London, battling it out on the famed Centre Court at Wimbledon. The World's Bianca Hillier reports on the competition as the remaining athletes head into the finals this weekend.

Mystic troubadours in India and Bangladesh have been singing songs that draw from the teachings of Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism. They're called The Baul. Reporter Philip Salata takes us inside a musical tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

This week, CIA director Bill Burns and President Joe Biden's top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, traveled to the Middle East to meet with Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials. The meetings are part of the latest efforts to reach a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports on what's happening in those talks, and where peace negotiations stand.

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek is on a 24,000-mile, transcontinental journey and he's traveling the slow way: on foot. In this installment, he talks about the local foods he's eaten along the way. He tells host Marco Werman about some of the dishes he's tasted, from a meat dumpling stew in the Palestinian West Bank to fresh fruits and vegetables gathered on a Turkish farm to pizza in rural India.

On the third day of talks, as members attend dinners and press briefings at the NATO summit in Washington, The World's Europe correspondent Orla Barry updates us on key moments so far, as well as the prevailing focus on how US presidential elections this November might impact the alliance going forward.

Panama has started to build a barbed wire fence in the Darien jungle between South and Central America. The goal is to stop migrants from reaching the US. But by blocking the trails most frequently used by the migrants, the fence has instead just re-routed people on their journeys, pushing them to take dangerous detours. Manuel Rueda has the story from Bogota, Colombia.

Church membership is down across the US, and some churches in Maine have even had to close their doors. But a very different trend is playing out in some of the state's African immigrant communities, where recent arrivals are fueling a proliferation of new congregations.

Rare elephants known as "supertuskers" live along the border of Tanzania and Kenya, and the two countries are at odds over whether to allow hunters to kill the elephants. "Supertuskers" are known for their massive tusks, weighing upwards of 100 pounds each - tusks so long they scrape the ground as the elephants walk. Host Carolyn Beeler discusses growing disputes over how to protect the iconic "supertusker" with conservationist Amy Dickman.

It's been more than nine months since the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, and there's no end in sight to the fighting in Gaza. Israeli soldiers are increasingly returning to areas they previously cleared of Hamas, because the militants have reappeared. The World's host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Miri Eisin, a former colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, about Israel's military strategy.

In a 1995 episode of The Simpsons, the US hip-hop band Cypress Hill plays a set with the London Symphony Orchestra. Ever since, fans have lobbied for the groups to get together in real life. Last night, it finally happened. The World's Bianca Hillier has the details.

Fentanyl made in Mexico kills nearly 75,000 people in the US annually, according to the CDC. Yet a report just issued by the US Defense Department shows that Mexican seizures of US-bound fentanyl have dropped dramatically. What has gone up are Mexican seizures of meth. Host Marco Werman explores why with Chris Dalby, the director of World of Crime, a think that investigates transnational organized crime. He's also the author of "CJNG: A Quick Guide to Mexico's Deadliest Cartel."

According to the United Nations, aid deliveries into Gaza have decreased by two-thirds since the Israeli military began its operation in Rafah in May. The UN and Palestinians blame Israel for the problem. Israel says it's aid agencies and the chaos in Gaza that's to blame. Reporter Rebecca Rosman looks at the logistics of getting aid and commerce into the territory. Meanwhile, the Israeli military has urged Palestinians remaining in Gaza City to leave, warning that the city would remain a dangerous combat zone.

An unexpected moment during a childhood visit to the Great Wall of China prompts Alexis Chen Johnson to consider the complexity of trying to answer to the question, "Where are you from?" She shares her experience on GBH's storytelling project, "Stories from the Stage."

AntiBot4Navalny is a small but mighty group of researchers who are battling Russia's disinformation campaigns in cyberspace. They've been revealing Russia's disinformation efforts to the world and punching way above their weight. Dina Temple-Raston from the "Click Here" podcast reports.

European cities are struggling to manage the number of tourists. It's sparked protests in cities like Barcelona and Venice - which have added tourist taxes and entry fees. Copenhagen is trying to get ahead of the pack with a sustainable tourism program that rewards tourists for good behavior. Host Marco Werman speaks with Alexander Josiassen, a professor at the Copenhagen Business School, about the benefits and perks of the program.

To English speakers, the word, "peanut" isn't especially funny. But saying "peanut" in Serbian, "kikiriki", puts a smile on your face; Serbs consider it the funniest word in their language. But why is that the case? Psycholinguists have discovered some clues, as Patrick Cox reports.

As the global order shifts, Washington has shown decreasing interest in continuing to be Europe's "first responder in perpetuity" when it comes to military defense. So says Stephen Walt, professor of International Affairs of Harvard University's Kennedy School. Walt joins The World's host Carolyn Beeler to discuss what it would look like for Europe to assume responsibility for its own defense.

Hilbe is a legendary condiment, believed to have been mentioned in the Talmud, the ancient Jewish book of laws. It's considered a folk medicine, a cure all, a source of strength and also just really tasty. Reporter Sarah Ventre has the story of how Yemenite Jews proliferated hilbe, and why it's nearly impossible to find outside of Israel.