The World: Latest Stories

Today marks a year since the regime of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled in Syria. The World's Shirin Jaafari brings us perspectives from Syrians reflecting on the past year.

As Turkey looks ahead to its next presidential election in 2028, critics of the current leadership say political repression is getting worse. The murder of journalist Hakan Tosun has raised the level of alarm. Reporter Ylenia Gostoli has been looking into the case for our partners at Deutsche Welle

From gold-leaf lettering to hand-painting shop windows, a handful of artisans are reviving a skill that was nearly lost to printers fifty years ago. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Paris.

In 2015, Pope Francis set the Vatican on a path toward full reliance on solar power. Now, under Pope Leo's direction, the Vatican has joined seven other countries in being fully powered by solar energy. The way it got there holds lessons for other nations with similar aims. Dan Misleh, founder and executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, talks with Host Carolyn Beeler about one key innovation: agrivoltaics.

A rare floral phenomenon is unfolding in Rio de Janeiro. Talipot palms are blooming in the city's Flamengo Park and Botanic Garden. The palms flower only once, towards the end of their 40-80-year lifespan. The World's Carolyn Beeler has the story.

We all know conch shells as loud horns that can be heard from long distances. Humans have used them for millennia for messaging. But a team of researchers in Barcelona has proposed that a nearby collection might also have been used to make melodies. And to prove it, they played them. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona.

A new report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines raises concerns about a sharp rise in the number of people killed or injured by landmines. The majority of the casualties are civilians, it said. This comes at a time when five European countries are walking away from a decades-old treaty that banned the production and use of landmines. A development that has activists worried. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports.

Heads of state and soccer's most powerful officials alike were in Washington, DC today for the official draw of the 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada, and the US next summer. The World's Bianca Hillier talks with Host Carolyn Beeler about the spectacle taking place on and off the field.

Germany and other European countries are concerned about the threat posed by a resurgent Russia. So many of them are boosting defense spending and the size of their armies. One of the main concerns is making armies more mobile and better able to work together within NATO. Germany's foreign minister has said that Russia is at least creating the option of a war against NATO by 2029". DW's Brussels-based security correspondent, Teri Schultz, reports on Europe's ongoing efforts to strengthen its forces to defend the frontline

Somalis in the country's capital say they're discouraged by what they heard recently from the president of the United States. Speaking to reporters in Mogadishu, they called Trump's remarks intolerable and un-presidential. Host Carolyn Beeler has more.

Some of the auto industry's biggest innovators gathered in Shenzhen earlier this year for the Automotive World China Exhibition. From electric cars to self-driving sanitation vehicles, the event made it clear that the future of transportation is already here - and China is leading the way. The World's Jeremy Siegel reports from Shenzhen in the final installment of a five-part series on China's transformation.

England and Wales have a backlog of 78,000 criminal cases awaiting trial by jury. That backlog is expected to continue growing if left unchecked. To clear that backlog, Justice Secretary David Lammy has proposed reforms to jury trials in which many crimes would be tried and ruled upon by a judge or tribunal, with no jury to make the final verdict. Carolyn Beeler speaks to Sailesh Mehta, a lawyer in London, to learn more.

The UK has long sent its soldiers for training at a military base in central Kenya. But relations with the local communities near the facility have been uneasy for some time. Now, a two-year-long investigation by Kenyan lawmakers links the British soldiers to unresolved killings, sexual abuse and environmental harm. Kenyan investigative journalist John-Allen Namu discusses the fallout from the report with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler.

Acclaimed Iranian film director Jafar Panahi's latest thriller, "It Was Just an Accident," clinched this year's Palme d'Or award. This week, Tehran charged Panahi with creating propaganda against the government and sentenced him to a year in prison in absentia. Panahi speaks with The World's Host Marco Werman about the risks he takes, and his new movie that explores guilt, blame and moral ambiguity.

"They are targeting our existence," Manal Tamimi - a Palestinian activist in the Israeli-occupied West Bank - recently told The Associated Press. She was referring to extremist Jewish settlers who've been carrying out a torrent of attacks against Palestinians. According to the United Nations, an average of eight attacks have taken place every day in recent weeks. These include arson attacks, violent beatings and property damage. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with freelance journalist Dalia Hatuqa, who splits her time between Ramallah in the West Bank and Amman, Jordan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India on Thursday to meet with his counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Stepping off the plane, it was all hugs and handshakes between the two leaders. But as Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow at Chatham House, tells Host Carolyn Beeler, the relationship between the two countries is anything but easy.

There are millions of sloths in Costa Rica. But with high levels of deforestation over the past few decades and increasing contact with humans, the population is taking a hit. While no official stats about the sloth population exist in the country, many believe huge numbers are killed on roadways. As Jamie Fullerton reported last winter from Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, conservationists are building "sloth bridges" in an attempt to keep the animals safe.

Taiwan has a new envoy to Finland, and he is also the lead singer of a renowned Taiwanese heavy metal band. After months of trying to set up cultural exchanges that drew little to no interest, Freddy Lim decided to stage a heavy metal concert. The event was a big success, in large part because Finland has the highest number of heavy metal fans per capita. Host Carolyn Beeler had more.

China now produces nearly three-quarters of the world's electric cars, and no city embodies that dominance more than Shenzhen, home to industry giant BYD. Once known as The World's Factory," the city of 20 million people has transformed into a global hub of clean transportation and high-tech innovation. As The World's Jeremy Siegel reports from the city, that shift has roots in Apple's decision to move production of the iPhone to Shenzhen in the early 2000s.

Ukraine's military relies heavily on the civilian sector to keep troops supplied - from drones and medical kits to vehicles used to evacuate the wounded. Reporter Emily Cohen from KHOL in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, traveled with a volunteer convoy delivering donated ambulances to Ukraine, and met a woman for whom these missions have become a kind of calling.

Chinese authorities are working to transform the Pearl River Delta, the most populous region on Earth, into a powerful economic super-metropolis. The initiative seeks to connect nearly a dozen cities, including Hong Kong, through enhanced infrastructure and cooperation, with the goal of creating a cohesive and dynamic economy. But as The World's Jeremy Siegel reports from Hong Kong, the plan's results so far have been mixed.

Spanish emergency workers, including soldiers, are busy collecting and testing dozens of dead boar for the swine fever virus in a park near Barcelona. They're trying to contain the disease so that millions of domesticated pigs throughout the region don't catch it. An infection on farms could decimate Spain's multi-billion dollar pork industry. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona.

In India this week, a government smartphone app called Sanchar Saathi sparked a big debate around government access to peoples' phones. A leaked government directive would require smartphone companies to pre-install the state-owned app on all newly sold devices. While the government has signalled it would back down on the edict, digital rights groups are raising the alarm. The World's Host Marco Werman learns more from Prateek Waghre, a tech policy researcher based in Bengaluru, India.

Board games are very popular among retirees in South Korea. Especially janggi and paduk, also known as Go. You'll often see heated matches going on in public parks. But now, there's one less place for seniors to get their game on, in Seoul. Reporter Jason Strother went to a park that banned this kind of competition and found that the games fill an important role in people's lives as they age.

At a large warehouse in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, dozens of US officials and soldiers - along with counterparts from other nations - are daily mapping out the day-after plan for Gaza. It is from this newly created hub that the activities of the US-led international stabilization force will be organized and monitored. This includes intel, reconstruction and de-mining efforts. Tovah Lazaroff reports from southern Israel.

International agencies, including The World Bank and The International Monetary Fund, are gearing up to send nearly $7 billion to Jamaica to help cover some of the country's ongoing recovery from Hurricane Melissa. The late October storm was one of the strongest on record in the Caribbean, and now, Jamaicans are trying to rebuild. Thera Edwards at the University of the West Indies talks with Host Carolyn Beeler about how that recovery is going.

Erling Haaland, the 25-year-old striker for Manchester City, knows that it's his job to score goals. Last night, he showed that he's one of the best to ever hold the role as he scored his 100th Premier League goal faster than any athlete before. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have the details.

In 2009, Swiss photographers Mathias Braschler and Monika Fischer set out to put faces to the environmental damage caused by rising global temperatures. Some 16 years later, the photographer-couple have followed up with "DISPLACED," a portrait series examining the lives of those forced to move due to climate change. Host Marco Werman speaks to Braschler and Fischer about the people at the center of their project.

Leaders of Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda are slated to travel to Washington this week to sign a peace deal overseen by US President Donald Trump. New Yorker journalist Jon Lee Anderson visited the region twice recently. He tells Host Marco Werman that the disarmament of tens of thousands of fighters in the region from more than 100 ethnic groups won't be easy now that they've seen power through the gun."

Forty years ago, Shenzhen, China, was little more than a cluster of villages, home to a few hundred thousand people. Today, it holds roughly 20 million residents and ranks among the world's fastest-growing megacities. Yet, unlike other urban centers that have ballooned at similar speeds - Mumbai or Lagos, for example - Shenzhen has largely sidestepped the air pollution, overcrowding and failing infrastructure that often accompany rapid expansion. The World's Jeremy Siegel visited Shenzhen and breaks down how that was accomplished.

If you're a human, the courteous thing to do when you get sick is to isolate yourself from others so that you don't get them sick, too. If you're an adult ant, that same courtesy still applies. But immature ants, or pupae, have a problem: They can't walk. So instead, they send a chemical signal to the rest of their colony requesting they be killed for the greater good. That's according to a new study published today in Nature Communications. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks to lead author Erika Dawson to learn more.

Juan Orlando Hernandez, former president of Honduras, was convicted last year in a New York courtroom of flooding the US with tons of cocaine. This week, he walked out of prison a free man. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Steven Dudley, co-founder of the media organization InSight Crime, about Hernandez's career and his pardon from US President Donald Trump.

What began as messy pageant drama at Miss Universe has now turned into something far more serious. A co-owner of the contest, Mexican businessman Raul Rocha Cantu, is accused of ties to a trafficking network - allegations he rejects. The World's Tibisay Zea looks at how a beauty pageant ended up at the center of a major political scandal in Mexico.

The NFL's International Player Pathway program started in 2017 as a way for the league to bring talented athletes from other sports into the world of football. One of the athletes in the 2024 class, Charlie Smyth from Northern Ireland, used to be a Gaelic football player. Last night, he made his NFL regular season debut in a game against the Miami Dolphins. The World's Host Marco Werman has the details.

Flooding across Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand has killed more than 900 people - and counting - in the past week. One of the worst-hit cities in the region is Hat Yai. Reporter Patrick Winn spoke to survivors there about their experiences.

China's status as a global superpower was unimaginable just half a century ago. In the 1970s, the country was overwhelmingly rural and poor. Today, it's a technological powerhouse, the world's second-largest economy and boasts bustling cities. Shenzhen is a megacity that embodies that transformation. The World's Jeremy Siegel kicks off a week-long exploration of Shenzhen with the story of how it went from being a little-known spot on China's map to its current status as a sprawling metropolis with some 20 million residents.

In Hong Kong, officials announced today that more than 150 people are now confirmed dead after last week's massive fire. The blaze gutted several high-rise apartment buildings in the Tai Po district. Host Marco Werman got the latest from Tom Grundy, the editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong Free Press.

As the US ramps up military pressure on Venezuela, the Maduro government is tightening its grip at home. Families of political prisoners describe disappearances, torture and a justice system that forces detainees to accept state-appointed lawyers. The World speaks with relatives, activists and human-rights experts about a worsening climate of fear across Venezuela.

There's no shortage of negotiations about how to end the war in Ukraine. Tomorrow, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff. And today, the Ukrainian leader met with French President Emmanuel Macron. Still, peace itself remains elusive, despite reports that Russia is offering enticements to the US, including access to multibillion-dollar rare-earth minerals and energy resources. Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul discusses the implications with The World's Host Marco Werman.

When scientists first found a black fungus growing at the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, they were baffled. Now, a decade later, research has determined that not only is the fungus using the radiation to grow - it can also block radiation. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke with research lead Nils Averesch about the finding, and its potential applications beyond Chernobyl.

Climate change is not only impacting the Earth and its environment, but it is also impacting people's mental health. "Eco-anxiety" and "climate anxiety" are not diagnosable, but they can cause real suffering. The World's Bianca Hillier checked in with people across the globe to see how they're tackling the issue.This story originally aired on May 15, 2025.

Sea stars on the west coast of North America have been decimated by a wasting disease. For more than a decade, scientists did not know what was causing it. But new research published in the journal Nature has identified the culprit. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with scientist Alyssa Gehman about the findings and what it means for the species' recovery.This story originally aired on Aug. 7, 2025.

A new report from the climate think tank Ember finds that renewable energy sources made up more of the global electricity mix than coal for the first half of 2025. Host Marco Werman speaks with Ember global program director Raul Miranda about what drove this change.This story originally aired on Oct. 7, 2025.

An activist in Mexico City is working to protect the city's trees, whether it's by using sledgehammers to liberate" trees sinking from cement sidewalks, exposing illegal lodging to his huge social media following or planting new trees. The World's Tibisay Zea reports from Mexico City.This story originally aired on Jan. 7, 2025.

Most European countries say they expect to close their coal power stations in the next five years. But what will that transition look like? How will it reshape communities, and people's lives? There is a model. The UK was the first-ever country to announce a full coal phase-out, and it was a bumpy transition. From Deutsche Welle, DW, Dan Ashby reports.This story originally aired on Aug. 8, 2025.

Wildfires burning across western and central Canada prompted the number of people evacuated to climb to more than 30,000. The conditions were hot and dry, similar to what was experienced in 2023, Canada's worst fire season on record. John Vaillant is a journalist and author of the book, "Fire Weather." He spoke with The World's Carolyn Beeler about how climate change is exacerbating Canada's fire season.This story originally aired on June 5, 2025.

A series of ocean currents in the Atlantic drive heat northward and control much of the world's weather. Scientists believe the current - called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short - will slow down this century due to global warming, and some fear the circulation might collapse entirely. The melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet could be a major factor in the future health of the AMOC. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler traveled into a fjord in Greenland with scientists studying glacial meltwater to better understand what it could do to the AMOC.This story originally aired on Oct. 1, 2025.

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has covered a lot of ground: some 14,000 miles - on foot - through 21 countries so far on his now 11-year-long Out of Eden Walk. And because he's exploring the Earth at a walker's pace, he can see things people miss when traveling by plane, rail or car. Salopek tells Host Marco Werman about surprising places only a walker would discover.This story originally aired on April 9, 2025.

The Women's International Motorcycle Association (WIMA) was founded in the US in 1950. It has since spread to nearly 40 countries and gained more than 6,000 members worldwide. This year, the group held its annual international rally in Maine. The World's Bianca Hillier stopped by to find out what motorcycling means to these bikers.This story originally aired on Sept. 11, 2025.

Donna Burke has the most famous voice in Japan. The Australian expat first moved to Japan in the 1990s, hoping to make it as a singer. Now, she's the voice of the Tokaido Shinkansen, commonly known as the bullet train, and her announcements are heard by more than 400,000 people in Japan every day. The World's Transportation Correspondent reports.This story originally aired on Jan.15, 2025.