The World: Latest Stories

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.

The World's Carolyn Beeler investigates what could have been done better to prevent what is likely to amount to several thousands of deaths in Nepal, following the deadly avalanche and flooding that hit in late August. As she reports, Nepalese officials believe their future safety requires an international commitment.

They go by a few different names, but Japan's listening lounges are going through something of a revival. They are music bars where simply sitting and listening to records is the main attraction. In fact, some of these establishments have strict rules against conversation and other distractions like cell phone photos. It's all to maximize the listening experience, which often relies on extraordinarily expensive vintage stereo equipment that almost nobody can afford at home. The World's Matthew Bell reported this story from Tokyo last year.This story originally aired on Feb. 25, 2025.

The Colombian Paca Digestora Silva - the Silva digester bale - is a processing method for organic waste that has spawned a social movement. The unique composting method was developed in the 1980s by Colombian forester Guillermo Silva, but only took off in the late 2010s and surged during the pandemic. Tasha Sandoval has the story from Bogota about this attempt to keep organic waste out of the local landfill.

Guest Maria Mitri with the Friends Committee on National Legislation argues that today's militarized immigration enforcement grew out of the post-9/11 War on Terror." National security tactics that were developed abroad, she tells Host Carolyn Beeler, have increasingly been brought home.

The political combination that could move Spain to the far-right would bring together the Populist, anti-immigrant Vox party in a coalition with Spain's center-right Popular Party. The two groups don't always see eye to eye, but they do smell the same thing: power. A poll this week suggests it's within reach, albeit barely, with just over 50% of voters saying they'd back the bloc. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona.

This Friday marks the debut of a new album from Morocco. It's a collaboration between opposite ends of the musical spectrum. On one end, Bnat Louz, or the Almond Girls," perform traditional ahwach music from Morocco's rural south, while Casablanca band Raskas combines digital beats and electric guitar. The album is part of a larger effort to carry Morocco's vast musical heritage into the future, using an unlikely vehicle: electronic music. From Casablanca, Lauren Schenkman reports.

A delegation from Jamaica is asking King Charles to seek guidance on whether Britain is obligated to pay reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Not every virus or disease responds to medicine. And the number of drug-resistant bugs is growing. It's largely the result of overusing antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, when pharmaceuticals end up in our water and soil. The World Health Organization has called antibiotic resistance one of the most complex and frightening health challenges of our time. Without urgent action, drug resistant infections could kill 10 million people per year by 2050. For Deutsche Welle, DW's, "Living Planet" podcast, Neil King looked at what can be done.

A new collection of music from the remote African islands of Sao Tome and Principe is a revelation. This nation in the Atlantic Ocean doesn't get a lot of attention, but as we hear in songs by bands from the 1960s and '70s, like Sangazuza, it's worth listening up.This story originally aired on Jan. 15, 2026.

The US recently sent its last forward-deployed aircraft carrier in the Pacific, the USS George Washington, to the Middle East. With so many eyes right now focusing on events in the Persian Gulf and around the Strait of Hormuz, some security analysts are concerned that the US is taking its eye off the ball when it comes to China. The World's Aaron Schachter learned more from Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution in Washington.

The hopes and dreams of thousands of Japanese who were incarcerated in camps during World War II were crushed. Many were never able to reconcile what their lives could have been and what they did become. Paul Watanabe, a professor at University of Massachusetts, Boston found out what his mother lost when she was on her deathbed. He shared it with GBH's Stories From The Stage.

Berlin-based Syrian singer Siba Alkhiami, or simply "Siba," wrote "Dounana" - or "Without Us" - two years ago out of anger of the destruction of Gaza and the bombing of Palestinians. A year ago, she released it as a song and it's slowly gone viral. We listen to "Dounana" and hear from Siba that it's relevance has gone beyond Gaza. It's a song about colonialism and how it impacts Indigenous people.

Around 1.5 million Chinese tourists visited France last year. Beyond Versailles or the Eiffel Tower, there's another destination that's high on many Chinese visitors' lists: Montargis, a working-class town about a 90-minute drive from Paris. That's because a Chinese work-study program in the early 20th century left a lasting mark on China's history. From Deutsche Welle, DW, Lisa Bryant reports from Montargis.

The United Nations voted on Friday in favor of adopting a resolution to replace the Mercator projection, which distorts the size of the world's landmasses, with one that represents the continents more accurately. The resolution passed almost unanimously, with only a single country voting no: the United States. Marco Werman has more details.

Israel does not allow absentee voting, forcing the 500,000 Israeli ex-pats eligible to vote to choose between an expensive trip home or sitting out the country's most consequential election in years. To help Israelis return, the AID Coalition, a US-based nonprofit organization, launched an initiative called Fly&Vote. From Tel Aviv, Stephanie Freid reports.

Flooding is common in Nepal. But the avalanche that triggered water and debris to surge down the Trishuli River was of an entirely different magnitude. The World's Carolyn Beeler explains what caused the disaster, and what role scientists say climate change may have played.

In the South Pacific archipelago of Fiji, HIV cases have spiked in the past five years. It is estimated that 1 in 60 adults currently lives with the virus. A drug epidemic and stigma have made the transmission difficult to keep under control. Host Marco Werman talks to Sharon McLennan, a scientist with Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, about this issue.

Some 800 students and teachers in Central Java got food poisoning last week, just after lunch time at a local high school. Officials were forced to end the day early as bathrooms were overwhelmed with people in the throes of intestinal distress. As Host Marco Werman explains, this was yet another embarrassing moment for Indonesia's government and its ill-fated free lunch program.

Two paintings by the French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir were stolen from a museum in southern France Tuesday morning. It's the latest in a growing trend of "smash and grab"-style museum heists across Europe, says Arthur Brand, an independent art detective who has helped authorities recover artwork after similar thefts. He spoke to Host Marco Werman from Amsterdam.

As the United States honors its workers this Labor Day, it's been 250 years since the nation was founded. A defining ideal in the Declaration of Independence is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," but when it was written, they were meant to not only be American pursuits. The Declaration explicitly addresses the larger world. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, author of the 2024 book The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It."This story originally aired on June 4, 2026.

We look at how the colonies' fight for independence is taught elsewhere - namely, in the countries whose authority was defeated: England, France and Spain. Reporter Gerry Hadden has our story.This story originally aired on June 10, 2026.

The British Empire wasn't the only colonial power in what is now the United States. Several competing colonization projects led by the Spanish, Dutch, French and others laid the foundations of American history. Their distinct patterns of settlement help explain many of the political divides that continue to shape the US today, says historian Colin Woodard. He tells The World's Host Marco Werman that, over the centuries, these rival visions also influenced how American democracy evolved.This story originally aired on July 1, 2026.