The World: Latest Stories

In the early weeks and months after the beginning of Vladimir Putin's war, Ukrainian forces liberated areas that had been briefly under Russian occupation. Those forces discovered atrocities committed by the Russian military. We look back at a report from The World's Shirin Jaafari, who visited a mass grave site in Izium, Ukraine. She gives an update on the investigation into how these mass graves came to be, and the prosecution of war crimes.

On Sunday, many Russians will commemorate the one-year anniversary since the death of Alexei Navalny. Navalny was the most-prominent Russian opposition politician and a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin. The World's Daniel Ofman reports about Navalny's legacy, and how his organization is still functioning today.

Chile's biggest carnival is kicking off at full speed on Friday. As many as 150,000 people have traveled to the northern Chilean town of Arica to participate. But this is not your typical carnival. Most of the dances and music come from Bolivia. And it is a celebration of Indigenous identities and cultures. Michael Fox has the story, from Arica, Chile.

Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Carol Hills catch you up on a few animal stories you might have missed.

A UK court heard a case brought against the international oil company Shell by communities in Nigeria's Niger River Delta. The Ogoni people claim that decades of oil spills by Shell and its local subsidiary in Nigeria have left the region with contaminated drinking water and farmlands. Shell contends that "oil spills due to theft, illegal refining and sabotage" are to blame for the pollution. The World's Carol Hils spoke to Diolu Tobechukwu, a climate justice advocate based in the city of Port Harcourt in the Nigeria's River State.

In an answer to rising antisemitism in Australia, lawmakers there passed tough anti-hate crime laws last week, with mandatory jail time for giving the Nazi salute in public. Incidents of antisemitism have been rising over the past 15 months - by some counts, more than 300%. The World's Sarah Birnbaum reports on the extent of the problem, and what the Australian government is doing about it.

South Korean women are at the center of the weekly protests calling for the removal of President Yoon Suk- yeol. They see Yoon, among other things, as an obstacle to women's rights. That's hardly surprising, since Yoon won in 2022 promising to lead a backlash against feminism. The World's Matthew Bell reports from Seoul.

Rafik Hariri was a charismatic Lebanese prime minister who oversaw an era of relative economic and political stability until his assassination. His son, Saad Hariri, who was also a prime minister, returned to Beirut for a speech remembering his father. Amal Mudallali was Rafik Hariri's foreign policy adviser and more recently a permanent representative to the UN for Lebanon. He spoke with host Carol Hills about Hariri's legacy and Lebanon's future.

Researchers have used a variety of techniques to learn how nine mummified bodies in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo smell. The scents, described as woody, spicy and sweet, revealed new details about ancient mummification practices in a paper published this week by a collaboration of conservators and curators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and researchers from Slovenia, Poland and the UK. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Carol Hills explain.

An update on a story we brought you on Wednesday about a new housing law in Denmark. The European Court of Justice on Thursday issued a preliminary ruling.

The president of the Central African Republic, one of the world's poorest countries, announced on X that it was releasing a new cryptocurrency on Sunday - a meme coin. The token, abbreviated CAR, skyrocketed in value, even when the public wondered if the announcement of the new cryptocurrency was authentic. Aanu Adeoye is a correspondent for the Financial Times based in Lagos who was able to get to the bottom of what was going on, and recounts where the fortunes of CAR are headed next.

Americans have increasingly been arrested for involvement in organized crime in Mexico, according to an investigation by the Mexican news outlet Animal Politico, published this week. They found that the number of Americans arrested between 2018 and 2024 skyrocketed 457% compared to the previous period. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke to Cecilia Farfan Mendez, a researcher at the University of California San Diego. She focuses on US-Mexico security, especially organized crime.

The city of Kyoto is known as Japan's cultural and spiritual capital. And for good reason. Kyoto has hundreds of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, some of which are associated with the country's imperial history. They're very popular with foreign tourists. But some of the locals in Kyoto say they're simply being overwhelmed by overtourism. The World's Matthew Bell reports from Kyoto.

Activists say police in Azerbaijan created fake profiles on the LGBT dating app Grindr in an effort to entrap gay men and extort them for money. As The World's Durrie Bouscaren reports, the technique is gaining traction around the world, even in countries where same-sex relationships are not criminalized.

In the chaotic days when Kabul fell to the Taliban, Zalaikha Wahid escaped Afghanistan with some of her family. Now settled in the US, she hopes to become a doctor, but it's not so easy. She shared her experience with GBH's Stories from the Stage.

The much-publicized trial of the former coach of Spain's women's national soccer team has come to a close. Luis Rubiales is accused of kissing a player, allegedly without her consent, after a big win at the 2023 Women's World Cup. Rubiales has maintained that the kiss, on TV in front of soccer fans worldwide, was consensual. The player, Jennifer Hermoso, says she never agreed to a kiss on the lips. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona.

In Chile, pet cemeteries seem to be everywhere - they dot the landscape in almost every city. And they aren't Stephen King creepy. They're beloved. But they're also largely unregulated. And that's causing problems. Michael Fox has the story from the northern Chilean town of Arica.

The border between neighbors Afghanistan and Pakistan is seeing a rising amount of violence the past few months. Bombings, cross-border shooting and killings have become common as Pakistan's government is losing patience with the Taliban government next door. Pakistan played a significant role in the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan but so far has yet to see any significant benefit. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Graeme Smith from the International Crisis Group about the escalating violence along the border between the two countries and what it could mean for these two neighbors.

Fifty years ago, the pop superstars ABBA donated all proceeds from the song "Chiquitita" to UNICEF. The song is still making money, and that money is now being spent exclusively in Guatemala where it's funding health workers who work in rural areas with children on sexual health issues. Jamie Fullerton reports from the central highlands of Guatemala.

A public works project to build a dam to protect the Klabava River was delayed for seven years. Then, beavers stepped in. The World's Carolyn Beeler explains the story.

Washington says it is ready to start peace talks to end the war in Ukraine immediately." But it's also undercut Kyiv's negotiation room, saying it has ruled out NATO membership for the ally. The World's Carolyn Beeler speaks with Ukrainian-born journalist and chief foreign-affairs correspondent at The Wall Street Journal Yaroslav Trofimov about the shifting dynamics. They also discuss Trofimov's new novel set in Ukraine. It's called "No Country For Love."

When it opened in 1992 on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil, the Zu Lai temple was the first of its kind in the region. After a major expansion, it now occupies more than 100,000 square feet and is the largest tourist attraction in the city of Cotia. As part of our Sacred Spaces series, Gisele Regatao visits the temple to understand the growing influence of Buddhism in Brazil.

A Russian man convicted of money laundering is part of the prisoner exchange that freed American Marc Fogel on Tuesday, anonymous officials tell The Associated Press. The deal between the US and Russia is part of shifting relationship that could have direct impacts on the war in Ukraine.

The closest piece of US soil to Asia is the island of Guam. It's only 2,000 miles from China's coast and, for that reason, Guam is covered in US military bases and taking on more. The Marine Corps is building a vast new complex there. But as The World's Patrick Winn reports, some Guam natives are uneasy seeing more of their land fall under Pentagon control.

The civil war in Sudan has been raging for nearly two years and has displaced an estimated 12 million people. Now, there are reports that the breakaway military faction, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has stormed the Zamzam Refugee Camp in North Darfur, Sudan's largest displacement camp. Marco Werman speaks with Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, who has been monitoring the situation on the ground.

Denmark is taking a wrecking ball to people's homes in neighborhoods where the government says residents don't share Danish values." A law that came into effect six years ago allows the demolition of homes in communities designated "parallel societies." The underlying idea is called "integration through dispersion" but as the world's Joshua Coe reports, this attempt at social engineering is raising concerns, and the country's most-vulnerable people seem to be left in the dust.

The cost of flights from France will rise next month when the government more than doubles its solidarity tax" on tickets. The tax of flights on private jets will also increase. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Jerome du Boucher, aviation manager at the Paris-based organization Transport and Environment, about the increase on taxes which the French government says is fair on ecological and fiscal grounds, but critics say will make French carriers less competitive.

The movie Emilia Perez" has received 13 Oscar nominations - a record for a non-English movie. But two weeks ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony, the film is mired in controversy over offensive tweets by best actress nominee Karla Sofia Gaston.The World's Tibisay Zea reports that, in Mexico, people are abandoning the movie for many other reasons.

A rare bloom of a corpse flower - with a pungent odor similar to decaying flesh - has attracted big crowds to a botanical garden in the Australian capital Canberra, the third such extraordinary flowering in the nation in as many months. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler discuss the phenomena of corpse flower blooms, which occur for only a few days every seven to 10 years in the wild.

US President Donald Trump met with Jordan's King Abdullah II in a closed-door meeting at the White House today. The meeting comes as Trump's plan to forcibly remove Palestinians in Gaza to Jordan and Egypt was met with condemnation and backlash from the region and beyond. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist based in Amman, about how Jordan has been a strong ally to the US and why it perceives Trump's Gaza plan as a threat.

Lebanon has a new government for the first time in more than two years, but the US has warned the country that it would consider any presence of Hezbollah in the new Cabinet as a red line. Hezbollah, which has political and military branches, has been fighting a war with Israel in support of Hamas. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports on where the group stands in Lebanon today.

Dust off your old science textbook from grade school and you'll probably find a familiar illustration of the Earth sliced in half, revealing the planet's layers, from the crust down to the core - perfectly circular concentric rings. But a study published yesterday in the journal Geoscience Nature suggests that the Earth's core may be changing shape. Host Marco Werman speaks with geophysicist Jessica Irving at University of Bristol in the UK, who read the study.

China recorded a more than 20% drop in marriage registrations in 2024. The steep decline comes despite enticements and admonishments from Chinese authorities who warn that China's falling birthrate poses big challenges to the country's economic and social stability. Leta Hong Fincher, the author of Leftover Women", speaks with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler about what's driving the trend.

Around 50 parties will be competing for votes in Germany's parliamentary elections, from the big-name Social Democrats and Christian Democrats to the tiny Gray Panthers, Humanists and Pirates to the controversial far-right AfD. How to choose? For decades, the Wahl-o-Mat (Vote-o-Mat") has helped Germans find their way through a crowded political field. Valerie Hamilton reports from Munich.

In January, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan named 2025 as the "Year of the Family," unveiling financial incentives for new parents and urging couples to have at least three children. Over the past two decades, Turkey's fertility rate has slid from 2.6 to 1.5 births per woman, a record low that has politicians concerned about an aging workforce. The World's Durrie Bouscaren and local producer Gamze Yilmazel went out to see how this request landed with parents in Istanbul.

Israeli police arrested two Palestinian bookstore owners in occupied East Jerusalem over the weekend. This followed a raid on two branches of the Educational Bookshop owned by Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna. Their supporters - Arabs and Jews - rallied in front of a Jerusalem court today. Host Marco Werman speaks with author and journalist Nathan Thrall, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his book "A Day In The Life of Abed Salama," about his support for the bookstore owners and what this says about free speech for Palestinians living under Israel's authority.

When MC Soffia performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, she was 12 years old - and already five years into her hip-hop career. Now at the age of 20, the Brazilian rapper just completed her first US tour and is about to release a new album. Gisele Regatao reports from Sao Paulo on how MC Soffia is trying to empower Black women, starting with her own family.

In Japan, the Indigenous community known as the Ainu has been struggling to assert a 21st century identity after decades of erasure. About 20 years ago, the government officially recognized them as Indigenous for the first time. That inspired members of the small community to take up old practices that they once had to abandon under assimilation laws. But not everyone has the same vision of how to revive the Ainu culture. Reporter Rebecca Rosman brings us the story from the Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido.

Yaroslav Simkiv has played the trumpet for over 50 years and is a recognizable figure in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Several times a day, he plays his instrument from the towering mayoral building in Lviv's main square to announce the time of day. But these days, Simkiv has taken on a more serious role - bidding a musical farewell to Ukraine's fallen soldiers. From Lviv, Emily Johnson reports.

In Senegal, streets named after French colonial figures are being changed to names of prominent people from Senegal. The move comes as the West African country is rethinking its ties with France and addressing the memory of more than 300 years of French colonial rule. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke to Azil Momar Lo, a Senegalese journalist with Africacheck.org.

World leaders, scientists and tech executives are convening in Paris to discuss the groundbreaking impact of artificial intelligence. EU nations and India are playing catch-up" with the US and China, as the race heats up and concerns about AI safety and sustainability take a back seat. From the summit floor, Nick Reiners, a senior geo-technology analyst at Eurasia Group discusses the implications with The World's Host Marco Werman.

A 700-year-old fresco discovered on the wall of a convent church in northern Italy suggests that luxurious Islamic tents were used to cover altars in medieval European churches. The World's Sarah Birnbaum reports.

The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania no longer get their energy from Russia. The Soviet-era power lines were shut off over the weekend, with the three countries having merged their energy grid with European networks. The move comes in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which further soured already tenuous relations with the Baltics. Host Marco Werman has the story.

Gun violence in Sweden, the likelihood of nuclear talks between Iran and the US, and the interpreter accused of stealing millions of dollars from Japanese baseball star Shohei Otani. Hosts Carol Hills and Carolyn Beeler bring us the latest developments on those stories.

It's been 100 years since Australopithecus africanus was first described in the journal Nature, suggesting that the African continent had been the birthplace of humanity. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Rebecca Rogers Ackermann, co director of the Human Evolution Research Institute, about the controversy around the fossil that eventually persuaded academics that humans had in fact evolved out of Africa.

Voters in Ecuador will head to the polls for general elections this weekend. The next president will face the enormous task of dismantling well-funded and powerful organized crime groups in the country as well as restoring trust in government and fixing an economy in crisis. The World's Tibisay Zea reports.

Whale song is more similar to human speech than previously thought. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Carol Hills have the details.

If you can't sing alone, sing along - that's the spirit behind Germany's Rudelsingen, literally wolf pack singing", in which hundreds or even thousands of the tonally challenged singers come together for mass karaoke events. It started as a trend in the 2010s, but now it's a national tradition. Reporter Valerie Hamilton takes us inside the pack for the story.

The NFL wants the eyes of the world on this weekend's Super Bowl. And one place where American football already has traction is Japan, home to one of the top leagues outside of North America. Reproter Kai Dambach checks out that league's championship game, known as the Rice Bowl, to meet the players and learn about the history of football in Japanese society.

In Poland, an herb called rutka was long stigmatized based on a belief that witches used it for poisoning. But now, the all-woman band Polky is out with a new single - "Rutka" - that flips the narrative, making it a statement about empowerment. Hosts Carol Hills and Carolyn Beeler tell the story.