The World: Latest Stories

Israel wants control over two strategic corridors in Gaza: the Philadelphi and Netzarim. But Hamas says it will only agree to a deal if all Israeli troops leave the Gaza Strip. This is what seems to be the latest sticking point in the ceasefire negotiations. The World's Shirin Jaafari explains.

Businesses along the Jersey Shore have long depended on overseas students to serve the surge of customers during the busy summer tourist season. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, when the government suspended visa approvals. WHYY News's Kenneth Burns reports that the number of seasonal workers is finally returning to pre pandemic levels.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called Kyiv's overnight assault on Moscow one of the largest ever" drone attacks on the Russian capital. Russia said its forces shot down 45 Ukrainian drones in total overnight, including 11 targeting Moscow. At the same time, Kyiv is pressing ahead with its major incursion into Russia's Kursk region. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with the Carnegie Endowment's Michael Kofman about what Ukraine has achieved in recent weeks.

A Greek-flagged oil tanker traveling through the Red Sea came under repeated attack today in an assault suspected to have been carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels. There were few details about the attack, and the Houthis did not immediately claim responsibility, but it appeared to be the latest in the group's months-long campaign targeting commercial and military ships in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Host Marco Werman speaks with Abdulghani Al-Iryani, senior researcher at the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies in Yemen, about the ongoing maritime attack campaign and how it is perceived inside Yemen.

Unlike many countries of its size and wealth, Canada doesn't have a federal disaster response agency. The provinces, rather, are largely in charge of leading response efforts to floods and wildfires. Some people say that needs to change. The World's Bianca Hillier reports.

Londeners might have done a double take this week. A German navy warship chugged up the River Thames, blasting the "Darth Vader Theme" from its loudspeakers. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman wonder whether there was a hidden meaning.

More than 40% of Venezuelans are considering leaving their country, according to a recent poll by a consulting firm in Caracas. That's after authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro proclaimed himself a winner, despite overwhelming evidence that he stole the election. The World's Tibisay Zea reports on the likelihood of another mass migration of Venezuelans, and the impact it could have on countries in the Western Hemisphere, including the US.

Talks about a possible ceasefire in Gaza continued today, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting with negotiators. Hamas called the latest ceasefire proposal a reversal" on what it agreed to previously and accused the the US of pushing "new conditions" set by Israel. There was no immediate US response.

US intelligence officials have confirmed findings made by Google cybersecurity researchers that Iran has been trying to hack the Trump and Harris presidential campaigns, and even succeeded. The Trump campaign's computer system was breached. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Omer Benjakob, a reporter for Ha'aretz on the cyber beat.

Verka Serduchka is one of the biggest celebrities in Ukraine from the early '90s. That's the stage name for Andriy Danylko, a Ukrainian comedian, actor and singer. His drag persona, Verka Serduchka, is a middle-aged woman from a rural family, working as a railroad sleeping car attendant. The World's Daniel Ofman reports that since Russia's full-scale invasion, Serduchka has become a symbol of Ukrainian pride.

Spaghetti with white sauce. Rice with milk. Lemon slushie. Since Oct. 7, Hamada Shaquora - a food blogger in Gaza - has been making authentic Palestinian recipes using ingredients from the food aid packages handed out at refugee camps, and food he can scrounge up. The videos, which include a sense of humor amidst the tragedies unfolding in Gaza, have made the 32-year-old a TikTok star with more than 100,000 followers. Rebecca Rosman reports.

Slovakia's hard-right culture minister, Martina imkoviova, fired the director of the country's most influential theater last week. A day later, she fired the director of the Slovak National Gallery. imkoviova cited some reasons, but the artistic community thinks the real reason is a concerted crackdown on artistic expression. The World's Sarah Birnbaum reports.

Li Rui, once a top Chinese official and a personal secretary to Mao Zedong, kept detailed diaries, critiquing seven decades of communist rule in China. Li donated the diaries to Stanford University. Now, Li's widow is suing Stanford University, claiming that the documents belong to her. Columbia University's Andrew Nathan speaks with The World's Host Marco Werman about what's at stake in the trial.

An attack by polar bears on a worker at a remote defense installation in northern Canada this month highlights the growing problem of vanishing ice in the region, and its impact on polar bears who hunt seals from atop ice floes. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Andrew Derocher, professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, about the impact of a warming Earth on polar bears' habitats and their interactions with humans.

When Israelis and Palestinians get information about the war in Gaza, there are two distinct stories being told on the nightly news. In the West Bank, families watch Al Jazeera Arabic playing a constant loop of devastating real time footage of the destruction taking place in Gaza. In Israel, such footage on the nightly TV news has taken a more patriotic tone, as Reporter Rebecca Rosman found out.

Major League Soccer limits each team in the league to what it calls homegrown territories," which are the specific geographic areas from which they can develop youth players. San Diego FC is the only team in the league with an assigned region that includes Mexico - specifically, an area within 62 miles in driving distance from the club's training facility in El Cajon. From KPBS in San Diego, Gustavo Solis reports.

Lithium is critical to the manufacturing of batteries that power electric vehicles. As the West tries to turn away from lithium supplied by China, European leaders are focused on local lithium deposits. One is in Serbia, but a plan by Rio Tinto to mine it, has run up against local anger. Tom Moerenhout is a research scholar at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs where he follows the extraction of lithium for the global energy transition.

A decade-long collaboration by the US and Mexico to restore the wetlands of the Colorado River Delta has borne fruit - or rather birds. Looking at areas where the restoration work took place, a recent study found that more than half of the populations of bird species have stabilized or increased. To learn more, The World's Host Marco Werman spoke with Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta. He is the director of the Coastal Solutions Fellows Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and one of the authors of the 2024 study.

Cuban singer Dayme Arocena has one of the most stunning voices in music today. But when host of the "Movement" podcast Meklit Hadero heard Dayme's latest album, "Alkemi," she could tell something dramatic had changed. Her voice had changed and Dayme had changed too. The album follows a double migration - first from Cuba to Canada, then from Canada to Puerto Rico.

Ukrainian troops are pushing deeper inside Russia's Kursk region, continuing a surprise offensive" that began on Aug. 6. Washington Post reporter Siobhan O'Grady was among a handful of journalists allowed into the Ukrainian-held territory this weekend. O'Grady tells The World's Host Marco Werman that Russian civilians feel abandoned by the Kremlin, and are increasingly worried about their fate.

The extremist group ISIS was defeated in Syria and Iraq about five years ago. But those who follow the group and its activities closely say it is once again gaining momentum, reports The World's Shirin Jaafari.

Switzerland is holding a contest to clean up a longstanding problem: military munitions that have been dumped into its lakes. The Federal Office for Armaments is offering a $58,000 prize to the winning idea of how to safely retrieve the munitions from the lakes. Host Marco Werman has more.

In Farsi, haarf means to "talk." And that's just what Iranian-Israeli singer Liraz Charhi wants all sides to do in the Middle East, where tensions remain high. Liraz sings about the danger of false narratives swirling around social media, and rhetoric that creates divisions. The World's Host Marco Werman tells us more.

After 20 years of negotiations, the international community failed to reach a peace deal for Afghanistan. And so, when the US withdrew its troops in 2021, the country was left to the Taliban. The most contentious issue between the two sides was the freedom of Afghan women - to access education and work. In this excerpt of the podcast "The Negotiators," from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates, Ashley Jackson, co-director of the Center on Armed Groups looks at how aid workers and activists continued to negotiate with the Taliban.

Two days of ceasefire negotiations over the war in Gaza wrapped up today with the participants planning to reconvene next week in Cairo. Today, the US, Egypt and Qatar issued a joint statement saying this week's meetings in Doha have bridged some gaps, and should allow for a swift implementation of a deal, as The World's Host Marco Werman explains.

As countries from China to Spain break heat records, some architects have been looking to cooling systems used centuries ago for inspiration. In Iran's historic city of Yazd, decorative wind-catching towers, sometimes paired with cooling pools, have been able to provide emissions-free heat relief for many private and public buildings. As The World's Durrie Bouscaren reports, while a lot of these towers are now defunct, architects have been studying them as a model for new, climate-friendly air conditioning.This story originally aired on Sept. 14, 2022.

There's a very quirky kind of vehicle on roads around the US. They're tiny, and the steering wheel is on the right side. For some car enthusiasts, these little Japanese imports are a passion. But as Craig LeMoult reports from GBH in Boston, some states are taking steps to ban them from the roads.

A new study has revealed that islands in the Scottish Hebrides may be the only place on Earth to have a detailed record of how the Earth entered a deep Ice Age hundreds of millions of years ago - and how the thaw which followed led to the emergence of the first animal life. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Elias Rugen, a PhD student at University College, London, and lead author of the study out this week in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, about the discovery.

How Olympic athletes earn a living looks different for everyone, but cash after winning gold can often come from sponsors, governments and national Olympic committees. This year, World Athletics has become the first international governing body to reward gold medals. But as The World's Bianca Hillier reports, whether cash prizes belong at the Games is up for debate.

Denmark's violent crime rates have been rising, and a significant portion of it is committed by teens from Sweden. The two countries have decided to work together on law enforcement. Swedish police officers will set up shop in Denmark and work on preventing the import of violent crime to Danish streets. Diamant Salihu, a crime reporter for the Swedish news broadcaster, SVT, talks about the origins of this crime and the methods Denmark and Sweden are using to control it.

Indonesia's capital is in trouble. Greater Jakarta is crammed with 30 million people. The traffic jams and smog are debilitating. On top of that, this big concrete city is slowly sinking into the sea. Tomorrow, Indonesia will inaugurate an improved capital built on a jungly island. But can the new city live up to its promises? The World's Patrick Winn reports.

This week, Germany sent out an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national known as Volodymyr Z in connection with the 2022 sabotage of the Nordstream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Originally, many blamed Russia to have carried this out. But the Wall Street Journal investigation shows that it was in fact Ukraine who is responsible. The World's Host Marco Werman talks with Bojan Pancevski who broke the story for the Wall Street Journal.

Across Latvia, farmers are planting sunflowers as part of an effort to raise money for Ukraine. The idea is to attract people to take selfies with the flowers and donate to Ukraine. The money will then go to the Okhmatdyt children's hospital in Kyiv, which was hit by a Russian strike last month. The World's Daniel Ofman reports from Latvia.

US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he backs a new election in Venezuela. The comment to reporters came after Brazil also urged for a new vote. Two weeks ago, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory in an election that has been widely criticized by the opposition there. Host Marco Werman has the details.

After the fall of Kabul, exactly three years ago today, the lives of many women and activists in Afghanistan were in peril as the Taliban took over. This is the story of how journalists, diplomats and aid workers around the world formed a network to support them. It was called Digital Dunkirk. The World's Shirin Jaafari was a part of this network and tells the story.

Swedish authorities have recorded the first case of a contagious new variant of mpox outside the African continent. This week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak inside Africa as a public health emergency of international concern." Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University, speaks with The World's Host Marco Werman about the race to get mpox vaccines into the arms of the most vulnerable Africans.

NASA officials said on Wednesday that the two astronauts delivered to the International Space Station in June by Boeing's Starliner could return on SpaceX's Crew Dragon in February 2025, if Starliner is still deemed unsafe to return to Earth. Host Marco Werman tells how other astronauts have endured longer-than-expected stays aboard the space station.

Istanbul is one of those rare, historic cities where you can practically trip over ancient history. A 16th-century-old bathhouse, or hamam, is privately owned and on sale for $2 million. Though the city is full of historic buildings that have been stunningly restored, it's often prohibitively expensive. At what point is cultural heritage worth saving? The World's Durrie Bouscaren reports.

Not running while playing soccer is harder than it seems. But it's easier on the knees, making it a boon for the over-50's who still love the "beautiful game" but can no longer play the physically challenging sport. Last October, The World's Gerry Hadden in Barcelona, Spain, reported on a new, slower version of the game.This story originally aired on Oct. 13, 2023.

The Biden administration is flooding the zone in the Middle East with high-level diplomats ahead of a key meeting on Thursday. Getting a ceasefire for Gaza is the immediate goal. But this is also about bringing down the temperature in a region that's on edge after Israel assassinated two top leaders from Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel has been anxiously waiting to see what sort of retaliation Iran and its regional proxies might unleash against the Jewish state. The US wants to prevent a wider regional war as The World's Matthew Bell reports.

US quarters depicting Cuban American singer Celia Cruz have been released and are now in circulation. The image is of her face, microphone in hand singing. Cruz died in 2003. The World's Marco Werman brings us the story.

The British prime minister has vowed to come down hard on rioters involved in violent, far-right protests in the UK last week. Some offenders have already been sentenced to time in prison. But British prisons are already at 99% capacity, and many are dangerously overcrowded. The World's Europe correspondent Orla Barry explores if the government can get tough on violent protesters when its jails are overflowing.

In 2020, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed the Doha Agreement. It was an agreement that would hopefully bring peace to Afghanistan. Ali Latifi is a journalist born in Kabul and raised in California. He saw the signing ceremony on TV as President Ghani took the stage along with leaders of the Taliban and the US. He went back to Afghanistan, as a journalist, in 2001. Latifi tells Jenn Williams, host of "The Negotiators" podcast, how he remained skeptical of the agreement.

Last Friday, a young female doctor was raped and murdered at a hospital in Kolkata, India. The doctor was resting following her shift at the hospital. Now, there's outrage in India following the incident with tens of thousand expected to march on Wednesday. Host Marco Werman speaks with Dr. Rimy Day about the violence that women experience at public and private hospitals in India.

In Italy, even though the beaches are public property, the government rents out stretches of beach to beach club operators. And those licenses are handed down from father to son for generations, creating monopolies. The EU has decided to get involved. It says that this practice violates a competition clause. And now, it is forcing the beach club licenses to be reallocated through a fair bidding process. The operators are not happy, as The World's Sarah Birnbaum reports.

A powerful workers union behind a strike at Chile's Escondida mine, which produced nearly 5% of the world's copper in 2023, is looking to snarl production at the site as it pushes for a bigger share of the profits. Host Marco Werman speaks with Dusan Paredes, economics professor at Universidad Catolica del Norte in Antofagasta, Chile, about the miners' demands and the potential impact on the price of copper.

German authorities issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national named Volodymyr Z. His last name is protected by Germany privacy law, but he's a suspect in the explosions that destroyed the natural gas pipeline running beneath the Baltic Sea. Olga Khakova explains stakes of this enduring mystery.

Guerilla artist Banksy has created new bold artworks on buildings in neighborhoods around London each day for more than a week. Host Marco Werman describes the menagerie of wild animal art, from pelicans eating fish atop a restaurant storefront to the latest eye-fooling image - a gorilla, painted upon a metal roll-up door, appearing to rip open an entrance to the London Zoo.

For more than 15 months now, the warring generals of Sudan's Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have brought chaos to a country once on the path toward democracy. New attempts at peace talks this week are already floundering. Meanwhile, parts of Darfur are now experiencing famine, according to independent experts. The World's Africa correspondent Halima Gikandi brings us an update.

Two left-leaning nations, Brazil and Nicaragua, have expelled each other's ambassadors. The root of their dispute is the recent contested election in Venezuela. Nicaragua has thrown its weight behind President Nicolas Maduro. That's a step Brazil hasn't taken, at least not yet. Council on Foreign Relations fellow Will Freeman talks with host Marco Werman about the challenges Venezuela's disputed vote poses to some of Venezuela's one-time allies.