The World: Latest Stories

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.

A Syrian military defector whose photographs made clear the extent to which torture and killing were taking place inside the prisons of the former Assad regime has revealed his identity. The man widely known as "Caesar" is Farid Nada al-Madhan. Host Carol Hills gets the inside story from Mouaz Mustafa, director of the Syrian Emergency Taskforce, who worked closely with Caesar to share his documentation with the world.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has made clear that despite his musings about Gaza this week, "the president has not committed to putting boots on the ground in Gaza." But Americans working for private security companies are already operating in the territory. They've been tasked with guarding a strategic area. The World's Shirin Jaafari discusses what these companies do, and how their arrangements with the US work.

This week, a ceasefire took hold in the city of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, the grim task of burying some 2,000 bodies begins. The World's Marco Werman spoke to Arlette Bashizi, a photojournalist based in Goma, for the latest news from the ground.

Japan experiences more earthquakes than any country. But its transit system remains remarkably safe. The bullet train, for example, has never seen a death or serious injury due to an earthquake or tsunami. As The World's transportation correspondent Jeremy Siegel reports, other countries should take note as climate change causes more natural disasters globally.

With recent cuts to foreign aid, including programs like PEPFAR, thousands of Africans living with HIV face an uncertain future. Although the freeze was followed by an exemption for "life-saving treatments," some programs have ceased operations. Ridwan Karim Dini-Osman reports from Accra, Ghana.

Syria's national symphony orchestra performed last week at the Damascus opera house. As hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler explain, musicians and audiences alike expressed relief that the arts are able to continue under a new government.

In 2021, President Joe Biden appointed Jessica Stern as the US special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons. She left office last month with the changing of the guard at the White House. In her first interview since leaving the State Department, Stern talks with The World's Bianca Hillier about what she accomplished in the past four years - and the far-reaching impact the Trump administration's anti-LGBTQ policies are likely to have, at home and abroad.

Temperatures rose to unseasonable highs throughout Russia last week. In Moscow, city-dwellers welcomed the reprieve from the cold, casting off their heavy coats and delighting in the sound of singing birds. In more remote parts of the country, though, where people's lives revolve around the expectation of temperatures well below freezing, the warm spell caused real problems, from melting ice roads to spoiling food in outdoor "freezers." Levi Bridges has the story.

This week, President Donald Trump restored his former policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran. But he followed that with online comments signaling a willingness to work toward a nuclear deal. The World's Carolyn Beeler speaks with Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group, about how Iran's position has changed since the previous Trump administration, and what all of this looks like from an Iranian perspective.

High-tech companies, desperate for abundant and green energy, have discovered the windmills of northeast Spain. They're investing billions in data-centers there, transforming the local economy. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Aragon.

President Donald Trump's comments during a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday heightened an already intimidating diplomatic hurdle: maintaining a Gaza ceasefire. Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, tells The World's Marco Werman why talks about phase two of the ceasefire deal are effectively on hold.

Earlier this week, there was an explosion in Moscow. The target was a former Ukrainian citizen who founded a paramilitary unit fighting against his country. The killing, which Ukraine has not taken credit for, is part of a larger trend of Ukraine assassinating adversaries and sending drones deep into Russia. The World's Daniel Ofman reports.

Most of our gadgets rely on chips. Electronic chips. But that's about to change. The chips of the future are chips of light. They use light particles known as photons to move data. Europe wants to lead the way in the technolgy. The World's Gerry Hadden takes us to the Spanish town of Castelldefels to check out one of Europe's leading photonics laboratories.

While the human world is dealing with the effects of COVID-19, the frog world is dealing with its own global pandemic. It's called Kit-rid fungus. The World's Sarah Birnbaum explains what it's about, and the danger it poses to a creature the size of a thumbnail.

California lawmakers are proposing steps to protect K-12 students and families from the mass deportations promised by the Trump administration. A pair of bills in the Legislature aim to keep federal agents from detaining undocumented students or their families on or near school property without a warrant. From KQED in San Francisco, Tyche Hendricks reports.

During his two-decade rule, Bashar al-Assad and his officials carried out numerous atrocities, some of which have been documented by human rights groups. Now, as Syria begins a new chapter, the hard task of bringing justice for past crimes begins.

Thailand on Wednesday cut the power to large criminal compounds just across its border with Myanmar. Located in semi-lawless areas, the jungle compounds are notorious for scamming - and raking in billions of dollars. Thai authorities say they're cracking down on these places that kidnap and hold thousands of workers from Thailand and China, to text and call victims around the globe. The World's Patrick Winn reports.

Host Marco Werman brings updates on fighting in Congolese cities and towns, as the rebel group M23 continues taking ground.

Panama has become the first Latin American nation to pull out of China's Belt and Road Initiative. It's also weighing whether to cancel its contract with the Hong Kong-based company that operates near the Panama Canal. Margaret Myers, an adviser to the US Institute for Peace, tells The World's Marco Werman that it's all part of the long rivalry between the US and China in Latin America.

Four feet of snow had fallen on Japan's main northern island as of Tuesday, and more snow is expected through Wednesday. It's caused disruptions for schools, airports, postal services and more. Host Marco Werman brings this update.

In 1848, Ranald MacDonald, the son of a Chinook chief and a Scottish settler, staged a shipwreck near Rishiri Island to gain entry into Japan - then, a closed country under isolationist policies. Despite being briefly imprisoned upon his arrival in Japan, MacDonald ultimately became a highly influential figure in fostering US-Japan relations. Rebecca Rosman brings us the story from Rishiri Island, in Hokkaido.

In his second international visit as interim president of Syria, Ahmed Al-Sharaa met with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss military and economic cooperation. The World's Durrie Bouscaren discusses that developing relationship with The World's Marco Werman.

President Donald Trump's foreign aid freeze is putting US-backed programs across Asia in peril. But the new White House has made an exception for aid to at least one group: the Rohingya. Most live in refugee camps in Bangladesh, having fled a military purge in their native country of Myanmar. US food aid to the Rohingya will continue - for now - with Rohingya refugees currently facing new threats to their survival. The World's Patrick Winn reports.

Musician Seun Kuti is a lot like his late dad, Fela Kuti, with a catalog of songs about injustice and corruption. Seun Kuti's latest album, "Heavier Yet Lays The Crownless Head," returns to those themes, with lyrics calling out rulers and elites for prioritizing things over people.

Only 60 villagers remain in a Spanish town of Libros. The town's name translates to the word "books" in English, and now, a new young mayor thinks the key to the town's salvation is in its name: #librosalibros. The grand vision? A state-of-the-art library to put the town on the literary map. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Libros, in northeastern Spain.

A recent experiment found that bonobos can understand when a human lacks knowledge and will often step in to help a human out. Host Marco Werman spoke with Chris Krupenye, an evolutionary cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University, about his involvement in the study and what it tells us about the human-ape relationship.