The World: Latest Stories

Staff members at La Fenice, a prestigious opera house in Venice, Italy, say the new, incoming conductor Beatrice Venezi lacks the experience needed for the role. They're now going on strike to protest her appointment. The World's Bianca Hillier reports.

Every year, a sleepy town 50 miles north of Lagos, Nigeria, holds the World Twins Festival. It's a celebration of the community's unusually high rate of twin births - about 50 twins per thousand babies compared to an average of about 12 around the world. Host Carolyn Beeler has more information about the festival held last week.

The Terada Honke sake brewery is like a shrine to the microorganisms brewers must cooperate with to make sake. The workers there sing traditional songs as they pound steamed rice to make a fermentation starter with ambient yeast. Reporter Hannah Kirshner captures these rare sounds in an audio postcard and tells the story of why the owner brought back the old songs.

Mashid Nazemi was already an activist living outside her country of Iran when the Woman Life Freedom uprising began in 2022. But it was during those protests that the outspoken advocate was thrown into a deportation camp in Turkey. Nazemi now lives in France, under police protection, and life is better - though she still gets death threats. And although the 2022 movement fell short of its goals, women's lives are different now. Reporter Fariba Nawa recently spoke with Nazemi for her perspective on what has and hasn't changed, and to learn what gives the activist hope.

As Israelis and Palestinians celebrated the ceasefire in Gaza, a video made the rounds on social media. It appears to show Hamas gunmen executing a group of eight men in the street in Gaza City, accusing them of being criminals and collaborators with Israel. There have also been gun battles inside the Gaza Strip between Hamas and rival groups. One expert says Hamas wants to reassert its control in the territory and send a warning to any group that would challenge its authority. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

Revered Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga, who died this week at age 80, played a pivotal role in institutionalizing multiparty democracy and shaping Kenya's constitution. But he was also known as a ruthless politician who formed alliances with rivals in a relentless, though ultimately unsuccessful, quest for the presidency. Kenyan journalist Ramah Nyang explores Odinga's legacy with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler.

It takes an average of four to six months for a thru-hiker to complete the Pacific Crest Trail. Julie Brock however, a 59-year-old runner from Australia, finished in just over two months. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Brock about the experience.

More than 4,000 Americans applied for British citizenship in the first half of this year - a record, and a 39% increase from last year. And those who are leaving the US are taking their beloved pets with them. That's supercharged an industry that took off after the COVID-19 started - pet-centric charter travel, where the dogs - and some cats - fly upfront. Jane Little traveled to the UK with her dog, Ronin, and found luxury - and some stress - in the whole process.

When writer Robin Reif's adopted daughter wanted to know where she came from, she decided it was important to go back to China to find answers for her daughter. So, they flew 7,000 miles to try and find a slip of paper that had been left with her daughter as a baby. Reif shared this memory with GBH's Stories From The Stage.

Jan Marsalek's face is on wanted posters all over Germany, after the financial tech firm he ran evaporated in a $2.5 billion fraud case in 2020. Now, a group of journalists, including GBH's Frontline, is working with investigator Christo Grozev to prove Marsalek is in Moscow, and has been working with Russian intelligence services for years. Grozev describes the ongoing investigation to Host Carolyn Beeler.

The US military has long been a leader in adapting to the realities of climate change. But that could change under the Trump administration. The new budget request for the Department of Defense would eliminate $1.6 billion in funding for climate change research and adaptation planning. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with Floodlight reporter Ames Alexander about what this would mean for military operations.

Truckloads of aid are entering Gaza, but the long-promised surge in deliveries has yet to materialize. Israeli officials say the key Rafah border crossing will remain closed until Hamas returns the bodies of all slain hostages. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler discusses the implications with Sean Carroll, president of the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), a relief organization with deep roots in Gaza.

Each year, fishermen discard tons of worn out gear, which often makes its way across the Pacific Ocean and winds up on Hawaii's beaches. In an effort to both clean up the ocean and find a way to recycle the junk, some of that fishing gear is now being sent up to Omaha, Nebraska, where it's being repurposed. Nebraska Public Media's Kassidy Arena reports.

Taliban forces have clashed with Pakistani troops along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in recent days. The Taliban said Pakistan targeted Kabul with airstrikes last week and the attacks on border posts were in retaliation. It's a significant escalation in the growing tensions between the two countries. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks to Omar Samad, Afghanistan's former ambassador to Canada and France. He's now with the Atlantic Council and joined the show from Washington.

In Mexico, authorities have deployed the military - alongside civilian personnel - to reopen roads in more than 300 communities. Torrential rains, flooding and landslides were seen in five states near the Gulf of Mexico, as Host Marco Werrman explains.

US President Donald Trump landed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, today to take part in a summit with more than 20 world leaders. They will be signing a peace deal, brokered by Trump, for ending the war in Gaza. "It's peace in the Middle East," Trump said. "Everyone said it's not possible to do. And it's going to happen." Israelis and Palestinians celebrated the ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails. But there are many potential obstacles ahead for securing lasting peace in Gaza and anything like the regional peace that Trump is talking about. The World's Matthew Bell has the latest.

Poet Raymond Antrobus and percussionist Evelyn Glennie are back with their second collaboration, "Aloud." It's a collection of poems and music by Jamaican-British Antrobus and the Scottish musician. They speak to Host Marco Werman about their collaboration and the responsibility they both feel about being two of the most famous, living deaf artists in the world.

Germany's politics may be hopelessly polarized, but there's one thing every German can agree on: They all love to hate the Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway. It's a national joke - and the Deutsche Bahn is laughing along with it. Reporter Valerie Hamilton has the story.

With more international ships traveling in the Arctic, The US Coast Guard is proposing a new two-way shipping route along the northern Alaska coast. The idea is to make travel in the region more efficient - and so better for the environment. The Alaska Desk's Alena Naiden reports from Anchorage.

There was speculation Monday that Madagascar's president fled the country after an influential branch of the military said this past weekend that it was taking control of the rest of the armed forces and backing the ongoing "Gen Z" protests. The president had called the military's actions a coup. Host Marco Werman learns more from Solofo Randrianja, a historian of Madagascar's contemporary politics at the University of Toamasina, the country's second largest city.

Since August, Ukraine has been targeting Russia's oil industry with drone strikes. Dozens of attacks in recent weeks have had ripple effects on a vital sector of Russia's economy. Host Carolyn Beeler learns more from Craig Kennedy, an expert on Russia's oil industry at Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Two years of grief and anger in Israel turned into euphoria today with the release of 20 living hostages who survived kidnapping on Oct. 7, 2023, and captivity in Gaza since then. Israelis greeted US President Donald Trump as a hero who secured the hostages' release, while they booed their own Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not acting sooner. Reporter Noga Tarnopolsky spent the day in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, and breaks down the day's events to Host Carolyn Beeler.

Unending street protests, prime ministers forced to resign. France has had three prime ministers since snap elections in 2024 destabilized President Emmanuel Macron's centrist, business-friendly government. The instability continues as parties from the far-left to the far-right dig in their heels, hoping to topple Macron and scramble to the top of the political heap. The World's Gerry Hadden explains why this is making European leaders nervous.

In July, 24 European Union lawmakers agreed to undertake blood tests to check their bodies for forever chemicals," or PFAS. The chemicals have been linked to a host of health problems, including cancer, liver damage and decreased fertility. They are found in everything from nonstick frying pans to pizza boxes. This week, their test results came back. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry has more.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long fight to restore democracy in her country. From hiding in Caracas, the 58-year-old called the award an achievement of a whole society." The honor shines new light on Venezuela's political crisis - and on a woman many see as the enduring symbol of resistance against President Nicolas Maduro's authoritarian rule.

China has expanded its restrictions on the export of rare earths, minerals critical for everything from electronics to renewable energy production. This comes weeks before talks between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Jonathan Czin, China fellow at the Brookings Institution, about what this new restriction means.

One of the potential sticking points in the proposal put forward by the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza is for Hamas to give up its weapons. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports on what we know so far about this part of the negotiations.

A NASA satellite dipped into Venus' upper atmosphere in the summer of 2020 and recorded radio waves. The agency translated those radio waves into sound waves, which revealed how Venus' atmosphere reacts to the sun. As Host Carolyn Beeler explains, this gives scientists more insight into why Venus is so different from Earth, despite their similar sizes. When the probe flew super close to the sun, through its corona, the translated sounds were haunting.

This week Australia signed major security deals with India and Papua New Guinea and there's one country that's not especially happy: China. The partnerships come amid growing Chinese influence in the Pacific. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler learns more from Patricia O'Brien, an Australia and Pacific analyst at Georgetown University in Washington.

The Israeli military pulled its forces back from parts of the central Gaza Strip. And earlier today, large crowds of Palestinians started walking back to their homes - or what's left of them - in Gaza City. Many Israelis and Palestinians are hoping this is the end of the war, not just another temporary truce. What comes next in the US-brokered peace plan? Early next week, all living hostages held in Gaza for the last two years are expected to be released, and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will go free from Israeli jails. After that, there are lots of unanswered questions and potential roadblocks on the road to lasting peace. The World's Matthew Bell has the latest.

Only an estimated 100,000 speak the Judeo-Spanish language known as Ladino, once common among Sephardic Jews throughout the Mediterranean. One millennial songwriter is on a quest to save Ladino to honor her Moroccan grandmother. Nani Vazana tells us her story.This story originally aired on March 6, 2025.

Working as a foreigner in the US is getting harder, with the Trump administration cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration. In an announcement last month, the White House revamped the H-1B visa policy and announced that US companies that want to hire skilled foreign workers would have to pay $100,000 per visa application. The earlier fee ranged between $2,000 and $5,000. Priyanka Shankar reports from Bengaluru, India, where there's a mixture of resignation and defiance.

Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman catch you up on some sports headlines that might have flown under your radar.

The house where the great Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was born in 1841 has just reopened after years of renovation. The end result is an interactive, immersive audio journey through the composer's early life, letting you hear the sounds that he heard - the hustle and bustle of the village inn, the trains rushing by outside, the peal of the church bells. Rob Cameron from our partners at DW, Deutsche Welle, was given a tour, and has this report.

Insect populations around the world are plummeting, even in areas meant to be protected from environmental harm. Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs, research partners and spouses, have watched this unfold for years from the Guancaste Preserve in Costa Rica. They spoke with The World's Host Marco Werman about their observations.

The first phase of the Israel-Hamas peace deal has gained momentum, but major obstacles still might block the plan's implementation. Shashank Joshi, defense editor at The Economist, speaks with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler about the incentives pushing Hamas and Israel to comply with this agreement - and what happens if they don't.

Earlier this week, a South American trade bloc ruled that Peru has violated its commitments to cracking down on illegal gold mining. This comes as the price of gold is skyrocketing. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler talks with Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council for Foreign Relations, for details of what's happening along the Peruvian Amazon.

US President Donald Trump has announced a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after two years of a deadly conflict. Israeli hostages are expected to be released by early next week, and Israel's army is to pull partially out of Gaza as a first step. People on both sides are cautiously optimistic. We have two reports with reactions from inside Israel and Gaza. The World's Matthew Bell looks at Israelis' thoughts. But first The World's Shirin Jaafari has been in touch with Palestinians inside Gaza and reports on how they're feeling.

A midwife with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) in the North Darfur region of Sudan has described assisting a growing number of women experiencing sexual violence at the hands of militias. Speaking to The World's Host Carolyn Beeler from Chad's capital N'Djamena, Lucy Acibu's account comes a day after a Sudanese militia leader was convicted at the International Criminal Court on charges of mass murder and sexual violence going back to 2003. We hear first about this ruling from Kholood Khair. She's the head of Confluence Advisory a think and do tank" founded in Sudan, who joined from Nairobi, Kenya.

Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler bring you a few developments in science you may have missed in the news.

FIFA, soccer's global governing body, has suspended seven members of Malaysia's men's national soccer team after an investigation found the country's soccer federation used fake birth certificates to claim the athletes' eligibility. The Malaysian soccer federation denies the allegations. The World's Bianca Hillier has the details.

A hundred years ago this month, the BBC began broadcasting the Shipping Forecast as a standalone nine-minute segment. It's become a favorite of many British people, both lovingly mocked and revered. The World's Aaron Schachter takes a look at the phenomenon - and how the forecast works.

Gaza City is under relentless attack by the Israeli military, which appears intent on destroying its remaining residential buildings. That's according to Mohammed Aklouk, a father of three and longtime resident who has fled to the southern town of Deir al-Balah. Aklouk, a coordinator for the Norwegian Refugee Council, describes his family's escape to The World's Host Marco Werman.

Geraldine Buckley's mom always pushed her to put down her books, stop studying and go party. A mom that went against the grain of other parents. One of the adventures this led to for Buckley back in 1976 was to hitchhike in Canada. Buckley, who's from England, shared the adventure with GBH's Stories From The Stage.

On the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, Rabbi Susan Silverman in Jerusalem speaks with The World's Host Marco Werman. Silverman reflects on how her worldview has shifted since that day and discusses the key inflection points when Israeli unity began to fracture into division.

Balloons carrying thousands of packs of cigarettes have disrupted flights in Lithuania, as Vilnius Airport was forced to close for hours when dozens of them floated into the country's airspace.

The Trump administration recently named Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro a "narco-terrorist" and concerns are growing in the country about whether US intentions go beyond a war on drugs. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Phil Gunson, a senior analyst with Crisis Group, based in Caracas, about how people on the ground are reacting to a potential threat.

Cocaine use across Europe has surged over the past decade and drug cartels are adapting fast. Once routed mainly through major ports in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, traffickers have recently set their sights on a smaller, more unexpected corner of western Europe. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry has more.

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.

Along India's Bay of Bengal, migrating elephants have arrived in a farming community - and they're destroying livelihoods while they're at it. But it hasn't been easy for the elephants, either. They've lost their native habitats, and the way climate change is progressing, that's likely to get worse - not better. Reporter Namrata Kolachalam followed two herds of elephants arriving in new territory, and brings us the story of how people are trying to respect the animals seeking refuge, while managing the crisis they've brought with them.