The World: Latest Stories

Author Jonny Steinberg’s new book, "Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage," explores the complex relationship between Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, two of the world’s best-known freedom fighters. Steinberg joined The World’s host Marco Werman to discuss the fraught political partnership of these iconic revolutionaries.

Pollution and trash carried from the Tijuana River to the Pacific Ocean have long plagued swimmers and surfers on both sides of the US-Mexico border. A recent court settlement is bringing hope for cooperation.

This week, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said Portugal should formally apologize for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The Portuguese were responsible for selling nearly 6 million people into slavery — mostly in Brazil. Some activists and scholars say an apology is just a start and there's still a long way to go.

​​​​​​University professors and researchers depend on getting published. So it was considered a bold move when the editors of two prestigious brain journals resigned en masse this month after the publisher refused to lower the fees it charges academics to publish their work.

The Indian government’s new school textbooks have significant deletions in them related to Muslims in Indian history. Some historians accuse the ruling BJP government of rewriting the country's history to suit its Hindu nationalist ideology.

The bitcoin cryptocurrency has seen its ups and downs lately, gaining and losing 10% of its value in just the past week. Nowhere is this volatility felt more intensely than in El Salvador, which became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in 2021.

More than 100,000 Armenians still live in Nagorno-Karabakh, and they depend on the Lachin Corridor as the only road that connects to the rest of Armenia.

Fighting continued on Wednesday on the outskirts of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. A short-term ceasefire is in place, but the United Nations says it is only partially successful. Over the last 12 days, hundreds of people have been killed. Sudanese residents from the capital region are making tough decisions about leaving.

Novels about queer topics have been pulled from bookstores in Russia under a recent law that bans all mention of LGBTQ life in popular culture. It's part of a regional crackdown against novelists and poets.

New research shows that military spending grew for an eighth consecutive year in 2022 to an all-time high of $2,240 billion. Europe saw a sharp increase over the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, China has expanded its reach, while the US wants to maintain its military superiority as the world's largest military.

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed about 7 million people worldwide, ravaging health care systems and economies. Dr. Atul Gawande, head of global health at the US Agency for International Development, spoke with The World's Carolyn Beeler about how pandemic recovery "will require as much focus and attention as it did when it first started."

Indian businessman Gautam Adani is one of the world's wealthiest people. Now, his methods for acquiring the enormous wealth and close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi are being investigated by India's Supreme Court.

“We don't have much time to convince all the stakeholders in the world,” said award recipient Zafer Kizilkaya about the urgency of protecting marine life.

The fighting between Sudan's rival armed forces continues to have a devastating impact on civilians and civilian infrastructure across the country. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed. The fighting has also damaged Sudan's health facilities, making it difficult for the country's health workers to help those caught in the crosshairs.

Over the last week, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva courted controversy with his remarks on the conflict in Ukraine, causing tensions between Brazil and the US.

The World's Carol Hills spoke to Anne Nejs, an urban ecologist for the city of Utrecht, who worked on creating the doorbell back in 2021. She says mid-April is the best time of the season to go fish-doorbelling.

The Moors, who ruled in Spain, had a network of canals 800 years ago that moved water from the Sierra Nevada down into cities and farms. Archaeologists today are trying to uncover those canals, and put the ancient wisdom about irrigation to use today.

Former President Jair Bolsonaro is back in Brazil after a three-month hiatus in Florida. Allies say he’s ready to fight the new government. But Bolsonaro faces a string of lawsuits that are working against him.

​​​​​​​A Syrian American man has filed a civil lawsuit in the US against the government of Syria for allegedly detaining and torturing him in 2012. Obada Mzaik was 22 years old when he was arrested at the Damascus airport.

Owner Ahmed Mahmood tells The World about his own journey, the political situation in Yemen and how he's created a space for those observing the month of fasting.

The “greenhouse-in-a-box” is part of a solution designed to help smallholder farmers cope with the vagaries of a changing climate. The design, essentially a low-cost, scaled-down version of a standard greenhouse, is the brainchild of an Indian startup called Kheyti.

"Movement" host Meklit Hadero speaks with Sudanese American MC Oddisee about his new album, "To What End," which grew out of a period of intense self-doubt.

Garbage segregators in India often have to migrate in search of work. Many in Bangalore, India, also face constant harassment from the police and local residents, often facing eviction from informal settlements if they can't afford to pay bribes.

The country’s military, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary began fighting on Saturday, following weeks of tensions. Pressure from international and regional players has so far failed to deescalate the conflict.

The singer-songwriter has always straddled between the worlds of globalization and the traditions of her homeland.

Mohannad Saad Mohammad lost an eye in Iraq’s protests that became known as the Tishreen or the October movement. The demonstrations that began in 2019 have mostly dissipated but Mohammad says he won’t stop fighting for a better Iraq.

There are still lots of unknowns about a leaked trove of classified US intelligence information. Secrets about Russia's war in Ukraine made their way online, then, eventually, into the news. The incident has been embarrassing for the Pentagon and the White House. In Russia, officials at the Kremlin and media commentators are all paying close attention.

Author and human rights activist Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode documented the heartbreaking stories of the Chibok families nine years after the Boko Haram abductions that gripped the world’s attention.

The Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone has become an important part of modern warfare used in conflicts around the globe from Ukraine to Ethiopia. But many Armenians believe the drone is responsible for war crimes.

​​​​​​​Two months after devastating earthquakes killed more than 57,000 people in Turkey and Syria, survivors are living in tent camps and shipping containers outside the ruins of their former homes. As mobile businesses and streetside kebab shops return to the city of Antakya, some people are determined to stay in their hometown to grieve and rebuild.

Chinese authorities have sentenced two of the country’s most prominent human rights lawyers to more than a decade in prison, each on subversion charges. Sophie Luo Shengchun, the wife of jailed dissident Ding Jiaxi, speaks with The World’s Marco Werman.

Teachers at the Acorn Center for Early Education and Care in Boston’s Chinatown use a curriculum that teaches students how to manage big feelings — especially pandemic-related ones — which families have recognized as a growing need.

​​​​​​​For decades, India has depended on Russia for its weapons supply. It's the cornerstone of the two countries' ties, which go back to the Soviet era. But it can also be a liability, as India found out last week when it learned that a major shipment of Russian arms had fallen through because of the war in Ukraine.

Uganda recently passed a law that criminalizes homosexuality, punishable by death. LGBTQ people and human rights advocates fear that the Ugandan law may empower anti-LGBTQ movements elsewhere on the continent.

​​​​​​​Thousands of Iraqi children who lived under the brutal rule of ISIS in northern Iraq still face obstacles. Iraqi families who were issued official identification documents by ISIS continue to have a hard time getting their kids into school, because the government doesn't recognize their paperwork.

Migrants from as far south as Chile are walking north to the United States, hoping for a better life. But before they make it to that border, they must make it across Mexico's southern border.

The beating heart of village life in Spain is the local bar, and many of these establishments need urgent life support. Spanish politicians have voted to offer the watering holes public subsidies. Their reasoning: bars serve much more than beer.

How did patriarchy become common around the world, and can we change the dominance of men in societies? Science journalist Angela Saini explores these questions in her new book, "The Patriarchs; The Origins of Inequality."

The food website Taste Atlas recently rated the light and creamy bundz, made from sheep's milk, as one of the top cheeses in the world. The cheese doesn't come from France or Italy — it comes from the southern mountains of Poland.

During Holy Week in Guatemala, many people participate in the tradition of creating elaborate alfombra, or colorful flower carpets made out of sawdust on the streets for processions to pass over.

Pinpointing the “end” of the coronavirus pandemic depends on the vantage point. The World's host Marco Werman spoke with Dr. Michael Mina, a leading epidemiologist and the chief science officer at EMed, a digital health care company, along with Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist and professor at Columbia University, to learn more about the "bumpy, difficult off-ramp" from COVID-19.

Bogotá is trying to curb sexual harassment against women on public transportation systems. It’s trained more than 500 police officers as part of the purple patrol to respond to cases of gender-based violence. Female police officers also hand out leaflets with information about hotlines that women can call for assistance.

Dozens of people who are homeless die every year in Spain, often on the streets — and usually alone. But one small hospice program is trying to make a difference by connecting with homeless people and spending time with them, even at the very end of life.

In his latest video, Singh, a preacher calling for a Sikh homeland known as Khalistan, says he'll surrender at a time of his own choosing.

The night of April 5 marks the beginning of Passover. Traditionally, Jewish families gather around the dinner table for the holiday with a festive meal where they eat matzah and read aloud from the Haggadah. The text tells the Passover story, guiding readers through a tale of redemption. On Wednesday night, many Ukrainians will be reading the Haggadah in their own language for the first time.

Chris Maroleng, executive director of Good Governance Africa, talks with The World’s host Marco Werman about how Trump’s legal woes impact the rule of law in the sub-Saharan region of the continent.

The US Army missed its target by 25% during the past fiscal year. Other branches of the military are also seeing a drop in recruiting.

The Anthropocene Working Group is voting on a so-called Golden Spike, a sedimentary layer somewhere on Earth that best exemplifies the global impact of humans on planet Earth. It's the last, big task in formally defining the Anthropocene, which is being proposed as a new age in geologic time.

​​​​​​​Ecuador’s National Assembly is debating the future of President Guillermo Lasso. If it votes to remove Lasso, it would be the first impeachment of an Ecuadorian president since the country’s return to democracy in 1979.

Concerned that her mother's legacy would be forgotten, filmmaker Akuol de Mabior set out to create a new documentary called “No Simple Way Home.” It tells the story of Rebecca Nyandeng de Mabior's contributions to the liberation of South Sudan.