State of the World from NPR

A macho Mexican superstar sings songs full of emotion

With his crooked cowboy hat, thick black beard and oversized belt buckles, Carín León looks every bit the macho Mexican superstar singer that he is. But beneath the swagg

Venezuela’s popular opposition leader returns to the country

Politician, activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado has returned to Venezuela. She led the opposition to authoritarian leader Nicholas Maduro and fled

The Israeli election is deadlocked

Israel has held an important election– its first since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on that country. The vote is a referendum on the leadership of Prime Ministe

Why Ukraine and Russia agreed to a ceasefire in just one city

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a very limited ceasefire to help a Ukrainian city that’s been under Russian occupation for nearly five years.  We hear about the horrifi

Surprising election results in Brazil and Serbia

We look at unexpected election results in different parts of the globe, in which the youth vote played a major role. In Brazil, the leftist incumbent in his 80’s cinched

Drones make the Russia-Ukraine war front line a ‘kill zone’

The Russia-Ukraine war is sometimes compared to the static, deadlocked, trench warfare of World War I.   Yet it’s also been the defining conflict of the 21st century, do

Why a game gaining popularity in the U.S. is giving Chinese factories a needed boost

Chinese manufacturers have not had it easy these past few years, with U.S. tariffs as well as the wars in Ukraine and Iran pushing up their costs and shrinking profits.  

Our reporter witnesses the largest detention of West Bank activists in a decade

In the Israeli occupied West Bank, dozens of Americans have been detained, including a politician running for Congress.   Settler violence and detentions by the Israeli

Why workers in India are training their AI robot replacements

Sometimes it feels like when we aren’t worried about AI destroying humanity — we worry about it replacing white collar jobs like lawyers, accountants, coders. But tech co

Israel prepares for a high-stakes election

Israel holds an election on October 27th, electing members of the Knesset, their parliament.  And this election will decide the future of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah

A conversation with President Volodmyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine

Ukraine finds itself in a difficult situation.  It has endured increased airstrikes from Russia, especially in the capital Kyiv. One way the country fights back is by hi

A Gaza war documentary sparks outrage in Israel

In the new documentary “NAZA”, two dozen anonymous Israeli military and intelligence officers describe how they used an AI-powered system to kill Palestinians in Gaza. Th

A German intelligence scandal

The arrest last week of Germany’s former intelligence head, August Hanning, has left the country in shock. He’s suspected of sharing state secrets with other governments.

Desperate Iranians head to Turkey in search of work

With a battered economy made worse by war, many Iranians are looking for ways to provide for their families.  Some decide to travel days over land to make their way to Tu

Encore: What 9,000 year old remains in Germany tell us about human development

In this encore episode, we learn about our evolving understanding of an ancient find. When a 9,000 year-old grave of a shaman was discovered in 1930s Germany, the discove

The roots of the Mexican music known as fandango

We go to Mexico’s gulf coast to learn about fandango. It is a joyous musical tradition born in the Mexican state of Veracruz that’s been going on for more than 300 years

Gaza, three years after the war there began

It has been three years since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that led to Israel’s invasion of Gaza.  It’s a war that has yet to end, despite a ceasefire. On yesterday’s

3 years after the Hamas-led attacks, Israelis are returning to areas near Gaza

Three years after the October 7th attacks, Israel’s southern border with Gaza is undergoing a dramatic rebound. That region was nearly abandoned after thousands of Hamas-

Afghanistan 25 years after the U.S. invasion

This week marks twenty five years since the United States invaded Afghanistan, on October 7th, 2001.  It was less than a month after the September 11th attacks and Presid

Russia changes what it is attacking in Ukraine’s capital

Russia's jet-powered drones are targeting bridges in the Ukrainian capital, an escalation after more than a month of day-and-night strikes that have left Kyiv feeling alm