Another coronavirus vaccine trial shows promise
In the last week or so, there has been some good vaccine news. Pfizer and now Moderna have announced that their coronavirus vaccines were 90% and 94.5% effective based on preliminary results from their trials. And, as the US finds itself at a crossroads between one president and another, the United Nations happens to be conducting its regular review of where the US stands on human rights, as it...
50m Nov 16, 2020
50m
Conflict in Ethiopia raises concerns of possible civil war
The escalating conflict in Ethiopia northern Tigray region is raising concerns the country may be nearing civil war. And, China’s vision for the next century is with itself as the top power in Asia. India is not on board with that — and it’s looking for ways to counter China’s ambitions with its own vision of a more multipolar Asia and world. Also, we remember former Ghana's former President Je...
50m Nov 13, 2020
50m
A global lens on America’s elections as Trump refuses to concede
For many decades, the US has presented itself to the rest of the world as the gold standard when it comes to free and fair voting. So how does that square with President Donald Trump now refusing to concede after losing? And, China has four COVID-19 vaccines in phase 3 trials. But with so few coronavirus cases in the country, it’s forced to hold trials in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Br...
50m Nov 12, 2020
50m
S4 Ep1: (Special) Things That Go Boom: Fee-fi-fo-fear
For many, 2020 has been a scary year. In an effort to get to the root of why many people feel this way, the first thing we did was something we probably should have done a long time ago — we reached out to a psychiatrist. In a new season of "Things That Go Boom," The World's partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley also asked listeners, friends and family to answer what might seem like a pr...
25m Nov 12, 2020
25m
Migrant father faces criminal charges in Greece after son drowns at sea
In an unprecedented move by the Greek government, an Afghan father was arrested and faces charges of child endangerment after a dinghy carrying 25 migrants capsized in the Aegean Sea, resulting in the drowning of his son. And, international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the US election ran smoothly and criticized US President Donald Trump for promot...
50m Nov 11, 2020
50m
The challenges to immigration reform after the Trump administration
During his campaign, candidate Joe Biden said that on day one, he would submit an immigration reform bill to Congress. What challenges will Biden face in reforming US immigration policy? And, there is a growing debate taking place about a possible boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to allegations of human rights abuses. Also, wildlife photographer Paul Nicklen and his organizati...
49m Nov 10, 2020
49m
Trump fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper
US President Donald Trump fired the head of the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, on Monday, after Trump questioned his loyalty to the administration. And, the last four years of the Trump presidency have tested America's traditional alliances in Europe and forged other unconventional ones. Now, with President-elect Joe Biden poised to take office in January, European leaders are looking ...
49m Nov 09, 2020
49m
What’s at stake in a likely US transition of power
Although the results of the US presidential election are not official yet, all indicators point to a victory for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. But the transfer of presidential power looks like it will be difficult. And, with coronavirus infections surging at record levels in the US and Europe, many nations are imposing new restrictions. Reporter Elana Gordon looks at the pros and cons of the ...
50m Nov 06, 2020
50m
Immigrants, first- and second-generation Americans continue trend running for office
The election this week saw a continuation of a national trend that began in the 2018 midterms — an unprecedented wave of first- and second-generation Americans running for office. And, for decades, the United States has taken the lead on efforts to contain outbreaks around the globe, from polio to influenza. Now, amid the pandemic, the US election illuminates, even more, a nation divided on sci...
51m Nov 05, 2020
51m
With foreign interference a recent memory, how secure are 2020 US elections?
Foreign interference was a key concern going into Election Day. So, what happened on the cybersecurity and disinformation front, and what can we expect next? And, Britain is keeping a close eye on the results of the US election, as their own country faces a new lockdown after midnight Wednesday evening. Also, in this limbo period, when we wait to hear who won and which way the US goes next in t...
50m Nov 04, 2020
50m
(Special) NOVA Now — The Statistical Science Behind Poling
With so much uncertainty hanging over the US presidential election, one place we look for clarity is in the numbers. Pollsters learned valuable lessons from the 2016 election results that they’ve applied in the current election cycle to try to yield more accurate predictions. From our GBH and PRX partners, NOVA Now, and as a special in The World's podcast feed, host Alok Patel interviews a poll...
24m Nov 04, 2020
24m
Americans head to the polls and the world is watching
Arizona used to be firmly Republican, but now it's a battleground state as its politics and demographics have changed. And, voters heading to the polls may be feeling anxious, with all the talk of possible violence. But with the rise of hate crimes during the Trump administration, there are many Americans who have been feeling that way for the last four years. Also, the US will officially be ou...
50m Nov 03, 2020
50m
What's the future of US-Israel relations?
For decades Israel has enjoyed a unique relationship with the US in defense and security cooperation. Under the Trump administration, many Israelis feel that relationship has been fruitful. Would the relationship look any different under a potential Biden administration? And, on US Election Day, our social media news feeds will likely be filled with stories about how foreign actors have worked ...
50m Nov 02, 2020
50m
Special edition: What's at stake for US foreign policy in the 2020 election?
This year, perhaps more than any other, the world is watching the US presidential election. Whatever the outcome, there will be global implications. On the eve of Election Day, we brought together our correspondents to explore key foreign policy issues in their regions of expertise. In this special edition for The World's podcast feed, senior editor Daisy Contreras moderated a live discussion w...
32m Nov 02, 2020
32m
2020 US Election: The political power of Latino youth
Today The World brings you a special episode on the political power of Latino youth, one of the fastest-growing demographic groups in the United States. Approximately every 30 seconds, a Latino in the US turns 18 and becomes eligible to vote. The World has been talking to Latino voters all year. In this episode, hear how Trump has alienated many Latinos with his anti-immigrant rhetoric — but a ...
48m Oct 30, 2020
48m
Deadly knife attacks at a church in France 
A series of knife attacks on French citizens at the Notre Dame Basilica in the Mediterranean city of Nice on Thursday prompted the government to raise its security alert status to the maximum level. And, much of the chocolate that trick-or-treaters eat this weekend will have come from cocoa farms in West Africa that use child labor. Also, Japan's prime minister this week announced a goal of mak...
50m Oct 29, 2020
50m
Special edition: Voters of color in the 2020 US election
The World's reporters have been covering immigrant communities and communities of color this election season, and they compared notes during a recent live discussion on Facebook. Reporters Daisy Contreras, Rupa Shenoy and Halima Gikandi hosted the conversation on voters of color and the 2020 election — covering politics, diversity and the issues that mobilize them. We wanted to share that discu...
31m Oct 29, 2020
31m
Coronavirus surge in Canada has many pointing fingers at recent holiday family gatherings
Canada is seeing rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, which some public health experts believe can be traced back to family celebrations of Canadian Thanksgiving on Oct. 12. And, despite mounting public pressure, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused to offer free school meals for children in England during the Christmas holiday break. Also, Polish writer and illustrator Martyna Wiśniew...
50m Oct 28, 2020
50m
Protesters take to the streets of Poland over abortion court ruling
For five days straight, thousands have taken to the streets of cities across Poland to protest a court ruling on abortion. The country’s Constitutional Tribunal last week outlawed abortion in all but the most exceptional of circumstances. And, Germany has been pretty successful containing the coronavirus and also getting students back into classrooms. But in southern Germany, two counties are g...
49m Oct 27, 2020
49m
Sudan and Israel to start normalizing relations
Sudan is set to start normalizing relations with Israel. The move comes as the US removes Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. And, China's Belt and Road Initiative is transforming countries across the globe with new infrastructure, mining and factories. But physical investments are only part of the story: China is making a digital power play, too. Also, despite the ongoing unres...
51m Oct 26, 2020
51m
How the rest of the world views the US presidential election
The last presidential debate on Thursday focused extensively on foreign policy topics. The World's foreign correspondents share global reactions and what they're seeing abroad in the leadup to the Nov. 3 US election. And, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday. It's the latest attempt to find a solution to nearly a month of fighting in Na...
48m Oct 23, 2020
48m
Coronavirus Conversations: What's driving the latest COVID-19 surges?
Many health officials around the world are working to contain second waves of the coronavirus. Join us as we examine what's driving the latest wave of surges around the world, as part of our regular series discussing the pandemic presented jointly with The Forum at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health — and as a special podcast in The World's feed. Elana Gordon moderated a discussion with ...
32m Oct 23, 2020
32m
US government says Iran behind voter-intimidation emails ahead of US election
The US Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday that Iran is behind a campaign of sending threatening, faked emails to voters in the US ahead of the 2020 presidential election. And, in the wake of the pandemic, the International Monetary Fund has doled out billions of dollars to keep countries afloat, with few restrictions. But now t...
50m Oct 22, 2020
50m
Gruesome murder in France prompts growing criticism of social media
The gruesome murder of a history teacher in France has sparked intense criticism of social media companies over the role they played in motivating the killer and inciting the murder. And, according to a new study by the University of Cambridge, millennials around the world are currently less satisfied with democracy and more disillusioned than at any other time in the past century. Also, one of...
50m Oct 21, 2020
50m
Coronavirus human challenge trials to begin in UK
The UK government announced today that it is funding the first stage of a human challenge trial for a coronavirus vaccine. And, an international mystery that seems to be ripped from a Cold War spy novel: US diplomats coming down with mysterious brain ailments while posted overseas. But in 2018, this was a reality for dozens of diplomats and spies posted at the US embassy in Cuba. Also, as the c...
48m Oct 20, 2020
48m
French police conduct raids of suspected extremists after teacher's murder
French police on Monday conducted raids of Islamic associations and individuals suspected of extremist religious beliefs after the beheading of a history teacher near Paris. The teacher was fatally attacked in the street after having shown his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in a discussion on free speech. And, violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan is now heading into its third week...
48m Oct 19, 2020
48m
Health experts push back on natural herd immunity ‘fringe theory’
There's a fringe proposal to counter the pandemic gaining some traction: Just let the virus spread and let a population build up "natural herd immunity." But this week, leading public health experts from around the globe pushed back, warning that the idea is extremely dangerous. And, former defense minister of Mexico, retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, has been arrested in Los Angeles in connect...
49m Oct 16, 2020
49m
France announces return to coronavirus lockdowns
France will impose a nightly curfew starting on Saturday on almost 20 million of the country's 67 million people, in an attempt to curb a resurgence of the coronavirus. And, Norway's foreign minister said that Russia hacked into their country's parliamentary email system in August. Also, as Nov. 3 approaches, calls by President Donald Trump to declare a winner on election night have raised fear...
48m Oct 15, 2020
48m
Coronavirus Conversations: Where do we stand with testing and a vaccine?
Health authorities in Europe and around the world are facing new surges of the coronavirus. As fall temperatures drop and more of us stay inside longer, where do we stand on testing, diagnostics and a vaccine amid a growing sense of pandemic fatigue? As part of our regular series of conversations, The World's Elana Gordon moderated a discussion with Harvard University epidemiologist William Han...
40m Oct 15, 2020
40m
Taliban unleashes deadly offensive amid peace talks
Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after the Taliban began an intense battle to take over the city of Lashkargah in southern Afghanistan. The fighting comes at a time when the Trump administration is negotiating a peace agreement with the militant group to withdraw US troops. And, China, Russia and Cuba all won seats on the UN Human Rights Council, provoking alarm with rig...
48m Oct 14, 2020
48m
New surges in global coronavirus cases worrisome to health officials
America’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says the globe isn’t doing as well as he’d hoped in fighting the pandemic, and he worries about the politicization of public health. And, in Qingdao, a small outbreak of the coronavirus has prompted a plan to test all 9 million residents of the Chinese port city. Also, US intelligence officials have historically been nonpartisan, at le...
49m Oct 13, 2020
49m
Mexico City removes a prominent Columbus statue
Mexico City’s government removed a statue of Christopher Columbus from the city’s Paseo de la Reforma in the early hours of Saturday ahead of a planned annual protest. And, the United Kingdom is just one of a series of countries in Europe to impose new localized restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Plus, tennis star Rafael Nadal again made history on Sunday winning his 13th Fr...
49m Oct 12, 2020
49m
World Food Program awarded Nobel Peace Prize
The World Food Program, the United Nations' food-assistance branch, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for its work addressing hunger, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic, and for creating a foundation for peace in nations ravaged by war. We take a look at past winners of the prize, too. And, hundreds of coronavirus vaccines are in the works worldwide. But if and when an effec...
50m Oct 09, 2020
50m
A country’s actions can determine whether a coronavirus surge takes hold
Around the globe, communities are bracing for new surges in COVID-19, from Spain to Israel. But a country's actions can make all the difference in what happens next, and whether a surge takes hold. And, in Wednesday’s debate, Vice President Mike Pence argued the Trump administration can claim credit for vanquishing ISIS. But many analysts say Trump carried forward President Barack Obama’s plan ...
49m Oct 08, 2020
49m
US charges British ISIS militants
In the first case of its kind, two ISIS militants, formally British citizens, have been charged in a US court for their involvement in the beheading of American and British journalists and aid workers in Syria. And, a court in Greece has ruled that the far-right Golden Dawn party was operating as a criminal organization, delivering landmark guilty verdicts. Also, the EU Parliament has ...
48m Oct 07, 2020
48m
Top US military leaders forced into coronavirus quarantine
President Donald Trump’s top military advisers, including the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, have gone into quarantine. And, the wives and widows of ISIS fighters have turned to crowdfunding to raise money to buy their escape from detention camps in northern Syria. Also, the frontman of the Colombian trio Bomba Estéreo has been at work on a new solo project — “Mon...
49m Oct 06, 2020
49m
Trump’s illness poses US national security risks
China, Russia and other actors that don’t have America’s best interest in mind may seek to take advantage of the US in this precarious moment, as President Donald Trump has been sidelined by the coronavirus. And, nothing about the president’s coronavirus infection is normal — from the combination of experimental treatments he is receiving all at once to the way the outbreak is unfoldin...
48m Oct 05, 2020
48m
President Trump tests positive for COVID-19
Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, doctors have learned a lot more about the disease. That might be good news for President Donald Trump. And, the British fashion label Fred Perry announced last week that it stopped selling their black and yellow polo shirt in Canada and the US. The shirt has become part of the de facto uniform of the Proud Boys, a white supremacist grou...
49m Oct 02, 2020
49m
Coronavirus falsehoods spread with alarming speed
Falsehoods involving the pandemic are ricocheting around the globe with alarming speed. A new study from Cornell University finds President Donald Trump is the biggest offender of spreading misinformation. And, in the last decade, Danish energy company Ørsted did what few other energy utilities in the world have been able to do: They went from being almost entirely reliant on oil, gas ...
49m Oct 01, 2020
49m
Global reaction to a chaotic presidential debate
Viewers across the globe tuned into the 2020 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden Tuesday night and witnessed an often chaotic and unruly spectacle. And, members of the US House Intelligence Committee are increasingly worried that China is shaping geopolitics and global technology, while the US intelligence community lacks the resources...
50m Sep 30, 2020
50m
Coronavirus passes grim milestone with 1 million deaths worldwide
It’s been hard to keep up with the devastating human toll of the coronavirus pandemic. This week, we passed yet another grim milestone — 1 million deaths worldwide. And, how who wins the White House in November could impact people and policies across the world. China will almost certainly come up in tonight's first presidential debate and many Chinese are paying close attention. Also, ...
48m Sep 29, 2020
48m
The national security risks of Trump’s foreign financial entanglements
US President Donald Trump owes hundreds of millions of dollars to a foreign bank, The New York Times reports, and he regularly pays taxes to several foreign governments — while paying little to no tax to the US government. His foreign financial entanglements might pose issues for US national security. And, Southeast Asian nations seeing large investments from China. But opening the doo...
49m Sep 28, 2020
49m
A challenge to the peaceful transition of power
This past week, President Donald Trump declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power — the foundation of democracy in the US — in the aftermath of the November election. And, Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, will be different in Israel this year. As COVID-19 cases continue to spike, the Israeli government imposed further restrictions on its people already in a nationwide l...
49m Sep 25, 2020
49m
Coronavirus Conversations: Reopening schools and workplaces amid the coronavirus
With fall underway, millions of students and teachers in the US are adjusting to the new normal of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. For college students, living on campus has also brought new challenges. School communities are divided by questions of how safe is “safe enough,” and administrators are struggling to balance the benefits of in-person instruction with the risk...
34m Sep 25, 2020
34m
Protests erupt over Breonna Taylor case
Thursday's announcement that the police officers involved in the March killing of Breonna Taylor would not face homicide charges is yet another low for activists and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement around the world. And, protesters in Belarus have been in the streets since early August calling for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko. The World's host Marco W...
50m Sep 24, 2020
50m
Afghan women take a seat with the Taliban at the negotiating table
After nearly 20 years of violence and war, representatives from the Afghan government are meeting with Taliban officials, including two women who are sitting across the table from the Taliban. And, it's getting colder in Boston and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. That means more time indoors. What are the additional steps people can take to prevent the transmission of the coron...
49m Sep 23, 2020
49m
A virtual UN General Assembly
The UN General Assembly is holding its 75th meeting this week in New York — mostly virtually. US President Donald Trump used his address on Wednesday to blame China for the spread of the coronavirus while defending his own response to the pandemic. And the 2020 presidential election will dictate whether the US remains out of the Paris climate agreement for another four years, or reente...
49m Sep 22, 2020
49m
How Sweden influenced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's worldview
In the early 1960s, long before she was a Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg traveled to Sweden to research a book project with legal scholar Anders Bruzelius. Her time there shaped her views on equality and the law. Also, surgeon and author Dr. Atul Gawande says nations such as South Korea have implemented successful COVID-19 testing and safety procedures that the US could eas...
50m Sep 21, 2020
50m
Greece relocates thousands of migrants and refugees to new camp after fire
An effort is underway to relocate the approximately 12,000 migrants and refugees who have been camping in the streets of Lesbos into a new camp. And, 29 German police officers have been suspended for sharing pictures of Adolf Hitler and depictions of refugees in gas chambers on their phones. Also, an appreciation of the blues connection between Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré and Jimi...
47m Sep 18, 2020
47m
Number in The News: 3 — ‘Scents of Normality’ captures the essence of life before lockdown
From The World and PRX, this is The Number in the News. Today’s number: 3. Watching a movie at home these days doesn't come with quite the same potpourri of aromas you'd get from going out to a movie theater, such as popcorn butter, recirculated air and the wrinkly hot dogs at the concession stand. A London candle shop called <a href="https://www.earlofeast.com/" target="_blank">Earl ...
3m Sep 18, 2020
3m