State of the World from NPR

After more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the destruction there is overwhelming. According to the United Nations, most buildings there have been damaged or destroyed, and many bodies remain buried under rubble. Crews have begun efforts to recover those remains, including victims from one of the war's deadliest Israeli attacks, which occurred in late 2024. NPR investigated...

In today’s episode, a rare interview with the leader of a Hindu nationalist group in India known by the acronym RSS. They are the largest far right group in the world and the basis for the party that rules India. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

The relationship between the United States and Cuba hasn’t been this tense for decades. Even as the the U.S. is engaged in high-level negotiations in Havana, it is threatening Cuba with military action. It is a threat that is backed up by the recent action the U.S. took in nearby Venezuela, removing that country’s leader. We hear from a top Cuban diplomat about how Cuba sees its relationship with...

Forty years ago, in April 1986, there was an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was the worst nuclear accident in history. Then the plant was in the USSR, it is part of northern Ukraine now. The accident was a shared trauma for Ukrainians and Russians, but Russia’s war on Ukraine has torn them apart. We meet some families who endured the accident and nuclear fallout four decades ag...

India has seen a rise in Hindu nationalism in recent years, in it’s politics but also in the culture. And India’s famed Bollywood film industry has been churning out movies echoing that with movies often featuring macho Hindu men fighting Muslims. We hear about a movie with a very different sensibility which has had a remarkable rise— all the way to the Oscars. See pcm.adswizz.com for information...

Since the war with Iran began Ukraine has found itself in an unexpected position. In addition to receiving military aid, it is also a provider. Iran has been attacking it’s neighbors with the same type of drones Russia uses against Ukraine. And Ukraine has developed defense technology it can now export to the Middle East. We go to Ukraine to learn more. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about ou...

Just before a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was set to expire, President Trump announced on social media that he was extending it. Iran says that a ceasefire is meaningless unless the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is lifted, it sees that blockade as an act of war. And then in the hours after Trump’s announcement, Iran attacked at least three ships in the Strait of Hormuz. To understand...

We mark this moment in both Gaza and Israel. In Gaza, it has been six months since major hostilities with Israel ended. Aid for the territory’s two million residents has resumed but it isn’t sufficient and reconstruction has yet to begin. We hear from some residents about their lives today. And Israel celebrates its Independence Day during a rare pause in three conflicts: Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. I...

As the end of a two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran approaches, a separate but intertwined conflict may have an improved chance at peace. Israel and Lebanon have had a fraught relationship for decades. The most recent fighting flared up not long after the war in Iran began. It involves the Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah. Now there is a temporary ceasefire and the two nations are en...

The war in Gaza has hardened positions across the Middle East. But two men say it brought them closer together and convinced them that the "future is peace." That’s the title of their new book. NPR’s Michele Kelemen speaks to authors Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship...

For 25 years, ethnic Koreans who called Japan home were lured by propaganda to North Korea. Over 90,000 people heeded the call. They were promised all basic needs, but ended up trapped in North Korea’s poverty and starvation. Now, survivors are fighting for justice in court. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast...

What began as a power struggle between the army and the powerful paramilitary force — former allies in a coup that removed a civilian government — has spiraled into a devastating war. Now entering its fourth year, it has become the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast s...

After U.S.-backed Iraqi and Syrian forces defeated ISIS, its surviving fighters went to prison. Their wives and children were sent to detention camps, where many remain to this day.  NPR visits the last detention camp for ISIS wives and children in an increasingly precarious northeastern Syria.    See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and...

In 2024, Israel killed Hezbollah's top leaders and is thought to have decimated its arsenal. So how is the Iran-backed group still firing rockets into Israel? NPR’s Lauren Frayer looks as how Hezbollah has re-armed and changed tactics. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Po...

Ukraine has been a country living through war for more than four years, since Russia’s full-scale invasion. But the experience of that war varies widely. Cities on the front line often bear the brunt of attacks, and yet residents a forced to persevere. In our second story from the southern Ukraine city of Kherson, we hear about a former mayor, taken captive, who returns to a city where life has be...

Weapons evolve over the course of a war, and for the war in Ukraine the use of drones has radically altered the battlefield. But those same weapons have an impact on civilian populations in frontline cities as well. We go to the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson where four years of war has forced residents to constantly adapt. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of pe...

President Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran, just ahead of a deadline he imposed for the country to open the Strait of Hormuz or face catastrophic attacks on infrastructure. In the Middle East there are feelings of relief, anger and uncertainty, after the ceasefire was announced. We hear from NPR reporters in Israel and Lebanon to hear how people are reacting. See pcm.adswizz.com for...

One Moscow poet is making rare criticism of the Russian war on Ukraine. The Russian assault on Ukraine is now in its fifth year. For ordinary Russians, dissent against the war is dangerous. Poet Vadim Dzyuba is speaking out anyway. It’s cost him his job, and he faces an ongoing threat of jail. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to...

When a 9,000 year-old grave of a shaman was discovered in 1930s Germany, the discovery was quickly politicized to support Nazi propaganda. But new analysis shows those assumptions were all wrong. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

It’s been three months since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro. Ordinary Venezuelans reflect on what that night of the Maduro capture was like, and on what may be ahead for their country. They say they’re now able to openly talk politics and demonstrate in the streets. Still, the most difficult part of transforming their country may lie ahead. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our co...

Israel has invaded Lebanon as the war in Iran expands in the region. Israel says the move is in pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters— Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel last month in support of Iran. Israel’s invasion has caused a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon with over a million civilians displaced and more than 1,300 killed in Israeli attacks, according to Lebanon’s government. And a...

On Monday, President Trump threatened to destroy civilian infrastructure across Iran, including the country’s desalination plants, vital for drinking water in the arid Gulf. Kuwait authorities said Iran had attacked one of their desalination plants earlier that day. Deliberately attacking essential civilian infrastructure is a war crime under international law. Yet both sides have hit civilian inf...

A conversation with an advocate for the regulation of Artificial Intelligence. He has thought a lot about what it could mean for the future of the the global economy, the working lives of people and how it’s use or misuse on the battlefield could change war in frightening ways. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podc...

For almost a month now, a twenty-eight-year old Iranian writer in Tehran has been sharing her diary entries with NPR. The entries give us a view of the war from inside Iran as it is being lived. This is her second dispatch and she expresses the complicated emotions some Iranians have about this war. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship a...

It’s been a month since the U.S. and Israel began the war on Iran. President Trump pointed to what he said has been progress in talks when he extended his deadline for Iran to open up the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping channel. He has threated to destroy Iran’s energy facilities if ships aren’t allowed to pass. Meanwhile attacks continue in Iran, Israel, Gulf States and Lebanon. Israel’s Defense...