State of the World from NPR

Southeast Asia is among the areas hardest hit by Iran’s cutoff of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz, with many nations there almost entirely dependent on foreign energy — and quickly running out. We hear how the effects are being felt. And Iran has been not only launching missiles around the region but also firing off memes around the internet. We hear that although war propaganda has a lon...

Britain’s upper house of parliament is known as the House of Lords and it’s has a lot of old traditions: powdered wigs, a gold throne, lawmakers addressing each other as “noble lord” or “baroness”. But one tradition has recently received scrutiny— dozens of the legislators inherit their seats. We go to London to learn about the practice that has been in place for nearly a thousand years. See pcm.a...

After weeks of war with Iran, Israeli support for the conflict is high but waning. Israel has endured frequent airstrikes from Iran disrupting lives and killing at least fifteen so far. We hear from some Israelis about how they’re feeling. And while more than one thousand ships are idle, unable to go through the Strait of Hormuz due to Iranian attacks on vessels, a few are getting through the econ...

After days of brinkmanship, President Trump announces a sudden delay in threatened strikes on Iran’s power grid, citing “very good and productive” talks aimed at de-escalating the war. Our reporter tells us what we know about those talks. And at one underground disco along Turkey's border with Iran, Iranians ponder death and the destruction of their country while celebrating the traditional new ye...

Entering the Ukrainian town of Izium brings the odd sight of roads and sidewalks completely covered in wide stretches of overhead netting. It’s a low-tech defense against the latest deadly Russian drones known as, FPV, or first-person view drones. FPV’s can fly up to 15 miles and are piloted by unjammable fiber optic cables. Cities in eastern Ukraine are preparing for an advancing front line as Ru...

NPR has learned that mediators have quietly given Hamas a proposal to hand over all its weapons to ensure Gaza’s reconstruction. And Iran has imposed a near-total internet blackout as the war with the U.S. and Israel rages on. Some Iranians are sending voice memos to share a glimpse of what life is like inside the country. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of persona...

Unmanned drones are cheaper than missiles, easy to mass-produce, can travel long distances, and strike with precision. For all these reasons they are reshaping conflicts around the globe. We hear from NPR correspondents about how drones are changing the nature of war and the balance of power in Ukraine, Sudan and Mexico. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal...

Israel says it has killed two top Iranian leaders in airstrikes, dealing another blow to Iran’s remaining leadership. One of the men was believed to be directing the current war effort, and these deaths come after Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader on the first day of the war. We hear more about who was killed and what this might mean for Iran. And over a million Lebanese have been displaced sinc...

Ever since the U.S. and Israel launched a war on Iran, oil prices have been on a rollercoaster but overall have been trending higher. An increase in the price of oil has world-wide consequences with winners and losers. To get a snapshot of where things stand, we hear from three reporters around the world— in Russia, Germany and Taiwan. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and u...

Understanding exactly what is happening inside Iran is difficult. The government rarely gives visas to western journalists and closely monitors those that do enter the country. The internet is closely controlled by the regime. For the past two weeks, since the U.S. and Israel began their war in Iran, a writer in Tehran has been sharing entries from her diary with NPR about this war. We hear some o...

Five months ago, President Trump declared ceasefire in Gaza, having negotiated a deal that includes phased Israeli withdrawal from the territory and Hamas disarmament. But that was before the U.S. and Israel launched a war in Iran taking the Trump administration’s attention away from the Palestinian territory. We go to Gaza and find it’s still cutoff from the outside world and gains towards a dura...

In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah militants backed by Iran have been firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s war in Iran. And Israel has been firing back hard. Almost 700 thousand Lebanese have been displaced, mostly fleeing Israel’s strikes. We go to both sides of this renewed conflict. In northern Israel daily rockets are keeping people on edge but also defiant. In Lebanon, Hezbollah’s...

Russia’s so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine recently passed the four year mark. And over that time it has become the deadliest conflict on the European continent since World War II. Over 1.5 million people are dead, injured or missing, according to western governments and think tanks. Our correspondent in Moscow tries to answer one of the most persistent and difficult questions of t...

As we enter the second week of U.S. combat operations in Iran, NPR’s Leila Fadel considers the similarities and differences with the last time the United States waded into war in the region, in Iraq in 2003. Leila covered that war as well and talks to some experts about what lessons can be drawn. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and...

A week ago, the U.S. and Israel began airstrikes on Iran, killing the regime’s leader and starting a war that has now threatens to to expand throughout the Middle East. Iran struck back, firing missiles and drones at Israel, but also at U.S. allies including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Meanwhile, Hezbollah militants in Lebanon fired rockets at Israel, and Israel has now con...

A panel of clerics in Iran are meeting to decide on the next leader of the fundamentalist regime after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in recent airstrikes. After nearly 40 years of his rule, the choice could either cement hardline continuity under his son or usher in a fundamentally transformed regime. We hear about likely candidates. And as Iranians are attacking American bases in the Middle E...

New details are emerging about the bombing of a girls’ school in southeastern Iran that killed 165 people, many of them students, according to Iran state media. The Pentagon says it is investigating what happened. Meanwhile satellite images suggest it could have been a precision airstrike. NPR was the first to report on the new images, and we hear more about what they reveal. And as the U.S. strik...

Days after Israeli and U.S. air strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel said it had targeted the building where top Iranian clerics would meet to choose his successor. Israel’s Prime Minister says the goal of this war is to get rid of the religious regime that has ruled Iran for almost half a century. Many of the possible successors to Iran’s have been killed in the att...

The U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran continue. Meanwhile Iran is retaliating, firing missiles Israel, but also U.S. allies in the Gulf like Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and even air bases Cyprus, threatening to expand the conflict. And the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon entered the fight, launching its first attacks on Israel in more than a year. We get an update on developments throughout...

In an attack the Pentagon has called “Operation Epic Fury”, the United States along with Israel launched a major strike on Iran bombing sites in Tehran and other cities. In announcing the operation on social media, President Trump said the Iranian regime’s activities endanger the United States. We’ll hear details about the strike and analysis about what this action could mean for the Iranian regim...

Cambodia and neighboring Laos have become centers for stealing money via bogus investment opportunities, romance scams and other online cons. The U.S. Treasury Department says Americans were scammed for $10 billion dollars in 2024 alone and the worldwide estimate is four times that. Many countries have had enough. We hear about the consequences being forced on the scammers. See pcm.adswizz.com for...

It is a war for control over some of the world’s richest mineral reserves and the violence is heightened by long-standing ethnic and political tensions. In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, government forces and local militia groups are fighting M23 rebels backed by neighboring Rwanda. This is one of the wars President Trump repeatedly claims to have ended. But though a U.S.-brokered peace...

According to the Gaza peace plan President Trump negotiated between Israel and Hamas, Palestinians will not be displaced from the territory. This is a pivot from Trump’s earlier position that Palestinians should leave and move to other countries. But powerful people in Israel’s government don’t like this change. We go to Israel’s parliament, where those who say Israel should stay in Gaza are makin...

It has been four years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, starting a war the Kremlin believed would end in a matter of days with Ukraine capitulating. Now after years of death and destruction, the war grinds on with no end in sight as U.S.-sponsored peace talks appear to be at an impasse. NPR has correspondents in both Kyiv and Moscow and we hear from them about how both count...

In Mexico, chaos erupts after a major drug cartel leader is killed in a military raid. Armed men set fire to banks, businesses and vehicles in retaliation. We get the latest from Mexico. And we meet the one of the last newspaper hawkers in Paris, who has just been given a knighthood. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage you...