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The toughest part at this year's US Open in New York may not be the world-class tennis talent. Instead, players say the high temperatures are nearly unbearable. Athletes from around the world are asking officials to take precautions against the brutal conditions. Host Marco Werman has the details. 

Getting that acceptance letter from a US university is cause for celebration. But getting a student visa in time to attend the first day of class can be a bigger achievement. That's because in some countries, the wait can last months, even more than a year. Max Harrison-Caldwell reports on the delays that are discouraging global talent from coming to the US.

In the global narcotics economy, drugs generally flow in one direction — from not-so-rich parts of the world toward wealthier countries, where more people can afford to get high. But strangely enough, contraband is now flowing the other way. The drug in question is US-grown cannabis. American criminals are smuggling it en masse to Thailand. Weed is legal in nearly two dozen US states, so what coul...

For the first time in Mexico’s history, two women will face off for the presidency in next year's vote. Some see the candidates, as well as Mexico’s recent easing of abortion restrictions as milestones. But others caution that Mexican women still face a misogynous culture and rising sexual violence. The World’s Marco Werman speaks with Lila Abed, the deputy director of the Wilson Center's Mexico I...

On the Spanish resort island of Ibiza in the Mediterranean, the summer is slowly coming to an end. The famous sunsets are coming a little earlier now as autumn approaches, but the crowds of thousands who gather to watch the sun go down, and prepare for the evening's parties, they're still there. Sunsets in Ibiza always have a soundtrack, and host Marco Werman offers us the latest from one of the m...

Millions of people have made the journey to the Iraqi city of Karbala to participate in the Arbaeen walk. It marks the 40th day of mourning after Ashoura, the day that Husayn, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, was killed. It’s not a required act of worship, but it still attracts people of all ages from around the world. The World’s Sara Hassan was there.

A stash of forgotten love letters from the late 1930s to the 1950s reveals the longing and suffering of Spanish women and their Moroccan loves and shines a light on a little-known corner of colonial history soaked in racism and sexism. The letters were confiscated at the time by censors under the Franco regime,the loves thwarted. At the time, when part of Morocco was under Spanish rule, Spanish au...

Earlier this week, the UN agreed on a draft of a global plastic waste treaty. The debate between 175 countries lasted for a year and a half. The draft's focus is on eliminating plastic waste with the specific target of reduction of the use of single use plastics. Host Marco Werman spoke with David Azoulay, director of environmental health at the Center for International Environmental Law, about wh...

Dotted across the southern Turkish city of Adana are illegal dump sites for plastic recycling waste that never got recycled. The labels show they've come from consumers in Europe and the United States. These countries now ship recyclable plastic waste to countries like Turkey. But this rapidly growing industry often skirts regulations, leading to health and environmental risks for the surrounding...

The conviction and sentencing of former Proud Boys' leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio for seditious conspiracy coincides with a rise in Proud Boys membership since Jan. 6, 2021, the day Tarrio helped direct the Capitol riot. Host Marco Werman speaks with Spyros Tsoutsoumpis, a lecturer in modern European history at the University of Manchester, about how the prosecutions of right wing extremist leader...

Two former executives for the oil company, Lundin Oil, have been charged by public prosecutors in Swedish court for their involvement in war crimes in Sudan between 1999 and 2003. Both claim they are innocent. The World's Marco Werman talks with Eric Reeves, an author and lecturer on Sudan who helped document oil companies' activities in Sudan during the time period in question.

Scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute in Science say they have grown an entity that resembles a human embryo but they did it without sperm, eggs or a womb. They made it using stem cells. The research, published in the journal Nature, is described as the first "complete" embryo model for mimicking all the key structure of an early embryo. Marco Werman speaks with Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, a pro...

Wednesday is “back to school” day for millions of children in Britain but thousands of students were unable to return to their classrooms. Around 150 schools across the UK have been ordered by the government to partially close or shut down entirely. The reason is a fear that some school buildings may be in danger of collapse. The World’s Europe correspondent Orla Barry has more.

Two construction workers have been arrested in China after a gaping hole was discovered in the historic Great Wall. An investigation into what happened revealed that the two had used an excavator to dig through and widen a small gap in the structure. Police say two workers created a "huge gap" that created "irreversible damage" to the ancient cultural relic. The World's Marco Werman has more.

Russia has a culture around pregnancy that is shaped by history and the Putin government's attitudes that state-backed media pushes out to everyday people. It's a special and fraught place in Russian society. The World's Marco Werman talks with Amie Ferris-Rotman, a global news editor at New Lines Magazine, about her experience of being pregnant in Russia.

The Rhine used to be home to a huge population of Atlantic salmon, which made their way all the way up to Switzerland to lay their eggs. Since the 1950s, construction of hydropower facilities has stopped the salmon migration, and now the species is all but eliminated from the Rhine. A decades-long plan to restore the salmon and their migration route along the Rhine is almost complete. But as Emily...

Costa Rica is often characterized as a green jungle paradise, a longstanding democracy where nearly a third of the land is protected nature reserves and there’s no standing military. The country has avoided some of the severe poverty and violence that plagues the rest of Central America. But as Michael Fox reports, the policies of Costa Rica's President Rodrigo Chaves, who was elected last year, m...

Former New Mexico governor and UN ambassador Bill Richardson played a key role in winning the release of dozens of US citizens held abroad. Richardson died in his sleep on Friday, at age 75.  Washington Post columnist and former detainee Jason Rezaian talks with The World’s Marco Werman about Richardson’s brand of “fringe diplomacy.”

Spain's national soccer federation fired Jorge Vilda, head coach of the national women's team, today. They say the move is one of the first measures of renewal and restructuring after Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed a player after the team’s World Cup win. But athletes have been asking for Vilda’s removal long before that non-consensual kiss. Host Marco Werman has the details and the name of the new...

A huge auto show in Munich this week has put China's growing dominance in electric cars on literal display. About 41% of exhibitors at this year's event are headquartered in Asia, with Chinese EV makers, including BYD, Nio and Xpeng featuring models destined for the European market. China's emergence as a global player in EVs haByppened in a matter of years, not decades, and it has European automa...

The Cuban government says it is dismantling a network seeking to recruit Cubans as mercenaries, as Moscow tries to increase the size of its forces. Host Marco Werman speaks with The World's Tibisay Zea.

Lagos, Nigeria, is a city of 20 million people. So, you can say the city witnesses quite the number of traffic jams on a daily basis. But that's not been the case lately. Since June, when the president announced the country would no longer subsidize fuel, resulting in a sharp hike in fuel prices. The World's Marco Werman spoke with Wilson Erumebor, a senior economist with the Nigerian Economic Sum...

Heads of state, experts, and climate activists from around Africa and the world arrived in Kenya’s capital Nairobi this week for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit. African countries are some of the most impacted by climate change despite being among the smallest contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Climate financing and sustainable development in Africa are at the top of this summit’...

The Finnish scheme of speeding tickets is based on a person's ability to pay — the wealthier the speeder, the bigger the fine. Host Carol Hills shares one example of a Finnish driver, one of Finland's wealthiest people, was tagged with a $120,000 fine for speeding. (Originally aired June 6, 2023.)

Tires are a major source of pollution. The tiny particulates left behind when the rubber meets the road create a fine dust of microplastics. And with more electric vehicles on the roadway, weighted down by heavy batteries, tires will leave behind even more toxic residue. Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, the CEO of UK-based tire startup Enso, talks with host Marco Werman about what the tire industry can do a...