State of Ukraine

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 regime and the Iranian people.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 deal was signed, the fighting hasn't stopped. We go behind the government front lines for a glimpse of the conflict.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 making their case.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 countries view the conflict now.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

According to the 20-point peace plan for Gaza brokered by President Trump, “No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return.” But while a border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has technically reopened, few people have been allowed to use it so far. We go to Gaza to meet some of the few people who have been able to return and they report a harrowing and uncertain ordeal.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump announced billions of dollars to rebuild Gaza at the meeting of his newly created organization in Washington, D.C. Foreign policy experts try to define Trump's vision of international affairs.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Israel's military says it's planning a new barrier along the eastern border of the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. Palestinian farmers and shepherds say existing walls and the construction of Jewish settlements are keeping them from reaching and working their fields.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Kyiv residents venture onto the city's frozen Dnipro River for a favorite past-time of ice fishing. The activity is a much-needed respite in Ukraine as the Russian invasion enters a fifth year.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Old Cairo, shoppers prepare for the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayer. In Beijing, the Lunar New Year brings the Year of the Fire Horse, which represents action and risk-taking, but many people say they just want stability in this sluggish economy.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Washington Post laid off most of its foreign correspondents, including some of the last American and Western journalists working in authoritarian countries.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NATO launches the mission in response to Russian and Chinese ambitions in the high North, and to President Trump's threat of a US takeover of Greenland. Japan's last pair of giant pandas returns to China. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Syria's Jewish community fled the country's repressive Assad regime. Now, a new government is encouraging their return by giving back ownership of synagogues and other property. Jane Arraf is there as one Jewish group turns the key on a synagogue's door in the northern city of Aleppo.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Cuba hasn't received an oil shipment since December. The shortage has grounded air travel, and disrupted food production, hospitals and schools. Venezuelans stage open demonstrations in the streets that only weeks ago could have meant jail time.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Cuba is in economic crisis. Its ally, Venezuela, is no longer sending oil, and the Trump administration is applying pressure. Life for Cubans is hard, but if they express their opinions they can get in a lot of trouble. So they've found other ways to tell you what they think, and a single phrase is doing a lot of the work. Our correspondent in Havana tells us what it is.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As the Winter Olympics get underway in Milan and across the Italian Alps, our correspondent looks back at a bold pledge made by the organizers: that these games would be sustainable. They said they would slash the event's carbon footprint and protect sensitive mountain ecosystems. Environmental groups say that's not what is happening.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Ever since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, experts say Russia has stepped up its hybrid war on Western Europe. Attacks on critical infrastructure or using drones to shutdown airports are meant to undermine support for Ukraine. We go to Poland to see one such attack.And in Kyiv, Ukrainians are getting through Russian attacks that have shut down the power grid in the coldest months by holding dance parties on ice.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The United States has been conducting military operations in Syria for more than a decade. Their mission has been to attack ISIS militants and to protect Syrian oil fields. With ISIS weakened and a new government in Syria, the U.S. may pull out the troops it has stationed in Syria. But doing so might hurt some U.S. allies. We hear from NPR reporters who cover the Pentagon and the Middle East about what the move could mean.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

While there has been political turmoil in the U.S. over the latest release of photos and emails in the “Epstein files”, the consequences in the U.K. have been more concrete. There, a prince had already been stripped of his title over his connections to the late accused sex trafficker. Now a member of the House of Lords has been forced to step down. We get the latest from London.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Protests in Iran have been ongoing for over a month and according to one human rights group, over 6000 people have died. As the internet blackout begins to lift, we're learning more about what has happened. Our correspondent brings us the experiences of three Iranian women.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

While debate rages in the U.S. about the merits and risks of Artificial Intelligence in schools, in China, it's a state-mandated part of the school curriculum. Authorities there want to create a pool of AI-savvy professionals. But like in the U.S., some parents have mixed emotions about how and when their kids use A.I. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump approaches Middle East peacemaking as a business deal. In today's episode we go to Israel and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank to hear about the different ways that those economies are being affected by war, and what that means for the peace process going forward.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the past year, President Trump has often threatened or turned to military force. Yet he likes to present himself as a peacemaker, and that includes his new plan for a global Board of Peace. We hear from two NPR correspondents about what the Board of Peace could be.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Despite dozens of lethal U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Pacific, figures show drug flows to the U.S. continue to rise and coastal communities in countries like Colombia are paying the price.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Israel, families whose sons have died in the war in Gaza have the option of having sperm samples retrieved for future offspring. Many have agreed to the procedure. That has raised complicated questions of what can and should be done with this genetic material. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Dollars are trickling back into Venezuela, they're the proceeds from the oil seized and by the U.S. That is helping to stabilize runaway prices in Venezuela—at least on paper. But for ordinary shoppers in Caracas, market prices remain dizzying, and families still struggle to make ends meet.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The booming population along coastal corridor from the cities Lagos to Abidjan has the potential to be a bustling West African economic engine, tied together by a long-promised superhighway that could slash travel time and supercharge trade. But the task of harnessing that potential has barely been met. We travel along a section of the road to understand why.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

We meet a woman in India who estimates she has dozens of biological children. And she says there are many more women like her, because India has a thriving black market for human eggs. Rules constraining the supply of donated eggs, have given rise to this underground supply which have risks for the women giving up their eggs. Our reporter investigates.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It has been a year since President Donald Trump took office for his second term. And in that year many relationships between the United States and countries around the world have begun to be redefined. In this episode, a conversation between four of NPR's international correspondents in Great Britain, Russia, China and Mexico about how global politics have changed in the last year.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In 1955, Ruth Ellis was hanged for killing her abusive partner, a scandal that gripped the nation. But the murder investigation was flawed and incomplete, and eventually, Ellis' case was a catalyst for abolishing Britain's death penalty. 70 years later, her family is seeking a posthumous pardon.  Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

About two weeks ago, the United States military captured Venezuela's president, Nicholas Maduro. Since then President Trump has spoken to Venezuela's interim president, who was a key figure in Maduro's government, and has welcomed Venezuela's opposition leader to the White House. We look at what lies in the future for Venezuela and its relationship with the U.S. And the challenges for prosecutors who are seeking to convict Maduro on drug trafficking and other charges in a New York court.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, says the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is beginning. He said “phase two” will establish a new Palestinian administration in Gaza, and begin the full demilitarization and rebuilding of the territory. Our reporter tells us what all of this could mean for Gaza in practice. And we hear reaction to the plan from people living in Gaza City.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Protests are sweeping Iran and the government is cracking down hard, fearing the uprisings pose a threat to the theocratic regime. There is an internet blackout in the country making it hard to get information. We hear a rare first-person account of the protests from a Johns Hopkins professor who visits the Iran frequently and who recently attended a protest there.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It has been three months since the ceasefire in Gaza began and food that is desperately needed after being largely blocked for two years has begun returning by the truckload. We go to Gaza City to see what kind of food is arriving and where it is going.And we visit a haven in Tel Aviv for Jews and Palestinians to interact amid heightened tensions. In a nail salon.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Iran, popular protests continue to sweep the country. Rights groups say hundreds of Iranians have been killed in the government crackdown on the protests, which are seen as a challenge to the theocratic regime. President Trump has warned he may hit Iran “very hard” for the violence against protesters. He also said the U.S. was set to meet with Iranian officials. Iran has said channels of communication with the U.S. remain “open”. Our reporter brings us up to speed on what we know about events inside Iran. And an we hear from an Iranian-American analyst about why the protests in Iran this time are different.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A new NPR/Ipsos poll found Americans across the political spectrum want the U.S. to be the moral leader of the world, but far fewer believe it actually is.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is now is the U.S. But back in Venezuela, the country's new leadership looks a lot like the old. We look at who's now leading the government in Caracas.  Also, President Trump ran on a campaign of no US involvement in foreign wars. But since he took office, the US military has struck Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria and Venezuela, and made threats against others. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

After a two-week chase, U.S. forces have seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker in the north Atlantic between Iceland and Britain. The tanker was originally bound for Venezuela, but changed course to avoid the U.S. ships, setting off an extended drama at sea. And Danes and Greenlanders respond to President Donald Trump's remarks that Greenland should be annexed by the U.S.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR's Eyder Peralta is in Colombia on the border with Venezuela, and speaks with residents days after American forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the U.S. And President Trump's comments about Greenland dominate a meeting of world leaders gathering to discuss Ukraine.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The U.S. seized Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro during a weekend attack on the country. Maduro and his wife are now in the U.S. and pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges in federal court in Manhattan. We hear the latest and look back at Maduro's political career. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

As we look back at our international reporters' most memorable stories of the last year, we revisit the story of an NPR journalist in Gaza seeking food from a distribution site run by private American contractors in June of 2025. In a harrowing experience he found himself facing Israeli military fire, crowds fighting for rations, and masked thieves.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy