URL: NPR

World News

Saturday, April 18, 2026

• Photos: How overfishing in Southeast Asia is an ecological and human crisis
  A rare look at one of the world's most critical and understudied environmental crises. Southeast Asia produces more than half of the world's fish, yet its waters are among the most depleted and contested.
  
• Ukraine launches specialized Russian studies program to better understand the enemy
  Ukraine launches political Russian studies program to better understand wartime enemy.
  
• Tired of waiting for your EV to charge up? One Chinese company has a novel solution
  Chinese car company NIO is putting up EV battery swapping stations all around the world. NPR took a ride in one car for the experience.
  
• Born in south Lebanon, displaced to Beirut, two grandmothers reflect on Israeli invasions
  They grew up amid olive groves in southern Lebanon. The son of one married the other's daughter. Now they're living temporarily in a vacant building in central Beirut, displaced many times.
  
• Caracas' iconic macaws threatened by vanishing palm trees
  In the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, flocks of colorful macaws that once brightened city skies now face disappearing nest sites — and with them, a unique urban bond.
  
• Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz again, as ceasefire nears its end
  Iran's military said on Saturday the Strait of Hormuz has "returned to its previous state." The announcement came after President Trump had said the blockade on Iranian ports would remain in place.
  
• What's it like to negotiate with Iran? We asked people who have done it
  Experts who spent months negotiating a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran say mutual mistrust, starkly different negotiating styles, and the complexity of the issues make a quick deal unlikely.
  

Friday, April 17, 2026

• Animal activists celebrate their first global 'Sanctuary Day'
  It's been 40 years since animal advocates founded a sanctuary for farm animals in New York and California, and they say April 17 is their first global sanctuary day.
  
• As Sri Lanka celebrated its New Year, the war in Iran was felt
  Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka marked their New Year on Tuesday. As residents in the capital Colombo celebrated, a war thousands of miles away was making itself felt.
  
• Hormuz reopens, but insurers aren't ready to sound the all-clear
  Insurance for cargo and oil vessels stuck in the Strait of Hormuz has skyrocketed. How can insurers help us understand the realities of the war with Iran?