Category: International

Three years into the pandemic, the world could be on the cusp of the biggest outbreak yet — in China.

The country had some of the strictest COVID polices anywhere, but in recent weeks has dramatically eased them.

And as China has dropped most testing and quarantine requirements, the virus is spreading largely unchecked. How could that impact China and the world?

NPR China affairs correspondent John Ruwitch, science correspondent Michaeleen Doucleff and chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley take stock of where things may be headed.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Deion Sanders’ decision to leave Jackson State for the University of Colorado has stirred a lot of debate in the world of college football.

LA Times sports culture critic Tyler Tynes explains why some are saying that Sanders is letting down Historically Black Colleges and Universities by leaving Jackson State.

And Washington Post sports writer Liz Clarke breaks down how big money swirls around some of college football’s star coaches.

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Each mass shooting has a grim number attached to it. But that number is made up of individuals, each of whom had a full life and a family who continues to cope with their absence.

Ten years ago, 26 first graders and staff were murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. In this episode, we make space to think of the individuals who died. We spoke with the parents of four students about how they’d like their children to be remembered.

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Prosecutors say the former CEO of cryptocurrency giant FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, defrauded investors and costumers for years, to the tune of billions of dollars. Bankman-Fried was arrested Monday night in the Bahamas, on an extradition request by American authorities.

NPR’s David Gura unpacks the charges and the ongoing investigation into Bankman-Fried’s activities at FTX.

And Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Baer discusses the role Bankman-Fried’s influential parents – the legal scholars Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried – played in the rise and fall of FTX.

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In November, Huy Tu found out they were one of 11,000 Meta employees being laid off. Tu is allowed to stay in the U.S. through the OPT program, which requires that they be employed.

Since there is only a 90-day grace period for employees who are laid off, Tu is now racing to find a new job. That will be especially difficult because nearly 150,000 tech workers have lost their jobs this year, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks the number.

NPR’s Stacey Vanek Smith reports on the struggle many immigrants are now facing.

Betsey Stevenson, a labor economist at the University of Michigan who also served in the Obama administration, explains what the tech layoffs might mean for the broader economy.

You can hear more about the tech layoffs on 1A.

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If you think about Jack the Ripper or In Cold Blood, true crime stories have always fascinated us. But the groundbreaking success of the 2014 podcast Serial sparked a new interest in these sordid stories. Hundreds of true crime podcasts followed in Serial’s footsteps, telling tales of the murdered and the missing and the unresolved.

Today true crime podcasts dominate weekly podcast charts. But what makes them so popular? And is that popularity problematic?

We hear from Ashley Flowers, host of the award-winning podcast Crime Junkie, who has a new work of crime fiction out, called All Good People Here, and Jane Coaston, host of the New York Times opinion podcast The Argument.

This week, authorities in Germany arrested more than two dozen suspected far-right extremists over a plot to violently overthrow the government.

The plotters were reportedly inspired by QAnon conspiracy theories.

NPR’s Rob Schmitz walks us through the latest.

And German historian and author Katja Hoyer explains why members of Germany’s far-right can seem invisible.

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President Biden on Thursday announced the negotiated release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a penal colony in Russia and her return to the U.S. She had been detained since February, when Russian authorities found a small amount of hash oil in vape cartidges that were in her luggage when she arrived in the country.

In return, the U.S. released convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

NPR’s White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez and Moscow Correspondent Charles Maynes walk through the details of the deal.

And White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby explains how the negotiations unfolded.

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In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock held on to his U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican candidate Herschel Walker in a special runoff vote.

Warnock’s reelection is a big win for Democrats, as it gives them a slightly expanded majority in the Senate. It also further supports the idea that Georgia, a historically red state that Democrats managed to flip in 2020, really is becoming more purple.

We speak with Republican strategist Janelle King, and Democratic strategist Fred Hicks about the lessons both parties can learn from the results of this contest, as they look ahead to 2024.

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Jewish ultranationalists are about to have a lot more power in Israel. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to return to office after his far-right coalition won elections last month. And he’s already named two of the most incendiary figures in Israeli politics to key positions in the government.

The new government could stir internal divisions among Israel’s citizens, push to erode the rights of minorities and set off further conflict with Palestinians.

NPR’s Daniel Estrin has been talking with Israelis and Palestinians about the future they see under what’s expected to be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.

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