On a recent morning in Abuja, endless rows of cars and trucks dotted the roads as drivers waited for a chance to fill up.  An ongoing fuel scarcity problem in Nigeria has frustrated drivers like Chris Nwagboso.  “Without fuel, I can’t work. And if I don’t work, what will my family eat? My family depends on me,” said Nwagboso, who provides for his wife, their two children, his mother and younger brother.  He said the fuel shortage has raised its price, which means that other household needs are also more expensive as sellers adjust their rates.  Fuel stations in Lagos are ch ..read more

At the Luminous Stars center in Baghdad, families in need arrive every month to collect financial assistance.  While they’re there, mental health care workers take the opportunity to assess the children, many of whom have been traumatized by decades of war in the country — and have suffered the loss of one or both parents.  “Children who come to Luminous Stars, they are basically given a second chance at life,” said Kawther Hamed, a volunteer doctor at the center, in a video posted online. “These children, generally, if you’re in a state where you are quite traumatized or affected to ..read more

Tanks were seen driving into a deserted terminal on the Gaza side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Monday, according to a video released by the Israel Defense Forces. The Israeli military seized control of the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip late Monday night. Earlier that afternoon, Hamas leaders said they were willing to agree to a ceasefire and a hostage-prisoner exchange. Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike east of Rafah, Gaza Strip, Monday, May 6, 2024.Ismael Abu Dayyah/AP  On Tuesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the offer from Ha ..read more

Tymofii Muzychuk is one of the lead singers with Kalush Orchestra, a Ukrainian folk and hip-hop group that formed in 2021. But, it’s his flute playing that helps define the band’s sound. Muzychuk grew up in a small village in the Volyn region in northwest Ukraine, and he told The World through an interpreter that music has always run through his family.  “I’ve been involved with music since [I was] a little kid,” he said. “because my mom used to teach at a music school, and she would take me with her to work and I would play with different instruments.” The World’s Daniel Ofman interviews ..read more

Vagner Goulart, a lawyer from Novo Hamburgo, Brazil, said the flooding of the Guaíba River—a major body of water in the state of Rio Grande do Sul — is unlike anything he’s seen before. “Rio Grande do Sul has never had a flood like this. Not since 1941. It’s terrible,” Goulart said. A video shared online on Saturday night showed a human chain of dozens of people stretching into the flood waters in Canoas, Brazil, to help pull in a boat full of people plucked from rooftops. That scene was repeated again and again over the weekend. O asfalto começa a ceder na casa de bombas do centro ..read more

On a recent morning in Darjeeling, nestled amid lush tea gardens overlooking the snow-capped Himalayas in India’s northeast, the mood was anything but tranquil amid election season in India.   The government college has been transformed into an election distribution center abuzz with activity. Loudspeaker announcements played in the background as poll workers streamed into the center to register and receive their assignments and equipment.  Polling personnel arrive at an election distribution center in Darjeeling. Sushmita Pathak/The World The poll workers were equipped with bac ..read more

When Julián, a 41-year-old Peruvian entrepreneur, opened a fruit shop in a suburb of Lima, Peru, back in 2022, he put up a big sign with a WhatsApp number for customer support. He was hoping to get messages from potential clients. Instead, what he got were death threats. Julián didn’t want to share his full name out of fear of retribution. “I was getting daily messages from someone I didn’t know,” Julián explained, “saying things like ‘we know that you have a business, we know where you and your family live, and we need you to transfer us the equivalent of $1,300 every other week, or you’ll ha ..read more

On a recent day, tourists huddled around digital telescopes lining the deck of an observatory overlooking the Imjin River. The monitors presented an up-close look at unsuspecting North Koreans moving about inside a village on the other side of the demilitarized zone, or the DMZ — a roughly 150-mile stretch of uninhabited land that has bisected the Korean peninsula since the early 1950s.   “Can you imagine that seven years ago I lived there?” said a tour guide who recently took a family of three from Norway on their first trip to the border.  It was also the group’s first ti ..read more

The Kura River, which has its headwaters in Turkey, cuts eastward into Georgia, where it is called the Mt’k’vari. National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek recorded those icy waters in March 2015 when he was walking toward the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The city is currently in the grips of a political crisis over a Russia-inspired law that critics fear will stifle media freedom.  Paul Salopek is back in Tbilisi now and talked with The World’s Marco Werman about the area’s cultural past and the country’s political landscape today. Marco Werman: Paul, it’s good to have you back on the sho ..read more

In a small house at the end of a narrow alley in the western Indian city of Jodhpur, women were hard at work sewing scraps of cloth together to make patchwork.  At this vocational training center run by a local nonprofit called Sambhali Trust, women from low-income families learn self-defense and other life skills like sewing and embroidery. At a vocational training center in the western Indian city of Jodhpur, women are hard at work sewing. More Indian women are voting in elections than ever before but experts say India’s female labor force participation is abysmally low.Sushmita Pathak ..read more