We hear what life is like for three families in northern Gaza where finding food and water is a struggle and hundreds of thousands of people are facing starvation.

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In Cuba, protests over the weekend revealed frustrations over shortages of food and electricity as the country confronts a serious economic crisis. And the World Happiness Report tells of interesting differences in happiness between generations.

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We go to two places where China has been exerting control. In Hong Kong, the government finally passed national security laws that are seen by critics as eroding civil liberties. In the Philippines, China's attempts to expand its territorial waters are being met with increasingly fiery rhetoric from senior officials.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin was reelected with a reported 87% of the vote. The US government said the election was neither free nor fair. Our correspondent in Moscow tells us about why the Kremlin wanted to be sure of a high turnout and lopsided result.

And the legacy in the Middle East of a young American activist who died in Gaza 21 years ago.

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The island of Ireland is divided into the Northern part, which is part of the UK and the independent Republic of Ireland to the south. But a political party is poised to take power in both places and it has pledged to make the border disappear.

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Gang violence has brought fear, chaos and uncertainty to Haiti. Amidst food shortages and looting, the capital, Port-au-Prince, is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis since the devastating earthquake in 2010. Our reporter on the border with the Dominican Republic talks to Haitians.

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Israel says more than 1,200 Israelis were killed during the Hamas led assault on October 7th. Israel also says there were numerous instances of sexual violence perpetrated that day. This is a charge Hamas denies. To understand the difficulties in investigating the allegation, we hear about the experience of a first responder on October 7th.

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Even in the face of food shortages a bakery in Gaza is making cakes for people living in tents. NPR's producer in Gaza takes us to the bakery and introduces the baker.

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When Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, the U.S. and western allies froze $300 billion dollars worth of Russian assets. Now the U.S. wants to send that money to Ukraine, but many European countries don't agree with that plan.
And we take a trip to the wild, remote High Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

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In this longer episode we go deep on what it's like to cover both sides of the war between Israel and Hamas. Our friends at the Embedded podcast talk to NPR's Daniel Estrin about some of the people he's reported on and how he approaches covering this difficult and divisive story.

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