The World

One of the most notorious gangs in Haiti is holding hostage a group of American missionaries, including children. The country has the highest kidnapping rate in the world. The threat of being taken hostage is one that Haitians— rich and poor alike — face every day. And when people in the US and the UK donate clothes they don't want anymore, those clothes end up for sale in a massive secondhand market in Accra, Ghana. But the boom in quickly made, inexpensive clothing around the world has led to an environmental crisis in countries like Ghana. Plus, TikTok has come a long way from its lip-syncing days for Generation Z. Now, innovators are using the app to help teach and spread the word on Indigenous languages across the globe.

In the United Kingdom, Conservative Party Member of Parliament David Amess was stabbed to death on Friday in his constituency of Leigh-on-Sea, England. The 69-year-old father of five had served in Parliament since 1983 and was known politically as a social conservative and prominent campaigner against abortion. Also, in the last chaotic days of US operations in Afghanistan, Najibullah Quraishi was there reporting as the Taliban took over the country. Quraishi, whose documentary, “Taliban Takeover,” just premiered on Frontline, gives us an unvarnished view of the new Afghanistan. Plus, The Wizard of New Zealand, Ian Brackenbury Channell, is out of a job. The Christchurch City Council has decided to stop paying him to provide public acts of wizardry.

Gunfire erupted on the streets of Beirut on Thursday, killing six people. The violence erupted when armed supporters of Shiite militant and political groups, Hezbollah and Amal, marched through a Christian neighborhood in protests against the judge presiding over the August blast investigation. And police say a bow-and-arrow attack in Norway Wednesday night in which a man is suspected of killing five people appears to be an "act of terror.” It’s the worst attack in Norway since Anders Breivik, the far-right extremist who killed 77 people in 2011. Plus, The World remembers Irish musician Paddy Moloney, master of the uilleann pipes, slide whistle and penny whistle, and co-founder of the Chieftains.

The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it will lift travel restrictions at Canadian and Mexican borders to tourists, shoppers and casual visitors who can show proof of vaccination. This will boost business on the Mexican side of the border, as people are free again to drive into Mexico from the US. And, the European Union pledged 1 billion euros in aid to Afghanistan on Tuesday, earmarked for humanitarian assistance and stabilization efforts for Afghanistan and its neighbors. Also, we speak to Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah about his commitment to telling migrants stories of injustice and cruelty. Gurnah says the ongoing trauma of colonialism and themes of exile and belonging continues to inform his literary work.

Delegates from around the world are meeting this week in Kunming, China, in the first part of a high-stakes UN biodiversity summit. The goal is to create a kind of Paris Agreement to protect the globe's plants and animals over the next decade. And, a harsh new bill is being proposed in Ghana that would punish members of the LGBTQ community as well as their supporters and advocates. Also, dozens of State Department nominees are being stalled in the US Senate. Only about a quarter of national security positions have been filled to date.

The US is grappling with its identity today. Is it Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day? Or neither? Depends on where you live. In Spain, there's little doubt — Columbus Day is a massive celebration, referred to as the National Day of Spain. This year in Madrid, the right-wing government is spending more than $1 million on a two-week long festivity with dozens of events. Also, Poland has ruled that its constitution takes precedence over EU Law. That has raised the possibility of Poland leaving the 27-nation bloc. Or, more likely, a standoff over whose law reigns supreme. And, whether it’s called soccer or fútbol, the sport unites immigrant children in the US from diverse backgrounds. Yet, it doesn't always provide equal opportunities for all of the kids.

For the first time since 1935, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to journalists: Maria Ressa of the Philippines, and Russian independent journalist Dmitry Muratov. The award honors their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression against the growing threats against it. And it’s election time in Iraq, where a high-stakes parliamentary vote will take place on Sunday. The election was called a year early in response to major protests in 2019. Plus, for nearly two centuries since Ludwig van Beethoven's death, his 10th Symphony sat unfinished and largely untouched. But with a little help from modern technology — that’s about to change.

The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for literature to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah. The author of numerous novels who grew up in Zanzibar, Gurnah was selected for his "uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism." And, many in the US are asking what went wrong in Afghanistan after two decades of war ended with Taliban rule. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is calling for a 9/11-style commission to look at the past 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan.  Also, traffic in Indian cities can get really noisy with car horns and sirens blaring nonstop. Now, India's transport minister is working on a new law that would replace them with the soothing sounds of tablas and other Indian instruments.

The World Health Organization announced on Wednesday that a vaccine against malaria has been found to be safe and effective — including for kids, who account for the vast majority of malaria deaths. And for decades, an international network of clergy sexual abuse survivors and their advocates have been pushing for more accountability within the Catholic Church. We hear from accountability experts about how an inquiry in France may reverberate worldwide. Also, 14% of endangered coral reefs were lost between 2008 and 2019. But one oceanic expert says there’s still room for hope in conservation.

The Bishops' Conference of France has released a report documenting more than 300,000 cases of child sexual abuse within the French Catholic Church. The independent commission is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Also, El Salvador's citizens have faced multiple traumas in the past decades: war, gang violence, natural disasters and now, COVID-19. We hear from a group of ambulance workers in El Salvador about how they cope with daily tragedies with few mental health providers in the country. And the recent Facebook outage impacted small businesses around the world. Hear about how the outage disrupted a grocery delivery business in Accra, Ghana, and what is being done to prepare for future outages.