The World

With less than one month left in the White House, President Donald Trump has granted pardons to four Blackwater security guards responsible for the killing of 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007. And with thousands of truck drivers held up since Sunday at Dover port, scuffles ensued with British police when they realized they would not make it home for Christmas. And, we look at how religious rituals and spirituality can help communities build a more just, sustainable world — with a special Christmas song in Swahili.

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The discovery of new variants of the coronavirus in the UK and South Africa have prompted a wave of travel bans around the world. But it's an open question as to whether these measures are actually effective. And, there's a potential humanitarian disaster unfolding along the border between Ethiopia and Sudan as a simmering conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region has displaced tens of thousands of people. The $900 billion pandemic relief package approved Monday night has a lot in it, including one of the most significant pieces of climate change legislation that the US Congress has ever passed.

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What will the next year bring in the coronavirus pandemic? As part of our regular series of conversations about COVID-19 and as a special here in The World's podcast feed, reporter Elana Gordon moderated a discussion with epidemiologist Michael Mina from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Over 40 countries worldwide have now banned travelers from Britain over concerns about the spread of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus. Also, this past summer, Russian dissident leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned. Over the past two weeks, a joint news investigation is shedding light on many of the missing details about this attack. The "Jurassic Park" film series is the inspiration for a planned tourist center on the Indonesian islands where the Komodo dragon lives. Officials say a park will bring in more profits but environmentalists are raising concerns the park will ruin the lizards' habitat.

We’re only 309 people away from reaching our goal of 1,000 donors! When you give $100 or more to support the show, you’ll not only receive an invite to a virtual party with Marco Werman and The World team, you’ll ALSO get to hear your name in our podcast credits! WE NEED YOU! Consider helping us reach our goal today and support independent journalism. Visit www.theworld.org/give to donate. Thank you!

The world is readying for the largest vaccination effort in history, amid a pandemic that has killed millions. There is an effort to ensure equitable global, but several countries have already started vaccinations. And, this week the European Union’s top court ruled Hungary's asylum policies breached EU law. Also, a conversation with NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy who spent 196 days in space this year.

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The World presents a special edition focusing on the start of the Arab uprisings in 2010. The uprisings began in Tunisia, with the self-immolation of fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi, 10 years ago on Thursday, and quickly spread to several Arab countries, leading to the fall of dictators. A decade later, we ask: What is the legacy of the Arab uprisings and how are people remembering the events?

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A landmark coroner’s ruling in London has found that 9-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah’s death in 2013 was caused by acute respiratory failure, severe asthma and air pollution exposure. And, new evidence from Chinese government documents and media reports revealed that hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority laborers in Xinjiang are being forced to pick cotton. Also, lab-grown meat will be on the menu for the first time in a restaurant this weekend in Singapore. Is this a win for the climate?

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What is the latest scientific guidance on airborne COVID-19 transmission? And how might that shape strategies around reopening schools and workplaces? As part of our regular series of conversations about the coronavirus and as a special episode in The World' podcast feed, reporter Elana Gordon moderated a discussion with and Harvard's healthy buildings expert Joseph Allen.

From Canada to the UK and the US, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has crossed a major milestone in being deployed in public COVID-19 vaccine programs. But lots of other vaccine efforts are in the works around the globe, with greater and lesser success. And, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated US President-elect Joe Biden on winning the US election. He was one of the last world leaders to acknowledge Biden's victory. Also, a 100-year-old Christmas tree could be the oldest artificial tree in the United Kingdom.

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The European Commission is gearing up to unveil a set of major proposals aimed at reigning in big online platforms and marking the first big overhaul of the European Union’s internet rules in decades. And, it's been almost four full years since the start of Brexit negotiations between the United Kingdom and EU. But, the ending of the saga remains uncertain. Also, Franco Belgian cellist Camille Thomas is performing solo at some of Paris' most striking, and currently empty, art venues during France's second COVID-19 lockdown.

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