Africa

Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield meets with Sudanese refugees ahead of U.N. meeting

6:04am September 13, 2023

More than 400,000 refugees have fled violence in Sudan and crossed into Chad. NPR's Michel Martin joined U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield on visit to a refugee camp near the border.

Queue Listen Now

Aid groups rush to Libya after catastrophic flooding

5:12am September 13, 2023

More information is emerging about the vast scale and loss of life in Libya as aid groups begin arriving after the storm and catastrophic flooding.

Politics & Government

Morning news brief

5:12am September 13, 2023

Republicans begin a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Russian President Putin is meeting with his North Korean counterpart. Aid groups rush to Libya after catastrophic flooding.

Gerhardt Boukes, chief scientist at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, formulates mRNA for use in a vaccine against COVID-19. The company — based in Cape Town, South Africa — is the linchpin of a global project to enable low- and middle-income countries to make mRNA vaccines against all manner of diseases.

Whatever happened to the project to crack the wealthy world's lock on mRNA vaccines?

4:02pm September 12, 2023

by Nurith Aizenman

Lower-income countries did not get the COVID vaccines they needed. So the World Bank and other partners tapped a South African company to cook up the (undisclosed) recipe for the Moderna mRNA vaccine.

World News

Rival factions are making a storm-driven natural disaster in Libya worse

10:25am September 12, 2023

Officials say hundreds are dead and thousands feared missing after a storm unleashes massive flooding in underserved and war-divided towns in Libya.

Queue Listen Now

How can residents in Morocco guard against the next deadly earthquake?

7:24am September 12, 2023

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Dr. Mehrdad Sasani, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, about construction concerns in Morocco's earthquake zone.

Queue Listen Now

Displaced family in Morocco will have to start over following earthquake

6:04am September 12, 2023

A young woman in a remote mountain town in Morocco describes how her family's world has been turned upside down by Friday's earthquake that destroyed their home and took their neighbors' lives.

Queue Listen Now

Politics & Government

Morning news brief

5:06am September 12, 2023

Moroccan and international teams work to rescue earthquake survivors. The government opens its antitrust case against Google. The House returns to Washington with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a bind.

In this photo provided by the Libyan government, a car sits partly suspended in trees after being carried by floodwaters in Derna, Libya, on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023.

World News

Thousands feared dead and more missing in Libya after storm collapsed dams

11:35pm September 11, 2023

by The Associated Press

The confirmed death toll from the weekend flooding did not include Derna, which was inaccessible, and many of the thousands missing there were believed carried away by waters after two dams burst.

World News

After Friday's earthquake, Morocco mountain town acts as a hub while rescuing people

4:44pm September 11, 2023

by Lauren Frayer

A mountain town in Morocco is still trying to rescue people from the rubble after the powerful earthquake Friday while it also serves as a hub for aid groups trying to get to even more remote places.

Queue Listen Now