Middle East

The family of a detained Egyptian activist has lost contact with him

5:11am July 29, 2022

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Sanaa Seif, sister of imprisoned Egyptian political activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, about her brother who has not been heard from in over a week.

Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is shown in custody in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008. Bout was later extradited to the U.S. and convicted of conspiring to kill Americans. He's serving a 25-year sentence, but he may be part of a prisoner swap the U.S. and Rus

Who is Viktor Bout, the prisoner the U.S. may trade for Brittney Griner?

10:19pm July 28, 2022

by Greg Myre

Bout is a Russian who was the world's most notorious arms dealer in the 1990s and early 2000s. He's serving a 25-year prison sentence in Illinois, but could be freed as part of a U.S.-Russia swap.

The Line is an ambitious part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's plan to diversify the kingdom's economy and remake part of its geography.

World News

A 105-mile-long city will snake through the Saudi desert. Is that a good idea?

3:42pm July 26, 2022

by Bill Chappell

The futuristic, walled city in the desert will have a mirrored facade and will use renewable energy. Known at The Line, it will be taller than the Empire State Building and only about 220 yards wide.

A Palestinian boy inspects the damage to a house after Palestinian gunmen were killed in an early morning Israeli military raid in the Old City of Nablus in the West Bank, Sunday, July 24, 2022.

World News

Israeli forces kill 2 Palestinians in West Bank gun battle

6:05am July 24, 2022

by The Associated Press

Israeli troops and special forces on an arrest mission exchanged fire with Palestinians barricaded in a house in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, Israeli police said.

Members of a rescue team on Saturday search for missing people from flash floods in Iran's drought-stricken southern Fars province.

World News

Flash floods have killed at least 21 people in southern Iran

8:01am July 23, 2022

by The Associated Press

Flooding hit more than 10 villages in the drought-stricken Fars province after heavy rains swelled the Roudbal river, one official said.

World News

Given all the threats to the U.S., how significant a threat is ISIS right now?

7:59am July 22, 2022

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Seth Jones at the Center for Strategic and International Studies about the threat from ISIS, and U.S. military operations that killed or captured some of its leaders.

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Sir Mark Lowcock, the former head of the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has written a memoir, Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times. In 2017, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath for hi

Former U.N. 'relief chief' shares his secret for coping with crises: a 'sunny gene'

5:18pm July 21, 2022

by Malaka Gharib

From 2017 to 2021, Sir Mark Lowcock was the U.N.'s "relief chief," the world's most senior humanitarian official. He talks to NPR about what inspired him and why crises are getting worse.

World News

Hundreds of women in Iran are defying authorities by publicly removing their hijab

5:32pm July 20, 2022

by Peter Kenyon

If it's summer in Iran, that means women are under more scrutiny than usual as police seek to ensure that modest Islamic dress codes are being followed. But this summer has seen a backlash.

Putin met with leaders from Turkey and Iran

4:56pm July 19, 2022

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul about Putin's visit to Tehran on Tuesday.

Putin picks Iran for his first trip outside of former USSR since the war with Ukraine

3:30pm July 19, 2022

NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Anna Borshchevskaya, a Russia expert with the Washington Institute, about the wider strategy of Russian President Vladimir Putin's trip to Iran.

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