Global Dispatches Podcast

The story of a leaky oil tanker stranded off the coast of Yemen is, in part, the story of the country's civil war. There are about a million gallons of oil stored in this tanker, which has not been operational ...

There is a certain category of disaster, whether manmade or natural, that poses an existential threat to humanity.  These are called global catastrophic risks. Some of these are fairly obvious, like nuclear war...

Mali is in the midst of its most serious political crisis in years. Thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent days, demanding the resignation of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. The situation is ...

Billions of dollars are spent each year on foreign aid and global development. In the past, the exact amount of aid that is being spent, where is it is being spent, by whom it is being spent--and to what end is...

As the Coronavirus Pandemic tore through the world this spring, it resulted in sharply lower demand for oil, driving down prices. Added to this, Russia and Saudi Arabia got into an oil price war that brought th...

Since the Kosovo War of 1999, the status of Kosovo as a country independent of Serbia has not been resolved. Many countries, including the United States and most of Europe, recognize Kosovo as an independent co...

Chile has some of the worst air pollution in the Western Hemisphere. It is partly a matter of geography  -- many cities are in valleys that trap pollution. But it is also the consequence of how many Chileans he...

On June 30th, China imposed a new law on Hong Kong that severely curtailed political freedom and freedom of expression. The new National Security Law criminalized most forms of dissent and protest, adding crimi...