Health

Children stand in front of the building of the Peruvian Congress as part of a call to demand accountability for cancer patients in Peru, September 2023.

Desperate cancer patients in Peru look for options across the Atlantic

Health & Medicine

In Peru, cancer patients are facing enormous challenges to be able to survive. The situation is especially dire for children with leukemia. Many die because they couldn’t get access to treatment in time. More and more parents are seeking help in Spain.

landfill

Trash sorters in Ghana face health and safety risks

Health
smoke over buildings

In Sudan, volunteers step up to help those caught in the crossfire

Conflict
COVID-19 antigen home tests indicating a positive result are photographed in New York, April 5, 2023.

Pandemic recovery will require much focus and attention, Dr. Atul Gawande says

COVID-19
Vicky sits in a park in Madrid. She’s smiling because her hospice caretakers have arranged for her to fly home to the Dominican Republic to visit her mom and family one last time.

‘What I really needed was a hug’: Madrid hospice workers make sure the unhoused won’t die alone

Lifestyle & Belief
a young man in a mask

Three years into the pandemic, mask usage varies from country to country

COVID-19

Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, and masks became a primary tool to combat the disease’s spread, their usage has dropped off dramatically around the world. But many Mexicans are holding on to their facial coverings, and cultural differences are impacting mask use around the globe.

people at barbershop

A spike in ringworm cases in Spain leads to a surprising culprit: the barbershop

Disease

​​​​​​​A ringworm outbreak among Spanish teens has been traced back to barbershops and a fashionable haircut: the fade. Spanish dermatologists blame dirty electric razors.

Motherly Love Orphanage

This orphanage in Ghana provides hope — and acceptance — to children living with HIV

Development & Education

Motherly Love Orphanage was founded by Rev. John Azumah 14 years ago. The pastor, who also has HIV, founded the home to provide hope and fight against the stigma faced by HIV-positive orphans. 

Haitians line up outside an immigration office as they wait their turns to apply for a passport, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 10, 2023.

‘Haiti has zero elected officials’ as cholera, gang violence persist, journalist says

Conflict & Justice

As of Monday, Haiti no longer has any democratically elected government officials, after the terms for the remaining senators in government expired. Journalist Widlore Mérancourt, editor-in-chief of AyiboPost, discusses the worsening situation with The World’s host Marco Werman.

A Pittsburgh police officer stands in a downtown Pittsburgh intersection Sunday, May 31, 2020.

If not police, what? Part II

This week in Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, Sam Ratner takes a deep dive into the history of Freedom House, a Pittsburgh-based Black-led nonprofit hired in 1968 to offer ambulance services in some of the predominantly Black neighborhoods around the city.