World News

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, premiered at Cannes Film Festival. Rasoulof has been in exile for almost two weeks after a prison sentence in Iran.

Iran laid the body of President Ebrahim Raisi to rest, after he died in a helicopter crash. Though thousands attended funeral ceremonies, we hear from Iranians who say he won't be remembered fondly.

And in South Korea, a propaganda video from North Korea is banned after it goes viral on TikTok.

After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began fleeing from the North of Gaza to the South. As they fled, many Palestinians reported passing through checkpoints with cameras. Israel had previously used facial recognition software in the West Bank, and some Palestinians reached out to The New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel to investigate whether the same was happening in Gaza.

Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel talks to Frenkel about how Israel launched this facial recognition system in Gaza late last year with the help of private companies and Google photos.

Read Frenkel's full article.

Want to hear us cover more stories about AI? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

After a long decline of the government in Haiti, gangs have seized complete control. A multi-national force is being sent to Haiti to restore the government to power, but their success is not assured. We go to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to see the challenges this international mission will face.

Welcome to the "Epic of Marcos." In this tale of a family that's larger than life, Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines, is at the center. But the figures that surround him are just as important: Imelda, his wife and muse; Bongbong, his heir; and the United States, his faithful sidekick. The story of the Marcos family is a blueprint for authoritarianism, laying out clearly how melodrama, paranoia, love, betrayal and a hunger for power collide to create a myth capable of propelling a nation. Today on the show, the rise, fall, and resurrection of a dynasty — and what that means for democracy worldwide.

To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/throughline.

The Washington Post CEO's past actions are coming under severe scrutiny in a British court as he seeks to turn around the financially troubled U.S. newspaper.

The UN says more than 900,000 Palestinians have fled from Rafah, which was the last sheltering place for people in Gaza, and where the Israeli military is expanding its incursion.

The U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced the country's next general election will be held in early July, as his Conservative party currently trails far behind their Labour opponents in polls.