Drugs, arms, and terror: A high-profile defector on Kim's North Korea

Inside IS detention camps in Syria, officials say violence and radicalisation are a growing problem.

India is seeing a huge spike in Covid-19 infections as this country finds itself in the grip of a second wave of the virus. The sheer number of patients coming into hospitals is huge and the healthcare system is working at its peak, Dr Jerryl Banait told BBC World News. “Every patient is being given…

The current Israel-Gaza conflict is worse than previous wars, with more intense bombing, artist Malak Mattar says. She told BBC World News her daughter “is really having a hard time sleeping and she is terrified for her life”. “We are a big family of seven members, the youngest is only 10,” Mattar said. “She survived…

The current situation which has seen increasing violence in Gaza and Israel was entirely started by Israel, the foreign affairs adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said. It was not about telling militants to stop firing rockets, but in the beginning “stopping Israeli aggression,” Dr Nabil Shaath told BBC World News on Thursday. Weeks…

The advance of the Taliban across Afghanistan represents a betrayal and catastrophic failure by the US, UK and Nato, says Rory Stewart, a former UK International Development Secretary. He told BBC World News that Western involvement in Afghanistan had involved around 2,500 troops supporting Afghan forces and air support. That support had confined the Taliban…

A recent survey on behalf of the American Psychological Association found that 49% of adults reported feeling uncomfortable about returning to in-person interactions when the pandemic ends. The poll of 3,013 adults who reside in the US found that adults who had received a Covid-19 vaccine were almost as likely to feel the same way…