State of the World from NPR

The Russia-Ukraine war is sometimes compared to the static, deadlocked, trench warfare of World War I.  

Yet it’s also been the defining conflict of the 21st century, dominated by drones that have created a so-called “kill zone” along the front line.  We hear about what the kill zone is like and what it means for the future of warfare.

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Chinese manufacturers have not had it easy these past few years, with U.S. tariffs as well as the wars in Ukraine and Iran pushing up their costs and shrinking profits.  

But there is one sector that is thriving despite all of this, the manufacturers of this Chinese tile-game, called mahjong. It’s been trending in the U.S. and that has given a boost to one mahjong manufacturing hub.

We go to eastern China to understand the global implications of this trend.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

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In the Israeli occupied West Bank, dozens of Americans have been detained, including a politician running for Congress.  

Settler violence and detentions by the Israeli military have been on the rise for years in the Palestinian territory, which is occupied by Israel. But according to two Israeli lawyers, this is the largest mass detention of activists there in a decade. 

A team from NPR witnessed the detention of a group made up primarily of American and Israeli rabbis, activists and U.S. Democratic congressional nominee Brad Lander. They had been helping Palestinian families harvest their olives to try to prevent attacks by Israeli settlers.

We hear from our reporter who witnessed the event and one of the American rabbis who was detained.

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Sometimes it feels like when we aren’t worried about AI destroying humanity — we worry about it replacing white collar jobs like lawyers, accountants, coders. But tech companies have plans for AI-powered robots to replace blue collar jobs as well.  

We go to southern India, where our correspondent found domestic and factory workers being enlisted to train AI, sometimes without their knowledge.

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Israel holds an election on October 27th, electing members of the Knesset, their parliament.  And this election will decide the future of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is the first vote since Hamas-led attacks of October 7th, 2023 and the Gaza war. And a major question shaping the elections is whether the prime minister should be held responsible for the Hamas attacks. We go to Israel, to hear how Israelis are thinking about this election.

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