Parallels : NPR: Recent Episodes
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After five years and nearly 3,500 stories — from Pakistan to Papua New Guinea and Paris — the Parallels blog is closing. You'll now find all of NPR's coverage from around the globe at npr.org/world.
The recent abortion referendum in Ireland is setting off calls for change in neighboring Northern Ireland, which still has strict laws on the procedure that date to Victorian times.
King Abdullah appointed economist Omar Razzaz as his new prime minister. It will be up to Razzaz to defuse a crisis over a plan that would levy income tax even on those earning $11,000 a year.
These days, some young people in the conservative kingdom also use Tinder to find a match.
Sketches on the walls of a once hidden room of a museum in Florence help shed light on the Renaissance artist's creative process — and on a mysterious and dangerous period in his life.
Nearly a decade after the Pakistani army pushed out the Taliban from a scenic mountain region known as the "Switzerland of Pakistan," residents say the military has overstayed its welcome.
"There's a big risk for the North Koreans in telegraphing too much to their own people ahead of time," says Martyn Williams, who monitors North Korean TV. "So what they do," he says, "is wait."
The partial ban went into effect Thursday. Many Germans question whether the ban is an environmental milestone or a political shell game that could end up creating more pollution.
President Trump has said U.S. forces are not on the table for potential negotiations with North Korea, but he has also complained about the cost of keeping them there.
One small apartment building near the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is emblematic of Israelis' mixed attitudes about the city.
"So much of what I've seen is, quite frankly, just deeply disturbing," U.S. aid chief Mark Green said after visiting a camp for Rohingya in Myanmar. For some, "this is the only reality they know."
Students are again occupying universities and workers are protesting an overhaul of the state railway. "The struggle is still the same," says a labor leader. But the protests are on a smaller scale.
As Americans accuse the Kremlin of interfering in their elections, and Russians fiercely deny it, there's no debating that the U.S. once intervened militarily in Russia — with few, if any, results.
The Saudi kingdom says it is trying to wean the economy off an oil and foreign worker dependency. Employers say it has not been easy.
Furious over President Sergio Mattarella's rejection of the populist coalition's euroskeptic pick for economic minister, 5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio called for Mattarella's impeachment.