Matthew Bell
Editor
Matthew Bell is an editor at The World.
I’m an editor based in the Boston newsroom — working from home a lot lately, of course. I work closely with our correspondents who cover the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.
By way of background, I studied comparative religion and Chinese history at the University of Vermont. That led me to Mandarin language classes and UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, and then to KQED Radio in San Francisco. From there, I started freelancing for The World and joined the team full-time here in Boston in late 2001.
In my previous life as a reporter, I was blessed with the opportunity to cover a huge range of stories for The World. But some of the most memorable ones involved taking a trip on a Louisiana shrimping boat in the Gulf of Mexico, covering events in Egypt during the so-called Arab Spring, and meeting North Korean refugees in Seoul, South Korea.
I’m super interested in religion and I tend to think most big news stories have an important, if overlooked, religion angle. I’ve reported a lot on US foreign policy, human rights in China, North Korea’s nuclear activities and life in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Beyond journalism, I’m helping to raise kids and engaged in the lifelong pursuit of learning to play the electric guitar.
This Israeli rapper brings people together through multilingual lyrics
Noam Tsuriely is a 28-year-old Jewish Israeli hip-hop artist from Jerusalem He says he likes to rap in both Hebrew and Arabic to get Israelis and Palestinians to learn both languages, so they can understand each other better. Tsuriely's story is the latest in The World's summer "Planet Hip Hop" series.
This Jerusalem tattoo studio is part of a centuries-old Christian tradition
‘Back to normal’ at Jerusalem’s holiest site
Israel’s ‘judicial coup’ protests are going strong. They still might fail.
Palestinians celebrate a new generation of West Bank militants
Israelis see the Lions' Den group as terrorists, blaming it for a rise in shooting attacks. But in Nablus, many Palestinians hail these men as brave fighters standing up to the Israeli occupation.
The war in Ukraine is also about religion
Russian President Vladimir Putin has given various reasons to justify his decision to order an attack on Ukraine. But one thing he talked about early on was religion.
Israeli researchers try to find COVID 'threshold' with fourth vaccine dose
Israel's largest hospital is testing a second COVID-19 booster on 150 health workers. The World's host Marco Werman discussed the study with Arnon Afek, deputy director-general and acting director of Sheba General Hospital.
New testimony, transcripts, paint fuller picture of quid pro quo
Transcripts of more than 350 pages each from House interviews with US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland and the Trump Administration's special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker were made public, as was new testimony from Sondland included "refreshed" recollections.
Key moments in the impeachment inquiry
The US House of Representatives will vote on a resolution to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump Thursday, which will set rules for the investigation going forward. But what's happened in the inquiry so far? The World looks back at some key moments.
'They need to stop killing our kids': Ethiopian Israeli lawmakers tackle police brutality
Over the summer, Ethiopian Israelis held protests in several cities after a police officer shot and killed an Ethiopian teenager. Protesters said they were upset about police brutality, discrimination and racism. Those issues were still on the minds of two Ethiopian candidates for the Knesset in the run-up to last month's election in Israel.
Anxiety and fear run high as Israel votes
As Israel's voters head to the polls, most expressed anxiety over the outcome of the election.
In Israel’s election, the Arab vote could be pivotal
A few days before a national election in Israel, there wasn’t a campaign poster in sight at a horse show in a rural area just outside of Nazareth.
For many Israelis, this election is all about Bibi
Benjamin Netanyahu has served as Israel's prime minister for a decade. He has plenty of detractors. But even for them, this national election is all about him.
Megachurches, home churches, podcasts: American evangelicals are ‘not a monolith’
As the 2020 presidential campaign heats up, evangelical Christians will be getting more and more attention in the news media. They always do during election season. But people who identify as evangelical or born-again Christians are more than just a voting bloc. Evangelicals make up a huge swath of the US population.