The World

European Union unveils its recovery plans

Activists, policy makers and the United Nations secretary-general himself are calling on governments to provide details in their post-pandemic recovery plans to "green" their economies. The European Union has already said it wants to do just that, and has today unveiled its post-pandemic recovery plan. The World's Carolyn Beeler reports.

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Foreigners detained in Iran

Iran is sending mixed signals about the many foreigners it holds in detention. There is talk of a mass prisoner release in exchange for loans or debt payments. But at the same time, Iranian courts are convicting detainees at a high rate and handing down long prison sentences. Host Marco Werman speaks with Sherry Izadi, a British-Iranian woman whose 66-year old husband, Anoosheh Ashoori, has been jailed in Iran on spying charges for the past three years.

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Orchestra stranded in haunted German castle

The Bolivian “Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos” has been quarantined at the Rheinsberg Palace grounds near Berlin for more than two months now. Host Marco Werman has more.

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Marco Werman: If you've got to be in quarantine, it might as well be in luxury. A 16th century castle in Germany with its own moat and surrounding forests, for example. The Rheinsburg Palace is where members of a Bolivian orchestra were first stranded two months ago.The Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos — the Experimental Orchestra of Native Instruments — arrived in Germany on March 10th to perform at the Mertz Music Festival nearby in Berlin. That performance never happened. Germany shut down its borders the same day and the 25 members of the orchestra were forced into quarantine.The festival organizers managed to let the Bolivians stay on the castle grounds. During the week, the orchestra practices. At other times, they explore the woods of Rheinsberg Palace.Carlos Gutierrez is the orchestra's director, and he spoke to the CBC.Gutierrez: We are close by the castle, but we don't live in the castle. From a window I have [a view] of the lake and the woods and that's great because we can go. Of course, not more than two people. We can have a walk.Werman: The Bolivian orchestra has some neighbors on the estate. At least 23 wolf packs make their home there.Gutierrez: Some of the girls from the orchestra, they saw, like, three wolves that passed through the path. Of course, it was a shocking encounter and a very interesting experience.Werman: Then there's Frederick the Great —or rather his ghost, who's rumored to walk the halls of his former home. Despite the possible haunting, the group is doing well. But Gutierrez says he doesn't know when they'll be able to return to Bolivia.Gutierrez: We are missing our families, that's for sure. Even though we have this privilege — we can still make music — of course we are very worried about what is happening in Bolivia.Werman: Bolivia has also been impacted by the coronavirus — at least 250 deaths. The Bolivian embassy tells the BBC it's trying to get the orchestra on a flight out of Madrid in early June.

Contact tracing apps, worldwide

Mobile phone apps that do contact tracing can help public health officials warn people if they have been exposed to COVID-19. But not all apps are the same. Tate Ryan-Mosley is part of a team at MIT Technology Review that compares apps from more than two dozen countries around the globe. She tells The World's Marco Werman what the apps can and cannot do — and which countries are doing it right.

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President Donald Trump gets fact-checked on Twitter

After years of criticism that the platform has allowed President Donald Trump to push false and misleading information, Twitter, for the first time on Tuesday, labeled one of the President’s tweets with a fact-check. The World’s Lydia Emmanouilidou tells host Marco Werman that the fact-check is one of several actions the social media platform has taken against world leaders in recent weeks.

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Hong Kong upheaval

US officials today signaled that they’re preparing to remove Hong Kong’s special trade status, declaring that it is no longer autonomous from China. Just hours earlier the country’s protesters were facing off against police who fired pepper pellets at them. Hong Kong-based journalist Kris Cheng talks with host Marco Werman about the shifting tactics demonstrators and security forces are resorting to.

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Uyghur human rights bill goes to House for vote

In Congress, lawmakers are talking about human rights for Uyghurs, the Muslim ethnic minority in far western China. Hundreds of thousands of Uighurs have been sent to detention camps in China's Xinjiang province. Marco speaks with Rahima Mahmut,, a human rights activist from the World Uyghur Congress, about a US bill that would sanction Chinese officials involved in the crackdown in Xinjiang.

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Remote Indigenous communities try to stay in quarantine

In parts of northeastern British Columbia popular with tourists, First Nations communities are setting up checkpoints and organizing rallies to tell people to stay away. They plan to stay quarantined for as long as necessary, in order to protect their elderly, some of whom are the last fluent speakers of their language.  The World's Rupa Shenoy brings us that story.

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Remote fan squad

Host Marco Werman tells us about a new app that lets you cheer for your favorite sports team while still at home — and then pipes the sound into your team's empty stadium.

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New film changes Spanish history

With more time to rummage, archivists at Spain’s National Film Archive were able to finally watch some old films that had been ignored for decades. One film rewrites a bit of Spanish film history. As Lucia Benavides reports, they discovered what they now believe to be the first talking film ever directed by a Spanish female director.

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Acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami aims to cheer up audiences on the radio

The world is living through stressful times. Putting on a soothing song at the end of a long day can provide some relief. This is where acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami steps in. Murakami took to Tokyo's radio waves to host a special show called "Music for a Brighter Tomorrow." “The coronavirus has all of us feeling down these days," he said, "so let’s turn to the power of music to see if it can make us feel at least a little better." Host Marco Werman tells us that the playlist included songs from Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Nina Simone, and more than a dozen other artists.

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Governments work on recovery plans as societies open up following coronavirus lockdowns

Governments everywhere are trying to figure out how to put together a recovery plan to get past the economic blow from the coronavirus pandemic. The European Union on Wednesday moved forward on its plan. And, US officials signaled that they’re preparing to remove Hong Kong’s special trade status, declaring that it is no longer autonomous from China. Also, the world is living through stressful times and putting on a soothing song at the end of a long day can provide some relief. This is where acclaimed Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami stepped in and took to Tokyo radio waves to host a special show called "Music for a Brighter Tomorrow."

Marco Werman

A man wearing a protective face mask, following an outbreak of the coronavirus, talks on his mobile phone in front of a screen showing the Nikkei index outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan.