Middle East

In the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, photographer Rania Matar captured images of families whose homes were destroyed. Among her photos was one of a little girl she named Barbie Girl. Matar never saw her again until late last month, when Israel prepared to invade Lebanon once again, and she posted the image on her Instagram page.

Airstrikes in Lebanon and Iran have killed two top leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas. The World’s host, Carolyn Beeler, speaks with Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about possible regional escalation.

Gathering accurate statistics detailing the ever-mounting toll of civilian deaths in Gaza has been an immense challenge. Now, a new study by the independent British research group Airwars has examined the statistics Gaza’s Health Ministry provided in the war’s first 17 days. Airwars’ head of investigations, Joe Dyke, tells The World’s Marco Werman why he thinks the Health Ministry’s estimates are reliable.

Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was arrested at the airport on his way out of the US this week. The World’s host Carolyn Beeler discussed the significance of the move with Mouaz Mustafa, who played a key role in his detention.

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek is on a 24,000-mile, transcontinental journey, and he’s traveling the slow way: on foot. In this installment, we learn a bit more about the local foods he’s eaten along the way. He tells host Marco Werman about some of the dishes he’s tasted — from a meat dumpling stew in the Palestinian West Bank, to fresh fruits and vegetables gathered on a Turkish farm, to pizza in rural India.