President Barack Obama begins a second term we get a global view of the inauguration. We speak with retired General Stanley McChrystal about a second term strategy in Afghanistan. And sounds from one of the world’s largest natural sound archives.
President Obama’s second inauguration has been a subdued event, says Gary Younge, a columnist for the British newspaper The Guardian. Younge tells anchor Marco Werman why he thinks the notion that America might vote in a black president now seems like little more than a banal fact of life.
As Barack Obama formally begins his second term, most eyes are on the domestic agenda. But the nation is still at war in Afghanistan. Anchor Marco Werman discusses the direction and conduct of the war with retired General Stanley McChrystal, former commander in Afghanistan.
China’s foreign ministry has strongly criticized the US for backing Japan’s control of a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea. A government spokesman said the view, expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “neglects the facts.”
Two of the five documentary films nominated for an Oscar this year are about the same thing: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But they come at the issue from two very different perspectives. One story is told through the eyes of a Palestinian villager. The other is based on interviews with Israel’s top security chiefs.
Cheating in sports has dominated the news for the last several days since American cyclist Lance Armstrong confessed to years of doping. His dishonesty casts a shadow over an entire sport, even its honest competitors but as The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from Barcelona, good guys can finish first.
Tunes spun on The World between our reports for January 21, 2013. Artists featured are: Khaira Arby, Toubab Krewe, Tuh Pa Warez, Allen Toussaint, AfroCubism, Drumagick, Generation Bass.
The trial of five men accused of gang-raping and murdering a young woman has started in Delhi. The 23-year-old physiotherapy student was brutally assaulted on board a bus last month.That attack has caused outrage across India and around the world. Anchor Marco Werman speaks with The World’s Rhitu Chatterjee in Delhi.
Talk of harassment and violence in India has prompted discussions among South Asian immigrants about how that violence is sometimes exported to the United States.
The common British soldier of the American Revolution has a certain image in the popular imagination. The scum of the earth, pressed into service as an alternative to jail or the gallows, then disciplined brutally with constant floggings to become a mindless killing machine. But recent research is telling quite a different story.
Thousands of wildlife recordings at Cornell’s Macaulay Library in Itaca, NY, are now online. Audio curator Greg Budney samples the vast collection of field recordings collected worldwide of birds, whales, elephants, frogs, primates and more that’s just been digitized and put online.
Maya Angelou was the first African-American to write a poem for a presidential inauguration. She delivered her poem at President Clinton’s ceremony in 1993. On Monday it was the turn of Richard Blanco, the first openly gay poet and the first Cuban-American to receive the honor.
January 18th is the day the first European settlers arrived in Australia, 225 years ago. They were convicts, deported from Britain. You may be surprised to hear this was not a new practice for the Brits.
We wanted to know your questions about the rapidly unfolding and complex drama in Mali. We received several questions from readers. The BBC’s Defense and Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus offer these responses.
Reaction from France on the Algerian hostage crisis and Lance Armstrong’s doping confession. Plus, pressure from China toward unmarried women to get married. And mobility in Mexico City as the capital improves its traffic flow.