The World from PRX

Christopher WoolfCW

Chris Woolf

I've been fascinated by the outside world since I can remember. Even as a kid, growing up in the UK, I remember being enthralled by pictures on the nightly news from the war in Vietnam. As a teenager I served as a part-time infantry soldier in Britain's Territorial Army. At college I specialized in international relations. I've worked in global news since 1986 when I joined the BBC World Service. I've reported for the BBC from places like Afghanistan and southern Africa.
The coffins of the victims in Tuesday's attack are placed on the ground at a hospital in northern Baghlan province, Afghanistan, June 9, 2021.
Commentary: How The HALO Trust helped keep me alive in Afghanistan
A member of a ground crew walks past American Airlines planes parked at the gate during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC, April 5, 2020.
Global Politics
‘American exceptionalism’: EU travel bans show US is abdicating global leadership, former CDC head says
A black and white photograph of girl on a pony with two people around her
Obituary
Teresa Romanowska survived Nazis, Soviets and cancer, but died of COVID-19
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during the opening ceremony of Iran's 11th parliament in Tehran, Iran, May 27, 2020.
Conflict & Justice
Iran sends mixed signals on release of foreign prisoners
A person on an orange bicycle rides past a billboard of people with masks
COVID-19
Baltic ‘bubble’ looks to reopen regional travel
Donald Trump stands at a White House program
Global Politics
Nicholas Burns: US’ ‘unusual’ absence from world stage is bad for Americans
A close-up of the blue-gloved hand of a toilet paper packer who is boxing rolls of individually wrapped toilet paper to be shipped in Bangor, Maine, on April 7, 2020.
COVID-19
‘Sewage surveillance’ may be early warning tool in fight against COVID-19, says one study
A close up of gloved hands holding a vaccine.
COVID-19
Research on COVID-19 vaccine shows unique global collaboration, says Ebola vaccine scientist
Healthcare workers wearing protective face masks bring oxygen bottles to the emergency unit at 12 de Octubre Hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Madrid, Spain March 30, 2020.
COVID-19
Health care workers ‘feel powerless’ in choosing who to treat for COVID-19
A woman in a red coat poses triumphantly in front of a group of happy adults.
Elections
After UK elections, could Johnson face a ‘disunited’ kingdom?
tanks on rail cars waiting for a parade in washington, dc
Culture
Tanks roll through Washington in biggest July 4 display of military pageantry since 1850
banners for nato in brussels
Global Politics
America has been at NATO’s helm for 70 years. Can it survive without US leadership?
Ken Kraus receives a medal in front of an airplane
A Marine remembers Tehran
President Trump speaks at a podium while 3 bald men stand behind him.
Immigration
Have ‘17,000 criminals’ really been apprehended at the US-Mexico border?
US Representative Adam Schiff speaking to reporters
Rep. Adam Schiff: We may see Mueller report ‘by the end of the year’
A man sweeps the entrance of a boarded up store before Hurricane Florence comes ashore in Carolina Beach, North Carolina, Wednesday
Before hurricane season began, feds moved $10 million from FEMA to ICE
Putin with a line of soldiers behind him in uniform
Conflict & Justice
Siberian war games send a signal to the West
A woman dresses a girl at a shelter, surrounded by luggage and clothes
Immigration
Immigration judges say Sessions’ decision makes it harder for people facing ‘life and death’ to win asylum in US
Anthony Acevedo wearing a POW hat
Conflict
This POW kept a secret diary that showed daily life in a concentration camp
The Great Depression pushed millions of Americans into catastrophic poverty. Here, a mother and her shoeless children stand beside their home, a tin shack, in Elm Grove, Oklahoma, 1st August 1936
Economics
Economists warn Trump’s policies will start a 1930s-era trade war
Indian rebels being executed by cannon, September 8th 1857
Conflict
The story behind the skull found in a London pub
President Trump delivers a speech after touring a factory near Cincinnati, Ohio, Monday
Justice
Treason is no joke
A corpsman treats a wounded Marine in the city of Hue, Vietnam, in June 1968.
Conflict
Remembering the ghosts of the ‘Tet Offensive’
Vice President Mike Pence addressing the Knesset, in Jerusalem, Monday
Global Politics
Is the US suffering from incoherent policies in the Middle East?
A section of the Bayeux Tapestry depicting a scene in the decisive Battle of Hastings in 1066
Arts
English and French rivalry highlighted by loan of historic Bayeux Tapestry
The formal opening of the new US embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, January 5th 2009
Conflict
Whatever happened to the giant US embassy in Baghdad?
The sun rises on the Statue of Liberty, in New York, November 2nd 2016
Global Politics
Norwegian statesman Jan Egeland critiques Trump’s reported vulgar remarks
A child peers through the double steel fence that separates the US and Mexico, in Tijuana, last month
Global Politics
An activist lobbying for DACA says this week has been a ‘roller coaster of emotions’
The pub in London, Ontario, at the center of the "Mind the Gap" gender spat
Business
Canadian pub fights complaint after it gives pay-gap discount to women
The first test of a hydrogen bomb in 1952
Conflict
The risks of war with North Korea in 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin, toasts military personnel who served in Syria, at the Kremlin, December 28th 2017
Global Politics
What do we really know about Russia and the 2016 election?
A girl is seen in an ambulance during medical evacuation from eastern Ghouta late Tuesday.
Conflict
Children with cancer among patients evacuated from besieged Syrian district
One of the reported targets of the planned attack: the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan, in St Petersburg
Global Politics
Russia thanks CIA for tip that thwarted terror attack
A Sufi dancer celebrating the holy month of Ramadan in Tripoli, Lebanon June 9, 2017.
Religion
Understanding Sufi Islam in the wake of the Egypt mosque massacre
British soldiers firing on armed colonists on Lexington Green at the start of the American Revolution
Justice
The origins of the Second Amendment
Robert Mugabe at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, 2008
Global Politics
How Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe’s leader and clung on till now
A view of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington
Economics
What other countries (and history) can teach Americans about taxation
A bike lies in a bicycle lane following a truck attack on the West Side Highway in Manhattan, New York, on Nov. 1, 2017.
Conflict
Trump bashes immigration and justice system after New York City vehicle attack
Barcelona soccer fans make their feelings known about Catalan independence, at a game on Wednesday Oct 18th 2017
Culture
The roots of Catalonia’s differences with the rest of Spain
An illustration of a controversial new postage stamp in Ireland, with Irish artist, Jim Fitzpatrick, who created the famous two-tone image of Che Guevara used on the stamp
Culture
Ireland celebrates Che Guevara’s Irish roots with a stamp, despite opposition
It’s not just people without shelter in the Virgin Islands. Here a dog is drenched as it sits patiently through another downpour of rain, in Frederiksted, St. Croix, US. Virgin Islands September 30th 2017.
Conflict
US Virgin Islands still need help after suffering from two hurricanes
The new monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov in Moscow
Culture
Russia puts Kalashnikov on a pedestal
“The Spirit of ’76,” by Archibald Willard, which exemplifies the spirit of the citizen-nation in arms, with men of all ages stepping up when needed by their country, the antithesis of a professional, standing army, despised by the Founding Fathers
Conflict
Trump wants a big military parade, but the Founding Fathers might not approve
Ho Chi Minh (standing, third from left), and Vo Nguyen Giap (in white suit), with an OSS team in 1945
Conflict
The little-known story of Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s admiration for the US
Chelsea Manning pictured in a photograph published to her Twitter account on May 18.
Global Politics
Harvard called ‘cowardly’ for rescinding offer to Chelsea Manning after pressure from veterans
An aerial view of devastation following Hurricane Irma on St Thomas, one of the main US Virgin Islands
Development
How a violent history created the US Virgin Islands as we know them
The second tower of the World Trade Center in New York City explodes into flames after being hit by a plane, hijacked by al-Qaeda, on September 11th 2001
Conflict
Terror expert warns of al-Qaeda’s comeback
Jeannie Rousseau (de Clarens), in 1939 or 1940.
Conflict
‘What I did was so little’: Remembering World War II spy hero Jeannie Rousseau de Clarens
The Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque in Gibraltar May 11, 2015.
Conflict
ISIS says it wants to rebuild the Muslim caliphate in Spain
A gash can be seen in the destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, after a collision with civilian ship on Monday
Conflict
US Navy pauses global operations and fires an admiral after another collision at sea
General John "Black Jack" Pershing
Conflict
Trump cites an urban legend about Gen. Pershing’s fight with primarily Muslim insurgents
A Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Culture
What to do with America’s Confederate statues and monuments
A test launch of a Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, August 2nd 2017
Conflict
The only effective arms against North Korea’s missile bunkers are nuclear weapons, says a top war planner
Ira Aldridge, as Othello, in battle armor, by William Mulready
Arts
African American Ira Aldridge, a Shakespearean actor in the early 1800s, honored in England
Soldiers of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, captured in France, 1940
Conflict
There were Indian troops at Dunkirk, too
A boy, displaced from fighting in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, walks in the desert near the village of Karama, east of Raqqa, July 1st 2017
Conflict
What to do with captured women and children of ISIS?
A North Korean image said to be the launch of that nation's first inter-continental missile, on July 4th 2017
Conflict
The case for Trump negotiating with North Korea
Catherine the Great of Russia, by Fyodor Rokotov
Conflict
How Russian meddling impacted the American Revolution
A tentative reconstruction of a skull being modified, in the style found at Gobekli Tepe
Culture
Stone Age skull cult found at what might be the world’s oldest temple
The US Navy’s USS Porter launching a cruise missile strike against Syria, April 7th 2017
Conflict
The risks of war in the Middle East, as the US confronts Syria and Iran