Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
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Ukrainian troops are pushing Russian forces away from the country's second-largest city. That's allowing residents to move out of shelters, assess damage and try to resume something of a normal life. -
Ukrainian forces have driven Russian attackers out of the city of Kharkiv. Ukraine's second-largest city had been under heavy bombardment for weeks.
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Ukrainian forces are trying to push back Russian forces from Kharkiv, a city Russia has shelled since the beginning of the war.
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Since the war has mainly shifted to the east of Ukraine, residents and business owners have been returning to parts of the Kyiv region, including hard-hit Bucha.
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The war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to flee their homes. Some refugees in Poland however are now starting to return home.
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The U.S. has pulled back funding for global vaccinations. Some countries — like Brazil — don't need the help. Vaccination rates remain low in other countries such as Iraq due to issues of mistrust.
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At a warehouse near the front lines in southern Ukraine, volunteers are making bulletproof vests, fixing shattered car windows and helping people escape from Russian-controlled areas.
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Thousands of people continue to risk their lives to flee the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
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In Ukraine, Russian missile strikes hit cities across the country, including the western city of Lviv near the border with Poland.
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During the pandemic a trend in other countries caught on with wealthy Iraqis: buying lions for keeping at home.
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Leaders of NATO and the G7 will hold an emergency summit in Brussels to talk about the war in Ukraine. But Ukrainian officials are hoping for more than speeches — they want weapons and sanctions.
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While welcome, some donations don't address the needs of displaced and homeless Ukrainians who've lost nearly everything they own. Several aid groups are turning to a new tactic: cash aid.
