Wilder Fleming

Producer

A new study from Uganda's Budongo Forest draws on decades of data suggesting chimps understand the specific medicinal properties of certain plants and will go out of their way to treat the maladies of their peers.

Chimpanzees use medicinal plants to treat themselves and others: What it says about empathy

Asma Khalid

Asma Khalid Headshot (2)

Guest Host, Here & Now

Allison Hagan

Digital Producer, Here & Now

Chimpanzees eat their lunch at the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Center, 45 km from the city of Bukavu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Guerchom Ndebo/AFP via Getty Images)

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Science

In 1972, a Soviet spacecraft bound for Venus failed to escape Earth’s gravity and got stuck orbiting our planet. Now, 50-odd years later, the spacecraft’s landing capsule is due to plummet back to Earth.

Soviet spacecraft plummeting back to Earth: What to know

Peter O'Dowd

Senior Editor, Here & Now

This May 18, 1969 photo provided by NASA shows Earth from 36,000 nautical miles away as photographed from the Apollo 10 spacecraft during its trans-lunar journey toward the moon. (NASA via AP)

The Truong Le family was one among tens of thousands to flee Vietnam in 1975 for a new life in America. They were lucky to get out alive.

One family's escape from the Fall of Saigon for the U.S.

Bob Oakes

Senior Correspondent

Van Truong Le at around age 5 in Vietnam in 1972 or 1973. (Courtesy of Mai Le)

Abandoned uniforms of South Vietnamese soldiers lie on the road after the invasion of North Communist troops that led to the Fall of Saigon. (Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma/CORBIS/Sygma via Getty Images)

Several Truong Le siblings swimming in Tây Ninh, Vietnam. (Courtesy of Mai Le and the Truong Le family)

The Truong Le family, with Van's father, Minh Thanh Le, top left, and his mother, Van Tuong Do, with eight of their children in 1960s Vietnam. (Courtesy of Mary Truong)

"If they had found [those papers], there’s no way we would have made it."

South Vietnamese refugees in boats approach a U.S. war ship to seek refuge from the invading force from the North April 1975 in the South China Sea near Saigon. (Dirck Halstead/Getty Images)

All nine Truong Le siblings in Virginia in 2024, in left-to-right order from eldest to youngest: Van Lan Truong, Thuy Truong, Thai Le, Quoc Truong, Mary Ngoc Truong, Toan Le, Vu Truong, Van Le, Phuc Truong. (Courtesy of Mary Ngoc Truong)

North Vietnamese troops enter Saigon on tanks and trucks on April 30, 1975. (Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma/CORBIS/Sygma via Getty Images)

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WBUR revisits stories from the Vietnam War half a century after its end.

Fall of Saigon, 50 years later

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Boston

Politics

Life

Two Marines from Massachusetts — among the last remaining military service members in Saigon — recall the tense evacuation effort and how the city fell to communist forces in late April 1975.

The Marines from Massachusetts who were among the last to leave Saigon

As smoke billows from a burning motorcycle, South Vietnamese riot police face several thousand angry protesters who sought to move their anti-corruption demonstration from suburban Saigon to the center of the city on Oct. 31, 1974. Authorities contained the crowd. (Nick UT/AP)

Bill Newell at his Hopkinton home in April 2025. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In this April 29, 1975, file photo, South Vietnamese civilians try to scale the 14-foot wall of the U.S. embassy in Saigon, trying to reach evacuation helicopters as the last Americans departed from Vietnam. (AP file photo)

“People were very desperate. Women wanting to hand us their children and babies through the iron gates, you know, ‘Take my child.’ ”

Crowds of Vietnamese and western evacuees wait around the swimming pool inside the American Embassy compound in Saigon hoping to escape Vietnam via helicopter before the arrival of North Vietnamese troops. Nearly all were left behind as the evacuation stopped at nightfall. (nik wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images)

“... the fear that overcame their faces — is still in my memory.”

Captured South Vietnamese soldiers sit on a broad lawn after North Vietnamese troops seize the presidential palace in Saigon. (Jacques Pavlovsky/Sygma/CORBIS/Sygma via Getty Images)

John Ghilain at home in Malden in April 2025. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

Civilian evacuees board a U.S. Marines helicopter inside the U.S. Embassy compound to be air-lifted out of Saigon ahead of approaching Communist troops on the last day of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975. (nik wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images)

Of the 58,220 U.S. military service members who died in Vietnam, more than 1,300 were from Massachusetts. These are the stories of the men who were among the first and last to die on Vietnam soil.

Remembering the fallen 50 years after the close of the Vietnam War

Charles McMahon's grave in Woburn's Woodbrook Cemetery in 2015. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In this 2015 file photo, U.S. Sen Ed. Markey shows WBUR's Bob Oakes his documents pertaining to Richard Fitzgibbon Jr. Markey's efforts helped amend the war's start date and get the elder Fitzgibbon on the Vietnam wall. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

U.S. Marines drop to prone firing position to guard helicopter at landing zone at former U.S. military headquarters at Tan Son Nhut airport during the evacuation from Saigon on April 29, 1975. (AP file photo)

Sgt. Kevin Maloney, left, with Col. John Madison, aboard the U.S.S. Okinawa following the April 30 evacuation of Saigon. South China Sea, May 1, 1975. (Courtesy Kevin Maloney; Photo by Stuart Herrington)

Lance Corporal Darwin Judge, 19, (on left) of Marshalltown, Iowa, and Corporal Charles McMahon, 21, of Woburn, Mass., were the last two U.S. service members killed in the Vietnam War. (Bettman via Getty Images)

A total lunar eclipse will be visible tonight across the Western Hemisphere, for those willing to stay up late.

How to see a total lunar eclipse early Friday morning

Robin Young

Co-Host, Here & Now

The 'Blood Moon' is seen from The Bund promende during a total lunar eclipse in Shanghai on Nov. 8, 2022. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

Members of Boston’s Jewish community gathered Sunday in a small park in Newton Centre, same as they have for most Sundays in the last year. They were there to mourn the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel and call for the release of those still h

In Newton, a Sunday gathering marks one year since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel

Behzad Dayanim of Newton plays music during a gathering in Newton to show support for Jewish hostages captured by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack. (Wilder Fleming/WBUR)

Harris County ended cash bail for most nonviolent misdemeanors after reaching a settlement in a sweeping class-action federal lawsuit.

‘Political backlash’ follows effort to reform cash bail in Texas

Michelle Chapa returns to the cell phone store she managed in Houston. In the two and a half years she worked there, Chapa says it was robbed several times. (Courtesy of Lucio Vasquez)

Security camera footage shows the armed robbery at the store Michelle Chapa managed. (Courtesy)

Crime Stopper’s Andy Kahan has become the face of crime-victim advocacy in Houston. (Peter O’Dowd/Here &amp; Now)

Natalia Cornelio is judge of the 351st District Court in Texas, an elected position. (Peter O’Dowd/Here &amp; Now)

The Harris County jail complex faces issues of overcrowding. (Lucio Vasquez/Here &amp; Now)

Defense attorney Murray Newman inside Harris County Criminal Justice Center that towers over downtown Houston. “It’s chaos,” he says. (Peter O’Dowd/Here &amp; Now)

In December 2018, Michelle Chapa was managing a cell phone store when masked men rushed onto the sales floor with guns and robbed the store. (Lucio Vasquez/Here & Now)

A 2019 consent decree ended cash bail for most misdemeanors in Harris County, home to one of the most populous cities in America. Here's what happened.

‘Everybody deserves a second chance': How bail reform changed Houston’s criminal justice system

Terranisha Collins went to jail for making the threat, but she didn’t stay there as long as many Houstonians have in the past. (Lucio Vasquez/Here &amp; Now)

The Harris County jail complex. (Lucio Vasquez/Here &amp; Now)

Krish Gundu and her colleagues are stopping people who’ve spent the night in the jail’s processing center as they walk out the door. (Lucio Vasquez/Here &amp; Now)

Mario Garza owns 1st Advantage Bail Bonds in Houston, TX. He is also president of the Professional Bondsmen of Harris County. (Peter O'Dowd/Here &amp; Now)

Mario Garza, Michelle Chappa and Peter O’Dowd stand outside 1st Advantage Bail Bonds in Houston, Texas. (Wilder Fleming/Here &amp; Now)

Terranisha Collins jumps on a trampoline with her children. (Lucio Vasquez/Here &amp; Now)

A sign advertises bail bonds in Harris County, Texas. (Wilder Fleming/Here & Now)

A sign advertises bail bonds outside Mario Garza's office. (Wilder Fleming/Here & Now)

Crime & Justice

To Rome and back: Mayor Wu and Gov. Healey tout climate policies at the Vatican

Darryl C. Murphy

Host

Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu traveled to Rome <a href="https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2024/05/17/pope-vatican-summit-climate-environment-maura-healy-frederick-hewett">last week</a> to present their <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/05/15/healey-vatican-climate-conference-technology">plans</a> for de-carbonization and climate resiliency at a multi-day summit hosted by the Vatican and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The Wu administration aims to reduce the city’s carbon footprint via a suite of initiatives, including <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/07/31/mayor-wu-bans-fossil-fuels-in-new-city-of-boston-buildings-and-major-renovations">new</a> <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/03/16/boston-housing-energy-efficient-building-code">rules</a> on Boston buildings, which are responsible for over 70% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Wu's goal is for city buildings, old and new, to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

Meanwhile, Gov. Healey is pushing her own <a href="https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2024/04/23/massachusetts-governor-maura-healey-steward-climate-budget">climate reforms</a> in the state legislature.

For more on their trip to Italy, Darryl C. Murphy speaks with Boston Globe politics reporter Samantha J. Gross, who traveled with Wu and Healey last week.