Ruth Sherlock

Swifts have nested in Jerusalem's Western Wall since biblical times. Now one Israeli paraglider is trying to save them.

Swifts have nested in Judaism's holiest site for more than 2,000 years. Now, one Israeli hang glider is working to help them survive life in modern cities.

A village destroyed. A home erased. One poet returns to remember what was lost. Copyright 2026 NPR

This spring, I was in Jerusalem reporting a story on the common swift. These scythe-winged birds have nested in the cracks of the Western Wall and other holy sites here for thousands of years.

Transcript MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: President Trump is pledging more support for Lebanon after a White House meeting with the country's leader on Tuesday.

Swifts have nested in Jerusalem’s Western Wall since it was built over 2,000 years ago. But that ancient site is now surrounded by a modern city. And the birds are finding help adapting from an unexpected source: an Israeli paraglider.

The pro-immigration leader is facing backlash at home and abroad after roughly 60,000 people crossed from Morocco into the Spanish enclave.

Israel's war against Hezbollah in South Lebanon has poisoned land and destroyed valuable ecosystems for generations to come. NPR takes soil samples of the land.

Talal Darwish (right), a soil scientist who has previously mapped soil health across Lebanon, takes soil samples from the site of an airstrike in South Lebanon.

Beneath the shattered villages and scorched fields of southern Lebanon lies a quieter aftermath of war - contaminated land. Israel's war against Hezbollah