Rescuers help Timmy, a stranded whale, return home

NPR | By Rob Schmitz

Published May 4, 2026 at 4:41 AM EDT

Rescuers defy warnings as the stranded "Humpback Hope," also known in German media as Timmy, is carried by barge into the North Sea, racing against time to save her.

Rob Schmitz

Rob Schmitz is NPR's international correspondent based in Berlin, where he covers the human stories of a vast region reckoning with its past while it tries to guide the world toward a brighter future. From his base in the heart of Europe, Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government influence inside the Czech Republic.

See stories by Rob Schmitz

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