The World: Latest Stories

The US spends billions and billions of dollars on defense, but the novel coronavirus slipped silently and invisibly across US borders and even onto military aircraft carriers. One could say the US was preparing for World War III when it got hammered by World War C — the coronavirus.

Juliette Herrera spent nearly a decade obtaining her college degree. When the coronavirus pandemic canceled her graduation ceremony, her family and friends found another way to celebrate her achievement.

The White House is reportedly looking to restrict all US foreign worker programs, including a decades-old program called Optional Practical Training that allows international students to remain in the US and work for at least a year after graduating.

Theaters were ordered to close — and no one can predict when the curtains will rise again.

Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, has announced a 15% value-added tax on all goods and services. It is also cutting down some benefits for state employees. Meanwhile, the kingdom has been on a shopping spree with its Public Investment Fund, dropping roughly $7.7 billion on stakes in Facebook, Boeing and Starbucks, among other companies.

Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore’s Dilemma" and other books, says food shortages and massive food dumping during the COVID-19 pandemic expose major vulnerabilities in the American food supply chain.

For Michelle Aguilar Ramirez, a high school junior in Washington state, the pandemic has changed how she views the world around her — including US politics and the November presidential election.

South Korean high school seniors will be the first students to return to the classroom after the coronavirus delayed the start of the academic year. For many, the pandemic didn’t just disrupt their education; it cast their entire futures into uncertainty.

Like nations everywhere, India and Bangladesh are trying to contain outbreaks of the coronavirus. On top of that, they're also preparing for a cyclone of historic proportions.

Although Italy has begun reopening, it’s unclear what the future holds for Venice, a city historically dependent on millions of tourists each year.

A human rights coalition is calling on the Canadian government to investigate and consider sanctions against Chinese officials.

In a statement to The World, Apple denied accusations that it didn’t help US investigators, who sought to gain access to password-protected devices belonging to a gunman who killed three US sailors and injured eight others in a December 2019 shooting in Pensacola, Florida.

Amid a public health emergency, there is usually a great deal of interest in prevention and preparedness, but over the years, these waves of interest in public health wane. Dr. Howard Koh of Harvard's Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School urges continued investment in public health care systems at every level, from local to federal.

“Félicien Kabuga has always been one of the most wanted fugitives,” said Serge Brammertz, chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. “He has always been considered as being one of the masterminds in relation to the genocide” in Rwanda.

The influence of the 1918 flu pandemic is an undercurrent that runs through many works of the period.

The COVID Symptom Study is pulling together this growing list of the coronavirus symptoms. Since its app launched in March, it has crowdsourced symptoms from more than 3.5 million people in the UK, US and Sweden.

With so many competing interests facing off, it's far from clear that once an effective vaccine is produced, all of the world's citizens will have equitable access to it.

Governments worldwide — from Singapore to the Netherlands and the US — have devoted more than $85 billion to prop up airlines during the coronavirus pandemic. But airlines' requests for aid are controversial in less rich Latin American economies, where millions live in poverty and public health systems are ill-equipped to respond to a large-scale health crisis.

Eastleigh, a predominantly Muslim neighborhood in Nairobi, Kenya, is currently under lockdown, and most mosques have closed. Instead, some mosques are offering virtual prayers via YouTube.

Because so many Filipino Americans are on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, it has taken a devastating and outsize toll on their community. A new initiative in New York City is bringing free meals to hospitals and health facilities heavily staffed by Filipinos — while also raising funds to help keep community restaurants afloat.

Author Matto Mildenberger examined how politics have shaped decades of climate policy in his new book, "Carbon Captured." He spoke to The World's host Marco Werman for this week's climate solutions segment.

The new settlement covers only workers based in the US. But the unprecedented move could have an impact on content moderators in other parts of the world.

Dramatic movements in the economy are happening all over the globe. The World's host Marco Werman speaks with Simon Cox, emerging markets editor for The Economist, about the worldwide perspective on the economy.

Under a United States peace plan unveiled earlier this year, Israel had the US's green light to annex large parts of the West Bank. If that happens, life for the Palestinians and Israeli settlers who live there could get even more complicated.

Thought Brexit was over, right? Wrong. Britain did leave the EU at the end of January, but in reality, nothing much has changed. The real deadline is Dec. 31, and negotiations are set to take place until then. There’s just one problem: a pandemic.

As women’s soccer was drawing more and more fans, the players were stepping up their fight against gender discrimination in the sport. But just a year later, the game’s visibility — and its journey toward equity — has been stopped in its tracks.

Twin attacks in Afghanistan on May 12 have left many in the country in shock and wondering when the bloodshed in their country will end.

Apes can get COVID-19, too, and this could be devastating for endangered populations. Only about 1,000 mountain gorillas remain, and roughly half live in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. Veterinarian Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka spoke with The World's Marco Werman about this new risk.

The country has shut down schools and offices and parks — and yet, outside some pachinko joints, men stubbornly line up to get their fix.

African traditional healers aren’t alone in looking to local herbs for treating illnesses.

In East Africa, it's not just a pandemic making life difficult. Heavy rains, an ongoing locust outbreak and the closure of open-air food markets due to COVID-19 all lead to major concerns over food security.

We used to be the hare, but now we may be the tortoise.

The Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are poised to become one of the first blocs to reopen regional travel, thanks to their swift response to the pandemic and measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Migrant farmworkers tend to work low-paying jobs. Few, if any, have benefits, and many are undocumented. These factors make them "uniquely vulnerable to the pandemic," says Marc Grossman of United Farm Workers of America.

Brayan Guevara, a 19-year-old Afro Latino from Greensboro, North Carolina, had never visited Honduras, where many of his relatives live. His first trip there last summer made him proud of his heritage — and that's shaping how he'll vote in the US presidential election this November.

Yoel Roth, head of site integrity at Twitter, and Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, have been working together to tackle disinformation during the pandemic.

Some scientists and researchers say that its success in staving off COVID-19 is directly related to its history of fighting zoonotic diseases.

Founded in 1985, Studio Ghibli became the heavyweight champion of anime in Japan and the rest of the world. One of its anime producers has uploaded a video tutorial explaining how to draw Totoro from the popular 1988 film "My Neighbor Totoro."

Shanghai’s Disneyland became the first Disney amusement park to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sending a strong signal of recovery in Shanghai. But it was not back to normal.

Former US Ambassador Jon Huntsman speaks with The World’s Marco Werman about the deterioration of relations between China and the US.

The coronavirus pandemic has been compared to the Great Depression and the Second World War, in terms of the threat it poses to democracy. Geopolitical risk analyst Ian Bremmer doesn’t think the crisis will usher in a new world order, but he believes it will intensify and speed up trends that many have worried about for years.

The government is taking a phased approach to the lockdown, easing restrictions only on areas that haven’t seen infections for a month. That’s despite the fact that India recently saw a spike in cases of the coronavirus, and projections show they still have not peaked.

Airlines have gone from raking it in to now losing tens of million dollars a day. Among all of the unknowns the pandemic has wrought, the future of airline travel is a significant question.

New Zealand is “halfway down Everest,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said of the country’s battle with the coronavirus. New Zealand, Taiwan, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway all have notably low rates of fatalities and Germany stands out in central Europe for its low death rate. The seven countries have something else in common: All are led by women. Is it a coincidence or are women leaders better at managing the coronavirus?

A key part of "doughnut" economic thinking is no longer using the gross domestic product as a proxy for society’s success.

At one new pop-up restaurant in Sweden, social distancing is exceedingly easy — in fact, it’s the goal.

Yemen has a population of nearly 30 million. Fewer than 1,000 have been tested for COVID-19. An emergency room doctor explains how he treats patients for the novel coronavirus without the tools and equipment to make diagnoses — or protect himself.

Reaching rural populations is one of the biggest challenges to achieving widespread testing in Africa. About 60% of sub-Saharan Africa is rural.

Some prominent Catholics are criticizing Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic — and many have been vocal on Twitter.

Flower producers and sellers have seen an uptick in demand due to Mother's Day. But it won't be enough to save the industry from the steep drop in business due to the pandemic.