The World: Latest Stories

AI is reinforcing human stereotypes, says technologist Kriti Sharma. She's trying to change that.

“I think it's more important than ever to be open about who we are,” says Lizbeth Mateo, who made news this month for being one of the few undocumented residents to be named to a statewide post in California.

The water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa is easing a bit, but the city and many of its businesses and institutions are forging ahead with expensive efforts to increase supply, including private desalination plants.

The far-right National Front and hard-left France Unbowed movement on Wednesday said they would defy the wishes of a prominent Jewish group and take part in a march to honor a Holocaust survivor killed in a suspected anti-Semitic attack.

In 2012, Sweden erupted in a national debate over the pronoun "hen." Traditionally, Swedish has gendered pronouns when referring to people. There is no gender-neutral pronoun for people. "Hen" was a new word meant to fill a gap in the language. This week on The World in Words podcast we explore how a little-known and little-used word went mainstream in Sweden.

It's not easy to make it in the Central African Republic. But Fortuné, a teenage entrepreneur, keeps trying. His latest project is a singing group.

The fire, at the Winter Cherry mall in the city of Kemerovo, killed 41 children, according to the Interfax news agency, and the calamitous way it was handled has stirred anger and focused attention on corruption and lax fire safety standards.

A First Nations group in British Columbia is trying to counter the environmental and economic impact of sea-based salmon farming by starting a new kind of salmon farm — on land. But the enterprise is fraught with challenges.

Jahne Benthall organized the March For Our Lives in Newark, N.J. While she's proud of what she did, she wants more attention to be to the gun violence that some communities of color face every day.

This week, Egypt will hold a presidential election, but observers believe the process is a charade. The only viable opposition candidates have been jailed, deported or silenced. And the only other candidate on the ballot, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, is actually a backer of Sisi, and has said he hopes the incumbent wins.

More than 800 sibling marches were held on Saturday. “This is about protecting our futures as well,” explains an organizer in Mumbai.

Besides the United States, 14 European Union countries also expelled Russian diplomats in the biggest Western expulsion of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman issued a decree last year that lifted a decades-old ban on women driving in the Kingdom. The announcement caught many — including auto manufacturers — by surprise.

Factories created the modern world, sometimes in ways that are rarely discussed.

As many thousands of students head to Washington, DC, for the student-led March for Our Lives, immigrant students are coming forward to lend their voices to the fight for gun reform.

The city of Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland is still healing from years of sectarian conflict. Two priests, one Catholic and the other Protestant, have written a book about how to get to true peace. The only way, they say, is through forgiveness.

Wendell Steavenson's debut novel offers a nuanced portrait of the gulf between the West and the Arab world.

The UK-based firm Cambridge Analytica is under fire for allegedly harvesting the data of tens of millions of Facebook users and using it to sway voters in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election. But the data firm's reach extends well beyond the US.

In 2010, the two ensembles collaborated to make music from house plants and other ordinary objects.

Artist Nina Katchadourian transforms car alarms into bird calls.

A birdwatcher and beatboxer combines his two passions to make a totally original sound.

Theremin virtuoso Pamelia Stickney teaches a lesson in the eerie electronic instrument.

The earthly origins of the alien sounds of “Star Wars” and “WALL-E.”

Can the clanks, bangs and hisses of a radiator become music?

What does it sound like to travel? In this A-side B-side, we find it in two tracks.

Students from the town of Dapchi spent a month in captivity.

France doesn't collect comprehensive statistics based on race, ethnicity or religion. And that has something to do with its experience in World War II.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters early Wednesday morning that the motive for the bombings was still unclear.

Turkey is making advances in its scientific infrastructure — like its brand new astronomical observatory. But the new science curriculum for high schoolers leaves out the theory of evolution.

Advocates say that these immigration enforcement threats keep workers from telling their stories of wage theft to law enforcement. Wage theft costs Los Angeles workers $26 million a week, according to the University of California, Los Angeles.

A singer raised in Thailand and Sweden is trying to create a virtual space in music for kids raised in multiple cultures who often feel like they don't belong anywhere.

The election was never about whether Putin would win. But high voter turnout has been marred by reports of ballot stuffing and other unethical means of getting support for the incumbent president.

In a region surrounded by threats — from Turkey’s attacks and Islamic State terrorism and patriarchy at home — the women of Kurdistan are fighting for their life and liberty. And the cost is hard, dangerous labor.

Leaks of methane from gas and oil wells are a major source of climate pollution but it's tough to detect the odorless and colorless gas. Now, a new competition is spurring inventors to come up with cheaper and more effective methane detectors. The World's Jason Margolis profiles two of the inventors.

Mx. is a gender-neutral title that's gaining popularity in the UK. Though the road to acceptance for this prefix has not been without a struggle. On The World in Words podcast, we delve into the fight over this two-letter word.

Londonderry, or Derry, Northern Ireland's second-biggest city, borders the Republic of Ireland. Residents worry Brexit will bring changes at the border - and a return to the days of "the Troubles."

On Nantucket, homeowners are funding an extensive engineering project to save their houses from sliding into the sea. But no one knows how long the homes and the entire island can resist the forces of the sea and climate change.

IceCube’s ability to spot where neutrinos come from provides a powerful new tool for understanding many mysteries of the universe.

Newer, tougher ship hulls and shrinking Arctic ice are now opening up the Northern Sea route for business.

Until last year, solar energy experienced huge growth in job creation. But 2017 saw about a 4 percent decline in solar jobs, with installers taking the biggest hit.

Vladimir Putin will win his fourth term after 18 years in power. But behind the scenes of an election with a foregone conclusion — an event that should be drama-free — a more complicated picture emerges.

In the wake of another attack on girls at a Nigerian school, parents in Nigeria are looking at how the US responds to the latest American school shooting.

A spokesperson for the federal immigration agency has quit over what he says are lies from the Trump administration. So what’s the truth about immigration raids?

Russian journalist Vitaly Bespalov worked in the now-infamous Internet Research Agency, which employed internet trolls to reinforce state-sanctioned messages.

An Olympic sailor struggles with delusions that his life is a reality show, and he’s the star.

How “The Americans” and “Trumpcast” are related—in more ways than one.

A writer comes clean about his secret favorite song.

The missteps and errors of ICE and its contractors have led to concerns about the safety of immigrant detainees with mental health issues.

President Donald Trump has tapped Gina Haspel to replace Mike Pompeo as CIA Director. But Sen. John McCain said that Haspel oversaw a "black site" prison where detainees were tortured with methods such as waterboarding.