The World: Latest Stories

Former diplomat Richard Haass wrote recently that a "post-America world" may come sooner than we think — and that it's been hastened by the Jan. 6 riots at the US Capitol.

People want to cheer on Biden and make him be bold, Leah Greenberg, a co-founder of the nonprofit Indivisible, told The World.

Voters most likely to rank the environment as their top priority are young, Black or Latino, and they were key voters in the two recent senatorial wins in Georgia that gave the majority to Democrats.

The incoming Biden administration has said it will overturn policies such as the bilateral agreements the Trump administration made with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to keep asylum-seekers away from the US-Mexico border.

Michael McFaul, who was the US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, worked closely with Antony Blinken and Joe Biden during his time with the Obama administration. He spoke with The World’s host Marco Werman about Blinken.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge likely has billions of gallons of oil under it and for decades has been one of the most high-profile environmental battles. Despite opposition from conservationists and Indigenous peoples, a judge allowed the Trump administration to proceed with a Jan. 6 auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the refuge.

ISIS took responsibility for the attack — the latest example of their systematic targeting of Hazaras in recent years.

In her music and poetry, Shungudzo tackles the racist experiences she had growing up in Zimbabwe and the US.

This isn’t the first time that COVID-19 has hit the city particularly hard.

Hagai El-Ad, executive director of B'Tselem, joined The World's host Carol Hills to discuss the significance of the term "apartheid."

The apologies follow a five-year investigation that found an “appalling level of infant mortality” in the institutions.

When a hockey coach in Newfoundland, Canada, heard a Syrian refugee boy named Yamen Bai wanted to play hockey, he put out a call for donations. A year later, Yamen is keeping up with his teammates and scoring goals.

​​​​​​​Brazil’s health regulatory agency Anvisa has yet to approve a vaccine, but the directors are expected to meet this Sunday to vote on both the CoronaVac and AstraZeneca vaccines.

The World’s host Marco Werman spoke to Allison Gill, the forced labor program director with Global Labor Justice International Labor Rights Forum, about the ban.

Haliade-X wind turbines — nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower — are a game changer for the global offshore wind industry. A single turbine can power about 16,000 homes at competitive rates.

"Mikrotopya" is a collection of installations, graffiti art and sculptures of found items created by 16 artists in an empty apartment building slated for demolition in Istanbul.

Yifei Li, an environmental researcher and co-author of the book, “China Goes Green," speaks to The World's host Marco Werman about the downfalls of authoritarian environmentalism in China.

David Hofmann, a professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick, has studied the rise of white extremism in Canada. He spoke to The World’s host Marco Werman about the rise of right-wing extremism in Canada that is inspired by the US.

J.M. Berger, author of the book, "Extremism," says his most urgent question is how and where the large and radicalized community of extremists in the US will act next, pointing out that 15%-30% of Americans identify as white nationalists.

Adela Diaz, an 18-year-old Latina, recalled a tense night on Nov. 3, after she voted in her first US presidential election.

Expanding vaccine access helps China reframe the narrative of the pandemic and improve China’s image, said Yangzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations.

On the campaign trail, candidate Joe Biden pledged to end the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico" program on day one. But the president-elect has walked back that promise in recent weeks.

The installation by artist Péter Szalay is a kneeling sculpture of the Statue of Liberty, illuminated in rainbow colors with her left hand raised in a fist. A tablet in her right hand says: “Black Lives Matter.”

"There is going to have to be a reconstruction of events and find out who dropped the ball and why," said legal and security analyst Asha Rangappa, a former FBI special agent.

Fiona Hill was a key witness in the previous impeachment proceedings. Hill was Trump’s top Russia adviser from 2017 to 2019 and also served on the National Security Council. She told The World's host Marco Werman that the idea to storm the Capitol didn't come out of the blue.

The breaching of the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday could have serious implications for US relations with China, Russia and Iran, says Michèle Flournoy, a US defense policy expert.

Outside observers watched with disbelief as a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, the seat of US power.

The United States' top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warns the COVID-19 death toll could rise in the next few weeks. But mass vaccination will bring the end of the pandemic.

It’s taken years of rare bipartisan cooperation, but the US has now quietly taken a step that draws a red line for China in Tibet.

Back in November, Sri Lankan writer Indi Samarajiva wrote a prescient essay titled, "I lived through a stupid coup. America is having one now." After a violent Trump-backed mob attacked the US Capitol on Wednesday, Samarajiva shares what the US might learn from Sri Lanka.

Morals are the stock-in-trade of the Islamic Defenders Front, which is likely the largest vigilante group in Asia. They claim millions of followers — though 200,000 is a more reasonable estimate — and they seek to purify society through fear.

Newly elected Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York was in the Capitol on Wednesday when pro-Trump extremists breached the building. "We need to remove this president. He's shown himself to be a danger even in the final weeks of his presidency," Jones said.

New cases have surged to a three-month high in Israel, but health authorities have still managed to vaccinate about 50% of the country’s high-risk population.

The ancient technique of astute observation, low-intervention forestry allows trees to grow and age before harvest.

How the grocery store became our one-stop food haven — and the dark side of that success.

Millions of American families who eat hunted meat may be exposed to lead poisoning from the bullets that killed the animal. Hunters also donate some 2 million pounds of hunted meat to food banks across the US each year, most of which is not inspected for lead contamination.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed claimed that no civilians were killed in weeks of active military operations in northern Tigray. Many Ethiopian refugees in Sudan told The World otherwise.

Last week, there were more than a thousand deaths three days in a row in Brazil. The death rate is expected to hit 200,000 this week, second only to the United States.

Britain, which formally ended its relationship with the EU on Dec. 31, has also decided to withdraw from Erasmus, an educational exchange program funded by the EU Commission.

Last January, the US killed Iran’s Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. A year later, tensions between the countries are high once again.

Georgia’s Senate runoffs are set for Jan. 5. And just like with the presidential election, there’s concern about mis- and disinformation targeting the state's voters — including its growing Latino community.

The celebrated hairy crab is a delicacy in China, but it's also considered an illegal, invasive species in some parts of the world like the UK and the US.

It was a tough year to release new music. But composer and producer Mino Cinélu and jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær managed to do just that.

Trees store information about climatic conditions in the rings they lay down each year. Dendrochronology — the science of studying these rings — allows scientists to learn about the ancient climate on Earth.

Karima Mehrab Baloch, 37, advocated for Balochistan's regional independence from Pakistan. Her death in Canada has sparked an international outcry.

Since the 1990s, Georgia’s Latino community has grown steadily. Their votes could now make a difference in the hotly contested runoff races that will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the US Senate.

Space junk — debris from defunct satellites and other man-made items — is a growing problem. Wooden satellites, an idea spearheaded by astronaut and professor Takao Doi of Kyoto University, may be the solution.

In Spokane, Washington, Michelle Aguilar Ramirez is met with cold stares when she speaks Spanish. With demographic changes and political shifts, many Latinos like Ramirez are now trying to find their place in a divided United States.

In 2020, we leaned on pop culture more than ever for moments of levity, distraction — and sometimes even clarity — during a chaotic year. Looking back, here are some of the pop culture moments that stuck with us.

BBC Africa reporter Andrew Harding speculates on the reasons why Africa's overall COVID-19 fatality rates have been so low compared to the rest of the world.