The World: Latest Stories

Indonesia has set its sights on an eco-utopian capital to be built in Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. There's a glaring problem with the government's plan, though: The island is literally on fire.

After 42 years as a stateless Rohingya refugee, one Chicago man became a US citizen this summer.

US President Donald Trump has called off the talks between the US and Taliban that were taking place mostly in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. American negotiators have come home. But for some members of the Taliban, Qatar is home. How did that come to be, given that the Taliban is mainly an Afghan group?

As Israel's voters head to the polls, most expressed anxiety over the outcome of the election.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon is on the rise since the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has backed farmers and corporations bent on turning old growth forest into soy fields and cattle ranches.

The UN climate report found that limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) this century is still technically possible. But to keep that possibility alive, the world would have to cut its global greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 45% from 2010 levels by 2030.

How a salsa album that many thought was doomed became a hit.

San Piero Patti, a picturesque, Sicilian town of less than 3,000 people, is taking extreme measures to try and bring new life to the region — including selling some of its abandoned houses for less than a shot of espresso. But will it work?

Saudi Arabia was, for decades, the world's largest oil producer. This disruption is the biggest supply shock in absolute terms in the last five decades and has important repercussions for US-Saudi relations.

A few days before a national election in Israel, there wasn’t a campaign poster in sight at a horse show in a rural area just outside of Nazareth.

Could an experiment at a small school in the middle of a field in rural North Dakota inspire a revolution in America’s public education system?

Australian Prime Minister Jacinta Arden announced new funding for mental health services and tighter gun laws.

Benjamin Netanyahu has served as Israel's prime minister for a decade. He has plenty of detractors. But even for them, this national election is all about him.

Lawyers in the US and Mexico say the decision to temporarily allow a new Trump administration asylum ban to go into effect could overwhelm Mexico's asylum system and encourage asylum seekers to take more covert routes into the US.

The indie music innovator on her new album and the music that inspires her.

In 1994, Biggie Smalls released one of the greatest hip hop records of all time.

The writer and proud Midwesterner talks Toni Morrison, Missy Elliott and her surprising musical obsession.

The fight over Shiyes — a remote railway outpost in Russia’s Arkhangelsk Province that is to play host to a giant landfill — first erupted a little over a year ago after local hunters came across a secret construction site deep in the region’s forests.

Facebook and others are stepping up to stop the spread of disinformation online in advance of Canada's federal parliamentary elections.

The climate crisis is now, says a professor born in the Bahamas, who argued in an essay this week that the disaster exposes existing inequality and hurts the most vulnerable populations.

America is at a turning point in which the events of 9/11 are shifting from memory to history. In his book, "The Only Plane in the Sky," author Garrett Graff compiles a comprehensive oral history timeline of Sept. 11, 2001, told via brief diary-like accounts.

Omer Azizi spent much of the past year developing an app that he calls Safar, meaning “journey” in both Farsi and Arabic, to solve the information gap that exists for refugees worldwide. It came out of an assignment in a unique class he took last year from the engineering school at USC.

Science historian Gabriela Soto Laveaga speaks to The World about the intersection between disease and immigration.

What happens to the highly personal data people enter in period-tracking apps? In some cases, it gets fed to third parties — including Facebook.

Protests against an extradition bill in Hong Kong have become a self-described “revolution” inside the largest authoritarian nation on earth. But how much more dissent will Beijing tolerate?

British Kashmiri writer Sumaya Teli is using the pheran, a traditional piece of Kashmiri clothing, to bring awareness to the situation in Kashmir.

At the suggestion of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, many anti-Putin voters decided to vote for anyone other than a candidate from Vladimir Putin's party — even candidates that voters might otherwise find distasteful — in Russia's municipal elections.

In the wake of Trump's abrupt cancellation of a possible troop drawdown in Afghanistan, one expert says violence from both sides is likely to increase.

Construction of the border could begin as early as October over Arizona's last free-flowing river, the San Pedro. But a host of groups think a wall or a fence is problematic.

FDR's New Deal transformed America and is credited with helping the US survive the Great Recession. But his political opponents — including incumbent President Herbert Hoover — called it "a disaster."

The Young'uns is making music that nods at Britain's history of solidarity and inclusion — while they say patriotism is ebbing in their country.

Every day, Facebook has to make difficult and consequential decisions about what should stay or go on its platform. Now, it's turning to outsiders for help.

New Delhi has eased some of the curbs, although no prominent detainees have been freed and mobile and internet connections remain suspended.

Molly Crabapple on drawing AOC and what makes a true New Yorker.

Why playwright Michael R. Jackson loves the soaps.

Faith, family and fraud in the new musical “Felix Starro.”

Noam Shuster-Eliassi says she doesn’t just want to make people laugh — she wants to make them think.

In her latest book, "The Ungrateful Refugee," Dina Nayeri reflects on her personal experience as a refugee to deconstruct some of the stereotypes about newcomers.

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating kids from parents ended in June of 2018, after massive outrage. But Andrea and her sisters are among more than 950 kids the ACLU now claims were taken from parents after that date. A court agreement allows this if the parents are considered dangerous or have a criminal record. But Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney on the lawsuit, said these new cases don’t meet that standard.

Hong Kong leader says she would quit if she could and fears her ability to resolve the crisis is now "very limited."

Up and down the Mississippi River, new pressures are being put on America’s inland hydro highway, which helps deliver US goods and commodities to the rest of the world and allows trade flows to return. The strain on the river system is only becoming more acute with the impacts of climate change.

Lots of actors moonlight as waiters or baristas to pay the bills. Alex Kramer moonlights as a spy.

A new academic year is kicking off around the world, but for some American teens, the end of summer brings a close to a different school experience — learning their immigration history and family language in heritage summer schools.

Simon Tam, from the Asian American band The Slants, speaks about their journey to the US Supreme Court to trademark their "disparaging" name.

An undersea robot in Antarctica might help us explore life beyond Earth — and understand the physics of glacier collapse.

Nine FARC dissidents were killed in a bombing raid in southern Colombia, the first since former leaders of the group announced a new offensive this week.

On the eve of an important anniversary in Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, authorities arrested dozens of pro-democracy activists.

When it comes to the intricacies of pregnancy, sometimes truth can be stranger than fiction.

How a breakout star of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Leftovers” approaches playing scary characters.