The World: Latest Stories

The Somali sengi, commonly called an elephant shrew, had been spotted by locals but not by scientists for at least 50 years — until now.

In L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city bordering Barcelona, rent prices are skyrocketing, and some people face eviction even amid the pandemic.

Taiwan has kept its COVID-19 numbers low compared to other countries: It has seen fewer than 500 cases and seven deaths. Much of that success has been attributed to Taiwan's approach to technology, led by the government's digital minister Audrey Tang.

A fleet of more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels off the coast of the Galápagos Islands poses a danger to the area’s delicate ecosystem, Ecuadorian officials say.

Legislators have been fighting for the museum for decades. Finally, the proposal is making some headway in Congress.

How do we make elections secure? Try paper. Professor J. Alex Halderman, a security expert at the University of Michigan, explains why.

Dozens of domestic workers have been stranded in Lebanon since last week's blast. Many have lost their jobs and homes. They say they have no money for plane tickets back to their countries. The coronavirus pandemic has made the situation even more complicated.

For many Indian Americans, Harris symbolizes the inherent multiculturalism that defines their lives in the US.

Mass protests in Belarus have been met by violent crackdowns after the recent election. Veronika Tsepkalo, who helped create one of the largest expressions of dissent Belarus has seen in years, joined The World's host Marco Werman from Moscow to talk about the latest events.

Kenneth Prewitt, who oversaw the nationwide tally in 2000, says that counting 56 million households amid a pandemic, along with a hurried census deadline, may "result in an unprecedented undercount."

The court battle, known as Climate Case Ireland, is one of many cases around the world of climate activists bringing their own country’s governments to court for insufficient action on climate change.

The video chat app allows a sighted volunteer to help out with reading thermostats, matching outfits or troubleshooting technology.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates look set to establish full normalization of relations. As part of that framework, Israel has agreed to suspend annexation plans in the West Bank.

Are choirs really dangerous in the age of COVID-19? A new study measures the actual number of particles sprayed while singing the classic song "Happy Birthday." Jonathan Reid, a chemistry professor leading the research at Bristol University, speaks to host Marco Werman about the study.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, more than 1,700 families have been thrown out of their homes just in the state of São Paulo, according to the Observatory of Forced Removals at the ABC University.

The US has stepped up efforts to hold China accountable for treatment of ethnic minority Uighurs in the western Xinjiang region, but new evidence shows continued persecution, with celebrities even being targeted.

Martha Samaniego Calderón and her husband, Dan Heiman, decided to self-publish a Spanish-English children’s book called, "Behind My Mask," or "Detrás de Mi Cubrebocas," to encourage children to wear masks and help them process difficult emotions about COVID-19.

In southwest Houston, a Vietnamese American businessman received death threats and a boycott when he put up a bilingual Black Lives Matter billboard.

The COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to cost several trillion US dollars. But a new study suggests that spending just a tiny fraction of that to curb deforestation and the wildlife trade could prevent another costly pandemic.

“It is the biggest natural disaster to my knowledge that we are having in Mauritius,” said Jacqueline Sauzier, a microbiologist who heads Mauritius Marine Conservation Society. The oil spill poses a threat to nearby ecology and wildlife on wetlands and smaller islands.

A sense of belonging — meaning, how society perceives you — along with feeling respected and valued — can be powerful forces to mobilize or discourage voting.

The World Host Marco Werman spoke with Gary Kobinger, who directs the Infectious Disease Research Center at the University of Laval in Quebec City and has worked on a coronavirus vaccine.

The environmental movement in America has deep ties to the nation’s history of systemic racism and white supremacy. Now, as Americans confront racial injustice anew, powerful green groups like the Sierra Club are beginning to reckon with their own histories of hate and exclusion.

COVID-19 lockdowns in East Africa brought air travel to a halt for months. Now, airlines in the region are returning to the air.

“It was like the doors of hell had opened.” That’s how one doctor described the scene at his hospital in Beirut after a massive blast last Tuesday killed more than 150 people and injured thousands of others.

The World's host Marco Werman speaks with Stefania Giannini, the UN's assistant director-general for education about the impact of the coronavirus on schools and students.

In the last 20 years, more than 11 million acres of US farmland have been converted, fragmented or paved over by development projects, according to a new report by the American Farmland Trust.

The Booker Prize-winning novelist was arrested at a political demonstration last week against Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government.

Concerns are growing that the singular focus on COVID-19 is having a secondary impact — threatening years of progress in efforts to slow the spread of other, long-standing communicable diseases.

It will be the first Southeast Asian nation to do so — just as Thailand was the first major nation in the world to let women vote.

A group of five nongovernmental organizations are pressuring the French government to build a special housing facility exclusively for migrant youth as they await legal decisions on their status in the country.

A bedrock conservation law, the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, is the latest environmental regulation rolled back by the Trump administration.

How can women juggle working and parenting during a pandemic?

The massive blast that rocked Beirut in Lebanon on Tuesday left at least 300,000 people without homes. But shortly after the blast, residents started a campaign to offer their homes to those in need.

After a four-month delay, National Hockey League players are back on the ice, bringing social justice movements with them.

The former White House national security adviser tells The World's host Marco Werman that the president is not “very well informed,” which means he “doesn't really see the bigger-picture implications.”

The country's economy is in a downward spiral as the coronavirus continues to spread.

Leaders of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were expected to announce a decision on the matter after a meeting on Aug. 5, but Turkish newspapers reported Tuesday that the gathering has been postponed indefinitely. Turkish women, however, say they will continue to protest.

Given the Black roots of hip-hop, rap, K-pop and other musical genres, BLM is hard to ignore, but artists must straddle all kinds of considerations including restraints on freedom of expression in their respective countries.

With spectators unable to watch live sports in person due to the coronavirus, the cheers and jeers must come from somewhere. Teams, leagues and broadcasters around the world are taking different approaches to provide artificial crowd noise for games.

Ana Tijoux's new song “Pa Qué?” drew inspiration from statements early into the pandemic from politicians like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

Ding Jiaxi had been on a collision course with the Chinese government perhaps ever since 1989 when he was a college junior in Beijing.

Thousands of boda boda drivers have been out of work since March when the Ugandan government suspended most forms of public transportation in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

In previous years, throngs of tourists flocked to Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona. But with hundreds of new outbreaks of the coronavirus in the northeast region of Catalonia, Spain's tourism industry is taking a serious hit.

Information collected from orbiting satellites can tell us a lot about the weather, our changing climate and abundant life on Earth. Thanks to advances in technology, soon we may be able to watch, in real-time, the movements and migration of tiny winged species, including insects.

Patricia Arce, mayor of the Bolivian city of Vinto, has operated under a cloak of fear since November, when a mob attacked her in the street and demanded her resignation in the wake of postelection clashes. But she has held on to her role amid rising human rights abuses under the interim national government.

A UK project is using the hashtag #PortraitsforNHSHeroes to pair health care workers with artists who are painting their portraits as a way to show appreciation for their work during the pandemic.

This year, record rainfall in China caused the longest river, the Yangtze, to overflow, leading to serious damage. But environmental experts say that a range of ecological strategies like tree planting and floodplain restoration over the last decade have helped to mitigate the impact of extreme flooding.

A Russian court sentenced a former US Marine to nine years in prison Thursday over a drunken incident he says he cannot remember. The World’s host Marco Werman spoke to Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia, about what the case means for US-Russia relations.

Ameneh Sharifi was only a few hours old when gunmen stormed the clinic where she was born in May. Her mother died in the attack, but she survived. A doctor and his team worked hard to save her leg. Now the long road to recovery — and justice — begins.