The World: Latest Stories

As sea level rises, scientists say storm surges combined with high tide will put more and more of downtown Boston at risk of flooding.

Speakers are asked to avoid controversial subjects like politics, religion and race, and so far Toastmasters Ramallah has followed the custom. But it's getting harder to do that, members say.

As the days get shorter, dusk is coming earlier and earlier. And it reminds me of a French expression that describes that ephemeral time of day.

Experimental vocal group Roomful of Teeth performs live in our studio.

Author Mira T. Lee reads from her debut novel, “Everything Here is Beautiful.”

Are we approaching the comedy singularity?

Once prohibited from active duty, Ukraine's female officers are done being a novelty and are hoping to change the public perception of the police force in Kiev.

Gun rights activist Cody Wilson’s harnessing of computer technology and his self-proclaimed radical ideology have added a new, unpredictable dimension to America’s struggle to reduce gun violence.

China is slapping retaliatory tariffs on American crops, like soy and corn, and prices have fallen sharply. President Donald Trump has called on farmers to be patient and patriotic. How far are farmers in Illinois, America's No. 1 soy state, willing to go?

Joy, whose name has been changed for this story, already tried leaving Nigeria once. It was 2005, when she was 22. A friend of the family offered her a job working as a nanny in Italy. Joy was thrilled to get the offer — she already had two children, and her young family needed the money.

Australian musician Tash Sultana's forthcoming LP, "Flow State," is the next musical step for the former busker. Sultana describes what it's like being in a flow state and why she's greedy when it comes to genres.

The San Diego school district worked with a Muslim organization after Muslim students said they were bullied. A group of parents sued, saying the school district singled out Muslim students as a special religious group.

Author Jean Guerrero crisscrosses the Mexican-American border, as she struggles to understand her father’s diagnosis of schizophrenia and his fascination with mysticism and his Mexican roots.

Boston Medical Center, a major trauma center and teaching hospital, is reimagining what it means to care for patients with a new rooftop agriculture project.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh has consistently ruled against the EPA's authority to regulate pollutants and toxic chemicals.

Watching the historic summit in June with Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea expert Andrei Lankov says he was not very hopeful about Kim giving up his country's nuclear weapons. But he says there are still opportunities for success.

Women are barred from entering sumo rings because they're considered sacred spaces. A female mayor who can't open a sumo competition in her city is now working with other female mayors to change the practice.

Are kids with imaginary friends more creative?

How did a German streetwalker become the All-American Girl?

The Frisbee wasn’t invented by a toy company. It came from a baker in the 1870s.

The history — and future — of playgrounds.

Post-deportation, two parents now back in Mexico parent long-distance, checking in with their children daily on everything from what's for breakfast to schoolwork to paying the mortgage.

An Iraqi refugee tries to stay in Finland, but faces unexpected obstacles.

Many one-industry towns have shriveled up and died in recent decades. But not Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

As a teenager, Carina Hoang and her siblings were left on a desert island in Indonesia when they fled Vietnam. Dozens died and were buried in shallow graves marked with stones. She has helped more than 15 families find their loved ones — but this will be her last trip.

Men between 18 and 42 are forced to serve in Syria’s army. After years of living in exile, some are willing to return to be home again.

Sousou is from Sweden. Maher Cissoko, her husband, is from Senegal. It was the kora that brought them together. And now, 10 years and two kids later, they've released a new album called "Made of Music."

The former president of the German football league called the resignation "a major setback for integration efforts beyond football in our country."

Many New Yorkers may not know David Hosack's name, but they wouldn't recognize their city without the public institutions he founded or influenced.

After years of having difficulty passing legislation relating to greenhouse gas emissions, a group consisting of both Democrats and Republicans believe they have a plan that can make their constituents happy.

Those who have watched over the Montreal Protocol since its formation have never had to take significant measures to enforce it — until now.

Some Americans think major flooding will not affect the country until decades from now. A recent report says major implications may be arriving much sooner.

Across America, millions of high school kids take Advanced Placement classes every year to prep for an exam that could get them college credit. In May, the nonprofit company that runs AP decided to change its world history class, to skip pre-colonial history. In this political climate, that was especially controversial.

An anonymous satirist has created four characters who speak to the tragedy of Syria.

A new report confirming prisoner abuses in southern Yemen is amping up concern in Washington, DC. "It's just going to further radicalize the Yemeni people," Senator Chris Murphy says.

Byproducts from coal-fired power plants and metal production can help lower the carbon footprint of concrete production.

Sand can seem like the most abundant and inexhaustible thing on Earth. But a global building boom is gobbling up sand — and destroying vital ecosystems around the world — for concrete and landfill.

Bassem Youssef was once called the "Jon Stewart of Egypt." Now the comedian is looking for American fans.

The iconic 1960s protest singer says she feels it's time to "stop whining about it."

What Queen Bey’s music can teach us about scripture — and vice versa.

Casey Trela watches movies for a living.

Cleveland welcomes more than 100 global artists into 28 venues for an ambitious city-wide art takeover.

Sawan Dutta has done music for television and stage shows, but the world knows her as Bengali Aunty.

There's a serious word that's been thrown around a lot since Donald Trump held a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday. It's the word "treason." The thing is, Trump is not guilty of treason as the US Constitution defines the term.

A defense contractor that held immigrant children overnight in a Phoenix office building operates a second office nearby where a neighbor has seen immigrant children bathing themselves in bathroom sinks.

In eastern Ukraine, it's often women who lead families to new homes for safety while their husbands stay behind.

Precision engineering makes the modern world go round. Author Simon Winchester explains why that wasn’t always the case.

Big business is good for employees and good for the environment. That’s not a marketing ploy— it’s what the data say.

Catholic bishops on Saturday secured the release of dozens of Nicaraguan student protesters trapped overnight inside in a church under a hail of gunfire from armed pro-government supporters, who killed at least one person inside, a human rights group said.