The World: Latest Stories

Back in April, Izcan Ordaz’s biggest concerns were getting through the coronavirus pandemic, the state of the US economy and finishing high school virtually. Now, the issue of racial justice is also top of mind.

The Byzantines commissioned it as a Greek Orthodox cathedral. The Ottomans conquered it and turned it into an ornate mosque. Then, secular revolutionaries converted it into a monument to two faiths. Its ownership and usage have become a perennial political debate.

South Africa, home to more than 80% of the world’s rhino population and the epicenter of rhino poaching, has seen a major decline in rhino poaching during the COVID-19 pandemic — a trend that conservationists would love to see continue as the country lifts its restrictions.

For years, mainstream environmental movements around the globe have excluded people of color, who are disproportionately impacted by climate change. Today’s global Black Lives Matter protests have amplified calls for institutions of all kinds — including environmental groups — to challenge and dismantle chronic systemic racism.

In early 2017, stories began emerging on how Chechen authorities were persecuting the LGBTQ community. The World speaks to director David French on his new film, "Welcome to Chechnya," which gives an inside look at the abuse and torture faced by the republic's LGBTQ people and those who try to help them escape.

A new Netflix movie starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams may fill the Eurovision-sized hole in 2020's entertainment world. Now, a song from the film is getting a few authentic covers — from Eurovision contestants themselves.

The Greek government says it wants to make room for asylum-seekers waiting out their applications in camps on the Greek islands and elsewhere. More than 6,000 refugees are at risk of being evicted and that number will keep growing every month.

Wild animals emerged in unusual places after cities worldwide imposed lockdowns to slow the coronavirus. Researchers are calling the change in human activity an "anthropause" — and they're proposing a global effort to study how humans and animals may better share our crowded planet.

Chinese dissident and artist Ai Weiwei speaks to The World's Marco Werman about Bejing's crackdown on Hong Kong. "The world will also abandon Hong Kong. So that is very, very sad story."

A small but growing global community of people who once had DACA are giving up on a country that has struggled to pass comprehensive immigration reform for a generation. They're moving abroad instead.

The number of COVID-19 infections has been on the rise since Iran started to ease its lockdown on April 11. About 11,000 people have died there since the start of the pandemic, according to official numbers.

Beatmaker and producer Karima 2G uses music to speak out against racism in Italy. She advocates for second-generation Italians who are born in Italy, but denied citizenship at birth because their parents were migrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Advocates across the world warn that with the pandemic and economic downturn, there’s an urgent risk that more people will fall prey to human traffickers.

In India, marketing campaigns for skin whitening products emphasize light skin as a positive quality. The products have been endorsed by leading Bollywood celebrities, as well as other youth icons.

David Petraeus, retired US Army general and former CIA chief, says he wasn't surprised by the reports of Russian bounties for coalition forces. He spoke with The World's Marco Werman.

The European Union is set to reopen its borders starting July 1. Right now, the bloc is still deciding who it wants to let in, and it does not look like people from the US will be among them.

Turkey is often cited by the Committee to Protect Journalists as the world’s largest jailer of media personnel in the world, alongside China and Egypt.

A century ago, the Republican Party supported big business and big government.

Human rights advocates say the migrants have little to no recourse, and that the situation is bound to deteriorate further as more people in the country cannot afford to pay domestic workers. The coronavirus restrictions also complicate matters.

The annexation process could start as soon as next week, despite widespread condemnation from Palestinians, US-Arab allies and numerous foreign governments.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum speaks with The World's Marco Werman about the presidential photo-op between the United States' Donald Trump and Poland's Andrzej Duda, and how President Vladimir Putin's efforts at historical revisionism play into security considerations on NATO's eastern flank.

Under a sporadically enforced law in Thailand, it is risky to say anything flattering about alcohol on social media. You can’t hold up a bottle of bourbon in a selfie and grin. Or show off a pint glass with a Heineken logo.

The mental health impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic will be felt for years — especially by young adults. Marlene Herrera, a first-time voter in San Diego, said it's shaping how she'll vote this fall. And when the Black Lives Matter protests began, she finally decided which candidate she'll support.

The ruling says immigrants denied asylum under streamlined proceedings, cannot contest that decision in court.

An exhibit at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid focuses on some of the most important — but largely ignored — women writers of Spain's 16th and 17th centuries.

What do students learn in the classroom about race and history? In the UK, an organization called The Black Curriculum has been pushing for Black history to be taught nationwide.

Nina Jankowicz describes how relocating the Bronze Soldier statue in Tallinn, Estonia, made the country vulnerable to a cyberattack over a decade ago that laid some of the groundwork for Russia's future disinformation campaigns.

Nearly 90% of colleges expect international enrollment to decrease next semester due to the pandemic.

The United States wants to broaden its main nuclear arms control agreement with Russia. The World's Marco Werman speaks with Matthew Bunn, a professor at Havard University, about extending the New START Treaty.

As demonstrations against police brutality and racism continue in the US and in other parts of the world, people who work with police departments to address biases and build ties with communities of color are questioning the effectiveness of their work. The World looks at the San Jose Police Department, which, despite its diversity, was criticized for its response to recent protests.

Earlier this year, the country’s constitutional court nullified the results of its presidential election in May 2019, when incumbent President Peter Mutharika narrowly won another term.

Puccini's "Crisantemi" was played in Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu before an audience of 2,292 plants that filled the venue to capacity.

In 2001, Northern Ireland dismantled its repressive, and mostly Protestant, police force. The idea was to include more Catholics and to make the police more accountable to all of the people they serve after three decades of sectarian violence. Could Northern Ireland serve as a model for change in a deeply divided United States?

War is getting sneakier. And mercenaries could be changing war in ways that the US might not be prepared for.

Kirill Koroteev, a lawyer and the head of international practice at the Agora International Human Rights Group, spoke to The World's host Marco Werman about the case.

Jamaica shares the US’ history of colonialism and slavery, and now has one of the highest rates of fatal police shootings. Activists there are thinking about what the global moment of police accountability could mean for their country.

As Brazil tops 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the country’s Indigenous peoples mourn the death of a historic leader.

Part of the appeal for Chinese urbanites is a peek into life in the countryside. But the promise of a bargain is also a draw.

The Tohono O'odham Nation has been confined to a tiny fraction of the lands it once held in the desert Southwest. Now the Trump administration’s border wall expansion threatens to further damage and restrict their access to sacred and archeological sites.

Almost 30 years after moving to Ghana, Mona Boyd celebrates Juneteenth. This year, Boyd is reflecting on the meaning of Juneteenth in the context of the latest swell of activism against racism in the United States.

Nicholas Burns, a former career foreign service officer, worked with former Trump White House national security adviser John Bolton. Burns spoke to The World’s host Marco Werman about the most disturbing allegations in Bolton's book, which comes out Tuesday.

The aim is to prompt the Syrian president to negotiate an end to the war that has lasted almost a decade.

Author, editor and literary critic John Freeman’s new volume of poetry, “The Park,” explores how the public Luxembourg Gardens can be a refuge and provide access to beauty for some while excluding others.

Out on bail after facing charges of cyber libel, veteran Filipina journalist Maria Ressa tells The World's Marco Werman that working in journalism in the Philippines is "tougher than a war zone" and that this moment is "a battle for the truth."

The guests at Hotel Flamingo in Ciudad Juárez aren't tourists on vacation — they're people who tried to cross into the US but, for a variety of reasons, have been sent back to this border city and need a safe place to stay.

And as the pandemic hit this spring, Michelle Aguilar Ramirez, a young Latina in South Seattle, lost her interest in politics. But the Black Lives Matter protests have reignited her commitment.

Where people received cash payments from the government, there was 30% less deforestation.

Thursday’s much-anticipated ruling ended a yearslong legal battle around how the Trump administration ended the program and provides some relief to the approximately 650,000 DACA recipients in the country.

In the wake of George Floyd's death and the protests in the US, some in the Middle East are highlighting anti-black racism at home.

Eusebius McKaiser, a South African author and political analyst, speaks to The World's host Marco Werman about what the US might learn from South Africa's own reckoning with race and racism.