The World: Latest Stories

Can states change a system controlled by the people in power meant to keep them in power?

Climate disruption can be tough on agriculture, and now there appears to be another danger to staple crops as carbon dioxide levels rise: nutrient loss.

We’ve all heard adults cooing to babies in “baby talk.” Now, researchers are learning more about why we do it.

Dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s is one thing. But mathematician Eugenia Cheng says obsessing over perfection leads to a lot of wasted effort.

“Everybody whose genetic roots are outside Africa are partly descended from Neanderthals,” one geneticist says.

Plants are responding to rising levels of carbon dioxide by performing more photosynthesis and using water more efficiently.

The Sacklers have made billions of dollars off of opioids.

The TSA is requiring airlines to interview passengers heading to the US at check-in and boarding gates all over the world.

John Morales was one of the first TV meteorologists to start talking about how climate change will impact his audience. Intense weather hit close to home this fall, as Hurricane Maria struck his home island of Puerto Rico.

When you walk around New Orleans, you can see the Haitian influence everywhere, from the creole cottages to the jambalaya. And thousands of New Orleanians trace their ancestry back to the island. This connection had one journalist asking, is the feeling mutual?

Forty years ago, the Sex Pistols wasn’t just releasing an album — it was also defining a moment in the culture that lives on in punk and its progeny today.

Researchers studied two species of pine that live at the tree line and found them moving up rather rapidly — with one species leapfrogging another in the competition for new real estate.

Head wrapping goes beyond style for one Detroit anthropologist. It’s also a way to bridge cultures.

The Catalan Parliament approved the region becoming a republic, but the Spanish government is moving to take back control.

A murder on a Portland light rail train brought back a lot of memories of painful times in the city's history.

Macer Gifford gave up a career in London as a currency trader to fight ISIS with Kurdish troops in Syria. He's uncertain what will happen if he heads back to Britain.

Chinese American writer Lenora Chu was delighted when she secured a coveted spot a Shanghai kindergarten for her son. Then came the stress, anxiety and confusion. Chu's new book about China's education system is called "Little Soldiers."

How drive-in movies helped Twyla Tharp become a world-class choreographer.

She gave up ballet, but Yillah Natalie discovered her life’s work in U2’s “Mysterious Ways”: belly dancing.

From History Channel to Dancing with the Stars, Yowei Shaws' parents do the tango.

Ken Laws was in his 40s when he decided to shift his center of gravity.

“An American in Paris” was one of Hollywood’s most famous Golden Age musicals. And then it became an equally impressive Broadway musical.

America leads the world in drug overdose deaths and opioid consumption. And it has a lot to do with the ways prescription painkillers are advertised and regulated in the US compared to other countries.

Oaxaca is moving along with rebuilding after Mexico's worst earthquake of the century. But some are hoping to slow down the process.

Many experts believe renewable energy and distributed microgrids can save costs and be a better solution to extreme weather. Rebuilding Puerto Rico’s energy infrastructure could present an opportunity to make this a reality.

The European Union is also reeling from the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

When Vladimir Putin first took control of Russia, Bill Clinton was the US president. Frontline filmmaker Mike Kirk tells how Putin came to consider the United States an existential threat, how he consolidated his power to confront the US, and why launching a campaign to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election would not have been out of character.

For some people, overstaying their visa was never the plan. Rather, it is the result of one, or several, extenuating circumstances that convince immigrants they cannot or do not want to return to their countries.

Antifa became the buzzword of the summer after racially motivated protests in Charlottesville. But where did this word come from and how did Antifa become a movement in the US? Find out.

Sarah Chayes, a senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says politicians from both sides of the aisle are not taking seriously enough their duty to ensure they're not turning their government role into an opportunity to make a buck.

The Chinese Communist Party just wrapped up its big once-every-five-years political meeting in Beijing. President Xi Jinping was the man of the hour.

“We never have really figured out how to make the idea of the horse as a symbol of freedom, and the practical biology of protecting and yet limiting this horse, work,” says author David Philipps.

“You have a small, untested power company going in to help a desperate, bankrupt utility.”

When you think of the world’s great tea-growing regions, you might think of parts of India, Sri Lanka, China or Kenya. Odds are, though, you don’t think of Pickens, South Carolina, a small, economically-depressed town in Appalachia. But one man in Pickens is on a mission to change that.

When you think of New York wildlife, whales probably aren’t the first animals that come to mind — but they’re native to the waters around the city, and they're back.

Evidence is mounting that Russian trolls working for the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency stoked divisions in the US during the last election, going as far as to contact US-based activists to promote and organize rallies and other actions.

A historian, who lost a son in Iraq, says the White House is putting military officers on a sort of pedestal that doesn't serve democracy.

The reaction to the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Russia has been the opposite of the reaction in Europe and the US.

It's part of fa'asamoa — the Samoan way of life.

Lead singer Nina Osegueda inspires A Sound of Thunder to record a version of the region's anthem.

Farmers in Pennsylvania say the changing climate is changing the future of farming, in ways both good and bad.

Science Friday host Ira Flatow spoke to three nuclear experts to learn more about what modern nuclear war might look like.

A leaked report says Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke wants to shrink or alter some national monuments in order to allow greater commercial use of the land.

The sexual harassment allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein have sparked a global conversation about the issue of harassment in the workplace. We devoted all of Friday's program to this issue.

With Catalonia threatening to declare independence from Spain, we look into the origins of the dispute between Barcelona and Madrid.

The standup comedian reveals his gateway guilty pleasure.

How much time do you spend looking — really looking — at a work of art? Not enough, says Arden Reed.

A deep dive into the most ubiquitous horror movie technique.