Feed pri-latest-stories The World: Latest Stories

The World: Latest Stories

Link https://www.pri.org/programs/the-world
Feed http://www.pri.org/feed/index.1.rss
Updated 2025-07-18 22:16
A secret sonic weapon in Havana? Scientists say 'no way.'
The Trump administration has cut the US diplomatic presence in Havana in half and warned Americans not to visit Cuba, on the suspicion that a secret sonic weapon is making people sick. But scientists say that’s not possible.
Anchorage is confronting more rapid climate change, but has few dollars to address it
Alaska is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the country. And Anchorage is feeling the impacts of climate change.
There’s no evidence linking the Las Vegas attack to ISIS. So why did the group claim responsibility?
Experts say if no evidence emerges, ISIS will have “blown a mile-wide hole in their credibility.”
When it comes to guns, the US is an outlier
The US tops the list of importers and exporters of weapons designed for individual use, according to research by the Small Arms Survey.
Meet the Nobel Laureate who detected ripples in the fabric of space and time
Weiss and colleagues dreamed up the idea behind a massive antenna so sensitive it detects faint, invisible ripples in space from 1.3 billion years ago - offering evidence of Einstein's theory of general relativity.
In Puerto Rico, Trump praises relief efforts, compares death toll favorably to Katrina's
President Donald Trump shook hands with storm survivors on Puerto Rico Tuesday, during a trip designed to quiet critics who branded his initial response slow and ham-fisted.
How do tensions with the White House impact HBCU diversity?
After a scaled-down annual summit, tensions between the Trump administration and leaders of historically black colleges and universities continue to mount. And some worry it’s their ethnic diversity that could take the biggest hit, a diversity some don’t even know exists.
On the mainland, local officials offer help to Puerto Rico
“I think people like myself in local office,” says Massachusetts state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, “they’re hearing pressure from the local constituencies to ... organize the community.”
The rest of the world really doesn't understand American gun culture
The US has the highest gun ownership rate in the world and high rates of gun violence — far outstripping other developed countries with high gun ownership rates, like Switzerland.
High school is hard enough without having to deal with the loss of DACA
When you're in high school and you're undocumented, it adds a whole new level to the typical teenage stress.
Chronicle of a crackdown on Catalonia's independence vote
Journalist Gerry Hadden offers a firsthand look, from a Barcelona polling center, at Spanish police's violent operations to disrupt the outlawed referendum on Catalan independence.
Another time in history that the US created travel bans — against Italians
In the 1920s, the US demanded that Italy help them vet immigrants. They created barriers for immigrants considered to be a threat — physically, culturally or politically.
US immigration arrests rise — and neighbors sign up to witness ICE operations
Rapid response networks, being replicated in cities across the US, are one neighborhood reaction to President Donald Trump's push to step up deportations.
Dung beetles navigate using the Milky Way and other facts about ‘nature’s recyclers’
You may not envy what dung beetles and carrion beetles dine on, but you live in a world that they help keep clean.
How scientists are piecing together the story of ancient Americans
We know that one of the first migrant groups, known as the Clovis people, lived here around 13,000 years ago. Beyond that, however, many details about these early Americans are still hazy.
Whale deaths may be related to warming seas, researchers say
Northern right whales were hunted to near extinction, but they seem to be hanging on after being protected by the Endangered Species Act. After 13 sudden deaths, scientists wonder whether they face a new man-made threat: climate disruption.
The lab where aging aircraft are dissected for science — and safety
At the Aging Aircraft Lab, planes are taken apart piece by piece to learn more about the ravages of time on various aircraft designs — from cracking, to corrosion, to metal fatigue.
Here’s what Puerto Rico really needs from Donald Trump
"Maybe a little bit less of tweeting about the NFL and more of a humane attitude towards what is being lived here on the island right now."
Tensions heat up before Catalan independence vote
The Spanish government is taking extreme measures to make sure the vote doesn't happen — but Catalans are pushing back with some tactics of their own.
When disaster strikes, it's the US military that's often the most capable responder
There have been questions about the speed with which the Trump administration has moved to deploy the US military after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. "It feels a little bit slow," says one former US Navy admiral.
Gogol Bordello's front man on what it means to be Ukrainian
Ukraine-born Eugene Hutz is the lead singer of the band Gogol Bordello. Although the band is based in New York and Hutz himself has lived there for years, identity and Ukraine help define the band.
Massachusetts's iconic cranberry bogs leave a legacy of environmental damage
Farmers reckon with the environmental costs of an annual Thanksgiving tradition.
In Oaxaca, thousands of aftershocks mean no one's getting much sleep
On Sept. 7, a massive earthquake off of Mexico's southern coast damaged buildings. And then a powerful aftershock a few weeks later finished some of them off. People in the region just want the earth to stop shaking.
Myanmar's critics call Rohingya-only enclaves '21st-century concentration camps'
Communal detention in Sittwe, Myanmar, might not fit the classic model of detention camps, but author Andrea Pitzer says the Rohingya-only enclaves are just as inhumane.
Take two laughs and call me in the morning
Doctors and nurses use gallows humor to get through the day. But when is laughter in medicine OK, and when does it cross the line?
Going to laughter yoga (part one)
Kurt Andersen and Mary Harris, the host of Only Human, check out something called laughter yoga.
This is your brain on laughter
The neuroscientist Sophie Scott says modern science is missing a big part of human experience by ignoring laughter.
Going to laughter yoga (part two)
How does laughter yoga make you feel? And can laughing improve your health?
Chris Gethard gets serious
Comedian Chris Gethard says comedy helped him when he was suffering from depression—but it wasn’t until he got help that his career took off.
The latest victims of extreme weather: grapes and bananas
When northern Peru's agricultural region was hit by back-to-back extreme weather events, fruit production normally bound for the US was decimated.
The 1966 Fulbright hearings on Vietnam parted the curtains on President Johnson's conduct of the war
Fifteen months into Lyndon Johnson's presidency, the country still knew little about the Vietnam War. This changed in February 1966, when Sen. William Fulbright began the first televised, public hearings into the administration's handling of the conflict.
Rohingya in Chicago make an emotional plea to the US: 'Help our people'
Chicago is home to more than 1,000 Rohingya Muslims who have settled there in the last five years. And from over 8,000 miles away from Myanmar, they want their voices to be heard.
The US slashes the number of refugees it will resettle
The United States will reduce the number of refugees it is prepared to welcome for resettlement to only 45,000 over the next year — just over half the figure for 2016, officials said Wednesday.
Saudi women celebrate end of the driving ban
Tuesday was a historic day for women in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom's leader issued a decree that will allow women to drive. It's the culmination of a battle they had fought so hard for, for years.
The federal emergency response in Puerto Rico has been slow, and there's a long way to go
Recovery efforts by FEMA and other US federal government agencies are only getting started. And they're going to take a very long time to complete.
Many countries have a simple, fair tax system. Could the US be next?
The US tax code is notoriously dysfunctional. Meanwhile, countries from New Zealand to Estonia have devised equitable, effective tax structures.
For domestic abuse survivors, finding safety amid natural disasters is 'very complicated'
Women in domestic violence shelters are among the most vulnerable during natural disasters. Without a network of friends and family, they often find themselves wondering how to get out of a storm's path.
How to help Puerto Rico after Maria
Nearly all of the island's 3.4 million residents have seen direct impacts from the storm.
How to speak like an aliebn — no, that's not a typo
When Twitter comedian and author Jonny Sun began to write his book, "everyone's a aliebn when ur a aliebn too," he had to write down the rules of the cutesy grammar of the language he invented.
A nervous Mexico City struggles to recover from the earthquake, while engineers canvass the city for damage
As the death toll rises, engineers inspect buildings that may yet topple with another quake.
What happens if Trump decides to launch a nuclear weapon, and his advisers disagree?
What happens if the US starts to stumble toward nuclear war?
Twitter says it won't take down Trump's tweet to North Korea
North Korean officials say a tweet by President Donald Trump on Saturday was a "clear declaration of war." But Twitter says it won't be taking down Trump's tweet because of its "newsworthiness."
A photographer who made a name shooting Mexico’s ’85 earthquake is now fighting for his life
Wesley Bocxe famously documented Mexico's deadly 1985 earthquake. But 32 years later to the day, another massive earthquake toppled his home.
How Facebook saved a dying mill town
Everything people post on Facebook actually lives somewhere in real life — like a small town in central Oregon decimated by the loss of manufacturing industries.
How the Vietnam War shaped my life and my career
Journalist Mary Kay Magistad grew up thinking about the Vietnam War, and it helped launch her career as an international correspondent. The former World China correspondent and host of Whose Century Is It? talks about how Vietnam shaped her.
Why this DACA recipient won't be extending her protected status, but says others should
About 154,000 people are eligible to renew their status for two more years. But not everyone thinks it's worth it.
Trump's new travel ban 'still smells and looks like a Muslim ban,' activists say
Muslim Americans are responding to President Donald Trump's Travel Ban 3.0. And they're saying that despite the inclusion of two non-Muslim countries, it's a Muslim ban.
In mid-'60s Yugoslavia, mariachi music was really popular
In Cold War Yugoslavia, Mexican mariachi music found a devoted audience.
How a far-right party's nationalistic rhetoric framed the issues in Germany's election
Angela Merkel won, but a far-right party will be at the forefront of German politics for the first time since WWII.
Merkel's party wants to deport migrants to Afghanistan, but this refugee says it's unsafe
A German far-right party won parliamentary seats after campaigning against policies that welcomed refugees. One of those refugees, Ahmad Wali Temory, hopes to preserve the policies that brought Afghans like him to the country.
...164165166167168169170171172173...