The World: Latest Stories

We live today in the age of digital data. Your photos, your documents and more are stored in the cloud, thumb drives, laptops and tablets. But, surprisingly, we might be in more danger of one day losing our data than we were in the past.

Much of the world's recycling gets shipped to China for processing. But starting Jan. 1, China is enacting much tougher standards for the purity of recycling imports, standards most American, and European, recyclers simply can't meet. And that has recycling piling up throughout the United States.

Ten people were killed overnight in the violence during protests in Iran, local media reported on Monday, while President Hassan Rouhani said the Iranian people would respond to "rioters and lawbreakers."

The potentially harmful effects of cellphones have been analyzed for years, with no conclusive evidence one way or the other thus far.

“The fossil fuel industry, which has been an awful good business for the last 200 years, isn't a good business going forward. And the smart money is heading for the exits now,” says environmentalist Bill McKibben.

High cost and a limited range have been discouraging factors for people interested in purchasing an electric vehicle. But that's changing quickly.

Going for a jog or even a long walk outdoors has well-known benefits to our health. But research suggests that, even without much physical activity, just stepping into the natural world can enhance well-being. Now some doctors are starting to prescribe time outdoors for their patients.

North Korea has nuclear weapons, and missile systems to deliver them to the continental United States. North Korea says these are defensive. But the Trump administration sees them as a threat, and is reviewing "all options." What are the risks of war in northeast Asia in 2018?

Frigid temperatures across North America don’t mean that the globe isn’t warming.

Despite numerous examples of the game's former stars entering politics, Weah is the first former player to succeed in being elected head of his country.

My grandparents moved to the United States from Russia in 2013. This year, I sat down with them to ask about how they celebrated the New Year back home.

More than half of selfies uploaded on Chinese social media are believed to have been edited using apps created by Meitu. The Chinese company has been around for just about a decade, but some say its products are changing beauty standards in China.

The end of the year seems like a good time to review what we really know about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Who was Mary Webster and why did Margaret Atwood dedicate "The Handmaid’s Tale" to her?

One brave critic not only defends, but praises, “The Godfather: Part III.”

Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker on how she cut Martin Scorsese’s passion project, “Silence.”

Yewande Omotoso on apartheid, architecture and her novel, "The Woman Next Door."

More than 40 people were killed and dozens wounded in a suicide blast targeting Shiites in Kabul Thursday. The Sunni Islamic State group (IS) claimed responsibility for the gruesome assault on the pro-Iranian Tabayan cultural center, the third deadly attack it has claimed in the Afghan capital this month.

Former residents of Northview Heights in Pittsburgh remember marching bands and days at the recreation center. But that was before shootings and drugs became commonplace for some 1,600 residents of the public housing project.

Homeland Security has long been looking to expand its operations beyond US borders. Some countries have pushed back, stating concerns about possible civil rights violations; others are still debating.

Syria has allowed a group of about 30 people to be evacuated from the besieged district of Ghouta, near the Syrian capital of Damascus. The group included children with curable forms of cancer and spurred talk of possible future evacuations.

Finland has a law on the books that allows street harassers to be fined on the spot. But it's not as comprehensive as you might think.

Two-time world chess champion Anna Muzychuk says she is boycotting the next world championship tournament because it's being held in Saudi Arabia, where women's rights are severely restricted. The Ukrainian is giving up her chance to win record prize money and the chance to defend her title because she doesn't want to feel like a "secondary creature."

President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall has outraged and stuck fear across Mexico. Now the anti-immigrant rhetoric of one municipal president in the Mexican state of Oaxaca has drawn comparisons to the US president. They call him El Trump Oaxaqueño — the Oaxacan Trump.

Ten years after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the first woman to lead a Muslim nation, was killed in Rawalpindi the unanswered questions about her assassination still fuel conspiracy theories.

'Tis the season for garish holiday displays. But outdoor lighting is a year-long phenomenon, and it might be having unintended consequences.

The Russian disinformation threat dates back decades. But according to a new report by The Washington Post, US officials have failed to effectively respond to it.

The US military is closing its Yongsan military base in the South Korean capital. For people who grew up around the base, it was where they learned about American music, culture and food. But it's also leaving behind environmental problems.

There was a lot of great music released in 2017. The World host Marco Werman, director April Peavey and FutureFolk producer Brandi Fullwood all picked some of their favorite albums.

Russia on Tuesday rejected concerns that the decision to bar opposition leader Alexei Navalny from running against President Vladimir Putin in a March election could undermine the vote's legitimacy.

The Noh family fled Iraq when ISIS invaded in 2014. After crossing the Mediterranean in a rubber dinghy, they reached the Greek island of Lesbos, and then mainland Europe. After receiving asylum in France, they are building a new life in a unfamiliar place.

As Assumption Abbey’s monks grew old and few, they found few young Americans willing to take up the cloth. So they looked abroad.

On Sunday, the president of Peru pardoned the former leader Alberto Fujimori. Critics are calling it a quid pro quo.

Have you ever heard the Finnish word for “the feeling when you are going to get drunk home alone in your underwear with no intention of going out”?

The reason why some people of Caribbean descent enjoy a Jewish staple over the holidays.

Brain Pickings founder Maria Popova and Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Blum join Ira Flatow to run down the year’s best science books.

A tiny invasive bug loves the cane that grows along the mouth of the Mississippi River. Can it be stopped?

Science Friday’s Xochitl Garcia rounded up the coolest books for young scientists ages 0 to 11.

The Trump administration's Justice Department is trying to halt a lawsuit brought by a group of young people alleging the US government violates their constitutional rights by not acting on climate change.

If you're traveling abroad from a US airport this holiday season, you may have to go through a new type of security check: a facial scan.

It took pressure, and lots of it, to get Iranian cartoonist known as "Eaten Fish" out of the Australian-run detention camp and it was social media that started the domino of pressure and activism that finally freed him.

Many people look at a Christmas tree and don’t see much religious meaning. But the history of the Tannenbaum, as they call it in Germany, says otherwise.

For the past 13 years, every Christmas I have looked in confusion as my non-Christian friends head to Christmas tree lots in search of a Christmas tree to bring home. This year, for the first time, I wanted to find out what it was like.

The Kenya-born Harvard scholar Calestous Juma saw innovations and opportunities bubbling up in African economies where others saw only poverty and despair.

The Old Masters in Italian museums pull in the crowds. And those waiting in long lines to see them rattle off their names: Michelangelo, Botticelli, da Vinci, Raphael, Titian. But if you ask them to name women artists from the Renaissance, most have trouble even coming up with one name.

Cuba leans on cheaper home visits and health surveys to catch health problems early on. Could this approach help parts of Chicago, where nearly 15 babies per 1,000 do not reach their first birthday?

Most Puerto Ricans don't have a Christmas tree or ingredients for their favorite holiday dishes this year. But many are determined to mark the holiday in high spirits.

Britain's movie theaters are becoming more and more popular with both those who suffer from dementia and their caregivers.

US President Donald Trump says the GOP tax bill will be a "big, beautiful Christmas present" to Americans. But some worry about the effects it could have on Puerto Rico's economy.