The World: Latest Stories

Dog rescue volunteers are celebrating their 1,000th Turkish golden retriever airlifted to the US.

Who was Frank Zappa? Virtuoso guitarist? Modernist composer? Smutty lyricist? Anti-censorship activist? All of the above ... and much more in the former East Germany. There, his banned records fetched small fortunes among rebellious young men who dreamed of freedom. This episode of The World in Words podcast spends 30 minutes in the company of one such man who now runs a Zappa-themed festival. We also hear from an American translator who explains Zappa's obscure lyrics to German fans, line by line.

“What this virus has taught is that you can be a researcher, you can design something amazing … and then people don’t use it.” That's the challenge facing medical researchers looking for ways for women to protect themselves from HIV infection.

President Donald Trump issued North Korea with an apocalyptic warning on Tuesday, saying it faced "fire and fury" over its weapons programs, as Pyongyang said it was considering a missile strike near the US territory of Guam.

The US is running out of bomb-sniffing dogs. Would yours make the cut?

A French appeals court increased the sentence against a farmer who has made a point of housing migrants and helping them cross the border from Italy.

It doesn’t help that the South African legal system has been slow to recognize violence against women.

Eastport, Maine, used to be the sardine capital of America. When the industry dried up, the town did, too. But the city still has a big asset: the deepest natural harbor in the continental United States.

The report "directly contradicts claims by President Trump and members of his cabinet who say that the human contribution to climate change is uncertain and that the ability to predict the effects is limited," the New York Times said.

The United States and Japan have been allies and strategic partners since World War II, but an effort to move and expand a Marine Corps base in Okinawa is causing friction with locals.

What happens when a Norwegian director-provocateur brings a Western rock band to North Korea, and films the experience? The result is the new documentary "Liberation Day."

Student journalists in Kenya's sprawling Kibera slum have been covering their country's elections. But on Tuesday, the day of the vote, many residents are leaving. Kibera has gotten violent during the past elections.

Frustrated by slow internet speeds, high costs and limited options, Cubans have created workarounds to get online.

The French capital opened a section of canal for swimming after years of cleanup. Now there's talk of swimming in the Seine some day, maybe even at the 2024 Olympics.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. For 20 years, talk radio shows have been giving advice on how to stop the spread of the virus. But are South Africans listening?

Early Saturday morning, an improvised explosive device went off inside an imam’s office at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Kenyans vote on Tuesday for a new president, and videos with phony CNN and BBC logos have popped up online to sway the elections. People are worried about a contested result and more violence breaking out after the elections, as it did in 2007.

Three recent experiments at particle colliders around the world have turned up results that seem to flout the rules of physics. It may result in finding a new particle.

Manufacturing jobs may have moved to China … but not all of them have stayed there.

Sometimes a sound can capture a historical moment as well as an image or a news article. The Quindar tone is one of them.

Instead of trying to ban people in developing nations from clearing trees on their land, maybe a better option is to pay them to leave the trees standing.

Matt Walsh explains how spontaneity finds its way on screen.

“I believe it is more regenerative for the land and I think it benefits rural economies,” one farmer says.

Thousands of police have been taken off Rio’s streets in the past year, city clinics are closing their doors, and there has been dismal interest in patronizing Rio’s $20 million Olympic golf course — built on an environmental reserve — and the almost completely unsold luxury housing that was once the athlete’s village.

We feature a unique selection of music on The World. This is what you heard this week.

There's been such a huge influx of asylum-seekers — mostly Haitians coming from the US into Canada — that the facilities normally used to house new arrivals have run out of space.

Thailand is about 3,000 miles from North Korea. But for North Koreans seeking to defect from their abusive state into South Korea, it's the closest reachable nation where they can reasonably expect that the government will deliver them to South Korean officials.

Nhlanhla found out she was pregnant when she was just 16. Then she learned that she was also HIV positive. "When you find out you are positive there is no time for pointing fingers," she says.

That long lunch might sound nice but Spaniards are tired of being out of sync with everyone else.

In the past, doctors would perform gender-assignment surgery on intersex babies when they were still newborns. Now, momentum is building to end that practice.

Here’s what one family will do to stay together. We’re following their story.

The US backs one side of the civil war in Yemen. But, as the US Ambassador to Yemen explains, it is also deeply concerned about the humanitarian crisis there, brought on by both sides in the conflict.

Shakespeare buffs, actors and ordinary citizens in England turned out to honor an extraordinary American actor this week. Ira Aldridge came from New York to England in the 1820s and became one of the best Shakespearean actors of his day. He was black and had to overcome intense hostility. Nevertheless, he persisted.

The word “cosmopolitan” has an anti-Semitic history.

The man known as "America's toughest sheriff" will face a maximum penalty of six months in federal prison when he is sentenced in October.

President Donald Trump announced the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy legislation on Wednesday, saying it "would represent the most significant reform to our immigration system in half a century."

It wasn't so long ago that South Africa was seen as the natural leader of its continent, with bright economic prospects and a nascent, post-apartheid democracy. It developed strong trade ties with China, and, in 2010, was named one of the BRICS countries — with Brazil, Russia, India and China, the economies seen by some investors (the term was coined by a Goldman Sachs executive) to be the era's dynamic up-and-comers. But it hasn't quite turned out that way. This year, South Africa dipped into recession, with unemployment near 30 percent. What happened?

Sori Kondi is from Sierra Leone. DJ Chief Boima is from Wisconsin. Together they're the Kondi Band. And their music is a blend of traditional West African music with contemporary electronica.

Britain plans to outlaw the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans starting in 2040. But what are the hurdles to going electric?

Gay sex in Senegal is illegal, but there is the beginnings of a gay rights movement there. Unfortunately, it doesn't include gay women.

The new "Dunkirk" movie may be a hit, but there's a minor stink in Britain and India that the Indian troops have been whitewashed out of the movie. The World fact-checks whether they were indeed there, and discusses why it’s important to move beyond the traditional Western perceptions of World War II.

An incident involving a street food vendor in Los Angeles is intensifying a debate over legalizing street vending in the city.

A group of Afghan women has started a campaign asking for their names to be used in public. According to Afghan tradition, using a woman's real name in public is considered taboo.

Neymar looks set to smash the world record for a transfer fee with Paris Saint-Germain willing to part with 222 million euros ($260 million) to free the Brazilian from his Barcelona contract.

Last year, the federal immigration enforcement agency spent more than $3 billion dealing with immigrants facing deportation. But that figure doesn’t tell the whole story.

American climate scientists are responding to a plea made by French President Emmanuel Macron after President Donald Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

It was supposed to be an off-the-record briefing. But comments from Jared Kushner about the Middle East peace process he's been tasked with are getting some attention.

This July we featured a unique selection of music on The World. Here are a few highlights.

The fates of Central American families seeking asylum in the United States are particularly stark.

South Bend was once a thriving center of industry, but has suffered a 60-year decline. Today, civic leaders are looking to leave their history of manufacturing behind, by literally rebuilding it.