The World: Latest Stories

NASA and high-tech billionaires aren't the only ones who want to get to the red planet.

The Trump administration is contemplating extending a ban on laptops on US-bound flights to all European countries, and that has some aviation security experts scratching their heads.

Amid mounting pressure from European leaders, Facebook and other social media companies are taking steps to combat the spread of fake news.

The coverage of the firing of James Comey as director of the FBI has been extensive, and in some cases, dramatic. Many people are bandying about terms like autocrat, fascist, demagogue, failed state and of course, constitutional crisis. So, we thought it might be useful to define these terms.

The creator of MuslimGirl.com reflects on how "this little thing that I started in my bedroom when I was a teenager has really grown to take on a life of its own."

The nuclear threat from North Korea is a big deal. But in South Korea, some Catholic leaders see a different nuclear problem, right in their own backyard. Catholic clergy are taking the lead in protests against South Korea's dependence on nuclear energy.

"They make me bleed inside every time I talk to them," says Saber Askar, a US citizen from Yemen, with family still in the war-torn country. "I don’t know what to do. Every time I call, I’m afraid they're not going to answer anymore."

It may look like something designed by a mad cartoonist, but it is the actual nose of the star-nosed mole and it is one of the most sensitive organs in the mammalian world.

Trump's shock dismissal of James Comey — the man overseeing federal investigations into suspected Kremlin interference in the 2016 vote — has sparked a political firestorm in Washington and plunged his young presidency in turmoil.

Journalists and academics across the globe see alarming parallels between the US and deeply troubled countries whose leaders go after those who investigate them.

Jeffrey Rosen, a professor of law at George Washington University and president of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, says President Donald Trump was acting within his authority when he dismissed FBI director James Comey.

In 2015, the University of Cambridge offered places to 1,788 male undergraduates. But only 15 of those undergraduates were black.

Our country is at a crossroads, and the right path forward must not include Donald Trump as president.

President Trump fired his FBI Director. Cartoonists: pick up your pencils.

Veterans tell us what they think of a plan that might increase the US presence in Afghanistan.

Café Tacvba puts out its first album in five years, and rock is just one of the ingredients.

During a hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday, it was revealed that both former President Barack Obama and former acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the Trump administration about Gen. Michael Flynn.

The Trump administration's budget eliminates programs that help reduce the risks of lead paint exposure in children, alarming doctors and other public health advocates.

These women vets are sharing their stories for a cartoon book about their time in the service.

This week, The World in Words podcast visits the Moldova Authentic Restaurant in Newton, Massachusetts. Patrick Cox and Nina Porzucki talk with restaurant owners Artur and Sandra Andronic about their mother tongue. Also, what happens if you put a group of monolingual speakers of different languages on a deserted island? Linguist Derek Bickerton was determined to find out.

From June 2015 to June 2016, police arrested more young people in Orange County than Miami-Dade County, where the population is nearly double. Nearly 64 percent of those incarcerated are black boys.

Left-leaning Moon Jae-in won South Korea's presidential election by a landslide.

At 39, the former investment banker will become France's youngest-ever president when he is inaugurated next weekend after crushing far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Sunday.

Another election, another hack. So was this a “fail” for Russia’s propaganda agencies?

Since 2004, Boston University professor Richard Primack and his students have been documenting the same things as Henry David Thoreau did in his book, "Walden."

They had their mother's blessing, but she misses them terribly.

It's been 10 years since Orchestra Baobab's last album. However, one of their key members didn't take part on their new release because he wanted to continue to practice law.

Science gave us penicillin, space travel and computers. But, it also gave us TNT, guns and heroin. Paul Offit tells us about when science goes wrong.

Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran and Honduran migrants are participating in the Caravan of Refugees to advocate for the right to request asylum.

A new law allows internet service providers to mine and sell your internet browsing history. Two privacy experts outline practical steps you can take to help mask your online communications.

They want to get away from the tourists and their iPhone cameras.

Dreams of trade spurred construction of the St Lawrence Seaway, opening the Great Lakes to intercontinental shipping. The Seaway also transformed the lakes' ecosystems, thanks to unintended biological hitch-hikers such as Quagga and Zebra mussels.

For thousands of years, the Heiltsuk people of Canada have passed down a record of surviving the ice age in an area that didn’t freeze over. Now, archaeologists working in the region have uncovered the physical evidence.

The moon has a large liquid ocean and lots of hydrogen — the fuel for microbial life.

Entire villages in Kenya have been receiving a basic income through a charity program, there's a small test initiative in the Netherlands, India is considering it, and Canada is rolling out a basic income pilot program in several cities in Ontario this summer. But it’s Finland that may be the farthest along.

Australia has universal health care, while the US currently has a patchwork system of government-provided, employer-provided and individually purchased plans.

Much of the content was lost in translation — quite literally.

The world's fastest-growing aviation market wants to stop buying foreign-made planes. Or at least not as many.

It's the occupation, stupid. Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Sabaaneh says the Arab-Israeli struggle is not about a particular conflict. It's about the daily humiliations of occupation.

French pollsters have spent the past 15 years working out a strategy to get a more accurate picture of National Front supporters.

The new branch appeared even though winter has come to Antarctica.

Does it really matter who wins the French election? It might matter more who is running Facebook.

Threats to cut US spending on development abroad would impact women and girls. Across Women's Lives has analyzed the numbers.

A Tibetan student won't be allowed to carry her country's flag in a graduation ceremony's parade of flags. UMass Amherst says it's policy. Kalsang Nangpa says it's discrimination.

A search for meaning is underway in China, after generations grew up with the Communist Party destroying temples and churches, persecuting the religious, and telling the young that religion was the opiate of the masses, and counter-revolutionary to boot. Now, with many Chinese feeling that a moral and ethical center is missing from their increasingly materially comfortable lives, a growing number are seeking meaning in religion and spiritual practice. Host Mary Kay Magistad explores why, in conversation with fellow former China correspondents Ian Johnson, author of "The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao," and Jennifer Lin, author of "Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family."

Muna Assaf used to work in public health. But when she went into Besan 101.9 to pitch a radio show, the owner made her station manager.

For Lebanese photographer Fadi BouKaram, visiting all 47 towns and cities in the US named Lebanon is proving to be a challenging, but rewarding task.

BuzzFeed writer Scaachi Koul discusses how white privilege affects her family and how racism is institutionalized in Canada.

President Barack Obama is a superstar in France. French voters even wish he were the one running.

On the floor of this big-box home improvement store in east San Jose, shoppers can interact with a white plastic pillar that is touchscreen-enabled and speaks directly to users.