The World: Latest Stories

Catherine Asaro and David Brin discuss how technology shapes sci-fi — and how sci-fi shapes technology.

President Donald Trump's executive order restricting immigrants and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries has put many documented immigrants in a legal limbo — but what about those people who were still in the process of getting their US visas when the ban went into effect?

In Britain, a planned visit from President Donald Trump has been overshadowed by a political fight over whether he should be denied symbolic honors.

In the midst of arguments over Trump's suspension of refugee resettlement, some needy people are still getting in.

Rais Bhuiyan, from Bangladesh, survived a killing spree targeting Muslims in the US days after Sept. 11, 2001. He then tried to save his would-be killer from execution.

Top Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found guilty on Wednesday of embezzlement and given a five-year suspended sentence that threatens to end his bid to challenge President Vladimir Putin in a presidential poll next year.

François Fillon boasted a healthy lead in this year’s French presidential elections but then an article published in late January revealed that his wife had earned more than €900,000 ($963,225) over the course of 12 years — while Fillon was a senator and prime minister — for an assistant job that she appeared never to have actually done.

What could funding cuts mean for the US at the United Nations? A former ambassador explains.

After Eric Trump reportedly ran up the taxpayer bill on a trip to Uruguay, we look at a few properties in South America that were supposed to carry the Trump name. Some still haven't gotten off the grand, and at least one was ditched by the president's company.

Sebastian Gorka's refugee parents escaped from Communist Hungary. Now he's a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, making the case for the immigrant and refugee ban.

Foreign Policy magazine writer and former Pentagon official Rosa Brooks says "alt-right" internet trolls attacked her after she published a column criticizing Donald Trump.

Jörg Möller, a German engineer, is dismantling a plant that his father helped build.

During World War II, an Indian princess and Muslim refugee, Noor Inayat Khan, became an agent for British special operations. She parachuted into Nazi-occupied France to help the resistance. In the end, she made the ultimate sacrifice.

The Israeli press was raising questions about Ivanka Trump's conversion to Judaism. Then, after the US election, Israel's rabbinical authorities changed the rules.

Amnesty International’s new report “Human Slaughterhouse: Mass hangings and extermination at Saydnaya prison, Syria” alleges that Syrian authorities systematically executed as many as 13,500 detainees at one jail outside Damascus from 2011 to 2015, and that the killings are probably still happening.

The executive order signed by the president called for a review of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which was designed to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis and was a major target of Trump’s presidential campaign.

It takes a lot of confidence to write a cookbook covering all aspects of Chinese cuisine. But that's exactly what Kei Lum Chan and his wife have done.

Some of America’s best scientists (think Einstein and Tesla) immigrated here from other countries. We talk with two economists who’ve calculated their impact on American innovation.

Romanians took to the streets for a sixth day of protests even though the government scrapped its controversial decree to shield many politicians from prosecution for corruption.

The Kremlin has asked for an apology from Fox News after host Bill O'Reilly, speaking in a weekend interview with President Donald Trump, stated baldly that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a killer. Trump responded the US has a lot of killers too.

Memories of their country are sometimes triggered by songs. And the memories they bring up can be bittersweet, or sometimes just bitter.

A Boston court was one of the first to restrict the ability of DHS to implement Donald Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees. On Friday, the order lapsed — but soon after another, more far-reaching order was put in place.

Qian Xuesen studied at MIT and then joined the Manhattan Project, the top secret US atomic bomb program. Later, during the McCarthy era, Qian was kicked out of the country after being implicated as a communist sympathizer. Back in China, he went on to become the “father of Chinese rocketry.”

How vulnerable is American infrastructure to the threat of a cyber attack? And what sort of response is proportional?

Vaquitas are found in only one place on Earth: Mexico's Gulf of California. Mexico has been unable, or unwilling, to stop their decline toward extinction. A new legal action is trying to force the US government to step in to save them.

Why is it so hard to figure out how the universe is put together?

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences updates an important policy tool authorities rely on to craft federal rules and regulations aimed at reducing the carbon emissions that 95 percent of scientists blame for the warming planet.

Surviving is not a crime. That's the slogan used by hundreds of undocumented migrants who eke out a living selling trinkets and handbags to tourists on the streets of Barcelona, Spain. Amanda Kersey reports on their burgeoning movement to organize for more rights.

According to one privacy expert, Uber still needs to prove that it’s removed all personally identifying info from the data

The US federal Export-Import Bank finances overseas projects to help sell American goods. A new investigation has found that the bank gave coal, gas and oil projects nearly $34 billion worth of loans and guarantees during President Obama’s tenure.

On Thursday, Yemeni bodega owners in New York declared a strike: They would close for eight hours, from noon to 8 p.m., in protest of Trump's immigration and refugee restrictions.

Oil and mining industries stand to gain as the US backs out of a rule to prevent overseas oil bribery.

Britons are having a tough time shopping for vegetables. Lettuce, broccoli and zucchini are among the greens in short supply — so short that supermarkets are rationing them.

Trump's "dumb deal" comment has put the spotlight on the plight of Australia's refugees. About 2,000 of them are detained in offshore camps and some have been there for years.

Just weeks before French voters head to the polls, the presidential front-runner is fighting for his political life. And the far right's Marine Le Pen is poised to ride a populist wave to power.

Gasem al-Hamad and his family live in California, safe from the war in Syria. But now Hamad's brother is stuck in Jordan because of President Donald Trump's suspension of the US Syrian refugee program. It's unknown when the family may be reunited.

Thirty years ago a new music genre appeared in record stores. But do we even need it anymore?

When NOAA revised upward its historical data of rising sea surface temperatures, some GOP elected officials went berserk. Now, an independent study confirms NOAA's data.

For the past two weeks, President Donald Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders with virtually no involvement from his Cabinet, Congress or federal agencies. Former ambassador and White House official Stuart Eizenstat says Trump's breakneck pace could backfire.

Nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz talks about the challenges that the Trump administration will face.

The Trump administration has put Iran "on notice' after a missile test. But confronting Iran militarily would be challenging. US troops stationed in Iraq would be extremely vulnerable.

Violence in eastern Ukraine is spinning out of control again. Some analysts think Vladimir Putin may be exploiting Donald Trump’s apparent disinterest in the Ukraine conflict.

As more and more migrants head to Paris, the shelters can't keep pace. Recently, the international NGO Doctors Without Borders brought in a mobile clinic to serve homeless migrants in the French capital.

"It plays into the narrative that the United States is against the whole of Islam, and administers collective punishment to Muslims."

“I think when people close their eyes and think of who a scientist is, they don't see a woman,” says Rachel Ignotofsky. Her new book aims to change that.

Scientists from Iran loom large in the history of American innovation, but some Iranian Americans are considering moving elsewhere.

Leo Goldberger was smuggled out of Denmark to Sweden during the Nazi-occupation. He's upset by President Donald Trump's executive order banning travel to the US by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries.

Sarmad Assali, an Orthodox Christian in Allentown, Pennsylvania, supported Donald Trump for president. She was stunned this weekend when his refugee and immigration restrictions meant her relatives were deported back to Damascus.

At a time when they’re feeling under threat, Texas Muslims flocked to the city of Austin this week to take part in the annual Texas Muslim Capitol Day. Huge numbers of supporters turned out too. But some of the conversations between Muslim voters and state lawmakers are difficult ones.