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The World: Latest Stories

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Updated 2025-07-02 13:46
A new book looks at the life, history and legacy of Patient H.M.
For decades after an experimental brain surgery, Henry Molaison was known to the world only as Patient H.M. — the man who could not form new memories.
In physics, failure brings almost as much excitement as success
Scientists have used the Standard Model of particle physics since the 1970s. The model has explained and predicted many properties of our universe. But scientists know other particles exist that will fill in the gaps in our current understanding. Finding them is one of the great challenges of this century.
How Toots Thielemans inspired a champion whistler from the Netherlands
Not long after Toots Thielemans came up with his inspired jazz tune Bluesette in 1961, his style caught the ear of a young Dutch whistler named Geert Chatrou.
China is looking to the US as it builds its first national park system
A hundred years after the US started its National Park Service, China starts building its own nationwide network of conserved places.
Remembering an icon of the French fashion world: Sonia Rykiel dies, age 86
Rykiel will be remembered for upending the fashion world with her sophisticated laid-back chic, iconic bright stripes, fluid fabrics and easy-to-wear yet feminine style.
Daraya, a symbol of the Syrian revolution, surrenders after years of bombs
The last bedraggled and hungry rebel fighters in the Syrian town of Daraya are laying down their arms after being under siege for four years. The government promised them safe passage, but the UN is concerned for their safety. Civilians burned their possessions before being evacuated, and said goodbye to the dead in the cemetery. Few expect to return.
Bombastic decor. A 72-page menu. But it's the food that draws people to this restaurant in Bogota.
It's all about choice and serving the best Colombian food at this restaurant. But the decor? "It’s sort of like the House of Blues meets Disneyland meets Monty Python."
Brazil could impeach Dilma Rousseff by next week
Senators have started the trial over Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment. She’s due to make her defense on Monday, before a final vote begins Tuesday.
Advocates say another privately operated immigration detention center for women and child is the wrong approach
“Sometimes I’d like to imprison the immigration officials, the judge, the president, so that they can endure 19 days in there with their children,” says one woman who was recently released from immigration detention.
Did religion save this Guatemalan town?
Guatemala is reported to be the most evangelical country in the Americas. And, according to the Pew Research Center, it has the highest rate of believers that faith reaps success. Almolonga, a small mountain town, is held up as proof.
Our closest galactic neighbor may also have a habitable planet
The discovery of a planet in the "goldilocks zone" of Proxima Cantauri, the star closest to our own sun, gives new hope to the quest to find life outside our solar system.
Reporting on police brutality is complicated for some minority journalists
The evening of Aug. 13 started out as a reporting assignment for Aaron Mak, a Yale student and intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It turned into a lesson about policing, race and protest in today's America.
North Korea claims it’s now able to nuke the US mainland
North Korea is celebrating the launch of a ballistic missile from a submarine. Regime leader Kim Jong Un says his nuclear weapons can now strike the US mainland. Should Americans be worried?
Sit-down toilets? Meh. In Asia, many say squatting is superior
Suthep, a scruffy Thai day laborer, has a message for all you fancy people who sit down to empty your bowels: "Sitting down on a toilet is weird. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a big butt or a small butt. You’re going to touch the seat. It’s just not clean.”
India's Kerala embraces Fab Labs and an 'Internet of Things' future
From a storied past as spice market and trading hub, India’s southwestern state of Kerala now aims to become a hub for the Internet of Things. It has joined the Fab Lab network, started by MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, and was the first region or state to sign on as a Fab City.
A peace agreement brings a civil war to an end in Colombia
Colombia's government and the FARC rebels have reached a historic peace agreement to end their half-century civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
Why early dating was often confused with prostitution
Dating is a relatively modern concept, little more than 100 years old. But in that time, so much has changed.
Michelin isn't reinventing the wheel, it's reinventing the rubber supply chain
You probably don't think too much about your car tires, until there's a problem. But environmentalists are thinking about them a lot, or rather, the rubber used to make them. Wide swaths of forests are cut down to build rubber plantations. But there's also a business case to be made for not chopping down the forest.
Ukraine marks 25 years of independence and hopes Russia pays attention
The national anthem played. Military forces were out in full force. And the president spoke in defiant tone. Ukraine celebrated 25 years of independence, sending a message to Russia.
Three killer tracks out of Brazil that you missed during the Olympics
Did the Olympics whet your appetite for Brazilian music?
From ramen to sleeping space, the currencies of prisons around the globe
Ramen is the currency of US prisons. But in other prisons around the globe it's a far different and, often times, far worse.
In this traditional Turkish candy shop, a daughter takes her turn
The Old City of Istanbul has long been a man's world. But inside one fifth-generation candy shop, times are changing.
Once-impassable Northwest Passage sees its largest passenger ship
The ice-choked Northwest Passage used to be fit only for fearless adventures. Now, thanks to climate change, a 13-deck luxury cruise ship is sailing right through.
Oh, the phrases you'll hear on the streets of Buenos Aires!
La Gente Anda Diciendo collects phrases overheard in Argentina's capital and turns them into Facebook posts, books and notepads.
Turkey is fighting ISIS in Syria, and blocking US-backed Kurds
Turkish tanks help in move to capture of border town from the Islamic State group. But Turkey also wants to prevent the US-backed Kurdish rebels from advancing.
Death toll rises in Italian quake; 'it's like an apocalypse'
At least 120 people were reported killed and hundreds more injured, trapped or missing from the pre-dawn earthquake.
Teju Cole considers why racism is not someone calling him the 'N' word
Nigerian American writer Teju Cole's new collection of essays is all about the intersection of tough topics — politics, art, race and place.
An MIT lesson in failure helps deliver fresh milk to millions in India
An entrepreneur from MIT took his startup idea to India. Few were impressed. But that disappointment hatched a new idea, and a different pathway for teaching young tech entrepreneurs.
Washington Post finds donations may have secured access to Secretary of State Clinton
Rosalind Helderman found that new emails show a very tight relationship between donors to the Clinton Foundation and the State Department when Hillary Clinton was secretary.
Amid rising refugee tensions, a Syrian expat orchestra gives back
The war in Syria has left Syrian refugees scattered across Europe. Some of those who have fled are musicians. Now, one classically trained Syrian bassist living in the German city of Bremen is trying to bring his countrymen and women together to form an expat orchestra. Catherine Girardeau has our story.
Behold the forgotten spells from the tombs of ancient Serbia!
More than 1,500 years ago, at the height of the Roman Empire, a young woman died. Someone close to her thought she might need some help in the next life. Help from a demon.
Pentagon denies enforcing a no-fly zone in northeast Syria. Kurdish allies say otherwise.
The Pentagon says “It's not a no fly zone.” But a Kurdish rebel commander in northeastern Syria interviewed by PRI said, “The American forces are on the ground. ... We asked our partners to create a no-fly zone. ... They accepted this request.” And he said it's working.
The US Forest Service is being overwhelmed by all the fires it must fight
The agency's budget is now more than 50 percent dedicated to fighting forest fires, which takes away from what the agency could do for preservation and recreation.
2016 may seem remarkable, but history tells a different tale
There are striking similarities between today and the Renaissance era. The good news? Humanity survived the Renaissance.
A year of attacks leaves Paris’ streets emptier than usual
Security fears are keeping visitors away from France, and businesses that serve tourists are feeling the pinch.
Ethiopian runner Feyisa Lilesa stages protest against his country's government
Ethiopia's Feyisa Lilesa marked his silver medal in the Olympic Games men's marathon on Sunday by staging a dramatic protest against his country's government, claiming his life could be in peril.
Gamers want video games at the Olympics already!
Japan's Prime Minster Shinzo Abe dressed as Super Mario during the closing ceremony at the Rio Olympics. Video games are big in his country and around the globe. Gamers say it's well past time video games were included as an Olympic event.
Cameroon's 'Golden Voice' struck gold when he won a green card
Cameroon musician Moken won the green card lottery in 1996. Since his move to the US, he's attended design college in Detroit, launched a line of shoes, and this year released his debut CD, "Chapters of My Life."
One of London's oldest gay bars is pouring its last pint
The bar is over a century old, and has been part of London's gay community since about the 1920s.
What the London Tube looks like past midnight
Since its creation in the 19th century, the London Underground — or Tube — metro system has never been a 24-hour service. That's changing.
Her cathedral: Rediscovering the pulse of her childhood
A French American reporter returns to her hometown in Burgundy and is struck by how medieval bells still dictate the pace of life there.
Rio's Olympic hangover as Tokyo grabs baton for 2020
Rio de Janeiro returned to the cold reality of Brazil's political crisis and recession on Monday after bringing a carnivalesque curtain down on its Olympics festival and passing the torch to Tokyo.
Muslim extremist pleads guilty to 2012 destruction of Timbuktu treasures
The trial of a Malian jihadist charged with war crimes for orchestrating the 2012 destruction of nine Timbuktu mausoleums and a section of a famous mosque, opened on Monday at the International Criminal Court.
This is the controversial plan underway to save the endangered whale-like vaquita
The vaquita is a rare cetacean species that lives in the Gulf of California. And efforts by poachers to catch another endangered fish are also entangling the vaquitas.
BPA exposure is linked to changes in parenting behavior in male mice
Humans today live in a sea of chemicals, and we are just beginning to understand how they affect our health. The endocrine disrupting chemical Bisphenol-A has been linked to physical illnesses like cancer and research from the University of Missouri found that the common substance seems to impair parenting behavior in mice.
There's work to be done to make US elections secure — and it has nothing to do with voter ID
Technology experts are worried the US voting system is vulnerable — and not to voting fraud from lack of voter ID. They're worried about hacking, especially so after recent attack on Democratic Party computer systems.
The physics behind the world’s fastest swim strokes
The world’s fastest swim stroke probably isn't what you think. It's not the crawl, or the breaststroke. It's the "fish kick" — and here's why.
Danny McBride isn’t a jerk — he just plays one on TV
How actor Danny McBride takes the worst traits in characters — meanness, profanity — plays them up, and still convinces you to love them.
Women farmers take center stage in US agriculture
While women are usually the farmers in traditional societies, it’s still a male-dominated business in the US. But women are slowly changing the face of farming in the US, especially by raising and selling home-grown vegetables, flowers, jellies and other farm products.
Underfunded wildlife enforcement in the Pacific Northwest fails to keep up with poachers
Wildlife trafficking is a global problem and the US is not immune. In the Pacific Northwest, a small law enforcement and judicial team polices Washington and Oregon for wildlife infractions, but limited resources, budget woes and loose laws allow poachers to evade penalties.
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