The World: Latest Stories

A chef rockets to Instagram fame. And no one cares the chef isn't real.

Last winter was a tough one in Boston. In Stockholm, they kept the trains running on time, all the time. Zero disruptions. So, what's their trick?

The first Latin American pontiff, will visit the extremes of Mexico, north to south, and reflect on migration and the country's problem with cartel-fueled violence.

World powers meeting in Munich have announced a ceasefire plan for Syria. Fighting is supposed to stop in a week. But no Syrians were at the conference, leaving this observer skeptical about the implementation of the deal.

Here's why learning about negative interest rates might be worth your time.

In Iran, you probably think of deserts, perhaps markets, and maybe even the controversial nuclear program. But you should also think of skiing.

Her soulful songs — and her activism — are about the people she sees around her. And her own life as an undocumented immigrant.

She left Darfur when she was a baby but she's been writing about it her whole life. This poetry slam champion reminds us the war there isn't over.

Why scientists who want to know the geology of other planets head to Antarctica

Part of the US' strategy to fight ISIS has been to arm Kurdish opposition forces, including the dominant group PYD. It has close ties to the PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

North Korea's military has taken over Kaesong, the joint North-South industrial zone that's near the volatile border between North and South Korea, and sent South Korean workers packing. It's the latest fallout from poor relations on the Korean peninsula.

If they were, would the presidential candidates be making a different impact on minority voters? This political reporter says they might be more relatable if they weren't both white males, despite being Hispanic.

In the 1970s, young Iranians wanted change. They got it through a revolution. But it's not the kind of change Shahram Aghamir hoped for. Now he lives in the US.

Hundreds of public schools in Brazil have gardens where kids grow their own vegetables. And the schools say it's changing the way kids think about the food they eat.

One hundred years ago, Einstein predicted the existence of gravity waves. Today, for the first time, scientists announced that they've actually been detected. Here's what the discovery might mean for our understanding of the universe.

We remember one of the great singers of Afro-Cuban music. But he wasn't Cuban. "Melón" died on Monday in Mexico City at the age of 85.

The revolution in Iran is still very much alive in its 37th year, but it's as much a study in contrasts as it ever was.

What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be Chinese? And how, as an adopted Chinese daughter of an American Caucasian mother, do you find a balance that works for you? And how did China's one-child policy make that a question faced by tens of thousands of Chinese-born American girls and young women? In search of perspective, Maya Ludtke, 19, traveled back to the town where she was born, meeting girls growing up as she might have, if her parents had kept her.

The Obama administration says its plan to require big cuts in climate pollution from power plants is on firm legal ground. But an unexpected procedural ruling by the Supreme Court suggests a key swing justice could cast a vote to scuttle it.

Professor Robert Bullard is called the father of environmental justice, and he says low-income communities of color often face environmental crises with lagging help from government agencies.

Since time immemorial, the laws of England have been written on vellum; a material made from calfskin, that lasts for thousands of years. Now, as a cost-cutting measure, the UK Parliament in London is switching to parchment paper. But some MPs aren't ready to give it up.

Ghafoor Hussain has kitted out a big bus with a rolling kitchen to supply migrants with a hot meal.

Liberian academic and author Robtel Neajai Pailey says children, with their curiosity and strong sense of right and wrong, are the natural audience for a book about corruption. So she wrote one.

Badiuco is a fake name. But his political cartoons are real and they've rankled Chinese authorities so much that Badiucao exiled himself to Australia so he could continue drawing them.

The murder of a young reporter this week shows why Mexico continues to rank as one of the world’s most dangerous places to report.

Brazil's small farmers can now directly supply the country's school meals programs. It's been a big boost for local farmers, and it's helping the schools too.

Their offenses include publishing exposés and reports on scandals that embarrass the Communist Party. Some of them amount to substantial accounts of abuse. Others are closer to National Inquirer-style tabloid fodder. At the time they disappeared, Lee and Gui, both Hong Kongers, were prepping a salacious book on the Chinese president’s love life.

As scientists have been predicting since 2014, a powerful El Niño in the Pacific ocean is triggering extreme weather events and changes in weather patterns around the world. Some climate scientists are saying the lessons learned from this El Niño could help the world cope with the weather changes we can expect from climate change.

The New Hampshire primaries are over. All of the politicians and national media will pull up stakes and move on. But they're leaving behind a heroin epidemic that continues — and that is finally getting some attention.

Could a Scandinavian-style welfare state work in the US? And what exactly does a “social democracy” look like in Sweden?

President Barack Obama is getting out in front of the fight against the Zika. He's asked Congress for emergency funding to combat the mosquito-borne virus. The money could speed the development of a vaccine, and a much needed diagnostic test for Zika.

The Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary play a key role in every presidential election cycle. Yet these states are remarkable for their comparative lack of diversity. Does that matter?

While they're counting ballots in New Hampshire, here in Tehran they’re counting the finalists at the Fajr Film Festival, with very little attention being directed at that state whose motto "live free or die” might actually be warmly embraced by many Iranians.

The tiny island of Curaçao is home to many e-commerce companies. But a big business is sports gambling. Billions of dollars pass through the country annually.

With no end to the outbreak in sight, Zika has become a part of the five-day celebrations. Mosquito costumes have featured heavily in parades across the country. Health officials handed out paper fans with information about how to avoid the virus. And some pregnant women did what was once unthinkable in a nation known for its celebratory spirit — they stayed home.

"It's of an explorer, and he's sitting on a little bench in Colombia's Amazon. His clothing is worn. His hat is torn. He's barefoot," explains anthropologist Ignacio Prieto. "This image fascinated me."

The new London is an immigrant mega-city where nearly 40 percent were born abroad. This is no longer the city of Dickens. London now is a city of African night cleaners, Filipina maids and Romanian building bosses. A city where immigration has so utterly transformed the fabric that it has changed London’s very soul.

A USC video game creation program enrolls more women than men, and has set out as part of its mission reinventing the culture around gaming from the inside out.

The unconventional career of George Miller includes hit kids' films, a post-apocalyptic series, and medical school

The 28-year-old vanished on the fifth anniversary of the Tahrir Square protests. His body, showing signs of torture, was later found on the outskirts of Cairo in a scenario all too familiar to many Egyptians.

This weekend, North Koreans were alerted to the news that their country had completed another technological triumph: the launch of a satellite. "The fascinating vapor of Juche [self-reliance] satellite trailing in the clear and blue sky in spring of February" was how North Korean TV described the launch. But the official response from Beijing, North Korea’s only ally, was muted.

Back in 1997 Eddie Izzard took the stage in France and did an entire set of stand-up in French. It wasn't funny, he admits, but it was the start of a career goal to do stand-up in as many languages as possible. Eddie comes on the World in Words podcast this week to talk about language learning and translating humor.

After the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and Jewish market, France stationed heavily armed soldiers round-the-clock outside Jewish institutions. “There was enough fire power in my front room here to take out a small village,” according to one rabbi.

More minorities and women are getting into tech — but they're not saying. And that's where the problems start. The story you haven’t heard about why talented people are giving up and dropping out.

A swarm of international political enthusiasts are in New Hampshire for the primary. Willem Post is a Dutch academic who hasn’t missed a Granite State primary since the beginning of the ‘90s. He loves the whole experience and says the excitement, the intimacy and the scenery make the poll in the New Hampshire resemble ‘a fairy tale.’ He also wants Americans to understand the global significance of the vote.

Civilians fleeing a Russian-backed government offensive in Aleppo are turning back from Syria’s border with Turkey as makeshift camps set up to deal with the influx have become overwhelmed.

While touring Cuba with a New Orleans jazz band, musical connections are made amidst dancing in the streets of Havana.

A group of scientists are drilling a hole in the floor of the Indian Ocean. One reason why? They think they might be able to find life in the Earth’s mantle, the layer of Earth immediately beneath the crust.