The World: Latest Stories

Oil prices have cratered — and they continue to fall. But this analyst says we may finally have reached the end of cheap oil, with prices back in the triple digits by 2017.

There are mysteries aplenty in David Bowie's song lyrics, Jennifer Tseng's story of love and Noam Chomsky's theory about language. But do we really need to solve these mysteries?

Changes afoot after the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino will make it more difficult for citizens of 38 so-called "friendly" nations to visit America. Some 60 percent of all international travelers who visited the US last year entered via the visa waiver program. Now that program is likely to be tightened.

Angela Merkel has rallied the German public to welcome refugees, saying "We can do this!" But the city of Berlin is struggling to cope with nearly 50,000 newcomers who've arrived in the capital in recent months.

While negotiators from nearly 200 countries tussle over the details of a proposed climate pact in Paris, people from affected communities are straining to have their voices heard. The World's environment editor Peter Thomson spoke with three women from far-flung regions who've gone to Paris to demand strong action.

America has a history of imposing blanket bans on certain types of immigration. In the 1880s it was ethnic Chinese.

It can be hard to measure and define, but there are perhaps tens of millions of people already being displaced by climate change.

France's far-right National Front party is known for its anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim stance. But there is a town in northern France where the National Front mayor has reached out to the Muslim community. And they support him.

Latin America's largest nation is also one of the world's deadliest. And, just like in the US, violence in Brazil disproportionately affects young, non-white men. Now activists are fighting to draw attention to the problem of killings of young black Brazilian men, frequently by police. One of the leading local movements is Amnesty International’s “Jovem Negro Vivo,” meaning “Young Black Alive.”

Journalists Rupa Shenoy and Arun Rath talk about how Aziz Ansari's "Master of None" became a window into their own lives as first-generation Americans.

Valencia College is a community college that stands apart from the crowd. It's raking "geniuses from the coal." Here’s the school's secret.

The H-2 visa program allows US employers to bring in workers from foreign countries if they can't fill the job with an American. But an investigation finds many abuses of the system.

Drones may be best known for their surveillance and military capabilities, but there’s a growing movement to use them for humanitarian aid. Inventor Mark Jacobsen is building drones to deliver humanitarian aid to Syrians stuck inside their war-torn country. But as he’s learning, bureaucracy — combined with public fears about the use of drones — has hamstrung efforts to get that aid anywhere near the Syrian border.

A song calling on Chinese Muslims to "awaken" and "die fighting on the battlefield" has been released by the terrorist group ISIS. The song is sung in Mandarin and is a direct attempt to recruit Chinese Muslims to the terrorist group's cause.

How a "fairly normal" Texas suburb became an international focus of Islamophobia.

Donald Trump has a huge new development in Dubai, along with other real estate deals in the Middle East. Yet on Monday, the presidential candidate suggested the US block Muslims from entering the country.

It's difficult to care about climate change. It's a big, slow moving story. That's why fiction might be the key to solving the crisis. Books are empathy machines. They make us care.

How culturally-sensitive mental health care helped this Somali American teenager stay resilient.

German cops from the national police force have become the first-responders to the ongoing refugee crisis. But the role they’re playing has more to do with customs and humanitarian aid than it does law enforcement.

For the first time in Saudi Arabia's history, women will be allowed to vote in Saturday's local municipal elections. They will also be able to stand as candidates. These are considerable gains for women in the kingdom, yet activists say challenges still remain.

The tragedy in San Bernandino involved two semi-automatic rifles and two handguns, all legally purchased. How easy would it have been to have acquired equivalent weapons in other countries?

Thousands of people and companies lost their land and homes after the success of Castro's Cuban revolution in 1959. That includes the Schechter family, some who are now living in upstate New York.

At the massive global climate summit in Paris, it's all about trying to bring the world together to turn the corner on climate change. But with just days to go, there are still lots of devils in the details.

Several days of protests followed a much delayed indictment of a Chicago police officer accused of gunning down a suspect over a year ago. Now the police chief has been fired and the federal government is coming in to conduct an investigation.

Politics in Venezuela is no longer a contest between a train and a bicycle. Now there are two trains, and the Socialist party and the opposition might be crazy enough now to crash into each other and smash the whole country.

Less than a month after the Paris attacks, France's hard-right Front National party has triumphed in the first round of regional elections. Could it herald a far-right future for French politics?

Not everybody is hoping for an agreement in Paris — Republicans are vowing to scuttle any commitments made by the Obama Administration.

Christmas is a two-day holiday in the United States. Two days. In Latin American countries, the celebration is more like a month. And Baby Jesus owns Santa Claus.

In the wake of the attacks on San Bernardino, we're seeing how Americans are reacting in their own lives, even if they're far removed from the attack.

29-year old Tashfeen Malik was known as a conservative Muslim but not a radical. Yet last Wednesday she joined her husband on an ISIS-inspired mass shooting in San Bernardino. Later that day she herself was killed in a gunfight with police. So how did she become radicalized?

Two years after a horrific and chaotic terrorist incident left 67 dead and hundreds wounded, Nairobi's Westgate Mall is open again for Christmas shoppers. But the rise of ISIS has Kenyan authorities worried about changes among terrorist tactics in East Africa.

As the Justice Department launches an investigation into Chicago's police, Callie Crossley wonders whether the code of silence among officers will ultimately be broken.

Before the Paris attacks, the only place you'd see French people waving the flag would be at an international soccer tournament. Now the French flag is popping up all over.

The Gbolos are believed to be New Jersey’s only African-born farm owners.

​Some see the gold bikini Leia wears in Star Wars Episode III as an icon. Others resent its popularity. Let the debates begin.

A new work of historical fiction tells the story of "The Communist Manifesto" author Friedrich Engels' lover, Lizzie Burns.

Since shortly after World War II, fluoride has been added to water in the US to help strengthen children’s teeth. Today it comes out of the taps in about two-thirds of America’s households. Yet it remains a highly controversial subject.

The Toxic Substances Control Act is getting its first reform since it passed in 1976. Due to loopholes in the law and industry opposition, the EPA has been mostly unsuccessful at regulating dangerous chemicals in the marketplace. Two new bills in the House and Senate aim to change this. But don't hold your breath on their passing.

Here's the story of one high school student's unlikely journey to Paris. Clancy is a 17-year-old who goes to school on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was supposed to go on a school trip to Paris, but that was cancelled after the Paris attacks. But he's decided to go anyway, because he feels climate change is an issue that his generation has to take action on.

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, FBI officials said the attack in San Bernardino was officially being classified as an act of terrorism. New information coming out has refocused the spotlight on Tashfeen Malik, the female suspect in the attack.

Priests in Mexico’s most dangerous areas face increasing threats, while also hearing confessions from drug gang members repenting their murders.

A professor at the University of Pennsylvania is racing to document Philadelphia's unique sign language dialect, and the history behind its origins.

At the Paris climate talks, most everybody is searching for a silver bullet — a technological fix to produce enough clean energy to allow us to continue to grow. Some argue we already have part of the solution: more nuclear energy.

She's all about business — and that's why she sings about it. Kenyan-Norwegian rapper Stella Mwangi on the importance of #OwningIt.

The pawpaw, the largest edible fruit native to the US, is unknown to most people. Yet it has earned a loyal following among those who are familiar with it. A new book peers into the pawpaw’s storied past, how its popularity has grown today, and why it’s not a staple in the produce aisle.

While US government policies bar providing aid to authoritarian states, China has no such restrictions — which has made it a powerful force in parts of Africa the US won't work with.

Students who don’t speak English as their first language rank toward the bottom in almost every measure of academic achievement. Even if their population were to stop rising, the situation signifies a looming hit to the national and regional economies.

Paul Brown has covered global climate talks for nearly a quarter-century. This time he says, "despite years of having the sand thrown in my eyes, I think there is a change of mood. People really want to get on with this thing.”

It can be useful to view the tragic violence in San Bernardino through the lens of other countries. Mexico has just one legal gun shop and strict gun laws. But the country is awash in guns and assault rifles, like those used in the San Bernardino shootings. And South Africa sees more than its fair share of gun violence with rampant crime in cities like Cape Town, but mass shootings are foreign.

Only hours after the British Parliament voted in favor of joining the US-led coalition against ISIS, British fighter jets conducted strikes on oil fields in ISIS-controlled territory. But what will this new addition to the coalition mean for the fight against the group?