The World: Latest Stories

Two human rights advocacy groups have listed hundreds of incidents of human rights violations by immigration officials that include physical violence, verbal abuse and sexual harassment - including some cases that have been fatal.

Britain's National Health Service is known as a model of free health care for UK citizens. But as the public institution celebrates its 75th year, patients face long wait times at doctors' offices and hospitals. Some say the system needs more funding; others argue that either citizens need to pay for at least a part of their care or private companies should play a greater role.

People of faith gathered in Chicago this week to talk about something that doesn't sound very religious. And that's authoritarianism. It wasn't a traditional political rally for a specific candidate. They're taking part in the Parliament of the World's Religions, an interfaith convening that first took place in the late 1800s. People from many different religious traditions took part.

In Colombia's capital city Bogota, pedestrians need to watch out for loose slabs of pavement they can trip over, or wobbly tiles that get their feet wet or splash dirty water on their pants. But some activists have started trying to shame the city into making repairs more quickly by covering the broken spots with pink paint and black Xs.

The tiny Central American country of Costa Rica is known as a green paradise. But climate change is hitting the country in a multitude of ways, including increasing its risk from storms and natural disasters. Nowhere is the shifting planet being felt more than in some of the country's most iconic parks and reserves, where ecosystems are changing rapidly.

This coming school year, high school students in Russia will receive new history textbooks. They offer a rewritten rendition of Russian history that reflects the Kremlin's narrative about the war in Ukraine. The textbooks are part of a wider effort by the state to tighten control over the flow of information.

In 2020, the Korean film "Parasite" made history at the Oscars when it became thefirst non-English language film to win best picture. But before "Parasite," there was a different Korean film occupying the international cinematic landscape: a 2003 movie called "Oldboy." It's being rereleased in theaters on Wednesday for its 20th anniversary.

Odessa bears the scars of a blast that killed everything in its path. That's Odessa, Texas. It was hit by a meteor about 60,000 years ago. Today it is the best-preserved impact crater on Earth. Fulbright scholar Ania Losiak from Poland has been studying the crater, looking for what she describes as the meteor's "murderous behavior" to see how mankind can be prepared for the next one. Mitch Borden, of Marfa Public Radio, met her at the crater to learn more about her work.

Across the world, higher economic growth has seen a rise in women's employment, according to the United Nations. But India is bucking that trend, where educated women are working less in paid positions.

Six months after twin earthquakes devastated southern Turkey and northern Syria, the residents who remain are carving out a life amid the rubble.

Millions of Europeans, especially from Italy and Spain, migrated to Argentina between the 19th and 20th centuries. Their descendants are now reclaiming their rights to return to Europe.

Archeologists and craftspeople are building a village and monastery following, for the first time, the only blueprint that survived the early Middle Ages - a medieval plan for a utopian community sketched on calfskin.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, The World's Marco Werman looks at women who are rocking the mic across the globe. He dives in with Msia Kibona Clark from the department of African Studies at Howard University and host of the "Hip Hop African" podcast.

Fisherman Pennel Ames tossed hundreds of messages in bottles into the ocean off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, asking anyone who found them to write back to him. Two decades later, people are still finding them around the world.

Thirty years ago, war raged in the city of Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia, where Gino Yevdjevich was once a pop artist. In our latest segment of Movement," our series on music and migration, we hear how this conflict changed Gino's life and led him to create the Seattle-based punk band Kultur Shock.

Peru is the world's largest exporter of shark fins, according to the marine protection organization Oceana. The catches are usually sent to Asia, where shark fin soup is a delicacy that can cost about $200 a bowl. This lucrative trade is threatening species of sharks off the coasts of Peru and neighboring Ecuador.

Calling it a humanitarian crisis, Governor Maura Healey has activated the National Guard to support migrants at Joint Base Cape Cod and launched two welcome centers in Boston and Quincy. But the influx of desperate people is so great that families are flooding nonprofits and local hospitals.

Since Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July, its troops have been attacking Ukraine's ports, destroying 220,000 metric tons of grain in the past week alone. But US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the grain deal could be brought back to life.

The iconic East Los Angeles band Los Lobos is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Their blend of rock 'n' roll and traditional Mexican music has stayed consistent over generations. Members of the band, which formed when they were in high school, reflect with The World's host Marco Werman on their staying power.

In order to prevent Russian troops from advancing toward Kyiv, Ukrainian forces destroyed a dam on the Irpin River early on in the war. The flooding, as it turned out, created new wetland areas. Some conservationists hope to see the wetlands stay. Even residents whose cellars remain flooded are glad the water came and the Russian troops did not.

Europe's final victims of a drug scandal dating back more than half a century are finally being compensated. Partially, at least.

Seon Joo Oh, a grandmother in her 60s, teaches Korean cooking classes at the Milwaukee Recreation Department. She says her own grandmother back in South Korea lived to be 105 years old and told her that you're never too old to learn something new. Now she wants to pass that on to her community in the US.

A six-month ceasefire between the Colombian government and the rebel group known as the National Liberation Army began this month. Support for the truce, and ongoing peace talks, could depend on whether the group ceases attacks on civilians that include kidnappings and extortion.

Shells, bombs and hand grenades are still found across Belgium on a daily basis. Every year, a special unit removes over 150 metric tons of unexploded ordnance.

Ukraine is now considered the most heavily mined country in the world. Nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed or injured by landmines and unexploded ordnances since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. And about a third of the country needs to be cleared of these explosives. Much of that land is farmland.

As part of our summer series, "Planet Hip Hop," we take you to South Korea, where hip-hop found its footing in the 1990s.Haekyung Um has written extensively about Korean pop culture and also teaches global popular music and Asian music industries at the University of Liverpool. Shejoined The World's host Marco Werman to talk about the evolution of hip-hop and rap in South Korea.

The Nordic nation is the third-largest exporter of pop music in the world, after the US and the UK. But musicians in Sweden are worried that the country's changing political climate could endanger this great Swedish success story.

Armenians living in Nagorno-Karabakh are seeing shortages in basic necessities and are calling on the US and EU to step in.

A recent survey indicates much less species growth in Germany's Black Forest. Two plant species have gone extinct, and several more will likely disappear in the next 15 years.

Nearly a year and a half into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its impact has been felt most acutely in lost lives, flattened cities and destroyed infrastructure. But the environmental damage from combat has also contaminated Ukraine's soil, water and air, at a cost the government is estimating to be $56 billion. This impact is likely to be one of the longest-lasting legacies of the war, persisting for decades after the fighting stops.

Liberia has been on and off the State Department's human trafficking watch list for years. In this desperately poor country, people accept jobs from agents to work as domestic servants in other countries. Usually, they are trapped, earning little money and subject to abuse. But several hundred Liberian women used social media to escape their traffickers in 2022.

After four years of pandemic shutdowns, the grand Gion Matsuri festival resumed in all its glory this July, with bells, gongs and flutes chiming atop massive floats decked out in lavish tapestries and treasures.

Getting accurate casualty numbers in Russia's war against Ukraine has been very difficult. Now, a team of Russian journalists and researchers are doing the grueling work of counting Russian casualties on their own, using some unusual methods.

Ecuador is in the throes of political turmoil and discrimination against foreigners is on the rise. This is affecting gay and transgender Venezuelans particularly hard.

Dr. Alexander Tenorio is part of a network of doctors in the San Diego area who are on call to receive individuals who attempt to climb over the 18-foot border wall, then fall on the US side where they have to be treated in local hospitals. It's an urgent issue as the border wall is now being raised in many parts from 18 feet to 30 feet.

Unlike conflicts in the past, technology is now allowing third-party observers to document human rights abuses in near-real time thanks to, among other things, low-orbit satellites. The Recorded Future News podcast, "Click Here,"looks at the past and current violence in Darfur, Sudan.

This summer, we are taking you on a global journey to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. In Senegal, hip-hop has evolved from something of a fad, to an influential force for social change.

In our latest installment of Movement," our series on music and migration, Meklit Hadero speaks with Belgian artists Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, who are trying to start difficult conversations through music.

New York City has opened 188 shelters, including several humanitarian relief centers. But with 56,200 migrants currently living there, the shelter population is at an all-time high.

About 5,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Iceland since the start of the war, and continue to do so at a rate of about 200 arrivals per month. The government gives them nearly instant resident status, on humanitarian grounds. It has also created a website in Ukrainian to help them navigate the bureaucracy and culture.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many European countries have been trying to find ways to reduce their dependence on Russian energy. One place they're starting to look is West Africa, where Senegal and Mauritania are capitalizing on recent discoveries of natural gas. But many locals are wondering how much they will benefit from their own country's resources.

Scientists say research into newly found reefs could lead to important conservation efforts

The Moomins are troll-like characters from a Finnish children's book series that became popular around the world starting in the 1950s. But they never really took off in the United States. The author Tove Jansson rejected Walt Disney's offer to buy the brand. Now, a bookstore chain in the US is trying to popularize the Moomins here.

Sweden's gun homicide rate is 2 1/2 times higher than the European average and 75% to 80% of deadly shootings remain unsolved. But local communities and former gang members are working together to find answers and fight back.

More than a year after thousands of Russians who opposed the war fled abroad for safety, they now face deportation and other challenges in the countries that initially received them, such as Kazakhstan, Estonia and Georgia.

Boston is a cradle of American history, and 4 million people a year visit the historic churches, graveyards and parks that make up the Freedom Trail to learn more about the country's origins. But rarely do they hear the underbelly of that story: that slavery touched nearly every aspect of the society and the economy of Massachusetts during that period of time. But that is now changing.

Noam Tsuriely is a 28-year-old Jewish Israeli hip-hop artist from Jerusalem He says he likes to rap in both Hebrew and Arabic to get Israelis and Palestinians to learn both languages, so they can understand each other better. Tsuriely's story is the latest in The World's summer "Planet Hip Hop" series.

The small town of Akureyri, in Iceland, has set itself a big goal: to become the world's first carbon-neutral city by 2030. It hopes that going green can serve as a model for other places.

Some startups throughout the Americas are establishing loans geared towards migrants. Among them is Galgo, which helps migrants buy motorbikes in order to earn money with delivery apps like Uber Eats.

The ban will come into effect in five days, leaving roughly 60,000 women out of work.