The World: Latest Stories

The conflict in northern Ethiopia has been marked by what the United Nations calls “extreme brutality,” especially toward women. The UN and human rights organizations have been concerned about “widespread” sexual- and gender-based violence there.

Two years into the pandemic, stimulus money around the world has largely fallen short in transforming the energy economy.

The president of the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland, Muse Bihi Abdi, is in Washington this week. He's making the case for international recognition of Somaliland as an independent country. The World's Halima Gikandi spoke with President Bihi about his objectives on this diplomatic mission.

Last year, control over the holy city of Lalibela went back and forth between the warring parties until federal forces retook it in December. To date, the city still lacks electricity and running water as residents attempt to return to daily life.

More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine in the violence of the past three weeks. At the same time, a smaller, more privileged migration route is emerging in eastern cities like Istanbul.

When the pandemic hit his home city of Istanbul, Ahmet Faruk picked up an old passion: drawing. He wandered around the city, looking for forgotten, underappreciated buildings. Then, he brought them to life on the pages of his sketchbook. Lately, he has been focusing on Islamic architecture, specifically, mosque domes and minarets.

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor joined The World's host Marco Werman to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's emotional speech to US Congress and the American response so far to Russia's invasion into Ukraine.

The library’s reopening on Feb. 19 represents a significant milestone in the return of arts and literature to a city whose culture became a target of the militants.

It's a situation that many Ukrainians with families watching Russian state media propaganda are finding themselves in — trying to share the painful reality of war in Ukraine with their loved ones in Russia, who may or may not believe them.

Zin Mar Aung is the minister of foreign affairs for Myanmar's revolutionary National Unity Government. She spoke to The World about her government’s quest for recognition, no-fly zones and parallels between Myanmar and Ukraine.

Many Russian expats are appalled by the war in Ukraine. Some are even speaking out. But many say they're also experiencing verbal abuse and hate speech as the war in Ukraine continues.

With nice warm weather and no predators, the hippos have flourished. But they're seen as a threat to people and the environment.

Climate change could be disastrous for human civilization, warns a new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

For the more than 17,000 Ukrainians who have applied for UK visas under the Ukrainian Family Scheme, the application process has created a bottleneck in Calais.

Ethiopia’s federal government has mobilized FANO, an Amhara militia group,glad since the fighting broke out in November 2020 in Tigray.

African and Latin American countries have been struggling to control inflation rates during the pandemic. The war in Ukraine threatens to increase food prices even more and make hunger in some countries worse.

Thousands of tourists from Ukraine and Russia are stuck in popular destinations around the world as many countries suspended air traffic with Russia or banned Russian aircrafts from flying over its territory.

In the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and on the east of the country, museums and churches have already been targeted as Moscow escalates its bombardment of civilian areas. Meanwhile, the residents of Lviv race to ensure their city does not suffer the same fate.

The ongoing drought in South America has led to wildfires in wetlands that are typically wet enough to avoid them. Firefighters now have them largely under control in northern Argentina, but with climate change, and the cattle industry, wildfires are increasingly expected to be a threat to nature and wildlife in the region.

In the Ukrainian city of Odessa, fears of an attack there have led thousands to flee across the border.

Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a historian and a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, has been following Griner's case closely. She joined The World's Marco Werman to discuss the risks that Griner now faces in Russian detention.

While fighting has lulled in Amhara since December after federal forces pushed out the TPLF, the region is still struggling to recover. To date, many areas still don’t have electricity, running water, or adequate food.

The western city of Lviv is regarded as one of the safest parts of Ukraine, at least for now. On the first day of the invasion, an airport 80 miles southeast to Lviv was bombed by Russian forces but no fighting has occurred in the city itself.

Though Poland has taken in the bulk of refugees, two of Europe’s poorest nations — Romania and Moldova — have accepted more than 160,000 people so far.

A no-fly zone would basically commit NATO to shoot down all Russian planes that violate the airspace within the no-fly zone, explained Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Europe Center. "And a no-fly zone can't just be established, it has to be enforced," Rizzo told The World.

In 2006, finding a live Fréderic Chopin concert in Warsaw was harder than expected. American pianist Pamela Howland made it her life’s mission to revive Chopin in Warsaw, Poland, the composer’s hometown.

For nearly 40 days, telecommunications were extremely limited across the small Pacific island nation of Tonga, after a volcanic eruption displaced and cut an underwater fiber optic cable.

Atomic safety experts say that a war fought amid nuclear reactors represents an unprecedented and highly dangerous situation. Henry Sokolski, the executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, talked with The World's Carol Hills about the risks.

Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who worked in the White House as the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, joined The World's host Carol Hills to discuss the current outlook and specific military strategies used by both Ukraine and Russia.

At a rally in Toronto to protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many Ukrainian Canadians said they are keeping close track of their relatives back home.

Russia has carried out airstrikes in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad since 2015. Some Syrians say the world turned a blind eye to Russia’s actions in Syria and that it emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While thousands of people are fleeing Ukraine, others are headed in the opposite direction — back home.

While several European countries have welcomed Ukrainian refugees, the reception and treatment of refugees trying to reach Europe from the Middle East and Africa is quite different. H.A. Hellyer, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says implicit bias creates this double standard.

Katia Glod, a fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, joined The World's host Marco Werman to talk about Belarus' role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ghana is one of a handful of countries to launch a national plastic pollution plan backed by the World Economic Forum and the United Nations Development Program.

Russia currently supplies about 40% of Europe's natural gas. Gregory Brew, who studies energy policy at Yale University, says that the Russian invasion into Ukraine has triggered "a crisis in longterm European energy security."

A lack of fresh water has plagued the Comcáac people of northern Mexico for generations. There’s new hope in desalination plants, but some worry about its impact on marine life.

Agnieszka Kosowicz, president and founder of the Polish Migration Forum, spoke to The World's host Marco Werman from Warsaw about the influx of refugees from neighboring Ukraine amid the Russian invasion there.

The past two days in Ukraine have been a blur of bomb shelters, evacuations and excruciating decisions. But what does the war look like from Russia?

The Colombian government has revoked national IDs belonging to 43,000 Venezuelan immigrants, following a sweep to root out fraudulent citizenship. Those who applied for citizenship with documents deemed insufficient now face bureaucratic, social and legal hurdles — and possible deportation.

Rachel Ziemba, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, has studied sanctions against Russia and weighs about it with The World's host Marco Werman.

Former conscripts say the Guard’s listing as a foreign terrorist organization unfairly prevents them from being with their families in the US.

With the upcoming election in May, it can sometimes feel like a “circus” of huge, enthusiastic crowds, awe-inspiring performances and, of course, catchy, upbeat jingles.

Wildfires have been raging in Patagonia, on the tip of South America, where until recently fires were rare — an unwelcome sign of things to come, scientists say.

In a rare case, an Ethiopian domestic worker in Lebanon is taking her former employer and the agency that hired her to court over accusations of slavery and slave trading. The woman, identified as M.H., alleges that she was underpaid, locked up and assaulted over several years. Activists are hoping it will help change the worker sponsorship program in Lebanon.

​​​​​​​Ahmad Naem Wakili, who worked as a judge in Afghanistan, landed in Arizona after getting evacuated from the country last August. But a bureaucratic quagmire is still keeping his wife and daughter abroad. Thousands of others face a similar legal limbo.

At first, sailors with the US 6th Fleet brought in a flair of modernity and freedom. Over time, public opinion toward their influence in Spain changed.

“Don’t Look Up,” Adam McKay’s latest feature film, uses humor and the metaphor of an impending, Earth-obliterating comet to satirize the ideological denial of climate change.

In Ghana, coffin makers have elevated death into an art form, building fantasy coffins despite some raised eyebrows at this uncommon profession.

Scientists say the massive Humboldt squid is a prime example of animal adaptation in the face of climate change. But it’s proven harder for local fishing communities who depended on the once-abundant squid to adjust.