The World: Latest Stories

Mexicans are celebrating "Dia de Muertos," an annual holiday where families honor deceased ancestors. One popular character always shows up: La Catrina, a fancy skeleton lady wearing an elegant dress and a flowered hat. Last year, The World's Tibisay Zea went to a big parade in Mexico City, to get the story behind La Catrina's starring role in the seasonal festivities.

Some Halloween costumes transform ordinary people into fantasy characters. But a social media trend in Japan has people trying instead to capture mundane situations from everyday life. So, instead of "princess" or "two-headed monster" you could be "person standing in line at the security checkpoint of an airport" or "man who keeps getting mistaken for a store employee." The World's Host Carolyn Beeler has more.

In many ways, Koichi Kitabatake is just like any other runner preparing for Sunday's New York City Marathon: He's nervous for the big race but plans to draw energy from crowds of spectators to keep pace. At 91 years old, though, the Japanese runner is the oldest of all 55,000 runners registered for this year's race. The World's Bianca Hillier has his story.

The announcement came yesterday: Prince Andrew will no longer be "prince." He's now Andrew Mountbatten Windsor. The decision came in response to mounting allegations of sexual predation, and ties to American sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry speaks with Host Carolyn Beeler about the significance of this moment, for the Royal family, as well as for survivors and their families.

Exit polls show a center-left party gaining ground in the Netherlands' national elections. That's a setback for the far-right party of Geert Wilders, who expected a decisive win. But Sarah de Lange, a professor of Dutch politics at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University, tells The World's Host Carolyn Beeler that Dutch voters who support the extreme right have not returned to the mainstream.

Weather balloons carrying boxes of smuggled cigarettes have been disrupting flights in Lithuania. The situation has escalated dramatically over the past week, and the government in Vilnius has announced plans to close Lithuania's border with Belarus. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry has more.

US military forces operating in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have carried out more than a dozen strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats. The strikes, which began in September, have killed nearly 60 people so far. Trump administration officials have offered scant legal justification for these attacks. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler catch you up on news headlines you might have missed.

The Blue Jays lead the LA Dodgers 3-2 in this year's World Series. The baseball games themselves are spectacular, but they also gain momentum from world politics, as the Jays play against the backdrop of rising tensions between Canada and the US. Lee-Anne Goodman is an editor at The Conversation, and also a Blue Jays fan. She joined The World's Host Marco Werman to talk about the significance of the series for Canadians.

In Rio de Janeiro, residents of the favelas of Penha and Alemao are reeling after Brazil's deadliest police raid in decades left more than 130 people dead. The operation, aimed at leaders of the Red Command gang, turned the neighborhoods into a war zone. Governor Claudio Castro defended the raid as a hard blow against crime," but human rights groups call it a massacre - and residents say it shows how little has changed in Rio's security policy. The World's Tibisay Zea reports.

US President Donald Trump met with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, today. Both leaders sounded optimistic about cooling trade tensions between the world's two largest economies. Trump called the meeting a "12 out of 10." Nothing has been set in stone, but Trump said tariffs will go down, and China will sell the US rare earth mineralsand buy US soybeans. The World's Jeremy Siegel reports from Hong Kong.

The independent news network Radio Free Asia will begin closing down its operations on Friday. It's one of several US government-funded international broadcasters that the Trump administration wants to dismantle. The winners in this scenario are authoritarian leaders in Asia who don't tolerate a free press or freedom of expression.

The nation currently known as Turkey sits where Europe meets Asia. That land was once known to Europeans as part of the Levant. National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek walked across Turkey on foot in 2014. He looks back on the experience of traversing that ground, in conversation with Host Carolyn Beeler.

Sea monsters like the Kraken, serpents or the Loch Ness monster may be just in our imagination, but across history, these stories have roots in reality. Today, we still like to exaggerate and tell stories about the very real creatures that live in the deep sea, beyond the reach of sunlight. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler toured an exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History with marine scientist Peter Girguis, to understand this spectrum of imagination and reality.

Israeli forces carried out attacks inside Gaza on Tuesday night, killing at least a hundred people, according to Gaza health officials. The strikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a powerful response" to what he called a breach of the ceasefire agreement by Hamas. Netanyahu said the group killed an Israeli soldier and is deliberately delaying handing over the remains of Israeli hostages. Hamas denied the accusations, saying that the attackers are not under its control and that the remains are difficult and time consuming to collect given the conditions on the ground in Gaza. The World's Shirin Jaafari reports.

In its most comprehensive report on climate change and health to date, the Lancet Countdown study found that rising temperatures cause an average of one death per minute. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler spoke with Maria Walawender, Lancet Countdown Research Fellow, about the details of the report.

In the early 1900s, Lower Manhattan was home to Little Syria, then the epicenter of the Arabic-speaking community in the US. But today, most people have never heard of it. Syrian American rapper and poet Omar Offendum aims to change that with his hip-hop musical "Little Syria." Meklit Hadero, host of the "Movement podcast," talked with Offendum about the project.

Today in Jamaica, people are picking up the pieces after the strongest storm seen on Earth - and the strongest hurricane in Jamaica's history - thrashed the island. Hurricane Melissa has now moved over Cuba. The World's Marco Werman heard about the damage done from Evan Thompson, director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica in Kingston.

The border between Lithuania and Belarus will stay closed for a month, the government in Lithuania decided today. Host Marco Werman explains.

Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler bring you some stories that may not have caught your eye.

During the height of its heroin crisis in the 1980s, the Netherlands chose a third way" to respond to drug use - neither punishment nor abstinence, but harm reduction. Today, that approach has helped drive overdose deaths to some of the lowest in the world, including in the US, through policies like safe consumption rooms, drug checking and health-first policing. But in some parts of the US South there is opposition. The Gulf State Newsroom's Drew Hawkins went to the Netherlands to find out what their approach looks like.

A Canadian politician brags about a controversial tariff ad, the World Series is a doozy and a few Australian schools are learning the hard way about Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler explain.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday with catastrophic winds and the potential for widespread flooding and landslides. The Category 5 storm is one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history, and the single strongest to hit Jamaica. The World's Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have the details.

Atrocities continue as Sudan's military retreats from el-Fasher, a town in Darfur that has been under a grueling siege for more than 500 days. Nathaniel Raymond, the director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, tells The World's Host Carolyn Beeler how high-resolution satellite imagery is documenting crimes committed by the militia known as the Rapid Support Forces.

In a biological first, researchers in France have discovered a creature capable of giving birth to an entirely different species. It's more than just the sort of hybrid births that might happen between a donkey and a female horse - making mules. The Mediterranean Harvest Ant actually bears eggs that can develop into two different kinds of ant species: its own, and one of an ant called Messor Structor. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from a lab in Montpelier, France.

Critical minerals - especially the rare earth variety - have been crucial to trade talks since US President Donald Trump returned to office this year. The US has inked mineral deals with countries across the globe. Bolstering access to these minerals used in everything from smartphones to electric cars and military hardware is crucial as the US decouples from China, which has cornered the market on these raw resources. The World's Host Marco Werman learned more from Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In a classroom in western China, children once learned to sing and count in the language of their ancestors - Uyghur. Then, the doors were locked, and founder Abduweli Ayup went from teacher to enemy of the state, as a crackdown on his people kicked into overdrive. From the "Click Here" podcast, Dina Temple-Raston reports.

"This is a unique product that no one in the world has," Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday. He was talking about a nuclear-powered cruise missile called the Burevestnik that he says can't be intercepted by US technology. It's been in development for years, but now Putin says the missile has been tested successfully and is ready to be deployed. Experts say the weapon is a response to US plans for building a new missile defense shield to protect North America, something US President Donald Trump is calling the "Golden Dome." The World's Matthew Bell reports.

The community of Qoornoq, on a small island about an hour's boat ride from the capital of Nuuk, was shuttered decades ago as part of Danish government efforts to modernize and consolidate Greenland's population. But in recent decades, it's become a summer getaway for former residents and descendants of those who used to live there. The World's Carolyn Beeler visits the island to speak with people there, and learn about the legacy of forced relocation on Greenland.

In Japan, US President Donald Trump met with Emperor Naruhito at the Imperial Palace. Trump also said he thinks Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will be "great." During the first stop in his nearly weeklong trip to Asia, the American president signed a peace agreement between Thailand and Cambodia. But the biggest moment for this trip will be on Thursday. That's when Trump is expected to meet with China's leader Xi Jinping. On Sunday, US officials said they succeeded in hammering out a framework trade arrangement that could prevent an all-out trade war from escalating between the world's two biggest economies. The World's Matthew Bell has more details.

Hurricane Melissa has intensified into a Category 5 hurricane, the highest level on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Jamaican climate scientist Michael Taylor tells The World's Host Marco Werman that in the age of climate change, storms like Melissa are wetter, stronger, slower and more destructive than those of earlier decades, bringing greater human and economic impacts.

Half of the world's uncontacted peoples could be "wiped out" within a decade, according to a new report from the NGO Survival International. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke with the organization's executive director, Caroline Pearce, about the threats facing these people and what needs to be done to protect them.

A new memorial in the UK is modeled after a crumpled piece of paper, with words on it that were used as evidence to incriminate people. The LGBTQ community was banned from the UK's military for decades, ending in the year 2000. King Charles attended the unveiling of the memorial today, marking his first official engagement in support of the LGBTQ community. Host Marco Werman has the details.

Ireland has elected a new president, Catherine Connolly, a left-leaning lawmaker who swept to victory in a weekend landslide. Connolly, 68, is known for her outspoken views on everything from the war in Gaza to NATO to Irish unification. Her role as head of state is largely ceremonial, but opposition parties say her win sends a clear signal that Irish voters want change. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry has more.

The singer Jose Jimenez Fernandez was a child prodigy, singing his way across Spain for food during the country's post-war years of poverty. Before turning 10 years old, he was an international star, loved for his boyish face and his powerful child's voice, from Paris to New York. The World's Gerry Hadden caught up with Joselito, now elderly and out of the limelight, to bring us his story from Barcelona.

Cameroon has re-elected Paul Biya, the 92-year-old incumbent leader of the country. Only the country's second leader, Biya has led the country for over four decades. The elder statesman faces a number of continuing challenges including language divides, a separatist movement and growing opposition. Host Marco Werman learned more from Julius Amin, a Cameroonian scholar and professor of African history at the University of Dayton, Ohio.

Forty years ago this week, the album "Sun City" was released by a talented and diverse array of artists from the world of rock, hip-hop, soul, latin, funk, jazz, plus international artists from South African reggae. The mission of Artists United Against Apartheid was bringing attention to the plight of Black South Africans living under white minority rule and the apartheid system, focusing on the exclusive white segregated resort of Sun City, and shaming the long list of artists who played there. The World's Host Marco Werman revisits the "Sun City" album, the resort itself and the artists who loudly sang out that they "ain't gonna play Sun City."

Earlier this month, a unique challenge took place on a Slovenian mountainside.Thousands of brave volunteers - some might say crazy - attempted to race cycling legend Tadej Pogacar up the hill. It's known as the Poggi Challenge." Deutsche Welle, DW's, Guy Delauney felt up to the test and took on the challenge himself.

The case of the Guildford Four is considered one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Fifty years ago this month, four young people were falsely accused of carrying out two pub bombings in Guildford, England, and sentenced to life in prison. It took 15 years for them to be released and their sentences quashed. Decades later, their families say the fight for accountability and justice is still not over. The World's Europe Correspondent Orla Barry reports.

It's not that Alexander Boecker is happy about the heist at the Louvre. It's just that the video footage of the thieves' escape makes the construction vehicles his company manufactures look so good. Host Carolyn Beeler has more on the resulting ad campaign.

Cape Verde - an island nation off the coast of Senegal with about 500,000 people - has been recruiting talented soccer players from the diaspora for years, with the hopes of getting its men's national team to the World Cup. Now, the work is paying off and the country is celebrating qualifying for the tournament for the first time in history. The World's Bianca Hillier reports.

One in three French university students skips a daily meal regularly, as they struggle with rising housing costs and inflation. Around 600,000 live below the poverty line. But volunteers are coming to help, with groceries and more. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from Montpelier, France.

China's leadership has announced its five year-plan for the country, detailing ambitions to strengthen its domestic tech sector. This outline of the Chinese Communist Party's midterm policy goals was published Thursday, ahead of the upcoming meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler learns more from Isabel Hilton, the London-based founder of China Dialogue.

There's no shortage of doomsday scenarios involving Artificial Intelligence. But the warnings boil down to this: AI is an existential threat to human life. Some have called the warnings alarmist. But this week, several Nobel laureates and big-name celebrities cautioned that the threat is real, particularly when it comes to what's known as Artificial Superintelligence. Max Tegmark is the head of The Future of Life Institute. He's also a professor doing AI research at MIT. He spoke to The World's Host Marco Werman about why experts - including him - are calling for urgent action.

This week marks 100 years since the birth of Celia Cruz - the Queen of Salsa. Her voice carried the sound of Cuba across the globe, even when she herself could not return home. As fans celebrate her centennial with concerts and tributes, her music doesn't get much play on the airwaves in Cuba. The World's Tibisay Zea explores Celia Cruz's enduring legacy - from her dazzling performances to the silent treatment she still gets on the island she loved.

It happens every year on Christmas Island. Ten million crabs travel en masse as part of an annual spawning ritual. Hosts Carolyn Beeler and Marco Werman have details.

Sam Kissajukian's 300 Paintings" is an exhilarating one-man show and art exhibition. It's also a meditation on life as a creative person with bipolar disorder. The Australian former standup comic speaks with The World's Host Carolyn Beeler about his diagnosis and the six-month manic episode that changed his life.

Singapore is imposing a levy on all departing flights in an effort to boost funding to develop sustainable aviation fuels. But as The World's Transportation Correspondent Jeremy Siegel reports, advocates are split on whether the measure will really help reduce emissions.

Colombia recalled its ambassador to the US this week as tensions mount between the two countries over aid cuts and US military strikes in the Caribbean. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has accused the US of killing a Colombian citizen in a recent US strike on an alleged drug boat. US President Donald Trump has called his Colombian counterpart an "illegal drug dealer" and a "lunatic." For a view on the situation from Colombia, The World's Host Carolyn Beeler turns to political analyst Sergio Guzman, the director of Colombia Risk Analysis in Bogota.

Nneka Ogwumike has been a big name in the WNBA for over a decade. The 6'2" forward still shines on the hardwood for the Seattle Storm, but her dream of playing in the Olympics is now over. The news follows years of being left off the roster for Team USA, and now being denied the chance the play for Nigeria, where she holds citizenship. The World's Bianca Hillier explains.