• World News Desk
• MIDDLE EAST

Syrian Forces on Cusp of Recapturing Raqqa from ISIS

The battle for the Islamic State terror group’s de-facto Syrian capital, Raqqa, has reached its “final stages,” Syrian Democratic Forces relayed, almost four months after the U.S.-backed force launched an assault on the militant group’s self-proclaimed capital.

• World News Desk
• WEATHER & ENVIRONMENT

Puerto Rico Faces Weeks Without Electricity After Maria

The loss of power left residents hunting for gas canisters for cooking, collecting rainwater, or steeling themselves mentally for the hardships to come in the tropical heat. Some contemplated leaving the island.

• World News Desk
• AMERICAS

Floods, Fires, Other Disasters Stress State Budgets

A summer of natural catastrophes, from epic hurricanes to scorching wildfires, has exposed another peril in disaster-prone states: How to pay for the rescues, repairs and rebuilding.

• World News Desk
• TERRORISM & SECURITY

London Police Charge 18-year-old in Subway Bombing

British police on Friday charged an 18-year-old man with attempted murder and causing an explosion in last week’s bomb attack on the London subway.

• World News Desk
• ASIA

Rohingya Flee Burning Villages for Monsoon-drenched Camps

For generations, Rohingya Muslims have called Myanmar’s Rakhine State their home. Now, in what appears to be a systematic purge, the minority ethnic group is being wiped off the map.

• Articles
• MIDDLE EAST

U.S. Opens First-ever Permanent Military Base in Israel

Israel and the United States inaugurated the first American military base on Israeli soil on September 18, which will serve dozens of soldiers operating a missile defense system.

• World News Desk
• WEATHER & ENVIRONMENT

Mexicans Dig Through Collapsed Buildings after Quake Kills 225

Police, firefighters and Mexican citizens dug frantically through the rubble of collapsed schools, homes and apartment buildings Wednesday, looking for survivors of Mexico’s deadliest earthquake in decades as the number of confirmed fatalities stood at 225.

The magnitude-7.1 quake struck September 19 on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands. Just hours earlier, people around Mexico had held earthquake drills to mark the date.

• Articles
• AFRICA

Has Uganda Solved the Refugee Problem?

Millions fleeing political oppression and violence in South Sudan are finding relief, healthcare, education and employment in their southern neighbor’s refugee camps.

• World News Desk
• GEOPOLITICS

UN Address: President Trump Reiterates Commitment to “Totally Destroy North Korea” if Necessary

President Donald Trump vowed to “totally destroy North Korea” if the U.S. is forced to defend itself or its allies against the renegade nation’s nuclear weapons program, making his case in a debut speech to the UN on September 19.

• World News Desk
• WEATHER & ENVIRONMENT

Study: Microscopic Plastic Found in 83 Percent of World’s Tap Water

Nearly all of the world’s tap water contains microscopic fibers of plastic, a new study found, sparking concerns that millions may be consuming hazardous water.

• Articles
• SOCIETY & LIFESTYLES

Can America Erase Racism?

The United States longs for peace and equality. Instead, we get protesters beating each other with clubs and sticks on the streets, hurling bottles of frozen water like bricks at one another’s skulls, and using makeshift aerosol-can flame throwers, as happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the summer.

Why does eradicating hatred seem such an unapproachable goal?

• World News Desk
• INTERNATIONAL

UN Chief: “Nuclear Peril” Tops List of Seven Global Threats

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world’s leaders Tuesday that the threat of a nuclear attack is at its highest level since the end of the Cold War and “fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings.”

• World News Desk
• AMERICAS

U.S. Veteran Suicide Rate Much Higher Than Among Civilians

The suicide rate among American military veterans is higher than the civilian rate, with numbers of deaths especially high in the western U.S. and rural areas, government data reveals.

The research is the first-ever Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) examination of suicide by state. It shows that Montana, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico had the highest rates of veteran suicide as of 2014, the most current data available. Suicide rates in those four states stood at 60 per 100,000 individuals or higher—far above the national veteran suicide rate of 38.4.

• World News Desk
• AMERICAS

Protests in St. Louis: Peaceful by Day, Violent by Night

A racially mixed crowd of demonstrators locked arms and marched quietly through downtown St. Louis the morning of September 18 in protest over the acquittal of a white former police officer in the killing of a black suspect, following another night of unrest and more than 80 arrests.

The latest action follows three days of peaceful protests and three nights of violence in the city that has been rocked since Friday, September 15, when a judge announced he found Jason Stockley not guilty in the 2011 death of Anthony Lamar Smith.

• World News Desk
• EUROPE

German Nationalist Party Outlines Anti-Islam Platform

A German nationalist party called September 18 for tighter security measures aimed primarily at immigrants while again insisting that Islam is incompatible with democracy. This comes as Germany’s election campaign enters its final stretch.

• Articles
• MIDDLE EAST

Stuck in the Sand: Will the U.S. Ever Get Out of Afghanistan?

What dragged America into a 16-year war in Afghanistan? Most point to 9/11, when al-Qaida wreaked havoc with hijacked commercial jets.

Yet events 48 hours earlier tell a different story.

• World News Desk
• MIDDLE EAST

Uproar in Turkey Over Islam-focused Education Overhaul

The contentious changes include teaching about jihad or holy war in religion classes as the “love of homeland,” and a lessened emphasis on Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish republic who is revered by Turkey’s secularists. Ataturk instituted the separation of state and religion, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party has challenged that strict split with a more religious approach.

• World News Desk
• EUROPE

Homelessness on the Rise in the UK

Homelessness in every form has dramatically increased in recent years, costing the United Kingdom’s public sector in excess of $1.6 billion per year, a report from the nation’s government said.

• World News Desk
• EUROPE

1 in 50 Refugees Dies While Attempting to Cross Mediterranean to Enter Europe

Since the unforgettable image of Alan Kurdi came out in September 2015, the 3-year-old Syrian boy whose body washed ashore in Turkey, at least 8,500 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean while boating to Europe.

• Articles
• WEATHER & ENVIRONMENT

Reeling from Irma, Caribbean Under Threat of Disease Outbreaks and Economic Woes

As a Barbudan woman surveyed the desolate wasteland that had once been her home, she sighed heavily.

“Where to begin? Where to start?” she told local media outlet ABS Television/Radio after Hurricane Irma swept through the Caribbean nation of Barbuda. “This is just one word: epic. What we experienced is like something you see in a horror movie. It’s something that you watch on TV, but not something you expect to actually happen in reality.”

• World News Desk
• ECONOMY & PERSONAL FINANCE

Australia’s Continuous Economic Growth Masks Growing Problems

Australia’s economy has grown for 26 years without a recession, an extraordinary achievement in a volatile world still aching from the global financial crisis.

• World News Desk
• AMERICAS

Colombia’s Resurgent Cocaine Problem

Drug seizures by bilateral maritime counter-drug cooperation between Colombia and the United States have not been keeping pace with an explosion in cocaine production, which the U.S. estimates surged more than 200 percent since 2013 to potentially 710 metric tons last year.

• World News Desk
• ASIA

North Korea Fires Another Missile, Japan Takes Cover

South Korea’s military says North Korea fired an unidentified missile from its capital Pyongyang in a continuation of weapons tests following its sixth and most powerful nuclear test to date on September 3.

• World News Desk
• EUROPE

Are Russia’s War Games a Prelude to War?

Russia-West relations have hit their lowest point since the Cold War following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and continuing fighting between Russian-backed separatists and troops loyal to Kiev in eastern Ukraine. Western worries about the planned maneuvers have ranged from allegations that Russia could use them to permanently deploy its forces to Belarus to fears of a surprise attack on the Baltics.

• World News Desk
• ECONOMY & PERSONAL FINANCE

Gallup: U.S. Standard of Living Highest Since Recession Began

Despite non-stop political catfights, worries over North Korea’s nuclear program, and two hurricanes, average Americans appear happy about one thing: the economy. A Gallup report stated, “Americans in 2017 are overwhelmingly positive about their standard of living—four in five are satisfied with their situation, and almost two-thirds think it is getting better.”

• Articles
• SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The Faces Behind Internet Scams

Those tricked by internet scams often caricaturize the schemers as heartless villains hunkered down in computer labs, more than happy to bamboozle people into coughing up their cash.

But few realize the culprits are often victims themselves—just on the other side of the world. The scamming business itself is built on exploiting the poor and disenfranchised in places like India.

• World News Desk
• AFRICA

Congo’s Lost Generation? Violence Keeps Millions out of School

Fighting due to ethnic hatred in Congo has forced hundreds of thousands of children to stop their education, making them a part of the 7.4 million children who are out of school in the country, the Norwegian Refugee Council said.

• Articles
• SOCIETY & LIFESTYLES

What Are Smartphones Doing to Our Kids?

Mobile technology in the hands of children and teens provides convenience, but we are beginning to discover it comes at a cost.