CNN – World

By Katie Hunt, CNN The Black Death, the world’s most devastating plague outbreak, killed half of medieval Europe’s population in the space of seven years in the 14th century, shifting the course of human history. But what about the survivors of what remains the single greatest mortality event ever recorded? New research published Wednesday in

By Ashley Strickland, CNN A World War II shipwreck is still leaking explosives and other toxic elements into the ocean floor of the North Sea more than 80 years after it was sunk. The wreck’s hazardous pollutants continue to impact nearby marine microbiology, as well as the geochemistry of the seafloor, according to new research

By Hafsa Khalil, CNN A giant sunfish believed to be the world’s heaviest bony fish has been discovered in the Azores archipelago, Portugal, weighing a whopping 2,744 kilograms (3 tons). Researchers said the animal was found dead, floating near Faial Island in the central North Atlantic in December. Although found last year, details of the

By Mitchell McCluskey and Heather Chen, CNN Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has declared an immediate three-week lockdown in two high risk districts as the country battles a rise in Ebola infections. All movement in and out of the Mubende and Kassanda districts will be halted, Museveni said in a televised address on Saturday — although

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN Nestled in their heated den, the newborn cheetah cubs at Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute spend their days doing what just about any young animal does — a lot of sleeping. What makes these cubs special, however, is their dedicated online audience, checking in from all over the world to monitor the

By Alaa Elassar, Artemis Moshtaghian and Jennifer Hauser, CNN At least four prisoners were killed and 61 injured after a fire at Evin prison in northern Tehran, Iranian state media IRNA reported, attributing Iranian authorities. The prisoners died of smoke inhalation, IRNA added. The fire happened Saturday night and an Iranian security official said “thugs”

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Renowned explorer Robert Ballard has scoured the deep sea for decades in search of its mysteries. Fascinated by Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” as a child, the oceanographer is most associated with discovering the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985 — a find that was actually part

By Zoe Sottile, CNN This Sunday, a spacecraft called Lucy will be in the sky — just without diamonds. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft will skirt Earth, coming within just a few hundred miles of us on its journey to the far-off Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The spacecraft will pass 220 miles above Earth’s surface on Sunday morning,

By Kostan Nechyporenko, Josh Pennington and Heather Chen, CNN Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks have killed 11 civilians in the past day as the southern city of Zaporizhzhia came under attack early Saturday, in an assault involving kamikaze drones and missiles. In the Donetsk region, eight civilians died and six more were injured, deputy head

By Angus Watson and Heather Chen, CNN A 71-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in the backyard of his home in Rochester, Australia, on Saturday, as heavy rains continue to bring major flooding to the southeast of the country. Flash floods this week have caused thousands to evacuate in Australia’s southeastern states of Victoria,

By Maija Ehlinger, Gul Tuysuz, Heather Chen and Eyad Kourdi, CNN An explosion inside a coal mine in northern Turkey has killed at least 40 people and left 11 others hospitalized, state news media reported on Saturday. The explosion took place in the Black Sea town of Amasra in Bartin province on Friday, trapping dozens

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Black smoke appears to rise from chimney-like formations of the hottest and deepest known hydrothermal vents on Earth. Over the summer, Anna Michel was able to see them for herself — a few miles beneath the ocean’s surface. Michel, an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, was

By Katie Hunt, CNN The skin of a 67-million-year-old dinosaur has revealed bites and gashes from an ancient crocodile, and how its flesh was ripped apart may explain why it became mummified. Skin decays much more easily than bone so it’s extremely rare to find fossilized dinosaur skin. New research on a 7-meter (23-foot) long

By Hafsa Khalil, CNN The world’s wildlife populations plummeted by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018, a dangerous decline resulting from climate change and other human activity, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned in a report Thursday. WWF tracked global changes in the abundance of wildlife across land, air and water

By Ashley Strickland, CNN Astronomers have spotted an unexpected chemical element high within the atmosphere of two sizzling exoplanets where liquid iron and gems rain down from the skies. The two exoplanets, which orbit separate stars beyond our solar system, are ultrahot gas giants called WASP-76b and WASP-121b. Astronomers used the European Southern Observatory’s Very

By Amy Woodyatt, CNN The video game Pong is such a simple concept, anyone can play — even a dish of brain cells, according to scientists. Researchers connected the neurons — the cells responsible for receiving sensory input from the external world and for sending motor commands to muscles — of humans and mice to