World news, also known as international news or foreign coverage, is the journalism field that covers news that occurs in a country or involves global subjects. It is distinct from national news (which refers to events involving the nation’s government and institutions, such as war reporting or summits of multilateral organizations) although it can overlap with it at times.
At the birth of modern journalism in 17th-century Europe, most news was foreign because the nation-states had only recently emerged and were still fragile. The first newspapers often carried articles about events occurring abroad, and with the invention of telegraphy, it became easier for those stories to spread. News agencies were soon founded, like AP and Reuters, to prepare hard news stories and feature articles that would be distributed to news outlets.
A reporter who travels extensively and works for multiple news outlets is called a stringer. Follow along as they document some of the most compelling and significant stories around the globe. From the harrowing aftermath of the Haiti earthquake to evicted residents living inside a former hospital in Cape Town, U.S. News photographers are capturing the human stories behind the headlines.