World News is the jargon used in the media for news from around the globe. This is the branch of journalism that deals with international events and focuses on global issues, rather than reporting on national or domestic matters. There are two kinds of reporters who cover world news: the foreign correspondent (a full-time reporter stationed in a distant location) and the special envoy or freelancer, who travels to different parts of the globe to cover particular events.

In the early days of modern journalism, when nation-states were still developing in Europe, most news was foreign. The courants of the 17th century—like the Daily Courant (England), Nieuwe Tijudinger (Antwerp) and Avisa Relation oder Zeitung (Wolfenbuttel)—had few readers outside their immediate region, but innovations in telecommunications allowed these newspapers to spread abroad. As a result, news agencies like Reuters and AP developed, to prepare stories that could be sold to many newspapers with little or no alteration.

In 2023, the world is still struggling with a pandemic, a raging conflict between Israel and Hamas, and a series of earthquakes in western Afghanistan that have flattened stone and mudbrick houses. Across the globe, a movement is gaining momentum to tackle the issue of plastic pollution by cleaning up oceans and rivers. And in Paris, people are battling to curb the spread of bed bugs—which have even infested public spaces like the Eiffel Tower.