World News at a Glance

Italy’s Most Powerful Politician Joins Steve Bannon’s ‘Movement’

The most powerful figure in Italy’s new populist government signed up Friday with Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, to help bring about a continentwide populist takeover during European parliamentary elections next spring. Matteo Salvini, the Italian interior minister and the leader of the anti-immigrant party the League, has joined The Movement, a group founded by Bannon, the minister’s spokeswoman confirmed. Salvini, whose popularity has grown with his power, amounts to Bannon’s first big get, lending legitimacy to his project and making it more likely that other Euroskeptic and populist politicians will join as well.

Germans, Seeking News, Find YouTube’s Far-Right Tirades

Users searching for news on Chemnitz, Germany, where far-right protests have happened, would be sent down a rabbit hole of misinformation and hate. And as interest in Chemnitz grew, it appears, YouTube funneled many Germans to extremist pages, whose view counts skyrocketed. Activists say this may have contributed to a flood of misinformation, helping extremists shape public perceptions even after they had been run off Chemnitz’s streets. Researchers who study YouTube say the episode, far from being isolated, reflects the platform’s tendency to push everyday users toward politically extreme content — and, often, to keep them there.

As Waters Rise, World’s Airports Face Crisis

As a powerful typhoon tore through Japan this week, travelers at Kansai International Airport looked out on a terrifying void: Where they should have seen the runway, they saw only the sea. They also saw what could be a perilous future for low-lying airports around the world, increasingly vulnerable to the rising sea levels and more extreme storms brought about by climate change. A quarter of the world’s 100 busiest airports are less than 10 meters, or 32 feet, above sea level, according to an analysis of data from Airports Council International and OpenFlights.

Foreign Powers See ‘No Military Solution’ in Syria, but Diplomacy Stalls

At a summit in Tehran on Friday, the presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed that “there could be no military solution” to the war in Syria, but Russia rejected Turkey’s call for a cease-fire while Iran called for a military push to crush the Syrian rebels and drive out U.S. forces. At the same time, at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York, Western powers warned of unspecified consequences if Syria and its allies launched an offensive. Both meetings starkly illustrated the extent to which Syria’s fate now lies in the hands of foreign powers.

The U.S. Ambassador Who Crossed Trump on Immigration

As President-elect Donald Trump prepared for his inauguration Jan. 20, 2017, Ted Osius assumed he was about to lose his dream job as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. “I thought I would be put out with the trash on Jan. 21,” said Osius, 57, a career diplomat. He wasn’t, but he soon fell out with the Trump administration over its effort to deport refugees. Osius later resigned from the State Department. He is one of many senior career diplomats who have worked for presidents of both parties, but whose objections to the Trump administration’s policies have led them to leave.

As Sweden Votes, the Far Right Gains Even in an Immigrant Bastion

The Sweden of old is changing, and immigration and crime have become the hottest issues in the country’s national elections Sunday. The wave of asylum-seekers that landed in Europe in 2015 hit Germany and Sweden the hardest. Sweden took in about 163,000 of them — roughly 1.6 percent of the population. Since then attitudes have shifted, and Sweden is less welcoming than it once was. That has become true even in a place like Flen, a small town with a high proportion of immigrants. The far-right Sweden Democrats have gone from one seat on the municipal council in 2006 to nine in 2014. The party is expected to do even better Sunday.

For Gay Indians, Landmark Ruling Is Just the Beginning

Even as gay activists in India celebrated on Friday, a day after a landmark Supreme Court ruling ended the country’s ban on gay sex, they were preparing for resistance to the decision. Among the pressing questions left unresolved by the ruling: Will the authorities drop the countless criminal cases that had been filed under the law that had made consensual gay sex a crime? What will happen if a gay couple shows up at a registrar’s office and asks to be married? At the forefront of many people’s minds was how to translate the court’s lofty language into practical gains.