The coronavirus, the rescue of an abused elephant, harassment of Black diplomats and the hunt for Nazi-looted instruments are some of the subjects of the year's most popular NPR international stories.

Journalists based in Colombia, South Africa and Indonesia talk about how the Black Lives Matter movement inspired activists abroad this year.

Argentina will legalize abortion following a successful vote in the Senate early Wednesday. The decision could send shock waves throughout the heavily Roman Catholic region of Latin America.

About 2 million Venezuelans have settled in Colombia in recent years amid their country's deep economic crisis. Some of the migrants are shocked by their neighbors' anti-Venezuelan attitudes.

Even as the European Union began vaccine rollouts on Sunday, nations around the globe are instituting severe lockdowns and travel restrictions. Fear of the U.K. variant is a key reason.

A second wave of COVID-19 is rippling across Brazil. The latest hot spot is Rio de Janeiro, hometown of President Jair Bolsonaro. Even so, he is continuing to subvert efforts to control the pandemic.

U.S. tourists aren't welcome in most countries because of the surging coronavirus. But Mexico lets them in, with no quarantine or test requirements.

The jungle metropolis of Manaus had a terrible pandemic spring. A study estimates 76% of residents were exposed to the coronavirus. Researchers thought there couldn't be another surge. And yet...

Why are numbers so high in the region? Public health officials point to a number of underlying problems that let the coronavirus run amok.

The Russian leader contacted U.S. President-elect Joe Biden after the Electoral College affirmed his victory. Putin was one of the last major world leaders to do so.

Back-to-back hurricanes have taken an unprecedented toll on the Central American nation and its neighbors.

"The world is unjust, but the answer is not in our uterus," lawmaker Gabriela Cerruti said of the vote in Argentina's Chamber of Deputies.

Brazil's Gol Airlines brought the jetliner back into service Wednesday for the first time since it was grounded in 2019 after two deadly crashes.

A new report describes a region where hunger and malnutrition are sharply increasing — and only likely to get worse as COVID-19 pushes more people into poverty.

The study by the National Academies of Sciences comes after dozens of U.S. diplomats in Cuba and China complained of migraines, dizziness and memory loss.