When Aurora Lo Porto noticed an alarming escalation of racist attitudes on social media in Italy during the past two years, she felt the impulse to act. The medical student had noticed that in her once-welcoming hometown of Catania, Sicily, neighbors and acquaintances had started speaking about immigrants only through harmful stereotypes and unverified data.

In the past five years, about 500,000 migrants escaping war and poverty have landed in Sicily. The island’s residents have become increasingly troubled by the situation, sparking a rise in votes for populist parties in the latest elections. So about two months ago, Lo Porto, 26, decided to launch a monthly self-defense class.

But punching bags and kickboxing instructors have been replaced by piles of books and comfortable chairs; instead of meeting in a local gym, she chose one of Italy’s smallest bookstores. The kind of self-defense practiced in this cozy, single-room shop is a type of civil resistance against xenophobia, thro..

On a leafy college campus in Hong Kong Wednesday, the usual bustle of academic activity gave way to frenetic preparations for a revolution.

Instead of book bags, the students lugged carts full of bricks to the entrance gates, where sentries in black balaclavas monitored the steady flow of incoming supplies. Classrooms were emptied of their tables and chairs, the furniture repurposed to block unwanted traffic on the roads, bridges and nearby railway tracks on which a small fire smoldered.

While lectures and study halls might have filled the schedules on any other day, this afternoon the undergraduates of the territory’s second-oldest university, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), practiced throwing Molotov cocktails behind a row of empty buses.

“Whatever happens, we must defend the university, we must not allow the police to take it,” says Simon, 21.

He studies at a different university, but he trekked here yesterday evening after students called for reinforcements as they ..

When we first published our TIME 100 list of the world’s most influential people 15 years ago, it was dominated by individuals who rose through traditional power structures: heads of state, CEOs of public companies, actors from big-budget blockbusters, leaders of global foundations.

What has been striking about more recent editions is the growing number of individuals who did not need an establishment to command international attention—people like the Parkland, Fla., students who mobilized against gun violence (in 2018) and the climate activist Greta Thunberg (in 2019).

TIME has always been a barometer of influence—and the nature of influence is changing. “Over the last three years, the quiet rumblings of generational change have become a deafening roar,” my colleague Charlotte Alter writes in The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: How a New Generation of Leaders Will Transform America, a forthcoming book that grew out of her reporting for TIME. It’s a shift happening around the world, and..

An unusually tiny deer has been found in Vietnam. Researchers say it’s the first sighting of the rare silver-backed chevrotain in nearly three decades.

At less than 10 pounds, the chevrotain, which the Global Wildlife Conservation (GWC) also dubbed a “miniature fanged deer,” is the size of a rabbit. Also called the Vietnamese mouse-deer, chevrotains are actually neither deer nor mice, but they’re the smallest ungulates — or hoofed mammals — in the world, according to the GWC.

It’s been a long while since this mammal has been seen in real life. Its last sighting was in 1990 in Vietnam, according to the GWC. The organization, which is dedicated to conserving animals and habitats worldwide, worked with the Southern Institute of Ecology in Vietnam and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research for the research, which was published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution scientific journal on Monday. The expedition is part of a “global push to locate species that haven’t been sighte..

Turmoil hit Hong Kong again Wednesday as anti-government protesters resumed their new tactic of inflicting as much disruption as possible to transportation networks during the working week.

Scores of bus services were canceled and train services along three major lines suspended after protesters damaged stations overnight and threw objects on the tracks. The lengthy delays caused dangerous overcrowding and chaotic scenes at the stations that remained open, requiring police to maintain order.

Traffic on many key roads ground to a halt as protesters threw up barricades and other obstacles from the early morning, effectively cutting off several suburbs from the rest of the city. Commuters reported waiting hours for any transport.

Authorities came under fire for endangering children’s safety by keeping schools open amid the disruptions. Many schools defied the order to operate and suspended classes regardless. The Hospital Authority meanwhile warned that medical services would be affect..

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Clashes broke out in the streets of Bolivia’s capital Tuesday evening when an opposition leader in the Senate declared herself the country’s interim president after Evo Morales fled to Mexico following his surprise weekend resignation.

Jeanine Añez claimed the post of Senate leader late in the day, a position next in line for the presidency, even though she lacked a quorum because of a boycott by Morales’ Movement for Socialism party. Without being sworn in by anyone, she then appeared on a balcony of the old presidential palace wearing the presidential sash and holding a Bible in her hand.

“My commitment is to return democracy and tranquility to the country,” she said. “They can never again steal our vote.”

It was uncertain how much support Añez could count on from other power centers in her bid to replace Morales, who stepped down Sunday under pressure from Bolivia’s military following weeks of violent protests fed by allegations of electoral fraud in the Oc..