Using the web to follow world news, local news, and information about natural disasters or weather events is easy. You can get news from all over the world, from virtually every country, on every possible story, from politics to natural disasters.
Consider using a language translation site if the news you see is not in a language you understand.
World news sites
No matter where you live, these are some of the best world news sites:
- BBCNews: One of the most respected news organizations on the web; Ideal for world news, but also has location-specific categories to narrow down stories.
- The New York Times: The New York Times remains one of the best sources of world news on the web.
- reddit: One of the top sources on the web to find crowdsourcing news, including breaking news updated by community members with additional information and resources in real time. If you’re looking for truly up-to-date news with commentary from “real people,” Reddit is a good bet. Try News or News of the world, or I searched news to get more.
- Google World News– Thousands of sources are constantly updated on Google News to deliver stories directly to your device.
- Wikinews: Choose your geographic region and/or language, and you’ll see a community-curated repository of news articles collected by people around the world, exactly replicating the process of collecting Wikipedia.
- Alternate: On the web in different iterations since 1997, Alternet provides an independent view of breaking news, primarily focused on events in the United States.
- Reuters: One of America’s leading breaking news wires, focusing on American and international events. Many Reuters stories are syndicated elsewhere.
- PBS: Public broadcasting news over the past decades; The news here tends to be extremely balanced and non-partisan, and also includes good background information for further reading.
- C-SPAN: Watch legislative news as it happens; focusing solely on events related to the United States.
Online newspapers
Online newspapers are how most people get their news these days from around the world – every major newspaper in every country, plus most city newspapers, is available for free online for everyone to read.
This makes global and local news monitoring even easier; And you can also see what other local newspapers are saying, no matter where you are.
US Online Newspapers
Here is a list of online newspapers originating from the United States so you can start reading US news from anywhere in the world:
- United States Newspapers: You may be pleasantly surprised to see how extensive this site is; Popular and obscure newspapers are presented here.
- 50States.com: Every state in the United States has at least one major newspaper listed here.
- USNPL: More newspapers from all over the United States. Search any city or navigate it on the map, to find newspapers from both big cities and small towns.
- SmallTownNewspapers: This news site shows newspapers only from small towns. Lists over 250 small town newspapers and archives from the 1840s.
European newspapers online
Online newspapers from around the world
- NewsLink: World newspapers, just a click or tap away.
- PressReader.com: Real replicas of newspaper covers from around the world.
- OnlineNewspapers.com: Directory of the world’s online newspapers.
- Freedom Forum: Several hundred covers from dozens of countries.
- NewspaperIndex: A list of the best online newspaper sites from all countries, with a focus on general news, politics, debates and economics.
- World-Newspapers.com: A huge list of online newspapers from all over the world, from Africa to France and Greece.
News and information on natural disasters
These are some of the best sites to find all kinds of information about natural disasters, from breaking news to general information, history, global health efforts and more.
- Global Disaster Warning and Information System: This news site provides near real-time alerts on natural disasters around the world and tools to facilitate response coordination.
- CIDI: The International Disaster Information Center has up-to-the-minute information on the latest natural disasters affecting the world.
- U.S. News: An entire section of this US news site focuses on natural disasters, everything from problems happening right now to things that happened in the past, as well as political tensions regarding funding help, etc.
- Live Science: Complete articles on past, present and future natural disasters and how they have affected or will affect the earth and humanity.
- The disaster center index page: A long list of links with hurricane and flood information, storm reports, wildfire forecasts, and national emergencies.
- EMSC-CSEM.org: News about earthquakes near you and recent earthquakes around the world.
- BBC Future: Natural Disasters: Answers to the problems facing the world of science.
Information about preparation, recovery and help
These news sites do not focus mostly in the news, but they provide useful information about protection and help.
- CDC: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention not only recent outbreaks stand out and provide travel advisories for international travelersbut also serve as an excellent reference site for what to do in the event of an emergency.
- USAID: The United States Agency for International Development helps provide economic and humanitarian aid in more than 100 countries, especially those affected by natural disasters.
- Red Cross: The Cross Roja Americana has historically been the first organization on the scene to help those affected by a tragedy.
- FEMA: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has a lot of great information about preparing for disasters. Also support a text messaging program to help find open shelters and disaster recovery centers near you.
More ways to find and collect news
Manually searching through news sites like those listed above is one way to stay up to date, but you can also collect all your favorite news sources in one place. This helps you stay informed with little effort.
After you locate the sites you want to monitor for news updates, throw them into a news aggregator like Feedly so all you have to do is open that website or app to see all the information you’re interested in.
Another option is to create a Google News alert. This allows you to receive emails about your favorite topics. Google searches the Internet for any topic you choose and updates you in real time.
There are also news podcasts you can listen to. They’re not as current as text articles or videos, but they’re still great for learning and revisiting old stories.
For local news, do a web search for your city and the word newsas dallas news. This works from any web search engine. From there, you can find all kinds of local and even larger stations that cover your area. Google News is an example that not only has world news, but also stories relevant to where you live specifically.
The term “news» is extremely broad, so the sites listed above only scratch the surface of what is considered newsworthy. There are also social news sites, news blogs, celebrity news sites and others that allow you to check out politics, products, the future and more. Check out our tech news page for tech updates.