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At around 3 a.m. one night in 2017, Bilol, an Uzbek immigrant, heard a knock on his door.

“There were around 25 people,” Bilol said later. They included FBI, immigration authorities and NYPD officers. Even an ambulance arrived.

Related: What it’s like to become a US citizen after a lifetime of statelessness

Gruff Rhys is known for Britain's indie rock band, Super Furry Animals. But the Welsh musician just dropped a groovy new solo album this month titled, "Pang!" 

The album is a collaboration with Muzi, a South African electronic artist and producer who worked with Rhys to put a new spin on his beats. 

Rhys spoke with The World's Carol Hills about the album, and the political issues it references. 

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Arden introduced a new bill to parliament on Friday that aims to further tighten gun laws, as the country marks six months since the mass shooting in Christchurch that killed 51 Muslim worshippers.

This is New Zealand's second set of gun reforms after weak firearm laws were identified as a key reason why a suspected white supremacist was able to own semi-automatic weapons that he used to kill people gathered at two mosques for Friday prayers on March 15. A mandatory nationwide gun buy-back program was part of the reforms.

Israelis are heading back to the polls for the second time this year, and whether they love him, can’t stand him or happen to be indifferent about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this election is all about “Bibi,” as he’s known. 

On Friday, the latest polling numbers found Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and the centrist Kahol Lavan, the “Blue and White” party, locked in a dead heat. Each party was projected to win 32 seats in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. 

Canada’s campaign for federal parliamentary elections officially began Wednesday. Voting will take place on Oct. 21 in what is expected to be a close contest between the parties led by incumbent Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Conservative leader Andrew Scheer. 

A Federal Court in San Diego will hear a lawsuit on September 20th brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the issue of family separation at the US-Mexico border.

In Russia's municipal elections on Sunday, President Vladimir Putin's party, United Russia, was dealt a significant blow.

The results were part of a "smart vote" strategy orchestrated by the opposition. At the suggestion of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, many anti-Putin voters decided to vote for anyone other than a candidate from Putin's party, even candidates that voters might otherwise find distasteful.

"This was an experiment, and in those cities and regions where it was implemented for the first time, it worked very very well," Navalny said.

A month after India withdrew contested Kashmir's autonomy, locked it down with thousands of additional troops and made mass arrests, residents are resisting attempts by authorities to show some signs of normalcy returning in the Muslim-majority valley.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked special rights for Jammu and Kashmir state on Aug. 5, striking down long-standing constitutional provisions for the Himalayan region, which is also claimed by neighboring Pakistan.

On a recent Wednesday, Noam Shuster-Eliassi strolled around the tiny village in Israel where she grew up, Neve Shalom or "Oasis of Peace," wishing goodbye to her neighbors. The Israeli comedian was heading to Harvard University in just a few days for a fellowship at the Divinity School. There, she will be writing an hourlong comedy show in Hebrew, English and Arabic. She is calling it, “Coexistence My Ass.”