NPR Staff

Amid the emotional debate over the surge in unaccompanied minors from Central America, some migrants will be given refugee status while others can try for asylum.

UNICEF predicts that Africa will have more than 4 billion people by 2100. Depending on how Africa's governments handle the upswing, that could mean a boom in the economy or a rise in mass poverty.

Set during the Depression, washed in dreamy grays and greens, Jules Feiffer's new Kill My Mother looks like an old noir film; you almost expect Robert Mitchum to step out of the pages, flicking a cigarette lighter. The story is classic Hollywood too: spitfire Annie spars with her mother as ...

Eric Liu, a former presidential speech writer, addresses in his book how his American identity is "completely infused by [his] Chinese-ness."

Over the past few decades, Nicaragua has managed to remain peaceful while its neighbors, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been besieged by violent crime.

While Honduras has become the murder capital of the world with a homicide rate of 90.4 per 100,000 people in 2012, Nicaragua's has hovered for ...

There's no licensed plumber in Jackman, Maine. So one family is offering a $2,000 scholarship to a local student or former graduate willing to get licensed as a plumber and return to work there.

Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

Vital Sounouvou comes from Benin, a small country in West Africa. To help promote global trade in Africa, he founded the company Exportunity.com after some sobering ...

In spring 2001, three women enlisted in the Indiana National Guard. Each had her own idea of what a stint in the Guard might mean — free education, a sense of purpose, extra money. But just months after they signed up, the Sept. 11 attacks occurred and what they thought ...

Sinead O'Connor self-produced her first album, The Lion and The Cobra, when she was 20 years old and seven months pregnant. At 47, on the eve of releasing her 10th studio album, many things about the Irish singer haven't changed. She still has the shaved head and the ...

Interest in sharks peaks every summer, when more people hit the beach and start looking for that tell-tale fin. This year, between Sharknado 2: The Second One and Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" — which kicks off Sunday — sharks have been making a particularly large splash on TV screens across ...

Author Elizabeth Green argues that effective teaching is a craft, not a skill teachers have naturally. She says teachers need more mentorship — not just more mandates.

World music DJ Betto Arcos returns to spin his favorite new collaborations between female singers and guitarists.

An architectural firm is designing a zoo that will forgo cages, working barriers into a natural landscape. "You won't have a lonely tiger walking around inside a cage," says architect Bjarke Ingels.

Residents of a town near the Gaza border say they know how to respond to rocket fire. They're less certain about how to protect themselves from potential attacks by militants using secret tunnels.

The self-styled prime minister of the Independent Donetsk republic says his forces are willing to stop the fighting to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Most people have been frustrated at least once in their driving lives by construction delays and detours.

But when a road closure in England took drivers on a especially long detour, a local businessman took matters into his own hands.

Mike Watts decided to build his own road, along a ...

It's the presidential race no one is talking about. Two Texas political stars are testing the waters for a run in 2016 — without mentioning it, of course.

Potential Republican candidates Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Rick Perry spoke Friday at the annual meeting sponsored by the conservative website RedState, ...

Jazz singer Magos Herrera's voice is filled with the contrasts of her native Mexico: It can be honey smooth or smoky rough.

On her latest album, Dawn, Herrera collaborates with Javier Limón, a flamenco guitarist from Spain. The result is a gorgeous collection of American and Latin jazz standards, alongside ...

Didn't keep up with the "tech world" this week? We've got you covered. Here is a roundup of technology stories from NPR and beyond.

ICYMI

Recognizing Women In The Biz: Silicon Valley and the tech industry aren't filled with tons of women, and as NPR's Laura Sydell writes, that's no ...

All surgeons must pick the organ they'll spend their career protecting, Gabriel Weston writes in her new novel, Dirty Work. And as Nancy, the obstetrician-gynecologist at the center of the book, explains, "We gynecologists have the womb to look after. ... And whichever specialty we choose, each of us has ...