PRI: Latest Stories

The intense winds and rains of Hurricane Maria wreaked havoc on Puerto Rico’s natural environment. But nature is all about recovery.

The posterboy for Gen X on playing a grandfather, directing musicians and a career spent swimming against the tide.

The birth and ongoing life of a very American painting.

Creating music you can sleep to while dancing.

Like the US, Canada has been wrestling with a growing drug crisis. Deaths from overdoses have reached unprecedented levels, up to nearly 4,000 last year. In response, the government has pledged more resources for addiction services — including the use of prescription heroin.

Despite the inconclusive evidence, the practice of alternative medicine, including acupuncture, is becoming more accepted in the US as a way to address pain. This is in part driven by the opioid epidemic that left 49,000 dead last year alone.

The Hampstead Heath Ladies’ Pond has been a place where women having been taking a dip for over a century. But earlier this year, there were complaints when transgender women used the pond

North and South Korean leaders dined on a bowl of buckwheat noodles submerged in a chilly, savory broth during their meeting in Pyongyang. Korean restaurant owners say there's been a resurgence of interest in the soup.

With political violence a daily threat at home, Nicaraguans are fleeing to Costa Rica and, increasingly, the US.

The Chinese government took out a four-page advertisement in the Des Moines Register on Sunday. The ad was designed like a four-page newspaper section with various "articles" commenting on the trade war between the US and China.

After years of heated debates, rising overdose and HIV infection rates, and mounting pressure from people who use drugs themselves, the Canadian government opened Insite in 2003, making it the first publicly sanctioned injection facility in all of North America.

A recent study examines how rising temperatures could lead to increased insect activity and dramatic crop loss.

For hundreds of years, beavers "kept North America hydrated," says environmental author Ben Goldfarb. Now, some farmers, ranchers and land managers are advocating that we let them do their job again.

Andrea Patiño Contreras went to Puerto Rico to catalogue the impact Hurricane Maria is having on people's mental and physical health. The people she met are living with heartbreaking situations.

The Russian-Turkish agreement to designate a demilitarized zone may have averted an imminent attack on Idlib but many of the Syrians who live there, like Mohammad Hmeidan and his family, are still waiting for a more permanent solution to their displacement.

Zere Asylbek's feminist song asks for respect for women — but she's now facing threats and criticism over the clothing she wore in the music video for her song.

Malian musician Fatoumata Diawara has a new video out for her latest single, “Bonya.” The lively track, from her recently released second solo album, asks listeners to show respect to others.

Detroit is a city filled with ruins. Among the city’s most iconic ones is the Packard Plant. A Spanish developer in Peru has plans to revive it.

The “Portlandia” star and rocker discusses her artistic trajectory with Sleater-Kinney.

How Sub Pop’s Megan Jasper punked The New York Times.

This is the last great invention of rock and roll.

What it’s like to live where “Twin Peaks” was filmed.

World leaders in New York City for the UN General Assembly will have a hard time avoiding a message calling for an end to the war in Yemen. It's on billboards and kiosks, and it's rolling around the city on buses.

The 7.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Mexico City and surrounding areas killed 369 people. Seven people died in the collapse of Wesley’s apartment building, including his wife, Elizabeth.

Hurricane Maria’s waves clawed away at the sand, reducing the width of the broad beach by approximately 90 percent. But it wasn’t just that the familiar landscape disappeared — it left La Boca defenseless.

In today's Detroit, there are many signs of a comeback: new businesses, stores, less urban blight and more entrepreneurs. And immigrants are bringing new energy to the city.

Her district, Teltow-Flaeming, is home to 165,00 people including about 2,500 refugees and asylum-seekers. The area has been recognized by the American NGO Cultural Vistas for its success in integrating newcomers. Yet, some people here are uneasy with their new neighbors. They say migrants bring crime and have harassed women on the street.

The category 5 storm hit Southeast Asia over the weekend.

After the catastrophic Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico in 2017, finding safe drinking water became one of the most difficult issues facing residents of the island. A team of volunteers stepped in to help.

It sounds weird to put babies on display at a fair. But Martin Couney did, and he saved thousands of lives in the process.

The biggest test of how much a state governor can really lead on a global problem like climate change came this week as Gov. Jerry Brown convened the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. California has provided leadership amid the vacuum left when the US federal government reversed course on climate policy. But there are things a state just can’t do.

Kathy Kriger was a commercial attaché for the American Embassy in Casablanca, Morocco. She was also a passionate entrepreneur who managed to create one of the most successful tourist attractions in Casablanca — Rick’s Café, an upscale restaurant and jazz club inspired by the famous nightclub in the 1942 classic "Casablanca."

What do you do when a country has officially declared your people extinct? One descendant of the Sinixt tribe went on an illegal elk hunt.

Sahar Fetrat was only 15 years old when she first picked up a camera. She used it to shoot a video for a school project. But soon she found it to be a powerful weapon against harassers.

The Department of Homeland Security notified Congress earlier this summer that it was transferring $10 million from FEMA to ICE to pay for the detention and transfer of undocumented immigrants. The World speaks with Mary Small of the nonprofit group, Detention Watch Network.

"We are not prepared" for the impacts of climate change that are only now beginning to appear, says one scientist.

Their day in court? That is less the case for some detained immigrants in the New York area, at least for those hoping for proceedings conducted in person.

How a breakout star of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Leftovers” approaches playing scary characters.

How pop culture taught the ‘70s hippie counterculture that the end of the world was coming.

Some guitarists live in Django Reinhardt’s shadow. Stephane Wrembel chooses to live in his light.

Wars leave behind scars. Emotional ones. Physical ones. And for years, in Afghanistan, the physical ones were the ones surgeons fixed. But in the past couple of years, there’s been a boom in cosmetic surgery.

Fashion is powerful. It can be used as a political tool. It can be a statement about identity. It can also be healing. In Afghanistan, it is all of that and more.

Running a program like this is a big deal for the girls, who come from the poor outskirts of Agadir, a sleepy Moroccan city facing the Atlantic Ocean.

The Chinese government has gone to great lengths to keep a lid on its policies in the northwestern province of Xinjiang, the historic home for the Uighur Muslim population. But the details of what human rights advocates say is a massive crackdown on an entire culture are becoming more widely known.

In 2015 the government of Ontario, Canada, introduced a landmark new sex ed curriculum, designed to be more inclusive of transgender and gay people. But the program became deeply entangled with politics, and was pulled back by conservatives this summer. As kids head back to school this week, teachers remain at odds with the government over what students will learn.

In 2016, students at the American University in Kabul watched as gunmen opened fire on their school. More than a dozen people were killed and many more injured. But the attack didn't stop students from pursuing their dreams.

The Taliban forbids women to leave the house unless they are accompanied by a male relative. Feroza Mushtari, who was a teenager at the time of the Taliban takeover, defied that rule to save a pregnant woman's life.

New York Times journalist and former Marine infantry officer C.J. Chivers shows the realities of war through the lens of six combatants.

When Azul was five, doctors finally figured out the little girl had asthma. That’s become a big problem among children of farm workers, says Dr. Catherine Karr of the University of Washington.

Rosamari Palerm transferred to a school in Miami last fall after her school shut down in the wake of Hurricane Maria. She’s returned home to San Juan, but some of her classmates have stayed, making new homes in Miami.