PRI: Latest Stories

Women are barred from entering sumo rings because they're considered sacred spaces. A female mayor who can't open a sumo competition in her city is now working with other female mayors to change the practice.

Are kids with imaginary friends more creative?

How did a German streetwalker become the All-American Girl?

The Frisbee wasn’t invented by a toy company. It came from a baker in the 1870s.

The history — and future — of playgrounds.

Post-deportation, two parents now back in Mexico parent long-distance, checking in with their children daily on everything from what's for breakfast to schoolwork to paying the mortgage.

An Iraqi refugee tries to stay in Finland, but faces unexpected obstacles.

Many one-industry towns have shriveled up and died in recent decades. But not Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

As a teenager, Carina Hoang and her siblings were left on a desert island in Indonesia when they fled Vietnam. Dozens died and were buried in shallow graves marked with stones. She has helped more than 15 families find their loved ones — but this will be her last trip.

Men between 18 and 42 are forced to serve in Syria’s army. After years of living in exile, some are willing to return to be home again.

Sousou is from Sweden. Maher Cissoko, her husband, is from Senegal. It was the kora that brought them together. And now, 10 years and two kids later, they've released a new album called "Made of Music."

The former president of the German football league called the resignation "a major setback for integration efforts beyond football in our country."

Many New Yorkers may not know David Hosack's name, but they wouldn't recognize their city without the public institutions he founded or influenced.

After years of having difficulty passing legislation relating to greenhouse gas emissions, a group consisting of both Democrats and Republicans believe they have a plan that can make their constituents happy.

Those who have watched over the Montreal Protocol since its formation have never had to take significant measures to enforce it — until now.

Some Americans think major flooding will not affect the country until decades from now. A recent report says major implications may be arriving much sooner.

Across America, millions of high school kids take Advanced Placement classes every year to prep for an exam that could get them college credit. In May, the nonprofit company that runs AP decided to change its world history class, to skip pre-colonial history. In this political climate, that was especially controversial.

An anonymous satirist has created four characters who speak to the tragedy of Syria.

A new report confirming prisoner abuses in southern Yemen is amping up concern in Washington, DC. "It's just going to further radicalize the Yemeni people," Senator Chris Murphy says.

Byproducts from coal-fired power plants and metal production can help lower the carbon footprint of concrete production.

Sand can seem like the most abundant and inexhaustible thing on Earth. But a global building boom is gobbling up sand — and destroying vital ecosystems around the world — for concrete and landfill.

Bassem Youssef was once called the "Jon Stewart of Egypt." Now the comedian is looking for American fans.

The iconic 1960s protest singer says she feels it's time to "stop whining about it."

What Queen Bey’s music can teach us about scripture — and vice versa.

Casey Trela watches movies for a living.

Cleveland welcomes more than 100 global artists into 28 venues for an ambitious city-wide art takeover.

Sawan Dutta has done music for television and stage shows, but the world knows her as Bengali Aunty.

There's a serious word that's been thrown around a lot since Donald Trump held a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday. It's the word "treason." The thing is, Trump is not guilty of treason as the US Constitution defines the term.

A defense contractor that held immigrant children overnight in a Phoenix office building operates a second office nearby where a neighbor has seen immigrant children bathing themselves in bathroom sinks.

In eastern Ukraine, it's often women who lead families to new homes for safety while their husbands stay behind.

Precision engineering makes the modern world go round. Author Simon Winchester explains why that wasn’t always the case.

Big business is good for employees and good for the environment. That’s not a marketing ploy— it’s what the data say.

Catholic bishops on Saturday secured the release of dozens of Nicaraguan student protesters trapped overnight inside in a church under a hail of gunfire from armed pro-government supporters, who killed at least one person inside, a human rights group said.

At the news conference Trump was invited by reporters to offer even a single criticism of Russia, but repeatedly declined.

He is beloved for relinquishing his meager rations, going hungry so the kids could nourish themselves — and for hugging them close to ward off hypothermia.

A global crop failure could have catastrophic consequences. Right now, such an event seems unlikely. But if the world continues to warm at its current pace, it becomes ever more possible.

Migration isn't caused just by violence and failing governments: Climate-related problems such as drought, extreme storms and excessive heat have pushed many small farmers in Central America to leave their land and head north.

The House and the Senate could have trouble reconciling their two very different versions of the 2018 farm bill.

Melting Antarctic ice has led to an abundance of krill and with all that food, humpback whales are thriving, with high rates of pregnancy. The question is: How long can this last?

How is the Kremlin viewing the upcoming summit between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin? It's Russia’s symbolic return from international isolation to a global powerbroker and America needs to negotiate once more.

Satirists love US President Donald Trump and his journey to Europe and Britain has provided a non-stop supply of comments, gestures and tweets for satirists to lampoon.

Thirty years after a US-backed dictator was overthrown, Paraguayan women still struggle under the oppression he imposed.

Starbucks announced plans to discontinue using plastic straws at its 28,000 locations worldwide. It's a positive development for the environment. But is it worthy of celebration?

The music that makes Marvel’s hip-hop superhero.

How the 1965 R&B classic made Wilson Pickett a star.

The outrageous, pioneering comics of autobiographical cartoonist Aline Kominsky-Crumb.

Donald Trump’s first visit to Britain as US president is expected to coincide with large anti-Trump protests in London. But Trump does have his fans in the UK.

The synergy that has propelled the French national team to the title game in the most recent World Cup in Russia has been colorblind — but French citizens and fans have not.

What's it like to deal with a tariff? Ask a Philadelphia ice cream maker who exports to China.

In a startling public outburst against one of Europe's main military powers, Trump told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that Germany was wrong to support a new $11 billion Baltic Sea pipeline to import Russian gas while being slow to meet targets for NATO spending to protect against Russia.