Search results for

John Powers, Fresh Air critic at large, weighs in on the trends of 2007: political campaigns, Iraq movies failing at the box office, HBO's The Sopranos, stories about hitting the road, the TMZing of America, jocks gone wild, hip sentimentality, the nightly ideological news, atheist chic and the writers strike.

U.S. and Pakistani intelligence operatives captured the Taliban's second-in-command. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar effectively ran the organization, U.S. officials say, directing Taliban military strategy in Afghanistan and controlling the group's finances.

A white New Yorker says her life changed after she wore an afro wig to a party. Michelle Joni Lapidos has been called a racist, but she tells host Michel Martin she meant no harm; she just loves wearing the fro.

Robert Siegel sits down with a group of students from Tel Aviv University for a conversation about their expectations for the future. The students are politically divided, but they agree that their main concern, even more than security, is the Israeli economy.

Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" as doo-wop? Scott Bradlee imagines pop music in a time machine.

The number of Democrats citing abortion rights as a top priority for the federal government to address jumped from less than 1% in 2021 to 13% in a new poll.

The Communist Party chooses 59-year-old Hu Jintao as its new general secretary, in effect taking the helm of the world's most populous nation. Hu is not expected to stray far from the path of outgoing President Jiang Zemin, who has pushed economic but not political reform. Hear more from NPR's Rob Gifford.

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

After a record-setting Christmas, Hollywood wraps up the year with more than $9 billion in the till -- the second biggest box office total in its history. Film critic NPR's Bob Mondello says a large part of that money was well-earned: some of 2003's most popular movies were also among the year's best. He offers a list of his top movie picks for the year.

To kick off summer, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe and Felix Contreras, host of Alt.Latino, discuss an album by Cuba musician X Alfonso.