The Panama Canal has been dubbed the greatest engineering feat in human history. It's also (perhaps less favorably) been called the greatest liberty mankind has ever taken with Mother Nature. But due to climate change, the Canal is drying up and fewer than half of the ships that used to pass through are now able to do so. So how did we get here? Today on the show, we're talking to Cristina Henriquez, the author of a new novel that explores the making of the Canal. It took 50,000 people from 90 different countries to carve the land in two — and the consequences of that extraordinary, nature-defying act are still echoing through our present.
Haiti is on the verge of collapse, with little to no government. But many Haitians have already learned to live without the support of the state, as NPR discovered traveling to Cap-Haïtien.
Venezuela's president ordered the closure of his country's embassy in Ecuador in solidarity with Mexico in its protest over a raid by Ecuadorian authorities on the Mexican embassy in Quito.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's government faces a deadline this week — to commit to holding free and fair elections or face renewed U.S. oil sanctions.
Arrests for crossing the U.S. border illegally fell slightly in March, authorities said, bucking a usual spring increase amid increased immigration enforcement in Mexico.
The Mexican city of Mazatlán is the first place the total solar eclipse will be visible as it emerges over the Pacific Ocean today, and the weather here is perfect.
A Brazilian Supreme Court justice included Elon Musk as a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news and opened a separate investigation into Musk for alleged obstruction.
The announcement came after Ecuadorian police officers forcibly broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito, detaining former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who was seeking political asylum there.
Illegal gold mining has ravaged the Peruvian Amazon, leaving behind pollution and denuded landscapes. A group of miners are working with a U.S. charity to restore the forest.
Anthropocene refers to the age of humans — the things we've done to Earth. Geologists just rejected a proposal to declare an official "Anthropocene epoch." But everyone agrees: Damage has been done.
Peruvian president Dina Boluarte is being investigated for allegedly acquiring an undisclosed collection of luxury watches since becoming vice president in 2021, and then president in 2022.
Maynor Suazo Sandoval left Honduras when he was 20 and built a new life in the U.S. He is one of the missing workers from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Haiti is the middle of a crisis and is without a government as gangs in Port-au-Prince prevent one. But some parts of Haiti have lived without a functioning government for so long they cannot remember what it's like to have one. Our reporter in Haiti takes us to one such village.
