Ari Shapiro

American military officials announced that they are planning an operation in April or May to free Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, from the group that calls itself the Islamic State, or ISIS. The extremist group has controlled the city since June, and the Pentagon says up to 25,000 Iraqi troops will ...

From a nearby mountain, Kurdish forces can see look down into the strategic city. An Iraqi-led assault on the city is planned, but for now the frustrated men hold their territory and train.

The city of Erbil is not far from the front lines of a war, but for Americans living in this part of northern Iraq, the conflict may feel a world away.

From urban high-density housing to rural communal living, Europeans are using the principle of co-housing — in which neighbors share space and resources, depending on their needs.

The graffiti in Snuny — an Iraqi city at the base of Mount Sinjar that Kurdish peshmerga fighters recently regained control of — provides a kind of shorthand for its recent history.

There's black graffiti on some buildings, proclaiming "This is the Islamic State." It's been scribbled out.

Over it, ...

Led by a celebrated Yazidi fighter, a small band of Kurdish peshmerga survived a months-long ISIS onslaught. Unlike others in Syria and Iraq, this sacred place still stands, nearly unscathed.

With the Islamic State pushed back, Iraq's Yazidis are returning to their villages — and to mass graves. Now, they guard the remains and are calling on the U.N. to document the killings.

Nearly every country has a national flag, a national anthem, a national bird. Not many countries have a national typeface.

Sweden recently commissioned a team of designers to come up with a font to represent the country on its websites, press releases, tourism brochures and more.

The offices of Soderhavet ...

Ethnic and political tensions are growing in Sweden, a country traditionally known for its openness and tolerance. In some cases, the victims of discrimination are also perpetrators.

Sweden is the first country in the world to get a remote-controlled airport. That means flights are guided by operators sitting miles away.

In a world moving toward cashless economies, Sweden is leading the way. More than 95 percent of transactions are already digital; some churches now pass a card reader instead of a collection plate.

As our plane touches down in Sundsvall, Sweden, the horizon is all snow and ice. A small air traffic control tower sticks out above the white horizon.

But this airport actually has two air traffic control centers. The second one is just a short walk from the airport runway.

Inside ...

Sweden has the distinction of producing surströmming, one of the foulest-smelling foods in the world. More than a decade ago, NPR's Ari Shapiro tried eating it and failed. It's time for a rematch.

Fare-dodging in Stockholm's system has become a movement, and the group's members don't try to hide what they're doing — in fact, they advertise it.

An island in the Baltic Sea helps explain the complicated web of military alliances in Northern Europe.

A series of military confrontations and growing tensions between Western Europe and Russia means armed conflict in northern Europe seems plausible — and shows how ill-prepared the region is now.

British Gas still has five employees who work as lamplighters, tending to the more than 1,000 centuries-old gas lamps that still line some of London's oldest neighborhoods.

The International Dark-Sky Association has named only three "gold-tier reserves" on Earth where a "full array of visible sky phenomena can be viewed." There's only one in the Northern...

The British troupe 1927 has used vintage style and distinctive animation to make a name for itself in London and beyond. Its latest play is Golem.