Topics

Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet Thursday with officials from Russia, Ukraine and the European Union. They will discuss the crisis in Ukraine. While the Obama administration has said it has overwhelming evidence that Moscow is stirring up the unrest in eastern Ukraine, it says it wants to wait before expanding sanctions. Analysts say Washington has few other options.

NPR's Jackie Northam was a freelance reporter based in Kenya when the Rwandan genocide erupted. In this essay, she recalls covering those terrible events and trying to make sense of them afterward.

Thanks in large part to hydraulic fracturing, the U.S. finds itself awash in domestic energy — and moving rapidly toward self-sufficiency and a position of strategic and economic strength.

Thanks to fracking, there is an abundance of natural gas at about a quarter of the European price. This influx of business may be good for the U.S., but it's cause for concern for European leaders.

Europe has been trying to reduce its energy dependence on Russia for years. The crisis in Crimea has given the effort a greater sense of urgency.

Ten supertankers are under construction and there are orders for another 15, but just three years ago the tanker market was barely moving.

The World Bank is undergoing a vast reorganization, its first in nearly 20 years. The process has been controversial, but the bank's president says it's needed to foster better internal collaboration.

Launched in August, the Maersk McKinney Moller is the first of a new class of megaships. It's 20 stories high and a quarter-mile long. NPR's Jackie Northam hopped on board in Poland.

New container ships stack their cargo 10 stories high. They're so wide they won't fit through the Panama Canal until it's widened. Companies say this is what they need to survive in the 21st century.

Many spirits are tied to a particular place, but liquor companies have gone global and a small number of firms now dominate the market internationally.

Oil production in the U.S. is booming, and that's making it harder to get crude oil from the field to the refinery. With pipelines filled to capacity, energy firms are turning to rail networks.

The United States took no military action to prevent the deaths of more than 100,000 people in the Syria conflict. But a chemical weapons attack — which killed some 1,400 Syrians — has pushed the administration into action. President Obama insists the Bashar al-Assad regime must be held accountable for the attack, which he says violates a prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. Why do chemical weapons provoke such a different, more visceral response than conventional weapons for many people?

Analysts say the case for military intervention in Syria lacks a legal basis, yet the White House argues it might be the right thing to do. While there may not be legal precedent under international law, it wouldn't be the first time the U.S. has taken military action on humanitarian grounds.

Zodiac produces most of the inflatable rafts used by the U.S. military. But a California company challenged that contract, saying it violates a requirement that the Defense Department use products made with American material and by U.S. workers. In response, Zodiac set up a factory in Maryland.

Only a few days have passed since Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Israelis and Palestinians have laid the groundwork for a resumption of peace talks and that negotiators would convene in Washington in "the next week or so." Kerry received praise from all corners for his hard work and diplomatic skills to at least get both sides back to the negotiating table. But a few cracks are already appearing in the plans, with both side laying out conditions before talks get underway.

The Obama administration still has not determined whether the ouster of former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was a military coup. At issue is whether the U.S. would cut off roughly $1.5 billion in aid to a strategic Middle East ally. But this is not the first time the U.S. has been faced with this sort of dilemma, and there are ways around it.

U.S. and EU officials begin talks Monday on a free-trade deal that could create thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in new trade. But there are deep-seated differences that may make it difficult to reach an accord. Among the most contentious: agriculture and whether genetically modified crops grown in the U.S. will be accepted in Europe.

Textile workers in some poor countries like Bangladesh can make less than $100 a month. One factory in the Dominican Republic is trying something different: It's paying workers $500 a month. The company has yet to break even after three years, but the CEO says the business is growing rapidly and he believes it will be profitable.

The deadly collapse of a textile factory in Bangladesh has heightened awareness about cheap clothes. Many Americans have become used to inexpensive clothing, but the garments are also discarded at a remarkable rate: Billions of pounds of clothing are recycled each year; nearly half is exported.

With supplies high and prices at historic lows, there's debate whether U.S. companies should be allowed to export the gas overseas for a higher price. Many energy companies have applied for government approval to ship liquefied natural gas worldwide. So far, only one company has gotten a license to do that in the past 30 years..