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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.

Rick Spinrad previously served as the agency's top scientist. His nomination comes at a difficult period for NOAA, which spent the Trump administration mired in scandal and without a permanent leader.

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.

The most popular global TikToks of the year are a mix of the over-the-top, the weird and the wonderful. Here's a closer look at five favorites.

Fairleigh Dickinson became the second No. 16 seed in history to win an NCAA Tournament game, thanks to a relentless, hustling defense.

For the seventh year in a row, Lance Armstrong has won the Tour de France. And this was a victory lap of sorts. Armstrong will retire at 33. Racing fans will miss him, but look forward to new competition.

Essence might be the longest-running magazine for black women, but the authors of a new book, The Man From Essence, say that the road to building the brand had many twists and turns.

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.

Ten albums released this year that you absolutely, positively won't want to miss — from marquee artists like Cecilia Bartoli and Michael Tilson Thomas to fresh discoveries, including American composer Michael Harrison, Denmark's Vagn Holmboe and a forgotten Baroque man of mystery.

President Biden is calling for unity to address several current crises, but that will prove difficult in a country as divided as ever.

In the liner notes to his 2012 trio album Accelerando, the pianist and composer Vijay Iyer wrote: "[T]his album is in the lineage of American creative music based on dance rhythms." Dancing in rhythm and exemplifying creativity, here are 10 records which belong to that great lineage.

Congressman Vern Buchanan was greeted with a huge turnout — and chants, boos and cheers — during a town hall meeting.

- N-P-R's Jennifer Ludden reports on the delayed efforts of Zaire to hold democratic elections. In 1990, President Mobutu Sese Seko (moh-boo-TOO say-SEE say-KOH) mandated that Zaire hold democratic elections in 1995. Elections were never held and, one year later, reform groups are calling on Mobutu to follow his 1990 mandate. In calling for elections, reformers are identifying Mobutu and his corrupt government as the primary reason for the delay in Zaire's transition to democracy. But Zaire's troubles are not limited to governmental corruption; logistical and organizational problems abound.

Linda talks to NPR's Michael Skoler in the Zairean capital, Kinshasa, about the high tension in the central African nation following the fall of a key government stronghold to rebel forces. The rebels' capture of Kisangani last weekend has led many to conclude that the fall of the government of President Mobutu Sese Seko (mo-BOO-too SAY-SAY SAY-ko) is now just a matter of time. Some members of the Zairean elite, reportedly including some of Mobutu's family, are fleeing the city. Meanwhile, politicians and army leaders are jockeying for position in a post-Mobutu Zaire.

N-P-R's Jennifer Ludden reports from Kinshasa that Zaire's six-month-old civil war is likely to continue. President Mobutu Sese Seko [moh-BOO-too seh-say SAY-koh] refuses to resign while rebels prepare to attack the capital. Despite the President's resolve, he has little real power, and the rebels may soon unseat him. They control almost half the country, and the remnants of Mobutu's army guarding Kinshasa will probably not offer much resistance.

A meteorologist goes up against Alabama's deadly tornadoes, as NPR's Invisibilia explores our relationship with uncertainty.

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.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water led ticket sales in movie theaters for the sixth straight weekend, making it the first film to have such a reign atop the box office since 2009's Avatar.

The total is up from an estimated enrollment of 4.524 million people for the recently completed 2020-21 fiscal year, according to economists who work for the governor and Legislature,

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.

Some Republicans are on the defensive about what they said or wrote privately after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. NPR's Michel Martin discusses that with Harvard professor Steven Levitsky.

More than 1,069 people were arrested for their involvement in the attack and over 500 have been sentenced.

At our desks, in nightclubs, and over bedroom speaker systems, these are the tracks that made us move.

For the first time, the Church of England has named a woman as its top leader. Sarah Mullally is the new Archbishop of Canterbury, leading 85 million Anglicans around the world.

The U.S. military admitted for the first time last week that one of the prisoners held without charges for more than two years at the base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (also known as Gitmo), was never an al Qaeda or Taliban fighter and should be immediately released. Commentator Connie Rice has been monitoring the tribunal, and she's come up with another of her Top 10 lists -- this time: Top 10 Signs You Might Not Get a Fair Trial in Guantanamo.