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NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Professor Andrew Fountain from Portland State University about melting glaciers in the American West.

Olivia Laing illuminates the complex relationships between writers and alcohol in The Trip to Echo Spring — Echo Spring being, of course, the euphemism Tennessee Williams used for the liquor cabinet in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Reviewer Jane Ciabattari says the book is "beautifully written, haunting, tragic and instructive in the best sense."

Two strangers tell their stories to a wandering narrator in Bruce Wagner's new The Empty Chair. It's a pair of novellas meditating on grief, love, spirituality and the nature of storytelling. Reviewer Colin Dwyer says Wagner manages to both tease out the threads that bind the stories, and relish the spaces between.

China's President Xi Jinping is in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements for a plan that would build $46 billion in infrastructure and energy projects. China aims to create greater land and sea ties with Pakistan in order to strengthen its influence in European and Middle Eastern markets.

The number of H-2B visas available to foreigners seeking work in the U.S. is down from last year. A Maine hotel owner is among those worried about finding enough workers to stay open over the summer.

A study in the journal "Scientific Reports" finds the melodies of popular songs have gotten simpler over time.

After years of promises and more than $1 billion of investment, Paris’s once-filthy river is finally swimmable. And the mayor proved it just days before the July 26 Olympic deadline.

The artists of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratories have made travel posters for distant planets, simulated Jupiter's churning atmosphere and translated satellite movements into sound.

President Obama is just getting to know the Japanese premier, who took office less than three months ago. It is a period of adjustment for U.S.-Japanese relations. Obama pledges, "We will be deepening our engagement in this part of the world." His Asian trip also takes him to Singapore, China and South Korea.

President Obama is just getting to know the Japanese premier, who took office less than three months ago. It is a period of adjustment for U.S.-Japanese relations. Obama pledges, "We will be deepening our engagement in this part of the world." His Asian trip also takes him to Singapore, China and South Korea.