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The Web site Second Life has built a booming virtual economy around animated characters called avatars. For a few pennies here or a dollar there, participants can accessorize their avatars with new clothing, a car, even a house.

Gary Clark doesn't call himself a photographer. But he feels compelled to take pictures of homeless people — those "on the edge," as he puts it. His work has brought a rare brand of celebrity to people who usually live anonymously. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

Mysterious banners at a Cambridge, Mass., subway stop have commuters scratching their heads. The signs, challenging passers-by to solve a complicated math problem, are actually a cryptic a pitch by Google, which is looking to hire more brainy engineers. Andrea Shea reports.

A poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health finds opioid abuse a top issue for rural Americans.

Indian-administered Kashmir is now in its fourth day of a communications blackout, following the government's decision to revoke its special status. Pakistan has downgraded diplomatic ties.

The disasters crippled communications and damaged roads — problems that are also complicating efforts to bring aid to the city of Palu and other affected areas.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks says the effects of climate change are already being felt. Storms have damaged U.S. bases and rising seas could submerge U.S. installations in the Pacific.

A nonprofit student loan group alleges that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has abandoned its duty to police widespread mismanagement of a loan forgiveness program for public service workers.

There have been five major mass extinctions over the last half-billion years, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists are currently monitoring an era of mass extinction predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. But this time around, says Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction, it's humans that are causing it.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza continues to cause problems with dairy cattle in the U.S. as the virus spreads, a virus is attacking cacao trees in the West African countries of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the world has added 398 million harvested acres of feed grains, food grains, and oil seeds during the 21st century, and the EPA reports that while U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased from 2021 to 2022 by 1.3%, agricultural emissions dropped 1.8%.