The Russia investigation has ended, and special counsel Robert Mueller's report is now in the hands of Attorney General William Barr. Barr sent a letter on Friday notifying Congress that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election had concluded. Following Justice Department regulations, Barr addressed his letter to the leaders of the House and Senate judiciary committees. Read the text of the letter below. Dear Chairman Graham, Chairman Nadler, Ranking Member Feinstein,...

Police in Charlottesville, Va., say they have arrested a 17-year-old male in connection with a threat that "contained vile, racially charged language targeted African-American and Hispanic students" at an area high school. At a news conference on Friday, police Chief RaShall Brackney said the suspect was believed to have made "threats to commit serious bodily harm to persons on school property" and to have carried out "harassment by computer." School Superintendent Dr. Rosa Atkins confirmed...

In the corridors of the Europa building in Brussels, European Union officials gathered around a small table, determining the fate of the country that had voted to reject them. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May was relegated to another room while the rest deliberated: Would May get the months-long extension she had requested to give her time to negotiate a Brexit withdrawal arrangement with Parliament? Ultimately, May got an extension — but not the one she was hoping for. After several hours of...

The Trump administration has backed Israel's claim to sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The move comes weeks before Israeli general elections and reverses the position U.S. administrations have held for decades. President Trump made the announcement via tweet Thursday. "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!" the...

A Florida man accused of mailing pipe bombs to a number of prominent Democrats and Trump critics, as well as CNN, has pleaded guilty before a federal judge in New York. Cesar Altieri Sayoc, 57, was arrested in late October and was scheduled to go on trial in July on charges related to using weapons of mass destruction and transporting explosives. None of the devices exploded. He has been held without bail since his arrest. "I knew these actions were wrong. I'm extremely sorry," Sayoc said, as...

American music can mean many things depending on the part of America you're experiencing. For much of the Southwest, the American sound includes accordions and cumbias — and that's just what we hear on American Music Vol. VII by Grupo Fantasma , a prolific nine-piece Latin funk outfit from Austin, Texas. Courtesy of the artist The album is a perfectly executed bi-cultural statement, made for the millions of folks who love mariachi as much as James Brown. The two-step lilt of the cumbias gets...

A new drug to treat postpartum depression is likely to reach the U.S. market in June, with a $34,000 price tag . The approval of the drug by the Food and Drug Administration comes on the heels of another approval, just two weeks ago, of a different antidepressant , whose retail price will be as much as $6,700 a month. Those giant list prices send shivers through the insurance industry and across the federal government and state governments, which pay for about 40 percent of prescription drugs...

Imagine Georgia O'Keeffe needing "luck" to paint a flower. But there it is, in the artist's twirling calligraphy, in a letter to her friend, documentary filmmaker Henwar Rodakiewicz. Maybe I've been absurd about wanting to do a big flower painting, but I've wanted to do it and that is that. I'm going to try. Wish me luck. The letter is in a never-before-seen trove of O'Keeffe's correspondences newly acquired by the Library of Congress. In this particular 1936 letter, O'Keeffe writes about an ...

The "bomb cyclone" that swept through the Midwest this week has caused more than $1 billion of flood damage in Nebraska, the state's governor said Wednesday. At least three people have been killed in Nebraska and Iowa. Heavy rainfall and rapid snowmelt have caused catastrophic flooding across the Missouri River Basin, and three-fourths of Nebraska's 93 counties have declared an emergency, Gov. Pete Ricketts said. The cost of the damage has surpassed $1.3 billion, state officials said,...

Martini glasses emblazoned with the words "Mommy Juice." Hundreds of people lined up in the bitter cold for a Christmas-themed bar. Cocktails, including one at $8,500 a pop , made with vintage liqueurs. It may seem like we're living in the golden age of cocktails — yet 30 percent of Americans don't indulge at all , while another 30 percent have only two alcoholic drinks per week. Millennials — who drive so many trends these days — are actually drinking less . And while some companies might...

For the NPR Music team, the Tiny Desk Contest is an annual opportunity to learn about undiscovered artists we might not otherwise hear. We hear from artists in every imaginable genre from all across the country. We're still accepting entries for a few more weeks — until April 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET — but we've already started to see entries we love. Here are a few that caught our attention this week. Four Play Clarinet, "Soulful" YouTube If you're like me, you're not usually bopping to a group...

How do you feel when you're watching a detective story and the murder is definitively solved at the halfway point? Cheated ... or intrigued? That's a good litmus test for how you'll respond to Out of Blue , a lush, unhurried new mystery thriller from writer-director Carol Morley. Loosely based on the Martin Amis novel Night Train , the film is an existential whodunit that's less concerned with big revelations than it is with deeper thoughts about quantum theory and stardust. It's bold and...