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Nearly two months after a collision on China's high-speed-rail network killed 40 people, the government is still investigating why it happened. But critics blame the haste with which the network was built, corruption and a disregard for human life.

The newest legal front for Rupert Murdoch's media giant involves the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law banning U.S. firms from paying bribes to government officials abroad. The British division of the U.S. company has admitted that private investigators working for one of its newspapers paid police for information from confidential databases.

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, whose book Where the Wild Things Are became a favorite for generations of kids, died at age 83. Fresh Air remembers Sendak with excerpts from several interviews.

Steve Inskeep talks to Steve Coll about his new book, Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power. In it, Coll delves into the business model of one of the country's largest and most profitable corporations. He explores how the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 shaped the culture at the company for years to come.

Britain opted out of the euro, but it's by no means protected from the eurozone troubles. Declining demand on the continent means fewer British exports. The picture is particularly bleak in places like Hull — a port city with one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in Britain.

The downfall of ambitious politician Bo Xilai exposed a bitter, high-level political power struggle in China. Now, victims of his crackdown on organized crime are breaking their silence, with stories of torture and disregard for the law that reveal the campaign's dark side.

Once, American Idol helped establish a new pop songbook and distilled the essence of contemporary stardom. NPR Music's critic, Ann Powers, says those days are gone.

We'll listen back to a 1989 interview with actor Harry Carey Jr., who died Dec. 27. Carey co-starred with John Wayne in the classic Westerns She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Searchers and 3 Godfathers. He talked to Fresh Air about filming epic cavalry-versus-Indian scenes — and his most challenging stunts.

Colorado hospitals are on the verge of a crisis as COVID-19 cases are rising. New Mexico and Utah are not far behind.

Fires are destroying huge swaths of forests and causing mass evacuations throughout Oregon and California. NPR discusses the latest.