NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Fri, 12 Oct 2018 23:36:14 +0000 http://www.withradio.org/post/meet-internet-researchers-unmasking-russian-assassins 42110 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 21:55:00 +0000 Meet The Internet Researchers Unmasking Russian Assassins Merrit Kennedy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zXVi0TgQko In the penguin habitat at an aquarium in Sydney, love is in the air. The newest penguin couple here are named Sphen and Magic, and the two males are about to take the leap into parenthood. Sea Life Sydney Aquarium said they became inseparable before breeding season, "constantly seen waddling around and going for swims together." There's a reason gentoo penguins have been called "one of the more romantic seabirds in the animal kingdom," as Oceana explains , and it comes down to their nesting habits. The species constructs nests out of pebbles, and according to Oceana, "individual pebbles may be shared between potential mates beforehand as a sign that they are interested in becoming a breeding pair." The couple, which have become known as Sphengic, have now gathered more pebbles than any other penguin pair at the aquarium. The aquarium says their caretakers initially gave them a "dummy egg to allow them to practice incubating and develop their http://www.withradio.org/post/same-sex-penguin-couple-fosters-egg-sydney 42109 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 21:08:00 +0000 Same-Sex Penguin Couple Fosters An Egg In Sydney Rachel D. Cohen The government of Nauru, a tiny island nation in the South Pacific, and the charity Doctors Without Borders are in a bitter dispute over mental health care for asylum seekers and refugees. The controversy revolves around approximately 900 individuals sent to Nauru by the Australian government since 2013. They arrived in Australia by boat, coming from such countries as Iran, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Syria; the government sent them to Nauru and Papua New Guinea. Most of them have been there four years. "Let's be very, very clear. They're trapped on a rock in the middle of the Pacific," Paul McPhun , MSF Australia's executive director, told NPR in a phone interview. These asylum seekers and refugees have no passports and few opportunities for education and work, he said. McPhun has also said there were instances of physical and sexual abuse among that population. Eleven months ago, MSF (the acronym for Doctors Without Borders' French name) began providing free mental health care on Nauru. http://www.withradio.org/post/why-msf-had-stop-offering-mental-health-care-refugees-nauru 42104 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:45:00 +0000 Why MSF Had To Stop Offering Mental Health Care To Refugees In Nauru Becky Sullivan After Hurricane Michael blasted through the Florida coastal towns of Eastpoint and Apalachicola, some residents are beginning the long process of cleaning up. This area, just 30 miles east of where the powerful storm's eye made landfall on Wednesday, was expected to – and did – receive the worst of the storm surge. In some areas, the water was more than 10 feet higher than normal. Water came up over the coastal highway, U.S. 98, and caused significant damage to the businesses and homes along the highway. Scattered around the buildings were fryers, chairs, tables, and thousands and thousands of oyster shells. Outside Lynn's Quality Oysters in Eastpoint, four employees were stacking up waterlogged picnic tables, each painted a different pastel shade and all covered in mud. Lynn Martina was inside. She's still running the business her grandparents began decades ago. Her parents ran it after them. Back then, it was a tin building in this spot along Highway 98. A hurricane in 1985 wiped it http://www.withradio.org/post/were-survivors-cleanup-begins-floridas-devastated-coast 42107 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:40:00 +0000 'We're Survivors': Cleanup Begins On Florida's Devastated Coast Colin Dwyer At this time last year Riyadh was gearing up to host a raft of leading figures from the world of business and banking at its inaugural Future Investment Initiative . Dubbed "Davos in the Desert" — in a nod to the yearly global economic forum and the kingdom's own lofty ambitions — the conference in the Saudi capital suggested a new era of openness and innovation under the young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The event is set to return in just a week and a half, but this time around, it will be held in the shadow of simmering controversy — and many of its noteworthy guests will not be returning. As world leaders seek answers to what befell prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose disappearance has elicited suspicions of government-sanctioned murder, the conference's major guests are dropping out in droves. Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group, said Thursday that he will not be attending. Nor will World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, major tech http://www.withradio.org/post/saudi-economic-summit-suffers-exodus-guests-after-journalists-disappearance 42105 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:33:00 +0000 Saudi Economic Summit Suffers Exodus Of Guests After Journalist's Disappearance Nurith Aizenman As Ebola continues to spread through the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the government has been issuing daily updates. These press releases are mainly a recitation of facts and figures: The total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak was declared August 1 — 165 as of Friday. The death toll – 90 people. The number of individuals who've been given an experimental vaccine – 15,807. And a summary of the latest efforts by responders to reach affected communities. But for all the dry language in these dispatches, every so often they offer a vivid glimpse of a tumultuous, high stakes drama that is playing out almost daily as health workers and safe burial teams seek to win over communities who are deeply mistrustful of their intentions. The accounts speak of tense negotiations with village leaders and of patients who refuse treatment and flee — only to be found days later, on the brink of death, in a city several hours away. Then came Friday's release, which included a story so http://www.withradio.org/post/hijacked-hearse-dispatches-ebola-outbreak-drc 42106 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:29:00 +0000 The Hijacked Hearse: Dispatches From The Ebola Outbreak In DRC Asian-Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in California, now making up more than 14 percent of the population. It's a slice of the demographic pie that has tripled since 1980. And in historically red Orange County — where there are four races that the Cook Political Report labels as competitive — Democrats are hoping that Asian-American voters could help turn the county blue. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Asian-Americans now make up more than 20 percent of Orange County residents. Mary Anne Foo, executive director of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, says that many of these families have roots in the Philippines, China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan and more. This has been the case for decades, but the difference now is a greater number of those people were born in the U.S. "You see more and more diversity here in Orange County," she says, "and you'll see more of a rise of second-generation [voters]." Asian-Americans tend to vote Democratic, http://www.withradio.org/post/california-democrats-hope-asian-american-voters-can-help-flip-red-districts 42108 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 20:01:00 +0000 California Democrats Hope Asian-American Voters Can Help Flip Red Districts David Bianculli The rollout plan for the new TV series The Romanoffs is unusual for Amazon — just as the drama series itself is an unusual experiment for the show's creator, Matthew Weiner . Instead of making the entire season of The Romanoffs available at once, as it does with so many of its exclusive TV series, Amazon Prime Video presents only the first two episodes on the night the series premieres. Subsequent installments will be doled out weekly, as they are on broadcast TV. And unlike the past two drama series on which Weiner worked — his own Mad Men and David Chase 's The Sopranos — this new series does not tell a continuing story. Instead, The Romanoffs is an eight-episode anthology drama. But where such modern anthologies as FX's Fargo and HBO's True Detective tell a new story with a new cast every season, The Romanoffs is an anthology series in the purest sense. Like The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, or such live Golden Age drama anthologies as Playhouse 90 and Studio One , http://www.withradio.org/post/romanoffs-feels-short-story-collection-made-screen 42103 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 18:08:00 +0000 'The Romanoffs' Feels Like A Short Story Collection Made For The Screen editor Copyright 2018 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli, editor of the website TV Worth Watching, sitting in for Terry Gross. (SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TINGLER") VINCENT PRICE: (As Dr. Warren Chapin) Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic, but scream - scream for your lives. The tingler is lose... UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, yelling). PRICE: (As Dr. Warren Chapin) ...In this theater. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, yelling) It's on me. PRICE: (As Dr. Warren Chapin) And if you don't scream, it may kill you. UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, yelling). PRICE: (As Dr. Warren Chapin) Scream, scream. UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, yelling). PRICE: (As Dr. Warren Chapin) Keep screaming. Scream for your lives. UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, yelling). UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, yelling) It's here. It's over here. Help, help, help. UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character, yelling) My God, it's http://www.withradio.org/post/cult-icon-john-waters-breaking-taboos-and-embracing-villains 42102 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 18:08:00 +0000 Cult Icon John Waters On Breaking Taboos And Embracing Villains Michaeleen Doucleff The rate of cesarean sections around the world is increasing at an "alarming" rate, reported an international team of doctors and scientists on Thursday. Since 1990, C-sections have more than tripled from about 6 percent of all births to 21 percent, three studies report in The Lancet . And there are no "signs of slowing down," the researchers write in a commentary about the studies. C-sections now outnumber vaginal deliveries in parts of southeast Europe, Latin America and China. Even in poor countries, the rates can be extremely high at clinics. For example, in Bangladesh, less than 60 percent of births occur at a clinic, but when they do, about 65 percent of them are C-sections. The rates can be even higher in private clinics. For example, in Brazil, 80-90 percent of births in private clinics are now C-sections, compared with about 30-40 percent of births in public hospitals. Such high rates are due mainly to an increase of elective C-sections, says Salimah Walani, the vice president http://www.withradio.org/post/rate-c-sections-rising-alarming-rate-report-says 42101 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 17:17:00 +0000 Rate Of C-Sections Is Rising At An 'Alarming' Rate, Report Says Merrit Kennedy Updated at 6 p.m. ET Roughly two years after Turkish authorities detained Andrew Brunson on suspicion of espionage, the U.S. pastor is a free man once more. Turkey ordered his release Friday, ending a case that heightened tensions between Turkey and the U.S. A court in the western city of Izmir actually sentenced Brunson to a little more than three years in prison, according to Turkey's state news agency Anadolu . However, as NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul explains, the court says he will serve no more time, considering his health issues. "The court also lifted judicial controls on Brunson — that means restrictions on his movements have been lifted and he is now free to leave the country," Kenyon reports. The prosecutor had asked for a 10-year sentence. The evangelical pastor wept in court upon hearing the news of his release, Reuters reported. Prior to the ruling, he said, "I am an innocent man. I love Jesus, I love Turkey." After he listened to an alleged witness, he said, "I do not http://www.withradio.org/post/turkey-releases-us-pastor-after-two-years-prison 42097 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 17:08:00 +0000 Turkey Releases U.S. Pastor After 2 Years In Prison Autumn Brewington Princess Eugenie of York, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, walked down the aisle Friday to wed Jack Brooksbank. The royal wedding comes nearly five months after the nuptials of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle drew more than 100,000 spectators to Windsor (and about 50 million viewers in the United States and Britain). For all the pomp, circumstance and media hype of British royal weddings, the ceremony for Eugenie and Brooksbank was simultaneously a smaller-scale yet still-high-wattage affair. Guests included American actresses Demi Moore and Liv Tyler and models such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Cara Delevingne. The bride, 28, stunned in a low-backed gown by British-based designer Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vos — cut to show the scar from scoliosis surgery she had as a child — and a diamond-and-emerald tiara loaned by the queen. The groom, 32, told her , "You look perfect." In the runup to #royalwedding2, one challenge appeared to be achieving royal http://www.withradio.org/post/you-look-perfect-princess-eugenie-york-marries-another-royal-wedding 42100 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:57:00 +0000 'You Look Perfect:' Princess Eugenie Of York Marries In Another Royal Wedding Marc Silver Goats (and sheep) have been recruited in the effort to fight wildfires. Northern Spain has a "Fire Flocks" project, in which dozens and dozens of the ruminants chip in by doing what they do so well: eat. A new video from BBC World Hacks , which highlights "brilliant solutions to the world's problems," tells the story. It was published on October 11. "They eat what is the fuel for fires," says Sergi Nuss, who runs the project, which is based in Girona, an area where there were recurrent wildfires in summer. By chowing down on grass and the leaves of young trees and bushes, the goats and sheep can help reduce the chance that a fire will spread through grasslands and treetops. An added bonus is that the project creates more work for shepherds, who are a disappearing breed. To further boost the career prospects of shepherds, the Fire Flocks group encourages local butchers to promote the sale of goat meat. It is worth noting that goats and sheep are a bit different in their consumption http://www.withradio.org/post/goats-and-sheep-indirectly-fight-fires-heartwarming-bbc-video 42098 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:46:00 +0000 Goats And Sheep (Indirectly) Fight Fires In Heartwarming BBC Video Ina Jaffe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou3mUSQuvrY A Republican congressman who should have waltzed to re-election is now in the fight of his career. Duncan Hunter, who has represented an inland Southern California district for a decade, was indicted in August on charges of using a quarter of a million dollars in campaign funds for personal expenses. As the race grows tighter, Hunter is attacking his Democratic challenger for his Palestinian heritage. A controversial television ad accuses Ammar Campa-Najjar of trying to "infiltrate" Congress. It says that Campa-Najjar changed his name to hide his family's connection to terrorism. It points out that his grandfather was part of the deadly attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Campa-Najjar never knew his grandfather, who was killed by Israeli agents 16 years before the candidate was born. This is just one of the commercial's questionable associations. The Washington Post's Fact Checker gave the ad its worst rating: 4 Pinocchios http://www.withradio.org/post/gop-rep-duncan-hunter-under-indictment-launches-false-attacks-opponent 42099 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:42:00 +0000 GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter, Under Indictment, Launches False Attacks On Opponent Bruce Warren https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EArQLcyFCwo Hozier recently visited World Cafe to discuss his latest EP, Nina Cried Power . Stopping into the WXPN studios before his sold out show at The Fillmore Philadelphia, the singer-songwriter performed stripped-down versions of several new songs as well as his breakout hit, "Take Me To Church," with his full band. In June of this year, Hozier shared details about his new music with World Cafe host Talia Schlanger. He talked about how blues and soul music influences continued to show up in his writing, and how the political climate of the last couple years informed some of his new material. "I think all music is political regardless of whether its intending to be," Hozier told Schlanger. "I think it reflects people. It reflects people's situations ... I try to be honest with the music and I try to be honest with stuff that I think is important." The Nina Cried Power EP is his first new release since his 2014 self-titled breakthrough debut album. http://www.withradio.org/post/watch-hozier-perform-nina-cried-power-world-cafe 42096 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:17:00 +0000 Watch Hozier Perform 'Nina Cried Power' On World Cafe Ronnie Cohen They claim to help you sleep, make your hair grow, speed weight loss, improve your sex life and ward off the nasty cold going around the office. Though it's often impossible to tell if dietary supplements work, consumers generally feel certain they can't hurt. But they can. The Food and Drug Administration has identified hundreds of supplements tainted with pharmaceuticals — from antidepressants and erectile dysfunction remedies to weight-loss drugs — since 2007, a study published Friday shows . Even after FDA tests proved the supplements contained unapproved or recalled medications, many of the products continued to be marketed and sold, the analysis finds. The report in JAMA Network Open calls into question the FDA's ability to effectively police the $35-billion-a-year supplements industry. "The FDA didn't even bother to recall more than half of the potentially hazardous supplements," says Dr. Pieter Cohen, a Harvard Medical School professor and an internist with Cambridge Health http://www.withradio.org/post/no-wonder-it-works-so-well-there-may-be-viagra-herbal-supplement 42095 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 15:36:00 +0000 No Wonder It Works So Well: There May Be Viagra In That Herbal Supplement Bob Boilen I recently hosted a " pitch session " at the DIY Music Conference hosted by CD Baby in Nashville. It was an opportunity for independent artists to have their music heard and critiqued by a panel of music industry folks including a record producer, a music supervisor and music journalist. Last year I discovered the music of AHI in my batch of a hundred plus submissions and was thrilled to bring him to the Tiny Desk . This year, Nashville's Jilian Linklater was my favorite discovery. "Break Up With Your Best Friend" is poppier than any song I've had stuck in my head for a long while. I chalk that up not just to its contagious chorus, but the memories it conjured up of losing an old friend. For the 26-year-old Linklater, it was a song that helped her process a breakup, but became so much more than that. After workshopping the song with fellow songwriters Claire Douglas and Danielle Blakey, she tells NPR Music that "it transformed into a more universal song about the loss of a romantic http://www.withradio.org/post/poppiest-song-ive-loved-years 42094 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 15:15:00 +0000 The Poppiest Song I've Loved In Years Kiana Fitzgerald https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBmMU_iwe6U It's not enough to make list after list. The Turning the Tables project seeks to suggest alternatives to the traditional popular music canon, and to do more than that, too: to stimulate conversation about how hierarchies emerge and endure. This year, Turning the Tables considers how women and non-binary artists are shaping music in our moment, from the pop mainstream to the sinecures of jazz and contemporary classical music. Our list of the 200 Greatest Songs By Women+ offers a soundtrack to a new century. This series of essays takes on another task. The 25 arguments writers make in these pieces challenge the usual definitions of influence. Some rethink the building legacies of popular artists; others celebrate those who create within subcultures, their innovations rippling outward over time. As always, women forge new pathways in sound; today, they also make waves under the surface of culture by confronting, in their music, the increased http://www.withradio.org/post/beyonc-21st-centurys-master-leveling 42092 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 14:15:00 +0000 Beyoncé Is The 21st Century's Master Of Leveling Up Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: A court in Turkey has released a pastor from North Carolina who'd been held under house arrest. The case of Pastor Andrew Brunson has been a priority of the Trump administration and the subject of repeated talks and attempted high-level deals between the U.S. and Turkey. Brunson has lived in Turkey for two decades. And in 2016, he was arrested along with tens of thousands of other people after a coup attempt. He spent most of that time in jail before being allowed house arrest in July. NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Istanbul. Hi, Peter. PETER KENYON, BYLINE: Hi, Noel. KING: All right, so a long case this one. What do we know about Pastor Brunson and the charges against him? KENYON: Well, he's lived for a long time in Izmir in Western Turkey. He's about 50 years old. He ran a small evangelical church there. But then, as you noted, in September 2016, he was arrested, charged with aiding terrorist groups, both Kurdish militants and this http://www.withradio.org/post/turkish-court-orders-release-pastor-andrew-brunson 42093 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 14:09:00 +0000 Turkish Court Orders Release Of Pastor Andrew Brunson Bill Chappell Updated at 2:20 p.m. ET At least 11 people have died from Hurricane Michael, which slammed into Florida's Panhandle with 155-mph winds on Wednesday. The storm hacked a trail of catastrophic destruction in Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia before finally heading back out over water. Five deaths were reported in Virginia, in addition to four in Florida, one in Georgia and one in North Carolina. More than 1 million people are without electricity, and areas along the Gulf Coast and elsewhere report severe outages of cellphone service and other communications. As Michael moved through the Mid-Atlantic on Thursday and overnight, flash flood warnings were sent to people in towns from the coast to the slopes of the Appalachian Mountains. As of noon ET Friday, the storm had left nearly 439,000 accounts without power outages in North Carolina, the state's Emergency Management Agency said . Around the same time, Virginia's emergency agency said more than 446,000 customers had no electricity. http://www.withradio.org/post/hurricane-michael-death-toll-rises-11-southeast-reels-storms-power 42087 as http://www.withradio.org Fri, 12 Oct 2018 13:26:00 +0000 'This Is A War Zone': Hurricane Michael Leaves Deadly Trail Through Southeast