Elizabeth Smart was just 14 years old when she was kidnapped at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home in 2002. She was held captive for nine months and forced to act as Brian David Mitchell's second wife. He raped her nearly every day and told her that the ordeal was ordained by God.
When you invite guests over, you probably straighten up the house to make a good impression.
This week, the nation's capital is welcoming guests from all over the world. Thousands of finance ministers, central bankers, scholars and industry leaders are in Washington, D.C., for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
But instead of being impressed by the buffed-up home of the world's superpower, the guests are finding a capital in disarray. The federal government is still partly shut down and Congress has not yet agreed to avoid a debt default.
The disorder is prompting a lot of criticism of the United States, and concerns about U.S. economic leadership in the world.
From 'Here & Now'
Marilyn Geewax Discusses The Global Meetings Of The IMF And The World Bank
Captain Phillips
Director: Paul Greengrass
Genre: Action, drama
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance use
With: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Catherine Keener
(Recommended)
Many Syrians are frustrated, disappointed and generally upset that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the group that recently arrived in the country to dismantle the government's chemical weapons.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is a small, low-key outfit that has been placed in the international spotlight with its Syria mission and now a Nobel Prize.
"An award for what? They have only been two weeks in Syria, and they already got the Nobel? It would have been more honest if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin got the award," says a sarcastic Kadar Sheikhmous, a Syrian activist who left the country and is now in Turkey.
"The award should have gone to the children killed in the August attack on Ghouta," he says in reference to the chemical weapons attack in a suburb of Damascus that left some 1,400 people dead, many of them children.
Enlarge image i
Negotiations between the White House and Republicans in the House ended with President Obama rejecting the GOP plan Friday night, according to reports emerging from a closed meeting held by House Speaker John Boehner this morning.
The talks had focused on ways to end the government shutdown that is now in its 12th day and to raise the federal debt limit, something the Treasury says must happen by Oct. 17 to avoid a potential default.
As it seeks its own solution to the crisis, the Senate blocked a bill backed by Democrats Saturday that would have raised the borrowing limit through 2014.
Attention then turned to Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who has been working to craft a potential compromise solution. After the vote, senators could be seen flocking around her chair on the Senate floor. Collins is expected to speak about her plan in the early afternoon Saturday.
From Capitol Hill, NPR's David Welna reports for our Newscast unit:
"House Republicans met privately this morning, hours after President Obama rejected their plan to extend the debt ceiling for six weeks and start talks on reopening the government. Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp blames Obama for the shutdown.
"'We're waiting for the president actually to make an offer. He has not. Just sitting around waiting doesn't get the job done,' he said.
"Meanwhile in the Senate, Majority leader Harry Reid chided his GOP colleagues.
"The Republicans are not interested, it appears at this stage, of doing anything constructive to extend the debt ceiling, to open the government. Later — it's what they always say."
Once in a while, he does have a bad day, Christine Schei says.
"But it's rare. And I think he doesn't want to show that side of him. He knows how hard it is to feed him, cut his fingernails, shave him," she says. "And he must say 10 times, 'I'm so sorry Mom. I'm so sorry,' because he knows that I have to change his diaper. And I know that's hard on him."
Gordon Schei worries about the future and their ability to care for their son as they get older (they are both in they're 50s now), but he once asked Erik if they had made the right decision.
"I'm alive," he responded. "And I'm glad I'm alive."
Audio produced for Weekend Edition by Yasmina Guerda.
The Arab Spring unleashed massive, region-wide political turmoil, unseated longtime strongmen and it's still playing out. But what did it all cost?
A lot, according to a new report from the bank HSBC:
"Nearly three years on, the economic and human cost of the Arab Spring continues to mount. In the postrevolution states, the impact is obvious: we estimate the value of lost output will top USD800bn by the end of next year. In the [Gulf Cooperation Council], it is more indirect – increased dependence on energy revenues, rising breakeven oil prices, and a stalled reform programme. For both groups, it will be hard to reverse."
The Salt
Was Your Chicken Nugget Made In China? It'll Soon Be Hard To Know
Captain Phillips
Director: Paul Greengrass
Genre: Action, drama
Running Time: 134 minutes
Rated PG-13 for sustained intense sequences of menace, some violence with bloody images, and for substance use
With: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Catherine Keener
(Recommended)
As the federal government shutdown drags on, a potentially pivotal group of House Republicans has entered the spotlight: the roughly 20 or so members who have publicly signaled their support for a so-called clean spending bill that would provide the funding necessary to reopen the government without strings attached.
There are various tallies of how many members fall into this camp. Our best estimate, based on recent statements and the lists compiled by several media outlets [here, here and here] is 21.
So what unites the 21 congressmen who are willing to break with GOP leadership?
First, there's a regional connection: Most hail from the Northeast, Virginia or Florida — in other words, some of the more politically competitive (or least Republican) turf in the nation.
In addition, more than half of these congressional Republicans represent districts with above-average percentages of government employees.
The recent electoral history in many of these seats suggests they're the kinds of places where a tough primary challenge is less of a threat than a tough general election fight — which isn't the case for the bulk of the House GOP.
All of the congressmen advanced through their primary elections comfortably in 2012 — in fact, more than half had no primary opposition at all.
Here's a list of the Republicans who would support a "clean" spending bill, and some background on how their congressional districts voted in recent elections:
Rep. Tim Griffin (Arkansas 2)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 55
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 55%
Percentage of Government Workers: 20
Rep. Mike Coffman (Colorado 6)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 49
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 52%
Percentage of Government Workers: 12
Rep. Bill Young (Florida 13)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 58
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 69
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 50%
Percentage of Government Workers: 11
Rep. Dennis Ross (Florida 15)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 53%
Percentage of Government Workers: 14
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (Florida 25)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 76
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 51%
Percentage of Government Workers: 10
Rep. Erik Paulsen (Minnesota 3)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 58
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 90
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 50%
Percentage of Government Workers: 9
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (New Jersey 2)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 58
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 87
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 54%
Percentage of Government Workers: 17
Rep. Jon Runyan (New Jersey 3)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 54
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 52%
Percentage of Government Workers: 19
Rep. Peter King (New York 2)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 59
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 52%
Percentage of Government Workers: 17
Rep. Mike Grimm (New York 11)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 53
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 52%
Percentage of Government Workers: 19
Rep. Richard Hanna (New York 22)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 61
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 71
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 49%
Percentage of Government Workers: 20
Rep. Walter Jones (North Carolina 3)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 63
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 69
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 58%
Percentage of Government Workers: 22
Rep. Tom Cole (Oklahoma 4)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 68
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 88
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 67%
Percentage of Government Workers: 22
Rep. Jim Gerlach (Pennsylvania 6)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 57
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 51%
Percentage of Government Workers: 9
Rep. Patrick Meehan (Pennsylvania 7)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 59
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 50%
Percentage of Government Workers: 10
Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (Pennsylvania 8)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 57
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 49%
Percentage of Government Workers: 9
Rep. Charles Dent (Pennsylvania 15)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 57
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 51%
Percentage of Government Workers: 10
Rep. Rob Wittman (Virginia 1)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 56
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 49%
Percentage of Government Workers: 24
Rep. Scott Rigell (Virginia 2)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 54
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 50%
Percentage of Government Workers: 22
Rep. Frank Wolf (Virginia 10)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 59
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: Unopposed
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Romney 50%
Percentage of Government Workers: 19
Rep. Dave Reichert (Washington 8)
2012 General Election Winning Percentage: 60
2012 Primary Election Winning Percentage: 51
2012 Presidential Election Winner: Obama 50%
Percentage of Government Workers: 16
Election data from the CQ Voting and Elections Collection. Government worker data from the 2011 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey.
The nation is in the 10th day of a government shutdown, and the deadline over raising the debt limit is quickly approaching. But all that might seem like a day at the park for Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). He explains why in his new memoir Still Dreaming: My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill.
He speaks with Tell Me More host Michel Martin about his political journey and the fight for immigration reform.
In the 12 years that Michael Northrop spent working at Sports Illustrated Kids, he met excellent athletes who had a lot more going on in their lives than just sports.
"They were young athletes, but they were also kids, so I didn't want to forget about that," he tells NPR's Michele Norris.
So he wrote a book called Plunked, about a 12-year-old baseball player named Jack Mogens — and his life both on and off the field. The story begins at the outset of Jack's last year of Little League. During the first game of the season, Jack gets hit in the head with a fastball. Northrop says it's a comeback story, but not in the traditional sports sense.
"He loves baseball," Northrop says. "His world is sort of built around it — and that relationship is shaken and he needs to come to terms with that and try and sort of step back up to the plate."
Are House Republicans still seeking Democratic concessions on the Affordable Care Act? Or have they switched their sights to even bigger targets: federal spending on entitlements like Medicare and Social Security?
The answer on Wednesday depended on which Republican you asked.
Paul Ryan's Pitch
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., last year's Republican vice presidential nominee and one of the party's big policy thinkers, tried to shift the debate to entitlements in a Wall Street Journal op-ed post. In the piece, Ryan didn't mention Obamacare once.
Arguing that Democrats and Republicans should negotiate to simultaneously end the government shutdown, raise the debt ceiling and make changes that would lower the trajectory of entitlement spending, Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, wrote:
"We need to open the federal government. We need to pay our bills today — and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. So let's negotiate an agreement to make modest reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code."
It's Day 10 of the partial federal government shutdown, and the big news is a meeting between President Obama and a select group of House Republicans.
The president will host the meeting, to include 18 key Republicans, which is aimed at finding a way around the partisan differences. The White House and Democrats want a "clean" continuing resolution to restore funding to government operations, but a substantial bloc of conservative Republicans in the House insist that such a temporary spending measure be tied to defunding and/or delaying the Affordable Care Act.
But the fight over the continuing resolution has morphed into a high stakes debate over raising the debt ceiling, which has to happen in the next week to forestall a likely U.S. default.
Thursday's noon meeting at the White House and signs of a possible compromise from Republicans, has some pundits talking of a "thaw" that could produce a deal. In an opinion piece published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, outlined a plan to extend the nation's borrowing limit for four to six weeks on condition that both sides sit down to deficit-reduction talks.
USA Today writes:
"Republicans have moved on from their original demand and are instead seeking an avenue for budget talks that could result in long-term agreements to raise the debt ceiling and reduce the deficit. Democrats say they are open to such talks, but only after the shutdown ends and the default threat is off the table."
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew urged lawmakers on Thursday to raise the government's borrowing limit or face the prospect of causing lasting damage to the U.S. economy.
In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Lew said that if Congress fails to meet its responsibility to raise the debt ceiling "it could deeply damage financial markets, the ongoing economic recovery, and the jobs and savings of millions of Americans."
"No Congress in 224 years of American history has allowed our country to default, and it's my sincere hope that this Congress will not be the first," he said.
He threw cold water on a GOP idea to prioritize payments in the short-term in lieu of a debt-ceiling increase:
"Certain members of the House and Senate also believe that it's possible to protect our economy by simply paying only the interest on our debts while stopping or delaying payments on a number of our other legal commitments. How can the United States choose whether to send Social Security checks to seniors or pay benefits to Veterans? How can the United States choose whether to provide children with food assistance or meet our obligations to Medicare providers?" he said.
Lew repeated the administration's demand that Congress pass legislation needed to end a partial government shutdown and raise the country's $16.7 trillion borrowing limit.
"The president remains willing to negotiate over the future direction of fiscal policy but he will not negotiate over whether the United States should pay its bills," Lew said.
The company at the center of a large-scale salmonella outbreak, Foster Farms, faces a big deadline today.
The California-based poultry producer must deliver plans to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service to fix the problems that USDA inspectors have uncovered at three of its four production facilities — namely, evidence of Salmonella Heidelberg.
As we've reported, the outbreak has sickened 278 people in multiple states, and 42 percent of those who got sick have been hospitalized. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some of the strains of Salmonella Heidelberg making people sick in this outbreak are resistant to several commonly used antibiotics.
Earlier this week, the USDA delivered a Notice of Intended Enforcement to Foster Farms. The letter explained that inspections would be suspended at Foster Farms' operations — in effect, shutting the plants down — if the company doesn't produce plans to correct problems at each of the three plants by the end of the day Thursday.
As of noon Eastern time, FSIS has received one of the company's proposed action plans.
And now, FSIS officials "will start the evaluation process to ensure that [Foster Farms is] taking the necessary steps to prevent the persistent recurrence of Salmonella in their facilities," Aaron Lavallee of the USDA's FSIS told The Salt in an email.
Foster Farms released a statement on its website saying that as soon as the company was alerted to concerns over salmonella, "we brought in national food safety experts to assess our processes and have reinforced our processes with new technologies proven to be effective." The note came from Ron Foster, president of Foster Farms, who pledged to resolve the issues.
Food safety expert Caroline Smith DeWaal with the Center for Science in the Public Interest says the stakes are high here.
"Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella is simply too hot to handle in [consumers'] kitchens," Smith DeWaal told me in an email. "The USDA should direct Foster Farms to recall all potentially contaminated chicken from the market."
On Capitol Hill, representatives Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are calling on Congress to take action on what they describe as a problem of overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.
A statement released by Slaughter says antibiotics are routinely given to healthy animals, often to promote growth: "As a result, bacteria become resistant to these overused antibiotics."
If sustainability is a top priority when you're shopping at the fish counter, wild-caught seafood can be fraught with ethical complications.
One major reason why: bycatch, or the untargeted marine life captured accidentally by fishermen and, often, discarded dead in heaps. It's one of the most problematic aspects of industrial fishing.
Not every fishery is alike, of course, and practices vary by region. And lately, the federal government has been strengthening its own stance against the most wasteful fisheries, especially those that use gill nets, trawl nets and long lines.
In September, the National Marine Fisheries Service granted $2.4 million to enterprising fishermen who are working to modify their gear to spare the lives of sharks, sea birds, whales and turtles. And earlier in the month, the same agency imposed a new law that will close the current California swordfish fishery if just one sperm whale becomes entangled in a gill net — something that has happened multiple times in the recent past.
For environmental groups like Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network — all of which fought for the new law — this equals progress.
Even if you've already sworn off eating taboo items like bluefin tuna, Chilean sea bass and shark, you may still be contributing to the global bycatch tally. Following are a few seafood items to approach cautiously the next time you're thinking fish for dinner:
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Are House Republicans still seeking Democratic concessions on the Affordable Care Act? Or have they switched their sights to even bigger targets: federal spending on entitlements like Medicare and Social Security?
The answer on Wednesday depended on which Republican you asked.
Paul Ryan's Pitch
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., last year's Republican vice presidential nominee and one of the party's big policy thinkers, tried to shift the debate to entitlements in a Wall Street Journal op-ed post. In the piece, Ryan didn't mention Obamacare once.
Arguing that Democrats and Republicans should negotiate to simultaneously end the government shutdown, raise the debt ceiling and make changes that would lower the trajectory of entitlement spending, Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, wrote:
"We need to open the federal government. We need to pay our bills today — and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. So let's negotiate an agreement to make modest reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code."
Not long ago, when I got a PlayStation 3, the recommendations started rolling in: play this, play that, play my favorite game.
But a bunch of people said, with a sort of excited urgency — particularly people who know me — "Play Journey."
Journey is a PS3 exclusive from a game company called, yes, Thatgamecompany. It's won a bunch of awards from a bunch of different places — its music was even nominated for a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, where it competed with the scores of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Adventures Of Tintin, The Artist, The Dark Knight Rises, and Hugo.
Here's how the company describes it: "Journey is an interactive parable, an anonymous online adventure to experience a person's life passage and their intersections with others." As beautiful as the game is, that is not a description that excels in the area of specificity.
The basics are these: You appear on the screen in the form of a hooded and caped figure (I'd be lying if I denied that there was something nice about appearing in the form of what looked to me like a woman), alone in the desert. There's a mountain in the distance. That's where you're going. If you follow your nose, you wind up with a scarf that flaps behind you that can be charged up to give you flight.
And you just start traveling. Those dunes, those dunes ... you can walk on the sand, but when you're going downhill, you slide like a skier, leaving a little trail, making a ffffffft noise with your feet, flapping your cape. You skim the ground, you float, you leap. You trudge up a dune and peek over, then push past and slide again, steering between rock formations, ffffffffft, ffffffft, for long stretches. It is as close to understanding what being physically graceful would feel like as a not-so-graceful person is likely to get. (I ... well, I hypothesize.)
You look tiny sometimes. You feel tiny.
Enlarge image i
Saying "American workers and families will have a champion in Janet Yellen," President Obama officially nominated her to chair the Federal Reserve, once Ben Bernanke completes his term in January.
Yellen "is the kind of person who makes everybody around her better," Obama said, adding that Yellen is "extremely well qualified" and "renowned for her good judgement."
Obama made the announcement at the White House on Wednesday, flanked by Yellen and outgoing Fed chief Ben Bernanke. If confirmed, Yellen will be the first woman to head the American central bank.
During her statement, Yellen gave Bernanke credit for making the financial system stronger.
She said, while the economy is in much better shape, right now, "we have farther to go." There are too many Americans, she said, who still don't have jobs.
Yellen said if confirmed, she would do her best to meet the dual mandate of the Federal Reserve: maximum employment and controlled inflation.
As we reported, yesterday, Yellen is very much the status-quo nominee. She worked hand-in-glove with Bernanke to put into place the economic stimulus undertaken by the Fed.
Yellen is currently the vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She had previously served as the CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004 to 2010 and as governor of the Federal Reserve Board during the Clinton years.
On a lighter note, Obama noted that Yellen had "found love" at the Fed. She is married to George Akerlof, who won a Nobel in economics in 2001.
It hasn't been a great year for peace. War is raging in Syria, grinding conflicts drag on in Afghanistan and Iraq, and assorted insurgencies plague nations from Asia to Africa.
Yet the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday, and one of the favorites would be a striking choice: Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban last year for her outspoken advocacy of girls' education in her native Pakistan.
The Nobel prizes in the sciences often recognize a body of work that was decades in the making. In contrast, the Norwegian Nobel Committee that selects the Peace Prize winner seems less taken by lifetime achievement and often chooses an aspirational figure, someone who could potentially bring political or social change, even if it hasn't happened yet.
This approach, along with the vagaries of global politics, can lead to choices that don't always look so inspired in hindsight. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, much better known for fighting than peacemaking, won the prize in 1994. Mahatma Gandhi never won, despite being nominated several times.
British bookies, the media and others who handicap the peace prize have focused on Malala. A year ago, she was a student in a remote and dangerous corner of Pakistan. The Taliban shooting on Oct. 9, 2012, which targeted her on a school bus, inflicted a serious head wound that nearly claimed her life and required multiple surgeries. She was treated in Britain and recovered sufficiently to begin attending high school there in March.
Her inspiring story and continued willingness to speak out against the Taliban has already made her a global icon. She's currently conducting a series of high-profile interviews in the U.S. She has just published her autobiography, I Am Malala, and the European Union on Thursday selected her for its annual human rights award.
Malala recently told a Pakistani radio station that others would be more deserving of the Nobel.
"There are many people who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize and I think that I still need to work a lot," she told City89 FM. "In my opinion, I have not done that much to win the Nobel Peace Prize."
Related NPR Stories
The Two-Way
Malala Yousafzai Awarded Sakharov Prize
Sachin Tendulkar, the man who is to Indian cricket what Babe Ruth is to baseball, says he'll retire in November after his 200th test match, ending a more than two-decade-long career in which he broke many of the sport's batting records.
"All my life, I have had a dream of playing cricket for India. I have been living this dream every day for the last 24 years," Tendulkar said in a statement Thursday. "It's hard for me to imagine a life without playing cricket because it's all I have ever done since I was 11 years old. It's been a huge honor to have represented my country and played all over the world. I look forward to playing my 200th Test Match on home soil, as I call it a day."
The announcement, which was expected, marks the end of an era for Indian cricket. Tendulkar, along with the West Indies' Brian Lara, entertained the sport's fans with his batting prowess through much of the 1990s and 2000s. And though his powers waned slightly, his zeal for the game and his fans' enthusiasm for him did not.
For an excellent summary of Tendulkar's 24-year career, visit ESPNCricinfo. In this video, the website also chronicles why Tendulkar is so beloved in the cricketing world:
Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, joins NPR's Steve Inskeep again for a recurring feature Morning Edition likes to call Word of Mouth. This month her suggestions are all about heroes — whether being heroic means doing something, or not doing something.
Revisiting Black Hawk Down
Brown's first selection is a Daniel Klaidman piece from The Daily Beast today, looking at a fateful U.S. military operation in Somalia from the vantage point of 20 years later. Eighteen American soldiers were killed in the Battle of Mogadishu when a rescue mission — one that was later dramatized in the Ridley Scott film Black Hawk Down — went terribly wrong.
"Of course it's now become a kind of mantra, that we don't want to have 'another Black Hawk Down' ... when people talk about intervention or going into a very risky place to rescue people."
In "Black Hawk Down's Long Shadow," Klaidman interviews many of the people who were part of the mission, drawing somewhat different conclusions than were arrived at in the movie inspired by the incident.
"The mantra of that movie, at the end, was 'It's not about politics, it's not about a mission, in the end it's about the man standing next to you,'" Brown says. "He's the guy that you fight for, he's the guy that you die for.
"But 20 years later, when Dan Klaidman goes back to interview many of the people who were part of it, it's more complicated than that. Yes, it was about their colleagues. But they do also want questions answered."
"They really want to know whether this was worth it," Brown continues. "Why [it was] that people died. Why we were there at all. And was this mission in vain? It's a very haunting thing for the people who lived and survived."
The article also looks at how the operation has affected the lives of the soldiers who were there.
Are House Republicans still seeking Democratic concessions on the Affordable Care Act? Or have they switched their sights to even bigger targets: federal spending on entitlements like Medicare and Social Security?
The answer on Wednesday depended on which Republican you asked.
Paul Ryan's Pitch
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., last year's Republican vice presidential nominee and one of the party's big policy thinkers, tried to shift the debate to entitlements in a Wall Street Journal op-ed post. In the piece, Ryan didn't mention Obamacare once.
Arguing that Democrats and Republicans should negotiate to simultaneously end the government shutdown, raise the debt ceiling and make changes that would lower the trajectory of entitlement spending, Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, wrote:
"We need to open the federal government. We need to pay our bills today — and make sure we can pay our bills tomorrow. So let's negotiate an agreement to make modest reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code."
Starting a new job is always tough. You want early success to prove you really were the right pick.
That's especially true if you happen to be the first woman to hold that job. Ever. In the whole world.
So when President Obama on Wednesday nominated Janet Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve, she might have had two reactions: 1) Yippee and 2) Uh-oh.
As Fed head, Yellen would have to guide interest-rate policy in a way that boosts economic growth without triggering inflation.
The pressures would be enormous. Example: Just as Yellen's appointment was being rolled out, the International Monetary Fund was warning that if the Fed were to mishandle timing of a gradual move to higher interest rates, it could cause $2.3 trillion in global bond portfolio losses.
So from Day 1 on the new job, any slip-up could trigger an economic calamity.
But when introducing her as his choice, Obama expressed confidence, saying she's "extremely well-qualified" and "renowned for her good judgment."
Most of her peers predict Yellen, 67, will be able to handle the pressure.
"Dr. Yellen is superbly qualified," said a letter signed by more than 500 leading economists who urged the White House to nominate her. "She has shown consistently good judgment in all her roles leading our nation's financial institutions and economic policy."
Even many economists opposed to White House policies have voiced respect for Yellen.
"Her forecasts, as it turns out, have been more accurate" than those who feared the Fed was being too loose with monetary policy, according to Stephen Oliner, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group.
Starting a new job is always tough. You want early success to prove you really were the right pick.
That's especially true if you happen to be the first woman to hold that job. Ever. In the whole world.
So when President Obama on Wednesday nominated Janet Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve, she might have had two reactions: 1) Yippee and 2) Uh-oh.
As Fed head, Yellen would have to guide interest-rate policy in a way that boosts economic growth without triggering inflation.
The pressures would be enormous. Example: Just as Yellen's appointment was being rolled out, the International Monetary Fund was warning that if the Fed were to mishandle timing of a gradual move to higher interest rates, it could cause $2.3 trillion in global bond portfolio losses.
So from Day 1 on the new job, any slip-up could trigger an economic calamity.
But when introducing her as his choice, Obama expressed confidence, saying she's "extremely well-qualified" and "renowned for her good judgment."
Most of her peers predict Yellen, 67, will be able to handle the pressure.
"Dr. Yellen is superbly qualified," said a letter signed by more than 500 leading economists who urged the White House to nominate her. "She has shown consistently good judgment in all her roles leading our nation's financial institutions and economic policy."
Even many economists opposed to White House policies have voiced respect for Yellen.
"Her forecasts, as it turns out, have been more accurate" than those who feared the Fed was being too loose with monetary policy, according to Stephen Oliner, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group.
Meghan McCain comes by her maverick credentials honestly. As the daughter of Arizona Sen. John McCain, she is no stranger to the political limelight. But that doesn't mean she always agrees with her dad or Republican political orthodoxy.
It's that unique perspective that is at the center of her new television show, Raising McCain. The newly launched Pivot network describes the program as a hybrid "docu-talk" show. Each episode features a different co-host and is filmed in a documentary style. But don't expect crying on couches or gift baskets under the seat. She's tackling topics like feminism; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights; and young people in the military with an eye on her millennial target audience.
McCain sat down with Tell Me More host Michel Martin to talk about Raising McCain and offer some thoughts on the current government stalemate.
On her inspiration for Raising McCain
There's been a deadly fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh — the latest in a series of such tragedies and just six months after the worst disaster in the history of the global garment industry.
At least 10 people were killed at the Aswad garment factory outside the capital Dhaka early Wednesday. The immediate cause was not known. This factory, like others where tragedy has struck, produced clothes for a number of Western companies.
Here's more from The Wall Street Journal:
"Aswad Composite Mills has recently produced clothes for Western retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Loblaw Cos., the Canadian owner of the Joe Fresh label, and Hudson's Bay Co., according to several online shipping databases. Hudson's Bay said it last received a delivery from the factory in April and subsequently decided it would no longer place orders with the factory. A spokeswoman didn't elaborate on whether the decision was based on safety reasons. A spokeswoman for Loblaw said it was looking into the issue. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said it is 'working to understand the facts and will take appropriate action based on our findings.' She declined to elaborate."
The White House says President Obama intends to nominate Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve, once Ben Bernanke completes his term in January.
If confirmed, Yellen, 67, would be the first woman to head the American central bank.
Obama is scheduled to make the announcement at 3 p.m. ET. Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
"The nomination would conclude a long and unusually public debate about Mr. Obama's choice which started last June when he said that Ben Bernanke wouldn't be staying in the post after his term ends in January.
"Mr. Obama gave serious consideration to his former economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who pulled out in September after facing resistance from Democrats in the Senate."
The federal government shutdown is now in its second week, and one big reason for the division in Washington is the growing divide between different kinds of voters back home. Those differences make news on Election Day, but they're visible every day.
Members in both parties find less and less common ground, in part because their constituents have such contrasting notions of government's proper role. And those contrasting visions often coincide with contrasting lifestyles — evident in many of the choices they make.
Political analyst David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report has studied how certain businesses people patronize correlate with political allegiances. He points in particular to Cracker Barrel restaurants and Whole Foods grocery stories.
Most Republican districts are heavily populated with Cracker Barrels. The wraparound porch, abundance of rocking chairs and patriotic paraphernalia offer its patrons a sense of nostalgia and traditional values. Whole Foods, on the other hand, works at being hip and health-conscious and can usually be found in most Democratic districts.
Are these businesses purposely aiming for political targets? They don't have to, Wasserman says. They are choosing store locations based on the prevailing local lifestyle. And Americans are increasingly choosing their own locations with lifestyle in mind. This process, which some have called The Big Sort, can be seen as affecting voting behavior as well.
In 1992, Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton won 60 percent of the counties that had Whole Foods and 40 percent of the counties with Cracker Barrels, leaving a "cultural gap" of 20 percent. But 20 years later, in 2012, President Obama won 77 percent of the Whole Foods counties and just 29 percent of the Cracker Barrels — the gap had widened from 20 to 48 percent.
As this sorting process unfolds, one might expect it to reinforce and intensify the previous voting preferences of these communities and reduce the number of swing districts. And there is mounting evidence this is taking place. From 1992 to 2012, the number of congressional districts won in a landslide by one party's presidential candidate or the other has more than doubled, according to an analysis by Nate Silver in The New York Times last December.
Silver found 117 districts where President Obama did much better than his national victory margin — winning by 20 points or more beyond the 5 points he won by nationwide. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney ran commensurately ahead of his national showing in 125 congressional districts.
Virtually all those 125 landslide Romney districts also elected Republicans to Congress with similarly lopsided margins. That group accounts for just over half the total of GOP seats in the House. Considering their walking-away wins in November 2012, it's easy to see why so few of them worry about losing to a Democrat in November 2014. It's equally apparent why they are far more likely to be worried about a challenger emerging in their next Republican Party primary.
Such challengers usually emerge from the more conservative wing of the party, much as Tea Party activists took on GOP stalwarts in 2010 and 2012. And that is why the strong views of those activists are so carefully respected by the House Republican leaders in the current shutdown confrontation.
Districts that lean heavily left or right are nothing new, of course. After each census, creative and partisan drawing of district lines tends to protect incumbents and thereby reinforce the political divide. But this long-standing practice of gerrymandering districts is far easier when groups of voters are already largely concentrated by race, income and cultural affinities.
Libya wants to maintain good relations with the United States despite concerns about a U.S. raid that snatched an al-Qaida suspect from the street in Tripoli.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said the U.S. and Libya would work out their issues but that his nation "would not surrender its sons."
Those comments follow the summoning of U.S. Ambassador Deborah Jones by Libya on Monday over the capture of Abu Anas al-Libi, who is believed to have played a key role in the 1998 bombings of American embassies in East Africa.
A statement released by Libya's Foreign Ministry said Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani wanted from Jones "a number of explanations concerning the case."
Libya expressed dismay that the U.S. had breached its national sovereignty by not informing Tripoli ahead of time of the Saturday operation.
Secretary of State John Kerry has defended the U.S. action, calling al-Libi a "legal and appropriate target."
The U.S. Embassy in Libya tells the BBC that Jones was "in regular contact with the Libyan government" over the incident.
The BBC writes:
"Mr Marghani and officials from the foreign ministry also met members of Mr Liby's family, who were told of the meeting with the US ambassador, the statement said.
"Mr Ruqai confirmed to the BBC that Libyan officials had met with some family members on Monday, although he had not been at the meeting.
" 'They promised us they would try to arrange for us to get in touch with him [Mr Liby],' he told the BBC."
The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.
Speculation about who will win the Nobel Prize in Literature — to be announced on Thursday morning — is rife, with the British bookmaker Ladbrokes spitting out odds. The Nobel selection process is highly secretive, and the prize only announces who the finalists were 50 years after the fact, so the list from oddsmaker Ladbrokes serves as a kind of substitute shortlist. This year, Ladbrokes has given the top spot to Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, who was also the favorite last year. He's followed by Canadian short story writer Alice Munro, the Belarusian writer Svetlana Aleksijevitj and then Joyce Carol Oates, prolific American novelist and much more prolific tweeter. As The New York Times notes, the oddsmakers are not actually reading the books. Instead, they "take the temperature of the literary world" by reading blogs and media reports. And how accurate are they? According to the BostonGlobe, Ladbrokes' top pick has gone on to win the prize in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2011.
At The New Yorker, Paul Collins applies "stylometry," the software used to identify J.K. Rowling as the author of The Cuckoo's Nest, to argue that Edgar Allan Poe's earliest work of fiction is the pseudonymous story "A Fragment," printed in an obscure Baltimore journal. Collins says, "At just five hundred and forty-two words, 'A Fragment' is a fevered first-person account by a despairing man about to shoot himself."
Atavist Books, a multiplatform publishing company with a "mix of digital, enhanced digital, and print works," has launched with an impressive list of authors such as Karen Russell, Hari Kunzru and Kamila Shamsie. Former Picador publisher Frances Coady, who is among those leading the project, told Publisher's Weekly: "We have to stop treating digital as the bastard offspring of print. Digital is its own format and should have its own resources and its own uses and purpose."
Paul Auster contributed a short story called "You Remember the Planes" to Granta's new issue: Granta 125: After the War: "You remember the planes, the supersonic jets roaring across the blue skies of summer, cutting through the firmament at such exalted speeds that they were scarcely visible, a flash of silver glinting briefly in the light, and then, not long after they had vanished over the horizon, the thunderous boom that would follow, resounding for miles in all directions, the great detonation of blasting air that signified the sound barrier had been broken yet again."
In New York magazine, Jen Doll defends her love of reading YA novels: "Those are the books I read in a one-night rush, staying up until three in the morning to find out what happened, and when I do, sighing in pleasure because the heroine really does get the guy, the world has been saved, the parents finally understand, or there is at least the promise of things working out in the end. Adult books may be great literature, but they don't make me feel the same way."
Good morning, fellow political junkies. It's Day 8 of the partial shutdown of the federal government. Among the only certainties: many federal workers are a day closer to missing a paycheck and the nation is a day closer to hitting the debt ceiling.
While no solution to the shutdown appears close, official Washington seems to be shifting its attention to the fight over raising the debt-ceiling. Indeed, the two fights appear to be merging, suggesting that they'll both be resolved together. Whether that will be in time to avoid a parade of horribles is another matter.
With that as the backdrop, here are some of the more interesting stories of greater or lesser political import that caught my eye this morning.
Large foreign holders of U.S. debt are urging American policymakers to resolve their differences and raise the debt ceiling, reports Bloomberg News' Keiko Ujikane. Officials from China and Japan, two of the largest holders of U.S. bonds, warned a default would likely cause them to unload significant investments in U.S. Treasuries. That could lead to sharply higher U.S. interest rates.
Democrats have been remarkably unified throughout the current fiscal fight. A bit of daylight appeared between them Monday, however, when a top Obama administration official said the White House might find a short-term debt ceiling raise acceptable, an idea with little traction among Senate Democrats. They sought clarity and seemed satisfied by White House officials' reassurances, reported Politico's Manu Raju and John Bresnahan.
Senate Democrats are moving ahead with legislation to raise the debt ceiling without any strings attached. But there's the very real possibility of a Republican filibuster, ABC News' Jeff Zeleny reports.
A voter backlash against the federal government shutdown appears to be a factor in Democrat Terry McAuliffe's large, nine-point lead in the Virginia governor's race over Republican Ken Cuccinnell, writes Politico's Alexander Burns. Virginia is very dependent on the U.S. government, since many federal employees and contractors reside in the state.
Wall Street's relative calmness to date as the U.S. government approaches the debt ceiling with no agreement to raise it is causing worries that members of Congress could mistakenly conclude they need not worry about how dangerous the situation really is to financial markets, writes the New York Times' Nathaniel Popper.
Top bankers are warning that the U.S. can't avoid default by prioritizing its debt payments, as some Republicans have suggested. Even if it paid the interest on its treasury notes, the government's failure to make other payments would raise doubts among investors and consumers, write The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon and Dan Strumpf.
Americans seem about equally split over which side should move first in the government-shutdown fight. The Pew Research Center found 44 percent of respondents saying Republican leaders should yield first while 42 percent said President Obama should. The divide was largely along partisan lines.
Contrary to what many critics say about the Affordable Care Act, small businesses might actually benefit greatly from Obamacare, writes the New Yorker's James Surowiecki. The new law will allow more people to start small businesses in the first place since many people won't feel the need to remain employees of large companies because it's the only way they can afford health insurance.
The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.
Michael Hastings, the 33-year-old journalist who died in a car crash in June, wrote a novel before he died, according to The New York Times. Called The Last Magazine, it is a "roman clef about a young, eager magazine intern named Michael M. Hastings" set in the years leading up to the Iraq War. Hastings' wife, Elise Jordan, told the Times that she found the completed manuscript on his computer after his death. The novel will be published next summer by Blue Rider Press. Hastings rose to prominence after his award-winning profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Rolling Stone led to McChrystal's resignation.
Amazon's German warehouse workers, who are locked in a pay dispute with the online retailer, have threatened to strike in the lead-up to Christmas. According to Reuters, Heiner Reimann of the union Verdi told Der Spiegel that "if I were Amazon I would not rely on being able to make all deliveries to customers on time before Christmas."
Erica Jong spoke to NPR's Susan Stamberg about her classic novel Fear of Flying and the role women were expected to play in the 1970s: "You were supposed to get married, have children, take care of a husband; and that was why there was an epidemic of mad housewife novels in which a woman woke up and discovered actually her sworn enemy was her cranky husband who had made her into a slave. And I truly hated those mad housewife novels. Hate, hate, hated them. Because they were blaming men for something that was not literally men's fault. I mean, we were in a terrible predicament as a society, but it was not the fault of individual men or women. We were stuck in certain roles."
The best books coming out this week.
John Freeman speaks to dozens of writers in How to Read a Novelist, his collection of interviews of everyone from David Foster Wallace to Toni Morrison to Edwidge Danicat. Freeman carefully excludes himself from the story — except in his memorable introduction, in which he tells John Updike his relationship troubles — which makes the interviews seem a little more impartial though perhaps a little less lively. The interviews are also generally a little shorter than you might want, but it's hard to complain since nowhere else will you find a compendium of snapshots of basically all our most important writers.
The protagonist of Dave Eggers's new novel, The Circle, works at a giant tech company that seems like a sinister combination of Google, Facebook and Twitter and goes by slogans such as "All that happens must be known" and "Sharing is caring." In the hands of another writer, this could be clumsy or heavy-handed satire, but Eggers has a gift for the small details that make the novel lifelike, funny and — occasionally — discomfiting.
As a college student in the late '60s, Subhash's younger, more daredevil brother, Udayan, becomes involved in the Maoist "Naxalite" political movement, set on bettering the living conditions of India's poor through violent uprising. Subhash, in contrast, dutifully dedicates himself to personal, rather than collective, improvement: He earns a scholarship to study science in America and moves to Rhode Island. For a couple of lonely years in a student boarding house, he learns to live without the voices of his family. But when Udayan is executed by the police in that very same marsh between the ponds, Subhash races back to Calcutta. He goes to comfort his parents; but, as it turns out, he also rescues his murdered brother's pregnant wife, Gauri, from her own diminished future as a widowed (and unwelcome) daughter-in-law.
The Lowland is buoyantly ambitious in both its story (I've only summarized the first quarter of the novel here) and its form. Subhash, his parents, Gauri and the daughter she eventually bears are all reticent people — at one point, Subhash thinks of them as "a family of solitaries" — so it's necessary for our narrator to constantly eavesdrop on their various thoughts and relay them to us. For instance, Subhash proposes to Gauri by stressing the practicalities of their union: He woos her by saying in America she could pursue her studies in philosophy. But his unspoken words are those of a lovesick poet: "[Subhash] had tried to deny the attraction he felt for Gauri. But it was like the light of the fireflies that swam up to the house at night, random points that surrounded him, that glowed and then receded without a trail." Hastily enough, the two do wind up marrying and raising Gauri's daughter in America, but the memory of Udayan — his fierce politics and his terrible death — has corrosive aftereffects.
Book Reviews
With Controlled, Clinical Prose Lahiri Explores Love And Sacrifice
What used to be no-frills slot parlors off the highway are turning into resort-style destinations with spas, golf courses and luxury hotels. Native American tribes are hoping these added amenities will give them an edge in an increasingly competitive gaming market.
Three years ago, Northern Quest Resort and Casino in eastern Washington opened a luxury spa that's been on the covers of DaySpa and American Spa magazines. La Rive Spa has its own seasonal menu and moisturizers that cost as much as an iPod.
Nothing about this spa screams casino, by design. Spa director Yvonne Smith says it's not what you'd expect from a casino in a field outside of Spokane. "The one thing I hear all the time is, 'Oh my gosh, I had no idea this was here,' " she says.
Across the country, tribes are trying to step up their game. Casino profits plus more interest from investors have funded new spas, fine dining, concert venues and other amenities. Phil Haugen, a Kalispel Tribe member and manager of Northern Quest, says tribal casinos are now drawing clientele that might have otherwise chosen a weekend in Las Vegas or at a resort.
"It used to be that people thought tribal casinos were dirty and small and that they just didn't have what Vegas had or what Atlantic City had," Haugen says. "But now you have these first-class properties."
Business
Native American Tribes Venture Out Of Casino Business
The White House says President Obama intends to nominate Federal Reserve Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen to chair the Federal Reserve, once Ben Bernanke completes his term in January.
If confirmed, Yellen, 67, would be the first woman to head the American central bank.
Obama is scheduled to make the announcement at 3 p.m. ET. Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
"The nomination would conclude a long and unusually public debate about Mr. Obama's choice which started last June when he said that Ben Bernanke wouldn't be staying in the post after his term ends in January.
"Mr. Obama gave serious consideration to his former economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, who pulled out in September after facing resistance from Democrats in the Senate."
Good morning, fellow political junkies. It's Day 8 of the partial shutdown of the federal government. Among the only certainties: many federal workers are a day closer to missing a paycheck and the nation is a day closer to hitting the debt ceiling.
While no solution to the shutdown appears close, official Washington seems to be shifting its attention to the fight over raising the debt-ceiling. Indeed, the two fights appear to be merging, suggesting that they'll both be resolved together. Whether that will be in time to avoid a parade of horribles is another matter.
With that as the backdrop, here are some of the more interesting stories of greater or lesser political import that caught my eye this morning.
Large foreign holders of U.S. debt are urging American policymakers to resolve their differences and raise the debt ceiling, reports Bloomberg News' Keiko Ujikane. Officials from China and Japan, two of the largest holders of U.S. bonds, warned a default would likely cause them to unload significant investments in U.S. Treasuries. That could lead to sharply higher U.S. interest rates.
Democrats have been remarkably unified throughout the current fiscal fight. A bit of daylight appeared between them Monday, however, when a top Obama administration official said the White House might find a short-term debt ceiling raise acceptable, an idea with little traction among Senate Democrats. They sought clarity and seemed satisfied by White House officials' reassurances, reported Politico's Manu Raju and John Bresnahan.
Senate Democrats are moving ahead with legislation to raise the debt ceiling without any strings attached. But there's the very real possibility of a Republican filibuster, ABC News' Jeff Zeleny reports.
A voter backlash against the federal government shutdown appears to be a factor in Democrat Terry McAuliffe's large, nine-point lead in the Virginia governor's race over Republican Ken Cuccinnell, writes Politico's Alexander Burns. Virginia is very dependent on the U.S. government, since many federal employees and contractors reside in the state.
Wall Street's relative calmness to date as the U.S. government approaches the debt ceiling with no agreement to raise it is causing worries that members of Congress could mistakenly conclude they need not worry about how dangerous the situation really is to financial markets, writes the New York Times' Nathaniel Popper.
Top bankers are warning that the U.S. can't avoid default by prioritizing its debt payments, as some Republicans have suggested. Even if it paid the interest on its treasury notes, the government's failure to make other payments would raise doubts among investors and consumers, write The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon and Dan Strumpf.
Americans seem about equally split over which side should move first in the government-shutdown fight. The Pew Research Center found 44 percent of respondents saying Republican leaders should yield first while 42 percent said President Obama should. The divide was largely along partisan lines.
Contrary to what many critics say about the Affordable Care Act, small businesses might actually benefit greatly from Obamacare, writes the New Yorker's James Surowiecki. The new law will allow more people to start small businesses in the first place since many people won't feel the need to remain employees of large companies because it's the only way they can afford health insurance.
Imagine a poker table.
At one seat, China's President Xi Jinping studies his cards. At another, Russian president Vladimir Putin is stroking his chin. Asian leaders fill the other seats, each trying to win the pot, which is filled — not with poker chips — but with jobs.
That's the kind of high-stakes game that played out this week in Indonesia, where global leaders got together to discuss trade relations. Their gathering ended Tuesday, and exactly who won what is not yet clear.
But this much is known: President Obama was not at the table.
And his absence, due to budget and debt tensions in Washington, was not good for American workers. Or at least that's the assessment of many economists.
'Important To Show Up'
They say the president needs to be in the game, but he missed his chances at the three-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
"It's always important to show up" whenever global leaders are talking trade, said Bill Adams, senior international economist for PNC Financial Services Group.
"Sweeping trade agreements are never settled at one meeting, but they are large and complex, so you need to keep working on them," he said. "You need face time with other leaders."
Many Asian leaders had hoped to end the APEC meeting with an announcement about advances in trade deals, in particular the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the United States. But those hopes fizzled, with some Asian officials saying they fear the TPP lost momentum because Obama was not there to push it.
Advancing a mega-trade deal is particularly important at this stage of the slow U.S. economic recovery, most economists contend. That's because growth spurts typically come from:
1) fiscal stimulus (Congress spending money for new roads and bridges)
2) monetary stimulus (the Federal Reserve making it easy and cheap to borrow) or
3) favorable trade deals (U.S. companies getting access to new markets).
A Key Economic Ingredient
Options No. 1 and 2 are off the table, given that Congress is in no mood to spend more money, and the Fed already has pushed interest rates to historic lows. So the only booster shot would have to come from U.S. exports.
That's why the Obama administration is trying to pull together the TPP. The president's primary goal is to get 11 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region to make it much easier for U.S. companies to sell services in Asia without having to set up a physical presence there.
So companies engaged in, say, digital media, online retailing and health sciences, are excited about getting a better shot at Asian customers without having to open expensive foreign offices. The White House first announced outlines of the agreement back in 2011 when the APEC summit was held in Obama's old hometown, Honolulu.
The Government Shutdown
Without Key Jobs Data, Markets And Economists Left Guessing
Good morning, fellow political junkies. It's Day 8 of the partial shutdown of the federal government. Among the only certainties: many federal workers are a day closer to missing a paycheck and the nation is a day closer to hitting the debt ceiling.
While no solution to the shutdown appears close, official Washington seems to be shifting its attention to the fight over raising the debt-ceiling. Indeed, the two fights appear to be merging, suggesting that they'll both be resolved together. Whether that will be in time to avoid a parade of horribles is another matter.
With that as the backdrop, here are some of the more interesting stories of greater or lesser political import that caught my eye this morning.
Large foreign holders of U.S. debt are urging American policymakers to resolve their differences and raise the debt ceiling, reports Bloomberg News' Keiko Ujikane. Officials from China and Japan, two of the largest holders of U.S. bonds, warned a default would likely cause them to unload significant investments in U.S. Treasuries. That could lead to sharply higher U.S. interest rates.
Democrats have been remarkably unified throughout the current fiscal fight. A bit of daylight appeared between them Monday, however, when a top Obama administration official said the White House might find a short-term debt ceiling raise acceptable, an idea with little traction among Senate Democrats. They sought clarity and seemed satisfied by White House officials' reassurances, reported Politico's Manu Raju and John Bresnahan.
Senate Democrats are moving ahead with legislation to raise the debt ceiling without any strings attached. But there's the very real possibility of a Republican filibuster, ABC News' Jeff Zeleny reports.
A voter backlash against the federal government shutdown appears to be a factor in Democrat Terry McAuliffe's large, nine-point lead in the Virginia governor's race over Republican Ken Cuccinnell, writes Politico's Alexander Burns.
Wall Street's relative calmness to date as the U.S. government approaches the debt ceiling without an agreement to raise it is causing worries that financial types aren't sending appropriate warning signals to Congress that could force lawmakers to responsibly writes the New York Times' Nathaniel Popper.
Top bankers are warning that the U.S. can't avoid default by prioritizing its debt payments, as some Republicans have suggested. Even if it paid the interest on its treasury notes, the government's failure to make other payments would raise doubts among investors and consumers, write The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon and Dan Strumpf.
Americans seem about equally split over which side should move first in the government shutdown fight. The Pew Research Center found 44 percent of respondents saying Republican leaders should yield while 42 percent said President Obama should. The divide was largely along partisan lines.
Contrary to what many critics say about the Affordable Care Act, small businesses might benefit greatly from Obamacare, writes the New Yorker's James Surowiecki. The new law will allow more people to start small businesses in the first place since many people won't feel the need to remain employees of large companies because it's the only way they can afford health insurance.
The author is a Syrian citizen in Damascus who is not being further identified for safety reasons.
The boy on the bicycle wasn't old enough to have facial hair. His feet barely reached the ground as he stopped and moved, circling the soldier manning the government checkpoint in east Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus.
"Please, just one bag of bread," the boy, lips quivering, said to the soldier. "Just one."
"I told you, no. No means no, young man," the soldier replied. "No food is allowed inside." He seemed somewhat pained at having to deprive a child of food.
A chemical weapons attack in east Ghouta on Aug. 21 killed an estimated 1,400 people and led to an international agreement for Syria to give up its chemical weapons. Now, more than six weeks later, the area remains hotly contested with the rebels still in control but troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad besieging east Ghouta.
Thousands of civilians still live inside, but government soldiers man checkpoints at the only two entrances to the area to prevent bread, baby milk, medicine, fuel and foodstuff from entering. This has left residents dependent on local food and assistance from aid groups. The state has cut off electricity, as well as landline and cellphone services. Rocket attacks and air raids continue.
Enlarge image i
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who spent months recovering after being shot in the head by the Taliban for championing the right of girls to education, says the way forward is to talk to the militants who attacked her.
"The best way to solve problems and to fight against war is through dialogue," she tells the BBC's Panorama in her first in-depth interview since the attack a year ago. "That's not an issue for me, that's the job of the government ... and that's also the job of America."
"They must do what they want through dialogue," she said in the interview published Sunday. "Killing people, torturing people and flogging people ... it's totally against Islam. They are misusing the name of Islam."
Her conciliatory message was quickly answered by a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban: "We will target her again and attack whenever we have the chance," Shahidullah Shahid, who represents the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan umbrella group, tells AFP.
Malala campaigned actively for girls' access to school in the Swat Valley area of northwestern Pakistan, which has become a battleground in recent years between Pakistani forces and Taliban militants who oppose education for girls.
She was widely interviewed and quoted in both the Western and Pakistani media before the attack on Oct. 9, 2012. That was the day her school bus was flagged down by militants who boarded the vehicle, identified Malala and shot her in the head, leaving her for dead.
International supporters had her transported to the U.K., where she was treated and spent months recovering. Malala, who now lives in Birmingham, spoke before the United Nations in July and at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative last month. She is a favorite to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, due to be announced Friday.
Malala says she wants to return to Pakistan and enter politics, telling the BBC:
" 'I will be a politician in my future. I want to change the future of my country and I want to make education compulsory,' she said.
" 'I hope that a day will come [when] the people of Pakistan will be free, they will have their rights, there will be peace and every girl and every boy will be going to school.' "
The U.S. Supreme Court returns to the campaign finance fray on Tuesday, hearing arguments in a case that could undercut most of the remaining rules that limit big money in politics.
It's been three years since the court's landmark Citizens United ruling, which let loose a new flood of campaign cash into the political process. In that 2010 case, a narrow conservative court majority upset a century-long legal understanding and declared for the first time that corporations are people entitled to spend unlimited amounts on candidate elections. Those independent expenditure limitations were one pillar of the campaign finance law.
On Tuesday, the second pillar — contributions to candidates — is before the court. The justices will hear arguments on one aspect of contributions: the aggregate limits on contributions to candidates and political parties.
Campaign Contribution Limits
The case was brought by Shaun McCutcheon, a successful Alabama businessman whose real love is conservative politics. In the 2012 election season, McCutcheon gave roughly $33,000 to 16 Republican congressional candidates and a similar amount to Republican Party committees. He wanted to give more, but a federal law caps the aggregate amounts that individuals can give to candidates and political parties. In 2012, those caps were roughly $46,000 for candidates and $70,000 for party committees.
Of course, McCutcheon could spend any amount he wants to by giving to independent groups that have proliferated since Citizens United. These groups raise millions of dollars to spend on candidate elections, but they do so independently and are not supposed to coordinate with the candidate campaigns. McCutcheon, however, doesn't want to give to independent groups; he wants to give directly to candidates and the Republican Party.
As he said in an interview with NPR, "It's just that sometimes it's more advantageous for the donor to donate directly to the campaign."
Just What Do The Limits Prevent?
That advantage is at the heart of the issue before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. In 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Congress enacted the laws that still form the basic structure for campaign finance regulations. Part of that structure is the aggregate cap, which is intended to prevent circumventing limits on the amount that single donors can pour into campaigns.
The Supreme Court upheld an earlier version of the caps in 1976, and since then it has drawn a consistent line between expenditure limits on the one hand and contribution limits on the other. The distinction is based on the notion that large contributions to candidates pose the threat of "the actuality" and the "appearance" of corruption.
Law
Despite Shutdown, Supreme Court Opens Its Doors For New Term
As the seventh day of the federal government shutdown wraps up, Congress and the White House appear no closer to reaching a budget agreement.
Highlights:
Without much action Monday, a slew of newly released polls filled the news vacuum. While they showed that both parties are taking a hit over the shutdown, it appears Republicans are bearing the brunt of the blame from the American public.
An ABC/Washington Post poll conducted Oct. 2-6 found that 70 percent of Americans disapprove of the way congressional Republicans handare handling budget negotiations, up from 63 percent last week.
The Democratic Party doesn't fare much better: 61 percent disapprove of the congressional Democrats' handling of negotiations, and 51 percent disapprove of President Obama's handling of the situation, both slight increases from last week's survey.
A CNN poll, conducted Oct. 3-6, also reports that Americans are generally upset with how the government is dealing with the current budget impasse.
Among those surveyed, 63 percent said they are angry with the Republicans for the way they have handled the shutdown compared to 57 percent for the Democrats. Fifty-three percent said they were angry with Obama for his handling of the shutdown.
Meanwhile, a Pew Research poll conducted Oct. 3-6 shows that 38 percent of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown, while 30 percent fault the Obama administration. In a mid-September poll that was in the field before the government actually shut down, Pew found that 39 percent would blame the Republicans, compared to 36 percent for Obama.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been cleared in a scandal over the finances of his 2007 presidential campaign. The examining magistrates' decision to dismiss the case may clear the way for a return to politics for Sarkozy.
"I am delighted about this decision, which I expected," said Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, after the announcement, the AP reports. The news agency adds, "After leaving a private meeting on Monday at the main Paris mosque, Sarkozy nodded to cameras but did not speak to journalists."
The case revolves around charges "that L'Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt provided the Sarkozy campaign with illegal campaign funds," as the Two-Way reported last year. That possible connection has yielded the scandal's name in France: the Bettencourt Affair.
The former president was formally accused with a breach of trust this past March. As the Agence France-Presse reported, investigators believed that the party backing Sarkozy received as much as $5.2 million from the heiress.
But on Monday, Sarkozy's name was cleared, nearly 18 months after he lost the presidency to Socialist Francios Hollande. As Sarkozy has fought allegations of wrongdoing, he has also been the subject of a rumored comeback attempt.
"With President Francois Hollande's approval ratings at record lows, analysts say Sarkozy may have his eye on running again in 2017," reports NPR's Eleanor Beardsley from Paris.
While the charges against Sarkozy were dismissed Monday, others named in the case remain under a legal threat, as 10 people who were indicted — including a former Labor minister who was also Sarkozy's campaign treasurer — could go on trial next year, Le Monde reports.
With J.D. Salinger in the news three years after his death (and the new documentary and biography must have that obsessively private author spinning in his grave), I'm reminded of my conversations in the 1970s about Salinger with the editor of The New Yorker, William Shawn.
For a few years, as host of All Things Considered, I'd phone Mr. Shawn with one question or another, on background (like Salinger, he never spoke to the press). I have no idea why Mr. Shawn took my calls. ATC, then, was heard in maybe three apartment buildings in Manhattan, so I doubt he was a listener (although the magazine did run a cartoon about me in 1978). It was probably just his natural good manners, even though he, too, was a very private, reclusive man.
In 1977, Esquire magazine published, for the first time in its history, an anonymous short story. In an editor's note, Esquire said the story was being run without signature neither because the magazine knew the identity of the author and did not want to reveal it, nor because the author wanted to remain anonymous. Rather, they were not sure who the writer was, but felt the story had such merit they wanted to publish it.
The piece, "For Rupert – With no Promises" smacked of Salinger, who hadn't published since the 1960s. It was full of references to Salinger characters, there was mysticism, Viennese logic – all Salinger absorptions.
I phoned Mr. Shawn to see if he thought Esquire had just published Salinger. When I said, "the only way I think this could be Salinger is if he'd had a hideous breakdown and hasn't written for years," Mr. Shawn laughed and assured me it was not a Salinger story, and that Salinger had indeed been writing (although not publishing) for decades.
It turned out that the Esquire Fiction Editor, Gordon Lish, had written "Rupert." Lish told me on the air that he thought the world needed to be reading Salinger, and if Salinger himself wasn't publishing, why not borrow his voice, and soothe his fans?
A questionable defense, to say the least.
But these days, with much excitement and anticipation of some new Salinger stories to be rolled out in the future, I realize I'd been told decades ago, by the most reliable source, that he was still writing. It's taken 36 years, but we'll soon be able to read some of what he was creating.
Japan Airlines is buying $9.5 billion worth of new jetliners from Airbus, placing its first-ever order with the European plane maker for 31 A350s to replace the carrier's aging fleet of Boeing 777s.
The airline's president, Yoshiharu Ueki, said the order was unrelated to Boeing's problems with the 787 Dreamliner, but the huge order is seen as a major coup for the Toulouse, France-based manufacturer at the expense its American rival.
Both Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways are flying 787s, which experienced numerous development delays and were grounded worldwide after a fire on the tarmac and other problems.
"We are sorry for the troubles we have caused our customers with the 787, but the decision on the aircraft was considered separately from that issue," Ueki told reporters.
Ueki said the A350 was chosen because it was the "best match for our needs." The Malaysian Star says Japan Airlines wants 18 A350-900s and 13 A350-1000s.
Although the order is valued at $9.5 billion at list prices, airlines typically negotiate deep discounts for such large purchases. The order includes an option to buy 25 more aircraft.
With their use of composite materials and advanced titanium and aluminum alloys that result in significant fuel efficiencies a capacity of 250-350 passengers, the A350-900s and A350-1000s being bought by Japan Airlines are seen as Airbus' answer to the Dreamliner, Business Insider wrote in June.
We reported last month on Airbus' latest 20-year forecast for the aircraft market, which predicted that the Asia-Pacific region would emerge for the first-time as the biggest buyer of new planes.
The Department of Defense is ordering most of its furloughed civilian employees back to work, in a move announced just after midday Saturday. The plan will put hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job next week.
"Today, I am announcing that most DoD civilians placed on emergency furlough during the government shutdown will be asked to return to work beginning next week," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement.
Hagel said he believes the Pentagon can "significantly reduce — but not eliminate — civilian furloughs under this process," Defense News reports.
The recall would affect "most of the some 400,000 civilian Defense Department employees sent home during the government shutdown," Reuters reports, citing a U.S. Defense official.
"We have tried to exempt as many DoD civilian personnel as possible from furloughs," Hagel said. "We will continue to try to bring all civilian employees back to work as soon as possible."
The Defense employee recall stems from the "Pay Our Military Act," legislation passed by Congress and enacted by President Obama earlier this week.
The bill allows the Pentagon to pay troops and some civilians. Hagel says the law "does not permit a blanket recall of all civilians," but it can be used to bring back workers who support service personnel.
As of Thursday, Defense workers told Stars and Stripes that they were confused about which employees the bill covers.
"I think it is important that our community understands that currently, teachers are still teaching their children with no idea when a paycheck will come," a teacher in the Defense Department of Defense Education Activity wrote to the news agency. The educators have continued to work in the shutdown.
In the days leading up to Monday's shutdown deadline, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told Pentagon employees that under a lapse in funding, "All military personnel would continue in a normal duty status; however, a large number of our civilian employees would be temporarily furloughed."
News of the recall comes hours after the House of Representatives passed a bill approving back pay for the roughly 800,000 federal workers who were idled by the government shutdown that began Tuesday.
Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.
Naghmeh Abedini's Iranian-American husband converted from Islam to Christianity 13 years ago. Since then, Saeed Abedini has made many trips to Iran, most recently to build an orphanage.
But he was detained by Iranian authorities in 2012. "We were working with [the government]" on the orphanage, Naghmeh Abedini tells Martin, "and very unexpectedly, they put him under house arrest, and we were shocked when they took him." In January, he was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of disturbing national security.
Saeed Abedini is serving his sentence at Evin Prison, which his wife calls "one of the most horrific prisons in the world." Some prisoners are allowed to call their families several times a week, but he is not granted that liberty. His parents visit weekly, though, and are able to speak with him about how he's faring.
He has told his family he has lost some of his eyesight and memory after time spent in solitary. He has also endured beatings, and, says Naghmeh Abedini, "was told he would be released if he would deny his Christian faith and return to Islam."
“ Pretty much one of the most powerful things that happened to him, that converted him, is that he had a vision, or some kind of encounter with Jesus, where he saw Jesus and he told Saeed that he's coming back soon and to go preach the gospel. And so he converted and started sharing his faith.
Tension, distrust, hostility: For more than 30 years, those words have described the relationship between Iran and the United States. But there's one other overriding word to describe it: silence.
Since 1979, no American president had spoken with a leader of Iran. That all changed on Sept. 27, when President Obama entered the White House briefing room and said that he had spoken with Hassan Rouhani, Iran's new president, by telephone.
This apparent milestone in U.S.-Iran relations was big news. The talk between Obama and Rouhani was greeted with great hope — and deep skepticism, born from three decades of bad blood, mistakes and sometimes outright aggression.
A Tense Goodbye
The long silence started in 1979, but the roots of the discord are much deeper. In 1953, Iran was a democracy with a popular prime minister. But the CIA helped overthrow that government and re-installed a monarch — the shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — who was much friendlier to U.S. interests.
Pahlavi would rule brutally until 1979, when he fled amid mass protest. Stepping into that void was Iran's revolutionary leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, who came out of exile to become the grand ayatollah — the supreme leader of the new Islamic Republic of Iran.
Columbia University professor Gary Sick tells NPR's Arun Rath the new Islamic Iranian state was a "new creature" to the U.S. — and to much of the rest of the world.
"To say we were unprepared is absolutely an understatement," says Sick, who also served on the National Security Council for President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
The relationship frayed further when on Nov. 4, 1979, protesters and militants overran the American embassy in Tehran, taking dozens of staff members as hostages. They demanded that the shah, who was in the U.S. seeking medical treatment, be returned home to face justice.
After 444 days, the hostages were released, but the crisis caused the U.S. to formally break diplomatic relations with Iran. Since then, the two countries have gone through many periods of tension and occasional opportunity.
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The federal shutdown that has idled some 800,000 government workers could be over by now — if members of Congress were able to vote on a bill that doesn't include an attack on the new U.S. health care system, President Obama says. "There are enough votes in the House of Representatives to make sure that the government reopens today," he told The Associated Press Friday.
In an interview with the news organization, published Saturday, Obama also said he believes the House and Senate would approve a bill that keeps the U.S. from defaulting on its obligations — an event that the Treasury warns could happen if legislation isn't approved by Oct. 17.
"And I'm pretty willing to bet that there are enough votes in the House of Representatives right now to make sure that the United States doesn't end up being a deadbeat," he said.
The AP interview with Obama touched on many topics. Here are some highlights:
On what a potential default would mean:
"Making sure that the United States government pays its bills — that's non-negotiable. That's what families all around the country do. If I buy a car, and I decide not to pay my car note one month, I'm not saving money. I'm just a deadbeat."
On those who pushed for the government shutdown:
"I recognize that in today's media age, being controversial, taking controversial positions, rallying the most extreme parts of your base, whether it's left or right, is a lot of times the fastest way to get attention and raise money," he said. "But it's not good for government."
On problems with websites for health care signups:
"It is true that what's happened is, the website got overwhelmed by the volume. And folks are working around the clock and have been systematically reducing the wait times," he said.
"We are going to probably exceed what anybody expected, in terms of the interest that people have."
On Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, and Israel:
"Rouhani has staked his position on the idea that he can improve relations with the rest of the world," Obama said. "And so far he's been saying a lot of the right things. And the question now is, can he follow through?"
The president says U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that Iran remains more than a year away from building a nuclear bomb, not the months away that Israeli officials have reported.
On the name of the Washington Redskins football team:
"If I were the owner of the team and I knew that the name of my team, even if they've had a storied history, that was offending a sizable group of people, I'd think about changing it," Obama said.
Thanks to the federal government's partial shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics skipped its monthly Big Reveal at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
There was no September employment report.
Without access to the BLS numbers, data junkies were left to scrounge around for lesser reports. Maybe if they could suck in enough small hits of other statistics, they could feel that old familiar rush?
Nope. Nothing can replace that BLS high.
"You do miss it," said Harry Holzer, Georgetown professor and former chief economist for the Labor Department. "I watch it closely. It's the single best number to explain what's going on" in the U.S. labor market, he said.
The BLS report surveys both employers and households. Also, it comes out monthly, rather than quarterly. Holzer said that frequency provides enough snapshots of wages and hours to create a kind of flowing documentary about jobs.
So here we are — with no new picture to advance the story.
But instead of dwelling on what we don't have, let's think of this as "Faux Friday" — a day offering plenty of data, just not from the BLS. Simply lower your standards, pop open a near-beer and let's go over the almost-important data that we did get this week:
— ADP's payroll report showed a gain of 166,000 private sector jobs for September — in line with what employers had been adding all summer.
— Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 308,000 last week. That number, based on state data, was somewhat better than the expected 314,000 new claims.
— PNC Financial Services Group Inc.'s Autumn Outlook survey of small and medium-size businesses showed 16 percent intend to add full-time employees during the next six months, while 8 percent plan to cut workers.
— The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas said companies announced plans for 40,289 layoffs in September, down 20 percent from August.
— Glassdoor, an online site for jobs, released its quarterly Employment Confidence Survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive. That showed only 15 percent of employees are afraid of being laid off, the lowest percentage since the fourth quarter of 2008.
The Government Shutdown
Without Key Jobs Data, Markets And Economists Left Guessing
Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.
Naghmeh Abedini's Iranian-American husband converted from Islam to Christianity 13 years ago. Since then, Saeed Abedini has made many trips to Iran, most recently to build an orphanage.
But he was detained by Iranian authorities in 2012. "We were working with [the government]" on the orphanage, Naghmeh Abedini tells Martin, "and very unexpectedly, they put him under house arrest, and we were shocked when they took him." In January, he was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of disturbing national security.
Saeed Abedini is serving his sentence at Evin Prison, which his wife calls "one of the most horrific prisons in the world." Some prisoners are allowed to call their families several times a week, but he is not granted that liberty. His parents visit weekly, though, and are able to speak with him about how he's faring.
He has told his family he has lost some of his eyesight and memory after time spent in solitary. He has also endured beatings, and, says Naghmeh Abedini, "was told he would be released if he would deny his Christian faith and return to Islam."
“ Pretty much one of the most powerful things that happened to him, that converted him, is that he had a vision, or some kind of encounter with Jesus, where he saw Jesus and he told Saeed that he's coming back soon and to go preach the gospel. And so he converted and started sharing his faith.
The Taliban have been waging a particularly bloody offensive this year now that Afghan government forces are in charge of security. The result: Afghan army and police are suffering record numbers of casualties — far more than NATO ever did at the height of its troop presence in Afghanistan.
So even as NATO forces are preparing to leave, they are working to bolster the medical capabilities of Afghan forces at hospitals, clinics and training centers across the country.
At Forward Operating Base Nolay, a joint U.S.-Afghan base in Helmand province's restive Sangin district, American forces are mentoring Afghan medics who get plenty of opportunities to practice emergency field medicine.
The Sangin district in southern part of the country is still one of the most violent places in Afghanistan. Afghan forces clash with the Taliban and other militants there on a daily basis.
On a recent afternoon, an Afghan police convoy came under fire as it passed the base, and two Afghan officers were wounded.
They were brought to the Afghan Army's new medical clinic at the base, which is little more than a prefabricated barn. There are several triage beds made out of two-by-fours, and blue bed sheets with patterns of frolicking dolphins lining the plywood walls. Still, it's a big improvement from the old clinic on the base.
Afghan medical staff treated the police officers under the supervision of U.S. medics, led by Navy Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Frederico Sanchez.
"Does your chest still hurt?" Sanchez asked one of the wounded officers. The officer indicated he was breathing a little better, and several Afghan staff helped him across the room to a bed in the ward.
One of the two wounded officers had received a deep graze across his back from a bullet.
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Across North Carolina, many license plates read "First in Flight" — a tribute to Orville and Wilbur Wright. Their plane first flew there 110 years ago.
Today, the state has one of the nation's busiest airports and dozens of aviation companies. And finding workers to fill those jobs has been a challenge.
No longer are workers building legs of furniture, hemming shirts and rolling cigarettes. They're fixing GPS technology, working on stabilizers and manufacturing the next era of aviation.
So officials in North Carolina have begun a recruiting effort to encourage students to think about a new kind of manufacturing job, in the aviation field.
Targeting Students And Parents
At TIMCO — an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul company based in Greensboro, N.C. — about a dozen workers are stripping down a Boeing 737 and putting it back together.
"It takes a lot of people, and that's something quite honestly we're struggling with," says Kip Blakely, a vice president with the company. "We're struggling with finding folks with the right skills, the right certification to come to work here at TIMCO."
About 1.6 million people live in the Piedmont Triad region, which is also home to 40 aviation companies. TIMCO is partnering with local chambers of commerce to promote the aviation industry. Commercials directed at teenagers are now airing during football games and prime time sitcoms.
"Are you looking for a rewarding career with room for advancement? How about aviation?" one of the commercials says. "One of the Triad's fastest growing industries. Demand for skilled workers is increasing and local companies are hiring for all types of positions."
Related NPR Stories
The Government Shutdown
Without Key Jobs Data, Markets And Economists Left Guessing
Three days of mourning have been declared in Chihuahua, Mexico, where at least eight people were killed by an out-of-control monster truck this weekend. A crowd had gathered to watch the truck at an outdoor arena that lacked any visible barriers.
From Mexico, NPR's James Blears reports for our Newscast unit that the truck went from crushing cars to plunging into a crowd of spectators, leaving eight dead and dozens more injured:
"The accident happened during the 'Extreme Aeroshow' at Rejon Dam, on the outskirts of Chihuahua City. Officials say a technical fault to the vehicle occurred after it had crushed an array of cars and had jumped over them. Witnesses claim the driver lost control of the huge orange truck after hitting his head on the steering wheel.
"The prosecutors' office confirms the driver has been arrested and is being questioned. Safety measures which were supposed to protect the crowd, and didn't, are also being investigated."
In Syria, a team of international weapons experts has begun the process of destroying the country's chemical weapons arsenal.
"The inspectors used sledge hammers and explosives to begin the work," NPR's Deborah Amos reports for our Newscast unit. "They are on a tight deadline to destroy more than 1,000 tons of nerve gas and banned weapons within a year."
Personnel from the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons make up the team. On Friday, a U.N. spokesperson said the team hoped to begin onsite inspections and destruction of production facilities in the coming week.
The inspectors' progress comes as Syrian President Bashar Assad maintains his government did not use chemical weapons on its citizens. In recent weeks, a U.N. report found that the poison gas sarin was used in an attack that killed hundreds of civilians — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the incident a "war crime."
In an interview with the German news magazine Der Spiegel, Assad admitted that he has made mistakes. And he said he would like for Germany to help mediate an end to Syria's civil war, which has lingered for more than two years.
"Stepping up interviews to Western news outlets, Assad told Der Spiegel magazine he wants negotiations, but [he] limited the partners. Not with rebels unless they put down their weapons, he said. Assad again denied his military had used chemical weapons, despite his pledge to allow a U.N. team to dismantle his arsenal."
When asked about President Obama, Assad reportedly said, "The only thing he has is lies." He said that in contrast, Russia understands the reality in Syria.
A U.N. commission's report on the reality in Syria painted a grim picture in September, when it concluded that both government and rebel forces have committed heinous acts in carrying out their struggle. And most of the killing, the report said, was done with conventional weapons.