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Islamic State militants and al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate appear to have worked together earlier this week to seize a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the Syrian capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports that ISIS and al-Nusra Front gained control of about 90 percent of the Yarmouk refugee camp after an assault on Wednesday. A Palestinian official says today that civilians were fleeing the camp amid clashes between the extremist groups and Palestinian armed factions.

The Associated Press quotes Khaled Abdul-Majid, a Damascus-based Palestinian official, as saying ISIS and al-Nusra fighters control only about half of the camp, which is located on the edge of the Syrian capital.

Voice of America reports:

"In addition to the ground clashes, United Nations officials said Syrian forces were shelling the camp. Violence during the past week has trapped its residents – about 18,000 civilians, including many children – inside the camp.

"The United States on Saturday condemned the attacks on Yarmouk. It said the actions of the Islamic State group and its allies are a "severe risk" to civilians who already have been under siege for two years, deprived of desperately needed food, medical supplies and other essentials."

The AP quotes an activist based in an area just south of Damascus, Hatem al-Dimashqi, as saying that "the rebel groups have launched a counteroffensive aimed at ousting the militants from the camp. He said a number of factions based inside the camp and in surrounding areas including Yalda, Babila and Beit Saham formed a joint operations command to coordinate their military action."

The self-declared Islamic State and al-Nusra have fought bloody battles against each other in other parts of Syria, so their cooperation in the attack on Yarmouk could signal a change in strategy.

Islamic State

Jabhat al-Nusra

Palestinians

Syria

Shortly after King won the Nobel Prize, event invitations went out to Atlanta's elite. Almost no one responded.

A worried Mayor Ivan Allen appealed to the former president of Coca-Cola. Although no longer in charge, Robert Woodruff was arguably the most powerful person in town.

"This was not a liberal, progressive individual," says Rick Allen, author of Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City. "But he was open-minded for his time and he was attuned to what the world thought, not just what Atlanta thought. The mayor told him, 'We have a real problem with this dinner. We're not selling any tickets. It's going to be an embarrassment to Atlanta.' "

Coca-Cola CEO J. Paul Austin, who had seen first-hand how apartheid hurt the economy in South Africa, threatened to take his company out of Atlanta if the city's elite did not honor King for his Nobel Prize. AP hide caption

itoggle caption AP

Coca-Cola was becoming an international company, and Atlanta longed to become an international city. Woodruff was receptive to the mayor's concerns, and asked Coca-Cola CEO J. Paul Austin to intervene.

"J. Paul Austin was from LaGrange, Ga., but he had been in South Africa for the last 14 years before coming back to Coca-Cola," says former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, a close friend of King who also attended the dinner. "He had seen what apartheid had done to the South African economy. So he was very strong on Atlanta not giving in to this kind of pettiness and racism."

The New York Times published a front-page story about the tepid response King was getting in his own hometown, and Austin decided to flex Coca-Cola's muscle.

"The phrase that he was quoted as saying was that 'Coca-Cola cannot stay in a city that's going to have this kind of reaction and not honor a Nobel Peace Prize winner,' " Young says.

The ultimatum worked. The event quickly sold out, says Mark Pendergrast, author of Of God, Country and Coca-Cola.

"If Robert Woodruff — who basically could run the town of Atlanta — if he had not let it be known that the white business community was going to honor Martin Luther King at this dinner, I don't think it would've happened," Pendergrast says.

Almost 1,600 people attended the dinner, held at Atlanta's Dinkler Hotel, to honor King and his Peace Prize.

King began his speech, "This marvelous hometown welcome and honor will remain dear to me as long as the chords of memory shall lengthen."

The event proceeded "like there'd never been a problem," Young says, and the audience even stood and sang "We Shall Overcome."

Early risers (very early on the U.S. West Coast) who had clear skies might have caught a view of today's lunar eclipse — the third in a cycle of four that had its premiere nearly a year ago.

HAPPENING NOW! RT @cnnphilippines: Rare total lunar eclipse http://t.co/IOc2iiSJBt pic.twitter.com/OLO1ju12EW

— Mickoi (@therealmickoi) April 4, 2015

Those of us on the East Coast (this writer included) got to see a partial eclipse before the moon set in the west.

lunar eclipse is looking rad pic.twitter.com/wOkDVH9cEC

— Ellen (@EllenRoseLS) April 4, 2015

For those farther west, totality (when the moon is completely in the Earth's shadow) lasted only 5 minutes, making the eclipse an unusually brief one. This is owing to the fact that our nearest neighbor only skimmed the upper part of the Earth's shadow instead of falling squarely in the middle of it.

As we explained on Friday, if you missed this one, there's a closing act in the lunar eclipse tetrad on Sept. 28.

Lunar eclipse

So That Happened

by Jon Cryer

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In the John Hughes-penned classic, Pretty in Pink, Jon Cryer's "Duckie" Dale has one of the best on-screen friendships in '80s teen movie history.

Unfortunately, he's also in love with that friend — his best friend — Andie, played by Molly Ringwald. She's about to date a rich kid, Andrew McCarthy's Blane, much to Duckie's disappointment.

Their fight, a climactic movie moment, only shows how much they care about each other. "You can't do this and respect yourself. You can't," Duckie insists to Andie.

Andie responds, "You know, you're just talking like that because I'm going out with Blane."

"Blane? His name is Blane?" Duckie shoots back. "That's a major appliance, that's not a name."

But despite that classic chemistry, Cryer reveals in his memoir, So That Happened, that he felt neither Ringwald nor McCarthy liked him very much.

"It wasn't that they were unkind, they're just very different people than me," says Cryer, who later learned Ringwald wanted her friend Robert Downey Jr. in his role.

"I'm very outgoing," he adds. "I kind of come from a theatrical background, and in the theater you expect to have this tremendous camaraderie with the people you're working with. But on a film, it's a very different vibe."

That's the kind of personal, backstage revelation you get in So That Happened, a breezy, often comic tale of Cryer's 30-year career on stage, film and television.

In his book, the 49-year-old actor dishes on everything from a brief, early romance with Demi Moore to the highly public meltdown of his Two and A Half Men co-star, Charlie Sheen.

Often, his stories take on a comic tone, such as when he explains the absurdity of winning early roles because he looked uncannily like Matthew Broderick, or when he tells of people mistakenly assuming he was gay or Jewish throughout his career.

"I realize that one could see my life as a series of escalating episodes of weirdness," Cryer says, laughing. "But the idea that I've had this long career, being who I am, is itself probably kind of silly."

Cryer grew up in New York, the son of two actors. He never quite fit in at high school but blossomed at the legendary theater camp Stagedoor Manor before earning early roles on Broadway (including a job, of course, as an understudy for Broderick).

But he also dishes about setbacks, like squandering his post-Pretty in Pink stardom with a string of unsuccessful movies like Superman IV — the kind of revelations an actor with a bigger ego might purposefully overlook.

"Here's where I buck the trend of most actors," Cryer says. "I am unencumbered by confidence or self-esteem. I think my performance as Alan [Harper] has shown, if nothing else, that I am willing to debase myself completely."

Cryer landed on CBS's Two and A Half Men in 2003. He played strait-laced chiropractor Alan Harper, who was forced after a divorce to move in with his wealthy, hard-partying brother, played by hard-partying actor Charlie Sheen.

At first, they worked well together. Sheen knew his lines, hit his marks and was a friend, despite his reputation. It's not until page 252 that Cryer writes about his first really odd experience with Sheen, when his costar asked him to hide a bag filled with porn when wife Denise Richards visited the set.

"I got to know a very different guy than everybody expected, and I still wish he wanted to be the sober guy that I worked with for five or six years," says Cryer. "But I don't think he does anymore."

Cryer writes that Sheen's addiction progressed in 2009 and 2010. By early 2011, CBS had put the show on hiatus for a second time, after Sheen went to rehab. Executive producer Chuck Lorre wanted Sheen to get more extensive treatment, Cryer writes.

Instead, Sheen went on a radio show hosted by noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and lambasted Lorre, saying, "I've spent, I think, close to the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into pure gold. And the gratitude I get is this charlatan chose not to do his job, which is to write. Clearly someone who believes he is above the law."

Cryer says he wrote about those days in detail, including text messages he traded with Sheen up until his former costar called him a troll, to describe what it was like to be at the center of something everyone in the world was talking about.

"People would ask me, 'So I'm sure the feud between Charlie Sheen and your producer Chuck Lorre must have been going on behind the scenes for years,' " Cryer says. "I had to show that, no, there was no feud. When it exploded the way it did with his anger at Chuck Lorre, we were astonished. None of us saw it coming."

He describes Sheen as a surprisingly conflict-averse guy who would rather rail indirectly at Lorre on a radio show than confront him directly or demand the network remove him from the production.

In the end, Sheen was fired and Two and a Half Men went on successfully, with Ashton Kutcher as Cryer's co-star. In February, CBS ended the show after 12 years.

One lesson learned from reading So That Happened is that Cryer, like his best-known characters, stays sane in Hollywood with humor and a healthy sense of his own shortcomings.

That's a handy trait for surviving three decades in one of the most fickle industries around.

Starting a business is tough anywhere.

But when you live in a place where many people lack basic services, such as electricity and toilets, it's even harder.

These are the obstacles facing new business owners in South Africa's townships — sprawling communities designated for nonwhites during apartheid. Apartheid may be history, but two decades into democracy, townships remain overwhelmingly disadvantaged.

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Kenyan Women Create Their Own 'Geek Culture'

Internet service and office space are difficult to come by. There are few sources of investment from within the community. And if you manage to interest a potential funder who's an outsider, you have to hope you can go to them for a meeting.

Despite these obstacles, entrepreneurs across the country's townships are forging ahead. And while starting a business in a township remains difficult, it may be getting a little easier — in large part to a growing company called Hubspace.

You're not just a person on your own, but the people around you make you who you are.

- South African entrepreneur Ayanda Cuba

A sprawling township about 20 miles outside central Cape Town, Khayelitsha is home to roughly a million people. More than half live in shacks.

It's here, on the second floor of a two-story brick building, that Hubspace opened the country's first township entrepreneurship hub in 2013. Hubspace Khayelitsha has a tidy boardroom and plenty of tea and coffee. There's also a shared landline and a street address. In a township like Khayelitsha, these simple office perks can be game-changing for a fledgling business.

On a recent afternoon, Ayanda Cuba sat at computer inside Hubspace Khayelitsha, showing a friend what Slinch looks like. Concocted by Cuba and a partner after discussions with paramedics, Slinch is a fabric sling that fits on a stretcher and immobilizes injured children.

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Like many in the room, Cuba, 25, has been an entrepreneur since a young age. Last year, he and a group of friends put together an online newspaper, the Times of Ulutsha, to share stories of Khayelitsha.

When a friend first brought Cuba to Hubspace, he was hooked.

"Damn," he remembers thinking during his first visit, "this is a cool space."

Not far from the computer where Cuba pulled up the design for Slinch, two other young men leaned back on a couch nearby, typing on laptops near a stack of business magazines. Music from a Detroit hip-hop group floats quietly from speakers through the room, muffled by large canvasses on the walls with spray-painted words like "GROWTH" and "PROFIT."

Seated at a table in the middle of the room is Melilizwe Gqobo, Hubspace Khayelitsha's 28-year-old founding director. Gqobo has been busy pitching the idea that startup hubs like this one can succeed in townships.

The Salt

For Food Startups, Incubators Help Dish Up Success

"I'm just aggressively hitting the market and trying to sell what's happened for the past 15 months," he says. "Hopefully we can find a partner that can run with us and take this nationally."

From the inside, Hubspace Khayelitsha looks a lot like the hubs cropping up in cities around the world. These communal offices offer small businesses a place to work — and network — with other entrepreneurs.

But glance out the window, and the view of modest one-story homes offers a stark contrast from the financial district of a city teeming with startups.

According to the 2011 census, only 35 percent of Khayelitsha residents have piped water inside their homes. In the informal settlements that make up Khayelitsha's poorest neighborhoods, many people rely on rows of enclosed toilets at an edge of their neighborhoods. At night, some of them use buckets inside their homes instead.

Women Have An Edge In Gaza Startup Market

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The widespread poverty feels a world away from the gleaming buildings of downtown Cape Town. For two decades, government officials and nonprofit organizations have tried to address the systemic problems left behind by apartheid. Today, South African cities remain some of the world's most unequal.

To the people at Hubspace Khayelitsha, that underscores the importance of a space that allows entrepreneurs to try out their ideas.

"Nobody else is going to do what we're doing besides us right now," says Gqobo, who lives in Khayelitsha. "It has to come to a point by just taking a stand and saying, 'No, we're just going to fix our own problems.' "

The first Hubspace opened in 2012 in Woodstock, a Cape Town neighborhood that has drawn comparisons to Brooklyn. The man behind the space, social entrepreneur Peter Shrimpton, envisioned the Woodstock hub as just the first in a wide network, reaching cities and townships across the country.

Shrimpton, 48, ran an asset management company for a decade. After a life-changing cancer diagnosis about a dozen years ago, he left to start Heart Capital, a social investment firm.

In a country that remains deeply divided by decades of minority rule, Shrimpton hopes Heart Capital can play a role in bridging a deep opportunity gap.

Still, Hubspace is a business, not a nonprofit. In townships like Khayelitsha, Shrimpton sees a real chance to make investments at the ground level. For angel investors and firms looking to invest in South Africa's townships, a startup hub makes it easier to determine which businesses they want to take a chance on.

"What we were really after is creating the honey pot that attracts all of the young entrepreneurs," Shrimpton says.

Hubspace charges entrepreneurs for use of the space, offering daily rates, boardroom rentals and lifetime memberships. Lifetime memberships currently cost 2,000 Rand, nearly $200, and Hubspace tries to find outside sponsors to front the cost as an initial investment in a township entrepreneur.

These fees won't bring in enough revenue to cover the costs of opening a Hubspace branch, Shrimpton acknowledges. Instead, Hubspace looks for angel investors to sponsor a Hubspace branch in exchange for ownership of that particular franchise. Over time, as the entrepreneurs and their businesses gain visibility, the franchise value will increase. The angel investor can then sell the franchise to another interested sponsor for a profit.

For the entrepreneurs who come to Hubspace Khayelitsha, the hub offers a chance to access amounts of capital difficult to raise in a township.

A wide variety of businesses operate out of Hubspace Khayelitsha. On a couch near Gqobo sat 25-year-old Wandisile Nqeketh, who runs the 18 Gangster Museum. The museum employs former gang members as guides, showing tourists through exhibits explaining the notorious gang culture in South Africa's townships.

Nqeketh also helps Sizwe Nzima, recently recognized as one of Forbes Africa's 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30, with the Iyeza Express, a bicycle delivery service for HIV medication in Khayelitsha.

If the spirit of entrepreneurship is instilled in South Africans growing up in townships, so too is a sense of shared responsibility for the community, Hubspace entrepreneurs say. They refer often to ubuntu, a word that can be loosely translated as "human kindness."

The word comes from a phrase in Zulu, explains Ayanda Cuba, the Slinch co-founder. "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu," Cuba recites. "You're not just a person on your own, but the people around you make you who you are."

Gqobo, Hubspace Khayelitsha's founding director, says the spirit of ubuntu extends to how the entrepreneurs share the space. Everyone pitches in on communal tasks, such as keeping the coffee and tea well stocked, he said. Even snacks are shared.

"I cannot buy a packet of chips or a packet of sweets and just eat them alone in my corner," he says. "It's just fundamental."

Two new Hubspace locations, both in townships, are slated to open in May.

hubspace

entrepreneurs

South Africa

Dear March,

We got your news that employers added just 126,000 jobs on your watch. Hate to say it, but you have disappointed everyone. No doubt you'll say you were under the weather — literally. Sure, it was cold, but still ... Let's hope April does better.

Sincerely,

America

On Friday, the Labor Department's report on weak jobs growth left economists scrambling to explain what went wrong in March.

Most had forecast about 245,000 new jobs for the month, but they were way off base. The Labor Department said employers added only 126,000 workers. The unemployment rate, which is determined by a separate survey of households, held steady at 5.5 percent.

The disappointing March report confirms a wintertime slowdown. The average monthly gain in the first three months of this year was just 197,000 new jobs, down sharply from an average of 324,000 in the final three months of last year.

The Two-Way

Economy Adds A Disappointing 126,000 Jobs In March

So while the positive hiring trend did continue into the new year, it clearly has lost momentum. A lot of people looked at the construction industry — which cut 1,000 jobs last month — and blamed the exceptionally cold temperatures for freezing up so much economic activity.

"One cannot be stunned if wave after wave of severe snow storms and [arctic] temperatures curbed hiring, slashed construction activity, and kept consumers from stores," economist Bernard Baumohl, with The Economic Outlook Group, wrote in his assessment.

This winter brought other problems, such as a drop in the oil-rig count and the West Coast port disruptions, which caused supply-chain reactions. Wells Fargo economists noted that currency changes also hurt, making U.S. exports more expensive this winter: "Manufacturing payrolls edged down by 1,000, with the workweek ticking down, suggesting some modest impact from the stronger dollar."

So fingers can be pointed at some extraordinary factors that weighed down job creation.

But maybe the slowdown's explanation is simpler than that. Maybe it just reflects a cooling of the economy after nearly six years of expansion. The unemployment rate has plunged in recent years, and in the prior 12 months, job growth was averaging a robust 269,000 a month.

So at some point, the labor market was bound to take a breather.

"In retrospect, a correction such as this was very likely," wrote Doug Handler, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who spoke with NPR, also noted that March's numbers have to be put into a longer perspective. Consider, he said, that private businesses have added 12.1 million jobs over 61 straight months of job growth, the longest streak on record.

In March 2014, the unemployment rate was 6.6 percent. Perez said that if someone had told him then that the rate would plunge to 5.5 percent in one year, "I would have thought it was an April Fools' joke."

The overall job market's performance in the past year has been strong, he said. "I look at trend data," and the trend has been the worker's friend.

So the big question hanging over the economy is: Did job growth just take a rest during the harsh winter, or is it shifting to a much slower pace?

Handler remains fundamentally optimistic. "This result is more of an aberration than a trend," he said. "The April report will be more in line with stronger reports issued earlier in the year, allowing the March data to be discounted."

And PNC economist Gus Faucher saw some hopeful signs in the wage data, which pointed upward. Workers' wages rose by 2.1 percent over the past year — which beats the consumer inflation rate. "The tighter labor market is leading businesses to raise pay to attract and retain workers," he said.

Still, the report showed enough weakness to suggest the Federal Reserve will be in no rush this summer to raise interest rates.

"Today's sluggish job numbers, job revisions and mild wage growth are signs the Federal Reserve should keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future," AFL-CIO economist Bill Spriggs said. "Today is confirmation the economic recovery is incomplete and we have a long way left to go."

job growth

unemployment rate

Federal Reserve

Labor Department

"If you are surprised to be hearing from us, you are not hearing from us," Koskinen said. "Our way of contacting you is by letter."

So after the speech at the National Press Club, I went home — and found a voicemail message from the, um, IRS.

A stern woman had left this message: "This is the IRS. We have been attempting to reach you. The IRS has filed a lawsuit against you. You must call 202-xxx-xxxx immediately. There will be no further warning."

How could I resist? I called the number, and a man with a heavy accent answered. It sounded as though he was in a room with lots of other people making calls. I could barely understand him.

MG: "Hi, I got a call yesterday about the IRS."

GUY: "How can I help you?"

MG: "Just so that you know, I am Marilyn Geewax and I work for NPR. I am covering IRS issues. I was wondering ... do you work for the IRS?"

GUY: "Yes, I am with the IRS."

MG: "Are you based in Washington?"

GUY: "No, I'm in New York. "

MG: "Could you repeat that?"

GUY: "OK ma'am, don't worry."

CLICK. He hung up.

Apparently, it quickly dawned on him that I might not be the right person for his particular brand of tax advice. So just like that, the "lawsuit" against me disappeared. "OK ma'am. Don't worry."

But I am worried. I am worried about potential victims out there — especially elderly ones who might not be able to hear or think as clearly as they once did.

Please call your parents and grandparents and help spread the word. This is what Koskinen said at the National Press Club:

"The last thing you'll ever hear from an IRS agent of any kind is threats that we are about to throw you in jail unless you pay us immediately or put money into a particular account," he said.

"The number of reported calls is going up," Koskinen said. But because good people are spreading the word to their friends and relatives about these con artists, "the number of people who have fallen prey to this scam is down significantly."

And another thing: Don't fall for a trick where "you get an email and it looks like an IRS website," he said. Check the details and "you will see it's not from the IRS," he said.

Remember that these con artists may know the last four digits of your Social Security number — and try to use that to trick you.

For more information, go to these legitimate websites:

www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Warns-of-Pervasive-Telephone-Scam

www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2014-03.htm

http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2015-01_home.htm

IRS

taxes

Citing data from the flight recorder of crashed Germanwings Flight 9525, officials say that the co-pilot accelerated several times as the airliner made its fatal descent with 150 people on board last week.

France's aviation safety agency says the plane's newly recovered data recorder shows the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, set the aircraft's autopilot to put it on a course and altitude that would crash it into a mountainside in the French Alps. He dialed the plane's altitude down to 100 feet, the lowest setting.

"Then, several times in the course of the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the speed of the airplane in its descent," the Bureau of Inquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety says.

The findings come from the second black box flight recorder, which was recovered Thursday. Prosecutors have previously said that it seems Lubitz crashed the airliner intentionally.

Lubitz had "apparently used his tablet computer to search the Internet for ways to commit suicide and for the safety features of cockpit doors," according to German prosecutors cited by Krishnadev's report for the Two-Way Thursday.

The plane's audio recorder, which was found soon after the crash in the French Alps, showed that its pilot pounded on the cockpit door and yelled to be let back in during the final moments before the crash.

i

The cockpit voice recorder of Germanwings Flight 9525 is seen in this photo released by France's aviation safety agency. BEA hide caption

itoggle caption BEA

The cockpit voice recorder of Germanwings Flight 9525 is seen in this photo released by France's aviation safety agency.

BEA

germanwings Flight 4U 9525

Every politician likes to tout what they believe the "American People" want.

As the debate over the Iran nuclear deal inevitably heads toward the meat grinder that is Congress, President Obama tried to preemptively frame that debate. And he claimed to have the "American people" on his side.

"If Congress kills this deal, not based on expert analysis and without offering any reasonable alternative, then it's the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy," Obama said during remarks at the White House unveiling the framework for the Iran deal. "International unity will collapse, and the path to conflict will widen. The American people understand this, which is why solid majorities support a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear issue." (Bolding ours.)

Polls, though, show a mixed bag on American public opinion regarding an Iran deal.

First, to the larger picture of how Americans feel about this president's handling of foreign policy, a majority say they disapprove of the job he's doing.

CBS News, NBC/WSJ polls

At the same time, however, more Americans said they have confidence in Obama dealing with foreign policy than Republicans in Congress by a 47 to 39 percent margin, per a March CNN/ORC poll.

Support For Direct Negotiations

To whether "solid majorities support a diplomatic resolution," as Obama said, several polls seem to support what the president said.

An ABC/Washington Post poll out Thursday found people in support of a deal by a 59 to 31 percent margin.

A CNN/ORC poll from earlier this month found 68 percent in favor of direct diplomatic negotiations "in an attempt to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon." (Most also said they thought the Republican letter to Iran "went too far.")

A Pew Research poll out this week found a lower number, but still a plurality of Americans in favor of direct negotiations by a 49 to 40 percent margin. (That's down from the 63 percent who approved of them in Obama's first year in office.)

Doubts That A Deal Could Prevent Iran Getting A Nuclear Weapon

Of course, wording and context is important.

ABC/Washington Post asked:

"Would you support or oppose an agreement in which the United States and other countries would some of their economic sanctions against Iran, in exchange for Iran restricting its nuclear program in a way that makes it harder for it to produce nuclear weapons?" (Bolding again ours.)

Even though a solid majority said they would be in favor of such a deal, an almost equal number of Americans (60 percent) said they doubt a deal "would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons."

Similarly, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month found more than 7-in-10 said they thought a deal would "not make a real difference in preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons."

Opinion Ready To Be Shaped

Information about the details of the Iran deal framework are still being parsed. But even before Thursday's announcement, most people said they knew very little about the negotiations. Pew found that 73 percent said they either knew "a little" or "nothing at all" about them.

That same poll also found that a strong majority (62 percent) wants Congress to "have the final authority for approving any deal" not President Obama.

Translation: Public opinion is not yet baked in, and, like in any political campaign, public opinion is ripe to be shaped.

Let the talking points begin.

iran nuclear talks

Congress

Foreign Affairs

polls

Barack Obama

As President Obama touted a nuclear framework with Iran Thursday, he emphasized that he wants Congress to get on board.

"This is not simply a deal between my administration and Iran," Obama said. "This is a deal between Iran, the United States of America and the major powers in the world."

Obama said he will speak with House and Senate leaders Thursday about how they can "play a constructive oversight role" with regard to the the framework.

The president has also instructed his negotiators to brief Congress and the public on the deal, adding: "I welcome a robust debate in the weeks and months to come."

He's already getting some of that that "robust debate" from Congress, but he also made it clear how he wants that debate to end.

Listen to Obama's Statement on Iran

18 min 0 sec

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Transcript

"If Congress kills this deal not based on expert analysis, and without offering any reasonable alternative," he said, "then it's the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy. International unity will collapse and the path to conflict will widen. The American people understand this."

Here's how Congress reacted to Obama's statement and the deal:

[View the story "Congressional Reaction on Iran" on Storify]

Congress

Iran

Barack Obama

As President Obama touted a nuclear framework with Iran Thursday, he emphasized that he wants Congress to get on board.

"This is not simply a deal between my administration and Iran," Obama said. "This is a deal between Iran, the United States of America and the major powers in the world."

Obama said he will speak with House and Senate leaders Thursday about how they can "play a constructive oversight role" with regard to the the framework.

The president has also instructed his negotiators to brief Congress and the public on the deal, adding: "I welcome a robust debate in the weeks and months to come."

He's already getting some of that that "robust debate" from Congress, but he also made it clear how he wants that debate to end.

Listen to Obama's Statement on Iran

18 min 0 sec

Playlist

Download

Transcript

"If Congress kills this deal not based on expert analysis, and without offering any reasonable alternative," he said, "then it's the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy. International unity will collapse and the path to conflict will widen. The American people understand this."

Here's how Congress reacted to Obama's statement and the deal:

[View the story "Congressional Reaction on Iran" on Storify]

Congress

Iran

Barack Obama

It's a story that spread around the world last month: The Cameroonian army had rescued scores of children from Boko Haram. Morning Edition was among the news outlets that covered the story of youngsters said to be so traumatized, they'd forgotten their names.

This was the account of Christopher Fomunyoh, an expert on democracy in Africa and native Cameroonian who had traveled to the center where the children were being held.

Fomunyoh stands by his account. But since its interview with him, NPR has gathered more information.

When the 84 children, all boys, ages 4 to 17, were first rescued, they were silent.

"They did not want to say a single word," says Felicite Tchibindat, head of UNICEF in Cameroon. "We thought they were highly traumatized."

But according to Tchibindat, although the boys were exceptionally quiet, it wasn't because of trauma. They had not forgotten their names.

They just didn't speak French, the language social workers were using to address them; instead, they spoke Fulani and other languages used in their villages, along Cameroon's border with Nigeria.

The boys' apparent relucant to speak is not surprising, says Dr. Theresa Betancourt, of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, who researches the reintegration of children affected by conflict. Silence might have helped them survive at the Koranic school from which they were rescued, where the imam was allegedly affiliated with Boko Haram.

i

These are photos of some of the kidnapped girls, courtesy of their families. Top row (left to right): Yana Pogu, Rhoda Peters, Saratu Ayuba, Comfort, Bullus, Dorcas Yakubu. Bottom row (left to right): Hauwa Mutah, Hajara Isa, Rivkatu Ngalang. Glenna Gordon for NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Glenna Gordon for NPR

These are photos of some of the kidnapped girls, courtesy of their families. Top row (left to right): Yana Pogu, Rhoda Peters, Saratu Ayuba, Comfort, Bullus, Dorcas Yakubu. Bottom row (left to right): Hauwa Mutah, Hajara Isa, Rivkatu Ngalang.

Glenna Gordon for NPR

"Being demure, not speaking too much, being wary, is a good way to make it through a very frightening circumstance," Betancourt explains.

As for what exactly went on at the school, even now, more than three months after the rescue on December 19, it's difficult to know.

One of most urgent questions: Had the boys been trained as child soldiers for Boko Haram?

UNICEF's Tchibindat says no.

There was a Cameroonian government investigation into this question. The children were shown weapons and asked if they'd ever touched a gun? None had, the investigators found.

"If they were trained as child soldiers, I can tell you that the Cameroonian officials would put them in jail, because there is no juvenile justice [system] here," explains Tchibindat.

So what happens to the boys now?

Most of their families have been contacted, says Tchibindat. But that doesn't mean the boys can immediately return home.

Because of a Cameroonian anti-terrorism law that penalizes people associating with Boko Haram or other terrorist organizations, the boys' parents are wary of visiting or claiming their children.

"They are afraid they will be put in jail," says Tchibindat. Still, some parents have visited.

Before the boys can be sent home, UNICEF needs to figure out the exact circumstances under which the boys were sent to this particular Koranic school.

Many boys in rural northern Cameroon, and across Muslim West Africa, attend Koranic schools. So poor families often send a child to live at such a school, where their care is entrusted to the imam. In some instances, militant groups might offer money or schooling to vulnerable parents having trouble feeding their children. And desperate families might abandon or even sell their children. Returning a child to such a home is not a safe option, says Betancourt, because the families might do the same thing again.

Betancourt says that ideally, if their families can safely care for them, the boys will able to return to their villages, and the sooner the better. Because they were indoctrinated as a group, as long as they're together, undoing that teaching will be more difficult.

"If they're in their home environment, and with their own family, the chances of overcoming that indoctrination would be greater."

Being in what Betancourt calls a "normalizing environment" in their home villages will help. Establishing trust and ties with family members — or adoptive families, when needed — is crucial for their recovery. Psychological and neurobiological research shows that a secure attachment with a caring adult is key for a kid recovering from trauma.

Betancourt also says that getting basic needs of the boys and their families met now — food, shelter and water — is a priority in situations like this. The more quickly these basic needs are addressed, the less vulnerable the families and their children will be to falling under the influence of Boko Haram in the future.

childhood trauma

Cameroon

Boko Haram

Nigeria

Fatima Bhutto is a member of one of the most famous families in Pakistan — a family that produced two prime ministers, her aunt Benazir Bhutto and her grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. And yet her latest book explores the lives of people who feel alienated from her country.

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon is about Pakistan's remote tribal regions. The country's national flag includes a white crescent moon against a green background.

"It refers to the Pakistani flag that flies over this part of the country," she tells NPR's Steve Inskeep. It's a part of the country "that has always felt separate from the nation, that has always felt separate from the center. And how the shadow of that moon never wanes, how it always remains no matter what you to do try to free yourself from it."

Bhutto has had her own personal reasons to feel alienated. Her father, a Pakistani politician, was murdered years ago. Bhutto has long suspected members of her own powerful family played a role in the killing.

In her early 30s, she remains a member of Pakistan's elite, a journalist and writer. But in this novel, she explores the lives of three brothers far from any elite. They're in a real city called Mir Ali, in the mountainous area near Afghanistan. It's a rebellious region mainly known to Americans for sheltering extremist groups. Bhutto writes of people driven less by radical Islam than by a desire for independence. In fact, they never fully accepted being part of their country to begin with.

"It's a part of the country that has always been removed ..." Bhutto says. "And they have suffered especially over the last 15 years since the war on terror ... because this is where the drone wars have been focused. This is where Pakistani military strikes have been focused. An entire region no longer exists except in the news. It no longer has the ability to live freely and as they would wish because they have become the epicenter of something dangerous."

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The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

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On Pakistan's effort to develop a national identity

You see that across Pakistan, actually. If you come to Sindh, the province that I live in, where I'm from, people identify very strongly as Sindhis with their own language and their own history. If you go to the Punjab, people identify very strongly as Punjabis. And this has been a question for Pakistan: What does it mean to be Pakistani? Are you Pakistani first? Or are you a Pakistani second? Or even third, now that people are identifying along religious lines as well.

On whether the community she describes in the book — with tanks, troops and military presence everywhere — is "normal"

It didn't used to be normal but unfortunately it is becoming normal in more and more places. If you go to Balochistan, for example, that's something you would see. If you go to certain parts in the tribal areas, again, that's something you would see. And what we've been noticing, those of us who live in other parts of the country, is that violence has become so ordinary now that you just learn to live around it whether you're in Karachi or, in fact, Mir Ali.

This is a country of divided loyalties, and it's also a country of sacrifices. Pakistan is a country that demands a sacrifice from its people. ... And I don't know if that's specific to Pakistan. I think any violent place demands a certain amount of sacrifice from its people.

- Fatima Bhutto

On the three brothers in the novel who must balance loyalties to their community, to their state, and to their family

This is a country of divided loyalties, and it's also a country of sacrifices. Pakistan is a country that demands a sacrifice from its people. The question is just: Where will the sacrifice come from? Will you sacrifice yourself, your own life, or your comfort? Or do you sacrifice a fidelity to an idea or to a people in order to survive? And I don't know if that's specific to Pakistan. I think any violent place demands a certain amount of sacrifice from its people.

On whether Pakistan is on an upward trajectory

Sadly, no. If you're looking at Pakistan recently, you will know that we've executed almost — I think it's 50 people at last count — through hangings since the death penalty was reinstated. The government has just recently banned [the blogging site] Wordpress, so that joins YouTube — something like 20,000 other websites that are now banned from the country. ...

Book Reviews

'Crescent Moon' Counts Down To Political Mayhem

You're constantly having to deal with things like what happens in Shadow of the Crescent Moon. Do you go to the mosque with all your family? Is it safe? Can your children go to school? Will they come back from school? So it's become a more dangerous country, but also a sadder country in recent months. And I don't — I feel sad to say it but, I don't really see things improving anytime soon.

Read an excerpt of The Shadow of the Crescent Moon

I meet Joao Jesus outside the local labor tribunal in the Brazilian town of Itaborai, east of Rio de Janeiro.

"This morning I wasn't able to give my kids breakfast," he says, in a way that suggests he can hardly believe it himself.

Financial crises often get spoken about in the nameless, faceless lingo of "world market downturns" or "changing patterns of consumption" — but the crisis engulfing Brazil and its state oil company, Petrobras, has names and faces.

So far, three dozen senior executives and 47 politicians either have been indicted or are under investigation for organized corruption on an epic scale.

According to investigators, some of Brazil's biggest construction companies would overcharge Petrobras, then funnel the extra money into the coffers of these politicians and executives. Investigations have found one executive accepted bribes to the tune of $100 million. He has had to agree to give it back.

Among the main beneficiaries was President Dilma Rousseff's Workers Party, the PT. The head of the senate and the lower house of congress are also under investigation, along with half of the congressional ethics committee.

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Rousseff's government is suffering. This month, massive countrywide protests erupted, calling for her impeachment. The economy also has been in free-fall, with climbing inflation and low growth.

But more dramatically, the corruption at Petrobras has affected lives: It's meant that Jesus' two daughters, ages 9 and 11, went hungry this morning.

"It's so ugly. I never thought I'd have to go through something like this," he says.

Jesus moved here from his home state of Bahia, hundreds of miles north of here, to work for one of the companies contracted by Petrobras. He brought his wife and two kids. He is an industrial plumber, and the company he works for was doing good business.

But on this sunny summer day, he and 3,000 other employees of the contractor, most with similar stories, all stand in line to meet with company representatives and have them sign their work cards. They'll need the signatures in order to collect unemployment benefits.

The company hasn't paid its workers since December. As the result of a court order, all of the men here are being formally laid off — among the 20,000 in the area who have lost their jobs in the past few months, local officials say.

The court has ordered the contractor to give its workers back pay and compensation. The catch is that the company is locked in a battle with Petrobras, because it says the state oil giant owes it more than $313 million. The company says that, until Petrobras pays up, it can't pay its laid-off workers.

Joao Jesus tells me he isn't on the street yet, because his landlord has agreed to let him live rent-free — for now. He says he's waiting for his money so that he can go back to his home state and start over.

"My heart is cut in two," he says.

There were a lot of big dreams in Itaborai in the boom years — companies and people relocated here after a cluster of Petrobras refineries started being built nearby.

Walking down the main drag of Itaborai is a study in contrasts. On one side of the road, in a sort of older part of town, there are supermarkets, mom-and-pop shops and auto mechanics in small ramshackle buildings.

On the other side of the road, though, there are a series of tall gleaming buildings, painted white, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows. They are completely new — and almost completely empty.

Ricardo Victor, 69, says he invested his life savings in buying apartments and offices in some of the new buildings, hoping to ensure himself a comfortable retirement. He says he's spent his life getting up at dawn, working several jobs, missing his children's childhood so he could provide for them.

All that work — all those sacrifices — have been squandered by other people's greed, he says.

"This didn't only affect Itaborai, it affected all of Brazil," he says. "Petrobras is the engine of the whole country. This has stalled the growth of the whole country."

New unemployment figures in Brazil show it creeping up after years of record lows, and smaller businesses in Itaborai are closing now too.

Outside the Worker's Hostel, owner Marcos Paulo da Silva stands among scratched bunk beds and closets that line the road, for-sale stickers on them. He owned several motels that catered to the workers who, until recently, had flocked to Itaborai.

i

Unemployed worker Gesse Dias Lopes, 63, sits on a bed March 19 at the Workers Inn in Itaborai, Brazil, where he has been offered a place to stay for free. The crisis at the Brazilian state energy giant Petrobras has directly hit the region's economy, with sales falling by 80 percent and unemployment surging dramatically. Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

Unemployed worker Gesse Dias Lopes, 63, sits on a bed March 19 at the Workers Inn in Itaborai, Brazil, where he has been offered a place to stay for free. The crisis at the Brazilian state energy giant Petrobras has directly hit the region's economy, with sales falling by 80 percent and unemployment surging dramatically.

Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images

He'd been in business for 14 years. Now, he can't pay his debts, and has been forced to close up shop. He's letting a few unemployed workers live rent-free in some of the rooms until they can find somewhere to move on to.

"I will have to start from scratch — but my head is upright, as the mistake didn't come from my mismanagement. Unfortunately, it came from Petrobras," he says. "I have always loved my country, never thought about leaving it. With this great disappointment with Petrobras, though, I am thinking about leaving the country. Wherever there's a better job opportunity, I will go."

Back at the labor tribunal, Fabio Luiz Mendoza de Souza stands in a group of other laid-off workers.

When the country was doing well, he had believed hype that Brazil had changed, that things would continue to get better.

"Now I think all that time when Brazil was booming under the Worker's Party, it was all a sham — an illusion, a lie — and we are seeing the truth now," he says. "We have politicians who only think of themselves, and it's the population who suffers. No one ever thinks about us."

petrobras

Dilma Rousseff

corruption

Brazil

She was born in 1898. And now comes word that Japan's Misao Okawa has died at age 117. She had been the world's oldest person since 2013, according to Guinness World Records.

We reported on Okawa last month when she celebrated her birthday along with her family. She was known to eat three big meals each day and sleep eight hours every night, according to the head of the retirement home where she lived. He added that Okawa was particularly fond of both sushi and ramen.

"Okawa was born to the family of a kimono shop owner in Osaka in 1898, the same year the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands and Pepsi-Cola was launched," reports The Japan Times.

The Associated Press says the title of the world's oldest person now belongs to Gertrude Weaver of Arkansas, who is 116, citing the Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which keeps records of supercentenarians.

Japan

The inimitable "Hot Rod" Hundley died last week at age 80. He will be remembered as a great announcer, even though he was also an All-American basketball player. He messed it up after just six years in the NBA when he forgot about concentrating on the fun and games.

"You gotta love it, baby," was his signature call for the 35 years he broadcast games for the NBA Jazz. Even when he was playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, he was already trying out expressions, mimicking announcers and working on punch lines.

Years later, during a broadcast of a Phoenix Suns game, announcer AI McCoy remembers asking Hundley about his favorite shot. Without missing a beat, Hundley replied, "Cutty and water."

His father, Butch, was a pool hustler, and Hundley literally had a cue stick in his hands before he picked up a basketball and found out how easy it was to be so good. He grew up so fast. When he played himself out of the NBA, I figured he would end up sort of like his father, living by his wits. Instead, he decided to grow up all over again, only this time he grew up slow. I've always thought that was the best way. Too many guys grow up fast and burn out young.

He didn't want to settle for just being another jock analyst or second-banana, either. So he buckled down and taught himself to be a play-by-play man. He eventually became one of the first former NBA players that the Basketball Hall of Fame honored for calling games.

We boast about how America is a land of second chances. Yeah, that's nice, but it's the guys who figure out those second chances, that's what I admire. You're an All-American, first choice in the NBA draft, and you blow that, but then you remake yourself. Ya gotta love that, baby.

NBA

sports

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that private Medicaid providers cannot sue to force states to raise reimbursement rates in the face of rising medical costs. The 5-to-4 decision is a blow to many doctors and health care companies and their complaint that state Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low that health care providers often lose money on Medicaid patients.

In 2009, Idaho centers that provided care for some 6,200 mentally disabled children and adults went to court to challenge the state's Medicaid reimbursement rates. They contended the state had adopted a Medicaid plan with reimbursement rates set at 2006 levels, despite the fact that costs had gone up significantly over the three intervening years. The lower courts agreed and raised the state's reimbursement rates. But the Supreme Court reversed that ruling, declaring that private Medicaid providers have no right to sue under the Medicaid law. If a state is not providing fair reimbursement rates, the court said, the only recourse Medicaid providers have is to ask the federal Department of Health and Human Services to withhold all Medicaid funds from the state — a step so punitive that it has never happened.

The 5-to-4 vote crossed the court's usual ideological lines, with the liberal Justice Stephen Breyer joining four of the court's conservatives to provide the fifth and decisive vote against such provider lawsuits and the conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy joining three of the court's liberals in dissent.

The majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, said that Congress, in creating the Medicaid rate-setting scheme, did not explicitly authorize private suits like the one at issue here. Instead, he said, the law mandates that state reimbursement plans are "consistent with efficiency, economy, and quality of care," all the while "safeguarding against unnecessary utilization of ... care and services."

"It is difficult to imagine a requirement broader and less specific" than that, wrote Scalia. "Explicitly conferring enforcement of this judgment-laden standard upon the Secretary [of Health and Human Services] alone establishes, we think," that Congress wanted to make the agency cutoff of funds the "exclusive" remedy. With such a big financial club, Scalia said, "we doubt that the Secretary's notice to a state that its compensation scheme is inadequate will be ignored."

Joining Scalia in the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Breyer.

In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the ruling would have "very real consequences." Previously, she said, "a state that set reimbursement rates so low that providers were unwilling to furnish a covered service" could be ordered by the courts to provide adequate resources to meet federal requirements. But now, said Sotomayor, "it must suffice that a federal agency, with many programs to oversee, has the authority to address such violations through the drastic and often counterproductive measure of withholding the funds that pay for such services." Joining the dissent were Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan.

Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot who appears to have deliberately crashed his aircraft into the French Alps last week, had informed Lufthansa in 2009 of a "serious depressive episode," the German airline said in a statement.

Lufthansa says a note about a "previous depressive episode" was found in email Lubitz apparently sent to the Lufthansa flight school when he resumed his training after a months-long interruption.

The airline today said it provided the documents to prosecutors, who are investigating the crash of Germanwings Flight 4U 9525 on March 24. The crash killed Lubitz and 149 others who were traveling from Barcelona, Spain, to Duesseldorf, Germany. Lufthansa is the parent company of Germanwings, a budget carrier.

Lufthansa's announcement is the first acknowledgment by the airline that it knew of Lubitz's health condition. Lubitz, the airline's CEO Carlten Spohr said last week, joined Germanwings in 2013, directly after training.

Prosecutors in Duesseldorf previously said Lubitz appears to have concealed a medical condition from his employers. On Monday, a prosecutor said the co-pilot received treatment for suicidal tendencies several years before he became a pilot.

You can find our full coverage of this story here.

Germanwings Flight 9525

germanwings Flight 4U 9525

One week last year, Jonathan Ledgard was talking with White House officials about how drones could deliver cargo to remote Africa. The next week, he was in a remote African village, telling elders how drones could change their lives.

He heard the same fears from both audiences: Will the drones crash into houses? Will they spy on people? Will they attack people?

"The first reaction from people to drones is always emotional," says Ledgard, an outspoken advocate of drones as an answer to Africa's transport challenges. "We need to develop them in a way that humans don't feel threatened."

So he's taken to calling his drones "flying donkeys," as if they're merely airborne beasts of burden. It's the sort of metaphor the British citizen polished as a novelist and journalist, including a decade as Africa correspondent for The Economist magazine.

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Now Ledgard heads a nonprofit consortium of technicians, philanthropists and planners who think drones can overcome one of Africa's steepest challenges: a lack of transportation infrastructure that stymies trade. Ledgard's group envisions a massive fleet of autonomous, robotic ships carrying cargo through the air above roadless savannas, jungles, deserts and mountains.

And it isn't a dream that's 10 years away, says Ledgard, whose drones consortium is a spinoff of Afrotech, based at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He says that the group will have a test route in place this year to fly medicines among several villages. Ledgard calls it an initial line for humanitarian aid.

He predicts that lines of commercial traffic will soon follow, particularly as drones grow large enough to carry bulkier cargo. Drones delivering cargo today might carry 6 pounds. In perhaps three years, they'll carry 22 pounds, and 44 pounds a few years later, Ledgard says. "That's the tipping point where commercial service takes off."

One day, perhaps 40 percent of African trade could travel by drones, Ledgard predicts. That would boost economies and link cities, tribes and countries in lucrative trading channels. He's counting on billions in investment from shippers to make it all happen.

Africa can leap ahead of other continents in the use of drones because of its pressing need for an alternative to conventional transport, Ledgard says. Also, much of African airspace is less cluttered with flights that have slowed the adoption of commercial drones in North America and Europe.

Another advantage of drones is their flexibility. Their routes and how they operate — with or without warning lights, as an example — can change to respond to new regulations that African countries might impose, proponents say. And cargo would move through the air with much less disruption to the environment than if new highways, tunnels or canals were built.

Even "droneports" will be much smaller than today's cargo airports, including a droneport being built for this year's test line, Ledgard says. "They will sit very lightly on the planet." A droneport with room to store and repair eight to 10 vehicles might operate in a quarter-acre plot.

But drones do have an image problem. That's because they are often whirring, buzzing carriers of missiles that wreak death and destruction, as used by militaries in the United States and other countries. Such associations caused Kenyan authorities last year to postpone a demonstration "Flying Donkey Challenge" after terrorists attacked a Kenyan shopping mall.

That's not the only concern about drones. Some argue that Africa should not be a testing ground. Its skies are less regulated than Western skies, making it attractive for drone experiments, says Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, director of the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies in Oslo. But the lack of controls should not be seen as an advantage, she adds: "That is a bad thing for African aviation."

The launch of a successful drone industry could spur lobbying against the sort of airspace controls that Africa needs to develop, says Sandvik, who has written about ethical issues raised by commercial and humanitarian uses of drones.

"Long term, I do think this is going to be viable and a good idea," she adds. "It just needs to be done appropriately."

That's Ledgard's dream as well. Maybe one day, designers can fashion a quiet drone that evokes the beauty of a large bird passing overhead. If that's not achievable, he says, "We at least don't want people to hate it."

drones

Africa

Dozens of countries have slid under today's deadline to join a China-backed infrastructure development bank that is opposed by Washington.

U.S. allies such as South Korea and Australia were among the more than 40 nations that signed up at the last moment as founding members of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Key European allies — France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. — joined earlier this month. And in the past few days, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Egypt, Kyrgyzstan and even Taiwan — a regional rival of China — jumped on the bandwagon, according to The New York Times.

Japan is the one notable exception, choosing to remain loyal to the U.S.

China first floated the idea of a development bank about two years ago as a way to help finance the enormous infrastructural needs in Asia. The Asia Development Bank estimates a need for $8 trillion in infrastructure investment over the next decade for roads, airports, power facilities and the like.

But as NPR has reported, the Obama administration opposes the bank. Officially, the White House says it has concerns about transparency, governance and social and environmental safeguards. Unofficially, the AIIB is seen as a challenge to American influence in the Asia Pacific region, and to U.S.-backed institutions such as the World Bank.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is now proposing the AIIB create a partnership with existing development institutions, such as the World Bank. The newspaper reports that World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is already in "deep discussions" with the AIIB on how the two banks can closely work together. But no decision has been made by the Chinese-led bank on whether it will partner with an existing international bank.

There have been calls for the U.S. to sign on to the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. But that would need approval by Congress. The Center for Strategic and International Studies says there's little sympathy in Congress for any move "that would, or would appear to, cede influence to China — especially at great financial cost to the United States."

infrastructure

development

United States

China

A controversial law in Indiana has made its way into the 2016 presidential race. Supporters praise the Religious Freedom Restoration Act's for protecting religious convictions, but the law has drawn wide criticism from those who say it allows businesses to discriminate against gay and lesbian patrons.

Would-be candidates on the GOP side mostly defended the law. "I don't think Americans want to discriminate against anyone," Sen. Marco Rubio said on Fox News. "I think the fundamental question in some of these laws is should someone be discriminated against because of their religious views?"

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took a different approach, saying says he doesn't intend to get involved with it or anticipate a similar bill coming to his desk. "In our state there's a balance between wanting to make sure that there's not discrimination [and] at the same time respecting religious freedoms. ... We do that in different ways than what they've done in Indiana," he said at a press conference.

And on the lonely Democratic side, Hillary Clinton weighed in, tweeting, "We shouldn't discriminate against ppl bc of who they love #LGBT."

Here's what the 2016 presidential contenders have said:

Jeb Bush, to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt

"I think if you, if they actually got briefed on the law that they wouldn't be blasting this law. I think Gov. Pence has done the right thing. Florida has a law like this. Bill Clinton signed a law like this at the federal level.

"This is simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs, to have, to be able to be people of conscience. I just think once the facts are established, people aren't going to see this as discriminatory at all."

Ben Carson, to Breitbart News

"It is absolutely vital that we do all we can to allow Americans to practice their religious ways, while simultaneously ensuring that no one's beliefs infringe upon those of others. We should also serve as champions of freedom of religion throughout the world."

Hillary Clinton, on Twitter

"Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn't discriminate against ppl bc of who they love #LGBT"

Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn't discriminate against ppl bc of who they love #LGBT http://t.co/mDhpS18oEH

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 27, 2015

Ted Cruz, on Twitter

"I'm proud to stand with Gov. @mike_pence for religious liberty, and I urge Americans to do the same."

I’m proud to stand with Gov. @mike_pence for religious liberty, and I urge Americans to do the same http://t.co/cWidDW2zpg

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 31, 2015

Sen. Marco Rubio, to Fox's The Five

"I don't think Americans want to discriminate against anyone. I think the fundamental question in some of these laws is should someone be discriminated against because of their religious views? So no one here is saying it should be legal to deny someone service at a restaurant or a hotel because of their sexual orientation. I think that's a consensus view in America. The flip side of it is, though, should a photographer be punished for refusing to do a wedding that their faith teaches them is not one that is valid in the eyes of God."

Gov. Scott Walker, in a press conference

"In our state there's a balance between wanting to make sure that there's not discrimination [and] at the same time respecting religious freedoms. ... We do that in different ways than what they've done in Indiana.

"Certainly that's going to be part of the debate here and across the country."

Staff at Windsor Castle, one of Britain's most popular tourists sites, begin voting today whether to go on strike over low wages. It is the first time Queen Elizabeth is facing such an action by members of the royal household.

The union representing 120 employees at Windsor Castle — everything from wardens to ticket officer personnel — will ballot members to decide whether to take action.

At the heart of the issue is whether workers should be expected to carry out extra duties, such as giving tours and acting as interpreters for visitors, at no extra pay, according to the BBC.

The head of the Public and Commercial Services Union, Mark Serwotka, says, "It is scandalous that staff are so appallingly paid and expected to do work for free that brings in money for the royal family. Workers at Windsor Castle are paid less than the living wage of roughly $12 an hour, and that new employee can start at just over $20,000 a year."

The union says it has proposed non-strike action that would involve "the withdrawal of goodwill," such as giving tours of the castle to paying visitors, The Guardian reports.

The newspaper says the Royal Collection Trust, a charity responsible for Queen Elizabeth's official residencies said employees could volunteer to give tours but they are not compelled to do so.

The trust says that revenues from sales and admissions were used for the care and conservation of the royal art collection and did not go to members of the royal family, according to Reuters.

Windsor Castle is the world's largest and oldest occupied castle, and attracts more than a million visitors a year, reports The Telegraph.

The staff balloting is due to be completed by mid-April. If they vote yes, a strike could commence just ahead of the U.K.'s general election.

windsor castle

Queen Elizabeth II

United Kingdom

In Detroit, tens of thousands of people are facing a deadline tomorrow that could cost some of them their homes. That's when homeowners have to make arrangements to either pay delinquent property taxes — or risk losing their home at a county auction.

When Detroit emerged from bankruptcy last year, it did so with a razor-thin financial cushion. It desperately needs every bit of tax revenue it can muster.

Earlier this year, county officials sent out 72,000 foreclosure notices to homeowners behind on property taxes — 62,000 of them in Detroit alone. They say about 18,000 of these properties are occupied, but fewer than half of those homeowners have paid all of their tax.

So officials like City Councilman Gabe Leland are knocking on doors in Detroit neighborhoods, reminding residents that the window to pay taxes is quickly closing.

With Detroit's high unemployment and poverty rates, it's not hard for Leland to find residents facing foreclosure — or who know someone that is.

i

County officials are foreclosing on tens of thousands of homes in Detroit along streets like this, on the city's west side. Dawn Uhl-Zifilippo/WDET hide caption

itoggle caption Dawn Uhl-Zifilippo/WDET

County officials are foreclosing on tens of thousands of homes in Detroit along streets like this, on the city's west side.

Dawn Uhl-Zifilippo/WDET

"It's scary," he says. "Seventy-two thousand in Wayne County, thousands of those here in the city of Detroit. This is a crisis. And you know — city, county — we don't want these properties ... we want people to stay in their homes. And this is gonna put people on the street."

Leland supports a moratorium on foreclosures to give homeowners more time to pay taxes or have property values reassessed.

But Wayne County Deputy Treasurer Eric Sabree says a moratorium is out of the question because Detroit's property tax revenue is already spoken for.

"We pledge all the penalties and fees in our bond pledges to borrow money," he says. "We can't do a moratorium on police protection or fire protection."

Detroit resident Sandy Combs lives with her partner of two decades, Ken Brinkley, in a house he inherited from an aunt.

She lost her job in 2006 while Brinkley had triple bypass heart surgery. Combs says they paid medical bills instead of taxes, were foreclosed on and their house sold at auction.

They then started paying rent to live there and tried to scrape together enough money to buy it outright.

But they discovered that property taxes had not been paid and the house went up for auction again — this time to a company that wants to evict them.

"It's gonna kill Kenny. He's 82, this house is all he has. He knows he's on his way out. How can these people be so crazy? 'Cause it's not our fault," Combs says.

It's not uncommon for speculators to buy up properties and jack up rents.

Fine Art

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Business

Firm Accused Of Illegal Practices That Push Families Into Foreclosure

Wayne State University Professor John Mogk says speculators have been gobbling up Detroit for decades, gambling that new development will dramatically increase property values.

The Two-Way

Detroit's Bankruptcy Is Over, Michigan's Governor Says

"What's unique in Detroit is the scale of the problem," Mogk says.

He says other investors buy deteriorating buildings for as little as $500 a piece and then rent them as is.

"And so a great many of these properties are being purchased by what previously we would call slumlords," he adds. "And they're being rented without being brought up to the city code, and milked, and eventually they may stop paying taxes. And as the homes become uninhabitable they will again revert to the city."

It's a desperate cycle that Detroit officials are struggling to break. City officials say they don't want to be landlords, they just want the badly-needed tax revenue.

Every time a speculator buys a property and lets it sit vacant, it becomes a magnet for blight. That does nothing to improve the city's long-term tax base — that's done by homeowners.

And it remains to be seen just how many of the thousands facing imminent foreclosure will be able to make payment arrangements so that they can be the ones to provide that tax revenue.

Detroit, Mich.

home foreclosures

One word of caution: James holds fast to his identity as a formalist, someone who would, at bottom, generally agree with Robert Frost's celebrated dismissal of formless poetry as playing "tennis without a net." So, don't expect any celebrations of the likes of rap or "spoken word poetry" in these pages. Furthermore, James only manages the briefest of nervous nods to those exotic creatures on the margins — female poets like Elizabeth Bishop, Amy Clampitt and Sylvia Plath. Reading Poetry Notebook is like stepping into a popular college seminar circa 1979. You'll learn a lot and be vastly entertained, but be aware that multiculturalism hasn't made much of a dent on James's written-in-stone syllabus.

What you will find in Poetry Notebook are charged, idiosyncratic readings of the classics as well as more recent works by (albeit) male poets you may not have heard of, but will want to dig into, like James's fellow Australian Stephen Edgar and the late American poet, Michael Donaghy. As amusing as his dyspeptic quips always are, James' intellect shines brightest in his role as enthusiast, taking us through works that he loves. Here for instance is a brief, brief poem about World War II by Greenwich Village poet Samuel Menashe, who died in 2011. It's called "Beachhead":

The tide ebbs

From a helmet

Wet sand embeds

"That's the whole poem," James comments, "and there's a whole war in it." He also says about Menashe that "his full force ... is no noisier than a bug hitting your windscreen, except it comes right through the glass."

The same might be said of James' own critical writing here. "Intensity of language" is the crucial ingredient for James, the thing that separates poetry from prose; that distinguishes a glom of words from something that breathes. His own "intensity of language" — in this collection and throughout so much of his life's writing — has validated James's critical authority to pass judgment on the work of others. You may not agree with James's selections in Poetry Notebook or some of his opinions, but I defy anyone not to be moved by these essays in which a great critic reflects on the works that have shaped him, even as, James says, he prepares himself to head off to "the empty regions."

Read an excerpt of Poetry Notebook

Walking through the warehouse of food processor Heartland Gourmet in Lincoln, Neb., shows how complicated the food safety system can be. Pallets are stacked with sacks of potato flour, and the smell of fresh-baked apple-cinnamon muffins floats in the air.

Heartland Gourmet makes a wide range of foods — from muffins and organic baking mixes to pizzas and burritos. That means business manager Mark Zink has to answer to both of the main U.S. food safety regulators, the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

The product being made determines which agency is in charge. Apple-cinnamon muffins fall under the authority of the FDA. A cheese burrito or cheese pizza is also the FDA. But a beef burrito or pepperoni pizza has to meet USDA guidelines — rules formed by a totally different agency.

"[The USDA has] jurisdiction over anything with raw meat, cooked meat, anything that touches meat product," Zink explains.

The general rule of thumb: Make something with meat and the USDA is in charge. Otherwise, it's FDA.

Seafood complicates the rules, though, as the FDA has authority over seafood. But not catfish – catfish actually falls under USDA regulation.

The agencies work differently. Before Zink runs a batch of beef burritos, he has to call a USDA inspector to be on-site while the food is prepared. A USDA official will stop by at other times during the year to check in. He doesn't hear from the FDA so often.

"FDA is a once-a-year thing," Zink says. "They pop in and do their inspection and they're gone."

A patchwork of more than a dozen federal agencies plays a part in keeping food from making Americans sick. Critics say the system has holes, and some think we would all be safer if food safety at the federal level were brought under one roof.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has been a leading critic of the fragmented food-safety system, for years labeling it a high-risk area in need of reform. The GAO's Steve Morris says the food-safety system is one recall away from a crisis.

Altogether, 15 federal agencies play a role in food safety, from the EPA to the Centers for Disease Control. Food processors are subject to a dizzying array of regulations, spending time and money to prove their products are safe.

Each year, 1 in 6 Americans comes down with listeria, E. coli, salmonella or some other foodborne illness. According to the CDC, 3,000 people die annually. For years, critics have said a streamlined system would be safer. Even President Obama has called for the creation of a single food-safety agency in his 2016 budget.

Heartland Gourmet's Zink says after 25 years in the business, he has no trouble navigating the system. But there's no denying it's complex.

"And it ends up just being a gigantic mess in terms of a comprehensive approach to food safety," says Courtney Thomas, who studies political science and food safety at Virginia Tech University.

Thomas says the system looks fractured today because it was cobbled together from the start. The first food-safety laws, passed in 1906, put the USDA in charge of meat quality because the agency already worked with meatpackers. The FDA was created to ensure purity in other foods.

"Right out of the gate there were two different laws, two different legislative mandates that were given to two completely different agencies in the federal government," Thomas says. "And from there it only spiraled."

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has been a leading critic of the fragmented food-safety system, for years labeling it a high-risk area in need of reform. The GAO's Steve Morris says the food-safety system is one recall away from a crisis.

One longstanding issue is that the various agencies tend to keep a narrow focus and work on small slices of oversight.

"Right now, what you have is fairly limited coordination," Morris says. "So the consumer and the Congress basically lack this comprehensive picture of what the national strategy is."

That's a big problem, because there are challenges ahead that cut across all agencies. For instance, 16 percent of the food Americans eat is imported, and that number is rising. Steve Taylor, a food scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, says regulators are already behind in inspecting foreign food facilities.

"And if you got to the right people in a lot of big corporations in the United States involved in food processing, they'd say that's one of their biggest worries, too," Taylor says.

One agency could be more efficient checking-in on foreign suppliers.

But Virginia Tech's Thomas says the chances are pretty low that Washington will adopt a single food-safety agency any time soon.

The U.S. food system is currently one of the safest in the world, and some say federal time and money is better spent elsewhere. Most food companies would prefer a complicated but familiar system over an unknown overhaul. And with multiple agencies involved, more politicians have oversight of food safety, which they might not want to give that up.

"There's no easy fix to this problem," Thomas says. "What you're talking about is a legal, a regulatory, and a cultural shift. A political shift that we haven't seen in this country in the last 100 years."

And without an immediate crisis, it seems there's not much political appetite for shaking up the system.

Grant Gerlock reports from Lincoln, Neb., for NET News and Harvest Public Media, a public radio reporting collaboration that focuses on agriculture and food production issues.

food safety

If pushing a cart up and down the lengthy aisles of your neighborhood supermarket — past dozens of brands of packaged cereal and crackers lit by fluorescent lights — feels overwhelming and soul-sucking, you're not alone.

But there's some good news: The days of shopping this way may be numbered.

Here's why: Traditional grocers are increasingly losing market share — some 15 percent in the last 10 years — to more nimble competitors like smaller markets, convenience stores, farmers markets and even dollar stores. That, along with the rise of online food shopping, is forcing the old-school grocers to innovate in ways that should yield a better overall experience for consumers down the road.

"The bottom line is that for the supermarket to survive and prosper and grow, it's going to have to offer more services," says Phil Lempert, a consumer behavior analyst who tracks these trends on his site SupermarketGuru.

He spoke about the "grocery wars" and where the sector is headed in the next 10 years earlier this month at SXSW. (We couldn't make it to his panel, so we got him to bend our ear afterward.)

The Salt

'Old-School' Food Shopping Feels New As U.S. Cities Revive Public Markets

Lempert illuminated for us five ways in which grocery chains are evolving (that don't involve fluorescent lights).

Some companies are adapting faster than others. But Lempert says most big grocery chains have realized that if they're going to win back some of the shoppers who've drifted away, they're going to have to get a lot more creative and flexible.

1. The "groceraunt:" Maybe you've seen delis and cafes flanked by seating areas pop up in national chains like Safeway and Whole Foods. But what about a full-service restaurant?

Meet the "groceraunt," where the food is supposed to be tempting enough to get you to sit down to a meal before or after you pick up the milk and eggs. At Market Grille, the restaurant inside several locations of the Hy-Vee chain in the Midwest and Great Plains, you can order sushi, steak, brunch and maybe even on-tap apple cider.

In Illinois, the Mariano's grocery chain now features an oyster bar and a barbecue stall, which the Chicago Reader described as "supermarket barbecue that's better than it should be."

And in the Twin Cities, the Lunds and Byerlys chain has its Minnesota Grille, along with a Lunds & Byerlys Kitchen with "prepared food offerings, a wine and beer bar, a tailored selection of groceries and more all in one space."

2. Smaller stores: The average grocery store size started shrinking from about 45,000 square feet three years ago, after decades of increasing year after year.

As we've reported, part of that trend is about the return of green grocers to cities: new versions of the neighborhood market or bodega that stock mostly high-end and local foods in spaces smaller than the produce section of the supermarket.

i

Each Peach Market in Washington, D.C., is one of a growing breed of small, urban greengrocers. Maanvi Singh/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Maanvi Singh/NPR

Each Peach Market in Washington, D.C., is one of a growing breed of small, urban greengrocers.

Maanvi Singh/NPR

Why is this format taking off? Turns out, consumers may not actually want to have to choose between 10 brands of olive oil that are all pretty much the same (and unlikely to make us happier, a la The Paradox of Choice). Rather, it may be more pleasing to choose between two bottles that are distinct in quality, flavor or price.

The big retailers have noticed these small markets encroaching on their turf, and are making moves to get smaller, too. According to Lempert, Wal-Mart, Lunds and others are prototyping smaller stores. And Cincinnati grocery-store chain Kroger has been experimenting with a 7,500-square-foot format in Columbus, Ohio, that's a sort of hybrid between a supermarket and a convenience store.

3. More services: Lempert notes that many consumers don't need or want all their food under one roof anymore — they're willing to go from the farmers market to the wine shop to the butcher.

How can grocery stores stay relevant then? Maybe by hiring a really good fishmonger.

i

Big grocery chains like Kroger are beginning to experiment with smaller format stores, says Lempert. Nicholas Eckhart/Flickr hide caption

itoggle caption Nicholas Eckhart/Flickr

Big grocery chains like Kroger are beginning to experiment with smaller format stores, says Lempert.

Nicholas Eckhart/Flickr

Most chains sell meat and fish that's been filleted and sliced and wrapped up off-site. But more are starting to install skilled butchers and fishmongers to cut meat right there in the store. They're also hiring trained chefs, sommeliers and registered dieticians to guide shoppers to healthier choices. Lempert points to Hy-Vee Market, which has hired several chefs trained at the Culinary Institute of America to cook its prepared food, and two dieticians that lead weight management programs.

4. Catering to millennials: Corporate America is smitten with millennials, who seem to be leading food trends. And grocery chains are no different.

According to Lempert, the big chains are trying entice millennials with the foods they want — local, craft and fermented foods, and big international flavors (i.e. kimchi) — when they want them. Millennials also want "connection and community," which stores can foster with seasonal events, tastings and cooking demos, Lempert says.

The Salt

Ordering Food Online? That'll Be More Calories, Cost And Complexity

5. More ways to get your groceries delivered: Another thing about millennials: They may want to avoid the store entirely and have their groceries dropped off.

To keep them and other online shopping enthusiasts as customers, grocery chains are partnering with tech companies like Instacart, Google Express, Amazon and Uber, which send couriers to stores to pick up groceries and then deliver them within an hour.

And while most consumers will continue to go to the store to select their tomatoes and bread themselves, Rosenheim Advisors reported in December 2014 that the food tech sector is booming. "More than $1.6 billion was invested [in 2013] into food-related tech companies, up 33 percent from $1.2 billion in 2012," it noted.

Will all these efforts win customers back? That's unclear, says Lempert. "To be successful, a retailer has to know its consumer. And these days, every neighborhood is different. The days of every store having an identical assortment of food are over."

grocery delivery

grocery stores

"An epidemic is one of the few catastrophes that could set the world back drastically in the next few decades," Bill Gates warns in a essay he wrote for the March 18 edition of The New England Journal of Medicine.

In the article, entitled "The Next Epidemic — Lessons From Ebola" — he says that the Ebola epidemic is a "wake-up call."

"Because there was so little preparation, the world lost time ... trying to answer basic questions about containing Ebola," writes Gates (whose Gates Foundation is a supporter of NPR).

Goats and Soda

As Ebola Crisis Ebbs, Aid Agencies Turn To Building Up Health Systems

That's why, he continues, that "the world needs a global warning and response system for outbreaks." And part of that system must be a better way to get supplies and "trained personnel" to the scene, where they can work with local efforts.

Goats and Soda

A Year Of Ebola: Memorable Moments From Our Reporters' Notebooks

Nobody can argue with that goal.

But there's a lot of debate around how to execute his proposal.

For example, some global health gurus aren't so sure we need to create a response system. Maybe we already have one.

Look at the response to the 2013 typhoon in the Philippines, says Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director general for emergencies at the World Health Organization. "Within two weeks, we had 151 foreign medical teams on the ground."

The response wasn't so fast when Ebola struck West Africa. Actually, many agencies agree with Gates that it was way too slow. And the question is why.

It wasn't that there weren't enough volunteers, Aylward says. Rather, the volunteers needed to know what would happen if they were to contract Ebola. And there weren't reassuring answers early in the epidemic.

"There was no way anyone could guarantee the right of medical evacuation for people affected by Ebola," he says. So for any future force of emergency health workers, it's critical to offer what Aylward calls "duty of care" — the ability to ensure the needs of aid workers can be met if anything were to happen, in terms of their health, security or safety.

Then there are questions about whether flying in outsiders is the best solution.

"I'm going to speak frankly," says Emmanuel d'Harcourt, senior health director of the International Rescue Committee. "While there's probably some value in the margin [of a global response system], it's not the heart of the issue, and it has the potential to distract us from the real issues."

Which are?

"Local preparedness and local response," d'Harcourt says. "We know that in most disasters, not just epidemics, but all kinds of disasters, the people who are able to respond the earliest are local. If you have local preparedness, you don't really get a major epidemic at all."

A team on the ground has another advantage, he says: They know the terrain. After the Pakistan earthquake in 2005, the response from IRC didn't involve "flying people in from all over the world." A team in Pakistan that had been serving Afghan refugees for a couple decades were there in less than 24 hours," d'Harcourt says. They knew how to provide health care and basic needs, such as shelter "in a culturally appropriate way."

And it's easier for disaster victims to trust their fellow countrymen. In the early months of the Ebola outbreak, the citizens of West Africa often believed that the virus was part of a conspiracy — that Western doctors were making patients sick. Those rumors made many people reluctant to seek treatment. To debunk that kind of thinking, d'Harcourt says, you need fellow citizens who can say, "I know you think it's a plot, but here's why I don't think it's a plot."

D'Harcourt also believes that the idea of a rescue mission "infantilizes" people, treats them like children awaiting salvation. "You know, nobody, not even children, likes to be treated like children," he says. "I say this as a pediatrician. Children are always asking for more responsibility, more autonomy."

A textbook example of how a person native to a country can help, he says, is the story of Alpha Tamba, a Liberian physician's assistant. During the Ebola crisis, Tamba went to villages in hard-hit Lofa County and said to the villagers, this is what I can do — "what can you do?"

For example, he provided the chlorine and buckets for hand washing, but the villagers set up their own quarantines. When outsiders impose quarantines, d'Harcourt says, that doesn't always work out.

Of course, outsiders can, as Gates writes, play a critical role in quashing any future outbreak. But they have to have the right mindset and even the right garb. If workers come in with white helmets, says Dr. Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders, "it gives them a sort of a militarized label. In my organization, we do not feel comfortable with the idea that there are blurred lines of humanitarian aid and military action."

She also stresses that any group of emergency workers must be prepared to follow orders from the agency they're working for. "You need people who are able to be disciplined, to follow the rules, so you would not put yourself in danger," she says.

Volunteers must heed both medical and cultural instructions, she says. A volunteer who thinks he or she knows it all could end up creating problems.

"You just cannot improvise and be the humanitarian Ebola tourist of the day," she says.

So Gates' essay is doing what it should be doing: opening up a conversation. "Now that Gates has written his article," Liu says, "I need to write mine."

One point she would make has to do with something as seemingly mundane as time away from work. Some medical workers in the U.S. were lined up and ready to go to West Africa, she recalls. But when it turned out they would miss not only a month of work when they were in the field, but another three weeks afterward for quarantine, "some of them just could not go."

New England Journal of Medicine

ebola

Bill Gates

With a single key stroke, the personal information of President Obama and 30 other world leaders was mistakenly released by an official with Australia's immigration office.

Passport numbers, dates of birth, and other personal information of the heads of state attending a G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia, were inadvertently emailed to one of the organizers of January's Asian Cup football tournament, according to The Guardian. The U.K. newspaper obtained the information as a result of an Australia Freedom of Information request.

Aside from President Obama, leaders whose data were released include Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Xi Jinping and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The sender forgot to check the auto-fill function in the email "To" field in Microsoft Outlook before hitting send, the BBC reports.

The November 2014 breach was reported less than 10 minutes after the email was sent, according to Australia's ABC News. The sensitive material was immediately deleted by both the sender and the recipient.

The Immigration Department described the incident as an "isolated example of human error" and said the risk of the breach to be "very low", given data such as addresses was not included.

The Guardian says given that low risk, the immigration officer recommended that the world leaders not be made aware of the breach — a decision that could be at odds with privacy laws in some of the countries. The newspaper says it's not clear whether the immigration department subsequently informed world leaders.

Immigration

Australia

G-20

security

Never before in history has the U.S. had so much oil spurting up out of the ground and sloshing into storage tanks around the country. There's so much oil that the U.S. now rivals Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer.

But there's been some concern that the U.S. will run out of places to put it all. Some analysts speculate that could spark another dramatic crash in oil prices.

Everyone in the oil trading business needs information. One thing they want to know these days is how full are oil storage tanks in places like Cushing, Okla. To find out, ask a professional — someone with eyes on the ground, and in the sky.

Genscape, an oil intelligence service, uses planes, helicopters and satellites to track where and how much oil there is all over the world. The company "does a James Bond approach and flies over the storage field twice a week," says Hillary Stevenson, a manager at the firm.

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In the U.S., you can tell how full some oil tanks are by flying over them and looking down. Others require a little more sleuthing, "by using IR or infrared technology cameras and flying over the tanks," Stevenson says.

In Cushing, there are fields of giant storage tanks, some the size of high school football stadiums. Genscape estimates they're about 70 percent full. As the storage tanks get closer to capacity, some analysts say that will drive prices lower.

Nobody knows that for certain and there are lots of scenarios. But as space gets tight, it gets increasingly more expensive to store oil. That should discourage speculators from buying oil and storing it, hoping to sell it later for a profit. If fewer speculators are buying, that means there's less demand and prices fall.

"We're running out of storage capacity in the U.S.," Ed Morse, global head of commodities research at Citigroup, said at an event recently in New York. "And we're seeing the indication of the U.S. reaching tank tops. It's hard to know where the price goes down, but it does go down."

The price of oil has already fallen from $100 a barrel last summer to $45 or $50 lately. Morse said lack of storage space could drive oil down to around $20 a barrel.

But there's plenty of disagreement about that. Brian Busch, the director of oil markets at Genscape, says oil prices could fall, but not that much.

"If we saw crude oil that was trading [in the $30 range], $38-$35, that would not surprise me," he says.

But Busch says no one truly knows. The recent fighting in Yemen pushed prices higher. If China's economy started growing faster, that could raise prices. But an Iran nuclear deal might push oil prices down.

Putting those other factors aside, many experts doubt that the U.S. will get that close to running out of storage space.

Rob Merriam, who tracks oil supplies for the Energy Information Administration, says some of the current oil glut is seasonal.

"The analogy I would make is if you were in Boston and you look at the last 3 months and say, 'Oh my gosh, we're going to have two feet of snow every month,' " he says. "If you took that same straight-line projection, you would say by the end of August we're going to be under 15 feet of snow."

Just like snow melts as the temperature rises, demand for oil rises in the summer. People drive their cars more, more refineries are up and running and Merriam expects that those big storage tanks will get less full.

As far as what all this means for gasoline prices, the EIA estimates prices will stay flat through this summer. That's still more than a dollar cheaper than last year.

crude oil

Oklahoma

gas prices