Transcripts for KVNF 90.9 FM/KVMT 89.1 [KVNF] KVNF 90.9 FM/KVMT 89.1 [KVNF] 20191117 140000

City I saw people crying because they lost their their refrigerator or where. He sold them and they're angry at politicians who haven't stepped up to protect their historic city and its treasures it's Sunday November 17th stay tuned all that after these headlines. Live from n.p.r. News and Washington I'm Windsor Johnston South Bend Indiana Mayor and the Democratic presidential candidate Pete booted judge has received a big boost among voters in Iowa a state seen as a potent indicator in the upcoming election N.P.R.'s Amy Held reports on the new poll from The Des Moines Register and c.n.n. 25 percent of Iowa's likely Democratic caucus goers now say put a judge is their 1st choice for president that's a 16 percentage point surge since September for the South Bend mayor who told reporters the poll is promising but it's extremely encouraging We have felt a lot of momentum on the ground it's the 1st time in the poll that British judge has bested top contenders Joe Biden Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders that trio is clustered around 2nd place trailing about 10 percentage points behind to judge the 1st in the nation caucus state is highly coveted among candidates seeking early momentum but there are still 2 and a half months to go before the Iowa caucuses on Wednesday 10 candidates take the stage at the 5th Democratic debate in Atlanta Amy Held n.p.r. News the u.s. And South Korea are postponing a planned military drill that North Korea has objected to as provocative Michael Sullivan has more from Thailand the announcement came and an Asia Defense Ministers Conference in Bangkok secretary of defense Marcus Berg telling reporters it wasn't a concession to Pyongyang but an act of goodwill one he hopes the north will respond to in kind negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang on the north nuclear weapons program have stalled even as North Korea continues to conduct a ballistic missile test Michael Sullivan reporting authorities in Venice have a once again shut down St Mark's Square due to another exceptional high tide that has intermittently flooded much of the city for almost a week N.P.R.'s Sylvia Poggioli reports the water is expected to top of 5 feet before receding today at the Venice train. Stage and a loud speaker announcement warns visitors that they can't move around the city without the high rubber boots because you than many of the elevated walkways are submerged by water the highwater is expected to last for several hours due to the strong southerly she Rockall winds blowing large amounts of sea water into the lagoon last Tuesday Venice suffered its worst flooding since 1986 when the high water mark hit 6 feet one inch that is at the top of the world's most endangered cities list due to rising sea levels caused by climate change it's also overwhelmed by mass tourism 23000000 annually visit this unique Renaissance jewel built some 1300 years ago on lagoon islands Sylvia Poggioli n.p.r. News Venice more violence erupted today between pro-democracy demonstrators and riot police in Hong Kong protesters hurled homemade bombs at police who responded by firing tear gas demonstrations are in their 6 month this is n.p.r. News. Events are taking place in the Czech capital of Prague today marking the 30th anniversary of the start of what is known as the velvet revolution that ended decades of communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia the B.B.C.'s Rob Cameron reports Prime Minister Andre baddish laid a wreath at the memorial in Central Prague where student demonstrators were beaten by police in November of 1909. Chose the crack of dawn to lay flowers at the memorial to the students on Prague's not of any street but it wasn't early enough to avoid a small group of demonstrators who transit shame and blue whistles many in this country are convinced that Mr Babbitt was a communist secret police come operates on occasions he vigorously denies Mr Bush said the point of the $989.00 revolution was that it meant the return of freedom democracy and above all free elections That's the B.B.C.'s Rob Cameron reporting the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle is moving ahead with plans to sue a British tabloid over the way it's covered her marriage to Prince Harry they keep Barker reports from London the byline investigates website says legal papers filed by Meghan markets lawyers allege a pattern of in accurate slanted and outright false coverage by the Mail on Sunday apparently aimed at portraying the new duchess of Sussex as difficult mercenary and a social climber the paper has said it will defend itself vigorously now it's Vicki Barker reporting I'm Windsor Johnston n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include eps go expanding discoverability and access to open access content via every Sco discovery service and open dissertations learn more at abscond dot com and open dissertations dot org. The. Poor. Poor poor. Poor poor born. With. Or with. This is Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News I'm going to Garcia Navarro good morning The question is whether the president shook down a desperate for an ally and the evidence is piling up Friday we learned that a State Department official overheard a loud telephone call between President Trump and European Union Basser corn Sandland in which song then said Ukraine was quote ready to move forward with the public investigation into the Bidens the Trump sought this week we'll hear from Songkhla himself as the House impeachment inquiry continues n.p.r. National political correspondent Mara Liasson will be watching and she joins us now by now Hi Maura Hi Lou what kind of position is Gordon Sandlin in right now he is a major Trump donor who became an ambassador he testified privately and then he had to amend that testimony right after he gave it and now he's scheduled to testify again publicly on Wednesday that's right there's a question about whether Gordon Sunland has gotten himself into some trouble How is he going to square his testimony from what we've heard from others and also we don't know if he's going to be a good witness for the president a good witness for the Democrats or just unreliable remember Donald Trump said in October that Gordon's on land was highly respected he said he was a really good man and great American and then in November the president said let me just tell you I hardly know the gentleman So the question for Wednesday is who throws who under the bus all right who else is on the schedule and what should we be listening for when we watch these hearings this week well in addition to Sandlin on Wednesday on Tuesday we're going to hear from Alexander Vin min and Timothy Morrisson both of them listen to the call in July between the president and presidents a Leskie Zelinsky In other words they have 1st hand knowledge this is what Republicans have been complaining has been absent right here saying here's a here's a right I like this and on Thursday. We're going to hear from Fiona Hill she was the National Security Council aide who was involved with meetings with Sunland and former national security adviser John Bolton who Fiona Hill has said in her deposition called this entire scheme 8 quote drug deal he wanted no part of more what do you make of the arguments you've seen in the Republican members of the committee put forward and what you've seen from the White House well the 1st takeaway is that Republicans on the committee and the White House are not always on the same page and you saw that very dramatically on Friday committee Republicans were being very careful not to attack Marie Yvonne of it she was sympathetic female witness all of a sudden the president does just that in a tweet while she's sitting there test a phony testifying kind of smears her on Twitter but you didn't hear any Republicans picking up on the president's q. And going on to say that she was a bad person or somehow responsible for the problems of Somalia as the president suggested then you had Republicans complaining about hearsay as you said and we're not getting firsthand information but now we are getting firsthand information including from David Holmes who was that Ukraine embassy aide who went out to lunch with Gordon Sunland and listen to that phone call between Sunland and the president and we're going to get more this week from Vin min and Morris and also we have Republicans saying that the president is only concerned about corruption in Ukraine but that word corrupt or corruption does not appear in the rough transcript of the July 25th call and just this past week the White House released another rough transcript of a short congratulatory call from President Trump to President Selenski in April right that also doesn't include the word corruption although it doesn't include some talk about the Miss Universe pageant and I would just say that the overarching argument of the Republicans has evolved from it didn't happen because the president never said the quid pro quo part out loud too so what if it did it's not impeachable all right and just briefly we have 20 seconds. John Bell Edwards Louisiana John Bell Edwards in Louisiana was a surprise he's in the Deep South the only Democratic governor left in the Deep South and he won even though the president went to Louisiana to campaign for his Republican opponent several times so Democrats are pretty feeling pretty happy about that today and that's n.p.r. National political correspondent Mara Liasson our thanks thank you. A leech trove of Chinese government documents has provided a chilling picture of that government's crackdown on ethnic minorities in the far western changing region of to a 1000000 people have been detained in internment camps and prisons in the sparsely populated region over the past 3 years the government has repeatedly described its camps as nothing more than job training centers but these documents paint a very different picture of a government afraid of Muslim extremism and looking to control it at any cost New York Times reporters Austin Ramsey and Chris Buckley have just released an extensive report on these leaked documents and also Ramsey joins me now from Hong Kong Welcome thanks so this leak is unprecedented what exactly are these documents you've obtained and what can you tell us about the authenticity there's about 400 pages of documents speeches by siege and King and other Chinese leaders directives on policy and change on and also some some records of officials who were punished and we have great confidence in the authenticity of these are internal documents right that would be communist party documents it wouldn't be disseminated outside of the party Leitz That's right remind us how many people are being detained in China and who they are there's no an exact number but the number is believed to be in the hundreds of thousands as many as a 1000000 or more these people are largely from Turkic as Nic groups the Weavers are probably the largest all by cause. These are predominantly Muslim minority groups in China so your story focuses at least initially on students from the province studying elsewhere in China who return home to suddenly find parents relatives and neighbors missing and there met by a local official to explain the situation what those students told they were told several things they were told that their detained relatives were not criminals but that they had issues that were often described as as like infections of of their thinking and so because these people were considered in the language of these documents to have infections of their thinkings they were sent to a place where they would be treated for up. And the language in these documents that you received is a times chillingly Orwellian I don't think there's another word for it I'd like to read some of it students should be grateful that the authorities have taken their relatives away treasure this chance for free education that the party and government has provided to thoroughly eradicate erroneous thinking and also learn Chinese and job skills this offers a great foundation for a happy life for your family it's very explicit and unsparing That's right and that document also sort of points out of the suffering that these policies are causing and and so in these sample questions you hear from students who say. We can no longer plant crops because because family members are detained or by detained family member as is so old they don't work anymore why do why do they need to be detained and shows a wide range of the of the suffering caused by these policies as you said in the introduction the government has repeatedly asserted that these camps are nothing more than job training centers that don't abuse people there's been a lot of reporting by n.p.r. And others refuting that but what these documents do show is the communist parties internal thinking and the genesis of this and your report is titled absolutely no mercy a quote from President Xi Jinping can you put his thinking and motivations into context you can hear from these that that she is is seems quite frustrated and upset with what is happening and change on in terms of separatism and extremism and acts of terrorism because it had been a huge attack right by weaker separatists there are more than 100 people had been killed and wounded that's right you can see that he's he's really trying to figure out what to do and in the past there have been crackdowns and there was also this belief that economic development would sort of ease. All the problems and you hear see sort of turning away from that and saying we shouldn't believe that improving the economy of change on his book is going to solve this and so he he seems to be sort of pushing for a very tough line although it points he does say you know we should be careful we shouldn't worry about discrimination against minority groups and change on but most of the speeches are very very tough and while he doesn't outline specifically the policy for camps he can see quite clearly how it follows from there does the leaking of these documents into possible decenter concerns within the Communist Party on these issues yes I mean and leaks are quite rare in China I've covered China since 2003 and I can't really think of anything comparable to this you know the the the person who gave these to us basically wanted the party leaders to be to be held accountable for these policies. And within the documents themselves you can see as a certain degree of of dissent there's a couple officials who are who are punished for not enforcing the efforts to incarcerate large numbers of people and has the Chinese government reacted or responded to your report I mean there are known to you know be very firm when these kinds of leaks happen or this kind of reporting is unearthed Yes I did I spoke with the Foreign Ministry spokesman and Hong Kong this afternoon and he didn't have anything to say yet we're expecting a reply Monday what do you think the importance of these documents are in terms of how the Chinese government has been framing these internment camps and what's happening there why I think they show pretty clearly that that wall this is described as sternly as sort of this rather mild education and job training program that that it is internally considered punishment and we see that word used in the documents and. There's a realisation that the camps are quite tough and it's a very much and direct opposition of that's this public line that these are just here to help that's Austin Ramzy of the New York Times thank you very much thank you. And you're listening to n.p.r. News. Johnston with these headlines the public face of the Democratic led impeachment inquiry into President Trump is moving into its 2nd week the House Intelligence Committee is set to hear testimony from 8 trumpet ministration officials including the u.s. Ambassador to the European Union and Democratic Louisiana governor John Bell Edwards narrowly defeated his Republican challengers who curing a 2nd term in office was an upset for Republicans who hoped to reclaim a seat on the strength of President popularity in the state the mayor of Venice damage from catastrophic flooding it could top $1000000000.00 The Italian city is bracing for another high tide today I'm Windsor Johnston n.p.r. News in Washington. Thank you. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Ancestry helping people discover their story through family history and d.n.a. From family trees to pinpointing origins ancestry provides a picture of one's unique past more at Ancestry dot com slash n.p.r. And from Subaru with their Subaru share the love event now through January 2nd details on the not for profit organizations that it supports are at Subaru dot com slash share love it's what makes Subaru Subaru. This is Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News and the Garcia Navarro Prince Andrew is denying that he had sex with an underage girl who says she was forced to do so by the late Geoffrey Epstein in a rare interview with the b.b.c. Britain's Duke of York as he's known did say he regretted spending time at Epstein's Manhattan house after abstain had served time in prison prison for child sex offenses For more we are we trying now to N.P.R.'s Frank Langfitt in London Hi Frank. All right so remind us what exactly Andrew is accused of and when this is alleged to have happened well the Prince and Geoffrey Epstein were friends and he's actually accusations go back about 18 years the woman Virginia Giuffre she says that in 2001 back when she was 17 Epstein's girlfriend told her to sleep with the prince as she had indeed done before with Epstein she says and she says she was that then forced also to have sex with the prince at Epstein's house in Manhattan and later on Epstein's private island in the Caribbean and there's been a lot of scrutiny of this right over time. So how did the prince respond in last night's interview well this is the 1st time he's ever actually spoken about it and it was absolute denial he said he doesn't remember ever meeting this woman Giuffre had a very specific memory of the night that they went out in London to she she named the club it's called Tramp a members only nightclub in London The prince says he actually was taking his daughter out to Pizza Express for a party that night in suburban London so it could have happened but usually has a picture of herself and the Prince allegedly on that evening and it was shown to the prince he seen it before and B.B.C.'s Emily made lists asked him about it in last night's interview this is how the exchange when she was a 17 year old girl missing a senior member of the royal family never happened. She provided a photo of the 2 of you together yes you are almost around her waist you've seen the photos I have seen 1st go how do you explain I can't because I don't I have no again I have absolutely no memory of that photograph ever being taken so how do you explain then staying with Epstein after Epstein had served time for child sex offenses at the time Andrew and Epstein were even photographed together walking in Central Park Yeah this is a very hard one to explain this was back in 2010 the Prince said he went to New York actually to end the friendship and pressed by the interviewer last night this is how I explain himself. It was a convenient place to stay I mean I've gone through this in my mind so many times. At the end of the day. With the benefit of all the hindsight that one could have. It was definitely the wrong thing to do. But at the time I felt it was the People's the honorable and right thing to do and really what he says is he didn't feel that he should end this friendship over the phone it was the honorable thing to tell me person and his major mistake here his judgment colored by his tendency he says to just be too honorable how people responded there in the u.k. Just me for not not well on Twitter right after this came out this interview there were people posting gifs of car crashes the headline this morning was not one word of remorse there was a feeling that at least he should have come out and expressed a lot of sympathy for Epstein's victims that never quite happened That's N.P.R.'s Frank Langfitt in London Frank thanks so much You're very welcome apocalyptic devastation that's how a local a talian governor described Venice as the highest tide in 50 years flooded the city of canals said Mark specific the city's most recognizable and most visited and most loved church is also one of the city's hardest hit sites it Square this past week was more pool than Plaza and the flooding may have caused hundreds of millions of euros worth of damage we're joined now by Palo compass Trini he sits on the Procureur Toria of St Mark the board that helps manage and protect the church Welcome thank you very much I'm calling me so tell me the condition the church is and now we cleaned up. Flooded the pavements we take out of the water from the great however the salt is acting go behind the mom and the salt the staying sides where the water go out about missiles things side in the 3 stylization of soldier breaks and the breach and also you can't boss through the Mabo so that their relation is progressive so what I'm understanding is that if there was a choice and I went it would look nice but the. The salt is really corrosive How do you protect from that what is the next step since this has been cumulative I mean there are a few things that we can do for the brakes when are they too salty we haven't simply to substitute them for the marble we pulled them out of the inside of these pools of our fresh water and we cleaned it with a pretty diva cycle of of a freshwater local politicians there have blamed this latest cycle of severe flooding on climate change we know that Venice has been subject to this for a very long time but that it will only get worse what is being done to protect the church and other important places I mean this church has been there since 1100 idea is to build the barrier on the island which separates the sea from. It is a huge project because of the project cost the more than $6000000000.00 euro about as not being completed there's been completed there of the land 90 percent about that if it is not completely 100 percent simply doesn't work many people say that this project has been delayed because of mismanagement corruption. And that there's a lot of anger over that I mean is it something that you're concerned about he might be yes of course there are we know also some a corruption the matter now since of 5 years some when the court discovered this corruption there are more lawyers are working then and you nears and this is bad. It is indeed what are people there saying how are they feeling as the floodwaters keep coming people present to the shock of the because the flooding was not expected and so I saw people crying because they lost their refrigerator or when gelato you see sold but it's also a leap hangry against the British and said we allow these. Things to happen what happens if the basilica is hopelessly inundated Have you discussed moving some of the Ark The holy relics away from Venice known. To the work of the sending of any in Baniyas we have any of the barrio can be built around the basilica in Oregon not that the Allow there without the coming the basilica is there more than 150 years and I believe that it must be there for many here. And just finally I'd like to know just your personal feelings for something that you value to protect to see what's happening in the beginning I was very very sad because it is that difficult to see the kind of pressure that is according to the basilica these old lady of a 900 years this is something that if you would be there you should. Try that with me. Compass trainee of the procure Turia of St Mark thank you very much thank you. People with mental illness can end up cycling in and out of the jail system especially when they're unable to get treatment for immigrants who are undocumented getting trapped in that cycle can be especially risky Christine Herman at member station. Has this story that begins in central Illinois inside the champagne County Courthouse. And seated in the front row of the courtroom to my right there's a young man wearing a white button down shirt and dress pants his hair parted neatly he stares nervously at the floor as we wait for the judge was like the 21 year old is here to plead guilty to a criminal charge of property damage it actually happened at his parents' house he had gone into a fight with his brother in law and broke a window yet another out of control moment from his recent struggle with mental illness the judge reads aloud a warning that he kids to defendants in any case but it's especially relevant to this particular young man. Right here was. This is the. United States this warning is now standard practice to make sure that non-citizens are aware that they could face deportation if they plead guilty in court the young man was given 12 months probation afterwards I follow him out of the hall and ask if we can talk he agrees but he doesn't want to be recorded We're protecting his identity since he was brought here from Mexico as a toddler and his living in the u.s. Without permission he felt more comfortable leaving the courthouse to talk so we sat down at a coffee shop across the street it's there he told me that a couple years ago life was good. He was living on his own working and taking classes at community college but all that changed when he started hearing voices and began struggling to keep his grip on reality he withdrew from friends and family including his dad was a better. Part of that than the young man's dad says he felt his son was totally lost yet somehow unaware of it his father is also undocumented so we'll refer to him by his middle name Jose we spoke through an interpreter and must be. Given the asked us for help but we didn't know how to help him he'd say Dad I feel like I'm going crazy last year he was hospitalized twice and finally got diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder he also used marijuana to cope once he began driving erratically saying his car was telling him what to do a month after that he started having urges to kill himself and sometimes felt like hurting others Jose says his son had always been respectful and kind but when he was 19 he became more argumentative and even threatened to hurt his parents the psychiatric hospitalizations didn't seem to make a difference. As he's not really focussed on reality so it's worrying and what I wish is that he would accept that he needs help and that there'd be a place where he could get that help. The you that he says no that he doesn't need help but he doesn't realise the problem as he did meet with a therapist a few times and was taking medication he was prescribed in the hospital he says it helped but without insurance he couldn't afford $180.00 a month for the prescription when he stopped the meds he struggled and he kept getting in trouble with the police when you don't have status it's particularly excruciating That's Kerry Chapman an attorney an advocate with the legal counsel for health justice in Chicago she represents many clients who have this double bird . When they lack the legal status to get the health care they need and so they live with an untreated mental illness if for example that makes it difficult for you to control behaviors you can end up in the criminal justice system and once you're in the criminal justice system she says you risk getting deported like the judge warned that day I was in court Chapman says the stakes are extremely high for these clients and everyone in their family knows it you are concerned that your young adult child is facing what's really sort of a terminal condition if that person ends up being deported they may go to a place where they have even less access to state of the art mental health care and it could be a death sentence for them there there are about 4000000 adults like Jose and his son in the u.s. They have no legal status and no health insurance that's because most undocumented people aren't allowed to get Medicaid Medicare or insurance through the Affordable Care Act when I caught up with Jose son a few months ago he still didn't want his voice on the radio but he said he's back on medication and feeling better he now works as a landscaper and hopes to get back to college someday to study business but he fears his criminal record could stand in the way and it makes him a target for immigration sweeps his dad Jose says that's what worries him. But the comment there was that believing may go if he gets deported he'll practically be lost in Mexico because he doesn't know Mexico or brought him here very young and with his illness where is he going to go there essentially putting him on the street some advocates say a good 1st step would be to expand Medicaid to everyone regardless of legal status a handful of states do allow undocumented kids to get Medicaid but once they turn 19 most of them lose that health coverage for n.p.r. News I'm Christina Herman in Champaign Illinois. This story comes to us from N.P.R.'s. There are bears black bears in the woods around Asheville North Carolina they're also strolling through backyards sometimes raiding bird feeders helping themselves to dog bowls or tipping over trash cans and doing a lot of this right now as they pack on the pounds before winter bears basically being you know bearers 3 years ago when Janet one Miller and her husband moved to Asheville they were surprised to see black bears going about their business like this she's since grown to love them and is now an ambassador for bear wise a program that teaches people how to coexist with bears general joins us now from the studios of w.c. Q.o.s. In Asheville to tell us all about it thank you for joining us thank you for inviting me so what led you to become a part of bear wise Oh my husband I are vegetarians and so we have a soft spot just naturally for animals and the bears just kind of fit right in there and then when I moved to Asheville and started becoming aware of the issues with the attractants the bird feeders the trash pet food you know just a lot of things that could be prevented and then I came aware of the bare wise program and I was asked if I would be interested in of course I was in other places people would call animal control to remove the bears I mean I come from Florida you see alligators there's people that come in remove the alligators How does this program of coexistence work you know it's education they're bears they are looking for any type of food source so the best thing to do is just to try and maintain your home without having those attract and so the bears eat the things they're supposed to they corns on the nuts and the berries and stay wild I really think that's ideally what we need this is their territory and we are living in their territory well how big is the black bear population on National Do you know it's pretty big From what I understand a western North Carolina area there's high numbers and how do they act when they are confronted by humans how dangerous are they they pretty much. I don't want to thing to do with you as you want to do with my husband and I we've been within feet of them we did get caught red handed he was helping me in the garden plant some plants and we had our heads down and focused on what we're doing and just chatting away and suddenly he stood up but he was facing me and then I stood up and I was facing the other way and I just said oh there's a Bear What Do You Know What are you supposed to do and when you are confronted with a bear why you're supposed to keep your distance you know best you can but sometimes that's not always possible he was within like 68 feet of us just watch and I think curious what we were doing they say don't look him in the eye a bit my husband and I were looking at this bear and he was looking at us they say try and make yourself look big you know are puffed up yeah exactly eventually the bear just moved away so we were able to get you know up to the house we were kind of high 5 on ourselves even that you know there was no panic moment it was just kind of like Ok well so what are the dangers for bears when they come in to where humans are well I think there's been some conflicts and so immediately the bears are the ones that are at fault when and it's not necessarily their fault they're just doing what bears do I think you know we just have to make sure that we don't give them the opportunity to provide those conflicts and so we have a special bear proof trash cans people can obtain my husband and I have one and we've had bear marks on it and slobber but they can't get into it Janet one Miller bear was ambassador and Asheville North Carolina thank you very much thank you. This is n.p.r. News. On the next morning edition scientists use virtual reality to show that climate change has consequences even while it is serious here is the fact that we want to come up with there was also a new play written by the late Edward Albie explores the life of an inspiring story but I bet she was absolutely exhausting to be around and listen for all kinds of stories tomorrow on Morning Edition from n.p.r. This. Support for cave enough comes from families plus connecting families with community to help children thrive through Delta County for over 20 years families plus peers mentors with children to stimulate minds and ignite creativity through activities not otherwise available this is can now be a part of a TEGA log program allowing older youth to participate in skill building activities in a work environment more information on mentoring opportunities is available at families plus dot net I'm Windsor Johnston with these headlines the House has released the transcript of the closed door deposition from another witness in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump Jennifer Williams a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence testified that Trump's push for Ukraine to open investigations into a political rival was quote unusual and inappropriate public hearings into Trump's dealings with Ukraine are scheduled to resume this week with testimony from 8 witnesses they include a former National Security Council official and a former special envoy to Ukraine the u.s. And South Korea say they're postponing upcoming joint military drills the 2 countries say the decision is an effort to encourage peace talks with North Korea Iman's or Johnston n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Total Wine and more where in-store teams can recommend a bottle of wine spirit or beer for any occasion shoppers can explore more than 8000 wines 2500 beers and 3000 spirits more it Total Wine dot com and from knew him offering a personalized weight loss program based on a cognitive behavioral approach with a goal of losing weight and keeping it off for good learn more at noon and 0 m. Dot com This is Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Lou Garcia Navarro Imagine you're a 1st time author your wildest dreams come true and there's a bidding war over your 1st book to get snapped up for big bucks but then there are some objections to how race is represented in your novel a Twitter storm ensues a medley when job is the author of blood hair after the online criticism of advance copies of her book decided to hold off publishing her young adult fantasy epic that decision got a huge reaction it was written about in The New York Times Slate New York Magazine and The New Yorker now the book is finally coming out it's the story of an exiled princess named Ana with dangerous powers and an underworld rogue who joined forces to save the kingdom from an evil system of corruption and mainly when John joins us now welcome thank you Hi Lou How. In this fantasy world you've created an a is an affidavit is am I saying that correctly Yeah she's an after night so it's people with with an affinity to certain elements whether physical or metaphysical so she has an affinity to blood which means that she has a connection to people's blood and she's able to wield it so that makes her so immensely powerful but also such a terrifying protagonist and people with affinities in the book are treated very very badly. You said that one of the ways that you were looking at this is through the lens of human trafficking specifically because obviously you're Asian and that is a huge issue there yeah so these are forms of modern slavery that continue to impact 20 to 40000000 victims around the world in countries such as North Korea India Thailand Russia Eastern Europe what's so threatening about these is that they continue to thrive because they've found a way to go in between the laws and to avert them and take advantage of vulnerability populations in the world such as immigrants and refugees and the the main character Ana She is one of these vulnerable populations and she's in danger of being trafficked and exploited and that's what she fights against in the book I really wrote her to be powerful and to be an angry girl to really be a champion of justice and what she thinks is right you were born in Paris you grew up in Beijing you now live in New York this is a story about being an outsider how did you draw from your own experience and writing but there I mean it is all based on my own experience and my own feelings throughout my background I've lived in many different countries and I grew up in an international community in Beijing so there were peers from many different backgrounds and I was actually the only Chinese citizen to be in this environment and it's just the speeling of always being kind of on the outside and kind of wanting to brush away that part of you that's so foreign to what society seems to present to you so for on a she's always feared and been taught to fear her blood affinity but she learned throughout the book that this otherness the sing that makes her so unique is a strength of hers and that's how she chooses to use it this book as we mentioned was originally supposed to be published in June and I want to take you back to what happened. You started receiving criticism online that the book was anti black and using tropes about slavery tell us how you felt when that was happening at the time it was really overwhelming because a few early readers had said that it was believed my book was a portrayal of chattel slavery in America and it snowballed into a lot of people who hadn't read the book and there was just so much critique coming from people who who hadn't read it so that was really devastating to me because these are some real issues that draw from my background and from global issues that are ongoing and continue to affects so many people so it was particularly devastating because it felt to me like my perspective wasn't welcome in this country and honestly for awhile it just felt like I wasn't allowed to have a voice in exploring deeply poignant subjects that were personal to me and like my fiance is the descendant of a Chinese indentured labor and I believe these are difficult truths and ugly histories that need to be confronted through literature. The young adult community or way on social media is pretty well known for raising authors up but also tearing them down pretty fast you have been very active on why you Twitter how have you experienced this group of passionate readers and writers after what happened. I really appreciate the conversations on diversity and protecting the teens online I just think that I don't know if a small committee of people should be able to say what should or shouldn't be written and what should or shouldn't be read because what's unique to the United States is that it fosters such a diverse ecosystem of a marketplace of ideas where every single individual has the right to consume a work of a. Art to evaluate it and to form their own opinion of it and I just think that is what makes your country so unique and I believe that art should be confronting these difficult truths and ugly histories and that that's why I'm really glad that letter is coming out for the public to consume to evaluate and I'm hoping to share in a new perspective as a Chinese woman living in the United States. How did you ultimately decide to move forward with publishing and did you change anything I took a step back and I regret my book and I went back through all the research that I had done at the time to write these issues and weave them into my world and I also wanted to be respectful to the feedback that I was hearing so I dove into make sure that I really fleshed out these issues of indentured labor human trafficking throughout my world I made them even more nuanced to make sure that this is an even stronger story and even more faithful to what I set out to write. What do you what have you learned throughout this sort of rollercoaster I mean you know you're 25 when this happened you're 26 now I think it's your 1st book I mean it's a lot yeah it was a lot but I am really glad that I stood by my book and that it is an even stronger depiction of issues from my heritage from countries all over the world that really need to be explored and I hope that every individual has the right to read blood there and I hope that they will learn something new about the world that we live in from my perspective I mainly when John thank you so much her book is Blair thank you. A recent cartoon in a Swiss newspaper shows a couple of angels looking down on a smoldering post-apocalyptic Earth One says too bad but why does it smell like good coffee the other replies the Swiss coffee stash was roasted to the perfect temperature this was have a 3 month emergency stockpile of coffee that sounds nice right and if calamity occurred wouldn't you consider coffee essential to your survival Well in April the Swiss government signaled it might remove coffee from the essential to life list and you can imagine the outcry by now the decision has been pushed back and might be rescinded Marcus Hafler reported on the Swiss jitters over this issue for his Swiss newspaper he joins us now from the studios of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and Byrne Welcome to the program and oh so tell us about this was stockpile what kinds of things are in and what's a poor. Ellison Switzerland is a small landlocked country we don't have access to the sea we have an agriculture who is not able to feed all the population of 8000000 so so if someone has been stockpiling why toll things for 100 years and the government said Coffee should be taken away from the least why did they decide that coffee might not be so essential to life that may stray sions said that coffee contains almost no energy no calories and therefore it's not what I told for human survival anymore and people called life without coffee nevertheless and I gather the reaction was pretty swift Yes we were laughing a lot about it but some people didn't laugh it was the coffee industry and you'll maybe Knollwood and they spread so company nestlé it's a multi-billion business here and they were quite attacking the decision and lobbying against it for the last few months and now the Minister for economy is stepping backwards this stockpiling of coffee costs over $2500000.00 a year so who pays for this is it the importers the coffee drinkers if you were says his company are importing coffee you have to there is some some sort of fee that has to be paid and with the feed the companies themselves are paid for stockpiling and the quantities are enormous I mean we are stockpiling right now with 16000 tonnes of coffee just to imagine eats $400.00 big trucks full of coffee beans that makes 5 miles of coffee trucks each sways strengths in every drinks 20 pounds of coffee beans a year I don't have the numbers for the Americans body it's twice or 3. Times as much probably and maybe if I dare say we are also drinking normally bad for coffee then the American. Well those are fighting words I think but I'm going to let you get away with it at this point I have to ask why do this with drink so much coffee you know Switzerland is a country with several cultures we have also influenced by they tell in the way of life differential way of life and we are drinking is price a lot there mucky out there you name meat you start in the morning with your coffee with milk then for states price or in beer or after the lunch you drink your coffee and then during day afternoon if your energy level is going down you will like adding some cold freezing again mask you you drink coffee 3 times a day more. How can you work as a journalist without drinking coffee afternoon I mean I wouldn't survive without coffee as a journalist I'm sympathetic as a fellow journalist but I drink tea but I have to ask you Do you have a position on the stockpiling. Actually I have no it's more like a funny thing I think stockpiling makes sense for a country like Switzerland if you have to stop by a coffee or not I don't care that much maintaining journalistic impartiality we like it that's journalist Marcus have flicker thank you so much for speaking with us today thank you in a much. Taylor Swift has issued an unprecedented plea to her fans to get involved in a business fight over early hits like this. Can only. Change. The building. A company bought her early music catalog and she's now fighting to be able to perform those songs on t.v. The battle involves a lot of big names in the music business and private equity here to help me untangle this is N.P.R.'s Anasazi is focus welcome Hi Lou Thanks for having me so we're talking about music from Taylor Swift's 1st several albums like 1989 the big breakout hit which is where that song comes from tell us what brought this disagreement out into the open right well on Thursday night swift posted a note on social media saying that her former label big machine is refusing to give her permission to perform a medley of her old hits on the made for t.v. American Music Awards later this month during a tribute to her and she also said in her post the big machine was refusing to give permission for her old recordings to be used in an upcoming Netflix biographical documentary and she claimed that the labors founder and head Scott said she can only use that old material if she gives up those plans to make happy cat recordings of her old albums and the record label issued its own statement Friday disputing that right it's pretty ambiguous big machine said it doesn't have any right to keep her from performing live anywhere but it didn't say that she could specifically sing that music it sounds on television so how did all this bad blood come about Nice quote of the lyrics are. Back in July big machine was sold to a company called Ithaca holdings that's owned by a guy named Scooter Braun who is a very big impresario in the music industry he manages Ariana Grande Jay and Justin Bieber among others and he. Also used to manage Kanye West who got into a pretty famous now with Taylor Swift Justice her career started heating up that's right he interrupted her acceptance speech at the m.t.v. Video Music Awards years ago yes and it has been very rocky ever since and swift claimed that Braun had a hand in those feuds personally so it seems that this goes way back but in our social media posts with called upon her fans to get involved in this current business feud Yes she mustered up her Swifties as they're known and as of Saturday over 100000 people have signed a change dot org petition and they've absolutely swapped the social media accounts of Scooter Braun and Scott so she's leveraging a very particular kind of power she has as an artist and the real love that her fans have for her I cannot say the news executives that inspire that kind of love and devotion I shouldn't think so and she's also called out others who have a different kind of power writes with name checks of the Carlyle Group in her post and that's a private equity firm that's a major investor in scooter brands company so she's also calling on those who hold some serious purse strings so it seems like this is a lot of money facing off against a lot of Fame where would it all be heading it's honestly not so clear right now Lulu it appears the tribute to her on the A.M.A.'s will go on and it also appears that she still plans to record her back catalog starring next year big machine said at the end of its statement that it's open to negotiating with her but you know Conference her negotiations aren't exactly the stuff of social media and the one thing we do know about Taylor Swift is that she uses her real life experiences to you know inform her art so I'm assuming there might be some new songs at least to come out of this conflict I think that is a pretty good bet thank you so much as N.P.R.'s Adam. Thanks so much for having me Neal. This is Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News b.j. Lederman writes Our theme find us on Facebook and Twitter Search Weekend Edition or at n.p.r. Weekend and I'm at Border's Jena borrow that l o u r d e s Thanks for listening Happy Sunday. To. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Warner Brothers Pictures presenting the good liar a suspense thriller about the secrets people keep in the lives they live starring Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen the good liar rated are now playing only in theaters from Whole Foods Market offering colors and flavors of the season with seasonal produce holiday desserts and Chef created menus Whole Foods Market color of the classics and from the e.c.m. Sea foundation at e.c. Mc Foundation dot org. The next k.b. Enough board of directors meeting will be Monday Nov 18th it will take place at 5 30 pm in the community room at k. Vienna located at 233 Grand Avenue in this is an open meeting and the public is invited to attend. Butin to mountain growing public radio for western Colorado this is k. Vienna 90.9 megahertz Paon in the north Fort Valley. 89 point one megahertz Montrose Delta Norwood. Translators k 256 a b. And Palace even the Grand Valley is 99 point one k 2 52 am and Hotchkiss of 98.35 b. In Ridgeway and log 88.98 to 11 b.h. In your a at 90 point one and paid 20 for Lake City at 88.7 Thanks for choosing mountain grown Public Radio Stay tuned for more from n.p.r. Weekend Edition. From n.p.r. News in Washington d.c. This is Weekend Edition. I'm good I stand of our good morning impeachment inquiry has paralyzed more than Capitol Hill Ukrainians.

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