Coming up on the arts hour with me Nikki Beatty also running at Taylor slammed on her timely new Netflix drama away the show is a. Mission to Mars but also the love of family and the sacrifices that we make when you choose your career when you choose your family and that's also something I think so many people can relate to right now Frank direct tells us about his. King to the godfather of gaming seed Maya whose just published his memoir and Miley Cyrus on the changing fashion of pop stardom I grew up in a time where your. Body student go on. The swing around something or get naked it is a different generation of this time I think a lot of the e-mail artists are gaining power All that plus it. Coming up on the. B.b.c. News Hello this is Jerry Smit the British prime minister Boris Johnson will outline a sense of new measures to control the spread of the coronavirus in England. Restaurants will be ordered to close at 10 pm from Thursday Mr Johnson is also expected to instruct people to work from home where possible. Reports against a backdrop of rising cases a now a raised coded alert level Downing Street says the prime minister will set out further ways in which the government plans to tackle the spread of coronavirus ministers do not want another full lockdown but some additional restrictions will be introduced to try to stem the increase in infections the prime minister will set out his plans to Parliament at lunchtime before giving a televised address to the nation this evening. The French education ministry has changed its rules on coronavirus cases in schools in a bid to keep more of them open Lucy Williamson in Paris as more details until now if even one child in a class tested positive for Corona virus all his or her classmates would have to self isolate that meant almost 2000 classrooms standing empty across France at the start of this week and 81 primary schools completely closed from Tuesday classes with one case of coronavirus will continue as normal with the rest of their pupils and less 3 children from different households all test positive France's public health council said last week that transmissions were mainly occurring within families or at social gatherings outside school premises President Trump appears to have secured enough support in the u.s. Senate to win approval for his nominee to the vacancy on the Supreme Court 2 more Republicans have said they would vote to confirm the woman who chooses to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg provided she is sufficiently qualified Mr Trump has said Hill announce his choice on Saturday and wants the senator to vote before the presidential election on November the 3rd. A court in Beijing has sentenced a former property tycoon to a lengthy jail term folk are option run Judge Young an outspoken critic of President Xi Jinping was once a prominent member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party say McDonald reports the man known here as big cannon for his outspoken criticism of Charles leadership has been sentenced to 18 years in prison according to court documents. The former chairman of state owned property developer why n. Group confess to crimes of corruption bribery and embezzlement the China analysts have seen this as a way of silencing a once powerful critic of Communist Party general secretary Pena ran disappeared from public life in March after writing an essay which slammed him pains management of the coronavirus. News from the b.b.c. . The presidents of China Russia and the United States will be among the speakers on the 1st day of the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly which is being held online that bronze reports the pandemic is completely up ended the United Nations plans for its 75th anniversary and also raised fresh questions about the effectiveness of this global body coated 19 is heightened tensions between the world's foremost powers the United States and China at a time when Beijing is looking to extend its influence at the u.n. Washington has also clashed with its traditional European allies which of actively ignore the trumpet ministrations demands to reimpose un mandated sanctions against Tehran a move that would effectively kill off the Iranian nuclear deal a British culture and heritage charity the National Trust has released a report revealing that more than 90 of its properties have links to the historic slave trade and colonialism The report lists plantation and estate owners who were compensated when slaves were freed in British territories in the early 19th century . Conservation experts say one in 5 species of maple tree are threatened with extinction the trees known for their spectacular autumn colors are risks from deforestation climate change and far as follows There are $158.00 species of maple and while there are common sites in parks and gardens disappearing from their natural habitat in the loving rate. Rescues in Tasmania say they've been able to free a small number of the pilot whales stranded in a bay on the West Coast of the island on Monday about 270 pilot whales were spotted in shallow waters a 3rd of them have died the operation to refloat the remaining whales and bring them back out to say is continuing the rescue operation is expected to take days may be seen. Hello this is the art fair on the b.b.c. World Service I'm Nikki Beatty bringing you cultural companionship of the next 60 minutes with the best global arts and culture conversation from across the b.b.c. . Coming up on today's show in a moment to Oscar winning actor Hilary Swank on her new out of this world role in a way mind me of why I want to be an astronaut is 6 years old which is just the idea of something bigger than us the idea of the unknown as it were her she's in Kenya exploring the cultural propagand of the British Empire on film Miley Cyrus pays homage to Billie Eilish French director largely reveals how his film limits of our blood caught the attention of President McCrone and sister of virtue a sale and pulls her heart out in her latest e.p. Joining me to discuss all that and to talk about his memoir is The Godfather of gaming saved my a creative civilization one of the world's most popular video games he's at home in Baltimore and with me in the studio is curator and film producer now the identity. Well welcome to you both and before we go any further with the program do you both have a cultural highlights from they sed past week maybe something that we could all access from our own homes not the I'll come to you 1st so I've been reading an article dangerous laugh it tells us however elicit romance but there's been something quite gripping about it but also a little bit miserable and difficult in terms of the challenges of the characters which I think is probably a bit of a reflection of what I've been going through my introductory in terms of the lockdown so it really tapped into what we're all feeling at the moment yes even though it's based in West Africa you know it's Sasson a different period but somehow I was able to find a bit of escapism but a sense of reality and I was on my. You know circumstances when you just repeat the name of the people who want to scribble it down it's called dangerous life by an arbitrary fantastic said My What about you I've actually had 2 cultural highlights this week I've been reading the majority of novels by Patrick O'Brian during the pandemic I think there are 20 of them so to keep me going Wow The other thing that happened this week is quite a while back I wrote a game slash program. Which was a program that would compose music in the style of Bach and I read about they say Neil memoir it's fascinating that it only works on a certain computer called the 3 d. O. Which hasn't been made for about 20 years but a friend of mine was able to get it running on an emulator on a p.c. And yesterday I managed to get it to work and for the 1st time in about 20 years I heard c.p.u. Bar composing music so that was a fun experience for me. I also want to give a big shout out to all our new listeners on w m e u k in Michigan this week welcome along to all of you t.j. You began your career in Michigan didn't you I grew up in Michigan and I went to the University of Michigan where I studied computers so I certainly have a warm spot my heart for Michigan was so you can say hello to all our new listeners there as well hello new listeners. Thank you sir. And Hilary Swank the 2 time Oscar winning actress of Boys Don't Cry and $1000000.00 Baby she can currently be seen starring in the 10 part Netflix series away playing come on to Emma green a full a Navy pilot who's been chosen to lead the 1st manned mission to Molly's a 3 year assignment which means leaving her husband and daughter behind the drama isn't really about the significance so value of space exploration nor does it examine any of the big ideas associated with trips into the unknown it's actually quite. Straightforward family drama where the only question is will this family manage to stay connected joining their 3 years of pot Hilary Swank toad how she prepared for the role 1st of all I wanted to be an astronaut before I wanted to be an actor so it's kind of fun to scratch the surface there I got to speak few some incredible astronauts who are the best in their field which is a great thing as an actor you when you gave in to these other worlds you get to speak to the people and pick their brains and it reminded me of why I wanted to be an astronaut at 6 years old which is just the idea of something bigger than us the idea of the unknown and I think that a mission to Mars is well within our lifetime and I just think that that's incredible when you hear them talk about looking back down at Earth and there's no borders up there and the idea that we're all on this earth together we're all one people in a way it doesn't matter if you're Russian or you're British or you're American or you're Chinese or Indian in the case of the astronauts on this space ship and that's what I love so much as we represent all the different colors of what you see when you walk around in daily life and that's not usually depicted on the screen no it isn't but I guess the pandemic has also made that a reality whether we like it or not we are all in all in this policy state together at the moment own way yes exactly in the end we're all humans we're trying to figure out what our purposes give and receive love have no regrets when you strip down the stereotypes you know that's what's underneath all of us that humanity that connects us all you are the command of the space ship in this new show and that brings with it its own challenging dynamic for you but you're also a character who's facing 3 years away from your partner and child and that would seem to anybody a quite colossal undertaking do you think humans are going to be. Be prepared for something like that and be willing to do it 100 percent you see a lot of them the show is about this mission to Mars and the dream of that but also this gravitational Polder earth and the love of family and the sacrifices that we make for both and that it's a daily choice when you choose your career when you choose your family and that's also something I think so many people can relate to right now especially so many more women are in the workplace thankfully doing what they want to be doing you know this is a woman leading a mission to Mars but that's not the drama story which I think is also exciting you know 5 years ago that would have been itself her husband would have been emasculated would have been upset he wasn't going but it's the drama revolves around of the things which I think is super exciting Hilary Swank and away is streaming now on Netflix I got up to episode 6 of quite enjoyed the fact that there's an Indiana and a Chinese character in a Russian sounds like the beginning of a bad Chicano and they've all got their stories and speak in their own languages and there are subtitles built into this very I don't know accessible Netflix series so my guess them today is out of the godfather of gaming said how many times can I say that without you getting annoyed say it. Many times if you like. And. Then 10 d.d.e. Or no stranger to expeditions sent to find a home beyond death as civilization beyond Earth science fiction themed entry in your civilization series of games what sort of human decisions and ideas are incorporated into something that vast. Well as a civilization games I have a pretty global scope so we're really looking at big picture kind of ideas you can pursue a diplomatic course or an economic course or one based on technology or military force or ideally some combination. Of all those things so we're really representing . Kind of big picture decisions and giving you the chance to kind of lead this entire civilization through hundreds of thousands of years of history or even leaving the planet and kind of deciding how the ideas that were applicable on earth now lie in this new environment familiar elements are a great starting point but then using your imagination to kind of complete the story is what makes it satisfying no idea does the family story and space them feel to you Yes I mean I think if I look at my consumption habits during coated there's definitely a sense that which you know you're wanting to have the more familiar personal do you have a favorite woman in a strong role in a movie that would know he's basically playing a role that would normally be assigned to men like in this case we've got the commander of the mission to Mars is a woman have you got a similar sort of story or film that you enjoy Yes it was Melissa McCarthy in can you ever forgive me on so she plays it's based on the also biography of a woman called Lee Israel and she's basically forges Les's by prominent 19th and 20th century voices but it's just you know you're watching this very outrageous character being rude being difficult problematic she's messy you know she's dislikable and you know generally you don't tend to see female characters live on screen who want some stupid Yeah you know who want punished or who aren't sort of made to feel that their behavior is disgusting so there was a certain amount of if you like delight almost in sort of watching her get away with all of these lies in the plagiarism except that that was a great film and of course which he grants took us on his Oscar nomination darts all the way up to the night d.n.a. And I was after me one of the most striking performances of his career Yeah right he was you know with the fare on the b.b.c. World Service I'm Mickey Beatty a couple of weeks ago on. Show you have the journalist and broadcaster Ethel Hirsch exploring hip hop in Senegal part of her b.b.c. Series African Renaissance whilst in Kenya she examined how the British spawn an idealized stereotype about their empire through film the one $950.00 s. Hollywood movie Simba started to bogart a popular movie star of the time but as f one explains audiences wouldn't have realized the extent to which they were being subjected to Colonial propaganda partly funded by the British government the British work hard in the 1950 s. To spin their own session of events. The British needed to keep the public at home and allies like America on board with the Dirty War in Kenya they turned to cinema in its golden age to do that job. A series of story big budget feature films were made and released during the insurgency today these African Weston's are fascinating forgotten window on the propaganda war in the twilight years of Empire Here's one example Simba. In Simba Dirk Bogarde plays a character full of doubt and distrust about Kenya as the brother of a British farmer who's been murdered by the Mt Now this is just a what really were. Those of my brothers missed out. Because they were sure they were going to catch a peach they're ready to show you shine it's dishonest because it's claiming to show some kind of interest in the future of Africans it is not really doing that is about British self interest and even worse I feel that debate is still playing itself out now if you think about the discussions about aid and development in Africa it's still white British people sitting in a room talking about Africans as the needy recipients of that charity and generosity. I and I There's also a gruesomeness at play in this film was it was shot on location in Kenya while the real war was raging made with the help of the British Canyon or thirty's it was not just biased but according to contemporary Press reporting exploitative. Ceremony involved real Maumelle insurgents who were taken from a prison by the company that made this film and shortly after filming they were executed by the British for their role in the mountains urgency these are people who were performing something to entertain Bush would insist and then were executed because of that very thing it brings history and fiction together in a way that is so troubling and it means that as an audience member I have now been entertained by something which I know cost these Kenyan men their lives. This is a reckoning Senor meant to feel afraid of these Africans they represent senseless violence savagery 1st this the virtues of civilization and reason. I think the scene taps into a very old fear this image of being under attack this invasion or violent dark skinned people you see it in stories about the empire you even see it in the way that immigration is discussed this idea of being swamped to or swarms or floods of people who are coming to threaten peace and security you can underpin an empire with force alone you had to make people believe that it was the right thing to do that Britain was on the right side of history and that's exactly the role that these films played Ethel Hersh on the gruesome history behind the film Simba my guests on today's art sale of a legendary game developer said Maya creator of said. Ation and curator and West African film producer Nadia Denton now here that colonial legacy on filmmaking in parts of Africa must be very familiar to you Yes I mean certainly when we think about content that came from Africa and even other parts of the now terms global south there definitely was always some line of propaganda and you know some degree to which the narratives were always propagating you know a myth about European domination European spirity the inferiority of the natives in those particular ethnic groups I think you know when we listen to those kind of clips or even watch that kind of content you know with a modern day it's actually quite cringe where the air audience is now much more sophisticated they can see through a lot of that particular young people you know they can see how problematic they are you know looking at them with the 21st century eyes and how do you feel African film a kids today are reflecting their colonial past on film if I consider a lot of the work that they're aspiring to make it's really about their present day and the future I find that those narratives about you know a colonial legacy get explored more in literature but certainly in terms of film as a format young African filmmakers are really wanting to get out there and tell their own stories that they perhaps feel they've been denied from telling or haven't really had proper airplay so it's very rare that you tend to find their wanting to make narratives which really touch on the sort of colonial aspects that much they really are quite keen to tell their own stories I mean this is a discussion going on throughout the arts at the moment you work in the Victoria and Albert Museum here in London how are cultural institutions dealing with the colonial aspect of their collections yes so I am to following tear African heritage tall guys in these 16021815 galleries it's quite a challenging period in terms of the various things I haven't globally at that time you know the director of the v.n.a. Tristam hunt he's been very forthcoming in terms of wanting to talk about and explore what are the sort of. Problems in terms of the collection and you know what are the things that the institution as inherited particular when it comes to activities and events we've had evenings where we have a collective of artists who go to colonize a collection so they'll be various performances where they might pick certain pieces of art looking at what may have happened at the time what would be a modern rendering all what could have been another story I mean even on a sort of basic level as guides we are constantly having conversations about how objects may have been labelled and the language used we've been encouraged to not necessarily shy away from that but to actually present it to audiences and to trust that they can understand and to say look this is what happened this time this is how we look at it now but to allow them to come to their own conclusions c.g. You've had to choose historical figures for your games and I'm wondering for example I'm going to put this really simplistically how you choose the baddies for example historical baddies. That's a good question. Actually a game like civilization we don't judge our leaders we choose some kind of based on their familiarity but also an idea of how they might react to a certain leader might be more interested in a cover military approach another might be more diplomatic We want you to interact with leaders that you're familiar with for example but there's no particularly good ones or bad ones there just have different characteristics and kind of one of the interesting aspects of that is this Gandhi phenomenon all mine I said I want to ask you about this because we can talk about Mao and Stalin and not being able to use it lever nuclear Gandhi you have to I have a history with Mahatma Gandhi being healthy Indian and it's a long story but nuclear Gandhi Can you explain this for us. Yes So one of the aspects. So the game is that you are creating a new history you're not really living existing history you create your own history based on the decisions you make in the past you choose so things don't always go exactly the way they did in actual history and there's a time in the game with Kasia lead based on the circumstances and the way that you've created the story Gandhi will kind of pop up and say some very aggressive things I'm going nuclear weapons I don't mess with. Your. This sticks in people's mind and players' minds because it is so out of character and they realize now that yes this is not your grandfather's history this is a new history and there's a there's a actually a discussion around whether this was a bug in the game you know is there something is there something wrong with this game because this happens and it's going to just kind of illustrates how games take place in the players' imagination and how they are new experiences that are different every time as opposed to read Living History I love it thank you so much . To Miley Cyrus now in the South she has a new single night sky it's from her forthcoming album which we don't know that much about except that she was. And. During her recent to parents in the u.s. On The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon she covered the hole in the classic track man and if you've ever seen her play life you'll know that Miley also covers Britney Spears a Metallica it was not a stretch then for her to appear on the B.B.C.'s life and choose someone else's check to Intel she delivered a soulful rendition of. My future. Whether she saw anything of herself in the young. Kids. Or did. I see my little sister a lot and I see that kind of like that generation of just that awareness that I think is so new and fresh and I love the idea that we are like falling in love with ourselves and I think that's something that's so important because right now I think there's so many on realistic ideals of what especially women should be or should look like or what are my worries are and for me I grew up in an era where it wasn't Ok to wear sweatpants on stage I grew up in a at a time where you're supposed to have one of the dazzle bodies didn't go out. So when you're around something or get naked and it it is it right generation of this time I think a lot of the male artists are gaining that Howard say and I want to reflect who I am and I see a really healthy role model for girls like my little sister I just encourage art is using their voice to not just to sing and entertain us but to make change and I always knew Billy out there being an activist 1st I respect a lot made in the 31 account let's hear you show you enough respect for this thought if this is Miley Cyrus and how vast and of my future I've been eyeing. Miley Cyrus is. My future now do you what do you make of that claim and what Miley Cyrus has to know I really feel as though she's mature I feel like even with the vocals in the way she was expressing there was a. I do find it interesting that she's chasing his younger demographic which is quite ironic considering that you know she was a teen star she was a child star really wasn't and. That's one of the Chauvet Don't go away still to come. On heartbreak. Not that one and games my story is 3 of my own creating the civilization is back after this. Distribution of the b.b.c. World Service in the u.s. Is made possible by American Public Media producer and distributor of award winning public radio content a.p.m. American Public Media with support from impacts of asset management offering mutual funds designed to deliver a more sustainable future funds distributed by our distributors and more it impacts am dot com. Still to come on the arts hour with me Nicky Beatty I'll be talking to the legendary Godfather of computer games fig Meyer trying to direct a largely tells us about his claim is that our black and sit down Ariston composer and on her latest work love letter is inspired by heartbreak. And all that and more coming up on the out there. B.b.c. News where Jerry's meat I caught in Beijing has jailed a former property tycoon for 18 years for corruption when Judge Young once a prominent member of the Chinese Communist party disappeared from public view in March after criticizing President she's response to coronavirus and calling him a clone. The British prime minister Boris Johnson is to lay out in parliament his plans to control the spread of the virus in England restaurants and pubs will have to close at 10 pm from Thursday Joe Biden the Democratic presidential candidate has accused President Trump of incompetence in his handling of the coronavirus crisis he said Mr Trump cause one of the most serious losses of life in American history. Donald Trump appears to have garnered enough support in the u.s. Senate to win approval for his nominee to the vacancy on the Supreme Court Mr Trump is expected to announce his choice to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday the presidents of China the United States and Russia are among the speakers on the 1st day of the annual meeting of the un General Assembly which is being held online because of the pandemic the assembly comes at a time of increasing tension between Washington and Beijing. A British culture and heritage charity the National Trust has released a report revealing that more than 90 of its properties have links to the historic slave trade and colonialism It also lists properties connected to people who played a key role in the abolition movement rescuers in Tasmania say they've been able to free a small number of the pilot whales stranded in a bay on the West Coast of the Australian island a Monday about 270 the distressed creatures with spotted in shallow waters a 3rd of them have died b.b.c. Needs. Welcome back to the arts our on the b.b.c. World Service with me Nicky Beatty if you've only just joined us here's a rapid recap of what you missed in the 1st half of the show. Oscar winning actor Hilary Swank told us about her latest role leading a mission to Mars rise to Ethel Hirsch explores the use of movie propaganda for the British Empire and singer Miley Cyrus praised the way artists like Billy Eilish are inspiring a new generation with their music and activism coming up in this part of the show in a moment director largely on. His Oscar nominated depiction of the Parisians. And since the artist and composer in new sketch Shankar on her latest the e.p. a Female only collaboration the whole approach just seemed to be very different somehow working with the women in the room there was a very trusting sort of straightforward and very open minded atmosphere there were no people in the room and I'll be talking to one of my 2 arts our guests the godfather of computer gaming Sid Meier is with us from his home in Baltimore and film curator and produced and idea Denton is still with me in this studio. So you've been hearing from the legendary game's developer said My throughout the hour today now let's turn the spotlight fully on to him since he has created and produced some of the world's most popular video games over his 4 decade career including civilization which has sold more than $51000000.00 units worldwide and accumulated more than 1000000000 hours of play I. Am in his just published memoir we learned how seed went from an obsessive young computer enthusiastic telling launch a multi-billion dollar industry. From the genesis of his employ until stadium Microprose founded in 1902 after a trip to Las Vegas through to the development of some of his landmark games from vintage classics like pirates and Railroad Tycoon to civilization and beyond. We'll see what he's perspectives on the industry's history the psychology of game is and some insights into the creative process seed you dedicated the book to the world wide community of computer console mobile game as and their long suffering spouses parents and significant. So is your wife the game she is not a game she is supportive of my career she has lots of other fascinating interests but gaming is not one of them so to she have any problem with the amount of time that you all any of the rest of your family spend focused on making Well it's really my job so I think she can I just have a problem she's a very understanding I know that the subjects of games addiction comes up from time to time across the world in fact you say it's another wood for the intense connection we feel to Woods a piece of art house well I think games challenge and stimulate your imagination in ways that are different from other forms of art in a more immersive and intense way often because you are invested personally in how this story has evolved so far and where it's going to go from here there's kind of this one more turn phenomenon that we refer to with civilization where there's always something just on the horizon that interesting that you have planned for that you were interested paging there might be a surprise there might be a new technology so there's kind of never a moment where everything is kind of at rest and at peace again takes place in your imagination as you project what's going to happen when I talk to this leader what might be on. New Continent that I've discovered once I develop this new technology these new possibilities open up so the game is always propelling you forward and it's very hard to stop playing sometimes always those who enjoy to read it you say there was no moment when you knew you were a game you say gaming is the default and I just wondered if you could expound on that from moment Well I think it's inherent in us to game to think about different possibilities in outcomes games present you with some choices where a certain path might be the one you take but you are intrigued by what might happen another time if you go down a different path so thinking about the future is part of us as humans and gaming kind of brings out the opportunity to take you to places where you might not be able to go in real life few of us have the opportunity to lead a civilization or become a pirate or fly an airplane or do many of the things that video games let you do it was in Las Vegas with. You number one realize there was a business in selling gangs but also you beat him as well as well one flight simulator game called Red Baron Now can you just tell us a little story so my my background was in math and science and I studied computers in college bill was in the National Guard in the Air Force he had kind of a military background and so we were wandering around Las Vegas we were both working for the same company we found this Red Baron console video game and Bill said down and played it in he got a certain score feeling very proud and accomplished because he had used his kind of military skills to do that and then I sit down after watching employ and I played and I got a higher score and he's like well how can I be a military guy and you're just the nerd you know. You know my response was. Well I watched you play and I understood the algorithms behind what was going on and the strategies that the computer was using for their Ai and I figured out how to do better and he said hey maybe you're kind of a smart guy we should start a company and make these video games and the rest is he's he's in it when you began it was in the era of hugely slow computing as compared to now and you 3 obviously many changes in the What's been the biggest change you've seen in the world of gaming in just the last few years well we've seen in the last few years a whole new generation of game designers they grew up with games which is very different from our experience with my generation we remember a time when there were no video games or the games were just for for nerds and geeks and you were just you're wasting your time playing games are you know what are you doing now games are considered legitimate form of entertainment and what we're seeing is a reaction every generation has to do something a little different so now we're seeing games that art AAA titles costing millions and millions of dollars but they're simple to deploy I mean for those people who still think gaming said frivolous time with minimal benefits not as long as a book not as pretty as a t.v. Show and not as healthy as sports I think you say in the book what do you would you give to parents with children in bedrooms who are glued to that console. Well as with all parenting you know moderation I think is the watchword but I would claim that there's a benefit to playing computer games we have some anecdotal evidence a student that amaze their teacher in geography class by knowing all the cities in the Caribbean because they had played the game pirates or is familiar with world leaders Oh yes I love. The. I think learning is really part of the core of these games is that you feel you're getting better at them you've learned a new skill you've learned a new strategy you've learned how different things work together I have so many more questions to ask you but people are just going to have to read the book to learn about steel violin playing how you became a pianist but there's one final question why all you not so much Captain Kirk but really soon Well I think Captain Kirk needs to be in the spotlight and my role is more to create the tools for Captain Kirk to succeed in his mission but I want Captain Kirk to have many different options as to how he could successfully complete this mission every situation is going to be different so we need a rich toolkit civilization for example is a game that involves diplomacy and exploration military aspects economic technological advances all these tools are at your disposal to act out your inner Captain Kirk Well thank you for being Captain Kirk just briefly and being in our spotlight. By is memoir and life in computer games is out now and soon staying with us for the rest of the program. Well we're going to continue actually with gangs now on the south with so many thieves his remaining shot to to to cave 19 people looking to get their theatrical fix may find some consolation in the form of that reality tender clue was an independent game studio in Los Angeles has created a live video performance of Shakespeare's The Tempest which can be watched using an Oculus Rift or quest headsets each performance is interactive as 8 depends a linked up with the law is remote accept playing the role of Prosper and guiding them through a virtual landscape channel list l o silly would explained how it was. Next to the b.b.c. . Put on your headset and you're in the under which is a game for the Wii our platform and you're pulled into a box office where you can meet the other people that you'll be playing with and when the show starts you mean we are teleported to the back garden in a kind of Hollywood Hills style home which which purports to be the home of the actor who will be playing prosper that evening and leading you through the story you talk about it is a game and you said you play is that how you felt you were going through it you're very familiar with videogames and I'm much more familiar with sitting and watching a play so I sort of felt that's what I was doing but you felt you were playing a little bit of both you know it did feel fiasco I felt as though I had had a theatrical experience can you successfully game if I think I was watching this and thinking well if you can make films inside Grand Theft Auto 5 Why can't you do a Shakespeare play that way too I think you definitely can because for me one of the things I enjoyed most about this and whether it was just because we're in lockdown and I'm craving human contact but I actually believe it's really wonderful relationship with the people in my show despite the fact that they're completely anonymous figures in the game that wearing masks they're just clad in black you know but we and I say we were kind of laughing together I don't know if people laughing it may have just been me but you got to snap your fingers a lot don't you think that that's one of the things you can do each other gesturing that kind of thing and I came away feeling as though I've had an experience with people and so I do feel like this would work in games you know we've seen you know titles like for Knight who are treating games as not just an entertainment medium but as a platform and they've hosted concerts they posted panels they posted films being inside the game and so I think actually if the me it was the actual Because I experienced it with people which I think is what makes something feel theatrical to me. He would own the tempest a new. Performance from the l.a. Based games t.d. I tend to close my guess on today's in a sig and then 10 See to you with the with some these kind of use of the all I mean do you like it. It's very interesting v.a.r. Is kind of the latest technology that may or may not revolutionize the video game industry we've seen a number of these revolutions over time and it's part of really what drives the whole industry is these advances in technology whether it's the cd Rome which allowed us to actually include movie clips and things like that in games the internet which enabled multiplayer gaming certainly the expansion of memory and graphics capabilities and all the things that make video games look so great these days some of these advances were revolutionary some of them didn't really pan out and I think you know fear is kind of in that stage right now we're trying to figure out what to do with it what is it good at we certainly haven't figured out the killer app for v r because it comes with a set of challenges you know our experience is that you can get kind of disoriented and my experience with the yard just personal is I wonder if anybody's watching me I can't see what's going on. Yeah they feel vulnerable I think laughing at me or they are so interesting Eve probably actually I went to the question already Michael Brewer tweeted to ask specifically a question to you save since you've seen v.l. Come and go again multiple times what do you think it will need to prove itself the game change everyone makes That's a baby so if there was one thing it needed for you it would be that you can see how people will. Write I can imagine sitting in a chair. Magine ing I am on a tropical island and the are you know supports that experience or you know it could be just a very different kind of application that we haven't thought of yet no idea does it appeal to you I mean it's interesting hearing the clip about this piece yeah something like that what I mean I remember the days you know n.p.r. Was fresh and new when you go to a festival and you know the exciting thing was to put on Vi and you'd like be on a swing or be motion or it would just be something quite mundane it does excite me particularly like if what's happening with the pandemic where the theatres have just been clobbered so if there is another opportunity for people to experience life performance I think that's quite exciting I don't really know if audiences will have a completely recover some of the hesitation about going into public places like cinemas. And so perhaps this is the other alternative for particular group of people speaking of cinemas see how many of your games being turned into films now yeah but we are available Yeah very good well there are any navies that stand out for you Well I think the irony is that for a long time we were chasing movies we were firing to be as graphically vivid as movies and now the tables have turned a little bit where movies are kind of using a little bit of the glow of our notoriety thank you very this is the sound on the b.b.c. World Service the us can no men aged film. Is not another adaptation of victim Hugo's novel it's an award winning autobiographical thriller set on a deprived housing estate in the Parisienne suburbs The film follows the story of Stefan who's recently joined the anti crime Brigade the trolling a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris just after the 2018 World Cup that Kamin is actually months the town where Victor Hugo set his novel limits and Stefan quickly discovers tensions running high between neighborhood gangs and the. Gangs are young kids really and when his team finds itself overrun Joe in the course of an arrest a drone catches their every action the film's director largely was born in Mali but raised on that very has in his state in his film the present day France I his neighbors the majority of families of African or Arabic heritage suffering pope police racism and disenfranchisement. Causes come undone Afrikaans or get appalled to recruit proportional Richard he is in translation talking to you and to me a question the whole film is with him or I witnessed as a teenager everything in it is inspired by real events from the 1st scene to the very last 2nd did you film in your own life and incident similar to the one that we see in the film scanner will get to kill either last scene on the stairwell when we went into shooting we shot it on the very stairwell where the incident took place so more than most filmmakers you fully understand the power of the Moving Image our preschoolers the particular border already here because I live were filmed. When a film of 2004 film tree year and 0031 he had this access to what was good on from the inside the police if very interesting in in the film that it is even handed really was it always going to be light and we got it to chance it was all the other was not to take sides against the police despite everything that happened in reality our wanted to be in hand it everyone the people who live only stay on the police they're all neighbors are open where you were filming I know that you know this is where you lived these are people that you know you still have to persuade the whole community to. Be on board to make the film that he was a hot oil quick or should you never did at all on your sickle but it was a huge job one by one to everybody in his day looking all over the toes to tell them that this was a plan to make a film and get everyone on board kids at those everybody we can just pick up and start filming there was a result of months and months of preparation will make you make the film because the whole community to make the film. There were 200 extras in the movie and every single one of them lives on a state you save all the sympathy and the real rage in the film is the children children own that I wanted about the school that you. That you now have were sort of appalled yourself. As a film about childhood so we've built a school for everybody that is free so that children who are the future can make movies for themselves that's the mission for the school. Is a fun How did he come to see the film as our coverage of it all set up and pocket one vital it's not going to come see the film can even come micro-manage invited us to come and lay say we refused the invitation I overheard him to come to move firmly to us the film that he didn't come so we sent him a d.v.d. . Comes very complimentary about the film and they are still is the Ministers to do something about the housing conditions the people who live in the suburbs of Paris . Talking about his film and. Not the attention you've seen the film what are your thoughts I have seen it and I found it challenging on a number of levels firstly they obviously the way it was shot was that the sense of chaos was like oh isn't so hard when the film you're sort of trying to understand the wilds you know the estate the dynamics between the different groups you know the young people I'm. This whole thing that you have going on with the police also witnessing how cavalier The police were in their handling of you know black and brown residents on this estate and also I mean what we see present is the Muslim Brotherhood and how they're running a certain area and then how the character who's known as the mayor has his power so all these power dynamics I thought were beautifully played out most of all the children and all their characters I thought they were extraordinary particular is there was a all you know untrained That's the beauty if you can call it that of the film and this kind of work where you bring that rawness Yeah you bring the real lived experience I'm selling it with large being a documentary maker I felt like that was really perhaps the the thread that really hung with together his own lived experience of recording these kind of incidents living on the estate you know so it felt like it brought another layer that realness if you like would you recommend it to our listeners I would yeah I mean it's still sad to me that you know 25 years on for him we're still talking about the same things with the same kind of wrongness Well interesting lay a lot of cinema laws in London which is where we are broadcasting from are presenting those 2 films as a double veil which is we are fascinating. On this week's b.b.c. World Service comedians bare says the news show that finds the funny in the world's news stories our hosts the New York comics Jeff Salomon and in mine Elvis Amy and joined by Egypt's top satirist Bassem Youssef and acclaimed us comedian. Finally on today's Arts our new Sky Shanker the virtual rest composer and producer who's had 6 Grammy Award nominations and was the 1st Indian musician to perform live at the Grammys although she's often associated with Indian classical music traditions she's actually created a whole body of work that's rooted elsewhere and her collaborations. Extraordinarily varied with everyone from Herbie Hancock to Rhodri go. Latest project is an epeat called Love Letters which documents a time of profound flux for a new SCA health issues heartbreak domestic up people which sparked a new way of writing music as she told the b.b.c. . I just found myself really gravitating towards the intimacy of the human voice and more sparse arrangements and storytelling through music rather than showmanship. I rarely if ever move into that sort of lead Virtual 6 that are display and I'm very much more in service of the melody and the lyrics in the song. It's my 1st collection purely of songs rather than songs peppering instrumental pieces sort of songs of heartbreak and loss and hope and nostalgia and I worked almost exclusively with female co-writers and collaborators on this. I wonder if that was part of the difference in tone and content as well the whole approach just seemed to be very different somehow working with women in the room there was a very trusting straightforward and very open minded atmosphere there were no people in the room it was like I didn't feel like any idea head was going to get shot down and we would try it and see what we could do with it as opposed to like saying something and having someone already think it's not going to work. Does she. Still lying in your. Does she think. Did the songs from the words and working in collaboration with those artists that you've worked with most of the time the words came 1st and lends. She was my principal collaborator she sang 4 of the songs and co-produced the whole thing with me and she and I would often just be sort of on my carpet together with lots of cups of tea and my diary that I'd bring out and then we'd go from there and then borrow from Diana whether Johnson were on those words and a baby was on loveable which is the 1st song that I've allowed myself to sing on which felt great a lovely as well. If you. Need . Is there any doubt or hesitation about exploring those very personal feelings in music because you have to put them out there they become other people so. It's a very interesting process with music to put personal things out into that public fare and I think for me you know creativity is a catharsis and an expression but then the songs form and morph and change so they're not always what my you know maybe what my original experience was isn't necessarily the way the song ends up because it's a piece of work of course and it's a piece of art so I don't always choose accuracy over quality which is my way of saying it isn't necessarily a collection of diary entries press a it's music you know and so by the time the songs come out they feel like my songs they don't feel like my. You know ripped open rib cage anymore. It feels a bit more easy to share. And love letter is available now that say it this week so it's our thank you to both my guests. And thank you for your if you want to be in touch with the show email the Salah at b.b.c. . We'd love to hear from you so now for me Nicky Beatty Edwina Pittman and studio manager Gail golden see you next week. There's a reason why being a good listener is so highly revered because it's hard Morning Edition makes it easier for you to be a good listener by filtering out the background noise and focusing on what you need to know we bring you the facts and news from all over and in your community so practice good listening with Morning Edition from n.p.r. News every day. And weekday mornings from 510. This is Connecticut Public Radio w n.p.r. And w n.p.r. H.t. One merit and at 90.5 p. Katie and of e.p. Katie age d one Norwich at 89 point one. F.m. Stamford 88.5 job you are a lawyer Southampton at 91.3 endeavor you in the dock or. Coming up after the news it's people fixing the World with me Claire Bates accidental drowning 320000 people here in the sea Lakes even ditches I could hear people crying mothers cried fathers cry sisters to all because no child died it's been called a silent epidemic because it's so little talked about but there are some projects working hard to make a difference in Israel they created Ai life guards to help rescue a spot problems before they happen while at Lake Victoria in Africa they've created special weather forecast for fisherman. Meanwhile in Bangladesh community creches and bamboo swimming ponds helping children stay safe that's all coming up in people fixing the world after the b.b.c. News. B.b.c. News Hello this is Gerry Smith's a coat in Beijing has sentenced a former property tycoon to a lengthy jail term for corruption Chung and unspoken critic of President Xi Jinping was once a prominent member of the ruling Chinese Communist Party from Beijing Stephen McDonell reports the man known here as a big Kenyan for his outspoken criticism of Charles leadership has been sentenced to 18 years in prison according to court documents. The former chairman of state owned property developer why n. Group confessed to crimes of corruption bribery and embezzlement the China analysts have seen this as a way of silencing a once powerful critic of Communist Party general secretary she Jinping ren disappeared from public life in March after writing an essay which slammed shady M.P.'s management of the coronavirus the British prime minister Boris Johnson will outline in Parliament today a set of new measures to control the spread of the coronavirus in England's pubs and restaurants will be ordered to close at 10 pm from Thursday Mr Johnson is also expected to instruct people to work from home where possible it comes as the Cobra the lowest level was raised to 4 meaning transmission is high or rising exponentially the Cabinet minister Michael Gove's said time was of the essence if we look at the trajectory of the virus that we need to take action now and a stitch in time saves 9 if we take this action at this point then we can hopefully avert more serious action later. Stock markets in Asia have suffered from investors worries about a rise in coronavirus cases in the u.s. And Europe the biggest falls were recorded in Australia where shares hit a 3 month low investors have also been rattled by fading hopes for more financial support for the u.s. Economy so markets fell across South Korea Hong Kong and China or Japan was closed for a public holiday. The president said China Russia and the United States will be among the speakers on the 1st day of the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly which is being held online because of the pandemic leaders have been invited to record speeches of up to 3 minutes as Nick Burns reports this virtual gathering will have the feel of a glorified geo political zoom call with international leaders filling their speeches from a far rather than delivering them before the General Assembly in New York the planetary pandemic is completely up ended the United Nations plans for its 75th anniversary and also raised fresh questions about the effectiveness of this global body as the Secretary General Antonio to charity has warned the world faces a surplus of multilateral challenges and a deficit of multilateral solutions you're listening to World News from the b.b.c. a Report from a respected us think tank details how the Chinese government is forcing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tibetans to attend military style vacation or training senses away from their homes the reports by the Jamestown Foundation is based on government documents and satellite imagery it says that it's up to July this year more than half a 1000000 Tibetans have been put through training similar to what has been documented among ethnic week is in the shin Jiang reach him. President Trump appears to have secured enough support in the u.s. Senate to win approval for his nominee to the vacant seat on the Supremes court 2 more Republicans have said they would vote to confirm the woman he chooses to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg provided she is sufficiently qualified. Rescuers in Tasmania say they've been able to free a small number of the pilot whales stranded in a bait on the West Coast of the island Monday about 270 pilot whales were spotted in shallow waters a 3rd of wage have died the operation to refloat the remaining wells and bring them back out to sea is continuing daughter Vanessa Parata is a local marine biologist right now it's an active situation where there's so much going on and it's really all about identify which animals are a lot it's just so tricky the longer that they're less stranded they've been stranded for over 24 hours time is taking it takes the moment that the animals come ashore and in this case if we can get back up alone or even more than a couple so to speak that is a positive outcome but also remembering that if you do release these animals there is a real possibility that they can turn around and restraint conservation experts say one in 5 species of maple tree are under threat of extinction the trees are risk from deforestation climate change and for as far as disappearing at an alarming rate b.b.c. News. Mothers cried fathers sisters. Died. From. Drowning. $320000.00 deaths a year that's $36.00 people every hour people in the city. Even. Now start ups charities and local governments. Lucian's from simple. To the latest computer. To people in the world with me. And today we're hearing from 3 very different projects from the Middle East Africa and South Asia designed to reduce the number of people who drowned I'm starting off in Israel whether piloting a high tech solution to keep people safe at the beach. The majority of Israel's population. And going to the beach is one of the country's most times it's not without its risks as Ben Ari at the Israel. Explains. Out of the sphere go into the water and disturb towards dangerous. Trolls on the beaches of the sea Yeah but you know it cannot be the whole time yeah all day long the national parks Authority has lifeguards or 5 of Israel's main beaches but it's a struggle to keep everyone safe when you have a big shark here 234 people very difficult to know just who is the violence of the problem and sometimes all you need to move America is one or 2 minutes that you go training noticed while the sea can look deceptively calm a number of Israel's beaches experience many rip currents invisible channels of water that pull the swimmer away from the shore roaming is a big problem but people usually don't talk about it too much that's the title is c.e.o. Of site but Beach lifeguards rely on years of experience that they've built up along a particular stretch of coast maternal realized ought official intelligence could help the result is Site bit so far the process is a life each coming from cameras placed along the beach is being trained to spot potential risks using thousands of example photos and video clips we provide the computer the information that say Ok these charges for use these child not to use this is a reporting this is a person inside the report and a computer Larry by itself what is fairly a report when it spot something it sounds no alert. And the t.v. Monitor zooms into the relevant area overlays a red square around it for the life got to see is there not the lifeguard to assess the situation and decide what to do the site bit is currently being tested a Palm Beach which is part of a national park. I mean to me it's one of the biggest cost on beaches in news right now Dorry's only one where they live dark and even we did but not a lot can call for all round 300 meters so 30 percent of the beach we installed is there in the tower so it's. More like 50 percent more than lifeguard right now our goal is to call we're there for one kilometer so it's mean that they can control and manage the beach from the tower itself currently the tunnel says the system is 85 percent accurate the rest of the time it's mostly giving false positives indicating risk where there isn't any the pilot is in partnership with Israel's parks authority and Sheikh El says they are working together to improve it have the lifeguards given you any feedback about it and then like you. Still have to put a lot of effort into the system it's a dialogue between us and the system but you can see it's becoming better and better and started the route to focus how with the lifeguards giving feedback to the system they cancelled a lot the. System this is not about just the case don't get. A lot in this kind of position of over kids or. Their offices when they noticed something dangerous and. Puts in a lot on the system and that's just a moment. So how much does it cost Well they are planning on selling a system with $1.00 to $3.00 cameras for $15000.00 u.s. Dollars a year the tunnel says for context this is less than the annual electricity bill for a lifeguard tower so it's kind of subscription up most of the money goes for the equipment so it's like the 1st money that you paid the 2nd year of the 3rd year it may be cheaper than that because you have already become rather money towards you're going to charge as low as we can in the beginning so it that which is a private start up received this initial funding from a foundation at Ben-Gurion University the founders hope to receive further investment as it develops the product however they say their primary goal is to save lives is it fair to say this is really a solution for rich countries no this is the reason why we try to develop the product with very basic equipment now there is a lot of breaches of that already have come around even in China and India the bridges have come around old one but yeah they don't have any abilities so we're going to provide them a system our goal is save lives so if we go and I own less and then United States we call or less we're going to sell it in cheaper price site that had climbed to launching further pilots in Denmark and the us this year but this is being delayed by kind of it relates to travel restrictions the company does already have agreements to provide the system to other areas in Israel including places that currently have no lifeguards for example in Tel Aviv it's gone up there with that kind of speak you're going to alert the people. For example if there is a point this is them going as the people on the beach to not. Inside the sea for example some people might get concerned that will end up replacing life guards and experience large we're not going to praise their lives good at all we're just going to provide a lifeguard a soft were 1st to let him Guard bigger area and 2nd a lot of counties hard time to find they do is like the. Type it isn't the only interesting high tech solution out there in southern Spain lifebelt flying trains carrying life jackets out to sea which inflates one dropped on the water the idea is the lifeguards can send out this lifeline to a struggling swimmer long before another rescuer reaches them in person. Isn't actually the most common cause of drowning a u.n. Report from 2014 found 90 percent are turning deaths happen in middle and low income countries one high risk group is people who rely on boating for their livelihoods. Lake Victoria is the largest freshwater lake in Africa bordering Tanzania Uganda and Kenya it provides what for over 200000 fishermen who produce $400000000.00 u.s. Dollars worth of fish a year. But is also known to be one of the most dangerous well twice in the world it's difficult to guess an accurate total but estimates place drowning deaths at $3000.00 a year and they're going every day in small boats to catch fish Busch they sell really almost you can have very hard. Very high waves and these can quickly. Sink which can often result in one key issue. Fishman didn't have access to weather forecasts also Vale weather warnings John Ferrugia what the u.k. Met Office he's been eating a 3 year project called Highway funded by British government aid to tackle the problem the team approach beach managers and fisherman to find out what weather information they needed and find the best ways of getting it to them but festival they worked with local met offices to improve the accuracy of local forecasts so some of that was to do with rehabilitating existing. Views for very serious and perhaps it needs recalibration perhaps it just may be some pause pops needed reconnecting to a communications that work the 2nd thing was looking. In some cases novel one used to. Networks 3 d. Printed weather stations So these are relatively cheap usual weather station easy to produce easy to install easy to fix one of. These where the stations are printed largely from the likely source materials that could be easily replaced if they were out there fitted with micro sensors and locals computers that can measure temperature rainfall and wind speeds amongst other things at ground level. The part it also built hydrogen generators a key observation sites so local met offices could send out regular weather balloons to measure the atmosphere so they're going up twice a day there's normally. Doing. The highway project brought together meteorologists from Tanzania Kenya and Uganda to train them in the latest ways of taking and analyzing measurements for the full costs the next challenge was to work out what Michael's wanted from the full cost his Junius could probe from the Uganda metaphorically who what on the highway is a sham and I'm interested in doing the screening that you do when data you can do with like visibility is that because this is what keeps them safe in the boat so if the waves are high and there's a danger that their boats could be overwhelmed with water yes you go to do you prove yours don't forecast well in the morning we're nobody in there and I know them well but I don't think. We're going to have you know what's up again time that you know where we share their forecasts and we believe we are not really the problem. The Met Office is introduced a traffic light system Green means that say from the lake red that it's life threatening and orange this potential danger. Are you. Serious or you want to see the police warning Europe or. Until they were grabbed a portion of the imprudent if you were going to be elected. You are ensure that no one on the door is reading you like you are going to boggle or did the bow before the knee injury. Period when one of. The folk us said with local beach manages to place colored flags on the beaches and posted up using simple symbols on the main data sports that also passed radio station percent as has been trained on how to interpret the forecast and their own local languages. Department Davidic angle is a percentage at Radio nominal way f.m. In consumer Kenya so what's up actually. Improve the funding and are the parents of the information on how much home I need not because you know I already when I didn't have one upon the been commissioned I want to transmit to my audience so for instance if you are talking to them about waif Heights how would you explain that to them we've nominee break it down to very very simple language that they can understand make with tides around me I looked up the knowledge of any findings from focus groups found 85 percent of uses but getting the improved weather information but these 3 quarters used it to change their behavior such as taking life jackets or extra fuel on the spawning a trip they did that with the focus information. At them to save their boat from damage caused by promptly divisions of the beach were to say that if you call them in planning for believe the water from Kentucky This in turn has had an impact on dry. Soundings is hard to get reliable statistics but they trim the project indicates that has been around a 30 percent reduction in deaths on the lake this means highway could be preventing up to a 1000 deaths per year but David says economic factors mean some people will always ignore the weather warnings out for the economic train. Being phoned up at a time when we inch month presence on fishermen on the front porch of. We on the budget whether or not the funding for the highway project was any great for 3 years this was to give it time to set up show it could work with limited resources trained staff and then handed over to the Met offices in each country the responsibility now lies with them to carry on forecasts and even expand the project if they want to. The World Health Organization says the people at highest risk of turning a children age one to 4 years old followed by kids age 5 to 9 and is a particular problem in Southeast Asia. Is the leading killer of children under 18 in Bangladesh and. Around 14500. And over 70 percent of those under fight that start to I mean a Raman from the Center for Injury Prevention and research in Bangladesh. Dr Raman has spent decades trying to reduce stranding deaths in his country Bangladesh is the largest in the world and there are numerous reverse and. In the country and there is abundance of water bodies like forms to just accept where people are exposed and often children are not properly supervised by us and people here in Bangladesh some basic Stephen slight streaming steals above all ignored instead. Leading killer of children in the country back in 2005 research from the center revealed more than half of young children who drowned did so between 9 am and 1 pm The mother so busy with George the father used to go to field for cultivation. Incentives to cool to school so in most of the families there is no one to continuously look up and under 5 and more stuff to happen due to that reason that no one is to them so they set up a handful of community creches and as a child with funding from Unicef it. Is 4 hours John so. To please our 8 to Boston. In 2017 they partnered with Britain's Royal National life by institution to set up project Pasha which means flights and Bengali they launched a large number of answering lessons which will come to in a minute in a southern district of Bangladesh where 410000 children enrolled in Precious most of the doctors are located at. You 1st born house and we've been reading 10 minutes walk from p.p. To 60 families and ouchy choose a man child care giver in the community we need a mother who has a secondary level of education who is interested to provide at least one of our rooms for 4 hours a day and she will be given a stipend for what the camera's known as. The top how to help children's early development and get regular refresher training 70 is an hour in a village in the patchwork district of Bangladesh She's been working as a camera since 2017 and monosyllable says. Bottles a need that. I picked year of $25.00 children I entertain the children play with them feed them the snacks they bring I draw with them and tell them stories we do activities with the toys I keep them safe this gives me a lot of happiness. And that children also enjoy themselves that on the sub India was motivated after local children drowned in her village added looking on Sunday in our southern part children mostly die from drowning and in the past when I would sleep down to have lunch I would hear people cry mothers cried fathers cried sisters to all because a child died from drowning accidents happened causing injuries and buries it in ways they taught Rahman says the Archos have a choice stranding deaths by 55 percent in the areas they were introduced between 20172020 although they are still struggling to protect topless their children after their 1st bought the stuff last fall. But unfortunately as their spirit man does not seem very comfortable to frequent the common feet and that's something they're still working on at the moment. For older children they launch swimming lessons called Swim Sayf Bangladesh is a poor country we've got an op stablish training course every village what we do we have lost our bones so we modified bows we some. Sticks like bamboo and we realize the. Grounds to. The thing which is we called a modified swimming and interestingly when the water bodies do rise we can raise. Up so that the work of their child is almost the same the lessons adapted from manuals used in Australia and the u.k. Teach children basic techniques of a 14 days by the time they graduate they can float for 30 seconds and swim 25 meters 90 percent. Of. The children are taught by locals to undergo basic training and swimming techniques and 1st date when he has been a swimming instructor in the Patrick district for 2 years and the egg will actually pick a and I have taught 10250 children how to swim he needs group there are 15 children after the training these children have learnt new skis which they did not know before this kids have really enjoyed learning taking on bowling and so on and have become skilled swimmers wended children are asked to swim 25 metres and they're able to complete that and become a graduate they feel so delighted learning to swim is good for them and also good they will now be able to see if others they feel really happy. Have got there by his ownership. Thought Rahman says from 2017 to 2019 the number of tranny deaths fell by 49 percent in the area. It was funded by development aid from the u.k. And says the government is now taking the. Proposal. To 5 percent of the country. And. We are going to have. To go through all of this. Is clear there are many complex reasons for drowning and so there is no one solution the World Health Organization says countries should up a national tragedy prevention strategy as a key 1st step at present dozens of nations that have one more what needs to be done to convince people of the scale of the problem and crucially that the effective ways to tackle it. Well that's it from us at people facing the wealth will be back next week with another solution thank you for listening. To. The. Distribution of b.b.c. World Service in the u.s. Is supported by indeed committed to helping businesses find high impact hires by offering tools like screener questions and sponsor jobs learn more and indeed dot com slash impact and extra office chair dynamic variable lumbar support in 10 ergonomic features for maximum support and comfort at x. Dot com or 8444 x. . You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service with me Elizabeth Hobson In today's business day they will be finding out how the craft beer industry is fairing during the coronavirus endemic why it's presented some business is it with an expected opportunities and and there's with logistical nightmares That's all coming up after the latest world in. B.b.c. News with Jerry Smit a court in Beijing has jailed a former property tycoon for 18 years folk or option Renji Jiang once a prominent member of the Chinese Communist Party this is from public view in March after criticizing President Hu's response to coronavirus and calling him a clown. A report from a respected us think time details how the Chinese government is forcing hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tibetans to attend military saw the occasional training centers away from their homes based on government documents and serve a wide imagery it says up to July this year more than half a 1000000 Tibetans have been put through training similar to what has been documented among ethnic we goes into and young. The British government has to ask more people to work from home as part of new measures to control a resurgence of coronavirus in England it's a stretch from his previous position when employees were being encouraged to return to work. Stock markets in Asia have suffered from the fallout from investors worried about a rise in Corona virus cases in the u.s. In Europe in Australia shares hit a 3 month. The presidents of China the United States and Russia are among the speakers on the 1st day of the annual meeting of the un General Assembly which is being held online because of the pandemic this Embley comes at a time of increasing tension between Washington and Beijing. The Taliban have on that senior government leaders who are critical of the insurgent groups are enemies of peace the warning came after one of the 2 vice presidents criticized the Taliban regime of the late 1990 s. When they ran Afghanistan on the straight Islamic laws. And rescuers in Tasmania say they've been able to free a small number of the pilot whales stranded in a bay on the West Coast of the Australian island b.b.c. News. I'm Elizabeth Cohen and in today's business be finding out how the craft beer industry has been fairing during the reign of. The Christ. And why adapting a business model contained into a logistical nightmare there's also currently a shortage of c o 2 so we're having issues being. The current crisis present new opportunities many consumers consuming beer because there was no other products this is business from the. One of my favorite sitting in a pub having a pint. Recently been able to enjoy. Getting them delivered statistics very. Down For example in the u.k. Market research company. 20 percent to. 50 percent. Down. And the figures vary. One thing many places in common is a change in the way the alcohol. And cans were in and this in turn presented an interesting opportunity to craft a very. Definition of but for the purposes of this program I'm going to take it. Is a subject that Bereuter Brown. To gayety and shielding because of health concerns and looked down penning a book called craft an argument which was strictly followed by an essay entitled The 1st half to cave it was tough and take full So what's peaks take on the impact say 5 coronavirus on the craft beer industry crises has impacted. As affected small independent pros disproportionately kind of switched about drinking from the pope to home and counting and bottling equipment is very expensive if your business was geared purely to supply pubs in just being then you found yourself basically shut down and it's difficult to come back from the those pros who have come in Quicken or have coming lines and bottling lines a lot of them were very flexible in adapted to the new environments and started doing home deliveries of beer and really kind of beefing up their online shops the ones that are based in cities have an advantage if you've got a cunning line if you've got vans that were there to to Libya to pubs if you can be adaptable and flexible to supporting local communities I think those ones are thriving and I think if you've got a lot of people living quite close to the burden obviously you can do a lot better with direct sales and things like the one break it takes pretty much all of those boxes. In east London which have a few weeks ago he's still got a lot to the she's to grapple with but things are beginning to look a bit brighter I'm John Sweeney and I read thank you very much stood next to the role of cakes here is this going to be several 100 cakes where are they going where's the beer in these going should be food in people's cellars in the city but everything's still closed down there it's a dandy here and now production is kind of off at the moment things are slowly picking up I think will be back soon over at some point but it's going to be a long road to see he said that these cakes are actually empty and the bay would normally be in pubs in the city of London. And that's a direct effect to. A lot of people in the city and banks and accountancy fencing consultants working from home yeah the day of the lockdown we lost 95 percent of our business overnight it's still kind of had knock on effect were you able to can up some if you bear in getting into people's houses directly Yeah we were in a funny position to have 14 tanks full of bear and no counting machine so we called in some favors and we. Can package finding a new market with direct today was is key and we can of done that without the community before look down what was your percentage can sales and what is it now is between 3 and 5 percent can sales for lock down it went from 300 percent and it's slowly coming back down again and I long would have written off 2020 is. Survival here basically if you can get through this you can pretty much spot anything when you do rebuild how do you see the way you actually trade change we hope that the pumps will reopen to some sort of capacity but with the new reach market with direct sales to people I think that is something that we've never had before we'll come out the other side of that with a positive it's really important we connect with people and I think direct sales is a way we're adapting to do that around the brewery am surrounded by the housing development is the main roads very residential and we had quite a few e-mails from the residents Bay and I Can we just kind of string around and pick up your bed because I'm surprised and I think it's so important going forward that we don't lose them and it's something new that we are been missing. So how do you see the future panning out is a fine balance now I'm going to pass the I'm very cautious about going out where we are where the mosque sounds as a man's all the time and where quite carefully keeping our distance as well even. They seem to be what I mean out there outside areas have been key to our way of parenting back at them or. With outside spaces where the crowds are going to comfortable to be there and there were so there's a certain group of by the local park that just through a few months kind of tailor called him out basically. In that area and there's a take out. So you can have just rumbled past where are they going to figure to your current surely you'll know that's in the north of England that's. So 25300 kilometers away we have a national online distribution and we send it direct from the ferry to where it's going we shifted a lot better through them I look down direct to both shops and it's very important they get all support this time as well so this can be easily overlooked when you try to struggle to sell as much as you care but they're all in this together. Namer to how supportive the craft brewing industry is saying that she's out of their control at the moment and terrain of Irish related was very widely anticipated Brown again I think South Africa is the worst because they basically prohibition and bring was canceled altogether in South Africa for long periods so breweries would just shut down with no ability to do his thing about it and in different parts of the world it is kind of different parts of the United States different regulations apply about whether you're allowed to sell beer from your front door or what they don't have to deliver a beer to people's homes and things like that one for the grappling with the regulations. She's a member of the bruises satiation trait but if a small independent American Progress and she'll say when's the detainees and growing company in Maryland where she talked to me from at the end of August we were founded in 2014 and Silver Spring Maryland and have expanded since then to a 2nd location in. Park Maryland we brew ales loggers barrel age peers mix fermentation we've got something for everyone as well as heart seltzer. Every state in the us has different regulations and even within that state the regulations defect so you walk to the regulations where you out when it comes to Tristram is visiting the brewery for example and something that projects in and buying the big they allowed inside to have a temporary what's been happening or actually allowed to have people inside as long as we're 50 percent capacity and people can sit outside as well as long as it's 50 percent capacity obviously masks are required extra sanitation up and down we're also able to do direct to consumer home delivery as well as pick up we are also a restaurant and finding a 50 percent capacity. Costs. You know. I mean to put it bluntly and directly the government needs to step up and do a lot more I mean the fact that we're open and bring in revenue is better than not having any revenue at all the problem is that revenue has been cut in half across the board not just for us but all those small businesses right now and yet all of our bills are staying the same small businesses are required to announce you individually negotiate with their landlords and eventually negotiate with their banks this is really a situation that's right for government intervention in terms of helping save the small business economy you say that you want more government intervention what form should duck take I think the federal government has to call for a moratorium and forgiveness on all commercial mortgages and commercial debts and that way landlords on the state level can then be forced to do a moratorium and forgiveness on all rents rent is a huge expense for small businesses as is you know labor costs you know I think that the government needs to be doing the enhanced unemployment benefits for people . And that this needs to be happening for the foreseeable future until there's some sort of recovery to this economy which I just don't see happening anytime soon until there's at least some sort of vaccine that's widely available on a mass scale Curry's are a type of business model that have a lot of opportunities for jobs and I think it is an industry that needs to be saved how much if a threat to A's the coronavirus crisis to independent craft brewers I mean it's a huge threat right now there's a couple of things that are threatening at one we don't have as many customers that we can get our products to that's a huge damper on revenue the 2nd thing that's happening is covert is actually creating supply chain issues and resource limitations so there's a huge aluminum can short of Drake now and that's being compounded by the fact that more people are drinking beer at home more people are buying beer from package stores so more breweries are putting their products in cans and we've been canning our beer for about 5 years now but we just sort of plus the amount of our beer that we're putting in cans so we basically pivoted hard to focus on direct to consumer delivery as well as getting more of our beer in cans out to our retail partners through some of our distributors as well as some of our direct retailers that we work with but that's an avoidable change in the way Julie and to this day business has presented a whole new set of unexpected problems there's also currently a shortage of c o 2 so we're having issues being able to package as much Piers we'd like to because we're not getting as much c o 2 has been need in order to put our products into packaging as small and independent birds we aren't large enough to buy directly from one of the only 2 aluminum can producers of the entire United States Ball and Crown so we have to go through a middleman and so we just reached out to his buddies we can to get our hands on as many cans as possible you know prices of obviously gone out it doesn't help. President trying to decided to put a tariff on aluminum that is also compounding the problem and there's a shortage so you just do we have to do you have to be scrappy you know we're fighting to survive here I started denizens with my wife and my brother in law we put everything we own into this you know the denizens goes away not only do we lose our livelihood we lose everything we own earned higher lives you know we go personally bankrupt for us failure is not an option do you see the creative arts is being an existential threat to independent brewing when we're comparing it to the breweries that he brewing conglomerates say that maybe in the next year we're back to where we were say 10 years ago 20 years ago with just a handful of independent Brewers and the vast majority of them are being taken up by the big companies absolutely I think we're in an existential crisis and I do think that there is a very real threat that that will happen and Pete Brown all say thinks that big group is a better place to to write out the coronavirus pandemic the thing about big breweries is that when you go to supermarkets the big brew is over represented the supermarkets will come very time. The people who can afford to kind of supply at the low cost the supermarkets demand so given that everything switched way more towards supermarkets the benefit to the big bro has and then pubs have reopened a lot of the bigger ones have been helping pope's by saying Oh we will give away you know 100000 pints of beer to pubs in order to help you get going again which is great if you're struggling Milt's a great if that means the free beer from big crowd you know the small brew is off the bus which I think is the case then for just about every room that's next section and one of these is just. These judge various international competitions and wintering craft brewery service set here in Mexico City she says at 1st look down like you would guess to make the industry. By the end of March their lockdown was declared for all of us when the government announces the lock down it's a clear the beer production is not an instant selective 80. 2 micro breweries with a low in look there's so much out there mark those big breweries start their production by the end of April and last around 3 weeks so yeah they retired their product they didn't these 3 but their products and you can find those beers anywhere with new products available from the to big Mexican companies and by brewing Kong a b. In Beth and Heineken which normally account for 90 percent of beer sales in Mexico there was a unique opportunity for crust Brewers many of which had stopped but which could become dippin sell to customers who hadn't tried that kind of big before many consumers started consuming craft beer because there was no other products because those companies retired their products even from supermarkets sailing points so you couldn't find it in any place industrial beers so that was a huge opportunity for us. And the craft beer industry in Mexico isn't alone in managing to attract customers Pete Brown says this is a trend in marriage in the u.k. And beyond. I think that's definitely been a positive early on in lockdown at the end of March early April my social media feeds were full of people asking me what local brew was they should be buying from people who'd never bought small independent craft beer before going to buy some bread for the home and they didn't just want to get the big brands they wanted something different and in a kind of entrepreneurial levels of people don't very well or you know a lot of independent Brewers have started sometimes literally in the bathroom brewing baby. In the bath or in a cabbage and do the steps and they've great become extremely viable and successful businesses change you think that they could lead to other small businesses cropping up and thinking well you know why are you never know what's going to happen in life I may as well follow my dream and start my own brewery I'm hoping so a lot of the people I speak to who can craft brewers they didn't do it to get rich they did it to have a better quality of life and most craft brewers are now in London used to working in finance All righty And good morning to going I want to do something more meaningful with my life I want to see something tangible as a result of the work that I do and I think the global financial crisis 10 years ago 12 years ago really spurred a lot of in London we had an explosion in the number of craft breweries in 20092010 I think is a direct result of that and I think this could be a Suburban for more people to do that and to follow their dream and to open a brewery our focus has shifted to being more focused on the local community and if you think well my community needs a great brewer of great baker the options down the same and most of the destruction wrought by coronavirus they do seem to be some chicks of like the craft beer I'm going towards the end of the pint Just today my bit to help that's it for today's business day late but we'll be back again tomorrow. Hello and welcome to witness history on the b.b.c. World Service with me Bob Howard today I'm talking to the former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf about her fight to get billions of dollars worth of debts written off after 2 decades of civil war in the West African nation. What happens to the war and what you. Also force it's very difficult to be able to tell the whole story that Liberia is Africa's oldest republic situated on the continent Atlantic coast relentless fighting in the 1980 s. And 1990 s. Left an estimated 250000 people dead from a population of just 3 and a half 1000000 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf a Harvard trained economist became Africa's 1st female elected president 2 years after being end of the war I took over the presidency after the elections in January 2006 the country was devastate our economy had collapsed our institutions had become totally dysfunctional out infrastructure were all destroyed the hope of our country had really reached a low point the new president had a huge task primarily to keep the peace but she also had to start to rebuild the country and the destruction had been so widespread there was little economic activity to generate money to rebuild things like roads schools and hospitals the revenue that we met was 80000000 United States Dollars and all the needs we had to fix me Ellie tell your capital city did not have lights because the destruction was so. Profound So what system pipes had been taking out of the ground and here I am with it 2000000 not only was revenue greatly reduced but the country had built up huge debts and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says it was almost impossible to see what the money which had been borrowed had been spent on our domestic debt was estimated to be $4040000000.00 u.s. Dollars and our external debt was estimated to be close to 5000000000 since we were in a period of almost 2 decades of war it would be difficult to see how the debt was used because the country was destroyed the loans Liberia owed dated as far back as 180 when civilian rule ended after a soldier called Samuel Doe staged a coup to oust the government and then Johnson Sirleaf says it was unpaid interest payments which had contributed to the debts becoming so large they had not been any debt servicing In addition there were interest accumulating on the outstanding amount of the debt so I think this is why we inherited it debt level there was more than double g.d.p. At the turn the combination of a hugely diminished revenue and the massive debt repayments left the president with little choice but to attempt to negotiate debt forgiveness with the country's creditors Oh it was impossible for us to try to get at it clearly that could not have even handle all of the interest accumulation on the debt and this is why we had to go for debt relief to complicate matters there was not one single creditor but a whole host of countries and institutions Liberia owed money too much of this money would have come from international development finance institutions such as the World Bank and in troops the countries that were in partnership with Liberia but things were not all gloom. In the 1950 s. Major criticism countries like the u.s. Fronts in u.k. Had formed something called the Paris Club this allowed nations to collectively agree debt restructuring for poorer countries even if they then had to individually sign off a new deal and in 1906 the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that started the scheme called a child p.c. Or heavily indebted poor countries to help nations like Liberia and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf felt she personally was well placed to be directly involved in the negotiations having been Liberia's 1st female finance minister and having spent many years working in the field a tree near in accountancy even though ended up working with Citibank in Nairobi so I had enough knowledge of finances to be able to be able to make decisions and to be able to lead the negotiations as the head of state the president may have felt she had the relevant experience to negotiate debt relief for self but unfortunately many other Liberians with financial expertise had left the country during the Civil War that led creditors like the World Bank and i.m.f. To insist that consultants from outside Liberia should be brought in to help run the country and fix its finances anytime a country has to give up what may be seen as part of its 70 you know can be a hurtful decision but in our case we also knew that we didn't have enough numbers to do it Liberians have been living abroad for many years and it took a lot to try to convince them to come back to the country the experts both within and outside Liberia were asking the president searching questions about her plans to improve the economy how many people you can employ What's the salary and wages you can take the silver servants and to seem time needed to mans up your country because every time you made progress like train takes 10 electricity to one cup. Unity several other communities would then equal treatment in the meantime one form of debt was proving to be particularly troublesome This was from private lenders who'd given up collective memory from Liberia and which instead sold their loans on to so-called vulture funds aggressive creditors who were determined to recover the cash they insisted that we either p. Them or they take the country to court in which case you know they could have put a levy on whatever resources we have in any other bank and we would have been stuck as the meetings continued with the i.m.f. World Bank and the Paris Club one offer of help came from an unusual source Bano the lead singer of the Irish rock band you to become a seasoned campaigner on the issue with the pressure group drop the debt we were able to get Bono if you know the into Tina Bono who shamed those holders of our debt money that they want to spend on hospitals health care schools they're sending to the United States Europe on interest it's kind of right and the president didn't just have to rely on rock stars to sway the creditors 3 years into the negotiation process in 2009 the u.s. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice approved a decision to write off all of Liberia's $390000000.00 debt owed to the United States Ellen Johnson Sirleaf felt it was a very significant moment when to give credit to kind of the rice because after the presentations she stood up and she just said the United States will cancel all of his stick every sentence and when she said that I had a big sigh of relief it took 4 years in total but eventually the long negotiations by President Johnson Sirleaf team and campaigners paid off. In June 2010 the i.m.f. And the World Bank announced Liberia was eligible for debt relief worth $4600000000.00 And in November agreement was even reached with 2 vulture funds but the country would only have to pay back 3 percent of the $43000000.00 It owed them actually was it now so a celebration all over the country Liberians So it's a new day now we can agree. We could begin to see a rise President Johnson Sirleaf served 2 terms as head of state and was a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 Liberia's remained at peace but allegations of corruption and mismanagement have dogged the country and political rival from 2006 jobs where continue to fight for the top job and in 2017 the former footballer became president that was along Johnson Sirleaf the former Liberian president talking to me Bob Howard for witness history. I'm Tanya Mosley for over a century the Mormon Church banned black people from their priesthood a troubled history has come back into focus after a summer of anti-racist protests Mormon tells her story we have a place here we've always had a place here will continue to carve out space for our place next time on here. Join us this afternoon next to. This is Connecticut public media even p.r. And p.r. H.d. One marathon at 90.5 there p k t k t h d one at 89 point one d w at Stanford at 88.5 w r o i f m Southampton at $91.00 and n.p.r. That or. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Dave Mattingly the body of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in repose at the u.s. Supreme Court tomorrow and Wednesday Ginsburg died late last week at age 87 of complications from pancreatic cancer she will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery in Ohio yesterday President Trump reaffirmed his intent to nominate a woman to fill the Supreme Court vacancy at the end of the week while a Goldstein with member station Wy is so we're poor it's on the president's campaign event in Dayton President Trump told the audience of over 1000 supporters that he is working very hard to appoint his 3rd Supreme Court justice he polled the crowd asking if the nominee should be a man or a woman but reiterated that the person selected will be a woman it will be a very good person it will be I have 5 that were vetting right down it will be a brilliant person it will be a woman it will be a woman term said he will probably announce his nominee on Saturday saying it will be a big day for the country Democrats argue that the Republican led Senate should not hold a vote on a Supreme Court nominee and till after the election for n.p.r. News I'm Laila Goldstein in Dayton a federal judge says absentee ballots in Wisconsin may be counted up to 6 days after the November 3rd presidential election Marty Michaelson with member station Wu w.-m. Says the ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Democrats under current law the deadline for returning an absentee ballot to have it counted is 8 pm on election night the Wisconsin Democratic Party and other groups sued to extend the deadline after the presidential primary in April drew a long lines at only 5 polling places in Milwaukee where there was a shortage of workers due to the coronavirus thousands of mail an absentee ballots also weren't received in Clerks offices until after. The election attorneys for the Wisconsin Republican Party are expected to appeal they argue that people have plenty of time to obtain ballots and get them back to clerks by Election Day President Trump narrowly won Wisconsin in 2016 for n.p.r. News I'm Marty Michelson in Milwaukee real estate magnate in China has been sentenced to 18 years in prison by a court in Beijing he was found guilty of embezzling public funds and taking bribes worth millions of dollars N.P.R.'s Emily Fang has more. Fortune in the 1990 s. Real estate boom but has become an outspoken critic in recent years in February he published an essay obliquely criticizing Chinese leader Xi Jinping for the excesses of the ruling Chinese Communist Party like the triggering his current imprisonment and its ruling Beijing court said except it is 18 years and would not appeal That's N.P.R.'s Emily Fang reporting this is n.p.r. News from Washington. Later today British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce new coronavirus restrictions in the u.k. One of Johnson's cabinet ministers tells Sky News they will include pubs and restaurants being ordered to close each night at 10 o'clock local time the prime minister is also expected to encourage more people to work from home Johnson is scheduled to address the House of Commons before making a telephone televised address the seeming parts of the Texas Gulf Coast are being drenched by rains from Tropical Storm Beta the storm came ashore late last night near Port O'Connor That's about 100 miles north of Corpus Christi beta is expected to dump tent up to 15 inches of rain along the Texas coast before it moves into Louisiana Mississippi and Arkansas basketball icon Michael Jordan says he's joining Nascar as an owner as Greg Ackland reports Jordan has been involved in n.b.a. Ownership for a decade Michael Jordan will be a partner with current driver Denny Hamlin as owners but Hamlin won't be driving for Jordan flipping the ignition switch instead for the Jordan race team will be bubble Wallace the only black driver on NASCAR's Cup circuit Wallace announced earlier this month that he's leaving the Richard Petty team after the season Jordan said in a statement that he sees this as a chance to educate a new audience and open more opportunities for black people in racing Jordan became the majority owner of the N.B.A.'s Charlotte Hornets 10 years ago for n.p.r. News I'm Greg Echlin I'm Dave Mattingly n.p.r. News sin Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the wireless Foundation working to develop and share practices that can improve learning and enrichment for young people and the vitality of the arts for everyone ideas and information at wireless Foundation dot org. Support for Connecticut Public Radio comes from Pond House Cafe and banquet fan you celebrating 20 years at Elizabeth Park West Hartford currently hosting intimate celebrations and small corporate and nonprofit groups banquet packages at pond House Cafe dot com record stores are an important part of music culture in America and right now they're facing more challenges than ever I'm Jim do or goddess and I'm Greg cock look at how the times are changing the record stores this week and sound and. Listen Saturday night at 10 and old address for the May join me this week as we go to. The. Virtual chat We're here at the best. Miami sound bite he told join he dragged his own interests and others Next I want to. Talk. To him in the gold. Listen Saturday night at 11. Support comes from Connecticut magazine the September issue features the best of Connecticut list plus a conservative college's takeover of a month a cello replica divides a Connecticut town on newsstands and online at Connecticut Mag dot com. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Steve Inskeep and then a well King good morning President Trump says he'll announce his pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by this weekend the 1st question of course is who he will choose the next is whether Republicans in the Senate have the time and the power to confirm the nomination on timing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says a vote will come this year the Senate has more than sufficient to process the nomination history and president writes that perfectly clear McConnell needs 50 votes plus vice president pence to drive home that nomination and senators are beginning to make their views clear n.p.r. Congressional correspondent Kelsey snow has been following this one good morning coffee Good morning does Mitch McConnell have the 50 votes he needs to make this thing happen it is not entirely clear yet that he does but you know the pieces really do seem to be falling in place for that to happen so far the only people who say they are against this nomination or at least the process of doing a nomination before the election or this year are Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska now I say they appear to be against it because we don't know if they would have vote against an eventual nominee because we haven't seen a nominee we just know that they do not support voting on somebody anybody before the election now the question is Mitt Romney of Utah he still t.b.d. Mike Pence the vice president can break a tie here so it really kind of depends on what happens to Romney and if any of the other Republicans break with McConnell you know he's been very careful not to say when the vote will happen beyond that will be this year in part because it would be a near record breaking fee to get a nomination process been approved between now and Election Day is $42.00 days away and Republican senators reminded reporters repeatedly yesterday that it took that exactly that many days for the Senate to approve Ruth Bader Ginsburg and there isn't a nominee yet right Ok. We won't know until the president says this weekend so 42 minus what 4 or 5. We we heard some names yesterday in terms of who the front runner for the nomination might be but this is a moving story whose names are we hearing now and is the president playing to the Senate with his choice we still don't know exactly if he is playing to this and the question will be will be somebody like Amy Kone Baird who has already been a you know voted for by many of these these senators key senators like Collins and Murkowski already voted for others and you know there there are dynamics like with candidate Barbara Bible ago of Florida who was confirmed by a large bipartisan majority to her Circuit Court post and this is how President Trump described it most of them are young and they've gone through the process very recently so why is that important it's because it's easier to move somebody through a very lengthy process if they've already been vetted because dimly that the even lower court process has behind the scenes background checks and meetings and then there are the hearings to come so that that could smooth the process do Democrats have any options for slowing us down you know they really can't block it if McConnell has the votes but there is an attempt to create this big pressure campaign and they can make it about more of the politics than just voting on the nominee and try to pick away some more Republicans plus they say there are a few other quivers in their bag that they haven't revealed yet Ok N.P.R.'s Thanks Kelsey thank you. All right when they corona virus vaccine becomes available who should get it 1st not a minor question Think of millions of people who want to return to their offices but are not considered essential workers think of older people who are considered more vulnerable than others today a c.d.c. Advisory committee considers what to recommend N.P.R.'s Selena Simmons Duffin is with us now he Salina. Who is on this c.d.c. Committee. So this is the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or a c I p it has 14 voting members mostly vaccine experts doctors nurses one member represents consumers currently a law professor and mother of a child who died from pertussis which is a vaccine preventable disease so for decades this group has made the recommendations for how to use every vaccine that the f.d.a. Approves they say who should be given that vaccine and when so for example I'm about to give or take my 2 and 5 year olds to the doctor to get checkups the immunization schedule that their pediatrician follows comes from this group and if you think about it most vaccines are given in childhood but now they have a quite different task there in tis a painting a vaccine that can help help curb the coronavirus pandemic will become available at some point and that a framework will be needed to distribute that vaccine or vaccines particularly the 1st limited doses how limited will they be will they be $77007000.00 will as part of the effort to speed up the process from vaccine development to delivery manufacturers are actually making vaccines now before they know whether they work or not and that way if they work and they're safe they can hit the ground running and the federal government through Operation warp speed is pouring a huge amount of money into these companies to make that possible but even with that head start we're looking at enough doses to vaccinate somewhere between you know somewhere around 5 percent of the u.s. Population so just you know 20 to 30000000 people Ok so not a small number who then will be 1st in line who gets the vaccine 1st yeah it's not a small number but it's really a lot less people that actually need to get the vaccine eventually so pretty much everyone agrees that the front line health that front line health workers should be 1st but there are still a lot of frontline health workers doctors nurses hospital staff nursing home staff so there might need to be priority groups even within that category and as more. Maxime doses are manufactured You know the elderly school staff teachers people in prisons and homeless shelters might be next all of this is a reminder that for many of us the wait for a vaccine will be a long after approval on the order of 12 to 18 months so easy IP clearly has a lot to weigh here in nailing out these details Stanford pediatrician gracefully is a member of the committee but she spoke to n.p.r. On behalf of herself she emphasized that the plans developed at this early stage need to be really flexible these recommendations are not in a vacuum they are meant for the real world and I think that's what makes it so complex What does she mean what are the real world complexities. Well equity is a big concern since people of color are more likely to get Kovac and more likely to get sick and die and then there are technical considerations if a particular vaccine that's 1st approved doesn't work well for older people for instance that could affect who gets it 1st it might not make sense to put the elderly among the 1st priority groups some of the vaccines for this demand in development are also really challenging to handle and distribute one might have a minimum of a 1000 doses per in a minimum order because it needs to be stored in ultra low temperature and in that case shipping it to rural sparsely populated areas might not make sense because there could be a lot of wasted vaccine so these are all things that may come up as vaccine trials continue and get a clearer picture of what the 1st approved coated vaccine might actually be like really complicated stuff N.P.R.'s Selena Simmons Duffin thanks so much Selena thanks. Already a u.n. General Assembly unlike any other in history has begun. I now declare open the high level meeting to all memory these 7 defense then diversity of the United Nations that is the Turkish diplomats who's overseeing the proceedings which because of the pandemic really are global proceedings world leaders are at home addressing the General Assembly virtually from around the globe there's a lot of diplomacy to be done with tensions between the United States and China and the United States and Iran and the United States and the United Nations itself that's the short list later this morning President Trump and China's Xi Jinping will deliver their remarks Russia's Vladimir Putin Iran's Haasan Rouhani among others also speak today N.P.R.'s diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen will be following all of those speeches and I guess you're not going to the u.n. Either this year Michel I know and it's so disappointing and I'm here in Washington and boy do I miss it Ok so how is the General Assembly marking 75 years well they. They had an event yesterday where a lot of the leaders gave kind of shorter addresses to talk about this moment there's need for multilateralism as the world faces a pandemic an economic crisis and a climate crisis President Trump as the leader of the host country was originally on the schedule but instead he had the acting deputy ambassador deliver remarks and she said that this anniversary is a time to review the u.n. Successes and its failures Trump as you know is a critic of multilateral institutions and agreements he's pulled out of the Paris climate accord the Iran nuclear deal and the World Health Organization just to name a few President Tom has recorded remarks fettle be broadcast today what is he expected to say well he says that he's going to have something very strong to say about China he's blamed China for the pandemic and has argued that the World Health Organization is too deferential to China that's one of the reasons why the u.s. Is leaving but you know China has really spent a lot of effort over the years at the u.n. To build up its influence president she in fact spoke to that event of the 75th anniversary yesterday and I've heard a lot of diplomats and u.n. Watchers warn that that's going to continue especially as the u.s. Pulls back. Another topic we're likely to hear about today that well is there Ron the Trump administration says u.n. Sanctions have snapped back on Iran but the rest of the u.n. Security council disagrees saying the u.s. Lost the right to snap back those sanctions when it left the nuclear deal so I'm afraid we're going to hear a lot of people talking past each other today even though now arguably is a time when a body like the u.n. Is so important because corona virus has killed almost a 1000000 people it's basically in every country on earth do you think will get anything concrete in terms of cooperation even if it's just on the virus Well I think we're going to hear a lot about the. Need to coordinate the international response especially the distribution of an eventual vaccine but one of the problems of this virtual format is that there's no chance for the kind of diplomatic speed dating that usually goes on in meetings in the corridors and all of that that's when things usually get done during the u.n. General Assembly week doesn't quite work the same way on Zoom N.P.R.'s Michele Kelemen thanks Michel thank you. This is n.p.r. News. I'm Dr Anthony Lise Ritz and this is Climate Connections. Dan Miller spent 5 years in the Navy when he left for civilian life a career in clean energy was not on his radar I did not know very much about clean energy or climate change when I got out of the Navy but he got a job at the Department of Energy and as he learned more he became passionate about the benefits of solar and wind the clean energy transition is going to strengthen our future national security by reducing our reliance on foreign fuels diversifying our energy sources and our investments in those energy sources and mitigating the worst impacts of climate change today Mrs a senior fellow at The Atlantic Council and founder of the veterans Advanced Energy Project which recruits veterans for clean energy jobs most military veterans for one reason or another have a mission oriented service nature to contribute to society and defend their country both while wearing the uniform and after they take the uniform off so Mish helps them understand how working for clean energy can support national security we hope to help make veterans feel good about what they choose to do in their post military careers. Climate Connections is produced by the l. Center for Environmental communication to hear more stories like this visit Climate Connections dot org. When Donald Trump became president rather than putting his assets into a blind trust he held on to them office buildings resorts golf courses licensing ventures and more on the next fresh air we speak with Forbes senior editor Dan Alexander who's reported extensively on Trump's finances his new book is White House Inc how Donald Trump turned the presidency into a business join us. Today at noon. Support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from Americans for the Arts working with federal state and local arts agencies to support artists and arts organizations helping to heal the nation during this pandemic more at Americans for the Arts dot org from the Wallace Foundation working to develop and share practices that can improve learning and enrichment for young people and the vitality of the arts for everyone ideas and information at Wallace Foundation dot org. And from the Lemelson foundation committed to improving lives through invention in the u.s. And in developing countries and working to inspire and enable the next generation of inventors more information is available at Lemelson dot org. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Noel King and I'm Steve Inskeep Here's a basic fact about the NATO alliance that group of allies includes many nations that were once anime's just think of the United States and Germany NATO allies Greece and Turkey also have a history of hostility and are now on the same side so why did their warships patrol ominously near each other near a tiny Greek island off the Turkish coast Joanna cases went there and here's what she found the trouble started last month a Turkish research ship escorted by naval vessels glided near disputed waters to explore for natural gas or oil. The ship seemed headed for the Greek island of Kos the already so a little more than a mile from Turkey scopes. Greece and Turkey began staging military exercises the Turkish frigate accidentally collided with a Greek ship t.v. News casts declared the confrontation was imminent floor of the survivor store store I bring you news anchor warns that Turkey's president has set his sights on Costello diesel which the Turks call makes the story of 6 also. One of the Turkish incur reports that Greece is sending troops to the island if you. Will you will have been 8 vo floor gray zone you know something new every day police copping it which is not true of those let me kind of valid She runs a tourism marketing company on the island she grew up here yes the government of Turkey has been anything. But Steve I've never afraid afraid there far away from the borders thing that we have enemies people that Eve near the borders don't think that because they see highs and lows in ms a with their. Castillo diesel is a stunning even if it's less than 4 square miles it's my. This coastline dips into the turquoise waters. But it's literally swimming from the. Country's claim the waters. He says he and other islanders from politics. In the islands other roughly 500 residents live around the. Past. With wooden balcony poured a steel gray battleship. Freshly cut by fisherman. Who has the same name as the deputy mayor but actually a different person. Shopped at the market every Friday and hung out at the clubs and. Met at one of those cafes and years ago they're now married with. A couple. House homes on both cost them and in a caution they run a beach and be SPRO on a nearby island. For Security who has learned to Greek says their marriage prompted even more Turks to visit. Everyone wanted to see how. Doing it they would bring friends to our beach visit those friends bring more friends Turks have not been able to cross the. March when the pandemic closed borders and political relations between Turkey and Greece Howard Greek Turkish tensions over maritime borders are not new in 1996 the 2 countries nearly went to war over uninhabited islands. As it has been the islands Greece for more than half a century also remembers when Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1904. At the we heard from the review we thought they might invade here too so we shut off all the lights on the neighbor Turks too they were too scared to even learn to cigarettes at the time we were vulnerable we didn't have soldiers here a military base is now on custom. Shelters for soldiers and civilians are head near fields where goats graze now with Turkey trying to stake its claim to the seabed off the lot is all Greece is a reinforcing its military. Prime Minister. Announced Greece was purchasing new French fighter jets helicopters and weapons since. The Greek president said that in a 2nd level Kulu recently visited. Us and said Turkey's government is undermining the friendship built for decades by Greeks and Turks. After her visit Turkey announced its exploration vessel would return home for maintenance and the. Turkish president. Said he wants to give diplomacy a chance but he added that Turkey will not give up on its gas claims. Terrorism possibilities overlooks the Aegean Sea where she watched Greek and Turkish warships patrolling are likely to a former marketing executive and 6th generation Islander wonders how long the dispute will drag out the irony that you know by the time this issue is solved maybe gas and what there will be obsolete and in the meantime I guess the law and cash we have suffered so could Turkey's relationship with the European Union which has largely taken Greece's side the e.u. Said it could impose sanctions on Turkey when it meets on the crisis this week for n.p.r. News I'm Joanna on the island of Kos Greece this is n.p.r. News. Coming up on the next episode of the college McEnroe show Bill Murray has turned 70 it seems kind of impossible but also necessary we did a show about Bill Murray without Bill Murray's cooperation now we want you to. Listen this afternoon no one support comes from. Connecticut Repertory Theatre. How do we fix the worst economic crisis in almost a century and join host Jane Whitney and 2 Nobel laureate economist Joe Stiglitz and Paul Krugman as well as iconic restaurant toy Danny wire in a discussion that seeks a path through this uncharted territory watch conversations on the brink pandemic economics charting the recovery Saturday October 3rd at 6 pm on c.p. T.v. Sponsored by clear view energy and let me. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Dave Mattingly President Trump was in Ohio last night where he told supporters c. Plans to announce his nominee to the u.s. Supreme Court at the end of the week when Klinefelter with member station w d e t reports the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has made the supreme court a key issue in the presidential campaign Trump told supporters at an airport in Toledo just across the border from Michigan that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will pack the high court with candidates drawn from what Trump calls the extreme left wing the president pledges to nominate a woman to fill the vacancy Ginsburg died late last week at age 87 her body will lie in repose at the u.s. Supreme Court tomorrow and Thursday she will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery large wildfires continue burning in a dozen states nearly all in the Western u.s. California Governor Gavin Newsome says 19000 firefighters are battling the fires in his state 26 people tragically have lost their lives and 6400 structures have been destroyed but by no stretch the imagination to we think this tells the entire story Fire officials say more than a 1000 homes in the mountains northeast of Los Angeles remain threatened by the Bobcat fire Tropical Storm Beta is dumping heavy rains on the Gulf Coast of Texas the storm came ashore late last night near Port O'Connor this is n.p.r. News from Washington. NASA says it's moving ahead with plans to put the 1st woman on the moon and P.R.'s Nell Greenfieldboyce says the space agency hopes to accomplish the mission by 2024 a deadline set by the Trump administration a test flight is scheduled for next year NASA will send a capsule around the moon and back without crew a similar flight with people on board is scheduled for 2023 the hardware to actually land on the moon surface still needs a lot of work NASA administrator Jim Brian Stynes says it needs $3200000000.00 allocated in funding by March or the 2024 goal won't be possible you know. The moon landing program then it won't be achieved I mean if it's really that he says a funding is pushed off NASA will try to get to the moon at the earliest opportunity the last time anyone walked on the moon was 1972 Nell Greenfieldboyce n.p.r. News the union representing about 5340 auto workers and Canada says it's extended its contract with the company as negotiations on a long term deal continue stock markets in Asia ended lower today a day after Wall Street recorded sharp losses the Dow lost 1.8 percent yesterday the s. And p. 500 fell more than one percent a kind of a say investors appear to be concerned about the economy and the coronavirus I'm David Mattingly in Washington. Support comes from the Mark Twain House and museum experience the graveyard shift ghost tours the nocturnal journey filled with the haunted history of science is unspiritual as a man tales of paranormal encounters by staff and guests tickets and Mark Twain How's that org. I might be a new horse and next time you know USA. You 1st heard about his 3 s. Story here now we have an update if they are punished for breaking the law punished for being undocumented punished for being trans in a men's prison. That's next time unless you know USA. Was on Saturday night at 6. Support comes from the Metro Hartford Alliance an investor based economic development partnership focused on business development attracting and retaining talent ensuring a strong urban core and promoting the Hartford region Metro Hartford dot com support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from the Charles Stuart Mott foundation for more than 90 years supporting efforts to promote a just equitable and sustainable society more at Mott dot org from the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide to address inequality in all its forms learn more at Ford Foundation dot org. And from the Public Welfare Foundation committed to advancing transformative youth and criminal justice reforms. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Noel King and I'm Steve Inskeep good morning today Boris Johnson the prime minister of the u.k. Announces new pandemic restrictions coronavirus numbers in the u.k. Are rising quickly after a summer in which life largely returned to normal the millions of people affected by this change now include of course N.P.R.'s London correspondent Frank Langfitt is on the line Frank Hi there Ok Good morning Steve abrogates been preparing for this change well we've seen it coming you know I think was about a week ago that Boris Johnson said people could meet in groups of more than 6 and we had a farewell dinner over at a neighbor's house here where we basically got together socially distance but recognising that this was the last time that the 3 couples in the families would be getting together because the rules are changing and they are going to become stricter he's going to announce this today pubs and restaurants will be closing at 10 pm has also taken to tell people that if they can work from home they should to avoid the spread and this is a reversal he's been trying to get people to go in and stimulate the economy and work in offices in places like London to keep things going and this is coming actually after the government has said this government scientific advisor Steve said that if the government doesn't do anything we're going to 50000 new cases a day by mid October 200 plus deaths by mid November a day Chris witty he was on the t.v. He's the chief medical officer for England he's on the t.v. Yesterday and this is what he said to the British people so we have in a sense. A quota and I think everybody will realise that at this point the seasons are against us this period of the next 6 months I think we have to realise that we have to take this collectively very seriously by and when he says the seasons are against us people adding that the virus may do worse or do more damage in colder weather that is coming but I'm just thinking about the restrictions you just named Frank as a pub curfew of 10 pm make that much of a difference. I don't think so I was talking to my daughter this warning Katherine she actually works at our neighborhood pub and I checked in with her and she said a curfew would help in the final hour or so people do drink a lot they get affectionate they ignore social distancing but her pub which is out here in the suburbs last calls at 11 anyway so you're not really cutting the hours much and she certainly doesn't think it's going to make much of a difference and nor do a lot of people here in England Frank you mentioned that Boris Johnson loosened the restrictions and encouraged people to go back to the office hoping it would improve the economy did it. It did I guess this is actually some good news that I think people should hear over the last 3 months it looks like the economy has actually been growing which is great news I'm I'm thrilled to see this at the same time it's nowhere near the levels it was before Kovac hit and one thing I've seen in London has been a lot of time talking to shop owners in London it's turned the London economy inside out Steve so if you go to Piccadilly Circus if you go to Covent Garden the places that would be teeming with people in a summer full of tourists and things like that they're largely dead for much of the day and I was talking to shop owners where their business is down 70 percent year on year and they're very worried about the future at the same time because many white collar workers are staying home in the suburbs the suburbs and the outer borough so of of London are doing actually quite well and ever covered now with Boris Johnson telling people not to go when I'm sure the people I've been talking to in London this is just going to give them a chill and think how are we going to get through this when we're not going to have more people coming back Frank thanks very much for the update really appreciate it happy to do it Steve That's N.P.R.'s London correspondent Frank Langfitt. There are rumors that have gone viral on Twitter and Facebook that left wing activists started the fires the wildfires in Oregon those rumors are false but so far these companies have failed to stop misinformation some of it dangerous from spreading Facebook I should note is a financial supporter of n.p.r. And here's our Shannon bond Cameron Hill and his family were fleeing fires in Clackamas County south of Portland and they'd heard some disturbing rumors that they had killed several activists in custody. Downed Eugene starting actually seen starting fires that's Hill talking with Oregon Public Broadcasting's Monica some a yella these arson claims were not true but they were lighting up social media the rumor was the fires had been set by anti fascist activists known as anti thought or black lives matter protesters the rumors cause so much disruption local police departments took to Facebook and Twitter to beg people to stop spreading them they said there was no evidence that any political or activist groups were behind the fires Tim Fox is a captain with the Oregon State Police you know all these rumors and things that are going around are tough because we have 5 people to respond to the best. Part of the reason these claims spread so widely on Facebook is that the world's biggest social network rewards engagement posts that get lots of shares comments and likes get shown to more people quickly amplifying their reach as the fire rumors proliferated Facebook did put warnings on some posts it's fact checkers found false and after the f.b.i. Put out a statement debunking the rumors Facebook began removing posts entirely but by then the rumors had been circulating for several days and when that image I asked is there waiting too long Karen Kornbluh and her research team at the German Marshall Fund found these rumors spreading in private Facebook groups some with hundreds of thousands of members and the claims were being amplified by social media accounts known to spread false information like followers of cumin on a baseless conspiracy theory. A Facebook spokesman says the company acts aggressively to stop misinformation but what happened in Oregon shows that once this kind of hoax starts spreading it's really hard to stamp out when you think of the psychology of mis information you know you can think of something my molding clay Delores Albert I see him as a psychology professor at the University of Illinois and when you have soft clay you can print anything you want onto it once a drawing found that's it your printer shape is set so well fact checks and removing posts can help the real challenge is stopping harmful hoaxes from going viral in the 1st place and some experts have a new idea about how to hit pause on social media's powerful amplification engine Aaron Simpson that the left leaning Center for American Progress says the inspiration is the stock market so if the s. And p. Drops really suddenly we've had these thresholds in place for you know a lot of years now that the market will stop and that will automatically trigger a review those automatic triggers are called circuit breakers Simpson says that's what social media needs a circuit breaker to stop the viral spread that platforms are designed to encourage So when a controversial topic is gaining steam Facebook or Twitter could limit its reach while reviewing disputed information a system like this could maybe make it harder for stuff to go viral instead of the status quo which is a set of Facebook business products make it easier to go viral The idea is even gaining traction inside Facebook it says it's testing this kind of speed bump for viral posts Shannon bond n.p.r. News. This is n.p.r. News. Support comes from New Morning Market where good things are happening with local and organic meats at their full service butcher local and organic wellness for the whole family and local and organic produce from Connecticut farmers New Morning Market dot com When you see a tornado or hurricane or wildfire you may not consider moving towards it but hear from people who do including a retired smokejumper which is a firefighter who jumps out of an airplane and into the fire he talks about what he's seeing on the West Coast right now. It's almost more you move your people. That's on the next. Wednesday night at 11. This is Bert now that Caleb McAdoo has lived in Nevada all his life he's a biologist with the state's Department of Wildlife and he loves sagebrush country he grew up here hunting fishing and spending time with his family but it's a landscape that is changing before Caleb's eyes the stage brush he knew as a boy is burning. Or driving through an area that burned in the Martin Fire 2 years ago the biggest wildfire in Nevada state history almost 700 square miles burned. Most of those fires just keep doing. You know it's an exponential to next to us and I mean growing up here to. Use you see and it's not assume you see anything on your news and you know it's going away and it's mean. It's really depressing. It's not just the fires that are changing the landscape it's what comes after the fire an invasive plant known as cheatgrass is moving in it grows faster and burns more regularly than sagebrush and it's taking over but the sage brush is a crucial habitat for a weird wonderful bird known as the greater sage grouse and it's in a lot of trouble these days. Join me for a trip to Nevada sage grouse country to find out what fire means for these amazing birds on the latest episode of grouse a special podcast from bird no presents you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or head over to bird note dot org I'm Ashley Ahearn support for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from the Charles Stuart Mott foundation for more than 90 years supporting efforts to promote a just equitable and sustainable society more at Mott dot org. From the Ford Foundation working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide to address inequality in all its forms learn more afford Foundation dot org. And from the Public Welfare Foundation committed to advancing transformative youth and criminal justice reforms. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Noel King and I'm Steve Inskeep good morning New York City's 92nd Street y. Has been adapting to the pandemic this institution has seen a lot the nonprofit cultural center was founded in 874 is the young men's Hebrew Association It survived the Great Depression it survived 911 when I lived in New York City get always see posters or newspaper ads for big name celebrities that live in person events of the very sort that you cannot hold now so the wise virtual programs have gone ahead and they are a pandemic success story of a case of a sort Here's N.P.R.'s Elizabeth Blair prepared to make it the 92nd Street y. Is entire business model was based on in person experiences tickets to events and tuition for classes made up 70 percent of its budget the only opportunity we really had to survive as an institution was to lean into the crisis within 4 days of shutting its doors the y. Started streaming its events c.e.o. Seth Pinsky says the audience for its virtual programs is bigger than they've ever seen in a typical year about $300000.00 people attended events in the past 6 months we've had a total of about $3400000.00 viewers since we closed our doors from $300000.00 in the year to 3400000 in 6 months even on line the 92nd Street y. Is programming is wildly a collective politics pop culture business leading chefs like Amanda Cohen had a panel discussion about the restaurant industry I think we all know is restaurant heard certainly. That this is broken musicians who like Jonathan best have performed from their homes. And Hugh Jackman signed up to take a virtue. A film class with a 92nd Street y. And then did a one hour interview with the teacher Annette in-store 1st if you study footage of Frank and notice that he did those things that's a great question I studied a lot of footage I work with a researcher who there have been some technical difficulties Mario you hate your new fight and I can hear you like the time Pamela Adlon couldn't hear her interview or actor Mario countdown every doubt now can again hear her either but the 92nd Street y. Isn't letting the glitches deter them there is an element of forgiveness right now Susan angle has been curating events for the wife for nearly 40 years if you engage the life of the mind at this time you were giving people such a service and they're selling tickets some programming is free but they've also generated over $3000000.00 in revenue and still c.e.o. Seth Pinsky says that despite the end of the massive audience increase they've had to furlough staff and cut salaries the hardest part of all of this is that in spite of all of the successes that we're having the economics still don't work and we've been operating on fumes Penske says he hopes going forward if the 92nd Street y. Can crack the code on how to make this new virtual now global model a sustainable one Elizabeth Blair n.p.r. News. Tomorrow on Morning Edition the maker of a new documentary called I'm not adopted tells a story and explores why some older kids in foster care a jot of the system. It's n.p.r. News. Local news at Connecticut Public Radio is made possible by award winning reporters who rely on your support donate today at w. Npr dot org Thank you support comes from Pro Health Physicians part of optimum care expanding to better serve their patients healthcare needs health doctors specialists and staff are caring for patients safely in the new facility at 599 Farmington Avenue Farmington Pro Health dot com Who are the best authors and illustrators have created books in or about our state on the next where we live we hear about this year's finalists for the Connecticut Book Awards some of the authors will join us to talk about their books what are you reading these days when the conversation on the next really live. On this morning at 9 support comes from the Metro hard for it alliance. Party coming up next some point it's not just the presidency that's on the November ballot several seats in the United States Senate are hotly contested as well talk about how Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death could have an impact on Senate races in Maine North Carolina Colorado and Arizona that's coming up next on point from n.p.r. . Listeners morning at 10. Misinformation and disinformation are not the same thing although one is very good at spreading the other and we know how bad actors are using new tact to manipulate the minds and social media feeds of millions our series block the vote looks at its corrosive impact on the election campaign and we'll hear from lawmakers who are fighting back next time on one name. Coming up this morning at 11. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Steve Inskeep and I'm milking good morning the writer Leila Lola me is originally from Morocco she moved to California as a grad student and she thought when she finished school she'd go back home but then she fell in love and married an American his parents were Cuban immigrants she writes about what it means for her to be an American citizen in a new book conditional citizens by her definition those are citizens who are sometimes embrace by this country and sometimes rejected by it when I was a foreign student I viewed myself as a foreigner and I was perceived as a foreigner and a temporary want to so I didn't really concern myself with how people might look at me it's only a few years later and particularly after I became a citizen that I started to pay more attention people when Hank comments like I remember going through an airport a border agent asked my husband how many camels he had to trade in order to get me so to speak but definitely after 911 that's when I really started to notice that just because you are a citizen does not mean that you are treated the same as everyone else you decided to stay in the United States because you met your husband well how do you talk to each other about citizenship. When we have a lot of conversations about our experiences such as just gave you an example yesterday. I received an e-mail. Trying to pull it up so you might hear my mouse because I'm trying to pull it up I don't want to misquote an e-mail from a woman who would appear as lives in Georgia and e-mail me to say why don't you go back to Morocco we can invite you here so why are you here and when I get this I really have to reflect about the pronoun that she's using We invite you here her and who is the we and who is she speaking for this woman receives the. She has some kind of supreme right to the side who belongs in America and who doesn't Did you right back to the woman from Georgia who know or know if she just wrote it to me yesterday so I haven't written her Voc But would you. Well when I published my 1st book I did respond to almost every email that I received and eventually I realized that there was no use doing it because it didn't really change anything people continue to send comments like this what is the emotion attached for you to getting an email like that. I used to get very angry and now I just look at it with concern because I think that this is a very prideful time in u.s. History I think we are seeing a renewed debate about who gets to be American and who doesn't and this debate in particular involves a side like this woman who believes the only people who have any right to claim us citizenship are I'm guessing white people and that everybody else you know is not welcome I want to ask you about whether the state of being a conditional citizen makes you actively worry that you might at some point not be welcome in the country that you might get kicked out of the United States something that I think 3 years ago I never would have guessed Are there fears in your mind that you could be asked to leave the country forced to leave the country . I mean I think that is a very valid question and a very valid concern that people ought to have I think there are certain things that people take for granted such as birthright citizenship that now a days are being put on the table so her example there are members of the trumpet ministration who have or openly and forcefully so that they do not believe that citizenship ought to exist let's say that you are the child of an undocumented person even if you're born here they don't believe they should have American citizenship I mean the original law that we needed the boundaries of American citizenship the Immigration and Naturalization up to 790 basically limited citizenship to quote unquote free white persons and I feel like that number of people in this country that pine for those those who want to return to those they so I don't think that that's an unreasonable concern at all President Trump was elected on a platform that you could actually characterize as anti immigrant or anti certain immigrants and then at the Republican National Convention recently he hosted a citizenship ceremony at the White House when you saw that moment when you heard about that moment what went through your head what did you think. Well I was amazed at the brazenness of it out of the 5 immigrants that were sworn in that day there was a woman who is an immigrant from Sudan Trump signed a immigration band that basically baton Sudanese immigrants so this woman and the other for whom he praised as absolutely incredible individuals quarter quote this woman would not have been allowed under his own laws to become a u.s. Citizen I just was amazed by the whole spectacle of a president who got elected by telling people that we needed a quote complete and total shutdown of Muslim immigration. Presiding over a naturalization ceremony in which he was the immigrant becomes a citizen from a country that he has. Is there anything that you do that you think of as proving publicly that you're an American whether celebrating really loud on the 4th of July or teaching your daughter the Constitution like is there any part of you that feels the need to prove it no because I think for most of us citizenship is is in accident it is a complete chance that that you were born wherever you were born and become a citizen of our country you don't do anything to sort of earn that right it's just something that you're born with and I believe you can show allegiance to the United States and you can show your love for a country through a critical examination of it I don't think that allegiance needs to be blind I really look at citizenship not as a status but as a relationship oath with other citizens in the United States and with the government that we as a people have elected and I think because I look at it as a relationship and I I think that is an act of care to write a book like this is an act of love try to book it is critical about it because you would if you didn't carry wouldn't want something to be better well a lot of me her latest book is called conditional set a sense Leyla thank you so much for being with us we really appreciate it thank you very much for having me. It's Morning Edition from n.p.r. News I'm now Will Cain and I'm Steve Inskeep. I'm Tanya Mosley for over a century the Mormon Church banned black people from their priesthood a troubled history has come back into focus after a summer of anti-racist protests Mormon tells her story we have a place here we've always had a place here we'll continue to carve out space for our place next time. Join us this afternoon it's 2 This is Connecticut Public Radio n.p.r. N.p.r. H.d. One Meriden at 90.5 Katie. Katie 8189 point one w w f m Stanford at 88.5 Debbie you are allied Southampton at 91.30 s. Well Nancy got 90 point one w 2 food.