| Listeners can now 'feel the Bern' with new Sanders podcast Posted: 14 Apr 2017 12:34 PM PDT ![Listeners can now 'feel the Bern' with new Sanders podcast]( "Listeners can now 'feel the Bern' with new Sanders podcast") Progressives who felt "the Bern" in 2016 can keep up with their preferred Democratic candidate anytime, anywhere, thanks to a new podcast from Bernie Sanders. The independent senator from Vermont released the first episodes of the podcast "The Bernie Sanders Show" in late March. At around a half an hour long each, the segments are conversations between Mr. Sanders and activists, scientists, and journalists who share the senator's progressive views.
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| Can the 'Charging Bull' sculptor control his artwork's meaning? Posted: 14 Apr 2017 12:08 PM PDT ![Can the 'Charging Bull' sculptor control his artwork's meaning?]( "Can the 'Charging Bull' sculptor control his artwork's meaning?") When a three-and-a-half ton bronze bull was left without a permit in front of the New York Stock Exchange in the dead of night in 1989, its sculptor intended the beast to be a symbol of American strength and resilience in the face of the market crash two years earlier. Arturo Di Modica and his legal team claim the sprightly, 4-foot-tall "Fearless Girl" violates his trademark, copyright, and moral rights as an artist. The French concept of an artist's moral rights, or droit moral, aims to protect the special relationship between a created work and its creator, sometimes referred to as an artist's soul.
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| Why is the Chinese government encouraging its citizens to report foreign spies? Posted: 14 Apr 2017 09:52 AM PDT ![Why is the Chinese government encouraging its citizens to report foreign spies?]( "Why is the Chinese government encouraging its citizens to report foreign spies?") If you happen to be an expat living in Beijing, you'd better watch out. After previous campaigns reminding the public to be aware of foreign espionage around them, the Beijing Municipal National Security Bureau now offers cash rewards to people who help report foreign spies. The strategy, which may be driven by China's concerns over foreign exploitation and a need to tighten control, is raising alarms among experts who say the practice will only add to the government's growing distrust of foreigners as, meanwhile, the world grows ever-more globally integrated.
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| Amid Arkansas death penalty debate, concern for the executioners Posted: 14 Apr 2017 09:44 AM PDT ![Amid Arkansas death penalty debate, concern for the executioners]( "Amid Arkansas death penalty debate, concern for the executioners") Behind a curtain on Monday, barring a last-minute stay, two Arkansas corrections staffers will each plunge a cocktail of drugs through a tube, not knowing which of the two doses will be lethal. To some, including Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, carrying out the death penalty is a duty required by law and the jury judgment of fellow citizens. Critics say the process resembles the doings of a Wild West hanging judge, shrouded in secrecy. Courts are still hearing motions to block the executions – including from the makers of the drugs themselves.
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| What might a conflict with North Korea look like? Posted: 14 Apr 2017 06:56 AM PDT ![What might a conflict with North Korea look like?]( "What might a conflict with North Korea look like?") By his tweets, by his orders, and by his airstrikes last week in Syria, President Trump has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities in Northeast Asia that the rest of the world is just beginning to explore. For the first time since 1994, when then-President Clinton was on the verge of ordering a military strike against North Korea, there is a sense that "Uncle Sam might go crazy and shoot someone," in the words of Taylor Fravel, a member of the Security Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. Recommended: Kim 101: How well do you know North Korea's leaders?
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| Church revival? More liberals are filling Protestant pews Posted: 14 Apr 2017 06:23 AM PDT ![Church revival? More liberals are filling Protestant pews]( "Church revival? More liberals are filling Protestant pews") "Who are we?" intones the Rev. Jennifer Aull, the congregation's minister for community service. Responding, the congregation says together: "We are young and old, gay and straight and in between. Like a number of progressive congregations across the country, Greenpoint Reformed has seen both a surge in attendance and a newfound energy within its pews over the past year.
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| Is Turkey ready for an all-powerful president? Erdoğan tries again. Posted: 14 Apr 2017 05:56 AM PDT ![Is Turkey ready for an all-powerful president? Erdoğan tries again.]( "Is Turkey ready for an all-powerful president? Erdoğan tries again.") To hear Turkey's embattled politicians tell it, the "yes" or "no" referendum Turks are holding April 16 presents an existential choice that will either elevate their nation to a new level of peace, prosperity, and global greatness – or plunge it into horrifying depths of terror, instability, and isolation. On the ballot are constitutional changes that will create an all-powerful executive presidency for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose increasingly authoritarian ways have already made him Turkey's most powerful leader in nearly a century and have elicited denunciations from his critics that he is becoming a dictator. Recommended: Think you know Turkey?
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| Copts attacked: Can Egypt resist ISIS incitement of sectarian strife? Posted: 13 Apr 2017 03:22 PM PDT ![Copts attacked: Can Egypt resist ISIS incitement of sectarian strife?]( "Copts attacked: Can Egypt resist ISIS incitement of sectarian strife?") When the Islamic State attacked two Egyptian Coptic churches, killing 45 people on Palm Sunday, it not only threatened Christians but sought to put all Egyptians on notice it was bringing sectarian carnage to Egypt. After several years of largely escaping the sectarian violence and jihadist insurgencies sweeping much of the Middle East, Egypt's heartland is now squarely in ISIS's crosshairs as the group attempts to inflame long-simmering tensions between Muslims and the Copts, the largest Christian population in the region. Recommended: How much do you know about Egypt?
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