#Lulu Garcia-Navarro

[npr]

Chances are, you have an opinion about Miley Cyrus.

The 24-year-old pop singer got her start as a kid on the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana in 2006. She released her triple-platinum debut album, Meet Miley Cyrus, in 2007 — and has rarely been out of the headlines since, for everything from drug use to sexualizing her image to charges of racial appropriation.

Cyrus spoke to NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro about embracing all versions of herself, confronting controversy and drawing inspiration from her family — including her godmother, Dolly Parton. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read more of their conversation below.

'I'm Not Afraid Of Who I Used To Be': Miley Cyrus On 'Younger Now'

Photo: Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/AFP/Getty Images

[thekrystenritterblog]

Krysten Ritter talks with NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

Cheers to complicated, messy, and unconventional women everywhere.

[nprontheroad]

The border is many things to different people across America. For some, it is a place of opportunity, where goods flow in and out of the country, adding to the economies of both Mexico and the United States. Others see it as a gateway for drugs and illegal immigration.

We wanted to know how the people who live and work on the border feel.

So we are travelling this week to Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.

This part of the border has been getting a lot of attention from politicians in Washington lately.  It’s one of the most active places now for apprehensions of illegal immigrants and drug traffickers. But it is also an economic pump for Southern Texas, because of its role as a huge shopping destination for Mexicans hitting the malls of McAllen.

The Rio Grande Valley in Texas abuts 320 miles of river, the iconic Rio Grande, which acts as the natural barrier and the de-facto border between Mexico and the United States. But in many parts of the area there is no man-made barrier between the two countries. In one tiny community, a hand cranked ferry takes people and cars across to the other side. It’s a sign of how intertwined the communities on both sides of the river are.

A decade ago, there were plans to build a border fence here but they never came to fruition because of lack of money, among other reasons. Today, President Donald Trump has promised to build a wall across the entire Southern border and this part of Texas may be included in that.  

Join us—Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of Weekend Edition, and producers Ravenna Koenig and Samantha Balaban– as we explore this area over the next four days.

(Photo: NPR/ Ravenna Koenig)

[nprbooks]

Caldecott-winning illustrator Michaela Goade, who has Tlingit heritage, worked with Cree author Tasha Spillett-Sumnet on her new book I Sang You Down from the Stars, which blends both traditions in a gorgeous story about a woman preparing for motherhood. 

Before her child is born, the woman gathers sacred objects to present to the baby. “But hen upon the baby's arrival, she learns that the baby is, in essence, its own sacred object, its own sacred bundle itself,” Goade tells NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “Because within this child are the hopes and dreams of culture and of carrying on traditions and connection to everyone who's come before you.”

Hear that conversation here!

-- Petra

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

How the Amazon rainforest is faring under climate change

[Image description: fires in an area of the Amazon Rainforest.]

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: We're joined now by Antonio Nobre, one of Brazil's leading climate scientists. Hello.

ANTONIO NOBRE: Hi, Lulu.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I spoke to you back in 2015, and this is what you told me then.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

NOBRE: This is already beyond the threshold - you know, the point of no return.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: What are your thoughts now?

NOBRE: We are seeing what has been predicted by science since long time - the unfolding of the so-called civilization of the Amazon. There was a very influential paper that came out in Nature magazine a few months ago. They found that for a large chunk of the Amazon, almost half of it, the forest is losing the battle. Those forests are no longer able to cope with the lack of rainfall, the increase in temperature and the flammability of those areas as they grow drier and drier. And then trees start dying off. Then they start releasing carbon instead of sinking carbon. And they are no longer able to make the powerful biotic pump that keep the fabulous rainfall system functioning and therefore propelling the flying rivers. It's basically failing. And the consequences are also visible because most of South America is having to endure a very prolonged drought. And now we're seeing this effect in the Amazon propagating. Now those rivers are - in the sky are faltering, and the air is drying up. Brazil is facing a very serious energy crisis because most of the Brazilian electricity is produced by hydropower.

Continue reading or listen to the report.

[yidquotes]

Refugees and migrants are rarely viewed as individual people. Instead they are seen as a faceless entity and are referred to in dehumanizing terms like “aliens” or “illegals.” Rather than vulnerable mothers, fathers, and children who are escaping horrors unlike anything we’ve experienced, those approaching our southern border are typically portrayed as conniving fortune seekers who would rather live in the land of opportunity than in their “third-world” home countries. But that’s simply not true. In a Twitter exchange on September 18, 2018, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, host of NPR’s Weekend Edition, shared that “people who leave their homes don’t want to leave.”… This is our story. Since Abraham ventured forth from his father’s land, we have experienced horrors that have kept us on the move, unwanted in every land. And we were never meant to forget that sense of continual displacement.

Again and again our tradition reminds us that we were strangers in the land of Egypt. Embedded in that reminder is the expectation that being a stranger no more, having cast off our powerlessness, we never take on the mantle of the oppressor.

Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr

[ebookporn]

A Sci-Fi Store Is Suing, And Presenting The Facts In An Action-Packed Comic Book

Third Planet, a sci-fi and fantasy store in Houston, is suing the hotel next door over roof damage and using a unique way to present the facts in the case: BAM! BOOM! BOFFO! A comic book!

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Third Planet Sci-Fi and Fantasy Superstore has sold comic books, toys and collectibles in Houston for over 40 years. Its blocky building is instantly recognizable thanks to its brilliant blue paint job.

MICHAEL CHARLES: It's literally an icon in Houston.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Michael Charles. He works for Bad Cog Studios, a Houston company that creates comic books. And he's a longtime customer of Third Planet.

CHARLES: Everybody knows where it is. It's like, when Toys R Us was real big here, if you couldn't find a certain action figure at Toys R Us, the manager will tell you, hey, go over to Third Planet on Southwest Freeway near Kirby. His store is just amazing.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Recently, the store has become famous not for what it sells but for a dispute with its much taller neighbor, the Crowne Plaza River Oaks Hotel. Some of its guests have allegedly thrown various objects from the 18th floor directly at Third Planet's roof below.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TJ JOHNSON: They'll get up on the balconies, and they - you know, it's like a target. They try to hit a spot.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's T.J. Johnson, the owner of Third Planet, speaking with Houston's ABC13. Johnson says, this has been going on for years, normally with smaller objects, like silverware, plates and mugs. But things took a turn two years ago with fire extinguishers - 14 of them raining down.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Third Planet is seeking at least $250,000 from the hotel. NPR reached out to Crowne Plaza for comment on the allegations and the lawsuit. But it did not respond to our request. Now, the reason we are telling you about all this in the first place is because of the unique way the facts of the case are being presented. "Third Planet V. Crowne Plaza Hotel" has been drawn, inked and printed in brilliant color as a comic book. It's attorney Cris Feldman's idea.

READ MORE

[garudabluffs]

Narendra Modi Under Fire As COVID-19 Crisis In India Continues

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with author Arundhati Roy about the COVID-19 crisis in India and the government response that Roy calls a "crime against humanity."

ROY: All I know is that this is a problem that is not just India's problem, you know? In this atmosphere of terror and fear and tyranny, this virus is prospering. And then it's a threat not just to India, but to the world. So how do we arrive at a place - at a democratic place where there is a nonpartisan decision-making system in place that can get us out of this crisis?

May 2, 2021 6-Minute Listen https://www.npr.org/2021/05/02/992846117/narendra-modi-under-fire-as-covid-19-crisis-in-india-continues

India launches effort to inoculate all adults against COVID

Less than 2% of the population has been fully immunized against COVID-19 and around 10% has received a single dose.

https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2021/05/01/india-launches-effort-to-inoculate-all-adults-against-covid

[hypokeimena]

BARDUGO: Well, the thing that I realized - I had this very happy, rosy memory of Yale. And I had even described it in the past as my Hogwarts. And there is still a part of me that feels that deep attachment. But when I went back to write this book, I had an old acquaintance get in touch with me and say, oh, are you going to reunion? [...] And then he started sending me photos of all of us hanging out and partying. And instead of having this warm, nostalgic feeling, I felt my gut clench because I had really forgotten what it was like to be in that culture - this very white, very straight, very wealthy culture. And I had forgotten the way that I talked about myself, the way that me and my friends talked about other women, the kind of slut-shaming we engaged in, the way we pruned ourselves down in order to belong to this culture and just to be in on the joke, right? And I look back on the girl who I was. And it is not with - it is with a lot of embarrassment and sadness over the things that she put up with because she didn't even have language for what was happening to her.

[bananaofswifts]

Lulu Garcia-Navarro @lourdesgnavarro· : So @taylorswift13 is here @npr doing a #TinyDeskConcert . Just her and a guitar

[nprbooks]

In her new memoir, This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman, Rep. Ilhan Omar chronicles her childhood in a middle-class family compound in Mogadishu, followed by civil war, four years in a refugee camp, a journey to the United States and ultimately her election to Congress. She talked to our own Lulu Garcia-Navarro about the book -- and about moving the needle on progressive politics. Check out that conversation here.

-- Petra

[guardiannews24]

Ibram X. Lemon? CNN Anchor Tells White People 'Stop Saying You Aren't Racist'

Ibram X. Lemon? CNN Anchor Tells White People ‘Stop Saying You Aren’t Racist’

CNN anchor Don Lemon’s publicity tour for his book on racism continued on National Public Radio on Sunday morning. Weekend Edition Sunday host Lulu Garcia-Navarro wasn’t so much asking questions as she was reading passages from the book and helping him sell his theories.  For example, after announcing his message to blacks is to forgive if not forget on race, Garcia-Navarro said “you also have a…

[go-redgirl]

Carney: Asian Trade Deal Shows Biden’s China Policy Is Already Failing

China and 14 other Asia-Pacific countries signed a mammoth trade agreement covering one-third of global GDP on Sunday — a move that extinguishes any hope for the viability of former Vice President Joe Biden’s China trade policy.

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) creates the world’s largest trading bloc, a market of 2.2 billion people and GDP of $26.2 trillion. Most analysts agree that it will strengthen China’s political and economic standing in the region and around the globe.

It also highlights a critical weakness in the trade policy Biden advocates. On the campaign trail, Biden repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s approach of unilaterally imposing tariffs and demanding trade reciprocity. But he insisted he would not accept the pre-Trump status quo either.

“China is stealing intellectual property. China is conditioning being able to do business in China based on whether or not you have 51 percent Chinese ownership. That’s got to end,” Biden said in an interview with NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro in August.

Instead, Biden said he would work with our allies and the rest of the world to put pressure on China.

“We make up 25 percent of the world’s economy, but we poked our finger in the eyes of all of our allies out there,” Biden said, most likely referring to the tariffs we placed on steel and aluminum produced by allies and rivals alike. “The way China will respond is when we gather the rest of the world… That’s when things begin to change. That’s when China’s behavior is going to change.”

But that only works if the rest of the world goes along with the plan. And the RCEP shows us that the world has its own ideas.

The Biden plan was always a tall order. Why would the rest of the world put pressure on China if it were unwilling to do so during the eight years during which Biden was vice president under Barack Obama? What sort of pressure could the world put on China that did not include trade restrictions and tariffs? What evidence is there that the rest of the world would bear the costs of decoupling economies from China to create pressure? Most importantly: why would China give in to that pressure?

The RCEP makes clear that Biden’s trade policy is likely stillborn. The non-Chinese signatories have decided to move ahead with a trade deal that guarantees they will not be part of a coalition to contain or reform China.

Far from holding China accountable for its predatory past, the RCEP vindicates it. China will now have its economic status bolstered by a set of countries at its peripheries who will see China’s fortunes as inexorably linked to their own. And the deal does not include any of the climate change or labor protections that Biden and other Democrats have urged the world to demand of China in exchange for market access.

“The Center for Strategic & International Studies notes that the RCEP includes no environmental or labor rules. And its sections on disputes settlement, competition, services, and investment are relatively weak,” Mike Bird of the Wall Street Journalpointed out on Monday.

But it does create a regional manufacturing hub that will draw jobs and investment from the rest of the world while making it harder for outsiders to challenge China. Here’s the CSIS assessment:

One of the most significant changes under RCEP is the creation of common rules of origin for the entire bloc. Once implemented, RCEP countries will only require a single certificate of origin. This will allow companies to easily ship products between RCEP countries without needing to worry about specific rule of origin criteria in each country or for each manufacturing step. A common rule of origin for the RCEP bloc will lower costs for companies with supply chains that stretch throughout Asia and may encourage multinationals that export to RCEP countries to establish supply chains across the bloc.

That could help China avoid tariffs or other trade restrictions in the future by complicating what is made in China and what is made by other countries in the RCEP bloc. It also gives China a chance to argue that restrictions on Chinese made goods will hurt the economies of its neighbors who sell into the supply chain.

In short, this new trade deal should shake loose the last of those still clinging to Biden’s always implausible policy of forming a world-wide alliance against China. It’s not going to work.

READ MORE STORIES ABOUT:

Asia Economy Politics China Joe Biden

[autisticadvocacy]

“NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to Lou Vaile, who fought to reinstate his disabled son's right to vote.”