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The United Nations has 193 member states. And United Noshes aims to recreate meals from every last one of them, alphabetically, as a series of dinner parties.

The project was started by Jesse Friedman and his wife, Laura Hadden, three years ago, as a way to explore the culinary bounty of New York City. As they cooked food from Algeria to Djibouti to Guyana, United Noshes hosted dinners that ranged from just a few friends gathered around a living room table, to dozens of guests assembled in a banquet hall. And the ingredients have ranged as well — from cashew juice to French charcuterie to fermented corn flour.

These ingredients can be hard to find — especially those that haven't yet won fans in America.

The Salt

Gastrodiplomacy: Cooking Up A Tasty Lesson On War And Peace

"One time I walked into an African market, and the person behind the counter asked me, 'So where did you do Peace Corps?' " Friedman laughs. "Because that's the only time a non-African would come into their store." Funny, enough, Friedman notes, Peace Corps cookbooks can be a surprisingly good recipe source, especially for some of the world's smaller countries.

In addition to exploring global culinary diversity, Friedman has also been happy to cook for people — which doesn't always happen in New York City. The dinners started with friends and family. Then, as articles cropped up and their blog readership and mailing list grew, the meals came to include interested strangers (some from other countries themselves).

From there, Friedman says, it was a natural step to turn the project into a fundraiser.

"We felt we had to acknowledge the fact that many people couldn't even enjoy the sorts of foods we were celebrating from their own country," says Friedman.

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Jesse Friedman (center, foreground) and guests dine outdoors during Cuba night, Aug. 26, 2012. Courtesy of Laura Hadden hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Laura Hadden

Jesse Friedman (center, foreground) and guests dine outdoors during Cuba night, Aug. 26, 2012.

Courtesy of Laura Hadden

Diners contribute a small donation, and over the years the project has raised over $20,000 — first for the U.N.'s world food program, and now for Mercy Corps, an international aid organization based in Friedman's new home of Portland, Ore.

In addition to learning about the culinary holdovers of colonialism, and several dozen very distinct ways to cook rice, the project has been a way for Friedman and Hadden to discover places with surprising foodways — like the African islands of Comoros.

"There's a lot of central African countries that start with the letter c," laughs Hadden, who had grown a bit fatigued of meal after meal of fufu and collard greens. "And so we were like OK, another one of these meals. And then [we] discovered this really great cuisine."

The Salt

Gastrodiplomacy Gives Foreign Chefs A Fresh Take And Taste Of America

Comoros, with its Portuguese, French and Arabic influences, has a rich culinary tradition quite different from its African neighbors. That includes the dish United Noshes featured, a lobster in vanilla crme fraiche sauce, which became an all-time favorite.

Of course, there have been meals that were less successful: the attempted yak butter and chiles of Bhutan, or the sheeps head of Iceland, or the red palm oil fry disaster of Cameroon.

But United Noshes' impact isn't just the money that's being raised. Friedman and Hadden say it's the connections that happen when you share a meal with the world — both at the table, and beyond.

"I had a cab driver in D.C. from Burkina Faso," Remembers Hadden. "And I said, 'Oh, I've had food from Burkina Faso.' And he was like, 'No, you haven't.' And I was like, 'Yes, I have.' And I told him the name of the little doughnuts. And he said, 'Oh, my god! I used to sell them in the market with my mom when I was a kid!' "

Friedman and Hadden should reach the halfway point of their project in a few weeks — with a meal from Libya. They expect to conclude the entire project in about four more years.

global cuisine

gastrodiplomacy

United Nations

Republican lawmakers of the House and Senate emerged from a rare joint retreat in Hershey, Pa., a town known best for its chocolate, with little to show for it.

Unlike last year's House retreat where lawmakers unveiled their principles for an overhaul of the nation's immigration overhauls, there was little grand takeaway.

"The most positive thing is we've got a group of new Republican members in the Senate, a group of new Republican members in the House, and we've all had an opportunity to get to know each other a little better," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters at a press conference Thursday, standing alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

That much seemed to be true — in conversations with nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers, each pointed to the opportunity to talk with members of the opposite chamber and hear their views.

But for all the talking, Republicans remain divided on how to best move forward to fund the Department of Homeland Security, a bill that has become inextricably linked with immigration.

The bill that passed the House earlier this week would roll back some of President Obama's actions on immigration and drew the opposition of even some moderate House Republicans like Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif.

Denham said that while President Obama had put "hurdles" in Congress' way, the bill that the House voted "sets us back on immigration reform" and "sends a mixed message to the American public."

"I think that by adding the deferred action amendment in here, it goes back to a situation where we've got kids that through no fault of their own ... that now are going to be at the top of the list for ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to deport if this were to become law," he said. "I think that sends the wrong message to the American public about what our overall goals for reform are."

But other Republicans, including Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, said Republicans need to take a strong stand.

"We can't always gravitate to the lowest common denominator," he said, noting that President Obama had "totally overstepped on his executive amnesty."

McConnell told reporters that his chamber would try to pass the House's DHS funding bill — with the immigration related policy riders.

"If we're unable to do that, we'll see what happens," he said.

The math is not on McConnell's side. The bill is likely dead in the Senate, where Democrats have enough votes to filibuster the measure.

“ "The House is going to work its will. The Senate is going to work its will ... We'll find some way to resolve our differences."

- House Speaker John Boehner

"The magic number in the Senate is 60," Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. acknowledged.

"We want to give our members an opportunity to express their opposition to the president's action," he added. "But we also realize that at the end of the day in the Senate, it's going to take 60 votes."

When asked about the chasm between the two chambers, Boehner said "The House is going to work its will. The Senate is going to work its will ... We'll find some way to resolve our differences."

There's little time for that to happen.

Republican leadership in the Senate vowed to make a bill to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline their first priority and that could take several weeks of precious floor time, meaning lawmakers would have little time to pass an alternative to meet DHS's funding deadline at the end of February. Missing the deadline would weaken the party on national security — one of the traditional three prongs of the Republican party platform — as the party heads toward the 2016 presidential election. It would also be an early blow to the new Republican-controlled Congress.

Still, Republicans remained confident that the Homeland Security funding bill would pass on time, one way or another.

"We will pass a DHS bill. It will be passed on time. We will not shut down this part of the government," Denham said. "There are important issues within the DHS bill that we cannot play politics on."

In the new movie, Still Alice, Julianne Moore plays Alice Howland, a 50-year-old linguistics professor at Columbia with a razor sharp intellect. She's at the prime of her career but gradually she starts to forget things. She loses her way, she gets fuzzy — and she is soon diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. The movie charts her rapid decline and her struggle to hold on to her sense of self.

"She is someone who has always defined herself by her intellect and now that that's something she can't depend on, she's finding that she doesn't really know who she is," Moore tells NPR's Melissa Block.

Interview Highlights

On speaking with people who had been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's

I spoke to so many people. I didn't have any familiarity with Alzheimer's. I think I'm one of the few people who hasn't had a family member affected by it. When I spoke to the filmmakers, I said I didn't want to represent anything on screen that I hadn't witnessed myself or had been described to me. So my research process was pretty lengthy. I actually had about four months. And the women I spoke to were so incredibly generous with their time and their thoughts and their experiences and it was a pretty profound experience.

On what she learned from her research

One of the things that I sort of misunderstood about Alzheimer's is that somehow it ... just affected memory, just simple memory. What I didn't really understand [is] that it's also kind of a neuro-spatial disease — that you're going to have a different interpretation of how things are happening to you.

“ "One woman I spoke to ... she was a high school Spanish teacher and she said she didn't know what was happening to her but one of her students noticed that she was writing backwards on the blackboard."

- Julianne Moore

One woman I spoke to ... she was a high school Spanish teacher and she said she didn't know what was happening to her but one of her students noticed that she was writing backward on the blackboard. Another woman told me that she was making very simple mistakes at work. ... She was an O.R. nurse in a neurosurgery ward, and she couldn't learn a very simple computer program and didn't know what was wrong. So it was interesting to me that for some of these women, so many things happened at work — that was where they noticed the deficits first. And then once there had been some kind of ramification in their professional life, they realized that things had been happening in their personal life as well.

On a scene in the film in which Alice gives a speech about Alzheimer's

I am taking a yellow highlighter as I read so I can follow along so I'll know what I've read and what I have to read. And this is something that we saw in speeches that people give at these Alzheimer's conventions.

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Moore recently won a Golden Globe award for her performance in the film. "It's a progressive disease," Moore says. "So it's about how do you stay present? How do you stay with the people that you love?" Denis Lenoir/Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

itoggle caption Denis Lenoir/Sony Pictures Classics

Moore recently won a Golden Globe award for her performance in the film. "It's a progressive disease," Moore says. "So it's about how do you stay present? How do you stay with the people that you love?"

Denis Lenoir/Sony Pictures Classics

There's a joke in that speech, too, where she drops her papers, and she says: "I think I'm going to try to forget what just happened." And that was the other thing — it was remarkable that I found with the women that I spoke to. Everyone had such a great sense of humor. One woman told me — this made me laugh so hard — that after she was diagnosed, all of her children gave her puzzles for Christmas.

On how people live — and continue living — with the disease

It's not like you have a disease and you disappear, you go away, and that's it. There's so many people who are living with this disease, you know, it's a progressive disease. So it's about how do you stay present? How do you stay with the people that you love? How do you keep the life going that you value?

On meeting with older people who had been living with Alzheimer's for a long time

Even when I went to a long term care facility, I met several people who were patients. I felt that I got a very strong sense of who they were. Then I spoke to the caregivers there and family members. There was one woman who told me to get away from the draft, I was going to get sick. And then her daughter came in. ... I said, "Is that your mother?" And she goes, "Oh yeah." ... I said, "Your mother told me I was going to get sick if I stayed in the draft." And she goes, "Yup, that's her, she's always telling people what to do. That's my mother." ...

Read A Review

Movie Reviews

A Lead Performance Keeps 'Still Alice' Grounded

I found that people did retain a tremendous sense of self. So I think the questions that it raises [include] ... Who are our essential selves? Who are we, and why do we place value on one stage of life or one stage of cognitive ability and not another?

On how this movie affected her thinking about aging

It's not just about aging, it's about mortality. And aging is about mortality, too. ... I think in our culture, and lots of cultures, we have this kind of "You are as old as you think you are! Forever young! You can do whatever! 50 is the new 30!" This idea that somehow you're forever young and this refusal to look at our life cycle.

“ "I think you're never, never more in love with life than you are in the presence of death or your own mortality."

- Julianne Moore

The thing that happens to Alice in this movie is that she's kind of in the prime of her life, and a great place in her life, and she's faced with the idea of her own mortality. She does know that it's going to be shorter than her expectation was, or it just forces her to acknowledge an end, which is very difficult for any of us to do.

I think the interesting thing about looking at the end of your life or knowing it's an end of your life is that you start to value what you have even more. You know, you value the present. I think you're never, never more in love with life than you are in the presence of death or your own mortality. ... You think about how much you love to live, how much you love the people you love. ... What do you value? Who do you value? What do you want to do? In a sense, it makes everything kind of crisper, and sharper and more vital.

Overnight across in France, Belgium and Germany police arrested more than two dozen people suspected of having ties to terrorism.

In Paris, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports police moved in at dawn and arrested about a dozen people, who police said were tied to Sad and Chrif Kouachi, who attacked the offices of Charlie Hebdo, and Amedy Coulibaly, who attacked a Kosher market in eastern Paris.

"These people are said to have been in their entourage," Eleanor told our Newscast unit. "They may have helped them to obtain cars, guns or may have been drivers."

The BBC reports that in the Brussels area, police broke up a terror plot when they arrested 13 suspects.

The arrests followed a standoff last night that left two men dead.

The BBC reports:

"Guns, munitions and explosives, as well as police uniforms and a large amount of money, were seized during the raids, prosecution spokesman Thierry Werts told reporters.

"Eric Van Der Sypt, another spokesman, added: "The investigation... has shown that these people had the intention to kill several policemen in the street and at police commissariats [police stations].

"'The operation was meant to dismantle a terrorist cell... but also the logistics network behind it,' he said. No link had been established with last week's attacks in Paris, Mr Van Der Sypt said, adding that Belgium would seek the extradition of the two suspects in France."

The investigation that led to these arrests, said Der Sypt, had started before the Paris attacks.

Here's Fox News with what's going on in Germany:

"Also Friday, Berlin police said that they had taken two men into custody on suspicion that they were recruiting fighters and procuring equipment and funding for the Islamic State group, better known as ISIS, in Syria.

"The two were picked up in a series of raids involving the search of 11 residences by 250 police officers. Authorities said the raids were part of a months-long investigation into a small group of extremists based in Berlin. However, they also said there was no evidence the group was planning attacks inside Germany.

"The group's leader, identified only as 41-year-old Ismet D. in accordance with privacy laws, is accused organizing the group of largely Turkish and Russian nationals to fight against 'infidels' in Syria. Emin F., 43, is accused of being in charge of finances."

paris attack

Less than a week after his actions were credited with saving the lives of customers at the grocery store where he works, Lassana Bathily has learned that France wants him to give him citizenship.

Citing Bathily's "act of bravery," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve says France will expedite a citizenship application that Bathily filed last July. The minister will also head Bathily's naturalization ceremony next Tuesday.

More than 300,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Bathily to be made a citizen — and for him to be awarded the Legion of Honor.

Like Amedy Coulibaly, the man who authorities say carried out the deadly attack in Paris, Bathily is a Muslim with ties to Mali. At first, the similarities between them led police to believe Bathily was the gunman. They handcuffed him for more than an hour. But as many have since learned, there was a wide gulf of difference between Bathily and Coulibaly.

As we reported Monday, Bathily, 24, escaped from the Hyper Casher grocery after taking quick action to help customers elude the violence that left several people dead.

Later, Bathily told France 24 TV that the market is the heart of what has become "a second family" for him.

Here's how NPR's Lauren Frayer described the actions that have made Bathily a hero to many:

"Bathily was in the basement storeroom, near a walk-in refrigerator, when Coulibaly burst in upstairs.

" 'I opened the door to the fridge and rushed some of the shoppers inside,' Bathily said. 'Then I turned off the light, and closed the door behind us. I told them to stay calm — and then I went back out.'

"Bathily managed to escape through a delivery shaft. After he and his co-worker convinced police he was not a threat, he was able to describe the layout of the store, and where certain hostages were hiding. He also gave them a key to open the store's metal shutters, for them to make their assault.

"Four Jewish hostages died, but many of those who survived say Bathily helped save them.

" 'I didn't know or care if they were Jews or Christians or Muslims,' he said. 'We're all in the same boat.' "

paris attack

Dennie Wright lives in Indian Valley, a tiny alpine community at the northern end of the Sierra, close to the border with Nevada.

Wright works as a meat cutter in a grocery store and lives in a modest home overlooking a green pasture. He also lives in one of the 250 zip codes where Blue Shield of California stopped selling individual policies in 2014. As his insurance agent explained it, Wright had only one choice of companies if he wanted to buy insurance on Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange. That lone option was Anthem Blue Cross, so Wright bought one of the Anthem policies.

"That was new to us, you know, Covered California," Wright says. "Anthem Blue Cross was the insurance carrier. Then of course, three months later, I have a heart attack.

Shots - Health News

To Curb Costs, New California Health Plans Trim Care Choices

More than once, he was flown across the state line to Reno for care. Wright and his wife, Kathy, now have piles of medical bills and insurance paperwork. Though Anthem Blue Cross covers emergency care out-of-state, it doesn't cover routine doctor care outside a patient's home state. But Wright says traveling from his home to doctors on the California side of the mountains is not as safe or as convenient as going to Reno.

He continues to see the Nevada doctors who put a defibrillator in his chest, and saved his life. Anthem Blue Cross will pay some of the bills, but the Wrights still don't know if everything will be covered.

There are other insurance options for Wright, but not through Covered California. Although he didn't need a subsidy, he was left in the same position as people in his area who do need financial help to buy insurance. People with lower incomes can't readily take their business to a competitor, because the state exchange is the only place customers can use federal subsidies to help them buy health insurance. So for these people who are pinched financially, Anthem is the only option.

"I mean, you should have some choices, especially if you're going to have one that's not going to cover you in the places you choose to go," Wright says.

Last July, Covered California Executive Director Peter Lee offered a different impression of choices the marketplace would offer.

"In every corner of the state, consumers will have at least two plans to choose from, and in most areas, where most of the Californians live, they can choose between five or six plans," said Lee during an event to announce the marketplace's 2015 plans and premium rates.

Northern California Pricing Region

Almost half of the Covered California members who have one choice of insurer live in Northern California.

Source: Covered California

Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR

Shots - Health News

A Single Insurer Holds Obamacare's Fate In 2 States

But in 22 counties in Northern California, there are zip codes where there is only one choice of insurer, even if that company offers a few different plans. There are areas around Monterey and Santa Cruz on California's central coast that also have only one carrier.

Blue Shield of California said it had to stop selling individual plans in areas that didn't have a hospital contracted with Blue Shield. The insurance firm said it had offered doctors in those areas rates of payment that would keep premiums low, but not all doctors accepted the payment terms.

Covered California estimates that statewide, there are 28,896 Covered California customers who have only one choice of insurance carrier — slightly over 2 percent of the total exchange membership as of November 2014.

Lee says the exchange is now working to increase the range of choices in places where there are none. But he says the problem predated the exchange.

"The challenges of northern, rural counties have been there for a long time," Lee says, "and are still a challenge that we're trying to address head-on."

He says the exchange is now mulling how to bring more insurer competition to these areas in 2016.

"We aren't the solution to all the problems that have always been there in terms of challenges in rural communities, and that's something we're certainly looking at — how to improve access and choice," Lee says. "And we'll continue doing that."

Shots - Health News

Two Doctors Weigh Whether To Accept Obamacare Plans

Covered California should help increase the number of insurers, says consumer advocate Anthony Wright from Health Access. And policy makers, he says, should lean on insurers and providers to participate in that market.

"Some of this is a combination of putting pressure on the insurers," he says, "and some of this is trying to do work to actually increase the number of providers on the ground in these areas — whether through more training, [or] incentives to be in some of these more rural areas."

Having more insurers in the marketplace, says Anthony Wright, would make it more likely that people can get the care they need.

"At one level, we're trying to make a functioning market," he says, "but it still means that consumers are at the mercy of the market."

This year, people who want more choice than Covered California offers, must venture into the broader health insurance market — if they can afford it.

This story is part of an NPR reporting partnership Capital Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.

CAlifornia

Affordable Care Act

Health Insurance

Monopoly

Today, the World Health Organization issued a 14-part report on Ebola: from the moment it started until now.

We asked our team of Ebola correspondents to look at the sections and pull out the points that seemed most interesting – details that may have been overlooked or forgotten, stories that show how the virus turned into an epidemic.

Where it all began

Goats and Soda

Could A 2-Year-Old Boy Be 'Patient Zero' For The Ebola Outbreak?

The very first human case of Ebola in this outbreak may have been due to deforestation by "foreign mining and timber operations" in Guinea, which brought residents in closer contact with bats. The first victim was an 18-month-old boy in Meliandou, a village of just 31 households. He had been seen playing near a tree infested with bats before he got sick. The child developed fever, black stools and was vomiting on Dec. 26, 2013, and died two days later. Health officials first thought he had cholera.

Anger in Guinea

The Ministry of Health publicly described the outbreak as ""nearly under control' as early as 15 April. But cases were on the rise. In September, Forecariah, a mining town in western Guinea, had a case fatality rate among Ebola patients of at least 80 percent; the virus was spreading among patients and staff in a large regional hospital. As the mob in Forecariah grew to more than 3,000 heavily armed youths, WHO-led epidemiologists became the target of their anger. The epidemiologists had to flee for their lives.

The first in Sierra Leone

Ebola arrived when an infected woman seeking the services of a faith healer crossed the border from Guinea. The healer became infected and eventually died. Her funeral became ground zero for the epidemic in Sierra Leone. Epidemiologists eventually traced 365 Ebola-related deaths to that single funeral.

Not enough doctors

Before Ebola struck, the three hardest-hit countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — had a ratio of about one to two doctors per nearly 100,000 people.

A shocking burial connection

Goats and Soda

Liberians Meet Death With Flowers, Trumpets And Cameras

Funeral practices in Liberia and Sierra Leone include rinsing a corpse and having mourners bathe in that water. The assistants of socially prominent members in secret societies in these countries have also been known to sleep near a highly infectious corpses to allow "the transfer of powers." A whopping 80 percent of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone are estimated to be linked to these funeral practices. In Guinea, it's 60 percent of Ebola cases.

Ebola in the air

Never before had air travelers brought the Ebola virus to a new country. That happened twice in this outbreak, when one infected individual flew from Liberia into Lagos, Nigeria, on July 20 and another from Liberia to Texas on Sept. 30. As the report notes, every city with an international airport is, in theory, at risk of an imported case.

The littlest victims

By the end of 2014, charities in West Africa were struggling to care for more than 30,000 Ebola orphans.

No isolation

In the early summer, no hospital in Liberia had an isolation ward. Facilities lacked protective equipment, and only a few medical staff were trained in the basic principles of infection control. As a result, treatment of the first hospitalized patients actually "ignited multiple chains of transmission" and eventually led to an exponential growth in Ebola cases throughout the country.

Continuing toll on health workers

Goats and Soda

Fallen Heroes: A Tribute To The Health Workers Who Died Of Ebola

Despite progress in Liberia, infection control at health facilities is still a major problem. Six health workers were infected just in the first week of December. Health officials are investigating.

Tough laws

Sierra Leone used especially aggressive measures to try and contain the virus, though it's unclear what impact these had. Over the course of the year, the government quarantined more than half of the country's 14 districts and passed a law imposing a jail sentence of up to two years on anyone found to be hiding a patient.

Malaria builds a bridge

As part of its response, the Sierra Leonean government used an anti-malaria campaign to try and win back the public's trust in health care workers, whom they thought were possibly spreading the disease. With new Ebola cases still rising in December 2014, health facilities distributed anti-malarial medicine to tens of thousands of households in areas with the highest rates of Ebola and where fear was causing people to avoid contact with health workers. The WHO report says the program was well-received and boosted trust in the government.

The need for rapid testing

Many Ebola patients have been in a hellish limbo for days or longer while waiting for blood samples to be schlepped along rutted roads, to be tested for the virus. WHO is currently evaluating 19 different rapid blood test kits, which can be sent off to health outposts in remote areas. If a reliable one is found, that could make a big difference for patients waiting to find out if their fever is caused by Ebola, malaria or any number of common diseases in the area. Rapid results can also help doctors manage the care of sick people more easily.

Internet aid

WHO was able to track possible Ebola cases in nonaffected countries with the help of a "dedicated internet search engine." The system combs through the web for rumors and hints suggesting an Ebola case and can translate from many languages. From mid-October to year's end, the system picked up more than 183,000 alerts that were then screened by epidemiologists. More than 150 required further investigation.

An unacceptable difference

More than 70 percent of Ebola patients treated in West Africa died compared to a 26 percent death rate for foreign medical staff who were evacuated to countries with specialized treatment. WHO calls this difference "unacceptable."

West Africa

ebola

World Health Organization

Federal workers with a pressing need can take an advance of up to six weeks of sick leave, under a new policy unveiled by President Obama Thursday. The White House is urging Congress to make paid sick leave mandatory in the U.S.

The president signed a memorandum today instructing federal agencies to advance up to six weeks of paid sick leave to workers who need the time to care for a new child, a family member, or for similar uses.

As for the private sector, the White House says 43 million workers do not have paid sick leave. And the new push to help them has been building for months now.

"U.S. labor laws date to the 1930s, a time when most families had a stay-at-home mother," NPR's Jennifer Ludden reported a year ago, when she interviewed state legislators about paid sick leave. "The only federally mandated leave covers just half of the workforce, and many people tell pollsters they can't afford to use it because it's unpaid."

The Obama administration says the lack of paid sick time creates situations in which employees can't take time to recover from illness, or their children are sent to school with a fever because their parents can't take time off from work to stay home with them.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports:

"President Obama is calling on Congress to pass a bill that would give all workers the opportunity to earn up to seven paid sick days per year. He's also encouraging state and local governments to pass their own paid leave requirements, even if Congress fails to act.

"The White House says more generous leave policies would boost productivity, reduce employee turnover, and encourage more moms to stay in the workforce."

The push for wider access to paid sick leave comes after a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which cited "research that shows that paid and unpaid leave can help workers balance obligations at home and in the workplace—and help parents and those with medical needs remain in the workforce."

"The United States is currently the only developed country that does not offer government-sponsored paid maternity leave," the report stated. "Many of these countries also provide paid paternity leave, elder care benefits, and generous paid sick leave."

Today, the administration also promoted the Healthy Families Act, which would let millions of U.S. workers earn up to seven days of paid sick time each year. The legislation would apply to employers with at least 15 workers.

President Obama's budget will propose more than $2 billion in funding and grants to help states install their own sick leave systems.

The plan met with some criticism, including Forbes contributor Tim Worstall, who predicted that the changes would result in lower pay and are unnecessary.

"Those who value the ability to take paid sick leave presumably have self-sorted themselves into jobs where they get it and those that don't haven't," Worstall wrote.

Only a few U.S. states and the District of Columbia have approved laws making paid family and medical leave mandatory. Washington state also has a parental leave law on its books, but the state has postponed its implementation due to problems funding it.

Some U.S. cities have passed similar laws — but in recent years, several states have taken preemptive steps barring others from doing so.

About 60 percent of American workers are eligible for sick leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the White House says. But the administration adds that despite providing up to 12 weeks off work, the FMLA doesn't do enough by itself, as it doesn't require the workers to be paid during the time off.

"For too many Americans, unpaid leave is unaffordable," The White House says. "Moreover, evidence shows that mothers, who do typically take some time off in order to give birth, are more likely to return to their jobs and to stay in the workforce if they are able to take paid maternity leave."

parental leave

sick leave

maternity leave

In the United Kingdom, British Gas employs 30,000 workers. Five of them could be said to carry a torch that has been burning for two centuries. They are the lamplighters, tending to gas lamps that still line the streets in some of London's oldest neighborhoods and parks.

As these lamplighters set out on their nightly rounds, they don't actually carry torches and don't wear top hats and waistcoats. In their blue and gray jackets with the British Gas logo, they look like 21st-century utility workers.

"I was originally doing central heating installation," says Garry Usher, who oversees the team.

About 15 years ago, Usher found out he was being assigned to the lamplighters crew. He nearly laughed at his boss, since everyone knows London went electric more than a century ago.

"I thought he was taking the mickey actually," says Usher.

Translation: he thought his boss was pulling his leg, but he wasn't.

London still has about 1,500 gas lamps. The group British Heritage decided to preserve them after almost all the others were replaced by electric lamps. These look almost exactly the same as when they were first installed 200 years ago. They're just a little taller to accommodate modern traffic.

On a recent night, Usher leans a ladder against a lamppost, climbs the rungs, and opens the small glass door at the top of the lamp. Inside, a little ticking clock triggers the flame to go on and off at the right time each night.

These clocks must be wound by hand.

"I'll manually turn it round," says Usher.

He moves the dial, and a flame jumps up to catch on little silk nets, known as mantles. The mantles are covered with a substance called lime, which produces a bright white light.

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Garry Usher oversees the five lamplighters employed by British Gas. Each night, members of his crew wind up, by hand, the clocks that control when the lamps, like this one at St. John's church in Smith Square, turn on and off. Rich Preston/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Rich Preston/NPR

Garry Usher oversees the five lamplighters employed by British Gas. Each night, members of his crew wind up, by hand, the clocks that control when the lamps, like this one at St. John's church in Smith Square, turn on and off.

Rich Preston/NPR

In the early 1800s, London's West End theaters realized how useful lime could be to illuminate a stage.

"It shone really bright across on their star, and so the star was the person that was in the limelight," says Usher. "So that's where that comes from."

Usher is literally standing in the limelight, steps from the River Thames, a stone's throw from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It's a quintessential London scene.

He's joined by Iain Bell, British Gas' operations manager and a history buff. Bell describes what this area would have looked like before the lamps arrived.

"The streets would've been pitch-black. They would've been very smoggy. They'd have been quite dangerous, because the only light the public would've had would have been a candle," Bell says.

If you wanted to walk to the local pub, you could hire a child known as a link boy to light your way with a torch.

"Some of the link boys weren't as nice as you'd expect them to be," says Bell. "They actually would mug you. So they'd take you down a dark lane, and then you'd be set upon and robbed."

When street lights arrived, nightlife in London transformed.

At first people were justifiably afraid of the lamps. Bell says the gas pipes were poorly made, from shabby materials.

"We're talking wood. We're talking mud wrapped around it. So there were a lot of leaks. There was a lot of fires. There was a lot of explosions," he says. "So the public were terrified."

Even today, diggers often come across the remains of old wooden pipes.

The gas lamps that still stand in London are now protected by law. If one is knocked down, it is replaced with an exact replica. They cast a calming, mellow light, maintained by these few remaining lamplighters — literal keepers of the flame.

England

London

In health insurance prices, as in the weather, Alaska and the Sun Belt are extremes. This year Alaska is the most expensive health insurance market for people who do not get coverage through their employers, while Phoenix, Albuquerque, N.M., and Tucson, Ariz., are among the very cheapest.

The best insurance deals by region and county

$166 Phoenix, Ariz. (Maricopa)
$167 Albuquerque, N.M. (Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance and Valencia count)
$167 Louisville, Ky. (Bullitt, Jefferson, Oldham and Shelby)
$170 Tucson, Ariz. (Pima and Santa Cruz)
$170 Pittsburgh, Pa. (Allegheny and Erie)
$179 Western Pennsylvania (Beaver, Butler, Washington, Westmoreland, Armstrong, Crawford, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, and Warren)
$181 Knoxville and Eastern Tennessee (Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Monroe, Morgan, Roane, Scott, Sevier, and Union)
$181 Minneapolis-St. Paul (Anoka, Benton, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne, Stearns, Washington, and Wright)
$184 Memphis and suburbs (Fayette, Haywood, Lauderdale, Shelby, and Tipton)
$189 North of Minneapolis (Chisago and Isanti)

(Premiums are for the lowest-cost silver plan for 40-year-olds, but in most cases, the areas with the highest and lowest premiums stay the same no matter the age.)

In this second year of the insurance marketplaces created by the federal health law, the most expensive premiums are in rural spots around the nation: Wyoming, rural Nevada, patches of inland California and the southernmost county in Mississippi, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has compiled premium prices from around the country. (KHN is an independent program of the foundation.)

The most and least expensive regions are determined by the monthly premium for the least expensive "silver" level plan, which is the type most consumers buy and covers on average 70 percent of medical expenses. Premiums in the priciest areas are triple those in the least expensive areas. The national median premium for a 40-year-old is $269, according to the foundation.

Along with the three southwestern cities, the places with the lowest premiums include Louisville, Ky., Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, Knoxville and Memphis, Tenn., and Minneapolis-St. Paul and many of its suburbs, the analysis found.

Starting this month, the cheapest silver plan for a 40-year-old in Alaska costs $488 a month. (Not everyone will have to pay that much because the health law subsidizes premiums for low-and moderate-income people.) A 40-year-old Phoenix resident could pay as little as $166 for the same level plan.

That three-fold spread is similar to the gap between last year's most expensive area — in the Colorado mountain resort region, where 40-year-olds paid $483—and the least expensive, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, where they paid $154.

Minneapolis remained one of the cheapest areas in the region, although the lowest silver premium rose to $181 after the insurer that offered the cheapest plan last year pulled out of the market. Premiums in four Colorado counties around Aspen and Vail plummeted this year after state insurance regulators lumped them in with other counties in order to bring rates down.

The areas and counties with the highest premiums

$488 Alaska (entire state)
$459 Ithaca, NY (Tompkins)
$456 Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Hancock)
$446 Plattsburgh, NY (Clinton)
$440 Rural Wyoming (Albany, Big Horn, Campbell, Carbon, Converse, Crook, Fremont, Goshen, Hot Springs, Johnson, Lincoln, Niobrara, Park, Platte, Sheridan, Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta, Washakie, and Weston)
$428 Vermont (entire state)
$418 Rural Nevada (Churchill, Elko, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Mineral, Pershing, and White Pine)
$412 Casper, Wyoming (Natrona)
$410 Inland California (Imperial, Inyo, and Mono)
$401 Cheyenne, Wyoming (Laramie)

(Premiums are for the lowest-cost silver plan for 40-year-olds, but in most cases, the areas with the highest and lowest premiums stay the same no matter the age.)

Alaska's lowest silver premium rose 28 percent from last year, ratcheting it up from 10th place last year to the nation's highest. Only two insurers are offering plans in the state, the same number as last year, but the limited competition is just one reason Alaska's prices are so high, researchers said. The state has a very high cost of living, which drives up rents and salaries of medical professionals, and insurers said patients racked up high costs last year.

Ceci Connolly, director of PwC's Health Research Institute, noted that the long distances between providers and patients also added to the costs. Restraining costs in rural areas, she said, "continues to be a challenge" around the country. One reason is that there tend to be fewer doctors and hospitals, so those that are there have more power to dictate higher prices, since insurers have nowhere else to turn.

By contrast, in Maricopa County, Phoenix's home, the lowest silver premium price dropped 15 percent from last year, when Phoenix didn't rank among the lowest areas. A dozen insurers are offering silver plans. "Phoenix, during the boom, attracted a lot of providers so it's a very robust, competitive market," said Allen Gjersvig, an executive at the Arizona Alliance for Community Health Centers, which is helping people enroll in the marketplaces.

The cheapest silver plan in Phoenix comes from Meritus, a nonprofit insurance cooperative. The plan is an HMO that provides care through Maricopa Integrated Health System, a safety net system that is experienced in managing care for Medicaid patients. Meritus' chief executive, Tom Zumtobel, said they brought that plan's premium down from 2014. The insurer and the health system meet regularly to figure out how to treat complicated cases in the most efficient manner. "We're working together to get the best outcome," Zumtobel said.

Katherine Hempstead, who oversees the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's research on health insurance prices, found no significant differences in the designs of the plans that would explain their premiums. "In most of the plans – cheap or expensive – there seemed to be a high deductible and fairly similar cost-sharing," she said.

Alaska

Health Insurance

Arizona

Easter is still far away, but in the United Kingdom, the weeks after Christmas are when stores begin stocking Cadbury's iconic Creme Eggs – those foil-wrapped chocolates filled with gooey "whites" and "yolks" made of candy.

For many people there, the eggs aren't just sweets – they're "edible time capsules that take consumers back to their childhood with every mouthful," as the U.K.'s Telegraph put it.

So perhaps that explains why Cadbury's decision to tweak both the recipe and packaging for the creme eggs is leading to outrage across Britain, leaving chocolate lovers, as one headline declared, in "shellshock!"

And what exactly did Cadbury do? For starters, the confectioner reduced the number of eggs in a pack from six to five. More importantly, it also changed the recipe of the chocolate shell.

i i

Cadbury Creme Eggs on the production line at a Cadbury factory in Birmingham, U.K. For many, the eggs are filled not just with gooey candy "whites" and "yolks" but with childhood memories. Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cadbury Creme Eggs on the production line at a Cadbury factory in Birmingham, U.K. For many, the eggs are filled not just with gooey candy "whites" and "yolks" but with childhood memories.

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A spokesman for Cadbury told the British tabloid The Sun that the company's signature Dairy Milk, which has been used to create the chocolate shell for more than four decades, will now be replaced with "standard cocoa mix chocolate." The British press describes consumers as "enraged," "furious" and "up in arms" over the news. (Editors' note: For the record, American Cadbury Creme Eggs are staying the same — the shell is made by Hershey's. We think the British version is tastier.)

What's the big deal? Our own Alison Richards, who edits science and food coverage at NPR and is British born and raised, broke it down for us.

"I think it's kind of a guilty pleasure that really does belong to childhood," Alison says.

"Christmas would be over, life would be a bit dreary and gray, and then, the first Cadbury Creme Eggs would begin to show up in their glittery, colored paper," she says. "And this would be like a promise of things to come. Forget daffodils — it was the Cadbury Creme Eggs — all about the eggs. ... It was a treat."

A seasonal treat, that is — none of the stores near us in Washington, D.C., had them in stock yet. Alas, we haven't had the chance to taste test the changes to the beloved egg.

And while Alison admits it is theoretically possible she could end up loving the new Cadbury eggs, that was certainly not the reaction chocolatier Paul A. Young had when he did a taste test for the BBC.

"It's a different texture," Young told the BBC. "It's very, very pasty. It's just — the chocolate is now as sweet as the filling. I don't think it's a massive, significant difference, but for me, it's not the same enjoyable experience as I was used to."

While nostalgia is largely driving the uproar, we wondered what today's British kids make of the changes. We caught up with some 7- and 8-year-olds walking out of a theater production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, of all things, in London. What's the verdict on the new recipe?

"They taste scrumptious!" one child opined.

Another declared the old recipe "a bit better."

A third piped up, "I like the new recipe."

So it would seem the jury is still out.

Regardless, Cadbury is unlikely to backtrack. It's now owned by Mondelez, a spin off from Kraft. Mondelez's U.K. office didn't respond to our request for comment, but it has said that a "range of economic factors" influenced the decision to change Britain's beloved Easter treat.

cadbury

British food

chocolate

Easter is still far away, but in the United Kingdom, the weeks after Christmas are when stores begin stocking Cadbury's iconic Creme Eggs – those foil-wrapped chocolates filled with gooey "whites" and "yolks" made of candy.

For many people there, the eggs aren't just sweets – they're "edible time capsules that take consumers back to their childhood with every mouthful," as the U.K.'s Telegraph put it.

So perhaps that explains why Cadbury's decision to tweak both the recipe and packaging for the creme eggs is leading to outrage across Britain, leaving chocolate lovers, as one headline declared, in "shellshock!"

And what exactly did Cadbury do? For starters, the confectioner reduced the number of eggs in a pack from six to five. More importantly, it also changed the recipe of the chocolate shell.

i i

Cadbury Creme Eggs on the production line at a Cadbury factory in Birmingham, U.K. For many, the eggs are filled not just with gooey candy "whites" and "yolks" but with childhood memories. Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cadbury Creme Eggs on the production line at a Cadbury factory in Birmingham, U.K. For many, the eggs are filled not just with gooey candy "whites" and "yolks" but with childhood memories.

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A spokesman for Cadbury told the British tabloid The Sun that the company's signature Dairy Milk, which has been used to create the chocolate shell for more than four decades, will now be replaced with "standard cocoa mix chocolate." The British press describes consumers as "enraged," "furious" and "up in arms" over the news. (Editors' note: For the record, American Cadbury Creme Eggs are staying the same — the shell is made by Hershey's. We think the British version is tastier.)

What's the big deal? Our own Alison Richards, who edits science and food coverage at NPR and is British born and raised, broke it down for us.

"I think it's kind of a guilty pleasure that really does belong to childhood," Alison says.

"Christmas would be over, life would be a bit dreary and gray, and then, the first Cadbury Creme Eggs would begin to show up in their glittery, colored paper," she says. "And this would be like a promise of things to come. Forget daffodils — it was the Cadbury Creme Eggs — all about the eggs. ... It was a treat."

A seasonal treat, that is — none of the stores near us in Washington, D.C., had them in stock yet. Alas, we haven't had the chance to taste test the changes to the beloved egg.

And while Alison admits it is theoretically possible she could end up loving the new Cadbury eggs, that was certainly not the reaction chocolatier Paul A. Young had when he did a taste test for the BBC.

"It's a different texture," Young told the BBC. "It's very, very pasty. It's just — the chocolate is now as sweet as the filling. I don't think it's a massive, significant difference, but for me, it's not the same enjoyable experience as I was used to."

While nostalgia is largely driving the uproar, we wondered what today's British kids make of the changes. We caught up with some 7- and 8-year-olds walking out of a theater production of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, of all things, in London. What's the verdict on the new recipe?

"They taste scrumptious!" one child opined.

Another declared the old recipe "a bit better."

A third piped up, "I like the new recipe."

So it would seem the jury is still out.

Regardless, Cadbury is unlikely to backtrack. It's now owned by Mondelez, a spin off from Kraft. Mondelez's U.K. office didn't respond to our request for comment, but it has said that a "range of economic factors" influenced the decision to change Britain's beloved Easter treat.

cadbury

British food

chocolate

Why do some of us like to slather hot sauce or sprinkle chili powder into our food, while others can't stand burning sensations in our mouth?

It probably has to do with how much we've been socially pressured or taught to eat chili, according to Paul Rozin, a cultural psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania who has studied attitudes toward food for decades.

We first read about Rozin's research on spicy food in Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat. It's a new book by John McQuaid that's been excerpted in the Wall Street Journal and featured Sunday on Weekend Edition.

The Salt

'Tasty': How Flavor Helped Make Us Human

We asked Rozin to tell us more about his work on spice tolerance. Here's part of our conversation, editing for brevity and clarity.

How did you get interested in researching spicy foods?

The chili pepper is a subject of great interest to the public because so many can't stand [it].

My wife Elisabeth Rozin had written a book called Ethnic Cuisine, in which she proposed a theory of cuisine: that most cuisines in the world except in northern Europe have a characteristic flavor that they put on all their foods.

And that flavor in Mexico is chili and it is on virtually every savory food they eat. Chili pepper, when it came to Europe, tasted so bad. So this terrible tasting food comes over along with potatoes and tomatoes and all these other relatively good ones and it becomes a major flavoring in the cuisines of West Africa, of South Asia and a good part of Southeast Asia. And it makes their food taste better to them.

The Salt

How To Tiptoe Into The Hot Sauce Craze

So I got curious about how the hell that happened.

You went to Mexico in the 1980s to study this, right?

I lived in a village [near Oaxaca, in southern Mexico] for a month and saw how they dealt with their chili peppers, how they served their meals. It was a traditional village that just had gotten electricity; nobody had a refrigerator. I discovered that at about four- or five-years-old, the kids started liking [chili].In the village of 1,500 people, everyone over the age of four or five loved hot chili.

Now, the animals in the village, the dogs and the pigs, eat the garbage. So they're eating hot chili every day because that's in the sauce on everything. And I couldn't find a single animal in the village — I tested a few (by giving the pigs and dogs a choice between a cheese cracker and a cracker with hot chili sauce) — that preferred the one with chili.

I thought that was a really interesting finding. And I think that this is a very special human characteristic — the ability to overcome an innate aversion and make it into a pleasure.

How do you think we overcome these aversions?

The Salt

Sichuan Pepper's Buzz May Reveal Secrets Of The Nervous System

Clearly you have to be exposed to it a lot of times. But normally you would never be exposed [to hot chilies] more than once. And the reason you're exposed to it a lot is because that's what the family's serving so you just eat it. The experience of eating it a lot somehow converts what was an aversion to a preference.

What's going to the brain is the same, there's no change in the tongue or the mouth, so it's what we call a "hedonic reversal."

It's not just in food, but coffee is bitter and there's a lot of foods that we eat that little kids don't like — beer, etc. But we also like amusement park rides, we like to be scared, we like to cry at movies. This is an example of a very common thing in humans.

I call it "benign masochism," which is to say that we learn to like things that our body rejects. And it's benign because it doesn't hurt us.

The Salt

Black Pepper May Give You A Kick, But Don't Count On It For Weight Loss

That's interesting that we grow to like these things we first hate.

It's like getting to like smoking — when you first smoke it's terrible. But you [may] keep going because there's social pressure. And that pressure gives you enough experience ... and somehow with that experience it usually inverts.

For some people it inverts pretty quickly. In my case, I like hot food now, but moderately hot. It took me many, many years of trying to like it, which just meant eating a lot of it. The same is true for me with beer — beer was too bitter for me. But I kept drinking it and now I like it. So I don't know what happened.

What's the most surprising thing about your findings to you?

The surprising thing was what got me to do it in the first place — that something that tastes so bad becomes [people's] favorite food. As I say, it's not just about chili pepper it's about black coffee and ginger root and horseradish. And hot temperature food and cold food — most people don't like really cool food like ice water, that's a Western thing to drink beverages that are cold. Little kids don't like them.

I'm less interested in chili now than in the whole phenomenon of across cultures about how people get to like these very unpromising things. But I don't know the answer. Some part of it is social. Social forces affect what we like and the advertising industry knows that — that's why they have endorsements by famous people.

It sounds like you're generally interested in disgust and turning disgust into acceptance?

I'm interested in that the Chinese and Southeast Asians think we're crazy for liking cheese but they eat rotted soy and fish in their sauces.

What's the hottest thing you've ever eaten?

I had an experience at a Korean restaurant in New York. I was there with my first wife and we were sitting in there and someone next to us, Korean people, ordered something that looked really good. We're food adventurers so we said to the waiter, "We want that." And he said, "You don't want that." And we said, "Yes, we do." And he said, "No, you don't." Well of course we won and it came out and it was so hot that we could barely eat it. And we forced it down because we had established our credentials so we had to eat it.

spice

chili peppers

Mexico

In Europe, the attacks in Paris have relaunched a debate about Islam and compatibility with the West and that's dangerous, says Abdullah Hamidaddin, an adviser at the center.

"These are French citizens, they committed a crime in France," he insists, and now, "French Muslims feel they are being put in a corner."

France's Muslim population, which doesn't identify with the attackers, now fears an anti-Muslim backlash, he says. The result could prompt more radicalization.

Recruiting Westerners

Some of these young radicals streaming into the Middle East aren't even religious, he says. "It's macho rather than Islam."

Hamidaddin has studied ISIS recruiting videos and he says the videos are a good indication of the ISIS strategy, enticing a generation of alienated youth.

"They are even using some of the famous (Sony) Play Station games," he says.

One recruitment tool is Grand Theft Auto, one of the most popular international video games. The video is familiar; the audio has been replaced by Koranic readings.

"They know what they are tapping into, not the religious part of the person, but a sense of adventure, the part that is looking for a thrill" he says.

Rasha al-Aqeedi is an Iraqi editor working at Mesbar. She is from Mosul in northern Iraq and keeps in close contact with Iraqis from her hometown, which has effectively become a capital city in the caliphate proclaimed by ISIS.

"It's horrible. Any form of modern life is gone in Mosul," she says.

She knows some young Iraqis who have joined the radical group.

"It's very appealing," she says, as those at the bottom of the social scale rise to the top. "They get money, they get power, they get to bully people, that's awesome for someone who was a nobody a few months ago."

ISIS used the familiar language of Islam to win over the population when they first arrived.

"In Muslim societies, we have been trained to embrace this for many years," says Aqeedi. But as the horrors of life under ISIS rule become clear, the brutal attacks on minorities, the destruction of the city's cultural history, Iraqis of Mosul are rethinking, she adds.

"People have seen where intolerance can go and they are not happy with it," she says. Many are now saying that this is not religion at all, she adds. "Once we get rid of the bad guys, it's the debate we can no longer escape."

At the core, ISIS is a political movement that has thrived in the chaos of Iraq and Syria, but is also the product of the region's ills; unemployment, under development, a lack of governance and absence of pluralism in religious discourse, says Abdullah Hamidaddin.

"We can't avoid this fight any longer", he says, "We are on a train heading for a cliff."

Actor Ethan Hawke calls Boyhood, which won best motion picture on Sunday at the Golden Globes, an "experiment."

The fictional story takes place over the course of 12 years — and was shot over the course of 12 years. So without special makeup or prosthetics, audiences watch two children grow up and two adults age. Hawke plays Mason Sr., the children's father, and Patricia Arquette plays Olivia, the children's mother. They are divorced.

The cast and director Richard Linklater, who also won the Golden Globe for best director, invested many years trying depict how coming of age happens in a series of little moments. It was something that had never been captured on film before.

i i

The cast of Boyhood — (left to right) Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, Ellar Coltrane and Ethan Hawke — won the Golden Globe Sunday for best motion picture. Kevin Winter/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The cast of Boyhood — (left to right) Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, Ellar Coltrane and Ethan Hawke — won the Golden Globe Sunday for best motion picture.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

"I was amazed that they could get financing for something that wouldn't see any return for 13 years," Arquette tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. Arquette won the Golden Globe for best supporting actress. "There [were] points in time along the way where I thought, 'OK, we're seven years in. If this falls apart right now, this will be a real drag.'"

"A colossal waste of time," Hawke chimes in.

But lucky for the actors, it wasn't.

"For me, the biggest question ... was, 'Could Rick [Linklater] end it? When it came to be over, would you feel you were told a story?'" Hawke says. " ... I remember when he showed me the first cut, it was just — it was like if getting punched in the gut could feel good, that's what it was like. I couldn't believe he'd finished it and he had sailed it into port."

Arquette and Hawke talk about the emotions involved in acting, how casting is an "act of faith" and seeing the full movie for the first time.

Interview Highlights

On aging in the film and as an actress in Hollywood

Arquette: As an actress, for me, I think there's such a pressure in the world for women to look a certain way, especially if you have success at a certain moment in your life in the ingnue age group — that you're supposed to hold onto that. And I really wanted to move away from that status as quickly as possible.

“ If you look at paintings throughout history of female beauty, the one that we're creating right now is a really weird one.

- Patricia Arquette, who plays Olivia in 'Boyhood'

It's true for human beings that a lot of the story of life is the mating story, is the falling in love story, is the having children story; so it does make sense that a large percentage of the stories are told in that age group, I think. But Hollywood tells the actresses what they need to look like to continue working and I don't believe that of human beings. I don't believe that's true of many stories and I do think as an actress it gives you a very short shelf life if you buy into that. ...

If you look at paintings throughout history of female beauty, the one that we're creating right now is a really weird one.

On Arquette's real life as a mother and how she walked away from a role while pregnant

Arquette: Right before [my son was born] I had gotten my first big movie and it was really a great art movie — it was Last Exit to Brooklyn. It was a star-making part, a great part, and between the time that they offered it to me and they started shooting, I discovered I was pregnant. And that character really goes through a lot of difficult things in that movie and it was my first time having a baby and I thought, "I don't want to be pregnant and emotionally go through this woman's journey, which is very violent at certain points, with a baby inside me."

It was a very difficult moment where I sat down with the producers and they said, "Well, we think you could still shoot this while you're pregnant."

I said, "Well, let me just walk around the block."

I came back and I said, "I can't do this movie because I don't know how that will be for my baby."

I didn't know if I would ever get another movie. Right after I had him, I auditioned and I wasn't getting movies and I remember walking into this restaurant on Sunset Boulevard applying for a job as a waitress. I said, "I'm smart. I don't have a lot of experience; I like people; I'm nice to people; I learn fast; and I have a baby to feed." They gave me the job and I was going to start on Wednesday and that Monday I got a call that I got my first movie after my son. ...

“ I remember when he showed me the first cut, it was just — it was like if getting punched in the gut could feel good, that's what it was like.

- Ethan Hawke, who plays Mason Sr. in 'Boyhood'

Hawke: When you're acting, your body often doesn't know you're acting. Our emotional life is our currency as an artist, the same way that a painter has paint. It's very strange to explain to people, but sometimes when I'm doing a play with a very emotionally violent character, my body doesn't know I'm acting. You know that weird feeling after you have a horrible fight with somebody you love — that's kind of the way I'd feel taking the subway home after the theater. It beats up your body.

A lot of people wouldn't have done that, Patricia. I had never heard that story about Last Exit to Brooklyn before. ... You're very wise to do that because you don't really know what a baby is going to feel and what it doesn't, but the little bit of experience I have acting and knowing how my body responds — Last Exit to Brooklyn is a not a part any child wants to play.

On the casting of a young actor at age 6 and not knowing who he would grow up to be

Hawke: It's an act of faith. ... I knew that if Ellar [Coltrane] wasn't an artist, if that didn't come to be, that the movie wouldn't work. But there are a lot of gambles in trying to do anything unique. I have great faith in Rick — it's a chicken-and-egg situation too. I mean, it's like Ellar went to a theater camp with Richard Linklater for 12 years. Rick's a great coach and Ellar is a special kid. ... A lot of effort and love went into creating a space that was available for them to use their creativity to a positive end. The greatest blessing in the movie is the fact that Ellar turned out to be James Dean.

More On 'Boyhood'

Movie Interviews

Filmed Over 12 Years, 'Boyhood' Follows A Kid's Coming Of Age

Ask Me Another

'Act Of Faith': Ethan Hawke Talks 'Boyhood' And Its 12-Year Shoot

Monkey See

'Boyhood,' Time And Tree Rings

Arquette: Rick jokes about the casting process like it was trying to find the Dalai Lama.

On seeing the movie in sequence for the first time

Arquette: It was different with each person. Ethan saw it almost every year, or pieces of it every other year or something; I saw a rough cut at five years. Rick didn't really want the kids to see it. He would've shown it to them had they asked, but they never asked. He didn't want them to become self-conscious. ... I wanted to wait to see it with an audience, so I actually saw it for the first time at Sundance.

Hawke: While we were making Boyhood, during that time period, I co-wrote two movies with Rick. I acted in, I think, four others, so this movie is an extension of a kind of ethos that we've been working on since we met on Before Sunrise. So I got to kind of ride shotgun on the whole deal. It's just the nature of our relationship, I think.

On letting go of his character after 12 years

Hawke: There's something so beautiful about the final moments of the movie and it was clear to me that it's about an adult being born. Yeah, would I love to see Mason Sr. get older. I'd like to see where he goes and what the evolution of his thought might be. But, that said, the magic of the movie is that it is over.

The brewer of a batch of traditional homemade beer is listed among nearly 70 people who died after drinking it following a funeral in Mozambique, leaving authorities with many questions.

Mozambique has declared three days of mourning over the deaths that occurred this past weekend. More than 100 people were hospitalized; dozens of them remain in the hospital.

The deaths have been traced to a batch of pombe, a beer often made from millet, corn and sorghum that a crowd of people drank after a funeral in Chitima in the province of Tete Friday afternoon. The first deaths occurred early Saturday.

Many of the victims are related to one another. The woman who made the beer died along with several members of her family.

Investigators are working to determine whether the poisoning was intentional or accidental, Attorney General Beatriz Buchili tells Radio Mozambique. The news agency adds that there are reports that a large container that held the pombe has gone missing.

Samples from the victims and from some of the beer have been sent for testing in both Mozambique and South Africa.

In the small village of Chitima, the scope of the poisoning is straining resources. Many of the dead had to be buried Sunday, Radio Mozambique says, because the local morgue couldn't accommodate all the bodies.

"It's the first time we've faced such a tragedy," regional health director Carla Mosse tells the news agency.

Pombe is a drink that's long been common in East Africa. Historical accounts from the 1800s describe how it has traditionally been brewed by women.

Some health officials in Mozambique reportedly believe the beer may have been poisoned with crocodile bile, a "deadly greenish-brown liquid, produced in the liver and stored in the gallbladder," the AP says.

The agency adds: "When a crocodile is killed, the bile of the animal must be immediately removed and buried in front of witnesses to prove that it has not fallen into the wrong hands, to be used as poison, according to some African traditions."

But Forbes writer David Kroll notes that there has been some doubt over the toxicity of crocodile bile, citing a researcher's theory that the bile might have been only one ingredient in a poison mixture that also includes lethal plants.

Mozambique

Five years ago today a massive earthquake rocked the island nation of Haiti. Within hours, Partners In Health, the largest provider of health care in the country and the organization for which I work, was delivering care in Port-au-Prince. The outpouring of support overwhelmed us. By some estimates, half of all American households contributed to the relief effort.

i i

Kathryn Kempton Courtesy of Partners In Health hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Partners In Health

Kathryn Kempton

Courtesy of Partners In Health

And they didn't just write checks. When one sees images of homes and lives in ruin, the impulse is to do more than give money, to give something to ease the suffering of others. After the earthquake, individuals donated clothing, toys and household items. Similarly, we received significant corporate donations of medicines and medical equipment for dealing with trauma. These in-kind donations, as they're known, filled a critical gap in the response efforts, both by supplying us with necessary items and by allowing us to use our funds for other priorities.

While most of the materials offered in the aftermath of the earthquake were valuable, we also received many unsolicited and inappropriate donations, both from corporations and individuals including unwashed sheets, nearly-expired medications and, famously, a single rollerblade. When in-kind donations are not well considered, they slow response efforts by diverting staff time to sorting or disposing of unwanted goods.

How can nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations work with potential donors, both individuals and corporations, to ensure that in-kind gifts have the greatest impact? And can we come up with a strategy to apply to the Ebola crisis, for which donations, both cash and in-kind, have lagged?

To make in-kind giving most effective, nonprofit organizations should give priority to the standards for in-kind gifts set by a country's ministry of health. And we must do more to communicate our needs to would-be contributors. One obvious solution is for an organization to post lists of needed materials on its website. While these lists need to be constantly monitored and updated, they present an opportunity for greater donor engagement. The best donor understands the complexities of in-kind giving and wants to ensure that their gift has the greatest possible impact.

It is also critical that organizations become comfortable saying "no" to a proposed donation. In the days and weeks after the earthquake, PIH turned away almost as many in-kind donations as we accepted. Some were valuable, but given the post-disaster conditions in which we were operating, we knew we could not properly store, distribute and support such items as energy-intensive water filtration units and complex surgical equipment. Other donations were declined because they were wholly inappropriate. Unfortunately, many organizations feel compelled to accept everything a corporation or donor offers. The fear is that if they refuse one donation — even for rational reasons — the donor won't be inclined to step up in the future.

On the other side of the equation, donors must come to understand that not all gifts are welcome. Materials that may be valuable in American hospitals and emergency centers can't always be easily transferred to a rural clinic or emergency field hospital. Even seemingly simple donations of clothing can have long-term, unintended effects. For decades, Haiti has received containers of donated clothing and shoes (often called "Kennedys", as the shipments began under the Kennedy administration). This steady stream of t-shirts and jeans and sneakers have fed a robust resale market, effectively putting many local tailors and cobblers out of work.

It is critical that these on-the-ground realities — combined with the experience of local staff — guide the decision to accept donated materials. For example, when we were assessing donated x-ray machines in the wake of the earthquake, we ran through a checklist. Can the electrical system support the machine? Who will cover the ongoing costs of operating the x-ray? Older, film-based x-rays require chemicals to develop images. What are the environmental impacts of disposing of those chemicals? Are spare parts available and are there technicians who can service the machine?

What it comes down to is that the donor can't just drop stuff off and feel good about it. A donor, whether an individual or a corporation, must get to know the recipient. That's especially critical for corporations that make large in-kind donations. We need to move beyond the image of the bountiful donor and the supplicant organization begging for cast-offs and move toward true partnerships, where each party brings something valuable to the table.

To that end, it might help to look at the growing trend of corporations creating social responsibility programs. The idea is that the corporation will consider the financial, social and environmental benefits — and indeed, all the implications — of their interventions.

Material donations can be tremendously helpful when disaster strikes, as they were in Haiti. And they could make a difference in West Africa once the acute Ebola crisis is past. The nations most affected will need significant support to build well-equipped facilities with highly-trained staff. Done well, and done in partnership with individuals and corporations, in-kind gifts can transform health systems in dire need of support.

Recently a four-year-old girl was brought to the University Hospital in Mirebalais, a facility PIH built in Haiti specifically to strengthen the public health system in the aftermath of a devastating disaster. This young child — who was not alive at the time of the 2010 earthquake — was diagnosed with tuberculosis using a donated x-ray machine and received immediate treatment. In her story we see how in-kind gifts can contribute to real and lasting change.

Kathryn G. Kempton is the director of international operations for Partners In Health.

disasters

donations

Haiti

Five years ago today a massive earthquake rocked the island nation of Haiti. Within hours, Partners In Health, the largest provider of health care in the country and the organization for which I work, was delivering care in Port-au-Prince. The outpouring of support overwhelmed us. By some estimates, half of all American households contributed to the relief effort.

i i

Kathryn Kempton Courtesy of Partners In Health hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of Partners In Health

Kathryn Kempton

Courtesy of Partners In Health

And they didn't just write checks. When one sees images of homes and lives in ruin, the impulse is to do more than give money, to give something to ease the suffering of others. After the earthquake, individuals donated clothing, toys and household items. Similarly, we received significant corporate donations of medicines and medical equipment for dealing with trauma. These in-kind donations, as they're known, filled a critical gap in the response efforts, both by supplying us with necessary items and by allowing us to use our funds for other priorities.

While most of the materials offered in the aftermath of the earthquake were valuable, we also received many unsolicited and inappropriate donations, both from corporations and individuals including unwashed sheets, nearly-expired medications and, famously, a single rollerblade. When in-kind donations are not well considered, they slow response efforts by diverting staff time to sorting or disposing of unwanted goods.

How can nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations work with potential donors, both individuals and corporations, to ensure that in-kind gifts have the greatest impact? And can we come up with a strategy to apply to the Ebola crisis, for which donations, both cash and in-kind, have lagged?

To make in-kind giving most effective, nonprofit organizations should give priority to the standards for in-kind gifts set by a country's ministry of health. And we must do more to communicate our needs to would-be contributors. One obvious solution is for an organization to post lists of needed materials on its website. While these lists need to be constantly monitored and updated, they present an opportunity for greater donor engagement. The best donor understands the complexities of in-kind giving and wants to ensure that their gift has the greatest possible impact.

It is also critical that organizations become comfortable saying "no" to a proposed donation. In the days and weeks after the earthquake, PIH turned away almost as many in-kind donations as we accepted. Some were valuable, but given the post-disaster conditions in which we were operating, we knew we could not properly store, distribute and support such items as energy-intensive water filtration units and complex surgical equipment. Other donations were declined because they were wholly inappropriate. Unfortunately, many organizations feel compelled to accept everything a corporation or donor offers. The fear is that if they refuse one donation — even for rational reasons — the donor won't be inclined to step up in the future.

On the other side of the equation, donors must come to understand that not all gifts are welcome. Materials that may be valuable in American hospitals and emergency centers can't always be easily transferred to a rural clinic or emergency field hospital. Even seemingly simple donations of clothing can have long-term, unintended effects. For decades, Haiti has received containers of donated clothing and shoes (often called "Kennedys", as the shipments began under the Kennedy administration). This steady stream of t-shirts and jeans and sneakers have fed a robust resale market, effectively putting many local tailors and cobblers out of work.

It is critical that these on-the-ground realities — combined with the experience of local staff — guide the decision to accept donated materials. For example, when we were assessing donated x-ray machines in the wake of the earthquake, we ran through a checklist. Can the electrical system support the machine? Who will cover the ongoing costs of operating the x-ray? Older, film-based x-rays require chemicals to develop images. What are the environmental impacts of disposing of those chemicals? Are spare parts available and are there technicians who can service the machine?

What it comes down to is that the donor can't just drop stuff off and feel good about it. A donor, whether an individual or a corporation, must get to know the recipient. That's especially critical for corporations that make large in-kind donations. We need to move beyond the image of the bountiful donor and the supplicant organization begging for cast-offs and move toward true partnerships, where each party brings something valuable to the table.

To that end, it might help to look at the growing trend of corporations creating social responsibility programs. The idea is that the corporation will consider the financial, social and environmental benefits — and indeed, all the implications — of their interventions.

Material donations can be tremendously helpful when disaster strikes, as they were in Haiti. And they could make a difference in West Africa once the acute Ebola crisis is past. The nations most affected will need significant support to build well-equipped facilities with highly-trained staff. Done well, and done in partnership with individuals and corporations, in-kind gifts can transform health systems in dire need of support.

Recently a four-year-old girl was brought to the University Hospital in Mirebalais, a facility PIH built in Haiti specifically to strengthen the public health system in the aftermath of a devastating disaster. This young child — who was not alive at the time of the 2010 earthquake — was diagnosed with tuberculosis using a donated x-ray machine and received immediate treatment. In her story we see how in-kind gifts can contribute to real and lasting change.

Kathryn G. Kempton is the director of international operations for Partners In Health.

disasters

donations

Haiti

Cuba has released all of the 53 dissidents it had promised to free as part of a historic deal last month to begin re-establishing diplomatic ties with the U.S., an American official said today.

"We welcome this very positive development and are pleased that the Cuban Government followed through on this commitment," a senior administration official said in an email.

On Dec. 17, President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced a reset of the countries' historically hostile relations. As we reported, U.S. officials said both nations would normalize banking and trade, and that the U.S. would ease travel restrictions and limits on imports and exports. The agreement included a swap of jailed intelligence assets and the release of former USAID subcontractor Alan Gross.

Cuba also agreed at the time to release 53 detainees regarded as political prisoners by the U.S.

NPR's Michele Kelemen tells our Newscast unit that "the U.S. Interests Section — which is expected to be upgraded to an embassy as relations improve — confirmed the releases of the 53 political prisoners. The U.S. says they were individuals jailed for promoting political and social reforms on the island."

There has been intense secrecy over the names of the prisoners, which the U.S. has not yet made public. Earlier today, Reuters reported that the White House will provide the names of all 53 to Congress and expects lawmakers to make them public, the officials added."

U.S. officials say they would pressure Cuba to free more dissidents. Cuba's government has denied the existence of political prisoners, saying they are in fact U.S.-paid mercenaries.

News that all 53 dissidents have been freed comes ahead of U.S.-Cuba talks set to take place next week and cover topics from investment to immigration. Michele notes that Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson will lead the U.S. delegation — and become the highest ranking U.S. official to travel to Cuba in decades.

Alan Gross

Raul Castro

President Barack Obama

Cuba

In a speech today at an elementary school in Washington, D.C., Education Secretary Arne Duncan laid out the president's position as the nation's largest federal education law moves on a "fast track" toward reauthorization.

According to his prepared remarks, Duncan called the 13-year-old No Child Left Behind law "tired" and "prescriptive." Nevertheless, he declared that the central requirement of No Child Left Behind should stand: annual, mandated statewide assessments in grades 3-8 plus once in high school.

Some Republicans in Congress have been discussing the idea of reducing or eliminating testing requirements.

In his speech Duncan invoked famous phrases used by both President Obama and President George W. Bush, the latter of whom introduced those requirements.

NPR Ed

Testing: How Much Is Too Much?

NPR Ed

What Schools Could Use Instead Of Standardized Tests

"This country can't afford to replace 'the fierce urgency of now,' " he said, "with the soft bigotry of, 'It's optional.' "

Duncan acknowledged that high-stakes accountability testing is one of the "hardest topics" in the nation's education debate. He called, as he has previously, for action on the state and district level to cut back on "redundant" and "unnecessary" additional tests.

He also said the federal government will request funding to improve the quality of tests, beyond the $360 million already spent to create Common Core-aligned PARCC and Smarter Balanced tests. And he wants student test scores to be included in teacher evaluations, as part of a "multiple measures" system.

The Senate education committee is scheduled to hold a hearing specifically addressing testing on Jan. 20, the same day as President Obama's State of the Union speech.

Among other notable points in Duncan's speech today were:

The President's budget request will include $2.7 billion in increased education spending. Of that, $1 billion will be designated for high-needs Title I schools.

A renewed call for expanded access to preschool.

A call for distributing funding more equitably among public schools in high- and low-income areas. According to a 2014 report, in 19 states high-poverty districts receive less state and local funding than low-poverty districts.

Imagine this: You just got home from work and, instead of doing the usual kale salad and lean steak for dinner, you grab a bag of chips and lie down in bed.

The sensors — in your cabinets, in your room, on your wrist — can tell that you're not yourself. The data across devices can talk to each other and infer: You're sad. And so, out pops an alert to recommend a movie to lift your mood. Or a latte at just the right strength.

I haven't seen this smart home at the International Consumer Electronics Show, which wrapped up Friday in Las Vegas. But that's the vision industry leaders are selling.

The words "predictive" and "actionable" are the new buzzwords as companies try to figure out how to sell us smart things. So far — aside from some hits like the Nest thermostat — consumers are not lining up to buy and according to Gartner, these products are at the peak of a hype cycle.

Last year, industry leaders talked about making things pretty. This year, it's about making things super-smart — a strategy that toys with and tests our appetite for privacy.

All this brought up a few questions:

What are the predictive, actionable products at CES?

There's a huge range. It's a movement!

In his keynote speech, Ford CEO Mark Fields talked about using car sensors to build profiles on drivers. He clarified that customers would own their data and opt in, if they so choose. And Fields added, "if we use that data, we need to ensure that customers are receiving services or features that they find valuable." Like, get a lower insurance rate.

All Tech Considered

Self-Tracking Gadgets That Play Doctor Abound At CES

All Tech Considered

When It Comes To Smartphones, Are Americans Dumb?

Privacy, Security Focal Points At CES

Big Ass Fans has a ceiling fan that, the company claims, can learn the owner's comfort preferences over time and adjust speed accordingly. So, just integrate with your body tracker by Jawbone and, when you're sleeping and chilly, no need to look for that remote.

In Whirlpool's interactive kitchen of the future, a smart vessel in the refrigerator would integrate with the cooktop and backsplash to tell you what ingredients are in the fridge and help forge recipes. You could also track last-minute guests via GPS.

Do I want the consumer tech industry to sell me tracking as a service?

Privacy and security are both issues. During a keynote, Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez pushed back on industry players who are designing products that stockpile data.

"I question the notion that we must put sensitive consumer data at risk on the off-chance a company might someday discover a valuable use for the information," she said.

And Ramirez said while customers hear that the data is anonymized, that promise isn't perfect. "There is always the possibility that ostensibly anonymized data can be re-identified," she said. Ramirez says the best practices for tech products and for regulators is still a work in progress.

And that's all happening while cyberattacks are on the rise.

Is there a consumer market for privacy?

First off, it could be that the privacy concern — heightened in the post-Snowden era — is what's stopping people from buying a lot of smart devices. A study on the wearables industry by L2 indicates that's the case.

But in terms of products that explicitly market to the privacy-conscious consumer, I didn't see a glut. I did check out a smartwatch from GoldKey that can make encrypted phone calls.

Consumer Electronics Show

A video has surfaced of the now-dead suspect in the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris claiming allegiance to the self-declared Islamic State.

In the video, what appears to be Amedy Coulibaly, 32, is seen seated next to a Kalashnikov rifle with the symbol of the Islamic State behind him. He is wearing a white tunic and bandana.

The respected SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist activity, says it has authenticated the video.

"I am pledging my allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims, Abu Bakr al Bagdadi," he says, referring to the self-declared leader of ISIS. The video, apparently filmed sometime between Wednesday's attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Friday siege of the supermarket.

Words on the screen in French ask: "Are you linked to the brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo?"

"We are a team, in league together," Coulibaly responds. "I am with the team who did Charlie Hebdo," he says.

During the hostage standoff at the supermarket, Coulibaly also telephoned France's BFMTV television to say that he had coordinated his efforts with the Charlie Hebdo assailants.

One of those alleged assailants, Chrif Kouachi, gave a separate telephone interview to BFMTV before he was killed as police stormed his hideout in a warehouse outside of Paris on Friday.

"I just want to tell you that we are defenders of the Prophet," he said, according to a transcript from The Independent. "I, Chrif Kouachi, was sent by al-Qaeda in Yemen. I was over there. I was financed by Imam Anwar al-Awlaki."

The al-Qaida reference is to the extremist group's Yemeni affiliate, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Al-Awlaki was the leader of that group before he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.

Chrif Kouachi and his brother, Said, are believed to have participated in the attack on the magazine.

Meanwhile, unnamed French and Turkish intelligence officials reportedly have said they now believe that a woman, the partner of Coulibaly who was first thought to be a fourth suspect, was in fact outside France when the attacks took place.

France 24 says: "[Police] are still searching for [Coulibaly's] girlfriend, Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, who was identified as his suspected accomplice in the killing of a young female officer in southern Paris on Thursday. However, the police may have been mistaken about Boumeddiene's direct involvement in the shooting as news broke Saturday that she had left France for Turkey on January 2. Investigations are underway to check if she might have crossed the border into Syria on January 8."

AQAP

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Charlie Hebdo

France

The Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canadian oil sands down to the U.S. Gulf Coast, isn't just an infrastructure project. It's also a symbol for the fight over the future of energy.

Energy

Infographic: How Tar Sands Oil Is Produced

Producing oil from Alberta's tar sands emits more pollution than traditional oil drilling, so many environmentalists want that crude left in the ground. And more broadly, they want the world to turn away from climate-changing fossil fuels toward cleaner forms of energy, like wind and solar.

Mike Hudema, who works with Greenpeace Canada as a climate and energy campaigner, is one of those activists. He says he sympathizes with people who need jobs: He has family members who work in Alberta's oil fields. Still, Hudema considers it a victory when big oil companies announce delays in new oil sands projects.

Last September, Norway's Statoil postponed one project for at least three years. Before that, French oil giant Total S.A. shelved a planned project.

"Total cancelled its multi-billion-dollar tar sands project," Hudema says, "And they've stated fairly openly that part of the reason for the cancellation is because of lack of pipeline capacity."

Energy

Canadian Regulators Investigate Mysterious Tar Sands Spills

The Keystone XL pipeline is one project that would boost capacity. And companies do say the ability to transport crude out of Canada is one reason they delay projects. But there are other reasons that are just as important, says Greg Stringham, vice president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

"It hasn't been one single pipeline that has been the cause of that re-evaluation," he says. "It has been labor; it has been competitiveness; it has been the corporate decisions."

Those corporate decisions include the question of where a global company will choose to invest its money. And today — especially with low oil prices — it's not hard to find more lucrative investments.

Energy

What You Need To Know About The Keystone XL Oil Pipeline

The Keystone XL approval delay is just one setback for an industry Stringham says has a bright future. Canada's oil sands produced more than 2 million barrels of crude per day last year.

New projects are in the works, Stringham says, and output will grow.

"It is to the point where it has gone from just a Canadian industry to a North American industry and we're on the verge of moving it to a global industry," he says.

So, Stringham says, companies aren't waiting for the Keystone XL pipeline. There are other ways to move oil: trains, barges and alternate pipelines. He says as long as the U.S. and the world wants oil, Alberta will find a way to supply it.

Energy

Blocking Keystone Won't Stop Oil Sands Production

For opponents who want to keep that oil in the ground, like Hudema at Greenpeace, that means more battles ahead.

"When we talk about tar sands development we're talking about going against the biggest carbon bullies on the plant," Hudema says. "Every major multinational oil company is involved in this development."

Comparing their resources to his, Hudema says he thinks environmental groups are doing a pretty good job. And every day that Alberta's tar sands oil stays in the ground is another victory.

oil sands

greenpeace

Keystone XL Pipeline

oil