The Scene On The Syrian Border; How To Run For Office; The Evolution Of Gender In The Workplace

Plus, two powerful female voices come to NPR's Tiny Desk Stories You May Have Missed [A grandfather and grandson part at the Syria-Iraq border]( Cecilia Uddén [On the run for days, sleeping in the desert, desperate to reach safety across the border]( in Iraq but lacking the papers to get there. This was the scene in northeastern Syria as government and Turkish forces converged on Kurdish areas after a U.S. military pullout. The move, ordered by President Trump, left America’s longtime Kurdish allies in serious peril – [though the president declared them “much safer right now”]( after the U.S. helped them take apart ISIS. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is tasked with making sure Americans aren’t taken advantage of by lenders, and it saw that taking place in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. The Education Department effort was supposed to waive the loans of teachers, firefighters, military members and others after they spend years working in high-need areas, but only 1% of applicants are being approved. [The Education Department told the CFPB to butt out and told outside vendors not to share information with the agency](. Biologists view genetic diversity as critical to the health of a species. That makes it a bit worrisome for the dairy industry that [the family tree of every Holstein bull in the country “goes back to two bulls born in the 1950s and 1960s."]( This has led to a lot of tall, thin, unhealthy, infertile cows. No offense, Round Oak and Pawnee. Social norms around gender are changing, and workplaces are struggling to keep up. For nonbinary employees, being out at work means fielding endless questions from colleagues: Is this really a thing? How can a plural pronoun refer to one person? [The increasing number of people not identifying as just male or just female affects application forms, dress codes, how colleagues address one another and especially bathrooms](. Gen. Jim Mattis resigned in December, and on Wednesday — in what Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer referred to as “a nasty diatribe” — [President Trump referred to him as "the world's most overrated general."]( Mattis has refused in the past to comment on sitting presidents, but fired back Thursday, [mocking Trump’s judgment and avoidance of military service](. A 5-year-long drought that finally relented a few years ago killed 129 million trees in California. The brown trees covering the mountainsides are a stark reminder of the risks of climate change, [but scientists are focusing on something else: The still-green trees that made it through the drought]( and may be genetically equipped to make it through future ones, too. In case you missed it, here’s what went down at this week’s long, crowded Democratic primary debate. One big, noticeable shift: [Sen. Elizabeth Warren is a front-runner now and was attacked like one](. Worth their weight? Tariffs on China are making a slew of imported products more expensive, including some popular pets. [One distributor of fancy goldfish says his income has been cut in half by the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.]( This Week's Listens [How to run for office]( Becky Harlan/NPR Are your elected officials driving you crazy? If you can’t stand joining 'em, beat 'em. You don’t have to be rich to run for office in the United States, and you don’t need to know everything before you launch a campaign. [NPR’s Life Kit podcast explains the basics of getting into politics](. Planet Money’s Indicator podcast goes in-depth with Michael Kremer, who on Monday shared in the Nobel Prize for economics. [His work is all about taking abstract, academic economic theory and using it to solve real-world problems](. If you’ve bounced around YouTube enough, you may have encountered the term ASMR. It refers to a pleasant, calming sort of “brain tingle” some people experience from quiet sounds or watching careful, repetitive tasks — think Bob Ross painting. But [what does science have to say about this phenomenon?]( NPR’s new daily Short Wave podcast looked for answers. Harvey Weinstein spared no effort in tamping down reports of his alleged sexual misconduct. "There was a full-on international espionage operation that was built up around this,” Ronan Farrow told Fresh Air. [Those efforts were assisted by the parent company of the National Enquirer, he says, which also went to great lengths to bury unsavory stories about President Trump.]( Pro-democracy protests have been roiling Hong Kong for half a year now, and demonstrator clashes with pro-Beijing forces seem to be escalating. Throughline looks at [how their relationship became so tumultuous and how Hong Kong went from a barren, pirate-infested island to a globally important city](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Watch This [Taylor Swift]( Bob Boilen/NPR It’s hard to imagine a higher-profile performer visiting the Tiny Desk, but it turned out arena-filling Taylor Swift was at home in stripped-down, solo-session mode. "I just decided to take this as an opportunity to show you guys how the songs sounded when I first wrote them." [Plus, she addressed a nagging, careerlong question: Can she still write good breakup songs if she finds happiness?]( Another big voice and personality recently came through NPR’s Tiny Desk: the Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard, who belted out songs from her first solo album. [Her tender, nuanced lyrics told stories of growing up mixed-race and gay in Alabama.]( Almost precisely 35 years after the first American woman walked in space, [NASA set another milestone Friday morning, with astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir conducting the first all-female spacewalk](. It was supposed to happen in March, but the station didn’t have enough suits in the right size. — By Christopher Dean Hopkins --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [bestofnpr@npr.org](mailto:bestofnpr@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Daily News, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Best of NPR emails. 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