I Norty leader Chuck Schumer to agree on a process cyber security officials have been monitoring the state and local elections today for any signs of foreign interference or other disruption they say they've seen no one usual activity so far but the effort is good practice for the 2020 N.P.R.'s Pam Fessler as more as it did last year the u.s. Department of Homeland Security set up an operations and or were representatives of the f.b.i. State local election offices social media companies and others could monitor the vote and share intelligence while computerized election systems are always being scanned by outsiders looking for ways to break in official say they saw no unusual activity around the country election offices reported relatively minor problems including some delayed poll openings advocacy groups have also reported some misleading tweets telling voters that the election is tomorrow for example and Twitter has taken most of those down Pam Fessler n.p.r. News the u.s. Trade gap that's the difference between what u.s. Companies sell abroad and overseas firms shipped to u.s. Shores but it was lowest level in 5 months in September the Commerce Department reporting today the trade shortfall declined 4.7 percent on Wall Street today the Dow is up 30 points you're listening to n.p.r. . U.s. Lawmakers say they have some concerns about whether false information about the 2020 census might be spread via social media sites like Twitter as a result they're asking Twitter to address how the company would combat such a threat a letter sent to Twitter c.e.o. Jack Dorsey nearly 5 dozen Democrats wrote expressing their concerns noting Twitter and other social media sites were used by quote malicious actors to seek to influence voters in the 2016 election who are last week did announce it's ending political campaign an issue ads a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association finds the most popular flavors of e. Cigarettes among teens are Mangal and mint N.P.R.'s Allison Aubrey reports the findings Congress the trumpet ministration ways a ban on flavored vaporing products survey data from 8th 10th and 12th graders collected earlier this year finds about 20 percent of the teens acknowledged if they've been within the past 30 days among those teens who vague to drool products regularly the most popular flavor was mint among 8th graders mango was the most popular last month jewel suspended sales of many vaporing flavors but continues to sell mint and menthol tobacco control experts say a federal ban on flavored cigarettes that excludes mint or menthol will not be effective in reducing use among teens Allison Aubrey n.p.r. News being billed as the 1st business loan in the luxury goods space tied to being a good environmental steward Prada says it's borrowed $50000000.00 euros the lowering of the interest rate will depend on ambitious targets related to sustainability I'm Jack Speer n.p.r. News in Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include Heather stirred Hagar and Paul g. Hagar supporting African Wildlife Foundation working to ensure wildlife and wild lands thrive in modern Africa learn more at the Us dot org. Now he. Knew he. This is All Things Considered from n.p.r. News I'm Elsa Chang in Culver City California and I'm Mary Louise Kelly in Washington where our reporters are poring over yet more newly released documents from the House impeachment inquiry House committees published testimony from 2 more key witnesses today it's the turn of ambassador to the European Union Gordon song Land and former special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker and tell us what new information is contained in all these documents we're joined by n.p.r. Congressional reporter Claudia Grisel us hey there hi there let's talk 1st about Gordon songlines testimony and I want to start there because he took a very rare step revising the testimony he had initially given how has his story changed he's telling a very different story he said his memory was jogged by other witnesses that military assistance was indeed conditioned on Ukrainian investigations He also recalled in this updated testimony that he spoke to a top aide to the Ukrainian president and said quote that resumption of u.s. Aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks he said he always believed that suspending aid to Ukraine was ill advised and he also said he was working with this trio on Ukrainian policy which included himself Volcker energy secretary Rick Perry they were dubbed the 3 amigos and they didn't like the idea of working with Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on these diplomatic matters to pause for a moment on what you've just told us Claudio. According to someone he now says security aide was tied to Ukraine investigating this is one witness one account but that sounds like a quid pro quo Yes He's actually laying out the exact definition for that he has definitely added a new narrative to this probe as also he was considered as a strong ally to trump in the said ministrations that really reverses Trump's defense a. There was no quid pro quo All right let's turn to what we heard from the other witness we mentioned Kurt Volker the former special envoy of President Trump What did he say he was he was talking about Rudy Giuliani the president's personal attorney and how Giuliani influenced the president's view on Ukraine right he shared details of a May 23rd Oval Office meeting with some lens Senator Ron Johnson Perry the energy secretary to brief Trump on this inauguration of the new president Ukraine and he recounts the president saying very negative things about Ukraine and referring to the government he said they quote tried to take me down and he said the Ukrainian president had terrible people around him and they should quote talk to Rudy the president was also repeating a debug theory that the Ukrainians interfered in the 2016 election Volcker also said he talked to the Ukrainians and that they were not in touch with the Justice Department about this official investigation and Volcker talked to the Ukrainian aid that was being held up and they should avoid anything that plays into u.s. Domestic politics so just don't do it he also said it was clear the aid was not going to happen that it quote died because Ukrainians were willing to produce a statement that mention the company were Hunter Biden work brás my holdings or the 2016 elections All right how is the White House responding to these new pieces of testimony coming out yes they released a statement today saying that the transcripts show there was quote even less evidence for this illegitimate impeachment sham than previously thought they also said Sandlin states that he doesn't know the when why or by whom this military aid was suspended for Ukraine and he said there was a presumed link to the aid to these requests for corruption probe and an investigation into the Bidens The statement also said that Volcker said that there couldn't have been a quid pro quo because Ukrainians didn't know about the hold on military aid briefly Claudio who. Who's left who does Congress still want to hear from in this phase of the impeachment inquiry So today the House committees leading this probe requested that White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney testify behind closed doors Friday however quickly the White House said that he will not be testifying like other White House officials however it seems that this closed door process is ramping down as they move into this new public phase of releasing transcripts and next public hearings All right N.P.R.'s Claudio agree solace where Porter very much thanks for having me and now to Mexico and a horrific killing gunmen in a remote area in northern Mexico ambushed vehicles carrying members of an extended Mormon family 9 people all women and children were killed the White House says they were all American citizens President Trump offered in a tweet to send in troops to quote wage war on drug cartels and to wipe them off the face of the earth Mexico's president rejected that offer N.P.R.'s Carrie Kahn joins us now with more on the story Hey Carrie I so can you give us a little more detail on what happened here sure from accounts from relatives in the Mexican government today it seems there were 3 vehicles traveling in a convoy to another one in an in these northern border states of 2 and Sonora both communities are not far from the u.s. Southern border there were 3 women driving 3 cars with 14 children in total in the cars and they came under fire to around 1 pm yesterday afternoon one of the cars was riddled with bullets and completely incinerated in that car was one mother with 4 of her 7 children 2 of the children or month old twins of the other 2 cars it's a little bit more murky in these accounts are from local press reports and also from relatives posting on social media appears they 2 cars were stopped further up the country road the women were killed some of the children too but others were able to escape and hide in bushes for hours until they were found a to the children's of quarterly tried to set off on foot and get how. Walking for hours it was just a horrific scene that we've been told about can you tell us a little more about this family I I understand that they were members of a settlement founded as an offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints this community in the northern region of Mexico calls themselves Mormons and they've lived there for decades the communities were settled there in the early part of the 20th century as a breakaway sect set on practicing polygamy n.p.r. Contacted the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and Utah who said the group in Mexico are not members of their church the practice of polygamy in the Mexican community has faded somewhat but many members are related and moved back and forth between the u.s. And Mexico what's important to know is several members of this community have been outspoken advocates against drug violence and extortion in the region and 2 members of the community were kidnapped and murder in the late 2000 for standing up to the gangs Wow And this drug war that's happening in this area what are the cartels that are in this war and what is this war about it's a very conflictive area of the 2 in the northern Mexican states it's because the drug smuggling routes into southern Arizona and southern New Mexico from there are very lucrative and highly contested Mexico's security minister at a morning press conference today talked about the multiple confrontations that take place in that region and have for years between rival gangs he said it's believed that this was a case of mistaken identity by one of those rival gangs the attorney general of the state of Chihuahua has also been speculating the same and even name some of the dominant gangs in the region one is an offshoot of the sin Aloa cartel but the president of Mexico in that same press conference this morning warned against any speculation he said advances have been made in the investigation but let's not say any more and give more time for more information to come out right so as we said Mexico's president rejected Trump's offer to send in u.s. Troops how to present or explain why he rejected that offer. He tweeted this afternoon that he has had a conversation with President Trump and again thanked him for his willingness to assist in the matter but Lopez Obrador said he also told Trump that the institutions of the Mexican government will seek justice in this matter Lopez Obrador has come under a lot of criticism for his handling of Mexico's security situation the skyrocketing violence and especially his passive approach to dealing with the drug cartels he repeatedly says you cannot put out fire with fire and he criticizes the approach of past administrations to attack the kingpins of the cartels and to go after the gangs he says violence just attracts more violence That's N.P.R.'s Carrie Kahn in Mexico City thanks Carrie you're welcome. To South Korean movie parasite is an international sensation of that is partly for its universal themes like the conflicts between rich and poor in other ways the film is specific to South Korea one example says N.P.R.'s Neda Ulaby has to do with architecture parasites action puzzles between a gleaming modernist mansion floating in the hills of Seoul and squalor the basement apartment where wife Ah it's a luxury. The Mansion could be in Berlin Dubai l.a. Anywhere the basement apartment is soul 100 percent says Gina Kim who grew up in South Korea Yeah their basement unit can work as a filmmaker and professor at u.c.l.a. These basement apartment she says state from the days of the nuclear standoff between the u.s. And the Soviet Union after the Korean War and they started to build bunkers seeing all the buildings even become apartment buildings there's a real bunker in the movie running out the semi basement bunkers with the legals who says they were filled with mold and pests and prone to floods but South Korea in just decades went from being one of the world's poorest economies to the 11th largest can says the government had to legalize these semi underground apartments to accommodate workers pouring in. But that did not mean semi basement units became desirable people can look into that keep their windows people park their cars blocking whatever narrow sound like they can have them talk to country or terms like director bunker and host says the family in the basement wants to rise but you're mired in the muck literally and figuratively these semi basement homes are only half underground that's very similar to the psychology of our protagonists all put on out and became a wealthy country very fast and the people who weren't able to board that faster train towards wealth they feel lost they feel a sense of inferiority. And the economy is not just about numbers it also carries a lot of emotion as well anxiety over South Korea's economic situation as part of its popular culture this to tell us an innate indie rock hit cheap coffee concerns young people failed by dreams of class mobility solves your home. Kind of goes like I drink a cup of cheap coffee it's not even to crime by that I still get heart by the metaphors here says Gina Kim are not especially subtle but then again neither is the story in parasite and around the world of structural inequality lippy n.p.r. News. You're listening to All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Tune into cross-currents today at 5 we'll hear about changes to how San Francisco will publicly funded candidates business been a really important program to help support grassroots candidates you know running for those offices and to try to minimize the influence of money on our elections it's Election Day today at 5 on crosscurrents from calle news. So when. Is that a Finally what does it tell you we found that the president remains strikingly competitive in these states I at least was surprised by it he seems to be assembling a coalition that's not very different from the one that he had in 2016 in a close race and every one of these states nothing is out of reach for him at this point I'm Michael That's today on the day from the New York Times The Daily follows cross-currents cross-currents of 5 news the daily from the New York Times at 530 on the next door call will have a conversation about teachers' strikes sweeping the country with public education advocate Diane Ravitch the most recent strike in Chicago was that city's longest strike in more than 3 decades the demands from teachers across the country include librarians full time nurses social workers and manageable class sizes so what have teachers won and what will it take to fully fund public education join the next call with me. And hear live tomorrow morning at 10 the show the shows are archived as always at k o w dot org and is among the podcasts we offer learn about them at k o w dot org forward slash subscribe a very good afternoon to you I'm David Latulippe as a public service here's what's for lunch in the San Francisco Unified school lunchrooms tomorrow you'll find a bean and cheese but. From barbecue chicken and cornbread a yogurt parfait as well as Turkey pepperoni pizza roasted sweet potatoes and some baby carrots s f u s d dot edu for more menus for n.p.r. Comes from this station and from right at home providing in home senior care with custom care plans trained caregivers and scheduling options to meet the needs of seniors learn more it right at home dot net slash n.p.r. From Fidelity Investments taking a personalized approach to helping clients grow preserve and manage their wealth learn more at fidelity dot com slash wealth for Delany brokerage services l.l.c. 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News I'm Mary Louise Kelly and I'm Elsa Chang the Trump administration is rolling back some anti discrimination rules tied to Health and Human Services spending that means a nonprofit group like an adoption agency or a health clinic that receives an h h s Grant could refuse a client based on sexual orientation gender or religion here to explain all of this is N.P.R.'s health policy reporter Selena Simmons death in a Salina high so what exactly is this change that's been announced so this change affects organizations and nonprofit agencies that get federal grants from Health and Human Services and there are rules that if you take these dollars you can't discriminate as far as who your clients are patients are you can't say hey I'm running this walk in clinic but not for you because you're too old or you're disabled or you're a certain race Ok under Obama these Health grants added new protective categories religion sexual orientation and gender identity so what's new now is that h.h.s. Officials are rolling back protections for those last 3 categories and so if you go back to that walk in clinic example that means theoretically they could say we don't serve Muslim patients in this clinic or transgender patients that's a hypothetical and the impact of this could vary depending on where you live so how much money are we talking about here so much money also Health and Human Services gives out more federal grant money than any other federal agency Oh we're talking of billions and billions and billions of dollars a year flowing to everything from HIV Aids services to Head Start programs refugee assistance medical research but a big impact of this rule changes on child welfare services so a city or state might contract out the placement of kids in foster care to a faith based group like say a Catholic group in the past as long as it received h.h.s. Funding it had to place kids with anyone who is qualified who apply to be parents so Jewish parents same sex couples whoever Now that Catholic group can continue to . H.h.s. Grant funding and it can choose to deny services to people who are not for instance straight and Catholic Ok all of this sort of reminds me of some other changes the Trump administration has made saying they're only doing that to uphold religious freedom was this development expected basically yes there's a nonprofit in South Carolina called Miracle Hill ministries that provides homeless and fostering services and back in January this group got a special waiver from h.h.s. To keep getting federal grant funding even though they only work with Protestant prospective parents so they told a woman for instance that she couldn't become part of their mentoring or fostering programs because she's Jewish So this new rule extends that special permission out it's really far reaching the administration used a faster process for this with less time for the public to weigh in than they normally happens with changing