The News Roundup for August 31, 2018: Producers’ Cut

Here are some other news stories that caught our eye this week. We couldn’t get to them on the Roundup, so 1A’s digital producers, Kathryn Fink and Gabrielle Healy, assembled them here for you.

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Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read
Michael Palmer | Wikimedia Commons

Goats Like To Be Smiled At, Too

Alan McElligott, an associate professor in animal behavior at the University of Roehampton in London, led a study that suggests goats prefer a human smile to a frown.

NPR’s “Goats and Soda” team reported this:

“My experiment was motivated by this belief that people have underestimated the “cognitive ability of livestock — cows, sheep and pigs and goats. We assume they’re not particularly clever or perceptive,” McElligott says.

With nearly 1 billion goats in the world, McElligott wants to make people realize the benefit of treating them nicely. “We’re trying to raise awareness these animals are not just like planks of wood. They have fairly advanced cognitive ability, which would also mean there’s the potential to suffer” — for example, he says, when they’re exported by ship or truck around the world.”

This Labor Day weekend, the 1A team will do our best to smile at a goat and see what happens.


#MeToo

Louis C.K. Returns to the Stage after Misconduct Allegations

On Sunday night, the comedian performed for the first time since admitting to misconduct in November 2017. His surprise set was met with mixed reviews, and reportedly included a joke about rape whistles.

Many are wondering what Louis C.K.’s swift return says about the #MeToo movement. According to Slate, it’s a forecast for what’s to come.

Kate Kilkenny of The Hollywood Reporter points out that “this is the second time that one of the men accused at the height of the #MeToo movement has performed a set at the Comedy Cellar: Aziz Ansari, who was the subject of a controversial Babe.net story in January, has performed on at least five occasions at the Manhattan club since accusations that he took a sexual encounter too far.”

Ronan Farrow’s Former Producer Says NBC Blocked Weinstein Investigation

The New York Times reported that Rich McHugh, who resigned from NBC earlier this month, has accused the network of hindering Weinstein reporting. The Daily Beast followed up the story with additional accusations.


Gunman Opens Fire During Video Game Tournament in Jacksonville

On Sunday, a gunman killed two players and himself during a Madden video game tournament. This is the second time this year that Florida has been rocked by a mass shooting.

Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams told The New York Times that the suspect had lost the tournament earlier in the day before pulling out a handgun. “The suspect clearly targeted other gamers,” he said. “The suspect walked past patrons who were in other parts of the business and focused his attention on the gamers.”

In the wake of the shooting, Electronic Arts donated $1 million to victims. You can read more about that here, from The Verge.


BuzzFeed Investigation Interrogates Decades of Abuse at Burlington Orphanage

In the report (titled “We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage), senior BuzzFeed contributor Christine Keannelly uncovers years of horrifying physical, sexual and psychological abuse — and possibly murder — by nuns at St. Joseph’s. It’s incredibly thorough, cataloging archival photos and decades of allegations.

From the report:

Outside the United States, the orphanage system and the wreckage it produced has undergone substantial official scrutiny over the last two decades. […]

In the United States, however, no such reckoning has taken place. Even today the stories of the orphanages are rarely told and barely heard, let alone recognized in any formal way by the government, the public, or the courts.

NPR’s Ari Shapiro spoke with Keannelly about the report on All Things Considered. You can hear that conversation here.


In Nicaragua, Government Crackdown On Opposition Intensifies

The United Nations released a report this week that condemned the actions of the Ortega government, which has responded to mass anti-government protests. Paramilitary groups have also been involved in the violent conflicts with protesters.

The UN charged the government and paramilitary groups with murder, torture, rape, and forced disappearances. Over 2,000 people have been injured and around 300 people have died during the protests, which have been occurring since April.

Why did these protests start?

“The crisis in Nicaragua started as modest protests by environmentalists, students and rural communities over the government’s slow response to forest fires in southern Nicaragua in April. They quickly escalated into demands for Mr. Ortega to step down when the government announced social security changes that raised workers’ contributions and cut pensions for retirees,” The New York Times reported.

The report says the number of anti-government protests have decreased, and blames the violent response.

This week, The New Yorker’s Jon Lee Anderson released a long piece about the unrest in Nicaragua, especially emphasizing the Ortega government’s deployment of the term “fake news” to rebut allegations of violence.


Brazilian Military Deployed To Meet Venezuelan Refugees Fleeing Economic Crisis

An economy in “free fall” has caused one of the biggest refugee crisis in Latin America. Millions of Venezuelans to leave the country. Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia are working to accomodate the influx of migrants.

In Brazil, the president says the military is there to “guarantee law and order.”

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported Brazilian residents attacked a migrant camp of Venezuelans.

Back in March, The Washington Post reported that 3,000 migrants a day were entering Colombia, and it, too, has sent troops to the border. In Brazil, the UN says 800 Venezuelans are arriving per day.

Many migrants blame the Maduro government’s poor management for the economic crisis. Hyperinflation is projected to rise by one million percent by the end of the year.

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1A is the midday news show from @WAMU885 and @NPR, hosted by Joshua Johnson. Find the podcast at npr.org/1a.

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