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January 8, 2019

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Business January 8, 2019

How The U.S. Steel Industry Is Reacting To Trump's Aspiration For A Steel Border Wall

NPR’s Audie Cornish speaks with Thomas Gibson, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute, about his reactions to President Trump’s aspiration to build a border wall out of steel.



AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The U.S. steel industry was already enjoying a boost in profits after the Trump administration slapped a 25 percent tariff on their foreign competitors. Now the steel industry is back in the spotlight. The president says he’d like an artistically designed steel slat barrier rather than a concrete border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

With negotiations over the wall at a stalemate, it’s not clear whether it will come to fruition. But if it did, it would require an enormous amount of steel. For some reaction to this, we turn to Tom Gibson. He’s president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute, represents the steel industry. Welcome to the program.

TOM GIBSON: Good afternoon, Audie.

CORNISH: So first, were you actually surprised by the president’s suggestion that he wanted this American-made steel barrier rather than concrete?

GIBSON: No, we were not surprised. The topic of a barrier has been under discussion since the early days of the administration. Prototypes have been constructed, and there are versions of this that were made out of steel. So we fully expected steel to be in the discussion as a solution for a barrier.

CORNISH: Given what you know about the idea of this project, how much steel would be required? Would the industry be able to meet that demand?

GIBSON: The industry’s ready to meet that demand. We estimate a barrier of about a thousand miles would require about 3 million tons of steel. And the industry is ready to meet that demand, to produce the steel that’s required for the project.

CORNISH: In layman’s terms, is that a drop in the bucket, or is that something that could have substantial impact on the steel market and prices?

GIBSON: I’m going to refrain from talking about prices, but let’s talk about steel production. Last year, in the United States, we produced about 90 million tons of steel. We’re talking about 3 million tons here. We are operating at 81 percent capacity utilization. But that means we still have a lot of unused capacity that can be dedicated to this and other projects.

CORNISH: The border wall is an extremely controversial political issue at this point. How would that affect the thinking of steel companies about whether or not to get involved with a project like this?

GIBSON: Well, I think steel companies will be ready to respond to a project like this if the government puts it out for bid. Obviously, there’s a political discussion going on right now between the Congress and the president. But if a barrier is built, it should be built out of steel. And the industry’s ready to respond with the steel that’s needed.

CORNISH: The Trump administration has very much been supportive of this of the steel industry, right? This is why you see a tariff as high as 25 percent on foreign competitors. And he has very much touted the state of the industry at this point. Are the president’s claims about how the industry is doing overblown?

GIBSON: I think that there is definitely momentum in the industry. We’re seeing announcements on new investment in the industry. Just yesterday, Nucor announced a $1.35 billion expected investment in the Midwest. We’ve seen restarts at U.S. Steel, at idled facilities.

But we still have not reached levels of production, levels of capacity utilization that we saw as recently as just prior to the Great Recession. This industry has never fully recovered from the Great Recession. We’re now at 81 percent capacity utilization, but it’s not where we were before the Great Recession. It’s not at typical levels we see when we have an economy that’s healthy.

CORNISH: Tom Gibson is president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute, represents the steel industry. Thank you for speaking with us.

GIBSON: Thank you.

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Entertainment January 8, 2019

No Translations Needed At globalFEST 2019

Clockwise from upper left: Orquesta Akokán, Dakh Daughters, Combo Chimbita, Debashish Bhattacharya, Gato Preto

Bob Boilen/for NPR Music


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Bob Boilen/for NPR Music

Amidst the constant drumbeat of 2019’s political talk, of raising walls and shutting out opposition — this year’s globalFEST artists and organizers articulated a very clear vision, one that makes room for bracingly new voices. The one-night festival of global music, held each January in Manhattan, featured a remarkable lineup of musicians from around the world, including India, Cuba, Ukraine, Mozambique, and even New York City itself. Now in its sixteenth year, globalFEST was founded in a post-Sept. 11 era when foreign musicians often struggled to tour the U.S., due to what organizers perceived as a time of increasing xenophobia. But securing visas in difficult times is one of the things that makes globalFEST a special event — the overtly political, Jordanian Palestinian band 47Soul, who performed at this year’s festival, was a shining example of that. They, along with the other artists who performed at Sunday night’s event seemed to find meaning and inspiration in connections to the past while clearly — and very pointedly — pushing ahead.

Three strikingly different acts invited to this year’s globalFEST, which was held this year at the Copacabana nightclub in Midtown, celebrated their respective “futurist” visions. Combo Chimbita, a quartet of first-generation New Yorkers who layer the sounds of Colombia amidst a haze of glittering costumes and roaring vocals, call their style “tropical futurism.” Jeremy Dutcher, the Polaris Prize-winning singer, composer and musicologist from Canada, who draws upon his First Nation heritage, talks about infusing his music with the philosophy of “indigenous futurism.” And Gato Preto, a sleek German-based duo who mix a panoply of African styles — from Mozambique, Angola, Ghana, Senegal and beyond atop four-on-the-floor beats — call their music “Afrofuturist global bass.” Clearly, the future is now.

One element of the 2019 edition of globalFEST went awry: The evening’s planned closer, the venerable calypso king Mighty Sparrow had to cancel, due to illness.

On this episode of All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen is joined by NPR Music’s Anastasia Tsioulcas, WFMU‘s Rob Weisberg, host of the show “Transpacific Sound Paradise,” and Beat Latino‘s Catalina Maria Johnson to talk about the most memorable moments and sounds from this year’s globalFEST.

Artists Featured On This Episode

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47Soul

  • Song: Intro to Shamstep

This quartet of guys who are members of the Palestinian diaspora (two from Jordan, one raised in Washington, D.C. and one in Israel) layer the dabke beat — which has powered the dance moves of the Eastern Mediterranean for at least hundreds of years — with synths, raps, drum machines and ebullient choruses sung in both Arabic and English. With lyrics that are at once intensely political and sweetly universal, this is one “smart party band,” as contributor Rob Weisberg says.

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Orquesta Akokán

  • Song: Mambo Rapidito

This powerhouse big band, comprised of a blend of Cuban musicians and self-styled “Latin music freaks” from New York, revels in the lush, plush sounds that made Cuban artists like Machito and Mario Bauza famous at New York nightclubs and with American music fans in the 1940s and 1950s. When globalFEST decided to host this year’s edition at New York’s Copacabana nightclub — a venue with a history that stretches back nearly 80 years and boasts a long association with Latin music — the festival’s organizers decided that Akokán had to be the first group they invited this time around.

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Jeremy Dutcher

  • Song: Mehcinut

The kind of work that the Polaris Prize-winning Dutcher makes is perfect for a certain and very current artistic moment: dreamy and intensely ambient music that will appeal to fans of artists like Max Richter and Ólafur Arnalds. But there’s a whole lot more going on beneath the surface: Dutcher matches his classical vocal training with the language and songs of his First Nation people, the Wolastoq of eastern Canada — and performs achingly beautiful, time-crossing dialogues with his ancestors by sampling 110-year old wax cylinder recordings of other Wolastoqiyik singers in his own work. The ease of Dutcher’s sonic textures belie the urgency of his mission: it’s believed that there are only about 100 speakers of the Wolastoqey language in the world today.

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Cha Wa

  • Song: Li’l Liza Jane

This New Orleans band meshes Mardi Gras Indian krewe traditions with another revered lineage from their native city: funky horns. Cha Wa’s party sounds, and brilliantly colored, elaborately feathered dress could barely be contained by the small space of the Copa’s basement studio. (Literally: their headdresses were brushing the venue’s low-set ceiling.)

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Amythyst Kiah

  • Song: Darlin Corey

“Southern Gothic, alt-country blues” is what this Tennessee-based singer-songwriter calls her work, which is a fluid combination of her own, wry material and reverent (but bracingly fresh) covers of the music she’s inherited, from the folk song “Darlin Corey” to the work of blues masters like the Reverend Gary Davis to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” But what will really stop you dead in your tracks is her voice, which manages at once to be butterscotch-rich and still cut like a knife.

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Magos Herrera & Brooklyn Rider

  • Song: Niña

An inspired partnership between the Mexican jazz singer and the classical-and-beyond string quartet led to one of our favorite albums of 2018, the ineffably lovely and very timely Dreamers, a collection of texts from great Latin American poets and songwriters. Heard live (and joined by percussionist Mathias Kunzli, who also appears on the album), their performances were just as deeply felt, but they’re much better suited to a cozy room than to a barely insulated “rooftop” space at the Copacabana that they were afforded at globalFEST. Even so, the musicians transcended the limitations of the space, and soared far above even the Manhattan skyline.

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Dakh Daughters

  • Song: Lyudyna

If you’re already acquainted with the Ukrainian group DakhaBrakha (that fierceness! those hats!), you might have an idea of what the female troupe Dakh Daughters — born out of the same arts center in Kiev — might have in store, with a similarly heavily stage-crafted presentation, this time with each performer’s face painted not unlike a porcelain doll. (Don’t let that mask of fragility fool you, though.) But this punk cabaret act is a more purely performative experience, melding theatrical monologues with intricately harmonized Ukrainian folk music.

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Debashish Bhattacharya

    This Calcutta-based slide guitarist is a perennial NPR Music favorite and Tiny Desk alumnus. He’s meshed his youthful fascination with Hawaiian steel guitar and love of the blues with the architecture and vocabulary of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. The result is intoxicating — and, as you can hear in his 2013 Tiny Desk Concert below, brilliant.

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    B.C.U.C.

    • Song: Yinde

    This group from Soweto, South Africa (and more formally named Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) mixes the rich musical legacy of Soweto — from ritual music to songs from churches and shebeens alike — with raps, funk and Afrobeat flow.

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    Cover for Tempo

    Gato Preto

    • Song: Moçambique

    Afrofuturism is now, in the hands of this Dusseldorf, Germany-based duo. They draw upon the sounds of Mozambique, Ghana, Senegal, Angola and Portugal to make pulsating, four-on-the-floor club beats.

    Tempo by Gato Preto


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    Combo Chimbita

    • Song: Ampárame

    This New York-based band delivered a high-octane dose of a style they’ve dubbed “tropical futurism” to close out the night. They blend Afro-Caribbean sounds with cumbia, psychedelia and even a hint of prog rock, all metabolized by frontwoman Carolina Oliveros’ muscular voice and her frenetic playing of the guacharaca, a scraped percussion instrument.

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    Health January 8, 2019

    Where U.S. Battles Over Abortion Will Play Out In 2019

    Demonstrators in favor of and against abortion rights made their beliefs known during a January 2018 protest in Washington, D.C.

    Alex Wong/Getty Images


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    With Democrats now in control of the U.S. House of Representatives, it might appear that the fight over abortion rights has become a standoff.

    After all, abortion-rights supporters within the Democratic caucus will be in a position to block the kind of curbs that Republicans advanced over the past two years when they had control of Congress.

    But those on both sides of the debate insist that won’t be the case.

    Despite the Republicans’ loss of the House, anti-abortion forces gained one of their most sought-after victories in decades with the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Now, with a stronger possibility of a 5-4 majority in favor of more restrictions on abortion, anti-abortion groups are eager to get test cases to the high court.

    And that is just the beginning.

    “Our agenda is very focused on the executive branch, the coming election and the courts,” says Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion organization Susan B. Anthony List. She says the new judges nominated to lower federal courts by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate, reflect “a legacy win.”

    The Republican majority in the U.S. Senate is expected to continue to fill the lower federal courts with judges who have been vetted by anti-abortion groups.

    Meanwhile, abortion-rights supporters believe they, too, can make strides in 2019.

    “We expect 25 states to push policies that will expand or protect abortion access,” said Dr. Leana Wen, who took over as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in November. If the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade is eventually overturned, states will decide whether abortion will be legal, and under what circumstances.

    Here are four venues where the debate over reproductive health services for women will play out in 2019:

    Congress

    The Republican-controlled Congress proved unable in 2017 or 2018 to realize one of the anti-abortion movement’s biggest goals: evicting Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for people who have low incomes. Abortion opponents don’t want Planned Parenthood to get federal funds because, in many states, it functions as an abortion provider (albeit with non-federal resources).

    Though Republicans have a slightly larger majority in the new Senate, that majority will still be well short of the 60 votes needed to block any Democratic filibuster.

    Because Democrats generally support Planned Parenthood, the power shift in the House makes the chances for defunding the organization even slimmer, much to the dismay of abortion opponents.

    “We’re pretty disappointed that, despite having a Republican Congress for two years, Planned Parenthood wasn’t defunded,” says Kristan Hawkins of the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America. “This was one of President Trump’s promises to the pro-life community, and he should have demanded it,” she says.

    Another likely area of dispute will be the future of various anti-abortion restrictions that are routinely part of annual spending bills. These include the so-called Hyde Amendment, which bans most federal abortion funding in Medicaid and other health programs in the Department of Health and Human Services. Also disputed: restrictions on grants to international groups that support abortion rights, and limits on abortion in federal prisons and in the military.

    However, now that they have a substantial majority in the House, “Democrats are on stronger grounds to demand and expect clean appropriations bills,” without many of those riders, says Wen of Planned Parenthood. While Senate Republicans are likely to eventually add those restrictions back, “they will have to go through the amendment process,” Wen says. And that could bring added attention to the issues.

    With control of House committees, Democrats can also set agendas, hold hearings and call witnesses to talk about issues they want to promote.

    “Even if the bills don’t come to fruition, putting these bills in the spotlight, forcing lawmakers to go on the record — that has value,” Wen says.

    The Trump administration

    While Congress is unlikely to agree on reproductive health legislation in the coming two years, the Trump administration is still pursuing an aggressive anti-abortion agenda — using its power of regulation.

    A final rule is expected any day that would cut off a significant part of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding — not from Medicaid but from the Title X Family Planning Program. Planned Parenthood annually provides family planning and other health services that don’t involve abortion to about 40 percent of the program’s 4 million patients.

    The administration proposal, unveiled last May, would effectively require Planned Parenthood to physically separate facilities that perform abortions from those that provide federally funded services, and would bar abortion referrals for women who have unintended pregnancies. Planned Parenthood has said it is likely to sue over the new rules when they are finalized. The Supreme Court upheld in 1991 a similar set of restrictions that were never implemented.

    Abortion opponents are also pressing to end federal funding for any research that uses tissue from aborted fetuses — a type of research that was authorized by Congress in the early 1990s.

    “It’s very important we get to a point of banning [fetal tissue research] and pursuing aggressively ethical alternatives,” says Dannenfelser.

    State capitols

    Abortion opponents having pushed through more than 400 separate abortion restrictions on the state level since 2010, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank. In 2018 alone, according to Guttmacher, 15 states adopted 27 new limits on abortion and family planning.

    “Absolutely some [of these are] an exercise in what they can get to go up to the Supreme Court,” says Destiny Lopez, co-director of the abortion-rights group All* Above All. “Sort of ‘Let’s throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks.’ “

    But 2018 also marked a turning point. It was the first time in years that the number of state actions supporting abortion rights outnumbered the restrictions. For example, Massachusetts approved a measure to repeal a pre-Roe ban on abortion that would take effect if Roe were overturned. Washington state passed a law to require abortion coverage in insurance plans that offer maternity coverage.

    Federal courts

    The fate of all these policies will be decided eventually by the courts.

    In fact, several state-level restrictions are already in the pipeline to the Supreme Court and could serve as a vehicle to curtail or overturn Roe v. Wade.

    Among the state laws closest to triggering such a review is an Indiana law banning abortion for gender selection or genetic flaws, among other things. Also awaiting final legal say is an Alabama law banning the most common second-trimester abortion method — dilation and evacuation.

    Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit news service and editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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