During his recent visit to Russia, President Obama made a point of repeating that the U.S. and Russia have many common interests. Do the U.S. and Russia have the same goals on the global level? Or are the former Cold War rivals still ideologically at odds? To help answer those questions, The Takeaway turns to Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution and former Deputy Secretary of State in the Clinton administration. He is also the author of The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation
"There is this deep, deep resentment, festering resentment about the United States. The Russians have a real case of the 'Rodney Dangerfield Syndrome' – they just feel they don't get enough respect, and they're going to stomp their feet and get more. That's their tactic."
—Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution on U.S. relations with Russia
As Han and Uighur Chinese battle each other in a flare up of ancient ethnic tensions, the flashpoint city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang province has been filled with Chinese soldiers trying to quell the violence. The unrest, which may be the worst since the Cultural Revolution, prompted Chinese President Hu Jintao to leave the G8 meeting in Italy to attend to the situation. For the latest, The Takeaway is joined by Ted Plafker, a correspondent in the Beijing Bureau of The Economist who is in Urumqi, China, and Yuwen Wu, the editor of the BBC's Mandarin service.
Across the nation yesterday fans stopped mid-workday to bid farewell to Michael Jackson. In a funeral fit for a King of Pop, the Jackson family was joined by celebrities, lifelong friends, and orators, with Jackson's golden coffin on the stage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Thousands of fans were there; millions more watched on television and the internet. Joining us to talk about it is Alessandra Stanley, a New York Times television critic.
Scientists in the U.K. claim that for the first time they've created human sperm from embryonic stem cells. While the advance is a huge scientific leap that could allow infertile men to have children, it also raises ethical concerns. For more on this new step in reproductive biology, The Takeaway turns to Clive Cookson, Science Editor for the Financial Times.
Hospitals are the latest front of President Obama's drive to reform health care. Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce today that hospitals have agreed to spend $150 billion dollars over the next ten years to care for some of the uninsured. What does that mean for hospitals—and patients? The Takeaway talks to Dr. Herbert Pardes, President and CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital and to New York Times reporter David Herszenhorn.
For more, read David Herszenhorn's and Sheryl Gay Stolberg's article, Health Deals Could Harbor Hidden Costs, in The New York Times.
"Patients who don't have a doctor, don't have a nurse practitioner, someone who takes care of them, are often coming to the emergency room too late, more sick, with more required costs. The emergency rooms around the country are just choked."
— Dr. Herbert Pardes on healthcare for the uninsured
Of Michael Jackson's millions of fans worldwide, only a few thousand were lucky enough to attend the memorial service in the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Takeaway talks to Melvin Price, an electrician in North Hampton, England, who flew to Los Angeles and was rewarded with the miraculous appearance of two tickets to the service, and with Karen Thompson, a cosmetologist from Compton, California, who was also at the memorial service.
At this week's G-8 world summit, climate change is an unexpected guest at a meeting usually filled with talks of nuclear disarmament, the world's poor, and trade networks. The meeting takes place in L'Aquila, Italy, the site of the recent earthquake. With the start of the summit comes President Obama's debut into the world of climate negotiations. Can we expect any agreement to come out of this round of talks — all of which are setting the stage for a post-Kyoto climate treaty in Copenhagen in December? Here with his take is Jason Burnett, former energy and climate official with the EPA, now founder of Burnett EcoEnergy, a company that funds clean energy projects.
Over the holiday weekend, a concerted cyber attack disrupted computers at several U.S. government agencies, including the websites of the Treasury, the Secret Service, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Transportation. Officials say it was a sophisticated hack that required more expertise than your average cyber assailant. Meanwhile, South Korea's computers were also hacked with a "denial of service" virus. The crimes were remarkably similar, raising speculation about the source of the crime. For more of the story, The Takeaway talks to Siobhan Gorman, the Wall Street Journal's intelligence correspondent
A new study reveals a surprising cost of rising unemployment: during a recession, murder and suicide rates increase. The solution? Support groups. Here to tell us more is study co-author David Stuckler, a sociologist fellow at Oxford University. Stuckler is joined by American Chet Kaminski, currently an accountant who this past spring was compelled to join a social unemployment network after eight months without a job.
You can read the study about the public health affects of job loss by checking out the journal article in this week's issue of the medical journal, The Lancet.
You're staring into the refrigerator, wondering what to serve for dinner, and you see it: leftover meatloaf. Can you proudly offer your guests meatloaf sandwiches? Or do you need to keep your leftovers to yourself, like a dark secret? To discuss the etiquette of leftovers, we are joined by Henry Alford, who has an article in today’s New York Times on the kooky behavior leftovers inspire. And Melissa Clark, our friend and food writer for The New York Times, is here to provide some practical options for reincarnating dinner.
For more, read Henry Alford's article, The Question of Leftovers, Ever Fresh, in The New York Times.
Recipes• Pour enough oil in a heavy large saucepan to reach the depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.
• Stir the eggs, risotto or rice, Parmesan, salt and pepper to taste, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs in a large bowl to combine.
• Place the remaining breadcrumbs into a medium bowl.
• Using about 2 tablespoons of the rice mixture for each ball, form 2-inch-diameter balls.
• Insert 1 cube of mozzarella into the center of each ball. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs to coat.
• Working in batches, add the rice balls to the hot oil and cook until brown and heated through, turning them as necessary, approximately 4 minutes.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rice balls to paper towels to drain. Season with salt. Let rest 2 minutes. Serve hot.
If you have leftover salmon try Red Flannel Salmon Hash
8 ounces leftover salmon
1 medium-size red beet, roasted or boiled until tender, peeled, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 1/2 cups boiled potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Heat butter in a heavy pan (preferably cast iron) over medium heat. When melted add olive oil, then onions. Cook onions until soft, about 8 minutes. Add potatoes, garlic, and beet and big pinch of salt and pepper. Break up the salmon into large chunks and add to pan. Stir well and press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the pan. Allow to cook until a nice brown crust develops on the bottom. Stir well, press down firmly into the pan and allow mixture to form a crust again. Season with salt and pepper. Top with poached eggs for an easy supper.
Each year, more than 27 million people are trafficked illegally around the world. Stories of modern-day slavery and human trafficking are heartbreaking. But what can one person do about it? Aaron Cohen found a way to help victims. He put his “skills” as a former drug-addicted, rock-and- roller (he used to work with the front man for Jane's Addiction) to infiltrate brothels from Cambodia to Colombia, from Iraq to Israel. Then he would buy the freedom of enslaved girls. It’s a controversial approach to dealing with the problem of human trafficking. Aaron Cohen has just written a book called Slave Hunter: One Man's Global Quest to Free Victims of Human Trafficking
Jaunty Therny, a young trafficking victim, seen here at age 13 when Aaron Cohen met her in a bar in Cambodia. He bought her freedom.
Google has announced it is planning to launch an operating system for personal computers. This move is seen as a direct challenge to Microsoft's dominance in the PC operating system market. Google's move worries privacy groups—and also competitors—who argue that the online search company could leverage its data stores to quickly grow market share. For more, The Takeaway is joined by Sam Grobart, personal technology editor for The New York Times.
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