Politics
6:00 am
Sun December 4, 2011

Cain Out; Political Favor Shifts Toward Gingrich

Insurgent candidate Herman Cain suspended his campaign on Saturday. As Cain has fallen back, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has emerged as the leading alternative to one-time presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney. NPR's Mara Liasson talks with host Audie Cornish about the changing political climate.

Europe
4:17 am
Sun December 4, 2011

Curtain Could Fall On A Dazzling Arts Center In Spain

Originally published on Sun December 4, 2011 5:08 pm

In the boom years, Spain spent billions on big infrastructure projects — high-speed railways, roads and gleaming structures like the Niemeyer Center for the arts in Aviles, in the country's north.

Opened in March this year, the dazzling museum has hosted sold-out performances by Kevin Spacey and Woody Allen. But it's slated to close on Dec. 15, after barely nine months of operation, because of regional budget cuts.

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Around the Nation
4:16 am
Sun December 4, 2011

Migrants Say They're Unwilling Mules For Cartels

Credit John Moore / Getty Images
A Border Patrol agent looks for footprints from illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.- Mexico border in 2010. Traffickers have begun using immigrants as drug smugglers, recruiting voluntarily and forcibly.

Originally published on Sun December 4, 2011 5:06 pm

Mexican drug cartels have found a new source of labor to backpack marijuana into the United States: illegal immigrants.

Federal agents, prosecutors, defense attorneys and migrants themselves say that traffickers have begun recruiting undocumented immigrants at the border, both voluntarily and forcibly. Now, U.S. courts along the border have to decide what to do with terrified immigrants who come before them and say, "The cartel made me do it."

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Environment
10:12 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

What's At Stake In South Africa Climate Talks?

Representatives from 191 countries are meeting in Durban, South Africa, this week for United Nations climate change talks. One of the biggest questions is what will become of the Kyoto Protocol — a climate treaty signed in 1997. Key provisions of that expire next year and its future hangs in the balance. Another major question is whether nations can agree to a timeline that would lead to a new treaty that would include the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitters, including the United States and China. The U.S.

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The Two-Way
3:16 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

A Look Back: The Beginning Of The War In Iraq

Credit Jay Kopelman
NPR correspondent Anne Garrels interviews an Iraqi soldier and interpreter during the battle of Fallujah in November 2004.

December marks the beginning of the end of the U.S. war in Iraq.

The withdrawal has already begun as hundreds of U.S. troops are leaving Iraq every day; military vehicles, personnel and weapons are being shipped out of the country, and by Dec. 31, all U.S. troops will be gone after a conflict that started nearly a decade ago.

NPR is taking a look back at the last eight years of the war: the turning points, the costs and expectations about what comes next.

The Beginning

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The Two-Way
3:00 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

Cain's Train Comes To A Stop

In case you haven't heard yet:

Republican Herman Cain effectively ended his presidential campaign this afternoon, as the toll from allegations about sexual harassment and an affair (all of which he has denied) combined to effectively end his chances at getting the GOP nomination.

Here's how the story is playing:

-- "Campaign Over, Cain Vows To Go With 'Plan B'." (NPR.org)

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Movie Interviews
2:58 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

Freud, Jung And What Went Wrong

Credit / Sony Pictures Classics
A woman of some importance: Sabine Spielrein, one of Karl Jung's celebrated patients, later became a psychiatrist herself — and, as screenwriter Christopher Hampton tells NPR's Rachel Martin, an influence on both Jung and Sigmund Freud. Keira Knightley plays Spielrein in the new film A Dangerous Method.

Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud are known as the fathers of psychoanalysis, but they focused on different things. Freud on the sexual underpinnings of — well, almost everything — and Jung for his mystical bent and dream theories.

For years, the two were close friends and collaborators but they had a falling out that ultimately ended their relationship. And turns out, there was a woman involved. Her name was Sabina Spielren.

The stories of all three are woven together in a new film called <em>A Dangerous Method.</em>

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It's All Politics
2:44 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

5 'Lowlights' Of Herman Cain's Campaign

He added 9-9-9 to the national lexicon and slipped lyrics from a Pokemon movie into his stump speeches. Now that Herman Cain has suspended his presidential campaign, we look back at just a few of its most memorable — and excruciating — moments:

1. His brain freeze on Libya. His editorial meeting with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 14 made for painful YouTube watching.

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Author Interviews
2:40 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

The Doors Prove Strange Days Are Still With Us

Originally published on Sat December 3, 2011 4:27 pm

To this day, Jim Morrison is one of the most significant frontmen to grace the rock stage. His band, The Doors, was unpredictable, mysterious, thrilling — even frightening.

In his new book,The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, music writer Greil Marcus explores how the rock group came to define an era yet remain relevant today.

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Pop Culture
1:47 pm
Sat December 3, 2011

Chuck Berry's Cadillac A-Rollin' To The Smithsonian

When rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry navigated his music career, he didn't rely on agents or record labels; he drove himself to his own business meetings and concerts in his fleet of Cadillacs.

Now Berry has donated one of those cars, a candy-apple red 1973 Eldorado, to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, set to open its doors in 2015. NPR's Rachel Martin went with curator Kevin Strait to watch Smithsonian fleet manager Bill Griffiths restore the car in Suitland, Md.

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