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Federal prosecutors in Tennessee have notified an 85-year-old nun they will not seek to reinstate her sabotage conviction for breaking into a nuclear facility.

It's All Politics

Court Throws Out Nun's Sabotage Conviction For Nuclear Site Break-In

Law

Supporters Say Imprisoned Nun Is Being Held In 'Unfair' Conditions

Defense lawyer Marc Shapiro, who is handling the case pro bono for Sister Megan Rice and two male accomplices, told NPR Monday he got word from the U.S. attorney's office in Knoxville that the Justice Department would not seek a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and nor would it ask the Supreme Court to review the case. Last month, a three-judge panel threw out the sabotage conviction, ruling that the defendants' 2012 protest in Oak Ridge, Tenn., did nothing to injure the national defense.

Within days of that ruling, authorities released Rice from a detention center in Brooklyn. Two others who took part in the disruption also were set free. Shapiro, their lawyer, said all three already had served more time than necessary given their conviction on the most serious charge had been rejected by the appeals court. He said the lower court had not yet set a date for resentencing any of the defendants.

Rice's treatment behind bars drew attention this year after her supporters in the anti-nuclear movement reported she had lost a tooth and was being housed in unfair conditions.

European leaders hold an emergency summit in Brussels on Monday in an effort to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debts. Greece owes the International Monetary Fund $1.8 billion by the end of this month, and it needs Europe's help to make the payment. But the Athens government is refusing to commit to an economic overhaul package that officials are demanding.

Greece has come close to default many times before — only to work out a last-minute compromise with its creditors. This time, though, it faces much longer odds.

"This is a real deadline, unlike the others because we really are at the end of the road," says Jacob Kierkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Greece desperately needs Europe's help to roll over some big debt payments coming due. But the Athens government has strenuously rejected Europe's demands for further tax increases and pension cuts.

Over the weekend, Athens made a last-ditch effort to resolve the dispute with what it called a mutually beneficial proposal to European officials. It provided no details. But relations between Greece's leftist government and its creditors are chilly at best right now. And neither side seems inclined or able to budge much.

"There is now a dire risk of markets bringing forward the day of reckoning for Greece, leaving little room for pushing off the end game any further," says economist Eswar Prasad of Cornell University.

The concern in the markets is the recent surge of withdrawals from Greek banks. Many Greek citizens are worried that without the European Central Bank's backing, Greek banks will no longer be liquid enough to keep operating. And the government might have to impose capital controls to prevent a run.

The Peterson Institute's Jacob Kierkegaard says that if no agreement is reached at Monday's summit in Brussels, Greece may even have to shut down its banks altogether.

"It is quite likely that the Greek banks will not open up Tuesday morning, or at least open up with some variations of restrictions on access to the bank deposits," Peterson says.

He adds people and businesses would no longer be able to access their funds, and that would lead to a sharp deterioration in Greece's already weakened economy.

The emergency summit in Brussels is an attempt to prevent that kind of disaster and pull Greece back from the brink — yet again.

On potential misconceptions about Filipino workers

There's an over-arching sense of [overseas Filipino workers] as the heroes and saints of their families, who are making this huge sacrifice — which, of course, they are — of being apart from the people they love in order to support those same people. And I was curious about where some of these characters ... hew to that narrative and where they kind of go off script as well.

On unlikely friendships among migrants

When people are sort of thrown together in a place that's strange or foreign to them, Filipinos who maybe would not have socialized with each other back in Manila spend all their free time socializing with each other and kind of lean on each other and feel a responsibility to each other.

Book Reviews

Morally Messy Stories, Exquisitely Told, In Mia Alvar's 'In The Country'

Book Reviews

We're All Looking For A Home 'In The Country'

On writing in the second person

I think the second person is just polarizing for understandable reasons. People don't like being told that they are someone they're not, or that they're doing something that they definitely aren't. It can come across in ... almost an aggressive way.

And I sort of decided that I was OK, in this particular story, with aggressively insisting that the person reading identify with [the main character], whose real-life counterpart might not have time to read a literary short story collection.

I think the second person kind of speaks to the desire to have someone identify with this character, and also the impossibility of it.

Read an excerpt of In the Country

Philippines

Islamic State militants have sown landmines around ancient ruins in the Syrian city of Palmyra, captured by the Islamist group in May, according to a British-based monitoring group.

It wasn't clear, however, whether the move is a prelude to destroying the Roman-era sites or securing them from Syrian government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

"They have planted it yesterday. They also planted some around the Roman theatre, we still do not know the real reason," Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the Observatory, told Reuters.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's head of antiquities, told Reuters that the reports of Islamic State planting bombs in Palmyra "seems true."

"The city is a hostage in their hands, the situation is dangerous," he told the news agency.

Since ISIS seized the city last month, there have been fears that the group would destroy the ancient city's historic treasures as happened in Mosul in February.

The BBC writes: "Government forces are reported to be planning a bid to recapture the site," quoting Abdulrahman as saying that Syrian soldiers outside the city had brought in reinforcements in recent days "suggesting they may be planning an operation."

"He said government forces had also launched heavy air strikes against the residential part of Palmyra in the past three days, killing at least 11 people."

palmyra

Islamic State

When he first moved to Los Angeles, he worked as a garbage truck driver.

He's acted in Westerns alongside John Wayne — even though he couldn't ride a horse.

His big break was acting in Dos Equis beer commercials.

He is Jonathan Goldsmith ... the actor who plays "The Most Interesting Man in the World."

As it turns out, Goldsmith is pretty interesting himself.

The garbage truck driver-turned-Hollywood actor got his start with small parts in western movies.

"It wasn't easy," Goldsmith says. "Jewish boys that grow up in New York are not that adept at riding horses."

He lied his way into a part on the TV show, Gunsmoke. After director Marc Daniels hired him for a role on the show, he asked Goldsmith if he could ride a horse.

"I say, 'Like the wind, sir, without breaking stride.' Well, I had never been on a horse in my life," Goldsmith says.

When he glanced at the script, he realized he was in trouble. In Goldsmith's scene, he was supposed to vault on horseback and gallop into the night.

"As soon as I got on — the horses know," he says. "Off he went. Everyone's screaming at me, 'Turn him, turn him around.' Well, I think I'm breaking the poor horse's neck ... Every time we went round and round this wonderful, old director Marc Daniels, he looked at me, followed me, [and he] says, 'Like the wind, huh?' "

He stuck with westerns fora while, from a small part in The Shootist with John Wayne to Hang 'Em High with Clint Eastwood. In later film and television appearances, Goldsmith says he was typecast as the villain.

"All I ever wanted to do was comedy, but that was not available to me," he says. "Until the Dos Equis commercials."

It was at a time when Goldsmith was trying to resurrect his film career. He had left the industry and was working in the business world when he received a call from his then-agent, now wife, Barbara.

She suggested he try out for a commercial, playing a "Hemingway-ish character." It would be improvised and he'd have to end with the sentence, "And that's how I arm wrestled Fidel Castro."

He arrived at the audition and, to his surprise, was surrounded by hundreds of young, Latino actors.

i

Goldsmith says actor Fernando Lamas was his inspiration for "The Most Interesting Man in the World." The two had become sailing buddies and Goldsmith perfected an impression of him. Archive Photos/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Archive Photos/Getty Images

Goldsmith says actor Fernando Lamas was his inspiration for "The Most Interesting Man in the World." The two had become sailing buddies and Goldsmith perfected an impression of him.

Archive Photos/Getty Images

"The line is out into the street. And I said, 'Oh boy,' " Goldsmith says. "If they're looking at these Latino guys, I better put on an accident."

The voice of the late Argentine-born actor, Fernando Lamas, instantly popped into his head. The two were sailing buddies and good friends, and Goldsmith had perfected an impression of him.

"So I thought about him and how funny he was and how charming and a great raconteur, so I put on my best Fernando imitation," Goldsmith says. "And they started laughing."

Barbara received a call from Joe Blake, the casting director. He told Barbara that they loved Goldsmith's performance, but they felt like they had to go younger.

"And in her infinite wisdom, she took a long pause and she said, 'Joe, how can the most interesting man in the world be young?' He said, 'I'll get back to you.' "

Soon after, the casting director called back. He got the part. It was Goldsmith's big break.

"At a time where many of my friends who have had far more credits than I have, were in the twilight of their career, it just started for me," he says.

"It only took 50 years. An overnight success."

We want to hear about your big break. Send us an email at mybigbreak@npr.org.