Ashley Westerman
Ashley Westerman is a producer who occasionally directs the show. Since joining the staff in June 2015, she has produced a variety of stories including a coal mine closing near her hometown, the 2016 Republican National Convention, and the Rohingya refugee crisis in southern Bangladesh. She is also an occasional reporter for Morning Edition, and NPR.org, where she has contributed reports on both domestic and international news.
Ashley was a summer intern in 2011 with Morning Edition and pitched a story on her very first day. She went on to work as a reporter and host for member station 89.3 WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she earned awards covering everything from healthcare to jambalaya.
Ashley is an East-West Center 2018 Jefferson Fellow and a two-time reporting fellow with the International Center for Journalists. Through ICFJ, she has covered labor issues in her home country of the Philippines for NPR and health care in Appalachia for Voice of America.
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On the anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the country's top diplomat in Washington says it has "no interest in global dominance or hegemony; we just want our people to have a better life."
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In an interview ahead of this week's U.N. General Assembly, Mohammad Javad Zarif tells NPR that U.S. sanctions against Iran "will not be able to bring us to our knees."
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Tensions between pro-independence supporters and government authorities in Indonesia's Papua and West Papua provinces have continued into a second week. The government has shut down Internet access.
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"Environmental personhood" was once considered a fringe issue, but several countries have granted rivers within their borders legal person status. Bangladesh became the latest in July.
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The record number headlined the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' annual "Global Trends" report published Wednesday, just a day before World Refugee Day.
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Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen, was recently released from Iran's notorious Evin Prison, where he served nearly four years.
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In a special series, Morning Edition discovers the experiences of people affected by the deepening tensions between the world's two largest economies.
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China has taken dramatic steps to fight climate change, including shutting major coal power plants. But now it plans to build hundreds of coal plants abroad.
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The more than 250-mile, $6 billion railway is set to cut through the northern part of Laos and is primarily financed and built by the Chinese. So far, the project has mostly employed Chinese workers.
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Laos is known as the "Land of a Million Elephants." But after decades of loss of habitat, there are fewer than 1,000 left. Now those remaining may be endangered by a Chinese-backed rail line.
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Alex Dehgan, a former State Department official who ran the Wildlife Conservation Society's Afghanistan program, argues science diplomacy can play a key role in rebuilding the country.
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Maria Ressa, the CEO of the news outlet Rappler, which has been critical of President Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested earlier this week and charged with violating the country's cybercrime law.