| She found a way to make plastic waste useful Posted: 30 Mar 2017 03:08 PM PDT ![She found a way to make plastic waste useful]( "She found a way to make plastic waste useful") In 60 cities in India, 16,876 tons of plastic waste are generated each day, according to data from the country's Central Pollution Control Board. Such figures were keeping Medha Tadpatrikar awake at night. "Plastic is made of crude oil, and we wanted to reverse the process to get usable oil," Tadpatrikar explains.
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| Would Israeli bill squelching mosque calls violate freedom of religion? Posted: 30 Mar 2017 02:18 PM PDT ![Would Israeli bill squelching mosque calls violate freedom of religion?]( "Would Israeli bill squelching mosque calls violate freedom of religion?") Israel's parliament, the Knesset, is considering two bills that would silence mosque loudspeakers, at least during night hours, on the grounds that they cause an unnecessary noise disturbance. Recommended: How much do you know about Israel? The issue has caused heated debate about the place of religion in the public space in Israel.
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| A ring of care for Mosul’s civilians Posted: 30 Mar 2017 02:08 PM PDT ![A ring of care for Mosul's civilians]( "A ring of care for Mosul's civilians") The battle to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State, which began five months ago, has now become the most intense urban warfare since World War II. Street-to-street fighting in Mosul's western and older section has put Iraqi forces to the test against ISIS fighters, who took Iraq's second-largest city in 2014. Humanitarian workers have set up a chain of lifesaving care facilities for the wounded, from the front lines to field clinics only 10 minutes away. As tens of thousands have fled the fighting, they are quickly being given necessary physical care, and later any rehabilitative or mental treatment.
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| Census dashes hopes for LGBT count. Will it affect community resources? Posted: 30 Mar 2017 01:30 PM PDT ![Census dashes hopes for LGBT count. Will it affect community resources?]( "Census dashes hopes for LGBT count. Will it affect community resources?") The 2020 Census will not ask respondents for information regarding their gender identity or sexual orientation, despite pushes from community advocates and members of Congress who say an official count would aid legislative and community support efforts. On Tuesday, the proposed question appeared on an initial version of the census, but was absent from a finalized version published later that afternoon.
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| Why Ivanka Trump is now an unpaid government employee Posted: 30 Mar 2017 11:38 AM PDT ![Why Ivanka Trump is now an unpaid government employee]( "Why Ivanka Trump is now an unpaid government employee") Ivanka Trump, eldest daughter of President Trump and wife of the president's senior adviser Jared Kushner, will become a formal assistant to the president, making her an unpaid government employee. Last week Ms. Trump stated her intention of serving as an informal advisor to her father, acknowledging she already had an office in the White House upstairs from her husband's and was in the process of receiving government-issued security clearance and communications devices.
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| Seattle sues Trump administration over sanctuary-city threats Posted: 30 Mar 2017 09:32 AM PDT ![Seattle sues Trump administration over sanctuary-city threats]( "Seattle sues Trump administration over sanctuary-city threats") On Wednesday, the city of Seattle filed a federal lawsuit against President Trump's administration over an executive order that would strip federal funding from "sanctuary cities," which limit local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The suit claims that the policy amounts to an unconstitutional federal coercion that violates the Tenth Amendment, which helps guarantee state's rights. Police in sanctuary cities across the country have barred officers from routinely checking on immigration status when making arrests or during traffic stops, and have also refused to extend the detention period of anyone picked by the police in order to assist federal agents seeking to deport them. The executive order would punish cities and communities that refuse to cooperate with these federal efforts to find and deport immigrants living in the US illegally, a method that Seattle Mayor Ed Murray strongly denounced.
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| Hawaii judge extends order blocking Trump's travel ban indefinitely Posted: 30 Mar 2017 09:18 AM PDT ![Hawaii judge extends order blocking Trump's travel ban indefinitely]( "Hawaii judge extends order blocking Trump's travel ban indefinitely") A federal judge in Hawaii has extended an order blocking President Trump's March 6 travel ban, putting on indefinite hold a presidential directive that had suspended new visas for citizens of six Muslim-majority countries and barred all incoming refugees for 120 days. The ruling, by US district judge Derrick Watson, turns an earlier restraining order into a preliminary injunction, as part of a legal challenge brought by the state of Hawaii against what it alleges is an unconstitutional religious ban. The Trump administration had asked Mr. Watson to narrow that earlier restraining order to encompass no more than the visa suspension, arguing that the halt of the US refugee program did not affect Hawaii.
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| Fighting famine in Yemen vs. aid for Saudis. Does the US have to choose? Posted: 30 Mar 2017 08:06 AM PDT ![Fighting famine in Yemen vs. aid for Saudis. Does the US have to choose?]( "Fighting famine in Yemen vs. aid for Saudis. Does the US have to choose?") The Trump administration is moving toward deeper US military involvement in Yemen's civil war – a conflict that has left the impoverished country in a dire humanitarian crisis and on the brink of famine. Indeed, as President Trump considers a Pentagon request to increase US assistance to the Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthi rebels, the United Nations has declared the Arabian Peninsula country to be in extreme need of food aid. Hundreds of thousands of children will die of starvation in the coming weeks unless aid delivery conditions improve rapidly, the UN warned.
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| North Carolina inches closer to repealing 'bathroom bill' Posted: 30 Mar 2017 07:29 AM PDT ![North Carolina inches closer to repealing 'bathroom bill']( "North Carolina inches closer to repealing 'bathroom bill'") North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and top Republican legislators in the state say they have reached a tentative compromise on a repeal of the so-called "bathroom bill," after the NCAA announced it would not consider the state for championship events from 2018 through 2022 unless changes were made to a law it considers discriminatory. The repeal bill would wipe away the state's existing law, House Bill 2, or HB2, which requires transgender people to use public restrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificate, when present at schools and government buildings. Recommended: How much do you know about gay rights in America?
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| Trump’s bid to federalize cops faces roadblock: cops Posted: 29 Mar 2017 03:30 PM PDT ![Trump's bid to federalize cops faces roadblock: cops]( "Trump's bid to federalize cops faces roadblock: cops") Sheriff Scott Berry is the highest elected law-enforcement official in Georgia's Oconee County, where President Trump received 67 percent of the votes. Just last week, he says, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came to pick up someone from his Watkinsville, Ga., jail.
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